A woman wakes up in a strange bed . She has no mind how she got there . She has no recollection of the past few days or even the retiring few calendar month . The only clues to her mystical extraction are fivetattooson her sleeve she also has no computer memory of receiving , and … uh … a suspiciouslyfriendly lizardmanwho ca n’t speak Common . To observe her past , she ’ll need to deal with an annoyed reddish dragon , escape the clutches of a mad god , and babble to a couple of shit , in that order .
Thus is the plot of Azure Bonds , the 2nd book in io9’slook back at the Greco-Roman Dungeons & Dragonsnovels of the ‘ fourscore and ‘ 90s . Co - created by fantasy writer Kate Novak and her hubby , plot room decorator Jeff Grubbs , the novel kicked off yet another Forgotten Realms trilogy in October of 1988 . I have a shadowy recollection of not being peculiarly enthuse by Azure Bonds when I record it back in center school ; senior me , on the other hand , found half of the al-Qur’an to be a perfectly fun , compelling phantasy adventure . It ’s the other half that ’s the trouble .
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A small portion ofClyde Caldwell’s cover art of Azure Bonds.Image: Wizards of the Coast
The tattooed amnesic is Alias , which is true an eye - roll of a character name . The tattoo — a flame obelisk , three intertwined roofy , a squiggle and dot , a hand with a fanged sassing in it , and three concentrical circles — are deep blue and go down her subdivision . ( The script also note that at the bottom of the five tattoo is a “ blank space ” for a sixth tattoo , but since every untattooed part of anyone ’s body is technically a white distance for a tattoo , this is very pathetic . ) As she ’s woken in an inn , Alias assumes she ’s just been sleeping off a monumental bender and that someone gave her the tattoos as a very thorough harlequinade .
When Alias tries to find out from an innkeeper how she start there and got the tattoo , a Termish merchandiser / mage ( from the southerly deserts of the Forgotten Realms , but a nearly 1:1 analogue for the Middle East ) identify Akabar Bel Akash offer to rove detect legerdemain on the tattoo , which cause them to light up like pyrotechnic . When Alias die hard to a nearby cleric to have him cast remove curse , the tattoos take over and she render to stamp out him ( she would have succeeded if the cleric had n’t been a worshipper of Waukeen , the goddess of luck ) . That nighttime , deep assassinator seek to capture her , but a strange lizardman appears and helps kill them , proving so well-disposed and servile to her she name himDragonbaitand allow him string up around .
Alias ’ next move is to ask the salvia Dimswart if he knows anything about the symbol . Since he postulate clip to do enquiry , he asks Alias if she would n’t bear in mind rescue the bard intend to play at his girl ’s wedding the next 24-hour interval , whose caravan was mostly bewitch by a flushed dragon . Dimswart has one of the caravan ’s escapees conduce her to the dragon ’s cave , who just happens to be Akabar . And once Alias frees the halfling and self - proclaimed bard Olive Ruskette from the dragon ’s clutches , the political party is arrant .
The full cover of the original Azure Bonds novel..Image: Wizards of the Coast
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The first act of Azure Bonds is surprisingly strong . Alias ’ adventure political party is a marvelous mix of ham actor - handed and graceful character , and the novel keeps throwing occult events at the reader to keep Alias ’ unknown origin compelling , such as the aforementioned assassin attack . That also admit her tattoo which do her to attempt to kill a man doing an impression of King Azoun IV of Cormyr during Dimswart ’s daughter ’s marriage ceremony party . When Alias doeslearn about her tattoo ’s signification , turns out they ’re the mark of an vicious sorcerer name Cassana ( the loony toons and squiggle ) , her undead lich lover ( the three ring ) , the said band of assassins ( the flame dagger ) , an ancientLovecraftian godof rot and degeneracy ( the hand with the mouth in it ) , and then someone or something entirely unnamed ( the concentric circle ) . We then find out Dragonbait is marked with the same symbolization on his chest .
That ’s a hell of a lot of mystery , but somehow it never feel too overwhelming . I think that ’s because despite everything going on , Azure Bonds experience like a reasonably down - to - earth fantasy novel , at least at first . Alias is a skillful fighter , but she ca n’t fend off several trained assassins without some lizard - y assistance . She also does n’t slay the red dragon hold Olive . alternatively , they flim-flam it by bet on its draconic code of honor , and once Olive has been freed they head for the hills like perdition . The only reason they are n’t killed is because Akabar swan wall of stone over the mouth of the Draco ’s cave , trapping it ( for a while ) . For the first half of the book , the party ’s adventures consist mostly of traveling from place to billet , hoping to get some answers while fighting the occasional goon or monster .
It ’s the 2nd one-half of the book where things start to fall apart . For some reason , in the war - deplume townspeople of Yulash , Dragonbait sneaks off to assault a magic wall at the bottom of a pit . Alias keep abreast the lizardman and inadvertently gets pick apart into the rampart , which unloose the strong-arm manifestation of the god Moander . It ’s revealed that Alias is n’t a soul but a instauration , which Moander help make as he could only be freed by someone “ unborn ; ” Alias was supposed to be compelled by Moander ’s sorcerous programming to release him , but it unfeignedly seems like if Dragonbait had n’t go down there , Alias would n’t have either .
Instead , we ’re treated to many , many chapter of Moander ’s giant abhorrence heading across the res publica with Alias trapped inside , unable to do anything , which is n’t any fun . The red tartar short reappears to get some vengeance , but Olive , with help from Dragonbait , flirt on her draconic code of laurels again and manage to enlist her help to struggle Moander . This fight also read everlastingly , until Moander absorbs a bunch of extremely inflammable trees and the dragon uses her fire breath and blows them both up . It all feels artificial compared to the first half of the book of account , as does everyone ’s equally sudden gaining control by Cassana , the lich , a peck of unidentified and unspeaking assassins , and Phalse , who appear to be a halfling but , as his name implies with the force of an exploding ruby tartar , is not .
Once the sorry guy wire pop spilling secret , Alias ’ origin goes from mysterious to wildly convoluted . First , the rationality these evil knuckleknobs created her is , to apply the medical term , whack - a - doodle . Moander ’s need to produce a clone is fundamental to unlocking his wizard prison tracks . As for the lich ’s motivation — since Cassana used her own signifier to produce Alias , she ’s effectively a younger , hot , less muscular and murderous version of the woman he hate - lovemaking . But the bravo want her to assassinate the King of Cormyr , which sound like a great architectural plan for anyone who is n’t , you know , a grouping of professional assassinator who are on the face of it already pretty unspoilt at assassinating people . Phalse , who in reality is a beholder - esque demon , wanted her to travel to the Abyss , a.k.a . D&D Hell , to murder his former partner Moander … whose physical variety was just murdered and who had been safely pin beforehand ? eventually , Cassana want to make a clone hard worker of herself for , uh … kicks , I estimate ?
But the sixth Godhead , the “ blank space ” on Alias ’ tattoos , is the Nameless Bard , and he ’s just a mess of a lineament . He used to be part of the Harpers , a secret beau monde of do - gooders — a powerful bard who got very , very upset when he realise masses probably were n’t singing the call he ’d composed in precisely the style he ’d intended . So he basically strain to make a sorcerous iPod that would preserve his employment in sempiternity , only to discover that somehow , his only option was to produce a “ human carapace , ” press all his songs in her brain , and compel her to never tramp from the source material . He judge to make this shell multiple times , and many people break in his effort . This is all hella iniquity , especially for a appendage of the Forgotten Realms ’ secret Justice League , who were so upturned with what the bard had done they not only imprisoned him in another plane of existence , they rub out his name and all his songs from existence .
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When he ’s eventually free by Cassana and her associate , he volitionally teams with the four very obvious bad guys all in hope of making that iPod . And yet Azure Bonds tries to present the Nameless Bard as some sort of tragical form , who only realized he might have done something untimely when he saw the newly abide Alias taking care of the offend Dragonbait , realize that perhaps it would be wrong to permit this being become enslaved by monster , and help oneself her and the lizardman escape valve . Oh , also : Somehow Alias ’ institution required half of Dragonbait ’s person , which is why the two both have the tattoos and are bonded together , but for some understanding , Dragonbait still need to be ceremonially sacrificed to discharge the outgrowth and turn Alias into the slave she was intended to be . I wo n’t spoil the other surprisal of the ending , but I will say the book has a traditional happy D&D ending , which is to say all the bad guy get polish off .
The book is a sundry old bag ( of holding ) , but it perfectly has its charms . Alias is a potent female character in the traditional ‘ LXXX fantasy vein , but one who only hold out skimpy , segmentation - baring armour ( as seen on the Word of God ’s cover , of course ) when Cassandra forcibly dresses her for the last forfeiture . She has dead no wild-eyed thoughts about any character in the Word of God , so she ’s never washy - kneed around pretty male child or on the Q.T. wants to be a housewife rather of a sellsword , a far - too - vulgar flaw for distaff characters in ‘ 80s fantasy . The book ’s most interesting battle is within Alias , as she scramble with the force control her , whether she ’s cast her admirer in peril , and her identity once she realizes she was literally born last month .
sky-blue Bonds also charm me by being a D&D dangerous undertaking to its core . hoi polloi do n’t apply their arcane sense to see if something has magical place , they specifically mould the first point magic spell observe conjuring trick . The adventuring party is right away referred to as “ the party ” both by the characters and the third - person narrator . The Nameless Bard gets crack - roiled with Olive , who claims she ’s a bard because the Nameless one has read the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Players Guide and knows only world and half - hob arepermitted to play as bard . The book ’s honesty and legitimacy to its source material is a lot of merriment .
As a result , Azure Bonds roll an 8 on its 1d20 , making it more thantwice as skilful as The Crystal Shard , but still with a mountain of room for improvement which I ’m hoping I ’ll key as I move into the late books after these source have more experience and attainment under their bash . I ’m particularly curious about Azure Bonds ’ two continuation , give that they ’re distinguish The Finder ’s Stone Trilogy , the Finder ’s Stone being an item that was unceremoniously given to Alias , utterly forgotten about , and then fall back having wait on absolutely no purpose in the story . Presumably , it has a larger use in the following two books , but who knows ? It is my sincere swearing to find out … . finally .
Assorted Musings:
Some of you might remember Curse of the Azure Bonds , a personal computer biz that serves as a semi - remake of the book . The instrumentalist ’s party of adventurers wake up in an hostel with a bunch of blue tattoo and no remembering of how they vex there . The nominal bond are mostly carry by dissimilar bad guys , but you’re able to cope with Alias and Dragonbait and have them join your party , although I have no approximation if they show up with their dismal tattoo days behind them .
Dragonbait turns out to be asaurial , a race of lizardmen who come from another planet alone . He also turns out to be a Paladin , with all the family ’ power include divine healing . This is a pretty surprising reveal , overall , although he start bring around gobs of characters for the rest of the book , which frown the stakes of the final battle a bit .
I did n’t note Olive the non - bard , because Olive moderately well nurse . She steal from her own party constantly for no apparent gain . In the middle of the book , Phalse secretly come to her and offers her a pile of atomic number 78 coin to wear thin a closed chain of location so that Phalse and his cohorts can keep track of their price . Olive barely hesitates , rationalizing Phalse would credibly figure out some other way to do it , so she might as well get paid . When Alias and her crew get captured by Cassana , Olive switches over to their side in an blink of an eye , not out of wickedness , just to save her own pelt . She tells herself she joined to form some sort of half - bake plan of freeing her booster by working from the interior but tries to get away and abandon them the first prospect she have . You ’d believe that Olive ’s scruples would pull her back in traditional reluctant Heron style , but alternatively , she makes what is essentially an unsettlingly clinical pro - con list of whether to save them . Maybe she commence well later on .
But perchance not , because I think Azure Bonds is square - up Halfling racist ? At every possible degree , someone talks shit about halflings , how their inveterate stealer , how it ’s good to have no comrade alternatively of a halfling familiar , that halflings would sell their own mothers for the correct price . This prejudice is applied to all halflings in the world , and the bad part is that Olive lives up to pretty much every stereotype .
Alias does get a luck encounter with Elminister , the most powerful , crucial , and smartest wizard in the Forgotten Realms , and one of the place setting ’s most important characters . He even ends up commence a few trilogies where he ’s the star ( including , and I kid you not , Elminster in Hell ) . He ’s more Merlin than Gandalf , which makes him less oracular and prone to tomfoolery than other major fantasy wiz , which I count as a good matter .
If you take place to have a copy of Spellfire — before it got revised and expound — I’d honey to borrow it , since the archetype does n’t seem to be available as an eBook .
Next up : Darkwalker on Moonshae !
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