Join me as I review The Companions by Tina Daniell, live! Share your thoughts on this sixth and final novel in the Meetings Sextet series, released on January 1, 1993 by TSR Inc. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/44VpAwe
About The Companions
Lost At Sea
Caramon, Sturm, and Tasslehoff, on an innocent ship’s errand, are blown thousands of miles off course by a magic windstorm and transported to the eastern Bloodsea. Caramon and Sturm are left for dead while Tasslehoff mysteriously turns against his friends. . . .
Back in Solace, Raistlin convinces Flint Fireforge and Tanis Half-Elven that they must make a perilous journey to Mithas, the kingdom of the minotaurs. Their task: not only to rescue their friends, but also to defeat the elusive Nightmaster.
The Companions brings the cast of the Dragonlance series together for their first adventure. Author Tina Daniell wrote the best-seller Dark Heart.
Review
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Misham, Fleurgreen the 30th. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my review of The Companions by Tina Daniell. 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 year is the 40th Anniversary of Dragonlance, so join in on the celebration by submitting a video, piece of art or writing about Dragonlance to info@dlsaga.com. It will be added to the dlsaga.com/40th-anniversary celebration landing with all other contributors! This is my perspective only, and if you have any thoughts or disagree with mine, I invite you to share them in YouTube chat.
What a strange beginning to the novel. We jump right into the thick of it mid adventure, as Tasslehoff, Caramon, and Sturm are sailing to Abanasinia from Southern Ergoth after having purchased some crushed Jalopwort from a minotaur herbalist named Argots. We later learn that this minotaur was on his way out of town for some reason, and was killed before he could leave the island! But as the companions are sailing back to mainland on the Venora, a midsized sloop, Caramon is drinking and swapping stories with the sailors, Sturm is brooding mysteriously on deck and Tas is writing a letter to Raistlin. He had been given? a magic bottle he hopes to send the letter to Rasitlin with. As he describes the event, he notices a massive storm quickly gathering and coming straight at them.
Sturm goes to find Caramon who is unconscious on deck when the storm hits. Sailors are actually abandoning ship as lightning strikes the mast, and then Sturm is knocked out by the Captain! Tas hurries and finishes the letter, grabs his pouches then looks for his companions only to find Captain Murloch who knocks him out, and ties them all to the mast before diving overboard himself. This is very odd behavior for sailors and a captain. Then the captain witnesses the ship become enveloped by the storm, lifted into the air and disappears. Undeterred, the captain starts swimming for sure, but is attacked by a swarm of bees and killed. His body will wash up on shore eventually.
The magic bottle holding Tas’ note to Raist is found by a wandering merchant who delivers it to Raist. Raistlin collects Tanis and Flint and meets them at Crystalmire Lake where they see a magical miniature image of Tas reading his story of the purchase of the spell components and the storm as they are sailing into. Raistlin is sure they are in grave danger as they haven’t returned yet. He believes they must travel to the Blood Sea of Istar to find them. How does he know they are there? I dunno. He also believes there is a portal that can take them from Abanasinia to Ogrebond because his master Morath conveniently told him. While this is all too convenient for anything but a home game session of AD&D, I am here for it.
Flint and Tanis agree to go and they meet an Ogress Oracle trading the magic bottle for an Amulet of Darkness which is needed to open the Huldrefolk portal to Ogrebond. They scale a massive mountain to its peak, cast the spell and leap into the portal. You know, just another Tuesday in Krynn. Meanwhile Raistlin sends a Kender with a letter to Kitiara about the whole affair. She has been staying with her Uncle Nelthis, who is clearly working for agents of the Dark Queen in some capacity. She helps him in a hunt and we see other suitors fighting over her. But the point is that Nelthis knows of a way to get Kitiara to the Blood Sea Isles quickly! Boy it would have been convenient for the Heroes of the Lance to know about all these portals?
Then we cut to the teleported ship where Caramon and sturm are thrown overboard to drown after being beaten by pirates or slaves, it wasn’t clear to me which, and Tasslehoff was taken for questioning as the Minotaurs had never seen a Kender before and thought he was a wizard. This was the most unbelievable part of the novel thus far. Who on Krynn doesn’t know what a Kender is? How can a species who has wizards not know that Kender are prohibited from being one? I mean a random sailor wouldn’t but someone would…. Anyway Tas is tortured for days upon days until the Nightmaster sends him one of the High Three who gives him a charm person potion and belittles the others for thinking he was a wizard. What are they going to do with Tas? I have no idea. Why do they care about the spell component? I have no idea.
Caramon and Sturm nearly drown daily as they try to stay afloat for five days until a mysterious bird? Tosses them bread that they eat, as other creatures circle them waiting to eat them. And the Nightmaster is visited by mysterious people who tell him that Kitiara and the mage are en route that wanted the spell component in the first place. This is a great first third of the novel that poses more questions than it answers but I would expect nothing less this early on. I really loved the oracle, Chen’tal Pyrnee. She’s a great character who is mysterious and deadly, but also quirky and goofy.
Caramon and Sturm were picked up by an old fisherman who in turn sold them as slaves to the Minotaurs. They were fed and given water, and Caramon was able to feed the other slaves, meeting a Kyrie whose wings were ripped off. I don’t know what it is about me, but the older I get the more compassion I find for other living beings. Even in fantasy apparently because as I read it, I audibly moaned in sympathy for the prisoner. It and Caramon started briefly talking with each other daily and eventually it told him that one of his kind will rescue Caramon, but only him. Caramon talked with Sturm and Sturm agreed that he should go. One day, when the guards weren’t looking, a stone in the ceiling was pulled free and Caramon was freed by another Kyrie.
Sturm was brutally beaten for it, but he truly didn’t know how or who freed him, so he couldn’t say anything, nor would he if he did know. It is Sturm we are talking about here. Kitiara was apparently taken captive as soon as she arrived, but how she arrived is still a mystery as it happened off camera as it were, and was just told to Tas. Tas is thoroughly evil, berating and belittling the guards sent to act as servants and friends. He is freely telling the Minotaur priest everything he knows about Raist and the companions, ready and excited to kill them if they ever arrive in the Minotaur Isles. Raist, Tanis, and Flint fall out of the portal and find themselves in a locked room.
Flint unlocks it and they sneak through the structure only to be discovered by a half-ogre slave named Kirsig. She agrees to help them as she is infatuated with Flint. More because she’s never seen a living dwarf than attraction. They sneak out of the keep in Ogrebond at night, and Kirsig has to kill a guard for them, and leaves with them into the sewer. We get a goonies styled water slide, only its sewage, past undead creatures and outside Flint realizes his leg is broken. But they are met by a Sailor named Nugetre who agrees to take them across the Blood Sea to the Minotaur Isles for payment. This is where I don’t understand what happened. Apparently Raistlin is wealthy, as he gives this captain bags, plural, of gems and coin. Where did he get these riches? If they are spells, they would wear off when they are midway across the blood sea or sooner and be called out for it, but they aren’t, so where the hell does a guy who is destitute, has to have his headmaster give him a scholarship to attend his mage school, getting this money?
Anyway, they board the ship and the whole passage of the ship is done in some Brahm Stoker, journal writing of Tanis’. They naturally face the monsters and storms and terror of the Blood Sea, but ultimately make it out on the other side losing many of the deckhands in the process. The captain refuses to sail into minotaur harbors so he gives them a rowboat to get to land themselves, but some of the shipmates including the first mate decide to go with them to the captain’s dismay. I am glad this is the final prequel novel of the inn fellows as it’s getting exhausting reading about them traveling all over Ansalon when they never did in the Chronicles, seeing creatures and places they never saw until Chronicles, creating massive plot holes and contradictions.
That being said, I am truly enjoying this novel. Caramon is taken to the Kyries mountain and told of their kind. They adopt him as an honorary warrior and he makes plans to save Sturm from prison. Tasslehoff suggests that Sturm be executed for allowing Caramon to escape and proposes the Pit of Doom, which is a lava styled arena. Tas cutt off half of Sturm’s mustache to torture him and Sturm is prepped and when the fight begins, he is clearly overmatched and Sturm is weakened by his captivity as well. Near the end of the fight, Sturm is rescued by Kyrie and Caramon. Tas travels with the minotaurs to the ritual site where the Nightmaster will summon Sargonnas and sacrifice Kitiara for Sargonnas to inhabit.
Meanwhile the Kyrie find Flint, Tanis, Raistlin and the sailors sneaking inland, and take them to the larger group. One Kyrie watches a Bulette killing a minotaur and speaks to it in animal language giving it dominion over these lands for a thousand years if it joins the Kyrie and their companions against the Minotaurs. It eventually relents and agrees after being healed a bit and brings with it Horax and Hatori, and the Kyrie enlist some Rocs as well. We now have a massive invasion force, but Raist snuck off at night and hasn’t been seen. His brother believes he went to confront the Nightmaster himself.
Raistlin sneaks into the nightmasters camp invisible and announces himself, trading himself for Kitiara. When asked why, he claims to want to see the spell as he’s curious about magic. Kitiara is taken off by Tas’ minotaur friend before he turns evil, and Kit gives him an antidote to give to Tas, returning him to good. As Tas turns good and the ritual begins, all hell breaks loose. The Kyrie and beasts attack, distracting the minotaurs, and Tas frees Raist who eventually gets the upper hand and when Caramon and Sturm come to rescue him they all push the Nightmaster into the volcano, the location Sargonnas was supposed to come out of. As the battle is winding down, and the minotaur watchers and ogres are seeing that Sargonnas isn’t coming they all turn and leave, then the volcano explodes and kills the remaining warriors.
There were heavy losses on all sides, and the companions still don’t know how Kit got to the isle, and she never tells. This bugs me as a completionist, but I am okay with it in the end, knowing no explanation given would satisfy me. So they all talk about what to do next, and Flint calls for them all to eat. I enjoyed the back and forth banter we got from the companions and I liked evil Tas, though he was a bit inconsistent. I can’t imagine Rasitlin being able to go toe to toe with an accomplished wizard like the Nightmaster, as he hasn’t even taken the test yet, but it never presented him as a powerful magi, so I suppose it was coincidence and happenstance rather than Raist’s abilities.
All in all, I enjoyed the novel and it was a fun end to the Meetings Sextet, putting a fine cap on the Heroes of the Lance until Dragons of Summer Flame would be released. If you are a fan of the Innfellows, and want to read some hit and miss storytelling, I would suggest looking into this series. If you just want to experience a fun pre War of the Lance adventure, this novel might be the one to satiate your hunger.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of The Companions by Tina Daniell. What did you think of the companions sailing the Blood Sea? Could they realistically survive invading the Minotaur Isles and stopping the Nightmaster? And finally, if Sargonnas came and went, why didn’t he stay? Feel free to email me at info@dlsaga.com or leave a comment below.
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