Not everyone on Krynn is a hero. Some are simply good people, and through their actions, help foster and encourage others to heroism. Let’s learn about one named Otik Sandath. Buy Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home: https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/309152/leaves-from-the-inn-of-the-last-home?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Cold Open
Not everyone is a hero who swings a sword, some make food.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about Otik Sandath. 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 Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home, Tales of the Lance and War of the Lance Sourcebooks for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below!
Discussion
We tend to focus our attention on the Heroes of the Lance, or the villains in Dragonlance. But the average everyday individual can be just as impactful on those around them for good or ill. Otik Sandath is one such individual. Sure, he tried his hand at adventuring, I mean, who in the Age of Despair didn’t fantasize about discovering riches and changing their lives? This is a time when people preyed on eachother. Life was cheap after the Cataclysm, and Otik knew only too well that if he was to continue pursuing a life of adventure, it would surely cut his life prematurely short. However, unlike many people in this dark time, Otik wanted something more than simply eking out an existence.
Otik wanted to serve others, and take care of those in his community. So when he settled in the small town of Solace in three hundred and nineteen Alt Cataclius, he became aware of a run-down inn, desperately in need of repair. It was known for its watered down ale and food that only a Gully Dwarf could stomach, though he didn’t see it as the dump it was. Otik saw an opportunity. He bought the inn from a female Hill Dwarf for a Kender half-penny, and got to work.
It took a lot of elbow grease and know-how, but Otik saw this new Inn as something more than family, almost like a wife. He spent countless hours repairing and improving the Inn, naming it the Inn of the Last Home. Otik took as much care with the food and drink that he did with the building itself. When he hired one of the finest cooks in all of Solace to work his kitchen, the reputation of the Inn did a one eighty almost overnight. Over time, the Inn of the Last Home became known for Otiks famous spiced potatoes and ales. People would travel from all over Abanasinia to stay at Otik’s establishment because he was known as a firm but fair man, who truly cared about the Inn as much as his customers.
Otik is a rather portly fellow. He has a loud, jolly voice that cuts through a crowded room. When dealing with unruly customers his first act is to buy them a round on the house. If they keep up their poor behavior, he doesn’t hesitate to tumble them out of the door. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and it is evident in his food and drink, but also his mannerisms. When a young girl was caught stealing from his patrons, rather than turning her into the marshal, he took her under his wing. Otik knew that young Tika Waylan didn’t know any better, as her father was a ne’er-do-well, and she just needed a father figure to show her right from wrong. Otik took it upon himself to be that father figure and eventually adopted her.
There was even a tale of one spring in three hundred and forty-eight ac, when Otik was making his next batch of harvest ale, the hops were delivered by a Kender named Moonwick Lightfinger, who accidentally spiked the ale with a love potion he handled from a traveling wizard. When Otik tapped that keg the following autumn, the patrons of the Inn were overcome with passion, and the inn became nothing less than a den of love. Otik sent Tika away from the debauchery and when the night was over, Otik mixed the remaining ale to prevent this from ever happening again. The night did end up being his most profitable, but what a price he paid for it.
In three hundred and fifty-one ac, when the War of the Lance came to Solace, Otik, the consummate professional, did his best to create a safe space for the locals and their occupiers. This approach of maintaining a neutral territory for everyone to take a load off after a hard day’s work or travel, lasted well into the Red Dragonarmies invasion of Abanasinia. Until Lord Verminard discovered that the Blue Crystal staff was located in the Inn by his henchman Toade. The dragon highlord would bring the might of his red dragons down on the town of Solace and the Inn itself. While most of the town was burnt, the dragons tore the Inn from the heights of the Vallenwood trees and brought it to the ground. How the Inn was able to stay mostly intact is nothing shy of a miracle.
Terrified for the locals and himself, Otik didn’t know what else to do but keep the Inn open and try to maintain the neutral ground. Otik was wounded during this time, forcing him to walk with a limp and cane, but it didn’t slow him down. When the war was near its conclusion, Otik planted a new Vallenwood tree, and with the rumored assistance from a certain old man in mouse-colored robes, the tree grew at a tremendous rate. By the time Caramon Majere and Tika Waylan returned from the war, the Vallenwood tree was fully grown, and Otik, who had retired for a short while, was already drawing up plans for a new Inn of the Last Home to be built up in this Vallenwood tree.
In the next five years, Caramon and Tika would save up enough money to buy the Inn from Otik and become the new purveyors of the Inn of the Last Home. Maintaining the same high standards that Otik did, if not improving on them even more. They kept his recipes and gave him a legacy that any one of us would be proud of. For years Otik would be a customer in the Inn he helped build, telling travelers of his time with the now Heroes of the Lance. After a time, Otik passed away peacefully and would be buried in a plot in sight of the Inn.
Otik Sandath’s legacy is one of service. He genuinely cared for others. Not because he was trying to milk them of their money, but because it was his nature. I can think of few greater lives than those defined by doing what you love, and positively affecting others in the process. He lifted the spirits of those weary from travel and toil, loss and hopelessness. The gift that the inn of the Last home was to the people of Abanasinia in the age of Despair was like a beacon of light in the darkness. And Otik Sandath was the very beacon. He will forever be an indelible part of Dragonlance, and an example that anyone, with work and intention, can change lives for the better.
Outro
And that is all I have to say about Otik Sandath. Do you value service to others as much as fighting for others? Have you ever made Otik’s Spiced Potatoes? And finally, have you ever adventured in Solace and not stopped in the I nn of the Last Home? Leave a comment below.
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The war of the lance started here, right in my fireplace!
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