Juho Pohjalainen

Starving Saint

Last night Peal didn't even know what stars looked like. Today he stands as the final, desperate lifeline for a coming golden era. No pressure. I know what you're thinking - just look at the poor creature - but when your hero drops dead in the forest before the whole quest even starts, you can't afford to be picky with stand-ins. So we saddle Peal with the name, the mask, and all the responsibilities of this dead human, tell him to forget all his personal affairs like rites of passage or that girl he fancied, and push him out there to see whether he might actually be worth something. You wouldn't bet on that, and neither would he. He quivers just thinking about the quest he's been put on. How is he supposed to protect and babysit these oversized cretins, when all he's good for is staying out of sight? How can he find the path when he's never been outside his burrow before? Any chance anyone could even give him a hug? Peal's face is covered under that mask now. It conceals his meekness and gives him courage. And the stars no longer look so grand.

The Straggler's Mask

Strife in an underwater trading post - the microcosm of a cosmic war, battle lines drawn - when a stranger sails to town...Peal is in no mood for wars, cosmic or not. He seeks only rest after a harrowing journey, time to grieve for lost friends, and to come to terms with a terrible burden placed upon him. He is the custodian of a Chaotic weapon of world-sundering power... and he stands all alone.Neither the iron-fisted governor nor the pain-fueled sorceress pay him any heed. They judge the book by its cover, after all, and know nothing of what weighs his heart. This suits him fine.Until a new friend - a small child - is lured to the brink of death by their war.Now Peal is roused to action. Stepping into the core of the conflict, he shows the tyrants and anarchists war unlike any they had ever waged. He seeks their unwitting aid in ridding the world of themselves.I may make it sound easy, but it isn't. If anything it may be the opposite - the very greatest ordeal he's ever faced, a peril not just to his life, but to his very soul.

Juho Pohjalainen

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