Read The Eye of the Chained God Online
Authors: Don Bassingthwaite
The Eye of the Chained God
I
n an instant the elder peryton turned and plummeted toward the ground. The dive was silent. No calls, no wild screeches, just a sudden, sharp descent. The other airborne peryton rose as the elder came down. Shara would have leaped to her feet right then, but Turbull seized her wrist under her cloak. “Hold!” he commanded as instinct checked her movement.
Fortunately the trio out on the knoll didn’t hold back. The false campsite exploded in a whirl of action as Albanon and Quarhaun threw aside their cloaks and jumped up. With a scream of fury, Quarhaun hurled a blast of crackling black energy at the diving beast, while Albanon thrust up his staff and sent a spray of fire toward the perytons on the ground.
The elder screeched as she twisted aside. Quarhaun’s blast missed her by less than a swordslength. The grounded perytons likewise threw themselves away from Albanon’s fire. He only managed to catch one, the edge of its wing trailing through the flame. Feathers singed and smoking, the monster whirled up into the air with an angry scream.
Even if they were startled by the counterattack, none of the perytons fled. They spun around Quarhaun, Uldane, and Albanon in an angry, bloodthirsty storm, forcing them apart with darting feints and buffeting wings. The ropes and stakes that were intended to keep them safe hampered them as they tried to dodge. Quarhaun loosed another blast without hitting anything. The peryton he had been aiming at turned in the air and plunged for him—
Additional titles in the
D
UNGEONS
& D
RAGONS
®
novel line
The Mark of Nerath
Bill Slavicsek
The Seal of Karga Kul
Alex Irvine
Oath of Vigilance
James Wyatt
The Last Garrison
Matthew Beard
Also by Don Bassingthwaite
L
EGACY OF
D
HAKAAN
The Doom of Kings
Word of Traitors
The Tyranny of Ghosts
T
HE
D
RAGON
B
ELOW
The Binding Stone
The Grieving Tree
The Killing Stone
The Yellow Silk
The Mistress of the Night
(with Dave Gross)
T
HE
A
BYSSAL
P
LAGUE
T
RILOGY
The Temple of Yellow Skulls
THE EYE OF THE CHAINED GOD
The Abyssal Plague Trilogy, book 3
©2012 Wizards of the Coast LLC
All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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Published by Wizards of the Coast LLC. Hasbro SA,
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.
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UNGEONS &
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RAGONS
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Cover art by: Wayne Reynolds
eISBN: 978-0-7869-5998-3
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v3.1
ORIGIN
The Gates of Madness
James Wyatt
The Mark of Nerath
The Abyssal Plague Prologue
Bill Slavicsek
THE PLAGUE STRIKES
The Temple of Yellow Skulls
The Abyssal Plague Trilogy, book 1
Don Bassingthwaite
Oath of Vigilance
The Abyssal Plague Trilogy, book 2
James Wyatt
The Eye of the Chained God
The Abyssal Plague Trilogy, book 3
Don Bassingthwaite
THE PLAGUE SPREADS
Sword of the Gods
Bruce R. Cordell
Under the Crimson Sun
Keith R. A. DeCandido
Shadowbane
Erik Scott de Bie
In the shadow of empires, the past echoes in the legends of heroes. Civilizations rise and crumble, leaving few places that have not been touched by their grandeur. Ruin, time, and nature claim what the higher races leave behind, while chaos and darkness fill the void. Each new realm must make its mark anew on the world rather than build on the progress of its predecessors.
Numerous civilized races populate this wondrous and riotous world of Dungeons & Dragons. In the early days, the mightiest among them ruled. Empires based on the power of giants, dragons, and even devils rose, warred, and eventually fell, leaving ruin and a changed world in their wake. Later, kingdoms carved by mortals appeared like the glimmer of stars, only to be swallowed as if by clouds on a black night.
Where civilization failed, traces remain. Ruins dot the world, hidden by an ever-encroaching wilderness that shelters unnamed horrors. Lost knowledge lingers in these places. Ancient magic set in motion by forgotten hands still flows through them. Cities and towns still stand, where inhabitants live, work, and seek shelter from the dangers of the wider world. New communities spring up where the bold have seized territory from rough country, but few common folk ever wander far afield. Trade and travel are the purview of the ambitious, the brave, and the desperate. They are wizards and warriors who carry on traditions that date to ancient times. Still others innovate, or simply learn to fight as necessity dictates, forging a unique path.
An extraordinary few master their arts in ways beyond what is required for mere survival or protection. For good or ill, such people rise up to take on more than any mundane person dares. Some even become legends.
These are the stories of those select few …
T
he first time Vestapalk, as a young dragon, had flown high, he’d felt like the world belonged to him. Not in the sense of boundless opportunity, the way lesser races seemed to mean it, but in a way that woke something in his dragon heart. The world
belonged
to him. From horizon to horizon, everything below was his to possess, nurture, or destroy as he saw fit. And the higher he flew, the more the distant horizons expanded and the more his territory presented itself.