Showing results by narrator "Nick Podehl" in All Categories

Five years ago Corin Cadence's brother entered the Serpent Spire - a colossal tower with ever-shifting rooms, traps, and monsters. Those who survive the spire's trials return home with an attunement: a mark granting the bearer magical powers. According to legend, those few who reach the top of the tower will be granted a boon by the spire's goddess. He never returned. Now it's Corin's turn. He's headed to the top floor, on a mission to meet the goddess.

When it comes to action and adventure, every hero needs a good sidekick. Holmes has Watson, Batman has Robin, and Daniel has . . . Orrin. More like brothers than friends, they always have each other's backs. And as Daniel is the big, strong, handsome type, Orrin is more than happy to remain in his shadow at school, at parties, pretty much everywhere. Then things take a turn for the truly weird when a terrible accident catapults the pair into a world totally unlike their own, in which the rules of a role-playing game hold sway.

Raised and trained in seclusion at a secret fortress on the edge of the northern wilds of the Kingdom of Ashai, a young warrior called Rezkin is unexpectedly thrust into the outworld when a terrible battle destroys all that he knows. With no understanding of his life’s purpose and armed with masterful weapons mysteriously bestowed upon him by a dead king, Rezkin must travel across Ashai to find the one man who may hold the clues to his very existence.

In The Land: Predators, the Mist Village has harnessed its power. With core buildings, professional fighters, and now their own dungeon, the settlement is primed to grow into a kingdom of true power and magic. The path to power has not been without risk, however. The MistVillage has been noticed. Evil nobles from the Kingdom of Law, bloodthirsty goblins from the Serrated Mountains, an undead lord with a penchant for human sacrifice, and fanatical kobolds from the Depths all plot the village's destruction.

Cinder Shade’s life begins on a fateful afternoon at the bottom of a well where he awakens, bruised, battered, and bereft of all memory. His only understanding is a driving imperative to protect those who can’t defend themselves and become a warrior worthy of the name. He discovers within himself a peculiar gift, one in which the codes of combat are made evident and the language of steel is made clear.

After bonding with Dawnbringer, the Sacred Sword of Light, Keras Selyrian travels to the nation of Edria to compete in the Tournament of the Sacred Sword. The winner of the tournament will be given a chance to fight for the Sacred Sword of Stone if they can defeat the current wielder, the impossibly powerful Emperor of Edria, in single combat.

Equipped with skills far beyond those of the outworlders, Rezkin has been suddenly thrust into a foreign world. The young warrior clings to his only known purpose as he continues his search for any information about his identity and the reason for his existence. While the hardened warrior scorns both dueling and tournaments, he believes some of the answers he seeks may be found at the King's Tournament, the greatest dueling championship in all of the kingdoms.

After concluding their first year at Lorian Heights, Corin and his friends catch a train from their native Valia to the distant country of Caelford. For most, this would be a simple vacation. Corin has other plans....

Upon returning to Valia after his journey to Caelford and the Unclaimed Lands, Corin Cadence is confronted with a familiar foe—his own father. While his strength has vastly increased since his last encounter with Magnus Cadence, Corin knows that he’ll need every trick at his disposal—and maybe a few new ones—if he wants to survive a duel with his father intact. While Corin struggles with his family, his friends must face a second year at Lorian Heights with new classes, familiar but new chancellor, and deadly new enemies both on and off the campus.

Warning: You may have a huge, invisible spider living in your skull. This is not a metaphor. You will dismiss this as ridiculous fearmongering. Dismissing things as ridiculous fearmongering is, in fact, the first symptom of parasitic spider infection - the creature secretes a chemical into the brain to stimulate skepticism, in order to prevent you from seeking a cure. That’s just as well, since the “cure” involves learning what a chain saw tastes like. You can’t feel the spider, because it controls your nerve endings.

Having retrieved a legendary weapon from the depths of the Sepulcher of Sealed Swords, Lien—better known as Edge—begins to look into its origins and the strange connection he feels to it. With the blade at his side, he plunges into the depths of a dungeon, hoping to finally prove his worth to his family and friends. After facing a series of dangers and puzzles, he discovers a mysterious encoded tome within a hidden chamber. The room holds hints to his sword's past, but he has precious little time to unlock the weapon's secrets.

Some say that in the city of Orlyn, godhood is on sale to the highest bidder. Thousands flock to the city each year, hoping for a chance at immortality. Lydia Hastings is a knowledge sorcerer, capable of extracting information from anything she touches. When she travels to Orlyn to validate the claims of the local faith, she discovers a conspiracy that could lead to a war between the world's three greatest powers. At the focal point is a prisoner who bears a striking resemblance to the long-missing leader of the pantheon she worships.

A summer at his grandparents' South Dakota ranch is not 11-year-old Cooper Sullivan's idea of a good time. But things are a bit more bearable now that he's discovered the neighbor girl, Lil Chance, and her homemade batting cage. Even horseback riding isn't as awful as Coop thought it would be. Each year, with Coop's annual summer visit, their friendship deepens from innocent games to stolen kisses, but there is one shared experience that will forever haunt them: the terrifying discovery of a hiker's body.

Every kingdom Rezkin touches has shattered, and the turbulence in his homeland is spreading across the Souelian. From the shards of kingdoms past, he begins to forge a new empire. But there is a price to pay for power, and the balance has come due. When Rezkin is confronted by something mysterious and ancient, he is stolen from his intended path and driven toward shocking revelations about his identity. With every whisper of knowledge comes new dangers and one certainty.

Everyone loves Mathias. Naturally, when he discovers it’s his destiny to save the world, he dives in headfirst, pulling his best friend, Aaslo, along for the ride. However, saving the world isn’t as easy, or exciting, as it sounds in the stories. The going gets rough, and folks start to believe their best chance for survival is to surrender to the forces of evil, which isn’t how the prophecy goes. At all. As the list of allies grows thin and the friends find themselves staring death in the face, they must decide how to become the heroes they were destined to be.

Corin Cadence has been summoned to meet with the Emerald Council, a political summit including the most powerful of all attuned and their closest political allies. His summons came with a dire warning—that war was coming to the nation of Valia. While Valia is no stranger to warfare, the circumstances of this invasion are dire. Valia's visage, Tenjin, remains missing. Many of the nation's leaders were slain during Mizuchi's attack, and others killed or injured through Saffron's machinations. With a critical power vacuum in Valia's leadership, few can be trusted.

As a sorority pledge, there are commandments that Katie Vickery must live by. One: Thou shalt not show up for the party without a date. Two: The guy shall be an athlete, preferably an upperclassman. Unfortunately, Katie just broke up with her jerkface football player boyfriend. Even worse, her last encounter with him resulted in utter humiliation. She'd rather hide under the bed than attend a party where he'll be. Yet staying home would mean letting him win.

When quiet Orrin and his extroverted best friend, Daniel, were transported to a strange RPG-based world, not much changed between them. Daniel became a hero of legend, while Orrin remained his unobtrusive shadow. Only when they faced a particularly lethal foe did Orrin step out of his comfort zone and display his true worth—with powers he didn't know he had. Of course, Daniel got all the glory, but Orrin doesn't mind. He's just happy they're both still alive.

The future of the Ashaiian haven, the newly founded Kingdom of Cael, is anything but secured. Rezkin must seek recognition from the King of Gendishen if his people are to maintain possession of their island home and the enchanted secret it contains. In an unexpected twist, events overtake Rezkin, and he is thrust into a frustrating adventure to seek a worthless prize. He finds that his carefully constructed reputation as an indomitable foe has consequences as others seek to use his strengths for their own gain.

The God of Death is tired of dealing with the living, so he’s decided everyone should die. And he’s found allies. The Berru, an empire of dark mages, has unleashed a terrifying army of monstrous lyksvight upon everyone with a pulse. While the wealthy and powerful, the kings and queens, abandon the dying world, one group of misfits says no more. Through dogged determination and the ability to bind souls to their dead bodies, Aaslo and his friends fight on.