Issue #211Vol. XIX, No. 6

November 1994

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SPECIAL ATTRACTIONSPublisherTSR, Inc.

Associate PublisherBrian Thomsen

Editor-in-ChiefKim Mohan

Associate editorDale A. Donovan

Fiction editorBarbara G. Young

Editorial assistantWolfgang H. Baur FICTION

Art directorLarry W. Smith

ProductionTracey Isler

SubscriptionsJanet L. Winters

U.S. advertisingCindy Rick

U.K. correspondentand U.K. advertising

Carolyn Wildman

Printed in the U.S.A.

The Ecology of the Dungeon� Buck Deason Holmes

Bring your dungeons alive with this advice.

Sight in the Darkness � Roger E. Moore

Open your eyes to the possibilities of infravision.

Fungi of the Underdark � Chris Perry

More grows in the Underdark than just dwarves and

drow.

Lifegiver � Darren C. CummingsCan a cursed magical sword renounce its own evil?

REVIEWSEye of the Monitor � Dee & JayJoin two new columnists as they review some of theirall-time favorite games.

Role-playing Reviews � Kick SwanCheck out these cyberpunk game products for folks whohate cyberpunk.

DRAGON® Magazine (ISSN 0279-6848) is publishedmonthly by TSR. Inc., P.O. Box 756 (201 SheridanSprings Road), Lake Geneva WI 53147, United Statesof America. The postal address for all materials fromthe United States of America and Canada exceptsubscription orders is: DRAGON® Magazine, P.O. Box111, (201 Sheridan Springs Road), Lake Geneva WI53147, U.S.A.; telephone (414) 248-3625, fax (414)248-0389. The postal address for all materials fromEurope is DRAGON Magazine, TSR Ltd., 120 ChurchEnd Cherry Hinton. Cambridge CB1 3LB, UnitedKingdom: telephone (0223) 212517 (U.K.), 44-223-212517 (international); telex: 818761; fax (0223)248066 (U.K.), 44-223-248066 (international).

Distribution: DRAGON Magazine is available fromgame and hobby shops throughout the United States,Canada, the United Kingdom, and through a limitednumber of other overseas outlets. Distribution to thebook trade in the United States is by Random House,Inc., and in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd.Distribution to the book trade in the United Kingdom isby TSR Ltd. Send orders to: Random House, Inc.,Order Entry Department, Westminster MD 21157,U.S.A.: telephone: (800) 733-3000. Newsstand distribu-

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Role of Books � John C. BunnellReaders of this month�s novels should expect theunexpected.

Through the Looking Glass � Bob BigelowThe Holidays are approaching�start browsing now.

FEATURESFirst Quest � Jeff GrubbReturn with Jeff to a time when dinosaurs walked theEarth.

�I Sing a Song by the Deep-Water Bay�� Steven E. Schend

Learn how the Harpers operate in Waterdeep.

D-Day in Milwaukee � Roger E. MooreRead Roger�s debut as a war correspondent as he coversthe 1994 GEN CON® Game Fair.

Topkapi Palace � Steve KurtzSpice up your fantasy castles with bits of history.

Rumblings � The staffCatch up on the latest news of the gaming industry.

The Wizards Three � Ed GreenwoodEd gets another visit from those mirthful mages.

Sage Advice � Skip WilliamsThis month, Skip expounds on the COUNCIL OF WYRMS�setting and the SPELLFIRE� game.

DEPARTMENTS4 Letters 103 Libram X6 Editorial 106 Dragonmirth

45 Convention Calendar 108 Gamers Guide68 Forum 120 TSR Previews

COVERThe figure in this month�s cover

painting by Brom appears to havebeen on guard duty for a long time.Despite that, I don�t think I�d want toattempt getting past him, regardless ofwhat wealth the dungeon beyond thedoor holds. After all, the only weaponI�m proficient with is the editor�s redpen.

each subscription is printed on the mailing label ofeach subscriber’s copy of the magazine. Changes ofaddress for the delivery of subscription copies must bereceived at least six weeks prior to the effective date ofthe change in order to assure uninterrupted delivery.

Back issues: A limited quantity of back issues isavailable from either the TSR Mail Order Hobby Shop(P.O. Box 756, Lake Geneva WI 53147, U.S.A.) or fromTSR Ltd. For a free copy of the current catalog thatlists available back issues, write to either of the aboveaddresses.

Submissions: All material published in DRAGONMagazine becomes the exclusive property of thepublisher, unless special arrangements to the contraryare made prior to publication. DRAGON Magazinewelcomes unsolicited submissions of written materialand artwork; however, no responsibility for such sub-missions can be assumed by the publisher in anyevent. Any submission accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope of sufficient size will bereturned if it cannot be published. We strongly recom-mend that prospective authors write for our writers’guidelines before sending an article to us. In theUnited States and Canada, send a self-addressed,

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Advertising: For information on placing advertise-ments in DRAGON Magazine, ask for our rate card. Allads are subject to approval by TSR, Inc. TSR reservesthe right to reject any ad for any reason. In the UnitedStates and Canada, contact: Advertising Coordinator,TSR. Inc., P.O. Box 756, 201 Sheridan Springs Road,Lake Geneva WI 53147, U.S.A. In Europe, contact:Advertising Coordinators, TSR Ltd.

Advertisers and/or agencies of advertisers agree tohold TSR, Inc. harmless from and against any loss orexpense from any alleged wrongdoing that may ariseout of the publication of such advertisements. TSR,Inc. has the right to reject or cancel any advertisingcontract for which the advertiser and/or agency ofadvertiser fails to comply with the business ethics setforth in such contract.

DRAGON is a registered trademark of TSR. Inc.

Registration applied for in the United Kingdom. Allrights to the contents of this publication are reserved,and nothing may be reproduced from it in whole or inpart without first obtaining permission in writing fromthe publisher. Material published in DRAGON Maga-zine does not necessarily reflect the opinions of TSR,Inc. Therefore, TSR will not be held accountable foropinions or mis-information contained in such material.

® designates registered trademarks owned by TSR,Inc. ™ designates trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. Mostother product names are trademarks owned by thecompanies publishing those products. Use of the nameof any product without mention of trademark statusshould not be construed as a challenge to such status.

©1994 TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All TSR char-acters character names, and the distinctive likenessesthereof are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc.

Second-class postage paid at Lake Geneva Wis.,U.S.A., and additional mailing offices. Postmaster:Send address changes to DRAGON Magazine. TSR,Inc., P.O. Box 111, Lake Geneva WI 53147. U.S.A.USPS 318-790, ISSN 1062-2101.

DRAGON 3

What did you think of this issue? Do you havea question about an article or have an idea for anew feature you’d like to see? In the UnitedStates and Canada, write to: Letters, DRAGON®Magazine, P.O. Box 111, Lake Geneva WI 53147,U.S.A. In Europe, write to: Letters, DRAGONMagazine, TSR Ltd., 120 Church End, CherryHinton, Cambridge CB1 3LB, United Kingdom. Ifyou wish your letter to be published, you mustsign it. We will not publish anonymous letters.We will withhold your name if you request it.

“Where isthis from?”Dear Dragon,

I’ve been playing the AD&D® game for over10 years and I do most of my gaming in theFORGOTTEN REALMS® setting of Toril. I recent-ly became a father to a lovely daughter, andnamed her Alustriel after the High Lady ofSilverymoon.

Her mother neither plays the game nor readsthe novels, but she really wants to know whatthe name means. When she asked me, I had toadmit that I didn’t know. I did tell her, though,that I would write to you and ask.

Greg Moore

I contacted Ed Greenwood, the co-creator ofthe FR setting, and he put Greg’s question tothat Realmsian Mage-About-Town, Elminster. El’s(less than illuminating) response follows:

“In the Realms, there are certain things youdon’t ask a lady, especially a lady mage. Therebe power in names, and a mage must be everwatchful over giving away too much personalinformation. There is power in all knowledge.”(Ed’s personal opinion is that El didn’t have theguts to ask Alustriel about the derivation of hername.)

Seriously, Ed admits that the name Alustrieldoesn’t mean anything. He just made it up.Sorry, Greg, but we can’t help you. You can findout other important information on Alustrieland her sisters in The Seven Sisters, due out inMay 1995. —Dale

“And where isit now?”

tained to STAR TREK*: THE RPG by FASA. As Iread the article, I wondered if there was an RPGfor The Next Generation series. I thought to askyou. Is there a TNG role-playing game?

Mick MathewsDover OH

No, Mick, there is no ST:TNG role-playinggame currently on the market. Before FASA’slicensing arrangement with Paramount Pictures(the owner of all things Trek) ran out, at leastone TNG supplement was produced, though.The First Season Sourcebook detailed the char-acters and the 1701-D Enterprise according toFASA’s game rules for the original Trek. TheFASA game and its supplements still may beavailable on the dusty back shelves of somegame and hobby stores, but you’ll likely have tohunt for them. Also check auctions and fleamarkets at game conventions.

Other Trek games do exist. Task Force Games,the producer of the STAR FLEET BATTLES*board game, also publishes the PRIME DIREC-TIVE* role-playing game, but neither gamedeals with any TNG material. For more informa-tion, write to: Task Force Games, P.O. Box 50145,Amarillo TX 79159-0145.

Decipher Games produces three TNG games,but none are role-playing games in the tradition-al sense. The HOW TO HOST A MYSTERY: STARTREK: THE NEXT GENERATION GAME*, theSTAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION VCRBOARD GAME*, and the STAR TREK: THE NEXTGENERATION CUSTOMIZABLE CARD GAME*are all available. Write to: Decipher Games, P.O.Box 56, Norfolk VA 23501-0056. —Dale

Game Fair friendsDear Dragon,

I attended the 1994 GEN CON® Game Fair andhad an amazing time. I met some really out-standing players in a game I ran. I’m writing toyou in an attempt to locate them. The people I’mtrying to find advanced to the third round ofthe “Cubeworld: Grave Consequences AD&D®2nd Edition Game Variant” event that I judged.If you’re out there, please get in touch with me.Thanks.

Richie Procopio110 Waterfountain Way, #103

Glen Burnie MD 21060

Glad to be of service, Richie—but “Waterfoun-rain Way”? Is that anywhere near “BubblerBoulevard”? —Dale

Subscription vs.NewsstandDear Dragon,

Hey! I noticed that, beginning with issue #201,the cover price of an issue of DRAGON Maga-zine went up from $3.50 to $3.95. Now, I canunderstand rising costs and so forth, but won’tthis price increase cause newsstand sales todrop, resulting in lower circulation and lowerprofits for the magazine, thus defeating thepurpose of the price increase—to make moremoney?

Song PalmeseOakland CA

That’s a good question. (By the way beforeissue #201, DRAGON Magazine hadn’t raised itscover price since 1986—and the subscriptionprice hasn’t gone up since 1985). The bestanswer I can give you is this: Don’t worry aboutus. We want you to subscribe—and consideringthe price break you get, you should want tosubscribe too.

Twelve issues of the magazine, bought at thenewsstand price of $3.95 each, costs (3.95 x 12)$47.40. A twelve-issue (one-year) subscription cost$30, or (30 ÷ 12) $2.50 each. If you know you’regoing to buy more than seven issues of DRAGONMagazine during a year; you can save money bybecoming a subscriber—and you get all 12 issuesdelivered direct to your mailbox. (Multiple-yearsubscriptions can save you even more money).

The advantage of buying the magazine at thenewsstand, of course, is that you can see what’sin it before you put down your money. Somepeople like being able to do that, and that’s finewith us. But even if you are a subscriber, wewant you to keep visiting that game, book,hobby, or comics store every month—becausethat’s the only way you can keep up with all theother cool stuff that TSR, Inc., and all the otherpublishers are cranking out. —Dale

l indicates a product produced by a company otherthan TSR, Inc.

Dear Dragon,Recently, I’ve been leafing through my back

issues of DRAGON Magazine, and in issue #150,I came across the article, “A Final Frontier ofYour Own,” by John J. Terra. The article per-

4 NOVEMBER 1994

Cut-&-Paste Campaigns

DRAGON® Magazine is one of the fewproducts published by TSR, Inc., that isproduced without using desktop-publishing software. DRAGON Magazine(and DUNGEON® Adventures) are outputfrom a typesetting machine that spits outthe articles I send it on sheets of silveredfilm paper�something roughly analogousto the paper your snapshots are printedon. After the film is output, our Art Direc-tor Larry Smith draws forth his X-Actoknife from its rusty scabbard and cuts thefilm into page-size pieces and then applieswax as an adhesive so all the pieces staywhere they belong, creating the magazineyou see before you. This arduous proce-dure is referred to as the �cut-&-paste�process, meaning Larry cuts a whole (anarticle) into small pieces, and reassemblesall the pieces of all the articles into a newform (the magazine).

Gamers can perform a similar cut-&-pasteprocess by combining parts of differentgames into one. That�s what this column isabout�taking favorite elements from vari-ous games and combining them into a new,hybrid game.

I can give a simple example from a cam-paign I�m playing in now. A coworker isrunning a game using West End Games�STAR WARS* rules. A while back, severalof the players wanted to experiment withcharacters other than the PCs we normal-ly ran. In an effort to be completely differ-ent, I asked if I could play an Aslan, amember of a bipedal catlike race fromGDW�s TRAVELLER* game. After I provid-ed the GM with background informationand explaining my concept for the charac-ter, he okayed my choice. I followed theSTAR WARS character-creation rules, andFeyla the Aslan was soon leaping onto theheads of various villains.

That �cut-&-paste� was relatively simplein that both games were science-fictionRPGs, and all the information I �cut� fromthe TRAVELLER game was backgroundand history on the Aslan�no game me-chanics. I tinkered with the background tomake it better fit the STAR WARS uni-verse, but that was all the work I neededto do. You can cut-&-paste most easilywhen the games being drawn from sharesome mechanics, a theme, or at least emu-late the same genre. However, manygames have elements that, if you ignorethe game�s nomenclature, cross genre

6 NOVEMBER 1994

boundaries.For example, the TRAVELLER RPG also

has a race of psionic humans called theZhodani. The AD&D® fantasy game haspsionics, too. Why not use AD&D gamepsionic powers to flesh out a Zhodani NPC,villain, or even a PC? Numerous gameshave mental powers or mutations, psi-skills, or magic. Browse through thesegames and cut-&-paste your favorite skills,powers, or spells into your game.

Longtime readers of this magazineprobably know I�m a big fan of superherocomics and games. I�ve collected everysupers RPG I can find. Do I intend to playthem all at some point? No. But I can cut-&-paste any components (powers, back-ground elements, story hooks, etc.) that Ilike into the next superhero campaign thatI run.

Speaking of comics (and other media),why not cut-&-paste ideas from othersources right into your campaign? Abouttwo years ago, another coworker wasrunning a campaign of Marquee Press�LOST SOULS* game. I created a MediumPC�a living person who can interact withghostly PCs. I cut-&-pasted much of myPC�s personality from the character JohnConstantine of DC�s Hellblazer comic book(and drove the rest of the players nuts, I�msure). You can cut-&-paste ideas from yourfavorite novel, movie, play, song, or what-ever inspires you. You also can borrow frommythology. See DRAGON issue #210�s article,�A Monster in the Classical Tradition� bySteve Berman. In it, Steve took a creaturefrom Greek mythology, the echidna, andcut-&-pasted it into a monster forChaosium�s CALL OF CTHULHU* horrorRPG.

I�m also a big fan of the Victorian era,and as such, one of my favorite games of1994 is R. Talsorian�s CASTLE FALKEN-STEIN* game. It�s a terrifically inventiveVictorian-era RPG, but as of my writingthis editorial, only the basic rule book hasbeen published. How can I expand theworld of CASTLE FALKENSTEIN now?Several RPGs have been published overthe years that deal with the same basicera. One of the newest is TSR�s newMasque of the Red Death campaign, whichis set on GOTHIC EARTH, a Victoriansetting. I can cut-&-paste history, charac-ters, or even some of the MASQUE OFTHE RED DEATH setting�s mentalist

powers. I also can use information fromChaosium�s Cthulhu by Gaslight Victorian-era supplement, or even use Cthulhuoidbeasts as particularly nasty members ofthe faerie Unseelie Court (a major forcefor evil in the FALKENSTEIN game). Speak-ing of faeries, the FALKENSTEIN rulesdon�t have much detailed information ontypes of faeries and the Unseelie andSeelie (the good-guy faeries) Courts. If Icare to expand that part of my gameworld, I can cut-&-paste a ton of faerie-related details from the For Faerie, Queen,and Country setting for TSR�s AMAZINGENGINE® rules. If you like the technologi-cal aspects of the FALKENSTEIN game, getyour hands on a copy of GDW�s SPACE:1889* game, which is chock full of itemssuch as electric rifles, air cannons, andiron-and-rivets spaceships. You can cut-&-paste to expand your fantasy, SF, horror,or other RPG as well.

I mentioned the AMAZING ENGINE lineabove; both it and SJG�s GURPS* line of�generic� books are excellent sources tocut-&-paste ideas from. (In fact, though Idon�t own the GURPS rule book, I do haveover a dozen source or �world books.�)Another place to look for inspiration is themultigenre RPGs such as Palladium�sRIFTS* or West End�s TORG* games thatalready have blended ideas from numer-ous genres into a single setting.

You don�t need to own 50 games to ableto cut-&,-paste ideas from one to another.Borrow your friends� RPGs. Lend out yourgames. Swap favorite or �inspirational�books, videos, and magazines among yourfellow gamers. If you belong to a gameclub, have all the members chip in a fewbucks each, head down to the game store,and start a club library of games.

In short, there are a lot of games outthere with a lot of good ideas in them.Don�t limit your game campaign by limit-ing your sources. Cut-&-paste a few ideasinto your game, and have fun!

FIRST QUEST is the title of TSR, Inc.’sAudio CD Introduction to Role-playing Game.This series is a feature where veterans ofrole-playing describe their first experiencesin the hobby.

Mammals and Dinosaurs

Okay, it�s my turn.Long ago, when the Earth was new and

dinosaurs roamed the midwestern plains ingreat thundering herds, people played wargames. Hex-map wonders with arcane rulessimulating this historical battle or thatimaginary campaign or some theory ofcombined arms. BLITZKRIEG* and PANZERBLITZ* from Avalon Hill. All the multitudeof (relatively) cheap paper-board gamesfrom SPI. Strategy & Tactics magazine. Ihad gotten into them in high school. Theywere intricate, they were exact, they oftenwere complex and obtuse, and they werefun.

My first week of college (back in 1975), Ivisited the Purdue Wargaming Club. Therewas a multitude of games spread out in awide lecture room in the Stewart Center,our student union. Here were boardgamers. John Hill, the creator of theSQUAD LEADER* game, ran the localhobby shop. Board games ruled. Therewere miniaturists as well, grizzled oldveterans hunched over their copies of theTRACTICS* rules and muttering abouthow they were the true descendants ofthe hobby created by H.G. Wells (who usedminiature soldiers to simulate his �littlewars�), not these wimpy �paper gamers.�(To be fair, the board gamers in turn com-plained that the guys with their miniaturetanks always had to hog four or five tablesfor one of their games.)

And there was a group of guys in thecorner shouting at each other and rollingdice. Without a board. Without counters.Without miniatures. Without a game ofany kind that I could see.

I wandered over, and one of them turn-ed to me, shoved three six-sided dice in myhand, and said, �Quick, we need a cleric.�

It was all downhill from there.Old role-players date themselves by

what their first D&D® game set lookedlike. Chainmail rules. The original wood-grained box. The GREYHAWK® supple-ment (that�s when I arrived). TheBLACKMOOR® supplement. The whitebox, the blue Basic, the red Basic, and soon. The rules were obtuse and clunky.They were filled with errors and unclearwording (one DM, due to a typo in theoriginal book, read �% Liar� as the chance

8 NOVEMBER 1994

by Jeff Grubb

a monster would lie to you, not the chanceof it being in its lair). The rules neededcontinual house rulings and interpreta-tions. Of course, the game was a lot of fun.

It also was intensely disliked by themore traditional gamers in the club. Thisupstart, this fashion, this fad, this phenom-enon hopefully would pass and let themreturn to refighting Gettysburg in peace.Local legend has it that the D&D gamewas offered to the �big� gaming companiesof the day, and laughed out of their offic-es. It didn�t have a hex map, so how couldit be a real game?

Well, it was a real game, and attractedreal gamers, and flourished quite nicely.More people came into the hobby, drawnby the lure of dragons and heroes andimagination. Role-playing was more ap-pealing than war games to women, whichboosted its allure to young male collegestudents with nothing else to do on aFriday night.

My first dungeon was created during aboring math lecture�a sprawling mon-strosity with no plan and no reason. Mon-sters hung out in their rooms just waitingfor the door to open and the adventurersto wade into combat. The dungeon washuge�three sheets of 10 squares-to-the-inch graph paper, with corridors spillingfrom one side of the paper and curvingaround to rejoin on the other side. As aresult, I put a number of entrances allover my surface map all connected to thissame complex. Dungeon entrances A, B, C,and E became the cities of American Pie(as in the Don McLean song), Bellvue (asuburb of Pittsburgh where my grandpar-ents lived), Cooper�s Rock (a state park inPennsylvania), and Emerson (on LakePalmer). There was a lack of seriousnessin the names, and, though I could run aworld-shaking epic with the best of them,many of my adventures were filled withbad jokes, worse puns, and general fun.

I did the D&D game thing through col-lege, and met a lot of friends whom I stillhang out with today. They�re teachers andprogrammers and vice presidents andexperts in artificial intelligence and rocklyricists. The parents of one friend, DaveCollins, had a house in Lake Geneva, Wis-consin (where TSR and the old Dungeon

Hobby Shop was! Wow!) and a sister, Susan,who was a fantasy artist (check out the oldDRAGON® Magazine covers on issues #51,#61, #73, and #85 for her work). On oneoccasion Dave took me along when he wasdropping off one of her pieces at theDRAGON Magazine office, which at thatpoint was located in a crumbling old houseacross from Pizza Hut. I met my first offi-cial TSR person, Kim Mohan, there, and Ithink that Roger Moore was bustling awayon a deadline as well. I was, of course,thrilled and amazed. They, of course, don�tremember me, since I was just one morewide-eyed fan stopping in.

I graduated as a civil engineer andworked for a short while designing air-pollution equipment. I continued to playthe D&D game with my Pittsburgh group(which included my eventual bride and co-writer, Kate Novak) and helped with theAD&D® Open under Bob Blake at the GENCON® Game Fair. After an unsatisfyingevent, one of my friends loudly pro-claimed that we could write better adven-tures. Bob called our bluff, and I becamethe lead designer and organizer of the1982 GEN CON Open.

On the strength of my design work�andthe fact that we delivered a playtested andready version six months in advance�Iwas hired as a full-time game designer byTSR. You know the rest of the story. A lotof designs I�ve worked on have been ideaswhich did not attract a lot of attention orapproval when they began, but when theyfinally arrived they were critically (andoccasionally financially) successful. I al-ways called such projects my �mammals��small scurrying things that stayed out ofthe way of larger, more official projectsuntil the time was right. Then they movedin and established themselves and thrived.

Many of the things I did way back incollege crept in all around my work. Mypantheon of gods traveled over to theDRAGONLANCE® setting. The name formy original campaign was Toril, whichbecame the name of the planet on whichthe FORGOTTEN REALMS® campaign isset. (Completists should note that Faerun isEd Greenwood�s name and refers to thecontinent that the core of the Realms

Continued on page 22

Make your underground adventures unique

Every developed PC and NPC has physi-cal and emotional characteristics that makeeach of them interesting. Cities and villageshave atmosphere and unique shops. Amagical blade described as Velinora�s Gla-dius Bellum is more valued than + 1sword. While people, towns, and evenmagical items are thought to have charac-ter, players do not generally think aboutdungeons as being �individuals.� However,with a little extra detail, a dungeon canbecome very interesting and unique�notjust because of the monsters, magicks, andtraps found within it, but because of thedungeon itself; the way it looks and feels,the way it winds and flows. If one can cre-ate a dungeon with character, then one canmake adventuring fun and new.

Bored with running the same olddungeon over and over, I thought abouthow I could make such a place fresh and enjoyable. After some contemplation andresearch, I came up with the followingguidelines. While the basic principles listedbelow can be used for any setting (fromforests to starships), I have focused on fan-tasy dungeon caverns. Cave-dungeons, Ifeel, are the settings that are usually theleast interesting. If one can make a caveintriguing, one can easily make tombs andcastles exciting.

The first thing to remember is that adungeon is a miniature ecosystem. Life,geology, time, and weather affect andchange it. All places populated by livingcreatures are animated and intricate, notjust the places that happen to be aboveground. A DM should make any adventur-ing area have this sort of feel about it. Tohelp do that, one needs to think about thefollowing topics.

How was it made?Just as a player creates the childhood

and ancestry of a character, the DM shouldfigure out (basically) how a place was madeand how it developed. What used to bethere, and how did what is there now getthere?

Caverns on our planet are created either

by erosion or magma flow. Erosion cavesare old underground rivers and lakes; theywind and flow, with passages forking,turning and changing. Magma caves aretubelike, smoother than erosion caves, andstraight; they generally do not split off inmore than one direction. However, oneneed not make a cavern realistic; on an-other world, caverns could be created byother forces, such as giant monsters anduncontrolled magic.

In any event, interesting caves containareas of different sizes and shapes. Theyare filled with small crawlways and hugerooms. These changes in dimension arevery useful to a DM. How can a party fleeor fight in an area only 3� in diameter?How can they navigate up and down all thepassageways and cliffs while they are look-ing for treasure and monsters?

Think �treacherous terrain.� One can cre-ate many encounters like the following: Agroup of five hobgoblins are on the otherside of a 30� room and are shooting arrowsat the PCs. No problem, right? Well, thosehobgoblins could have 75% cover from theterrain while the PCs have no cover at all.Also, the floor of the room could be 20� be-low the ledge on which the party is standing.Now the PCs must either use up their magicand arrows on some lowly hobgoblins, orthey must cross a very dangerous piece ofterrain to get to the hobgoblins. The land-scape makes this generally minor encounterinto a major encounter.

Strange formations can add greatly to adungeon. Many real caves have more thanone opening to the outside. The partymight have to travel in and out of thedungeon, fighting their way through awooded area that separates two entrances.Instead of having a few forest encountersbefore going to a cave and having caveencounters thereafter, a half-in and half-out dungeon adventure could have bothmixed together. This would make most ofthe PCs equally useful throughout the ad-venture.

Small holes that can develop betweenrooms can become natural murder holes

and arrow slits. These holes also could bea safe way to talk with creatures withinthe cave or spy on them. Natural columns,large stalagmites, crevices, and multipleentrances can fill a room with hidingplaces and areas to explore. A room withtwo large rocks in the center, with thepath around them forming a figure-eight,would be an excellent place for a chase. (Ican see the PCs running around andaround looking for a thieving goblin whois hiding on top of a boulder.)

A cave also could be somewhat like acanyon, with parts of the top exposed tothe surface. Now the party must decide ifthey should walk along the top and possi-bly miss some of the openings, travel thebottom and possibly be ambushed, or splitup the group and explore both areas at thesame time. Most players know how tohave their characters maneuver through asmooth, cylindrical tunnel, so don�t makeit easy for them by making a dungeonwith nothing but 10�-diameter tunnels and30' rooms.

Combat is not the only activity that can beaffected by terrain. Stalactites, stalagmites,flowstones, cave pearls, and other forma-tions can be used to spice up many scenariosfor many reasons. A certain rock formationmight just happen to look kind of like apriest�s holy symbol. Or the characters mightbe awed by the beauty of certain rooms.Giving a deserving description of such fea-tures would be a great task for a DM. If theDM could make the PCs imagine a roomfilled with gleaming columns and snowlikegypsum flowers, then the cave could be-come �alive� and memorable. An ingeniousPC could make such an area into a templeor, if the character is more materialistic, atourist attraction.

What is it made of?As important as how the surrounding

area was made is of what material(s) thesurrounding area is made. One can quick-ly understand the importance of knowingwhat substances are present in a dungeonif one stumbles across a cavern with veinsof gold and silver in it. But other substanc-es also are important. Deposits of zinc(needed for brass), iron, coal, and tinwould be very useful for the constructionof weapons and trade goods. A wise dwarfmay notice that all the kobolds� pots andtools are made out of copper, and shemight go looking for their copper mine(not as exciting as a platinum mine, butstill profitable).

The materials that make up a cavernmay be important for other reasons. Lime-stone caverns would have a tendency todevelop (maybe quite suddenly) sink holes.Areas with lead or mercury could beharmful to the creatures that live nearby;a resourceful PC might make friends ofthose creatures by helping to cure them oftheir poisoning. (�The spirits wish for youto move to a new location; then the curseon your people will be lifted.�) Even moreinteresting and dangerous, a cave might

12 NOVEMBER 1994

have uranium or other highly radioactiveelements in it, which could cause nativecreatures to be deformed or changed insome way (attack of the giant mutant killerkobolds?).

This last example brings up anotherinteresting point: A fantasy world does nothave to follow the known laws of physicsor chemistry. Certain substances found ina dungeon environment could enhance,alter, or nullify magic or psionics. Rockscould be highly magnetic, combustible,explosive, or influenced by other forces.Think up a new substance with strangeand challenging properties: For instance, acave could contain pockets of etherium, anelement that becomes ethereal and solidagain at random, causing natural secretand shifting doors. A prized metal in mycampaign world is �float,� a metal thatrepels gravitons (thus, it is nearly weight-less); not only does this metal create weirdnatural phenomena, such as floatingrocks, but also lessens the weight of weap-ons and armor, making it a prized materialindeed.

What stories does it tell?History, natural and documented, is a

great tool for bringing life to a dungeon.While the PCs are exploring a cave, theycould find bones, weapons, or equipmentthat tell a story about the cave. Fossils andancient tools could indicate who lived inthe cave long ago. The walls could beadorned with paintings or carvings from arace long dead. The PCs might make ananthropological discovery that causessages to argue for decades.

Recorded history, told to the PCs by localvillagers or even by the creatures withinthe cave, could set the tone for thedungeon. Many players like to have theircharacters look for maps or informationabout a place: let them look, and give themthe information, but tailor it to suit theneeds of the scenario or the campaign.The PCs might rush to a dungeon reportedto be the location of the treasure of KingSloth but be less eager to enter a cavewhere Vstin the Great, the hero of Aldwic,was killed by some unknown evil. Suchinformation doesn�t have to be importantto the plot, it only has to give character tothe dungeon. And, of course, any informa-tion given to the PCs doesn�t have to betrue.

How stable is it?Not every dangerous room has to be a

trap that was specially created. Deadfalls,cave-ins, and weak pathways could be theresults of natural processes. Unstablecaves have caused injuries and drama inthe real world; so can they can in a fanta-sy world.

For example, a group of kobolds (eachweighing no more than 80 pounds) mightcross a natural bridge as they are fleeingfrom adventurers. This bridge will col-lapse if more than 200 pounds is put inone small area. The kobolds might not

even realize that the bridge will fall, butthe human fighter in full plate armor willlearn about it soon enough.

One need not have a floor fall out be-neath the party to make the charactersparanoid. The PCs could hear the soundsof another part of the cave collapsing andthen begin anticipating a cave-in that willnever happen. They might start to hurry,trying to make it out before the caverncollapses, and then panic when a fewpebbles or some sand falls on them.

Physical changes to the cave also couldresult from the actions of the PCs. The useof powerful magic (fireball, lightning bolt,rock to mud, dig) could cause a local disas-ter. Pushing a boulder down on an attack-ing Lernaean hydra might seem like agood idea at the time, but when that boul-der causes the floor to collapse, the PCsare going to wish they hadn�t done that.

Another thing to remember is that aplace changes if someone is around or not.The water level might drop, revealingmore caverns. Caves might collapse oropen up due to erosion or earthquakes.These changes can make a previouslyexplored cavern into something entirelynew. An adventure might center on hunt-ing down a group of orcs that have movedinto a previously explored cavern. Theparty confidently walks into the caveopening, sure in their maps and theirknowledge. They know that the orcswould camp in the big room next to thewell. They know about the shriekers inthe third alcove. But as they move into thecave, they find that the passage to the bigroom has collapsed and a new passage hasopened to the south. Even though the PCshave been through this dungeon before,they don�t know what to expect now.Surprised, they might even becomeshaken and start to panic. The cave isphysically different, so the party must stayon their toes.

How�s the weather downthere?

Weather affects everything, even under-ground environments. Rainfall and subse-quent flooding may cause some caverns tofill with water. Imagine a group of heroeswho go adventuring into a cave while atorrential downpour is starting outside.One passage (the only one that leads backoutside) is steep, but the party can walkdown it. However, when they return, thispassage has become a stream, slick andtreacherous. Now they have to crawlthrough the water to get out, and if theyfall, they�ll be washed back down 30 feet.

Cave temperatures do not change asdramatically as outside temperatures.Caverns isolated from the outside air willgenerally stay at a constant temperature,about 65° Fahrenheit. But even slightchanges in the temperature can causewind movement or fog. Rivers that arefrozen outside the cave might preventwater from reaching a cavern. Areas inthe cave but near the outside will be af-

fected by temperature changes; watercould freeze, causing areas to becomeslick or frozen over.

A flood or a heavy rainstorm can changean area quickly. If a cave entrance is posi-tioned in just the right way, hurricane-level winds could boom down the caverns.Mud, avalanches, or timbers thrown by atornado could cover an exit and trap char-acters. Animals that do not normally livein caves may seek shelter underground inharsh weather, causing problems for thePCs. And since the party is underground,they might not know about adverse weath-er conditions until it is too late.

What lives there?Any lifeform that lives in an area must

have access to the following necessities:water, food, air, and some measure ofsafety. Every elementary-school biologyclass teaches that, but many DMs forget it.My characters have entered manydungeons populated by enormous num-bers of �living� monsters that had no wayof getting the necessities of life. I havebeen guilty of such blunders myself: Iremember one goblin cave that I locatedfive miles from the nearest river (now Ithink of the poor goblins that had to carrywater five miles every day to keep thesettlement alive).

The first necessity is water. Make surethat a cave has wells, underground rivers,a lake, or some such source for the livingcreatures to get water from. If water is inshort supply, certain smart creaturescould control the source and then sell thewater for protection or profit. Since mostreal caverns are made by water erosion,most of them do have water somewherewithin.

Just as every lifeform needs water, everylifeform needs food. A �living� dungeonshould contain or be located close to edi-ble plant and animal life. Since fungi donot need sunlight, edible mushrooms areprobably a staple of most undergroundhumanoids. Smaller creatures, such asburrowing mammals, rats, bats, fish, andlarge insects, would supplement the diet ofmost beasts. Not only can these creaturesadd realism to your dungeon, but thenoises and motions they make will keepthe player characters antsy. If every partof a cavern is alive, then PCs will be cau-tious as they enter each room.

Life generally breeds life, so a fantasycave might have as much life as a real rainforest. A cavern could be filled with differ-ent types of fungi, insects, and animals.These creatures might have developeddefenses such as thorns, poisons, or biolu-minescence. Another world could havemillions of species of fungi that we do nothave, especially a magical world. Thesefungi would be the food for other animalsand would gain nourishment from thehumus caused by other fungi and animals.Thus, a very complex life cycle coulddevelop underground.

Airflow is another concern within a

cave. When orcs roast their victims, wheredoes the smoke go? It will follow the windand be dispersed throughout the cavernsystem. Particles of ash will blacken cavewalls and leave deposits along the floor.This smoke might be so thick that anyoneentering a �chimney� tunnel will not beable to see or breathe. An intelligent groupof entities could design their fires so thatthe smoke will go into a trapped room.

Remember that (most) animals don�t justcome into existence when the party ar-rives. They live in the cave. They eat, buildlairs, and carry on other life functions.Source books for many games, includingthe AD&D® game�s MONSTROUSCOMPENDIUM® appendices, give ecologi-cal data: try to use this information. Anyfacts about eating habits, activity cycles,reproduction, and gender interaction willhelp a DM. If a village of norkers has babynorkers in it, then it becomes a morebelievable place. These younglings also cancreate many strategic and moral dilemmasfor the PCs.

Another aspect of life is refuse. Anyonewho has been to a waste dump can seehow trash can affect an area. Where dohumanoids that live underground dumptheir waste? Well, they would probablyhave a special dump pit far downwind oftheir home caverns. They would throweverything down into the pit, includingbut not limited to biological waste, rotten

plants and fungi, dead animals, brokentools, and rusted weapons. Crafty human-oids might put a hidden trap door abovethe trash pit. Anyone walking on this trapwould fall into the dump pit.

Not all the trash, however, would makeit to the dump pit. Many humanoids arelazy and environmentally unconscious.Garbage of the most unpleasant kind maybe found throughout the caverns of adungeon. Piles of gunk and carcasses arein many rooms, a few covering secretchests of �treasure.� When dealing withrefuse, remember that any mention oftrash makes experienced players think ofrot grubs, otyughs, and other unpleasantmonsters. In many adventures, I havecasually stated that the player characterscan see wormlike creatures movingthrough the filth. While these things werenothing more than normal worms, mag-gots, grubs, and carrion slugs (gross butnot deadly), the PCs didn�t know this. Tomy amusement, they went through allkinds of trouble to destroy these beastiesand sort through the trash. (�If there arerot grubs, then there must be some kindof treasure.�) Simple parasites can cause asmuch fear and worry in a group of PCs asa lair of trolls.

A DM also should think about howdungeon denizens interact. Why do thepixies live in room 14 and the hook hor-rors live in room 15? Do they share food,

DRAGON 13

or play games together, or are they tryingto rip out each other�s throats? Would asmall tribe of goblins live next door to alair of ghasts?

The best way to plan interactions be-tween dungeon natives is to imagine whatit would be like to live next to a monster.Before you design your next dungeon,think about the people you have lived withor neighbors you have had trouble with.Maybe they were misanthropes and want-ed complete silence. Maybe they partiedtoo loud for too long. Maybe you thoughtthey were casing your place for robbery.Now imagine that those same neighbors orex-roommates considered you a foodsource. If you thought that Mr. Rogersnext door would eat your friends and takeyour gold, you might be a little reluctantto live near him. You would at least takeprecautions to make sure he wouldn�tbother you.

As most people who have lived in adormitory or a thin-walled apartmentbuilding know, a place develops �political�alliances. An ogre who is trying to catchsome sleep after a long night of pillaging isnot going to be very happy about a koboldmidday festival; in fact, he is going to �ask�the kobolds to hold the noise down a bit,and he isn�t going to be very polite. Per-haps such �political intrigue� could beuseful to the party. Those kobolds, upsetat being �evicted� from their residence,might show the PCs the best way into andaround a cavern. They also might tell theparty the strength and power of the ogre�landlord� and his friends.

These territorial battles need not bebetween intelligent races. Those samekobolds might have been pushed out by abig sabertooth cat or a cave bear. Animalshave territory, too. Most creatures marktheir territory in some fashion. Manyapply their scent to the area, but others(especially intelligent creatures) will definetheir area with visible markers. Naturalboundaries, such as pits and streams, alsoact as territory lines. Animals can sensethese boundaries and respect them. Iftrolls like the taste of cave crickets, thenthe troll�s lair will be devoid of crickets.Experienced parties might learn thesesigns and be able to identify territories,and thus be better prepared for upcomingencounters.

Finally, animals that have lived in caveswill slowly adapt to survive in that sort ofenvironment. Creatures in caves are gen-erally smaller and lighter than their above-ground counterparts. While they may losesome sensitivity in their sight, they maydevelop better senses of smell and touch.Some underground versions of above-ground creatures may lose their pigmenta-tion and become white or translucent.Some other creatures, however, mightdevelop the �drow� adaptation: dark skinthat acts as camouflage against creaturescarrying light sources and allows thecreatures to naturally hide in shadows.

ConclusionThe key to developing a cave or dungeon

environment is interaction�between geolo-gy and life, between hunters and prey. ADM can create many interesting scenariosjust by imagining how animals, plants, geolo-gy, and weather affect one another. Forexample, we decide that a cavern contains avein of silver. It makes sense that someonewould be mining the silver, so we add a fewdrow with their slaves. The drow wouldhave spiders around as pets and guards. Thespiders need to eat, so the cavern has insectsin it. The insects also need something to eat,so we could put in some giant mushrooms.Now we have a cave full of interactions, aplace with possibilities for intriguing adven-tures.

Not only will this type of creative workhelp make a dungeon seem real, but it alsocould help create more adventures. Imag-ine that the party destroys all the koboldsin a dungeon. Well, it so happens thatthese kobolds ate the bats that live in thecave. Now that the kobolds are dead, thebats quickly grow in population. Theirnumber becomes so great that some of thebats are forced to leave the cave and moveelsewhere. Also, these bats feed on thelittle skinks that live around the cave; in ashort time there are so many bats that allthe skinks are devoured. The skinks atethe itoya, a tiny fly whose bite carries anasty virus lethal to humans. Now, be-cause of the destruction of the kobolds,the nearby town of Shellow is plagued bybats and itoya flies. Imagine the shock thePCs will get when the priests of Shellow,after receiving a message from their deity,tell the characters that they must �restock�the cave with kobolds so that the bats andbugs will not plague the town.

Of course, one needs to be careful not tooverdo it. Use the scenery to develop thesetting. When writing a story, a goodauthor must create an in-depth and inter-esting setting. So too, must the good DM.Each does this the same way: by addingdetails. One should try to make many ofthe details important: things that someonein the party will find interesting. However,a few mood-setting descriptions�detailjust for the sake of detail, to add realism�are good to use and will help players putthemselves into character.

Books, conversations with professionals,and even TV are great sources for furtherideas. You can�t go wrong with an issue ofNational Geographic or an hour of theDiscovery channel. TSR�s DMGR1 Cam-paign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guidetalks about water, air, and loadstone; italso gives tips on creating atmosphere andpacing. Of course, the best way to under-stand a type of scenery is to visit it. Travelto Mammoth Caves or Carlsbad Caverns ifyou have the chance (both are really im-pressive). If you are feeling adventurous,go spelunking. Experiencing a real adven-ture will help you create hundreds ofimaginative imaginary ones.

Sightin the

DarknessAn open-eyed look at infravision,

What would it be like to see in the dark?My interest in this topic was sparked

years ago when I tried to figure out justwhat my half-orc AD&D® game characterscould see using infravision in a dungeon. I

game players everywhere will find themuseful. (Certainly, my half-orcs would havegotten a longer leash on life with this infor-mation.)

wanted every advantage there was forthose obnoxious little guys. Additionally, Iwanted to know just how well infravision-using monsters could see in the dark, be-cause I wanted my characters to avoidbeing seen and promptly eaten, as a num-ber of them were.

This interest was sparked again recentlyby an article in a science magazine on in-frared vision. Some very intriguing pointscame to light, and the results are offeredhere in the hopes that AD&D and D&D®

How infravision �works�We should really start with a look at real-

world infrared light and infravision. Thismakes certain game aspects of this sensorypower clearer, and also highlights inaccu-rate, contradictory, and problematic as-pects of infravision in game play (whichwill be discussed in depth later).

The science article that fired me up forthis topic was �Seeing the World ThroughInfrared Eyes,� by Neil F. Comins (Astrono-my Magazine, June 1991, pages 50-55).This excellent piece covers the basics ofhow infravision would work in realisticterms. It�s worth hunting for this article inyour local library and copying it for refer-

the Underdark, and your PCsby Roger E. Moore

ence. That and a few encyclopedic entriesare the basis for the information thatfollows.

Infrared radiation is normally invisible,lying just below red on the electromagneticspectrum. It is given off by hot objects; thehotter the object, the more infrared light itgives off. Very hot objects eventually giveoff visible light�red light at first, then or-ange, yellow, and white as the heat in-creases. We can sense heat radiation onour skin, the largest sensory organ wehave, but we cannot detect more than ageneral direction of the heat source and anidea of how hot the source must be.

Certain snakes called pit vipers are ableto detect infrared light more accuratelythan we can, though only within a shortrange. Several sense organs called pit or-gans lie to either side of a pit viper�s head,between the eye and nostril. Changes inheat radiation as little as 1o can be detect-ed. The snake senses the direction of theheat source by moving its head back andforth, noting the direction and intensity ofthe heat it senses.

We�ve known about heat for eons, butinfrared light itself was discovered by anEnglish astronomer, Sir William Herschel,in 1800. A very practical use for infraredlight was found during World War II,when electric sniperscopes were invented.Sniperscopes were attached to rifles andgathered distant infrared light comingfrom the bodies of soldiers, converting itto visible light for the sharpshooter. Thisallowed sharpshooters to fire on enemypositions at night. (As will become appar-

ent, some versions of infravision in theAD&D game were based on sniperscopecharacteristics.)

Infrared light has less energy than visi-ble light, but it behaves in much the sameway. Some infrared radiation is absorbedby molecules in the air. However, near-infrared light, which is the part of theinfrared spectrum closest to visible redlight, is reflected by most objects and thuscan be used to detect them. We see a chairby the light reflected from it; a pit vipercan detect nearby objects by the near-infrared heat reflected or emitted fromthem.

Our ability to actually see infrared heatin detail is blocked by several major prob-lems. Because infrared light is less ener-getic than visible light, a human able to seenear-infrared light clearly would needeyes about 5-10 times larger than normal.Worse, heat is emitted from many objectsall around us; stoves, furnaces, livingbeings, light bulbs, hot car engines, andsun-warmed rocks, concrete, bricks, andasphalt, for example. Almost everythingwith any warmth would glow as if it werea light bulb, though with an intensityproportionate to how hot it was. (Thus anoven will be �brighter� than a warm rock.)

What this means, of course, is that any-one able to see infrared light also will seehis own body warmth. We have bodytemperatures just below 100oF, which isenough to blind us with heat radiation. It�slike trying to take a picture when thecamera itself emits light inside and out,which ruins the film.

To prevent such heat blindness, aninfravision-using creature would needsome sort of insulation around its eyeballsto keep the body�s heat out of them, andsome kind of refrigerant to keep the eye-balls cool so they become sensitive tooutside light. This insulation and refrigera-tion would be done biologically. (Don�t askme exactly how, but I�m sure MotherNature would figure out a way.) However,let�s face it: We�re dealing with magic, notscience, and magic can do anything. Ourproblems are solved at a stroke, even if itdoesn�t please the scientists among us.

Another option (useful for beholders,giant snails, and crabs) is to put the eye-balls on stalks, separating them from therest of the body. The eyes are then aircooled, so no other refrigerant is needed. Idon�t think beholders and so forth haveinfravision, though (as is noted later) ifthey�ve lived underground for a long time,they�ve probably developed it.

In some ways, the way that infravision isdescribed in the AD&D game rules impliesthat it works in the same way that ournight vision normally works. Rod-shapedcells in the retina of your eyes can detectvery dim light after a short period ofadjustment to darkness, which you shouldbe familiar with each time you go into adark room. At first you can�t see a thing,but over a period of minutes you start tosee more and more objects in what little

18 NOVEMBER 1994

light there is. Eventually, faint lightsources like the full moon, digital clocks,and even pure starlight can seem quitebright, even painfully so. However, be-cause rod cells are not color-sensitive likethe eye�s cone cells, night vision is mostlyblack-and-white vision; maybe �shades ofgray� vision is more accurate. (Infravisionwas described as being like black-and-white vision in the original AD&D game,too, as noted later.)

Night vision can be instantly spoiled bybright normal light, which is why drivingexperts tell you to look away from oncom-ing cars at night, to preserve your eyes�sensitivity. Infravision in the AD&D gameis spoiled by bright visible light, extremelyhot objects like fires, and magical light.Perhaps fantasy creatures with infravisionhave magical cells in their eyes that worklike rods, but pick up heat instead of faintvisible light. Who knows?

So much for how infravision works.What can you see with it?

The infravisual world:Aboveground

We�ll assume that your campaign worldresembles our own Earth in that it has anormal day-night cycle with a sun like ourown. (If this is not the case, you can makeadjustments as we go along.) What wouldyour heat/infrared picture of the worldlook like, then? Let�s use some logic as welook around.

In the daytime in summer, everythingbathed in sunlight is warm. Things thatretain heat well, like large rocks, will bewarmer and stay warmer longer thanthings that lose heat rapidly in cool winds,like thin leaves or blades of grass. Thegreatest normal heat source is the sun,which we can easily assume is too brightto look at with any form of infravision.Sunlight in fact ruins AD&D game infra-vision, so we would rely on normal visionalone. Air is assumed to be invisible, what-ever its temperature, unless it is extremelyhot (see below).

So infravision is useless in broad day-light. Once darkness falls, however, thelandscape is still hot. Objects retain heatfrom the sun and radiate it slowly away,which keeps the night side of the worldfrom freezing. (Even magical worlds needthermodynamic physics!) With the sungone, a creature with very good infra-vision could see almost normally rightafter full darkness falls, since the terrainwill radiate light. We can assume that acombination of rod-based night vision andmagic-based infravision would be a potentmix, allowing vision about equal to normalsight in full daylight. Distant images wouldbe fuzzier and less distinct than usual, so afar-away orc might look like an ogre or ahalfling, but it beats seeing nothing at all.

Different parts of the landscape will cooloff at different rates, so things will lookstrange. Rocks would be �brighter� thantrees, for instance. Water is generallycooler than land, but water also retains

heat better than land; thus lakes and seasmight seem �brighter� than the shoreline,especially late at night. Very hot air, suchas that escaping from chimneys or fires,will glow faintly like a luminescent cloud.

Other warm things in the world includelive animals, especially the warm-bloodedones, and fire. A deer, a human, and achipmunk all radiate heat�more heatwhen they are ill or physically exertingthemselves, less heat when standing stillor asleep. Certain magical animals, such assalamanders and red dragons, can beassumed to produce much more heat thanother creatures their size. I recall readingthat drinking alcohol causes the body toradiate more heat than usual, so a drunk-ard could be detected by being �brighter�than other people.

Objects in close contact with living be-ings, like clothing, weapons, tools, chairs,and beds, will radiate some heat after thebeings leave or discard them. In time, ofcourse, those objects will completely cooloff. Standing on a spot or leaning against awall for a while also will leave residualheat behind, which could be noticed.Scuffing or shuffling feet would leaveinfrared �footprints� that could be track-ed, though not for long. Friction fromdragged objects, like heavy sacks or com-bat victims, also could be detected, ascould places where surfaces have beenrubbed together for long periods of time(machine gears, gristmill stones, axlejoints, spinning wheels, etc.). Physicalblows, like being smacked with an openhand or a blacksmith�s hammer, also raisethe temperature of solid surfaces for shortperiods of time.

Fires produce vastly more heat thanliving beings. Seeing a living being hidingnext to a blast furnace in a dark roomwould be almost impossible, like seeing afirefly�s light next to the sun�s. Manmadeand natural sources of fire includematches, pipes, cigars, candles, torches,campfires, bonfires, hearths, furnaces,forest fires, lava, and embers. All flamesources are assumed to emit enough infra-red and visible light to ruin infravisionnear them. Note however, that a �dead�fire would radiate heat long after the lastember has vanished, and likely would bedetectable at a great distance. A forest firewould �light up� the landscape for manyhours after the flames are gone.

Remember, too, that infravision alsodetects the lack of heat, just as normalvision detects the lack of light. Snow andice will look very dark in infravision ifseen without visual light from moons orstars. A cold-producing object like a refrig-erator also will look darker than objectsaround it. Cold-producing creatures likebrown mold will look very �black.�

It�s worth a word on what sorts of crea-tures could not be seen with infravision.Creatures that are normally able to turninvisible, like pixies, should also be invisi-ble to infravision (but not to other senseslike smell). Any creature that is roughly

the same temperature as its surroundings,like a cold-blooded insect, fish, amphibian,or reptile, would be harder to see at night,though even cold-blooded creatures aren�talways exactly the same temperature asthe environment around them. (Livethings move and generate friction frommoving, for one thing.) Magical beings thatradiate no heat at all, like undead skele-tons and zombies, would be almost invisi-ble to infravision unless revealed byreflected infrared light or else blocking ahot source, revealing their outline.

With so many heat sources at night, andso many things that will reflect infraredlight, there will be a multitude of infrared-light shadows. The landscape will lackclarity and seem a bit out of focus (evenmore so at greater distances), as well aspainted in shades of gray. It�s a confusing,alien world, but any creature born withinfravision would be quite accustomed toit and might instantly recognize any criti-cal feature it sees.

Neil Comins� article notes that the nightsky itself would change when seenthrough infravision, but modern-worldastronomy is considerably different fromthe AD&D game�s SPELLJAMMER® set-ting�s �physics.� In essence, any heatsource in Wildspace will glow fuzzily ininfravision, but it�s up to the DungeonMaster to choose which things seen in thenight sky are heat-emitters and which arenot. Stars, for instance, might radiate onlyvisible light and no heat at all, thus beinginvisible in infravision (but not to normalor night vision), while planets might putout huge amounts of heat, turning into bigfuzzy balls in the sky. You�ll have to be thejudge.

The infravisual world:Underground

Infravision is remarkable enough tosurface-dwelling creatures. Let�s look atwhat it�s like for subterranean beings, andwhat advantages and disadvantages theygain from it. (After all, this is the under-ground-exploration issue of DRAGON®Magazine!)

In the real world, deep caverns tend tohave a uniform temperature, around 65° F.This seems to make everything look thesame, bland shade of gray to an infravisionuser, but there is plenty of hope here fordiversity. For one thing, large openingsradiate only faint heat (from objects beyondthem), so such openings will look dark.More distant objects radiate less visible heatthan closer ones, so distant objects aredimmer and darker. You could thus pickout the shape and direction of an unusedtunnel with little trouble.

Running water underground is oftenextremely cold, so cave water will seemvery black, as will the rocks surroundingit. If a cavern complex is near a geother-

mal heat source, like a geyser or (heavensforbid) volcanic magma, the entire cavernwill grow warmer and �brighter� as aninfravision-user gets closer to the heat

source.Caves often have a variety of life in

them, especially in fantasy worlds, andliving beings will radiate enough heat to�infra-illuminate� their surroundings. Themore beings, the brighter their livingspace; a thousand goblins should be ableto see their underground lair quite clearlywith no other �light� than the heat fromtheir own crowded bodies.

Heat-producing magical creatures, likered dragons, will of course radiate vastamounts of infrared light. A red dragonwould have an advantage, too, in that oneshort puff of flame will ruin the infra-vision of any approaching creature, withfatal results for the blinded ambushers.Some cold-blooded creatures like slither-ing trackers would be invisible to infra-vision, again with fatal results for cockyadventurers. The special dangers of skele-tons, clay golems, and other �heatless�monsters becomes highly apparent.

Some undead, however, radiate cold.Liches, for instance, cause damage fromtheir chilly touch; they and their handsshould �glow black� in infravision, stand-

ry of infravision, as it appearsfantasy games, is in order.

in TSR�s

lnfravision and the AD&D gameReferences to infravision are scattered

throughout the AD&D and D&D gamerules, but it becomes obvious that theconcept underwent much expansion andrefinement over the years since eithergame first appeared. It would help to startout with a look at what infravision used todo in fantasy games, and what it doesnow�as well as collect the rules on infra-vision together in one spot for ease ofreference. A few areas of omission andcontradiction that have confused the play-ing of infravision also will becomeapparent.

Certain races in the Chainmail rules (thewar-gaming rules from which role-playingsprang) were able to �see well in dimnessor dark.� Dwarves, gnomes, goblins, ko-bolds, and orcs, as subterranean races,needed the ability to get around in cavesand mines when candles and oil lanternsweren�t available. If you dumped the infra-vision concept entirely, this sort of vision

ing out against warmer backgrounds, even could be either light-intensifying vision,cave walls. Read the descriptions of mon- making the most of every visible-lightsters carefully if you want to produce a photon in the area, or a form of magicalmore detailed and intriguing picture of radar, allowing for an accurate map ofunderworld life to adventuring dwarves, local surroundings without recognition ofgnomes, and elves. color or �flat� things like paintings, hand-

writing, etc. It could even be magicalSpeaking of fantasy races, a short histo-

DRAGON 19

vision that makes dark areas seem to be litby sourceless light, so there are noshadows (color is optional). Take your pick.

Hard on the Chainmail game�s heels in1974 came the D&D Original Set, thosethree tan booklets in the white box. There,the infravision spell first appeared. Theoriginal version of the spell allowed theuser to �see infra-red light waves, thusenabling him to see in total darkness.� (Ofcourse, you still might not see in totaldarkness if there were no heat sourcesaround.) The spell lasted for one day andhad a range of 40-60 feet. Interestingly, itwasn�t until a later D&D supplement ap-peared (the Greyhawk® book) thatdwarves, gnomes, and elves were noted ashaving infravision allowing them to seemonsters up to 60 feet away in the dark.(Elves were probably allowed this so theycould see at night, though light-intensifying vision would have been morelogical.)

The original AD&D game�s Player�sHandbook and assorted monster descrip-tions gave infravision to many creatures,including every demihuman PC race ex-cept certain halflings. Different types ofinfravision began to appear, too, definedby range. Poor infravision was effectiveonly out to 30�, and was found in certainhalflings and derro, an evil dwarflike race.Normal or standard infravision, good outto 60�, was the most common variety.Superior infravision extended out to 90�,as was the case with trolls and troglodytes,or 120�, for drow and duergar (evildwarves). In one place (page 102), thePlayer�s Handbook says that monstersliving in dungeons have infravision out to120�; why then do some have shorterranges? Hmmm.

Superior infravision, however, involvedmore than simply receiving heat radiation.Creatures with long-distance infravisionwere noted in the original Dungeon Mas-ter�s Guide (page 59) as emitting infraredlight from their eyes (magically, of course),then seeing the reflected radiation. (Thiswould not be possible in normal science,as noted earlier, but this is a magical uni-verse we�re talking about.) The eyes of anycreature with infravision out to 90� ormore are noted as glowing red quitebrightly when seen by any other creaturewith standard infravision. Most monstersin underground areas were said to havesuperior infravision.

This brings up a curious point: How faraway can an adventurer with standardinfravision detect one with superior infra-vision? Can the adventurer see dangercoming before the dangerous creaturesees him? Well, if you get picky about it,you can say that the standard range of 60�is fixed; you can�t see farther than that, nomatter what heat source is out there. Onthe other hand, it is clear that the originalintent of the rules was to have the 60�range be that at which the body-heatradiation from monsters (and normalpeople) could be seen. The implication is

20 NOVEMBER 1994

that stronger sources of infrared lightcould be seen if they were farther away.

A liberal DM should note that a creaturewith 90� or 120� infravision is actuallyemitting infrared beams out to 180� or240�, respectively. All infrared light goingout from its eyes must be reflected back toits eyes to be seen, so in theory those eyebeams should be detectable by infravisionout to those doubled ranges (assumingthose eye beams don�t first encounter asurface that causes them to be reflected).Furthermore, near-infrared light reflectsfrom most normal surfaces just like nor-mal light. A monster with superior infra-vision �paints� everything it sees withpowerful heat rays, just as if it were carry-ing a double-beam flashlight. (Perhapsdwarves and gnomes have appropriate expressions like, �That troll was so closethat its eyes could�ve burned the skin offmy arm!�)

Thus, a gnome wandering an abandonedmine tunnel might see the corridor aheadof her �light up� with faint infrared light ifthere was a duergar 240� ahead of her.The duergar has the advantage in having amuch broader range of accurate vision,but the gnome has the advantage of earlydetection. The gnome can immediately fleeor hide, unseen by the approachingduergar.

This argument is buttressed (and contra-dicted) by the note in the original DMG(page 59) that, outdoors, infravision allowsfor detection of warm or cold figures at arange of 100-300�. Vision is said to other-wise be equal to �a bright, starry night,with full moonlight.� Cannot the duergarthen see the gnome at 240�? What heatsources are present that allow for thisgreater range of vision? And if you can seeup to 300� outdoors, why can�t you seethat far indoors? Game logic breaks downat this point.

To the rescue, perhaps, comes the earli-er notes about a sun-warmed landscapeand rod-based night vision. As a rule ofthumb, let�s say that a creature with infra-vision can see three times as far outdoorsat night as it can in a deep cavern, becausethe landscape is warmer and radiatesmore infrared light. A halfling with poorinfravision thus can see most outdoorobjects out to 90�, and a duergar (withinfrared eye beams) can see out to 360�.The gnome in the earlier example shouldobviously avoid meeting duergar at nightin open fields; the duergar will see thegnome first.

In the original PHB (page 102), thingsseen with infravision are described asappearing in a colorless way to an observ-er. Warm things look bright, as if theywere emitting light. Cooler things lookprogressively more gray, and cold thingsappear black. This fits with the black-and-white view of infravision developed earli-er. Recent versions of the D&D game haveinstead substituted certain colors for dif-ferent heat temperatures (D&D Cyclope-dia, pages 24-25), and there is that nagging

PHB note about the red-glowing eyes of acreature with superior infravision. Theoptional rules for infravision in the AD&D2nd Edition game DMG (page 119) alsoallow for �pseudo-color� infravision, astypically appears in a thermogram. I�ll stillopt for the simpler no-color view, whichmakes it just like the view you get from asniperscope.

Does infravision work underwater? Yes,but badly. Water is a very poor conductorof heat, despite what any game rules say.Though the original DMG allowed infra-vision to work underwater to a limitedextent, but it would be more accurate tocut it off completely. Cool water willdampen out nearly all heat radiation, andwarm water will obscure it. I�m no scien-tist, but I�d give infravision an underwaterrange of about 1�, no more. Very hotsources, like a volcanic vent, will boil allthe water near them and make an infravi-sual view of them merely bright, fuzzyblobs that fill your field of vision. If youare liberal, you can keep the limits set bythe original or AD&D 2nd Edition rules(i.e., normal underground ranges).

Getting clever with infravisionWhat new tricks can infravision bring to

a typical AD&D game? Here are somepossibilities:

Given that infravision is not as preciseand focused as normal vision, the chancesfor mistaken identity increase when onlyinfravision is used. An orc at a distancelooks like a human or a hobgoblin; longexperience and closer inspection (at greatrisk) will tell the difference. DMs shouldplay up on this at every opportunity.

As a rule of thumb, a DM could say thataccurate identification of a creature canbe made using infravision only when thetarget being is one-third the distance ofthe spotter�s infravision range. Thus, adwarf can accurately identify a comradeat a range of 20� (one-third of 60�), and aduergar can identify a fellow monster at adistance of 40�.

Can you read by reflected infravision?For the record, we will assume not, unlessthe heat source is very strong and thewriting is only inches from one�s eyes.

Thieves with infravision can learn tohide themselves from other creatures withthe same power. A very powerful, blindingsource of heat or the presence of manyseparate, man-sized sources of heat (like agroup of bodies immediately after a battle)can conceal the thief�s presence quite well.However, simply hiding behind a rock isno help at all, as the thief�s own heat radia-tion will be seen around the rock�s edgesand �painted� over background objects.Wrapping up in a blanket might help atfirst, but the blanket will slowly growwarmer (and brighter). Hiding against acold object will make the warmer thiefstand out as if he were in a spotlight. Ifyou are playing a thief (as a player or DM),imagine that character is a permanent,glowing light source. How can you hide

that light? Magical invisibility might be theonly foolproof recourse�but even thatcan be challenged by creatures with su-perb senses of hearing or smell.

The descriptions of monsters should becarefully examined to determine if anybeing might radiate more or less than the�usual� amount of heat. Considerableleeway is given for the DM here. A dragonturtle, which breathes steam, and a re-morhaz, which is incredibly hot, are likelyto put out enormous amounts of infraredlight. What about a flametongue longsword or a necklace of missiles? Though itis tempting to rule otherwise, magicalitems might not put out any heat at all, nomatter their powers, unless the descrip-tion of them in the DMG says they do.

Everything that a dwarf knows aboutinfravision is likely known by a goblin, andvice versa. Creatures who have no infra-vision are likely to fall for certain traps setby those who can see heat. For instance, agoblin stonework trap that was recentlyused or tested will be visible to a dwarf,who can detect the heat from the frictionof stones sliding across each other. Anambush site will radiate enormous heatfrom the bodies of the gathered am-bushers, tipping off other experienceddark-dwellers. A tank of cold water, setover a thin, wooden ceiling, will made thearea around it very dark. A corridor re-cently hit by a fireball spell will radiatemuch heat (and probably smell burnt aswell). Fresh blood and body wastes willretain high temperatures for a short time.You get the idea. Dwarf-kin and goblin-kinlove battling the ignorant armies of sur-face dwellers who enter their realms, buthate battling each other, since they alreadyknow all the best tricks.

Certain �clean-up crew� monsters, likegelatinous cubes, take on special signifi-cance for infravision-users. A �cube isassumed here to radiate no heat, and itlikely blocks heat transmission as well. Itmight become �visible� to a dwarf or gob-lin because it cuts off the normally expect-ed scenery down a corridor, as if thecorridor ended abruptly in a cold wall.Humans wouldn�t figure it out, but a clev-er dark-dweller would stop, probe, thengo another direction.

Newly discarded items like clothing,armor, and weapons would reveal much toinfravision, like how long they had beenabandoned (depending on how cool theywere) and whether the item had beenused (any warm blood on the blade?). Anewly set underground trap, placed by ahuman who was unaware of his own heateffects, would be avoided with laughableease by a hobgoblin or gnome.

A few new magical spells suggest them-selves for dark-dwellers and wizards. Ifthere can be light and continual light, whynot infrared light and continual infraredlight, at the same levels of ability and withthe same restrictions? A pebble with con-tinual infrared light would make a dandylantern that no human could see, though it22 NOVEMBER 1994

would immediately give away itself and itsuser to any other infravision-using beingwithin range.

A �light bomb� can be created by en-chanting a pebble with continual light,then coating it with mud. Once dried, thepebble can be carried in a pouch, emittingno heat at all, until a group of infravision-using foes is met. The pebble can then bethrown against a wall as the �bomb�-carrier retreats; the burst of light willtemporarily blind the foes and allow forescape. Optionally, an adventurer with theblind-fighting proficiency could close hiseyes, throw the pebble (probably by thebunch), then attack, unaffected by theburst of light.

A pebble enchanted with continualinfrared light could be used as a signallingdevice invisible to normal sight. Placedinside a lantern with a shutter, the peb-ble�s radiance can be blocked or revealedby opening and closing the shutter. Givena form of Morse code, underground crea-tures could signal to each other, silentlyand unseen, if surface dwellers approachthem. (A scary thought: In total darkness,a drow can communicate in Morse codewith another drow 240� away merely byblinking her eyes.)

A pouch full of cold dust would be use-ful for detecting approaching foes. Whenscattered on the ground, the perpetuallylow-temperature cold dust would quicklyreveal the exact location of any beingwalking over it, even if the being werecold-blooded. (The cold dust would bemuch colder than the surrounding envi-ronment, providing great contrast.)

Finally, a game rules variant: sightingranges for different sizes of target crea-tures. This will complicate the game a bit,but I�ve tried to keep the basics simple.

First, find the infravision range of thespotter (30�, 60�, etc.). Next, find the sizecategory of the target (Tiny, Small, Man-sized, Large, etc.). Multiply the infravisionrange by the sighting range modifier, andthat�s how far the target must be before itis normally seen. It�s thus harder to spot arat with infravision than it is to spot anogre, and you can see the ogre comingfrom farther away.

Target�s sizecategoryTinySmallMan-sizedLargeHugeGargantuan

Spotter�s sightingrange modifier1/3normalnormalnormal410

Using this table, a dwarf can see a hillgiant (Huge) coming from 240� away, sincethe giant is so big and puts out so muchheat. A goblin won�t be able to see a rat(Tiny), however, until the rat is 20� away.

Last thoughtsInfravision is not the only special sense

that real-world and fantasy creatures

have. Minotaurs and hell hounds havesuperb senses of smell (as do normal ca-nines), bats use ultrasonic sonar, certainfish sense pressure changes in the water,and electric eels sense nearby electricfields, such as those from other fish. Alittle research and some imagination couldbring these other peculiar senses to lifejust as this article has hopefully done forinfravision. It�s a strange world, and fanta-sy makes it all the stranger (and morefun).

First QuestContinued from page 8

occupies.) The personalitiesfriends have influenced the

of many of mycharacters in

our novels. The concept of an infinitelylarge dungeon with multiple entrancesresurfaced in the Libram X comic strip inthese very pages. And Dave Collins�s spellcreated in my campaign became �Snilloc�sSnowball� in the FORGOTTEN REALMSAdventures Book. Thanks, Dave.

All in all, it�s been a very exciting coupledecades. And it looks like it�s going to geteven more exciting.

About a year ago (as I writeLabor Day weekend), now-VP

thisJim

onWard

brought in afrom a small

new game he had discoveredcompany on the west coast. It

was a collectible card game, where no twodecks were the same. It needed a littledevelopment. The rules were a bit cludgy.We developed a number of house rulingsand interpretations. We all got decks. Ofcourse, it was a lot of fun.

In the year since its initial release, a lotof people have discovered this game, andother deck games, including TSR�sSPELLFIRE� game. And a lot of otherpeople have called the entire �deck gam-ing� genre a phenomenon. A fad. A fash-ion. An upstart. It doesn�t even havecharacter stats; how can it be a real game?

I see deck gaming as the next great revo-lution in our hobby, and were it to all disap-pear tomorrow, it will have profoundlychanged how we look at games. It�s goingthrough its birth pains still, learning manyhard lessons that the D&D game also hadto learn. I see the deck gaming experienceas an evolution of that which we do. If wefail to recognize the power and opportunityof this new idea, we�ll be no better than theboard gamers who laughed at the D&Dgame players all those years ago. Thosehardcore war gamers are still with us, andstill a vibrant part of the hobby, but are notthe dominant force.

Once more the dinosaurs are threatened by the mammals. This is an exciting time.The ground rules are changing. Evolve orperish.

Me, I�m looking to grow feathers.

* indicates a product produced by a company otherthan TSR, Inc.

24 NOVEMBER 1994

In the course of ex-ploring the Underdark,there are many oppor-tunities to discover thenumerous wondersfound there. Far too of-ten, though, PCs missout on the sceneryaround them, only con-cerned with what waitsbeyond the edges oftheir blades. To helpwith this problem,here�s a sampling offungi that your PCs canencounter during theirtravels. They are easyto add to the game,and they can provideadditional adventuringopportunities for char-acters. In the eventyou want to make anencounter table for allthe unusual fungi inyour Underdark cam-paign, encounter fre-quencies have beenincluded.

Add these to yourdungeons and seewhat sproutsTrillimac

Appearance: A cultivated Trillimacmushroom grows to a height of 4-5�, with agrayish-green cap and a light gray stalk.The cap is flat and measures 28� to 42�across, while its fibrous stalk is 5� in diam-eter. In the wild, it rarely grows beyond 3�and has a cap measuring 14� to 33� across,with a 3-1/2� diameter stalk.

Frequency: Rare in civilized regions (Un-common in the wilds). The reason for this issimply that in civilized areas creatures can�tresist using them as a free source of food (asopposed to paying for it in the bazaars) andwill therefore not be found growing any-where near settlements, except on local fun-gus farms. In the wild they can be found inclumps of 3-30, while on the farms there�s aminimum of 20-50 plants.

Trillimacs are sometimes called �CorpseCaps,� a nickname that refers to the factthat the drow, in order to encourage thefungi to grow large, �fertilize� their Trilli-mac fields with the bodies of slaves andenemies unsuitable for use in creating un-dead. Neither the gnomes nor the dwarves(derro excepted) do this, relying insteadupon other waste materials.

Practical use: Trillimac has two uses.One, the cap�s leathery surface can be cutand cleaned for use in making maps, hats,and magical scrolls (its surface takes ondyes and inks very well). Secondly, thestalk, after being cleaned, soaked in waterfor an hour and then placed by a fire todry, makes for a palatable meal (akin tobread, some seem to think). Each linearfoot of its stalk can feed a man for two

by Chris Perry

Artwork by Terry Dykstra

days, and the best part is that unlike breadit�ll stay edible for up to four weeks (veryuseful when the Underdark�s armies are onthe march). Trillimacs grow to maturitywithin three weeks and can be grownyear-round, given the constant humidityand lack of temperature variations in theUnderdark.

It costs 4 gp for one linear foot of Trilli-mac stalk, and a 2� by 2� piece of Trillimaccap sells for 50 gp.

NimerganAppearance: Nimergan look like frayed

umbrellas, barely standing 3� in height. They�rebeige in color, with dark brown bumpsalong the stalk, and they grow in irregularpatches 8�-12� in diameter.

Frequency: Uncommon.Practical use: Nimergan are used in

the making of alcoholic beverages. Whenthey grow to maturity (taking two weeks),they�re sealed in wooden casks and die.The brown �bumps,� which are actually aparasitic type of fungus that feed upon theNimergan itself, consume the Nimerganand form a fermented liquid (also calledNimergan) that can then be drunk. If al-lowed to ferment too long it becomes ex-tremely potent, such that one glassfulrequires the imbiber to save vs. poison orfall into a coma for 1-3 hours. Each addi-tional glassful requires a saving throw witha - 1 penalty, with the coma lasting 1-3hours longer per additional drink. Lastly,there�s a 40% chance (minus the charac-ter�s Constitution score) that instead ofwaking up from the coma the imbiber

actually dies. The duergar, who have someresistance to its effects, often dare non-dwarves to drink tankards of Nimerganwith them, just to test their resolve (and tohave themselves a good laugh, if the out-sider keels over). The price for normalNimergan is 1 ep a glass, 10 gp for the�killer� version (only a 5% chance that anUnderdark establishment carries the�killer� version, 20% chance in Duergarcommunities).

pouch of Ormu eyeshadow for 5 cp, andan ounce of Ormu inscription ink (enoughfor one spell) sells for 25 gp.

AskumeAppearance: Askumes are reddish-orange

lichen that grow on warm cavern walls. Theygrow in patches 1�-3� in diameter.

Frequency: Rare.

OrmuAppearance: Ormu is a fluorescent

green moss that grows in damp tunnelsand steamy caverns, usually near steamvents in the earth. It grows in largeclumps that measure up to 4� x 12�, thoughit usually grows only to 3� x 6�.

Practical use: Askume is crushed andused as a poison. When blown into some-one�s face, it causes an allergic reaction.The victim�s tongue and windpipe swellwithin 1-2 rounds of exposure, causingdeath if a save vs. poison (at - 3) is failed.If the save is made, the victim is merelyincapacitated for 1 turn, and suffers a -2penalty on all Strength and Constitutionrolls for 24 hours.

Practical use: Timmask is useful intwo different ways. One, many creaturesfrom the lower planes love the Timmaskand delight in eating it. Tanar�ri suffer a-3 penalty on saving throws when tryingto resist a wizard or priest�s summons orcommands provided that Timmask is usedas an enticement, - 1 if it used as a materi-al component of the spell. Its second usageis in augmenting necromantic spells. Whenused as a material component, the targetsof such spells suffer a - 1 penalty to theirsaving throws, or a + 1 bonus if the spellis meant to benefit the target. It alsoshould be noted that such spells havedouble the normal duration, unless, ofcourse the normal duration of the spell isinstantaneous or permanent.

Frequency: Common.Practical use: Ormu is utilized for its

dyes, which are used in all forms of fabric,and the powder on its surface is used aseyeshadow by drow women. When mixedwith glow worm juice, it�s painted ontosigns, shields, and flags in glowing designs,ensuring that the owner or bearer is rec-ognized (even by �blind� surface-dwellers).Wizards like to use Ormu when inscribingtheir scrolls and spell books, as such bookscan be read without resorting to the use ofpainful light sources, such as candles andtorches.

Enough Askume poison can be collectedfrom a patch for 2-4 applications worth150 gp each. Since even a short cavernpassage can host a dozen such patches onaverage, each site is protected vigorouslyby those who make a living selling it.

TimmaskAppearance: Timmask is a vile-

smelling, bulbous mushroom with orangeand red flaring stripes across its darkbeige surface. They grow to be 2� in diam-eter and 2� high. They�re usually found innumbers of 1-4.

One Timmask mushroom has enoughmaterial for use as material components in21-30 spells. They�re usually ground topowder and sold in small sealed jars, con-taining enough for 5 uses (150 gp a jar).Whole, intact Timmask mushrooms (whichare preferred by the tanar�ri) can bebought, but only for 5,000 to 8,000 gp.Consequently, many priests and wizardsgo looking on their own for Timmask andattempt to cultivate it for themselves,rather than pay the steep prices the mer-chants charge. The prices listed above arefor Timmask sold in the Underdark, twicethat if sold on the surface.

A jar of Ormu paint sells for 6 sp, a Frequency: Very rare.

26 NOVEMBER 1994 ™ and ® indicates trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. Art © 1993 TSR, Inc. All rights reserved

�I Sing a Song by theDeep-Water Bay�

The Harpers & Waterdeepby Steven E. Schend

The early dawn notwithstanding, theBlackstaff�s exhaustion kept him abedquite later than his usual wont. It had onlybeen the smell of warm rolls that wokeKhelben that morning. A refreshingchange, to be sure. His last few weeks hadbeen a never-ending series of plots-within-plots that left him little time or energy forlife�s simple pleasures. He dressed swiftly,a rare smile sneaking beneath his distinc-tive beard as he heard his lady�s voiceraised in song in the rooms below. De-scending the stairs, he paused only toconjure a rose of deepest scarlet behindhis back. �Khelben �Blackstaff� Arunsun,High Mage of Waterdeep I may be, butnone can gainsay me in the affairs ofromance,� he thought to himself as hecrept quietly behind a high-backed chairin the sitting room. With a sparkle of light,the rose wafted from his palm, spirallingas it sank onto the pile of parchments onthe lap of the woman seated in the chairbefore him. �Good morning, my love. Howfares the Lady Mage of Waterdeep on thisbright day?�

The woman, not yet looking up from hermissives, grasped the rose and brought itcloser, sniffing its fragrance while idlybrushing a stray strand of silver hair awayfrom her face. �Passing fair, milord, pass-ing fair. Our allies, on other matters, havegkpf�

�You shouldst know full well that theBlackstaff is even less a romantic than Iam an early riser, chronicler. Still, �twouldbe an interesting morning, all said, if mydear Khelben were to have such inclina-tions with the dawn.� The silken voicestartled me, having come from behind mewhile I typed.

I really hate it when people sneak up onme late at night when I�m working. Really.Even if the intruder�the beautiful LaeralSilverhand Arunsun, Lady Mage of Water-deep, Chosen of Mystra, and one of theillustrious Seven Sisters�has teleportedacross worlds to visit. No, better make thatespecially. �What is it about Faerunianmages that compel you all to do theirhumble best to unnerve us at every turn?�I asked.

�We like to engender as much mischiefas you and yours do with your words,

such as that bit of fiction you were pen-ning just now.� Smiling, Laeral waved ahand at an itinerant pile of papers on theextra chair in my office (from which theypromptly floated away), and sat down.

Despite my initial surprise (and irrita-tion), it is always a good idea to remaincordial to those who can turn you intodust with an idle gesture. Besides, Laeral�spresence meant news and information ofthe Realms, which I dutifully send off toDRAGON® Magazine�s readership. As Iexpectantly cleared a file on my computer,I asked, �And to what do I owe the plea-sure of your visit, my lady? More news ofthe North and Waterdeep?�

Laeral sighed, �Direct and to the point�Ilike that, as does Khelben. You shouldsttake the time to meet him sometime soon,methinks. You may just make a favorableimpression, though he thought too muchwas said of Waterdeep�s secrets in yourCity of Splendors; as always, I believe hisreaction was �Too many eyes set too manyloose tongues to wagging.� He is a dear, buthe is far too close-fisted with his confi-dences. Today, I thought we might discussthose natives and friends of Waterdeepwho are just as careful with secrets buthold an open hand to their friends andallies�the Harpers.�

Harper activities withinWaterdeep

Despite the hearsay and gossip thatusually accompanies the reputation of asecretive group, the Harpers do not active-ly operate everywhere in the Realms atevery given moment. This is not for thelack of desire or help on the Harpers� part,but based on need. Waterdeep is one ofthe largest cities of the Realms where theHarpers need not take an active part inkeeping the peace, thanks to the vigilanceof the Lords and their agents in the citywatch, city guard, and other variousforces for good and order in the City ofSplendors.

Does this mean there are no Harpers inWaterdeep? Of course not; at any giventime, there are at least seven Harpers(including two Master Harpers) in Water-deep actively working for the group. Forevery Harper, there are at least a score ortwo individual contacts, Harper friends,

and secret allies who count themselves tobe on the side of Those Who Harp. Alltold, there is most likely a clandestinenetwork of over 100 individuals within thewalls of Waterdeep aiding the Harpercause, though there are very few whoknow more than one or two other individ-uals within that network. The secrecywith which the Harpers hold their con-tacts and informants is rivalled only by thesecrecy of the Lords of Waterdeep them-selves. With this vast network of people,what do those affiliated with the Harpers�cause do in the City of Splendors?

Knowledge is power�Information and knowledge gained is

half the battle won against any foe,� is atypical Harper maxim, and they live to itsmessage everywhere they go. In Water-deep, information and news from acrossthe Savage Frontier, the Sword Coast, andthe entire Realms eventually reaches thenotice of a Harper or her agent. SinceWaterdeep is one of the major ports of thenorthern Sword Coast (as well as the seatof power for Master Harpers Khelben�Blackstaff� Arunsun and his lady, LaeralSilverhand), it has become a center forinformation trading and a meeting placefor many of the widely scattered Harperagents. After all, it is difficult to trackdown a single person in the maddingthrong that populates Waterdeep, makingthe city a safe place for many Harpers totemporarily relax and join a comrade ortwo for a momentary respite from theirvigilant work.

The Harper agents who are officially setup in Waterdeep have little direct trafficwith each other to avoid any connectionsbeing made between them by their ene-mies. Agents and allies are approached byone or two different contacts at pre-arranged locations (usually a shop ortavern) and verbally pass on informationabout such matters as who is shippingwhat to whom, any suspicious rumorsoverheard, and the like. These intermedi-aries then meet up with their respectiveaccomplices and pass on the informationin a similar fashion, adding any furtherdetails that they might know. This meth-od, while having the potential to have factschange with each telling, is highly accu-

DRAGON 29

rate and precise, as each contact often hasthe means to double-check on facts beforerelaying them to their informant. Finally,after having gone through at least threeagents (One Harper�s contact network goesthrough twelve people before reachingher!), the word reaches a Harper or adirect Harper agent.

Once the information is in the hands of aHarper, it often demonstrates a pictureother than what is seen by the individualswho contribute to the intelligence gather-ing. Keep in mind that few of the contactshave an inkling of who they are workingfor, other than a general assurance thatthey work toward the common good, andthus few of them see or understand thewhole plots behind whatever piece of itstumbled across their paths; only Harpersand some direct agents close at hand haveall the information cobbled together froma wide variety of sources and can seewhole conspiracies where fifteen otherpeople only heard rumors, saw somethingsuspicious, or got information thirdhandabout someone. At that point, the Harpereither takes steps to handle a situationherself or assigns a number of her agentsto the task of interrupting a particularplot; often in Waterdeep, though, a simpleanonymous tip to the local watchpost or aguard contingent is enough to bring theminto play and break the back of many aninsidious scheme, most times without eveninforming the constabulary of the wholetruth.

One plot recently uncovered was a moveby a powerful mining clan in Mirabar todrive a number of smiths in Waterdeepout of business so they could be replacedby their own smiths to act as deep-covercontacts and covert agents for the Zhenti-lar. This was pieced together by the Harp-er Bensyl Iyrivvin, who also works as acourtesan at the Blushing Mermaid. A fewpointed words to Hawkun Orsund, guild-master of the blacksmiths� guild, (Shementioned that honest guild memberswere being pressed by politically powerfulsmiths and that she worried their poorwork might reflect badly on the guild ingeneral.) and Lorkas Ermaxis, a worshiperof Tyr (Taking him into her confidence,she innocently asked where a coin wasfrom, showing him a coin minted in Zhen-til Keep, and admitting that she got it andmore like it from certain smiths new tothe city.) saw the Zhent agents deniedguild membership and fleeing from thecity once the clergy of Tyr found themout. A Zhentarim aphorism overheardoften is �Strike quickly and without mercy when you fight a Harper; they need notland many blows to fell you as they choosetheir strikes well.�

Once the information reaches the Harp-er or Harpers involved and the situation iswell in hand, those Harpers write reports,often in code or with messages magicallyencrypted into the sealing wax, to the oneperson who keeps tabs on all Harper activ-ities within the city and the Savage

30 NOVEMBER 1994

Frontier�Laeral Silverhand. Laeral, withKhelben�s and others� aid, has established anumber of drop-points throughout the citywhere information can be left and it willbe picked up manually by a trusted ser-vant. Some of the drop-points are magicaland can teleport any messages or smallitems directly to Blackstaff Tower; thesewill not teleport anything larger than adagger or heavier than a pound or two.The various drop-points throughout thecity are known only by true Harpers, nottheir agents. Of the series of mundane andmagical drop-points throughout the city(Laeral hints that there are over 30 in all,used at varying times), these are the oncemost used:

* A rooftop minaret on the Palace ofWaterdeep conceals a drop-point, and iseasily reached from one of the gabledwindows near the base of one of the Pal-ace�s many towers.

* There is a loose flagstone at the south-eastern corner of the Thomm Warehouseon Sambril Lane (D49 in Dock Ward byCity of Splendors reckoning; Bldg. #233 byold FR1 reckoning) where it meets acheese shop to its south. When lifted up,the flagstone is found to be lighter thanexpected, and a hollow is found beneath it;items placed there are teleported away toBlackstaff Tower as soon as the stone fallsback into place.

* The Coin Alley dock (second from thewest and inside the Naval Harbor) has apiling (3rd eastern one, half way out onthe dock) with a hollow cavity for deposit-ing messages. A number of Harper friendswithin the Dock Ward guard contingentsmake sure these messages are retrievedthree times a day and delivered to a partic-ular room off the Lord�s Court where theyare left on a desk; once placed there, itemscannot be touched or removed by anyonewithout a Harper�s pin and a Lord�s ring(either Danilo Thann or Khelben retrievethese).

* One of the beds in an upper room atthe Smiling Siren festhall in Castle Ward(C10/#31) has a box built into the bedfra-me that is accessible only through theheadboard. The woman whose room it isdoes not know of the information dropthere; she only knows that once a weeksomeone else (whose name she doesn�tknow or ask) rents the room for an after-noon. That agent then retrieves anythingleft in that box, transcribes any notes intocoded runes known only to the Harpersand Heralds, and destroys the originalnotes.

* There is a gutter along the roof edgeof the Wyvern�s Rest tavern in Sea Ward($2) leading down a drainpipe to a cellarcistern. Any sealed scroll tubes, waxclothbundles, or other waterproofed items canbe hidden inside the drainpipe just belowthe roofs edge; a sturdy but small bit ofnet is inside the drain to catch anydropped items, and it can be pulled upeasily to retrieve any items left there.

* Atop the south wall surrounding Lord

Maernos� estate (N16/#115) are a row ofcarved lions� head, all roaring with mouthsagape and facing Sidle Street. The centrallion�s mouth contains a magical drop-point.When small items are placed within thelion�s mouth and its right eye is touched,they teleport into a sealed desk in ErusylEraneth�s rooms in the Deepfires Inn ofSkullport, the subterranean hideaway ofone of Laeral�s aliases.

That all said, the Harpers tend to focuson the larger picture of activity surround-ing Waterdeep and how the various ene-mies of the Harpers� and enemies of thecommon good interact with Waterdeep.They keep their ears open for any infor-mation or news tied to known agents ofevery and any major power group fromthe Knights of the Shield to the Red Wiz-ards and the Zhentarim. Harpers also keeptabs on fledgling and veteran adventuringcompanies, as such groups of hardy (orsimply foolhardy) adventurers often inad-vertently uncover major doings of one vilegroup or another.

Harpers also keep a watchful eye on thenorthern frontiers, making sure that ifand when the orc hordes tumble out ofthe northern mountains, the civilizedlands to the south are protected. They andtheir agents patrol the High Road and theother trails to Luskan, Mirabar, Silvery-moon, and other settlements, protectingmany merchant caravans and the like. Ingeneral, the Harpers continue their goodworks as they do all around the Realms,and they all use Waterdeep as a restingplace, an information gathering and re-trieval point, and the best spot west ofSuzail to link up with many ports andplots.

Harpers� HoldThough there are a number of wilder-

ness areas close to Waterdeep that serveas refuges for the Harpers (in the ArdeepForest and the Westwood), Harpers� Holdis by far more secure, more useful, andmuch more secretive. True Harpers nativeto the North learn of its existence withtheir membership, though a few Harpersacross the Realms know of it as well. Con-trary to the others, Harpers� Hold is almosttotally inaccessible unless one is with aHarper; this refuge is hidden high inMount Waterdeep, and was once part ofthe legendary Citadel of the Bloody Hand,the former headquarters of the ShadowThieves. While extremely dangerous, theHold can be reached without the use ofmagic by finding a small cavern entranceon the western face of Mount Waterdeepabout 30� above the ocean. (A secret doorin New Olamn�s southern wall leads downto a cave and path that can lead to it,though it is still a very precarious walkalong the surf-slick stone.) Bear in mindthat ancient (though still deadly) traps andwards guard this passageway as it leadsthrough the heart of the old Citadel of theBloody Hand and to a trap door treatedwith wizard lock, alarm, and a number of

glyphs, all of which can be bypassed bysinging a particular tune. (Laeral refusedto divulge the tune�s name, but hinted thatit was allegedly one of Khelben�s favoriteswhen he was young�this makes the songanywhere from 35 to 600 years old!) Someof the traps in the Long Climb (as it wastitled by Coune Suerk) include areas ofreverse gravity, undead ropers, pressure-sensitive and light-sensitive murder gant-lets (walls firing arrows, darts, andspears), and a number of dangerous pittraps (the worst of which is a miles-longsteep slide that deposits the unfortunatepersons into the fourth �sewers� level ofUndermountain!).

Harpers� Hold is an isolated series ofapproximately 15 rooms somewhere with-in the slopes of Mount Waterdeep; thereare no direct accessways to the outside, asall the main entrances to the Citadel arestrictly controlled by Waterdeep�s guard,and they haven�t a clue that this set ofrooms exists. Some postulate that thesewere once the private rooms of theShadow Thieve�s guildmaster and his staff,but that was some time ago, and all thatremains is evidence of the Harpers� gooddeeds.

Each of the rooms, with the exceptionsof the bedchambers, are lit with continuallight spells; if the person in the roomwishes to brighten or dim the light, shesimply needs to state such and the lightwill respond accordingly. The bedcham-bers normally are unlit; with a simpleverbal request, they can be faintly lit withfaerie fire.

Like all Harper refuges, any healingspells cast operate at maximum efficiency,natural healing occurs at double the nor-mal rate, and any mental compulsions orcharms are rendered inoperative by theHold.

The entry room is a small 10� squareroom devoid of any decoration, on the offchance that someone stumbles across oneof the few teleport areas that blink theuser directly into this room (see below formore information). The entry has onedoor on each of its walls, and the doorsare all magically enspelled to act as wizardlocked to anyone unless they bear a Harp-er�s pin. The doors themselves are nonde-script, and do not even have doorknobs;they open with a simple push, providedthat person has a Harper�s pin, otherwisethey are as unyielding as the stone wallsaround them.

The western door leads simply to anexiting teleport chamber (a Harper�s sealset in mosaics in the floor, the stars withinthe seal faintly glowing with azure radi-ance), and from the room beyond it(reachable through an arch on that room�ssouthern wall) one can manipulate themagical mechanisms to send someone toany one of three locations within Water-deep and four more dotted across theRealms.

The northern door off the entry room isthe central meeting room for any Harpers

32 NOVEMBER 1994

should they have need of a large assemblyarea totally removed from others� eyes.The room�s walls are draped with bannersbearing the Harpers� seal, and the room isdominated by a large round table of pol-ished duskwood. The table and its 10 high-back chairs (of the same wood and style asthe table) are enchanted to resist dust, andthus remain shining and new despite theirage. In the 40-odd years the Hold has beenin existence, this room has been used onlytwice for such a gathering. One use theroom does have more frequently is as aninformation storehouse; two entire walls(west and north) are covered with shelvesfilled to brimming with logbooks, scrolls,parchments, and maps; by tradition, anynew information (data less than one yearold) is left on one particular shelf at thecenter of the northern wall, the contentswrapped in blue ribbon or bound in somesimple form. Each Harper, when visiting,often makes this room her first stop, col-lecting any new notes or reports from thatshelf and taking it to a sitting room.

The eastern door leads to another cen-tral room with doors on all facing walls;each of these leads to individual sittingrooms with adjoining bedchambers, eachcomplete with fireplaces (smoke is magi-cally dissipated at the top of their shallowchimneys), desks, writing implements,comfortable chairs, etc. These three suitesare used at various times to hide impor-tant personages, allow some badly wound-ed Harpers a chance to heal, or simplyprovide a quiet place for study for someaway from the rigors of the road.

The southern door directly behind any-one who teleports into the Hold leads to alarge kitchen. A pantry is reachablethrough the kitchen�s western wall, with asmall anteroom beyond that permanentlyenspelled with some particular cold mag-ics, allowing frozen storage of many typesof food. Off the southern wall of thekitchen is an elegantly furnished diningroom, its long rectangular cherry tableenspelled as the meeting room furnish-ings. Just about every herb, spice, or cook-ing garnish that exists in the Realms canbe found in the Hold�s kitchen and onehigh shelf contains a number of cookbookswith recipes from across the Realms (andOerth, Krynn, and the Rock of Bral), in-cluding the ever-rare and treasured Cook-book of Nemalas, a long-fabled ancient texton exotic Netherese dishes (a singular giftfrom Elminster to the Harpers).

Unknown to all but Khelben, Elminster,and the Seven Sisters, there is one cham-ber above the Hold, and it is reachableonly by Mystra�s Chosen. A secret door inthe ceiling of the central entry room al-lows the Chosen to pass through it as ifimmaterial into a sumptuously furnishedcavern above. Lit by continual light, itcontains the same amenities as the sittingrooms below. However, this is a sickroomfor Storm Silverhand and her sisters.Certain contingencies the Sisters have onthemselves automatically teleport them

here when severely wounded or �killed�; ifanyone arrives in this room and is wound-ed, warnings sound at Elminster�s tower inShadowdale, Blackstaff Tower in Water-deep, Alustriel�s chambers in Silverymoon,and Twilight Hall.

Teleports: The Harpers� Hold can bereached through a number of teleportsacross Waterdeep and (though very rare)the Realms itself. Below are the number ofplaces that reach or can be reached fromthe Harpers� Hold of Waterdeep.

To the Hold: Elminster�s Tower, TwilightHall, a small cavern on an island in the Seaof Fallen Stars (uncharted by all save theHarpers), a hollow tree at the center of afaerie glen in the Ardeep Forest, an iso-lated cavern along the underground riverin Undermountain (the northeastern quad-rant of Level 3), and five teleports fromsecret rooms within Harper-owned safe-houses in Waterdeep proper (a bakery onthe Street of Lances and Seawind Alley(Sea Ward), one of the rowhouses facingDelzorin Street and backing onto TrollskullAlley (North Ward), a silversmith�s shopand home on Lamp Street and Elsambul�sLane (Castle Ward), a mortuary on Iron-post Street and Wall Way (Trades Ward),and The Medusa�s Glare, a sculptor�s shopon the southern end of Slop Street nearthe Jade Dancer (S15/#208; South Ward).

From the Hold: A little-traveled pathalong the southern edge of the High Forestalong the Unicorn Run, a Harpers� safe-house in Llorbauth along the Deepwash, arowhouse in the heart of Suzail,Moongleam Tower, and the WatchfulWheels, Wagons & Gear shop in Tantras(owned and operated by Harper LightalBarnshyn); in Waterdeep, exit points are ata warehouse on Coin Alley (Dock Ward), acaravan outfitter�s shop on Fillet Lane nearSlop Street, and a harp-maker�s shop onthe eastern side of Golden Serpent Street(Millomyr Harps, owned by HarperJhandess Millomyr, who is also a itineranttutor at the New Olamn bards� college).

Selected Harper NPCsTioch (LN hm F3)

Tioch is a valued Harper ally of longyears despite the fact that he appears aslittle more than a blind beggar. Earlier inlife, Tioch was a warrior of some promiseand he was a rising star among the Water-deep guard; his career ended in a battlewith a Zhentish wizard 40 years ago. (Hemanaged to unknowingly save the life ofBran Skorlsun and another Harper froman ambush, but the wizard cast burninghands directly into Tioch�s eyes while heprotected the mage�s targets.) While hecould have had his eyesight restored,Tioch refused, accepting this fate, andchose to work with the Harpers as aninformation collector on the streets; fewnotice a blind beggar sitting on a stoopwaiting for coins, and thus Tioch over-hears many rumors that the Harpers payhim well to gain. About 10 years ago,Tioch was offered a wish if he wanted his

eyesight restored; having accepted andgrown accustomed to his blindness, hechose a particular form of sight: He cansee normally under the light of the fullmoon, and he can always see the sign ofthe Harpers if someone bearing a pin iswithin 100� of him.

The Defenders ThreeAmstor �the Grim� (LG halfm C6;Wis 16)Pithar �the Bold� (CG halfm F4; Str 17,Cha 16)Asohs �the Daring� (CG halfm T5;Dex 18, Int 15)

These three daredevil halflings are Harp-er allies, while not for lack of trying to jointhe ranks officially. Natives of Waterdeepand all brothers to the same halfling clan,they spent their early years working in thefamily vintner�s shop and whitesmith�sshop (light metalwork) in South Ward.

Amstor, the eldest of the three, soon leftto join an adventuring party to learn ofthe world (and follow the halfling womanhe had fallen in love with at first sight).Within a year, he had returned as a jour-neyman cleric, but his former good naturehad soured due to his love�s betrayal ofhim and his other comrades to an evilwizard. Since his return to the city, he hasworked with other clerics at the Plinth aswell as training young clerics and priests(particularly those short in stature) in hispeculiar form of defensive fighting with astaff or rod. He often draws a crowd atthe Field of Triumph when he shows hispupils advanced tactics, such as swingingthe staff long to clear some space in frontof enemies and vaulting into them, usingyour own weight to topple them (andAmstor�s weight is considerable, havinggrown in girth since returning to the city).

Pithar was a strong halfling from thestart, and he ended up acting as an im-promptu bouncer at some local taverns.For a brief two-year stint, he was also amember of the watch, though he left indisgust after enduring much patronizingbehavior from his superiors in TradesWard. Still, with his commissions and afew small adventures (including a success-ful foray into the Dungeon of the Cryptafter a fleeing suspect that granted him anumber of precious gems and a ring ofprotection +3), he managed to have threespecial swords made (two for him and onefor his younger brother Asohs, crafted byBrian the Swordmaster); these swordswere sized like short swords, but werecrafted to be wielded more like longswords (long, slashing blows instead oflimiting the blade to more typical shortsword stabs). Within a year, Pithar hadmanaged to master his new swords, andhe wields one in each hand; more thanone opponent has been surprised byPithar�s ability to block even broad swordsand two-handed human swords with hissmall, thin blades.

Asohs, the youngest of the trio, alwayshad a rebellious streak and a hot temper

34 NOVEMBER 1994

that led him into more than enough trou-ble. Running away from home early, hebecame a rogue and was employed as aspy and saboteur by a number of less-than-scrupulous merchants and traders.After a number of arrests and bails postedby his older brothers, Asohs finally cameclean and swore off such work (but notuntil he exposed two major smugglingrings operating out of Dock Ward).

For the past two years, the trio hasbanded together and gained the name(through tavern talk, not by choice) of theDefenders Three, as they have worked asguards for Lord Ultas Maernos. Amstorwas the first to meet and be impressed bythis pious human; overhearing his enemiesbadmouthing both his piety and his wishto provide his lands and fortunes to createa nonhuman site of worship, Amstor re-cruited his brothers and offered theirservices to the lord as his guards anddefenders. While Lord Maernos was ini-tially skeptical, he was swayed by Amstor�sreverence and his brothers� boldness.During their trial period, the trio saved hislife from an assassin, and managed to foila number of plots brewed by, amongothers of the nobility, Lord NimorLathkule and Lady Stelar Nesher of theThorp clan. While many among the noblesgiggle about Lord Maernos� short champi-ons, none can argue that they are any lesseffective than human guards, and they arecertainly more loyal about their dutiesthan many others. Indeed, many youngernobles enjoy the Defenders Three�s compa-ny, though their parents and elders sniff atthe idea of halflings acclimating them-selves within noble society�to their hor-ror, Lord Maernos actually treats thehalflings as honored, trusted friends,rather than just servants!

The Defenders Three have done someminor work for the Harpers wheneverLord Maernos, another long-standing allyand friend, sends them on missions out-side the city. They often ferry messagesand information to a number of Harpersin Mirabar, Luskan, and Baldur�s Gate,though only Asohs understands who andwhat these packages and missives are for(he deduced it himself, and surprised thelord with his insight; Asohs has not sharedthis with his brothers, as he and LordMaernos agreed to keep their involvementas quiet as possible).

Plots & current clackA number of Waterdhavian ship captains

and traders who frequently travel theCalimport to Waterdeep sealanes are beingmurdered; five have been killed withinWaterdeep�s walls, and others have beenmurdered by various and sundry methodsin Baldur�s Gate and other ports on theSword Coast. Along with this, a largernumber of ships and traders from Calim-shan are making the trek north, and theHarpers suspect the two sets of activitiesare related. Laeral and Jhandess Millomyrare arranging for agents to infiltrate some

of the Calishite ships and the companies ofthe murdered traders to seek out moreinformation.

Laeral has discovered that the Crown ofHorns is active once again, having spottedit from afar on a yuan-ti unknown to herin Skullport; due to her vow to Khelbenthat she would never again touch or in-volve herself with the Crown, she hasassigned her trusted partner and Harperally Kylia (CG gf W(Sp) 12-Illusionist) tokeep watch over his activities and find outwhat the Crown is now able to do.

Coril�s book of notes and information forthe Harpers has been stolen! He and Sha-lar Simgulphin are putting word out to allthe Harpers in general that a number ofrecent plots may be compromised due tothis, and are warning everyone to stay ontheir toes. Coril�s assailants who stole thebook were unidentified and are still un-known currently.

Some isolated reports mention a largerthan normal number of kobold, gnoll, andgoblin war tribes actively wandering thelands north and west of Luskan and Mira-bar. Curiously, some are even allied; anumber of agents are looking for informa-tion on what or who is behind these alli-ances and these unexpected growths inforces.

Agents are starting to hear of less-than-goodly activities of the many hundreds ofconverted Tyr-worshipers that are cen-tered in Waterdeep. There is talk, but nocurrent action, of sending someone on theinside to investigate the activities of theoverzealous Tyrite warriors.

Having a convention?If you’re having a gaming convention,why not tell the world about it? Checkour address in this issue’s “ConventionCalendar” and send your announce-ment to us—free of charge!

Editor�s Note: Welcome back to the Eyeof the Monitor! Two new columnists jointhe ranks of DRAGON® Magazine review-ers with this column. Jay and Dee are thepseudonyms of two people who work inthe computer-gaming field. Dee is adesigner/producer for a major softwareentertainment company; Jay has workedwith several hobby game companies, andis currently a free-lance writer and editorfor, among others, TSR, Inc.

Reviews

Jay & Dee�s ratings at a glanceGame Jay DeeCivilization 5 5Heaven & Earth 4 3½Reach for the Stars - 3½Bandit Kings ofAncient China 3½ 3½Jewel Box - 3½Pipe Dream - 2½/4½Aladdin 5 5

Dee: Greetings, and welcome to ourfirst computer-game review column. We�llbe with you every other month for awhile,and we thought that for this Novemberissue, we�d give you a quick overview ofour favorite games of years past�to helpyou fill out your Christmas shopping list.

Jay: Why a greatest hits column? AsDee suggests, perhaps you�ve got a com-puter user or three on your list, and wanta few tips. Equally important, you�ll get agrasp on what we�re like by seeing whatwe choose to call great. A reviewer wholikes what you do is great, but one whodislikes all your favorite stuff can be valu-able, too��She hated it, so it must begood!� We�ll cover a number of games thismonth, and we hope you�re familiar withat least a few of them.

Computer games� ratings

X***************

Not recommendedPoorFair

GoodExcellent

Superb

© 1994 by Jay & Dee

Dee: I�ll start with one of my all timefavorites, Civilization from MicroProseSoftware. In case you�ve never played it, Irecommend rushing right out and findingyourself a copy. It has to be one of the bestcomputer games ever invented�and with-out fancy graphics or 20 disks full of digi-tized sound effects, either. Civilization iswhat the industry calls a �god game� be-cause you play the role of the leader of anentire culture (you�re called the Emperor,but whoever heard of an Emperor living4,000 years?). Without going into a lot ofdetail, I can tell you that this is one ofthose games you won�t be able to stopplaying: there�s always something impor-tant just about to happen, so you just haveto stay up �a few more minutes, Mom,�until it does. Add in intricately connected(but simple to grasp) commodities such astechnology, military power, and economicgrowth, and you have a game where everydecision you make feels important, but nosingle wrong decision can lose you thegame.

Dee�s rating: * * * * *

Jay: Civilization is one of my favoritegames, too, but it�s a different game forme. You see, Dee plays Civilization to con-quer the world, whereas I�m much moreinterested in economic strategies. The coolthing about this game is that you�re notlimited to only one way to win�all sorts ofapproaches work. Sometimes I send diplo-mats to my rival cities and buy them,sometimes I sneak in and encourage revo-lutions. I�ve played games where I justwanted to explore the world completely,

and others where I was racing to developspace flight before 1500 (it can be done!).Even more telling: I�ve been playing Civili-zation since it first came out in 1991. Notmany games last that long on my harddrive.

Jay�s rating: * * * * *

Okay, my turn to pick one. I�m recom-mending Heaven & Earth by Buena VistaSoftware. This isn�t only a game: as thedesigners inform you in the introduction,it�s an integrated triad of toy, puzzle, andgame all based on a single fantasy legend.You may have been bitten by the collect-ible card game bug that has so many folksspending their lunch money on plastic-coated paper. If so, you need to play withthe animated cards in Heaven & Earth.The moons rise and change phase, starsstreak across the sky�and the cardschange value when the phenomenachange! The game is as fun as the art isgorgeous�you try to score tricks of thehighest value, working against a randomdraw. When your head starts to explodefrom too many calculations, you can goback to the Gateway between the threeparts, and choose puzzles to manipulate.There are a dozen options, from slidersand mazes to 3-D illusions that I havehappily noodled away hours manipulating.Finally, try your hand at picking off gemswith a swinging pendulum (the �toy� in thetrio). Frankly, the pendulum is my leastfavorite section, but maybe that�s becausemy hand-eye coordination isn�t up to ar-cade standards.

Jay�s rating: * * * *

DRAGON 39

Dee: I like Heaven & Earth too, thoughI�m less patient with the puzzles. The�solitaire� card game is actually somethingJay and I play together, working to makethe highest-value tricks, and switching offon who gets the keyboard and who themouse. It�s fun (we play Civilization aspartners, too).

Dee�s rating: * * * ½

My next pick is a game I played on theMacintosh years ago. It�s still available, Ithink, but it hasn�t been updated with anew version for a long time. It�s calledReach for the Stars and it�s another godgame, this time with a science-fictiontheme. You start with one planet and sendcolonists to nearby worlds, while buildingincreasingly powerful starships and bases.The graphics are almost nonexistent, andthe gameplay is a little dated (Master ofOrion from MicroProse is essentially thesame game, only more so), but the simplic-ity and speed of it bring me back to playit time and again.

Dee�s rating: * * * ½

Jay: Usually I�m not too interested inbeating the tar out of opponents, so I likegod games where the violence is mini-mized or avoidable. Koei�s Bandit Kings ofAncient China includes a lot of fighting�but interspersed with the battles are train-

ing, hiring heroes, and dealing withmarauding tigers. The game�s black-and-white only, but the heroes� nicknames areplenty colorful. There�s lots of fun to behad recruiting bandit-heroes to join you inyour fight against the corrupt Gao Qiu,and the board-game like battles are excit-ing in an abstract way (no Doom gorehere!). This can be a fairly involved game(the rules are simple but the choices aremany), and perhaps a bit more tediousthan Civilization. The Chinese �RobinHood� atmosphere makes it a standout forme. This is another one that Dee and Iplay together.

Jay�s rating: * * * ½

Dee: I agree�I love the mythos of an-cient China, and Koei definitely delivers. Idon�t know that the game has the replayvalue of Civilization, but we sure rackedup hours while trying to figure out how towin! And we loved every minute of it.

Dee�s rating: * * * ½

I�m the Mac aficionado of the household,so my next recommendation is anotherMac game, though I�m certain there�s anIBM version as well. It�s called Jewel Box(by Varcon Systems) and it comes as partof a three-game package of arcade chal-lenges. It�s so good that I have yet to tire ofit, and still haven�t looked at the other twogames that came with the package. Game-

40 NOVEMBER 1994

play is vaguely similar to that of Tetrisfrom Spectrum Holobyte, in that coloredgems fall from the top of the screen andyou must manipulate them to form pat-terns that erase themselves. When theplaying area fills up with gems, the roundis over. But Jewel Box is not just a clone�ithas intriguing rules all its own, includingspecial gems that cause amazing things tohappen, and beautiful sound and graphics.

Dee�s rating: * * * ½

While I�m talking about arcade-stylegames, I might as well mention PipeDream from LucasArts. I�ve played boththe Mac and Windows versions, and I�mashamed to admit that the Windows ver-sion is vastly superior. The mouse inter-face is better used, and the bonus roundsare much more fun on the Windows ver-sion. I highly recommend Pipe Dream asan arcade challenge that involves lots offast thinking and rewards cleverness. Bewarned: if you get good, it can take a longtime to play a game.

Dee�s ratings: Mac: * * ½;Windows: * * * * ½

Jay: If you like arcade-style games witha clever twist, you probably already havea copy of Aladdin for the Sega Genesis. Ifyou don�t, get one. The graphics are great,the movement surprisingly lifelike; themusic�straight from the movie�is addic-tively catchy, and there are great littledetails like throwing apples at the palaceguards to make them drop their drawers.Even with my less-than-lightning reflexes,I still got plenty of mileage putting Aladdinand Abu (in the bonus rounds) throughtheir paces. Question for the designers:where�s darling Princess Jasmine?

Jay�s rating: * * * * *

Dee: I also loved Aladdin, though I gotstymied on the second-to-last round. It�sstill a blast just to play the earlier roundsand try to rack up the biggest possiblescore.

Dee�s rating: * * * * *

Jay: To finish up our picks, here aresome other games that have been favoritesdown through the years: Strategic Con-quest from Delta Tao (pretty much thesame game as Empire from New World), awar game with lots of little tanks, shipsand airplanes; Command HQ from Micro-Prose, a similar game that runs in realtime (both these games can be played overa modem against a live opponent);Dungeon of Doom and Rogue, great littledungeon-crawl games with lots of mon-sters, potions and magic (these gamesinspired Dungeon Hack from SSI, which isstill pretty hot on the charts); and ofcourse, no list of picks would be completewithout Doom from id Software, the hot-test game on the market today (reviewedin DRAGON issue #203). Sandy talkedabout violence in computer games inDRAGON issue #207, so I won�t rehash the

issue. Think of it as Roadrunner and Coy-ote in 3-D if it helps. The guys at workfind network Doom as good as paintballwars for settling their aggressions. Lookfor Doom II at a game store near you!

Dee: Now for some nix, games that havegotten good press but for one reason oranother didn�t impress us. This is not tosay they are bad games, but be fore-warned: there are things about themcertain players might not like. The first ofthese is Sim Ant from Maxis. I was veryeager to play this game�I loved watchingants and ant farms when I was a kid, and Iwas fascinated by ant culture andsociety�but was quickly disappointed. Youcan run only a little bit of your colony at atime, so the computer has most of the funin the game�and does far better than youdo at expanding. There are some nicetouches, but much of the game is repeti-tious, and a lot of effort was put into mak-ing �tools� you can use to �customize� yourant hill and amuse yourself�i.e., the game-play is lacking.

Dee�s rating: X

Jay: I know I�m a bad reviewer when Isay that as a class, I don�t much like gameswhere you pick stuff up and put it in yourbackpack, only to discover that you havetoo much stuff in your backpack, so youtake some stuff out, and then fifteen twists

down the corridor discover you need itagain, and have to go back, take out some-thing else, and pick up the necessarything. This is dungeon-crawling, the folkswho adore it argue in defense. This isstrategy, and puzzle-solving (why would Ipossibly need this thing?!), and limited-resource management�and I just don�tlike it. So I was disappointed when King�sQuest VI had so much of the same oldthing. I also was a little annoyed at the�you took a wrong turn two hours ago, soyou�ll have to restart your game� mentali-ty, and the one-pixel-sized treasures youjust had to have. Sigh.

Dee: I also did not enjoy Privateer fromOrigins Systems. The flight-sim aspectswere exciting, but the back story was notas interesting as in Wing Commander, andthe game quickly got too hard for me: itpretends to offer the options of going �allcombat� or �all merchant,� but choosingmerchant is a quick way to suicide. If youlike sci-fi flight-sim fighting, go for Priva-teer. If you want a space merchant game,try Star Control instead.

Jay: I didn�t even give it a try�I�m notinterested in games where you have to diesix times just learning how to land, or inthis case die six times just trying to get outof the system you start in.

Dee: Enough negative stuff. I want toclose this month with preview review of a

game I think will be of special interest toDRAGON readers: Master of Magic bySimtex, the designers of Master of Orion.Published by MicroProse, MoM promisesto be a mega-combination of Civilization,the D&D® game, KINGS & THINGS*, TI-TAN*, MAGIC: THE GATHERING*, andTALISMAN* just to name a few of theseminal fantasy board, role-playing, andcomputer games it owes allegiance to.MoM is filled with hundreds of spells andmonsters, dozens of heroes, custom-designed wizards (so that every game is different), diplomacy, war, parthenons,fantastic stables�you name it, I salivate. Ican�t wait.

The last wordJay: So there you have it: a checklist to

measure your own collection by, or toinspire holiday generosity. Because some ofour choices are �old chestnuts� (can anything less than five years old be consideredclassic, even in the nanosecond world ofcomputing?), you even may find them inthe bargain bins as software stores makeroom for new releases. You know ourbiases now, too, at least some of them. Seeif you can predict what we�ll say aboutGhengis Khan II and Space Hulk in January!

* indicates a product produced by a company otherthan TSR, Inc.

42 NOVEMBER 1994

❖ indicates an Australian convention.❉ indicates a Canadian convention.❁ indicates a European convention.✧ indicates an African convention

Convention Calendar Policies

This column is a service to our readersworldwide. Anyone may place a free listingfor a game convention here, but the follow-ing guidelines must be observed.

In order to ensure that all conventionlistings contain accurate and timely infor-mation, all material should be either typeddouble-spaced or printed legibly on stand-ard manuscript paper. The contents ofeach listing must be short and succinct.

The information given in the listing mustinclude the following, in this order:

1. Convention title and dates held;2. Site and location;3. Guests of honor (if applicable);4. Special events offered;5. Registration fees or attendance re-

quirements; and,6. Address(es) where additional informa-

tion and confirmation can be obtained.Convention flyers, newsletters, and other

mass-mailed announcements will not beconsidered for use in this column; weprefer to see a cover letter with the an-nouncement as well. No call-in listings areaccepted. Unless stated otherwise, alldollar values given for U.S. and Canadianconventions are in U.S. currency.

WARNING: We are not responsible forincorrect information sent to us by conven-tion staff members. Please check yourconvention listing carefully! Our widecirculation ensures that over a quarter of amillion readers worldwide see each issue.Accurate information is your responsibility.

Copy deadlines are the last Monday ofeach month, two months prior to the on-sale date of an issue. Thus, the copy dead-line for the December issue is the lastMonday of October. Announcements forNorth American and Pacific conventionsmust be mailed to: Convention Calendar,DRAGON® Magazine, P.O. Box 111, LakeGeneva WI 53147, U.S.A. Announcementsfor Europe must be posted an additionalmonth before the deadline to: ConventionCalendar, DRAGON® Magazine, TSRLimited, 120 Church End, Cherry Hinton,Cambridge CB1 3LB, United Kingdom.

If a convention listing must be changedbecause the convention has been can-celled, the dates have changed, or incor-rect information has been printed, pleasecontact us immediately. Most questions orchanges should be directed to the maga-zine editors at TSR, Inc., (414) 248-3625(U.S.A.). Questions or changes concerningEuropean conventions should be directedto TSR Limited, (0223) 212517 (U.K.).

* indicates a product produced by a company other than TSR,Inc. Most product names are trademarks owned by thecompanies publishing those products. The use of the name ofany product without mention of its trademark status should notbe construed as a challenge to such status.

Important: DRAGON® Magazine nolonger publishes phone numbers for conven-tions. Publishing incorrect numbers is al-ways possible and is a nuisance to both thecaller and those receiving the misdirectedcall. Be certain that any address given iscomplete and correct.

To ensure that your convention listingmakes it into our files, enclose a self-addressed stamped postcard with your firstconvention notice; we will return the card toshow that your notice was received. You alsomight send a second notice one week aftermailing the first. Mail your listing as early aspossible, and always keep us informed ofany changes. Please avoid sending conven-tion notices by fax, as this method has notproved to be reliable.

CONTRARY �94, Nov. 10-13 MAThis convention will be held at the Ramada

Inn in West Springfield, Mass. Events includerole-playing, board, and miniatures games.Other activities include RPGA® Network events,seminars, demos, dealers, and a charityminiature-painting contest. Registration: $25.Send an SASE to: CONTRARY ’94, P.O. Box 628,West Warren MA 01092.

WAR!ZONE CENTRAL �94, Nov. 11-13 FLThis convention will be held at Holiday Inn-

Main Gate at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla.Events include role-playing, board, and minia-tures games. Other activities include a fleamarket, an auction, and open gaming. Registra-tion: $19/weekend or $7/day on site. Write to:WAR!ZONE CENTRAL, c/o Wolf Ent., P.O. Box1256 DeLand FL 32721-1256.

LEGENDS-GAINESVILLE, Nov. 12-13 GAThis convention will be held at Lakeshore Mall

in Gainesville, Ga. Guests include David Prowse,Mart Nodell, and Barry Kitson. Events includerole-playing, board, and miniatures games.Other activities include dealers. Registration:Free. Event fees: $2 each. Write to: Legends Ent.Group Inc., 514 Broad St., Rome GA 30161.

PENTACON X, Nov. 12-13 INThis convention will be held at Grand Wayne

Center in Fort Wayne, Ind. Events include role-playing, board, and miniatures games. Otheractivities include computer and war games. GMsare welcome. Write to: Steve & Linda Smith,836 Himes St., Huntington IN 46750.

SAGA 3, Nov. 12 LAThis gaming-only convention will be held at

Howard Johnson Hotel in Metairie, La. Eventsinclude role-playing, board, and miniaturesgames. Other activities include cash-prize tour-

naments, and open gaming. Registration: $10.Write to: SAGA 3, 800 Sena Dr., Metairie LA70005.

IMMACULATE CONVENTION �94Nov. 13 ❁

This convention will be held at the ChelseaOld Town Hall in Chelsea, London, England.Events include role-playing, board, and minia-tures games. Other activities include dealers anda figure-painting competition. Registration: £3preregistered; £4 on site. Write (and makechecks payable) to: Killjoy, Ltd., Dep’t. DR, P.O.Box 425, Kingston, Surrey, ENGLAND KT2 7ZD.

EYECON �94, Nov. 18-20 ❉This convention will be held at the Emporium

in London, Ontario. Events include role-playing,board, and miniatures games. Registration: $15(Canadian) preregistered; $20 on site. Write to:The Emporium, 123 King St., London, Ontario,CANADA N6A 1C3.

SHAUNCON IX, Nov. 18-20 MOThis convention will be held at the Howard

Johnson Central in Kansas City, Mo. Eventsinclude role-playing, board, and miniaturesgames. Other activities include RPGA® Networkevents, a charity auction, dealers, and seminars.Write to: SHAUNCON IX, P.O. Box 7457, KansasCity MO 64116-0157.

ELLIS CON VI, Nov. 19 CTThis convention will be held in the cafeteria of

H.H. Ellis Tech School in Danielson, Conn.Events include role-playing, board, and minia-tures games. Other activities include movies andprizes. Registration: $5. Write to: John Haskell,613 Upper Maple St., Danielson CT 06239.

LAGACON 17, Nov. 19 PAThis convention will be held at the Eagles’ Hall

in Lebanon, Pa. Events include role-playing,board, and miniatures games. Other activitiesinclude dealers, and painted-figure and costumecontests. Registration: $5 preregistered; $7.50on site. Write to: Lebanon Area Gamers’ Assoc.,806 Cumberland St., Lebanon PA 17042.

WARP�DCON V, Dec. 3 NJThis convention will be held at Drew Univer-

sity in Madison, N.J. Events include role-playing,board, and miniatures games. Other activitiesinclude a miniatures-painting contest, a raffle,an auction, and door prizes. Registration: $3.Write to: Richard Ditullio, P.O. Box 802, C.M.Box 1405, Madison NJ 07940.

SOUTHWEST COMIC FESTIVALDec. 9-11 TX

This convention will be held at the AustinConvention Center in Austin Tex. Events includerole-playing, board, and miniatures games.Other activities include a costume contest, artand miniatures contests, films, anime, andpanels. Registration: $25 preregistered, plus $10for a comprehensive gaming pass. Write to:SWCF, P.O. Box 650201, Austin TX 78765-0201.

DRAGON 45

DARCON II, Jan. 7-8, 1995 ✧This convention will be held at the Danie Van

Zyl Recreation Centre in Newlands, Johannes-burg, Republic of South Africa. Events includerole-playing, board, and miniatures games.Other activities include demos, competitions,and dealers. Registration: R10 plus variableevent fees. Write to: Evan Dembsky, 24 VincentRd., Rosettenville ext, Johannesburg, Transvaal,Republic of South Africa, 2197.

GAMES UNIVERSITY, Jan. 13-16 CAThis demo-oriented game convention will be

held at the Red Lion Hotel in Ontario, Calif.Events include family and adventure role-playing,board, and miniatures games. Other activitiesinclude computer and video games, seminars,and dealers. Registration: $15/weekend preregis-tered; $20/weekend or $10/day on site. Write to:GAMES UNIV c/o Ultraviolet Prod., P.O. Box 668,Upland CA 91785.

RUNEQUEST*CON 2, Jan. 13-16 CAThis convention will be held at the San Fran-

cisco Clarion Hotel in San Francisco, Calif.Guests include Greg Stafford, Sandy Petersen,and Steve Perrin. Events include role-playing,board, and miniatures games. Other activitiesinclude seminars and an auction. Registration:$30/weekend or $15/day. Write to: RUNEQUEST-*CON 2, 2520 Hillegass Ave. #101, Berkeley CA94707.

CONSTITUTION III, Jan. 20-22 MDThis convention will be held at the Best West-

ern Maryland Inn in Laurel, Md. Events includerole-playing, board, and miniatures games.Other activities include RPGA® Network events.

Registration: $17 preregistered; $22 on site.Write to: Chesapeake Games, P.O. Box 13607,Silver Spring MD 20911-3607.

ROUNDCON �95, Jan. 27-29 SCThis convention will be held at the Quality Inn

N.E. in Columbia, S.C. Events include role-playing, board, and miniatures games. Otheractivities include dealers, contests, a scavengerhunt, and a charity auction. Registration: $10before Dec. 15; $15 on site. Write to: TrellaWilhite, Round Table Gaming Soc., USC P.O. Box80018, Columbia SC 29225.

WARPCON V, Jan. 27-29 ❁This convention will be held at University

College, Cork, Ireland. Guests include BillBridges. Events include role-playing, board, andminiatures games. Other activities includeseminars and contests. Write to: ConventionDirector, WARPCON V, Office of Residence andStudent Activities, University College, Cork,IRELAND; or e-mail:ARHN6001@Iruccvax.ucc.ie.

GAMEFEST II, Jan. 28 ILThis convention will be held at Holy Innocents

Church, Fr. Pajak Hall, in Chicago, Ill. Eventsinclude role-playing, board, and miniaturesgames. Other activities include RPGA® Networkevents and raffles. Registration: $3/general; $5/tournament. All proceeds go to Holy InnocentsChurch. Write to: John Kavain, 857 N. Hermit-age, Chicago IL 60622.

46 NOVEMBER 1994

Photography by Charles Kohl

I have heard the calls,and I obey!

—poster seen in many placesat the game fair

There were grave omens that the 1994Gen Con® Game Fair would be more thanthe usual titanic, gargantuan, bigger-than-ever affair it had been in the past. First,there was the prolonged media coverageof all things Klingon in local newspapersand TV shows. The 50th anniversary ofthe D-Day invasion was just two monthsearlier, TSR reorganized itself on the Mon-day before the convention, and an ele-phant rampaged through downtownHonolulu. But the most terrible omen ofall, seen right before the show began, wasJim Ward dancing through the halls ofTSR with a rapier and a frilled shirt. Themind boggles.

Grave omens indeed. I pondered their

48 NOVEMBER 1994

by Roger E. Moore

meaning aloud Tuesday evening as I drovetoward Williams Bay with my adopted“son,” Bud, a mannequin I bought at acompany auction years ago. Bud ignoredme and kept on smiling his secret smile,since we were heading out to MargaretWeis’ famous barn-house for her Must BeThe Fourth Or So Annual Pre-ConventionMadness Party, which every year moreclosely resembles the original Woodstockin terms of the number of oddballs itattracts and the number of tents pitchedin Margaret’s back yard. Soon they willadd mud.

Bud and I arrived at Margaret’s in timeto see the ceremonial Taking Out Of TheGarbage by one of Margaret’s lackies.Then I carried Bud up to the house wherea large number of Minneapolians, Canadi-ans, and the other social outcasts hung overthe deck railing and yelled for me to come

just a little closer.“Do you have squirt guns? Are you

armed?” I said, a bit untrusting since thiswas the same group who for two yearsrunning has thrown paper airplanes at

DRAGON 49

me. �No!� they yelled back.So I came closer, and they all threw

paper airplanes at me. Bud could have hadhis eye put out, but luckily he was wear-ing his glasses. I gave the group a friendlygreeting that is best not repeated here,then went inside, placing Bud in the livingroom to watch Ghostbusters on the TVwith a few other mannequin-like guests.

It was a great party, a sort of Woodstock2.1. Almost a dozen tents crowded theback yard, and an enormous card game(the MAGIC: THE GATHERING* game byWizards of the Coast) was being playedout on the deck (the same deck that almostburned up last year at this time, at thissame event). I met many people whosenames I can�t recall for the life of me,though thanks to Margaret they all seemedto have an intimate knowledge of myalleged criminal past.

The party got rowdy in no time at all.Margaret told Ed Greenwood that Raistlincould kick Elminster�s butt any day of theweek, the deck almost caught fire again(just like last year), and I learned muchabout the gaming industry that is bestunveiled only after everyone involvedhas died.

On the good side, Margaret Weis prom-ised not to have me arrested this year forthe game fair�s Klingon Jail �n Bail, as shehad done last year (with, it seems, the helpof your wonderful editor, Dale �Scumsuck-er� Donovan). [That�s Mister Scumsuckerto you, bub.�Dale]. Margaret�s promisewas every bit as meaningful as a Somaliwarlord�s offer of safe passage throughMogadishu, but she is Margaret, after all,so I trusted her. (Background sound FX:�Ah, ha ha ha ha ha!�)

The evening ended all too soon. I finallywent downstairs to find Bud watching TheAdventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across theEighth Dimension with a wine bottle in hislap. I took his drink away and carried himout to the car, then said goodbye to everyone and drove home to rest. As I left, thegarbage pile at the driveway�s end was thesize of the Vehicle Assembly Building atCape Canaveral. More like Woodstockevery year, you bet.

Funny animals, nuclearbombs, killer satellites,andlabor camps.What more could you want?

�ad slogan for the KILL EVERYTHING!*game from Crunchy Frog Enterprises

Wednesday found me in a mad panic tofinish all the handouts for my seminars, atask I had conveniently put off until thelast second. I dropped Bud off in a spareoffice and began typing away in a Moun-tain Dew frenzy. When I stopped for abreak, I discovered that Bud, with the helpof concerned fellow TSR employees, wasnow �shooting the moon� from his cube atpassersby. For a stuffed mannequin, theeffect was quite realistic. I hastily fixed hisoutfit because many employees� families

50 OCTOBER 1994

were touring the TSR building at that verymoment. A group of children watched meget Bud dressed again. �That�s Bud, right?�one asked.

I finished writing at 4 P.M., then went toMECCA to see what the convention halllooked like. At first, the convention set-uplooked to be just as big as last year�s, onlylarger. But the more I looked, it actuallyseemed even bigger than that.

This year, TSR brought in truckloads offamous figures in the fantasy, comics, andscience-fiction worlds, led by Majel �Lwax-ana Troi/Nurse Chapel/Number One� Bar-rett and John �Q� de Lancie (both knownfor their charitable work with youngKlingons and Trekkies), Timothy �StarWars� Zahn, and Peter �I Do Everything!�David of comics and Star Trek fame.

Science-Fiction Saturday was beingjoined this year by Super-Hero Sunday(followed by Massive-Collapse Monday),and record numbers of events wereplanned for role-playing, board, minia-tures, arcade, computer, virtual reality,interactive, card, strategic, tactical, andthermonuclear games, not to mentionactual War College classes, gaming auc-tions and seminars, writers� workshops,martial-arts demos, slide shows, dramaticreadings, fantasy plays, art exhibitions,Jim Ward with armloads of SPELLFIRE�cards but without his rapier, costumecontests and a masquerade, filksinging,anime theaters, and over $10,000 in gametournament prizes. STAR TREK*, VAM-PIRE*, and espionage role-playing eventshad spilled over into the Hyatt Regencynext door and The Safe House, a famouslocal bar and eatery with a spy theme.There would even be a Klingon musical. AKlingon musical. Think about it.

The list of activities not only suspendeddisbelief, it wiped it completely out. Othermajor features included Carel Struycken�sVirtual Arcade, Suki�s Cybereum, theGames Magazine Triathalon, the NationalSecurity Decision Making game, the LivingCity Bazaar, Star Fleet Academy, the CAS-TLE FALKENSTEIN* Waltz (in full cos-tume, at the Hyatt), Puffing BillyTournaments, the Weis-Hickman TravelingRoad Show, the Desperately Seeking Elvisevent, and the Klingon Armada Interna-tional�s Jail �n Bail, the memory of whichcaused me great mental duress as I prayedI would not be arrested and tortured bycheerful, grunting Klingon thugs, as hap-pened at last year�s game fair.

TSR staffers hoped that the 20,000 at-tendance record for 1993 would be bro-ken, though we had no clue then that therecord would not be broken so much as itwould be smashed flatter than a wood-frame building at a Nevada nuclear testsite. Blissfully ignorant of the storm tocome, we went home and got the lastrestful sleep we�d know for days.

Have youtoday?

flogged your crew

�bumper sticker seen at the game fair

At 10 A.M., Thursday, I arrived to startmy game-fair day. The always remarkableDori Hein and I gave a seminar called�Toasters as Player Characters.� Actuallywe talked about how to role-play everysort of creature from killer whales andparrots to robots and dragons in everysort of role-playing game. Why can�t yoube a police dog in a spy game, just forkicks? It was a great seminar, or at least Iguess it was since I don�t remember any ofit now.

The seminar over, I went back down-stairs to the main hall. Or I tried to getthere. The entire MECCA center wasswamped with gamers, billions of them. Isqueezed my way into the exhibit hall andwas staggered at the sight. Where had allthese people come from? We weren�tsupposed to get this many gamers untilSaturday!

The Thursday Surge will live in game-company lore for years to come. All themedia attention the convention had beengetting apparently had paid off�but atfactors of magnitude greater than we�dexpected, and much more quickly. Boothsran out of games to sell. Cash registerswere hammered until they died. Exhibi-tors started looking like novice skiersriding down a steep slope ahead of anavalanche. All this in spite of an all-daydriving rain outside.

Somewhere in the frenzy and chaos, Ithought of Mike, the code name for thefirst American H-bomb test. Fun-lovingscientists had put together a nuclear weap-on bigger than a railroad tank car, stuck iton a Pacific island, then set it off. Theirmath was faulty, so they thought itwouldn�t make much of a bang. They werewrong. The blast wiped the island off theface of the earth. (The scientists thoughtfor a while they were going to be wipedout with the island.) We were now appar-ently having our own Big Mike.

My memories of Thursday are murkybut a few stand out. FASA had stunninglyrealistic computerized animation for itsBATTLETECH* videos. TSR�s castle hadthree gargoyles, a smoke-breathing drag-on, and an eye-boggling dragon hologramjust slightly smaller than a picture win-dow, which stopped onlookers dead inamazement. (It cost $11,000.) The cardbooths at Fortress TSR and the great blackParthenon of Wizards of the Coast neverlacked for collector-card-maddenedgamers, who came in droves for newSPELLFIRE and MAGIC decks. One boothsold gigantic blue dice half a meter high,as well as little tiny empty plastic boxes of�stealth dice.�

Perhaps my most shocking memory wasthe discovery that the soft-drink machinesnow took $1 per drink�and gave nochange. Ouch.

Between an author signing, aFORGOTTEN REALMS® demo, and a stintin the sales booth of Fortress TSR, I got towander around a bit more and recover mybearings. The CapCom booth had the all-

new Alien vs. Predator kill-or-be-killedvideo game. Several booths revealed thatthe Doom game craze for real-time, big-screen, guns-&-demons, ultraviolent videogames was well underway. The WhiteWolf booth, which last year featured onesolitary tombstone, now had a fullystocked graveyard to celebrate its newWRAITH: THE OBLIVION* game. (As oneT-shirt slogan reminded us all, �Withoutlife there could be no senseless death.�)

I also have to note the individual whocame to see me at my otherwise neglectedauthor signing. �Hey,� he said. �I really loveyour stories. You�re a great writer. I espe-cially like the one you did about the half-kender who became a knight of Solamnia.�He was referring, of course, to a story byanother author entirely, namely NickO�Donohoe. Thanks, guy.

On the upbeat side, I saw many oldfriends, too many to name here except forthe absolutely wonderful Jean Grey, whoremembered my love for velociraptors,and David Brazil, who asked me a year ortwo ago to put his name in this column,though I don�t have the space to do sountil now. Then there were Kimberly andMichael, who gave me some M&Ms lastyear and gave me some more now, com-plete with a �Tom Servo�-style M&M dis-penser. M&Ms and Mountain Dew�thatwas my breakfast and lunch three days ina row. Don�t try this at home.

The end of my evening came in a semi-nar jointly conducted by myself, JohnRateliff, Skip Williams, and Dave Gross.We were discussing great fantasy litera-ture of the world, and we ended up tryingto strangle each other over the issue ofwhether The Odyssey is fantasy or not. (Itis, you boogerheads!) (I didn�t mean you,Skip.) Then I went home to recover mymarbles and get ready for Friday.

Space monsters spit on me.�quote from the Buckaroo BanzaiExcuse Shirt, seen at the game fair

Friday morning was the time of much-heralded RPGA® Network breakfast,which I missed because I was giving aCOUNCIL OF WYRMS� seminar with BillSlavicsek and Michele Carter. We had theentire audience role-play a council meetingof giant ancient dragons, dividing theminto good, neutral, and evil factions. Thecouncil was moderated by Bill (a golddragon), Michele (an amethyst), and me(Bloodtide the Red�oh, yes yes yes!). Thecouncil topic was, �What shall we do aboutthose pesky humans?�

I got to open the debate. �War!� I yelled,pounding the table. �Kill for peace!� Theaudience (the warlike dragon part of it,which was about 90%) cheered me on.

�Now, that�s a little extreme,� Bill theGood began, as Michele the Neutral madea frowny face and tried to restore order.After a half-hour of richly satisfying bick-

DRAGON 51

ering, slander, insults, and warmongering,we voted and the war faction won. Yes!Ah, politics.

I ran downstairs with minutes to sparebefore the doors were opened. The in-credible Sue Weinlein popped by at onepoint and announced, �Good omens today,Roger! I found my Velcro!� I had no ade-quate reply, so I wandered off to investi-gate booths featuring gorgeous art tradingcards from Jeff Jones, Roger Dean, Ro-wena, and many artists already famous inthe gaming industry. Then Allen Varney,famed game designer/editor, joined me fora demonstration by the truly stunning Valof Khatovar Chainmail concerning theeffectiveness of chain-mail whips. I amsworn to secrecy about the rest of thedemo.

I got into Fortress TSR just in time, asthe doors opened. An unknown exhibitor,upon seeing the 10 A.M. Friday Surge,cried �Oh, my God!� You can imagine therest. I sold things, talked my head off, anddid a seminar with the dynamic duo ofRich Baker and Colin McComb on paladins,whom we all agreed should be shot. Or atleast I think we agreed to that. I don�tremember any of it.

I�m not obnoxious�I�mtact-challenged!

�bumper sticker in exhibitor�s booth

Early Friday afternoon, I took part in aDRAGONLANCE® seminar featuring manyof the original �DL� team. I confessed thatthe entire idea for kender came from aconcept I had called �Bunnylance,� inwhich colorful fuzzy bunnies conqueredthe world, but the rest of the panel tookoffense and stole my folder with the color-ful fuzzy bunnies on the front.

After running an ultimately fatalBUGHUNTERS® game demo, I drove hometo change into my tuxedo for the top-secret, by-invitation-only, almost-the-same-place-as-last-year TSR Party. I was only oneof two guys who dressed up (the otherlooked like Colonel Saunders), and I wasuniversally despised by every other guy,who feared I would start a trend. It wasgreat.

It was at the party that I heard some talkfrom our Fearless Leader of the GamesDivision, Tim Brown, that something spe-cial was planned for Sunday morning. The�something special� would require severaltrips to a local toy store and maybe cost afew thousand dollars. How wonderful, Ithought. It sounded like something sweetand charitable. I could hardly wait. Thefuzzy bunnies of Krynn would be proud.

I have no solutions, but Icertainly do admire the prob-lem.

�button slogan seen at the fair

There was considerable concern onSaturday that the flood tide of gamerswould cause MECCA to slide into the earth

52 NOVEMBER 1994

like a car down a Florida sinkhole. I�mhere to say that Milwaukee is built onmuch more solid material than Florida is,though MECCA did drop about a foottoward noontime.

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman rantheir annual Killer Breakfast, duringwhich (so I hear) Buffy went to theRAVENLOFT® setting and over 200 playercharacters were killed. A mint issue ofDRAGON® Magazine issue #1 sold in theauction for over $200�the first time that�shappened. I ran a demo, gave a seminar,and saw part of a bizarre anime filmcalled�so help me — Dark Schneider. Itmade as much sense as the title, fromwhere I was standing. I also got a nose-bleed but haven�t a clue how I did. Or wasthe nosebleed on Friday? I�m not sure. Thetornado watch was Friday evening, Ithink.

In between panels, I got to see a littlemore of the game fair. While blimping outon the M&Ms that numerous well-meaning people delivered to me, I saw theminiatures gaming area. There were char-iot races thundering, BattleMechs blasting,robots bashing, Zulus shouting, tall shipsfiring, and a gigantic recreation of theassault on Hoth from the second Star Warsmovie. Hoth took place in �The Arena,� afloor gaming area so large you had to walkaround on it in your socks to move anypieces. I was sorry I missed the live-actionNational Security Decision Making Game,in which thoughtful and informed contest-ants tried to destroy the world, so I don�tknow if the balloon went up or not.

It had now rained for three daysstraight, and no one cared. The halls ofMECCA were jammed with gamers sittingon the floors trying to lay out their latestcollections of MAGIC and SPELLFIREcards, the personal ownership of whichwas recently required of every citizencovered by NAFTA. A live medieval-stylebattle was fought out in front of FortressTSR, attracting about a trillion onlookers.The computer-games area had two bigastronaut-training-style thingers that Iremembered seeing on Lawnmower Man,sort of like space-age vomitoriums withcyberspace parts, as well as the usualgiant linked-up Doom-style shoot-�em-upsand many BATTLETECH simulators. Therewas so much to see that my retinas hurt.

I did get a copy of a comic book fromthe marvelous Phil Foglio, in which YoursTruly appears (look for �007�), and I got acopy of the Yamara (yes, that Yamara)comic-compilation book sold by SteveJackson Games. I also almost visited thescience-fiction museum at Starbase 1, butthere were 9,300,000,000,000 peoplestanding in line there waiting to get auto-graphs from Majel Barrett and John deLancie, so I passed and went elsewhere.Besides, there were lots of Klingonsaround and Margaret had made somesnide comment earlier about my imminentarrest, and I was just being careful.

I then did another seminar, then another

seminar, then wound up under the com-mand of the incredible Sue Weinlein, stuckin a small room full of people dressed likeKlingons. It looked bad, but then I noticedthe Klingons were led by Tim Beach, wide-ly noted TSR designer and notoriously un-Klingon personality, and I knew that Iwould live.

After patiently listening to various Tre-koid people try to figure out what theywere doing, I was off to help set up theDead Authors Panel, which featured quiterealistic live versions of Mary Shelley, H.G.Wells, Edgar A. Poe, and the guy whowrote the Narnia stuff but whose nameescapes me right now, maybe you�veheard of him. [Editor�s Note: Rog is refer-ring to C. S. Lewis. �The everhelpful Dale.]I had to leave early to go home and col-lapse in a sodden heap, so I missed the endof the panel, as well as the much-heraldedand justly famed CASTLE FALKENSTEINWaltz, played out in costume and com-manded by the always surprising folks atR. Talsorian Games. Sorry, guys. I heard itwas great.

It�s not the pace of life thatconcerns me. It�s the suddenstop at the end.

�T-shirt slogan seen at the fair

Sunday I awoke to a beautiful blue sky,the kind that gives your spirit wings andsends your imagination soaring. I feltrefreshed and pure. I parked my car in alucky space right next to MECCA andwalked into Fortress TSR at 8:45 with afree and joyful heart.

Then I noticed that everyone wasarmed.

�Here�s your weapon,� said FearlessLeader Tim, handing me a NERF multibar-rel pump bazooka with the firepower ofan Apache helicopter. �Don�t shoot anyoneuntil Lorraine gets up on the castle walland orders the attack.�

Tim�s Secret Plan, it turned out, was totake what probably amounted to TSR�sentire earnings for 1994 to date and buyevery NERF weapon, from sword to gre-nade to bow to bazooka to Gatling gunthat the local Toys-&-Handguns-R-Us hadin stock. Almost the entire TSR staff hadshown up in preparation for the firstannual TSR Needs More Exhibit Space AndYours Will Do Just Fine demo. Other gamecompanies had talked for years aboutstorming Fortress TSR. This year, TSR wasgoing to storm them.

I took the gun, then gave it away toDoug Stewart, who had arrived late andmissed the initial handout. I then receivedabout two dozen hand-launched rockets,but gave them away to two other TSRstaffers and my son John, who also hadarrived late. John was not invited, but itwas impossible to keep him away. He tookhis rockets and began practicing withthem on any TSR people he could find. Formy part, I took out a pen and paper andbecame the first-ever quasi-official

DRAGON Magazine war correspondent.At 9:04 A.M., a spy was caught in the

castle and was fired upon by every weap-on in existence. He was declared dead 73times over, though over half the TSR staffwas also killed in the attack as a result of�friendly fire.� (Mike Stackpole�s lastwords: �Don�t shoot! I�m on your side!�)

At 9:05, TSR president Lorraine Wil-liams, wearing a red cape and hard hat,took a commanding position on top of acastle wall using a mobile elevator. To therousing cheers of her bloodthirsty legions,she ordered the annexation of all nearbyexhibitor spaces, starting with White Wolfand Wizards of the Coast, then continuingacross the hall as far as Ral Partha. Armedstaffers charged out and began firing uponstunned exhibitors, managing to take overthe R. Talsorian booth briefly before beingcalled back to Fortress TSR to repel abarbarian invasion from the direction ofMayfair Games (whose people had takenoff their shirts and hastily constructedshields and weapons from cardboardboxes). Within seconds, a free-for-all battlebroke out around Tower 1. Screams andNERF bombs filled the air. I went to work.

�How does it feel to be slain in battle?� Iasked one barbarian who was down on hisback but still being NERFed by stalwartTSR berserkers. �Inconvenient!� he gaspedout. I wrote that down and continued toask assorted personal and political ques-tions of people who were roaring at thetops of their lungs while firing or hackingtheir way through titanic NERF meleeswhich soon centered around Towers 7 and8, on the White Wolf side of the castle.

Most of my notes covering the savagefighting, which actually lasted only 10minutes, are rather incoherent. I do recallFlint �the Barbarian� Dille holding aloftWhite Wolf�s animal-skull totem, which hehad liberated during the fighting, andcries of �No prisoners!� and �TSR willrule!� and �For the Celts!� (curious one,that) rang across the hall. Video footage ofthe actual fighting was taken by severalonlookers, among them Mary Abel of TSRand an attractively fur-clad (but not bymuch) barbarianette. Famed author PeterDavid gave a play-by-play commentary onthe PA. system, adding in reporter-likeasides like �Oh, the humanity!�

At 9:21, �detente� was announced, andthe fighting was over. The last warrior tobe forcibly made to lay down his armswas, of course, my son John. �Daaaaad!�he protested in disgust, but the cease-fireheld. Everyone proclaimed victory, eventhe losers from White Wolf, and battlescars (all two of them, both belonging toDori �the Barbarian Who Fell Down� Hein)were displayed to local admirers.

Surreality Just Got Funky!�banner in exhibitor�s booth

After a last pass through the exhibit hall,I ran upstairs to my second �Toasters as

DRAGON 55

Player Characters� seminar, where Doriand I pointed out the role-playing advan-tages of being a killer whale while every-one else is a human being (especially if theadventuring party is swimming just beforesuppertime). Right after that, I ran an-other seminar on how to handle high-levelAD&D® campaigns, then ran back down-stairs to run a demo game in theFORGOTTEN REALMS tower (three PCsdied, three escaped). That done, I was freeto wander one last time before the hallclosed at 5 P.M.

Alex Jimenez, justly famous designerfrom the CapCom area, told me that hewas inspired to create some of his mostchallenging video games because of thegrief an old module of mine had given him(�The Dancing Hut,� from DRAGON issue#83). I was pleased. The Armory boothheld a special event in which hundreds ofMAGIC cards were thrown into the air forscreaming fanatical gamers to fight over. Ithought I would finally, at last see thescience-fiction museum at Starbase 1 butstopped when I realized that the Klingons

would see me first. (Better to be safe . . .) Iheard later that Margaret Weis herself hadbeen arrested and jailed, apparently onthe orders of her own fans, and wasforced to sign autographs until her fingersfell off. A pity.

At 4:55, came the long-awaited an-nouncement that the exhibit hall wouldself-destruct in five minutes. When thefair closed at last, we were too tired tocheer for more than a few seconds. Thegamers were herded out, the booths weretorn down, the carpet was rolled up, thetrash was thrown out, and we took ourloot, our frayed nerves, and our incubat-ing viruses and went home.

The apocalypse was over. My fianceeGail took me to the Milwaukee zoo as myreward. The mosquitoes were tickled tosee me.

Dead men can’t sue.�CAR WARS* diorama title

seen at the fair

Monday found all the weary survivorsback at work, debating the merits of plac-ing a moat around Fortress TSR in 1995,perhaps with more NERF Gatling guns anda Hawk missile battery. With the generoushelp of sympathetic co-workers, Bud be-came a Klingon (�K�Bud�) in protest againstthe baseball strike. I developed a majorattack of hay fever combined with anunpleasant intestinal flu that I don�t thinkyou want to hear about, and I had oneweek to rest, sneeze, and visit the bath-room before I flew off to Canada for an-other convention (WorldCon/ConAdian inWinnipeg��The Milwaukee of the North�).

56 NOVEMBER 1994

And the final tally on attendance?

Some estimates went as high as 27,000.It had been Big Mike, all right. It was amiracle that anything was left of Milwau-kee afterward. I can�t even imagine whatwill happen next year.

I had survived the wildest, greatest, andmost exhausting of all game fairs in histo-ry. But, I reflected, at least this time Iwasn�t arrested by Klingons. I might be aslucky next year.

Unless . . . but no, K�Bud wouldn�t dothat to his dad. I hope.

My thanks go out to the makers ofMountain Dew, Allright Parking of Mil-waukee (great prices and great parking ifyou get there early enough), my 1990 GeoStorm (almost 100,000 miles and still run-ning!), and, most importantly, Gail, withoutwhom I would still be a nerd.

See you next year�for sure!

l indicates a product produced by a company otherthan TSR. Inc.

58 NOVEMBER 1994

by Steve Kurtz

Photography by Karen and Steve Kurtz

Enrich your fantasy castles with a little history

60 NOVEMBER 1994

The Ottomans are like unto the sun.Above all they illuminate Europe, butthe light of their power shines also onAsia and Africa. They areincomparable to other sultans who arelike to stars. All are extinguished in thebrilliance of their radiance andsplendor. This illustrious, heroic, andintrepid dynasty has been evervictorious, conquering all of Anatolia,Karaman, Diyarbakir, Erzurum,Baghdad, Arabia, Egypt, the Balkans,Hungary, end many other lands, as faras the borders of Germany . . . There isno limit to the power, extent end wealthof their rule.

�Dedication to SultanSuleyman the Magnificent,

by Haci Ahmed of Tunis, 1559

Adjusting the pack on my shoulders, Ipeered through the misty morning pale-light on my pilgrimage toward the loomingminarets. Topkapi Saray, the legendarySeat of Sultans, the Heart of the OttomanEmpire, the magnificent Palace of theCannon Gate lay before me enshrouded inthe early morning fog. While passagebeyond the forebodingly massive gatesonce may have required permission fromthe Sultan, I entered bearing only a rippedthree-dollar ticket. Within its high, forti-fied walls, a legion of cooks and servantsonce attended the powerful Sultan and hisentire administration of viziers, ambassa-dors, and sycophants. In the forbidden,blue-tiled changers of the harem, theSultan relaxed in the company of hiswives, children, and countless concubines.At the height of Ottoman power, Topkapihoused over 4,000 people, a small city inits own right within the Imperial capital.

Today, the renovated palace is a fascinatingmuseum at the center of Istanbul, a monu-mental display of Turkish art and architec-ture. Topkapi also contains one of the mostastounding collections of riches I have everwitnessed, amassed by 32 Sultans over thepast five centuries. The treasuries in West-ern museums do not compare to the stagger-ing opulence of the Sultan�s hoard. Inretrospect, the Hope diamond and even theCrown Jewels of England are a mere pit-tance by comparison.

My personal interest in the palacestemmed largely from my work on theALQADIM® setting for the AD&D® game. Inthe City of Delights boxed set, for example,the Palace of the Grand Caliph in Huzuz wasbased directly upon the plans of the Topkapi.The palace was already quite vivid in myimagination, long before I set foot in itshistoric confines. After my visit to Turkey, Ilooked over the plans of the Grand Caliphsfantasy residence and was amused to notehow public chambers were often inter-

preted as private areas of the palace. Some-times I imagine that Sinan, the courtarchitect of Sultan Suleyman the Magnifi-cent, would be mortified.

As any Game Master knows, realisticspaces and objects help breathe life intoany role-playing fantasy campaign. In thisarticle, I will explore the history and struc-ture of Topkapi, including some of thetreasures and ideas for conducting adven-tures around the palace. At the very least,I hope to shed some light on Middle East-ern architectural philosophy, so that otherGame Masters can devise realistic andexotic palaces for their campaigns.

Locus of antiquityTopkapi Saray sprawls across one of the

largest hills along the Sea of Marmara,overlooking the confluence of the Bospo-rus Strait and the Golden Horn, a site ofunrivaled geographical importance sinceancient times. The waters in this regionnot only link the Black Sea to the Aegean�providing access to the Mediterranean, theAtlantic, and therefore, all the worldswaterways�they also form a bridge be-tween the continents of Europe and Asia.The armies of myriad empires have foughtover this strategic location for millennia.

While bearing all the trappings ofmodernity�from the tram lines and thecar-choked streets, to the coal-fire pollu-tion that cloaks the winter skyline in avelvet brown haze�Istanbul also is a livingshrine to the ancient past. The city�s cur-rent name was derived from a corruptedGreek expression (stin poli), meaning �tothe city.� When �the city� was ruled by lastvestiges of the Roman Empire, it was

called Constantinople (from Konstantinoupolis, meaning Constantine�s city). Evenbefore the Romans, as early as the 7thcentury B.C., the city was calledByzantium�named after the Greek tyrant,Byzas. Although Topkapi was constructedbetween the 15th and 19th centuries, thestructure rests on Byzantine foundations.

By the time the Ottoman Turks con-quered Constantinople in 1453, the proudmetropolis lay in ruins. Sultan Mehmedthe Conqueror was responsible for therenaming and rebuilding of Istanbul. Partof his vision included the construction ofthe Palace of the Cannon Gate, TopkapiSaray, sometimes simply called the �NewPalace� by its contemporaries to differenti-ate it from Eski Saray, Mehmed�s firstpalace (sometimes called the �Old Palace�).Topkapi was first built between 1465-78,but today nothing remains of the original15th-century wooden construction. Overthe past 500 years, fires and whims of theSultans have drastically altered the face ofthe palace. Topkapi was occupied by theOttoman royal family and imperial admin-istration until the mid-19th century, whenthe structure was considered �old-fashioned� and abandoned in favor ofDolmabahce, a more modern palace con-structed along the north Bosporus shore incontinental French style, with goldenfixtures and 14-ton Baccarat crystal chan-deliers in every chamber. Some say thatthe bankrupting opulence of Dolmabahcecontributed to the collapse of the OttomanEmpire.

The modern Turkish republic wasfounded in 1923 by Kemal Ataturk, atremendously popular figure, whose por-

DRAGON 61

trait adorns practically every public build-ing in the country. In contrast with manyEuropean political upheavals and revolu-tions, there was no looting and pillaging ofthe Sultan�s palaces. Unlike Versailles, forexample, which was stripped clean duringthe French Revolution, all the imperialresidences in Istanbul�including Topkapiand Dolmabahce�were preserved essen-tially intact with all their original furnish-ings after the founding of the Republic.Topkapi was opened as a public museumin 1924 and has been under a process ofcontinual restoration ever since. Topkapicontains a wealth of information for gamemasters and designers alike.

Topkapi SarayTopkapi�s huge, sprawling complex de-

fies simple characterization. Unlike Euro-pean palaces, which were surrounded bylow-lying gardens that accentuated thebeauty of the architecture, the palace ofTopkapi is obscured by a series of walls,outlying buildings, and tall trees creatingan atmosphere of intrigue. As one movesthrough the courts of Topkapi, architectur-al elements�domes and minarets�appearand disappear behind the walls. Unlessone views Topkapi from the air (or from amap), the overall layout of the palace isdifficult to determine and impossible to

capture with a single photograph.Walking through Topkapi is like peeling

away the layers of an onion or uncoveringa series of veiled secrets. While the layoutof the palace appears to be a chaotic co-nundrum, with multiple courtyards sur-rounded by oddly-shaped chambers andcrooked corridors, the palace is a surpris-ingly ordered structure, consisting of fourmain sections or layers of increasing pri-vacy: the outer First Court, the Court ofCeremonies, the Enderun and the FourthCourt, and the celebrated Harem. TheFirst Court and the Court of Ceremonieswere used for public purposes. The En-derun and the Fourth Court were re-served for the daily activities of the Sultanand his attendants. Finally, the Haremenclosed the Sultan�s family in the mostprivate section of the palace. The organi-zation of these four sections was tradition-ally employed in the layout of all of theimperial Ottoman palaces, and to a certainextent, reflects the design of Middle East-ern palaces. By understanding the role andfunction of these sections, a Game Mastercan more easily and realistically incorpo-rate them into adventures.

The First CourtThe First Court acted as a protective

barrier between the palace and the rest of

the world. Topkapi guarded the entranceto the Golden Horn, and thereforeMehmed the Conqueror massively forti-fied the outer walls of the First Court,especially along the seaward side, whichhistorically had been the weakest link inthe city�s defenses. In the 13th century, aflotilla from the Fourth Crusade pulled upto the sea walls during a siege. Crusaderspoured into the city by climbing the mastsof their ships and surmounting the lowadjacent walls. To prevent such a debaclein the future, Mehmed dramaticallystrengthened the three miles of wallsaround the palace with numerous cannonemplacements, for which the palace wasaptly named (topkapi meaning �cannongate� in Turkish).

The massive Imperial Gate, the mainentrance to the First Court, was alwaysguarded by at least 50 Jannisaries (imperi-al guards). Eleven generations afterMehmed the Conqueror, Sultan Murad IVenjoyed firing on pedestrians with hiscrossbow from atop these gates. Beyondthe famous portals, the outer court of thepalace contained lush gardens, whichwere sometimes stocked with wild animalsfor the Sultan�s hunting pleasure. HagiaIrene, one of the oldest Byzantine church-es in the world, also was enclosed withinthe First Court and converted into anarmory for the palace garrison.

As many as 500 Jannisaries defended theouter fortifications of the First Court intimes of peace. These slave warriors, ormamluks, were literally owned by theOttoman Empire. Hand picked as childrenfrom predominantly Christian families andtrained in special schools in the art ofwarfare, they formed the elite corps of theOttoman army. Despite their official slavestatus, the Janissaries held a position ofconsiderable prestige in Ottoman society,especially in the Imperial armed forces.They received a regular quarterly wageand could count on fair promotion withintheir ranks (and perhaps eventually free-dom) in exchange for devoted service tothe Empire. Unlike other forms of slaveryprevalent in Europe and America, thestate-sponsored slavery of the Jannisarieswas not hereditary. The Jannisaries couldmarry, and their children were born free.

The Court of CeremoniesThe inner palace can be reached

through the Gate of Salutations, flankedby two octagonal keep towers, where allvisitors�including viziers and ambass-adors�were required to dismount. Onlythe Sultan himself could ride a horse intothe Court of Ceremonies. Public execu-tions were typically conducted in front ofthese iron doors, and the severed headsdisplayed here afterward. In the smallfountain outside the gate, executionerswould clean the blood from their greatscimitars.

A number of Imperial functions wereperformed in this courtyard, including

62 NOVEMBER 1994

accessions to the throne, declarations ofwar, religious festivals, and royal circumci-sions. The Jannisaries were paid theirquarterly wages from the treasury in thiscourt. On the occasion of a foreign ambas-sador�s visit, the Sultan would delight inpaying the soldiers himself during a publicceremony. Hundreds of soldiers lined upin formation as the viziers brought for-ward massive trunks, brimming with gold.The display no doubt impressed visitorswith the tremendous wealth and militaryprestige of the Ottomans.

Also known as the Court of Justice, orthe Council Square, this section of thepalace formed the nucleus of the adminis-tration for the Ottoman Empire. The vi-ziers (ministers of state) and the chiefvizier (the prime minister) conferred withthe Sultan on a weekly basis in the councilchambers. One of the meeting rooms wasfitted with a large circular window, calledthe Eye of the Sultan, where the Sultanwould sit and eavesdrop on his ministers.In addition to its administrative role, thecourtyard always was teeming with visi-tors, soldiers, and servants who main-tained the stables, carriage houses,pantries, food cellars, mosques, barracks,bath houses, and officers lounges locatedalong the periphery of the court.

The Enderun and the Fourth CourtThe entrance to the Enderun from the

Court of Ceremonies was guarded by theGate of White Eunuchs. Crowded withtrees and tiny, intricate pavilions, theEnderun gives the impression of intimateprivacy. Literally �the Inside� of the palace,the Enderun contained the residence forthe Campaign Pages, or Aghas, trainedsince childhood in courtly arts such asmusic, poetry, dance, and calligraphy andserving as body servants, guards, andmessengers for the personal needs of theSultan. In this section of Topkapi, one alsocan find the baths and massage rooms forthe Sultan and the Aghas, the lavish Impe-rial treasuries (detailed later in the article),and the central audience kiosk, where theSultan would greet visitors of great impor-tance from his wide, golden throne. Asidefrom the audience chamber, however, theEnderun was typically the exclusive do-main of the Sultan and his attendants.

Two stone ramps descend from theEnderun to the tiled terraces of the FourthCourt, the most private of the Sultan�sdaily living quarters, located farthest fromthe bustle of Council Square and the con-fines of the Harem. The court�s prominentpatio, built around a rectangular pool witha fountain, is surrounded by a number ofornamental kiosks or pavilions, coveredwith ornate blue, green, and red tiles.From the opulent Baghdad pavilion, theSultan could sip hot tea from a tulip-shaped glass while contemplating thespectacular panorama of Istanbul spreadout below. Other pavilions, perfect sitesfor reading or reflection, were designed tooverlook the tulip gardens and marble

64 NOVEMBER 1994

fountains of the courtyard. The FourthCourt was like the royal living room,where the Sultan could withdraw to es-cape from the responsibilities of Empireand family. Together Enderun and theFourth Court comprised the personal dailyliving quarters of the Sultan.

The HaremIn Arabic, the word harim means forbid-

den, and referred specifically to the wom-en�s quarters in the household. In Turkey,the harem evolved under somewhatbroader lines, consisting of a locationreserved exclusively for the family. Theharem in Topkapi contained not only theliving quarters for the Sultan�s wives,servants, and concubines, but also hischildren and himself. During the OttomanEmpire, the harem developed into a for-mal, structured institution, with its ownstrict rules and established hierarchy.After the Sultan, Black Eunuchs were atthe summit of the harem hierarchy. Re-cruited as children in Africa and surgicallyoperated upon in Egypt, they werebrought to the harem as children andeducated in their duties, which involvednot only service and protection, but alsothe punishment of their female charges.The most powerful Chief of the BlackEunuchs could promote or demote thesocial standing of any concubine or wifewithin the harem.

The most powerful of the Sultan�s wives,at the summit of the female hierarchy,stood the Valide Sultan, sometimes calledthe Sultana, the Sultan�s Mother, or theFirst Wife. The Valide Sultan was pro-moted to her exalted position after givingbirth to the Sultan�s first male heir. Shepresided over the harem from the largestsuite of apartments, totaling as many asforty rooms, with the best location, venti-lation, and sunlight in the palace.

After the Valide Sultan, the Kadineffen-dis (or Kadins, for short) enjoyed the long-lasting, personal favor of the Sultan. These�Royal Ladies� were ranked by the ChiefEunuch in the Sultan�s order of prefer-ence, and numbered between four andseven individuals. They shared multi-storied, wooden quarters overlooking ahigh terraced swimming pool in the ha-rem. Sometimes the Sultan married one ormore of the Kadins; more often, however,they remained his most exalted consorts.

The ikbals, or �Lucky Ones,� were thesultan�s favored concubines, who sharedimportant duties within the harem. Theikbals received honorific titles, such as theSultan�s Food Taster, the Sultan�s Barber,the Sultan�s Coffee-maker, etc. which wereappropriate to their administrative role.They served the Valide Sultan and caredfor the royal children.

Any of the ladies, even the youngestconcubine, could look forward to promo-tion within the harem to the dignifiedposition of the Valide Sultan. If not, afterseven years of service in the harem, theywere typically married to a powerful

ambassador or a minister in the govern-ment. The sultan�s concubines reached theharem from many sources. Some weregiven as gifts from leaders within theOttoman Empire, others were presentedby foreign ambassadors (blonde-hairedgirls from Russia were especially favoredgifts by the Sultan).

While admittedly fascinating from amale perspective, the harem clearly had itsdarker aspect. The future of hundreds,sometimes thousands, of women dependedentirely on the whim of a single man, withpossibly tragic results. One night, SultanIbrahim the Mad decided to replace all butone of his 300 concubines. The unfortu-nate 299 ladies were bound in cloth sacks,wrapped in iron chains, and tossed intothe Bosporus within hours of the Sultan�sdecision. In the event of a Sultan�s death,the entire harem was vacated to the OldPalace (Eski Saray), where they eitherlived out the remainder of their lives inopulence or were married to eligible pub-lic officials.

While the Sultan could leave the harem,his hundreds of concubines were virtualprisoners. All the windows were coveredwith ornate iron grates. These bars weredecorated with intricate honeycomb oroctagonal patterns, but they were barsnonetheless. The inhabitants of the haremrecognized this fact. One of the haremchambers, for instance, its walls decoratedwith pure gold, was called the GoldenCage by its inhabitants. The Sultan sur-rounded the concubines with wealth andshowered them with gold, but they couldnever leave the harem to spend theirtreasure. If they wanted to go shopping,they had to rely on servants to choose thebest goods from the bazaar to suit thetastes of their mistress. In addition, thewomen of the harem were forbidden malevisitors (except doctors and teachers). Itwas said that even a male fly could notenter the harem without the Sultan�s per-mission. There were rarely exceptions tothis rule, since the penalty for adulteryaccording to Islamic law was quite harsh(death by beheading for the man, death bystoning for the woman).

Structurally, the harem is a confusingbut intriguing place. Dark, narrow corri-dors twist at unpredictable junctures andopen into bright narrow courtyards. Atevery turn, stairs lead upward and down-ward into darkness. After centuries ofbuilding, at least two floors of the haremare now completely underground, linkingstorerooms and cisterns with outdoorpools and fountains. Above the gardens,built upon the terraced roofs of the ha-rem�s lower stories, another three levels ofpredominantly wooden structures wereerected in the 18th century. One can be-come hopelessly lost within the harem�swarren of 400 chambers. The stone walls,covered with brightly painted tiles, wererecessed with countless alcoves and nichesfor books, boxes, vases, and turbans. In afew chambers, loud gurgling fountains

were installed to foil eavesdroppers, andsecret passages were hidden behind somewalls, concealed by panels or revolvingmirrors. The entire harem whispers ofsecrecy, intimacy, and intrigue.

Treasures of the SultansIn addition to the quarters for the

Aghas, the Enderun also contained therepositories for the Sultan�s innumerablewealth, a magnificent hoard accumulatedby the Ottomans over five centuries. Thetrade routes of Eastern Europe and Russiawere obliged to pass through the BosporusStrait, en route to their home ports of callfrom the Mediterranean Sea. The legend-ary Silk Road, linking distant China withPersia and Arabia, terminated in Istanbul.Being the inevitable crux of commerce andtrade, the Ottoman Empire became fantas-tically wealthy. One of the Chief Viziersonce boasted that the state easily couldafford to refit their Imperial Armada withanchors of silver, ropes spun from silk,and sails sewn from satin. The trove ondisplay in Topkapi affirms such arrogance.

The Sultan�s hoard contained the follow-ing treasures, which the Game Master maycare to gradually adapt and perhaps slow-ly introduce into a campaign to augmentmonetary booty:

* Collections of antique Chinese porce-

lain with white, green, blue, and red de-signs, depicting geometric, radial, floral, oranimal motifs (over 15,000 pieces, includ-ing huge rose medallion serving platters,smaller individual plates, 5� tall vases, andslender decanters);

* Ancient illuminated manuscripts fromChina and Persia; paper tapestries of reli-gious calligraphy; a writing box and penholder of carved jade; a coral-hilted penknife; the first copies of the original 7th-century Quran, the holy book of Islam;

* Gilded clocks and music boxes (giftsfrom European ambassadors); gold andlacquer jewelry coffers inlaid with ivorytortoise shell or mother of pearl and deco-rated with clover-leaf and floral patterns;a golden box carved in the shape of a fishwith ruby eyes;

* Gold-embroidered and gem-studdedceremonial clothing; a jade rose watersprinkler and hand-mirror; egg-shapedperfume vials; golden candle snuffers;spoons carved from tortoise shell, coral, ormother of pearl; zinc flasks and jars inlaidwith tortoise and bloodstone; a gold waterpipe (narghile) set with intricate floralemblems and geometric designs; a gold-plated cradle for the Imperial heir, massivegolden candlesticks measuring 4� tall andweighing over 100 pounds; a collection offive royal thrones;

* Magnificent carriages fashioned from

precious woods and adorned with gold (afad introduced from Europe in the 19thcentury); gilded stirrups encrusted withopals, aquamarines, and pale garnets; anemerald-studded horse-crest plumed withwhite ostrich feathers;

* Ancient religious artifacts of Islam,such as the footprint, hair, tomb soil, andtooth of the Prophet Mohammad; a jew-eled case containing the Sword of theProphet and the scimitars of the firstCaliphs, the early political leaders of theIslam; a few Christian artifacts, such as thesilver-encased hand and gem encrustedskull of John the Baptist;

* Arms and armor, often engraved withserpent and peacock or eagle motifs orinscribed with elegantly gilded inscriptionsfrom the Quran;

�a fabulous jeweled jambiya, the fa-mous Topkapi Dagger, its golden gripstudded with brilliant diamonds andadorned with seven huge emeralds;

�a wavy-bladed scimitar with an ivorygrip;

�daggers with red coral hilts and gripsof carved alabaster, crystal, or horn;

�silver-chased javelins, spears, andhalberds;

�a silver-hafted flail with five sphericalquartz heads of differing hues;

�a black iron mace from Egypt, toppedwith a crude lion figurine;

DRAGON 65

�a gilded yatagan (a Turkish short-sword, with a light, single-edged cuttingblade);

�lamellar armor with gold-engravedplates and arm guards;

�a mahogany box quiver (for a dozenflight arrows) inlaid with mother of pearl;

�a gilded wooden shield, embossed withrose floral patterns and inlaid with rubiesand emeralds;

�a lacquered leather shield, studdedwith 10 jeweled flowers;

�an embroidered silk bow case, sewnwith tiny pearls;

�ivory-inlaid antique firearms, includingwheel-lock pistols and heavy arquebuses;

�a heavy footman�s mace with a carvedhead of mottled green jade;

�a black-hafted battle axe, decoratedwith ripping birds� beaks;

* Vast collections of gems and jewelry: agolden platter heaped with cut peridotsand emeralds; the famous Spoon-Maker�sdiamond (the pear-shaped jewel is almost2� across and weighs 86 carats); carvedjade rings; star-shaped pendants; carvedemerald covers for coffee cups; a goldenbrooch set with a huge mottled pearl; afour-winged turban pendant, set withrubies, emeralds, pearls, and diamonds; ablue enamel pendant shaped like an eggand encrusted with diamonds; wide redvelvet belts, covered with amethyst-studded golden buckles; and an ebonywalking stick, studded with diamonds.

Certain treasures could be adaptedeasily into new, exotic magical items. Acircular iron shield, covered with fourwickedly-spiked bosses and nine blade-catching iron rings, could become a shieldof blade-breaking, which has the ability todestroy an enemy�s weapons. A set ofivory-inlaid bath clogs could provide thewearer with fire resistance, and an en-chanted rose-water sprinkler, shaped likea perforated egg, might be used to detectthe presence of poison in food and bever-ages. The Game Master is encouraged toadapt the list of treasures to suit the par-ticular needs and flavor of a campaign.

Palaces in a fantasy settingA palace such as Topkapi would make an

ideal setting for a number of adventuresand perhaps the focus of an entire cam-paign. Perhaps the most fascinating aspectof the palace is its foundation in an ancienthistorical context. Excavations in the Courtof Ceremonies, for instance, have uncover-ed huge porphyry sarcophagi, buriedsince the Byzantine age. The palace wasbuilt upon Constantinople�s ruinedacropolis�what dark, subterranean cham-bers still remain entombed beneath Topka-pi? Some scholars have suggested thatSultan Mehmed the Conqueror abandonedhis first palace because it was built on theruins of a Byzantine monastery and grave-yard. Suppose Topkapi were erected oversuch a site, and unwarranted excavation(for a new well, for instance) disturbed an

66 NOVEMBER 1994

ancient vizier�s undying repose! Perhapsexpansion beneath the harem uncovers aforgotten door, leading to cobwebbedvaults and other mysteries better leftundisturbed. In either case, a group ofadventurers might be called into the pal-ace to investigate the unusual discovery.Besides ancient tombs, the courageousmight discover an abandoned section ofthe palace, once used as a laboratory or astoreroom for fiendish experiments.

Of course, adventures in Topkapi cer-tainly do not require such subterraneandelvings. In one campaign, the characterscould be enlisted by one of the Sultan�spages, entrusted with expanding the Impe-rial collection of exotic treasures or themenagerie of rare monsters. The playercharacters might even be sucked into aharem intrigue, when the Valide Sultanhas a genie or another magically inclinedservant collect the party for a specialmission against an archrival.

Alternatively, the Sultan can be por-trayed as an archnemesis or evil figure inthe campaign, in which the Palace be-comes a hive for corrupt viziers, viciousmamluks, and depraved executioners. Theparty might be enlisted by one of theSultan�s enemies in a plot to rescue one ofthe concubines from the Imperial haremor salvage an important artifact from thetreasury. One of the Sultan�s victims, be-fore her execution outside the palace,might try to slip one of the PCs a crypticnote: �Tell Kethuda that the Horse hasTwenty Fingers and the Moon Sings over aSummer Sky.� As the party tries to unravelthe enigma of Kethuda�s identity, theybecome embroiled in a conspiracy to de-stroy the wicked Sultan and replace himwith a benevolent prince, who mysteri-ously disappeared after a �hunting acci-dent� three years ago.

Finally, out in the wilderness, the partymight come across the palace in thewreckage of an ancient city. The palaceitself might be crumbled into ruins, orsomehow been preserved by powerfulmagic. The littered courtyards, timewornpavilions, and dark chambers might stillcontain some remnants of the Sultan�sformer riches, scattered about the tinyalcoves and secret vaults where mad,gibbering horrors lurk in the darkness.Topkapi can be adapted to each of thesevisions, baleful and benign, providing adetailed setting for countless adventuresin a Middle-Eastern campaign.

Traveling to TopkapiAs Allen Varney pointed out in his article

about the Underground Cities of Turkey(DRAGON® issue #201), traveling to Istan-bul is relatively easy (Newark-Istanbulfares range from $750-$900, dependingupon whether you want a direct flight orstop-overs in Europe). Topkapi is located inthe Old City of Istanbul, called Sul-tanahmet, surprisingly close by othermajor attractions, including the BlueMosque, Suleymanye Mosque) the Basilica

of Hagia Sophia, the Basilica Cistern, theMuseums of Archaeology and Turkish andIslamic Art, and (of course) the spectacularCovered Bazaar. For the economicallyminded, check out the Frommers Guide(Turkey on $40 a Day), which despite itslousy maps and occasionally poor direc-tions, does manage to highlight cheaplocales to eat and sleep.

My wife and I stayed at one of the smallbed-and-breakfast hotels in Sultanahmetcalled the Berk Guest House ($24 single,$32 double), which was located within twominutes� walk of Topkapi and eight min-utes from the Grand Bazaar. In addition toits wonderful location, the proprietor ofthe pension, a charming young womannamed Yeshim, provided us with helpfuladvice and even included us in her circleof intimate friends for Christmas and NewYear�s Eve. Yeshim was not the only exam-ple of warm Turkish hospitality we en-countered during our two weeks inTurkey. In general, we found Turkishpeople to be exceedingly warm and friend-ly, perhaps because they have had a longhistory of dealing with travelers.

Outside the Ottoman and Byzantineheritage of Istanbul, one can explore theunderground cities of central Turkey (asreported by Allen Varney) and visit theexcavated remains of the Hittite Culture,which dominated central Anatolia manythousands of years before the Byzantinesrose to power. Otherwise, one might inves-tigate the western Aegean coast, whereruined Greek cities sprawl magnificentlyacross the acropoli of barren mountainsand secluded valleys. Even more ruinedcities lie along the southern, Mediterrane-an coast of Turkey, interspersed withCrusader castles and modern vacationresorts. For the historically and archaeo-logically inclined, a sojourn in Turkeypromises to be a fascinating experience.

ReferencesAkshit, Ilhan. The Topkapi Palace. Akshit

Kultur Tirizm Sanat Ajans Ltd. Shti.,Istanbul, 1993.

Can, Turhan. Topkapi Palace. Orient Pub-lishing Co., Istanbul, 1990.

DeLiagre, Cristina. �Istanbul Intrigue,�European Travel and Life, Dec./Jan.1991, pp. 102-111.

Kaplan, Robert. �Istanbul,� Conde NastTraveller, Dec. 1993, pp. 134-150.

Ozdemir, Keman. Ottoman Nautical Chartsand the Atlas of Ali Macar Reis. Crea-tive Yayincilik ve Tanitim Ltd., Istanbul,1992.

Rogers, J. M. (Editor and Translator); Chig,Kemal; Batur, Sabahattin; and Koseoglu,Cengiz. The Topkapi Saray MuseumArchitecture: The Harem and OtherBuildings. Little, Brown, and Company,Boston, 1988.

“Forum” welcomes your comments andopinions on role-playing games. In theUnited States and Canada, write to: Fo-rum, DRAGON® Magazine, P.O. Box 111,Lake Geneva WI 53147 U.S.A. In Europe,write to: Forum, DRAGON Magazine, TSRLtd, 120 Church End, Cherry Hinton,Cambridge CB1 3LB, United Kingdom. Weask that material submitted to “Forum” beeither neatly written by hand or typedwith a fresh ribbon and clean keys so wecan read and understand your comments.You must give us your name and full mail-ing address if you expect your letter to beprinted (we will not consider a letter sub-mitted anonymously), but we will withholdyour name if you ask us to do so. We willprint your address if you request it.

I read Mr. Kutcherfield�s letter inDRAGON issue #203 with some degree ofpity. I�m sorry that his experience with�role-players� was a negative one, and itcertainly seems, from the example hegives, that the players in question wereout of line (at least). I would be among thefirst to agree that excessive role-playing isinjurious to the smooth running of anadventure. However, my own view is thata modicum of role-playing keeps the gameinteresting, and disruptive behavior of anykind should be quelled by both the GMand the other players.

I have played games in which the adven-ture was a �mere� tactical exercise (myterm for such games). I also have playedgames in which the players, in character,worked more or less together to achievetheir common goals. I have enjoyed bothtypes of games. Which ones do I still re-member after twelve years of gaming?Games with interesting characters.

I remember a schizophrenic wild magenamed Akbar, whose favorite spell wasNahal�s reckless dweomer. He would castthis spell in combat so often that I, as GM,had to create 200 new wild surges to keepfrom repeating results from the table inTome of Magic. Akbar had a funny accent,too. Was Akbar efficient as a tactician?Certainly not. Could Akbar finish fights asfast as a combat-machine wizard? Never.Was Akbar a joy to GM? Yes, wholeheart-edly. But the key difference betweenAkbar�s player and the players in Mr.Kutcherfield�s letter, I think, is that Akbar�splayer never stole time from the adven-ture in order to showcase Akbar�s weird-

68 NOVEMBER 1994

ness. Akbar was weird in context, and thatmade him special to us.

Anything, if exaggerated, becomes intru-sive. Recently, I played a fighter/fire-elemental wizard named Del, who had anatural dislike of water and cold weather(it�s what made him become a fire-elemental wizard). So, not only did he hateboats but also, while adventuring in fro-zen lands, Del stacked firewood and a litbrazier on a flying carpet because of thetemperature. If I had �role-played� everyaspect of Del�s search for wood, choice ofbrazier, and use of the carpet, I wouldhave been wasting time. If I had expressedDel�s woe at traveling on a boat for a halfhour of real time, I wouldn�t have beendoing anything that was �superior� to anyother aspect of the game. Instead, I choseto bring out one of Del�s character traitswith just a brief note to the GM and abrief description to the other players.

I can think of a dozen other examples,but I don�t want to waste space. I don�tagree that �most gamers� are �sick andtired� of role-playing, and I�m concernedby that assumption. I, for one, can�t standplayers who use characters like surgicaltools instead of using them to drive andenhance a story. �Play-acting� has its place,just as information-gathering tactics andcombat have their places as well.

It is the GM�s responsibility to keepthings moving and not allow the game tobog down in trivial matters. In my cam-paigns, nobody would have waited for thepompous Lord Alan and Captain Sir Allen;they would have been left behind, and theother characters would have gone on toachieve their own goals. Of course theseblowhards shouldn�t get any experiencepoints for �role-playing;� they�re being sillyand disruptive. No GM should create anatmosphere where disruptive behavior istolerated. A single player in my campaignswould never waste two hours of real timegetting a character�s costume ready for aparty; if a player dared to try, that playerwould be told to write a description of thecostume while I advanced the plot withthe other characters. When the costumewas ready, I would then tell the �self-indulgent fop� how much it cost and whenthe character could re-enter the action,based on how much time the costumetook.

�Problem role-playing� isn�t acceptable inmy campaigns. I don�t think Mr. Kutcher-

field likes it, either. But I think part of theblame rests with the GM, whoever thatwas in Mr. Kutcherfield�s campaign, forallowing it. However (and this is a bighowever), some gaming groups find a lackof role-playing to be egregiously bad man-ners. I don�t pretend to tell any of thosepeople how to play, but at the same timethey do not control the way I play. The lasttime I checked, everybody had a right tohis own opinion. Problems arise whensomeone forces that opinion on others.

RPGs are for fun, and it�s the GM�s re-sponsibility and privilege to make surethey remain that way. I�m sorry to hearthat Mr. Kutcherfield has had a bad exam-ple of, and a bad experience with, onefacet of gaming that I like very much.Now, I don�t expect Mr. Kutcherfield, oranyone else, to simply take my word forany of this, and I certainly don�t expectanyone to abandon the games they enjoyfor the ones I enjoy. I don�t hold myself outas someone who has the answer to everyRPG problem. My point is simply this: �toomuch� and �enough� are relative concepts,and if you want to keep �too much� out ofyour games, it�s your job.

Eric C. PutnamArlington VA

�The play-actor spends more than twohours of real time getting the costumeready, talking to various NPC clothiers andhairstylists the GM had to whip up asneeded.�

�. . . the play-actor is a self-indulgent fopwhose excessive zeal for personal detailssteals valuable playing time from the restof the group . . .�

In issue #203�s �Forum,� Joe Kutcherfieldattempts to prove a point. Unfortunately,his argument misses that point. His thesisconsists of the notion that proper role-playing and character development resultin wasted time and spoil the fun of RPGs.His reason for this belief is the erroneoussuggestion that role-players care only fortrivial information (such as the properspelling of their first names, talking tovarious NPCs who are of little importanceto the scenario�s plot, and �yammering inan accent�).

Mr. Kutcherfield seems to feel that role-playing games need more emphasis on�achieving the adventure�s objective, out-smarting the GM, beating the crud out ofthe bad guys, etc.� and he complains that

XP tables are not geared toward promot-ing such endeavors. Oddly enough, inmany systems the opposite tends to betrue.

I do not feel that goal-oriented gaming iswrong. I even think that combat-drivenadventures can be enjoyable, but to belit-tle the importance of role-playing is todeny the potential of RPGs.

In his letter, Mr. Kutcherfield providedan example of how a �play-actor� type ofgamer can severely disrupt an RPG. I findit difficult to believe that his examplescenario (part of which has been quoted atthe opening of this letter) ever took placein a real game. I can, however, cite manyexamples of how not role-playing can ruinthe fun for all those involved. How manyGMs out there have not been disappointedwhen faced with a group of charactersthat are practically nameless, faceless,generic beings?

I admit that �role-playing is not the alphaand omega of the game,� but I truly believethat combat, tactics, and even dice-rollingare only parts of the greater role-playingexperience.

While I love problem-solving andcombat-oriented scenarios, good role-playing must be at the heart of any RPG.That�s what the name means.

Michael PatrickPennsauken NJ

In reference to Joe Kutcherfield�s letterin issue #203, I can�t help but wonder if hewould not be happier playing a simple,easily handled tactical game along the linesof, say, Avalon Hill�s ADVANCED SQUADLEADER* game. Mr. Kutcherfield�s com-plaints about �excessive� role-playing are,at the least, a throwback to the 1970s�bash the monster, grab the loot� school ofgaming. In the past several years, all themajor game producers have come to therealization that combat and adventure aremuch better when framed by an engagingstory line that grabs both the hearts andimaginations of those involved in its un-folding.

If Mr. Kutcherfield�s examples are to betaken as true anecdotes, as opposed tohysterical hyperbole, the only thing that Ican see ailing his game is a lack of controlby the game master. Any GM who wouldallow two players to spend half an hourarguing about the correct spelling ofnames is not worthy of the title. In hissecond example, the Halloween costumeparty, if one player out of a party of threewants to spend two hours of game timecovering every ounce of minutiae, the onlyway this can be allowed is because of,once again, a lack of game master control.

As a role-player and game master ofnearly twenty years� experience, I wouldnever allow one player to so dominate theproceedings. In the aforementioned situa-tion, each player would have been given abrief opportunity to describe her costumeand any unusual preparation that sheplanned to make. Only then, and only if

the situation called for it, would PC/NPCinteraction take place. Mr. Kutcherfield�soutspoken belief that the objective of anadventure is to �outsmart the GM� and�bash the bad guys� once more speaks ofan intellect more disposed to controllingAmerican troops at Bataan than managinghuman interpersonal relationships.

From my own experience, both as aplayer and GM, the most memorable mo-ments in two decades of role-playing ha-ven�t come as the result of dice rolls orrule interpretations, but rather as theresult of people dealing with other people.An example: In a Hero Games� CHAMPI-ONS* game that I ran, a Russian super-hero found himself fighting a Germansupervillain. In Mr. Kutcherfield�s world-view, we should have compared statistics,rolled dice, and applied damage quicklyand dispassionately in order to expeditegameplay. However, I would not trade athousand mechanistic, �efficient� combatsfor the memory of Gregor rising from therubble of a shattered conference room,swinging his plasma rifle around, and, in aclassically cheesy Russian accent, shouting,�Remember Stalingrad!� as he sent theTeutonic bad guy through the window.

Every set of role-playing rules contains theadmonishment that the rules are guidelines.The position of game master needs to betaken quite literally. Not only do you need totake the rules as a guide, but your players

and their preferences need to shape thedirection and style of your game as well. Ifall you want is to �bash the beasties andgrab the money,� more power to you. Butdon�t complain about those of us who enjoyexploring the cultures and personalities ofour characters.

Douglas E. BerryE. Palo Alto CA

I am writing in response to Joe Kutcher-fields letter in issue #203. In it, he talkedof the negatives of the emphasis put onrole-playing. Mr. Kutcherfield was correctin his comments about role-playing beingexcessive at times, but in his examples hewent too far into the extreme. No gamer Iknow of (and I know many) would �arguefor half an hour over how to spell thenames of their characters� or �two hoursdeciding on a costume.� The baseball meta-phor makes sense, but it just doesn�t applyto role-playing. Also, he failed to realizethe difference between play-acting androle-playing. In play-acting, you play thecharacter, be it in a play, a game, or what-not, to the extent that almost all the ele-ments in its life are played out. Inrole-playing, however, you play a charac-ter by determining what action to makeaccording to what the character�s person-ality dictates, plus a little play-acting hereand there when it doesn�t interrupt theflow of game time.

DRAGON 69

In another comment, Mr. Kutcherfieldridiculed the belief that role-playing issuperior to all other aspects of adventuregaming. I believe he might have had thewrong idea about this. From what I�veread in the books, this statement onlyapplies when the DM wants to make thegame and the world as realistic as possi-ble. Mr. Kutcherfield�s example was poorand wouldn�t hold up. Unfortunately, heseems to think that it was meant to beused in every game and situation.

In my group, we all like to play out ourcharacters. We also know when our role-playing goes overboard. Whatever thecase, though, the group has fun. Mr. Kut-cherfield would have fun with it, too, ifhe�d start to set up limits to role-playingand to hurry things up if role-playingstarts to take too long.

Joshua McMillin

The debate over how much emphasisshould be put on role-playing that hasbeen going on in these pages seems a bitsilly to me. There have been numerousletters written by people who seem to bearguing that theirs is the best way to playan RPG. It seems to me that many of theseobviously experienced role-players aremissing the point.

I have run and played in a variety ofRPGs with equally varied participants.Many of these campaigns were successful,

a few were not. I have found, however,that there is no formula that the success-ful games followed. One game I witnessedwas a traditional AD&D® campaign inwhich each of the three players playedtwo 20th-level-plus characters in a MontyHaul campaign. I cannot honestly say thatthey had less fun than some other playersI ran in a role-playing-oriented vampiregame set in Seattle. In the AD&D cam-paign the players caused a lot of carnageevery time they played, and enjoyed everyminute of it. In the vampire campaign werarely got a lot done in less than twohours and spent a lot of time just talking,eating, and making fun of various role-playing systems.

I know many people who get impatientwhen not much gets done at a role-playingsession, but it seems to me that they aremore worried about playing the game�right,� or even playing the game at all,than having fun. In the vampire campaignI am sure we had a lot more fun than wewould have had if we had stuck strictly tothe adventure, and the players of thesuper-powered AD&D campaign certainlyhad more fun than I did when I played myfirst �real� AD&D game with a 1st-levelcharacter. One doesn�t have to do in-depthrole-playing to have a good time, nor doesone have to play mid-level, moderatelypowered, perfectly balanced characters. Infact, it is in my experience that good GMs

don�t even need to have balanced PCs. Thetwo best campaigns I ever played in fea-tured massively under-and overpoweredcharacters, and just the right amount ofrole-playing to allow each character a fullshare of the adventures.

My advice is this: Don�t lose track of whyyou�re role-playing when arguing abouthow to role-play. If you�re having the timeof your life playing a personality-devoidImmortal in a D&D® game, keep doing it.The most important thing about role-playing games is that while they are muchmore complicated than most other games,they have the most potential of any kindof game, and can be played so that any-body can get enjoyment from them.

Jason WrightBrookline MA

* indicates a product produced by a company otherthan TSR, Inc.

What’s your opinion?

What is the future direction of role-playing games? What problems do youhave with your role-playing campaign?Turn to this issue’s “Forum” and seewhat others think—then tell us whatyou think!

70 NOVEMBER 1994

News of people & events in the gaming industry

You can send us news, press releases,and announcements using the Internet atTSR.mags@genie.geis.com. We welcomeyour comments at Rumblings, DRAGON®Magazine, P.O. Box 111, Lake Geneva WI,53147, U.S.A.

Lead Story:TSR Announces New Licenses

TSR, Inc., announced several new licens-ing deals at the 1994 GEN CON® GameFair. Listed below are just some of the hotnew products to look for in the future:

TSR has just signed a licensing agreementwith Interplay Productions, Inc., the premiergame-software publisher. Interplay now hasthe exclusive license to produce electronicgames set in TSR�s FORGOTTEN REALMS®and PLANESCAPE� settings�includingcomputer, home video (cartridge games),coin-operated, and interactive on-line games.The first products are expected to hit thepublic in about 18 months.

Also on the electronic frontier, TSR hasawarded extended licenses to StrategicSimulations Inc., to produce additionalRAVENLOFT® computer games through1996. SSI also will create a series of addi-tional SLAYER fantasy adventure games(for the 3DO system) in 1995, and furtherproducts in 1996.

TSR has received news from UniversalStudios in California that the WILDSPACE�adventures have been picked up for syndica-tion on the USA cable network, starting inearly 1995. Likely broadcast time is Saturdaymornings.

In 1995, Friedlander Publishing Group,Inc., will release two sets of TSR art trad-ing cards. One set will feature the work ofJeff Easley and the other the art of Clyde

72 NOVEMBER 1994

Caldwell. Each deck will be composed of90 cards.

TSR is working on even more licensingagreements. Watch this column in futureissues of this magazine for more details.

Off the wire: Electronic updateMicroProse Software has announced an

exclusive agreement with the Wizards ofthe Coast (WotC) to publish an interactiveon-line computer version of WotC�s MAG-IC: THE GATHERING* trading-card game.The game, which will be available only onCD-ROM, will allow stand-alone and inter-active on-line play, and will feature thecards from the Revised Edition of thegame and the Arabian Nights, Antiquities,Legends, and The Dark supplements.Expected minimum requirements includeCD-ROM drive, IBM-PC 386 or compatible,33 MHz, 4 MB RAM, SVGA graphics, andmouse.

The electronic game publisher, ORIGIN,has announced that Wing Commander III:Heart of the Tiger will be released this fall.Featuring the acting talents of MarkHamill, Malcolm McDowell, and JohnRhys-Davies, this �interactive movie�comes on two CD-ROM discs for the IBM-PC and compatibles. The IBM versionrequires a 486/25SX machine, a double-speed CD drive, 8 MB RAM, and 10 MB ofhard-drive space. A 3DO version also isplanned.

We hear from the FASA Corporation thatthe release of the BATTLETECH* COM-PENDIUM: CD-ROM project has beenrescheduled for release in early 1995.�Rumblings� first mentioned the project inDRAGON issue #205. (For those who needa weekly �Mech fix, check out the BATTLE-TECH animated TV series that debutedthis past September. Check your locallistings for details.)

Weis & Hickman return to KrynnAfter almost 10 years, Margaret Weis

and Tracy Hickman are returning to penanother novel set in the world of theDRAGONLANCE® Saga they helped create.�After 10 years, there was still a story tobe told,� said Weis. �As we accompaniedour characters into the future, we discov-ered a new threat that would bring theworld full circle, as fall leads to winter,and spring into summer.� Dragons ofSummer Flame continues the stories of thecharacters featured in the novella collec-tion, The Second Generation, focusing onthe survivors of the War of the Lance andthe heirs of the Companions. The novelwill be published in hardcover, with aninitial print run of 200,000 copies. Lookfor the book in late 1995. Also, The SecondGeneration collection will be available inpaperback by March, 1995.

Creators wantedEvent Horizon Publications recently

launched the MAGIC FRONTIERS* role-playing system and needs freelance au-thors and artists to write and illustratescience-fiction books and adventures. Newwriters and artists are encouraged tosubmit their work. For free submissionguidelines and game catalog, send a #10SASE to: Guidelines, c/o EHP Box 8275,Omaha NE 68108.

Whispered Dominion, a new SF gamingmagazine, is looking for artists and writ-ers. Accepted work will be paid for. Ifinterested, contact: cgreene@julian.uwo.caor log to GOLDEN EAGLE BBS: (519) 680-7761, Canada�s gaming BBS for directupload of work. Membership is $2 a year.

* indicates a product produced by a companyother than TSR, Inc.

he rough wood of the bakery felt warmagainst the boy�s rain-soaked back. Heflattened against it, absorbing splintersalong with heat, and fought to still hisshivering. Squinting against the rain, hemade certain that no one watched himfrom the narrow alley.

He shifted sideways, sliding his bare feet through scratchyweeds until an awning blocked most of the drizzle. Here hetraded concealment for warmth in the yeasty air that waftedfrom the bakery�s rear window. His flexing hands slowly losttheir tremble but began to sting as they thawed, as did hislower lip. He realized that he was biting it.

The window was at his shoulder�s height. He lifted hisarm and reached backward, edging his fingers in over thesill beside his ear to find and gently grasp a biscuit, crum-bly and still warm. His stomach growled.

A massive hot hand clamped down around his, crushingthe biscuit between his fingers. He jerked his arm backfrom the window, but the flour-covered fist held himtrapped.

The boy yelped and scrambled, half dragged, throughthe open window onto a table, into the thick sweet smell ofthe bakery. The baker loomed like a powdery tower in thebright lamplight. The baker�s fist, still locked over hisown, hauled him forward and he fell off the table, drag-ging two trays of biscuits to clang and scatter across thefloor. The baker jerked him into the air and shook himuntil rainwater flicked off to sizzle against the ovens.

The boy stuffed a biscuit into his mouth.Cursing, the baker carried him out the front door into

the damp cold and threw him into the street. The boysprawled in the mud, gibbering words to lessen the com-ing beating.

�No more, you little rat!� the baker screamed down athim, punctuating his words with kicks. �You�ll not thievemy table any more!�

�And was he stealing sweets, Master Baker?� asked asoft voice from out of the rain.

The punishing foot stopped in mid-kick. A man clad ina muddy brown cloak peered down at them from the backof a muddy brown horse. Beneath the cloak glinted worntraveling mail. �Or was it,� the man continued in a whis-per, �just bread?�

�He�s a thief, my lord. He�s always���Answer my question.�Sucking sounds came from the horse�s hooves as it shift-

ed its weight in the mud. The baker glared down at theboy. �I only caught him with biscuits this time, but��

�I am wondering something, Master Baker. I am won-dering what the report would be if I asked Father Borasup at the shrine how much bread you have contributed tothe poor this year.�

The boy soon found himself riding the horse up theshrine trail, munching biscuits from a bulging flour bag,the thrill of riding exceeded only by the thrill of eating allthat he could hold.

He sat behind the saddle�s horn, in front of the man,and shared his cloak. �He was scared,� the boy said. �Youcould�ve made him give us more.�

�His was the greater need,� said the soft voice. �More

Lifegiver

By Darren C. Cummings

Illustrations by Charlie Parker

DRAGON 75

would have hindered his understanding.��I don�t understand.��I know.�Rain was falling on the biscuits. The boy gathered the

cloak about the bag, exposing the pitted pommel of asword. His eyes widened at the rubied skulls that adornedit. The man covered the weapon.

They had reached the shrine. Autumn�s wet had accent-ed the old burn scars on the marble columns where darklicks of evil heat had long ago lapped at the smooth white-ness of the stone. Father Boras worked inside, near theEverlit Hearth, hammering together some villager�s offer-ing of wood to repair the shrine�s shutters before winter.

The man dismounted before the columns, keeping thesword, and embraced the old carpenter-monk. The boyate another biscuit.

�It�s late, Kheth,� said Father Boras, his face wrinklinginto a smile. �I was wondering if you�d finally miss ayear.�

�The barons don�t stop their squabblings at my con-venience. Not even for my trip to the shrine.�

�And who is this you�ve brought me?� They turned toface the boy.

�Someone in need of guidance. And food.� The mantouched the monk�s shoulder and moved alone around theHearth to the altar.

The monk smiled up at him. �Come in, boy. Havesome soup with those biscuits.�

The boy dropped off the horse and backed carefullyaway from it until his muddy feet slipped on the polishedmarble of the shrine�s steps. Father Boras placed a bowlon the edge of his work table and motioned him over to awarm bench.

As the boy slurped up the hot broth, he watched theman called Kheth kneel before the altar, his sword heldforward.

Father Boras resumed his shutter mending. �He praysfor the soul of a friend,� he offered.

The boy whispered, �Why does his sword have skulls inthe handle?�

�Ah, that,� sighed the monk. �Well, that requires sometelling.� He paused and glanced to the altar again. Then heset down his shutter, leaned forward, and quietly began.

Kheth reached the fifth trap as dusk was creeping throughthe stunted trees near the mountain�s final ridge. He ut-tered the last of the sacred words and fifteen feet of thetrail ahead shimmered, then disappeared. Where the trailhad led now waited a hungry pit whose bottom was piledwith bones and rusting metal.

Kheth turned, crouching, and peered down the moun-tain through the reddening light at the trail snaking awaybeneath him. The only movement was the rhythm of thescrub junipers and patchy grasses in the evening�s newbreeze. Once again he memorized the route to the ravinewhere he had left his horse. Once again he scoured thetrail for movement.

No one followed him. Not yet.Kheth edged around the pit�s dry, crumbling lip. He

jogged up the steep trail, climbing onto the bare granite ofthe exposed ridge. The trail ended at a stone forest of

76 NOVEMBER 1994

looming boulders.Then he stood at last before the hovel of Gregor the

hermit, keeper of the Lifeleech.The hermit had chosen to live in a nick on the mountain�s

granite spine, a crevice between two of the great bare boul-ders strewn along the ridge top. Odd lengths of wood, woventogether, formed an outer wall to seal the crack.

The stick door fell in as Kheth touched it. He jerked hismace free and waited for his eyes to adjust to the gloom.�Gregor,� he growled. �The priests have sent me.�

�Hello?� said a bright voice from inside.�Gregor?� demanded Kheth. �Who speaks?�

�I�m . . .� The voice grew quiet. �Not Gregor. Are youprepared for a shock? Gregor is no longer with us.�

�Gregor is dead?��Over a year now. I hope you weren�t close.�The red dusklight found its way through the warped

wall to shine on the shack�s interior: a collapsed table, asingle stool, a rusting pot in the fire pit, a bunk holding asmall bent skeleton.

On the far side, in its own pool of dying light, hung ascabbarded sword.

�I come,� Kheth said, �to take the weapon called theLifeleech.�

�Um, sorry,� said the voice. �No one here bears thatname.�

�I come to take it to its destruction.��Now, listen. There�s no one here���So lying is among your dark arts?� Kheth asked, step-

ping carefully into the shack, his eyes fixed on the sword.�How did you kill the hermit, Lifeleech?�

It answered, the sound forming in the air about it,�Perhaps I should clarify. See, there used to be a sword bythat name. In fact, I used to bear that name. But that�snot my name now. Now I�m Lifegiver. So you see, you�vecome a long way for��

�Silence!��That�s Life G-I-V-E-R. �R� as in �repented,� and��Kheth strode forward and reached for the weapon.�It�s a trap! Don�t touch me!�

Kheth froze, his hand curled around the scabbard, notquite touching it. His jaws knotted as he considered thedeadly magic that Gregor had used to keep this swordhidden from the forces of the Shadowed One.

�It�s really horrible,� said the sword ominously. �Acurse upon him who touches me first. It takes ten, maybetwenty years to kill. A rotting, leprous affliction. Of thegroin. And��

Kheth pulled the weapon off the wall and began to wrapit in a long, spell-proof cloth.

�Very well, I lied about the curse,� the sword said.�But I�m serious about the name. Now I�m called Life-giver. I�ve repented.� Its voice began to muffle under thefolds. �You�ve got to believe me! I converted. You tryspending ten years hanging on a wall listening to that oldhermit and see if you don�t change your ways!�

The cloth ran out as Kheth shrouded the spiked guardand black snakeskin grip, leaving only the skull-bearingcounterbalance uncovered: four faces of bone with rubyeyes. The gems flickered up at him and the sword�s voicewhispered, �Please . . . what can I do to prove myself? I

haven�t taken a life in years. I swear it! I��Kheth shoved his gauntlet over the skulls and listened to

the silence. He moved to peer from the shack�s doorway.There were those who desired to repossess the Lifeleech,those whose growing power had caused him to come for it.They may well have tried to follow his path through thesacred traps. If so, he would encounter them on his wayback down the mountain.

He glanced back at the hermit�s skeleton, frowned, thengave the Sign of Parting. With the shrouded sword in hisleft hand and his mace in his right, he slipped from theshack and into the darkening forest of windswept junipers.

Kheth ran back along the trail and scuttled around thepit trap. The sky purpled in the west as he raced throughthe stunted trees, skittering down pebbly slopes. Stum-bling, he nearly fell into the dry ravine in which he hadleft his horse.

He crouched and leaned out over the sandy lip to peerdown, squinting into the gloom for landmarks. Thestreambed�s smooth features, twenty feet below, slowlygained texture. At last he found the remembered stump.

He heard a shout behind him.Kheth scrambled on all fours, searching madly along

the ravine�s crumbling edge for his hidden rope. Heslashed at the thick bushes with his mace.

Something moved to his right. He threw himself pronealong the ravine�s edge, brambles raking his skin. Torch-light filtered through the thorny bushes. Voices shoutedahead and behind.

With a prayer, he rolled left over the crumbling edge ofthe ravine and slid into its darkness. He grabbed the bush-es� scraggly root-mats, swung free, and both his weaponsclattered down into the shadows. He felt sand and rockspew from beneath his boots as he kicked at the wall for afoothold.

Below him a light flickered.Kheth became still, as part of the roots. He willed his

fingers to lock against his weight.From the lower edge of his vision he watched two riders

approach, one bearing a torch, one a cocked crossbow.They passed beneath him. He stared down, watching theirtorchlight under his boots, and felt his back tighten, antic-ipating the puncture of a barbed iron bolt.

Through matted roots he glimpsed rubies sparkling inthe torchlight. His gauntlet had slipped off the pommelwhen the sword fell. It could speak. He was trapped.

The soldiers paused to confer, slightly to his right.Leather creaked as one dismounted, whispered, remount-ed. Kheth�s hands began to slip through roots grown mud-dy from his sweat. He drew a long breath and tensed forthe fall.

The soldiers wheeled their horses and galloped back theway they had come.

Kheth fell, scraping a sandy avalanche with him to landin a heap beside the sword.

He lay in the dirt and flexed his hands, listening to thehoofbeats until they grew fainter. Then he rose and shookthe sand away.

�Better run,� whispered the sword. �They found yourmace.�

He grabbed the sword. �Why didn�t you speak?�

�And your horse, too. I told you. I have converted.Now I would suggest you climb or, at the least, makesome haste.�

Kheth squinted into the dark in both directions, thenturned up the ravine away from the riders, and ran.

His boots thudded against the silty sand. �Torches!�warned the sword, twice, and both times they hid againstthe wall while riders rumbled by above them.

Labored minutes passed and a sliver of moon rose. Theravine narrowed to become a steep, twisting wash. Khethwas considering climbing out when the wash split beforehim.

�More torches behind us,� said the sword. �Betterclimb.�

�No time,� gasped Kheth. He sprinted into the narrow-er right fork and flattened into the shadows. �They mayseparate. We�ll take them here.� He whipped the weaponfree of cloth and scabbard. The moon flashed in the mir-ror of the blade.

�We?� whispered the sword. �Take?��Fight and kill. Surely you remember how.��Actually I, well . . .��You had enough practice against our troops.��Precisely. Which brings up the point I made earlier

about having given all that up.� They could hear the ap-proaching horses� hooves thudding on the sand. �Remem-ber? Life G-I-V-E-R? �R� as in��

�They come.��I believe you underestimate your climbing abilities.��Silence!��I don�t want to do this.��I said, �Silence!��A knot of horsemen gathered at the fork, their torches

flickering on armor and swords. One dismounted andbegan to study the ground, creeping closer. Twenty feetfrom where Kheth hid, the man straightened.

Kheth strode out of the shadows, swinging the man�sdeath.

�Lives!� screamed the sword. �Lives! I will feed onyou all!� The man bolted. The blade caught only air.

The weapon�s maniacal laughter filled the ravine. Evilred light flashed from the skulls� ruby eyes. Horses reared.Men cursed and fought to control their mounts. Torchesand weapons fell.

�Hot lives for dinner!� The sword�s cackling was mad-ness and fear and pain. �Lives!�

Kheth chased his target forward and the man scrabbledback from the sword�s point. The skull-lights flashed upinto Kheth�s eyes, blinding him.

�Fresh lives for feasting!�Kheth crouched and tried to see, blinking through spot-

ted vision. To his right he heard the twang of a crossbow.The sword twisted in his hand and sparked as it deflectedthe bolt.

�I�ll eat your lives!� The sword twisted again andsparked twice. Its skulls flashed and blinding light flick-ered over the bowmen�s faces.

Then silence fell across the ravine but for the sound ofrunning boots on rock. The only light remaining flickeredfrom two still-lit torches on the sand.

Kheth rose from his crouch and stared at the refuse

DRAGON 77

78 NOVEMBER 1994

about him, then at the thing in his hand.�I suggest,� said the sword, �that you pick up something

else if you intend to hurt someone. I�ll have none of it.��Monster,� Kheth whispered. �You lying monster.��I don�t follow���I�ll fall for no more of your tricks! All to keep me from

harming one of them! You sensed my skill, didn�t you?�He slammed the sword back into its scabbard. �You stillserve them somehow, don�t you?�

�I know this is all very difficult���You want to turn me from the Truth!��Nothing could be further from my���Silence, monster!�Kheth collected the fallen bolts and a crossbow and

flung them up out of the wash. He wrapped the sword�sscabbard again in the spell-proof cloth, then looked at thegleaming pommel. It seemed quiet now and he had muchclimbing ahead, so he pulled his gauntlet onto his hand.He looked long at a plain sword lying beside one of hisattackers but decided against the extra weight; he had hisknife. Clambering up, clawing at the dirt, he was alreadyplanning his way down the dark mountain.

Dawn had spread through the sky by the time he stum-bled upon the winding Pilgrim�s Road. Kheth leanedagainst a tree, finally allowing himself a moment�s rest,and looked south along the road. For hundreds of yearsthe road had led the penitent up from the great lowlandcities to the temples and shrines nestled in the dry hills.Kheth looked out at the dark smoke clouds of the plainand wondered if he was, indeed, the last of the faithful tomake the trek.

He had been sent from his place on the capital�s outerwall, where the fighting had been going badly. Now hewas one of the chosen to ensure the final destruction of theevil artifacts captured during the war fought in his grand-father�s days. The priests had decided that it was time toretrieve the scattered and hidden devices of evil.

Some said that the Shadowed One had risen to wagethis new war because He knew that the priests had finallylearned how to destroy His creations. If the artifacts couldbe destroyed, He would have little reason to continue Hisonslaught. At least this was the hope of those who had sentKheth for the sword.

Kheth cared not. If the sword was important to theShadowed One, then Kheth would destroy it, were he thelast of his people. He straightened and began to marchinto the hills as day brightened on his right.

When the sun�s dry stare beat down from directly over-head the sword finally whispered. �Would it be treason-ous,� it asked, �to suggest that you rest?�

Kheth blinked and glanced around, finally finding theroad. He, or it, had veered. He was staggering, but hewalked on for several minutes, not willing to stop at thesword�s suggestion.

He collapsed behind a fallen tree, cradling the crossbow.�Wake up.�His eyes snapped open. Trees, weeds, a log.�A rider,� hissed the sword.An armored horseman moved along the road. Fear

chased away Kheth�s sleep, and he began to crawl side-ways through the light brush, three-limbed, his right arm

ready with the bow.�Don�t hurt him,� whispered the sword from behind

the log. �Perhaps you could stun��The man screamed, clawing at Kheth�s bolt in his chest.

Kheth burst upon him, pulling him down before the horsecould carry him off. The empty bow proved an effectiveclub. The forest grew silent again.

Kheth cooed softly to the prancing horse and slowlyapproached it. He eyed the saddlebags and thought offood. The reins dragged along the road�s dust and, aftermuch soothing, he put a foot on them.

He ate and drank from his enemy�s rations and mount-ed his enemy�s horse. Strength flowed back into his stiffmuscles as he rode to the sword and scooped up the weap-on to fasten across one saddlebag.

�A few days to the shrine,� he said, �and we�ll be rid ofyou forever.�

He strapped the crossbow onto the other side of thesaddle, then urged the horse to canter through the treesand savored its smooth speed. Fed, armed, mobile, Khethreturned to the road.

His arm exploded in agony.Another rider bore down upon him, stowing a spent

crossbow and drawing a sword. A barbed iron bolt stuckout from Kheth�s right arm, and blood spouted fromaround it to spatter in the dust. Kheth wheeled his horseaway, kicking it into a gallop.

Each hoof-strike seemed to twist the barbs deeper intohis flesh. Sticky red spread down his tunic. He could hearthe hunter gaining behind him.

Kheth jerked his horse away from the road and crashedthrough limbs that slapped back at him like angry hands.He fought back at the branches until he broke throughinto a clearing.

Here a trickle of a stream pooled. Reflected in it was aforest of old cottonwoods, their long white trunks like agrove of bones. He splashed through the images and spur-red the horse into the trees.

He slid off, lashed the reins to the largest tree, andgrappled for the crossbow. He fumbled at the crossbow�scranequin with the bow between his knees, his right armflopping uselessly.

Branches cracked from across the clearing. He kickedthe bow away and wrestled his knife out left-handed.

He took cover behind the cottonwood�s thick trunk, buthe found himself sagging against it, watching red dropletsdribble down the smooth white bark to his feet. Hesqueezed his eyes shut against the sight and tried to listenfor the other man�s approach.

From across the stream came the creak of leather as thehunter dismounted. Then Kheth heard the sharp rattle ofa cranequin as the other man cranked his crossbow toreadiness.

�Draw me,� said the sword on the saddlebag.�The coward speaks?� Kheth whispered. �The Sword

of Gentleness wishes to be used? No, I�ll die with normalsteel in my hand.�

�And in your arm. Draw me while you still can.�Kheth glanced around the trunk�s side. �Your lights will

not dazzle with the sun overhead. Nor, I think, will thelaughing avail much. No.�

�Listen to me. My name is Lifegiver. Before, in the olddays, I took. Now��

Iron stabbed into Kheth�s neck. He gurgled and spun,flopping against the horse.

�Draw me!�The horse skittered sideways and Kheth fell after it.

One bloody hand closed upon the sword and pulled it withhim. He tumbled into the brush.

And sat up.Two bolts fell away to lie beside his hand. He picked

them up. They were wet with blood, as were his clothes,but he was whole. The pain was gone.

�Don�t kill him, please,� said the sword weakly. �I�llnot have his death added to my sins.�

Kheth stood. The hunter froze halfway across the pool,his crossbow spent. Kheth threw the bloody bolts to splashat the man�s feet, shifted the sword to his right hand, andbeckoned him forward.

The man stared down at the twin red trails in the waterand licked his lips. Then he turned and fled.

�Thank you,� murmured the sword. �I thought you�dprove worth it.�

Kheth explored his throat and arm and found themcompletely healed. �Worth what? What did you do?�

�I�ve been saving that life a long time. My last one.��Last life? What?��A leech takes blood. I used to take lives. For my

wielder.�Kheth held up the weapon and admired its rubies in the

sun. �So you give life as well as take?��I stole the lives of good men to empower monsters. No

more. That was my last. You had better get riding.�Kheth recaptured his skittish horse and mounted. As

they splashed back across the pool he redrew the swordand admired its balance and design.

�Now I understand the legends. How he who wieldedyou was invincible.�

�Those invincible men all died. I could only heal themwhen I took others� lives.�

�And now you claim to hunger no longer?� The limbsslapped at Kheth as they rode back into the trees.

�Well, I must admit that I still have odd moments . . .�Kheth slashed the limbs with it.�Stop!� shrieked the sword.Thick limbs sheared apart and leaves began to flutter

down about them. The trunks to either side groaned andpopped.

�Oh, no,� moaned the weapon. �I�m sorry. You sur-prised me. I�m so sorry.�

Amazed, Kheth watched two stout trees wither from thesword�s cut. The leaves browned, then dropped, followedby the branches, heaviest first, then the lighter until thetrunks themselves splintered and collapsed.

�I couldn�t help it,� wailed the sword. �You didn�twarn me. Oh, I�ve sinned again.�

�Your voice seems the stronger for it.��It was an evil habit. You set me to thinking of eating!

My vows . . .��They were just trees. Can you heal me again now?��Just trees? That�s how it starts! Then a toad or a bird.

Then�No! I made a vow. Many times.�

�But can you heal now?��Perhaps your scratches. I kept Gregor healthy that

way, finishing off rabbits for his stew. Fixed his splintersand his chewed nails. He had perfect teeth, you know. ButI could do nothing for the back he was born with. Or, inthe end, his age. I hung there and watched him die andknew my healing a lie. Then I took my vow.�

�But any life lets you heal?��Better my own life be taken after all! Would you defo-

liate the forest with me? Are you worth ten thousandtrees? Your wounds took a man�s life. And I won�t takeanother�s. Would you see men go the way of those poortrees? It�s horrible. Trust me.�

They found the road. �Sword?��Yes?��I do begin to believe you.��Ah,� it murmured. �Well, then. Perhaps it was good that

I . . . but no.� The skulls� eyes flashed once. �Sheatheme and ride, I have vows to renew.�

They rode.The miles passed with the hours. The diminishing

stream crossed the road several times as they wound everhigher into the hills. Twice they hid from pursuing packswho made more noise than they.

Darkness finally shrouded them. The sword threw adim red light ahead from its ruby eyes and they rode on,easily avoiding hunters� fires and torches. Kheth slept atdawn, holed up in a thicket with the sword standingwatch.

This became their pattern. Using each night�s coverthey slipped steadily northward. They rode deep into theshort, steep hills, and the thickening forest grew closeoverhead to hide the waning sliver of moon. Four longcold nights were broken by dawns, and on the fifth morn-ing they stood outside the shrine and admired its moun-tain marble columns.

Kheth held the weapon lightly and started the horseforward. �I haven�t been here since I was a boy. It seemssmaller, now.�

�I should be joyful to see it, too.��I wonder if the priests get enough food these days?��Kheth���Though perhaps with their spells they can conjure

whatever they need.��Kheth, I don�t want to be destroyed.�Kheth nodded, still looking at the shrine. �I�ll tell them

what�s happened to you. About your vow. They will knowhow best to use you. Sword, if together we could man thewall . . .�

�No killing, Kheth. Better that I be destroyed. Howmany fatal wounds do you have to survive before you stopwanting to live? How much pain before you hate me forsending you back for more?�

Kheth laughed. �Perhaps you should be a priest,sword. Though how you would wear the robes . . .�

Blood was smeared on the columns.Kheth dismounted, crossed between the pillars, and

stepped carefully into the doorway. Bodies lay strewn in-side, priests slaughtered on their own defiled altar. Khethcursed and drew back.

Crossbow bolts and war cries flew from the trees.

DRAGON 79

80

The horse was hit, reared, and sprang away. Marblechips and metal bolts bounced between the columns. Thesword spun and sparked, blocking furiously, as Kheth fellback inside the stinking shrine.

But an iron bolt had pierced his stomach.�They were waiting for us,� he hissed. He limped

across to the altar and peered outside at the armor glintingbehind the woodpiles. �Surrounded. Can you blockenough to get me across to the trees?�

�No. Too many. You�ve already been���Will they close? Wait for dark?��They fear us. They�ll keep back. But you are bleeding.�Kheth slumped onto a bench and cut his sopping tunic

away from the red shaft in his flesh. �I could pull it,� hesaid. �But the wound could start spurting.�

�I can give you the tree-lives.��Maybe there�s some salve.� Kheth grunted to his feet

and searched through the wreckage. He found a smallbasketful of salves intended for the war. They were allunopened; the dead priests had been allowed no chance touse them.

Kheth eased to the floor among other bloody bodies. Hesmeared salve about the shaft, then grasped it in his righthand. In his left he held the sword.

He was pale and panting, semiconscious, when it wasdone. Between the sword and salve the wound wasclosed�but not before the iron barbs had made a pool ofKheth�s life on the floor.

Something rattled and broke across the wooden roof.�Can�t hit me down here,� mumbled Kheth, lifting the

sword. �Come and get us.��That wasn�t a bolt, Kheth.�Other objects thunked overhead, and soon they could

smell smoke.�I don�t want to burn.��Over there, crawl to the door. There�s more air.�The air was warming as the roar of the flames grew.

Kheth slumped against the door frame with the swordacross his lap. A wide red smear marked his passageacross the marble.

�Stay awake, Kheth. Kheth! The roof is going to fall.Slide that table over you.� Kheth raised his arm to grasp thetable�s edge. It would not move. �Can you get under it?�

Kheth began to cough and shook his head. �. . . all atrick? Knew all along . . .� He pushed at the sword on hislap with lifeless arms. �Trapped me . . . torturer.�

�Kheth. No, Kheth. I was on your side before I met

you! Will you die without believing me?��. . . created out of lies . . .��I need a life to heal you!�The middle of the room crashed down in an explosion

of heat and sparks. Kheth flinched away from the flamesand fell partly out the doorway. The smoke blocked sightof even the columns.

�Tool of the Shadowed One,� Kheth whispered. �Mon-ster . . .� He felt the hungry flames licking his feet.

Then he was whole again.Kheth rolled out the door as the rest of the roof fell. The

blast of heat was less shocking than the sudden absence ofpain. He squirmed away through scalding pillars to findcool grass and enough air to crawl to the trees.

Thick smoke hid him as he sneaked past a knot of laugh-ing crossbowmen. He relieved them of horses that had beentethered too near the road, mounting one and leading awaythe rest, each laden with weapons and provisions.

Kheth galloped northward and threw back his head tolaugh. �You did it! We live!� He waved the sword in the air.

But the sword did not answer.Kheth reined his horses to a stop and gently wiped the

soot from the gem-encrusted pommel. Then he could seethat the light had gone out of its rubies.

The sword never spoke again.

The boy�s broth was cold. The old monk refilled the bowlwhile the boy watched Kheth pray.

Father Boras picked up his shutter once more. �You�veheard the rest. How he gathered us in the hills into anarmy, how he led the rebellion, how he organized thebaronies, how he carries Lifegiver wherever he goes. Andnow you see how he comes here each year.�

The boy could see old scars on Kheth�s neck, writhingin the firelight. �Why does he come?�

Father Boras bent over his work. �I used to think . . .well, I used to tell him that the sword would be happyabout all that he�s done with its life. I thought it wouldmake him feel better, you see?�

The boy nodded.�But he told me to stop. He said he doesn�t come here

for feeling-salve.�The boy looked back to the warrior at the altar. �He

comes to remember?��Aye. That, and to pray for the

soul of his friend.�

A Night of Shadows

by Ed Greenwood

Artwork by Dan Burr

�What be this stuff?�Elminster�s voice was testy. Inside the

armor, I was sweating: the other twoarchmages weren�t even here yet, and theOld Mage had burned his tongue on mychili. I dared not reply; it was past time forMordenkainen to appear.

As I had that thought, the flames in thefireplace danced giddily and spat out aspreading tongue of amber fire. It expand-ed into an ever-widening ring as it rose�and when it was about man-sized, theLord Mage of Greyhawk stepped calmlythrough it into the study, a small book inhis hand.

Elminster looked up from the tablewhere he�d been bathing his tongue in icebeer, and waved a hand in greeting. Aglass of the driest white wine in my cellarglided up off the table; Mordenkainenplucked it deftly out of the air as he strodeto his usual chair.

�Well met,� he said with a smile, and Irelaxed just a little. It wasn�t going to be

one of Mordenkainen�s grim nights. Aplatter of stuffed mushrooms slid acrossthe table and offered itself to the mage ofOerth, and he leaned forward to selectone with an even wider smile. �I�ve had alot of fun with the magic we assembledlast time,� he said, �and I brought someodds and ends with me.�

�Good,� Elminster said. �It�s time we in-dulged ourselves . . . saving worlds andspeaking of utter doom are wearing work.Besides, I�ve found something called �butterpecan ice cream� in the freezer here�� (Iwinced inside the armor; I�d been savingthat) ��and I�d like a little fun to go with it.�

�That sounds like my cue for a grandentrance,� a shadow near the fireplace saidsmoothly, and stepped forward with cat-like grace. Dalamar, Master of the Con-clave, raised his hand as he came, and agoblet obligingly drifted into it. He noddedthanks and greeting together, and satdown in his favorite chair.

A fruity, flatulent eructation followed.

Dalamar sprang up as if he�d been burned,glaring, as my best red wine leaped into theair all around him. �What-?� he snapped, andthen his angry eyes turned from Elminster�slook of angelic innocence to Mordenkainen�sfixed grin.

The Lord Mage of Greyhawk�s mouthtwitched, and then he burst into helpless

laughter. Dalamar hissed in rage, andraised a hand. Elminster�s eyebrows rose,

and the droplets of red wine that had beengathering like tiny pinwheels in the air

around the dark elven mage swept togeth-er into a ball�and flew into Dalamar�supraised hand.

His glare turned to the sphere of wine,wobbling and heavy in his palm, and thenat Elminster.

�Thy goblet,� the Old Mage suggested.Dalamar�s snarl as he thrust the ball ofliquid into the vessel was almost a scream.I swallowed, waiting for my study to betorn apart.

Mordenkainen�s forehead was down onthe table now, and his shoulders shook.Dalamar watched them rise and fall for along, cold time . . . and then I saw thecorner of his elven mouth crook and rise,just a little.

�Might I suggest, henceforth,� he said insilken-soft tones, �a �no pranks� rule applyto our little gatherings? It might be safer.�

Elminster nodded. �Agreed.� He turnedto Mordenkainen, but the Lord Mage wasstill lost in mirth. He looked back at Dala-mar, and pointed at the goblet.

Dalamar�s brow rose, and he pointed atthe liquid with a nod. Elminster nodded,and the dark elf�s smile was dazzling in itsglee as he leaned forward to delicatelyupend the goblet over the back of Mor-denkainen�s neck.

The Lord Mage of Greyhawk sat up witha roar, and Dalamar sprang back with a

DRAGON 83

mocking little laugh. Inside the armor, Iquaked again.

Mordenkainen slapped at the back of hisneck, and wriggled his shoulder-blades.�Of all the fool tricks! What a waste ofgood wine, youngling!�

�It seemed just what your garb lacked,old man,� Dalamar returned, hands raisedto hurl a spell if need be.

Mordenkainen looked at him, snorted,and said, �Come and sit, then. �No pranks�it is.� As he reached for his own glass, heshook his head and chuckled again. �Ah,but �twas worth it,� he murmured.

The dark elf sat down a little gingerly,but there came no sound from his seat thistime. Dalamar caught Elminster�s inter-ested gaze as he was carefully loweringhimself onto the chair, and suddenly start-ed to laugh. High, tinkling laughter, ratherlike Laeral�s.

The Wizards Three chuckled togetherfor a few moments, as squadrons of olives,pickles, sliced meats, nuts, cheeses, andthe like swooped in from the kitchen.Bringing up the rear of the procession wasa green bottle I recognized. Elminsteridentified it for the other two: �Almondsherry�tastes like Waterdhavian zzar.�

Mordenkainen set aside one glass to sipat this new offering from another, raisedhis brows in appreciation, and said, �Itdoes indeed.�

Elminster raised his own brows. �Whenwere ye in Waterdeep?�

Mordenkainen chuckled. �Oh, often.Years ago, when I�d newly mastered di-mensional travel, I used to go with somefriends to Waterdeep fairly regularly, for�ah, recreation.�

Dalamar raised one of his eyebrows.�Shortage of ladies in Greyhawk, milord?�

Mordenkainen chuckled easily, refusingto rise to this jab. �As that city is now,�twas also then: a lively place, where noone knew us and so we could act freely.�

�So you went there for a Night ofShadows,� the dark elven archmage said,scooping up a handful of almonds to gowith his sherry.

Both of the men gave Dalamar curiouslooks. �How is it you know of that ritual?�Mordenkainen asked.

It was Dalamar�s turn to assume an oddexpression. �You mean Toril has someceremony called a Night of Shadows?� Heshook his head. �Among my folk, onKrynn, that term means a frolic, namedwhen it was considered good fun to go upto the surface world by night, and raidhuman settlements.�

�In Faerun,� Elminster said, �those whoworship Shar celebrate four Nights ofShadows a year�when they probablybehave just as you did, on those surfaceraids.�

�And on Oerth,� Mordenkainen added,�that term refers to a night of doom thatbefell many Bakluni mages so long agothat what really happened has been twist-ed into several different legends.�

Dalamar�s face was thoughtful as he

84 NOVEMBER 1994

voiced my own unspoken thought. �Per-haps these gatherings are our Nights ofShadows.�

The two men nodded, and Elminsterwaved a hand and muttered something.Out of the apparently solid tabletop infront of the other two archmages, a parch-ment scroll arose and unfolded itself. �Ourfirst spell, this evening,� he announced.

Dalamar read the first few words, andnodded. �I believe I can match that.� Hereached into a sleeve of his robe, just asMordenkainen snapped his fingers and aflurry of parchment erupted on wingsfrom his book.

The elven mage�s sleeve poured forthpaper�and scrolls began to gather, flapping like a flock of hovering doves abovethe arriving dishes of butter pecan icecream.

Then the three archmages started intalking, explaining and gesturing andboasting like three old horse-traders, whilethe golden ice cream melted into a thickliquid, and the nuts in it sank from view.My mouth watered in the darkness of theclosed helm, but the wizards were deep intalk of magic, and paid no further atten-tion to the viands as the long eveningpassed. Combat spells seemed to be theorder of the evening; I often saw Dala-mar�s eyes burning brightly through thedimness, as he leaned forward eagerly,enjoying this Night of Shadows.

Dust was gathering on the surface of theice cream when Mordenkainen finallyrose, stretching and clutching at his stiffback, and snapped his fingers. Out ofnowhere a fine dark red cloak settledaround his shoulders, and he strode to-ward the fire.

Dalamar stroked his temples, where aheadache was obviously coming on, andglared at the empty glasses in front of him.�We�ve got to stop meeting like this!�

Across the room, Mordenkainen turned,his cloak swirling around him grandly.�Someday, no doubt. But not yet.�

For your campaignAfter this get-together, I managed to get

enough information out of Elminster to layrelevant AD&D® game details of a few ofthe spells exchanged by The WizardsThree, as set down hereafter. For thoseinterested, Elminster contributed fallingwall, Jonstal�s double wizardry, and Jon-stal�s improved double wizardry; Mor-denkainen presented Argaster�s cloak ofshadows, Belsham�s mace, and Othnal�sspectral dagger; and Dalamar set forthbattlecurse, sphere of eyes, and valiancy.

Belsham�s mace (Evocation)Level: 2 Components: V,SRange: 60� CT: 2Duration: 2 rounds Save: NoneArea of Effect: Special

This spell creates a blunt coalescence offorce that bludgeons at a chosen foe from

above, with the casters� THAC0. If thisforce-weapon hits, it deals 1d8 +2 hp ofdamage, and forces the victim to save vs.spell. If the saving throw fails, the victimfalls unconscious for one round, droppingall held items. Items struck by a Belsham�smace must save vs. crushing blow. Themace lasts for only two rounds, whetheror not it hits, and then fades away. It oper-ates even if its creator is dead, has fled, oris casting another spell�but if the caster�sattention is elsewhere, the mace can fol-low, but cannot switch, targets.

Falling wall (Evocation)Level: 2 Components: V,S,MRange: 0 CT: 2Duration: 2 rounds Save: NoneArea of Effect: 20� x 20� x 4� thick

This spell enables the caster to create atemporary wall of armor plate, which�falls� into place from above. The wall isstationary, once it strikes an immobilesurface (floor or ground), and remainsunmoving, regardless of force directedagainst it, until the spell expires (where-upon it melts away). It can withstandanything short of a dispel magic or disinte-grate spells, or contact with prismaticmagic of any sort. Fireballs that strike itwill rebound, flaming spheres and the likeare halted, and so on. Magic missiles candodge around a falling wall unless it is castso as to fill an opening smaller than itsmaximum area of coverage as listed (suchas a doorway), which is the most commonuse of the spell.

A falling wall is lightning-fast: it is veryrare for one to come down on top of acreature or moving object�but if thisoccurs, the wall will strike for 2d4 + 12 hpdamage. More often, the wall appears inthe face of an onrushing missile or charg-ing being; creatures that strike a fallingwall will be stopped by it, and typicallytake 1d6 to 5d6 hp of damage, dependingon how fast they are moving and howlarge they are (faster increases damage,larger body size decreases it). A runningwarrior in plate armor usually suffers 3d6hp of damage.

Once a falling wall is created, the casteris free to cast another spell, flee, read ascroll, or perform any other activity, with-out affecting the wall in any way. A castercannot will his own wall to vanish; it mustbe destroyed as noted above or expire.The material component of this spell is apiece of tempered metal, or any metal thatis, or was once, part of armor worn intobattle.

Battlecurse (Alteration, Enchantment/Charm)Level: 3 Components: V,S,MRange: 50� CT: 3Duration: 1 round Save: SpecialArea of Effect: 60�-radius sphere

This spell enables a caster to adverselyaffect any target creature that is not pro-

DRAGON 85

tected by a minor globe of invulnerabilityor stronger magical barrier (some spellsand items also may prevent its function-ing). A battlecurse can be cast only on abeing within range and visible to the cast-er when casting commences; the target isallowed a saving throw versus spell. If thesave succeeds, the only effect of the spellis to prevent the foe from launching anattack on the following round (defensivespells, movement, readying of weapons,and parrying are permitted). If the savefails, an additional effect is visited on thevictim: for the four rounds after the cast-ing of the battlecurse, the victim�s armorclass is worsened by four points (from AC4 to AC 8, for example).

The material components of this spellare a hair (broken or split) from anysource, and a gem of not less than 200 gpvalue.

Argaster�s cloak of shadows(Alteration)Level: 4 Components: V,S,MRange: 0 CT: 4Dur.: 1d4 +2 rds. Save: NoneArea of Effect: One creature

This spell enables a caster or a touchedrecipient to be obscured by an ever-shifting, roiling webwork of intangible,dark shadows. Argaster�s cloak of shadowsveils the recipient�s face, overall appear-ance, and precise location (although if thecaster �wears� the spell, he can reveal hisface or hide it, whenever desired).

The result is that the recipient gains a2-point armor class bonus (e.g., AC 4 to AC2), and missile weapons aimed at the beingsuffer a - 1 penalty on attack rolls. Weband Evard�s black tentacles spells won�tstick to a being protected by Argaster�scloak of shadows � but these spells destroy,and are destroyed by, a cloak of shadowsupon contact. Because the rippling wavesof varying darkness are quite noticeable inall but the worst lighting, thieves �wear-ing� a cloak of shadows only gain a + 5%bonus to their Hide in Shadows ability (lostwhenever they move, of course).

The material components of this spellare a bit of cobweb and a pinch of dust.

Othnal�s spectral dagger (Evocation)Level: 4 Components: V,S,MRange: 70� CT: 4Duration: 1 rd./level Save: NoneArea of Effect: Special

This spell consumes an edged metal weap-on of any size, sort, or condition�butregardless of what is used as the materialcomponent, it creates a translucentdagger-shaped blade of force that eithercan glow (equal in intensity to a faerie firespell) or not (initially being nearly invisi-ble; chance to notice is 3 in 10) as thecaster wills.

The spectral dagger appears whereverthe caster desires within spell range, andmoves as the caster wills, at MV Fl 12 (A),

86 NOVEMBER 1994

striking twice per round with the caster�sTHAC0, but with a +3 bonus. It is consid-ered a + 3 weapon for purposes of what itcan hit, and deals 1d4 + 3 hp damage perstrike.

Sphere of eyes (Abjuration, Alteration,Evocation)Level: 4 Components: V,S,MRange: 70� CT: 4Duration: 1 rd./level Save: NoneArea of Effect: 60�-radius sphere

This spell enables a caster to create asphere of radiance in which thousands ofglistening, glowing eyeballs float, dartingand swarming in random directions. Oncecast, the sphere of eyes is immobile, andits radiance is at all times equivalent to asilvery-blue faerie fire spell. The eyes areintangible illusions, and do not react totheir surroundings.

Any illusion or magical invisibility thatcomes into contact with a sphere of eyes isinstantly and permanently negated. Beingswho actually have changed their shapes byuse of magic or a natural ability will beseen with a clear, bright silvery-blue�ghost� image of their other form superim-posed upon their current one. This spellalso negates operating forget, misdirec-tion, obscurement, non-detection andundetectable alignment magics, and allowsfeebleminded creatures an instant (extra)saving throw to escape the condition.The material component of this spell is aneyeball (from any source).

Jonstal�s double wizardry (Alteration)Level: 5 Components: VRange: 0 CT: 1Duration: 1 rd./level Save: NoneArea of Effect: One creature

This powerful spell enables a caster tounleash two specific spells at once, withthe utterance of a single word. Both spellstake effect in the same round, upon thecaster or a touched recipient being (bothon the same being, not one spell on each),and function normally (except that theduration of each becomes 1 round/level ofthe caster). The two spells must be memo-rized beforehand by the caster, and arenot lost from memory until the doublewizardry is employed; if either is used byitself, the double wizardry vanishes withit. Material components for the two spellsare consumed when the double wizardryis uttered, and must be on the caster�sperson (but need not be revealed or han-dled by the caster). Only the caster canunleash the double wizardry, even if an-other being accidentally or maliciouslyspeaks the trigger word.

The only two spells that can be pairedby use of a Jonstal�s double wizardry areinvisibility and levitate; despite years ofresearch, the archmage Jonstal has man-aged to master only one other pair of�combination� spells (see Jonstal�s im-proved double wizardry). No known being

short of the Faerunian lesser divine powerAzuth can freely cast any two spells in thesame round.

Valiancy (Alteration)Level: 5 Components: V,SRange: 90� CT: 2Duration: 1 round Save: NoneArea of Effect: One creature

This powerful spell enables the caster(or a recipient creature seen by the casterand within range) to gain an extra attackat the end of the round following thecasting of the valiancy (that is, in additionto the normal attack(s) the being can makeduring that round). The spell�s recipientcan elect to undertake an additional activi-ty (fleeing, readying a weapon, etc.) ratherthan attacking, but the spell does not aidthe mind or speed up magic, so the extraactivity cannot be the casting of an �extra�spell or the triggering of a magical item.This spell has no aging or other harmfuleffect on the recipient, and has only aminor effect on movement speed (a benefitof 2; i.e. from MV 12 to MV 14).

Jonstal�s improved double wizardry(Alteration)Level: 6 Components: VRange: 0 CT: 1Duration: 1 rd./level Save: NoneArea of Effect: One creature

This powerful magic enables a caster tounleash two specific spells at once byuttering one word. Both spells take effectin the same round on the caster or atouched recipient being (both on the samebeing, not one spell on each), and functionnormally (save that the duration of eachbecomes one round per level of the cast-er). The caster must memorize the twospells beforehand; they are not lost frommemory until the improved double wiz-ardry is employed. If either magic is castby itself, the improved double wizardryvanishes with it. Material components forthe two spells are consumed when thisspell is uttered, and must be on the cast-er�s person (but need not be revealed orhandled by the caster) or the improveddouble wizardry will not take effect. Onlythe caster can unleash the spell, even ifanother being accidentally or maliciouslyspeaks the trigger word. The only twospells that can be paired by use of a Jon-stal�s improved double wizardry are flyand non-detection. Despite years of re-search, the archmage Jonstal has managedto master only one other pair of �combina-tion� spells (see Jonstal�s double wizardry).No known being short of the Faerunianlesser divine power Azuth can freely castany two spells in the same round.

©1994 by Rick SwanPhotography by Charles Kohl

Cyberpunk for people who hate cyberpunk

Role-playing games' ratings

Not recommended

Poor, but may be useful

Fair

Good

Excellent

The best

88 NOVEMBER 1994

Here�s a short list of things I can�t do:change the oil in a car, unclog a drain,repair a light switch, or replace the filterin a furnace. Mechanical objects, I believe,are alive and out to get me. To say that Iam intimidated by technology is like sayingthat a chunk of red meat is intimidated bya shark.

Computers are particularly distressing. Ihalf-expect them to blow up when I turnthem on. Installing a program makes mebreak out in a cold sweat. I can no moreset up a modem than I can take out myown appendix.

It should come as no surprise, then, thatcyberpunk RPGs rank low on my list offavorites.

Don�t get me wrong. I don�t hate cyber-punk. But it�s been a struggle. I bluffed myway through my first session withouthaving the faintest idea of what �netrun-ning� meant. When the time came to coaxdata from a floppy disk, I found somethingto do in the other room. I never had trou-ble with magic wands and laser pistols.But cyberware?

Still, I�ve persevered. Over the years, I�vecome to appreciate cyberpunk games,despite the designers� determination tomake things as difficult as possible for thetechnologically impaired. Good supple-ments help, and this month, we�ll look at afew that might entice the leery into takinga second look.

Land of the FreeCYBERPUNK* game supplementOne 120-page book, one 36� x 24� double-

sided map sheet, five player handoutsheets, two cardstock vehicle sheets,five prop business cards, boxed

R. Talsorian Games, Inc. $18Design: William MossDevelopment: Michael MacDonald and

Lisa PondsmithEditing: Louise Stewart, Derek Quintanar

S.E., and Michael MacDonaldIllustrations: Chris Hockabout, Patrick

Gidaro, Christina Wald, Jean-MichalRinguet, and Darrel Midgette

Cover: Doug Anderson

GreenwarCYBERPUNK game supplementOne 96-page softcover bookAtlas Games $12Design: Thomas KaneEditing: Robin JenkinsIllustrations: Doug Shuler and C. Brent

FergusonCover: C. Brent Ferguson

Of the myriad cyberpunk RPGs, R.Talsorian�s CYBERPUNK game does thebest job of capturing the genre�s world-weary ambiance and remains the purist�sgame of choice. The adventures, however,have been hit or miss. Despite a few solidefforts (like R. Talsorian�s Eurotour andAtlas Games� Night City Stories), most feellike retreads, the contents less interesting

then the covers. They�re playable butforgettable, doing little to convince skep-tics that a sustained campaign is worth theeffort.

But along come Land of the Free andGreenwar, and suddenly I�m a born-againnetrunner.

Land of the Free, which I�m guessingwas inspired by the Mad Max movies, maybe the most ambitious cyberpunk adven-ture ever published. It�s certainly the mostlavish. The book-length scenario, packedwith inventive encounters and NPCs, takesa month or two of steady gaming to com-plete. The huge black-and-white posterfeatures a road map of apocalyptic Ameri-ca on one side and a tactical display on theother. Two sheets of cut-out vehicles maybe used as props or visual aids. Five pagesof player handouts include newsletters,magazine clippings, and airline reserva-tions. The well-written text, augmentedwith a generous number of explanatorysidebars (how 21st century airships oper-ate, the future history of the Americansouthwest) and troubleshooting tips (at-tack routines for cyberdogs, what to do ifa PC falls in the water and can�t swim),makes the referee�s job a breeze.

The story begins in New York, with thePCs hired to extract a mysterious womannamed Adriana from a pharmaceuticallaboratory and haul her across the coun-try for a rendezvous in California. It�s notthat easy, of course, as everyone fromMother Nature to the Elvises of Grace-land(!) conspires to annihilate them.

What the plot lacks in logic�it�s hard tobelieve that characters this resourcefulhave so much bad luck�it makes up inmomentum. No sooner do the PCs boardan airship than they have to fend off ninjaassassins and missile attacks. A run-in withthe New Orleans police precedes an as-sault from a hurricane. Grenade-tossingraiders nail them in Corpus Christi, andderanged cultists try to set them on fire inColorado Springs. As if that weren�tenough, the referee may introduce addi-tional complications. She may, for in-stance, give the party a credit chip to helpthem make purchases, then stand backand watch them fight over who gets tocarry it. She may encourage a romancebetween a PC and Adriana, then watch thesparks fly when the PC finds out who�make that what�she really is. The refereealso may stage any of the approximately35 optional encounters, ranging from amugging by the Citizens of Decency to ashady deal with a netrunner on an oilplatform. The explosive climax takes placein the shipyards of Night City; unless rein-forcements show up, it�ll take divine inter-vention to get all the PCs out in one piece.

If this doesn�t sound like cyberpunk toyou . . . well, it isn�t, at least in the tradi-tional sense. Land of the Free plays like anIndiana Jones adventure with computerterminals. There�s enough high-tech highjinks to satisfy cyber-junkies, but not somuch that laymen will be frightened away.

Sure, the referee has to lead the playersby the nose; if they stray too far from theroute outlined in the text, he may have toredesign a good chunk of the adventure.Sure, he has to feed them clues now andthen; if he doesn�t help them find Adriana,the adventure never gets off the ground.And sure, he has to keep a straight facewhile playing cornball characters like rockstar Perry Garcia and spouting inane dia-logue like, �Well, well, if it isn�t an illegalcongregation of scum.� But with a refereecapable of smoothing over the rough spotsand cooperative players who aren�t stick-lers for realism, Land of the Free deliversthe goods.

Just as Land of the Free was inspired byMad Max, Greenwar takes its cue from theWall Street Journal. The adventure caststhe players as yuppie operatives of theBrowning Investment Group, charged withengineering a takeover of Liverpool Ship-ping, Inc. Because Browning wants Liver-pool intact, the PCs can�t use force.Instead, they must acquire the companyby buying up 50% of the stock at thecheapest possible price. The PCs have amore or less fixed amount of money tospend, and it�s up to them to decide whereand how to spend it.

To compliment the unusual premise, de-signer Thomas Kane (also responsible for theintriguing cyberpunk-meets-Vietnam adven-ture Chrome Berets) provides a suitablyunusual format. Rather than following asequenced series of encounters, Greenwardescribes the settings, the cast of NPCs, anda simple but effective system for determin-ing stock prices. The referee shapes theadventure according to the PCs� actions. Ifthey force Liverpool into publicizing thetakeover, the stock price may skyrocket. Ifthey attempt an illegal action and fail tocover it up, they may be threatened with alawsuit. Once they ferret out potentialsellers, they must separate them from theirstock through negotiation, intimidation, ortrickery.

Greenwar may sound like a business-school assignment, but Kane�s flair for thedramatic keeps it as tense as a castle siege.The NPC executives make formidableadversaries, thanks to their rich personali-ties and shrewd tactics. Office politics,personal vendettas, and overzealous body-guards compound the party�s efforts tosqueeze stock from cagey shareholders. Aprivate hit squad called Force X and asabotage team known as the Three Horse-men (War, Plague, and Famine) set upaction scenes worthy of Arnold Schwar-zenegger. Clearly, there�s a lot to keeptrack of, and the referee must be as famil-iar with stock tables as combat dice to runit effectively. Players more interested inmuscles than minds should keep theirdistance; this is high IQ territory.

Evaluation: Neither Land of the Freenor Greenwar is suitable for novices. Landof the Free�s gauntlet of death traps will

DRAGON 89

pulverize the unseasoned, while the corpo-rate machinations of Greenwar will puthack-n-slashers to sleep. Though plot-wise,they have little in common, both extendthe parameters of cyberpunk with off-beatpremises. Both downplay high-tech mum-bo jumbo in favor of imaginative casts andencounters. Most importantly, both dem-onstrate the resiliency of a genre thatsome (like yours truly) may have writtenoff too soon.

Paradise LostSHADOWRUN* game supplementOne 80-page softcover bookFASA Corporation $10Design: Tom Wong and Nigel FindleyDevelopment: Tom DowdEditing: Donna IppolitoIllustrations: Paul Daley, Earl Geier, and

Christina WaldCover: John Zeleznik

Double ExposureSHADOWRUN game supplementOne 64-page softcover bookFASA Corporation $10Design: Fraser Cane and Nigel FindleyDevelopment: Tom DowdEditing: Donna IppolitoIllustrations: Tom Baxa, Steve Bryant, Paul

Daly, and Mike JacksonCover: Tom Baxa

hackers and netrunners, FASA�s SHADOW-By placing wizards and elves alongside

RUN game struck me as a commendableeffort to reach out to gamers uncomforta-ble with cyberpunk�s relentless gloom. Butafter a few promising supplements, suchas Dream Chipper and DNA/DOA, the linebegan to flounder, and the SHADOWRUNline threatened to become just anothercyberpunk game. Fantasy took a back seatto science. The supplements became in-creasingly marginal, with complexitysubstituting for elegance, attitude forinvention.

of the existence of the secret ALOHA

While Paradise Lost and Double Expo-sure don�t completely put the SHADOW-RUN game back on course�that�s asking alot of two modest adventures�both recap-ture much of the game�s original appeal.The charming Paradise Lost, for instance,serves up a lean plot with plenty of whim-sy. A corporate femme fatale, who intro-duces herself as �Mr. Johnson,� hires thePCs to travel to Hawaii to investigate a raidon Molokai Microtronics. It�s just an ex-cuse, of course, to plop the party into acolorful locale and pepper them withobstacles. But the obstacles are so engag-ing that you barely notice the contrivance.An ocean voyage is interrupted by theabrupt appearance of a sea monster. A driveto a hotel is derailed by a Honda-ridingorc. Memorable NPCs include and a dwar-ven chauffeur fond of Hawaiian shirts anda troll-ish night club bouncer namedEgmond. An elven representative of theHaloes Don�t Surf gang informs the party

90 NOVEMBER 1994

organization, aptly described as �a bunchof twisted morons.� As for the ALOHAleader, whom the PCs meet in the climax,let�s just say that he�s unlikely to show upin any cyberpunk RPG other than theSHADOWRUN game.

Unfortunately, the designers seem soenamored with their ideas that they can�twait to get to the next one, resulting inunderdeveloped encounters and flabbystaging. The grand finale, confined to asingle page, reads like an off-the-top-the-head outline, replete with useless refereenotes (�If the runners decide to fight [thevillain], let them have it.�). NPCs tend tospill the beans at the slightest coercion,one of the oldest shortcuts in the design-er�s handbook. The source material offersa few tantalizing tidbits about cyberneticHawaii (intelligent gray whales, for in-stance, lurk offshore), but spends toomuch time rehashing data available in ahigh school library (� . . . the Hawaii�ianIslands� first inhabitants arrived betweenthe years 300 and 600 A.D. from Polyne-sian islands . . .�). While none of this de-tracts from the fun, Paradise Lost could�vebeen a classic with a little more creativerigor.

Those looking for a more sophisticatedapproach are directed to Double Expo-sure, a tight little chiller worthy ofChaosium�s CALL OF CTHULHU* game. Inthe back alleys of Seattle, a thuggish FBIagent hires the PCs to investigate therelationship between Renraku ComputerSystems and Project Hope, a homelessshelter devoted to rehabilitating the down-and-out. That there�s more than meets theeye to Project Hope will come as no sur-prise to anyone who�s ever seen a horrormovie. But the cartoonish excesses (goahead and check out the illustration onpage 42�it won�t spoil anything exceptyour lunch) make this one of the mostoutrageous scenarios in SHADOWRUNhistory. Project Hope, one part SalvationArmy and one part slaughterhouse, isdescribed in stomach-churning detail,right down to the smells in the doorway.Evocative touches abound�magical sen-tries who patrol the camp via astral pro-jection, a nosy reporter who asks one toomany questions, a water-treatment poolthat hisses at intruders. The climax fea-tures a confrontation in an undergroundtunnel system, guaranteed to send carelessPCs to the cemetery.

As with Paradise Lost, the designers arebetter at dreaming up ideas than develop-ing them. Too often, for example, the storyis driven by coincidence. At one point, thedesigners suggest that the referee havethe PCs arrive at a locale at exactly thesame time as an important NPC. �If makingthis happen requires abnormal levels ofcoincidence,� says the text, �so be it.� Somepassages try so hard to be hip that theyend up sounding silly: � . . . if the runnersdecide to blow it just because they don�tlike other kids playing with their toys,they stand to get locked away in the Big

House or geeked.� And despite the poten-tial for a slam-bang battle in the finalencounter, the designers encourage theparty to flee. I say, force �em to stand andfight. Would I run in real life? Of course!But this ain�t real life.

Evaluation: Flaws aside, Paradise Lostand Double Exposure remain accessible,fast-paced adventures, and a great way tospend a weekend. Neither is a groundbreaker. But both succeed in reminding usabout what was so compelling about theSHADOWRUN game in the first place.

Digital WebMAGE: THE ASCENSION* gamesupplementOne 112-page softcover bookWhite Wolf Game Studio $15Design: Daniel Greenberg, Harry Heckel,

and Darren McKeemenAdditional material: John Cooper, Jona-

than Sill, Heather Curatola, Lee Chen,Bill Bridges, Brian Campbell, and BradFreeman

Development: Phil BrucatoEditing: Ed McKeoghIllustrations: James Crabtree, Darryl Elliot,

Joshua Gabriel Timbrook, QuintonHoover, and Dan Smith

Cover: John Zeleznik

White Wolf continues to wrench gamersin unexpected directions with the auda-cious Digital Web, which reshapes cyber-punk like so much modeling clay. Asupplement for the MAGE: THE ASCEN-SION game, perhaps the best new fantasyRPG of the decade, Digital Web proclaimsthe world of the Net to be a manifestationof wizardly energy. In this �static reality,�the differences between modems andmagic wands are academic; mages roamthe electronic realms with the ease ofseasoned netrunners.

Actually, the abilities of a digital magemake those of a netrunner seem primitive.Cybernauts�the formal name for wizardsin the Web�can take any form they wishby using magical �programs� to becomethree-dimensional icons. (Wheretechnology-based icons are composed ofsimple yes and no integers, magical iconsadd a third element, the maybe.) Experi-enced mages may construct their owndigital buildings, even their own worlds.Cybernauts also have a penchant for tin-kering with reality. George Bush�s presi-dential defeat, for instance, may haveresulted from digital sabotage. Have youever wondered why your head aches andyour eyes get sore when you spend all dayat the computer? It�s because the Web isslurping away your Quintessence.

While all MAGE game spell-casters cantheoretically access the Web, most Cyber-nauts are Virtual Adepts or members ofthe Technocracy. They use three primarymethods to get in. Those with a set ofvirtual-reality goggles and tactile feedbackequipment may use Sensory Visitation,where images are projected on the user�s

retinas and electrodes spew sensory infor-mation into his brain. A second method,Astral Immersion, enables the mage toproject his mind into the Web; bodyguardsand burglar alarms may be necessary toprotect the mage�s physical body. Usingthe third method, Holistic Immersion, themage transforms himself into raw data,then downloads directly into the system.Once inside the Web, a traveler may visitareas as diverse as the Junklands (a crazyquilt of images derived from failed at-tempts at formatting) and the Trash Sector(a graveyard of lost programs). Sightsee-ing, however, is not without risk. A burstof sensory feedback may shock an Astraltraveler into paralysis. And with the rightprogram, a villainous computer operatorcan trap a Holistic mage in an infinite loop.

The designers bend over backward toexplain all this. A detailed history tracesthe development of the Net from Alexan-der Graham Bell�s telephone prototypesthrough the experiments of computerwhiz Alan Turing in World War II. Detailedrule modifications show how attributesfunction in a digital environment (Intelli-gence replaces Strength; the amount ofdata a Cybernaut can carry depends on itsVirtual Weight). A section on digital magicdescribes how spells operate in alternaterealities (control randomness may be usedto manipulate programs; diffuse energy/destroy matter disintegrates electronicobjects). There are even suggestions forlinking Digital Web with the VAMPIRE:THE MASQUERADE* and WEREWOLF:THE APOCALYPSE* games.

But despite the designers� best efforts,Digital Web is hard to digest. The cursorydefinitions of Stacked Files and the Pool ofInfinite Reflection raise more questionsthan they answer (such as where do youfind the Pool?). The text is burdened withoverstuffed sentences (�Fluid waves ofpotentiality suddenly locked permanentlyinto place; the supple, dynamic worldseized up and congealed into brittle shards. . .�). and saturated with gobbledegook(�The Net Runner enters the Web throughthe Umbral Computer Web that is connect-ed to the Glass Walker CyberRealm in theUmbra.�). I�m sure the designers knowwhat they�re talking about, but they havea heck of a time getting it across.

Evaluation: This is a tough call. In itsattempt to redefine technology as magic,Digital Web scores on nerve alone. There�smuch to admire, particularly for thosewho believe that cyberpunk could stand toshed some cliches. But the text is so dense,so riddled with gamespeak and consumedby abstractions that a good portion of itborders on the incomprehensible. DigitalWeb is an impressive effort. But it needs atranslator.

Short and sweetThe Eternal Boundary, by L. Richard

Baker III. TSR, Inc., $10.When you can go anywhere in an infi-

nite number of universes, it�s hard to

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92 NOVEMBER 1994

know where to begin. Eternal Boundary,the first adventure for the PLANESCAPE�setting (reviewed in DRAGON® issue #207),comes to the aid of stymied plane-hopperswith an entertaining scenario that focuseson a few key areas of Sigil. Hired to locatea madman who holds the key to a portal,the PCs explore the slums of the Hive,meet the Bleak Cabal at the Gatehouse,and parley with undead in the vaults ofthe Mortuary. A fiery climax in anotherplane provides clues to a conspiracy. De-spite the reliance on familiar settings (atavern, a mausoleum, a trap-filled citadel),the bizarre cast of characters and almostcasual way that travelers flip betweenplanes gives Eternal Boundary a feel all itsown; you�re unlikely to confuse it with aconventional fantasy adventure.

GURPS Werewolf: the Apocalypse, byRobert M. Schroeck (based on the originalgame by Mark Rein-Hagen). Steve JacksonGames, $20.

A GURPS* game supplement, this doesfor White Wolf�s WEREWOLF: THE APOC-ALYPSE what GURPS: Vampire did forVAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE�it trans-lates the Storyteller system into GURPS-ese, cleans up the text, and puts it alltogether in a handsome package. Illumi-nating sidebars clarify the mythos, while asection of conversion notes makes it easyto switch between the systems. Whetheryou prefer the White Wolf or GURPS rulesis largely a matter of style; White Wolfoffers more flexibility, GURPS more preci-sion. Schroeck�s economical writing, how-ever, makes this book a better read, so Igive the edge to GURPS.

Strangers in Prax, by Michael O�Brien,Jonathan Tweet, and Mike Dawson. TheAvalon Hill Game Company, $16.

The latest (and last?) supplement for theRUNEQUEST* game offers a trio of first-rate adventures set in the Pavis region,based in part on 1992�s River of Cradlessource book. Since all boast rich back-grounds and thoughtful encounters, it�sdifficult to single out a favorite. But I leantoward Michael O�Brien�s �The LunarCoders,� featuring creepy agents from theLunar Empire who communicate in com-plex ciphers and ride the skies in a glim-mering Moon Boat. If this proves to beRUNEQUEST�s swan song, at least it�sgoing out with a bang.

BATTLETECH* Tactical Handbook, byJim Long with Stuart Johnson. FASA Cor-poration, $12.

Have your players been complaining thatthe BATTLETECH game isn�t complicatedenough? These 80 pages of optional rulesought to shut them up. Part One offersguidelines for staging double-blind contests,where each player moves his units on hisown map and has no idea what the otherguy is up to; a referee informs the playerswhen they �see� something. The operationalvariant simulates a long campaign by divid-

ing the game into a series of linked scenarios(such as Planetary Landings and MeetingEngagements); the system encourages play-ers to form long-range strategies instead ofconcentrating on tactical victories. Part Twopresents advanced rules for ballistic weap-ons, four-legged �Mechs, and line of sight.The book also introduces a convenient meth-od for designating complexity, which pre-sumably will be used in futureBATTLETECH supplements. Level Onegames use the rules from the BATTLETECHboxed set, Level Two adds mechanics fromthe BattleTech Compendium and CityTech,while Level Three brings in the TacticalHandbook. All this is strictly for wargarners�make that serious war gamers.Role-players can put their wallets away.

Zentraedi Breakout, by Deborah Chris-tian and Kevin Siembieda. PalladiumBooks, $10.

Role-playing for robots? If you expectcharacter development and gripping storylines from this ROBOTECH* game book,you�re in for a letdown. The scenariosemphasize military excursions in the con-tested Zentraedi Control Zone of SouthAmerica, with the focus squarely on thehardware. (A typical encounter centersaround �one Scout Pod, 2D4 Tactical BattlePods, and one male power armor withplasma cannon attachment out on a recon-naissance patrol.�) They�re action-packed,meticulously detailed, and utterly bafflingto anyone not familiar with the ROBO-TECH line (particularly Book Four: South-ern Cross). The engrossing source materialaddresses South American Strategic Com-mand deployment, troop movements ofthe 3751st Logistics Brigade, and othertopics sure to warm the hearts of mechaaficionados.

Rick Swan has designed and edited morethan 40 role-playing products. His recentprojects include The Complete Ranger�sHandbook and The Complete Paladin�sHandbook, both published by TSR. Youcan write to him at 2620 30th St., DesMoines IA 50310. Enclose a self-addressedstamped envelope if you�d like a reply.

* indicates a product produced by a company otherthan TSR, Inc.

DRAGON 93

by Skip Williams

If you have any questions on the gamesproduced by TSR, Inc., �Sage Advice� willanswer them. In the United States andCanada, write to: Sage Advice, DRAGON®Magazine, P.O. Box 111, Lake Geneva WI53147, U.S.A. In Europe, write to: SageAdvice, DRAGON Magazine, TSR Ltd., 120Church End, Cherry Hinton, CambridgeCB1 3LB, United Kingdom. We are nolonger able to make personal replies;please send no SASEs with your questions(SASEs are being returned with writer�sguidelines for the magazine).

This month, the sage visits battlefieldsand the COUNCIL OF WYRMS� setting.The sage also continues his look at theSPELLFIRE� game.

Where can I find rules for masscombat in the AD&D® game? I haveseen the BATTLESYSTEM® supple-ment, but I don�t have any figures.

The Castle Guide (TSR product #2114)contains two mass combat systems, onefor resolving sieges and one for resolvingopen field battles. Both systems employmaterial from the BATTLESYSTEM game.The upcoming PLAYER�S OPTION� Com-bat & Tactics book (due out next summer)will contain a system for handling skir-mishes involving a few dozen to a fewhundred creatures, but it also could beused for larger battles. The system isloosely based on the boarding action sys-tem from The War Captain�s Companionfor the SPELLJAMMER® setting (TSRproduct #1072). TSR also is planning ahardcover book on high-level campaigns(also due next summer), which will containa system for conducting mass combat.

What happens to sha�irs (from theAL-QADIM® setting) when they ven-ture into the PLANESCAPE� setting?Can their gens still get them spells?Is the time required to fetch a spellincreased or reduced?

Generally, a gen can go fetch spells forits master from any place in the multi-verse. The gen�s starting location has nomeasurable effect on how long it takes tofetch a spell, because most of the gen�stime is spent locating and negotiating forthe spell, not actually traveling from placeto place. The DM can rule that local condi-tions prevent the gen from leaving theplane, but this should be very rare. If theplane the gen is on allows access to theEthereal or Astral Planes, it always canfetch spells. Even when it cannot directlyenter the Astral or Ethereal, the gen prob-ably can find a conduit or gate that will

get it where it needs to go. Note that a gen�sability to go plane hopping does not applyto the sha�ir or to the sha�ir�s companions.

Otherwise, a sha�ir�s spells work thesame way as any other wizard�s. Any localconditions that affect the spell still applyeven if the gen successfully delivers it. Forexample, a gen could deliver a fireballspell to its master, who is adventuring onthe Elemental Plane of Water. The spell,however, still fails when the sha�ir tries tocast it because fire spells are ineffective onthe Elemental Plane of Water.

Do dragon mages and clerics fromthe COUNCIL OF WYRMS settingacquire and cast their spells the wayother dragons do (learning themrandomly and casting them withonly a verbal component)? Or dothey acquire and cast spells the wayother spell-casters do?

Dragon mages and clerics function justlike any other player character spell-

caster. In learning �real� wizard or priestmagic, they suppress their innate ability tolearn spells randomly in favor of the regu-lar method, which allows them to knowand memorize many more spells. Thedragon spell-caster must meet all the re-quirements for casting any particularspell, including casting time, and verbal,somatic, and material components. Notethat the dragon�s innate spell-like abilitiesare unaffected.

The core AD&D rules clearly statethat a dragon can use its breathweapon only three times a day.However, the COUNCIL OF WYRMSrules imply otherwise (unlessyou�re using the optional on page 40of the rules book). How many timescan a dragon use its breath weaponin a COUNCIL OF WYRMS campaignand should the rule for dragonbreath weapons be the same in allworlds?

DRAGON 95

The current core rules say nothing of thesort (though the original AD&D game�sMonster Manual did limit dragons to threebreaths a day). In the AD&D 2nd Editiongame, a dragon can use its breath weapononce every three rounds (see theMONSTROUS MANUAL� book, page 64). Asalways, the DM has final say about howdragon breath weapons work, but breathweapons should work the same waythroughout the campaign, regardless ofwhich world the PCs are visiting.

It is possible to use a dragon char-acter from the COUNCIL OF WYRMSsetting in another setting if the drag-on were in humanoid form?

Not really. A dragon requires a greatdeal of time and treasure to advance alevel, and most campaign settings do nothave enough of either.

What spheres of spells do dragonpriests from the COUNCIL OFWYRMS setting cast? Which if theoptional spheres from the Tome ofMagic can they cast? Do the variousdragon deities have specialtypriests? If so, what spheres do theyhave access to?

All dragon clerics get the same spheresof spell, regardless of who their patrondeities are. Worship in the Io�s Blood Islesis not yet organized or developed enough

to allow for specialty priests. Also, it isunclear whether Io would ever allowspecialty priests to develop.

COUNCIL OF WYRMS creator Bill Slavic-sek and I discussed the question ofspheres for dragon clerics and here�s whatwe came up with. Spheres marked with anasterisk are from the Tome of Magic:

Major: All, Astral, Charm, Combat, Divi-nation, Elemental, Guardian, Healing,Necromantic, Protection, Summoning,Chaos*, Law*, Thought*, and Wards*;Minor: None.

Note that dragon clerics get both Lawand Chaos spells regardless of alignments.

What Tome of Magic spheres tospecialty priests of Eilistraee andLolth (from Drow of the Underdark)cast?

Here you go:Lolth: Major: Chaos; Minor: Time.Eilistraee: Major: Wards; Minor: Trav-

elers.

SPELLFIRE� game questionsIn an earlier column, you said Iuz

doesn�t get to use his special powerif he is defeated as the result of anevent and is not discarded. What ifhe is defeated by the heartwoodspear (card #318), which automati-cally kills monsters?

Iuz razes a realm whenever he is defeat-ed and discarded. If the heartwood spearkills Iuz, he is defeated and discarded, andhe razes a realm.

Who chooses the land Iuz razeswhen he is defeated?

The Iuz card holder picks the realm tobe razed.

If Iuz razes the land he was attack-ing when he is defeated does theplayer holding him get to drawspoils of victory?

No.

Can a wizard or other championwho cannot fly but can cast wizardspells use a flight spell (card #211)to declare an attack on a protectedrealm in Step 4?

Yes.

Can a wizard immediately cast adeath spell (card #392) on an oppos-ing champion as soon as the cham-pion is chosen?

Only if the wizard�s rank is lower thanthe opposing champion�s rank (you cannotplay an additional card in a battle unlessyour point total is lower than the enemy�s).

96 NOVEMBER 1994

©1994 by John C. Bunnell

Photography by Charles Kohl

Expect the unexpected (plot twist, that is)

98 NOVEMBER 1994

DUN LADY�S JESSDoranna Durgin

Baen 0-671-87617-1 $4.99If you pick up Dun Lady�s Jess anticipat-

ing a light, freewheeling sorcerous adven-ture good mostly for taking your mind offthe real world on a crowded bus, expectto be surprised. It�s not that DorannaDurgin�s debut novel doesn�t have magicand peril in ample supply. No, the unex-pected revelation is that Durgin also deliv-ers a first-rate, thoughtful character studyspun out from a concept that�s remarkablefor its originality.

The fantasy genre is well-known forgiving animals the power of speech, or fortrapping human characters in animalform. Durgin�s ingenious twist is to re-verse the effect. Dun Lady�s Jess, whomher rider calls Lady, begins this story as ahorse. But a magical accident not onlycarries horse and rider from their ownworld into the modern Midwest, separat-ing them in the process�it also gives Ladya human being�s body.

The premise alone, though, isn�t whatmakes the novel a delight. Durgin not onlyhas come up with a strikingly fresh idea,she�s also thought out the consequences toa fare-thee-well. Lady�s one stroke of sheergood luck is to be found by a sympatheticcouple with a friend whose business isstabling horses. From there, every devel-opment springs logically from its predeces-sor, and the question of just what Lady�snow Jess� new status means to her is cen-tral to the evolving plot. And Jess�s newfriends are each drawn with the sameattention to creating utterly convincingcharacters.

Woven into this tale of self-discovery isthe parallel story of Jess� quest for hermissing rider and a way back to her ownworld, where the magic that bridged thetwo realities is the subject of bitter con-flict. This, too, is ruled not by cliche butby relentless common sense, which meansthat Durgin doesn�t pull punches whenher villains take the stage. Readers whothink they�ve seen enough similar plots topredict events may find themselves rudelyawakened more than once before thenovel threads its way to a conclusion.

Dun Lady�s Jess is an eye-opening book,wise in the ways of horses and of humans,often cynically pragmatic and yet stilltouched with a certain misty-eyed opti-mism. Both the maturity of its vision andthe skill of its crafting are startling in afirst novel. Gamers with an interest in theprocess of �getting into a character�s head�won�t want to miss it, and it should behighly interesting to see what DorannaDurgin comes up with next.

A PRINCE AMONG MENRobert N. Charrette

Warner/Aspect 0-446-60037-7 $4.99I had high hopes for this first non-

franchised novel from Robert N. Char-rette, whose early SHADOWRUN* gamestories showed considerable promise.

Regrettably, that promise isn�t fulfilled in APrince Among Men, billed variously as anArthurian novel, the opening volume in atrilogy, and a �dark future� tale in a worldthat�s a close cousin to the SHADOWRUNuniverse.

There are plenty of ideas, characters,and plots in the book; the trouble is thatCharrette tosses them onstage and thenleaves them to fend for themselves. Theresults are erratic at best and activelyconfusing at worst. It�s one thing for astory�s protagonist not to know what inheck is going on around him. It�s quiteanother when there are some half-dozensets of conspirators bouncing off eachother�s scams, lying to each other anddisclaiming responsibility for the utterchaos in which the reader has been im-mersed.

There�s Nym, for instance, who pops outof nowhere to summon King Arthur intoCharrette�s near-future milieu, then flees.There�s Arthur, now called �Bear,� whocommandeers a street gang and takes on asquire in the form of nominal protagonistJohn Reddy. There�s Pamela Martinez, acorporate climber who sees the rise ofmagic as a potential profit center. There�sDr. Elizabeth Spae, a thaumaturgical theo-rist for a secret government agency.There�s Sorli, the dwarf on Martinez�spayroll who is also an agent of other-worldly powers. And there�s Bennett,likewise an agent of Faery but with verydifferent origins and plans.

Of this ill-assorted web, only John Reddyis remotely sympathetic, but Charrettegives him a case of chronic self-doubt andindecisiveness that also makes him exceed-ingly annoying at times. The shy streakalso makes it extremely hard to tell wheth-er Reddy is the keystone around whichthe central plot (if any) will ultimatelyturn, or if he�s simply an innocent, if oddlygifted bystander pulled into Arthur�s orbitby blind luck.

A strong secondary problem is that foran Arthurian novel, the Arthurian lore isdecidedly sparse and oddly used. We have�Nym,� presumably an analogue for Mer-lin�s lover Nimue, but no sign of Merlinhimself. Caliburn, Arthur�s sword, is de-scribed as a world-spanning relic of spec-tacular power, which Arthur must nowfind and recover. But the larger setting,with its elves and goblins and layeredworlds, is more akin to a modern game-universe than to any genuine Arthurianlegend. And it is all the more startlingwhen Arthur, usually described as a goodjudge of character and a leader noted foruniting dissident factions behind him,proves to be something of a racist whereelves are concerned.

That larger setting is itself another mi-nor puzzle. It�s not all that far ahead of thepresent in technological terms, but politi-cally, government seems to have beenlargely displaced by mega-corporations inthe traditional mold. Combine this withthe intrusion of magic, and the parallels to

the SHADOWRUN universe are impossiblenot to notice. One can�t help but wonder ifthe prospective trilogy was originallyplanned as an origin story for that uni-verse, which has since had its serial num-bers filed off for publication elsewhere.

As it stands, A Prince Among Men isremarkable only for the number andvariety of ideas it borrows and then failsto exploit. Too much is going on, too littleis explained, and too few of the charactersare pleasant company to make the taleworth recommending.

AURIANMaggie Furey

Bantam 0-553-56525-7 $5.99Had I first seen Aurian as a finished

paperback rather than a bound galley, Imight well have been intimidated by itsnearly 600 pages of small, dense type. (Thegalley was just as thick, but wider marginsand crisp white paper went a long waytoward making it more readable.) Butdon�t be fooled by the small print andconservative design. Maggie Furey�s firstnovel is a solid, sophisticated high fantasyset in a world as fully imagined as Ray-mond E. Feist�s Midkemia or Judith Tarr�sAvaryan.

Furey deftly establishes her pattern ofexpectation-twisting within the first fewpages. Initially, Aurian looks like a variantArthurian tale, with references to �theLady of the Lake� and a knight calledGeraint. But those hints are quickly over-shadowed when the plot expands to in-clude an ancient, otherworldly ForestLord and an age-old prophecy concerningAurian herself, a mere child as the storyopens. But neither is the story the straight-forward variation on Celtic legendry thatit next resembles, for constant tensionbetween Mage-blooded folk and mortals isthe norm in Aurian�s world, and not with-out excellent reason on the mortals� part.

Despite being both Mage and expertwarrior, Aurian finds herself taking upmortal causes more often than not�andagain, not without good reason. Raised atfirst well apart from the insular Mageconclave, Aurian has no sense for theconstant, subtle games of politics andpower her blood-kin are driven to play.Only when she herself becomes the prizein one such contest of wills does she rec-ognize the truth, embarking on a questthat may permanently shift the balance ofpower toward mortal hands.

Before the adventure is done�or atleast, before it stops, for this is the firstvolume in a projected trilogy�it takes itsheroes on a journey that spans continents,weaves through intrigue-ridden courts,and proves beings and artifacts out ofsheerest legend to be dangerously real.Nearly every time the plot starts to lookpredictable, it�s a signal that Furey is aboutto unveil some new twist or revelation,and she manages to stage most of themwithout making the story look contrived.

She�s also a skilled hand with character,

DRAGON 99

especially when it comes to crafting vil-lains. The antagonists here act not fromsome imagined ideal of utter evil, but fromthe conviction that they�re entitled topower, privilege, and revenge purely be-cause of who and what they are. Themotivations are entirely convincing, andmake Aurian�s adversaries a great dealnastier than your average Darth Vaderfigure.

Make no mistake; Aurian is a densenovel that will take more than an after-noon to devour, even for quick readers.But it�s well worth the time invested in thereading, and Furey is a welcome additionto the small group of high fantasists whoseworks set the standards of the genre rath-er than merely following its blueprints.

BATMAN: KNIGHTFALLDennis O�Neil

Bantam 0-553-09673-7 $19.95Veteran Bat-writer and editor Dennis

O�Neil goes to considerable lengths, in hisafterword to this novel, to explain thatBatman�s character has evolved andchanged over time. But unless one of thephases of the Dark Knight�s persona wasintended to be �terminally stupid,� thisprose rendering of the Knightfall storylinemust be regarded as a very strange aber-ration in Batman�s history.

As the novel tells it, the fall of Batmanbegins when a drug-enhanced assassincalled Bane comes to Gotham City andbegins to stalk the Dark Knight. Bane isintelligent; he takes pains to observe Bat-man in action before approaching histarget, and he wears down his adversaryby setting other villains in Batman�s path.

Batman, by contrast, displays a remark-able lack of judgment as the crisis de-velops. Though rapidly succumbing tofatigue from dealing with Bane�s obstacles,he refuses to rest or summon super-assistance. (This being a prose novel, weapparently are required to assume thatthere are no other superheroes on theplanet, and never mind the comic books.)After this leads to Bruce Wayne�s backbeing broken, the world�s finest detectivethen cleverly passes the Bat-cowl to oneJean Paul Valley: mistake number two, asValley proves to be even more dangerouslyunstable than Bruce at his most obsessive.

Mistake number three is arguable. Dr.Shondra Kinsolving is clearly meant to belove interest as well as physician to thedisabled Bruce Wayne, and his refusal totrust her with his secret identity (curiouslyinconsistent, since he�s already spilled thebeans to Valley) severely hampers hertreatment. But the prose establishes noreal chemistry between Shondra andBruce, which clouds the issue. Mistakenumber four, however, is a no-brainer.When faithful Bat-butler Alfred finallyloses his patience and threatens to resignif Bruce doesn�t allow himself time torecover, Bruce calls the bluff and Alfredwalks out. When the plot of a Batmanstory calls for Alfred to be smarter than

100 NOVEMBER 1994

Batman himself, something is seriouslyrotten in Gotham City.

It�s not that Batman doesn�t have hisweaknesses. But Knightfall isn�t about theDark Knight�s weaknesses being usedagainst him. It�s a story in which hisstrengths�his investigative skills, hispowers of observation, his keen ability tojudge character�are arbitrarily ignored inthe name of creating suspense. And it isultimately a false suspense, for as is com-mon in serial fiction, the tale�s end mirrorsits beginning, and Bruce Wayne is much ashe was before.

Or at least so one gathers from the nov-el. I can�t speak with authority about thecomic-book version of the story arc, atwhich I haven�t done more than glancewhen the issues hit the convenience-storeracks. As far as Bat-novels are concerned,however, readers will get far better returnfor their money by seeking out Warner�sline of paperback originals (notably Joe R.Lansdale�s Captured By the Engines, re-viewed some time ago in this space) orGeary Gravel�s well-expanded treatmentsof episodes from the Fox Network ani-mated series, available from Bantam.

THE RAVEN RINGPatricia C. Wrede

Tor 0-312-85040-9 $21.95I didn�t realize how much I�ve missed

Patricia Wrede�s tales of Lyra until TheRaven Ring arrived in the mail. While thesupply of fantasy novels on bookstoreshelves is never-ending, very few of themfit the comfortable niche that the Lyrastories occupy. The catch is that the nichein question is singularly difficult to label.

If one defines �high fantasy� purely interms of stories set in wholly inventedworlds as opposed to our own past orpresent, the Lyra books technically quali-fy. But practically speaking, the term is toogeneral to be useful. A phrase sufficientlybroad to include Tad Williams� Osten Ardnovels, Terry Brooks� Shannara series, andThe Raven Ring is not nearly descriptiveenough to serve the purpose.

�Light fantasy� is closer but still insuffi-cient. There�s no shortage of wit inWrede�s present tale, which sends no-nonsense Cilhar traveler Eleret Salvenfrom her family�s remote mountain hometo claim a legacy in the city of Ciaron,where protocol can be an art form. Butthe humor is incidental rather than inte-gral, and �light� is more suggestive ofcomedy-driven material such as TerryPratchett�s Discworld novels or the worksof Craig Shaw Gardner.

There�s also a faint aura of disparage-ment about �light� that implies a lack ofquality, and the aura brightens when thephrase �popcorn fantasy� comes up. �It�spopcorn� is often read to mean �it has noredeeming social value, but I like it any-way,� and that does books as well-constructed as Wrede�s a serious injustice.Eleret�s adventures in Ciaron are well-toldand suspenseful; though the reader is apt

to deduce the title artifact�s significancewell before the characters do, there areplenty of surprises and fireworks alongthe way. What�s more, Eleret and hernewly acquired friends, incorrigible rogueKarvonen Aurelico and wizard-nobleDaner Vallaniri, make an engaging trio asthey attempt to unravel the raven ring�ssecret.

There�s a balance here that�s rarer thanone might think. Instead of being drivenpurely by plot, or focused on characteriza-tion, or built around a particular theme,Wrede�s novel takes a more generalizedapproach that blends these individualelements in the service of producing anarrative that holds the reader�s interest.

As a catch-phrase, that�s unwieldy. Butit�s an apt description of The Raven Ringand its predecessors, which feature first-rate storytelling and deliver entertainmentvalue undiminished by additional baggageor affectation. The former quality is valu-able in itself, but combined with the sec-ond it�s entirely too rare. Readers only canhope that the next Lyra adventure isn�t aslong in coming.

THE GODMOTHERElizabeth Ann Scarborough

Ace 0-441-00096-7 $19.95The latest novel from Elizabeth Scarbo-

rough exhibits a fascinating schizophrenia.Its tone is part comic and part sharplyincisive, with echoes both of her earlyhumorous fantasy novels and her morerecent, award-winning tales of the FarEast. And while The Godmother�s sourcematerial is taken straight from the familiarfairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, Scarbo-rough stitches it together with an un-wieldy Gothic needle, as the plotresembles nothing so much as Dr. Frank-enstein�s monster animated by the split-brained souls of Jekyll and Hyde.

The narrative opens in modern metro-politan Seattle, which Scarborough por-trays with authentically waterloggedenthusiasm, introducing us to one RoseSamson, an overworked social workerwith the proverbial heart of gold. The titlenotwithstanding, Rose is the book�s nomi-nal centerpiece, and only when one ofRose�s friends drags a wish out of her doesFelicity Fortune, card-carrying godmotherat large, appear on the scene.

We then bounce headlong into a looselylinked set of refurbished Grimm yarns:Snow White, featuring a wicked psychicsuper-model and seven Vietnam vets;Hansel and Gretel, in which two enterpris-ing urchins fall into the hands of a childmolester; Cinderella, in which a younghorsewoman�s step-family is doing its bestto get its hands on her trust fund; andPuss in Boots, in which the talking cat�scharge is to rescue a young black orphanand a Vietnamese street gang from mutualdisaster. All four cases fall under Rose�sand Felicity�s attention, with assistancefrom genial police detective Fred Moran.

Individually, each of these is amiably and

neatly updated; it�s in integrating the plotsthat Scarborough runs into trouble. By thetime she�s added villains and supportingplayers to an already extensive cast, andgiven most of them a viewpoint scene ortwo, there are enough characters so thatnobody�including Rose and Felicity�really winds up with star billing, and someof the subplots end up fizzling badly as aresult. Cindy Ellis, for instance, ends upbeing forcibly shoehorned into Snohomish�Sno� Quantrill�s adventure, her wickedstepsisters relegated to offstage sweeping-aside. And Scarborough keeps yanking hertalking cat out of its own story to helpFelicity untangle other dangling plot-threads. The result is a Frankenstein-monster of a story, built from parts thatare individually strong but unevenlymatched and fitted together.

The mix of tones likewise ends up add-ing to the mismatched character of thenovel. Scarborough has considerable funupdating the classic stories, and she makesRose and Felicity (along with most of thesecondary leads) relentlessly upbeat per-sonalities. At the same time, some of hervillains�notably the pedophile and SnoQuantrill�s psychic stepmother�are genu-inely nasty, dangerous characters. Thedifficulty is that, given the crowded natureof the book, Scarborough�s protagonistsend up winning the day mostly by spectac-ular good luck rather than active pursuitof justice. That severely undercuts thevillains� credibility, and flattens the novel�ssocially conscious elements into a one-dimensional idealism that rings falseagainst the colorfully accurate Seattlebackdrop.

The Godmother, finally, is a novel in whichillusion counts for more than substance. Likethe wicked queen�s poisoned apple, itsbrightly polished appearance hides an ill-made heart. Scarborough is capable of muchbetter work, and this latest solo novel is aserious disappointment.

DRAGON�S EYEChristopher Stasheff, ed.

Baen 0-671-87609-0 $5.99�A book of stories about dragons� is proba-

bly one of the safest concepts in fantasypublishing. Assemble a set of tales about oneof the genre�s most universally popularcreatures, and readers are bound to traileagerly after it like St. George in pursuit ofhis traditional foe. The only question iswhether a particular hoard is full of copperor brimming with gold�and ChristopherStasheff�s selections are an intriguing groupthat follows dragonkind on a fascinatingtour of history and legend.

We begin with tales inspired by Norseand Celtic folklore. S. M. Stirling�s contri-bution weaves a dark saga of confronta-tion between a Viking warrior and a Saxondragon, while Teresa Patterson spins alighter tale of Druidry, romance, andswordplay. Next comes Jody Lynn Nye�s�The Stuff of Legends,� the volume�s onetraditional fantasy, a clever entry that

gives its dragon a unique perspective onlife and its human heroes a cheerful graspof unconventional combat strategy.

Most of the remaining tales match leg-endary dragons with real-world history inone form or another. The two standouts inthis group are �Birdie,� in which MikeResnick and Nicholas DiChario concoct atale of Charles Darwin, a dragon, andhuman imagination, and Roland J. Green�s�Call Him Meier,� a clever recap of certainWorld War II episodes omitted from thehistory books. William Forstchen�s tale ofNapoleon�s dealings with wyrm-kind isdistinctive for its draconian statecraft,while Bill Fawcett�s tale of a Templarknight and a dragon is well-told if ratherpredictable. Less memorable are contribu-tions from S. N. Lewitt and Stasheff him-self, both of which involve overplayedimages of dragons as nation-souls.

The two oddest stories in the book comefrom Mickey Zucker Reichert and DianeDuane. Reichert�s is an unusual Biblicaltale which deals with Joshua�s victory atJericho in a distinctive context, and isintense enough that some readers willprobably find it unsettling. �The BackDoor,� by contrast, is a modern caper yarnthat provides good reason for thinkingtwice before trying to raid certain Swissbank vaults, and is a welcome change ofpace from the versatile Duane.

If there�s a serious criticism to be leveledat Dragon�s Eye, it�s that it�s oddlyexpensive�at $5.99 for just eleven storiesand a bit of blank verse, it�s a dollar morethan many recent theme anthologies fea-turing two or three times as many contrib-utors. But as complaints go, that�s a minorannoyance rather than a major flaw, andone that dragon aficionados shouldn�t finddifficult to overlook.

Recurring rolesWhile we�re on the subject of antholo-

gies, Sword & Sorceress XI (DAW, $4.99)and Bruce Coville�s Book of Ghosts (Scho-lastic, $2.95) merit particular attention.Marion Zimmer Bradley�s eleventh entryin her long-running series is as diverse andengrossing as ever, with perhaps a bitmore emphasis on humorous tales thistime out. Coville, meanwhile, continues topublish story-collections marketed forchildren but clearly compiled with readersof all ages in mind. These well-illustratedand produced volumes are the best anthol-ogy bargains in the business; wise readerswill buy two copies, one to share and oneto keep on the nightstand for readingunder the covers with a flashlight.

Reaction elsewhere to Field of Dishonor(Baen, $5.99), the fourth entry in DavidWeber�s series about space-captain HonorHarrington, has been sharply mixed. Inpart, it�s doubtless because Weber shiftshis focus to the political arena this timeout, with scarcely any deep-space action.But the suspense and strategy are as intri-cate as ever, and Harrington�s choices justas compelling. Thwarted expectations

notwithstanding, this series continues tomature as each new volume appears.

The same can�t be said for At Sword�sPoint, Scott MacMillan�s second entry inthe �Knights of the Blood� series for whichhe shares cover credit with KatherineKurtz. The prose is marginally smoother,but the emphasis is drifting away from thevery elements that made the first bookmarginally interesting. As with the firstvolume, the plotting relies on shadowy,unexplained conspiracies and exotic leapsof logic, and once again the climax leavesmore questions than answers on the table.

Shadow of a Dark Queen (Morrow, $22)begins a new cycle in Raymond E. Feist�stales of Midkemia. Most of the heroes arenew, but there are familiar faces as well�notably the eccentric magician Nakor andthe supremely dangerous Pantathianserpent-warriors, who are making newplans for ultimate conquest and destruc-tion. A side trip through the Hall of Worldsadds a slightly science-fictional dimensionto this installment, and Feist remains oneof the most reliable of the genre�s top-selling authors.

Change of pace is also the rule in theStar Trek universe, as ably demonstratedby Warchild (Pocket, $5.50), the seventhnovel in the Deep Space Nine sequence.Esther Friesner�s chronicle of a deadlyplague and the hunt for a child who fig-ures in a key Bajoran prophecy is herhardest-edged novel to date, and a star-tlingly wise treatment of DS9�s Dr. JulianBashir. Anyone who�s thought of Friesneronly as one of fantasy�s foremost humor-ists will find this book a major and verywelcome surprise.

Equally surprising, if less successful, isCrossroad (Pocket, $5.50), which marksBarbara Hambly�s return to the Star Trekfold with a story that pits Kirk and hiscrew against a small band of renegadesfrom a future Federation gone horriblywrong. The atmosphere is deliberatelydark, partially owing to an alien racemodeled strongly on Lovecraftiannightmare-creatures, and it takes ourheroes rather too long to figure out what�sgoing on. Psychological horror has neverbeen one of Star Trek�s strong suits, andthe rule holds true here even underHambly�s usually skilled hand.

* indicates a product producedthan TSR, Inc.

by a company other

DRAGON 101

DRAGON 103

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DRAGON 105

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DRAGON 107

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DRAGON 109

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©1994 by Robert Bigelow

Photographs by Mike Bethke

Browse for holiday gifts

ReviewsThis month marks the beginning of the

Holiday shopping season. In this column Grenadier Models, Inc.I�m going to review some products that P.O. Box 305you may have missed this year. I�ve tried Springfield PA 19064to pick but items that will serve severaldifferent settings or game genres. Grenadier Models, UK, Ltd.

25 Babbage RoadDeeside, Clwyd, WalesCH5 2QB United Kingdom

been possible all these years. Sometimeswe forget there are others behind us, and

I want to thank Chris Foster for hisexcellent job on the painting of the Grena-dier figures. I further would like to extendthanks to all those companies withoutwhose help this column would not have

the Holiday season is a time to enjoy andcelebrate our friendships. To all my read-ers I offer the very best that all the holi-

Miniatures' product ratings

* Poor* * Below average* * * Average* * * * Above average* * * * * Excellentdays can bring and a peaceful and

enjoyable season.

112 NOVEMBER 1994

Gren #1826 War Dragon * * * * ½The War Dragon is a 15-mm multi-piece

Luminite* kit, belonging to the Warlordsseries. The finished model is of a dragonand an armored warrior. The warrior is aone-piece casting dressed in a combinationof plate and chain, with the separations inplate pieces and chain mail areas clearlyvisible. His helmet has a clear separationaround the visor, and a deeply engravedvision slot. There is a hair tassel at thehelmet peak that hints at individual hairswhile still presenting itself as a full tail. Heis armed with a spear and kite shield. Theonly flash was on the boot bottoms, andthe mold lines needed only slight cleaning.You probably will want to prime the figurein black and then drybrush the armor andchain, since some of the separations areshallow and may not hold a wash or aninking.

The body of the dragon is over 98 mmlong and is a combination of the headpiece and the main body. These two piecesare joined at the shoulders in a well-concealed socket joint that required nocleaning and little filling and is camou-flaged by the saddle. The body is sculptedin an overlapping scale pattern interrupt-ed only by belly plates, extremities, and aline of sharp spinal ridges. The head fea-tures facial plates, horns, eye sockets, andan open mouth full of sharp teeth and asmall tongue. Overall the body has littleflash, but some cleanup is required alongthe mold lines and in the wing holderslots. The two wings have a combinedspan of over 100 mm and have excellenttop and bottom detail. The leathery ap-pearance, wing cartilage detail, pin claws,and the slightly puffed appearance of anair-filled space all overcome the disadvan-tage of the wings being slightly thick.There is very little flash between the wingclaws and wing body. Some filling may berequired at the wing base if a gap remainsafter mounting the wings.

The dragon is supported by a clear base,and with the left rear leg tucked againstits body, it is clearly in flight. If you wishto show the dragon grounded, simply

remove the flight base and the dragon willstand upright on the ground, although itwill look a bit clumsy. I encourage Grena-dier and other companies to produce morelarge creatures and other dragons in the15-mm scale. This dragon is recommendedto anyone who plays war games in thisscale. The War Dragon retails for $6.50per blister-pack kit.

Gren #1526 Street Bikew/Uzi Rider ****

This 28-mm Luminite set is part of theFuture Warriors line. The set contains aone-piece motorcycle and a two-piecerider. The base top is undetailed except forone pair of indented lines that run wheel-to-wheel and could be painted to resemblethe center-line marker of a road. Themotorcycle is of the trail bike variety,probably in the 500 cc range, with a clear-ly observable engine and cylinder headdetail that is fair. The wheels have three-spoke aluminum centers, traction-tread

114 NOVEMBER 1994

tires and a rear tread pattern that is slight-ly out of synch. A disk brake is visible inthe front, and the rear wheel has a diskand sprocket. Wheel spokes are solid,front and rear, as are the seat and gastanks. This molding will require the sepa-ration between parts to be created bycareful painting. The exhaust system isrear-mounted and includes an air inductorand enclosed guard. The front has a faringcomplete with added weaponry andgauges. There was flash between theengine and frame, engine and seat, and onthe rear spokes. However, all of the flashcleaned up easily. The mold line on thetank and seat was removed by simplyrunning the edge of a knife over it. Lastbut not least, there is a buckle-down sad-dlebag on the right side of the cycle.

The rider is dressed in riding boots withextra front padding and side buckles, apair of jeans with a narrow belt, and a tee-shirt. A standard leather jacket isstretched tight as he fires the Uzi clutched

in his left hand and aimed at a target to hisleft. His right arm is a separate piece thatwill require a little work to set correctly.Seat the figure on the bike and positionthe arm so that the hand is on the righthandlebar. Tack the arm on with superglue. Allow the figure to dry and then fillthe gap with super glue gap filler orepoxy. The face is bland, and the hair isslicked back in stereotypical biker fashionwith individual strands visible.

This piece has lots of value. It can be usedin any present-time RPG such as a TOPSECRET® game or ICE�s HERO SYSTEM* orany near-future or dark future games. Theretail price per blister pack is $4.00, and Irecommend getting this set if you play anyof these types of games.

Gren #3008 Lizardmen Lair * * * * ½The eight Luminite lizardmen in this set

are scaled to the larger 28-mm scale.These Lost Lands figures are set on roughoval bases with rock piles as prominentpoints. The bases are otherwise flat andpresumed to be swampy terrain, and arejust big enough to keep the figure upright.The lizardmen all have bony spinal ridgeson the back of the head and from thelower section of the shoulders to thelower back. Otherwise, each figure hasdifferent characteristics, as follows.

Figure #1 has the smaller head usuallyequated with a snake. His clothes consistof a ragged hide loincloth and a raggedcape that is split in the back to accommo-date his ridges. The cape halves are joinedin front by a pearl and skull clasp. Thebody has very visible ribs and bone struc-ture with muscles layered and tight-fitting.The skin has a pebbly surface and the feetare bare with sharp claws topping thetoes. The tail is covered in chain mail andcapped with a mace-type head. This lizardis smaller than the rest, measuring justunder 25 mm squatting and would beunder 38 mm standing. He is armed with asling and a bag of rocks and is preparingto fire a projectile with his right hand. Hisarmor consists of a round metal shield onhis left arm and small shields on eachknee. There was no flash on this figure,and the mold lines were hidden.

Figure #2 has a blunt face with a dullexpression, but his bony jaws are openwide. This body is gaunt and his clothingconsists of feathers under a hide shoulderprotector and a leather breechcloth. Histail is bare. He is armed with a square clubstudded with a number of sharp, toothlikespikes. Protection is afforded by a tortoise-shell shield strapped to his left arm andknee plates. His breechcloth is held on bya bead-and-tooth belt that also supports asheathed machete-type knife with a wood-en handle. There are no other bags oraccoutrements, and he is definitely in anadvancing position.

Figure #3 has more feathers around theneck crest than figure #2, no shield pro-tection, and a long toothed halberd thatshows a lot of use. He is also in a charging

pose, seeming to be moving slightly fasterthan figure #2. Both figures are just over40 mm tall.

Figure #4 is another smaller lizardmanclothed only in a breechcloth. His neck isprotected by a spiked collar, while hisknees have small shields. He is armed witha short bow and has a rough-sewn skinquiver of arrows at his mid-back securedby belts. The arrows are crude in appear-ance. The tail is lightly armored in chainand has a small mace head.

Figure #5 has more feathers around hisneck and sports a fur cape with gold but-ton clasps. His breechcloth is secured by abead belt, and a leather strap drops fromthe belt at the figure�s front. He is charg-ing with a halberd, and his mace-cappedtail is swung back to deliver a secondattack.

Figure #6 is in a defensive position withhis shield-covered left arm extended todeflect a blow and his bracer-supportedright hand clutching a broken halberdpointed toward the ground. The majorityof his neck feathers are to the rear withonly two facing forward. A belt with askull buckle supports a breechcloth withspikes in the rear half and chain mail toprotect the tail. The lizard's second weap-on is a heavy mace-head at the end of a

116 NOVEMBER 1994

slightly curled tail.Figure #7 is the lizard champion. Metal

bracers support straining wrists as bothhands clutch a huge two-edged sword. Hishide cape is decorated with a skull on theleft shoulder and joined by a rope fasten-er. A skull-buckle belt supports his breech-cloth, which also supports the chain mailprotecting a usable tail mace. This figurehas more spines on the back than theothers and could be used as a leader;simply paint him a bit brighter.

Figure #8 has a mass of feathers underhis skin cape and sports a large skull claspon thongs just under his chest. A thin beltsupports a sheathed knife, a skull buckle,a breechcloth, and chain mail for the tail.Both knees have shields, and both wristshave bracers. An oversized axe is clenchedin both hands. If you want to use theother figure as a leader, this would makean outstanding champion.

These figures had very little flash and noproblem with mold lines. The figureswould normally be too big for use withAD&D® game figures, but they are onlyslightly larger then the Ral Partha lizard-men featured in issue #209. With this inmind, they could either be used as Tren(see the MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM®accessory) or giant lizardmen. By the sametoken, the Ral Partha lizardmen could beused as skirmishers for this unit. I recom-mend this boxed set, even at the $18.99price.

Simtac, Inc.20 Attawan RoadNiantic CT 06357

SZR-11 Male Streetrunner * * * * ½This lead-free 25-mm figure has a blend

of past and present clothing. The basicclothing consists of a one-piece, full-lengthjumpsuit with an open tee-shirt type collarand pockets on both thighs. There are noclosures noticeable, but there is a moldline that could easily be turned into azipper line if you chose not to remove it.Over this is a long coat with a rear �V� cutthat does not extend all the way throughthe coat. The sleeves are full-length, end-ing in a turned-back frilly cuff, and eachsleeve has a shoulder pocket and a patchat the elbow. Wide lapels exhibit no clo-sures, nor does the body of the coat give aclue to closures, except for a piece ofmetal that could either be a clasp or anecklace. His right gloved hand clenches agun with sight and his left hand holds acourier bag or pouch that is also securedby straps across the chest. The face ismiddle-aged, with a look of concern that isaccented by great bushy eyebrows. Facialdetail is very good. His hair is swept backand falls to mid-neck. Close inspectionreveals that there is a good-sized rat on hisright shoulder that is looking at him!

This is a well-done, generic, dark futurefigure that could be used in a number ofgames besides West End�s SHATTERZONE*system. The rat could be a familiar for a

street mage in FASA�s SHADOWRUN*game or a �companion� in the GAMMAWORLD® game. There were only a fewair-hole flash pieces and no problem moldlines. I highly recommend this figure atthe $2.15 price tag.

SZR-3 Veteran Mercenary * * * *This 25-mm lead-free figure is walking

across a ground-textured oval base inpadded combat boots. A pair of thicklypadded, wrinkled pants are protected byhinged protector plates. The upper torso iscovered by a short-sleeved flak vest withextra shoulder plates over a tee-shirt. Thet-shirt subtly shows off muscle detail, anda really nice touch is the pair of dogtagson a bead chain hanging down to mid-chest. A thin belt holds up his pants and amultitude of cartridge holders, othercontainers, and a knife that is hiding onthe left side. A rifle is slung across thefigure�s back, but there is no sign of anyholding straps. His arms are covered bymodern bracers, which will be neededwhen he fires the heavy gun. A strap forthe gun supports a line of grenades and acartridge belt or energy packs snakeacross the left side to the gun. His head isprotected by a Kevlar-type helmet securedby a chin strap. Eye protection is affordedby a pair of simple goggles. The face re-minds me of a lightly bearded Santa, espe-cially with the puffed-out cheeks andbutton nose, but I�ve rarely seen picturesof Santa with a cigar stub hanging fromthe corner of his mouth Sgt. Fury style!That is a nice touch.

This figure has a couple of problems,one of them serious. The pads on the leftleg are split by a mold line and don�t quiteline up correctly. The same mold line runsup the arm and across the head and mustbe removed using a file. You also will haveto figure out how to clear the space adja-cent to the heavy gun, since this space isfilled with spillover. Even with these prob-lems, this is an interesting figure that canbe used with a number of game systems. Itretails for $2.15.

Soldiers and Swords40 Jarvis St.Binghamton NY 13901

155002 Ladies * * * *½This lead-free 28-mm set contains three

women in late 1890s to early 1900s attire.The first woman is encouraging someone

into a �dead� sleep. She is dressed in bed-clothes, a long nightdress covered by a lacedcorset-type bedjacket designed to enhancethe bosom. The jacket�s frilly half-sleevesballoon over the nightdress�s regular longsleeves. Her upper chest is bare and framedby her long hair. Her left hand rests on herhip, while her right hand clenches a dagger.There is an expression of distaste on herface as if she is faced with a mundane chore.Only the flash between the arm and bodymars the figure.

Lady number two is dressed in a formal

evening gown that stretches from neck tofloor. A laced top accents the bosom, whilea single-jewel pendant helps draw atten-tion to that locale. Her hair is combed offto each side and brushed back, falling to

mid-back. She has a stern expression onher face, and the wrinkles in her dressindicate that she is standing still. Therewas flash between her right arm andbody, but it was easily removed.

Lady number three is dressed for travel-ing. A long coat ruffles in the eveningbreeze as a lightly tied hood protects herhead. A gown and blouse are visiblethrough the front opening of the coat, andher right hand is clutching a revolver. Herface is almost cherubic, with a big smileprominent as she plans her mayhem.There was no flash or visible mold line onthis figure�even the bow securing herhood was flash-free.

This would be a good set of ladies forGDW�s SPACE 1889*, Chaosium�s Cthulhuby Gaslight, R. Talsorian�s CASTLEFALKENSTEIN*, or any other RPG setduring this general time period. This setprovides an excellent value at $4.95 perpack of three.

For questions and comments, call me at(708) 336-0790 MWThFr 2-10 P.M. or SaSu10 A.M.-5 P.M. or write me c/o Friends Hob-by Shop, 2411 Washington, Waukegan IL60085.

Having a convention?

If you’re having a gaming convention,why not tell the world about it? Checkour address in this issue’s “ConventionCalendar” and send your announce-ment to us—free of charge!

118 NOVEMBER 1994

NEW PRODUCTS FORNOVEMBER

RED STEEL� Campaign ExpansionAD&D® game boxed setby Tim BeachBased on material originally published in

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Masque of the Red Deathand Other Tales

An AD&D® game RAVENLOFT®Variant Campaign boxed set

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CaravansAn AD&D® game AL-QADIM®

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120 NOVEMBER 1994

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Tabloid!An AMAZING ENGINE® gameby David �Zeb� CookAliens kidnap Bigfoot love child! Famous Dead

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The Deva SparkAn AD&D® game PLANESCAPE�

adventureby Bill Slavicsek & J.M. SalisburyIn this 32-page adventure, your PLANESCAPE

PCs journey from Sigil to the Abyss to Elysiumand back. After witnessing a fierce battle be-tween a deva and a bebelith, the PCs must try tosave the deva’s life and determine why thebebelith starts behaving in a very unbebelith-like manner.$9.95 U.S./$11.95 CAN./£5.99 U.K.TSR Product No.: 2606

Marco Volo: ArrivalAn AD&D® game FORGOTTEN

REALMS® adventureby TSR staffIn this thrilling finale to the “Marco Volo” trilogy,

it turns out that the imposter pretending to beVolo is on the run—but from whom? That is up tothe PCs to solve in this 32-page adventure.$6.95 U.S./$8.95 CAN./£4.50 U.K.TSR Product No.: 9455

Poor Wizard�s AlmanacAn AD&D® game MYSTARA�

accessoryby Ann DupuisThis handy, pocket-size guide offers a world

of events, nations, and peoples—all at a glance.This 240-page book summarizes geographic, histori-cal, and other information on the MYSTARAcampaign setting from the past game year. Don’tfall behind the times—pick one up now.$9.95 U.S./$11.95 CAN./£5.99 U.K.TSR Product No.: 2506

Forest of DarknessAn ENDLESS QUEST® bookby Michael AndrewsRejoin the heroes of the DRAGON STRIKE®

game in this pick-a-path adventure book. You,the reader, must lead the others through theForest of Darkness to reach home.$3.95 U.S./$4.95 CAN./£3.99 U.K.TSR Product No.: 8093

The Hidden WarA TSR® Bookby Michael ArmstrongIn the far future, numerous space colonies

have rebelled against the organized EarthFederation. One space ace takes aim against therebels until he discovers an inhuman conspiracythat threatens all humanity.$4.95 U.S./$5.95 CAN./£4.99 U.K.TSR Product No.: 8236

Coming next month . . .DRAGON® Magazine #212

Cover art by Les DorscheidThis issue’s theme is DM’s Advice and

includes:* An article on making adventures more

like your favorite fantasy novel.* A piece on the consequences of

adventures—even successful adventures.* An article on using “rerun” adventuresPlus all our regular columns, reviews, and

features such as “Sage Advice,” “Forum,”“Convention Calendar,” and an “Ecology of”article.$3.95 U.S./$4.95 CAN./£1.95 U.K.TSR Product No.: 8111-12

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