With six possible endings that were seeded from DL1 Dragons of Despair, DL6 Dragons of Ice and DL10 Dragons of Dreams the ending to the War of the Lance is entirely up to the players and the TALIS Deck. Buy DL14 Dragons of Triumph: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16925/DL14-Dragons-of-Triumph-1e?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Cold Open
If you think you know how the War of the Lance ends because you read a novel, sit down and hold my drink…
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about the alternate endings to the War of the Lance. I would like to take a moment and thank the members of this channel, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate links. I am referencing DL14 Dragons of Triumph primarily for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below!
Discussion
The ending to your home game of Dragonlance DL1-14 has every opportunity of being completely different from the novels and anyone else’s home game. This is not solely because of the player’s choices, but rather fate, or more specifically, the Fate number randomly generated from the TALIS card deck from DL13 Dragons of Truth in the Glitterpalace. If the heroes chose to avoid or otherwise failed to enter the Glitterpalace, at the beginning of DL14 Dragons of Triumph, the DM will determine which ending the players will face, again, randomly with a die roll. You see, the novel presented one possible ending, but the novels are not following the course of the modules. They actually deviated from them entirely during Dragons of Winter Night, and before that in the earlier modules so as not to spoil the experience of playing through the saga for the players.
The modules have six possible endings to the War of the Lance and the fate of the Dark Queen. I want to present each possible ending but first let me identify each. The first is Fizban / Paladine vs. the Dark Queen, the second is Waylorn / Huma Returns from the Past, the third is Sacrifice Self to Seal the Void, the fourth is Berem / Paladine Seals the Gates, the fifth is Berem and his Sister, and finally the sixth is the Death of the Gem. Let’s take a look at each of these possible endings and what they mean for the overall story. Many of these will no doubt be unfamiliar to you, so if you ever want to run through DL1-14 yourself and do not wish to have the potential ending spoiled, stop watching now.
The first possible ending is to have Fizban, who is the avatar of Paladine, directly intervene to seal shut the gate to the Abyss. Doing this requires a significant amount of power. If Fizban uses his power too early in the adventure, he not only alerts the Queen of Darkness to his presence, allowing her to bolster her defenses against him, but he also loses the potential power to drive the Queen back through the gate. This is represented by a percentage that is lowered through spell use. The biggest challenge of this possible ending is smuggling Fizban into the Council Chamber of the Temple during the Second Council of the Dragon Highlords to confront the Dark Queen.
The second possible ending is Huma returning from the past. In DL10 Dragons of Dreams, the heroes enter a grove of Waylorn where they find a man sleeping in a tower. Once awakened he reveals himself to be Waylorn Wyversbane. If the heroes mention dragons, Waylorn claims to be the reincarnation of Huma from the Age of Might. If this ending is randomly selected, the heroes must smuggle Waylorn or Huma into the gate during the Second Council of the Dragon Highlords with a Dragonlance! How do you smuggle a D ragonlance and a reincarnated Huma into the Temple? Good questions, let the players figure it out! Once there he will sacrifice himself by using the Dragonlance to hold the Queen at bay as the gate shuts behind him. It only works if he enters the portal before the Dark Queen emerges.
The third ending requires self sacrifice to seal the void. This is similar to the previous ending but requires a hero to bring the Dragonlance into the Council Chamber and present it before the Queen as if it were a holy symbol. This drives her back into the portal, and the hero can then walk through and close it from within. Once closed, the Dragonarmy falls to disunity and dispersal. Degenerating into petty tribes and wandering groups.
The fourth ending involves Paladine taking the form of Berem to reclaim the soul of Berem’s sister from the Temple. Once he has done this he can use his divine power to seal the gate. This is a mixture of the first and the fifth options where Paladine takes a more active role. The heroes must still smuggle this Berem into the temple however.
The fifth possible ending is the one most are familiar with. Berem Everman takes the green gemstone down into the depths of the temple of Takhisis and places it into the foundation stone. This reunites his soul with his sister’s soul and consecrates the temple into a holy place. This bars Takhisis from using the gate forever. The difficulty is in smuggling Berem into the temple depths and having him force his bare chest against the socket in the stone.
And the sixth and final possible ending to the Dragonlance Saga is the death of the gem. In this ending the gem’s return to the foundation stone permanently opens the gate, that’s why Takhisis sent the Dragonarmy to search for it. So the heroes must destroy the gem to prevent the gate from opening. To do this, the heroes need to bring Berem to the Anvil of Might and break the gem on the anvil. This anvil is located in the Temple of Darkness. Berem must kneel next to the anvil and a fighter must deliver a single blow to the gem as it rests against the anvil’s edge. This shatters the gem and grants Berem peace in death.
While all of this is happening, Lord Gunthar commanding the armies of Whitestone is drawing in upon Neraka to have a final massive Battlesystem confrontation with the Dragonarmies. Ultimately with the defeat of the Dark Queen, there is no peace to be found. The only reason elves, humans, gnomes, dwarves and kender were working together was because of the unified Dragonarmies. Now that the heroes broke that unity, they will all return to their respective lands as war over each nation inevitably continues, isolated and separate. This is the harsh reality of Dragonlance. It is in stark contrast to most other fantasy worlds and even other Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings where all races of good fight in unity. Not so here. In Dragonlance the races are not natural allies and are less concerned with the health and welfare of each other, rather focusing on their own nations, I would argue understandably. This is language directly lifted from the module for those inclined to pretend Dragonlance is something else.
Success is seen through the hope that inevitably arises in some of these nations. Hope for a future for their children, and peaceful treaties between neighbors and nations. You see the War of the Lance was never about destroying evil, it was about returning balance to the world of Krynn. And in balance there is as much evil in the world as there is good. Not entirely unlike the dualities we face within ourselves throughout life. We choose who we want to be while we wage inner war against our natures and desires.
Outro
But that is all I have to say about the alternate endings of the War of the Lance. What do you think of the possible endings? Do you have a favorite among them? And finally does the disparity between endings of the novels and modules excite you to possabilities or frustrate you with inconsistency? Leave a comment below.
I would like to take a moment and remind you to subscribe to this YouTube channel, ring the bell to get notified about upcoming videos and click the like button. This all goes to help other Dragonlance fans learn about this channel and its content. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time, remember:
Most of us walk in light and shadow but there are the chosen few who carry their own light to brighten both day and night.
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