More by Alexander Wales
Always the Dungeon Master, never the jail keeper.
Juniper Smith is trapped in a prison that seems to be of his own design. Everywhere he looks are bits and pieces of the game worlds he used to make back on Earth.
Now, he finds himself on the run from the law and helping out criminals, looking for magical solutions to centuries-old magical spirits trapped in bottles. Can he trust an elf that's been locked away since the bad old days of the Second Empire?
Danger lurks around every corner, and trust is hard to come by, even within the party that grows more like family with every passing day.
This is a tale that used to be about dungeons...
Now it's mostly about walking in the woods with a friend, looking for mushrooms to put in your soup. Maybe haggling with the squash seller, or taking care of a neglected garden, or even just putting some jam on a good shortbread biscuit. And yes, sometimes you still go down into the dungeons with your friends, and you kill monsters there, disarm traps, avoid spiked pits, etcetera, etcetera. But when you come out now, it's not really about the gold and loot. It's about realizing you've got a good cure for that old shepherd's cough, or maybe you even found the perfect magic trinket to give to the local kids who helped you out when your cat was sick.
Just remember that dungeons are always going to be there. Yes, sometimes you might need to make a journey to one of the Spirit Gates or a pilgrimage with the local Cleric of Symmetry to a holy shrine. But your tour through the local lairs can wait. There's a big world out there, a mostly tame place with lots of magic and even more to do and see...
Join me, won't you?
Juniper was always the Dungeon Master, never the player. He was always a creator of worlds rather than the one who walked within them…until now.
Somehow, the tables have turned in the most dramatic way possible. Juniper finds himself in a world filled with the wildest fantasies a mind could come up with, and his fingerprints are all over it.
Throughout this world, echoes of his own ideas and plots leave him feeling like he’s always one step behind. He finds bits and pieces of ancient influence strewn about every town he goes through. One thing is clear, though: Juniper walks this magical new world in someone else’s shadow.
It might all add up to something vital...if only he can survive long enough to figure it out.