Literature / The Finder's Stone Trilogy

aka: Azure Bonds

The first book.

The Finder’s Stone Trilogy by Jeff Grubb and Kate Novac is a Fantasy novel trilogy set in the world of Forgotten Realms by Ed Greenwood. It is part of the Forgotten Realms books and part of the Dungeons & Dragons Expanded Universe.

Alias is a wandering swordswoman who wakes up amnesiac in an Cormyr inn with a strange dinosaur-looking lizardman who cannot speak she quickly names Dragonbait. Alias also has a unique glowing set of tattoos on her right arm.

Attempting to have the tattoos removed, she finds herself cursed to do harm to those who would do so and specific individuals. Teaming up with a Turmish wizard named Akabar Akash and a halfling bard named Olive Ruskettle, she soon discovers herself neck deep in cults as well as conspiracies.

Worse, what few memories that Alias possesses may not actually be as accurate as she thinks they are.

The trilogy consists of the following novels:

• Azure Bonds
• The Wyvern's Spur
• The Song of the Saurials

The books furthermore have an unofficial sequel in Masquerades. The books also have a spin-off in Finder's Stone, and Tymora's Luck as part The Lost Gods series.

A video game adaptation called Curse of the Azure Bonds was made for the Pool of Radiance series. This was actually a Stealth Sequel involving new player characters being cursed with the same magical condition as Alias. It would later become a Recursive Adaptation that was made into an adventure module by Jeff Grubb who had also done the game.

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All Books

• Action Girl: Alias is a deft and talented swordswoman who is very female as you can tell by the cover art.
• Artificial Human: Alias is a homunculus made in the image of the wizard Casanna with fake memories as well as a portion of Dragonbait's soul.
• Chainmail Bikini: See Covers Always Lie. There's nothing remotely strange about Alias armor. At least until the third book when it becomes Ascended Fanon.
• Combat Pragmatist: Alias doesn't see any point in honor or fair play in combat. Her reaction to being told to rescue a bard from a dragon is to sneak in and grab her rather than engage it in combat.
• Covers Always Lie / Sexy Packaging: For the majority of the first book, Alias wears perfectly normal chainmail, unlike the famous piece of art on the first book and games. She gets given it by an enemy later in the book to humiliate her and leave her vulnerable. She keeps wearing it (enchanted so it's less vulnerable than it looks) in the third book in-universe.
• Cult: The Cult of Moander serves the God of Rot and is a generally bad bunch of people.
• Dare to Be Badass: Akabar is an extremely talented mage and annoyed at the fact he doesn't get any respect due to the fact he's primarily a merchant instead of an adventurer.
• Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Dragonbait cannot speak anything resembling Common or even other demihuman races. He is in fact a paladin of his world's equivalent of Tyr as well as a a deeply wise as well as spiritual man.
• Everything Is Racist: Olive Ruskettle tends to have this opinion about humans, specifically that everything they do is motivated by a hatred of halflings or other races. Like too steep stairs and beds she has to climb to get in.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Olive Ruskettle is called a fraud at being a bard numerous times. We later discover this is because she stole the identity of a famous bard and has been passing herself off as him (via Distaff Counterpart and Blatant Lies). In first and second edition AD&D, halflings couldn't become bards.
• God of Evil: The Lord of Decay and Rot is not really the best sort of guy to associate with.
• Gods Need Prayer Badly: Moander has weakened tremendously due to the fact his cult is now a shadow of its former self.
• Insufferable Genius: Finder Wyvernspur is possibly the greatest bard the Realms have ever produced. He's also unfortunately aware of it.
• Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Akabar is called a "green grocer" by Alias and this is apparently something that is common to refer to Merchant Wizards. It also gets under his skin a lot more than Alias probably intended.
• Lovable Rogue:
  • Alias herself is a wanderings swordsman with a questionable relationship to the law.
  • Olive Ruskettle thinks of herself as this but the 'lovable' part is debatable.
• Nay-Theist: A Downplayed Trope example as Alias is fine with the gods but absolutely despises priests of all stripes. It is a problem when you want a curse removed. It also leads to tension with one of her sisters, Zhara.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Dragonbait is perfectly happy to pretend to be a servant or jester. He's a paladin.
• Polyamory: Akabar is married to two other women who own more of his business than he does. They also have veto over any other wives he might bring into the relatioship.
• Religion of Evil: The Cult of Moander worships a god who is a gigantic fungus monster.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Moander was sealed away by elven archmages of Myth Drannor long ago. They hoped that Gods Need Prayer Badly would eventually kill him. They were wrong.
• Uniqueness Decay: Alias is an Artificial Human. When the heros pursue Phalse, they discover he has produced multiple variants.

Azure Bonds

• Actually, I Am Him: Elminster pulls this by meeting with Alias in a barn and pretending to be a goatherd.
• Affably Evil:
  • Mist loves Olive's music and happily enjoys chatting with her prey before devouring them. She also is quite willing to spare them if they can prove more entertaining dinner conversation than dinner itself.
  • When Moander possesses Akabar, he proves to be a surprisingly gregarious and chatty sort for a Humanoid Abomination. It quickly becomes clear he's a Faux Affably Evil monster who revels in Evil Is Petty, though. Still, he's surprisingly likable and friendly.
• Alas, Poor Villain: When Mist dies fighting Moander. Akabar compares her to a spiteful old woman versus Moander's utter evil.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The Fire Knives, Cult of Moander, and Cassana. Also the lich Prakis and the fiend Phalse.
• Botanical Abomination: Moander is a chaotic evil god of plants and decay who takes the form of a giant pile of rotting vegetation with tentacles.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: What the Azure Bonds are supposed to do but don't due to the sacrifice of Dragonbait not being completed.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Despite supposedly being an experienced carouser, Alias finds the taste of alcohol unpleasant and gets drunk easily.
• Dirty Old Man: Of sorts. Zrie Prakis is several hundred years old, and his original plan for Alias is to use her as a glorified sex slave.
• Do I Really Sound Like That?: Giogioni Wyvernspur does an unflattering but frighteningly accurate impression of King Azoun IV, which nearly gets him killed. When he later meets with Azoun, Giogi is asked to demonstrate. The king is not amused.
  "I don't sound like that," Azoun said, scowling.
  "With respect, Your Highness," Vandergahast intervened, "you do."
• Early-Installment Weirdness: This is one of the earliest Forgotten Realms novels. It portrays King Azoun of Cormyr as weak willed and easily led.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Utterly averted. Despite being a large assortment of bad guys working together to create Alias, they are constantly plotting against one another.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Moander's first desire is to visit the ruins of Myth Drannor to dance on the elves' graves. He also wants to tell Alias the Awful Truth about her origins because he knows it will hurt her.
• Fake Memories: All of Alias's memories are fake.
• Fantastic Racism: Olive despises Hillsfar because of how they treat halflings there.
• Faux Affably Evil: Casanna is a beautiful sorceress who looks identical to Alias that inspired an opera about her and quite flirtatious with Corymyr nobleman, Grigori, before she realizes he's trying to arrest her.
• I Love the Dead: Casanna kept her lover, Prakis' bones by her bed. It takes on new meaning when it's discovered that he's a lich now. This doesn't stop her from having a healthy sexual appetite for the living, though.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: From the villains perspective, Alias is everything they could want her to be but she's also a free-willed and decent person.
• Grand Theft Me:
  • Moander puts a crown of ivy on top of Akabar that allows him to usurp his body to use as a Mouth of Sauron. He turns out to be quite a bit more personable than you'd think of god of death and decay would be.
  • This is Casanna's motive. She wants Alias's young and healthy body.
• Humanoid Abomination: Phalse looks like a halfling. His true form isn't even humanoid.
• Identical Stranger: Alias encounters the wizard Casanna who looks almost identical to her. That is because Alias is her clone/daughter.
• I Lied: Mist is a Red Dragon (i.e. Always Chaotic Evil) and obeyed the dictates of honorable combat with Alias only so much as it amuses her. She treats her deal with Dragonbait, a paladin and fellow reptile, with more respect.
• It Can Think: Moander seems like a mindless Muck Monster when he first appears, but when he speaks to Alias through a possessed Akabar, it becomes clear that he is both intelligent and evil. He tells Alias about his evil plans and tries to break her spirit by revealing the awful truth of her origins.
• Logical Weakness: Mist demonstrates that, for all of Moander's A God Am I pretensions (which he absolutely earns), his avatar is an enormous shambling mound of garbage and methane while she's an adult, fire-breathing, Red Dragon.
• Manchurian Agent: The Azure Bonds compel Alias to try to kill King Azoun and anyone who tries to remove them. This is revealed when Alias is forced to try to kill someone simply doing an impersonation of King Azoun.
• Manipulative Bastard: Phalse is playing his fellow conspirators like a fiddle, as well as Olive Ruskettle.
• Murder, Inc.: The assassin group, the Fire Knives are part of the villain group.
• Mysterious Past: Olive lies about her past. Possibly just for own amusement.
• Named Weapons: Dragonbait's fancy broadsword is called Hill Cleaver.
• No Infantile Amnesia: Alias can remember her birth. This, like all of her other memories, is fake.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Lhaeo serves as this to dissuade anyone who wants to meet with Elminster from actually meeting with him. Akabar comically doesn't take the hint well after its clear he's being given the runaround.
• Our Liches Are Different: Zrie Prakis is a typical D&D lich in most respects, being an intelligent undead spellcaster whose continued existence is tied to a Soul Jar. Unlike the typical D&D lich, he did not seek to become one and was made undead post-mortem, against his will. His Soul Jar is also Cassana's wand instead of a typical phylactery, giving Cassana absolute power over whether he "lives" or dies for real.
• Physical God: Two examples with the Abomination of Moander and his possessed hosts.
• Prophecy Twist: Moander was sealed under Yulash, and only a non-born child could free him. Alias can remember being born, so isn't concerned about this.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: Detect Magic usually forms a dim glow around magic items. If cast on Alias's tattoo, the effect is blinding.
• Riddle for the Ages: Subverted with Phalse. Olive asks Zrie Prakis what exactly he is, but Prakis isn't sure. Not even Cassana knows, which Prakis says is a bad sign. The book never fully explains what Phalse is, aside from a reference Moander makes to "a daemon of great power." The subversion comes in the Villains Lorebook sourcebook, which suggests that Phalse was a hordling, a type of fiend native to the plane of Tarterus.
• Slave to PR: Mist, of all people, is compelled to back down by the possibility of Olive Rustkettle defaming her good name.
• Soul Jar: Cassana's magic wand doubles as the phylactery of her undead lover, Zrie Prakis the lich. Its proximity is what keeps him "alive" and sustains his magical might, and his power weakens the further the wand gets from him. He dies immediately after someone throws the wand into an interplanar portal.
• The Starscream: Zrie Prakis plans to murder Cassana and take over her holdings. He's powerless against her because his phylactery is her magic wand, which she's enchanted so she can No-Sell anything he tries. He tries to enlist Olive to help him by stealing Cassana's wand, but Olive knows full well that Cassana would kill her long before she could get it.

The Wyvern's Spur

• Abusive Spouse: Flattery is both emotionally as well as physically abusive to Cat.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Aunt Dorath raised Giogi and pretty much treats him like a child despite being his being twenty-four.
• Animorphism: The secret of the Wyvern's Spur is that it allows you to become a Wyvern.
• Ascended Extra: Giogi Wyvernspur was Plucky Comic Relief in the previous book. This time, he's the primary protagonist.
• Bears Are Bad News: Inverted with Mother Lleddew who is a werebear.
• Big Bad: Flattery Wyvernspur is the ultimate evil of the book. He's also a clone of Finder Wyvernspur.
• Dracolich: An intelligent ghostly wyvern stands guard over the Wyvernspur family crypt.
• Evil Overlord: Flattery once destroyed an elven city and raised its population as the undead to rule over it.
• Forced Transformation: Olive Ruskettle is turned into a burro by a curse placed on Giogi's purse.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: A rather peculiar example of such. Flattery Wyvernspur is a Clone and according to 2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons rules, that means if the original is still alive then the clone will try and kill them. Olive more or less states this verbatim at the end of the book.
• Generation Xerox: The Wyvernspur men all look nearly identical. Flattery is no exception. He's a clone of a distant uncle.
• Humiliation Conga: Poor Olive goes through this after being a Karma Houdini for much of the previous volume. She loses her best friend, is transformed into a burro, and spends much of the book forced to help Giogi without him being aware she's intelligent.
• Identical Stranger: A common problem given that there are a number of clones of Alias running around. Also, the fact that every member of the Wyvernspur male lineage (except Giogi) looks almost identical, even ones separated by generations, like Finder.
• Impersonating an Officer: Olive had been given a Harper's pin by Finder. While it would help her claims to be a bard, she knows that abusing it would get her into serious trouble. She dons it, to do something that the Harpers would approve of. Eventually leads to a Fake–Real Turn.
• Karmic Transformation: By design for the curse on Giogi's purse: "Whoever steals Giogi Wyvernspur's purse will make an ass of themselves." It turns them into a donkey.
• Killed Offscreen: Giogi's Uncle Drone is Reduced to Dust by one of Flattery's minions while Giogi was down in the crypt looking for the person who stole the spur. Except not really. Drone disintegrated the assassin before it could kill him and is Faking the Dead to throw Flattery off his trail.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: Wyverns are normally brown or gray, but the one Giogi turns into is red. Fittingly, it's also much larger than a normal wyvern and Resistant to Magic.
• Necromancer: Flattery prefers using mindless undead servants to the living and has an army of ghouls, lacedons, zombies, as well as the occasional nastier creature.
• Macguffin: The quest for the Wyvern's spur that gives the family its name is the driving focus of the book.
• Monster Misogyny: Flattery treats Cat as a tool and frequently denigrates her because of her sex.
• No Love for the Wicked: Cat comments on the fact Flattery has no interest in the opposite sex (or same sex for that matter) but prefers the company of the undead. Given he made it a point of marrying her but never consummating the marriage, she holds it against him.
• Not Blood Siblings: While Alias looks at Finder Wyvernspur as a father, her sisters don't view the Wyvernspurs as family. Which is important since Giogi and Cat hook up. She is his cousin, but about 12 generations removed and quite possibly not genetically related.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Not just anyone can use the wyvern's spur to transform into a wyvern. Only someone that the guardian has marked as her favorite can do so, and she only grants that favor to one member of the family each generation.
• Quest for Identity: Cat wants to regain her 'lost memories'. She doesn't have any.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Jade Moore is one of Alias's sisters and Olive's best friend. She is disintegrated in the first few pages.
• Scaled Up: The wyvern's spur allows anyone marked as the guardian's favorite to transform into an unusually large, magic-resistant wyvern. Meanwhile, Flattery can turn himself into a blue dragon with his magic.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Cat falls for Giogi because he's a genuinely kind, respectful man who treats her like an actual human being, something no other man in her life has done.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Apart from Giogioni, the Wyvernspur family men all look eerily similar, even generations apart. Giogi's uncle and cousins (none of whom are directly related) all look like slightly different versions of the same man to Olive, and even the guardian of the family crypt, which has watched over the family since its founding, cannot identify which Wyvernspur broke in to steal the family relic because all Wyvernspurs but Giogi look alike to her.
• Upper-Class Twit: The Wyvernspur family has a lot in common with the Woosters. Which is impressive given that they live in the Realms where the nobility generally needs to be fluent with sword or spell.
• White Sheep: Giogi Wyvernspur turns out to be the noblest and most heroic of the family. Which is impressive given what an Upper-Class Twit he was in the previous book. He still is, but he's a Badass Bystander compared to the rest of his family.
• Would Hurt a Child: At the climax, Flattery kidnaps Gaylin's newborn daughter and threatens to kill her unless Giogi hands over the spur.
• You Killed My Father: Flattery turns out to have killed Giogi's father.

Song of the Saurials

• Abusive Parents: Flattery's status as The Sociopath is partially due to Finder beating him for refusing to sing Finder's songs.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Finder Wyvernspur becomes a god due to killing Moander and seizing his power. Its later retconned that he had Tymora's help.
• Bittersweet Ending: Moander is dead, Alias is free of the last people who want to enslave her, the Saurials of the Lost Vale are liberated, and Finder has redeemed himself. However, Akabar has been killed and Dragonbait was forced to kill his lover.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Moander continues to make use of this as one of his tactics on both Kyre and Coral.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Alias does this to Finder after finding out what an awful parent he was to Flattery.
• Chainmail Bikini: Alias' famous outfit from the first book's cover becomes canon when, for some reason, she keeps wearing the suit of cleavage-showing chainmail from the late Casanna. It is now enchanted, though.
• Character Development:
  • Dragonbait talks about how he used to hold Chaotic Good types like Luck priests in contempt, even when he was dating one. He mentions that this almost ruined his life and helps him help Zhara.
  • Finder Wyvernspur starts to realize that his devotion to his music destroyed his relationships and left his legacy one of ruin and evil through Flattery. He eventually decides one of his songs is best done as a duet to symbolize his new attitude.
• Disproportionate Retribution: We finally get the details of Finder's imprisonment. It turns out he was imprisoned for two hundred years in the Positive Material Plane where he could not die as well as having his name erased as well as his music forbidden. All because he got one of his apprentices killed and cost another their voice (leading to them being Driven to Suicide). Even Elminster feels like it was excessive.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Akabar refuses to be used as a hostage and lets himself be killed instead.
• Hidden Elf Village: The Saurial village in the Lost Vale. They were kidnapped by Moander and brought to the Forgotten Realms in order to force them to worship him.
• Kill the God: Akabar believes they can go after Moander and permanently destroy him. Which they do.
• Killed Off for Real: Akabar Akash ends up dying at end of the trilogy.
• Mercy Kill: Dragonbait is forced to do this to his lover, Coral, to free her from Moander's power.
• Settle for Sibling: Akabar turns out to have done this as his newest wife is one of Alias' clones, Zhara. Alias is less than pleased.
• Tragic Mistake: The assumption Grypht is a creature of the Nine Hells due to the fact that he looks inhuman. He's actually a triceratops man. This is, of course, helped on by Kyre who is possessed by Moander.

Masquerades

• Big Bad: The Nightmaster of the Night Masks. AKA Victor Dhostar.
• The Dragon: Kimble is a dangerous assassin and spymaster who serves Victor Dhostar. His natural evil puts Dragonbait off immediately.
• Evil Plan: Victor Dhostar plans to murder his father, frame him for being the Nightmaster, and then eliminate enough of the merchant nobility to get himself installed as the new king.
• Fake Memories: Alias is drawn to helping Westgate due to Finder making it her hometown. Also, installing memories of his ex-girlfriend, Jamal, as her mother.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Dragonbait uses his shen ability like Know Alignment to determine whether people are Good, Neutral, or Evil. Victor's ability to fool this is a major plot point.
• Give Geeks a Chance: It's implied that Mintassan, the Outer Planes obsessed sage, will end up with Alias.
• Karmic Death: Victor Dhostar ends up being eaten by the Manes guarding the treasure of Westgate's last king, Verovan.
• Just the First Citizen: The croamarkh of Westgate is the elected (by the nobility) leader of the city. The citizenry have a strong distaste for kings due to the behavior of their last one.
• Maybe Ever After: Mintassan and Alias end up journeying together to the Hidden Vale.
• Love-Interest Traitor: Victor Dhostar proves to be the Nightmaster of the Night Masks.
• Neutral Evil: In-universe, Victor is eventually revealed to be this.
• Near-Villain Victory: Victor becomes the new ruler of Westgate and could have gotten the treasure of King Verovan but he didn't finish Alias off. Even so, Alias ended up having to impersonate a halfling for several weeks.
• Self-Made Orphan: Victor is perfectly willing to kill his own father, Luer Dhostar, in order to take over Westgate.
• The Syndicate: The Night Masks are the most powerful organization in Westgate with over two thousand members.
• Victory Is Boring: Victor finds ruling Westgate has little appeal for him. He instead starts setting out to build an empire once he achieves it.
• Won the War, Lost the Peace: Victor Dhostar becomes internim croamarkh but finds that he has absolutely no talent for ruling despite his talent as a Thieves Guildmaster. He immediately starts more evil plots because he's good at that.

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