Tag: DND

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 Chapter 6 & 7

Chapter 6

Night in a cave

Dissension. Tanis Decides.

I do love the simple sketches at the start of each chapter. It really sets the tone for what is to come.

As we continue into the book the personalities of our party of characters are really starting to come out. We can see how they compliment one another. Where one is strong another is weak. The interesting love of adventure and perhaps A.D.D. of Tasslehoff is one of those fantastic examples. We also are starting to get some of that backstory of the companions, but in small doses and only in ways that pertain to moving the story forward.

I feel one of the fantastic things that start to come forward is the motivations and fears of each of the characters. This is something that has influenced my own writing. I like to get inside a characters head so the reader (me or someone else) can really understand why they do what they do.

As a part of the story we learn that as our companions figure out how to get the Blue Crystal Staff to someone who can help them figure it out they will have to travel, but they are short on food and supplies. So this will be a tricky bit to deal with. But, in order to determine if the staff is a sign of the true gods, it could be totally worth the danger.

Chapter 7

The story of the staff

Strange clerics. Eerie Feelings.

The companions start to move out and try to figure out their order of march. They decide that sending Tasslehoff to scout ahead is the right choice, because no one will suspect a Kender traveling alone (they can be annoying to travel with), but they also tend to wander off and get distracted by whatever they find fun. So, risky but worth it.

It is revealed the Goldmoon is royalty in her tribe, and Riverwind is the exact opposite of that. But, they have been in love. They wanted to get married, but her father would not allow it unless he completed a quest. Her father attempted to find a quest he couldn’t possibly complete. He was to go find an object with holy properties that would prove the existence of ancient true gods.

When Riverwind returned with the staff they did not believe him. He was to be stoned to death for lying. Goldmoon got between him and those throwing the stones, and the staff saved them by transporting them far away.

As Riverwind is explaining all of this Tasslehoff returns from scouting and signaling danger! A party of eight clerics is coming this way, but not like any clerics the Kender has ever seen!

The clerics arrive. They are dressed strangely. Every square inch of skin is covered. They are looking for a blue crystal staff with healing powers.

Despite the possible danger Goldmoon rushes forward to help the injured Cleric with the staff!

Will she survive? Will she be hurt? We find out in the next chapter.

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!!