The Illustrated Dragonlance Reread

[Keltest]

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.

Its worth pointing out that creating Dragonlances required the combination of two different artifacts as well as the skills of a master smith. Its not something done trivially.

[bguy]

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?

Because whoever made the evil dragonlances would really, really want them to work on evil dragons. Remember evil turning on itself is one of the major themes of the Dragonlance stories. The Dragon Highlords are probably more worried about their own dragons than they are about the good dragons, so the Highlords would definitely want any evil dragonlances they make to be fully effective on evil dragons. And the evil dragons are smart enough to know this, so they are going to be extremely suspicious of the development of any dragon killing weapon (regardless of how much Ariakas pinky swears to them that these evil dragonlances will only work on good dragons and could never be used on them.)

[Saintheart]

Its worth pointing out that creating Dragonlances required the combination of two different artifacts as well as the skills of a master smith. Its not something done trivially.

Nitpicking, but not exactly.

Spoiler: Spoiler for Dragons of Spring Dawning

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Theros Ironfeld talks about this when he splits the Whitestone with one of the Lances he forged. The objection is made that you need the Hammer of Kharas to make a dragonlance, and he replies that's only because you didn't have a smith as skilled as him before, i.e. he only needs to have the Silver Arm. He's been making lances over in the Foghaven Vale forge without the Hammer. Duncan Ironweaver certainly used both, but it's not a requirement as such.

And if I remember right under the old 2nd ed Dragonlance rulebook, you could have a dragonlance that was made with the Hammer of Kharas or a dragonlance made with a smith using the Silver Arm, but they just didn't do as much damage as a dragonlance which was made using both artifacts.

[Lapak]

Nitpicking, but not exactly.

Spoiler: Spoiler for Dragons of Spring Dawning

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And if I remember right under the old 2nd ed Dragonlance rulebook, you could have a dragonlance that was made with the Hammer of Kharas or a dragonlance made with a smith using the Silver Arm, but they just didn't do as much damage as a dragonlance which was made using both artifacts.

Spoiler

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In the 1e Dragonlance Adventures book, the damage doesn't change (damage against dragons = max HP of wielder for footman's lance, max HP of [dragon+rider] for mounted lances) but the + bonus does - lances made with only one of the artifacts are +2, lances made with both are +4.

[pendell]

Practically speaking, isn't a lance a rather clumsy weapon to use in an aerial battle? I would expect , if this were closer to real physics, a dragon-v-dragon battle would be a struggle for altitude and position. The winner drops on the other like a ton of rectangular building things. I can't think the idea of deliberately angling for a position where dragon A could ram into dragon b like a knight's horse would be a very useful or common position; the other dragon has three dimensions to evade the blow in.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Keltest]

Practically speaking, isn't a lance a rather clumsy weapon to use in an aerial battle? I would expect , if this were closer to real physics, a dragon-v-dragon battle would be a struggle for altitude and position. The winner drops on the other like a ton of rectangular building things. I can't think the idea of deliberately angling for a position where dragon A could ram into dragon b like a knight's horse would be a very useful or common position; the other dragon has three dimensions to evade the blow in.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Yes. Dragons equipped with lances have actually been killed falling from the sky when they suddenly find themselves attached to a weight the size of a dragon that isn't supporting itself.

[Wookieetank]

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 had a group who took huge advantage of this. Not thinking of it I had the group take on a bandit horde that was camped in an abandoned iron mine who was raiding nearby towns. The party cleared the mine, took it as payment instead of what was initially offered, and proceeded to setup shop and become fabulously wealthy. Thanks to having multiple gnomes in the group, they started building a railway for easier transportation of goods (and more money from charging others to use it), and had started research into anti-dragon flying saucers.

Sadly the group petered out about there, right as things were about to get interesting with the local ruler showing up in force asking where their back taxes were.

[Forum Explorer]

Practically speaking, isn't a lance a rather clumsy weapon to use in an aerial battle? I would expect , if this were closer to real physics, a dragon-v-dragon battle would be a struggle for altitude and position. The winner drops on the other like a ton of rectangular building things. I can't think the idea of deliberately angling for a position where dragon A could ram into dragon b like a knight's horse would be a very useful or common position; the other dragon has three dimensions to evade the blow in.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

That is pretty much how they describe the dragon fighting, and likely why having the Dragonlance isn't a instant win button. If the dragon swoops in close, the lance makes for a pretty good melee weapon and makes the rider more useful than just another pair of eyes.

[bguy]

That is pretty much how they describe the dragon fighting, and likely why having the Dragonlance isn't a instant win button. If the dragon swoops in close, the lance makes for a pretty good melee weapon and makes the rider more useful than just another pair of eyes.

Yeah, dragon riders carrying footman's lances (which could be quickly oriented against a dragon attacking from the sides or above and could even be thrown as an absolute last resort) would probably make more sense for an airborne weapon than the mounted dragonlances which can only really cover one vector of attack and might snarl the dragons together on a successful hit.

[NRSASD]

Arg I need my Dragonlance fix! Please come back, warty goblin!

[Saintheart]

Yeah, dragon riders carrying footman's lances (which could be quickly oriented against a dragon attacking from the sides or above and could even be thrown as an absolute last resort) would probably make more sense for an airborne weapon than the mounted dragonlances which can only really cover one vector of attack and might snarl the dragons together on a successful hit.

Spoiler: Potential spoilers for Dragons of Winter Night and Spring Dawning

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True, but the impact power of a footman's lance in those circumstances would be considerably less. The mounted lance is rigged up and attached to the saddle:



And the saddle is strapped all around the dragon. When the lance hits, a decent component of the dragon's forward momentum strikes with it. If you hit with a footman's lance, you're only hitting with whatever momentum isn't lost when the rider recoils with the impact.

On top of that, I'd query whether you can practically orient a footman's lance and use it effectively while the dragon's doing turns in the air and subjecting you to G-force and so on. Footman's lances are 8 feet long. Even allowing for balance, that's a damn unwieldy weapon in the air. The greater lances are pretty much impossible to wield without a saddle or mount: 16 feet long.

It's true the AD&D rules basically tell us that on a hit you do the rider's hitpoint count in damage, but given the hitpoint count of dragons, the greater lances which do the dragon + rider's HP in damage, that's a far more effective weapon. And the footman lances are not one-shot, one-kill weapons either: at the High Clerist's Tower, the Knights have to hit the trapped blue dragons several times before they actually kill them. They're using footman's lances in that instance.

[warty goblin]

Arg I need my Dragonlance fix! Please come back, warty goblin!

Sorry for my absence, the last week has been crazy. Unfortunately the next week is also crazy, but after that things thankfully return to normal. I might get an update done yet today, just have to see.

[Keltest]

Spoiler: Potential spoilers for Dragons of Winter Night and Spring Dawning

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True, but the impact power of a footman's lance in those circumstances would be considerably less. The mounted lance is rigged up and attached to the saddle:



And the saddle is strapped all around the dragon. When the lance hits, a decent component of the dragon's forward momentum strikes with it. If you hit with a footman's lance, you're only hitting with whatever momentum isn't lost when the rider recoils with the impact.

On top of that, I'd query whether you can practically orient a footman's lance and use it effectively while the dragon's doing turns in the air and subjecting you to G-force and so on. Footman's lances are 8 feet long. Even allowing for balance, that's a damn unwieldy weapon in the air. The greater lances are pretty much impossible to wield without a saddle or mount: 16 feet long.

It's true the AD&D rules basically tell us that on a hit you do the rider's hitpoint count in damage, but given the hitpoint count of dragons, the greater lances which do the dragon + rider's HP in damage, that's a far more effective weapon. And the footman lances are not one-shot, one-kill weapons either: at the High Clerist's Tower, the Knights have to hit the trapped blue dragons several times before they actually kill them. They're using footman's lances in that instance.

Spoiler: Followup

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To help put some things in perspective, assuming that the wielder is a fighter who rolls max HP every level, you aren't one-shotting even a very small dragon with a footman's lace until close to 10th level, which is also close to where fighters stop getting extra hit dice and start just getting a couple HP per level. The larger dragons will never need fewer than two or three shots no matter how powerful you are a fighter/knight.

[bguy]

Spoiler: Potential spoilers for Dragons of Winter Night and Spring Dawning

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It's true the AD&D rules basically tell us that on a hit you do the rider's hitpoint count in damage, but given the hitpoint count of dragons, the greater lances which do the dragon + rider's HP in damage, that's a far more effective weapon. And the footman lances are not one-shot, one-kill weapons either: at the High Clerist's Tower, the Knights have to hit the trapped blue dragons several times before they actually kill them. They're using footman's lances in that instance.

Spoiler

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The greater lances will certainly do more damage if you can actually land a hit with them. It's landing that hit that is the challenge given it's an unwieldly weapon with a limited attack arc. (When playing the Dragonlance flight simulator, DragonStrike I always found it a lot easier to hit enemy dragons with my dragon's breath weapon than to try and land a hit on them with the mounted Dragonlance.)

As for the footman's dragonlances, in the novella "The Story That Tasslehoff Promised He Would Never, Ever, Ever Tell", the Solamnic Knight Owen Glendower was able to successfully one-shot a white dragon with a footman's lance, so they can work as one-shot, one-kill weapons on the weaker chromatic dragons.

[Lapak]

Spoiler: Followup

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To help put some things in perspective, assuming that the wielder is a fighter who rolls max HP every level, you aren't one-shotting even a very small dragon with a footman's lace until close to 10th level, which is also close to where fighters stop getting extra hit dice and start just getting a couple HP per level. The larger dragons will never need fewer than two or three shots no matter how powerful you are a fighter/knight.

Spoiler

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Well... not really. Remember that you're talking 1e dragons here, before the massive HP inflation of 2e. This is the edition where Orcus has 120 hit points.

Opening up Dragonlance Adventures and flipping to the monster index in the back, an average adult Blue Dragon has 45 hit points. Reds have 50. Huge Ancient examples include Khisanth (64 hp) and a standard Ancient Red (88 hit points.)

If you're a fighter with an 18 Con - not so easy as it is in 3e, but definitely possible - you're getting +4 to each of your first 9 hit dice, so 9.5 avg per level. By 5th level you're one-shotting adult Blues with a footman's lance; by 6th reds, 10th level puts you pretty much exactly at one-shotting the Ancient Reds at the top of the Chromatic heap.

Even without a CON boost, the fighter starts one-shotting chromatic adults by around 6th level and can one-shot all the adults around 10th level.

Now obviously a great lance does all of this better - for the most part IMMEDIATELY, as metallics average 1 HD greater than their counterpart Chromatics and the rider's HP is an additional boost on top of that; even a 1st level kender with a mounted lance can likely one-shot most of they'll face (assuming they can hit, of course.) But the footman's weapon is more dangerous than you think.

(Takhisis herself is an exception to the low-HP 1e rule. She's got 999 hit points, so even the 126 that Huma and the Silver Dragon would be dishing out with a mounted lance is a loooong way from a one-shot. But it is a lot more suffering than she's likely to face from basically any other source.)

[RossN]

Finally caught up with this wonderful thread!

I have to say I prefer the second half of the book to the first, partly because I think it is the point where the story really feels like it is becoming its own thing rather than a novelisation of the modules. Tika is a case in point, as brought up in an earlier comment. In game terms she has to be able to keep up with the others which is why she is a pretty experienced Fighter/Thief despite little indication in her backstory or personality of being anything other than a brave and quickwitted but otherwise 'mundane' teenage barmaid.

(Let me say I'm also a big fan of Tika and it is great to see her properly get Promoted to the Opening Credits as it were.)

I also love Toede and really hope we cover his book.

Regarding the Elves and the Cataclysm revelations in the Legends Trilogy make me far less sympathetic to their 'it was all the fault of the humans' but even as written the timeline seems a little off for it to be so fresh - an elf would have to be pushing four hundred to have personal memory of the event which even for elves would probably make it a generation ago or more for most of them.

Edit: Okay, having checked the aging chart for 1st edition I can see there was a shift between 1st and 2nd editions, which was when I entered the game. In 2e a High Elf hit 'Venerable' at 350 and has an outside chance of reaching 750. In 1e a High Elf only becomes 'Middle Aged' at 551 and could live to be 1600 (!).

[Keltest]

Spoiler

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Well... not really. Remember that you're talking 1e dragons here, before the massive HP inflation of 2e. This is the edition where Orcus has 120 hit points.

Opening up Dragonlance Adventures and flipping to the monster index in the back, an average adult Blue Dragon has 45 hit points. Reds have 50. Huge Ancient examples include Khisanth (64 hp) and a standard Ancient Red (88 hit points.)

If you're a fighter with an 18 Con - not so easy as it is in 3e, but definitely possible - you're getting +4 to each of your first 9 hit dice, so 9.5 avg per level. By 5th level you're one-shotting adult Blues with a footman's lance; by 6th reds, 10th level puts you pretty much exactly at one-shotting the Ancient Reds at the top of the Chromatic heap.

Even without a CON boost, the fighter starts one-shotting chromatic adults by around 6th level and can one-shot all the adults around 10th level.

Now obviously a great lance does all of this better - for the most part IMMEDIATELY, as metallics average 1 HD greater than their counterpart Chromatics and the rider's HP is an additional boost on top of that; even a 1st level kender with a mounted lance can likely one-shot most of they'll face (assuming they can hit, of course.) But the footman's weapon is more dangerous than you think.

(Takhisis herself is an exception to the low-HP 1e rule. She's got 999 hit points, so even the 126 that Huma and the Silver Dragon would be dishing out with a mounted lance is a loooong way from a one-shot. But it is a lot more suffering than she's likely to face from basically any other source.)

… Really? Then my DM was horribly lying to me when he threw a 100+ HP young adult red dragon at us.

[RossN]

Raistlin gently tells Goldmoon to give them the pack, since otherwise they'll all be killed. Toede agrees, Goldmoon protests, but Raistlin's weird hypnotic power is washing over her, as he insists that their gear will be perfectly safe. And didn't the staff shock him? The gods protect their own.

Goldmoon gives the pack to Raistlin.

It's phrased ambiguously and it is certainly nothing like as overt as his spell use with the Gully Dwarfs but did anyone else get the impression Raistlin cast Suggestion on Goldmoon?

[Lapak]

… Really? Then my DM was horribly lying to me when he threw a 100+ HP young adult red dragon at us.

If you were playing 2e, not so much. Hit points in general were somewhat higher; dragon hit points absolutely skyrocketed.

Adult Blues average 45 HP in 1e. The same Adult Blue in 2e has 16 HD - average 75 HP, possibly as much as 128. Young adult would be 1 HD less, so ~70 average and possible 120.

Edit: but of course the books are based on the 1e modules, so those are the numbers I assume above.

[bguy]

If you were playing 2e, not so much. Hit points in general were somewhat higher; dragon hit points absolutely skyrocketed.

Adult Blues average 45 HP in 1e. The same Adult Blue in 2e has 16 HD - average 75 HP, possibly as much as 128. Young adult would be 1 HD less, so ~70 average and possible 120.

Edit: but of course the books are based on the 1e modules, so those are the numbers I assume above.

Spoiler: Dragons of War game module

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Yeah, I dug out my copy of the original Dragons of War game module (which covered the Battle at the High Clerist's Tower) and the blue dragons in that module have 54 hit points. (Which means that of the PCs in that module Sturm Brightblade, Derek Crownguard, and Flint Fireforge could all one shot the blues with a footman's Dragonlance.)

[pendell]

It's phrased ambiguously and it is certainly nothing like as overt as his spell use with the Gully Dwarfs but did anyone else get the impression Raistlin cast Suggestion on Goldmoon?

I don't think so. He's a stage magician and very intelligent. He's good at manipulating people. I think if he'd cast a spell we'd have seen him speak words of magic , make gestures, and probably throw in a spell component or two as well. I don't believe Silent Spell was much of a feat back then.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Saintheart]

Spoiler

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(Takhisis herself is an exception to the low-HP 1e rule. She's got 999 hit points, so even the 126 that Huma and the Silver Dragon would be dishing out with a mounted lance is a loooong way from a one-shot. But it is a lot more suffering than she's likely to face from basically any other source.)

Spoiler: Spoilery Spoilers for the Legend of Huma

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The book gets around that fact. It's not clear that Huma actually does Takhisis any real damage, but he does inflict pain on her for the first time in her entire existence, and that's enough to bring her down. That combined with the fact she's Lawful with a capital L.

[russdm]

Thanks to having multiple gnomes in the group, they started building a railway for easier transportation of goods (and more money from charging others to use it), and had started research into anti-dragon flying saucers.

But being Dragonlance Gnomes, shouldn't the railway had been dysfunctional? One of Dragonlance Gnome traits is crazy inventions that don't work or work not as intended, but definitely work. They are after all Mad scientist engineers.

[Wookieetank]

But being Dragonlance Gnomes, shouldn't the railway had been dysfunctional? One of Dragonlance Gnome traits is crazy inventions that don't work or work not as intended, but definitely work. They are after all Mad scientist engineers.

Lets just say it was not safe to be within 20 feet of the train while it was operating due to all the wildly moving parts, and it violated any number of noise regulations as well, to the point of needing ear protection. The party's mage was researching better silence spells to counteract the noise of this and a number of other industrial inventions they came up with.

[Keltest]

But being Dragonlance Gnomes, shouldn't the railway had been dysfunctional? One of Dragonlance Gnome traits is crazy inventions that don't work or work not as intended, but definitely work. They are after all Mad scientist engineers.

This tends to get flanderized somewhat in later works. with non-gnome cooperation and leadership, gnomish inventions can be made quite practical. Its mentioned towards the end of Winter Night that the Knights of Solamnia have a healthy partnership with the gnomes to that effect, producing some actually legitimately useful machines and devices. The gnomes are, for example, given credit for inventing the screw, the spring and the gear.

[pendell]

Well, according to the module in which they appear, in the original rules there was a base 70% chance that any Gnomish contraption would fail, spectacularly. Not exactly surprising.

Spoiler

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As I recall, the gnomes were created when humans came into contact with the Graygem of Gargath. It's chaos cursed them to be forever inventing but never achieve anything worthwhile with their inventions. Sort of a technological Cassandra.

I also believe the graygem mutated humans into Kender and Dwarves at the same time.

At any rate, there's a standalone single-player module called Gnomes 100, Dragons 0, which i led a readthrough of nine years ago. It seems the Gnomes can accomplish something meaningful if they have a non-Gnome to advise and guide their efforts. The story of the module is that the dragonarmies are invading mount nevermind, and the Gnomes convince a not-too-bright apprentice baker to lead them in battle, using the various inventions and allies scattered about the mountain. Suffice it to say, the dragon armies shan't be trying that again in a hurry.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Keltest]

Well, according to the module in which they appear, in the original rules there was a base 70% chance that any Gnomish contraption would fail, spectacularly. Not exactly surprising.

Spoiler

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As I recall, the gnomes were created when humans came into contact with the Graygem of Gargath. It's chaos cursed them to be forever inventing but never achieve anything worthwhile with their inventions. Sort of a technological Cassandra.

I also believe the graygem mutated humans into Kender and Dwarves at the same time.

At any rate, there's a standalone single-player module called Gnomes 100, Dragons 0, which i led a readthrough of nine years ago. It seems the Gnomes can accomplish something meaningful if they have a non-Gnome to advise and guide their efforts. The story of the module is that the dragonarmies are invading mount nevermind, and the Gnomes convince a not-too-bright apprentice baker to lead them in battle, using the various inventions and allies scattered about the mountain. Suffice it to say, the dragon armies shan't be trying that again in a hurry.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Youre half right.

Spoiler

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Reorx cursed a group of humans into gnomes because he's a touchy god and their egos offended him. Later, in an unrelated event, a tribe of gnomes were trying to capture the Graygem at Gargath, but they split into two factions: those who wanted to study it and those who wanted to hoard it for its value. The Graygem did its thing, and the group who wanted to study it became Kender, and the group who wanted to hoard it became Dwarves.

[Lord Torath]

You're half right.

Spoiler

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Reorx cursed a group of humans into gnomes because he's a touchy god and their egos offended him. Later, in an unrelated event, a tribe of gnomes were trying to capture the Graygem at Gargath, but they split into two factions: those who wanted to study it and those who wanted to hoard it for its value. The Graygem did its thing, and the group who wanted to study it became Kender, and the group who wanted to hoard it became Dwarves.

Really, it depends on the race of the teller. If a dwarf is telling the story, then dwarves were the original race, and the Kender and Gnomes came later. If you hear a gnome tell it (and you don't die of old age before they finish telling you the name of the tale), you'll discover that gnomes were the original race, with dwarves and kender splitting off.

[warty goblin]

And we're back! You just can't keep this reread down; rather like that embarrassing infection you picked up during spring break freshman year. Or would have picked up, if you weren't the sort of person who spent spring break reading Dragonlance. Maybe I'm projecting.


And now, on to

5: The Speaker of the Suns
The chapter opens with Goldmoon being stunned by the beauty of Qualinost, which is described at considerable length. At the city's four corners stand slender spires of silver and white; while in the center is a great golden tower, alive with reflected sunlight. The other buildings are carved of rose quartz, the entire city flowing into the forest beyond. It seems like the last peaceful place on Krynn.

Gilthanas tells them to take a moment to rest, but - much to Caramon's chagrin - there won't be time for food, then steps aside to talk with his brother Porthios. Caramon checks his pack for any scraps of food, for about the fifth time. Raistlin reads his spellbook, Goldmoon and Riverwind snuggle and enjoy the beauty of the city; Tika looks on wistfully. Tas tries to map the route they took to Qualinost, even though Tanis tells him the elves won't let him keep the map. Fizban takes a nap, Sturm and Flint are worried about Tanis.

Sturm asks Tanis about how unpleasant it is to come back to a home that doesn't want you. Tanis replies that he thought he had left the elven kingdom behind, but realizes it's always been part of him. Flint interrupts this cheery bit of self discovery to inform them that Gilthanas has returned. He informs them that runners sent ahead have returned with news; they are to head directly to the Tower of the Sun to meet with the Speaker of the Sun, and there is still not time for food. He starts in on an apology for this, but Tanis cuts him off, pointing out that compared to some of the stuff they've seen, missing a meal isn't exactly all that. Caramon isn't exactly pleased about this, but tightens his belt.

They head off - Fizban has a brief argument with a tree again - and Tanis wonders about the crazy old wizard, and the look of terror on Raistlin's face. He distracts himself from such unanswerables by asking Gilthanas about the current state of Qualinesti. Gilthanas snaps that given how badly Tanis speaks elven, maybe he doesn't have any right to know. Tanis shoots back that the elves are his people as well; Gilthanas starts to accuse Tanis of flaunting his human heritage with the beard, something he should be ashamed of. Tanis says he left because he was ashamed, and just who made him feel that way?

Gilthanas apologizes, and explains that they are evacuating Qualinost; the compansions have come to see the city's final days.

As they move through the city, at first Tanis thinks it is unchanged. But it isn't. "Qualinost had changed, and the change was change itself." The city is as it ever was, but the sense of a storm is in the air, the people are in haste, indecisive, scared. Here and there fires burn as the elves consign treasures they cannot take with them to the flames.

Tanis finds this intensely and unexpectedly painful, worse even than the destruction of Solace. Some part of him had always counted on Qualinost being there, unchanging eternally.

The cover to the Qualinost anthology, because of course there's a Qualinost anthology. Featureing a younger Tanis and Flint, and the city in the background.

At last the companions enter the Tower of the Sun, in the center of the city. All are moved by its beauty, except Raistlin, who as usual sees only decay. They have a chance to freshen up a bit, before being called into the main chamber.

No human has set foot in the chamber of the Speaker of the Suns in a century. The last dwarves to see it built it, and kender have never been allowed inside. The graceful, organically curving architecture brings tears to Flint's eyes. Great pillars of white marble hold up a high vaulted ceiling, where a mosaic depicts the sun and the red and white moons. Mirrors and windows concentrate sunlight into the center of the room, no matter the time of day.

There are no seats in the chamber, instead the elven heads of household - the only ones permitted within - all stand. Tanis notices far more women that usual, dressed in dark purple - mourning colors. The companions are led to the front of the room, attracting a certain amount of - mostly negative - attention. Dwarves and kender aren't looked on fondly, Goldmoon and Riverwind look barbaric in their furs, and Raistlin wears the red robes. Red is the color of neutrality, and as far as the elves are concerned, only one step from the black robes of evil.

This is the first time in many years that Tanis has seen the Speaker of the Suns, who's sort of his adopted father. He is still tall, but grey is creeping into his hair now, and his face is unexpectedly lined. The Speaker welcomes his sons, saying he never expected to see them alive again, and asks for details of the raid. Gilthanas asks him to first great their guests.

The Speaker apologizes for ignoring them, then, on a whispered something from Gilthanas, calls Tanis forwards, saying (rather coolly) that he is welcome back to his homeland, and that his daughter will be particularly glad to see him. Gilthanas scowls at this.

The Speaker skips over getting introductions from the rest of the companions, saying it is more important to learn what is happening at the moment. Gilthanas explains the backstory about how he ended up in Solace; apparently he was leading a raid on Pax Tharkas, when he and a group of human resistance fighters were ambushed by the dragon armies. He was left for dead, most of the others killed, but some were taken prisoner. After getting patched up by forest druids, he made his way to Solace, following the dragon army. He pauses, and says that Solace has been destroyed.

The elves are horrified about this; the vallenwoods were trees even they considered ancient. Gilthanas explains that he saw remnants of his resistance force - elven and human - tied to stakes in the center of town. He was planning to rescue them under cover of darkness, but a red dragon swept down and landed in front of them. On the dragon's back sat a man wearing the robes of a cleric of the Queen of Darkness, and a helmet with a face mask fashioned after a hideous dragon. The draconians knelt in worship to the dragon, but many of the other soldiers of the dragon armies fled in terror of the dragon. The elven prisoners however remained stoic in the face of the monster, much to its rider's displeasure.

The man on the dragon gave a speech detailing that he is Verminaard, and a cleric of the true gods. He brings the gift of healing, and goes on to explain that humans are welcome to work with him, but elves cannot be taught the folly of their ways, and so must be annihilated. He then tells Ember, his dragon, to kill the prisoners, which the dragon does in a great gout of fire.

Gilthanas was apparently so overcome with horror he nearly threw himself forwards, to die with his people, but was stopped by Theros Ironfield, who sheltered him in his own house, at great personal risk. Then he was captured with the other companions, and Theros' arm was cut off in punishment, but Goldmoon healed him.

The Speaker calls Goldmoon forwards; and even the elves are impressed with her beauty. The Speaker is skeptical that Goldmoon healed Theros, but Goldmoon asks if he thinks his son was deceived. The Speaker says, basically, that he suspects Gilthanas, horror-striken and traumatized, mistook witchcraft for a miracle. Goldmoon pulls back her cloak, revealiing the amulet of Mishakal.

The Speaker, with a yell of "Blasphemy" tries to tear it off of Goldmoon, but gets zapped by blue lightning and thrown across the room. The elves draw their swords, the companions draw theirs, and things look like they're going to go south in a real hurry when Fizban intervenes.

Pushing aside the swords, Fizban hauls the Speaker to his feet, and points out he really had that coming. The Speaker asks who he is - Tas helpfully reminds Fizban of his name when he can't remember - and tells Solostaran (the Speaker) to cool off and listen to Goldmoon's story. And maybe apologize while he's at it.

At this point Fizban is distracted by his hat falling over his eyes, causing him to exclaim that he's been struck blind. Raistlin rescues him from his own headgear, and the Speaker, to his credit, actually does apologize, saying he had thought Goldmoon was profaning the symbol of Mishakal, and in his despair he failed to see the arrival of hope.

Goldmoon retells basically the entire book to this point, which seems to satisfy the Speaker, although he will need time to think what to do. In the meantime the companions can go eat and rest - Fizban is already asleep, leaning against a pillar. The Speaker's daughter, Laurana, will take care of them until a banquet that evening, to honor their deeds.

The elves all leave, and Laurana arrives. She's very beautiful, and gets an entire paragraph describing her smooth nut brown skin, honey colored hair and general perfection. Caramon's jaw just about hits the floor at her beauty. Even Raistlin sees her as beautiful, not a hint of decay touches her. Sturm quietly declares her the most beautiful women he's ever seen; Tanis says she's also the most beautiful he ever will see. Everybody gives Tanis a look at this comment, but he's too swept up to notice.

Laurana, being hot. The best picture of Laurana is a massive spoiler, so we'll get to that, in about a novel.

Goldmoon remarks to Riverwind that seeing Laurana certainly clears a lot up. Tas has no idea what though, and asks Tika, who for her part is feeling distinctly frumpy by comparison, and tells Tas sharply that she has no idea, except that Caramon's staring like he's never seen a woman in his life. Tas, clearly still confused by all this, says that Laurana sure is pretty, but different from Tika. See, Laurana's all thin and willowy and - Tika tells Tas to shut it, and pushes him away.

Feelings hurt, Tas decides the only thing to do is to stick close to Tanis until he finally figures out what is going on. Laurana meanwhile bids the companions welcome, and bids them accompany her to a place where they can rest and eat. As they leave, Laurana looks at Tanis once, then lowers her eyes, blushing.


Commentary
This chapter is elves elves elves. They're actually less jerky than I remember, albeit still kinda jerks. Gilthanas in particular is rather substantially unpleasant to Tanis, who's really done absolutely nothing to deserve it at this point. The Speaker isn't super-nice to Goldmoon at first, but on the other hand he's really got no reason to believe her; saying the gods who have been AWOL for 300 years have come back seems like the sort of claim that requires a somewhat high burden of proof after all. And he immediately cottons on to this being a big deal and cause for actual hope.

Tanis is in full on miserable mode, although this is at least for a more sympathetic reason than his usual endless Girl Trouble moping - although we also get that. It's interesting to note that both sections of Autumn Twilight open with Tanis having a sucky homecoming of sorts. I rather like it when stories use this sort of repeated rhythm structure, Lord of the Rings famously does this with a travel->danger->setback->homely house cycle, which repeats essentially throughout the entire novel. This isn't quite that strong, but it still allows a moment for rest and slower emotions (namely Tanis being miserable), before getting back to adventuring and drama. Here we mostly get some good scenes with him, Flint, and Sturm, which are nice because the soften Sturm a bit, and build the relationship between Tanis and Flint up some more. Given that Tanis is the default viewpoint character, it's odd that his sort of father/son relationship with Flint isn't built up more.

Most importantly we finally meet Laurana, who's been mentioned in passing several times. She doesn't really do anything here, except make all the men act like morons, and giving poor Tika a raging case of body insecurity. I find Tas' complete obliviousness rather charming here; as an explicitly childlike character he's basically asexual and uninterested in romance except as a curiosity. It also serves the clever literary purpose of letting everybody else twig to Tanis being totally gaga immediately, and having a character who needs to figure it out, so the audience can get an actual on-the-page explanation of the dynamics.

And yes, Laurana is gorgeous. It's an occasional criticism of Dragonlance that all the women are beautiful, which is quite true. Goldmoon is statuesque, Laurana is nearly supernaturally beautiful, and Tika is hot in a sort of girl-next-door way, so at least they aren't all the same type of physically perfect. And while it isn't pointed out all that much, the men aren't exactly a bunch of ogres either; Caramon's attractiveness is a frequent background plot point, Sturm and Tanis are actually pretty good looking when they can stop being nobly miserable for like three minutes, and Riverwind's got that weatherbeaten outdoorsy thing going. Raistlin is rather unpleasant looking it is true, but he's the only one of the humans, and also, well, Raistlin.

What I'm saying here is that it's a fantasy, which features attractive people because, shocker, people are attracted to attractive people.

[Keltest]

You know, even as a kid I remember thinking that the armor of just about everybody who wasn't Sturm or a Dragon Highlord looked really silly on the book covers. Caramon gets it especially bad because, as a practiced mercenary and warrior, he should really keep his gear in better shape than to have no armor on his legs or arms. Tanis and Flint can get away with it because theyre basically just wearing their normal clothes, and Tas isn't even a warrior. But come on Caramon, at least make sure your armor is trying to protect you.