Tales from the Magician's Skull #6

Behold! I have fashioned a magazine like those from fabled days of yore. It overflows with thrilling adventures. There are swords, and there is sorcery. There are dark deeds and daring rescues. There are lands where heroes fear to tread. Dare you imagine it? Picture this as well — maps to wondrous and terrible places. Electrifying art for every tale. Guides to bring the terrors within to your own game table. All I lack are a few paltry shekels. Grant them to me, and I shall fling open a new portal to a world of ancient wonders! Join me, mortal dogs! Together we shall storm the gates of Valhalla!

Tales From The Magician’s Skull is a magazine of all-new swords & sorcery fiction. Issue #6 features cover art by Doug Kovacs of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser as we launch our new series of stories set in Fritz Leiber’s Lankhmar! Licensed by Leiber’s estate, these new stories and novellas faithfully expand upon the legendary tales of Lankhmar’s most famous duo.

Let’s look at the table of contents!

STORIES

Calicask’s Woman by John Hocking

A TALE OF THE KING’S BLADE • “I can’t hold them back for long,” gasped the apprentice. His face had gone pallid and sweat dripped from his chin. “Stand by the opening and try to take them one at a time. Perhaps we can… where are you going?!”

The Feathered Shroud by Howard Andrew Jones

A TALE OF HANUVAR • The water behind the soldier erupted, and Hanuvar lunged past him to jam the pitchfork at a shovel-shaped reptilian head. The tines bit deep, and the dark water reddened.

Guilty Creatures by Nathan Long

A TALE OF FAFHRD AND THE GRAY MOUSER • In the circle, Mouser stared cross-eyed at the tip of Kalphin’s blade, knowing death was coming to him at last.

Shadows of a Forgotten Queen by Greg Mele

I’ve seen a maiden’s veins opened as she is led through the fields, watering the new crops with her life’s blood in honor of Majawl, Our Lady of Maize, and lit my own father’s funeral pyre. But what manner of man owned books made of human flesh?

Cold in Blood by James Enge

A STORY OF MORLOCK AMBROSIUS • She moved with a lithe, muscular dancer’s grace as she walked around him to enter the room. Her hair was a waterfall of starless night. Her eyes were the stars, shining with tears. Morlock had seen a more beautiful woman, but not recently.

Isle of Fog by Violette Malan

Dhulyn judged from the way his mouth moved now that he was screaming. That was easy to fix, she thought, as she brought her sword up and sent the head bouncing and rolling across the tiled floor.

ARTICLES

A Profile of Fritz Leiber by Michael Curtis

Leiber replied, “I feel more certain than ever [that this field] should be called the sword-and-sorcery story.” And thus a sub-genre, while not quite newly born, received a name for the first time…

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