Dragonlance Tales II, Vol. 2 – The Cataclysm
DRAGONLANCER TALES II
Volume 2
THE CATACLYSM
Introduction
The world was forged upon three pillars: good, evil, neutrality. In
order to progress, a balance between the three must be maintained. But
there came a time in Krynn when the balance tilted. Believing himself
to be the equal to the gods in knowledge and in wisdom, the Kingpriest
of Istar sought the gods in arrogance and pride and demanded that they
do his bidding.
Having viewed with sorrow the tilting of the scales of
balance, resulting in hatred, prejudice, race divided against
race, the gods determined to restore the balance of the
world. They cast a fiery mountain upon Ansalon, then
withdrew their power, hoping those intelligent races who
dwelt upon Krynn would once again find their faith – in the
gods, in themselves, and in each other.
This catastrophe became known as the Cataclysm.
Michael Williams tells a tale of vengeance in his epic
poem, “The Word and the Silence.” He and his wife, Teri,
continue the tale and turn it into a mystery, as the accused
murderer’s son seeks to end the curse on his family in
“Mark of the Flame, Mark of the Word.”
Matya, a very cunning trader, stumbles onto the
bargain of her life – literally – in Mark Anthony’s “The
Bargain Driver.”
In Todd Fahnestock’s story, “Seekers,” a young orphan
boy embarks on a perilous journey to ask the gods a
question.
For most people, the Cataclysm meant sorrow, death,
ruination. For the entrepreneurs in Nick O’Donohoe’s
story, “No Gods, No Heroes,” the Cataclysm means
opportunity.
Richard A. Knaak tells the tale of Rennard, known to
readers of THE LEGEND OF HUMA. Now a ghost,
doomed to torment in the Abyss, Rennard finds himself
transported back to Ansalon during the Cataclysm. Is it an
accident, or has he been brought back for a reason?
Dan Parkinson continues the adventures of the Bulp clan
of gully dwarves. Led by their valiant leader, Gorge III, the
Bulps leave Istar in search of the Promised Place. What they
find instead is certainly not what they expected, in “Ogre
Unaware.”
Roger E. Moore reveals why Astinus never hires kender
to be scribes, in his story, “The Cobbler’s Son.”
A ship bound for Istar may be making its final voyage,
in Paul B. Thompson and Tonya R. Carter’s story, “The
Voyage of the SUNCHASER.”
Doug Niles continues the adventures of his scribe,
Foryth Teal, as that intrepid historian sets out to investigate
a priest’s claim that he can perform miracles, in “The High
Priest of Halcyon.”
In “True Knight,” we continue the story of the cleric of
Mishakal, Brother Michael, and Nikol, daughter of a
Solamnic Knight. The two survive the Cataclysm, but now
they want answers. Their search leads them to an encounter
with the knight who, so rumor has it, could have prevented
the Cataclysm.
MARGARET WEIS AND TRACY HICKMAN
THE WORD AND THE SILENCE
I
On Solamnia’s castles
ravens alight,
dark and unnumbered
like a year of deaths,
and dreamt on the battlements,
fixed and holy,
are the signs of the Order
Kingfisher and Rose –
Kingfisher and Rose
and a sword that is bleeding forever
over the covering mountains,
the shires perpetually damaged,
and the blade itself
is an unhealed wound,
convergence of blood and memory,
its dark rain masking
the arrangement of stars,
and below it the ravens gather.
Below it forever
the woman is telling the story,
telling it softly
as the past collapses
into a breathing light,
and I am repeating her story
then and now in a willful dusk
at the turn of the year
in the flickering halls of the keep.
The story ascends and spirals,
descends on itself
and circles through time
through effacing event
and continuing vengeance
down to the time
I am telling her telling you this.
But bent by the fire
like a doubling memory,
the woman recounts and dwells
in a dead man’s story,
harsh in the ears
of his fledgling son,
who nods, and listens again, and descends
to a dodging country
of tears and remembrance,
where the memories of others
fashion his bent recollections,
assemble his father