Burnside, sideburns, get it? Real U.S. Civil War general. Led his troops to disaster at Antietam, Fredricksburg, and “The Crater.” His home state of Rhode Island rewarded his military incompetence by electing him as Governor and as a U.S. Senator. Americans sometimes do strange things like that.

Our intrepid band of magicians didn’t come out so well in their first encounter with the wyrm. Jacintha went brain-dead, Calpurnia got a hot foot, and Geoff is contending for the Ambrose Burnside Award for least competent leader. So it’s time for them to take stock and make plans for the future. Oh, and there’s an ominous development. Just in case you were wondering. It’s all in “Conversations,” chapter six of As the Wyrm Tyrns, my serialized story of magic and a dangerous undomesticated animal.