Join me as I give my review of Wizards’ Conclave by Douglas Niles live! Share your thoughts on this fifth novel in the Age of Mortals trilogy. It was released by Wizards of the Coast on July 1, 2004. You can pick up a copy here: https://amzn.to/4A12LGn
About Wizards’ Conclave
The latest title in a series based on characters from the best-selling War of Souls trilogy.
This title is the next in a series that explores the lives of key characters from Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman’s New York Times best-selling War of Souls trilogy. Wizards’ Conclave describes events that directly overlap events during the War of Souls, and it features two lead characters familiar to any fan of the Dragonlance world. Author Douglas Niles is well-known to and popular with both recent and long-term Dragonlance novel fans.
Review
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Misham, Reapember the 10th. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my review of Prisoner of Haven by Douglas Niles. I would like to take a moment and thank the DLSaga members and Patreon patrons, and invite you to consider becoming a member or patron. You can even pick up Dragonlance media or get $10 by signing up to StartPlaying.Games 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.
Review
It is so nice to return to Krynn after the War of Souls with Douglas Niles, a man who helped define the original Dragonlance through the original modules and novels. The set up of this story is really great. The gods have returned to Krynn after the War of Souls. The gods of magic are worried about wild magic and need to get their hands around magic once again. They began calling out to their practitioners. They granted Dalamar the Dark his life back after the War of Souls and the magic is slowly coming back to him. He wants to find the Tower of High Sorcery in Wayreth, but is running out of spells as he doesn’t have any spellbooks. He travels to Solace to try to enlist Palin, but he is happy as Solace’s mayor and wants nothing to do with magic anymore. He gifts Dalamar his old spellbook which he kept in secret all these years, and Dalamar went off to find Jenna of the Red Robes.
We are introduced to a young girl named Coryn who is very talented in both wild magic and traditional arcane magic. Her grandmother was once a magic user and friend to Jenna, but Coryn doesn’t know that. They live in Ice Reach and Coryn is off hunting when she is nearly ambushed by Thanoi. She uses magic to teleport to her grandmother Umma’s home and is berated by her for it. She learns that Coryn has been reading her spell book, and starting to understand it, so Umma calls a kender guide named Moptop Bristlebrow to take Coryn to Palanthas and Jenna. Excited to be traveling the world, but curious who this Jenna woman is, they head off.
Jenna is in Neraka looking for magical artifacts and returns to Palanthas to her Red Manor with only disappointment. She is told about Moptop and a young girl waiting for her, and sees Coryn. She takes the letter and throws it in the fire, I assume she knows the contents through magic. She immediately sets out to leave Palanthas with Coryn. As they are traveling clearly toward Wayreth Forest to try to find the Tower, Jenna snaps at Coryn for using Wild Magic, she won’t even eat the fish caught using it. It’s more akin to disgust than disapproval. There is clearly a schism between arcane and wild magic users building. Dalamar comes across them in his search and they are all jumped by bandits led by Samuval. Coryn is taken hostage and Jenna and Dalamar go to retrieve her.
Meanwhile two very powerful sorcerers of wild magic have discovered and claimed the Irda Stone from the ruins of Qualinost. This ancient artifact is incredibly powerful and makes both Kalrakin and Luthar nearly undefeatable. They hear the call of ht eTower of High Sorcery in Wayreth and enter. The master of the tower felt the power of the Irda Stone and believed them to be powerful magic-users. They rebuked the tower and used the stone to shut away the master of the tower, hiding the tower from all others, which is why Dalamar and Jenna cannot find it. As they are in the tower, they decide to keep it for themselves and start mapping it. They come across five doors that they cannot open no matter what they try, and seem to be blocked by the gods themselves, even as they lay claim to the tower.
We jump forward in time with Dalamar, Jenna and Coryn reunited and traveling towards Wayreth, trying to find the elusive Tower. We get a brief explanation of how they escaped Captain Samuval, and how he was a former Dark Knight who is now a bandit Lord. This seems like more worldbuilding information than narrative. I get the sense this book is intended to be a bridge from the old 5th age, age of mortals, to the post War of Souls age of mortals. Dalamar comes on to Coryn who is more than willing to accept and give back the passionate kisses but Jenna crashes the moment, scolding Dalamar for taking advantage. It did not come off that way, so clearly this is a Jenna vs. Dalamar issue not an inappropriate advance.
They cast another cone of Silence on Coryn so she cant hear what they are saying but she has the ability to instantly understand spells she hears and then even recast them. I do wish everyone was held to the same standard of casting spells. Dalamar has none save what is in Palin’s spellbook. Jenna isn’t sharing her spellbook, and Coryn doesn’t even need one or to memorize or prepare them, at all. She dispels the cone and neither of them notice as they talk about her. Coryn feels frustrated and slightly abused so she leaves in the night stumbling into the Tower of Wayreth herself.
We hear from the gods of magic who are frustrated with the sorcerers in the tower. Why they don’t interfere is beyond me. They grant items and spells whenever they like, why not eject shitasses from their tower? But they don’t. They are able to see through the master of the tower who has invited Coryn to take her test, but she must convince the interloper sorcerers to allow her to. Kalrakin and Lutahr have been watching her since she arrived and go to pay a visit and Kalrakin wants to destroy her, but Luthar begs patience. They think they are tricking her into taking her test by having her open a locked door they can’t access, which does actually send her to her test. She deals with a bunch of magical situations, including seeing the result of Dalamar and Jenna which I will discuss shortly before finally being presented with an image of her dying grandmother. She forsakes everything to see her and in doing so shows compassion and goodness and earns the white robes and her success in the test. She is given a potion, wand and book, one gift for all three mages, and goes to confront Kalrakin to destroy him.
Dalamar and Jenna try to follow Coryn into the woods and recall that Fistandantilus had a secret tunnel that led into the Tower called the nether Path. They find it and see that it is occupied by a Green Dragon. They believe it can’t be old and go in ready to destroy it. The dragon knew they were coming and deceived them, nearly killing them with a single breath weapon. As Jenna lay dying, Dalamar was disheartened and stayed by her, knowing he needed her. Coryn battled Kalrakin but the Irda Stone absorbed all her magic, so she fled and found Dalamar and Jenna. She gave Jenna the potion to heal her, and Dalamar the book she was given and they make a plan to return to Plaanthas and cast a summoning or calling spell to all wizards across Ansalon on the Night of the Eye in two days to have a conclave and destroy the two Sorcerers occupying the Tower.
The final third of this novel went really fast, and most of it is taken up with battle. We have historically had very few wizards battles in Dragonlance novels, so this is a very welcome change of pace. It starts with Dalamar, Jenna, and Coryn crafting glass globes then suffising each with smoke of their order, then they head to the top of a mountain outside Palanthas and cast a spell. This awakens all wizards still alive that trained in the Tower of High Sorcery before Palin disbanded the order early in the Fifth Age. As they are all renewed with magic, they all are drawn to wayreth. Then the three head there as well.
Meanwhile Kalrakin is dismantling much of the tower’s wall to craft a massive stone golem as a guardian against any intruders, after Coryn escaped. The Irda stone was apparently created from chaos and given to the Qualinesti to be used against the Queen of Darkness in ages past. I do have to note there was no statement about the eventual location of the stone, so it must be locked in the tower. Anyway, the three arrive and battle the golem. It nearly defeats them before they overcome it, and then the other wizards arrive and the real battle begins. There is a staggering loss of life, and many wizards are trapped by the sorcerer. Luthar, the second sorcerer, eventually leaves as he sees the madness in Kalrakin.
Dalamar is nearly killed by the sorcerer and Nuitari grants him a time stop spell to get away and release the wizards from the trap. Then they all renew their battle. Coryn ends up using her bow and arrow, mixing it with a sorcery-magic missile spell in order to defeat the sorcerer. Dalamar then finishes the job of cutting him up with a knife. Then the orders all have their first conclave in decades. Dalamar, Jenna, and Coryn all vie for the title of Head of the Orders of High Sorcery, but the Master of the Tower tells Coryn she can never be the master as she is still tempted by and used sorcery in the Tower. She had to do it, so it may not be a good argument, but Jenna is ultimately selected as the new Head. Coryn goes to visit her dying grandmother and they are all three heads of their respective order.
This was a great novel that I wish was a trilogy. I would have liked to learn more about why Coryn was so powerful with magic, which was never addressed. How she would learn spells and cast them without studying or memorizing them. Magic was very wily nilly applied in this book, and the clear antagonistic view of Sorcery makes me wonder how the orders will go into the future. Will sorcerers all be renegades? THey clearly see it as a direct threat. When you think of how to apply this as a game system, it becomes even more challenging.
In any case, if you enjoy magic, or the main characters, I highly recommend this novel. It is a solid Dragonlance story.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of Wizards’ Conclave by Douglas Niles. What do you think of Coryn? Should sorcery be more welcomed as a viable alternative to the god’s magic? And finally, how will you address this in your home games? Feel free to email me at info@dlsaga.com or leave a 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).
