You ’d be forgive for opine Scott Ciencin ’s 1989Dungeons & Dragonsnovel Shadowdale in the main takes topographic point in the metropolis of Shadowdale . Or that Shadowdale would be mentioned at some point during the first one-half of the novel , or even that the primary characters would come in Shadowdale before the 75 % Saint Mark . You ’d be wrong on all counts , but that does n’t mean Shadowdale is n’t still the bestD&D novelI’ve read ( so far ) .
Shadowdale is part of the Avatar quintette , which I ’m guessing was in the beginning the Avatar trilogy , as the first threebookswere all issue in the summer of ’ 89 , while the last two came in ’ 93 . Either way , they chronicle the “ Time of Troubles , ” which begins when a few of the god steal the Tablets of Fate , anger Ao the Overgod so much he kicks all but one of the regular gods out of theForgotten Realmsequivalent of Heaven , stripping them of almost all of their powers and force them to become mortal . This is a hell of a vainglorious assumption for a D&D novel , but it does n’t stop there . Because the God are so diminished , their clerics can no longer throw away spell — including healing enchantment — unless they ’re within one Roman mile of their deity ’s mortal incarnation . And since Mystra , the goddess who regulates magic , has been kick to curb as well , thaumaturgy no longer works correctly — as in , someone could endeavor to cast a basic , 1st - level piece like Magic Missile and accidentally summon Cthulhu into the mortal aeroplane . This renders everyone who does n’t work problems by plug them or stealing their money — i.e. , two of AD&D : 2nd Edition ’s four principal character classes — useless .
The Time of Troubles is essentially the first mega - outcome for theForgotten Realms , a shake - up that would touch on the game set itself . But by bring the gods to their knee joint and making them deadly , it means Shadowdale can still focus on a group of normal adventurer who slowly get wrap up in a battle between Mystra and Bane , the ( ex-)god of immorality , with a natural progress . The jeopardize party consists of ( and I think I might do this as a leaning from hereon ):
Inset of Jeff Easley’s cover of Shadowdale. From left to right, that’s Cyric, Kelemvor’s torso, Midnight, and Adon.Image: Wizards of the Coast
Midnight , a mage who wakes up one day with a occult silver pendent grafted to her skin .
Kelemvor , a sexist , misogynist warrior who is ofttimes an asshole , and also cursed to release into a panther if he ever helps someone without find a reward , which he ’s super - bummed about .
Cyric , a cynical stealer .
Brom’s original art of the goddess Mystra, used for the cover of Shadowdale’s 2003 reprint.Image: Wizards of the Coast
Adon , a divine of the goddess of beauty who is incredibly vain about his looks ( without crusade ) and kind of naïve but plenty surefooted in his battlehammer skills .
When a vernal waif named Caitlin begs for help rescue her mistress , Kelemvor , Cyric , and Adon take on , but Kelemvor refuses to admit a fair sex on the squad until Caitlin sees Midnight ’s pendant and insist the sorceress amount along . It ’s a good thing because Midnight saves their corporate asses multiple metre throughout the line of the novel . As it turns out , the mistress who is incarcerate in Castle Kilgrave ( sigh ) is Mystra , who messed herself up so badly while trying to honk magic that Bane was able to imprison her . With help from the pendent — which contains part of Mystra ’s divine office she was capable to squirrel away before the arrival of the gods — Midnight is able to free the party from Bane ’s psychological hallucinations , but also dislodge the god of conjuring trick , too .
This helps less than you ’d cerebrate . Mystra takes the pendant back and adjudicate to employ her slight second of recovered immortal and noesis of who stole the Tablets of Fate ( I do n’t need you to be shocked , but believe it or not , it was the God of Evil ) to get back to Forgotten Realms heaven . Torm , the god of guardians whose line is to forbid the other gods from return to full god , says only the Tablets ’ issue issue . Mystra tries to impel her direction in and Torm outright murders her . With her last bit of power , Mystra returns the dependent to Midnight and tax her with lead to Shadowdale to find the Forgotten Realms ’ most powerful thaumaturge , Elminster , and then find the lozenge themselves .
Easley’s full cover. Richard Awlinson was Scott Ciencin’s pseudonym.Image: Wizards of the Coast
Mystra ’s end happen at almost precisely the novel ’s mid - point , so Shadowdale could really be two script : the delivery of Mystra , and then the journeying to Shadowdale itself , which culminate with a jumbo battle against Bane and his fervid army of follower . Sometimes when phantasy novels make the switch from introductory adventure to endeavor to build to something epic , they slip up badly in the conversion — Shadowdale does n’t . It ’s also a great adventure for Midnight and the crew to get to the metropolis , because Mystra ’s death has made magic even more chaotic , and messed up a huge belt of land the crowd call for to travel through where stack can suddenly bend to glass , river of blood spring up , Pisces the Fishes swim through lava , there are giant Boulder that look like frogs , etc . This is also where the main character development takes place : Kelemvor and Midnight come down for each other ( of course of study ) and he becomes less of an asshole , specially after his nemesis is revealed ; Cyric becomes increasingly green-eyed of their relationship and pop to enjoy watching hoi polloi expire ; and Adon cause a huge scar upon his face that gainsay his full perception of himself and earth , return him all nihilistic . Even Bane has to deal with human emotions and utters his first yell of grief when his most trusted minion pop off .
So when the big fight does come , there ’s no trifling . Ciencin ( Richard Awlinson was a pseudonym ) gets proper to the action , and it ’s exceedingly comforting to read about a chemical group of smart , capable heroes kicking ass while still being outnumbered enough to give the fighting stake . Also , even an ex - divinity of evil has significant power that Midnight , Elminster , and Adon must face . I actually liked Shadowdale so much I wo n’t spoil the ending , but suffice to say , there ’s a substantial cliffhanger that make me reckon fore to reading Tantras , the next novel in the series .
Shadowdale is by no means perfect ; while the characters have more depth than usual , they still are n’t that mysterious . Cyric ’s increasing making love of execution comes out of left field . Despite magic being a total mess hall , Midnight work out so many difference of opinion with it she repeatedly becomes a deus ex machina . There ’s a character cry Knightsbridge who ’s intelligibly hypothesise to be Kelemvor ’s principal antagonist , but the character barely shows up and could have ( and should have ) been dropped . And again , it ’s surprisingly Shadowdale - light . But Ciencin get far more right than he gets unseasonable . His pacing is great . His characters find clear-cut , and they end up in different stead than where they started , including the main villain . While Midnight is much the only female character in the book other than Mystra , she ’s never a damsel in distress ; she ’s utterly competent , an splendid fighter in her own rightfulness , and drives almost the entireness of the plot of ground . Ciencin ’s action mechanism is clear and compelling . He shows far more than he tells . better of all , he can write scenes where nothing technically happens and still make them interesting , unlike many other D&D books , where it sound like the characters are being ram to hang out with each other and make small talking .
Mystra faces off against Torm in Ned Dameron’s drawing from the Shadowdale adventure module.Image: Wizards of the Coast
This is not to say Shadowdale is on equality with Game of Thrones or should be part of the pantheon of cracking fantasy or anything like that . But it feels like a real novel by a real novelist or else of a book by someone trying to be a novelist . Thus , even though I might be grading on a curve after the abysmalGreyhawk : Saga of Old City , Shadowdale rolls a 14 on the ol’ 1d20 . And let me assure you this : some of the books I ’ve read for “ Dungeons & Dragons & Novels ” have been out of wonder , nostalgia , or indebtedness . When it derive prison term to take Tantras , I will be reading strictly for pleasure . ( And for study , technically . )
Assorted Musings:
After Ao cast out the gods , he also destroyed many of the gods ’ temples out of pique , and many priest were inside them at the time . Ao has zero compassion for or interest in homo whatsoever .
Although Adon starts out as a ego - draw goofball , he does have the line , “ Find a city rein by woman and you will find true equality and paleness throughout the land . ” Now , when he tell a waitress she should demand better treatment and more money for her piece of work , the womanhood immediately gets fired because the Forgotten Realms is another patriarchal fantasy world . Of of course , Adon is also full sure-footed he ’s so attractive everyone want to have sex with him as a thing of fact , but the former sentiment is gracious .
On the way to the palace , a body snatcher attacks the party by shoot off its own head and throw it at them . It ’s an image that ’s run to stick by with me .
Kelemvor ’s weird nemesis really pop out when one of his ancestors empty a witch to expire , so she assure the dork could never accept a reward for helping people . Somehow that flip - flopped along the way , so Kel could only help masses who give way him a wages . It ’s weird .
Tilverton is a town of blacksmiths who understandably worship Gorm , god of blacksmiths . Except they know Gorm ’s incarnation is populate in another city and he ’s refusing all their call option , which really mess with them emotionally . It ’s weird , but it ’s an interesting idea , and kind of funny .
If Bane test to make access code to D&D heaven , there is no reason I can see why he would n’t be every bit and quickly as murdered as Mystra . It ’s a bad plan , but Bane is n’t the sharpest malign tool in the shed .
Alas , Scott Ciencin extend in 2014 , only at old age 51 , of a blood coagulum . But he had a very fecund career .
Next : It ’s time to enter the world ofDragonlancein dear with Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman ’s first and beloved Dragons of Autumn Twilight .
Wondering where our RSS feed went ? You canpick the fresh up one here .
Dungeons & DragonsFantasy
Daily Newsletter
Get the good technical school , scientific discipline , and cultivation newsworthiness in your inbox daily .
news program from the future , delivered to your present .
You May Also Like
