Join me as I review Riverwind the Plainsman by Paul B. Thompson and Tonya R. Carter, live! Share your thoughts on this first novel in the Dragonlance Preludes II series, released on March 31, 1990 by TSR Inc. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/47Ondex
About Riverwind the Plainsman
Desperate to win the hand of his chieftan’s daughter, Riverwind embarks on a dangerous mission to find the fabled Blue Crystal Staff
To prove himself worthy of his great love, Goldmoon, Riverwind is sent on an impossible quest by the elders of the Que-Shu tribe: Find evidence of the true gods.
With an eccentric soothsayer named Catchflea, Riverwind falls down a magical shaft, and alights in a world of slavery, sorcery, and rebellion. As Riverwind, Catchflea, and a resourceful elf-girl find their way to Xak Tsaroth—and discover the Blue Crystal Staff of Miashakal—they are stalked by fate and prophecy. For it is said that one of them will go mad, one will die, and one will find glory.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Kirinor, Newkolt the 31st. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my review of Riverwind the Plainsman by Paul B. Thompson and Tonya R. Carter. I would like to take a moment and thank the DLSaga members, 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. 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 is yet another wonderful in-cannon story beginning. We pick up with Riverwind already at his Anointing of the Quester ritual. Everyone must undertake this if their desire to marry the Princess of the Que-Shu and eventually become the Chieftain. The ritual is followed by another Courting Quest where he must endure a psychedelic drug. There is in refrernce to the short story where Goldmoon’s mother appeared to her and told her of the old gods, and Riverwind sees his dead father and rival, Wanderer and Hollow-Sky respectfully. Hollow-Sky mocks him, and Wanderer tells him the old gods are real and to stand and fight, though Riverwind believes he is dying. I have done a number of psychedelics in my day in a number of forms, and I have never once thought I was dying, though many of my friends have. This I believe is a trope from those who want the experience to be dangerous and used as propaganda against the substances. They are in fact quite helpful for a number of conditions. Boredom being the least important.
So Riverwind comes to and realizes he said everything aloud, and the tribe elders want him to be expelled for heresy, as the Que-Shu turned to ancestor worship after the Cataclysm. Then it’s revealed one of the elders tricked Riverwind, so ultimately he was sent on a quest to prove the old gods are real, or come back and renounce his beliefs. He refuses to renounce them and leaves. On his way out he is met by a hermit seer named Catchflea. It’s a derogatory nickname given to him that he took ownership of. He prophesied what is to come, and joins Riverwind. As they begin climbing the Eastwall, or forbidden mountains, they come across wolves, of a kind. Riverwind is hunting a sheep and this pack takes the wounded animal. The pack leader, Kayanor can speak and has fingers for paws, a truly upsetting image not unlike some ancient wendigo or shapeshifter in indigenous people mythology.
The creature hunts Riverwind who bluffs his way out of the situation, then the next day they continue traveling and they are set upon by a thief in the night. Chasing the thief leads them to a cavern they fall into like Alice in Wonderland, floating to the bottom, where they come across the Hest elves. This clan is an offshoot of the Silvanesti that went underground as outlaws in the Kinslayer Wars and have stayed. They are not unlike the underground elves in the Galen Beknighted novel, mining gems and such, but with a different name and history. They are led to the ruler Li El, First Light of Hest, in the capital city of Vartoom, where they are placed under arrest until their fates are decided. The elf who stole from them is interrogated. The Hest elves are even more class based than the Silvanesti if you can believe it, with the lowest, the diggers, being nothing better than slaves.
Riverwind and Catchflea are taken to a tower, with a precarious bridge to enter it, which Catchflea nearly falls from. Ro Karn, the captain of the guard is also up here on a time out from his queen Li El. It is clear that Li El is a tyrant and we learn that she usurped power from the hereditary heir of Hest. The guilds went to war and hers took over the settlement. She has been ruling with an iron hand, and even turned her son against his father, who has fled after being blinded by her, and started the resistance movement Blue Sky Cult. Di An, the thief they chased to Hest, tries to help Riverwind and Catchflea escape the tower, but Riverwind is stopped by Ro Karn who takes him to Li El. Catchflea is taken to the resistance and helps them arm and battle the powers that be through the use of pepper and bows, of which the Hestians know nothing about.
Riverwind is taken control by Li El through illusions and set upon her enemies in the guise of Goldmoon. As Riverwind cuts down and searches for the cult, The cult strikes the military hard, taking one regiment, and eventually winning the day against them all after Riverwind breaks the spell he’s under. Together they charge the tower and rather than be captured and tried, Li El jumps from the tower to her death. Now the leader of the Cult wants to force Riverwind to be his ambassador to SIlvanesti and Catchflea to be his aid in Vartoom. Riverwind naturally wants to continue his quest, so he pleads with Di An to help them escape and she agrees. Before they leave, Catchflea looks into the future with the acorns and discovers that one of them will die, one will go mad, and one will find victory. We all know where Riverwind ends up, so the question is which will die and which will go mad?
Escape from Vartoom proves to be very difficult. Not only is climbing and navigating the maze of tunnels a problem, but they come across two encounters. The first is a frozen army from the time when Hest originally fled Sithas. These warriors were chasing them down and the magi froze them in time. Riverwind broke one out of their crystal shells and it was insistent on finishing its mission, even knowing it was over two thousand years later! So the friends flee, as the guard breaks his soldiers out. This ends poorly for them, as they give chase, their age catches up with them, and they end in dust and bones. What an odd spell and inertia effect! I dig it.
The second encounter is devouring ooze! It pulls Di An from the floor up to the ceiling covering her face, then drops down on Riverwind and Catchflea, smothering them. They are barely able to burn it with their lantern to get it to flee, then ultimately die. It’s about this time they see a gully dwarf. They eventually learn that they are in the tunnels underneath Xak Tsaroth. The city is swarming with the Aghar dwarves, but they are all under the control of draconians and a new species of lizard man called Ophidian. It was created by a human cleric named Krago. He is doing the Dark Queen’s bidding to make lizard men without the requirement of good dragon eggs. Krado is using quicksilver, and it seems to work. The Ophidian are incredibly strong. At first, Commander Thouriss the ophidian seems to be in control, but he has the education of a child and wants to learn about these new interlopers.
It turns out Krado is making a female version named Lyrexis, and they will propagate the new species and take over Ansalon. Riverwind and his friends try to break free and his friends get caught. He is forced to battle Thouriss one on one and barely survives by dragging him under water, seemingly drowning him. There is something funny about drowning a large lizard. I would assume they can inherently swim, but no.. they definitely can not. Riverwind escaped through tunnels and eventually crashed into Krado’s study dressed as what must be the largest goblin ever. He sneaks in, and Lyrexis wakes up, and begins to attack everyone and everything.
The friends flee with Krado as a hostage and evade to the upper levels, hoping to get out before Khisanth returns. They have to climb the massive chains while draconians are firing crossbows at them from a distance. Catchflea is hit, but only acknowledges it as they reach the summit. They mourn his death but must press on or they will join him. Aghar tell them there is an old temple nearby and they rest within it as the Draconians are coming up the chains as well. Inside the draconians attack and Riverwind kills them before succumbing to his wounds. He is met by Mishakal who tells him of the Staff and his mission to take it to Goldmoon. She will reveal the truth of the Gods to the world. He is restored to life and Di An is thrilled.
They leave to the open air and Di An loses her mind at the open scope of a clear blue sky. The author’s justification is that she has only been in the upper world when it’s night, but this is a ridiculous notion. Dwarves who have never left Thorbardin don’t go mad when they see the sky. It’s the worst excuse for a prophecy fulfilled and is completely unbelievable. She slowly descends to madness as Khisanth returns to Xak Tsaroth. The Black Dragon terrifies the two, but will not go near the staff, always wanting to take it from Riverwind. It makes me question not just consistency from the novel Black Wing which is broken, but she clearly doesn’t know what it is, only that it’s a powerful artifact. This seems odd as it’s her job to watch over the city, she should at least know what she is watching over. And then, how does Verminaard learn about it? He sends his army to look for a staff because it’s a powerful artifact? Who cares!? If he knew it could bring back the gods, then that makes sense why he would go to such extremes….
Anyway, the dragon keeps coming near Riverwind, threatening him, spitting acid on him, but it never touches him. It makes Khisanth look feckless. Completely takes the threat of her away. She returns to her draconianas after Riverwind and Di An flee to the swamp, and enter the fever lake. She sends the draconians after them to retrieve the staff, as no human has ever passed the lake and lived. Riverwind and Di An hide in the lake, are bit by leeches and insects and contract the sickness. Riverwind calls to Mishakal to heal them, and she refuses saying the struggle is as important as the message he carries. But then out of nowhere she relents and says she will heal one of them, forcing Riverwind to choose. He obviously chooses Di An, and she is teleported with the staff back to Hest! The dying Silvanesti kingdom, or excuse me, Hestian kingdom. They are shown that she is now a true priestess and they all must follow her, and if they do, they can all live down there forever in health. They agree, and the staff returns to Riverwind.
He is delirious and fevered, and is met by two children who claim to be actors. Their caravan fought over how to cross the Eastwall Mountains and one by one went missing. Riverwind begins leading them to Solace when he realizes they are illusions and are actually Khisanth and a draconian. This is also ridiculous. Why didn’t they have him lead ten to Xak Tsaroth as that is where they need Riverwind to take the Staff, not to Solace. Moreso, they know they can’t take it from him, as simply touching it hurts them, so what was their plan? Finding some other dupe to return it across the mountains and swamp?
They reveal themselves and the draconian fights Riverwind. He is slain by the staff and Khisanth just gives up and leaves as Riverwind flees to the Que-Shu tribe. He arrives and is met ten months after having originally left, by Goldmoon, who he shares the staff, telling her it’s an artifact, and Goldmoon sees it for what it is, and they embrace and kiss. I am a sucker for romance and I love the connection Riverwind and Goldmoon has. It seems rare in Dragonlance when other heroes like Tanis are torn between two women, and Caramon is torn between a woman and his twin. They just accept and embrace the power of love, and its consequences. Of course we know what happens next, but I like that it wasn’t addressed in this novel. We end with a beautiful catharsis, and I appreciated it.
I would recommend this novel to anyone who loves Dragonlance or love.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of Riverwind the Plainsman by Paul B. Thompson and Tonya R. Carter. What did you think of Khisanth? Was she a sufficient threat? How about the appearance of Draconians? Riverwinds loss of memory or Di An’s madness? You can email me at info@dlsaga.com or comment below.
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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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