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[Let's Read] Dragonlance: Legends of the Twins
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 7885160" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/4ZZxGYm.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Eras of Time covers in detail three major historical incidents of Dragonlance along with notable people and adventure material, as well as a description of the Abyss and stat blocks for notable time-travelers. It’s no coincidence that said eras were visited in the Legends trilogy at various points, and thus has the most material from the book series. Alas we are sorely lacking opportunities for those wishing to visit Huma Dragonbane or the Dragonwars.</p><p></p><p><strong>A Time of Dragons</strong> takes place after the War of the Lance, aka the main Chronicles series, and spans about 10 years. The forces of Takhisis fractured into ineffectual bands, with the Blue Dragon Highlord Lady Kitiara holding onto a narrow slice of mountains in Sanction as the veritable major threat. The return of the true gods and divine magic means that the continent of Ansalon is undergoing a major religious revival, and the pivotal role Raistlin and other wizards played in fighting the Dragonarmies means that said mages are more widely accepted in society. And the masters of the Tower of Wayreth are worried about what Raistlin’s up to ever since he went AWOL after the War of the Lance. The leaders of the Qualinesti and Silvanesti kingdoms politically unite when their leaders marry each other.</p><p></p><p>This entry heavily focuses on the city of Palanthas, the largest city in Ansalon. It’s got a big new shiny temple to Paladine, the head of the pantheon of good-aligned deities, and the spooky Tower of High Sorcery has been claimed by Raistlin where he and his apprentice are most surely up to no good. Adventure hooks for this era include mopping up Dragonarmy remnants, infiltrating Raistlin’s tower, tracking down a plague-spreading cult, and playing an escort mission for a Red Robe Wizard heading to Wayreth.</p><p></p><p>We get some stat blocks, but they mostly include major political power players of varying levels. We have mid-level people like the ruler of Palanthas or Raistlin’s apprentice Dalamar. At the higher end we have the Grandmaster of the Solamnic Knights who is 16th level along with the three leaders of the respective Robe Orders of High Sorcery who are perhaps the most powerful people on Krynn ranging from 17th to 20th level. Two characters from the Chronicles, Elistan the cleric and Tanis Half-Elven the ranger, get their own write-ups. The former is the religious leader of Paladine’s worshipers and has shaped up to be a sterling role model, while Tanis is at peace with his role as a renowned hero and traveling mediator of disputes.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/6VSefr6.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>Istar</strong> is the archetypical high magic fallen empire which your D&D setting compares itself to as it pines for times of greatness long gone. However, the supposed “golden age” of Istar became less fact and more myth as time went on when it veered from Lawful Good to Lawful Stupid. In fact, Dragonlance’s Istar is pretty much the culmination of all those online debates you’ve seen about alignment. Combine this with a pinch of “both sides” centrism which posits that having too much Good is just as bad as too much Evil, and you’ve got one of the most controversial aspects of the setting.</p><p></p><p><strong>Brief History:</strong> The Holy Empire of Istar had its beginnings as a humble fishing village. In the aftermath of the Third Dragonwar the church of Paladine and the secular nobility combined forces to take over nearby provinces via economic exploitation and trade wars. It is very much a fantasy counterpart Roman Empire with Italian and Latin-style names and titles, and made heavy use of divine spellcasters to supplement public works projects so that even the worst-off citizens have a comfortable standard of living. But things started to deteriorate when increased war funding to vanquish evil wherever it lay in Ansalon taxed the people heavily and led to a brief civil war.</p><p></p><p>The gods of Good and Neutrality became increasingly disfavored with what the Istaran government was doing in their name and revoked their divine spellcasting privileges among many of them. The clerics interpreted this as a personal trial to instead be more zealous; the crowning of the next (and final) Kingpriest Beldinas stepped this up by doing a variety of controversial measures: declaring wizards of all alignments enemies of the state, reinstituting slavery for criminals, dwarves,* and the evil races, forming a secret police force to mind-read citizen’s thoughts on the streets for impure thoughts, and leading genocidal purges not just against goblins and monsters but also against kender and laying siege to all but one of the Towers of High Sorcery.</p><p></p><p>*dwarves worship Reorx, who is neutral-aligned.</p><p></p><p>The final straw came when Beldinas grew dissatisfied when the gods seemed not as bloodthirsty in ‘vanquishing evil’ as he was, and ignored a series of Moses-style warnings. When he conducted a ritual to enslave the gods, he failed and thus they punished him by shooting a mountain from space (aka a meteor) onto the capital city and bringing forth the Cataclysm. This apocalyptic event left millions dead, induced irreversible climate change affecting the entire planet, sent much of the eastern continent underwater, plunged several provinces into chaos and war, and the total loss of divine magic increased the death rate further from now-untreatable injuries and illnesses.</p><p></p><p>The lesson that Dragonlance’s writers want you to take away from this was that the gods were totally not at fault for the Cataclysm, that the Kingpriest and the Istaran government were not wicked men but people who were too Good-aligned for their own good in spite of all their atrocities, that the gods did not leave Krynn but that the “people left the gods” post-Cataclysm, and that Neutrality is the most tolerant of alignments.</p><p></p><p>But that’s not here or now. This section proper takes place on the final days of said Empire before the Cataclysm comes. Istar is a walled city with beautiful golden-white architecture, ample public gardens and clean streets with expansive welfare system that all but eliminated poverty and hardship among the non-slaves. It still has lots of foreign visitors and trade in spite of its authoritarianism, and the Arena is one of the most popular social venues. Made up mostly of slave-gladiators, the fights are not lethal but more akin to staged professional wrestling where armor’s lined with blood-filled animal bladders and the “pits of death” merely drop into padded sections of lower catacombs beneath the colosseum. Even so, gladiators can still die from injuries but the slave-masters tolerate this as the cost of doing business, and there’s an underground market of gambling, thrown matches, and poisoned weapons and performance-enhancing drugs.</p><p></p><p>The Great Temple of Paladine is the Kingpriest’s home and center of government in the entire empire. The Tower of High Sorcery in the city now stands empty, its occupants killed by the Kingpriest’s forces or having escaped via magic. Not one to let a good defensive fortification go to waste, it is now a place where the government houses magic items and relics of non-good religions as well as good-aligned ones which are ‘heretical.’</p><p></p><p>You might be wondering how Istar managed to penetrate the various Towers’ defenses? Well this is answered in the form of the sneaky Black Robe archmage Fistandantilus. He had lots of rivals among the wizards and figured that using fundamentalist patsies to take them out was a good idea, so he bred magical seeds which could wilt the magic of the Towers’ surrounding groves. Once all but Wayreth were destroyed, he revealed his evil master plan to Kingpriest Beldinas and asked to have a seat as his advisor in exchange for this grand favor. Instead of Smiting Evil or realizing he was manipulated into working for said evil, the Kingpriest honored this request in the belief of “keep your friends close but your enemies closer.” Fistandantilus took advantage of this to create his own secret dungeon beneath the temple where he does secret evil stuff out of the church’s eyes.</p><p></p><p>So umm, are we really sure the Kingpriest isn’t actually evil-aligned yet, Weis and Hickman? Nope, Beldinas is still canonically Lawful Good and still has cleric spells to boot!</p><p></p><p>The adventure ideas include saving ‘heretical’ relics, escaping the colosseum as gladiator-slaves, finding a way to prevent the Cataclysm or save as many people in its wake, or even ensure it for some unfathomable reason. The stat blocks for this entry include the Kingpriest (a 20th level Dynamic Priest cleric), , a secret true cleric scribe preserving knowledge, several famous gladiators, and an arrogant elven ambassador because of course a dickish Lawful Stupid empire would be best buds with D&D’s other arrogant naughty word civilization.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/UpyZr5o.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>The Dwarfgate Wars</strong> tops our three eras. Set a mere 40 years after the Cataclysm, it is a pretty major subversion of Dragonlance’s classic high fantasy themes of daring heroism versus utter evil. Even in this romantic world there are conflicts where there are no real good guys, where both sides have understandable motives and survival is top priority. Istar’s reign is remembered by the older generation, and besides some secluded wizards in Wayreth and monsters with supernatural powers it is largely a world without magic.</p><p></p><p>The Dwarfgate Wars are the name for an incident where the mountain nation of Thorbadin underwent a major food shortage from the Cataclysm’s destruction of supply lines, farming villages, and trade agreements. And so Thorbadin expelled its lower classes and barred entry to dwarves living outside who are now known as the Neidar clan aka hill dwarves. Human warlords and refugees sought Thorbadin’s resources, while the hill dwarves were angered at being denied access to their ancestral homes at a time when the surface world was more dangerous than ever. Add some factionalism and power-jockeying among Thorbadin’s nobility taking advantage of the power imbalance wrought by the Cataclysm and Solamnic knights oathbound to keep order among the humans, and it all quickly blows up into a series of wars beyond anyone’s control.</p><p></p><p>The time-traveling Raistlin, Tasslehoff, and Caramon end up involved in said wars as well, with Raistlin seeking Fistandantilus* to kill him and take his power as a means of eventually defeating Takhisis. As Takhisis is the head of the pantheon of evil deities and the true leader of the Dragonarmies in the Chronicles era, this is a mighty tall order.</p><p></p><p>*who allied with the banished hill dwarves only so he could open a portal to the Abyss.</p><p></p><p>We get some detailed write-ups of several places of relevance: Palanthas escaped the Cataclysm more or less unscathed, the fortress of Pax Tharkas is taken over by dwarves (was formerly joint-owned between them and the elves), the Plains of Dergoth are home to hill dwarves digging underground tunnels into Thorbadin, the kingdom of Thorbadin itself which is an expansive multi-leveled complex with several cities’ worth of inhabitants, and the forbidden Black Robe fortress of Zhaman which Fistandantilus occupied for a time before it blown up due to Abyssal portal mishaps.</p><p></p><p>The adventure hooks for this are perhaps the least diverse, most involve interacting with one of the faction armies, raiding Thorbadin or Zhaman, or taking the place of one of the warlords involved. The NPC stat blocks are appropriately all noncasting martials of various political figures and warlords of this time. The notable exception is Gnimsh, an outcast gnome ‘cursed’ to have all of his inventions work properly.* His Life Quest was to create a device which could allow extraplanar travel, and thus was manipulated into building a portal to the Abyss.</p><p></p><p>*for this leaves no room for improvement and additions to be made by the standards of Gnomish culture.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/132Vspp.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>The Abyss</strong> is a bit of an odd entry out, but is important as it is a place ventured to in the Legends trilogy and also one of Dragonlance’s 3 Outer Planes (the other 2 the homes of the Neutral and Good-aligned deities). Dragonlance’s Abyss is not the same one of Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms, but an immaterial expanse of blackness acting as a dark mirror to Krynn. The foundations of its regions are shaped by the Gods of Evil but can also change on a smaller scale to fit the minds and desires of mortal visitors. Space and distance are subjective and shaped more by the willpower of the dark gods and travelers, and is highly toxic to living creatures dealing 1d8 negative energy damage per hour. The plane’s subjective reality can be changed by a visitor via a Wisdom check, with higher DCs corresponding to greater environmental changes.</p><p></p><p>The only notable places detailed in the Abyss are the domiciles of the Gods of Evil: the disease-ridden Bronze tower is claimed by Morgion; Chemosh’s underground mausoleum is a prison for all those claimed by the god; the warlike Sargonnas’ Red Arena is host to a giant field of monsters and mortals locked in never-ending struggle; Hiddukel’s Shadowed Streets are a Silent Hill-esque city of pitch black, trash-ridden streets which bend in on themselves and the only non-monstrous inhabitants are wicked bands of criminals plotting petty vendettas; the Temple of Neraka is a warped reflection of Istar’s Grand Temple and the center of power for Takhisis; Zeboim’s Grotto is an underwater kelp forest home to monsters of the deep; and the hidden Vault of the Condemned holds souls deemed too dangerous to roam freely even within the Abyss.</p><p></p><p>Adventure hooks are non-standard on account that one does not simply Plane Shift into the Abyss and thus should be used sparingly. As such the hooks are appropriately epic, such as closing the portal hosting an extraplanar invasion of demons and devils, rescuing an important cleric or champion of Good from an archfiend’s fortress, taking advantage of the plane’s mutable nature to recreate a long-since-destroyed artifact, or an Abyssal incursion into Palanthas granting the wishes of all citizens in the most twisted of manners.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ZfvelLx.png?1" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>Travelers Along the River</strong> is our shortest entry and features the stat blocks of four major time-traveling figures of the Legends trilogy: Raistlin and Caramon Majere, Lady Crysania Tarinius, and Tasslehoff Burrfoot. Starting with Raistlin, he’s pretty much god-tier: he possesses 28 levels total in a mixture of Wizard, Wizard of High Sorcery, Loremaster, and Archmage with use of Epic Spellcasting rules from the Epic Level Handbook. His assortment of spells and possession of artifacts such as the Dragon Orb means that like all high-level wizards he can absolutely wreck a non-optimized party with the right set-up and enough planning. However, his weakly Constitution means that his mere 44 hit points and +9 Fortitude save are his clear weak spots, so in a straight-up fight it really comes down to whether or not he can get the drop on his enemies.</p><p></p><p>Poor Caramon Majere by contrast is a 14th level Fighter kitted out for melee combat and can’t really do much else. Lady Crysania Tarinius is an up and coming priestess of Paladine who Raistlin manipulated in his quest for power, and is an 11th level Cleric and 3rd-level Noble (PC version of Aristocrat NPC Class). Her spells are geared towards defensive allotment with a few offensive light and smiting spells for good measure.</p><p></p><p>Finally we have Tasslehoff Burrfoot, who has 5 levels in Rogue and 9 levels in Handler which is a prestige class from another sourcebook. In short, it’s a legendary kender explorer archetype who trades out Sneak Attack in exchange for more defensive measures like adding Charisma to saving throws, picking up various tales like Bardic Knowledge, and can more easily steal items from targets even in combat among other things. While Tasslehoff has some mad skill bonuses in various rogue things, his pitiful 3d6 Sneak Attack means that he’s not going to be punching in his weight class for a 15th-level character.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> I enjoyed the write-ups on the eras, although they’re rather narrow in scope. Time of Dragons being set after the Chronicles means that the stakes feel a lot smaller and not as much to do that doesn’t involve one of the setting’s existing major figures (Kitiara, Raistlin, etc). Istar’s brimming with adventure potential against an authoritarian government, but is the crystallized essence of everything wrong with D&D alignment and thus its implementation can be controversial. The Dwarfgate Wars, while instrumental in the Legends trilogy, are a clear departure from Dragonlance’s typical high fantasy. I did like the write-up for the Abyss and the rules for its weird reality-warping nature. The stat blocks for the major Legends characters at the end will see limited use in a campaign: Raistlin’s pretty much a villain at this point, while Caramon and Tasslehoff will be underpowered and boring to play as or alongside if you hitch a time warp ride with them. Crysania is a rather ho-hum Goodly Good Cleric.</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we cover my favorite chapter in this book, Alternate Krynns!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 7885160, member: 6750502"] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/4ZZxGYm.png[/img][/center] Eras of Time covers in detail three major historical incidents of Dragonlance along with notable people and adventure material, as well as a description of the Abyss and stat blocks for notable time-travelers. It’s no coincidence that said eras were visited in the Legends trilogy at various points, and thus has the most material from the book series. Alas we are sorely lacking opportunities for those wishing to visit Huma Dragonbane or the Dragonwars. [b]A Time of Dragons[/b] takes place after the War of the Lance, aka the main Chronicles series, and spans about 10 years. The forces of Takhisis fractured into ineffectual bands, with the Blue Dragon Highlord Lady Kitiara holding onto a narrow slice of mountains in Sanction as the veritable major threat. The return of the true gods and divine magic means that the continent of Ansalon is undergoing a major religious revival, and the pivotal role Raistlin and other wizards played in fighting the Dragonarmies means that said mages are more widely accepted in society. And the masters of the Tower of Wayreth are worried about what Raistlin’s up to ever since he went AWOL after the War of the Lance. The leaders of the Qualinesti and Silvanesti kingdoms politically unite when their leaders marry each other. This entry heavily focuses on the city of Palanthas, the largest city in Ansalon. It’s got a big new shiny temple to Paladine, the head of the pantheon of good-aligned deities, and the spooky Tower of High Sorcery has been claimed by Raistlin where he and his apprentice are most surely up to no good. Adventure hooks for this era include mopping up Dragonarmy remnants, infiltrating Raistlin’s tower, tracking down a plague-spreading cult, and playing an escort mission for a Red Robe Wizard heading to Wayreth. We get some stat blocks, but they mostly include major political power players of varying levels. We have mid-level people like the ruler of Palanthas or Raistlin’s apprentice Dalamar. At the higher end we have the Grandmaster of the Solamnic Knights who is 16th level along with the three leaders of the respective Robe Orders of High Sorcery who are perhaps the most powerful people on Krynn ranging from 17th to 20th level. Two characters from the Chronicles, Elistan the cleric and Tanis Half-Elven the ranger, get their own write-ups. The former is the religious leader of Paladine’s worshipers and has shaped up to be a sterling role model, while Tanis is at peace with his role as a renowned hero and traveling mediator of disputes. [img]https://i.imgur.com/6VSefr6.png[/img] [b]Istar[/b] is the archetypical high magic fallen empire which your D&D setting compares itself to as it pines for times of greatness long gone. However, the supposed “golden age” of Istar became less fact and more myth as time went on when it veered from Lawful Good to Lawful Stupid. In fact, Dragonlance’s Istar is pretty much the culmination of all those online debates you’ve seen about alignment. Combine this with a pinch of “both sides” centrism which posits that having too much Good is just as bad as too much Evil, and you’ve got one of the most controversial aspects of the setting. [b]Brief History:[/b] The Holy Empire of Istar had its beginnings as a humble fishing village. In the aftermath of the Third Dragonwar the church of Paladine and the secular nobility combined forces to take over nearby provinces via economic exploitation and trade wars. It is very much a fantasy counterpart Roman Empire with Italian and Latin-style names and titles, and made heavy use of divine spellcasters to supplement public works projects so that even the worst-off citizens have a comfortable standard of living. But things started to deteriorate when increased war funding to vanquish evil wherever it lay in Ansalon taxed the people heavily and led to a brief civil war. The gods of Good and Neutrality became increasingly disfavored with what the Istaran government was doing in their name and revoked their divine spellcasting privileges among many of them. The clerics interpreted this as a personal trial to instead be more zealous; the crowning of the next (and final) Kingpriest Beldinas stepped this up by doing a variety of controversial measures: declaring wizards of all alignments enemies of the state, reinstituting slavery for criminals, dwarves,* and the evil races, forming a secret police force to mind-read citizen’s thoughts on the streets for impure thoughts, and leading genocidal purges not just against goblins and monsters but also against kender and laying siege to all but one of the Towers of High Sorcery. *dwarves worship Reorx, who is neutral-aligned. The final straw came when Beldinas grew dissatisfied when the gods seemed not as bloodthirsty in ‘vanquishing evil’ as he was, and ignored a series of Moses-style warnings. When he conducted a ritual to enslave the gods, he failed and thus they punished him by shooting a mountain from space (aka a meteor) onto the capital city and bringing forth the Cataclysm. This apocalyptic event left millions dead, induced irreversible climate change affecting the entire planet, sent much of the eastern continent underwater, plunged several provinces into chaos and war, and the total loss of divine magic increased the death rate further from now-untreatable injuries and illnesses. The lesson that Dragonlance’s writers want you to take away from this was that the gods were totally not at fault for the Cataclysm, that the Kingpriest and the Istaran government were not wicked men but people who were too Good-aligned for their own good in spite of all their atrocities, that the gods did not leave Krynn but that the “people left the gods” post-Cataclysm, and that Neutrality is the most tolerant of alignments. But that’s not here or now. This section proper takes place on the final days of said Empire before the Cataclysm comes. Istar is a walled city with beautiful golden-white architecture, ample public gardens and clean streets with expansive welfare system that all but eliminated poverty and hardship among the non-slaves. It still has lots of foreign visitors and trade in spite of its authoritarianism, and the Arena is one of the most popular social venues. Made up mostly of slave-gladiators, the fights are not lethal but more akin to staged professional wrestling where armor’s lined with blood-filled animal bladders and the “pits of death” merely drop into padded sections of lower catacombs beneath the colosseum. Even so, gladiators can still die from injuries but the slave-masters tolerate this as the cost of doing business, and there’s an underground market of gambling, thrown matches, and poisoned weapons and performance-enhancing drugs. The Great Temple of Paladine is the Kingpriest’s home and center of government in the entire empire. The Tower of High Sorcery in the city now stands empty, its occupants killed by the Kingpriest’s forces or having escaped via magic. Not one to let a good defensive fortification go to waste, it is now a place where the government houses magic items and relics of non-good religions as well as good-aligned ones which are ‘heretical.’ You might be wondering how Istar managed to penetrate the various Towers’ defenses? Well this is answered in the form of the sneaky Black Robe archmage Fistandantilus. He had lots of rivals among the wizards and figured that using fundamentalist patsies to take them out was a good idea, so he bred magical seeds which could wilt the magic of the Towers’ surrounding groves. Once all but Wayreth were destroyed, he revealed his evil master plan to Kingpriest Beldinas and asked to have a seat as his advisor in exchange for this grand favor. Instead of Smiting Evil or realizing he was manipulated into working for said evil, the Kingpriest honored this request in the belief of “keep your friends close but your enemies closer.” Fistandantilus took advantage of this to create his own secret dungeon beneath the temple where he does secret evil stuff out of the church’s eyes. So umm, are we really sure the Kingpriest isn’t actually evil-aligned yet, Weis and Hickman? Nope, Beldinas is still canonically Lawful Good and still has cleric spells to boot! The adventure ideas include saving ‘heretical’ relics, escaping the colosseum as gladiator-slaves, finding a way to prevent the Cataclysm or save as many people in its wake, or even ensure it for some unfathomable reason. The stat blocks for this entry include the Kingpriest (a 20th level Dynamic Priest cleric), , a secret true cleric scribe preserving knowledge, several famous gladiators, and an arrogant elven ambassador because of course a dickish Lawful Stupid empire would be best buds with D&D’s other arrogant naughty word civilization. [img]https://i.imgur.com/UpyZr5o.png[/img] [b]The Dwarfgate Wars[/b] tops our three eras. Set a mere 40 years after the Cataclysm, it is a pretty major subversion of Dragonlance’s classic high fantasy themes of daring heroism versus utter evil. Even in this romantic world there are conflicts where there are no real good guys, where both sides have understandable motives and survival is top priority. Istar’s reign is remembered by the older generation, and besides some secluded wizards in Wayreth and monsters with supernatural powers it is largely a world without magic. The Dwarfgate Wars are the name for an incident where the mountain nation of Thorbadin underwent a major food shortage from the Cataclysm’s destruction of supply lines, farming villages, and trade agreements. And so Thorbadin expelled its lower classes and barred entry to dwarves living outside who are now known as the Neidar clan aka hill dwarves. Human warlords and refugees sought Thorbadin’s resources, while the hill dwarves were angered at being denied access to their ancestral homes at a time when the surface world was more dangerous than ever. Add some factionalism and power-jockeying among Thorbadin’s nobility taking advantage of the power imbalance wrought by the Cataclysm and Solamnic knights oathbound to keep order among the humans, and it all quickly blows up into a series of wars beyond anyone’s control. The time-traveling Raistlin, Tasslehoff, and Caramon end up involved in said wars as well, with Raistlin seeking Fistandantilus* to kill him and take his power as a means of eventually defeating Takhisis. As Takhisis is the head of the pantheon of evil deities and the true leader of the Dragonarmies in the Chronicles era, this is a mighty tall order. *who allied with the banished hill dwarves only so he could open a portal to the Abyss. We get some detailed write-ups of several places of relevance: Palanthas escaped the Cataclysm more or less unscathed, the fortress of Pax Tharkas is taken over by dwarves (was formerly joint-owned between them and the elves), the Plains of Dergoth are home to hill dwarves digging underground tunnels into Thorbadin, the kingdom of Thorbadin itself which is an expansive multi-leveled complex with several cities’ worth of inhabitants, and the forbidden Black Robe fortress of Zhaman which Fistandantilus occupied for a time before it blown up due to Abyssal portal mishaps. The adventure hooks for this are perhaps the least diverse, most involve interacting with one of the faction armies, raiding Thorbadin or Zhaman, or taking the place of one of the warlords involved. The NPC stat blocks are appropriately all noncasting martials of various political figures and warlords of this time. The notable exception is Gnimsh, an outcast gnome ‘cursed’ to have all of his inventions work properly.* His Life Quest was to create a device which could allow extraplanar travel, and thus was manipulated into building a portal to the Abyss. *for this leaves no room for improvement and additions to be made by the standards of Gnomish culture. [img]https://i.imgur.com/132Vspp.png[/img] [b]The Abyss[/b] is a bit of an odd entry out, but is important as it is a place ventured to in the Legends trilogy and also one of Dragonlance’s 3 Outer Planes (the other 2 the homes of the Neutral and Good-aligned deities). Dragonlance’s Abyss is not the same one of Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms, but an immaterial expanse of blackness acting as a dark mirror to Krynn. The foundations of its regions are shaped by the Gods of Evil but can also change on a smaller scale to fit the minds and desires of mortal visitors. Space and distance are subjective and shaped more by the willpower of the dark gods and travelers, and is highly toxic to living creatures dealing 1d8 negative energy damage per hour. The plane’s subjective reality can be changed by a visitor via a Wisdom check, with higher DCs corresponding to greater environmental changes. The only notable places detailed in the Abyss are the domiciles of the Gods of Evil: the disease-ridden Bronze tower is claimed by Morgion; Chemosh’s underground mausoleum is a prison for all those claimed by the god; the warlike Sargonnas’ Red Arena is host to a giant field of monsters and mortals locked in never-ending struggle; Hiddukel’s Shadowed Streets are a Silent Hill-esque city of pitch black, trash-ridden streets which bend in on themselves and the only non-monstrous inhabitants are wicked bands of criminals plotting petty vendettas; the Temple of Neraka is a warped reflection of Istar’s Grand Temple and the center of power for Takhisis; Zeboim’s Grotto is an underwater kelp forest home to monsters of the deep; and the hidden Vault of the Condemned holds souls deemed too dangerous to roam freely even within the Abyss. Adventure hooks are non-standard on account that one does not simply Plane Shift into the Abyss and thus should be used sparingly. As such the hooks are appropriately epic, such as closing the portal hosting an extraplanar invasion of demons and devils, rescuing an important cleric or champion of Good from an archfiend’s fortress, taking advantage of the plane’s mutable nature to recreate a long-since-destroyed artifact, or an Abyssal incursion into Palanthas granting the wishes of all citizens in the most twisted of manners. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ZfvelLx.png?1[/img][/center] [b]Travelers Along the River[/b] is our shortest entry and features the stat blocks of four major time-traveling figures of the Legends trilogy: Raistlin and Caramon Majere, Lady Crysania Tarinius, and Tasslehoff Burrfoot. Starting with Raistlin, he’s pretty much god-tier: he possesses 28 levels total in a mixture of Wizard, Wizard of High Sorcery, Loremaster, and Archmage with use of Epic Spellcasting rules from the Epic Level Handbook. His assortment of spells and possession of artifacts such as the Dragon Orb means that like all high-level wizards he can absolutely wreck a non-optimized party with the right set-up and enough planning. However, his weakly Constitution means that his mere 44 hit points and +9 Fortitude save are his clear weak spots, so in a straight-up fight it really comes down to whether or not he can get the drop on his enemies. Poor Caramon Majere by contrast is a 14th level Fighter kitted out for melee combat and can’t really do much else. Lady Crysania Tarinius is an up and coming priestess of Paladine who Raistlin manipulated in his quest for power, and is an 11th level Cleric and 3rd-level Noble (PC version of Aristocrat NPC Class). Her spells are geared towards defensive allotment with a few offensive light and smiting spells for good measure. Finally we have Tasslehoff Burrfoot, who has 5 levels in Rogue and 9 levels in Handler which is a prestige class from another sourcebook. In short, it’s a legendary kender explorer archetype who trades out Sneak Attack in exchange for more defensive measures like adding Charisma to saving throws, picking up various tales like Bardic Knowledge, and can more easily steal items from targets even in combat among other things. While Tasslehoff has some mad skill bonuses in various rogue things, his pitiful 3d6 Sneak Attack means that he’s not going to be punching in his weight class for a 15th-level character. [b]Thoughts So Far:[/b] I enjoyed the write-ups on the eras, although they’re rather narrow in scope. Time of Dragons being set after the Chronicles means that the stakes feel a lot smaller and not as much to do that doesn’t involve one of the setting’s existing major figures (Kitiara, Raistlin, etc). Istar’s brimming with adventure potential against an authoritarian government, but is the crystallized essence of everything wrong with D&D alignment and thus its implementation can be controversial. The Dwarfgate Wars, while instrumental in the Legends trilogy, are a clear departure from Dragonlance’s typical high fantasy. I did like the write-up for the Abyss and the rules for its weird reality-warping nature. The stat blocks for the major Legends characters at the end will see limited use in a campaign: Raistlin’s pretty much a villain at this point, while Caramon and Tasslehoff will be underpowered and boring to play as or alongside if you hitch a time warp ride with them. Crysania is a rather ho-hum Goodly Good Cleric. [b]Join us next time as we cover my favorite chapter in this book, Alternate Krynns![/b] [/QUOTE]
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