Join me as I review The War of the Lance by Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman, Michael Williams, and Richard A. Knaak, live! Share your thoughts on this third volume in the Tales II Trilogy, released on November 3, 1992. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/460skZS
About The War of the Lance
The War Years
The world of Krynn is caught in the grips of a terrible war between the minions of Takhisis, Queen of Darkness, and the followers of Paladine and the gods of good. Dragons, both foul and fair, clash in the skies, and a small band of friends who will one day be known as the Heroes of the Lance, strive for freedom and honor.
The story of this mighty conflict was revealed in the internationally acclaimed Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy, and now many of the most famous scribes of the series return to tell other tales of Krynn’s War Years.
Transcript
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Bakukal, Fierswelt the 12th. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my review of The War of the Lance by Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman, Michael Williams, & Richard A. Knaak. 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.
Lorac by Michael Williams
This is the first poem in these Tales II anthologies that I really liked. The story of Lorac Caladon is a painful one. And how he took the Dragon Orb from the Tower of High Sorcery to Silvanost before the Cataclysm is great, because it speaks to the sentience and awareness of the artifact itself. Then It speaks of Loracs adoration of the artifact as he is continually mesmerized by it, until the Dragonarmy renege on their deal and invades Silvanesti. Lorac felt helpless to stop, and a legacy of peace and isolation in the hundred of years since the Cataclysm, and realized that desperate times call for desperate measures. He tried to use the Dragon Orb, but was not strong enough, and it called Cyan Bloodbane who twisted Silvanesti with Loracs nightmares. It is a devastating outcome, but one that I can actually appreciate from Cyan’s perspective, as the first two dragon wars were about the Dragons being kicked out of their forests for the elves to occupy, then they tried to get it back, only to fail. For Cyan, I believe sees it as, if we can’t have it, neither can you!
Raistlin and the Knight of Solamnia by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
I have read this short story so many times and it still remains as one of my favorites. Caramon and Raistlin are waiting in an inn to join a lord’s army to fight goblins when a Knight of Solamnia and his wife and son enter. They are shunned by the patrons and the woman is hungry, exhausted and they are destitute. The Knight leaves to talk to the lord about joining his force as he needs money, and Earwig Lockpicker arrives, he is Tas’ cousin. Raistlin gives the hungry boy and his mother their last coin out of sympathy for the child, and it is one of those touching moments that define Raistlin as a character more than his terrible attitude or ambition. The Knight returns with a quest to remove a curse on a nearby keep, but the tale tells of a mage being needed, so Raistlin joins him with Caramon and Earwig. They arrive and ghosts of Knights and mages are calling for aid. Earwig makes a comment that forces Raistlin to think differently about this curse, and calls out to the Maiden. She demands that Rasitlin choose a side for all eternity and Raist refuses, instead choosing love. This breaks the curse. This story is all about looking past your own pride and realizing what is actually important in life. Those who you have chosen to love and share your life with. I am reminded of a beautiful lyric in the song Nature Boy written by Eden Abhez, and initially performed by Nat King Cole: “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn, Is just to love and be loved in return”. It’s a notion that has stayed with me since I first heard it and I actually believe it’s true.
Dead on Target by Roger E. Moore
This was a great story about a young man named Evredd Kaan, who served as a scout for Neraka during the War of the Lance. Now two weeks after the end of it, he learned of his cousin’s death and went to get revenge, only to find hobgoblins and he was killed by a crossbow bolt. He rose undead as a revenant and met up with a Kayolin bounty hunter who was hunting a Thiewar dwarf named Garith. This dwarf was suspected to use the same poison and tools that killed Evredd and his cousins and all the remaining hobgoblins, so they teamed up. They followed the pull to Evredd’s town and his uncle’s house only to discover that the Thiewar was using an illusion to look like his uncle and live as a human. He killed the cousins and Evredd, and the magic battle that ensued was great, but since Evredd was already dead, he ended up killing Garith. This was highly entertaining and makes me want to use Revenants in my game
War Machines by Nick O’donohoe
This was an interesting story about a girl named Mara who wanted to impress a Knight of Solamnia by bringing back a war machine from Mount Nevermind. She snuck in and mat a gnome named Standback who was working on a bunch of inventions like a proximity alarm. They talked for a while then the alarm was tripped and draconians who were following Mara as she came in and she used the inventions to defeat them. Then returned to her camp a little wiser without inventions. The draconians, thinking they saw the worst of the tech, would tell their companions about its terrors. The gnome will now be able to get his lifequest after having proved his inventions worked. It was silly and fun and I liked the small story and intimacy of the characters.
The Promised Place by Dan Parkinson
This is the concluding tale of the Highbulp Clan from the depths of Istar, traveling through the Cataclysm westward. Now generations later, they are still looking for the promised place and come upon a Green Dragon trapped in a cavern. The dragon promises to help them if they find her self-stone. This stone will heal her so she can leave the cavern. As they are looking an earthquake hits and buries her more. The dragon tries to make a deal with the Aghar only to be told they need to find the promised place, and the Highbulp, Glitch I, accidentally swallows the stone. So the dragon must keep him near her chest to temporarily heal and he either throws up the stone or passes it normally. They travel south to the Kharolis mountains and the dragon is contacted by the great red she served before becoming trapped. He tells her that they are all regrouping and that she needs to come to him now. She reveals her current fate and he ultimately suggests Xak Tsaroth and the Pit. So the dragon leads the Highbulp clan to Xak Tsaroth and the tale is over. The strength of these Gully Dwarf Stories are the back and forth of the characters, not the actual tale. I enjoyed this one as it was the conclusion, but I don’t think I would be ready for another Aghar centric story for a while.
Clockwork Hero by Jeff Grubb
I am not a huge fan of Gnome stories, but this one was a bit of fun. A gnomish invention inadvertently killed a dragon and its Highlord and prisoner fell to the ground. The gnomes of this small village collected them and treated them. The female woke up, who was the Highlord, and started making a big fuss and was being violent so the gnomes knocked her out. The human male woke and saw the beautiful human female and fell in love. The gnomes didn’t want to disappoint the man, so they didn’t tell him that she was the Highlord. They kept making excuses why she couldn’t wake, and sent him off on mission after mission in clockwork armor, and he became a hero. The woman woke again but was knocked out as she was threatening the gnomes.
Trying to discover a solution they made a fake woman from casts of the highlord and planned on saying they couldn’t wake her so the hero would have to be content with her encased. Then they planned on taking the highlord miles away and letting her wake. But before they could, the hero returned with a priest who woke the highlord, who came crashing out in her armor so the hero didn’t know it was her and they fought. He eventually killed her, and when he saw the fake version of her, he believed he saw his love, killed by the Highlord. It’s a silly situational comedy with a backdrop of lies, but it concludes saying humans are great at self deception, and in truth we are, so I suppose the story rings more true than false.
The Night Wolf by Nancy Verian Berberick
Sweet Hell was this a great story! A mage named Thorne was a shapeshifter. He was going to marry and invited his two closest friends to the wedding. Tam Potter and Gaurinn Hammerfell. A rival black robe arrived who was also in love with the woman and stole her, teleporting through magic to another room where he ravaged the woman. I assume if he couldn’t have her willingly, he would take her. Thorne entered and shifted into a wolf and savagely ripped the man apart while his friends watched. The dying black robe cursed the three. The shape shifter would turn into a wolf annually and hunt and kill innocents. It could only be stopped by these two friends killing him. But they would face horror if they stepped from this shack on that night.
Tam dies and the curse goes to his son Roulent who grew up trying to kill the wolf as his father tried unsuccessfully. He fell in love with a woman named Una and she followed him one year. They tried to kill the wolf and failed and Una went to hunt it as it was wounded, then ran back when it started hunting her. The wolf began to ravage Roulent and Una couldn’t stop it with her knife. Gaurinn was horrified and tormented but finally shook it and killed the wolf with his ax. As his old friend Thorne died they all stayed with him and held his hand. It is a bitterly sweet story about friendship, sorrow and pain, and I loved it.
The Potion Sellers by Mark Anthony
This was a great story about two snake oil salesmen, only it takes the form of a healing elixir. They moved from town to town after the War of the Lance. Healing had returned to Krynn, but actual clerics were few and far between, so no one really saw them. Thus swindlers like Jastom and Grimm were able to make a good living. They were spied on by remnant Dragonarmy soldiers who caught up with them leaving a town and brought them back to their encampment. There were a lot more Dragonarmy troops than the two swindlers believed left after the war, and they were taken to the commander, a draconian who was on his deathbed. They only had the gruel of the Dwarf Spirits left which they sold as a healing potion, and gave it to the commander, who immediately got drunk and felt great. They were afraid they would be killed by morning as he sobered up, so they tricked their guards into killing each other over a made up disease which they only have enough cure for one of them. Then they fled. The lieutenant caught up with them on the road in the morning and told them the commander was dead, and he is the new commander. He paid them ten steel and left. It turns out he knew they were swindlers and just needed to make the army believe he was doing his best to heal the late commander so they would follow him after his death. It was a great story that let you know the Blue Dragonarmy was still a thing, but focused on a smaller tale. Although, I am not sure this author has ever been drunk, because they are ascribing drugged behavior to drunk people, and it’s not the same.
The Hand That Feeds by Richard A. Knaak
I played a cleric of Chemosh in a Dragonlance campaign in my youth, so this story brought with it a lot of fond memories. A thief named Vandor Grizt was abducted by Prefect Stel, a dark cleric of Chemosh who chartered a minotaur vessel to sail to the center of the Blood Sea of Istar. Vandor is a blood descendant of Kingpriests past, and Stel wants to use his blood to summon the dead from Istar to collect an ancient artifact of Chemosh stolen by Istar. They get to the location and summon dead only to see the artifacts are near lifeless, then the necklace he is looking for is recovered and it summons an undead leviathan monster. Stel drops the necklace accidentally which slides across the deck and is stopped by Vandor who cracks the frame, effectively turning it useless. Then the undead leviathan attacks the ship, tearing it apart. The whole story is a mish mash of characters and their gods. Stel has to placate Zeboim so he can do what he wants, then Chemosh to summon and control the dead, while the minotaur captain worships Sargonnas but pays homage to Zeboim and Stel doesn’t really worship anyone but is praying to Sirrion, and keeps calling to her through the whole story as more of his blood is spilled to fuel the spells. Ultimately the undead turn on Stel, the ship is destroyed by the leviathan and as Vandor is dying, with Zeboim ready to accept his soul, he is saved by Sirrion and washed up on shore with the minotaurs. It’s a fun story about faith and folly in mortal ambitions vs the gods’. I really enjoyed it.
The Vingaard Campaign by Douglas Niles
This was a great series of letters from Foryth Teel, Scribe of Astinus to Astinus based on correspondence and diaries from General Bakaris, Gilthanas to Porthios and Laurana’s handmaiden Mellison. It clearly illustrated Laurana, the Golden General’s tactics and command over the Whitestone Forces as she left the High Clerist’s Tower to the dismay of the Knights of Solamnia, and mounted a campaign across the Plains of Solamnia, culminating in the battle of Margaard Ford of the Vingaard River, defeating the Dragonarmies as told in Dragons of Spring Dawning. Then she slowly marches the army into Kalaman. It was interesting to read the author’s military insights applied to Dragonlance and the descriptions of the tactics, dissent, battlefields and battles themselves. I truly enjoyed it, but I have to admit I am less of a war gamer and more of a solo character player, so I prefer a more first person narrative. Nevertheless, it’s a great read and gives a wonderful insight as to why everyone heralded the Golden General as a brilliant tactician.
The Story that Tasslehoff Promised he would never ever, ever tell by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Okay, I have a problem with this story. It’s the same problem that I had with it the last time I reviewed it in another anthology collection. And it’s the point of the story: The Dragonlances being normal, and it’s your faith in them that makes them magical. This is some religious mumbo jumbo fantastical type thinking that only makes sense if you don’t actually think about it at all. Being a gamer of the Dungeons and the Dragons, this is not something that works in the frame of a role-playing game. And I understand that Tracy Hickman is someone who believes in prayer and invisible gods and wants to share his ideas about belief through his stories, but this is too much for me to follow with him. The story itself is that Tas is given an invitation to an annual ceremony at Huma’s Tomb, which he has never been invited to before, as the War is over. At this particular one, Owen Glendower’s son is being Knighted, and when the knights move to go into the tomb for the ceremony, Owen is overcome with fear and emotion so much that he has some form of seizure because he can’t believe he is allowing his son to take up a dragonlance that is not magical in defense of the Knighthood. Which is ridiculous.
This leads Tas to tell his story about the discovery of the Dragonlance that he swore he wouldn’t ever tell. Now, Theros knew the truth as well, but he walked out saying it wasn’t his story to tell, which is a cowardly move I don’t see the character making. And now we all go through the tale from Tas’ perspective. Back when Tas first met Fizban in the tomb during the war, they left to go to the Whitestone Council, but Fizban needed to save Owens family, so he played stupid and walked in circles for a day, then got lost and overheard Flint and Theros talking about the truth of the Dragonlances being normal steel and not magical. Flint goes on to say faith makes them magical, and Fizban and Tas run into Owen who’s a young knight at the time looking for Derek Crownguard. They travel out together and fall down a hole into a white dragon’s lair where the truth of the Dragonlance comes out, but Owen uses one anyway after one broke to kill the dragon.
This confirms that they can work if you believe and I can’t get the image of a care bear stare out of my mind. Fizban needed to have Owen kill the dragon then return to his family and defend against a draconian attack, which is what prompted this whole story and then Fizban and Tas returned to the Whitestone Council meeting. Back in the present everyone is initially shocked and angry then accepts that faith can make things magical, which again, is utter nonsense, and the story ends. Look, I am a magically minded person. I love the idea of mind over matter, and when it comes to your own perception, yes , I believe you can do wondrous things, but you cannot imbue objects with your faith, or make them work any better because of your faith. As a player, I just can’t wrap my mind around the idea as there would be no stats, just the measurement of an individual’s faith playing their characters. One minute you’re arguing over an action, reaching for soda and cheetos, then next you have your character throw a lance which is suddenly magical because you want it to be… why doesn’t that work with everything? Why can’t they throw a horseshoe and have it slay a dragon if your faith is strong enough? The logic is non-existent, and the mechanic is absent. The whole roleplaying aspect is broken and I can’t enjoy this story because of it.
So as this anthology started pretty strong with a few good and a few great stories, it ended in a gigantic stink bomb. If I never revisit this tale, I am still marred by having read it twice too many times, and it makes me enjoy Dragonlance less for having read it. Seriously. I would recommend most of these stories to fans of dragonlance, but that’s as far as I can go.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of The War of the Lance by Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman, Michael Williams, & Richard A. Knaak. What did you think of the collected stories? Did you have a favorite one or a favorite author? And finally, have you ever played a game during or right after the War of the Lance? Feel free to email me at info@dlsaga.com or leave a comment below.
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