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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5847155" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 268: February 2000part 4/7Fiction: The python king's treasure by Gregory Keyes. Fool Wolf's life is once again full of highs and lows, love, betrayal, feast, starvation, and repeated near death experiences. It's not that he can't catch a break, but something will come along sooner or later to screw it up. That's the life of the classical adventuring scoundrel, always in and out of trouble, never getting to settle down. In the meantime, we do get to find out some more interesting stuff about his world, and the way spirits and humans relate in it. It's not all one-sided deals where they bind or possess one another, there are oaths that are sworn for mutual benefit, and other long-term relationships. So this is pretty cool, especially as he solves his problems with brains, rather than unleashing raw power whenever he gets in a jam, and isn't totally a slave to the whims of fate and manipulative spellcasters. His adventures are worth a few more watches. PC Portraits: NPC's is this month's theme. Which frankly is so vague a concept as to not be one at all. What really distinguishes PC's from NPC's in terms of appearance? If this is anything to go by, it's not being quite as attractive on average, which is a fitting indictment on the wish fulfilment fantasies of many players. The heads do have odd proportions in this one, and tend to be quite small compared to their necks. But there is a decent variety anyway. Who's to say they can't serve their intended purpose. Arcane Lore: Back to Oerth for a named spell journal, where the history is if anything more important than the spells within. As with far too many journals, a trail of people killing each other for the stuff within is a notable feature of the overall thing. It all feels both formulaic and insubstantial. There's only a couple of spells, and they get big colourful sidebars detailing them. Truly a triumph of style over substance. Lightning Serpent is actually quite good for a 1st level spell, as it may not be that accurate, but it keeps on attacking independently. One of these near the start of the battle'll add to your offense decently. Kieren's Curse Ward lets you piss off gypsies and break into ancient tombs with substantially greater smugness. Shoulda had that a long time ago. Course, you can bet Ravenloft dark powers'll blow through that just like they do for all the other supposed countermeasures. Stay out of Ravenloft, kids! Bazaar of the Bizarre: Round and round we go, with another set of items that are both boon and pain. We had this in issue 263. They aren't even trying to maintain variety now, are they. They're just burning through whatever they have in the slush pile before it's obsoleted by the edition change. Crunch crunch crunch. Chitin Helms form an exoskeleton around you, then replace your original skin and bones, transforming you into an insectoid thing with decent armor and abilities, but severely impaired social skills. You've managed to integrate thri-kreen into your party before. Just get someone else to play the face. Bone Wands gradually drain your life force to power their effects, and eventually come to life. Perfect for a Ravenloft style game. Candelabra of Holding can suck you into them like the mirror. They are rather less stable though, and people in them often escape and try to kill their captor. Again, this has a very definite horror slant. Being turned into a Wax Golem does not sound like a good way to live. Dairon's Hound is a flawed figurine. If it tastes blood, it goes berserk, and then you're screwed. It could still be useful for tracking and fetching though. It'll take a good divination spell to spot that little problem before it becomes an issue. The Hourglass of Lost Youth can stop time, but at a serious cost to your lifespan. Even more than Haste, this is probably not worth the cost, but might be tempting in a pinch. The Sliver of Life's Reflection lets you make a duplicate, at the cost of some permanent lifeforce. This means you'll want to take good care of them, for even a high level character won't be able to treat them as throwaway mooks. Very tempting for PC's though.</blockquote>

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