Join me as I review Relics and Omens edited by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman live! Share your thoughts on this first Tales of the Fifth Age anthology, released by Wizards of the Coast on January 1, 1998. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/4oWwvOj 

Old companions and fresh heroes. New and ever more fantastical creatures and monsters. Banished gods and lost magic.

Dragon overlords are taking over the world of Krynn. The Chaos War is ending. The Fifth Age is beginning.

A collection of fantastical short stories exploring the new Fifth Age setting from the best known Dragonlance writers.

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Misham, Darkember the 6th. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my review of Relics and Omens 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, links are in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials 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.

This was a great story about a centaur who was out tracking near the icewall. He discovered polar bear tracks that were headed back toward his tribe, so he followed them when a storm began to rise. He saw the tracks veer away but since they were too close to his home, he decided to continue to pursue and kill this menage. He saw human tracks tracking the bear as well, and the storm kept increasing in intensity. Soon his visibility was slim to none and he finally came across the human who relented and was returning home. He wished the centaur good luck on his hunt and left. Now that the centaur had the bear to himself, he continued on. The weather was getting to even his tough form, and suddenly the bear was there. They fought as two predators in a storm with limited vision. The centaur was wounded but eventually killed the bear. He was debating on skinning it when a massive white form flew overhead. He suddenly realised the source of the storm was the dragon, and he knew that he had to get back to his tribe. He began to turn back and his wounds were too great. He slumped down and thought of his mate, as life faded away in the freezing cold. It was so good to read  a story that focuses on the elemental nature of these dragon overlords and the helplessness the mortals of the land are in their presence. The dragon was even named, only inferred and I knew exactly what was happening. The fear in the centaur was palpable as well. Truly great.

Holy shit this story got to me. This author is great! It’s about a herbalist named Leial who came from a town where her family all died from a nameless disease. She was able to heal a few people with herbs if she got to them soon enough, but most died. So she left toward Solace and stopped in a small town called Cour. Here she met a hill dwarf named Slean Brae who convinced her to stay to help the people of the town. They quickly became true friends and he constantly believed in her and her ability to tap into magic. She was unable and dismissed it, but he never stopped believing. When the plague hit Cour, she did her best to help a young girl, but the girl died anyway. She went with Slean to collect an herb that may help others as it helped in her past and as Slean was climbing back from retrieving some, he fell and soon died. The moment when they were together, he accepted his fate and her in pure pain over it, on the memorial of me losing an old friend I used to game AD&D with, really hit me hard. The story is about friendship and a legacy of magic that came with theirs. In me, that friendship is far too rare, and it makes me tear up thinking of the friends I have because of this story. Instead of magic, the legacy of our world is connection and love. It’s something that is discerning and earned, not given freely but when it’s there, it is powerful. Leial sat there weeping and an eagle dropped its prey. Leial felt the magic swell inside of her and she healed the creature. She had finally learned to tap into the magic of the world, but at what a cost. She returned to Cour with this legacy of magic within her. I love this story. It speaks to potential, and supporting those you care about, especially when they don’t believe in themselves.

Whoa, Knaak does it again! An old former cleric of Mishakal named Hermetes found the Sword of Tears on a minotaur skeleton years after the Chaos War. The sword spoke to him of its former owners like Huma Dragonsbane who slew Wyrmfather, and began to corrupt him. It led him to become the ruler of Kerman, and when bandits came to stop him he murdered them all. The more he killed, the more the sword wanted to kill. He healed people with the swords magis, even struck the ground and made fruit grow, and they worshipped him. When a Lord Draytor questioned his tactics and left, the sword convinced him that he must stop him. Hermetes demanded his followers to find the Lord and bring him to him. They claimed him, but the lord’s followers fought them, and Hermetes was drawn to the fight, killing friend and foe in his wake. When confronted with Lord Draytor, he was shown the young woman he just killed, the same woman he healed the day before and Hermetes knew the sword was controlling him. He woke the next day after smashing himself into a rock to struggle with the sword on the mountain top. The sword took control of Hermetes, but still he fought it, and summoned magical lightning to strike the tower, destroying Hermetes. The next day Lord Drayton arrived with his men, intent on destroying Hermetes, then he saw the devastation to the mountain. Knowing no one could survive it, he was certain Hermetes was dead, but he heard the calling of something. He decided to return the following day alone and seek the sword Hermetes wielded. This was a great story about losing yourself to power. How it’s hard to stay true to yourself, but its all we have as individuals, our conscience. The sword is out there, and where will it end up? 

This was another really good story. It’s about knights’ honor to their gods and themselves, and what it means in the absence of the gods. Sir Dariot Torson, Knight of the Sword was feeling unworthy and told to go on an honor quest where he happened across a small hamlet of Prada. The Knights of Takhsiis had taken much of their food that they were to rely on through the winter, so Dariot went to demand the food back. He appealed to the knights’ honor and called for duel, they accepted. He faced off against Sir Merek, a Knight of Takhisis and they both were evenly matched with the gods power reflected in the clashing of their swords. They ended the battle exhausted and wounded and the lord commander of the knights of Takhisis gave the knight a third of the provisions for the town. As Dariot returned he felt like a failure and the townspeople soon began to starve. After the death of a young woman, he decided to go back and find the food caches. This is when the gods left Krynn in the Chaos War and the new moon was strange. Merek was left to guard the cache as he was no longer trusted by his commander for failing to kill the Knight of Solamnia. He felt like a failure and tried to appeal to Takhisis, but he heard nothing. Then Dariot came and they faced off again in battle, only this time with no gods at their backs. They fought to a draw again, and realised the gods had left. In their absence they must rely on each other and Darior invited Merek to join him to lead and protect Prada for the winter. Merek with no other option agreed. It was a nice story about finding strength in others when the gods abandon you, and that when you put all your sense of self in something else, who are you when that other thing leaves? I really like the Fifth Age because it speaks to being true to yourself not because a god wants you to act a certain way, but because you want to be that person.

This story is about Tangletoe Thistleknott, a klender obviously, who is selling a map to Cyrenar of the Black Robes. Cyrenar is looking for an artifact and when he tries to buy the kender’s map, the kender refuses saying it’s his very best. The black robe takes him out of the tavern where his henchman is waiting and has him beat the kender senseless. He takes the map and leaves after the artifact. The kender wakes, sore and hurt. But goes after the mage anyway, after all, he wants his map back. He catches up using deer trails and tells the mage he knows the fast and secret way to the artifact. They arrive to discover a Knight of Solamnia guarding the artifact. Apparently whoever reads it, gains power from it and it becomes useless. So the mage asks many questions posing as a scholar, and the knight answers as best he can. That night the kender tells the mage about the key, and the mage questions the knight. They reveal the location of the artifact and the mage digs it up. He begins reading it and it states that if the mage is in the company of a kender, he will forever lose his voice, then he does, instantly, and the artifact loses its power. Now the mage is furious but wholly useless, and chases after his thug who leaves. The knight congratulated the kender, who it is revealed were working together for his very purpose. Then they go about their own ways, the kender going back after the mage for his map. It was a fun way to tell a story about greed getting the best of you, and it presents Kender in a very clever way of not just being the foil or patsy, but the architect of a scheme. I really enjoyed it.

This story had an oddly abrupt ending. It also inferred a cat was magical without any explanation. Two kender are returning to Hylo for dinner with Belladonna, the kender leader, and at dinner a cat named Truesilver arrives. It is Blelladona’s. The cat is surprised by the two kender Walkagain and Cleareyes, so they go to look for it and bring it back. They are trampled by a group of goblins who are also chasing the cat and capture it. The kender captures one of the goblins and finds out that there is an ancient goblin prophecy about sacrificing a magical cat on this very night and that it will destroy the dragons, especially the new large ones. So the goblins believe Truesilver the cat is the magical cat. The two kender leave the goblin tied up and go after the cat. They find the group and split them up with rocks and cat sounds. Then take the cat and a key around the leader goblins neck and leave. That’s it! It’s half of a story at best. I suppose it did a good job as I do really want to know what the key is to and whether the cat is magic. Cleareyes has been hearing voices in his head, like a conscious, and it’s driving him crazy, and it is inferred the voice is the cats, as if the cat is actually a silver dragon in disguise, but that is my conjecture. Anyway, I wish there was more to the tale.

This was an odd tale about two clerics Daev and Lael who work for a priest Tiranus. Daev is writing a book and the ideas in it are inspired by a poet he knows named Hannyl. They live in a town that is controlled by the Joyous Faithful Guard who murder and torture heretics. The ideas in the book are heretical, but without proof, the guard cannot act against the clergy. One night Aev and Kael have a poetry contest with a kender named Frenni as the judge, when the guard comes in and overhears some heretical lines. The clerics leave immediately. Once the book is published it is revealed to have heretical content and the citizens of the town and the guard chase after Daev, and catch him. He is to be burned on a pyre with his books. He is saved by a pregnant woman who turns out to be Kael, who is really a woman named Kale, and Frenni under her dress as the baby. They all agree to start making plays and travel together after having escaped. It’s a very odd story and it talks about inventions like the printing press and flying machines, etc. It feels out of place and time, with no indication of where it is or when it takes place. This collection is supposed to be in the Age of Mortals but they talk about the gods a lot. It really doesn’t make sense, and in the end, with the boy being a girl and the ease of their escape, it seems too illogical to think anymore about. So I won’t.

This was a great tale about three sea elves who were scavenging a downed ship believed to be from a dragon attack, as there is a sea dragon’s lair nearby. They continued to scavenge and came across a chest with a green orb in it, then discovered a human alive, floating near a bubble of trapped air. Telyil took the human to the surface, fighting a brown shark on the way to learn that the ship wasn’t downed by a dragon but greed. These men were scavengers as well and took treasure which included this orb. Once it was opened from its chest it spread disease incredibly fast to the crew. The infected were fighting for the orb from the uninfected and it ended in the whole ship being lost. Telyil instantly swam as fast as she could to her group of scavengers to stop them from taking the orb to their home, but she was too late. She got there to see the whole community sick. She sent the healthy away and took the orb to the dragon’s lair, hoping in her death the dragon would covet the orb, but she died before she could see the dragon arrive. It was an exciting story about the finality of finding a diseased item and the helplessness you find yourself in in the absence of the gods. The self sacrifice Telyil exhibited was exactly what I think most people would do if they discovered the truth about the object and I really liked her quick thinking of killing the dragon with the orb. Just another great short story from Jean Rabe.

What a great short story! It’s about a Knight of Takhisis who after the Chaos war was returning home to his keep in Estwild on the shoreline and his blue dragon mount Dusk, saying that he may be done with the Knight after Takhisis abandoned them, but he would return and the dragon would be by his side. Then a massive red dragon attacked them out of nowhere. This beast was a force of nature and didn’t care about old alliances or knights or queens, all it wanted was to feast on the blue dragon. The knight tried to fight the dragon but it ignored all his attacks even with his magical sword. He ended up being cut from the dragon by his dragon and fell to the ocean as he watched the red consume and drain his dragon of its life energy. He woke on the beach and a great green dragon attacked the red, clearly indicating this is at the beginning of the dragon purge. The knight understood that he had to report this to the knights in Neraka where they had been summoned, where he didn’t want to go, but this new threat had to be reported. He knew that the gods may be gone, but the mortals must band together against these great wyrms. It was a great set up for the dragon purge and the age of mortals, the helplessness against the massive dragons and the dragons getting stronger and larger by devouring other dragon’s life force. I really enjoyed this part of the fifth age and it is nice to read about it after years have passed since its release.

Whoa, this story is about a former red robed mage named Alantine who is restoring the library at Tarsis, when a black robed apparition appears and frightens him. Then we cut to a former cleric of Paladine named Eltam, who is traveling to assist Alantine. He finds him terrified in the library and shows him a scroll which speaks of a third level to the library, where everyone only knows of two levels. In addition to this, it speaks of Fistandantilus entrusting a spell book to the librarian. It must still be there, beneath them somewhere. They search the second level only to slowly fall into a slide of books and discover the third level. Alantine discovers the book , but is attacked by the undead wraiths there, he is saved by the cleric as the wraiths close around them, in addition to a knight of solamnia remnant who was given the spellbook by Fistandantilus before the Cataclysm. He faces off against them and they nearly get to the stairs when Alantine is attacked again. Eltam discovers the power of the heart to push back the undead, but knows it can’t last, and Alantine flees from the library with the book. It’s revealed that now Fistandantilus is back in the world with the release of this spellbook. It’s a great way to introduce Fistandantilus into your home campaigns, and a great way of Palin discovering sorcery as that is what the book was meant to be about. Fistandantilus is trying to discover magic without relying on the three gods of magic. This brings up so many wonderful ideas on how to tie Fisty into my Tyranny of Dragons campaign, I cannot wait to get to it!

This is the second time I have read this, the first was in a Dragon Magazine. It’s still just as good a story. Its about a small town that a peddler visits and tells tall tales about his wares. Heroes having used weapons and the like. Pieces of Fizban’s burnt staff from fighting Chaos, Sturm’s blade from Killing the dragon Kitiara, clearly with time the fables twist. He does well selling his wares to the town, then goes to the smith to have more Sturm’s dagger’s made. He offers a crystal vial as payment but the smith only wants money. The peddler presses the issue and the smith smacks the vial away from him. It bursts on the floor and releases a chaos minion. It attacks the group, who fight back, including the smith’s son. They eventually defeat it and the peddler wants the smiths tools to sell but the smith refuses, then he reveals he has a lot more vials, but he thought they were fake. Knowing they may hold chaos minions, he decides to stay and take up work as the new smith as the smith and his son go on to take the peddler’s cart and equipment. It’s a fun story about a peddler hoodwinking the public, but then realising he actually has artifacts of power. Normal people who refuse to have the wool pulled over their eyes then deal with the fallout, and then move on with their lives. I really enjoyed the story.

This was a rough story! A man named Falken enters a corrupt and vile town of Krodin and surveys the area, then enters a tavern and save a half-elf from being raped. Then the next morning feeds a bunch of malnourished children and gives a speech at high noon. He tells the people of Kerodin that the gods can return if they live in virtue and not vice as they are now. The people laugh at him and the magistrate has him arrested. The children and elderly try to stop them, but to no avail. He is held on trial and sentenced to be killed. On the day of his execution lightning strikes the executioner and the people revolt, only to steal from those in power after they fall. The children and elderly follow Falken out of town where it is revealed that he is a general of an army named the summoners and they are bringing justice to the land even if they have to kill to see it done. They surround the town with the army and destroy it entirely. This is the most fifth age story I can imagine. Locals turn to hedonism and exploitation in the absence of the gods, and those who preach virtue are also murderers. There are no good people, only versions of evil. I get this in the context of a fantasy story, but in reality , you don’t need gods to be a good person, you can just be a good human. I hate it when the presence of the gods, or threats of a burning Hell are the only reasons people are good, out of fear. Why not forsake the gods and just be a decent person? I did enjoy the story though.

This was a wonderful story that reminds me of Robinson Crusoe. Weeks after the gods left Krynn, a Knight of Takhisis, Angren, is sailing with brutes and other knights when they come to an island. They discover it is populated by a single Gnome, but at night, hoards of ghouls come out, the Cursed of Zeboim, and kill. His crew dies leaving Angren and the Gnome Hudge. As time goes by, Hudge reveals there is a treasure pile here that was supposedly cursed, which explains the ghouls, and that he was left by his gnome companions accidentally. The whole time the Knight is cruel to the gnome, and abuses him regularly. The knight learns that the gnomes made hot air balloons to get off the island and that is how Hudge was accidentally left behind. But there is another balloon. They transfer all the treasure to the ship, fix it to the balloon and lift off, but the knight throws the gnome off the ship, leaving him stranded. Then as he is sailing away, a storm comes in and the knight realises the ship’s hold is full of ghouls as well as the treasure. The gnome had intentionally left the hold unlocked after the knight’s abuses and now lives happily on the island alone. It was such a wonderful tale filled with isolation and loss, then hope and excitement, all framed by the reader’s hatred of the knight and his cruelty. He definitely forgot what he deserved, and I loved the story.

This is the second time I am reading this short story and holy Hell it is still just as wonderful and painful. It’s about Caramon and Tika Majere hiring a barmaid named Jassar, who is clumsy and breaks plates all the time. Caramon wants to fire her, but Tika refuses as she can’t seem to keep a job and her husband doesn’t work. Worst still, her husband beats her. Caramon is having none of this, and goes to talk to the man. His name is Gamel, and he is a veteran of the Chaos War. He is a drunk, and Caramon knows all about that. He tries to talk to the man, but he attacks him. After a scuffle, Gamel breaks down in tears. He is in constant pain with his missing arm, lost in the war. He can feel his fist squeezing tightly to his sword hilt. It will not stop, and the pain is horrible. Caramon, knowing something of phantom pain in the absence of his brother Raistlin, and war, decides to help the man. He gives instructions to Tika to have the carpenter build a special box for him, and he leaves to take Gemel on a trip. They end up at the battle site where Gemel lost his hand and the memories come rushing back. He was a message runner and brought a message to a Solamnic Knight while they were battling a Chaos Demon. He distracted the Knight and the demon killed him. Gemel’s first was clenched tightly on his sword hilt as he swung it into the demon, and the demon tore off his arm. He passed out and woke inn a medic tent. He saw that the bodies were being put into a mass grave and his arm ached incessantly. He drove his sword into the ground to mark the grave and left for home. Now, he collects his sword and returns home with Caramon. Cardamom has him put the sword in the box, and then put his two arms, real and phantom, in the box. He casts a spell and has Gemel open his eyes. He sees two arms in the box! Cardamom tells him to release his fist and the man does, finally relieving him of the pain. Jassar and Gemel leave to have happy lives and Caramon is seen with renewed awe by the community. It is revealed that he did it with a mirror in the box at the end of the story. This story makes me openly weep when I read it. It reminds me of all the veterans I grew up with from the Korean and Vietnam wars. Men who were physically scarred and unable to even talk about the horrors they witnessed. Men who are far too common in the military who use them for their goals, then seem to largely abandon them when they leave. Our country has historically done a terrible job taking care of its veterans and its why I have every single gaming episode set up as a fundraiser for non profit organizations which support veterans and active duty soldiers. Because we as civilians of this country owe them our respect for standing up in defense of us, our freedoms, and our country. Something the vast majority of civilians refuse to do.

By and Large this was a mediocre collection with a few gems in it, which is really, as good as it gets most times when it comes to anthologies. If you are a Dragonlance fan, you should give this a read. The stories that shine are brilliant. And they largely make up for the ones that don’t.

And that’s it for my review of Relics and Omens edited by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. What did you think of the anthology? Do you enjoy stories that affect you emotionally? And finally, do you enjoy this post Chaos War collection? Feel free to email me at [email protected] or leave a comment below. 

I would like to thank Creator Patron Aaron Hardy and Developer Patron Chris Androu! I would also like to take a moment and remind you to subscribe to this YouTube channel, ring the bell to get notified about upcoming videos and click the like button. This all goes to help other Dragonlance fans learn about this channel and its content.  

This channel is all about celebrating the wonderful world of the Dragonlance Saga, and I hope you will join me in the celebration. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time Slàinte mhath (slan-ge-var).