As always, these creatures are found in the wild. No auctions, no Amazon. Only dingy shelves that smell of dust and dragons.
❝ A dragon, a battle axe, and the unmistakable realization that diplomacy has failed ❞
🦉 Author ➠ Various, edited by Lin Carter
🎨 Cover Artist ➠ George Barr
🎭 Publisher ➠ DAW Fantasy
❤️🔥 legend lore check
George Barr gives this anthology exactly what the spinner rack demanded: one enormous dragon, one badly outmatched warrior, and enough fire to make the title The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories feel less like editorial judgment and more like a threat. The soft pencil-like textures and muted greens somehow make the scene stranger rather than safer, and the dragon looks almost courtly right up until you notice the flames pouring past its teeth. With Lin Carter doing the choosing and Barr doing the summoning, this is mid-’70s DAW fantasy distilled to its essentials: monsters, steel, impossible odds, and absolutely no wasted cover space.
✨ spell effect
Casts Last Stand. Grants +5 courage and absolutely no improvement to the odds.
