Join me as I review Rebels and Tyrants edited by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman live! Share your thoughts on this final Tales of the Fifth Age anthology, released by Wizards of the Coast on April 1, 2000. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/4ryRLMz 

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Tanscript

Intro

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Kirinor, Darkember the 26th. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my review of Rebels and Tyrants edited by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I would like to take a moment and thank the DLSaga members and Patreon patrons, and invite you to consider becoming a member or patron. You can even pick up Dragonlance media using my affiliate links. This is my perspective only, and if you have any thoughts or disagree with mine, I invite you to share them in YouTube chat.

Review

Est Sularis Uth Mithas by Scott Berachuski

This is a tale about a Solamnic Knight racing to free his beloved from the grip of a Green Dragon. He keeps flashing to her face and memory as he charges toward the dragon. The encounter is brief, and the knight plunges his sword into the dragon’s heart as the dragon closes its mouth around him. He mutters the Oath and hears his wife tell him that she loves Ulrick, the knights. It’s a quick story, gets right to the point, but it offers nothing other than the faith this knight has on facing seemingly insurmountable odds for honor. I am left feeling nothing about him, the woman the dragon had, or the dragon.

Freedom’s Pride by Paul B. Thompson

• Vitrad, Commander, Lord, dark knight


• Lord Livskil, Lord of Qualinesti, dark knight, lord of the black hall


• Loren


• Swamp Adder, ship


• Mercenaries


• Lioness, Zoran, Caravel with Gnomefire, Qualinesti

This is the story of Lord Vifrad, a Knight of Takhisis who is summoned to Lord Livskil’s audience in Qualinesti. Apparently some elves who were to hand over their treasures fled the forest./ Vifrad was assigned to find them and bring them and their wares back. He left, and found the elves fleeing with mercenaries who turned on them. The knights fought off the mercenaries and chained the qualinesti to their oars. They began to return when another ship started pelting them with Gnomish Fire, basically greek oil I believe. They were forced to surrender to this ship, and it ended up being the lioness, who now is qualinesti not kagonesti I guess. She took the elves and rewarded the knights with their lives for saving the elves. Then she gave a flag with a lion on it and the words freedom’s pride beneath, wrapped around a cannon ball. I assume this story is connected to another story I have yet to read. For when Vitrad returns it to his Lord Livskil and reiterated what happened, he is assigned to hunt down and capture the lioness. It was an okay story, I wish there was more character to the characters. They all felt like cutouts of bad guys rather than individuals.

Sargas’ Night of Revenge by Don Perrrin

• Lord Trenak, Minotaur


• Vras, died


• Lekras, female minotaur


• Emas, having affair, married to Lekras


• Vromas, Vras’ dad

This was a fun story about clan Trenak, minotaurs who on Sargas’ Night, ended up betraying one another and killing each other. Sargas was so upset by their actions and dishonor, he cursed them to repeat the act every year on Sargas’ Night. They were tormented for a thousand years, until the chaos war, and one night Sargas didn’t return. They slowly learned that he wouldn’t return and were led by the grandson Vras in recognizing why they all turned against one another, his mother killed his father for having an affair, and that made fighting inevitable. They all realised they didn’t have to repeat this act, and began enjoying themselves, learning to accept that which they cannot control, and broke the cycle of violence. It was a fun story, and boy are they going to get a surprise when Takhisis starts commanding the dead, and Sargas eventually returns!

Sharing the Luck by Linda P. Baker

• Grako, old man, tophite


• Risha, male


• Meryl


• Ark


• Lyric, old man

This is an interesting story about two thieves who begin the story by killing a mountain dwarf and robbing him. They return to an inn to split the goods, and one of them, Risha, is wearing a bracelet from their robbery. The other Grako begins to distribute the loot but Risha seems disinterested, acting very strange. Then he leaves and Grakop decides to test him, thinking he is going to try to kill him and take it all. But Risha really is disinterested and this change in behavior is worrying Grako. Then the next morning Risha is gone, and Grakjo goes after him, certain he is being swindled somehow. He finds Risha talking to an old wizard, and Grako demands to hold the bracelet, Risha refuses and a struggle ends in Risha’s death. Grako dons the bracelet and its power begins to work, making him whole. Meaning, a whole thoughtful and respectable person. He planned on killing the mage, but instead thinks he will let him go. This is interesting to me because we never really discuss what makes a thief or murderer a thief or murderer. It’s really because there is something broken in them, something that they either never had or lost, a semblance of humanity. This bracelet restores that, and it’s a crazy interesting item to consider dro[[ping into a campaign and seeing it play out.

The War Chest by Kevin T. Stein

• Sir Dammerman, Knight of Solamnia, teacher


• Sir Ray


• Stick Man


• Hourglass – glory forever


• Abraxis, warrior – dark knight

This was a story about glory, and the seeking of it even when you are past your prime. Sir Dammerman is a Solamnic Knight who teaches the younger generations. The young knights grow restless and ask about glory and riches. The knights end up sharing some loot acquired in battle against ogres. Dammerman sees a chest and instantly, as if in a dream only he experiences, a stick man appears offering him glory in battle against Abraxis, a renown Dark Knight warrior. At first he refuses, then through cajoling, he relents and says that he is interested. He is shown an hourglass with sand the color of the Abyss. He is presented with a bargain, the chance to find glory against Abraxis before the sand drains. He accepts the bargain and wins in battles, making him seem a true hero with endless energy and strength. His knights cheer his anime and he has glory. Finally it comes time to face off against Abraxas and he is defeated. Stick man appears and tells him that he tricked him into taking his soul, and he will fight in the abyss for eternity never knowing rest now. He will also offer it to his son, as he has offered it to many knights before Dammerman. As he was dying in defeat he tells his son not to make bargains for glory, and dies. It’s a long winded story that I enjoyed, though I wish they would have named the Stick Man. It addresses our innate capacity vs our desires, and in fantasy there is always a price to be paid if we are to exceed our ability.

Flight of Fancy by Jeff Crook

• Klaus, Solamnic, flying machine


• Professor H, gnome


• Bee Juice Extractor

This was a silly story about a human named Klaus who was piloting a gnomish flying machine toward Sancrist when he crashed. He was saved by gnomes who brought him to Mount Nevermind, and introduced him to famous gnome inventors. THey explained the machine was a bee juice extractor not a flying machine and they were perplexed on how a human could have repaired a crashed Bee Juice extractor in Solamnia. Pyrothraxus heard through the grape vine that a Solamnic was in Mount Nevermind and insisted it must be aspy, and that the gnomes should turn him over. They decided to make improvements to the bee juice extractor and fly Klous home instead. Pyrothraxus left the mountain and started chasing them when the gnomes decided to dump the honey to increase their speed. It fell into Pyrothraxus’ mouth and when he breathed fire, it exploded in his face, sending them crashing into Solamnia, where they found another human inventor who said he may be able to fix the fBee Juice Extractor when a fully bandaged up Klous came in insisting he should not repair the ship, clearly traumatized both physically and emotionally by the experience. And that was it. It was the best case of a gnome story, short, silly, and done. 

The Deep, Deep, Dark, Dark Place by Kevin James Cage

• Glug, gully dwarf male


• Blurd, gully dwarf female


• Raddoc Stonebuilder, dwarf


• Thurgood Strongarm, dwarf


• Warden

What!? This story was crazy. So two gully dwarves, Glug and Blurd are in a deep deep dark dark place when they hear singing and commotion. They investigate to see dwarves mining and talking about unionizing. They decide the dwarves are looking for treasure and they think they can lead the dwarves, but they don’t want to be seen in case they are mean. So they use their stick which makes them invisible, but it doesn’t, and they start helping the men by throwing gems at them. The dwarves see