Join me as I review Knight of the Black Rose by James Lowder, live! Share your thoughts on this background novel about Lord Soth in the Ravenloft campaign setting. This is the second book in the Ravenloft The Covenant series. You can pick up Knight of the Black Rose here: https://amzn.to/2XJa73E
About Knight of the Black Rose
A death knight with a checkered past finally meets his match in this second gothic horror tale set in the dark and menacing world of Ravenloft
On the fabled world of Krynn, Lord Soth finally learns that there is a price to pay for his long history of evil deeds, a price even an undead warrior might find horrifying.
Dark powers transport Soth to Barovia, and there the death knight must face the dread minions of Count Strahn Von Zarovich, the vampire lord of the nightmare land. But with only a captive Vistani woman and an untrustworthy ghost for allies, Lord Soth soon discovers that he may have to join forces with the powerful vampire if he is ever to escape the realm of terror.
Knight of the Black Rose is the second in an open-ended series of Gothic horror tales dealing with the masters and monsters of the Ravenloft dark fantasy setting.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. It is Kirinor, Reapember 29th, my name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of Knight of the Black Rose. I will be spoiling the story, so if you don’t want to know it, stop watching now! I would like to take a moment and thank my collaborator patrons, the Heroes of the Lance, and invite you to consider becoming a patron or member of this channel by visiting the links in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link. This is my perspective only, and if you have any thoughts or disagree with mine, I invite you to share them in YouTube chat.
This picks up at the assault of Palanthas. It’s really interesting hearing Lord Soth’s perspective of this event. When he collects Kitiara’s corpse in the Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthas, I had always thought her soul was part of that, as I believe he mentioned Takhisis promised him her soul. This however changes it so that his seneschal Caradoc, who is much more weak and conniving than portrayed in Lord Soth the novel, must traverse the Abyss looking for her soul. The tale of Soth is also different in this book than the original tale in the Dragonlance Adventures sourcebook and the Lord Soth novel. I don’t personally mind inconsistencies, as I see these novels like a retailing and personal approach to the characters legend rather than a factual recounting. Caradoc knows where to go as Lord Soth Told Him, and he decides to try and ensure Soth sticks to his word about talking to Chemosh, the god of undeath, about giving Caradoc his life back. I really like the way they portray Hell and the Abyss here. I have always been a fan of Dante’s view of Hell in the Inferno from the DIvine COmedy, and it is drastically different from Dragonlance’s view of the Abyss.
You see, Caradoc is a ghost in this story, though one that is still able to be physically harmed by Soth. He collects and hides Kitiaras soul from Soth, who is furious and breaks the ghost’s neck, then the mist captures them both, transporting them to Barovia. As soon as they arrive, Count Strahd Von Zarovich is aware of Lord Soth’s presence, and sends his wolves to investigate. He also sends zombies after Soth to test his power. Caradoc flees from Soth and the zombies. When Strahd learns how strong Soth is, Strahd relies on his informants, the Vistani, gypsies that travel Barovia and other duchy.
Soth watches one of their camps after chasing the wolves to it, and is summoned by the elder, a woman of knowledge who brings Soth into her caravan and gathers information from him for Strahd. Soth ends up killing her, and routing the camp, but captures Magda, one of the Vistani. Soth demands that Magda takes him to Strahd’s castle, Castle Ravenloft, she tries to escape but cannot, and eventually accepts her fate. They travel to his castle and witness a dwarf, who is suggested as being a werewolf, getting hung, and as they leave the dwarf kills everyone and tells Soth as they return to never trust the Vistani. That is when Strahd’s coach arrives for Soth and Magda.
They are taken to Castle Ravenloft where they meet Strahd Von Zarovich who is secretly keeping Caradoc from Lord Soth. Caradoc told Strahd about Soth and is being used to give Strahd power over Soth. Strahd eventually tells Soth that Caradoc was killed trying to enter his Castle, and reveals a magical image showing his supposed destruction. Soth asks why Strahd has summoned him, and Strahd reveals that he needs to use him for a task dealing with Duke Gundar, ruler in one of the duchies. Soth angrily confronts Strahd telling him that he is second to no one in this new land and they come to short blows that end in a stand still. Strahd shows Soth a tortured man, one from Duke Gundar’s duchy, who may know the secret to leaving this netherworld, but is being tortured for the information, and leaves Soth for the day. Magda was sent to a room to stay until called upon.
Soth has no intention of being Strahd’s errand boy and begins destroying every creature in his path, including the man who supposedly knew the exit from Barovia. At the same time Magda is trying to escape the castle and is attacked by a gargoyle, then stopped by a Red Dragon. Lord Soth enters and begins fighting the dragon, eventually ripping it apart and killing it with magic. Lord Soth was injured in the battle. Soth and Magda then leave the castle, and travel to an inn where another Barovian resident, formerly of Palanthas on Krynn, resides. This red robed priest was spirited away with other priests and a mage, but when they tried to leave, a guardian prevented them and nearly killed everyone before they escaped.
Magda insists she knows the location of the exit the priest spoke of through a tale of a Vistani hero. She relays it to Soth who finally relents, and they follow the tale’s clues. Azrael, the werebadger Dwarf that was nearly hung outside Castle Ravenloft, is following them, looking to enter Soth’s employ to leave Barovia. He kills Strahd’s wolf spies as a sign of trust and eventually discovers the gate out of barovia from Magda’s tale. Soth uses magic to open the gate.
They enter a long corridor that ends in a room filled with skeletal remains. It is obviously old and bare. Then a creature attacks, the guardian isa gelatinous blob with tentacles and mounts that hypnotize it’s prey with visions and devours them. Unfortunately it only worked temporarily on Lord Soth who began attacking it. He sees it is healing after every wound, so when he is grappled and pulled in to be suffocated by its mass, he reaches into it and crushed its brain and heart with his hands. As soon as it dies, a portal opens, though it’s not a portal to any other dimension, just a fire pit. Strahd appears and tells them that he knew about this and he begins to try to win Soth over as he respects his power after what Soth did to Castle Ravenloft’s minions.
Soth agrees to talk with Strahd about the portal in Castle Hunadora and travels to a tower with Magda, Azreal and Strahd. Caradoc is hiding in the tower watching, as the two pawns as Soth refers to them are resting and he and Strahd are talking. Soth agrees to enter Gundarak after Strahd explains that the torture victim who Soth killed, revealed the secret information Strahd was trying to get from its ghost. To open the portal, Gundar or his son’s blood must be spilled in their keep. Strahd explains that if Soth strays in the mists he could become a lord over his own domain, and become trapped forever like all of the duchies’ lords.
Strahd then summons thirteen skeletal warriors, showing his hand to Soth intentionally about knowing his background, and Soth leaves with his pawns and warriors to Gundarak. Once there they rest for the night after destroying reanimated corpses along the road and are attacked by giants. Magda suspects Azrael is a spy and leaves in the battle, and Soth allows her to because she earned it, and will probably die.
Days later they arrive at the Castle Hunadora and observe it for a while. Lord Soth does not respect the design or the castle’s Lord. They enter through a grate in the moat and travel into Lord Gundar’s son’s laboratory. His son is an accomplished magic-user and sociopath in a child’s body. He taunts and battles Soth and Azreal, even Lord Gundar enters the fray until finally Azrael tears out the boy’s throat. The lLord disappears and Soth anounces that they have what they want. They will enter the portal and leave him if he stays out of their way. They enter the keep proper and drop the blood leaking corpse as told. THe portal appears and Soth and Azreal enter it without thought.
They enter a shadow realm where a toll keeper awaits demanding their soul for passage. Neither has a soul as it turns out and they are allowed to pass. They exit into Barovia! Lord Soth is furious and begins slaughtering citizens. They travel to Castle Ravenloft where an army stands before them, blocking their path. They are told to turn away, but Soth attacks and begins to defeat the army with Azrael. Strahd sends Caradoc to parlay with Soth under his protection, and contacts Lord Gundar. He tells him that they can defeat Soth, but they need to work together. Carador enrages Soth by taunting him, and Strahd banishes Caradoc from his castle.
Strahd had Caradoc recite Soth’s history many times, so his plan to redirect Soth’s wrath worked flawlessly. Strahd approached Soth, telling him that Caradoc sought sanctuary for him, but has since been expelled and is seeking the portal Soth recently passed through to Gundarak, on his way to the Misty Border. Lord Soth and Azrael game immediate chase. Lord Gundar stayed clear of the chase, and Soth finally caught Caradoc at the precipice of the border. Lord Soth knew that he would be trapped but revenge burned bright within him. He destroyed Caradoc and was caught up in the Misty Border. It cleared and presented him with an alternate history land where he saved Krynn, but Lord Soth rejected it, attacking Isolde and his good twin. He inadvertently killed his son Peradur who jumped between him and his twin and the powers of this netherworld created Sithicus, a twisted version of Dargaard Keep Soth names Nedragaard. He is tormented by the banshees that change his story nightly, infuriating him more. Across Sithicus is a Vistani band rumored to be led by Magda. And in the mists of the hills, a woman named Kitiara is said to tell tales of how she doomed Lord Soth.
Now again, the history shared in this novel is different from the Lord Soth novel’s history. The basic idea is the same, but the details are sometimes drastically different. I don’t mind though. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman didn’t like Lord Soth traveling to Ravenloft, but being a fan of horror and revenge films, I think this is a great alternate history to Lord Soth. That is how I see it. An Alternate, not cannon story, but one I thoroughly enjoy.
If you like Dragonlance, Ravenloft or Lord Soth, you should definitely pick this one up! Lord Soth is overpowered for the campaign world’s lords, monsters and civilians, but the dark powers found a way to contain and torment him, and that is exactly what Lord Soth needs.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of Knight of the Black Rose by James Lowder. Have you read the novel? What did you think of Lord Soth in Ravenloft? Do you enjoy the reviews I am putting out there? Feel free to email me at info@dragonlance-saga.com or comment below.
I would like to once again invite you to consider becoming a patron or member of this channel, and you can pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link, all of which are in the description below.
This channel is all about celebrating the wonderful world of the Dragonlance Saga, and I hope you will join me in the celebration. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time Slàinte mhath (slan-ge-var).
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