The Living Dead

(Dungeons & Dragons)
by
T.H. Lain (Cory Herndon)

Wizards of the Coast, August 2002, 186 pp.
ISBN: 0-7869-2848-4

Genre: Fantasy

World: Dungeons & Dragons
Reviewed: 10/13/2002

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

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In the Forest ...

The wolves started shadowing them shortly after the travelers moved away from the river. Diir informed them with unsmiling certainty that these wolves smelled familiar. Hound-Eye insisted this same pack had been part of the massacre at Tent City.

A dozen normal wolves would have been threatening, but Mialee was confident the group could handle such a threat. The creatures that Diir and Hound-Eye described were much more dangerous, akin to the crocodile: zombie-like creations displaying an unnerving amount of intelligence.

The wizard nearly asked Hound-Eye and Diir if they thought the creatures were herding them toward Silatham, but decided she didn't want to know. If she could see it, Diir and Hound-Eye were probably already aware of it.

Mialee's eyes flashed to Zalyn. The chatty gnome was silent. She had tried in vain to raise the halfling, Takata, but the prayers and invocations were beyond her. The failure seemed to have snuffed out part of her spirit.

Mialee nearly tripped on a tree root when Hound-Eye's gloved hand smacked her bare thigh. The halfling stopped and jerked a thumb over one shoulder.

"Slowly," he said, and turned. Mialee saw the others do the same from the corner of her eye.

Two black shapes loped along behind them through the trees, no longer making any pretense at lurking. Black pits stared soullessly at Mialee as one of the wolves raised its muzzle and let out a gurgling snarl. Three, four, six shapes fell in behind the first two, gaping jaws grinning with long yellow teeth. Eight behind them, picking up speed.

Everyone stopped. The wolves slowed and milled about with menace. A few seconds passed as hunters and hunted sized each other up. One of the zombie wolves uttered a low growl deep in its tattered throat, and the pack took up the same call.

Then the wolves roared and charged.

"Run!" shouted Devis, but they already were.

Review

The female elf mage, Mailee, awaits her master, Favrid, in the Silver Goblet tavern. A half human / half elf bard, Devis, notices the beautiful mage in the tavern and stops a halfling from pinching one of her pouches. The halfling, Hound-Eye, is working with Devis, but leaves the tavern without stealing anything. But when a wight enters the tavern holding Hound-Eye's severed foot, the three band together to to kill the atrocity. They are soon joined by an elf ranger, Diir, and a small, dwarf cleric named Zalyn. Favrid has been taken prisoner by Cavadrec, a wight, that is using possessed rats to create a multitude of the walking dead, but he has bigger plans. With Favrid's blood, and a ritual on a specific night, Cavadrec will be able to create an army of the dead that no one will be able stop. But Zalyn, who isn't who she appears to be, has other plans for Cavadrec. The question is, will Cavadrec's dead minions be able to stop the party before they can reach Cavadrec's lair.

The Living Dead by T.H. Lain is a Dungeons & Dragons tale, set a world based upon the famous role-playing game. This story revolves around five heroes (Mailee the female elf mage, Devis the bard, Hound-Eye the halfling, Diir the elf ranger, and Zalyn the gnome cleric) who are out to save the kidnapped wizard, Favrid, from the evil wight, Cavadrec.

T.H. Lain is a pen name created by Wizards of the Coast with the intend of keeping all of the books shelved together. The series is actually written by a multitude of authors. This story was written by Cory Herndon.

The beginning of The Living Dead starts off quickly with a wight attacking the main characters. Right from the start, I really enjoyed all of the characters that T.H. Lain created in this tale of swords, music and magic. As the tale unfolds, I became slightly lost in the ever-increasing storyline. This story seemed to rely on a lot of things that happened in the past, which wasn't something I was prepared for. I wanted a lot of action, like in the first Dungeons & Dragons book, The Savage Caves. Still, the characters are all very interesting and surprised me as they evolved through the story. I really liked the mage and the bard the best and hope that more stories are written about them and about Redgar, the main character in The Savage Caves. Overall, this is a good story, an enjoyable to read and a nice edition to the new books in the Dungeons & Dragons universe.

I rated this book a 7 out of 10.