Tales From the Magician’s Skull #10

You are surely delighted once more to hold an issue of my incomparable magazine in your febrile hands! Marvel upon marvel lie before you, so many of them in abundance that you will doubtless caper in wild abandon once you understand the boon I have granted you! In your glee to reach the delights within you may have failed to note an important milestone. This is the tenth issue of my glorious periodical, and I have contacted the heads of state throughout your mortal realm. Congratulatory missives from the wisest of them are surely winging their way to me at this very moment! Most of those who doubted my resolve are long since transmogrified into more useful shapes; the others surely rue the day that they wondered aloud if I could sustain a magazine devoted to the greatest of all genres in this modern age. Look on my works, you slaggards, and despair! In celebration, I acquired a most wondrous device, a small box with a glowing screen that deploys whirling glyphs of doom that must be matched one to the other in rapid succession. It is known as The Tetris, and it is most diverting. I predict that it will be highly regarded by mortals everywhere! Once you finish reading the stories inscribed within these pages you are ordered to try it for yourself! But I have wasted enough time with you. Go, read what I have found for you, then chant my praises — so sayeth The Skull!

Tales From The Magician’s Skull is a magazine of all-new swords & sorcery fiction. Issue #10 features cover art by legendary fantasy artist Sanjulian

The Demon Rats by C. L. Werner The thing lifted its head, strips of paper hanging from its iron fangs. Only for a moment did its beady red eyes return the samurai’s furious stare. Then the gleaming steel of the sword was flashing towards it. The Eye of Kaleet by Jeffery Sergent Whisps of shadow, like dancing flames, bled from its outline. As a rumble like thunder filled the room, which reverberated in Jade’s chest, the single eye, its pupil slit down the middle, fixed upon her. Green Face, Purple Haze by Marc DeSantis The baron ordered us in. He was a good fighter. Past middle age, but as tough as nails. Iron-gray hair. He frightened me. Reminded me of my old drill sergeant. The Sorcerer’s Mask by Jason Ray Carney The Rogue came to Chel on a secret errand. It did not concern Lech, but the Rogue’s innocence did not matter either: from the moment the Rogue crossed the threshold of the portcullis into the gatehouse, the sorcerer’s spies, unseen as cockroaches, shadowed and scampered after the Rogue. The Black Pearl of the Sunken Lands by Cynthia Ward It was the head of an enormous sea-serpent they saw: a frilled and horn-bristling head, clad in scales which shimmered through every shade of green and blue, and baring fangs longer than Bruko’s arm. A Simple Errand by Matthew John “Who won’t find us? Speak plainly, sorcerer!” His hands curled into clubs and violent urges flamed in his breast. He would not ask the question again. Nzara by D. J. Tyrer Mbeva pointed towards a baobab tree. In a hollow of its trunk crouched a woman, while below a lioness, larger than the male they had killed, paced back and forth. The Silent Mound by Charles D. Shell “Men can forget their feuds when confronted with such horror. These Talking Folk, despite their appearance, were not men. They were something wearing the shapes of men, but they weren’t men.” Dakagna and the Blood Scourge by W. J. Lewis She held him to her, heard his last bubbling gurgles as one arrow, two, three, thumped into his back. She threw the corpse shield aside and sprang away. ARTICLES

The Monster Pit by Terry Olson Enter the monster pit! Down here in the pit, we provide tabletop RPG fans with playable DCC RPG game statistics for the creatures in this issue of Tales From The Magician’s Skull. The Skull Speaks by The Skull Himself