#frontier fantasy

Like wholly completed

At least the writing of it

And brain just say no

Ellis Hodgery

A Mini for Boss #4 in my Frontier Fantasy Mini-Series

I haven’t talked about this thing I’m doing nearly enough. Hells, I haven’t posted my own content here nearly enough. But yeah: I got into mini-painting, and I’ve been REALLY going ham lately (I got access to a resin printer and now the world cannot stop me). My friend that follows me: if you see this… well, you can see this, just pretend you didn’t for everyone else mmkay?

This is Ellis Hodgery, shitty first wife of Paghorimrodezzo (or just Dezzo), Orc Gunsmith of the little town of Nogul. She still uses the gun he made him; he’d made her leave not because they’d fallen out of love, but because she couldn’t bring herself onboard the trans care for their daughter.

Like I said: shitty.

Nogul is a small, sleepy town. Clay family houses, workshops, stores, and the community house lie mostly silent beside the packed dirt roads in the chill SouthSpring morning. Plants of many types—all low-water, this is a desert after all—line the lanes and alleyways, their leaves, spikes, and fronds offering a bit more color to the otherwise sepia landscape.

A sign swings above the doorway to the only bar in town: Yokgaguro. The door swings open as a young man pushes through: he’s a Tiefling, made apparent by the black horns jutting out from his forehead that curve perfectly around his wide-brimmed hat. He has cobalt skin and eyes that smolder like embers in a dying fire; he wears a bright red shirt tucked into denim and leather riding pants, which are in turn tucked into brown leather boots. He wears three gun belts around his waist: two holsters hang on his left and one on his right. His entire getup is impeccably clean. He jangles as he walks in, and the floorboard creaks underneath, prompting a synchronized gasp, then a look toward the newcomer, then a groan from the few patrons sitting at the various round wooden tables around the Feystone-chandelier-lit room. The newcomer pauses as everyone looks toward him, but quickly shakes it off and sidles up to the bar—clearly uncomfortable in these new pants—beside a goblin woman that promptly leaves, grumbling something about “those damned wannabes” under her breath.

The newcomer leans on the bar. “I’ll get uhhhhh…”

The bartender, a stocky Orc woman with beautifully braided dark curly hair and green eyes to complement her grey-green skin, wearing a Gaz firing-arm pauldron and gauntlet in the colors of Clan Sulgha over her tube top and apron as she cleans a set of glasses left overnight, smirks at his indecision.

The young man continues. “Uh… Whisky. Neeeeat?”

The bartender—Yokgagu is her name, but most just call her Yok or Yokga—snorts. He’s gonna hate this. “Coming right up.”

Yokgagu sets down her glasses and extracts a shot glass from a cabinet and a bottle from the bottom shelf without looking, pouring perfectly before sliding the glass across to the new patron. “Three gold.”

The young man doesn’t balk at the price—as he should—instead extracting three coins from his pocket, setting them on the counter with a clink. Yokga breathes a quiet chuckle and shakes her head, scooping them into her hand as the kid stares at his drink, which he ordered, with absolute fear and disgust.

Yokga speaks up as she goes back to cleaning. “So… what’s your name, kid?”

Gulp. “Valor.”

“Alright Valor, what brings you into town?”

“Looking for work. Any jobs that need a—an adventurer?”

“Well, you’ve just missed ‘em. Had a crew come into town a couple days ago and knock out everything we needed done and then some.

Valor’s face falls. He slumps in his seat.

Arguing sounds from the stairwell.

”Speak a devil’s name…” Yokga mutters.

2023-10-23-the-tumbling-jhh-page-43

NTO update!

Get caught up with higher res files at the site: https://nexttownover.net/comic/book13-tumblingjhh/the-tumbling-jhh-page-43/

The Tumbling JHH page 41

The Tumbling JHH page 36