Join me as I review Weasel’s Luck by Michael Williams, live! Share your thoughts on this third novel in the Dragonlance Heroes series, released on January 15, 1989 by TSR Inc. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/3Qqt7eX
About Weasel’s Luck
The world’s least promising knight gets his first taste of high-stakes adventure in this rollicking and fantastical Dragonlance tale
Weasel’s luck was not always good . . . Galen Pathwarden, known as “the Weasel”, would give anything to stay clear of adventure, danger, or heroism. Cowardly, deceitful, and hardly noble—and mired in a backwater castle far from any action—he bickers with his siblings and schemes against his elders. But one fateful night, Galen’s dreary life is turned upside down when a sinister visitor arrives bearing gold, unspeakable magic, and a centuries’ old curse.
The encounter launches Galen on a bizarre quest into swamp and forest, headed toward a mythical fortress. With the great Solamnic Knight, Sir Bayard Brightblade, and a none-too-bright centaur named Agion at his side, Galen must overcome the schemes and traps of a sinister illusionist known only as the Scorpion.
Review
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Misham, Darkember the 9th. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my review of Weasel’s Luck by Michael Williams. 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.
Right off the bat, I am enjoying this immensely. This is set two hundred years after the cataclysm and the peasants of Solamnia still harbor strong resentment and hatred for the Knights of Solamnia. It also presents a dangerous land and noble knights, both of which equal exciting adventure. We open with Galen Pathwarden narrating the tale. He is at best unreliable in his thoughts and deeds, so I am not sure if we should trust his version of this tale, though I do enjoy it! Galen presents the craziness of his family. His father is a retired Knight of Solamnia who hoped his son’s would follow suit. In truth his eldest son Alfric is a brute and lacks honor replaced by a mean streak. His second eldest son, Brithelm is a priest of some sort with no care for the knighthood. He acts as mediator between Alfric and Galen. Then there’s Galen who is a rabble rousing coward with a penchant for setting fires and stealing, much like his eldest brother Alfric, who beats him at every opportunity. Compounding this dysfunction is Sir Bayard Brightblade, a knight staying with them, hoping to take Alfric on as a Squire.
During his stay, Galen is visited by an entity, I believe it is a wizard sewing dissent in Solamnia, but he isn’t revealed as yet. This man, named Scorpion by Galen, paid Galen rubies to steam Bayard’s Solamnic armor. If he refused, he would surely have killed him, so Galen set a plan in motion, but was discovered by a drunk Alfric outside Bayard’s locked door. Alfric was assigned protector of Bayard’s possessions as his proposed squire, and Galan, very Tom Sawyer-like, convinced Alfric there was a thief prowling around and they had to go check on the Armor. Alfric opens the door and if memory serves, falls down hitting himself on the head, as Galen collects the armor and meets the Scorpion, giving it to him.
Apparently the Scorpion gave it to a thief who wore it as he raided nearby villages, and was ultimately caught by Bayard after it was discovered the armor was stolen. Sir Andrew, Galen’s father, was furious with both Galen and Alfric and put them in the dungeon cell until the truth came out. The captured thief claimed Galen gave him the armor and showed Galen’s missing signet ring, that was taken by The Scorpion, as proof. This convinced their father, who put the thief in the dungeon and Galen in the library, chained. The Scorpion appeared as a raven, and told Galen that since his servant, the thief, was captured, Galen was his new servant, or he would die. The coward agreed to spy on Bayard for The Scorpion.
Bayard came and offered Galen to be his squire as a means to get out of captivity, as Bayard had no other options, and Galen, needing to spy on Bayard, agreed. They set off from Coastlund to Castle di Caela where Sir Bayard Brightblade was to enter a tournament to win the hand of Lady Enid di Caela. He believed it was his destiny. They are met on the road by ruffians. Galen hid in the tree while Bayard defeated two of the men, sending them all away. Then they were captured by Centaurs who believed them to be the thief that was wearing Bayard’s armor, working with Satyrs in a war against the centaurs. Bayard offerst to negotiate peace between them as a sign of good faith, and they lead him to do just that.
This is such a fun read thus far. It is chock full of character development and you really feel like you understand their motivations, even the less than honorable ones. So Bayard, Galen, and Agion the centaur go to meet the Satyrs only to be ambushed in hit and run tactics. Then Brithelm arrives out of nowhere and glides past the battling Satyrs with no damage taken. He claims that he is protected from them. Another attack comes and Galen is left to watch the rear. He is approached by the raven that tells him to report to the Scorpion about Bayard. He starts heading in the appropriate direction when surprisingly, Galen’s brother Alfric appears and attacks him, intent on murdering him.
Apparently, Alfric escaped his fathers punishment the night Galen fled, and has been tracking him, much like Brithelm has, only with the opposite intent. Galen tricks Alfric to allow him to escort him back to Bayard as Alfric still wants to be his squire, even though his is nothing remotely close to squire or knight material. They accidentally stumble into quicksand, though it’s not very deep. Galen escapes it first, then throws a vine to Alfric and leaves him to the swamp. Galen wanders into a clearing with a hut on stilts surrounded by goats. He enters only to become trapped and learn the hut has a chair atop it where the Scorpion sits. He demands information, and as Galen gives him everything he knows, The Scorpion demands Galen bring Bayard to him to be killed, as the goats all transformed into Satyrs.
Galen agrees and returns to the group only to discover the Satyrs are illusions according to Brithelm, and they fought a massive battle with varying realities of perception, reinforcing the illusion idea. Galen leads them to the clearing where they meet the Scorpion, who is ultimately bested by Bayard, but disappears Obi-Wan Kenobi like, leaving only his clothes. They proceed to Castle di Caela with the centaur Agion in tow, as they can’t make peace with the Satyr’s if they are illusions, and the centaur can’t leave them without breaking a vow to his chieftain. Bayard shared the history of Castle di Caela which is mired in treachery, deceit and a curse on its lineage. It seems that a brother in the Age of Might found a pendant which transforms things like illusions and he tried to usurp his brother to inherit the castle. His family fought him to defeat but the curse remained through the cataclysm to this day. This suggests that the Scorpion is in fact none other than Benedict di Caela, still after his family’s castle.
Cut to the Tournament at Castle di Caela which is surprisingly the least interesting part of the novel yet, as it has no one we have come to know in it. The castle’s keeper who is giving his daughter Lady Enid to the victor is hoping Bayard Brightblade will show up, but as the tournament begins, he is nowhere to be seen. There is a mysterious knight called the hooded Knight who kills two opponents mercilessly to win, but it seems obvious it was actually the Scorpion or Benedict more specifically. The best of this novel is Galen’s sarcasm and perspectives on everything from knightly duties to highlights of his cowardice. He is the humor of the novel and what keeps it interesting.
Back with Galen, Sir Bayard and Agion, they climb the Vingaard mountain range to pass it toward Castle di Caela and are stopped at the summit by a massive ogre, armored and mounted. This is clearly an obstacle set by Benedict to stop Bayard from reaching the tournament. The ogre bests Bayard twice, and Bayard is knocked unconscious each time, taking longer to wake. After he does, he tells the story of the connection to the Brightblades and the di Caela’s, as the legend states the Brightblade’s will end the curse if they win the hand of the female in ownership of the castle. After four hundred years, this tournament matched the prophecy. To add to the importance, Sir Bayard Brightblade is the last of his line! That’s right, Sturm Brightblade and his father’s existence stems on Bayard successfully getting to and winning the tournament.
After finally defeating the ogre with Galen and Agion’s aid, Agion is killed saving Bayard and the knight cuts off the ogre’s head. The head speaks about his traitorous squire and how he only meant to prevent him from reaching the tournament. Now that there is no way for Bayard to reach it in time, he may descend the mountain path. Bayard is beside himself over the death of the centaur and his apparently traitorous squire, and tells Galen that he is released from service. This naturally did not mean they split companionship, as they were in the middle of the wilderness. Galen continued following Bayard to Castle di Caela and upon arrival was not surprised to learn that the tournament was over, and Lady Enid was to wed the hooded one, Sir Gabriel Androctus, the victor.
Galen weaseled his way into sleeping in the castle while Bayard slept outside the castle with many other knights. Galen was directed to his room which held both brothers Brithelm and Alfric! It turned out when Brithelm left them in the swamp to go on a hermitage, he ran across Alfric in the quicksand. Rescuing him then together they took a shortcut to the Castle, beating Galen and Bayard by three days! Galen wandered the keep meeting Enid and her cousin Dannelle who seemed to shine toward Galen, then he crashed only to be visited by The Scorpion who did what every saturday morning cartoon villain does, monologues.
The Scorpion admitted to be Benedict who is resurrected every time his attempt at murdering his remaining family fails, and to be Sir Gabriel Androctus who will murder his new bride Lady Enid once they are wed, but his reasons aren’t as black and white as has been proposed, and this is what makes this novel great. The curse that is laid on house di Caela is seen by Benedict to be laid on him. He is continually raised from the dead until his family dies. He is as tormented as the other di Caela’s as it was he who was screwed out of his inheritance some four hundred years before! We never learn how he keeps coming back but I genuinely love the idea of a curse being misread and the bad guy being as much a victim as the good guys, forcing the reader to choose or determine if any are actually bad or good.
So once Galen knows the truth and motivations of the Scorpion, he catches a fever and goes to tell Bayard everything as his brother Brithelm suggests. He grows even more ill along the way only to pass out in a massive rainstorm. When he wakes, everyone including Gabriel is standing over him, and he admits to everything, fingering Gabriel as the Scorpion and Benedict di Caela. It takes some convincing but then Benedict gives it away and flees. Later he actually captures Lady Enid and they disappear. Every knight in the castle gate hrs to discuss what to do next and Galen suggests the prophecy was misinterpreted by Bayard and Sir Robert.
He suggests they go to where Benedict was murdered by his own family generations before in Estwild and they will find the Scorpion there with Lady Enid. The treck is quite dangerous and they lose half their party passing the Vingaard river, finally making it to Estwild, they find a mock version of Castle di Caela and begin to enter when undead swarm them. They split up and enter the castle to find the Scorpion talking with Enid. Galen tries to unlock a door by sneaking in through a window and is caught, while the knights burst through the door and fight more undead Nerakans. Then the Scorpion brings more undead, this time Ssolamnic knights who end up fighting the undead Nerakans, and Brithelm uses magic to aid the knights against the Scorpion. This is an odd moment, as Brithelm has been pegged as a cleric this whole novel and has continually used some form of magic, but not as overtly as this. So he is a true cleric in a time when there should be none? Is this just to fit the narrative of the story, a convenience that ignores the state of Krynn and the Gods? I don’t necessarily mind it if there is a reason given, but there isn’t. So it kinda bugs me.
Anyway, they defeat the Scorpion, save Lady Enid and Alfric and Brithelm return home. Galen stays with Sir Bayard Brightblade and is adopted by him. Bayard marries Lady Enid, and Dannelle grows affection for Galen who now is about to take the oath as a Knight of Solamnia, leaving his cowardice and weasel ways behind.
This was a funny and irreverent look at Knights of Solamnia which I for one, really appreciated. It kept me engaged, and curious, as I didn’t recall every detail of the novel from my childhood, and it had the saturday morning cartoon happy ending that I enjoy in most Dragonlance novels. I would highly recommend this to fans of Dragonlance, funny fantasy novels and Knights of Solamnia.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of Weasel’s Luck by Michael Williams. What did you think of Galen Pathwarden Brightblade di Caela? Was Sir Bayard Brightblade a good representative of the Brightblade family? And finally, was illusion used too much and too willy-nilly in this novel? 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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