The Illustrated Dragonlance Reread

[Rodin]

What the heck IS a Fewmaster, anyway? I mean, I know it's sort a local commander/taskmaster in the Dragonlance setting, but a casual Googling turns up no other definition outside of "fictional title in Dragonlance". So where did the authors get the title from? Because it's a distinctly weird one.

Also, apparently Fewmaster Toede has his own Facebook page. Dude's more on the ball than I thought.

The conversation the companions are having makes me laugh when I think about it in a tabletop setting. The players get into an in-character argument about where to go next, and then...

GM: Roll to see if the Draconians notice your argument.

Flint: 17
Goldmoon: 14
Sturm: 15
Tanis: I GOT A FOUR!!!!!

This isn't even the first time Tanis has managed to be the least stealthy in the party either. No wonder the elves refer to him as half-human, cause Legolas he ain't.

[JadedDM]

According to the War of the Lance supplement:

Within the Dragonarmy hierarchy, the role of Fewmaster is a special role, outside of the normal chain of command. Whilst the Highlords are the grand generals of the armies, the Highmasters are their lieutenants, the various Dragonarmy officers and the rank and file fall beneath this structure, and the Fewmasters are off to the side.

The Fewmasters operate on a provincial level only, and are normally in charge of a single company of soldiers. The Fewmasters answer directly to their own Dragon Highlord, and generally are assigned to do the dirty work for their master. Outside of their assigned roles, the Fewmasters had little influence or authority within the Dragonarmies, other than having easy access to the ear of their Highlord. The Fewmasters were only assigned to locations where there was some strategic value during the war.

[warty goblin]

According to the War of the Lance supplement:

Now I'm trying to imagine the talent pool where somebody looked at Toede and went "yep, that's the best pick."

[Rodin]

Now I'm trying to imagine the talent pool where somebody looked at Toede and went "yep, that's the best pick."

Toede rather reminds me of "Mayonnaise" Quirke from the Discworld book Men at Arms. An idiot who wound up in a position nobody more capable wanted through a bit of corruption and kissing the asses of more important people. Solace is a big enough place that they didn't want to leave it unoccupied, but not really militarily valuable in its own right. So, you stick a company of low-ranking draconians in there and stick Toede in charge to do the extraordinarily simple task of stopping the population from rebelling. Well, and shipping them off to become slaves - again, managing this with a company of draconians at your back doesn't require a rocket scientist.

Presumably there are other Fewmasters in places like Haven who are considerably more qualified - assuming that they didn't put a higher ranked person in charge of plum positions like that.

[bguy]

I like Tika, too. I always thought she was more interesting than Goldmoon or Laurana, anyway.

I'm curious, what did you find interesting about Tika? For myself I thought she was brave and likeable but not especially interesting. (And certainly not when compared to Laurana.)

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Laurana and Tika's stories start off similarly with both of them being inexperienced young women who follow a man they like off to war, but thereafter Laurana is a much more dynamic character who faces much greater challenges, accomplishes much greater deeds, and grows much more as person than Tika (who has a great moment in this chapter but thereafter is a rather static character who doesn't really do much.)

[pendell]

For the life of me I don't recall anyone -- not one single other being in all of Dragonlance -- who has the title "Fewmaster". Not one.

How much do you want to bet it's some sort of joke the Dragonarmies are playing on him? Sort of like giving a junior officer the rank of Super Macho Greatest Field Marshall Of All Time -- and he's so stupid that he's the only one in the dragonarmy who takes it seriously.

LATER,

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He'll be promoted to Dragon Highlord, Takhisis knows why.

And of course he has his very own book , well worth a read, which shows that he's secretly the being around which the entire Dragonlance universe revolves.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Elvensilver]

I'm curious, what did you find interesting about Tika? For myself I thought she was brave and likeable but not especially interesting. (And certainly not when compared to Laurana.)

Indeed, I'd also like to know the answer. Tika is nice, but not fascinating. From all the (good-aligned) females in the main party, Goldmoon has the most intersting story before the beginning of the first book (thus I find it a shame that starting from Xak Tsarok, she becomes gradually less important), while Laurana has the best character arc in the original trilogy.
Regarding the chapter… I love how Raistling manages to protect the companions' stuff thought intimidation, deception and the moderate use of flash power. Also, does anybody know which spell he casts against the goblin? Magic Missile, perhaps?

[pendell]

Indeed, I'd also like to know the answer. Tika is nice, but not fascinating. From all the (good-aligned) females in the main party, Goldmoon has the most intersting story before the beginning of the first book (thus I find it a shame that starting from Xak Tsarok, she becomes gradually less important), while Laurana has the best character arc in the original trilogy.
Regarding the chapter… I love how Raistling manages to protect the companions' stuff thought intimidation, deception and the moderate use of flash power. Also, does anybody know which spell he casts against the goblin? Magic Missile, perhaps?

It has to be magic missile, I think. He's only got about three first-level spells. That leaves us with burning hands, shocking grasp, and magic missile for causing damage. MM is the only one that fits.

Two notes from the module:

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1) There is no way to avoid being captured and put on the slave train. If you don't help Tika the guards will take you in anyway on some pretext. If you leave town you run smack into overwhelming force led by Toede on whatever road you take. All aboard the plot train!

2) Caramon's listed INT is 12. I think Raistlin sells him short. While Caramon isn't in Raistlin's class (int 17) that's still above average intelligence. He's not a stupid meathead.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[warty goblin]

It has to be magic missile, I think. He's only got about three first-level spells. That leaves us with burning hands, shocking grasp, and magic missile for causing damage. MM is the only one that fits.

It is indeed. There's an annotation that confirms it

Two notes from the module:

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1) There is no way to avoid being captured and put on the slave train. If you don't help Tika the guards will take you in anyway on some pretext. If you leave town you run smack into overwhelming force led by Toede on whatever road you take. All aboard the plot train!

2) Caramon's listed INT is 12. I think Raistlin sells him short. While Caramon isn't in Raistlin's class (int 17) that's still above average intelligence. He's not a stupid meathead.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

If you let players do things that matter, they get all sorts of funny ideas. Next thing they'll expect to be treated with respect or something silly like that.

Onwards, where we find our gallant heroes are, once again, captured. Seems to happen a lot.

3: The slave caravan. A strange old man

The companions pass an unpleasant and cold night locked up in iron-barred slave carts. There's three carts total, arrayed around a fireblasted clearing, each cage is chained to a post driven deep into the ground. Caramon tries to bend the bars, but they're too strong. At dawn, the caravan, headed by Toede, who wants to impress Lord Verminaard in Pax Tharkas, prepares to move out.

In the chill morning mist, Tanis looks at Goldmoon and Riverwind, appreciating what they went through when they lost their home. He looks at Gilthanas, who said his head hurt and he wanted to sleep, but has not slept all night, instead chewing his lip and looking anxiously into the darkness. Tanis reminds himself that he still has a home in Qualinesti, but that wasn't really ever a home, just somewhere he stayed for a while.

The Fewmaster is quite pleased with himself. The companions make a fine catch; most of the men will be good mine workers, even if they have to kill the Solamnic - most of the knights are too proud to be enslaved. And then there's the two women, whom Verminaard will enjoy quite a bit. Toede himself has always fancied Tika, with her low cut blouse...

Toede's cleavage-induced creepfest is interrupted by the sound of shouting and steel on steel from out of the mists, growing closer. This gets everybody up and looking around, and Toede wishing he'd stationed a few more guards around. Then there's a terrible cry of pain and rage. Gilthanas sits up, recognizing the voice as that of Theros Ironfield, the blacksmith. He was helping elves escape Lord Verminaard, who has decided to exterminate them. Gilthanas asks if Tanis knew that in a rather accusatory way, Tanis points out that he had no way of knowing that, but Gilthanas thought maybe that was why he had grown the beard. Tanis jumps up in outrage, but Sturm tells him to be careful; since the goblin guards are now pointing their bows right at him. Tanis puts his hands up and backs off.

Gilthanas says that he had been informed that Theros had been betrayed, and had only stayed in town to get him out. They were supposed to have met in the Inn last night. He's interrupted by another bunch of goblins dragging the aforementioned smith into the companions' wagon and tossing him in. Toede declares that that's the last of the prisoners, time to get the wagons hitched up and moving.

Goblins start backing giant elk into the wagons' harnesses, but Tanis' attention is centered on the unconscious Theros, whose right arm has been hacked off just below the shoulder by something blunt. Toede launches into a speech about this being a lesson to anybody who helps elves, but nearly gets run over by one of the elk. He knocks over the diminutive creature leading the elk in retaliation.

That creature at first appears to be a goblin, but transpires to be, in fact, a gully dwarf wearing goblin armor. Getting up, the gully dwarf vents his spleen by kicking mud in the Fewmaster's general direction for a bit, then going back to attaching elk to wagons.

Back in the wagon, Gilthanas is mourning over the clearly dying Theros. Goldmoon says that he can be saved, Gilthanas says he really can't be, but Goldmoon tunes him out, and starts praying to Mishakal. Before Gilthanas can stop her, Theros' wound closes, his skin warms, and he slips into a peaceful sleep. This attracts quite a bit of attention from the prisoners in the other cages, but fortunately the guards are too busy dealing with elk to notice. The other companions do their best to make Theros comfortable.

By noon the caravan finally gets moving. Goblins toss some stale bread and inedible meat into the carts, and they're off. Toede riding a pony, the gully dwarf, Sestun trailing after him. Unlike the companions, Sestun does not turn up his nose at rancid meat, but picks it up out of the mud where the companions threw it, and eats it happily.

The cages are each pulled by four of the huge elk. In front of them is a company of 50 draconians; behind them a hundred hobgoblins. As the carts move out, the prisoners look out bleakly, but neither they nor the onlookers say anything.


From Solace the caravan heads south, passing through Gateway Pass, and the utterly annihilated ruins of the town Gateway around dusk. The draconians prefer moving at night, so they continue on after dark. In the carts, everyone is hungry, thirsty and miserable. Goldmoon continues to tend to Theros, who has slipped into a fever dream about the fall of Solace, raving about draconians who dissolve into acid or explode when killed. Tanis, listening to this, begins to realize how entirely screwed they are; how can they possibly fight dragons, and creatures whose very corpses are weapons?

Against that all they have are the Discs, which don't exactly do a lot. Tanis can't read hardly any of them, Goldmoon can only decipher the bits about healing, but holds out faith that when they find the promised leader of the people, he will understand them. Tanis is substantially less sanguine about anybody defeating Verminaard at this point. And if that wasn't enough, there's plenty of other things for Tanis to worry about.

Raistlin can't brew his herbal concoction, and so coughs himself into a condition almost as bad as Theros'. Tika is happy enough to help tend Raistlin however; her father was a street magician, and Tika is in awe of anybody who can do magic.

According to a bit of backstory stuck in here, Tika's father is indirectly responsible for Raistlin even being a wizard in the first place. The twins' father took them and Kitiara (his stepdaughter) to a fair, where Tika's father was performing. Kitiara and Caramon were not terribly interested in magic tricks, but Raistlin watched them all, and that evening was able to reproduce them perfectly. The next day his father enrolled him in a magic school.

Also, quite aside from being a bit in awe of Raistlin, and feeling a need to help somebody who needs it, Caramon smiles at her when Tika tends to him. This bothers Tanis, who figures that, whatever the rumors say, Tika is not, romantically speaking, all that experienced.

On top of potentially problematic romances, Sturm is clearly having a major depressive episode, brought about by the shame of surrender and the misery of the carts. And it's not like Tanis is having a picnic either; what with Gilthanas' presence constantly bringing up childhood memories. Tanis was raised in the royal household; his mother was the wife of the brother of the Speaker of the Sun, and was raped by a human in the chaos after the Cataclysm. After she died, shortly after Tanis' birth, the Speaker raised Tanis in his own household, only regretting it when he noticed the blooming romance between the half-elf and his daughter, Laurana. Tanis himself was uncertain about this, the human part of him growing up faster than the other elves, and making him unsettled. Gilthanas however was certain that any romance between Tanis and Laurana was a distinctly bad idea, and between this and Tanis' own doubts, he left when he was about eighty.

Not surprisingly, being stuck in a cage with each other does nothing for either Tanis' or Gilthanas' moods. Tanis makes a couple attempts at talking to Gilthanas, and realizes that the formerly happy-go-lucky elf has become serious and moody; shutting down an attempt by Caramon to plot an escape by saying something about him 'ruining everything.' Gilthanas is both a skilled warrior and a dabbler in magic, though he's never been as committed as Raistlin.

At sunrise on the third day of their rolling incarceration, the cages roll to an unexpected stop. By the side of the road an old man, wearing robes that could potentially have been white at some time in the past, and a rather worn hat, having an argument with a tree. Apparently the tree had the gall to block the sun, and now won't even get out of the way. Intransigent to the end, the tree neither responds nor moves, even when the old man commences whacking it with his walking stick.

Toede orders the old man thrown in a cage, even when he protests that really, they should arrest the tree, as they toss him into the cage with the companions. Goldmoon and Riverwind check if he's alright, the old man recognizes Goldmoon as a cleric of Mishakal by the amulet around her neck, but is surprised that she doesn't look 300 years old. Goldmoon is obviously a bit flustered by this, the old man immediately apologizes for bringing up her age in public, promising it won't happen again.

Fizban and Tas, by Larry Elmore. Fizban's looking remarkably sane in this picture.

Then he says it's good of them to give him a ride to Qualinost. Gilthanas points out that they're being taken as slaves to Pax Tharkas. The old man appears concerned, was there another group passing this way today? Tika asks him his name, he considers for a moment, then replies that his name is Fizban. Tas says that isn't a name, the old man seems disappointed, he rather liked that name. Tika, giving Tas a filthy look, says it's a fine name.

Raistlin breaks into a coughing spasm, he's feverish, getting worse, and Goldmoon can't help him. Caramon, wiping the blood and spittle from his brother's chin, says he needs his herbal brew. Tanis says they'll ask the guards at the end of the march, but isn't optimistic. The old man bends over Raistlin and mutters something, in which "Fistandan" and "not the time" can be made out. It's not a healing spell, but whatever he says, it works. Raistlin's eyes open, and he stares at the old man in terrified recognition. Then Fizban passes his hand over Raistlin's eyes, and his expression shifts to confusion.

The old man introduces himself. Raistlin says he's Magi, Fizban agrees. Raistlin says he also is Magi, Fizban says it's a small world, and starts rambling on about this Fireball spell he once had...


Commentary
I'm honestly not wild about this chapter. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's hard to make bumping along in a slave cart being miserable into gripping adventure fiction. Fortunately, this being Dragonlance, we can be assured this forced inactivity is a temporary state of affairs.

And there's some good stuff in here as well. Most obviously, draft elk! This is the sort of random bit of fantasy nonsense that I just love. Why are the carts pulled by elk? Because it's way cooler than horses, that's why. If you try to have rigorous explanations for all your bits of cool irrelevant worldbuilding details, you end up with no cool irrelevant worldbuilding details, and that's just boring. And I will bite the first person who tries to argue about the economics of elk vs. horses as beasts of burden.


We got some solid Raistlin backstory; which also goes a ways towards explaining his trick with the flash powder earlier, and the coin tricks he used to impress the gully dwarves in Xak Tsaroth. There's an annotation by Margaret Weiss which explains that in The Soulforge she retconned this to be Kit taking him to the magic school, since she was the only person really interested in Raistlin at all. Also in one version of this backstory the twins are eight, in another they're five. Personally this is the sort of retcon I find utterly inoffensive, since it doesn't undercut the original book in any meaningful way, and enhances the follow-up a bit. Ditto the twins' ages; it's just completely irrelevant unless you're deeply fascinating by the mechanics of Ansalonian magical pedagogy.

We also get some Tanis backstory, which is worth having but also, I confess, sort of boring. Again, there's nothing wrong with it; there's some good character conflict to be later resolved, it explains his background and ambivalent feelings about Qualinesti and why Gilthanas is a jerk to him. Mostly it's just Tanis being mopey, and, well, that's sort of Tanis' default state anyway. I mean we haven't had too much of it in a while, since he's mostly been trying not to get killed, which doesn't leave much time for brooding, and heaven knows he's got good reason here, but fundamentally Tanis moping is still Tanis moping. I also don't really get his worry about the Caramon/Tika romance since it's not like Caramon's an exploitative jerk, and they're also stuck in cages on carts. Hardly a likely setting for things getting seriously physical.

Also, according to the internet, Tanis was born in 249 AC. It's currently 351 AC, so he's just over a hundred (Flint is about 120, so still the oldest by a reasonable bit). Either elves have really long gestational periods, or the chaos following the Cataclysm lasted a really long time, since the Cataclysm was in 0 AC. Which fits, since having the entire continent's geography violently rearranged is going to have some longstanding fallout, but the description reads like it was just a couple years later.

The most important bit is clearly our new character, Fizban. It's really not clear yet what his deal is; he recognizes Goldmoon as a cleric which is weird since nobody's worshiped Mishakal in three hundred years. And there's something going on between him and Raistlin, and we have another Fistandantilus namedrop. Very mysterious.

There's also an amusing note by Tracy Hickman, clarifying that Fizban is a crazed wizard whose copyright is owned by Wizards of the Coast. Zifnab, from the Death Gate Cycle, is a completely distinct crazed wizard owned by himself and Margaret, while Zanfib, from Star of the Guardians, is another entirely distinct crazed wizard. Personally I've always preferred a multiple universes theory where they're all secretly the same crazed wizard, even though this plays merry hell with the Death Gate cosmology¹. As evidence I offer that Tas, in Dragons of Summer Flame, happens to have a copy of Haplo's diary in his pouches. Vindication!

Instead of knowing vital trivia like that, some people have social lives. Boy are they missing out.

Spoiler: Future Stuff

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As we'll see, Gilthanas being a jerk to Tanis doesn't really need an explanation. Gilthanas is an elf, and Dragonlance elves are, to a pointy-eared treehugger, nearly all jerks. Salvageable jerks, but jerks.

Fizban is of course the old man from the Inn of the Last Home in the very beginning. He's also Paladine, chief of the gods of good. One can only surmise that he finds being a senile old wizard amusing for some reason, as well as being a very good disguise.

¹ Specifically Zifnab is a very old Sartan driven insane by the horror of the Sundering. And yes, this entire footnote exists as a reference to the footnotes in the Death Gate Cycle. Be careful or this entire reread will develop a stealth frame narrative and/or turn into a longform response to the end of the Cold War expressed via dragons. Which would of course be perfect excuse to talk about Babylon 5.

[Keltest]

I think the authors struggled to reconcile the different generational periods of the different races when it comes to the cataclysm, and the effects this would have had on their society.

Most of the elves can remember the cataclysm directly, and theyre all fairly ticked off about it. They (somewhat understandably) blame humans for it which is why elves are as insular and anti-cooperation as they are. The wound still bleeds, so to speak, and many of them lost friends directly to the darn meteor, from the clerics disappearing if not being actually killed when the world exploded.

The dwarves are 3-5 generations removed from the cataclysm at this point. Flint is on the older side, and his grandfather was alive during it. So while none of them experienced it directly, a non-trivial number of them know somebody who did, and every family has a horror story about it or its immediate aftermath. The dwarves in particular got hammered pretty hard by the aftermath, but that's more of a story from the Twins series. They don't care about who caused it so much, but their society was shaped pretty hard by it.

For the humans, the cataclysm is a long way removed. Nobody remembers it, nobody knows anybody who remembers it, its old news. Oddly however, the post-cataclysm state of societal disrepair never seems to really resolve itself. The Knights of Solamnia are a disgraced order because scapegoats, but they also seem to be the only major military power in the north until the Dragonarmies show up. Solas and Haven are never mentioned as having much in the way of a militia and even bandits don't really seem to be a thing. Only Kender travel anywhere much farther than a day's journey or two. The value of steel coins is implied to be because of the real practical value behind the metal, but pretty much by definition if you have a standardized currency youre beyond the point where the practical applications of your monetary material are irrelevant, or even a down side to using it as a currency. They really cant seem to decide whether Ansalon is a shattered feudal society still picking itself up off its feet, or if society has mostly rebounded at this point and people are no longer on the edge of ruin if they accidentally drop a coin in the mud.

[Gnoman]

The value of steel coins is implied to be because of the real practical value behind the metal, but pretty much by definition if you have a standardized currency youre beyond the point where the practical applications of your monetary material are irrelevant, or even a down side to using it as a currency.

There isn't necessarily a standardized currency. Steel is a valued metal for utilitarian reasons, and is made into coins for convenience. I'm pretty sure that we're supposed to vieww the steel coinage in the same light that the current "bullets are now currency" post-apocalyptic trend fits under.

[JadedDM]

Yes, the chaos after the Cataclysm lasted at least until 250 AC in Abanansinia. Lots of roaming warlords, border skirmishes and such. Only by 250 AC do things settle down, and the area as we know it starts to come into place. So this area in particular has only known stability, such as it is, for about a century now.

[Keltest]

There isn't necessarily a standardized currency. Steel is a valued metal for utilitarian reasons, and is made into coins for convenience. I'm pretty sure that we're supposed to vieww the steel coinage in the same light that the current "bullets are now currency" post-apocalyptic trend fits under.

I don't believe we ever hear anything about radically different coinage sizes, or people unwilling to accept coins from, say Solamnia. That would suggest to me that a steel coin tends to be a steel coin no matter where its from.

Anyway, beyond that, turning a practical material into coins is far more inconvenient than convenient. Steel coins wont save you from an arrow or allow you to fend off a bandit. By turning them into a coin you've destroyed any practical utility they've had. It would be like taking the gunpowder out of a bullet to use it as currency.

Furthermore, while im no blacksmith, my understanding is that you cant just use any kind of random steel for any project. You want a couple different kinds to make a sword, and yet another kind to make armor.

[NRSASD]

¹ Specifically Zifnab is a very old Sartan driven insane by the horror of the Sundering. And yes, this entire footnote exists as a reference to the footnotes in the Death Gate Cycle. Be careful or this entire reread will develop a stealth frame narrative and/or turn into a longform response to the end of the Cold War expressed via dragons. Which would of course be perfect excuse to talk about Babylon 5.

There are never enough excuses to talk about Babylon 5! That being said, I'll endeavor to stay on topic.

I must admit, I really enjoy Fizban. Even though he's a deus ex machina in the literal flesh, he's just crazed enough to be a real hazard to stand near. As opposed to other elderly wizards in pointy hats who shall remain nameless, he never steals the stage outright, just propels the cast in wildly different directions.

I never realized the Death Gate connection! That's great!

[bguy]

I don't believe we ever hear anything about radically different coinage sizes, or people unwilling to accept coins from, say Solamnia. That would suggest to me that a steel coin tends to be a steel coin no matter where its from.

Anyway, beyond that, turning a practical material into coins is far more inconvenient than convenient. Steel coins wont save you from an arrow or allow you to fend off a bandit. By turning them into a coin you've destroyed any practical utility they've had. It would be like taking the gunpowder out of a bullet to use it as currency.

Agreed. The steel coinage is one of the goofier things about Dragonlance as realistically no one in a post-apocalyptic world would ever waste steel (a valuable industrial metal that can keep them alive as a weapon, armor, or tools) by turning it into coins.

We got some solid Raistlin backstory; which also goes a ways towards explaining his trick with the flash powder earlier, and the coin tricks he used to impress the gully dwarves in Xak Tsaroth. There's an annotation by Margaret Weiss which explains that in The Soulforge she retconned this to be Kit taking him to the magic school, since she was the only person really interested in Raistlin at all. Also in one version of this backstory the twins are eight, in another they're five. Personally this is the sort of retcon I find utterly inoffensive, since it doesn't undercut the original book in any meaningful way, and enhances the follow-up a bit.

I rather dislike that retcon. Having Raistlin's father (someone who never appears in the books) be the person that enrolled him in mage school makes Krynn feel like a real, vibrant world with countless people that are living their lives and doing things that have an impact on the world and on our characters even if we never meet them. Having it instead be Kitiara who enrolled Raistlin, ruins that and makes Krynn feel a lot smaller as now it seems like the only people that have an impact on the world are the viewpoint characters.

[JadedDM]

The really dumb thing about the steel coin thing for me was, I never understood what stopped players from just melting down every weapon and piece of armor they came across and then making more coins out of them.

[Rodin]

On Tika: I remember having a bit of a crush on her when I first read the series as an early teen. Maybe it was the fiery redhead thing, or that she was a civilian not really cut out for adventuring who still picked up a sword (and frying pan) and did her part along with the others while conquering fear the whole time. My memories are foggy enough that I can't recall in great detail what was so appealing to me, and I don't want to re-read the books now because I'm enjoying the chapter summaries so much.

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Laurana on the other hand didn't leave an impression on me at all. As in, I forgot she was a character until I re-read them, and I forgot about her again before she was mentioned in this thread. In my defense, I remember almost nothing of the plot of Winter's Night and Spring Dawning other than a few high points, and most of what she does takes place in those books.

The re-read is also making me appreciate Tas a lot more. When I think about the books, I tend to think of Tas as "the somewhat annoying comedy relief character". I'm coming to see that it's...kind of necessary. The party is being lead by Captain Emo, there's a chronically depressed knight, Goldmoon and Riverwind are either in or on the verge of PTSD for much of the story, the dwarf's naturally grumpy, and Raistlin is a jackass who in turn depresses Caramon. Having somebody with zero fear and a near total inability to pick up on social cues is the only way to inject some amount of levity into proceedings. Fizban is also a welcome addition in this regard.

[Brance_a_Lot]

I know that translating classes to 5th ed doesn't work very well, especially when over half the party are melee fighters!

However what do you think subclass would Raistlin be? Necromancy, Evocation or even something else?

[PairO'Dice Lost]

However what do you think subclass would Raistlin be? Necromancy, Evocation or even something else?

Were I to make a 5e Dragonlance conversion, I'd homebrew explicit Order of the White/Red/Black Robes subclasses. Between the moon-based magic, the strict school requirements (above and beyond the normal AD&D/3e school specialization that 5e relaxed), and 3e's addition of Order-specific secrets in the Wizard of High Sorcery PrC, Dragonlance wizards have more than enough material for their own subclasses.

Barring that, I think either Divination or Lore Mastery would make sense, as both fit Raistlin's nature as a far-seeing manipulator and walking talking infodump.

[diplomancer]

I know that translating classes to 5th ed doesn't work very well, especially when over half the party are melee fighters!

However what do you think subclass would Raistlin be? Necromancy, Evocation or even something else?

Enchanter. Raistlin is a master manipulator.
Fizban is an evoker that forgets he has sculpt spells...

[Lord Torath]

And there's some good stuff in here as well. Most obviously, draft elk! This is the sort of random bit of fantasy nonsense that I just love. Why are the carts pulled by elk? Because it's way cooler than horses, that's why. If you try to have rigorous explanations for all your bits of cool irrelevant worldbuilding details, you end up with no cool irrelevant worldbuilding details, and that's just boring. And I will bite the first person who tries to argue about the economics of elk vs. horses as beasts of burden.

Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince series uses Plow Elk. They have horses, but they use them for riding and warfare, not agriculture.

On an unrelated note, how do people pronounce "Toede"? I've always treated the E's as silent, so I pronounce it like the amphibian "toad" or "tōd". But it could also be pronounced "tōdē" or "toady" like the sycophant.

[pendell]

There's an audiobook which I presume is as close to definitive as it can get. The reader pronounces it "TER-deh" First syllable like "Tear" (as in "to tear a sheet of paper" , second second syllable like "de" in "de winter".

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[bguy]

On an unrelated note, how do people pronounce "Toede"? I've always treated the E's as silent, so I pronounce it like the amphibian "toad" or "tōd". But it could also be pronounced "tōdē" or "toady" like the sycophant.

I also assumed it was pronounced like "toad".

[NRSASD]

Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince series uses Plow Elk. They have horses, but they use them for riding and warfare, not agriculture.

On an unrelated note, how do people pronounce "Toede"? I've always treated the E's as silent, so I pronounce it like the amphibian "toad" or "tōd". But it could also be pronounced "tōdē" or "toady" like the sycophant.

I always assumed it was Toady, cause that's what he is. But really, neither pronunciation is terribly flattering. One is an unintelligent, warty, poisonous, ground hugging waste of space, and the other is an amphibian.

[warty goblin]

The really dumb thing about the steel coin thing for me was, I never understood what stopped players from just melting down every weapon and piece of armor they came across and then making more coins out of them.

I was meaning to mention the steel coins thing, but since it's come up.

They really make no sense economically or metallurgically. Economically because worked steel would generally have close to its value in coin, but be far more useful, so if you had the ability to produce steel, striking coins would probably be the least economically advantageous use of it. Metallurgically because it's actually somewhat challenging to recombine many small pieces of steel into one big one again. You can do it via forge welding*, but it's extremely labor intensive and requires lots of charcoal, to say nothing of a well equipped forge. So even though steel is a much more practical metal than gold or silver, converting from coins to anything of direct utility would require enormous capital investment. In other words you're always better off leaving your steel items as steel, and when producing steel in the first place, an axe head or plow blade is almost certain to be worth more than the same weight in coin.


*You can melt steel of course, even with pre-industrial equipment, but it requires an extremely hot fire to do it. It's possible with charcoal with very good draft control, but it's again, extremely labor intensive and requires ginormous piles of fuel. This is also probably why adventurers aren't running around melting down enemy armor for pocket change; the donkey train packing half a ton of charcoal is substantially difficult to maneuver in a dungeon environment. And what are the odds of the DM giving you a day free from random encounters to work the bellows?

I also assumed it was pronounced like "toad".

The Annotated Edition indicates it's Toede as in toady, although that might just be pointing out the pun. I've always read it as Toad in my head though. Seems funnier.

Onwards, to our intrepid, mostly terribly depressed, heroes!

Rescued! Fizban's magic
Everyone is miserable. Probably nobody is more miserable than Tas. I'm just going to quote this bit, because it's perfect:

"The cruelest form of torture one can inflict on a kender is to lock him up. Of course, it is also widely believed that the cruelest form of torture one can inflict on any other species is to lock them up with a kender."

Indeed, after three days, as Flint puts it, one starts to long for some good old fashioned being stretched on the rack. Tanis finally exiles Tas to the back of the wagon, after he manages to annoy Goldmoon to the brink of violence. Bored half to death, Tas is temporarily amused by Fizban, but Tanis makes him give his pouches back. Tas finally finds distraction in the form of Sestun, the gully dwarf.

Sestun, for his part, has won a certain amount of admiration from the companions. Toede gives him every miserable job he can think, and kicks him over multiple times a day, and the other hobgoblins steal his food. The elk try to trample him flat. But Sestun just keeps trucking.

Possibly because they're the only creatures that don't make his life miserable, Sestun starts hanging out near the companions' wagon when not being bullied or otherwise employed. Tanis gets the gully dwarf to tell him his story; which is nearly incomprehensible but amounts to him having been part of a tribe of gully dwarves near Pax Tharkas. Then Verminaard enslaved them and set them to work in the mines. Sestun landed a cushy job as a cook, but spilled some very hot soup on Lord Verminaard (who had to sleep on his back for a week), and decided to volunteer with Toede rather than stick around. When asks how many draconians are in Pax Tharkas, Sestun reassures Tanis that there's only 2, while holding up ten fingers. He seems certain that there's 'only' two dragons though.

Caramon and Sturm have been thinking about dragon fighting. Unfortunately the only real information on the topic comes from legend of Huma, which are old and probably not all that accurate. Caramon mentions the dragonlance that legend says the gods gifted to Huma, but says they don't even know if it's real. Raistlin points out that the dragons are real. Fizban, looking sad, says, looking sad, says that Huma and the dragonlance were real. Caramon asks if Fizban can describe the dragonlance, the wizard says it was like, no not quite, more like, really it was sort of a, well, lance. Good against dragons.

Caramon does not find this particularly useful.

Dusk is falling and everyone dozes off, except for Tas, who is regaling Sestun with one of his stories, and Raistlin, who is looking at Fizban, his face disturbed. While talking, Tas notes that Gilthanas is only pretending to sleep, and in fact seems to be watching, or waiting, for something. The wagon train is passing the elven forest of Qualinesti. Tas rather loses the thread of his story, but Sestun has heard it before, and reminds Tas that the demon thanked him and took the magic ring.

The sun is just starting to rise, when Tas hears a suspicious bird call from the woods. He's never been this far south before, but it certainly doesn't sound like any bird he's heard before, and the exact call is repeated from several different parts of the forest. Then Gilthanas gives a piercing whistle. Everybody's awake now. Fizban is happy that the elves have finally arrived.

Gilthanas, from the cover of a book about Gilthanas. Why anybody would want a book about Gilthanas is a genuine mystery to me.

Then there's a whistling noise, and the driver of the cart ahead of them falls off, causing the cart to fall into a rut and tip over. Their driver manages to stop the companions' cart before it collides with the ruined wagon in front, but then the hobgoblin screams and falls over, an arrow sticking out of his throat. The other guard falls a moment later. The companions all throw themselves flat as arrows whistle through the air.

Tanis asks Gilthanas what's happening, but the elf just says "Porthios." Sturm, speaking for the first time in days, asks what's happening. Tanis explains that Porthios is Gilthanas' older brother, and this appears to be a rescue. Sturm points out that it will rather fail as a rescue if they end up shot, and aren't elves supposed to be good shots?

Gilthanas says that the arrows are just cover, the elves can't attack a force that large. So they need to be prepared to run for the woods. Sturm points out that they're locked in the cage; Gilthanas suggests that maybe the magic users can do something about that. Raistlin replies testily that he can't work magic without any spell components. Fizban thinks he can help, if only he could remember the right spell....

Fewmaster Toede gallops up, demanding to know what's going on. Sestun, from under the wagon, says they're under attack, a point driven home by an arrow thunking into Toede's saddle. Toede instantly discovers the better part of valor, and orders the hobgoblins to protect him against the hundreds of attacking elves, while he makes a run for it. The draconians he leaves behind as a rearguard, while he leads the hobgoblins away, abandoning the carts.

The good news, as Sturm points out with a smile, is that this gets rid of the hundred odd hobgoblins. The bad news is that it leaves them still locked in a cage with about fifty angry draconians to contend with. Gilthanas adds that there's more like 20 elves out there, not hundreds.

Tika, looking up from the floor of the cage, notices the draconians, about a mile ahead taking cover beside the road while the elves move forwards to shoot them better. Tanis realizes that, absent the Fewmaster, the draconians will just kill them and take their gear, instead of taking them to Pax Tharkas, which makes getting out of the cages a real priority. Caramon has another go at bending the bars, but they're simply too strong.

Tas yells for Sestun to break the lock with his axe. If he sets them free, the gully dwarf can come with them. Sestun considers this for a moment, then starts fumbling for the axe slung over his back. Since the handle has settled right between his shoulder blades this takes a moment, but he finally gets it out. Far from a battleaxe, it's an ancient, rusty hatchet for chopping wood.

Arrows keep clattering and whistling through the cage. One nails Tika's blouse to the cage wall, cutting her arm. She can't ever remember being so afraid, and both wants to scream and for Caramon to hold her. Caramon however can't really do that, since it would make him an excellent target. Seeing Goldmoon shielding Theros with her body, Tika grits her teeth, pulls the arrow out of the wood, ignores the pain in her arm, and looks back towards the draconians, who have gotten organized and are rushing towards the cages, shooting arrows as they come. In an excellent detail, they carry their swords in their teeth while running.

Tanis tells Sestun to hurry up with breaking the lock. Sestun winds up, takes a great swing, and completely missing. He gamely takes another swing, which barely dents the lock. As Sturm says, at that rate they'll be free in a couple of days, and Tika sees draconians within ten feet or so, although still pinned down by elven archers.

Gilthanas says that there aren't enough elves to attack head on, but they'll be rescued soon enough. Already elves are helping prisoners out of the other cages, then loosing arrows, then retreating. Unfortunately it's blindingly obvious that the draconians will reach them before the elves do, and the dragon-men are clearly in a murderous frame of mind.

Then Fizban stands up. Raistlin tries to pull him down, but the old wizard ignores this. Also the arrow that lodges in his battered hat, although he is momentarily distracted by the second arrow that hits the the pouch his hand is in. Fizban kneels for a moment, and asks Raistlin if he's got any bat guano, but Raistlin's components were taken back in the Inn. Fizban shrugs, and decides to just play this thing by ear, stands up, and starts casting a spell. Tanis asks if Raistlin knows what it is. Raistlin listens for a moment, then yells and tries to stop Fizban, but too late, so he settles for telling everybody to take cover because Fizban's just cast - Fireball!

Three draconians are right in front of the cage now, but stop in alarm at the spellcaster. Fizban points at the cage door, and Sestun right behind it, who promptly dives for cover. Not a moment too soon, as a tremendous ball of super-hot orange fire strikes the cage door and explodes. Tanis feels the heat burning at him, and can hear the draconians deep-frying on the other side of the door. Then he smells smoke, and Caramon yells that the floor of the cart is on fire.

Tanis opens his eyes and stands up. To his surprise Fizban hasn't been reduced to cinders, and is instead stroking his rather scorched beard and staring unhappily at the cage door, which glowing red hot, but still definitely intact.

Sturm figures maybe the cage is hot enough they can break it, but it's too hot for him to get close enough to try. Tas yells for Sestun to try hitting the lock again. The somewhat shell shocked gully dwarf gives the lock another whack, and the overheated steel shatters, allowing the cage door to fall open. The companions make a break for it, Goldmoon, Riverwind and Tanis dragging the unconscious Theros along with them, as the flaming cart disintegrates.

Tanis various companions to get their weapons from the cargo cart; Raistlin goes along with them since he's the only one who can touch the Staff. Tanis tries to tell Gilthanas to do something, but Gilthanas isn't taking orders from Tanis, and hauls ass into the woods. Caramon and Sturm reappear with the weapons - Caramon having had to thump two draconians guarding them.

Sturm asks where Gilthanas has gotten to, and is unimpressed by his running for it. What with elves and the crazy wizard's fireball, this is probably the closest they've come to dying since the dragon.

They make a run for the trees, but are accosted by a half dozen draconians en route. Sturm and Caramon kill a few, but the others just step back, grinning. Then the bodies of the dead draconians dissolve unpleasantly into poisonous vapor, choking the two warriors. They fall back, then run on as most of the draconians, hell-bent on blood, round the burning ruins of the cart and charge them. Gilthanas, leading a detachment of elves, reappears, and covers their retreat into the woods.

Gilthanas tells the companions to follow them; other elven warriors take over carrying Theros. The draconians appear unwilling to pursue them into the woods. Riverwind doesn't want to enter elven woods, but Tanis promises him it will be alright, and they head into the trees. Fizban looks back at the smoldering ruins of the cage, wishing somebody had thanked him for that truly wonderful spell.


Gilthanas leads the companions into the woods of Qualinesti; the draconians are completely unwilling to follow them into the twisting paths. After a while they come to an open glade, crowded with the other rescued prisoners. Tas looks around, but can't find Sestun. Tanis reassures him that the elves won't have hurt him, but the elves aren't who Tas is worried about.

In the center of the clearing, an atypically big elf is telling the human prisoners that they are free to go. The elves will give them supplies, and suggest that they head south, to lands rumored not to be under Verminaard's control. The refugees, most of whom are after all homebody farmers from Solace, seem stunned by this. Goldmoon reprimands the tall elf for his cruelty, but he says he's done enough for them, and there's nothing more the elves can afford to do. Goldmoon looks at Tanis, but he just shakes his head. With a weary look, the first of the human refugees picks up a pack, and starts off; the others follow.

Goldmoon asks the elf how he can be so cruel to - "Humans?" he cuts her off, saying that humans caused the Cataclysm through their arrogance in demanding from the gods what Huma asked for humbly. Thanks to humans, the gods have forsaken them. Goldmoon yells that this isn't true.

Porthios - the tall elf - starts to get angry, but Gilthanas tells his older brother in elven that he saw Goldmoon heal Theros. Tanis has forgotten how painfully beautiful elven is.

In the middle of his conversation, Gilthanas points at Tanis. Neither Gilthanas nor Porthios looks happy at Tanis being here, but the half elf remains composed. Riverwind asks about his lack of welcome, since this is his homeland. Tanis knows this isn't prying, since they're in substantial danger.

Tanis, slowly, painfully, says that the other elves will take them to Qualinost, where he has not been in years. He was not exiled, but most were glad to see the back of him. As he says, to humans he is half elven, to elves, half-man. Riverwind suggests that they head south with the other refugees, but Flint says they'd never get out of the clearing with their lives. Indeed the forest is full of hidden elven warriors.

Porthios wraps up his talk with Gilthanas, and says that the companions will come with him as honored guests. Or prisoners, as Flint puts it. The old dwarf knows this is going to be hard on Tanis. So does Tanis.

Commentary
This chapter is considerably more fun than the previous. We get those marvelous opening lines about being caged up with a kender, an act of entirely becoming cowardice from the ever-reliable Toede, and a whole lot of fun with a fireball. This is also one of those chapters where the RPG background seems fairly obvious; the whole super-heating the metal cage to break it seems like classic player shenanigans. One can nearly hear the DM saying "roll for it" with a sigh at a couple points.

Which is fine with me; one does not read RPG tie-in novels expecting Proust after all. One is there for goofy creatures and cool action, which this provides.

Plotwise we of course get the characters out of their current predicament, and into fun-times with the elves. We also get the first real reference to the titular Dragonlance, where we learn that it's a sort of spear that's useful against dragons. Which I guess is something; I mean technically it could be used by dragons, but still, definitely a tease.

Character-wise this is mostly set-up for future stuff. We get some more Tika crushing on Caramon, but also her doing a really solid job of keeping her head and situational awareness in a genuinely scary situation. Go Tika! The big thing is that we finally meet elves for real, and boy are they jerks. Dragonlance elves are consistently jerks, it's just the way of things. Prepare for epic jerkitude in the next chapter. Poor Tanis. I mean he's generally a bit mopey, but being drug back to a place he never wanted to be again by his deeply unpleasant foster brothers - let alone being rescued by them - has just got to hurt.

There's also some more glimmers that Raistlin suspects something about Fizban. It's almost like they know each other, although they obviously don't...

Also, rescued by a senile wizard and a gully dwarf from an incompetent hobgoblin? New low?

Spoiler: Future stuff

Show

To be fair to Fizban, he's only sort of senile. When he wants to be, since he's actually a god. Fistandantilus, who's riding shotgun with Raistlin, of course recognizes this, and Raistlin's probably bright enough to guess it on his own anyway. After all, the dragonlance has been absent for thousands of years; how could a human be familiar with it?

To be fair to elves, they really can't do a whole lot more for the human refugees, since they're to evacuate themselves. Still jerks though.

To be fair to the dragonlance, it's used against dragons from dragonback, which I think we can all agree is awesome. At least the big ones. Stay tuned, they eventually show up in like a novel and a half, and are actually vaguely important in a background sort of way.

[pendell]

I'm kind of curious as to why it's only the good guys who had dragonlances; we know from the monster manual of the time there are good dragons as well as evil ones , so surely the villains could make use of them as well?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[bguy]

I'm kind of curious as to why it's only the good guys who had dragonlances; we know from the monster manual of the time there are good dragons as well as evil ones , so surely the villains could make use of them as well?

Are you talking about the villains using captured Dragonlances or producing their own?

If the former:

Spoiler

Show

In the Legend of Huma, the Dark Queen's forces did outfit a unit of dragonriders with captured Dragonlances. Likewise in the War of Souls trilogy, Mina used a Dragonlance when she fought Malys.

If the later, I imagine the evil dragons would register an extremely violent objection to the Dragonarmies producing dedicated anti-dragon weapons since they would realize that their mortal "allies" are just as likely to use the evil dragonlances on them as on any good dragons.

[Keltest]

Are you talking about the villains using captured Dragonlances or producing their own?

If the former:

Spoiler

Show

In the Legend of Huma, the Dark Queen's forces did outfit a unit of dragonriders with captured Dragonlances. Likewise in the War of Souls trilogy, Mina used a Dragonlance when she fought Malys.

If the later, I imagine the evil dragons would register an extremely violent objection to the Dragonarmies producing dedicated anti-dragon weapons since they would realize that their mortal "allies" are just as likely to use the evil dragonlances on them as on any good dragons.

Spoiler: First Dragon War

Show

The Dragonlances are specifically artifacts of Good. Much like the Blue Crystal Staff, evil beings and especially evil dragons simply cannot handle them without suffering immense pain. The last time they appeared, the enemy tried to wrap them so that they could be handled by evil dragonriders, but it wasn't enough to actually use them at all effectively. Mina is an exceptionally odd case, but part of the reason she was able to wield them is because the gods of good were gone and unable to protect the lance.

[bguy]

Spoiler: First Dragon War

Show

The Dragonlances are specifically artifacts of Good. Much like the Blue Crystal Staff, evil beings and especially evil dragons simply cannot handle them without suffering immense pain. The last time they appeared, the enemy tried to wrap them so that they could be handled by evil dragonriders, but it wasn't enough to actually use them at all effectively. Mina is an exceptionally odd case, but part of the reason she was able to wield them is because the gods of good were gone and unable to protect the lance.

Spoiler: Dragonlances

Show

That the Dragonlances are blessed artifacts of good which can't be touched by evil beings seems to have been a later retcon that was adopted around the time of Dragons of Summer Flame. Kitiara had no problem picking up a Dragonlance in Dragons of Winter Night. (And in the SSI computer game, Death Knights of Krynn, an undead Sir Karl successfully used a Dragonlance to kill a silver dragon.)

[pendell]

Are you talking about the villains using captured Dragonlances or producing their own?

If the former:

Spoiler

Show

In the Legend of Huma, the Dark Queen's forces did outfit a unit of dragonriders with captured Dragonlances. Likewise in the War of Souls trilogy, Mina used a Dragonlance when she fought Malys.

If the later, I imagine the evil dragons would register an extremely violent objection to the Dragonarmies producing dedicated anti-dragon weapons since they would realize that their mortal "allies" are just as likely to use the evil dragonlances on them as on any good dragons.

The second -- producing their own. If you go into battle with an enemy who has a 1 hit kill weapon which you don't have, well, that's an obvious power imbalance. Surely it can't be that hard for the evil ones to come up with their own evil variant. And if they're worried about them being used on evil dragons, how hard is it to ensure whatever bonus the evil dragonlances give only work on shiny-scaled lizards?

Respectfully,

Brian P.