Split the Party: Spells, Swords, & Stealth Series #2

UNABRIDGED

• By Drew Hayes
• Narrated By Roger Wayne
  • Series: Spells, Swords, & Stealth, Book 2

The Blurb

Fleeing from a vengeful king has sent the former NPCs across Solium’s borders, into the kingdom of Alcatham. As wanted fugitives, they head to the small farming village of Briarwillow, hoping to blend in, lay-low, and avoid trouble at all costs.

Unfortunately, Briarwillow has problems all its own, and its troubles quickly become theirs. If they hope to survive long enough to escape, they’ll have to tackle an all-but-forgotten mystery buried at the town’s border, as well as seek the wisdom of a mysterious group of mages.

With time, magic, and at least one god against them, it will take everything they’ve got to save Briarwillow, and themselves

I listened to the Audiobook again and I love the Narration by  Roger Wayne. He did even better this time at giving a separate voice to every Character. It really is a great book to listen to. The cover is simple but I love maps so i think it looks pretty damn cool.

I am going to do this review a little different than normal. This is the second book in the series and since I just did the review for book one a week or so ago, I am going to have some book 1 spoilers. so if you intend to read this series (which I highly recommend that you do) Then you might want to wait to read this review until after you finish book one. That being said they won’t be SPOILERY SPOILER spoilers but still you have been warned!

In my review of book one I described the group as follows. We Have a hunchbacked ex-henchman  Gnome. The half-Orc  Bartender that has deep thoughts but says little.  The Mayors Daughter that gets kidnapped by Goblins every other week or so. and the  klutzy Mayors house guard responsible for stopping the goblins .

Now I didn’t say what roles they started as because they change but I will tell you how they ended up now hence the spoiler warnings.

Thistle the Gnome a onetime Minion/Henchman for hire has been a follower of Grumble (the God of Minions) for many years. He becomes a true Paladin for the god who was so impressed one of his followers actually acted heroically in the face of danger.

Gabrielle the rich mayors daughter was kidnapped by goblins so often they started to let her bring books and such so she wouldn’t be bored. Eventually the goblins befriended Gabrielle and began to consider her one of their tribe, which Gabrielle reciprocates, considering them more like family than her own mother and father, who were always trying to lock her away and pamper her. Because of her suppressed anger issues she is the Barbarian berserker.

While Eric was never a particularly great town guard, he did spend all of his free time studying locks and traps trying to think of ways to keep Gabrielle from getting taken by the goblins. Plus all that time marching around in armor strengthened him so that when not wearing it he is extremely fast and agile.  So he becomes the Rogue.

 

Grumph  the half-orc bartender  is easily the most intelligent member of the group even though he doesn’t say much.  His experience with long lists of inventory and ale recipes means he can memorize things like complex spells. So he becomes the wizard.

Joining the group is Timuscor the Knight who has always dreamed of becoming a paladin. He fights with a sword and shield.  He is about as bright as his armor just after a huge battle if you get my meaning, but has a heart of gold

 

So to put in gamer terms the Party of NPC adventurers consists of  Thistle a Hunchbacked gnome Paly for heals and an Off Tank.

Gabrielle the tiny bundle of rage as the Barbarian DPS but she has a hard time not pulling Agro when she is using her rage and it has a long CD so she passes out right after it  Eric using his father’s old short sword (just the one) is DPS.   Grumph the huge Half-Orc is now a Squishy Magic DPS but mostly has DOT which is good but he doesn’t have enough mana to cast more than 2 or 3 spells before he is done casting. Last but not least is the Tank Timuscor. He tries, he really does but can only  hold agro on one or two mobs at a time. And is always losing it to the DPS.

So what all that means is they are a sucky  raid group. They really  need to level up a bit But they are on the run from the Mad King so they can’t get to anywhere easy. They hear of a town with some sort of magical plague and decide that sounds like a place no one will be looking for them for a while at least and Thistle might even be able to help with his healing. But soon they make the newb mistake that any real players would never do, they Split the Party! That’s all ill say about the plot you will have to read it for yourselves.

 

Final Thoughts

As of when I am writing this I have already finished  Going Rogue: Spells, Swords, & Stealth Series, Book 3. So it is kind of hard not to get ahead of myself. But that should also tell you how much I am loving this series. Unfortunately there is not yet a name or even a tentative date for the next book, but that really is the only reason you might want to wait to start this series. I loved the Character growth in this one although I could have wished for more for someone. But the best thing about the book is the addition of another new member at the end but I wont even name him. You will know who I am talking about when you read it. I give Split the Party 4.5 stars out of 5

 

Below are a few short videos of a web series called Epic NPC man that really go well with this series, they are really short but believe me you will love them

Amazon