Meet the newest Dungeons & Dragons party in the first epic adventure of The Fallbacks. To become renowned adventurers, this party needs to survive their first job.   Tessalynde is an ambitious young rogue who dreams of leading Faerûn’s foremost adventuring party. While the crew she’s gathered isn’t the stuff of legend yet, she’s confident her guidance can get them there.   The team: Anson, a fighter too stubborn to stay down, even when the odds are stacked against him. Cazrin, a self-taught wizard determined to test her theoretical mettle against the real world. Baldric, a cleric who refuses to tie himself to a single deity when he can trade favors with them all. Lark, a bard with as many secrets as songs. And, of course, Uggie, a monstrous pet otyugh who loves giving hugs and eating trash.   Their first job: recovering a mysterious spellbook from a lost temple for a hefty payout. Tess hopes this assignment can turn her group of fledgling freelancers into a true team. But when their client is killed, their coin and his murderer both vanish, leaving the party to take the fall.   Stuck with a sentient, bloodthirsty grimoire and pursued by mercenaries and the undead, this is hardly the mission Tess envisioned. Her crew must save the day, get the gold, and clear the party’s name—which they haven’t even agreed upon yet! With the threats against them mounting, a single mistake will see this party over before it even begins.   Can this band of mismatched misfits stay together in the face of danger? Or are they bound for ruin? Jaleigh Johnson lives and writes in the wilds of the Midwest. Her debut middle grade novel, The Mark of the Dragonfly, was a New York Times bestseller. Her other books include The Secrets of Solace, The Quest to the Uncharted Lands, and The Door to the Lost . She has also written fiction for Dungeons and Dragons: Forgotten Realms and Marvel. Johnson is an avid gamer and lifelong geek. Chapter 1  “It’s probably harmless,” Lark said. The party surveyed the stretch of multicolored stone floor that lay between them and the pair of treasure chests situated on the opposite end of the ruined worship hall. There was no furniture remaining in the room. Shreds of rotting carpet still clung stubbornly to the floor in places, and the air smelled of mildew and smoke from the torches burning on the walls. “That’s what we thought about the last chamber,” Tess said. She moved past Lark as he leaned against the doorframe, adjusting his busking hat and quill. His apple-­red skin was covered in a thin layer of dirt and a film of salt water from the cave they’d been exploring in their search for the entrance to the lost temple of Oghma, the god of knowledge. Standing to Tess’s right, Cazrin pushed her long dark hair out of her face and held up her staff. The purple stone at its tip hovered above two silver points and glowed with soft light to illuminate the corridor and the worship hall beyond. At the back of the party, Baldric and Anson watched for threats approaching from behind. Tess crouched on the floor in the doorway, examining the flagstones carefully. She’d tied her shoulder-­length blond hair back behind her pointed ears so it wouldn’t get in her way, and she carefully ran her fingers over the seams between the stones, searching for concealed wires or pressure plates. “Two silver says the chest on the left is a mimic,” Baldric said. “You a betting man, Anson?” Tess glanced back and saw the burly dwarf flash two silver coins at Anson, waggling his eyebrows as he ran his other hand through his thick black beard. Anson studied the two chests like a man contemplating the mysteries of life. The young fighter was human like Cazrin, with short, straight dark hair and warm beige skin, but closer in build to Tess, with wide, muscled shoulders and hips. He rummaged in one of his pouches and came up with two silver coins of his own. “I’ll take that bet,” he said. “They can’t all be mimics, can they?” Cazrin asked as they shook on the wager. “I know the last three were, but statistically speaking, surely . . .” “All that really matters right now is that someone is keeping watch while I concentrate on disabling the deadly spike trap I’ve just found right here,” Tess said, shifting position on the floor so they could all see the outline of the pressure plate. “There is a trap?” Lark’s tail lashed back and forth in Tess’s peripheral vision, distracting her from her work. “I’ll be damned! I had a good feeling about this floor.” “Don’t worry, Tess,” Anson said easily. “Uggie’s on guard duty. She’s keeping a great watch back here. Aren’t you, girl?” He gestured to the squat figure at the back of the group. Their otyugh companion was about the size and bulk of a full-­grown mastiff. Based on her size and behavior, Tess guessed she was a juvenile. She had three stumpy legs and yellow jaundice spots dotting her leathery green skin. Two short, spiky tentacles flanked a single eyestalk with three