Split the Party

In this sequel to “NPCs” by Drew Hayes, the story continues for our characters, both in the Spells, Swords, and Stealth world and out. Thistle, Grumph, Gabrielle, and Eric have picked up a new party member: Timuscor the knight. He used to be the character used by Tim, but was then freed from outside control by Eric and the mysterious artifact known as the bridge. Tim and Russel, the two people from our world playing a table top game, have found a new party to play with. Alexis, Sheri, and Bert have joined them to play Spells, Swords, and Stealth. Both parties leave the kindgom of Soliem behind and travel into the neighboring kingdom of Alcatham. During their travels they hear rumors of areas in need: a town named Briarwillow has been struck ill with a plague, a dragon is amassing large amounts of treasure, and a wizard is terrorizing the towns surrounding his tower. Thistle and his party travel to help the town of Briarwillow, and Tim’s party heads to take care of the wizard. Thistle’s party finds that the plague in Briarwillow is much more than they bargained for, dragging them into a fight between gods and a struggle to save the villagers at any cost forcing them to split up. Thistle, Eric, and Timuscor stay in Briarwillow to do damage control while Gabrielle and Grumph make their way to a nearby mage guild outpost to seek help. Grumph is required to join the guild in order to get the help needed to save his friends and the town of Briarwillow. Will he succeed in the limited time he has? Tim’s party makes their way into the wizard’s stronghold and finds him discussing a mysterious artifact. Could it be another piece of the bridge?

This extension to the world of Spells, Swords, and Stealth from the first book is fantastic. The reader gets a look at a whole new country, and how things are run differently there than in Soliem. The addition of Timuscor as a “non-player” character is also really interesting. The way Hayes handles this transition is really interesting. Timuscor’s memories from when he was simply a character being controlled by Tim are fuzzy. He doesn’t have any really clear memories, but he knows that he is grateful for his new start. These and his desire to attain his dream of being a paladin make him a really relatable character that tugs at the reader’s heartstrings. Seeing the way he grows as a character and integrates with Thistle, Grumph, Eric, and Gabrielle is really interesting. Also, getting a look into the inner workings of the mage guild in this world is really interesting. Many fantasy novels have mages, and this usually includes a guild, and it is interesting to see Drew Hayes’s take on that universal idea. The continued building of relationships between characters and the growth of their skills and belief in themselves is a great thing to see and was done very well. It also still has that trademark humor that is always a part of Drew Hayes’s writing. As with the first book, this was a really great read!