The Adventurer’s Edition

Adventurers are beloved figures of bardic song, dubious employment, unpaid damages, and especially innkeeper anxiety.

As a class of persons, they are often far from supervision, short on time, rich in confidence, and poor at stopping when told.

They do, however, sometimes carry books.

The entries that follow were chosen because they are common enough, dangerous enough, misunderstood enough, argued over enough, or strange enough in the body to be useful.

Some accounts are taken from Vale’s own recollections. Others come through contributors whose judgment was variable but whose testimony remains valuable. A few preserve public incidents, later reconstructed under safer conditions because the original circumstances had already supplied quite enough danger.

Each is followed, where useful, by my own note.

Readers seeking a practical beginning may continue.

Do not confuse this book with safety.

At best, it is a warning small enough to carry.