Appears in Realms of the Dragons,ISBN: 0-7869-3394-1
Released: October 2004
This story was originally written for the anthology Neverwinter Nights. The
concept was that the computer game of the same name would have secreted within
it a dozen items. Easter eggs, if you will. Getting them was to be very
difficult... if you hadn’t read the anthology, which featured stories about these legendary objects and
clues as to how you could get them. Pretty cool, huh?
Unfortunately, the idea was eventually canned. Fortunately, my editor liked the
story, and it eventually found new home. It pits a powerful Netheril wizard
against a nameless evil moving to destroy his floating city.
Author’s Notes and Spoilers Below!
An Odd Approach
Short stories can, at times, get knocked out very quickly. This one I wrote in two evenings of a couple hours each. The funny thing is, I didn’t know exactly how I wanted to start the story and get it going, but I did have a clear idea of where I wanted it to go. Thus I actually started about halfway through, right at the break at page 30. I ran it through to the end, and then added material more or less backwards to the beginning.
It is the oddest path I’ve taken to complete a work.