It’s an honor, a joy, and absolutely terrifying to take beloved characters and craft a new story for them. Liam and Laura, thank you endlessly for entrusting me with the twins. Maybe someday, I’ll tell you how much these characters mean to me. But until then, I hope I did them justice and I hope this book says it too.
To everyone at Critical Role, thank you for making this such a delightful project to work on, with excitement, wonderful notes, and the high level of care for this world and the stories in it. Thank you for all of those stories.
Many, many thanks to Elizabeth Schaefer, for being the guiding light of this book with insightful edits and excited flailing, and everyone at Del Rey, for making it look spectacular.
To Nikki Dawes, for a glorious cover. And Andy Law, for a stunning map.
To Suzie Townsend, Dani Segelbaum, and everyone at New Leaf for keeping me going. To Jennifer Udden, for making that first connection.
To Diana Sousa, for putting up with my cryptic hints and only being slightly extra about them. (And for being a wonderful friend and a super talented artist.) To Fox Benwell, for a shared love of fantasy, found family, and adventures. And to Francesca Zappia, for introducing me to Critical Role in the first place.