Realms of the Dragons

Realms of the Dragons, edited by Philip Athans, is the ninth anthology of stories from the Forgotten Realms. All the short stories relate in some way to the horrific Year of Rogue Dragons.

"Raging dragons threaten to destroy civilization on Faerûn, but that hasn't always been the case. There have been times when humans and dragons have worked together to preserve life and combat evil.

Of course, that doesn't happen very often. Most of the time, they just try to kill each other and steal as much treasure as they can in the process.

This collection of all new stories by Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood; New York Times best-selling authors Elaine Cunningham, Richard Baker, Lisa Smedman, and R. A. Salvatore; The Year of Rogue Dragons author Richard Lee Byers; and many more, bring the myriad sides of the dragons of Faerûn to life.

The Year of Rogue Dragons has only just begun, but the history of that powerful race of enchanted creatures is long, frightening, and beautiful indeed."

Soulbound
By Paul S. Kemp

Avnon Des the Seer is the First Demarch of the conclave of the Hall of Shadows. One day he arose from his meditation to find himself, his temple and its inhabitants moved to the Shadow Plane. Kesson Rel is the first Chosen of the Shadow God, marked as a heretic by the Demarchs because he drank from the Chalice and transformed into a creature of shadow. He seeks his revenge by bringing the temple from Elgrin Fau, the City of Silver, to the Shadow Plane, and soul binding a shadow dragon, Furlinastis, into bringing him one of the priests every day to kill them in front of him, since his oaths prevent him from killing them himself. And so the dragon killed, while looking for a way out of the soul magic. Avnon also tries to decipher the will of his god, as there is no way for them to escape that particular stretch of the Shadow Plane, or to combat the dragon. Avnon sought counsel from his god and he saw that the Shadow God wanted to determine whether Kesson Rel’s or their faith was the strongest. The next time the dragon comes to collect a priest, Avnon tells him that if he wishes to free himself of Kesson, he must collect him next. When Furlinastis returns to Kesson, he tricks him into ordering him to bring Avnon to the slaughter next. When Furlinastis goes to pick up Avnon, Avnon has killed the other priests with their permission and assimilated their souls. Avnon oaths the dragon’s cooperation in the future, when the First and the Second Chosen of the Shadow God will pursue Kesson. After Furlinastis kills him in front of Kesson, the souls of the priests fly into the dragon and defeat Kesson’s soul freeing the dragon, but Kesson manages to flee.

First Flight
By Edward Bolme

Serreg, an archwizard under Lady Polaris in Delia, is working on a blight which seems to hit all the land Delia passes above. After deducting that the blight is a magical spell coming from under the earth, he goes to investigate. But he is not match for the phaerimm, and while fleeing for his life, his prayers are heard by Targus, who grants him a dagger of polymorphing, with which Serreg slays the phaerimm, but polymorphs randomly several times. Finally, he polymorphed into a dragon, and with his superior intellect understood that each time he used the dagger it would polymorph him into something random. As a dragon, Serred was now unconcerned with mortal matters such as the plague, so he tore the dagger (which was morphed into a claw) from his body and used it as a start of his treasure stash.

Gorlist's Dragon
By Elaine Cunningham

The Keeper of Secrets
By Ed Greenwood

The Topaz Dragon
By Jess Lebow

Wickless in the Nether
By R. A. Salvatore

(This story was also published in The Collected Stories: The Legend Of Drizzt.)

1368 DR, Heliogabalus, Damara

In the short story, Salvatore describes the first encounter between Artemis Entreri and Jarlaxle and the famed dragon sisters Tazmikella and Ilnezhara of Heliogabalus. This event is referred to in Road of the Patriarch, when Entreri reminds Jarlaxle that the dragons sisters played them for fools. In the story, Tazmikella, appearing as a plain shopkeeper, tells of how an item of great sentimental value is in the possession of Ilnezhara. Tazmikella hires Entreri and Jarlaxle to steal this item, but soon they find out their foe's power is beyond their comprehension when they find out she is an ancient and powerful copper dragon. Ilnezhara then commands the two to go and kill Tazmikella for her in return for allowing them to live. After this encounter, they journey to kill Tazmikella and find out not only is Tazmikella Ilnezhara's sister, but she also a copper dragon of great power. Jarlaxle and Entreri agree to work for the two dragon sisters.

Serpestrillvyth
By Richard Baker

Waylaid
By Thomas M. Reid

Standard Delving Procedure
By Lisa Smedman

An Icy Heart
By Voronica Whitney-Robinson

Penitential Rites
By Keith Francis Strohm

How Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth
By Dave Gross

Beer with a Fat Dragon
By Don Bassingthwaite

The Prisoner of Hulburg
By Richard Lee Byers