Join me as I review The Day of the Tempest by Jean Rabe, live! Share your thoughts on this second volume in the Dragonlance: Dragons of a New Age series released on September 8, 1997 by Wizards of the Coast. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/3IYs1Vt
About The Day of the Tempest
The Summer of Chaos has ended.
Ansalon’s nightmare has only just begun. The gods have departed the world, heralding a new Age of Mortals. But before the dust of war can settle, vast shadows cover the land. Dragons have come to Ansalon, larger and more powerful than any ever seen, and they will wreak havoc on nations still trembling from war. As the lands themselves begin to change under the dire magic of the new dragon overlords, new heroes arise to lead the fight for freedom.
Transcript
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Bakukal, Brookgreen the 3rd. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of The Day of the Tempest by Jean Rabe. 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 the members of this YouTube 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. This is my perspective only, and if you have any thoughts or disagree with mine, I invite you to share them in YouTube chat.
Before I start my review I have to get this off my chest. I am tired of some really basic inconsistencies. The first book proposed this and this second book reaffirmed it. They have a dragonlance and everyone is calling it Sturm Brightblade’s. But I don’t ever recall Sturm wielding a Dragonlance at all. It seems like such an easy thing to look up and not make the mistake over, and yet here we are. Also, there is constant suggestion that the Master of the Tower of Wayreth is Raistlin Majere by the Shadow Sorcerer, and vice versa. He doesn’t even look like him. If anyone was Raistlin it would’ve been the Shadow Sorcerer, so I can’t help but think Palin would put some pressure to discover who the Shadow sorcerer really is.
The novel picks up with Dhaman surfacing from the lake after defeating the blue dragon Gale. He calls out to his companions but they don’t hear him and he is pulled back under the surface. Then we flash to the ship Flint’s Anvil and the heroes sailing to the Northern Wastes. Rig the captain is convinced he will find the blue dragon’s lair and take its valuables now that it’s dead. What they end up discovering is Khellendros’ lair and his two wyvern guardians and blue dragonspawn. They battle them and are defeated with most of the party captured to be turned into spawn. The Kender Blister rescues them and they fight their way out. They learn of another lair or fort of Khellendros’ and they decide to check it out before returning to their ship.
The fortress ends up being a prison for humans to be turned into Spawn, so the heroes make a plan to break the prisoners out. There are elephants and scorpions that are brought to the heroes’ cause as they barely succeed and escape. As they get back to their ship, they realize they have Gilthanas Kanan with them! They also have an old man who used to work at the Great Library of Palanthas called Sageth. This old man tells them that Khellendros wants to collect artifacts from the Age of Dreams to destroy, and that would return a ton of magic to Krynn. He even knows the artifacts. Goldmoon’s holy medallion of Faith, Dalamar’s ring, a jeweled scepter called the Fist of Eli, a crown of Dimernost, and Huma’s dragonlance. Gilthanas tells them that he can help them find the dragonlance, as he knows where it is in Southern Ergoth.
That night Palin teleports to the Tower of High Sorcery in Wayreth where the Shadow Sorcerer and the Master of the Tower are. They are told everything Palin knows and the master has Dalamar’s ring. I am getting bugged that we haven’t heard about where Dalamar is. I know he was supposed to have died in the Abyss fighting Chaos, but we know he’s around at the War of Souls, and I can’t recall if he is in this trilogy or not. It’s kinda buggin’ me. This is also where the Shadow Sorcerer is suggesting the Master of the Tower is Raistlin to Palin. The sorcerers agree that finding the artifacts is more important than trying to kill Gellidus, which was the original plan, so the Master will research the artifacts as Palin looks for them, and the Shadow Sorcerer insists on spying on Malys. Usha and Ulin are there as well, and they all decide to return to Flint’s Anvil together. I don’t remember anything about Ulin, so this should be fun to relearn about one of Usha and Palin’s kids.
Malys is meeting with some of her knights and gifts the bravest one with a scale that sears into his chest. This allows her to see through his eyes and gives him supernatural strength. She then sends them to Solamnia to learn about the people and land. Khellendros is infuriated that Palin rescued his prisoners and swears to exact revenge on him himself. He sends a talon of knights to Southern Ergoth to find Humas Lance.
Palin, Usha and Ulin appear on Flint’s Anvil and the crew is trying to figure out what to do with the refugees, and they agree to give the treasure they liberated from Khellendros to the refugees so they can buy clothing and food when they drop them off. They decide to try to drop them off at Witdel, and when they go to port, they notice a Knight of Takhisis ship docking as well. Half of the crew are asleep as Ulin instigates a fight with the Knights, and Rig backs him up, then others wake to the scent of fire. Ulin is a pyromancer and has set the knights ship on fire. They fight off the knights, and it turns out their ship was full of prisoners who all freak out about being saved by Palin Majere. They tell the heroes about another prison camp inland and the heroes go to rescue them.
They use sorcery to ambush the knights and defeat them as Malys knights come and stop them from taking the prisoners. Hopelessly outnumbered they are stunned to see Dhaman appear among them with a glaive and surcoat and nothing else on. He reminds me of Lancelot in Excalibur when he left Arthur’s knights. Dhamon was rescued by a bronze dragon named Shimmer, who healed him from his battle with the blue dragon. It took a month, but when Dhaman was healthy again, Shimmer teleported him near Feril, the Kagonesti elf he loves. Dhaman destroys the knights with his magical glaive and in a final battle with the scale knight of Malys, the knight pleads with him to take the scale off, and then presses it on Dhaman, saying if he ever removes it he will die. Then the knight dies. Malys was angry that he didn’t defeat Dhaman and wants the magical glaive.
The heroes reunite, save the prisoners and return to Flints Anvil. Aboard, they decide to split up. A third of them will go to Shallsea to visit Goldmoon for her holy medallion, a third will go to Southern Ergoth for Humas lance, and a third travel to Qualinesti to search for the Fist of Eli. We follow the group led by Gilthanas to foghaven vale. They immediately know they are being followed, but are also following other’s footprints until they lose them in a blizzard. They come across a human food cache for Frost, and find a few dark knights from Khellendros’ talon and a Solamnic Knight. She was with her fellow knights when the dark knights came upon them, killing all but her. Then Frost killed most of the dark knights and took the bodies of all for food.
After being rescued, the Knights swear to leave their order, and follow the heroes to Huma’s tomb. Frost knows they’re there, and will meet them shortly. They find the tomb and travel to the hall of lances, not knowing which is Huma’s. They decide to sleep in the warmth of the tomb and will search for Huma’s lance when they wake.
They awoke to the Keeper of Huma’s Tomb, a Gold Dragon in the shape of a little boy. He tells them that he doesn’t know which of the dragonlance’s is Huma’s, but he also won’t stop them from looking. Then a contingent of Knights of Solamnia arrive looking for Fiona, led by Lady Arlena Plata who Gilthanas instantly recognises as Silvara. They are estranged as she waited for him after the War and he never appeared. He is trying his best to talk her into a second chance when Groller discovers the correct lance. They move to leave and Frost is waiting for them, and attacks. Shimmer, the gold dragon and SIlvara change to their dragon forms and attack Frost while Fiona and Groller use the Dragonlances against him. They cannot defeat frost but after being wounded, Frost leaves promising to return and end them all.
Back in the forest of Qualinesti, Gilthas, Jasper, Feral and Usha are looking for the tower that holds the Fist of Eli, only to be captured a la Return of the Jedi style by Ewoks, err Qualinesti elves. The elves come out and refuse to acknowledge the truth about it being Palin Majere and hold Usha hostage as they look for the tower. If they don’t return, Usha will be killed. They leave and after a week of searching they discover the tower only to find it occupied by Draconians. The Draconians recently killed Miriella Abrenna’s Knights of Takhisis who were searching for the artifact as well, but some got away. Palin and the others promise not to mention that the Draconians are there, and leave to collect the Fist of Eli from the Knights.
They catch up and defeat them, gathering the artifact and Palin transports everyone to Schallsea as he visits the Tower of High Sorcery. While he’s there he learns that the Master of the Tower is actually an anthropomorphic entity of the Tower itself, so it is part every wizard that has taken the test since its creation. The Shadow Sorcerer is still convinced that it’s Raistlin. They find out that Khellendros is behind Sageth and somehow Kitiara is part of it all. We know it’s her spirit that is the catalyst for Khellendros looking for the artifacts. Gale returns to Khellendros blinded by Dhaman, after healing for two months, and Khellendros flies to collect his artifacts.
Palin teleported the crew in Southern Ergoth to Schallsea, awfully conveniently if I may say, and Dhamon, controlled by Malys, defeats all the heroes and kills Goldmoon. She finally meets Riverwind at the end of the novel and I truly wish this was the end of her story, but I know it is not. The heroes rush to destroy the artifacts per Sageth’s request as Palin rushes to them demanding that they stop. The tablet that Sageth was reading turned into Fissure the huldrefolk that helped Khellendros and he killed Sageth. Then Khellendros appears and attacks. They are joined by Silvara and Gilthanas and Shimmer and Ulin and Khellendros battles them all, collecting the dragonlance and holy medallion. He believes he killed the heroes but it was an illusion by Palin.
So Dhaman has gone off to Malys’ Peak under her control, The heroes only have two of the artifacts, and their whole plan was a scheme by Khellendros. This is a nasty spot to be in, and to add to it all, a rare Shadow Dragon has been killing off the smaller dragons in Krynn, so we know he will somehow be brought into this whole thing. Ultimately, I enjoyed the story this second time around, but it wasn’t as satisfying as the first novel. Let’s just hope Jean Rabe can nail the landing in the final novel. If memory serves she only does a so-so job.
If you are a Dragonlance or Fifth Age fan, you should definitely read this book. If you just like Dragonlance for Weis and Hickman’s writings, you could probably skip it. I did enjoy it overall, and I genuinely can’t recall how this trilogy ends, so I am looking forward to finding out again.
Outro
But that’s it for my review of The Day of the Tempest by Jean Rabe. Did you enjoy the re-introduction and end of so many familiar heroes? Is Dhaman and his Glaive too powerful? 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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