Scratching a Lich — Michael C. Bailey

In the land of Asaches, there are great men and women who have changed the course of history. Their adventures are honored in song; their names are spoken with a reverence normally reserved for the gods; their heroic deeds have elevated them to the status of living legends. And then there are these guys… Derek Strongarm and Felix Lightfoot are two hard-luck adventurers for hire looking for their big break -- or an excuse to retire before they get killed. Salvation appears in the form of Erika Racewind, a mysterious elven woman with a dark secret and a lucrative job offer. Desperate and destitute, Derek and Felix agree to join Erika in escorting her young charge across Asaches. Of course, nothing is ever so simple for Strongarm and Lightfoot. The boy turns out to be no one less than the fabled Reaper, he who is destined to destroy the mad lich-lord Habbatarr and save the world from total destruction. The adventurers soon find themselves fighting off fanatical cultists, hordes of mindless undead, bestial Hruks with a taste for human flesh, and unspeakable subterranean horrors -- and things only stand to get worse as they travel ever deeper into Habbatarr's blighted domain. The fate of the entire world hangs in the balance, and all that stands in the way of a global apocalypse is a mild-mannered warrior, an occasionally good-hearted thief, an ill-tempered elf, and a Chosen One with a serious attitude problem. Asaches is screwed. The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot, the new series from author Michael Bailey (Action Figures), is an irreverent take on the fantasy genre. Get ready for an epic tale filled with action, magic, monsters, quests, treasure, inconveniently located ancient artifacts of great power, curiously specific prophecies, and dangerously rickety rope bridges that someone really should have repaired a long time ago.