Again, was not expecting much from Under Dragon’s Wing (1984), owing to the fact that TSR cared so much about the book they just slapped part of Elmore’s Basic Rules cover on it. Not inspiring much confidence there.

The book defies expectation though. The protagonist is a kid wizard and a prince of a kingdom that is currently being invaded. He wants to help with the fight and gets some dragon-related summoning/controlling magic items to do so. His companion isn’t an annoying talking animal, either. Rather, he’s got his badass elven tutor/bodyguard along for the ride.

The paths are interesting. I feel like many of the choices lead to unexpected consequences, which is especially good because a lot of them impact the war, and battle is unpredictable! There are some high stakes with the magic too — one path has you permanently transforming into a dragon, a prospect that the text treats as both thrilling and kind of terrible. Weirdly, though, I feel like you have to work to get a bad ending in this one. I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

I quite like Sam Grainger’s art. Really nice line work, this is the first EQ that has a whiff of Fighting Fantasy about its illustrations.