Sign-In
Cart
Defenders of the Realm
Paperback
Publisher Price: $18.99
Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
Published: Sep 1 2026
Pages: 296
Weight: 0.88
Height: 0.62 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
The game was just for fun. Until the monsters became real.
In 1986, four twelve-year-old boys huddled around a Formica kitchen table in suburban Silicon Valley, rolling dice and battling imaginary monsters as the Defenders of the Realm. Dennis, Artie, Peter, and Josh were inseparable, bound together by their shared love of the roleplaying game Golden Sword, microwave snacks, and the unshakable conviction that they could conquer any evil. Then they grew up. The dice were put away. The friends drifted apart.
Thirty-three years later, the four men are strangers to one another, each stumbling through a life defined by disappointment, regret, and quiet failure. But when a live-action roleplaying group performs a ceremony in the hills above Silicon Valley, something ancient and monstrous claws its way into the real world. Peter, now working in a morgue, notices a disturbing pattern among the bodies arriving on his table. The wounds, the markings, the sheer wrongness of them. He has seen this before, not in any forensic textbook, but in the pages of Golden Sword. The most feared villain in the game, a soul-devouring nightmare called the Archlich, is no longer fictional.
Now Peter must track down the friends he lost and convince them of the impossible: that the darkness they once fought with pewter figurines and polyhedral dice is here, it is hungry, and only the Defenders of the Realm can stop it. The question is whether four broken men can become heroes again before Silicon Valley becomes a graveyard.
Also from
Paine, Stephen E.
Also in
Humor
I Can't Believe I Did That: The Game That Gives You Points for Sharing Awkward, Awesome, and Unforgettable Memories: Card Games
Nadelberg, David
Katcher, Neil
Other
The Science Magpie: Fascinating Facts, Stories, Poems, Diagrams and Jokes Plucked from Science
Flynn, Simon
Paperback
How to Be a Cat: (Cat Books for Kids, Cat Gifts for Kids, Cat Picture Book)
Lazar, Ralph
Swerling, Lisa
Hardcover
The Chapo Guide to Revolution: A Manifesto Against Logic, Facts, and Reason
Chapo Trap House
Hardcover
Peculiar Questions and Practical Answers: A Little Book of Whimsy and Wisdom from the Files of the New York Public Library
New York Public Library
Hardcover
Wtf America?!: The Way Out of This Hell and Back to Democracy
Meiselas, Ben
Meiselas, Brett
Meiselas, Jordy
Hardcover
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
Not Today, Fascists: The Lies That Got Us Here, and the Truths That Will Reunite Us
Welch, Jennifer
Hardcover
Pardon My Book: Ten Years of the Best (and Worst) in Sports from Pardon My Take
Big Cat
Commenter, Pft
Hardcover
Big Fan: Two Friends, 82,490 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love
Schur, Michael
Posnanski, Joe
Hardcover
How to Grow Up Without Becoming a Grown-Up: Big Lessons from Little Kids
Shapiro-Barnum, Julian
Hardcover
We've Been Here the Whole Time!: A Not So Sacred Guide to All Things Native America
Clift, Joey
Paperback
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Five Novels in One Outrageous Volume
Adams, Douglas
Paperback
Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History of Black Comedy from Vaudeville to '90s Sitcoms
Bennett, Geoff
Hardcover
The New Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Expert Advice for Extreme Situations
Borgenicht, David
Piven, Joshua
Hardcover
We Are the World (Cup): A Personal History of the World's Greatest Sporting Event
Bennett, Roger
Hardcover
There Are Moms Way Worse Than You: Irrefutable Proof That You Are Indeed a Fantastic Parent
Boozan, Glenn
Hardcover
Bake It Off: An Unofficial Taylor Swift-Inspired Cookbook for Every Era, from Breakfast to Midnights
Smith, Lindsey
Hardcover
Nobody Wants Your Sh*t: The Art of Decluttering Before You Die (New York Times Bestseller)
Condo, Messie
Hardcover
How to Talk to Your Cat about Gun Safety: And Abstinence, Drugs, Satanism, and Other Dangers That Threaten Their Nine Lives
Auburn, Zachary
Paperback