Join me as I review The Search for Power edited by Margaret Weis live! Share your thoughts on this second Tales of the War of Souls anthology, released by Wizards of the Coast on April 4, 2004. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/4pq15AC 


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About The Search for Power
The latest Dragonlance anthology, featuring an introduction by Margaret Weis. This newest anthology focuses on the lives and ways of dragons in the era following the end of the New York Times best-selling War of Souls trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Edited by Margaret Weis and filled with a dozen stories from both well-known Dragonlance authors and a few newcomers, this is the first anthology to feature stories that take place in the current Dragonlance time period.
Review
Osuin’s Treasure by Mark Sehestedt

Subcommander Maros, Knight of the Lily
Uthun, Knight of Takhisis
Aithan, squire to Sil Euric of Solanthus
Djerid, Nerakan Barbarian, guide, scout
Illus
Goiar
Sir Isurlak, Order of the Skull
Toras
Cloram
Baren, Lord Osuin’s son, Sable’s dragon spawn

This is a great way to start an anthology! What a good story. It’s filled with tension and fear, nearly palpable! We pick up with a Dark Knight company who came across a Solamnic knight company, and defeated them. One wagon went over a cliff as they were traveling toward Sanction. The manifest stated something about Lord Osuin’t Treasure, but there was nothing in the wagon. Only a squire of a Solamnic Knight survived, and he wasn’t speaking. They found a dying Knight who, when they told him the cage in the back of the wagon was empty, replied they would all die. But no one would say what the treasure was. Subcommander Maros took a finger from the squire, but he only repeated the oath. They began to travel toward Sanction and the Treasure caught up to them and started killing. Again, the tension of this unseen creature was great, and as men started dying, it only escalated. The creature wiped out the entire Dark Knight company. When Maros came to, he was being wanted by the squire. The treasure was Lord Osuin’s son, taken by Sable the Black Dragon Overlord and turned into one of its Dragon Spawn. It left the squire alive for the kindnesses the squire showed it while transporting it. But Maros was dying, so the squire told him what and who the treasure was. This was well worth a read and I just love horror stories like this one.
Loyalty by Richard A. Knaak

Captain Salvas, minotaur captain, silver dragon Shield 
Commander Drako
Jek, first mate, minotaur
Volcanus, red dragon

Oh man, this was great! A minotaur ship was scouring the seas looking for rebels and defectors, and arrived at an island as a storm set in. As the minotaurs were disembarking their captain, Salvas, left ahead of the others and found a cave with a massive dragon totem in it. He transformed into his true form, a silver dragon named Shield. He had been looking for the skull of his mate, killed by a red dragon named Volcanus, who was also killed by Malystrix. Shield could feel the death of Malys somehow, but when he went to destroy the totem, the spirit of Volcanus appeared. He would let Shield’s mate’s spirit leave the totem, if Shield let Volcanus’ spirit in him as a new body. He refused and he was wounded by the awesome power of the spirit of Volcanus. Then his crew arrived, as he quickly shifted into  minotaur form again. They took him to camp at the shore where he was pounded and healed for days. Then they knocked him out and he awoke under a net. They realised he was a dragon and they believed he was going to kill him. When Shield explained what he was doing and why, he told them all to leave so he could free his mates soul. They left on their longboats and Shield returned to succumb to Volcanus. But when he began to enter Shields’ body, he said he would not let his mates go free. Shield struggled, then suddenly the minotaurs all rushed in and started attacking the totem. They lost many of their crew, but the totem was destroyed and Shields’ mate was rescued in death. Shield woke to his first mate who explained the outcome and left the skull for him. They fought for the loyalty of their captain. It was such a moving story about brotherhood and loyalty. It reminded me of being in the military, and what any true friend would do, and I loved it all. Knaak knocks yet another story out of the park.
The Dragon’s Child by Nancy Varian Berberick
Raven Thorn
Inferno, red dragon
What a fun story. Raven, a human thief, was scouring the mountains around Sanction for a dragon’s den to steal egg shells to sell. Since the return of the gods and magic, they were a premium with wizards for spell components. As he went in he saw the eggs all smashed and draconians entered. He ran from them, with his dragon egg shell, but they were taken by a kapak as he fled in the tunnels that are beneath Sanction. The great red dragon Inferno was returning to her lair when she noticed her eggs destroyed, and decided to try to cut off any escape by entering the tunnels near the lords of doom, but most were collapsed except for the volcanoes themselves. Raven continued to flee the Draconians, running into even more before running into a wyrmling. Apparently one of the dragon’s eggs hatched and the wyrmling followed him. He gave it water and hid it when the draconians got close. Eventually he came out of the tunnels into a massive cavern with treasure and the draconians were there, and started fighting when Inferno arrived and destroyed the draconians. The wyrmling told inferno the human was helping it, and the dragon offered a boon to the human, giving him some treasure and told him the way out. It was a great little tale and now I want a wyrmling.
Four Ends by John Helfers

Threxellex, red dragon
Relk, sivak
Gul, minotaur bandit
L’Arth, pirate

This was a quick tale about revenge. A woman and her son were taken by a red dragon’s minion and brought to him. He believed two of his pirates were stealing from him, so he held the son and had the women lie to each of them in turn, convincing them to kill the dragon and each other for the treasure, and to rescue her son. They both agreed separately, greed convincing them of the act. When they got to the cave, the dragon killed them. Then the woman was brought back to the dragon, but she told him that her children were killed and the two pirates had killed them and wronged her. Now it was this dragon’s turn. The sivak and the child turned into silver dragons and killed the red with the woman watching. It was a nice little story that showed even dragons can be tricked, and more, good dragons are willing to work with humans when they are allowed to hunt down and kill evil dragons. I really liked the idea, and the idea of pirate towns in Dragonlance. I don’t feel like we have enough of them.
At the Water’s Edge by Jamie Chambers

Anar Sovralian, Qualinesti Elf
Ebon Nightshadow, Black Dragon
Kerasina, elf
Ealthan, elf

This was a great story, and I am not sure if it was a dream or not. The Elf Anar was trailing elves, and saw them talk with an individual. He went to the man and cast a charm spell on him to get information about where the elves had gone. With the information he traveled to the former lair of Ebon Nightshadow, a black dragon and former servant of Beryl. He was then caught by elves. He saw his wife, the reason he was searching for the elves, and pleaded with her to leave with him, but she refused. Convinced these elves abducted her, he fought them, only to once again be subdued. She told him that after their son died fighting to allow them to live in the dwarven tunnels, she came out and wanted to fight to reclaim their homeland of Quialinesti. But he believed the Dark Knight and Goblin hoards were too much, so he pleaded with her to leave with him. After she refused he started fighting the elves again, and they beat him down. His wife held him as he passed out and awoke in an alley, as if from a dream. I think this is a great story but the idea of a wife abandoning her husband for nationalism actually bothers me more than anything else. I understand wanting to fight for your homeland, but what then? Who will you share it with? Did you ever love your partner in the first place if you so willingly abandon them? It’s tough to think about.
Lake of Death by Dan Willis.

Tendek, former Knight of Neraka
Wylinger, kender
Donnala, Tendek’s twin sister, former Knight of Neraka

I thought this story was going somewhere but I was completely wrong. Twins and former Knights of Neraka were traveling through Qualinesti after treasure seeking in the Plains of Dust with the kinder Wylinger, they came across a band of goblins and a donkey. They were tired of hauling this cart full of loot themselves, so they attacked the goblins, running them off, and took the Donkey. Wylinger named her Lesie, and they continued north. They eventually came to a massive lake with the name of Lake of Death, this is of course former Qualinost. They decided to make camp when they saw a boat, and decided to take it across the lake. Lesie was very difficult to get in the boat as she was afraid of the lake, and it turned out, with cause. The lake was haunted by the spirits of the dead. This freaked out the donkey who kicked the two former Dark Knight sin to the water, refusing to let them on board. As they continued through the lake, the kender convinced the donkey to let them aboard by promising to share their treasure with her. Then once on the other side of the lake, they disembarked and traveled to the green valley beyond. This story had a number of oddities in it. First, the kender got scared from the ghosts in the Lake of Death, but kender are supposed to be fearless, unless they are an afflicted kender, but Wylinger didn’t show any signs of being afflicted. Then the donkey being able to understand the kender and humans, even making deals with them was nonsensical. I get that donkeys are known to be stubborn, but promising them food and treasure as if they understand it is ridiculous. Then to end it so abruptly, I wonder what the true purpose of this story was meant to be.
The Dragonslayers by Douglas W. Clark

Skerrith Dragonslayer
Ragweed Pollenflower, kender
Ruby Columbine, barmaid
Targe, patron
Borstan Dunnerth, mayer of Trader’s Lot
Grot, rancher

A dragonslayer named Skerrith came to town and started boasting about his exploits in a tavern. The kender was awestruck and asked for more and more stories as the mayor appeared. He mentioned that the town was suffering over a dragon who had been killing the ranchers’ livestock. They offered the dragonslayer the opportunity to kill the dragon and save the town, for a price of course. THe dragonslayer said he would do it in the morgan and the barmaid backed him up when the patrons all said there were hours of light left to the day. That night the false dragonslayer tried to sneak out of the inn, but was interrupted by someone claiming the dragon had just struck. They all tried to once again get him to go out that night, but he refused and in the morning found his fake Dragonlance gone with the kender. The barmaid insisted ion going with him to find the kender and kill the dragon. As they searched they split up with storm clouds gathering. The dragonslayer found the kender who was making a cage and they heard a scream as they ran toward it, they saw the dragon resting in mud with a claw holding the barmaid down. As lightning flashed, the dragon got up and flew away, with the lightning reflecting off its copper scales. They returned to the inn with the dragon gone, the barmaid and dragonslayer married and took over the inn, and the kender told tales of how he slayed the dragon, with help, every night. It wa sa fun story, about the copper dragon, but I almost would rather have the Dragonslayer be outed, then make a deal with the copper dragon, thereby seeming to be a hero. But it was a fun story none-the-less.
Inventory by Jean Rabe

Gaspar, Hylar Dwarf
Skarn Ironskyll, Niedar Dwarf

A red dragon had snatched two dwarves from a mountain and brought them to her hoard. She had taken the hoard from a dead dragon and wanted it inventoried in context with a black dragon. The dwarves worked day and night cataloging the items, terrified of the red dragon, then one day a dwarf brought a magical mirror to the red and it vanished inside of it. The dwarves filled their pockets with as much treasure as they could carry and left to go to their respective town, when they were snatched up again by the black dragon the red was competing with. He thought they were random dwarves as he was scouring the trail the red had found them on. It was a fun little tale about dragons wanting to know exactly what is in their hoard, and its funny to consider they compete with literal lists of items between each other. I enjoyed the tale.
Special Delivery by Jeff Grubb

Edgar nunce
Manifew, Gnome
Raeja of the Crimson Sails, Minotaur Pirate
Lord Toede

What a great story! We get Lord Toede back, and he is in fact alive post War of Souls. The city of Flotsam has turned into a pirate town, led and controlled by Raeja, a minotaur, at the supposed behest of Lord Toede. The tax collector Edgar has learned of Gnomes who want to deliver music boxes to the town, but he knows the town wouldn’t want any loud bangs and explosions that are customary with Gnome inventions, so he goes to investigate the goods himself. He discovers they actually work and are quite lovely, so he brings the gnome and his machines to the council, and Toede allows him entry to deliver goods, but Raeja speaks out against it. He demands the gnomes stay over a hundred feet away from the town at all times, except for deliveries, and Toede agrees, so do the gnomes. So when the first shipment comes, it’s pushed down the hill and crashes into the gates, destroying them, followed by many more wagons full of music devices, which all crash in turn. The gnomes are ordered to not use the gates anymore and to keep away from town, so they begin to catapult the deliveries. This infuriates Raeja who goes to collect a militia to eradicate the gnomes, but Edgar asks Toede if he can warn the gnomes. Toede agrees, and when he arrives at their quarry, they seem elated that the minotaurs and pirates are gathering to confront them, he brings Edgar into the town house,which itself catapults up into the air over flotsam where they drop more deliveries onto the minotaur and pirates heads, then crashes into the hillside. They all leave and it turns out Toede was tired of the pirates and used the gnomes to get rid of them. That toede is one sneaky hobgoblin, even in his advanced age.
Marine Skies by Lucien Soulban

Brysis, Female Dargonesti elf
Veloxua, Female Dargonesti elf
Quayseen, Male Dargonesti elf
Minnow-Tyrant, Dolphin
The World Gash

This was another great underwater story. It featured three Dargonesti sea elves as they explore and map the deadly Desolation waters. Something is poisoning the corals, killing them, forcing sea life to abandon the area and sharks to move in searching for remnant food sources. They narrowly escape one shark and continue mapping the sea floor on their dolphin scout, Minnow-Tyrant’s back. They discover a more salty portion  of water in an area known as the World Gash, where the sea floor has dropped out of sight. They go to explore it only to discover it has a cloud of acidic water poisoning the area that they have to swim through. On the other side, they soon witness a volcanic eruption and even more of the sea floor above them crumbles, trapping one of them below, while the other two swim up to freedom. They need to report back to Watermere and Istar to warn the other sea elves of the rapid changes their sea is experiencing, and how it will affect all life underwater. I really love how the sea is another world altogether, but it is affected just as the surface is by the Dragon Overlords, or their sudden absence as in the post War of Souls era. Let’s hope we get more of these wonderful stories in the future.
Wyrm’s Claw inn by Miranda Horner

Tam Ceary, council member
Argus Thornton, innkeep
Elthan, cleric of kiri-jolith
Brell, housekeeper
Radley

This was an unexpected tale. Tam Ceary ordered an exorcism for the inn owned by Argus Thornton. This closed the inn for a while, though Argus believes it was less about the mild nuisance of the ghost that did haunt the inn than the tab he demanded Tam to pay. When the cleric arrived they heard commotion in the kitchen to discover Tam near death with weapons sticking out of him. His wife was tired of his drinking and hitting her afterward, so it appeared she finished him before he could finish her. Then they hear a commotion upstairs. There were two ghosts now that were messing in the master’s room, yelling get out. The new housekeeper, Brell, pulled a ring off a necklace, claiming it was a wish ring and wished the ghosts to leave. Suddenly all was quiet, but that was enough for the innkeeper. He and the cleric left, leaving Brell with the inn. Then it was revealed that the ring was her wedding ring, and the two ghosts were her husband and daughter. She had gone after the dark knights that killed them, and killed them. Then returned to claim her old home. It was a great story that makes me want to run yet another one shot about a haunting. 
Coin of Adament by Kevin T. Stein

Brek, Scout
Wulfbunde, black wolf
Bundesphar, wolf soldiers
Captain Arana, scout, follows white lady
Canus

Another one of the Wulfbunde and Bundesphar stories. These disciples of the Dark Queen are created by Canus, who never explains who it is. But the other Bundesphar have started following Mishakal in the post War of Souls era as Takhisis is dead, but Brek and his wulfbunde refuse. They chase a chaos demon only to be nearly destroyed by it, and Mishakal shows up herself to offer them help. Instead they pick themselves up and wander away. Then Mishakal says that ‘Krynn’s secrets are coming to destroy us, and they need the bundesphar. Is this in reference to the remnant Chaos minions, Mina, or some other threat that was never explored? We will never really know, but I am glad this set of stories is done. I like the premise of a wolf bound pair, but it needs to be fleshed out more, and extrapolated on to make complete sense.
The Box by Paul B. Thompson

Dunnar
Bolly
Agaran
Umram the Chiseler
Hundel, dwarf
Zetan Sleeps W

Well, I did not expect this. The story begins as an old man and his dog are leading a wagon through a town, when three thieves catch sight of him. They help him past a rut in the road then stalk him as he goes into the tavern. They look at his cart which has a sealed box in the back. THey try to pick it only to reveal a led-filled lock. They go into the tavern, and two of the thieves go to get horses so they can follow this man and his cart and rob him of it. They are certain it contains something valuable. They catch up to the man, stab him and take the box. They go into the wilderness and break it open to find another box, with no means of opening it. They deliver it to a fence who eventually builds a bonfire to melt its forged hinges, and the side reveals a phrase ‘Zetan sleeps within’. They leave the fire till morning when they return to it open and the smith dead. Soon men start going missing or are found dead and the thieves realize the box contained an egg that must have hatched. Now a dragonling was running around killing the keep’s residents. THe fence locks the thieves in the tower as the dragonling slowly stalks, then kills everyone. It leaves the thieves for last. When the deed was done the old man and his dog rode through the keep, explaining to the reader that they are curated to distribute a dragon’s young in this manner for trying to steal its treasure. This is their punishment. The story does a great job of setting up the horror of being stalked and hearing death all around you, it was really great.
The Albino by Douglas Niles

Dagger, Diamond, Albino, 

This was an interesting first person narrated story about a black dragon during the dragon purge. She found a secret lair in a volcano and was raising her brood there. One of her hatchlings was a n albino and it was quickly shunned and brutalized by everyone. It took to crafting blocks of stone with its acid breath alone. One day it snuck off and the mother went after it. It was near a random Knight of the Rose when the mother caught it, killed the knight and his horses and punished the albino.This behavior would repeat regularly, and one day she went after the albino as it tried to fly. It was seen by a great red dragon that was going after it, and the mother hid and ambushed the bigger red. It was a difficult fight, but the mother black won, and once again, punished the albino. When they were all healed, it took all the brood to test flying and the albino took off into the sky. The mother gave chase and Malystryx flew out of the clouds after the mother. She fled as best she could but Malys found her wyrmlings and killed them all, then came after her again. She went into an underwater cavern she knew of and once inside, fighting for aid, she got to the end to find it blocked by square blocks her albino was forging. There the story ended, with her suffocating and ambushed by the very wyrmling she took care of. This is a great way of showcasing how brutalising children leads to brutal children. It made me think of the film The Good Son with Macaulay Culkin.
This was a really good anthology of stories, while they are not all gold, they are really good, and much better than the preceding anthology in my opinion. If you are a fan of dragons, or dragonlance, you should read this anthology.

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