From publisher blurb:
"The Porter" is the brand new novelette set in the Free City of Vadashar by contemporary author and master of fantasy, Matthew Hughes. One of the leading lights in modern fantasy and science fiction (and the authorized literary successor to works of late Jack Vance, including "The Dying Earth" cycle), Matt Hughes shines a torch on Vadashar's darker and seedier corners, delivering an exciting 10,000 word novelette that's set within its urban precincts and brings them to life.
"The Porter" is a deep literary dive into Vadashar, the Jewel of the fictional Megacontinent of Zul: a city of thieves, assassins, merchants, priests, princes, spies, mercenaries, and those merely trying to survive its often mean streets. We’re thrilled and honored to share Matt Hughes’ first Vadashar tale with you, and looking forward to the next adventure of Banda and Miziriam in the Free City of Vadashar.
Along with Matt Hughes’ novelette, “The Porter,” we have included descriptions for nine of the characters introduced in his story, with playing statistics suitable for Monte Cook Games' Cypher System to play them in your own Vadashar and World of Zul-based campaigns.
Matthew Hughes is the author of dozens of novels and works of fiction: his work has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov's Science Fiction, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Lightspeed, Postscripts, Interzone, and anthologies edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. Hughes’s “Archonate” stories and novels have been compared to the works of speculative fiction giant Jack Vance: Booklist called him Vance’s “heir apparent.” In 2020 he was honored with the CSFFA Hall of Fame Trophy. Hughes’s work has also been shortlisted for the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, the Locus Award, and the Aurora Award (English-language), among others.
Included in the Character Foiio:
Descriptions of 9 important NPCs in the Porter novelette
New Cyphers and Artifacts
History of the Free City of Vadashar