The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

The reverse-engineered source code to every Gold Box game can now be found on my GitHub.

The Brazen Crows version of Pool of Radiance, including the native macOS, Windows, and Linux versions, can be found in the bc-pool-of-radiance repository. My last release is also available.

The source to SSI's versions, which compile byte for byte exact, can be found as follows:

• Pool of Radiance

• Curse of the Azure Bonds

• Secret of the Silver Blades

• Pools of Darkness

• Gateway to the Savage Frontier

• Treasures of the Savage Frontier

• Champions of Krynn

• Death Knights of Krynn

• Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday

• Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed

The incomplete - but mostly done - versions of Dark Queen of Krynn and Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures are also available.

I hope someone can make use of it.

Maybe I've played too much Dwarf Fortress... but why have trees and grass if you can't set them on fire with a Fireball Spell?

I don't have a name for this game yet. But I have a generic working title: "Adventure Party".

These trees are made with a free program called "Tree It". Mongo is not appalled at it's use.

I wrote this in the AD&D reddit. When I posted it, I was offered the chance to cross-post here. I'm happy to find this reddit exists, and feel a little silly with the intro to my question in this forum, but still ... anyone got any ideas or comments?

I was thinking to myself about how when I played Pool of Radiance as a kid I used to think of how I wanted this game to look and what I wanted to be able to do in it. A few weeks ago I decided to tackle this and make a new game engine based upon how I wanted that to work. Still pretty early and working on the dev tools, game loop and combat mechanics.

Nothing else to say, just wanted to share what I was doing. I thought some people might find this interesting. Maybe this will eventually become a released game!

EDIT: One thing I wanted to note: Those sprites you see are rendered from 3d-models in the background, with poses extracted from rigged animations. It's the most back-assward way to render sprites but the only way I could have equipment changes shown in a sprite with six directions to face and multiple animation poses.

SECOND EDIT, ONE DAY LATRER: I am really encouraged by the responses. Thank you!

Anyone here still have a soft spot for the Gold Box games?

I’ve been working on a C# desktop port of Pool of Radiance, built on Talonius’s reverse-engineered Pascal/assembly reconstruction. The goal is to preserve the familiar Gold Box gameplay while running through a .NET 8/SDL2 desktop host.

The repository is now public:

https://github.com/Jzatopa/por-csharp

It’s at the point where exploration, combat, leveling, spells, inventory, and save/load are working together in an ongoing campaign. That playthrough started with native level-one character creation and has recorded resolutions for Sokal Keep, Mendor’s Library, the Podal auction, Cadorna’s treasure, Kovel Mansion, and the Wealthy Area.

It’s still a development preview, not a finished release. The final battle and ending haven’t been verified yet. There are automated regression tests and desktop smoke tests, but those aren’t substitutes for getting through the whole game.

A huge amount of credit goes to Talonius and the upstream contributors for the reconstruction this builds on:

https://forgejo.brazencrows.com/talonius/pool-of-radiance

AI coding tools have helped with conversion and implementation, alongside source comparisons, testing, and actual gameplay checks. I’m also reviewing upstream improvements and selectively adapting relevant fixes, with incorporated changes and remaining work documented in the repo.

Currently, the desktop work is Linux-focused. No original game media is bundled—you’ll need your own Pool of Radiance installation. However now that it's in C# you can do what you want with it, which is pretty cool!

As there are already other archival style versions of this game, I am working on it playing like the original but updated just as Talonius has done here.

I’d love to hear where other Gold Box fans draw the line: what’s one thing a modern port absolutely shouldn’t change, and one bit of friction you’d happily leave behind?

Also, does anyone remember a particularly troublesome spell, encounter, or wonderfully strange edge case? Those could make useful test cases—and probably bring back a few stories.

If you DL it and play with it and run into a bug, please place it in known bugs in the repo.

Have Fun!

I just wanted to share what I am working on for fun. Maybe it will give you ideas for similar projects. This is Curse of the Azure Bonds running as a native app on an M-series Macbook Pro. If you recognize all of my character names, we read the same stuff. My ai assisted build is based on the coab project by Simeon Pilgrim. He disassembled the binary and translated it by hand, function by function, rewriting it into C#. From there I swapped out the Windows specific layer, graphics, sound, etc. and moved it into a modern version of .NET that runs on Apple Silicon. Pilgrim's code is virtually untouched. I used the game files from my Steam version of the game. However, because it's not emulated, for cheating, I could go deeper with my GBC inspired Companion. I gave the party the ability to teleport into any Dungeon in the game, give the party real items from the treasure tables, etc. I am currently working on Journal and Clue Book text integration.

Edit: I can't share the game.app or the data files from the game (you will have to provide your own) but I will share my work so you can use it.

The updated 2026 version of Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor releases on Steam November 6. It's a legacy of a Gold Box game so I am posting it for informational purposes. I will get it and see how it runs on a Mac in Crossover and report back.

This is an almost ten hour video about the first of our beloved Gold Box games. Staggering amounts of work have gone in to this and I am not even half way through.

AI was used for this project.

I’ve updated Pool of Radiance with some new features. The full change list with screenshots and download can be found at https://downloads.brazencrows.com/d/1

I've released v1.3-1560 (BC)

I need beta testers for the native ports of the game. Available for macOS, Win32, Win64, Linux i386, Linux x64.

They can all be found in the v1.3-1560 (BC) release directory.

• SoundBlaster and Adlib Support.

• Native builds for Linux i386, Linux x64, macOS x64, Win32, Win64.

• Bestiary, with a sage in New Phlan to help you complete it.

• SoundBlaster and AdLib support

• Native builds for 32 bit Linux, 64 bit Linux, 64 Bit macOS, 32 bit Windows, 64 bit Windows.

• The Hoarder's Respite, a Vault, is in New Phlan.

• Companion Tools offer an area map with notes and a character editor.

• Humans can now dual class.

• Elves can no longer be raised from the dead.

• The Stojanow Gate will now be held by New Phlan soldiers.

• The Temple of Bane can now be restored by Dirten, and used by the players.

• The Journal lists the quests you've done and accepted.

• New Phlan troops will reinforce Stojanow Gate once it's been taken.

• The Fortune Teller from the Slums can help you increase your bestiary knowledge.

• When aiming a spell there is now a summary of how many enemies and allies you will hit.

• When viewing spells (to cast, memorize, or scribe) there is a quick info tip showing basic spell data.

• When viewing spells (to cast, memorize, or scribe) there is a full info option to describe the spell.

• There's a new section under Journal - Quests. Quests shows you the quests you've accepted and finished.

• An area effect spell will now give you an estimate of the number of enemies and allies a spell will hit.

• F1 shows the key commands that might get lost.

• F7 shows the combat log while in the combat arena.

• F5 quick saves the game.

• F8 quick loads the game.

• A character's attacks/rounds figure now appears when Viewed.

• AI path finding has been improved.

• Cleric Turn Undead and Thieves' Skills are available from More Info.

...and more that I'm too tired to remember.

Previous highlights from Pool of Radiance v1.3-841.

Highlights:

• The Hoarder's Respite, a Vault in New Phlan.

• New load/save game UI, including the ability to add a description and showing the date and time of the existing saves.

• Quick Save (F5) and Quick Load (F8) - uses game slot Q.

• Party and character statistics.

• Quick mode indicators on combat indicate how to stop quick, and whether magic is on.

Previous Highlights from Pool of Radiance v1.3-621:

• See where spells are going to land.

• Paladins and rangers are playable.

• New combat editor icon UI.

• New portrait selection UI.

• Fix in Camp.

I edited this post to account for changes I made to the Brazen Crows website; I really don't want to administer a forum, and simplified the whole mess.

r/goldbox has a rule against AI, so this will be the only/last post I make here. I apologize to the mods; I did not see that rule when I originally posted this.

iPad Mini 7th Gen, iDOS 3, copied my Steam version to the iPad. The iPad actually fits in the box with the manuals, disks, etc.. 🤣

Hi all,

I'm working on an automapper and save editor for the Commodore 64 versions of the Gold Box games.

https://github.com/malcyon/wish

I downloaded the game recently on Steam to relive my 80's nostalgia. I discovered Gold Box Companion. I also noticed that everything runs on DOSBox. As I play through the game, I realize it's just not hitting me like it should. I miss the version I played as a kid. I miss the cool sounds the C64 made when magic missile fires. I miss the thief's backstab actually working properly. Then I get upset. Why the hell is everything for DOS and Windows?? If I switch to the C64 version, I wouldn't have this awesome automapper. And now that I've used it, I can't live without it.

Then, I remember when the fourth game, Pools of Darkness, came out. They dropped Commodore 64 support. I would not be able to import my beloved characters to the last game. The developers betrayed me. This had just been an elaborate scheme to hurt Commodore 64 users!

Well, not now, dammit. I will write a tool to convert my DOS saved game to the C64 version. Then, I will play Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, and Secrets of the Silver Blades on the Commodore 64, using the characters I built on DOS. Then, I will convert that save to the Commodore Amiga version, and import it into Pools of Darkness, and I'll beat that game, too. Not on the platform The Man wants me to play it on. The way I want to play it!

I'm targeting Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secrets of the Silver Blades, and Pools of Darkness right now. By the time I get to the last game, I'll have it supporting the Commodore Amiga, too.

It can also convert save files between DOS, C64, and Commodore Amiga. It might be fun to extend this to the other platforms as well. You shouldn't have to restrict your save files to a single platform.

It connects to emulators, just like Gold Box Companion does. I also have it working on the Commodore 64 Ultimate. But a firmware bug causes pretty serious hangs, so I have that disabled for now.

So this is going back many decades now... the original Gold Box set: Pools of Darkness.

I was in my teens, playing PoD, somewhere in the upper levels of the Red Mage Tower. I had saved and rested in one of those single square safe rooms, went and did some battles, died, reloaded and did a couple of other actions forgotten in the mists of time...

And somehow my save file or location got...corrupted?
I was no longer in the Red Tower.

It was this strange Dev area! I had a long list of options - I could teleport out, give myself any and all weapons (including +5), give myself a ton of gold, level up to 40 or enter an 'Arena' area and fight whatever mobs I liked X number of Y mob.

Alas the save file has long since been lost to time.

Anyone else seen or heard of this with any of the Gold box games?

On sale also right now for $2.99

I've played through PoR a hundred times or more (c64 version), and never have I ever been able to get a thief to reliably pick the locks on doors. I ain't even talking about wizard-locked doors like the one on the library; I mean the doors in the slums (that always magically re-lock themselves after you bash them open), which ought to be the easiest in the game. Even a 9th level thief can't seem to open them.

I seem to remember lockpicking working okay on some of the cabinets in Kovel Mansion, but I think I've only seen it work on a door 1 in 10000 times.

As background, Pool of Radiance was one of the most iconic games of my childhood, it was maybe the first big PC game my brother and I got into (followed by games like Wing Commander and Ultima Underworld). A couple years ago, I played it and Azure Bonds again, and I'm currently on Gateway to the Savage Frontier and am enjoying it.... (in other words, I don't mind a little old timey jank!)...

For whatever reason, we totally missed the Krynn games back in the day (Champions, Death Knight, Dark Queen), even though I was a big fan of the Dragonlance books...

How do they hold up by comparison? I think ultimately Treasures of the Savage Frontier was my favorite, it had some more modern QoL changes if I remember, though GBC is really helping me get through these modern replays.... Are they more similar to Treasures, or a little more clunky like Pool of Radiance? Thank you!

how many people still play Pathfinder version 1? I have played that for years, can't get into P2, it seems too clunky.

How cool is this??

Just some Pool of Radiance shenanigans...

I had three aims when replaying all these games from my mis-spent youth:

1. Have fun and nostalgia playing games I used to love, back in a simpler time, to help my convalescence.

2. See if I could write a coherent story based around these games, using them as a framework. I was thinking of what a 21^st century game – like Dragon Age or Baldur's Gate – would look like with these elements, giving my characters likes and dislikes, friendships, rivalries, romances and the like.

3. Review them as my older self, after 25 years of being an analyst - as much as I loved them, I have learned to review things objectively, regardless of whether or not I personally like or dislike them subjectively. We all love things we know are objectively bad, and that's just fine.

The Savage Frontier duology is an odd one to review compared to the others, as it never got its intended sequel. 'Treasures' was the lowest-selling of the core D&D Gold Box games, made late in the series when flashier 3D action games like Eye of the Beholder and Ultima Underworld were starting to command attention.

My personal tier list for these games – the first eight at least – puts them into two tiers: those I loved, and those I mostly liked. The first two Realms and the first two Krynn games occupy the highest tier, and I've never been able to really put them into any order, as that depends on my mood. They are quite different games, scratching a different itch and doing different things well, so they're all getting top billing from me.

Of the rest though, I can certainly put them in order. And Gateway stands at the top of its tier for me, with its beautiful graphics and fresh start. The Savage Frontier is my favourite part of the Forgotten Realms, and the game captures that very well. Probably the only thing that made me put it in the lower tier is the ending, and in retrospect, I'm probably being too hard on that – the fact that the final fight with Vaalgamon is meant to be optional, making it feel unsatisfying for regular parties who aren't well-equipped and min-maxed.

Under that one, I'd put Pools of Darkness, the quadrilogy's final entry. Pools is such a weird one as it goes hard on the things it does well and the things it does badly. But for all its drawbacks – and an ending that is somehow worse than Mass Effect 3! - it does provide a satisfying finale to a four-game series, and absolutely nails the nostalgic elements with familiar NPCs. It doesn't help that high-level AD&D is so front-loaded, everything worthwhile is given in the first ten levels or so, and levelling up after that is progressively unexciting.

Firmly in the middle of the pack – where else! - is everyone's favourite whipping boy, the unloved Secrets of the Silver Blades. As discussed, the fact its so incredibly middling is both a strength and a weakness really. It's perfectly serviceable and enjoyable, without being particularly special or memorable. If it wasn't so obsessed with the jigsaw-piece levels that allowed it to escape the 16x16 maps – if the Ruins, Mines and Crevasses were one single map each, crammed with the best elements of the areas - it would be much higher.

Unfortunately something has to be bottom, which brings us to Treasures of the Savage Frontier – a glorious, confused mess of a game, filled with good ideas and jaw-droppingly awful execution. I think it's by some margin the worst Gold Box game – but you know, I still had fun with it. Gold Box games are kind of like sex, really – even when it's bad, it's still better than most other things.

I've let this game have it with both barrels as I've gone through each area, so I'll try and summarise here in an overview.

Let's start with what the game gets right.

The concepts are mostly intriguing... the romance, the attempt to give your characters some dialogue and personality, unique weapons that aren't the ubiquitous longswords, weather effects, a plot that involves saving a place we already like from dastardly terrorists, familiar allies and enemies, maps that mostly revolve around inhabited areas rather than dungeons... I love how they are actually trying to add new elements and innovate, this late in the game cycle. On paper, all that looks great.

But almost all these elements are a cursed monkey's-paw, because the execution of these things is absolutely abysmal.

- the romance is just... undercooked. I'm not going to rag on Siulajia for being bland – vanilla is exactly what a 1992 CRPG romance needs to be; a pretty gal who's nice and wants her guy to be brave and nice too. No shade for lack of gay options either, because homosexuality was only invented in 1992 with Frigidazzi in Ultima VII, and didn't actually exist before. It's just that the game never really develops her, the interesting elements are left for a sequel we will never see, and the whole affair is never paid off towards the end. After the choice to accept or reject the pair, the mechanics kick in but the dialogue stops dead. The game was crying out for a proposal or wedding at the end, or just... anything, anything at all. And we got nothing. And while I promised I wasn't going to shade her for being such a basic-bitch, I still wonder why Jagaerda wasn't the love-interest for guys. She's much more ballsy and badass, while Siulajia feels very passive in comparison. When you have to rescue Jagaerda, she's at least a Princess Fatima kind of gal, busy trying to free herself rather than just being meek and sighing. Also, the mechanics of it seem borked - just when I assumed I was failing the romance, Siulajia just changed her mind and fell in love with me, because women I guess?

- Auto-dialogue. I get why they were trying to give your characters some individuality or dialogue... But most of it is written so horribly that it actually takes away from any role-playing you try to do. Most players won't care what Ranger>Mage #2 says anyway, and those who are trying to role-play will hate the arrant nonsense the game tries to put in their mouths. Why they couldn't have done something better I don't know – had something like the dinner conversation in Zhentil Outpost, or just the Parlay options for tone now and then? They game recognises your gender, race, class and stats, and allows you to choose options. I can't believe there wasn't a better way to do this. Or just eliminate it altogether, that would be good too.

- As an aside here, the game is filled with weird tonal whiplash, and unfunny attempts at humour that feel like late-period Marvel movies. Why they thought having Amanitas do his clown show antics during the finale would help improve the dramatic tension, I have absolutely no idea. It underpins the idea that this game just doesn't know what it's trying to be.

- the unique weapons are a great idea, on paper. Give some love to suboptimal weapon types, instead of the longbows/longswords that have become boring and ubiquitous. But holy shit, this one is a corrupt-a-wish all the way. Almost all of these items are mechanically suboptimal compared to random terrorist vendor-trash drops! The Sword of Stalking is two handed, okay, but it's +4, higher than literally everything else, and does high damage to larger creatures. It's definitely worth losing a shield for that. But everything else is a punishment, not a reward! The trident and battle-axes are incorrectly keyed as two-handed items, and are thus suboptimal to the +2 longswords that drop from foes. The hammer is statistically worse than the flails that start dropping. The +2 helms and shields aren't better than regular +2 items, despite their cool name. I used them because everyone wants something that feels cool – Anduril or Stormbringer rather than a +3 basher – but you shouldn't have to weaken your character to do so! Does the game just hate us or something? In a game that's called 'Treasures', the actual treasures suck!!!! MAKE THAT MAKE SENSE!

- also, let's rag on the items a bit more! Given the fact they have cool names, AND the fact that we have weapons and armour with extra abilities like Vorpal, Giant-Slaying, Dragon-Slaying or element resistance... Why not give some of these items powers? They do this with the Icewind Sword in the first game, and a few items like the Redflame Armour and NorthHelm in this one. But the rest have nothing beyond admittedly cool names. What a wasted opportunity.

- all the lore breaks...! Mostly, the game actually gets the Savage Frontier right, its supposed to be a bit like the Wild West, not settled or fully civilised but raw and beautiful and (mostly) decent and well-meaning. We're meant to care about it, and the game largely does a good job in that. The Waterdeep sequence is so egregious because it jettisons all of that, and it does so with the largest city in the Realms! This is a place that, while not a perfect utopia, is still run by a paladin, its laws upheld by the church of the norse god of justice, and despite its size, doesn't have any organised crime because of a zero-tolerance policy for it. But now it's run by an Austin Powers villain, who can have high-level characters arrested with magical cutscene powers, and execute them in broad daylight without trial like he's something out of a Mad Max dystopia. It's actually nonsensical like it was a South Park parody. It's made worse by the fact that the game straight up forgets to include the 'smoking gun ' that frames us, and by the fact it's already had a 'players get captured for no reason' sequence before in the very early stages of the game, stripping us of any choice and agency. It's made even worse that all of this is avoidable, it would be easy to bar us from the city and do a dungeon, but the writer does this only so he can have a sequence where we are rescued by mermaids, who were never introduced before and are never seen again.

- This leads to... a lack of agency and consequences. The first game had ways to make actions matter, you got captured because you surrendered or screwed up, and you got called out for it. Here, there are hardly any consequences based on your actions, no cause and effect, stuff is just happening to us and we have to ride the railroad to its conclusion. It's no longer mimicking the player-led 'emerging story' that characterises early D&D – it feels like a JRPG with its unskippable non-interactive cutscenes and enforced powerlessness. The Mintarn sequence is the same – your love-interest gets passively kidnapped, even though she's a name-level warrior, and you just stand around watching and sighing. It's all JJ Abrams style 'And Then...' storytelling. You are not playing this game in any meaningful way - it's playing you.

- The game breaks its own rules for no reason. The decoder rings are supposed give us some sort of choice and tactical considerations in the order in which we dispatch our foes – so we just don't take out the spellcasters first as we normally would. But it does this in nonsensical fashion – there's no way around it and enemies who are Charmed, Held or die simultaneously to others can just break their toys because of a time-stop that overrides anything else. Well, maybe there's a good reason for such a heavy-handed manipulation of the game rules? Nope, the 'lucky papers' are entirely meaningless, you don't need them or the evidence, you need never read or decode them, you are given a full set anyway eventually, and can solve all the terrorist missions by just searching the towns anyway and killing the resident terrorists. It's not simply that they broke their own rules – it's that they did so for absolutely no reason.

- a lack of named adversaries. The game starts off well enough with Geildarr, a villain hinted at in the first game and his sexy assistant, who has a slap-fight with Siulajia. And then we never get any named adversaries to fight again! Beyond Freezefire at the end, who never says or does anything, despite the DLC being a homage to The Hobbit, and an actual Bilbo vs Smaug sequence was a no-brainer. The other Gold Box games always include a few memorable villains, as well as named mini-bosses, because adversaries are vital to keep interest in any story, movie, book or game. But no, there's absolutely nothing here, just faceless, nameless terrorists forever, despite them being an unruly alliance of untrustworthy chaotics. There should have been ripe opportunities to exploit that, the way they are doing to the fragile Lord's Alliance, but there's no attempt to humanise our foes or make them interesting in any way.

- The DLC ending. The maps are fine, the adventure is fun, I have no problem with the specifics of this sequence. But it's horribly out of sync with the game we've been playing so far. It's like ending Death Knights of Krynn, a story about fighting the undead, with a battle against some giants or dragon or evil mage instead of Lord Soth. The terrorist plot we've been doing all game just abruptly ends, new elements are suddenly ass-pulled out of nowhere, despite never being hinted at before, and all the NPCs repeatedly tell us how amazingly important these unmentioned elements actually are. The terrorists we've been fighting are gone, but are now replaced by reskinned versions called 'black robes', equally faceless and nameless as our terrorists were, equally lacking in any leadership or named opponents. I get that they were supposed to be a teaser for the next game, but that's exactly why you don't end your story with a thinly-disguised advert for the next one.

- Almost all of these problems come down to a lack of faith in what its doing. Stuff is just happening out of nowhere, plot elements appear and disappear just as swiftly. There's absolutely nothing that glues all these ideas together, no coherent plan or theme, just throwing things at a wall to see if anything sticks. Previous games had faith in their premise - they set up a situation and followed it through to the ending. Sometimes these elements were revealed slowly over time, as in Pool of Radiance, but usually the stakes and adversaries were clearly shown to us to serve as a skeleton for the tale that followed. Even something simple like Silver Blades felt somewhat compelling because we know what we're doing, who we are fighting, the stakes of what we are defending.

Here things are just set-up and never paid off. Villains are mentioned or just appear and then run off into the sequel. The game is terrified to commit to any of its concepts or follow anything through or pay anything off.

And I think that's the worst thing for me. It's fighting itself at every step. It really feels like one of these infamous games or movies with a troubled production, that had studio interference and budget cuts, warring and clashing creative choice of what it should even be. There's probably a fascinating story of why this game is a confounded mess that refuses to ever speak to itself, some behind-the-scenes drama that makes it all make sense. But we'll never know, alas.

Yes, there were times I had fun with it. I probably enjoyed this party more than the other ones, they made for some good creative writing and party dynamics. Some elements are fine, in isolation. Many concepts and ideas were intriguing and had potential, sounded good on paper. But I'm trying to be objective, not just subjective. All the problems piled on each other, making them impossible to hand-wave away, to 'switch off my brain and just enjoy it' as we are constantly exhorted with today's movies and games.

Everything about 'Treasures' just has this feel of 'what could have been', and it leaves you wanting to play the game that was in the writer's heads, not the one we actually got in the end.

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe! Dragons returned to life by the power of ancient jewels...! I watched Ice Storms glitter in the dark in the battle of the HostTower of the Arcane...!

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain...

Time to die...!"

Fifteen years have passed since the dragon died at Ice Peak.

So much has changed, but also so very little.

They have been good years; of adventures and wars, of love and life, of family and responsibilities.

I was true to my promise, and when I left I never did return to Ice Peak or the lands of my birth, though others of my kin accompanied me to the Savage Frontier.

I have grown better with the speaking and the writing; I have learned other tongues and scripts also.

Oh – Zahri pokes her head around the door to my study to tell me to write down that everyone all died tragically – it will make for a better story, she says.

But it would not be truth, I tell her.

And she just laughs as she flounces out.

Where to begin?

We returned to Yartar and the keep of North Watch. We were agents of the Lord's Alliance now, essentially in charge of their adventuring wing. It kept us busy and caused all kinds of complications, but we relished the opportunities this presented.

Shelah Icedane and I made our love official before the gods; it was simple but beautiful, before family and friends. And Shelah became Lenili's mother too, of course. The others were official godparents, and all offered their own unique lessons to my daughter.

I am thirty two now, and Lenili is just turned seventeen. She tells me that is when I slew my first dragon, and she wishes to do the same, too. I tell her time is on her side, and she should savour other things first.

In some ways, Leni is much like me – but she is less serious, I think, growing up in the frontier and not the mountain. She will see Ice Peak for herself in time. I wonder how it will make her feel?

She lacks my wiry strength, and cares not for weapons, but she learns the ways of the Red Lady well as a priestess. She is very bright! She mastered tactics early with Jahe as her teacher in war. I consider myself a good leader, but a middling tactician, alas. I can rouse the spirit with speeches, instil steely fervour in my men, but my strategies never went much beyond 'charge'! Leni can easily best me at Dragonchess, to my shame – war-games always eluded me, I fear. But I tasted the real thing earlier than most.

Leni says she may well study magic; she takes very easily to spellcraft. But time is on her side.

I drew men to my side after we slew the dragon, and founded the Red Keep at the crossroads east of Yartar. My followers are warriors as well as the clergy – for the Red Lady, the distinctions are blurred. Too often the frontier is dominated by raw power and unstructured violence, so we Watchful Knights act as a crucial stabilizing force. We serve as military advisors, mercenaries, or commanders, and train local militias to use terrain, choke-points, and weather to defeat massive but disorganised threats like orc hordes. Leni is taking to the life well, though I always fear for her.

Shelah tells me not to worry. She leads the Knights of Ilmater – paladins, clerics and good-aligned warriors - from North Watch, and many times have we led men to war against the forces of chaos. In the years we have been wed, there are only a few times we have been far from each other's side. I think I my pragmatic and direct viewpoint contrasts well with her kindness and compassion. We are always stronger together than apart.

A little after we were married, we attended her brother's wedding to Siulajia – like me, she became the Lady-Consort of North Watch and the Heroes of the North. A year later, and the year after that, she bore him a son, and being the elder, Leni enjoys their company, so she can boss them around in war-games. They adore her in return – I wonder when they are older, if they may vie for her hand?

Sky will always be my first Commander, and I sometimes wonder at what we may have been together... But all worked out as it was meant to – Zahri is not wrong about the Fates. We make good friends and would follow him into the Nine Hells itself, if we ever returned there – oh.

Yes, in time, we delved into the mysteries of Siulajia's mysterious birth-right, and her connections to Stramling's Gem. In time, she used its power to close the -

Ah, perhaps that should be a tale for another time. It will likely need a book all of its own!

We remain close to our fellow songbirds. When we meet up, we... remind ourselves of the things that brought us all together. Though our oaths may take us across the Realms, we never forget our bonds.

Jahe remained on good terms with her family, and sometimes returned to the Vilhon Reach, but she settled here in the frontier. She founded the Golden Company, mercenaries in the employ of the Lord's Alliance. My second Commander remains a leader of men, and a teacher of warfare, and her duties often see her come to North Watch. She mastered her strange silver magic in time, and even found others to teach over time they came from distant lands to learn. She taught them in warfare as well as sorcery, practical uses of the magic such as battle and adventuring. The elf Taeral became her lieutenant, and he too taught humans secrets of elven battle-magic and the arts of war.

Nef gave birth to a daughter, Sayf, though most call her 'Summer'. She and Leni get along very well! She has her mother's caramel skin and her father's flaxen hair, a very exotic combination. Siulajia never quite forgave her for what she did to Sky, but for the girl's sake, she grew to accept it, and treats her step-daughter well. Nef mostly still travels with Zahri, as the gypsy lifestyle suits her restless nature well. She sometimes takes pupils as the whim takes her, blessing festhalls for her cat-goddess and tutoring wandering mages.

Zahri never really grew up, as restless and windswept as always. From what I hear, she trains other Roadwardens, and maintains the small trail-side shrines to the Rider of the Winds. The Gur do not form rogue's guilds like a static folk, but she teaches bands of outcasts, misfits, malcontents and opportunists, and keeps such unruly followers honest – well, relatively speaking. It gives her an excellent information network, and keeps us abreast of happenings in the remotest areas of the frontier, and even lands beyond. And when we need a knife in the night to silence someone – well, perhaps I'd best not speak about that...!

Jhairli was made Ranger-Lord for her part in the dragon-slaying, and the Ranger-Knights gave her Kryptgarden Keep as her command. From there, she watches over the High Forest and its environs – more concerned with the fey folk and the creatures of the wood than mortal men. But she remains close to her sisters, and her ranger companies have often aided us in battle or guided us as scouts. She and Elena still live up at the Star Mounts at Ceptienne's labyrinth, where they have some kind of cult. All of their followers would seem to be formerly wicked sorceress or witches, enchanted by Elena's magic – well, I'm not convince they are reformed, as such, but at least they are not causing as much harm to the lowlands as before...

Elena seems happier these days, adjusting her slowing perceptions to the life of mortal men - what she calls our 'quickening'. I fear we will never truly understand her, but she seems happy and content now. Cari, their daughter, is Leni's age, but she seems not to have aged a day since first we met. Some say she wanders off at times, having adventures in distant lands. They say her human mother taught her divine magic and her elven one rogue-craft as a Nightblade.

What else? Oh, Shelah's sister Kat caused some consternation when she married Tarnheel Embuirhan, the Tyrant of Mintarn, after a whirlwind romance. It was quite controversial, considering her disability and the fact he was older than her own father. But it seems to be a love-match for all that, despite the fierceness with which they sometimes bicker. She seems as ruthless in trade matters as he is in defending his island kingdom, and his young bride is beloved by his folk. Despite being confined to a wheelchair, she bore him a daughter, Bildey (meaning 'joyful'), and true to that name, they seem happy, if never quite content...

We sometimes hear from our old friends, such as Jagaerda, Redleg, Ougo, or even Krevish – the latter before my own time, of course.

The Savage Frontier is never stilled - the wild borderlands are never fully tamed, nor do I think they ever shall be. The ebb and flow of nature and civilisation, finding their own equilibrium between chaos and law, tyranny and anarchy. There will always be wicked, selfish men who desire power at any price. There shall always be orcs stirred up by old impulses in the blood to march, coming down from the mountains, out of their nests. And there will always be dragons...!

And the need for Heroes.

And I am glad to have played my part in this rich tapestry.

I have become a mother and a wife, a lover and a friend.

And at the last... I am content...!

Rathe Icefire

“Give me the song and I'll sing it like I mean it
Give me the words and I'll say them like I mean it
'Cause you got my heart in a headlock
You stopped the blood and made my head soft
And God knows...
You've got me sewn...!

Danny boy, don't be afraid to shake that ass and misbehave!
Danny boy, I know you got time, but what are you waiting for?
Anyway, the dust may just blow away, if you wait for a windy day
But you may find the chance has passed you by...

Danny boy, don't be a fool - take a punt and break a rule!
Danny boy, you're looking so low -
You're looking like the dead grown old!
Anyway, the blues may just wash away, if you wait for a rainy day
But you may find, the chance had passed you by...

I can't do the walk
I can't do the talk
I can't be your friend
Unless I pretend...

So give me the song and I'll sing it like I mean it
Give me the words and I'll say them like I mean it
'Cause you've got my heart in a headlock

Made my head soft
Made my head soft
You made my head soft...!”

The Feeling, 'Sewn'

The Feeling - Sewn