The Seal of Karga Kul_ A Dungeons & Dragons Novel - Alex Irvine [0]
And ahead of them, hanging impossibly in the empty air, was the Bridge of Iban Ja. Remy tried to count the stones, but could not. Some of them were larger than the house where he had last taken a meal in Avankil. Some were no larger than a man. Gathered together, they were a mosaic impression of a bridge, the gaps between them sometimes narrow enough for a halfling to tiptoe across and sometimes wide enough that no sane mortal would endeavor the jump without wings. Bits of cloth on sticks fluttered from cracks in some of the rocks, the guideposts of long-past travelers. All of the stones moved slightly, rocking in the winds that howled through the Gorge of Noon as if they floated on the surface of a gentled ocean, or a wide and flat stretch of river. Snow clung to some of them, and drifted in sculpted shapes across the flat edges of others.
“Well,” Kithri said, “now we’ve seen it. Biri-Daar, what did you say the other way across this gorge was?”
“It involves traveling fifty leagues off the road to a ford,” Biri-Daar said. “We have no time. I have crossed Iban Ja’s bridge before. It held me. It will hold you.”
“And by this point, crossing it is no longer a matter of choice,” Keverel chimed in.
“Is that so,” Kithri began. She saw Keverel pointing back up the road, turned to see what he was indicating, and saw—as Remy did at that exact moment—the band of tieflings standing in the road behind them. As they watched, the band of perhaps a dozen was fortified with ten times as many hobgoblin marauders.
Additional titles in the new
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® novel line
The Mark of Nerath
Bill Slavicsek
The Seal of Karga Kul
Alex Irvine
The Temple of Yellow Skulls
Don Basingthwaite
March 2011
Oath of Vigilance
James Wyatt
August 2011
The Last Garrison
Matthew Beard
December 2011
Dungeons & Dragons
The Seal of Karga Kul
©2010 Wizards of the Coast LLC
All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast LLC.
Published by Wizards of the Coast LLC
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, WIZARDS OF THE COAST, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries.
Cover art by Wayne Reynolds
Map by Robert Lazzaretti
Appendix reprinted from Player’s Handbook Races: Dragonborn, by James Wyatt, Wizards of the Coast, January 2010
eISBN: 978-0-7869-5811-5
620-21444000-001-EN
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v3.1
To Gary Gygax, for the game
and my Pop for introducing me to it.
Contents
Cover
Other Books in the Series
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Map
Book I - The Wastes
Book II - The Bridge
Book III - The Crow Road
Book IV - The Inverted Keep
Book V - Betrayal
Book VI - Karga Kul
Book VII - Next
About the Author
Appendix
In the shadow of empires, the past echoes in the legends of heroes. Civilizations rise and crumble, leaving few places that have not been touched by their grandeur. Ruin, time, and nature claim what the higher races leave behind, while chaos and darkness fill the void. Each new realm must make its mark anew on the world rather than build on the progress of its predecessors.
Numerous civilized races populate this wondrous and riotous world of Dungeons & Dragons. In the early days, the mightiest among them ruled. Empires based