Join me as I review The Dragon Well by Dan Willis, live! Share your thoughts on this third novel in The New Adventures series. You can pick up The Dragon Well here: https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Well-Dragonlance-Adventures-Vol/dp/0786933542/ref=tmm_mmp_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
About The Dragon Well
In a tiny mountain village, Nearra and her friends meet a mysterious clairvoyant who’s had a vision of Nearra’s destiny – and a vision that could destroy them all.
The seer predicts the friends will defeat the bandit king terrorizing her village home. When they return victorious, she will reveal how Nearra can recover her identity, once and for all. Desperate to help Nearra, the group strides into battle. But soon the mission turns to disaster. Ancient powers rise before them. Secrets long buried come to light. And none of them will ever be the same.
The Dragon Well continues a new series of Dragonlance adventures written specifically for readers ages 10 and up. The series features a new group of young companions who band together for friendship and excitement during the golden age of the Dragonlance world.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Misham, Reapember the 22nd, my name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of The Dragon Well by Dan Willis. 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 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.
We pick up with Maddoc in Cairngorn Keep. He is pacing trying to figure out why he is unable to prompt the emergence between Asvoria and Nearra. He doesn’t quite believe Davyn has truly turned against him, and he hasn’t heard from Oddvar in a while. He sends his familiar, the falcon Shaera to find Oddvar and tell him to seek the Ice Goblins in the Vingaard mountains for aid in capturing the companions who fled Arngrim’s destruction. The companions are hiking through the mountains, knowing winter snow is days away, and decide to stop at a Trading Post they come across for provisions. The owner and operator, a dwarf named Dog, equips them and allows them to stay the night. They leave and the storm hits in mere days. They spend a week trying to pass the mountain and get lost.
Davyn goes hunting for game to eat and returns to see the party tied up by bandits. He begins to draw an arrow back in his bow when he is stopped by a mountain man and War veteran named Set-ai. This is the best character we have met in all of these books. He takes them under his wing after freeing them from the bandits and teaches them how to survive and fight. He reminds me of how I used my old Paladin in my home AD&D games once I retired him, as an old man who would help new characters. He is hunting a massive unknown beast but helps them while they pass the mountain in the snow. They finally hear the beast and part ways, as the companions travel through the night to avoid the danger. They come across a goblin camp with a human prisoner. It is the ice trolls that Oddvar made a deal with. They are arguing on whether it is the human they have to kill or bring back.
The companions attack with surprise and eventually have the surviving goblins run off. They rescue the human named Mudd who tells them that he was looking for them, just like the goblins were. He brings them to his village just as Oddvar is kicked out of the ice goblin camp for getting so many of them killed, and he then heads to a bandit named Gadion, who owes Maddoc a favor, who also lives in the mountains. It turns out Gadion is the one controlling the massive beast with a gem Maddoc gave him. He is compelled to help, and the beast has been raiding the town of Potter’s Mill, the same town the companions and Mudd are now located in. Mudd was sent by an old seer and healer of Mishakal named Shemnara. She wants them to help defeat the bandit and by extension the beast. Just then the beast attacks, and nearly kills them all when it is recalled, presumably because the beast was about to kill Davyn, Maddoc’s son, something Maddoc doesn’t want. Shemnara heals everyone as they spend the night trying to figure out what to do next.
They wake and are given the official request with Shemnara saying that she has foreseen the future and the companions will kill the beast. She asks that if they go defeat Gadion and kill the beast, they will be rewarded with Nearra’s memory and valuable items, though they will lose a friend. They don’t really want to do it, but Catriona and Sindri insist so they plan on going to get a look at the ruined tower Gadion is supposed to be staying in, planning on leaving as soon as they see how well it’s guarded. These are just kids after all and no match for a small band of twenty or more adult warriors. Not to mention the beast!
They travel to the tower and as they plan to turn back, now hours from town, they are captured by the bandits that captured them earlier in the book. But this time the beast comes and kills the captors, while the companions climb up the largest tree they can find to escape the threat of the beast, though it’s obvious at this point, the controlled beast was saving them not attacking them. However Gadion, who controls the beast, sent out a party to collect the companions, and brought them to his keep. He realizes the town is desperate if they send kids, and plans to assault it in the morning with the beast and men, killing any who resist. Catriona steps up to Gadion and is stabbed in the stomach. Then they are all thrown in a cell.
Oddvar realizes that if Gadion can prompt the emergence before he can, Gadion will receive the reward from Maddoc. He plans on helping the companions escape, and delivers their belongings to the outside of the cell. He tells them to look at Catriona’s necklace to help her, it was given to her by the prince of Arngrim. Nearra feels Asvoria calling to the necklace, and allows her to take control. She destroys the gem, unlocks the cell and heals Catriona. Nearra takes control again, declaring that she never wants to give up control again. They discover smoke escaping through cracks in their cell, and bust through the wall to find a passage. They are discovered by the cell guard and kill him before leaving through the tunnel.
At the end of the tunnel is a massive room at the bottom of stairs leading down 45 feet. In the center is a pool of blue liquide with Dragon statues on four sides. Nearra said it’s a Dragon Well, and has magical powers, though she doesnt know how she knows that. They believe that is how Shemnara lost her eyesight and maybe even got her powers. The legend is that if you bathe in the water it will kill you or grant your power. Catriona believes they have to destroy it before Gadion finds and uses it. Elidore and Davyn feel they need to rush to the village and warn them about the beast and bandits coming to attack at dawn, but Catriona, Sindri and Nearra want to stay to destroy the well. The party splits up. As Davyn and Elidore flee, they earn each other’s friendship and become blood brothers. Then they come across Set-ai near death after facing off against the beast. He has been leaving and coming back and Set-ai is really beat up but still trying to kill it. They refuse to leave Set-ai against his wishes, and believe they can finish the beast off, as it is wounded and bleeding. They use Elidore as bait, and Davyn fires many arrows into its neck, wounding it near death. Elidore throws Davyn his hunting knife and Davyn Stabs it in the beast’s chest, defeating the monster after it kicks Elidore, shattering a few of his ribs and knocking him out.
Davyn is being crushed by the beast’s corpse as it returns to its mortal form. It is revealed that the beast was originally a human named Senwyr, who worked for Maddoc. When his wife had a son, they tried to leave Maddoc’s service and Maddoc transformed Senwyr into a beast as a slave, made him kill his wife and tried to get him to kill his son, but even in this new form, he couldn’t do it. Maddoc ended up taking and raising the boy as his own. Davyn is stunned to learn that he killed his own father but Set-ai helps contextualize it in that he actually set him free, not murdered him. With this knowledge they all slowly started returning to the village.
Catriona tries to break the well, but is unsuccessful as Gadion and some bandits appear on the stairwell. They had listened in on the well conversation and Gadion threw one of his men in the well to test it. The man grows to ten feet tall, with massive abomination like muscles. It also awakens the skeletons scattered around the well. Now the bandits and companions have to fight off the undead and the giant bandit. They eventually defeat it, and Gadion attacks Catriona who after her training with Set-ai, learned patience and movement to wait for an opening. She took his sword to her shoulder and buried her sword in Gadions stomach. During the battle the giant bandit destroyed the well and it washed over Nearra. Nearra seems to be fighting with Asvoria within her for control, but regains it, and Sindri decides to break a seal above the well on the wall. It ends up being the seal holding the dragon’s spirit that was the source of the blood for the well before dying. This ghost dragon is angry at first but hears their story, tells them to leave as it is going to destroy this tower before returning to death. It breathes on Sindri for freeing him, which seems like it gives him protection and or power, so he will become the wizard he is claiming to be.
They flee through a sewer that opens to a river, as the ghost dragon destroys the tower. The destruction causes a massive flooding and pushes the companions downriver fast. They burst out not far from Davyn, Elidor and Set-ai as they are returning to the village. They all return together and heal overnight. The next day Elidor and Davin burn his father, the beast’s corpse in a funeral pyre, and return to town to be rewarded with armor and clothing by the town for defeating the bandits and their beast. They all say goodbye to Set-Ai, who is healing and speak with Shemnara. They learn their reward was knowledge and gifts, and Nearra asks about Shemnaras power. She did in fact lose her sight in the Dragon Well, and has some of the liquid here that she uses to benefit the village. She forces Davyn to reveal the truth about himself being raised by Maddoc, and though the companions are angry initially, and Nearra even pulls a Darth Vader, and force squeezes Davyn before returning to herself, they all accept the truth that he was raised by, but ultimately betrayed Maddoc and he is officially with them.
Nearra stops Davyn and they swear loyalty to each other and Davyn is now wondering if Nearra is in control or if Asvoria is. Nearra kisses him long and hard. Then we find Oddvar listening into the conversations from outside and is approached by Maddoc’s falcon. Maddoc reveals that Nearra originally had power, but doesn’t clarify what that was, and that the magic from the Dragon Well bonded Asvoria and Nearra together even more. When the falcon went to explore the town, it was pulled into a windsow mysteriously and seemingly killed.
This was such a fun read, from Set-ai the grizzly veteran looking out to the kids, to the beast being Davyns real father, and Nearra discovering her own power, albeit minimally. If you are willing to give young reader novels a shot, you should definitely check out this book. I am getting really excited to see where the story goes next.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of The Dragon Well by Dan Willis. What do you think about the third of The New Adventures novels? Did you have a favorite part of the novel? You can email me at info@dlsaga.com or comment below.
I would like to take a moment and remind you to subscribe to this YouTube channel, ring the bell to get notified about upcoming videos and click the like button. This all goes to help other Dragonlance fans learn about this channel and its content.
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).
Subscribe to the podcast today! Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Pandora | Youtube Music | RSS | More
