As avid readers and sometime writers on the lives of itinerant swordsmen, it has come to our attention that such bravos are forever rushing headlong into danger, equipped with little more than a stolen blade and a quickly growing sense of unease.

We do not criticize this behavior; indeed, we applaud it. While it is generally the case that maidens can rescue themselves, gems are comfortable in their settings, and the world spins on from day to day regardless, it is necessary that some will sport with Death¹, laugh strangely at misfortune and cosmic horror, and, above all, risk life and limb not merely for one true love, but for a hundred in succession.

Nonetheless, it seems that our swordsmen could do with advising. Wizardly mentors are often stingy with their wisdom and powers, and, we suspect, may not have as much of either as they let on.² Thus, there is a need for simple, easy-to-recall advice on the fundamentals of heroic adventure.

In the future, we imagine this advice may be recorded on scrolls or in codices, stumbled upon while robbing the libraries of the temptingly rich, or even found carved on the tomb-walls of barbarian kings. For now, however, we present it in a merchant-tongue of our own world, and shall record it as an ongoing series of posts to this blog, under a convenient tag.

With no further preamble, let us begin with the letter A, for Adept.