DragonLance Saga

Join me as I review the Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Player’s Handbook, live! Share your thoughts on this first of the three revised D&D 5th Edition core rules, released on September 17, 2024 by Wizards of the Coast. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/3BAdJJh

About Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Player’s Handbook

• UNLEASH NEW POSSIBILITIES—Introducing the 2024 Player’s Handbook, the new and improved guide for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Redesigned with 10 years of feedback from the D&D community, the essential Dungeons & Dragons rulebook is bigger and better than ever before!
• NEW CHARACTER OPTIONS YOU’LL LOVE—Create unforgettable characters with 12 core classes, 48 intriguing subclasses, and 10 distinctive species. Buff up your character’s backstory with 16 compelling backgrounds and 75 fantastic feats.
• STUNNING ARTWORK—With vibrant new illustrations of every single character class, subclass, background, species, weapon, and armor, our thrilling artwork also features new and familiar spells, brought to life for the first time ever.
• FRESH & ENGAGING GAMEPLAY—Change up your combat style with fascinating new Weapon Masteries for your character class. Our new Tools and Crafting system lets you use your tools to craft items and impact travel and exploration.
• DESIGNED JUST FOR YOU—We’ve thoughtfully redesigned this book with an improved layout, better organization, and an alphabetized Rules Glossary. Find whatever you’re looking for with ease!
• PART OF THE 2024 CORE COLLECTION—1 of 3 revised core rulebooks, the 2024 Player’s Handbook is designed for use with the fifth edition 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide and 2024 Monster Manual

The Tower of High Sorcery in Istar has a long storied history that extends into the Fifth Age. Let’s learn more about Istar: The Bloody-Fingered Hand. Buy Towers of High Sorcery: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/2940/towers-of-high-sorcery-3-5?affiliate_id=50797

Transcript

Cold Open

Once believed lost during the Cataclysm, Istar’s Tower of High Sorcery is under the Blood Sea.

Intro

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today I am going to talk about the Tower of High Sorcery in Istar: The Bloody-Fingered Hand. I would like to take a moment and thank the DLSaga members, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate links. I am referencing the Towers of High Sorcery sourcebook and Amber and Ashes Appendix for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below!

Discussion

The history of the Tower of High Sorcery in Istar is one of irony. For when Kharro the Red sent members of the Conclave to scout possible locations for the construction of the Towers of High Sorcery, areas where magical energies were at their strongest, the lakeshore town of Istar was nothing but huts. Asanta, a powerful white robed wizard, chose the location, and it wasn’t what Kharro expected. Asanta knew this would be a bastion of power one day, and though she was advanced in age, raising the Tower would become her life’s mission. She led the powerful incantations that created the Tower from the bones of the earth itself. And when complete, the beautiful crystalline structure stood as a stark contrast to the surrounding huts. The wizards who lived within the Tower would contribute to the safety and security of Istar and contributed to the town’s rising popularity and population. For years they would protect the citizens from evil, and magic was their savior.

Among many Istarians, the tower was known as Pulmo spo-ponires, the Bloody-Fingered Hand. This was the second highest structure in Istar, standing five-hundred feet tall. This flawless white crystal tower would catch the sunlight and split it into sparkling rainbows. At its top, arranged in a circle surrounding a dome of black marble were five red turrets bent slightly inward. When viewed at a certain time of the month, the hand appeared to be grasping a silver moon. The fingers would glow with eldritch light as shadows moved within its transparent walls. The outer walls were a ring of alabaster with grand gates of silver. Red and black roses grew on a trellis around it. The tower’s many windows and balconies overlooked the grand courtyard. At night, enchanted light would play on the windows’ surface, making the tower appear to be made of stars. Surrounding the tower was the Balakan Grove. It consisted of gnarled olive trees, heavy with green and black fruit, and populated by songbirds and wild creatures. Those who walked the grove’s paths, felt a strong urge to walk among the trees. When they inevitably did, they immediately forgot why they had come to the Tower, and where they were going. When they emerged, their memory would slowly return coupled with a desire to never approach the grove again. If you eat the fruit in the trees, you would emerge with your mind wiped clean. You couldn’t even remember how to speak!

Then the Third Dragon War came and while the wizards convened in the Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthas to create the Dragon Orbs, Istar had no one to protect it from the Dark Queen’s forces. So they turned to the church. The patriarch of the Temple of Paladine rallied the people and protected them with divine magic. From that moment on, Istar would question whether they could trust the wizards, and knew they could put their faith in the gods. As Istar grew into the mighty empire we all know it would, the church of Paladine rose at its center and the head of the church was known as the Kingpriest. Then came the Three-Thrones War, which further turned opinions against the wizards in the Tower of High Sorcery. The kingpriest sent a force against the tower but it was rebuffed. The wizards and priests lived in an uneasy truce as no blood was shed, until Beldinas Pilofiro took the throne.

Treasury, misfortune, and violence shaped the new Kingpriests reign, and when he formed the Knights of the Divine Hammer, he sought to attack the Towers of High Sorcery across the continent. Rather than allow the magic to fall into the Kingpriests hands, the wizards sacrificed the Towers of Istar and Palanthas. Destroyed the towers of Losarcum and Daltigoth, and retreated to the Tower of Wayreth. The Tower of Istar was rededicated and used as a repository of sacred artifacts confiscate...

Join me as I unbox Night of the Eye by Ellen Dodge Severson. Released on July 1, 1994 by TSR Inc. This is the first volume in the Defenders of Magic trilogy. You can buy Night of the Eye here: https://amzn.to/3NqGaMw

About Night of the Eye

Magic at its peak!

It will soon be the Night of the Eye, a rare time when all three moons align in high sanction over the lands of Krynn. On the eve of Guerrand DiThon’s political marriage to a rival family, the young noble is visited by a strange, powerful mage who knows more about him than he does himself. Seduced by promises of wizardly might, Guerrand slips away beneath the triple moons and journeys for the Tower of Wayreth.

No one thinks he will survive the deadly trek to the tower, but he does. It’s only then that Guerrand realizes that he has made many enemies in his journey. One of these foes would not only see Guerrand dead, but the three orders of sorcery destroyed with him.