The narrative of the as if by magic createdsellswordand would - be assassin Alias and her blessing comrade , the saurial paladin Dragonbait , continue in the 2nd volume of the Finder ’s Stone trilogy — which , wait a minute … uh … doesn’t actually feature Alias or Dragonbait ? At all . But I ’ll order you what The Wyvern ’s Spur does contain : the words “ wyvern ” and “ goad . ” A lot .
I want to start by telling you I care the sequel toAzure Bondsa lot because this is exit to sound like I ’m dunking on it . The Wyvern ’s Spur takes somewhat much everything you fuck about the first Holy Scripture and flip it aside for an almost completelyseparate adventure . Gone are most of the first book ’s agonist , including the two main adept ; the only one who appears in The Wyvern ’s Spur is Olive Ruskettle , the not peculiarly appealing halfling thief . The hero here is Giogi Wyvernspur , the clueless but goodhearted fop who appeared very , very briefly in the first Bible , and who indiscriminately find the Finder ’s Stone while taking a walk .
https://gizmodo.com/dungeons-dragons-novels-revisiting-azure-bonds-1844460389
A portion of Clyde Caldwell’s original cover for The Wyvern’s Spur. From left: Olive Ruskettle, Giogi Wyvernspur, and a dragon.Illustration: Wizards of the Coast
The Wyvern ’s Spur is mainly about the lookup for the titulary spur after it ’s stolen from the Wyvernspur family crypt . It ’s an artifact with the great power to give one member of the family per propagation the power to transmute into a wivern . While other Wyvernspurs have their own reasons for seeking it , Giogi attempts to discover it before the malefic whiz Flattery , who has his own connexion to a major Azure Bonds character and gets his hands on it as part of a belabored strategy to destroy all Wyvernspurs . It ’s middling elementary material , complicated somewhat by the events of the old book .
In case any of you who had any programme to read Azure Bonds weirdly did n’t do so within a few months after mylook backat it , I need to “ spoil ” the ending of yet another 30 - plus - class - old novel to explain what ’s go on in this sequel . When Alias was captured by the various dark forces who create her , each for their own dark understanding , somehow the ritual that was going to put her entirely in their thrall involved nine other unconscious / dead / inoperative written matter of her body which were apparently destroy when the bad guys were defeated . As we get word in The Wyvern ’s Spur , that was not the event .
Not one but two of these Alias ringer appear in the book , although they have very unlike personalities ( and fictitious character classes ) from the archetype . The first is Jade , a thief who coincidentally draw into and has partnered with Olive ; the second is Cat , a crushed - level mage who coincidently ran into ( and was more or less enslaved by ) Flattery . Flattery murders Jade when she coincidently lean into him and he catch her examine to pick his pocket . wait , there are a lot of coincidences in this book .
Clyde Caldwell’s full cover. The dragon (note the stinger-less tail) on the right must be Flattery, although his dragon form was blue.Illustration: Wizards of the Coast
For instance , almost everyone turn out to be a Wyvernspur , including Flattery and Kat and Jade , the latter two because of a technicality ; they ( and Alias ) were partially created by Finder Wyvernspur , a.k.a . the Nameless Bard , in one of his evil attempts to create a human iPod that would verify his songs would be sung correctly throughout the ages ( with words and euphony unchanged ) . The Finder ’s Stone was one of those early attempt to contain his study — as was Flattery , who was a dead ringer of Finder who the bard immensely maltreat and throw out for give out to be a good iPod , which is why the adept hates the Wyvernspurs so dang much .
If all this sounds fearsome , it ’s really not ! The Wyvern ’s Spur bluster a lot of improvements over its harbinger . Olive is importantly more epic and less self - interested than in Azure Bonds , in spite of — or maybe because of — spending almost literally the entire first one-half of the book as a burro . ( I ’ll explain later . ) Giogi is an likeable protagonist in that upper - class but big half-wit Bertie Wooster mode — complete with his own importantly more competent Samuel Butler , as originate in British humorist P.G. Wodehouse ’s utterly delightfulJeevesstories . Cat ’s arc of scheming to find the Wyvern ’s Spur for Flattery out of reverence builds course to her decision to throw away her lot in with Giogi and Olive instead . ( Cat also falls in sexual love with the noble , protective Giogi , but this is n’t so much rude as received procedure in these form of storey . )
Even the fact that practically everyone is a Wyvernspur works in the book ’s favour because only someone with the kinfolk ’s stock could have steal the artefact . This means there are unnumerable suspect , peculiarly since almost all the virile members of the family — minus Giogi , who helpfully takes after his female parent ’s side — look so alike it ’s even hard to determine their age . This also shrouds Flattery ’s identity nicely for much of the record , which keeps the story compelling , even through a somewhat sedate and burro - centric first one-half . Admittedly , this makes the epic net battle with Flattery feel highly out of proportion since he ends up bringing a giant palace on a flying mountain to the Wyvernspur home ’s front door . However , it ends up with Giogi in wyvern shape combat Flattery , who ’s transformed into a blue dragon , in the sky , with the former assisted by Olive and a little salmagundi of larger-than-life Wyvernspurs , which is rather satisfying .
A portion of Luis Castro’s cover for the foreign edition. This is Giogi in his wyvern form; the full cover shows off his scorpion-like tail stinger.Illustration: Wizards of the Coast
Like R.A. Salvatore ’s soph effort in theIcewind Daletrilogy , Kate Novak and Jeff Grubbs ’ penning and plotting have significantly improved between their first and 2nd novel . The story is more straightforward and less haphazard than in Azure Bonds , and the various twist land solidly , even if there ’s a bit of handwaving to prevent part from getting information too soon . Happily , there ’s no gross objectification of women in the book ; there is a scene where Giogi ’s eyes boggle at the sight of Cat tire out a low - cut dress , but Cat wear thin it specifically to gain Giogi ’s affection as part of her effort to see and slip the Wyvern ’s Spur and it ’s only briefly mentioned in a line of reasoning or two and then dropped , so it does n’t find icky . I think the Holy Scripture even passes the Bechdel test , barely , in a few scenes where Olive and Cat discuss the Spur alternatively of Giogi or Flattery .
https://gizmodo.com/dungeons-dragons-novels-revisiting-the-legend-of-h-1845938062
So all in all this is a better , more readable novel than Azure Bonds … but I ’d be lie if I did n’t accommodate I ’m kind of mooch out Alias and Dragonbait were wholly missing in activeness . I also kind of miss the topsy-turvyness of the first book , where assassinator , Draco , and dark sludge gods could suddenly pop out of nowhere . That tomfoolery is what pushed Azure alliance to an eight despite its many flaws , but even without it , The Wyvern ’s Spur swan a 10 on a 1d20 , make it the best - scored book in my “ Dungeons & Dragons & Novels ” series — and leave me excited to ( finally ) get to the third and concluding account book in the trilogy , Song of the Saurials . Especially since Alias and Dragonbait will be back . I have to envisage those singing saurials might be a little miffed to discover Alias has effectively named their fellow lizardman “ Wyrm Chow . ”
Assorted Musings:
If you ’re not up on your Monster Manual , awyvernis like a smaller Draco with a poisonous tailstinger instead of a breathing spell weapon .
If you ’re thinking the artifact is a spur , like something knights put on their boots to sit their horses , you are incorrect : The prod is a bony , horn - like part of a wyvern ’s leg , something many real - globe birdsalso have . This means the Wyvernspurs have been carrying around a hunk of a at rest creature for centuries , which is A-one - arrant . At one point in time Olive even mistakes it for a lump of dried heart and soul .
I have no idea why this is call the Finder ’s Stone trilogy , as the stone has virtually no function in either The Wyvern ’s Spur or Azure Bonds . The only wizard power it seems to have is shining a igniter that guard off a few freak . Maybe it ’ll get along into play in Song of the Saurials ?
At the conclusion of Azure Bonds , Olive meets the centuries - old Finder / Nameless Bard , who has repented of his evil iPod - making ways after seeing the freshly created , newborn - minded Alias instinctually worry for Dragonbait . That ’s all well and beneficial , but then The Wyvern ’s Spur comes around and reveals Finder was an enormous piece of shit who found no such warmness for the imperfect clon of himself he created , Flattery . It retroactively take a shit his “ redemption ” really unearned and frustrating .
As annoying as Flattery ’s name is , I still think Phalse , one of the villains from the previous Holy Scripture , has a stupider name . If you ’re going to be that obvious a character is a bad guy , just go out front and import the word aright .
Amazonlists The Wyvern ’s Spur as being part of The Finder ’s Stone trilogy , which really throw me for a cringle when I started reading .
A “ barely clad ” statue of the goddess Selune gets delivered to Giogi ’s demesne , which was done by an artist named Cledwyll , an obvious reference to and good - natured dunk on Azure Bonds and The Wyvern ’s Spur cover artistClyde Caldwell .
Oh ! So the reasonableness Olive turns into a burro is because she come her hand on Giogi ’s purse at the source of the Word , long before the Spur shenanigans pop off . Being a doofus who has had his pockets picked many clip before , Giogi had a star cast a tour on it so the next person who give it who was n’t him would transform into an bum as punishment … because they would metaphorically be an ass for stealing his money .
Something I whole did n’t realize was a plot yap until I was write this article : Why the netherworld does Flattery need with the Wyvern ’s Spur when he can already turn into a dragon ?
Next clip , of D&D&N : Saga of Old City , the 2d novel set in the world of Greyhawk , and the first novel by the Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax ! Thanks to Christopher M. for the aid , because champion of the Coast seems very pointedly tonot be interestedin give ebook editions of them . I am , frankly , a lilliputian worried .
For more , make certain you ’re come us on our Instagram @io9dotcom .
AliasDungeons & DragonsFantasy
Daily Newsletter
Get the honest technical school , skill , and culture news show in your inbox daily .
intelligence from the future , rescue to your present tense .
You May Also Like
