Life as Clerk-in-Charge of Avocado Preservation in the Mountain City of Axototl was a real cushy number. Hurling a few bones about the place, peering into the future, foreseeing all the forthcoming problems screaming your way and making plans to dodge destiny's hurled brickbats. Piece of cake. Or at least it would have been if Quintzi Cohatl actually possessed anything even remotely resembling foresight. After forty years in the job his lies were getting a bit thin. So when a travelling salesman offered him a bargain crystal (with Scry Movie Channel option) how could he refuse? Certainly Merlot and the proto-mage Hogshead would have preferred it if he had. Then they wouldn't have a clump of murdered wizards dumped in the River Slove on their hands. And as for the folks of Axolotl - they wouldn't have had to discover the amazing explosive potential of a few hundred prize melons.

When Willow Brown was seven, she had her first vision. Her death played out like a movie. Her second vision came along shortly after that when she predicted her father's cancer diagnosis.Her mother always wanted her to hide her gift away. That's what she called it, a gift. To Willow, it was never a gift.When her great aunt leaves Willow a house and a cat, she's forced back to her hometown to sort out the affairs. But it turns out Aunt Cora is a little less dead than anyone thought. The old psychic inhabits the body and mind of the cat-and she's hellbent on teaching Willow how to properly use her psychic abilities.But that's not the only trouble she encounters in Mossy Pointe, Florida.Willow isn't in town ten minutes before she's thrust in the middle of a murder investigation-an investigation that puts her on a collision course with the vision she's been running away from all her life.

Long before the time of man, in a realm ruled by magic, a destiny was born.Dane Watts-Callan knows all about secrets. She is a witch living in a modern world, a family legacy that must remain hidden from mortals. On the eve of her thirty-first birthday something changes, leading her to discover a fateful destiny'an ancient birthright born from a magical universe. Guided by a vague prophecy, Dane begins a journey for answers, travelling through dimensions to the magical realm of her ancestors, where both knowledge and sacrifice await. In a world, forever scarred by evil, she encounters someone immersed in its haunting past. An ancient immortal warrior whose destiny is intertwined with her own, igniting an attraction that neither can control nor escape.As the prophecy begins to unravel, Dane must use all the power and knowledge from both worlds to find those whose blood and destinies are linked to the ancient realms, before the evil of the past is unleashed and the ancient magic, forever consumed.A dark destiny is rising.

Make More Immersive and Engaging Magic Systems in GamesGame Magic: A Designer's Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice explains how to construct magic systems and presents a compendium of arcane lore, encompassing the theory, history, and structure of magic systems in games and human belief. The author combines rigorous scholarly analysis wi

A level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Retold for Learners of English by Sarah Walker. In Sweden, nobody wants a troll to come into their garden, but how do you stop them? On a lonely road at night in Oman, Abdul's car breaks down and he takes a ride with a stranger, but perhaps it is safer to walk. In England some young people play a scary game, and in Asia, a soldier returns home - at last. Every country in the world has stories about ghosts and spirits and monsters of one kind or another. Some people believe in ghosts, and some don't - but everyone enjoys a good ghost story.

Scrying the Secrets of the Future offers practical, hands-on guidance to using a wide variety of methods from many cultures and ages-from Ancient Egypt, the Aztecs and Mayans, and Classical Greece and Rome to Medieval European magicians, village wise women and 21st century coffee-shop divination. Discussion of each method includes its history and cultural background, traditional practices, and how to adapt these techniques to the needs of the modern world and everyday decision-making.

THE NEW GIRL IN TOWN On the far side of a mysterious wormhole somewhere in Japan is a fantasy world, and in it, a country called the Holy Eldant Empire. Amutech is a company established to bring otaku culture to the people there (or maybe foist it on them), and now it’s getting a new staff member: Hikaru, who comes in as assistant to the general manager, Kanou Shinichi. She’s also strikingly beautiful, a heckuva communicator, and almost immediately a big hit at both the palace and the school. Eldant will only get even more otaku on her watch, but the beloved cultural export starts to show a dark side, too. At the same time, something is happening in the Eldant Empire, and Shinichi may be in danger (again). What can he do? Anything?!

Since 1980, in-the-know computer gamers have been enthralled by the unpredictable, random, and incredibly deep gameplay of Rogue and those games inspired by it, known to fans as "roguelikes." For decades, this venerable genre was off the radar of most players and developers for a variety of reasons: deceptively simple graphics (often just text characters), high difficulty, and their demand that a player brings more of themselves to the game than your typical AAA title asks. This book covers many of the most prominent titles and explains in great detail what makes them interesting, the ways to get started playing them, the history of the genre, and more. It includes interviews, playthroughs, and hundreds of screenshots. It is a labor of love: if even a fraction of the author’s enthusiasm for these games gets through these pages to you, then you will enjoy it a great deal. Key Features: Playing tips and strategy for newcomers to the genre Core roguelikes Rogue, Angband, NetHack, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, ADOM, and Brogue The "lost roguelikes" Super Rogue and XRogue, and the early RPG dnd for PLATO systems The Japanese console roguelikes Taloon’s Mystery Dungeon and Shiren the Wanderer Lesser-known but extremely interesting games like Larn, DoomRL, HyperRogue, Incursion, and Dungeon Hack "Rogue-ish" games that blur the edges of the genre, including Spelunky, HyperRogue, ToeJam & Earl, Defense of the Oasis, Out There, and Zelda Randomizer Interviews with such developers as Keith Burgun (100 Rogues and Auro), Rodain Joubert (Desktop Dungeons), Josh Ge (Cogmind), Dr. Thomas Biskup (ADOM), and Robin Bandy (devnull public NetHack tournament) An interview regarding Strange Adventures in Infinite Space Design issues of interest to developers and enthusiasts Author Bio: John Harris has bumped around the Internet for more than 20 years. In addition to writing the columns @Play and Pixel Journeys for GameSetWatch and developer interviews for Gamasutra, he has spoken at Roguelike Celebration. John Harris has a MA in English Literature from Georgia Southern University.

In the reality shows of the future, people will literally be dying to watch. Science fiction's most expert dreamers envision the computerized, high-risk games of the future in this winning collection. Features: Robert Sheckley Cory Doctorow Kate Wilhelm Alastair Reynolds Vernor Vinge Jonathan Letham Gwyneth Jones William Browning Spencer Allen Steele Terry Dowling Jason Stoddard At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

ESP. Divination. Psychometry. Telekinesis. Astral vision. You've heard of all these talents. The amazing truth is that you can have all of these abilities when you practice the simple, but powerfully effective, exercises in Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips' Practical Guide to Psychic Powers. World-famous experts Denning and Phillips explain exactly what you need to develop your own innate abilities, including advice on diet, rest, and exercise. They advise you to meditate daily, and give instructions how you can bring this wonderful skill into your life. They also reveal how you can make your own tools for psychic development, such as a pendulum, ESP cards, and a Vision Mirror. Practical Guide to Psychic Powers explains that your attitude is important in establishing these abilities in your life. You'll discover how to eliminate boredom and stress, practice mental concentration for long periods, and have foreknowledge of the future. Many of the exercises to help you to develop psychic abilities are in the form of games, making them fun, preventing boredom, and creating faster success. For example, you'll learn a game of guessing dice, one with ESP cards, and another that uses the vision mirror to predict your future. The book teaches you how to become aware of the impressions a material object has gathered, the art of psychometry. You'll learn about contacting spiritual entities the way Spiritualists do. You'll also discover the secrets of dowsing and how to develop and use this ability. Denning and Phillips are known for their clarity of thought and for having effective techniques, as demonstrated in Practical Guide to Psychic Powers.