Status Updates From The Search for Magic (Drago...

Oh, this was a story told by the Ice Nomads. That makes more sense since everyone dies in the end.

Whoa! That's a first in these stories. The protagonist dies in his story.

It's like in "Ice Age: The Meltdown" when Scrat the Squirrel sticks his acorn in the ice, it causes the whole wall to crack and then break.

Anyone remember "Ice Age 2: The Meltdown"? This is that.

Last story.

...what the heck was he? Who the heck was he? Was he a cleric of the dead and was able to cast an instant kill spell? Because that was such a neat trick I had to read it twice.

Nope! They melt the armor and weapons and make them into currency! Holy $#!+ that's genius!

So, these two are, what? Clerics? They make a pact with the dead where they give them a proper burial in exchange for their weapons and armor, where they then proceed to repair and sell.

So, this covered wagon with a kitchen and forge is like, what, a camper?

That dragon is going to go insane as well with the ghosts ripping the magic from her.

The ghosts of the dead were after his magic. Now that's interesting. I might have to keep that in mind.

More ghosts? Things just keep getting more and more interesting.

So, the ghost is either in the bracelet and has cursed it or it is called to it whenever someone of magic is nearby and uses magic?

These dreams of being the master, a ruler, does it come from the gems and bracelet or does it come from Brudas and the bracelet is enhancing it?

Even for a creature of evil, there is something to understand about his situation of feeling inadequate compared to those born of a higher status.

Draconians, eh? It took me a minute of careful reading to figure out that these are the type of dragon-like races to be born from stolen and corrupted dragon eggs that are described in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. Very interesting. I was wondering if that was an original creation or something derived from either Dragonlance or the Forgotten Realms.

3 chapters left.

Well, that was a nice story, if predictable. An assassin gets a change of heart to kill a dishonored knight while he travels with her and protects her, eventually saving her life.

Secrets out. Now, what will she do about the betrayal.

Spending weeks with your target, watching them work, only to kill them, doesn't seem like a smart decision.

The description of this white-haired, young woman, identified as a Solamnic Knight, makes me think it's the person on the cover.

Well, that story was meh. Let's hope this one is better.

"The ears of the wolves twitched. A howl echoed in the high, surrounding hills — the howl of a wolf from the throat of a man."
Werewolves?

I don't know what's going on with these wolf trainers, but it is a rather interesting concept. Feels like a group of rangers with wolf companions.

5 stories left, all various lengths. I think I should be done by the end of the month, finally.

Aaaand back to square one. Hopefully this is the final story on gnomes. That's been 3 so far in this anthology.

The young kender was cursing hard enough to impress a sailor.

The young kender went full beast-transformation-mode from Beauty and the Beast with the beams of line streaking out from his body.

I love this description of the dragon's fear-inducing breath. All dragon's have a Frightening Presence ability, but not a despairing breath. The more special breath-types are for Metallic Dragons.

OoooOOOoooooooh. I never thought there would be a shadow dragon here. When the gully dwarf said that the Big Boss creature would eat the smoke from the torches, I didn't think it would be a dragon. I thought that a shadow dragon would come from Forgotten Realms lore, not Dragonlance.