The collection takes us from England to Asia with stops in Australia and the United States and it proves the point that disgusting old people are to be found just about everywhere. We enter the troubled minds of murderers, bank robbers, practical jokers, serial killers, perverts and just regular old liars all of whom are old enough to know better. You'll doubtless recognize people you know and be forced to admit to a few wiles of your own.

    Dungeon Masters will discover a rich hoard of new tools and information for designing dragon-themed encounters, adventures, and campaigns. Discover a host of new dragons and other creatures. Learn about the lairs and hoards of each type of dragon, and how hoards focus the magic that suffuses dragons and connects them to the myriad worlds of the Material Plane. Discover everything there is to know about the most iconic monsters of D&D with help from Fizban, your expert advisor on dragonkind!Introduces gem dragons to fifth edition!Reveals the story of the First World and the role Bahamut and Tiamat played in its creation and destruction.Adds new player character options, including unique draconic ancestries for dragonborn, dragon-themed subclasses for monks and rangers, and new feat and spell options.Offers everything a Dungeon Master needs to craft adventures inspired by dragons across the worlds of D&D, with new dragon lair maps and details on 20 different kinds of dragons.Presents a complete dragon bestiary and introduces a variety of new dragons and dragon-related creatures, including aspects of the dragon gods, dragon minions, and more.On the CoverFizban the Fabulous protects a group of innocents as a crystal dragon and a red dragon clash in the sky, in this painting by Chris Rahn.

    It gives you the basics on running a great game, info for more advanced dungeon mastering, guidelines for creating adventures, and tips for building a campaign. It shows you how to: Handle all the expressions of DMing: moderator, narrator, a cast of thousands (the nonplayer characters or NPCs), player, social director, and creator Use published adventures and existing campaign worlds or create adventures and campaign worlds of your own Conjure up exciting combat encounters Handle the three types of encounters: challenge, roleplaying, and combat Create your own adventure: The Dungeon Adventure, The Wilderness Adventure. The Event-Based adventure (including how to use flowcharts and timelines), The Randomly Generated Adventure, and the High-Level adventure Create memorable master villains, with nine archetypes ranging from agent provocateur to zealot To get you off to a fast start, Dungeon Master For Dummies includes:A sample dungeon for practice Ten ready-to-use encounters and ten challenging traps A list of simple adventure premises Mapping tips, including common scales, symbols, and conventions, complete with tables Authors Bill Slavicsek and Richard Baker wrote the hugely popular Dungeons and Dragons For Dummies. Bill has been a game designer since 1986 and leads the D&D creative team at Wizards of the Coast. Richard is a game developer and the author of the fantasy bestseller Condemnation. They give you the scoop on:Using a DM binder to keep records such as an adventure log, PCs' character sheets, NPC logs/character sheets, treasure logs, and more Knowing player styles (role players and power games) and common subgroups: hack'n'slasher, wargamer, thinker, impulsive adventurer, explorer, character actor, and watcher Recognizing your style: action movie director, storyteller, worldbuilder, puzzlemaker, or connector Using miniatures, maps, and other game aids Using 21st century technology, such as a Web site or blog, to enhance your game The book includes a sample adventure, The Necromancer's Apprentice, that's the perfect way to foray into DMing. It includes everything you need for a great adventure--except your players. What are you waiting for? There are chambers to be explored, dragons to be slain, maidens to be rescued, gangs of gnoll warriors to be annihilated, worgs to be wiped out, treasures to be discovered, worlds to be conquered....

    As hundreds of great new breweries have opened across the country and around the world, quality ales and lagers have been given an importance never before imagined. Despite beer's renaissance, however, no one seems to have focused on why beer suddenly matters, or what it is about beer that makes it the drink for our age. In this 6,500-word (20-page) personal essay, Evan Rail investigates several compelling aspects of beer beyond its principal role as a great drink, from its very real sense of place to its unusual relationship with the passing of time.

    Are you also struggling with the same problems as other people who learn languages? Do you recognize any of these? Many of us have families, a full-time job, and problems finding enough time to study. It’s difficult to ensure that we study regularly and make progress in the new language. We try to force ourselves to study regularly, so we register for language courses and pay for access to Internet apps, but this artificial motivation becomes quickly a flash in the pan. When we try to study we don’t know how to do it efficiently. What techniques should we use? How can we remember the vocabulary? How do we deal with the grammar? We try different solutions, but none brings the desired results. Why is it that some people are able to master more than ten languages? How do the polyglots find the time? What do they do to learn any language in a matter of months? As a teenager, Konrad Jerzak vel Dobosz wanted to become a polyglot, but like most of us he needed to deal with the same challenges: lack of time, lack of an efficient method of learning, difficulties memorizing the vocabulary, lack of motivation and the fear of making mistakes. He decided to analyze the methods of well-known polyglots, including Heinrich Schliemann, Emil Krebs and Giuseppe Mezzofanti. He took a close look at the approaches proposed by modern language learning experts Richard Simcott, Luca Lampariello, Moses McCormick and Benny Lewis. This book, The Secrets of Polyglots is the result of his analysis of the methods developed by the greatest polyglots. You can find here the description of the techniques used by the biggest experts, and also a step-by-step method, which Konrad Jerzak vel Dobosz used himself to learn more than ten languages. The Secrets of Polyglots was written especially for people who: - Need to learn a foreign language, but don’t have much time to study - Have registered for language courses, but aren’t happy with the results - Learn by themselves, but want more efficient techniques - Want to learn several languages simultaneously, but don’t know how to - Desire to be able to master any foreign language in a couple of months The first part is a description of 17 extremely efficient techniques and concepts that will improve your language learning process. The second part explains, step-by-step, the learning system used by the author, including a practical example of how to apply all the “secrets” described in the first part. Testimonials: “I need to say that I skip all kind of self-help guide type of books. But ‘The Secrets of Polyglots’ grabbed immediately my attention and, after reading just a couple of pages, I knew that I needed to buy this book. And it was worth it, because it opened my eyes to many different aspects of language learning that I had ignored previously. The great advantage of this book is lack of catchy slogans promising us language fluency just after a month of study. Instead, the author delivers reliable and very useful knowledge on how to gradually learn vocabulary and grammar, and also how to find motivation and develop our linguistic skills. I myself used the advice from Konrad’s book, and I can proudly say that after 1.5 years of studying Portuguese, I began communicating fluently in this language.

    A collection of true-life accounts of near death experiences or glimpses of the afterlife by one of the UK's best-loved experts in the paranormal.

    Well, if cosmetic king Peter King thinks he's going to buy struggling veterinarian Andi Evans's family property out from under her, he's got another thing coming. This Christmas, Andi is not in a giving mood…but is she ready to receive something her heart never expected? Praise for Fern Michaels and her novels “Heartbreaking, suspenseful, and tender.”—Booklist on Return to Sender“Fast-moving…entertaining…a roller-coaster ride of serendipitous fun.”—Publishers Weekly on Mr. and Miss Anonymous33,500 Words.

    Meet the siblings in the mischievous and loving family at Kinfairlie and follow their adventures in pursuit of true love.In The Beauty Bride, Madeline is appalled by her older brother’s determination to see her wed against her will. When he auctions her hand to an outlawed mercenary, she flees them both, certain that her fate cannot be worse. But Rhys FitzHenry is not a man to abandon what he holds dear, and Madeline’s proud beauty has captured his heart. Can a rough knight enchant her with stories and convince her to be his wife in truth, or will his enemies have their vengeance first?In The Rose Red Bride, Vivienne is convinced that only destiny could bring such a wondrous secret lover to her chamber, but with morning’s light, her lover abducts her. Erik knows that justice can only be gained from the Lammergeier with force, especially as the fate of his young daughters hangs in the balance. Can Vivienne help this wounded highlander to regain his legacy, and win his heart for her own?In The Snow White Bride, Eleanor seeks sanctuary at Kinfairlie on Christmas Eve. The Laird of Kinfairlie’s sisters decide that the beautiful widow will be the perfect match for their brother. Alexander’s heart is quickly lost, but as Eleanor’s secrets are revealed, he fears he has trusted too much too soon. Will Eleanor’s past jeopardize the future of this knight who has claimed her heart, or can she save him from the peril that follows her?This digital boxed set includes all three medieval romances in the Jewels of Kinfairlie trilogy – The Beauty Bride, The Rose Red Bride, The Snow White Bride – as well as the linked short story, The Ballad of Rosamunde.

    It was a dream that would lead him into a nightmare of sexual and physical abuse from which he has still not recovered. Stewart was abused every day for four years by his junior football coach. He suffered in silence and embarked on a successful career that saw him play for Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Sunderland, scoring in an FA Cup final and winning caps for England. Behind it all, he was a broken man – many times he wished he could end his life. He turned to drink and drugs as a way of coping with his devastating secret. In 2016, Stewart was sitting at his office desk one morning when he read a Daily Mirror story about a footballer who had been abused. His world was about to change… Paul Stewart: Damaged is one of the most powerful and emotionally charged football life stories you will read.

    It's nothing like the suburb you might live in . . . Unless, that is, an insane, Listerine-guzzling Realtor sold you your house? Or perhaps your postman happens to have a disturbing relationship with his claw hammer? A grieving Dan LaBarbara knows something is different in Helltown as soon as he comes back home. Yeah, sure, the town always been a little off. You can feel that about the place, like if you stepped into a house whose only occupants were freshly murdered corpses in an upstairs bedroom. But this is something else entirely. Standing in his little brother Barbie's basement workshop, holding one of those dioramas Barbie's been building since the accident, the ones that seem to move when you hold them, Dan can feel Barbie's terror. Barbie must know something is coming, something big, something evil. He's trying to warn Dan in the only way he knows. Why else would Barbie build a diorama depicting a man-sized version of a cartoon rabbit with bloody teeth about to devour a trembling teenager? Why else would he spend so much time crafting an intricate model of Death standing over a pimply teenager in the school library? And let's not even talk about that little model of the mob of undead surrounding the massive tower of vicious black spines behind the high school. Hilltown has a story to tell, and the lonely brain-damaged man who builds magical dioramas in his basement workshop has been telling it all along. As the evil closes in around them, Dan and his new love interest Jessica must do the impossible: save everyone one in Hilltown before it's too late.

    Now he's starring in a big-budget action thriller that offers him the chance to become a box-office titan.Except the action and the thrills aren't just in the movie. Dangerous and destabilizing new technology is floating around behind the scenes. Police and cartel lords lurk in the shadows. An assassin is on the loose, and has already claimed his first victim.Sean could be next in the killer's sights, unless he can find out what the bad guys want, who's hiding it, and how many people he's going to have to betray in order to save his life--- and more importantly, his celebrity!

    "Doc" Smith and John W. Campbell, Jr. to modern interpretations by Jay Lake, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Tim Sullivan, and more! Included are:BREATH’S DUTY, by Sharon Lee and Steve MillerSPAWN OF JUPITER, by E. C. TubbKILLER ADVICE, by Kristine Kathryn RuschTHE WORLD WITH A THOUSAND MOONS by Edmond HamiltonTHE SKYLARK OF SPACE, by E.E. “Doc” SmithDEADLINE IN SPACE, by John Russell FearnPLANETESIMAL DAWN, by Tim SullivanTHE WEIGHT OF HISTORY, THE LIGHTNESS OF THE FUTURE, by Jay LakeBIG PILL, by Raymond Z. GallunWHERE ARE YOU, MR. BIGGS?, by Nelson S. BondTHE SKY TRAP, by Frank Belknap LongCHANGE OF COMMAND, by Jean LorrahTULAN, by C.C. MacAppTHE BLACK STAR PASSES, by John W. Campbell, Jr.THE GALAXY PRIMES, by E.E. “Doc” SmithTARRANO THE CONQUEROR, by Ray CummingsTHE SARGASSO OF SPACE, by Edmond HamiltonSALVAGE IN SPACE, by Jack WilliamsonTHE ULTIMATE WEAPON, by John W. Campbell, Jr.INVADERS FROM THE OUTER SUNS, by Frank Belknap Long, Jr.

    The Complete Bard's Handbook gives you everything you need to create a bard the world will never forget!

    Accompanied by his only friend, a street-savvy thief named Skiver, Alaeron must head north into Numeria, a land where brilliant and evil arcanists rule over the local barbarian tribes with technology looted from a crashed spaceship. Can Alaeron and Skiver survive long enough to unlock the secrets of the stars? Or will the backstabbing scientists of the Technic League make Alaeron's curiosity his undoing?From Hugo Award-winner Tim Pratt comes a fantastical adventure of science, savagery, and the vagaries of the human heart, set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and tied into the Iron Gods Adventure Path.

    This is a paranormal romantic suspense/thriller series. The books are: Eyes to the Soul Just because a person can see – doesn’t mean they should look. Celina Wilton was technically blind, a state she wasn’t very happy about. In her case, the alternative was worse. So she’d learn to adapt, one way or another. Stefan Kronos has wanted to get close to Celina for a long time, but she has walls that he’s been forced to go around in some unusual ways. When a case he’s been called to consult on puts her square in his radar, he has to watch his step…and hers. Unraveling the threads twisting between them and a killer like none Stefan had seen before, means Celina has to trust him enough to let him inside her barriers. That’s when Stefan realizes he’s not the only with eyes into her soul. Now You See Her… Energy. The life force of good … and evil And sometimes evil is stronger. Tia spent years imprisoned in a ‘special’ program. When she finally escaped, she ran as far away as she could. But it wouldn’t leave her alone. Only one person can help her. Stefan. But when she contacts him for help, she gets more than she bargained for. Six weeks later, she awakens from a coma to find more problems than ever – and she’s still being hunted. Dean, moonlighting as a guard at the hospital, finds himself in an impossible situation. His belief system is stretched out of control by someone whom he can’t forget … and can’t believe. Until he has no choice. With everything on the line, Tia and Dean must work together to solve the problem that has somehow — in a very unique way — entwined them both. Shattered Some events are life shattering… Caught in a gilded cage for most of her life, Hannah can’t stop trying to escape. There’s something wrong with her that the doctors can’t figure it out, but she…’d rather be free and die then stay trapped… forever. Caught once again, Trevor others her a unique way out. Should she trust him? And what if he finds out the truth – will he still be on her side? Trevor knew he much to make up for in his life. And he worked at it every day of his life. But when the opportunity to rescue an incredibly talented waif, he hadn’t realize how much would be asked of him. Time is against them. And that’s when they find out that not all enemies are outside in the world. Sometimes they are inside… we just don’t know it…