Suffice to say that some things are worth waiting for.
Weeks passed, and balmy spring gently merged into lazy summer. Our surroundings proved delightfully peaceful, pastoral, sweet, comfortable, predictable... in a word, boring.
By late summer, the three of us had decided to take to the road again. I still had Goldfinder, Saysi her jade amulet, and though Badswell had lost his battle-axe in the depths of the Abyss, he had fashioned himself a staff of solid rockwood, a local tree with timber so dark that it reminded us of ebony. I wondered aloud if the half-ogre was prepared to adventure, perhaps to battle for our lives, armed only with a pole.
"Seen it done before," he replied simply, and for a moment, the image of a tall black figure rose in all of our memories.
We left on a muggy dawn, the kind of day that promises sweathouse heat, after teary farewells from my sisters and promises to at least three dozen nieces and nephews that we would return with treasures and baubles—well, at least with a few interesting stories.
Bayar, ready to explore and adventure and travel, loped and gamboled in the lead. An archway of elms stood over the road, and as we passed beneath these, I knew that we would in fact be back, though it might take a while.
And if I had learned one thing, I knew that there could be no telling what road we'd follow to get here.
Table of Contents
Prologue
CHAPTER 1 Good Lives Down the Drain
CHAPTER 2 Halflings Afloat
CHAPTER 3 The Red Garter
CHAPTER 4 Stalkers of Chaos
CHAPTER 5 Aaqa
CHAPTER 6 Melancholy Flight
CHAPTER 7 Badswell Lummoff
CHAPTER 8 Mum and Pap
CHAPTER 9 Traveling Companions
CHAPTER 10 The Vastest Bog
CHAPTER 12 Meeting in the Far Planes
CHAPTER 13 Argenport
CHAPTER 14 Parnish Fegher
CHAPTER 15 Tale of the Wolf-Spider
CHAPTER 16 A Journey Commences
CHAPTER 17 The Stature of a Champion
CHAPTER 18 A Rider From the Planes
CHAPTER 19 Chaos Swarm
CHAPTER 20 Pandemonium
CHAPTER 21 Halls of the Raklupis
CHAPTER 22 The Rod of Seven Parts
CHAPTER 23 Pursuit Through Pandemonium
CHAPTER 24 Vengeance of a Queen
Epilogue