Chapter 8
Search for truth
Unexpected answers
Goldmoon was last seen rushing to the back of the cart pulled by the Clerics to try to help the injured member of their group. In the process she tells the clerics that she did not steal the staff as she was being accused of but that it was gifted to her.
This really sets up a major conflict in the story. People have been looking for the staff, and now two official groups that are under orders to find it and report back have spotted it. People, ok goblins, have been killed over it.
Could this next fight be the one that kicks off the War? Is the staff just a symbol and devoid of any real power?
We quickly find out that the clerics don’t have an injured member they intend to take the staff by force, but they also are not human!
They are humanoid in form, but are some kind of lizard/human hybrid!
Could this be the work of the gods? Is it the doing of the Queen of Darkness? How is it that they are resistant to some forms of magic as Raistlin found out trying to fight them.
We see that Goldmoon wanted to do the right thing and heal someone, and that resulted in a fight the companions might have been able to talk their way out of had she not been ready to jump to the aid of a stranger! So much about her character is revealed in that moment. She is truly a good person or as an alignment probably lawful good (I should go look at that up but by her actions, we can probably say that).
Chapter 9
Flight! The white stag.
The party kills a few of the lizard men, Sturm suffers a head injury but they have to flee the area and get out of sight.
Sturm had a vicious head-wound during the fight with the lizard men, and is partially healed by the staff, but it apparently has some limits. Or Goldmoon has her limits while using it, we aren’t sure.
They flee the area. And we learn more of the legend of Huma who was a great Knight of Solamnia long ago before the Cataclysm.
As they are fleeing the area the delusional head injured Knight believes he sees a giant white stag. This was something that was supposed to happen to Huma to lead him out of danger. Strum is the only one in the group that can see it, yet the group follows him anyway.
There is some discussion about should the follow him or not, including some grumbling from Flint about first goblins, then boats, lizard men, now invisible stags, what could possibly go wrong.
But imagine living in a world with these kinds of wonders. It would be interesting, dangerous but interesting. I love the escape these books offer as a result of these sorts of things.
The stag did lead them away from the lizard men, but it has led them to Darken Wood, where the living are said to walk the surface of Krynn. It has said that of all the living beings that have entered Darken Wood, none have come out, at least alive!
