The Skin of the World
Mischief's Journey
Episodes
- Episode 1 – The Fool
The Universal Mother notices that the quality of chaos magic coming into her court is not the best. She summons Mischief and Constantine to explain, and demands a fix. Mischief’s solution may have…consequences.
- Episode 2 – The Magician Part 1
Mischief has crushed the world by releasing a massive dose of chaos magic from the Universal Court. Given an ultimatum by Mother to fix it or face obliteration, she heads out to see how bad everything is.
Spoiler alert: it’s very bad.
- Episode 3 – The Magician Part 2
A voice in a dream. A walk in a nightmare forest. An angel, who wants to talk. To the…mage?
What exactly is a mage? Oliver is about to find out.
- Episode 4 – The High Priestess Part 1
The gods want Sarah. An angel calls her. The villagers need her. But…she doesn’t want any of them. She was content and safely ignored in her little cabin in the silence of the forest.
Until the world broke, and the woods filled with monsters.
- Episode 5 – The High Priestess Part 2
You’d think someone who can dance her way past carnivorous plants would fear nothing. But even the strongest have their hidden nightmares. Can Sarah, unafraid of monsters or gods, crush her demons, and accept something new?
- Episode 6 – The Empress
Mischief is much too busy to go visit Mother and the courts; she’s trickstering, guiding the Medial humans, checking on the monsters, and her side of the world is going well. But what about Constantine’s side? That doesn’t matter, does it?
Really? What does Mother think?
- Episode 7 – The Emperor Part 1
Do hard times require violent answers? Constantine thinks so. But Mother’s not pleased with what it does to the flow of magic that feeds her court.
She prods Mischief to get involved. But what’s a Trickster to do?
- Episode 8 – The Emperor Part 2
One city crushed, another one coming up. Who gets to triumph in the game of power? Who has the wiles to navigate their way to the top?
Let’s back up a bit, and start with who gets to stay alive.
- Episode 9 – The Hierophant
Firebrand priests, to whom proselytizing means stakes and large fires. A lady who thinks that’s a terrible idea. A young woman who catches someone’s eye.
That someone has plans. Many plans. But the best laid plans….
- Episode 10 – The Lovers Part 1
Angels talk amongst themselves, regarding what more is needed to defend the Medials against Constantine. They’ve created mages and shamans, to use and interpret the chaos magic that surrounds them. Isn’t that enough?
Apparently not. What thoughts are in those angelic minds, about what sort of magic user to create next?
- Episode 11 – The Lovers Part 2
Medial woman meets city boy. A certain Trickster finds that interesting, and decides she’d best head off to the woods today to check it out, and stir up a big surprise.
And she’s not thinking about a pleasant romp in the forest.
- Episode 12 – The Lovers Part 3
A Medial girl who doesn’t want to be a shaman, who’d rather hunt monsters. An ex-soldier from the plains, who the monsters would love to hunt. A very Romeo and Juliet kind of pairing.
Does it end the same as that old tale?
- Episode 13 – The Chariot
People don’t like monsters, and monsters don’t like people. Sometimes those dislikes get carried away. Then a few corpses get carried away, everyone moves from dislike to hate, and the sharp objects come out.
The history of the world, in a paragraph.
- Episode 14 – Strength
The humans in two towns, driven by a shaman’s lies, prepare to attack an old city. The monsters come together to fight back. Such a conflict is the last thing Mischief wants, and she’s forced to step in.
And do…what? Right, she’s not allowed to actually interfere. Try begging, maybe?
- Episode 15 – The Hermit Part 1
Mischief is crushed after the battle between humans and elves wrecks the peace. She wanders, ending up in a valley in the mountains, where she builds a tower. She hides there, without admitting that’s what she’s doing.
Something large lands with a crash on her roof. Who’s the visitor?
not allowed to actually interfere. Try begging, maybe?
- Episode 16 – The Hermit Part 2
Mischief has a visitor in the valley, a dragon shifter, who says he’s come to see how she’s doing. He’s actually come to kick her small posterior back out into the wide world.
But also, maybe, to stay for awhile.
- Episode 17 – The Wheel of Fortune Part 1
A mad mage’s magic is affecting his mind. He meets a man-wolf who can talk. They run into a Trickster goddess, who thought she’d visit the south to see if everyone there was behaving.
Oh, you know what she found, don’t you?
- Episode 18 – The Wheel of Fortune Part 2
The mad mage and the talking man-wolf seek help. Nearby, a plains army attacks the monsters in the Shambles. The Trickster gets between the two sides, and pleads for peace.
Only to get blamed, once again, for the entire mess.
- Episode 19 – Justice
The Trickster goes home, but her dragon shifter is absent. Mildly put out, she decides to amuse herself, causes a problem, and enters into an existential crisis.
Really? Tricksters cause existential crises, they don’t have them.
- Episode 20 – The Hanged Man
A Medial shaman builds an army to go to the plains and attack an old city, one controlled by the Dark Lord. The shaman says he wants to help the creatures there, the ones the Dark Lord murders every day.
But the shaman has shown no regard for creatures before. The Trickster, curious, follows on dragon back.
- Episode 21 – Death Part 1
Human Medials decide they need a joint council. The elves are wary, wondering if the humans plot to combine against them. At least, Daniella, leader of the elves in Califfa, thinks so.
Which worries the local man-wolves and ogres. And Mischief, the Trickster.
- Episode 22 – Death Part 2
The humans want to form a council. The elves are suspicious. The man-wolves and ogres are suspicious, and insulted. The humans are clueless about the consternation they’ve caused.
Meaning a Trickster must dip a sandaled toe into the political waters.
- Episode 23 – Temperance
More problems with the chaos wells. One at least grows in power, pouring out monsters and magic. Will all the wells continue to grow like this, until chaos devours the world?
Constantine, Lord of Logic, and Mischief, God of Chaos, are forced to cooperate, to find out.
- Episode 24 – The Devil Part 1
Two manipulative elf leaders. Another who just wants to do the right thing…while protecting what’s his, and salving his pride.
All three spinning around a well of chaos magic, wondering what the water’s like.
- Episode 25 – The Devil Part 2
If you take a person who’s incredibly angry, and give him the powers of a god…. If the reason he’s angry is that some other folks tricked him into a virtual prison…. Does that much power, driven by that much hate, create the possibility of unpleasant circumstances? Oh, my, Mother is not going to like this….
- Episode 26 – The Tower
Everyone deserves a little vacation. Even gods. Trickster gods in particular; it’s exhausting having the attention span of a gnat. But it’s also true that everyone has a boss, and bosses generally don’t believe in vacations as much as those who work for them. At least, not permanent vacations.
Who’s that knocking at the cottage door?
- Episode 27 – The Star Part 1
How much magic, how much of the essence of supernatural creatures, can one mage absorb? How much before their mind runs off, galloping through whatever field of dreams the magic creates?
What can you do with that knowledge? A certain Trickster wants to know.
- Episode 28 – The Star Part 2
The Dark Lord doesn’t like chaos magic, and neither do his people. But fighting those who do have the magic…how do you counter it? When you’ve spent your life being told that even being near the magic is deadly sin, can you be coerced into diving into it?
Dark Lords are good at coercion. It’s the job.
- Episode 29 – The Moon
There are two beings in the universe whom Mischief the Trickster avoids; Constantine, the Dark Lord, and Mother, creator of the universe. One her opposite, one her master. One an enemy, one a demanding, cranky boss.
Just the kind of people to beg for a massive favor.
- Episode 30 – The Sun Part 1
An outnumbered army. Not very well trained, nor well armed. A leadership that’s short on experience in battle.
Against a very well equipped and trained army, but one whose soldiers are terrified at the thought of facing magic, the mere touch of which is a sin.
And then there are the monsters. Ogres and centaurs and man-wolves, oh my….
- Episode 31 – The Sun Part 2
“What lies beyond the edge of the forest? What lies within that deep green space?”
A human army, marching through the woods, the home of monsters and magic. Passing through the Skin of the World, into the heart of the supernatural.
They don’t teach you anything about that in bootcamp.
- Episode 32 – The Sun Part 3
How much chaos magic can one small magic user absorb? The Dark Lord would like to know why she absorbed it in the first place; what use is a secret weapon, when everyone knows about it? She was supposed to save that ability for the final battle, which is so close now; all the parties are racing to get in place, blades out.
Of course, the best laid plans do have a tendency to descend into chaos. And we’re heading there, quickly.
- Episode 33 – The Sun Part 4
The final battle. A weakened, exhausted army against a fort full of determined defenders, outnumbered but defiant. Other groups of combatants swirling around the outside, ready to come in and help…who?
Magic and mayhem. Monsters and people.
- Episode 34 – Judgement
The final word from the master of the universe. Have Mischief and Constantine succeeded in creating the balance? Or have they created such a mess that Mother might as well start over.
And, there’s a personal matter or two for Mischief to resolve, that might involve some groveling.
- Episode 35 – The World
Whatever happened to Miriam and Beretta? Best find out.
The final judgement was rendered, but what comes next? How does Mischief see the world, and the stories that come from it, unfolding?
The ending of a long tale. That really is just the beginning of a whole lot more.