Dragonlance D&D Game Blog

This story begins a few moments after the last issue . Lord Silvercrown has just claimed the Sword of the Kinslayer for his own, as the evil force from within the cave emerges, and is revealed to be a white dragon. As the dragon lays waste to Lord Silvercrown's men, the dragon is also silently communicating with Lord Silvercrown, instructing him to kill his son, Maric. Riva struggles with her father as Maric makes his escape. The dragon then instructs Lord Silvercrown to slay his daughter. Riva runs away, her father close on her heals. While on the run, she falls down a snow covered shaft and finds herself in one of the mountains caves. Here she stumbles across Theolin who reveals a terrible find, deep in the cave are dozens of dragon eggs. Theolin reveals a magical device, a Horn of Blasting, that he will use to bring the mountain down upon all the hatchlings. At first Riva dismisses the idea, claiming that creatures aren't born evil, and that it could be a glorious si...

A little know official Dragonlance monster, the gray dragon, first appeared in issue #146 of Dragon Magazine (cover date June 1989). Appearing as part of the magazine's dragon theme issue, it was one of several new dragon types described in an article titled "The Dragon's Bestiary". The article offers a few other new dragon types, but none of them are specifically stated as coming from Krynn. The gray dragon is very similar in size, nature, and habitat to a white dragon. In the 3.5 Bestiary of Krynn book, gray dragon's are presented as just a list of adjustments to a comparable white dragon of the same age. The forth edition book, Draconomicon - Chromatic Dragons, offers up a gray dragon, but has no connection to the previous versions in terms of description, or similarity to white dragons.

Death in the Burning Sea This issue starts off with each of the party members riding a different dragon, while Riva and Maraghiz lament about how they should have foreseen Erestem's influence on Skrum through the ring. They then arrive at a location near a lava flow where Skrum commands the dragons to drop off the party members off in a nearby valley. Once Skrum dismounts, all the dragons fly away. He tells everyone that he has brought them here to meet the goddess. Rising up from the pool, a gigantic lava-form of Erestem appears. She taunts Riva about their previous meeting (in issue #3 ). Meanwhile, Sulai casts an ice storm spell on Erestem. Skurm laughs at the elf mage's attempt, saying that "a little hail won't extinguish Erestem's flame!" What Skurm didn't realize was that Sulai's real intention of the spell was not to harm the goddess, but to use the mixture of flame and ice to create enough steam for the party to escape unseen. Under cover of th...

Ring of Evil This issue starts out with General Axantheas holding a meeting. Around the table are humanoids of different races and genders (including a traag draconian and a hobgoblin). Behind the general is a statue of Erestem (aka Takhisis). The mintour proclaims this small group to be the greatest champions of evil on Taladas, each representing one of the Erestem's five heads. There is infighting within the group, and Axantheas even kills one of the other "heads", believing him to be a spy for the rival nation of Thenol. Elsewhere, Riva starts the morning in prayer to Paladine. Afterward the rest of the party convince her that the best way to stop the general and Esterem, is to reveal their plot to the emperor of the League of Minotaurs. Later they unleash an attack on the emperor's entourage in an attempt to get a private audience with the leader. After fighting the emperor's minions, he steps out of his carriage in full battle gear. As he listens to the party...

Winging it! This issue starts off with Riva, Griffin, and Skrum arriving as prisoners in Kristophan, the capital city of the League of Minotaurs. On the outskirts of the city, Tyche, one of the minotaur soldiers loyal to the traitorous General Axantheas, kills a human soldier to frame the prisoners who Tyche intends to kill as "they were trying to escape". Riva reaches for the dead solders polearm and uses it to knock Tyche to the ground and allowing them to make a real escape. As they run down streets and through buildings, Skrum reveals that he still has the real dragonring, and what he had previously handed over to the soldiers was an old bracelet he had. Skrum uses the ring to summon a dragon. Unknown to Skrum, a red dragon appears attacking the chasing soldiers and allowing the three to escape. At first Riva hesitates, not wanting to ally herself with such an evil creature until league soldiers are right on her. As soon as the dragon takes flight, Riva forces Skrum to la...

Landfall The issue starts with Riva and Fizban on a boat out in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of a storm. It seems Riva is on this boat as part of a mission from the knighthood for her to prove her obedience to the order. Fizban also has a mission for Riva, instructing her to bring her love of goodness, justice, and mercy to the continent of Taladas, a continent of Krynn that hasn't known those virtues for centuries. Before her boat crashes into the rocky shoreline, Fizban teleports the warrior and her magical dragonlance onto the dry plains of this new land. Nearby, Riva sees two people on horseback (a man and gnome) being chased by a huge group of warriors. The two are so desperate to evade the chasing legion, they push their horses to leap over a huge chasm. On the other side of the chasm, they are confronted by a one-handed minotaur named Axantheas riding atop a blue dragon. The minotaur focuses on trying to kill Griffin, the human warrior, while Skrum rides his horse...

This issue contains two stories, one featuring Myrella and the other with Riva Silvercrown. Sadly, the two tales are separate, so Riva and Myrella never actually meet. The Sorceress' Apprentice This short tale is any early adventure of Myrella before her first appearance in issue 5 . The would-be mage is in a forest with another mage, Jenque, planning to assault the nearby castle of Borgys, who is also a mage. It seems that Borgys is in possession of the staff of Ethys, and plans to use the magic item to raise an army of undead and conquer the local province. Jenque can't enter the castle as the old mage has cast a protection spell around his stronghold. Jenque asks Myrella to sneak in and destroy the amulet Borgys wears. The amulet is a component of the protection spell that keeps her at bay. Myrella is at first nervous, but knows she needs to prove herself if she wants Jenque to accept her as an apprentice. With only a few basic spells, Myrella enters the castle. Coming acro...

Season of the Witch This issue starts with Riva and companions reaching her destination. This turns out to be an empty mesa, but Riva doesn't seem bothered with this. Instead she uses the time to continue telling more tales of Wistan Dawnbringer. Wistan's tale picks up three years after his adventure in the Silvanesti lands . During that time, lands important to the Knights of Solomnia have been plunged into an eternal winter. The knights recently learned that this was the work of the black-robed wizard Ravenna and now march on her lair. As they approach a particularly steep hill, Alben, Lord Sigmun's son, goes on foot to scout ahead. Just over the rise, the young knight is attacked engulfed in the freezing breath of a white dragon. The other knights quickly attack and drive away the dragon, but it's too late to save the young knight. Meanwhile as they gather fire wood, Shaya and Riva talk about the pain Lord Sigmun must have felt over sending his own son to his death. ...

Having finally recovered the Gem of Amara , the party returned to Dun Eamon for supplies and a chance to plan their next move... Inside the Grey Citadel, Hunter, Theo, Jes, and Adow were contacted by Caledon, a local druid and friend of Greybear. He reported that the local druids were watching the area around Brightstone Keep and there had been an increase in activity around the mine. The druids currently believed that the followers of the Black Scourge had retrieved as many as eight or nine of the ten bones needed to allow the Scourge to return to the prime material plane. Everyone then packed up with fresh supplies for the journey back to the keep. En route, the party met up with the druids actually monitoring the area. They were reunited with Greybear , who informed them of recent events. Many of the local hobgoblin and gnoll tribes had aligned themselves with this cult, and the main entrance to the mine was well guarded by these minions. Something they recently discovered, was that...

The party made camp above ground atop the ruins of the Temple of the Flaming Fist. They spent the night resting and treating their wounds from the barbarian attack they were lucky to have survived. * Bergin cast divine spells to heal the most wounded members of the party, * while Hunter used his herbal skills to treat the others. * Adow studdied the books and papers he'd found in one of rooms below, * while Greybear, Theo, and Jeswin helped make camp and prepare dinner. That night, while Hunter was on watch, he saw a wounded eagle being swatted around by a "playful" bear cub. He was able to befriend the little animal and send him on his way before the cub did any further damage to the eagle. With great skill, Hunter removed an unusually large black thorn that had temporarily crippled the bird. The rest of the evening passed by without further disruption. The next day the party returned to exploring the underground complex, still searching for the Gem of Amara. The party ...

My Honor Is My Life The story picks up shortly after the events of issue 3 . Kitiara, top her dragon Skie, is leading her army, along with an unmounted red dragon, toward Castle Silvercrown. Inside, Riva and Vandar are talking with Fizban, without getting much information out of the old wizard. Riva leaves, with the dragonlance that was recovered from the monestary of Majere in issue 1 , to join up with the castle knights. She tries to bolster their spirits before the attack, but is quickly dismissed since she's a woman. Meanwhile as Vandar and Fizban talk, the young boy, Tip, appears, happy the old wizard is still alive. As Vandar leaves to meditate on his own, Fizban questions weither or not Angriff really died the way Vandar remembered it (as seen in issue 3). Outside, as the battle rages, Riva single-handedly kills the red dragon. This event turns the tied of the battle and instills the knights with renewed vigor. Just then, Kit arrives and launchs her attack on Riva. Back insi...

Continuing my review of DC's Dragonlance comics series. Nightwatch The issue starts at night in Riva's bedroom at Castle Silvercrown. As Riva and Vandar kiss, Vandar is revealed to be a draconian. Riva quickly kills the creature before setting off to find the real Vandar in the castle. She encounters her father and brother (who was revealed last issue to have been killed several months earlier by a Sivak draconian) tethered to strings like puppets trying to stop her. After Riva cuts the strings that control them, the two crumple to the floor. Elsewhere in the castle, she finds Vandar chained and tortured by a hobgoblin. She quickly kills the creature and frees the monk. As they talk, it appears Vandar is trapped in the same dream as Riva. While taking a break to rest, Riva hears Vandar talking, but then sees that he's talking to his brother Angriff (Sturm's father). As the scene plays out, Riva sees the two argue about how to deal with the angry mob outside the castl...

Continuing my review of DC's Dragonlance comics series. Rites of Passage The issue starts with Riva and Vandar looking at the dragonlance they recovered in the first issue . Riva claims Vandar should carry it, or at least one of the other weapons they have, but Vandar's pacifist beliefs don't allow it. That night he notices that the constellations of the Queen of Darkness (Takhisis) and the Valiant Warrior (Paladine) do not appear in the sky. He believes that the two gods are on Krynn and no one will survive their battle. As Riva tries to comfort him, we see her attraction to Vandar while he seems to brood on a past betrayal. Note: The sight of the missing constellations ties in to a similar scene in Dragons of Autumn Twilight. In the middle of the night, Riva is alone in a dense, thorny forest, where she confronts Lord Soth. As she tries to use her dragonlance against him, he easily disarms her with magic. Just then, Riva wakes up from her dream to find herself being atta...

After freeing the last of the slave/miners from the Brightstone Keep (see part 3 ), the party went to explore the mines for more information on the mysterious things going on here, and maybe find more clues regarding Bergan's missing friend, Catriona. The entrance to the mine was sealed, but the lock was picked with only a little bit of effort. Slowly everyone entered... * Theo - the kender, handy at unlocking locked locks * Hunter - the half-elven ranger who's precision with the bow is often fatal to his opponents * Greybear - the druid, able to access the divine power of nature itself * Arti - a mage wielding powerful arcane forces * Jessriel - a former prisoner with hand to hand combat skills as effective as any blade or club. * Bergin - a minotaur and cleric of Kiri-Jolith As they entered, the party found a crudely carved path way leading to forked intersection. Opting to head left, they encounter a pair of zombies milling about. Bergan is able to call upon the power of Kir...

When last we left, our intrepid heroes had just confronted a blue dragon in it's lair. The party consisted of: * Hunter - a half elf ranger, deadly with his bow * Arterion - a Silvenesti mage, possessor of arcane powers * Greybear - a human, member of the ancient order of druids * and Theodonis - a kender (and isn't that all you really need to know when it's a kender) This lucky (or some might say unlike) band of heroes found itself face-to-snout with a mythical (yet all too real) dragon... And while the dragon may have been small, even a wyrmling can be a formidable opponent. The creature unleashed a ray of lightning from the bowels of it's stomach. Theo was the only one in the direct line of attack, and he was nimble enough to avoid it's painful effects. The party poured into the room trying to surround the dragon, but before they had a chance, the small creature took flight down a hallway, around a narrow corner, and out of sight. Theo gave chase and set off a pi...