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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5508938" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 227: March 1996part 6/8Tales from the fifth age: Mission from kendermore by Harold J Johnson. A story of a whole adventuring party of Kender from their original creator? Oh dear god. This is what I call penance for my sins. Still, it demonstrates exactly why Kender are prime adventurer material. Even if the situation wasn't that dramatic before they got there, they'll find a way to make it into an adventure. And no matter how bad things get, how many of the party get lost, they still act like it's one big game, with the long-term consequences irrelevant. And yet despite all the bickering and sidetracks, they still somehow wind up on the winning side most of the time. And hey, if they lose, that just means the fun continues with more challenges to solve. Their stealth skills & toughness makes them much more likely to survive than the average adventurer. This makes this very interesting, and rather unusual in style. The fact that the kender do gradually get eliminated throughout the story makes it all the more entertaining, and very unusual for the magazine, which has become quite shy about killing off protagonists. You could almost say it's penance from the author, providing the readers with sadistic amusement at the expense of his own creation. So I'm not sure what to make of this, but would be very interested in knowing the behind-the-scenes thought that led to it's writing and publication. It is once again a fairly dramatic change from the usual fiction published in the magazine. Arcane Lore: Oooh. Pretty fireworks. Another thing that has a long association with magic, including a substantial appearance in The Hobbit. We certainly aren't short of elemental fire spells, but this once again shows that you can create a new genre from existing ingredients, like collectible card games, paranormal romance or comedians in drag with fatsuits. And is rather amusing really. Let's amaze those hobbits and startle the goblins. Firecrackers inflict minor damage and are loud and startling. Is this going to be one of those articles that does technology with magic? Those get dull quite quickly. Sparkler, on the other hand can light up any metal object without destroying it. A nice alternative to conventional torches or light spells. Watch as they go ow when you hit them with it. Tee hee. Flare is another one that does pretty much what it does in reality. It even has the same material components. Meh. Goblin Chaser is very closely inspired by a certain Hobbit scene. Sparking balls of fire to rout your enemies. It's not just pain, it's noise and impact. Wheee. Spark Fountain is an extended one that'll make an area painful to pass through for quite a few rounds. That'll be good both as visuals and battlefield control, especially if you can shield your own side. Bakarapper sends out little explosions that explode again. Another familiar real world firework that you don't want to get caught up in the middle of. Dragon Whirl is a more macho Catherine Wheel. Another one that'll be good for battlefield control over a moderate area such as driving enemies away from your castle wall. Roman Candle gives you a rapid fire mini grenade launcher, which you can wield, or set down to serve as one of those regularly firing obstacles you have to slip between in CRPG's. Make it permanent and you have a perfect ornamentation to your insane lair. Special Effects lets you reshape the visuals of many of your spells. Later on, this stuff'll be free. But for now, it takes a 4th level spell. 2nd ed can be harsh in many ways. Starburst lets you terminally taste the rainbow as it arcs over the horizon and explodes in your face. Or is that Skittles. Oh well, you won't be any position to complain once ye've got a taste o' this sonnie. Display lets you put on a full gandalf-esque performance in a single precisely timed package. It even lets you make normally deadly spells child-friendly but still impressive looking. That should be exceedingly useful. Can't really complain about this one, as it has lots of cool bits and callouts in amongst the dull spells.</blockquote>

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