In a couple of month the Dungeons & Dragons film Honor Amongst Thieves is gathering its social gathering and venturing forth to the massive display, however earlier than that, two new tie-in novels will give us an perception into simply how a few of its ragtag heroes first met one another.

Whereas Street to Neverwinter by Jaleigh Johnson follows Chris Pine’s swaggering bard Edgin, The Druid’s Name, penned by E.Okay. Johnston, will introduce us to Sophia Lillis’ Doric, the Tiefling Druid whose Owlbear antics have already had an influence on D&D itself, even earlier than the film hits theaters! Following Doric as she eschews the ranger coaching of her individuals to learns the methods of the wild, the novel sees the younger Tiefling reply the titular name of nature magic to return into her personal as a robust Druid. The Druid’s Name may also see her cross paths with one other acquainted face from the upcoming film: Justice Smith’s Half-Elf sorcerer, Simon.

Try the preview under to learn the way Doric and Simon meet!

At some point, as summer time was beginning to actually dig in, she got here to a pond that had fashioned over the last of the spring floods and was nonetheless clinging to existence, although it was clearly drying up. The mud that bounded the water was cracked, and the vegetation appeared to achieve in useless for the water. None of that was notably essential, given the time of yr. What was essential was that in the course of the pond there stood a boy who appeared to be solely slightly bit older than she was.

He was tall, and his pores and skin was brown and sun-freckled in the summertime warmth. His hair was brief, neatly framing his pointed ears. He was, for some motive, totally clothed, though the water got here as much as his waist. He held his satchel above his head to maintain it dry. He regarded confused.

“Hiya!” he stated when he noticed her. “How are you?”

“I’m effective,” Doric replied rigorously. “How are you?”

“Oh, you already know,” the boy stated. “Moist.”

“That occurs in ponds,” Doric identified.

“Sure, I used to be conscious of that earlier than I got here in,” the boy stated.

Another person might need requested him why, however Doric wasn’t actually taken with dialog. She’d come to the pond to refill her waterskin, however now she didn’t wish to. She had no concept how lengthy he’d been standing there, and the pond wasn’t that huge.

“I’m Simon, by the way in which,” the boy stated. “I’m a sorcerer.”

“Doric,” Doric stated, as a result of though she’d by no means met one, she’d heard that it all the time paid to be well mannered to sorcerers.

“You’re a tiefling!” Simon stated. “That’s actually neat.”

An extended pause stretched between them. Simon’s bag was nonetheless above his head.

“Anyway, did you’ve got plans for dinner?” Simon requested. “I used to be fascinated about dinner.”

“It’s two hours after midday,” Doric stated.

Simon regarded a bit crestfallen.

“So, which means afternoon tea or one thing?” he inquired.

“No,” Doric stated.

It wasn’t like she couldn’t refill her waterskin within the river. It was simply extra possible she’d get moist that means. She figured she had about two hours of water left if she was cautious. She favored to carry some in reserve simply in case, so she might most likely make it farther, however there was no should be incautious simply because she’d met an odd boy in a pond.

“I’m heading out,” Simon stated. “I’m going north.”

He began wading out of the pool, garments cartoonishly ballooned and dripping with water. A frog leapt from one among his flooded pockets and again into the pond.

“I’m . . . not,” she stated with a bewildered stare.

“Oh,” Simon stated. He narrowed his eyes as if he have been actually taking a look at her for the primary time, specializing in her armor. Doric braced herself. “Are you a druid, then?” he stated.

The query caught her off guard. It was the primary time anybody had ever requested her. Liavaris had informed her, Fenjor had assumed as a lot, and the spirit within the tree had been, properly, a spirit in a tree, however nonetheless bizarre about it. The elves had accepted the declaration instantly, and not one of the people she’d met up to now had cared.

“Sure,” she stated earlier than the pause received too awkward.

Simon picked his means via the drying mud, his moist garments operating rivulets of water via the grime.

“Properly, then I even have one other query for you,” he admitted with a sheepish stoop of his shoulders. “There’s a village referred to as Willowdale simply over that hill there.” He gestured with each palms, the bag itemizing open as he moved it. “They’re having an issue with their wells, one thing about their gardens not rising in addition to they normally do in spring, and now it’s virtually too late to catch up. I used to be attempting to assist them.”

“By standing in a pond.” Doric lifted an eyebrow.

“I had deliberate to forged a spell,” Simon informed her with a sigh. “It didn’t work out. I’ll be washing algae off myself for days.”

“I can see that,” Doric stated.

She regarded on the river after which on the solar, which was nonetheless excessive sufficient within the sky that she wasn’t fascinated about the place she’d camp that night time. Absolutely it wouldn’t take too lengthy to assist a village and get again on her means. Plus, if she was being fully trustworthy, it was most likely finest to ask the locals for recommendation in regards to the highway forward. The shepherds have been effective, however their instructions had already gotten her rotated twice.

“All proper,” Doric stated. “Present me what the issue is.”

Reprinted from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves: The Druid’s Name by E. Okay. Johnston. © 2023 Wizards of the Coast LLC. © 2023 Paramount Photos Company. Printed by Random Home Worlds, an imprint of Random Home, a division of Penguin Random Home LLC.

The Druid’s Name hits cabinets tomorrow, February 28, forward of Honor Amongst Thieves rolling into theaters March 31.

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