I can not begin to tell you how much this poll story absolutely whooped me all throughout last month... None of that is the winner's fault, by the way, it just turned out that I had the bright idea to have this story be a direct sequel to a previous story in an original setting that I'd developed for said story, and I ended up wanting to flesh out the world a bit so that I could use it for other things, and that bloated the scope of this story a lot.
This story is just under 28,000 words. I really need to take steps to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again. Then there's the fact that I decided I'm going to write a second poll story for June back when the poll ended on the 13th! Luckily, I can guarantee that story won't end up being nearly as long as this one was. Anyway, this story will be publicly released on July 31st.
The Shardbearers, a party of three heroes chosen by the gods themselves to wield a world saving power, must undergo a voyage across the sea to their next destination in their quest to protect the world from the evil of a fallen goddess, the "Dark Kaiserin," who threatens to corrupt it. Unfortunately for them, their journey is set to be waylaid by one of the “Elemental Calamities,” the almighty Leviathan, also known as the Great Dragon of the Unfathomable Depths, and Scourge of All Seas Shallow and Deep.
She won't be coming alone either, she’s accompanied by her vast crew of piratical oceanic monsters, banded together from every corner of the world. With their aid, the greedy sea dragon has already set into motion her plot to beguile, subdue and corrupt the brave hero and his treasured companions, in order to add another Sahaguin, Merrow, and Siren to her band!
Of course, the heroes were savvy enough to anticipate that something might go wrong. That's why they elect not to be the ones getting on board the vessel that was sent to pick them up. Instead, they allow an unrelated party of much less competent, and arguably less virtuous, adventurers to get away with impersonating them and taking their place a case of mistaken identity. By the time that Leviathan realizes she's been had, she isn't particularly upset... In fact, thanks to how much greedier, prouder and more lazy these three are than the selfish heroes she was supposed to be catching, she might find herself even happier with her new underlings.
Once again, this story will be released to the public on Friday, July 31st. Please do not share this story until that time, thank you once again for your support, and enjoy!