Tag: ADND

DragonLance – Dragons of Autumn Twilight Chapter 14 & 15

Chapter 14

Prisoners of the draconians.

When the majority of the traveling companions were taken prisoner by the Draconians Flint and Tasslehoff managed to remain unnoticed and free. They followed the trail in hopes of finding a way to rescue their friends.

They find a huge Draconian camp that was clearly celebrating some kind of victory, and therefore easy to sneak up on. They find, much to their surprise a Dragon in the camp! The Draconians were dancing and partying in front of the giant creature.

Flint is instantly scared, but Tasslehoff like all Kender are immune to fear. Tass notices something weird about the dragon.

The prisoners are indeed in the camp, all in a cell, but Raistlin poisoned and feverish, looks like he is about to die. Without the staff, there is nothing they can do for him.

It turns out the Dragon isn’t really a dragon, it is a little different, and while I won’t spoil it (warning the video below does spoil that bit). But I will say this, when you leave a Kender up to masterminding a prison break, it is both hilarious, and chaotic all at the same time.

Chapter 15

Escape. The well.

Death on black wings.

As they escape the camp the run through the swamp and find their way to Xak Tsaroth. They find a city in ruins and surprisingly Raistlin is the most excited at the thought of being here. We don’t know why but the mage is so secretive there has to be something in his quest for power involved.

They find a Draconian, the party attempts to stop it, but it escapes down a well. It alerts whatever is below and a huge, living, flying, breathing Black Dragon appears!

The dragon circles overhead, casts a magical spell that eliminates everyone sight, breaths fire before leaving, and turns Riverwind into a pile of charred flesh, with organs exposed and not long to live!

Is the staff powerful enough to save his life!

We find out in Chapter 16!

DragonLance – Dragons of Autumn Twilight Chapters 12 & 13

Chapter 12

Winged Sleep. Smoke in the east.

Dark memories.

The Forestmaster took care of their travel problems with flying horses (aka Pegasus), or Pegasi for the plural version. Never thought about the plural version did you?

How else do you get someplace in a hurry? Now, because no one here has ever flown before, and the Pegasi don’t want anyone to get hurt the companions are put into a magic induced sleep for the length of the journey.

Once they landed and Tanis awoke the lead Pegasus informed him they had to stop before the final destination due to a great evil that had been awakened on Krynn, something he hadn’t felt since before the Cataclysm. So apparently he’s been around a very long time. Is he alive or dead? We don’t know.

The landed a half day journey from Goldmoon and Riverwind’s village, but close enough they could see great smoke clouds coming from their homeland. They rush to the village to find that it has been decimated in the worst battle anyone could recall. Fires burned so hot that even the stone had melted.

The only living being they could find was a dog.

The emotion of this chapter jumps off the page. The authors are so gifted at making you feel what the characters feel I say, if you are enchanted by the storyline you must experience for yourself. It is amazing.

They leave the city and continue on their path to Xak Tsaroth.

Chapter 13 

Chill down. Vince bridges.

Dark water.

The trip so far may have just been a little too easy. By all accounts they should still be able to make their destination by the deadline.

More emotion of the situation starts to leap off the page. Goldmoon has been told all along that this blue crystal staff is a gift from the Gods (maybe). But it is a gift, a staff of healing! Half of Krynn appears to be searching for this thing, so how can it not be an amazing gift.

A gift that got her entire family, all her friends and her home destroyed. What kind of gift is that?

Along the way they must travel through a swamp, across vine bridges, all to find the most valuable thing in the world. But who else might be in the area looking for this?

Draconians! This time they are magic users and Raistlin can’t solve the problem before they are all encased in magic spider webs!

Will they survive! Can they survive in there? We don’t know! We do know they can’t move, and are now captured by the Draconian lizard-men!

Dungeons & Dragons (DnD), Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro, oh my

When I was a kid I was at a bookstore one day with my mother and grandmother when I came across this game called Dungeons and Dragons by a then not that well known company called TSR.  My original basic book is up above.

I have been playing this game off and on my entire life since that time. Now, there is something disturbing is going on between the community and those who own the brand name (Hasbro through their subdivision Wizards of the Coast). That is me with one of my very old modules.

Since the dawn of time the game has had the ability through their open gaming license for third party developers to build things to go along with the game for our enjoyment as players. And some of those third party groups are shockingly creative.

Hasbro is trying to change the rules (I’ll stay out of that for a moment).

Why would a company do such a crazy thing instead of controlling their intellectual property?

Because DND is just a set of rules of how to play. The game takes place in people’s imagination. The game gives guidelines, and it gives you mechanics but it doesn’t always give you scenarios. Some of these third party groups have put together highly creative game scenarios to play. That are highly entertaining, and some have made a few bucks at it.

Hasbro doesn’t want that.

Well, without all those third party guys, I would never have bought nearly as many TSR (now Hasbro) books and products over the years. So in a way the third party groups have propped up TSR (now Wizards of the Coast and ultimately Hasbro).

Why change something that is working and get yourself a LOT of bad consumer sentiment in the process?

No clue, but I bet there is a bonus for someone involved somewhere. But, it is going to ultimately fail. Because there won’t be as many side products that I will enjoy, and TSR isn’t innovating the way it once did.

It isn’t that we hate Hasbro, or TSR, or Wizards (ok maybe a little now), but we love the creativity of these smaller orgs.

Below is a YouTube video I recorded on this whole mess!!