In “Triangles,” the Realms Master added a new member of their crew in Jasmine…and I complained that she and Ishi were reduced to one-note romantic interests for Agrivar. But that was only her first story, so where are we now?

Well, the next tale, “Undead Love,” presents a lich seeking a bride…and selecting Jasmine as his wife-to-be. So it seems that the creative team has a very particular direction for this character.

Dating for the Dead

Our story opens with a floating skull presenting its master a list of potential mates from across the Forgotten Realms.

Vajra is a shout-out to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons comic books, and we met Alias in “The Hand of Vaprak” (and the Azure Bonds novel/video game). I already dislike our villain because I will brook no insult to those two beauties.

It would have been interesting if the villain had selected Midnight, as she’s about to become the protagonist of the Avatar Trilogy and is fated to become the next goddess of magic. It would have made for some interesting alternate history had she been unable to serve as Mystra’s avatar because she was the “lucky” winner of a dating game run by a lich.

But that is not to be, and our latest villain decides that Jasmine is going to be his bride, whether she likes it or not.

The spouse-seeking lich stops by to tell his other wives of his decision…

I may be a bit sarcastic on this one because I’m salty that Jasmine is only defined by her status as a love interest, but I do like the setup so far. A lovelorn lich who freezes his wives is the sort of eccentric weirdness that makes D&D so special.

An Easy Mission for a Change

Luckily for the lich, Jasmine is pretty close by (maybe that’s why his skeletal matchmaker picked two options from the Realms Master crew). Our heroes have just completed a surprisingly easy artifact retrieval mission, with the only problem being Jasmine’s dislike of the cold.

Of course, our winged heroine stops her griping once Agrivar is within earshot…

The group doesn’t get off totally free, as some locals lead tamed polar bears into an attack against those who would take their magical shield. A fight ensues, but the bears quickly learn that it’s really hard to bite into an iron golem.

Ishi and Jasmine, meanwhile, team up to defeat their own pair of bears…

The attackers flee, but the flying skull watches from afar, plotting Jasmine’s capture for his master…

Meanwhiles and Afterwards

Meanwhile, aboard the Realms Master, Captain Omen is examining Vartan. After all, the cleric has been possessed a few times over the last few adventures…

The examination is cut short when Foxy sees, in his words, “Cliff-diving bears.”

Elsewhere, the matchmaking skull recruits the tribe that attacked our heroes by claiming to be a herald of Malar the Beastlord. And when the tribe notes that they worship Render, the god of bears, the skull pivots quickly.

Nobody else asks for proof.

A Game of Hearts

With the group back together on the ship, Ishi and Jasmine have a quiet moment to bicker.

What was an idle threat for Ishi turns into an opportunity upon which Jasmine pounces. She chooses her weapon: hearts.

I would love this idea if Jasmine was ever used as anything more than a piece of a forced love triangle. The character has a lot of potential, but we only ever see her as an antagonist to Ishi. It’s more frustrating because Agrivar has shown no romantic attraction toward Jasmine, making this a case two women creating drama out of thin air.

Agrivar won’t have to wait long to find his companions in peril, of course, because adventurers live dangerous lives.

The attackers at ship level are only a diversion. As soon as Jasmine tries to escape them by taking flight, the skull (now using the dead chieftain’s body as long johns) captures her in a net.

The group puts up a good fight, but the skull has air superiority, spell resistance, and magic of its own that keeps them from doing damage to it. Ishi puts up the most impressive display, leaping around the ship’s rigging to fight, but ultimately comes up short when the skull teleports away with Jasmine in tow.

Ishi is frantic to get Jasmine back, and Vartan ever-so-tactfully implies that she’s crazy to fight so desperately for someone she doesn’t even like.

As the blurb at the end states, this story doesn’t get resolved in the pages of this comic. Instead, DC did a massive TSR Worlds Annual that tied into this title, the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons line, and the Spelljammer setting. We’ll dive into that next time!

_{Images: DC Comics}