TSR, $5.99, ISBN 1-56076-156-3
Fantasy Horror, 1991
At the time of writing, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman are suing Karens, I mean, Wizards of the Coast over Dragonlance stuff, which is pretty much their creation but due to bad contract is owned by TSR and its current incarnation, but this isn’t the first time the two authors must be wishing that they could turn back time and stomp the crap out of the scumbags that issued the contract that saw them handing over the whole IP to uncaring corporate douche-nozzles.
One of the earlier conflicts they had revolved around this, James Lowder’s Knight of the Black Rose. I am not sure whether they have any issue with the book itself, but they do take offense at how their Lord Soth of Dargaard Keep, the infamous villain of the first Dragonlance trilogy, is unceremoniously siphoned off to Ravenloft behind their backs, in order to sell that then-new Gothic horror tabletop RPG setting. The first time the authors had the opportunity, Lord Soth gets dragged back to Krynn to be killed off for good. There, he’s better off dead than to be abused further by corporate dingalings!
So, this one. Naturally, it’s about how Soth ends up in Ravenloft and eventually be granted the rule of his own domain, Sithicus. There is nothing grand or complicated here, as it’s in its heart a bloody and violent road trip. Soth first ends up in Barovia, the domain of the unintentionally cheesy and overrated Count Strahd von Zarovich, supposedly the biggest bad-ass villain of all villain in Ravenloft. Strahd’s overrated status is even more so here, as once again, just like in the previous entry, he does nothing other than to invite the new guest of his realm to his place for basically exposition exchange hour, before spending the rest of the story spewing eye-rolling villain-speak clichés and cowering from this guest.
Our death knight Soth has two purposes in mind: one, kill his ghostly seneschal Carradoc for betraying him and hiding Kitiara’s soul from him (Soth is mad because Carradoc betrayed him before he could betray that seneschal) and two, get back to Krynn so that he can resurrect Kitiara and she can be his undead girlfriend for life. Seriously, everything he did up to that point in the Dragonlance trilogy was not to help his goddess conquer the world; he just wanted to set up things so that his goddess’s champion Kitiara would get killed, he would grab her soul, and then it’s undead snu-snu for eternity. No, I don’t want to rehash his past, as it is brought up in four different instances in this book alone, and I am sick of it. Go read his Wikipedia entry if you need to know the juicy details.
Anyway, in Barovia, he goes on a murder hobo rampage, taking captive the Vistani Magda in order to have a “guide” around the place. Strahd invites him to his place and directs him to a supposedly magical portal that can send him back to Krynn… a portal that is conveniently enough in the castle of his nemesis Gundar, in the neighboring domain Gundarak. With a serial killer werebadger dwarf Azrael in tow, Soth will drag Magda with him as he continues his murder hobo spree throughout two domains. Seriously, Soth will come off as a complete moron here, but that dude is at the same time so freaking bad ass to have two supposedly powerful darklords cowering at his approach. That’s really awesome, I have to admit, and mind you, I never like Soth that much until this story.
In another story, our villainous protagonist may seem like an evil version of a Mary Sue type, but here, though, he’s like Rambo and Chuck Norris wearing a tin can and swinging a big sword, full of BDE and swagger because he really doesn’t give an eff. Soth is the fellow that will charge repeatedly at a wall just to get to the other side, conveniently ignoring the door that is located over there just because, but he wrecks such creative brutality on the wall that I can’t help but to enjoy the show.
The pacing is taut and packed with atmospheric build-up. Sure, like way too many fantasy novels based on tabletop RPG IPs, this one also refers to the main characters way too much using eye-rolling descriptions like “the dwarf” and “the death knight”, as if I would momentarily confuse Soth for Azrael if the author would stop that nonsense for even a few pages, but still, that annoying issue is not restricted to this one alone, so I’ll give that a pass. It’s probably some rule mandated by the editors that believe readers and consumers of their products are utter morons. I also wish the author hadn’t repeated Soth’s back story four freaking times here, because I’ve read all the early Dragonlance books (oh don’t judge, there weren’t many other things to read back then, okay) so yes, I know that fellow’s back story very well and I don’t need to have it slapped against my cheek four freaking times. Did I say it’s four freaking times? Still, I suppose this is also mandated by the editors because they think their consumers have ADD and these consumers will forget about details that aren’t shoved at their faces every ten minutes.
Back to this book, it’s everything Vampire of the Mist should have been: it’s an exciting grab-me-by-my-throat read that serves both as a fiery kick in the rear end as well as an introduction to Ravenloft. The protagonist is a fun bad-ass lunatic, not a useless and whiny glow-in-the-dark bag of wheezes, and while Strahd still comes off as a try-hard wannabe here, at least he’s getting his ass trounced instead of the author acting like this poser is ten flavors of awesome. Knight of the Black Rose is just a bouquet of carnage and gore—well, in a PG-13 way, that is—to make this Halloween fun.
