If Ever They Happened Upon My Lair

R.A. Salvatore along with Ed Greenwood, Margaret Weis, and Tracy Hickman had the idea of doing a book together. Each author would write a novella with their signature characters going through the same challenges. The project never happened, but when Salvatore was offered to write a novella for Dragons: Worlds Afire, he was softened to the idea.

Summary
Ringo Heffenstone is gathering water for his dwarven companions when he notices a disturbance in the pool. To his peril, he soon comes to find that the disturbance is a large Black dragon rising from the depths. The wyrm Urshula then descended upon the dwarven camp, killing all. Being a dragon, Urshula looted anything valuable from the dwarf corpses. Urshula then looked towards the town of Palischuk and grew enraged that anyone would dare build upon his land. The dragon flew above the city and dived down breathing his acidic breath, drawing a line of devastation on the center of Palischuk before returning to the pool of water and then to his lair.

Zhengyi took an interest in Urshula and goes to convince the wyrm to join him. Upon arriving at the dragon's lair, Urshula immediately breathes his acid at the lich. Zhengyi continues to offer for Urshula to join him, invoking the names of Byphast the Frozen Death and Honoringast the Red. Finally the lich offers Urshula undeath at which he is rebuked once again.

The next day Zhengyi meets with the White dragon Byphast the Frozen Death. Byphast encountered a band of around fifty heroes from Palischuk that were designed to battle dragons. Zhengyi declared that he would take care of the intruders himself. The lich then planted false dragon tracks leading to a hole created by him as well that intersected a tunnel of Urshula's lair.

The group of heroes followed the false tracks to the hole and followed the tunnel to the dragon. All were unaware that the Witch-King Zhengyi was also in the dragon's lair. The battle was disastrous for the contingent but they were certainly winning before the lich interfered by killing the three wizards. However, Zhengyi only interfered further by grabbing a warrior with telekinesis and lifted him high in the air before dropping him. As the man fell down his sword struck through Urshula's skull then his own head struck the wyrm shattering his spine. The spirit of Urshula then entered the phylactery that Zhengyi had made for the dragon.

Months later when it appeared that Zhengyi may lose his conquest, he placed the phylactery of Urshula into a tome. The lich then claimed, "If I do not win now, I win later".