To the vulture, the body of the lion down below seemed to be a tasty morsel. It appeared to be slightly swolen with the beginnings of decay, but that was to be expected. He dived down, landed beside it, and bit deeply inside it.And the body exploded, showering him with entrails, blood, and a strange dust.

He preened himself to get as clean as possible, ate his fill and flew off. And an hour later he fell dead to the ground, and his body began to swell with the spores and fibres of the Corpse's Revenge.

Most knights at least pretend to be on the side of Good and to defend the weak. Not so those of the Order of Rightous Victory-they are openly on the side of Evil and make no bones about it.At least, that is what they say to outsiders, but the truth is not quite as clear-cut as that.

And if you win you get this glowing fiddle made of gold, but if you lose, the Devil gets your soul.

Those who want to use this should be very careful indeed.

Ma-O was a major God once, or so it is said,and whilst most of his worshippers ceased to worship him after his fall from grace, a very few remain, and can and do cause trouble out of all proportion to their numbers...

Once Ma-O was a god in his own right, now he is the most reviled of all Infernal Beings, held responsible for so much of the death and destruction that happens on Acqua...

The Flowing Death is one of the most feared monsters in all of Vallermoore's rivers and ocean, not because of the numbers of people it has killed directly, but because of the semi-starvation it's visits bring, and because it cannot be seen until it attacks it's prey.

The Polar Horror is one of the most feared predators of the Northern Polar Icefields, because of it's speed and because it has no fear whatsover of Man...

In her sane days before her daughter's tragic death, Queen Yocasta was very interested in securing justice is criminal cases.It was one thing to throw the people who she saw as threats to her rule into prison without trial, but the prisons would be crammed to bursting if she did the same to alleged criminals.So she looked for a solution to stop people lying in court.

On the surface, Sir Edmund Verney is a very good man, deeply loved by most citizens of Karnivhal. He is a war hero, knighted on the battlefield,a curer of diseases, and one of those who purged the country of evil mages. However, he himself has a deeply hidden secret life, that he wants very much to keep hidden by any means nesscessary...

Misery, trouble and general bad luck will dog all who drink from the seemingly wonderful Goblet of Sin...

Crystal Hornets are heard long before they are seen. Their humming is like the beautiful sound of a violin that is being played by a master musician,and to those who have encountered them before, it acts as a warning.

The wizard and Thieves Guild member John Beltane wanted a portal that could be used to steal anything from anywhere. Instead he invented what in the right hands was a highly effective weapon, and in the wrong hands was a disaster just waiting to happen.

There are many dangers at the poles and in the icy mountians of the world, but few dangers are harder to survive then an attack from an Ice Ghoul, a shadow-spirit whose very touch can be deadly.

Many are the pirates who sail the storm-tossed seas, but few are more successful or more feared then the Regulators.

Many is the thriving mine that has been brought to it's knees by an infestation of Jewel Worms, resulting in cave-ins, loss of productivity and the threat of a major disaster if work continues.Miners fear these as much as pockets of poisonus gas or earthquakes,and with good reason.

Once the dead walked upon the Barrow-Downs and protected them and, to some extent, the nearby towns as well, for few dared to burgle or rob, let alone murder, by night when the wraiths stalked the streets, but then when an act of demon summoning went wrong, everything changed for the worse, and the Starsword was created to fight the forces of the dark.

One spellcaster cannot achieve very much, but many minds can. Like insects, spellcasters are at their most formidable when they are united.

The Armour of Arrogance would seem to be the answer to a coward's prayer, but he or she normally ends up wishing that it had never been worn, for it exacts a price of it's own that may be even worse then the price of cowardice.

Once a year, Father Olaf delivers presents to all the people of the world in one night.How does he do it? With the help of the Sleigh of the Storm, and the vital Shard of the Storm within it.

The Crown of the Storm brings great power to it's wearers, but at a great cost...this can chage the weather but it also has a nasty habit of changing it's wearer too.