This is Masks of Mayhem (1986), book 23 in the Fighting Fantasy series. This one sees you, the lord of a small kingdom, venturing forth to the fortress of the sorceress Morgana to… stop her from destroying the world…with her dozen golems. If that sounds familiar, it is because that is the basic plot of the last two books I posted about, except with a lady instead of dudes. Weird.

Anyway, I had this one as a kid and found it rather meandering and underwhelming to the point that I didn’t feel like re-reading it for this post. Forgive me. I read a few online reviews and they all seem to reinforce that.

While the story is a bit of the same, the art is fantastic. This marks Russ Nicholson’s return after a several year gap and he delivers some lovely pieces. Big fan of his hill giant and that wight, but holy crap, his illustration of Morgana is one of my all-time favorite Russ Nicholson pieces. The man has a special talent for designing the wardrobes of maniacal magic users.