Albion´s most powerful occult professional, the black mage Montmorency, wants a "Designated Opposite" that is a fellow professional against whom he can test his skills in friendly (and not so friendly) competition. He has applied several times to the free Dragons (the most intelligent beings in any of the known universes) requesting that under the terms of the Unified Code, they locate the appropriate master of the occult arts and sciences. All the Free Dragons have done so far is assure him that his request is receiving their attention, but now Montmorency has found a way to get their urgent attention. He has hatched a fiendish plot to impose economic efficiency, modern management systems and spreadsheets on the land of Albion. With the support of two evil and powerful noblemen he threatens to flood Albion with MBAs from the parallel world known as Earth Three-- a primitive, world where occult evolution has stalled. To ensure success, Montmorency has stolen the Ward of Summoning, an immensely potent occult artifact. There is now no way to stop him by conventional occult means. The Free Dragons know Montmorency must be stopped, and because they never (well, hardly ever) interfere directly in human affairs they have called upon Albion´s most notorious band of adventurers, Mission Implausible, to do the job.

The band would normally be assigned a mage-- an expert in the theory and practice of magic-- to deal with Montmorency. But because he has the Ward, the Free Dragons have decided to use more primitive means. They have arranged to transfer a mathematician from Earth Three to invoke the Summoner of Basingstoke, and stop Montmorency´s scheme in its tracks. Unfortunately even the Free Dragons are not totally infallible. Thus it comes to pass that the totally non-mathematical Andrew Cruickshank, having gone to on sleep in a Cumbrian hotel on Earth Three on the eve of a climbing holiday, wakes up to find himself in a completely alien world, in possession of a lethally temperamental magician´s staff, and in the company of five people who expect him to do magic on demand. His talents in that area have hitherto been limited to a few transparent card tricks, so the prospects appear unpromising. And his attempts to use Tarot 5.1, Albion´s industry-standard spell system, are catastrophically unpredictable.

However it soon turns out he has other valuable talents. With the help of these, and Mission Implausible's robust, uncompromising approach to conflict resolution, the band of adventurers sweeps across Albion leaving confusion, destruction and broken glasses in their wake until they reach Basingstoke. There, deep in the bowels of the Basingstoke Old People´s Community Centre and Bingo Hall, Andrew Cruickshank finds he must fight for his life against a lethal duellist before he can invoke the Summoner of Basingstoke. MORE ABOUT ALBION Albion is a small island nation in the north temperate zone. While it seems insignificant enough, not only is it home to a pugnacious, independent-minded people, it is also home to the Free Dragons. The Free Dragons are the wisest beings in any of the possible universes; they mastered the art and science of magic at about the time everybody else was sitting around waiting for the pleistocene era to get started. They live beneath the Mountains of Dark Crystal on Albion´s west coast, a location rigorously enough isolated to deter even the most determined political canvasser; the Free Dragons like their privacy. Though they never (well, hardly ever) involve themselves in human affairs, they maintain informal contact with a number of Albion´s more senior occult professionals.

The only reason the Free Dragons have not been adopted as gods is that they have never shown any interest whatsoever in turning people into stone, demanding human sacrifices, laying waste to whole cities, or c.