The Hickory Staff — Robert Scott

Steven Taylor is an assistant bank manager in a quiet little town, and his roommate Mark Jenkins is a high school history teacher. Steven is bored with his job and the thought of going through all the accounts that haven't had a single transaction in the past 25 years sounds even more boring -- until he discovers the account of an old prospector who left $17,000 in October 1870 -- now worth $6.3 million dollars -- along with an unopened safe deposit box. Finding the box's long-lost key and opening it leads Steven and Mark into the land of Rona in the strange new world of Eldarn, where they are immediately captured by a group of resistance fighters. Rona has been occupied by Malakasia for nearly a thousand Twinmoons. An evil tyrant rules the land, but he wants more, in particular the key that will open the path for an ancient evil to manifest itself once and for all. Worse still, it is this same key that Steven and Mark will need if they are ever to get home.