Before you is a strange tale of a strange land. It bears many striking resemblances to a popular game that made its first appearance in the 1980’s. With in are the harrowing adventures of four souls that are seeking a wondrous and powerful device, what they discover in the end is something altogether different.

I thank my wife, Cassandra, for presenting the idea. She asked if any one had written any stories about the characters in the game. At that time, I knew of none and set out to see if I could make it happen. As it turns out there are many such tales, I submit this as just one more interesting look into the mythical world that we all share.

I started the story by going back to my first game where I drew the Ghoul and proceeded to cause much mayhem. That got the mood set and more notions of where the story could go came into play and the characters started to develop more favorably.

My goal was to write a decent story based on the characters and world of Talisman. Using the concepts from the game, the project sort of came together and it let me explore some different aspects of each character’s nature. If the story seems at variance with the game it is because I thought it more important to make the story interesting rather than make it seem like a game session. You will notice that I rarely name a game element directly.

Having no training as a writer I drew upon my experience as a reader in the hopes I could produce a story with some degree of success. Vague snippets of advice from articles and interviews came into play...”only write what you know...” was a main one. An interview with Charles Schultz (creator of the Peanuts comics) stuck as well. Each character in his comics is an aspect of himself...well at 46 I think I know myself fairly well so that went into the mix as well. My experience with combat reenactments gave me some help in the area of sword fights.

It was satisfying to write and I hope it is satisfying to read as well. I hope you enjoy it!