S E Lindberg

Thursday, October 16, 2025

August 3rd, we highlighted the first three stories of The Chain Story 2 – Sword and Sorcery. All these stand-alone stories are “chained” together with a common element (a common magical artifact represented in the logo), with different contributors showcasing their own characters/worlds. They can be read in any order, for free (at least for several months, many times indefinitely)!

Stories will be released every few weeks, so check the Chain Story website continuously! This post highlights the next five!

Shard of Song by Rigel Ailur
Grave's Brood by S.E. Lindberg
Fragment of a Sorcerous Crown by Joan Marie Verba
The Village of Morvoss by Thomas Grayfson
On Memories by Michael Stackpole

The Chain Story 2 - Sword & Sorcery Evolution

Release Date	Story (click link to free story!)	World	Author	Abstract
July 3rd, 2025	*Blade of the Storm Witch*	Reign of Hex and Steel	Robert E. Vardeman	Her vengeance became elemental! The Conqueror-King's minion murdered her pirate husband. The Lady Rennata was condemned to follow him into a watery grave—until wind and wave swept her to a magical blade that commands all of Nature.
July 3rd, 2025	Death Grip	A Neryon Story	Michael Stackpole	The man hadn’t died easily.A smoking hole sat where his heart should have been. Terror twisted his features, and he clutched an emerald reeking of magick as if would somehow save him. Neryon and Magistrate-Martial Logan find themselves in a race to find the killer before he has a chance to harvest more victims. But, with the amount of power used on his first target, there was a big gulf between finding and stopping; and no guarantee he wouldn’t kill them, too.
July 16th. 2025	Forest of the Fallen Colossus	Laila and Zaki Adventure	Bryan Young	A dying robber hands Laila and Zaki a mysterious artifact in the middle of a fae-haunted wood. “Danger,” the robber manages before dying. Suddenly sister and brother find themselves safeguarding an unwanted gift—on the run for their lives in the Forest of the Fallen Colossus.
July 28th, 2025	Shard of Song		Rigel Ailur	Two wizards search desperately for a way to stave off a vicious magical-musical attack before the dragons succumb. A powerful relic, ancient beyond memory calls to them, but do they dare use it?
Aug 13th.2025	Grave's Brood	Dyscrasia Fiction	S.E. Lindberg	Doktor Grave sends Brood to recover a crown from the Red Orchard, only for Brood to find it is the source of a bloody plague caused by Grave’s experiments. Facing vampiric plants and their loyal clan, Brood must confront his past and question whether he can trust Grave or escape the nightmare himself.
Aug 27th, 2025	Fragment of a Sorcerous Crown	A Chronicles of the Library of Sorcery short story	Joan Marie Verba	In this tale from the Chronicles of the Library of Sorcery, the sorcerers investigate a dangerous magical artifact of mysterious origin. Can the sorcerers uncover the truth? Sorcerer Serena is called to investigate an enormous, carnivorous plant. She finds that a mysterious magical artifact is behind the phenomenon. To find out where the artifact came from and what its properties might be, she consults the Library of Sorcery, where she uncovers the answers, but not on the Library shelves. Can the artifact be banished from the sorcerous regions before it becomes a more deathly threat?
Sept 10th, 2025	The Village of Morvoss	Kavion adventure	Thomas Grayfson	In this new Kavion adventure, our tormented knight clings to the last threads of family and sanity as he navigates the mysterious Village of Morvoss. Haunted by fractured memories, he must confront the darkness around him—and within.
Sept 24th, 2025	On Memories	Dancillius Hrekt, Monster Fighter	Michael Stackpole	Dancillius Hrekt is fairly new to the world of Monster Fighting. All he wants to do is to make a good impression with his peers. And all they want is for him and his best friend to die.

Covers for Episodes #1 - 3 Chain Story 2 - Sword & Sorcery

S.E. Lindberg is a Managing Editor at Black Gate, regularly reviewing books and interviewing authors on the topic of “Beauty & Art in Weird-Fantasy Fiction.” He has taken lead roles organizing the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium (chairing it in 2023), is the lead moderator of the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery Group and was an intern for Tales from the Magician’s Skull magazine. As for crafting stories, he has contributed eight entries across Perseid Press’s Heroes in Hell and Heroika series, has an entry in Weirdbook Annual #3: Zombies. He independently publishes novels under the banner Dyscrasia Fiction; short stories of Dyscrasia Fiction have appeared in Whetstone, Swords & Sorcery online magazine, Rogues In the House Podcast’s A Book of Blades, DMR’s Terra Incognita, and the 9th issue of Tales From the Magician’s Skull.