Author: timothyimholt

DragonLance Dragons of Autumn Twilight Chapter 4, 5

Chapter 4

The Open Door

Flight into Darkness

When we last saw the party in Chapter 3 they were running out the back door of the Inn of the Last Home.

Here they are fleeing into the night’s they try to answer questions about what is going on. Can they trust Goldmoon? Can they trust Riverwind?

Is she and the staff really able to hear people or is it all a trick?

Can the barbarians trust the party of friends?

As they find a place to hold up for the night as the town is being searched they try to answer some of these questions. Is the staff blessed by the gods? Is it a sign of the true gods everyone has been looking for?

All is going well until their hiding spot is found and the party may have to run again because they may have accidentally killed a few more guards. While we don’t get many answers in this chapter it does move fast and it does make us try to figure a lot out, and make us want to turn a lot more pages!

Chapter 5

Farewell to Flint!

Arrows fly. Message in the stars.

They have to flee again. This time they have to get out quickly but all of the roads are blocked by guards searching for whomever is hiding with the blue crystal staff.

The answer is to go across the lake in a boat…except Flint really doesn’t like boats. He has a crippling fear of them thanks to that time Caramon almost accidentally drowned him.

As they are trying to get in the boat, and argue with flint a group of Goblins find them. Arrows fly in both directions! Will Flint go or will he stand his ground and fight?

Raistlin shocks everyone when he casts a spell to solve the problem in one shot. As they finally find safety they look up, and notice something missing.

There are two constellations of stars that are no longer in the sky. That of the Queen of Darkness, and the Valiant Warrior. Have the gods of evil and good come to Krynn to fight for control?

 

DragonLance – Dragons of Autumn Twilight Chapter 3

Knight of Solamnia

The Old Man’s Party

We find that Kitiara (the twin’s sister) isn’t going to make the reunion but now we also know she is a mercenary and probably pledged to something she couldn’t get out of.

For the first time in the book we meet Sturm Brightblade, seen in the painting traveling with Flint, who walks in the Inn, and everyone instantly recognizes him as a Knight of Solamnia. Strum is oddly proud of being a Knight. The knights themselves have fallen out of popularity as they have corruption issues in the rank and file.

He is accompanies by two barbarians in clothes recognized as those of the Plainsmen.

These two characters are Goldmoon and Riverwind. They are very proud people that Sturm found tired and hungry on the side of the road.  He brought them into town so they could find food and rest.

Throughout the chapter we hear again about Armies massing to the North. But this time we learn they may not be made up of humans. But given the amount of chatter it is obvious something is going on and there is about to be a war, but what kind of war? A war against all living things or is it something else?

As we progress the old man comes back into the story, this time telling stories to kids around a fire. We learn that Dragons have long since left the world and children want to see them (DragonLance did that before Game of Thrones so hush!).

The action really starts when the High Theocrat starts a drunken argument about the old Gods not being true Gods, he gets hurt, the mysterious blue crystal staff shows up (Goldmoon had it). It has magical healing powers that everyone is afraid of! Now the real brawl starts, our companions leave quickly out of the back of the Inn through the kitchen as the local authorities start the search for whomever was responsible for injuring the theocrat and using dangerous evil powers to heal someone!

The real story starts here as the party escapes out the back of the Inn through the kitchen! The authors brilliantly rocketed through character introduction, and combining it with action in these first chapters and thrust us headlong into a story that we can’t wait to experience.

DragonLance Dragons of Autumn Twilight Chapter 2 – Return to the Inn, A Shock, The oath is Broken

In this chapter, we return to the Inn of the Last Home as our setting and learn more about it and Solace, the town where it is located.

The Inn isn’t just a place for weary travelers. It turns out to be the place where local townspeople go as often as they can just to escape, and get some news. Solace is at a crossroads between a bunch of interesting places:

  • Haven, The Seeker Capital
  • Qualinesti, the Elven Kingdom
  • The Barren Plains of Abanasina

The Inn itself is one of those places that is known to everyone around the world. Like most restaurants that gain notoriety, it is known for something food related. In this case Otik’s spiced potatoes. The smell alone is enough to make you want to try them!

Interestingly there is a book called Hero’s Feast that gives a bunch of Dungeons and Drgaons/DragonLance recipes, and I have made those potatoes. They are pretty darn good.

Walking into town Tanis can feel that something is off. It raises the tension of the story just a bit, you can feel the conflict coming.

The Seekers are everywhere. The Seekers are a group of people who “seek” the new Gods.

Interestingly to me the clerics in this religion apparently started out as decent people but in the times when the story is set the clerics have become power and money hungry. Like that would never happen with a religious group or a mega-church at all..Right? Wait, it would? Well crap.

As the trio we met in the Chapter 1 discussion enter the Inn they find twin brothers Caramon and Raistlin already among the crowd.

Caramon is a fighter, pure and simple. He is a huge man with a sword that you would not want to meet on the battlefield.

Raistlin is the polar opposite. A frail man who is a mage.

One brother uses brawn the other uses the brain. The pair can be seen in the painting here along with a large dragon.

The old friends meet, have a drink, and start to catch up when we learn of their sister Kitiara who had pledged to return but didn’t make the reunion. Of course, Flint grumbles and is annoyed by all of this.

In short, what this chapter does is more character introduction, but it does it while moving the story forward. The pacing is amazing, it really does grab your attention and make you want to stay up late reading. Can not recommend these books enough.

DragonLance Dragons of Autumn Twilight – Chapter 1

Dragons of Autumn Twilight

Book 1

Chapter 1

Old Friends Meet – A Rude Interruption

This chapter does a lot to introduce us more to the area around The Inn of the Last Home and brings in three of the major characters for the story. It is a world-building and character chapter but does it with action, it is a page-turner, and a necessary one to really start to dig into things.

It opens with Flint Fireforge, who we learn is a Dwarf, as he decides to take a break from his travels and sits down on a nice warm boulder. Flint, despite being alone, likes to talk to himself. As a dwarf, he lives much longer than humans and keeps to himself, and who better to keep him company as everyone else seems to annoy him.

He is clearly of the opinion that he should have never left his most recent home of Solace, the town where The Inn of the Last Home is found, and that he has missed it a great deal. The surrounding area is beautiful in Flint’s opinion, it has wonderful trees, a lake, valleys, and from his position an amazing azure-colored sky.

As Flint rests along the path leading into town he is met by Tanis, who we learn because it is important to the story, is half elf, half human. The authors are some of the best I have come across at keeping the story moving, so to get us to understand that these two are old friends, they start behaving like old guy friends would, just right away.

Flint looks at Tanis and says, “Why the beard? You were ugly enough.”

Who but two old, very close men would do such a thing?

Well, we learn that being gone for half a decade from one another that they still consider themselves tight. They have also found that there is trouble here in Solce, which they consider to be their home.

We also learn that in the world of Krynn, different people believe in different Gods and are willing to go to War over it. These two have been off looking for evidence of the “true Gods.” So we know all of this will play an important role in the story.

I got the feeling reading this chapter that Flint will grumble about almost anything, who doesn’t have that kind of person in their family? They are grumbly and upset all the time, but you love em anyway. Flint is that person! He is the favorite Uncle, who is always just annoyed.

The two are so in-tune, and always alert that anything out of the ordinary will get their attention, which is when we meet Tasslehoff Burrfoot.

Tasslehoff we discover is from a race of beings called Kender. They tend to be very small, very thin, and almost childlike in appearance. They also tend to annoy anyone. They are known to question everything and be constantly curious. They also have a unique view on property and who owns what, so hold only your money near them, very carefully.

The trio is about to head into Solace for a reunion when they run into a group of Hobgoblins led by Fewmaster Toede, who are acting under orders from someone that the group doesn’t recognize as an authority figure and is searching everyone for a blue crystal staff. Well, the trio doesn’t like that and battle the hobgoblins, and fight together like they had just practiced working as a team the day before. They are obviously old, and very well acquainted friends and adventuring companions.

That, thrusts us forward into the world of Krynn, and three very unforgettable characters. So much more depth in this story and world to come!

 

 

Dragons of Autumn Twilight – The Old Man

As a kid, and now as an adult I find reading to be a great way to relax and unwind. It helps me escape the daily grind and reduce stress.

I decided to dive deep into the DragonLance series starting at the very beginning with Dragons of Autumn Twilight, the first book to ever be published in this series.

For me the reason this series really sticks out in my mind as one of the best fantasy series ever is the work of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Some authors world build with pages of description, that almost reads like an instruction manual.

These authors world build by action. You do learn about the world but by some action taking place, the description offered is necessary to understand that action. Both methods are valid in writing, but I prefer this version, for me is makes it more of a page-turner. I have tried to use that methodology in the novels I have written, to what degree of success I will leave up to the readers.

The featured image at the top is my personal, very old copy of the book.

The novel is divided into three books or acts all under a single cover. It has a preface of sorts called The Old Man.

The story opens with Tika Waylan seen smiling away, a pivotal character in the story, working away at The Inn of the Last Home.

The Inn of the Last Home as we see it is a restaurant and bar. We learn that it is old, and we also learn that the world and the Inn have seen better days, that it pre-dates something called The Cataclysm (way more on that in later posts).

There is some explanation of the craftsmanship of the Inn but only because it is relevant. The Inn was designed to look like it was just an outgrowth of the surrounding natural setting, and elevated in a tree. It says a lot about the local population, that they are concerned with being in tune with nature, and their surroundings. Thereby worldbuilding for us, quickly, and in an entertaining way.

There is a conversation taking place as Tika cleans and Otik (the owner of the Inn) prepares for the day. As these two talk we learn that the local population is tense, that people are being taken away never to return. Throughout this conversation, we learn there could be a war brewing. I find this interesting personally because before the Internet, TV, Radio, and other forms of modern communication, the best news available was, of course, asking around at the local pub! Maybe we should go back to that just a little? Ok, maybe not, but a guy can dream!

Without warning the door opens, which is strange because normally they would hear someone on the stairs. There is an old man at the door, and he becomes very important to the story later, and his absentmindedness is always entertaining. If he could just remember to never cast a fireball in a small room.

The old man, through his actions, foreshadows a lot of things to come. he is setting up for a large group to meet at the Inn that night, including a chair set aside in a shadowy corner but won’t explain much other than to tell Tika that something big is about to happen, something that will change the world as they know it.

This preface is unlike others I have read. The emotion leaps off the page. I want to be a customer at the Inn, I want Tika to ask me what I want to drink, and most of all, I want an ale at one of those tables!

Book 1, Chapter 1 will be up soon, It is Where Old Friends Meet.

Slaying The Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons and Dragons by Ben Riggs

Slaying The Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons and Dragons by Ben Riggs is, in my opinion, the ultimate history of the TTRPG giant as it grew, and ultimately was taken over. It starts with the earliest days of how Gary Gygax was really the driving force (although not the entire creative team) behind getting this thing moving.

Without those guys the table top role playing game world likely would not exist. They grew the company, they made it the place to be for creators to really just do what it is they wanted to do, which resulted in games we all seemed to want to play.

We know that ultimately Gygax and the early crew were basically forced out of their own company once it grew. This is really something that happens far more often than most people think. Some people are just not wired to run a large company, and that’s fine, it is a much different skillset.

The book also digs deep into what caused the company to essentially be dead. It was headed for insolvency and the game for some set of legal challenges that would likely have doomed it forever. So yeah, we may all curse and get upset with Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro, but they kept it alive, and seems like it is making a huge comeback!

It was a great book, highly recommended. Check out the video for more info.

Greyhawk Adventures Book 1 – Saga of Old City

Greyhawk Adventures was a huge add on to the Dungeons and Dragons sets. It creates an entire new world to run adventures. It was pretty cool to play these adventures, and the novels were originally a pretty short lived series, with the first two written by Gary Gygax himself.

We meed the main character, Gord, very quickly as he is a kid and we see that his life is a daily struggle just to have food to eat. Gygax does a good job of giving us the backstory. We find that he is small, people steal from him because he is an easy target, they take his money, his food, anything he has. Gord gets angry at himself for letting these sorts of things happen. Gord, in order to survive tries stealing things and gets caught.

As a result of his theft he is sentenced to three years in prison, which originally Gord is happy about because he will have food people can’t steal from him in prison. It isn’t long before he realizes that prison isn’t the improvement in his life that he thought it would be. It doesn’t take long before he starts trying to figure out how to escape.

He does come up with a plan, one of the guards catches onto that plan, helps him escape, but then sells him into the service of the Beggars Guild, which will teach him a trade, but not an improvement either, at first.

Gord does learn how to make the best of things, but that is before the Thieves’ Guild and the Beggars Guild are kind of at war with one another. And as Gord has been begging, but also stealing he isn’t in a great place with the Thieves’ guild, they don’t like crossovers.

One thing he does learn during this time is how to create entire new personas which helps him as he is a thief, and after he manages to escape this world and starts to adventure around the world this comes in handy as he runs a series of cons for money in different cities.

Gord is a good thief, and great with his hands, so he is good in a fight. The book follows Gord on his first adventures, and that is pretty interesting.

Gary Gygax (and I am a fan of his career) is a fantastic world builder. This book does set the stage with a whole new world. What Gary wasn’t as good at was getting us in the heat of the battle and feeling the emotion of it. However, some readers prefer that world building, some prefer the emotion. It is up to you to decide which you prefer, and enjoy appropriate titles!

I did enjoy this book, as a teenager and now. There are others I like better, but this one is pretty darn good at setting the stage of this entire new world, and that is hard to accomplish for anyone.

Now, if you are fan of Dungeons and Dragons art. Clyde Caldwell did the cover art as well as all of the interior art (one of which is shown above in black and white) to be found sprinkled throughout the chapters. The art of Clyde Caldwell is simply amazing. What that man can do in black and white…just phenomenal.

Can a new RPG company come in and defeat WOTC?

The RPG community has a lot of choices these days. OSR, Pathfinder, WOTC, you name it there are choices. But, there is an 800 pound guerrilla in the field called Dungeons & Dragons which is currently owned and produced by Wizards of the Coast which is part of Hasbro.

To say that Wizards has caused some…stress in the industry lately is to put it mildly. They have done things that have made people angry, and not just a little angry, we are talking pissed more than you normally see people upset. Especially Gen X who is normally quiet on most fronts. It wasn’t just Gen X pissed off, but when you get them in the mix, you know you done gone and messed up. Especially when that group gets vocal…which we did.

Now, can another RPG company come in and take out that 800lb guerrilla. Maybe, I dunno, but we are going to look at it, and think about it together in the coming weeks.

First, let’s look at the version of the basic set I have. Yes, I know there was one before this, but this is the earliest one I personally have a copy of.

The book, for when it was published was pretty solid. Color exterior, some interior black and whites. And wouldn’t cost a ton to put together and retail at a price people would take a risk on for something new, and I don’t just mean the hard core hobbyists, I mean every parent with a kid would take a shot (that’s the real market that a company would want if they want to grow).

Would a book of these standards be possible to put together today? Sure, and wouldn’t be too expensive to buy.

Would it have a market?

I think in today’s market there is a desire for a much higher quality book, but that means, more art time, more art expense, higher printing costs, and therefore a much higher retail price. And if you are a smaller company, printing and taking a risk on thousands of these, and getting it wrong, is a killer. Sure, you can do a crowd funding thing, but that is for small runs, and people seriously in the sweet spot demographic.

Can a company that forms that way take on the 800lb guerrilla we discussed?

No clue, maybe they can, but if you really want to go after the big guys, you have to think big. You have to put together a high quality product at a price that huge numbers of people are willing to pay, and you have to do it in a way that attracts new people into the hobby.

I think there are some great small companies out there in the space trying to grow, and I hope they do. Can someone (one of them or some new company as yet unknown) really come along and take down Wizards of the Coast?

I certainly hope so, because I think Wizards is messing the entire thing up. I love DnD and always will, but I think Wizards is going to stifle creativity in the long term, and there is room for one or more companies to come along and knock them out of the leader spot in the field.

 

 

 

Dante Inferno #29 – 8th Circle of Hell Salvador Dali

Dante’s epic poem referred to as The Divine Comedy or Dante’s Inferno is without a doubt one of Italy’s national treasures. It is loved by cultural institutions as well as the Roman Catholic Church and has been since it’s writing more than 700 years ago.

In 1950 Salvador Dali, who had completely rejected religion by that point was chosen to bring that work to life.

Part of this came to be because in 1949 Dante met with Pope Pius XII and received permission to do work on another concept, and the Italian Government not wanting to get left out signed a contract and paid Dali to illustrate the work by Dante Alighieri (The Divine Comedy)

This led to much argument among the various political class types in Italy at the time and eventually the project was completed through a French company.  However it came to be the world now has a series of Watercolors done by Dali depicting events in The Divine Comedy. These were originally published in very limited quantities, many of which are still in the hands of private collectors (myself included).

There is a lot of detail about how these copies happened to be created. I will keep it brief, and if you are artistically inclined or curious there are books written on this topic.

But Dante painted 101 watercolors. Then wood carvings were made from those watercolors to create some “copies” of the paintings. Dali would apply the colors to the wood and press the pages between to create the image. The picture shown is one of those.

I have 4 in my home. The one shown here is Inferno #29 – Mohammed. It depicts the 19th and final portion of the 8th circle of Hell.

It does not look like a level that was pleasant.

What drives me into reading, gaming, writing, and all this junk

I get asked every once in a while, why waste your time on fantasy novels, writing books, being a gamer…Isn’t your time too valuable?

Yes, I have a high level of education, worked in some fantastic engineering spaces as well as scientific ones over the years. And yes, that is reasonably well compensated financially.

So why waste my time on these things?

It is these things that made me who I am. I would never have become a scientist if science fiction hadn’t caused me to become interested in how that stuff works. I would have never had that focus, that drive, or even curiosity if I hadn’t spend a ton of time reading fantasy adventure novels (like Tolkien, DragonLance, etc).

The creativity it takes to do some of what I have done (and still do) for a living is born in those other things that I do. It also gives a mind break.

It isn’t a waste of time to do things that relax you and foster creativity. Every person is different. But for me, I don’t feel watching TV and Movies constantly fosters that in my brain. But, your brain is different.

If you want to be a novelist, or engineer but feel like you have trouble coming up with “concepts or ideas” try something that fosters creativity. Try something new. Everyone can be creative, you just have to find what works for you.

The video below discusses all this stuff a lot further.