Ase Ur-Jennan

If you're going to steal a shaman's pretzels at the inn, you better make sure your back is covered...

Oh, to be sure that when you sit down to write, the funny stuff will be right there at the tips of your fingers -- wouldn't that be worth a pouchful of gold and silver? "Fork over some big-time gold pieces," says Aser, "and you will be a regular laff riot."

They're cute, they scatter beautiful clouds of "pixie dust," and they can tell you what the sky is going to do for the next few days. Who wouldn't leap at the chance to capture one and keep it in a jar? ... And maybe make it a business partner? Originally appeared 2006-04-17.

Cover story. No, you're not seeing things. That really is Margot the Troll threatening a lizardman. Trolls are good at that -- they tend to be on the impatient and cranky side, and being eight or nine feet tall gives them a certain knack. Traveling with Margot saves me the trouble of being cranky, and she's such a formidable companion that I've hardly ever been on the run when I'm with her. But the incident that took us into Lizard territory didn't happen while we were on the road. We were just in the downtown shopping center of a little burg in the western hills ...