by Troy Osgood
A Nord, the man was easily six inches over six feet and a couple hundred pounds. He wore brigandine armor with no sleeves. His muscled arms were covered in lines of blue and black tattoos. Leather bracers, leather steel studded gloves, leather pants with sewn in metal plates and armored boots. He held a large flat-headed war hammer in one hand, a large shield over his back. The only item he wore against the cold was a wolf’s fur cloak. A Warden.
He was clean shaven except for a patch on his chin that grew long down his chest and was braided. The sides of his head were tattooed and shaved clean, a thin line of hair on the top that was braided and ran long down his back.
The Norn was tall and thin, gaunt. Pale white skin and shining silver hair. She wore the robes of a Shaman and hung a step behind the man. The Skirmisher leaned on her spear, a purple dragonhawk on her shoulder. Dressed in leathers, she had black hair with deep purple streaks. She was smiling.
“NPCs,” the man grunted and spit on the ground. “Don’t they know their betters when the see them?”
Davit glanced back at the Elf, who moved back toward the Nord and Skirmisher. Both were Players. In the light, Davit could see the Elf’s features. Long green hair, some of it pulled into a top knot. Bright green eyes and blue swirling tattoos. Davit thought he recognized him. Possibly from the Laughing Horse Inn on that first day? Cuthard or something like that.
“Who are you?” Davit asked, focusing on the Nord Warden, the obvious leader.
“One like you that knows how things should be. The NPCs should be kneeling to us. We are Players. We are their betters. We should be ruling this world, and we shall start with this miserable town.”
“Who are you?” Davit asked again.
“Iron.”
NAME: HALL
RACE: HALF-ELF
CLASS: SKIRMISHER
LVL: 3
XP: 1060 | NEXT LVL: 1300
UNASSIGNED STAT POINTS: 0
STATS:
BASE ADJUSTED TOTAL:
Health
36
0
36
Energy
54
0
54
Vitality
18
0
18
ATTRIBUTES:
BASE ADJUSTED TOTAL:
Strength
11
0
11
Wellness
13
0
13
Willpower
10
0
10
Agility
16
4
20
Intelligence
11
0
11
Charisma
10
0
10
Attack Power
1
2
3
Spell Power
1
0
1
Protection
2
9
11
Attack Speed
-3 sec
-1 sec
-4 sec
Spell Resistance
0
0
0
Carry Capacity
30
0
30
ELEMENTAL RESISTANCES:
Air
0%
Fire
0%
Earth
0%
Water
0%
RACIAL ABILITY:
Limited Night Vision
CLASS ABILITIES:
Rank Value
Evade
1
Leap
1
Leaping Stab
1
Shared Vision
SKILLS:
Combat
Light Armor
2
11.4
Polearms
2
12.7
Small Blades
2
12
Thrown
2
10.9
Activity
Identify
1
2.2
Triage
2
10
Environment
Camouflage
1
0.5
Stealth
1
1.5
Survival
2
13.2
Tracking
1
2.3
Professions
Cartography
2
15.6
Herbology
2
14.5
Skinning
2
11.7
Reputation (Faction)
Druids of the Grove —1300 (Known and Friendly)
Kingdom of Essec — 1600 (Known and Friendly)
Reputation (Alliance)
Guard Captain Henry —1300 (Friendly)
Watchman Kelly — 800 (Known)
Merchant Dyson — 700 (Known)
Druid Leigh — 3600 (Trusted)
This concludes Grayhold, but don’t worry, the second book in Sky Realms Online picks up the story, and the fun has just begun!
Forced to live this new life, is Hall ready to be the Lord of Skara Brae?
Can Hall become the leader his companions need him to be?
Will responsibilty as Lord and Custodian prevent Hall and Leigh from developing a relationship?
How else will Sky Realms Online surprise Hall and the others?
Who is Iron?
Silver Peak preorder coming soon!
About Troy Osgood
LitRPG: the genre I always wanted to be writing in but didn’t know it until recently.
I’m a relative newcomer to the genre, discovering it in the last year or so, but this is where I should have always been.
I’ve been gaming for decades. Started with an old Atari 2600. I’ve never been a FPS or RTS fan, it’s always been RPGs for me. Contra, Metroid and my personnel favorite Legend of Kage all hold a special place but first and foremost have been RPGs.
In 2001 I discovered MMORPGs with Ultima Online (I was a Trammy on Chesapeake for a number of years) and then moved on to Final Fantasy XI and then World of Warcraft from Beta to a couple of months after Wrath of The Lich King expansion came out. Pretty much daily.
Life got in the way and I stopped but always kept my love for the games and went back to UO and WoW multiple times through the years well dabbling in others (mostly Lord of the Rings online). I’ve backed Kickstarters for a couple MMO and normal RPGs but just don’t have the time to play as much.
And I wish I had more time to read all that is available, but I do what I can. This writing thing seems to get in the way.
It was during the leveling my Dwarf Warrior on Antheron (2nd character I had taken to max level, first was a Tauren Hunter on Illidan) that I had the idea of writing down my guild’s adventures through Azeroth; turning the quests and raids into stories.
I never got around to it, but that was when I first got the idea of writing GameLit/LitRPG, even though I didn’t know what it was at the time.
And that brings us to now.
I’ve published some sci-fi (space opera) and fantasy (sword and sorcery), and when I discovered the litRPG genre I started developing what would become Sky Realms Online. At the same time, Aethon Books was looking to publish some books in the genre. I submitted to them and the rest is history.
This is a world I want to be writing in for a long time. Grayhold was the longest, and most fun book I’ve written (the sequel Silver Peak beats it). I love the world of Hankarth and have so many stories to tell. If you couldn’t tell, I created the class/skill system in SRO as a combination of UO and WoW and the Skirmisher is a homage to my favorite MMO class of all time: the Dragoon from FFXI.
LitRPG is a genre that I am really enjoying, and plan on be
ing in for a long time with regular releases.
That of course, depends on if you want to keep reading. I hope so as I have huge plans for Sky Realms Online: at least nine books with some spin-offs, side-quests and lots of other fun stuff. And those’re just the current ideas. The world, and the characters could go far beyond that.
I’d like to thank Steve Beaulieu and Rhett Bruno at Aethon Books for everything they’ve done. Awesome team to work with. I’m so impressed with everything they did, and SRO wouldn’t be what it is without them.
Check out all the other books from Aethon. You won’t be disappointed. My editor, Ilse Davison, did a great job and, well, the amount of edits was high (thanks to my bad habit of double spacing), but what she found helped a ton.
The cover by Jackson Tjota is absolutely beautiful and damn does Pike look awesome. Even better than I imagined.
SRO: Grayhold is the first of my books to make it to audio and I couldn’t be happier with the results. Pavi Proczko knocked it out of the park.
None of this would be possible without the love and support from my beautiful wife and daughters. Thank you Kat, Heaven and Paisley. I love you all so much.
And thank you for giving Sky Realms Online a try. I look forward to this journey with you. Please leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads and spread the word.
See you in the next book,
Troy
Newsletter: https://www.ossynews.com
I’m also very active and thankful LitRPG Books.
To learn more about LitRPG, talk to authors including myself, and just have an awesome time, please join the LitRPG Group
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Thank you for reading Grayhold, book one in Sky Realms Online.
We hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. We just wanted to take a moment to encourage you to review the book on Amazon and Goodreads. Every review helps further the author’s reach and, ultimately, helps them continue writing fantastic books for us all to enjoy.
If you liked Grayhold, check out the rest of our catalogue at www.aethonbooks.com. To sign up to receive 3 FREE books from some of our best authors as well as updates regarding all new releases, visit www.subscribepage.com/AethonReadersGroup.
