Caverns and Creatures

Tim and his friends find out the hard way that you shouldn't question the game master, and you shouldn't make fun of his cape. One minute they're drinking away the dreariness of their lives, escaping into a fantasy game. The next, they're in a horse-drawn cart surrounded by soldiers pointing crossbows at them. Tim now has the voice and physique of a prepubescent girl. Dave is shorter but armed with a suit of armor and a badass beard. Julian's ears have grown ridiculously long and pointy. And Cooper has tusks, clawed hands, and a bag with a human head in it — a head he had chopped off while they were still just playing a game. Shit just got real.

Finding themselves permanently stuck in this strange new world, the gang tries to make the best of it by finding the nearest tavern and getting shitfaced. The plan goes just fine until they lose Katherine and Chaz. They soon discover that they aren't the first players Mordred has sent to this world.

Going back home was not exactly what Tim and the C&C gang expected. Trouble continues to follow them back to Gulf Coast Mississippi — trouble, and a gnome, and an undead midget.

The adventure continues. Tim and the C&C gang face their most difficult challenges yet. Horses die. Eyeballs are eaten. People are urinated on. A god is born.

Many view "hitting rock bottom" as a foundation on which to rebuild one's life, a place from which one can only ascend. Gamers know to search for a secret door leading down to the sewer.

In the wake of their recent loss, the Caverns & Creatures gang are left hanging. Do their choices amount to more than waiting around to die of thirst and leaping to a quicker death? Probably — or else this would have been a much shorter book.

Deeming the Whore's Head Inn no longer safe to hide in, the gang decide to take a more proactive role in their pursuit to get back to reality, or at least to keep Mordred from doing so.

Splitting the party is never a good idea, but sometimes that's just the hands fate deals you. On Nazere, the gang's plans are cast into the wind when a stubborn foe returns to settle a score. Back in Cardinia, Stacy has her hands full trying to help Dave while Dave does everything in his power to avoid being helped. Tim and Cooper stagger out of the desert to find themselves in a whole new world of trouble. Set sail for adventure.

After being scattered across the globe, our heroes seek to reunite. Cooper enters the Fertile Desert in search of Nabi. Katherine seeks to escape the drow island and take back her ship. Julian tries to placate Akane while keeping Chaz out of trouble. Stacy vows revenge on the ettins ravaging the Cedar Wilds. Dave, finally free of Stacy's yoke, sets his sights on power and wealth. And Tim — what the hell is Tim up to? Meanwhile, Mordred's army of brainwashed Knights spread ever farther in their search for his dice.