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antishurtugal_rebornWarning: This chapter contains several more very unpleasant deaths, and some squicky content.
MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to continue our journey through Ed Greenwood’s Elminster: The Making of a Mage! Last time, Elminster returned to Athalantar, hooked back up with Braer and the elves, and killed two magelords, all while an unseen someone was spying on him. Today, he starts taking the fight to the magelords in earnest. Joining us once again will be Keeri and Mira!
Chapter Sixteen: When Mages Go To War
Keeri: Well, the title sounds exciting, at least… let’s just wait and see how Greenwood screws it up, eh? Like last chapter, our quote this time is from a ballad (stop sticking your nose into my profession, huh, Greenwood?) which is also called When Mages Go To War, appropriately enough. A star rushes past, to crash upon the shore / But the first of many many more / stoke the fire and stout bar the door / for this is the night mages go to war. Yeah, in my experience, if mages really are going to war… barring your door isn’t going to be enough. Not by a long shot (oh, and the meter’s still awkward, too). So, we open the chapter proper with someone we’ve not seen in a while – Helm the knight, who is in fact still alive, apparently. You know, if this guy’s been fighting the magelords for pretty much the entirety of Elminster’s life (and I think Elminster’s in his late twenties now or thereabouts) and he’s still alive… that doesn’t really make the magelords seem all that impressive, does it (not that Helm’s apparently made much progress, either)? Anyway, Helm hears a noise behind him and wheels around to find himself facing Ruvaen the elven warrior from last chapter, who he apparently knows. Helm asks him if he has news, and Ruvaen holds out a large crystal, which he says is apparently a scrying crystal of a sort used by human wizards. Helm immediately thinks of the magelords and asks where he found it, and another elf who’s with Ruvaen says it was buried not far from here… and Ruvaen himself says that he saw one of Helm’s own men hide it when he was done using it. Helm realizes that the magelords may know all of his plans… and, okay, the magelords had a spy in Helm’s band, reporting his every move, and he’s still alive? Since Helm’s got no magic of his own to protect him, that we’ve seen, I can only conclude the magelords spied on him and decided he wasn’t worth killing. Considering he’s apparently accomplished nothing in all the time he’s been active and all, aside from killing some armsmen that one time I guess and all.
Ruvaen slips Helm the crystal, tells him they’ll be watching if he needs them, and then vanish back into the forest; a moment later, Helm’s men have all joined him. All who dared swing a blade in defiance of the magelords, clinging to the thin shield of elven mastery and providing the Fair Folk a front line of blades and bows to keep the woodcutter’s axes from hewing out a new and larger Athalantar unopposed. Wait, how many of you are there? Can’t the magelords raise thousands of troops, like we saw a few chapters ago? I’m not sure this is such a good plan… Apparently, elven magic has hidden them from the magelords - *glances back at the scrying crystal* good job with that – but isn’t well suited for open combat. But the magelords are still wary of confronting the elves directly (funny, they were about to do that a few chapters ago, before Elmara – somehow – stopped them singlehandedly) Lending Helm time to plan a rising that might – just might, with the gods’ own luck – shatter this rule of wizards, and give him back the carefree Athalantar he'd fought for and loved, so long ago. But the longer they fight, the less anything changes, and Helm can feel his chances of victory slipping away. Sorry, friend, but that’s your sad lot for not being the protagonist – you’ll have to wait for Elminster to show up and save everything for you. But Helm now thinks that with the discovery of the scrying crystal, he’ll have to act now before he’s discovered and killed. Finally, Anauviir, one of Helm’s men, speaks up and asks him what’s wrong, and Helm holds up the scrying crystal. Another of his men, Halidar, immediately panics and turns to run, so Anauviir decides he’s the traitor and stabs him through the throat. That was fast. Also, probably not the most accurate way of finding a traitor – maybe he just saw the scrying crystal and knew what it was and panicked, did you think of that? But Helm apparently assumes that he was indeed the spy all along and tells everyone that the magelords have been watching them, maybe for years; he calls out to Ruvaen and asks if he has any use for it, and he responds that properly used, it can burn out one magelord’s mind. And so, I imagine it’ll end up being used for exactly that.
Mira: Only if the magelords are very sloppy… which, alas, they’ve consistently proven themselves to be. Helm looks around at his men; there are about forty of them, and he thinks that if he had another forty, he could take back Athalantar, magelords or no magelords, but he doesn’t. Beg pardon, but unless all of your men are literal heroes of legend, I don’t think any country can be easily taken with a mere eighty soldiers? Magelords or no magelords? Suddenly, Ruvaen says that a man is approaching to speak with them and means them no harm. A moment later, a strange figure steps out of the trees, and greets Helm by name – and he recognizes him. Out of sight for so long… surely the lad had died at the hand of some magelord or other… but no. Helm immediately goes down on one knee and offers his sword – an impressive gesture, considering this is the same prince he admits he had completely lost track of and presumed dead! I’m not sure Helm is a very good sworn knight, is he? Anauviir doesn’t understand, though he presumes Elminster must be a wizard or a powerful priest, to approach without being detected. Elminster tells Helm to rise, and he in turn tells the rest of his men to kneel, for this is Elminster, son of Elthryn, the last free prince of the realm! One of the outlaws asks if Elminster is a magelord, but he corrects them that while he is a wizard, he’s here to destroy the magelords, and needs their help. He tells them all to rise, insisting that for the moment he’s prince of nothing and needs allies, not courtiers, and though he has enough magic to defeat any of the magelords in single combat, he knows that if he acts openly they’ll call for reinforcements and in a breath or two I’ll have forty or more of them on my hands. *surprised* Forty or more? By Nemorga, how many of them are there? How many can Athalantar support? I mean, there are more necromancers than that in Hollowfaust, but we’re rather more organized than the magelords are, and the entire city is built around the guilds – after all, we were there first, and the city sprang up later! But that’s not the case here!
MG: Based on the Villains’ Lorebook (a mid-nineties 2e supplement that covers various major Realms villains and villainous factions and has an entry on the magelords in its section on historical villains) there were around seventeen full magelords at any given time, plus thirty-forty apprentices and hangers-on. So, counting them all as “magelords,” Elminster’s numbers are probably accurate (though most of those wouldn’t be very powerful). But yeah, this book hasn’t given a good sense of their numbers (or, as we’ll discuss here in a bit, their structure and hierarchy – possibly because the magelords themselves don’t seem to have a good handle on those, either).
Mira: Oh, dear. Well, the outlaws chuckle darkly at this, but Helm can tell that Elminster’s confidence has given them real hope for the first time in years. Elminster admits that he can’t defeat all the magelords at once, but the elves have already joined him, and he hopes to find more allies in Hastarl. Apparently, he plans to attack Athalgard itself within the next tenday – oh, this is moving rather fast, isn’t it? Have you considered actually taking time to plan? – and wants to know if the outlaws are with him. One of them demands to know how they can be sure this isn’t a trap, or if Elminster’s really as powerful as he says; Ruvaen says that he’d asked the same questions, and then earlier today Elminster and another mage have already killed two magelords. Wait, that was earlier today? Elminster is working quickly, isn’t he? Personally, I’m of the philosophy that it’s better to do a thing right than to do it quickly… Helm then adds that I’ve known the prince since the day the mage royal’s dragon slew his parents, an’ he vowed to me… that he’d see the magelords all dead someday. Ah, know you don’t know Elminster. You’ve met him a handful of times, all of them years ago, but you know nothing about his life since he left for Hastarl. I think that’s a bit of an oversight? Elminster says that his time has come and asks if he can depend on the last knights of Athalantar; Anauviir asks how he plans to protect them from the spells of the magelords. Ruvaen says that the elves will go to war with them, and so their spells will protect them – beg pardon, but if you could do that all along, why haven’t you? Even if you don’t care for any human, much, I think there’s an old saying about the enemy of my enemy being my friend… Helm jumps in to say that the magelords have been slowly wearing them down, and within a year or two they’ll all be dead (I’m surprised it’s taken this long…) and at least this way they might take some of the magelords down with them. At this the outlaws agree, and Helm asks Elminster to command them. He instructs them to go to Hastarl, in disguise in small groups to avoid attention, and to find a refuse pit where an impromptu market has been set up. Once they’re there, they’re to ask for a man named Farl – oh dear, I’d hope we were done with him. And wouldn’t Elminster’s instructions for contacting Farl be years out of date, at this point? Helm says that there’s a nearby caravan carrying clothes and mounts they’d been planning to hit, and they could get disguises there, which gets the outlaws excited at the prospect of battle with the magelords. Helm draws his sword and holds it up; For Athalantar, and freedom! The rest of the group echoes the cry, and Elminster tells Ruvaen to watch over them and go with them; he apparently has business elsewhere. He then vanishes, and one of the other elves comments that nothing good ever comes from hot haste, and I have to agree; in my line of work, the hasty necromancer is likely to soon be the dead necromancer. Nonetheless, Ruvaen thinks that with their haste and their numbers, humans will soon rule all Faerun, and wonders what that would look like as the scene ends.
MG: Also, I’ve mentioned this before, but… by this point in the setting’s history, humanity is not some new, upstart race – they’ve been a major power for a long, long time. Again, Netheril has already risen and fallen by this point, and Netheril was the most powerful human empire, well, ever. And some of these elves may well be old enough to remember Netheril, and thus know firsthand what a powerful empire of humans looks like. Sure, northwest Faerun (where this story takes place, largely) is pretty desolate at this point, without many large cities or nations – but for a real world comparison, it’s less “humanity rising out of the stone age” and more “western Europe after the fall of western Rome” (albeit a bit more dramatic, since Netheril was more powerful than Rome ever was, and its fall was far more sudden and more catastrophic)… and like the real-world medieval age, there’s powerful human empires elsewhere in the world that never did fall at all. So, unless these elves are engaging in cultural posturing to a literally self-deluded level (which, admittedly, wouldn’t be out of character for a lot of Realms elves) they already know what a world ruled by humans looks like, and are literally living in it.
Keeri: *shaking her head* Elves. Anyway, we cut to Hastarl eight days later, as we follow a pair of spiders as they crawl down a tree, through cracks in the ground and into an inn’s cellar, where they turn into two short, stout pox-scarred women of elder years… they surveyed each other’s tousled white hair, rotting clothing, and sagging, rotund bodies – and in unison reached to scratch themselves. *blankly* Uh, okay. Well, it turns out these two are Elminster and Myrjala in disguise, Elminster tells Myrjala she looks lovely, she pinches his cheek and returns the compliment, and together they waddled through the cellars, seeking the stairs up into the stables. And the scene ends there. So, that happened. We then cut to the magelord Seldinor in his study, where he’s frustrated because for two days now he’d been trying to magically graft the cracked, severed lips of a human female – all that was left of the last wench he’d seized for his pleasure – onto the unfinished golem standing before him. *flatly* Well, guess I know why everyone hates Seldinor so much, then. Also, yeah, it’s a bit weird that Myrajala apparently thinks Elminster needed to have spent time as woman to understand how bad this guy is. I think we can all, regardless of gender, agree that kidnapping and raping random women, killing them, and then tearing off their lips to stick on a golem is pretty damned evil! Anyway, Seldinor can fit the lips onto the face, but for some reason can’t activate the magic to make them actually work. Apparently, he’s not had any trouble with this before, and sweet Desna, how many times has he done this? Anyway, he tries another spell, and this time sees the lips start twitching, amusing him as he recalls the last time they did that – she’d pleaded for her life… Kill him! I don’t care who does it, just… somebody. Anyway, with the lips apparently working he’s ready to transfer the consciousness of a creature he’d “prepared” last night (and is now quivering helplessly in a cage, so I guess that means nothing good) into it. This seems to work, too, as the golem comes to life and whispers Master. Seldinor excitedly asks if it knows him, and it says it does… and then it grabs his throat and starts choking him. Strangling for air, hands frantically shaping spells out of the air, Seldinor had time for one last horrified glimpse of a magical eye appearing on the blank face of the golem and winking at him, before the golem snapped his neck like a twig – and then, unleashing its awful strength for a moment, tore the wizard’s head from his shoulders in a bloody rain of death… Well, that’s it for Seldinor, I guess. Not that he didn’t have it coming, but still, that was sudden. And it looks like all three of the magelords Helm mentioned in the first chapter – Hawklyn, Kadeln and now Seldinor – are dead now. And I’m pretty sure they could all three be cut from the story without changing a damned thing.
Mira: I will have you know; I am personally offended by this scene. Morally, of course, but also professionally! It’s not my guild’s specialty (the Animators could tell you more…), but I assure you we do not tolerate such sloppy work as Seldinor’s in Hollowfaust! *beat* And I do hope Elminster and Myrjala laid that golem to rest properly somewhere once they were done with it – particularly the soul or souls of the poor people (how many were there?) used to make it. Alas, my expectations aren’t high. We then cut to last chapter’s nameless watcher, as he witnesses Seldinor’s end through his scrying crystal and is very pleased by both the death itself and the means of it. He then turns to a hidden cabinet and draws out two wands, which he slides up his sleeves, and a skullcap set with tiny gems, that he places on his head. The gems start flickering as the old man speaks spells, and then the cap vanishes completely into invisibility. And his eyes had become a flat, glowing red, which is ominous indeed. He then raises his head and speaks a series of names, some of which we know. Undarl. Ildryn. Malanthor. Alarashan. Briost. Chantlarn. He can see each of the named magelords responding to his summons by placing their hands on their own scrying crystals, and then using the magic of his crown – which I guess is the same as the skullcap he’s wearing? – he reaches out and binds them to him. They were his, now. One of them addresses him by name – communicating through the scrying crystals, I guess? – as Ithboltar. And so, we know who our mysterious watcher is – that magelord who was mentioned by Gartos a few chapters ago? And may have been the one controlling the flying sword when it went after Elmara? And who we know literally nothing else about? That’s very underwhelming, isn’t it?
Ithboltar addresses the other magelords first as colleagues and then as students, telling them that strange mages have come to Athalantar to threaten them, and shows them the images of Elminster and Myrjala. But the magelords aren’t impressed. Two? A boy and a woman? Old One, have you plunged asudden into your dotage? I’ll have you know, in Hollowfaust we don’t speak to our guild masters in such tones! Also, wasn’t Ithboltar using his skullcap to control them all, earlier? *beat* I don’t think it’s working… Ithboltar tells them to ask where Taraj, Kadeln and Seldinor are, and then get back to him. Which seems appropriate enough. One of the magelords asks who the intruders are, and Ithboltar admits he doesn’t know. Rivals from Calimshan, perhaps, or students of Those Who Fled from Netheril and flew far to the south… though I’ve seen the woman a time or two before, riding the lands west of here. Briost says he recognizes Elminster, since he saw him at Narthil years ago and thought he’d died there. Wait… he immediately recognizes that Elminster and Elmara are the same person? And doesn’t even stop to wonder that he’d thought he was a woman before? When Ilhundyl, who actually met Elmara and then later fought Elminster, never made the same connection? I think our Briost has very impressive powers of observation, doesn’t he? Ithboltar says they have to act now, before they’re picked off one by one, and asks Chantlarn if he’s done scoffing. This time it’s Malanthor who asks if this is another frantic defense of the realm and if it can’t wait until tomorrow; the others realize he must be amusing your apprentices again, which causes him to make a rude gesture at them and drop out of the communication. These people really are terribly unprofessional, aren’t they? In more ways than one, apparently… Ithboltar says he’ll wait to speak again until tomorrow and ends the communication, though privately he despairs. When had all his students, once eager to bend the world to their wills, become such spineless, self-indulgent fools? They’d always been reckless and arrogant, but now… How strange… I have to agree with the ancient evil wizard. But he decides that if Elminster and Myrajal do start killing more of them, they’ll see reason – and if nothing else, he can use his crown to compel them into battle. And nothing this side of the archmages’ tombs of Netheril, short of a god, could hope to stand against the gathered might of the magelords of Athalantar. And gods interested in the Kingdom of the Stag seemed in short supply these days. Ah, if only you knew… but in any case, the chapter ends here.
MG: A few comments before we move on. First off, “Those Who Fled” is probably a reference to the wizard-lords of Halruaa, who were refugees from the fall of Netheril who fled to the far south and established their new kingdom there… and subsequently bound themselves heavily with laws and traditions, enforced by magically binding oaths, to avoid repeating the hubris that led to Netheril’s fall. I say this mostly because Halruaa is a far, far more interesting magocracy than Athalantar, and honestly, I think I’d preferred it if Elminster had gone there to study. As for the next matter… Ithboltar. We have to talk about Ithboltar. So, Ithboltar is the true, secret leader of the magelords – the first crop of them were all his apprentices, and he apparently allowed the eldest and most powerful of those apprentices, Neldryn Hawklyn, to become the Mage Royal and public face of the regime while he pulled strings from the shadows. And on paper, the idea of there being a hidden power behind the magelords isn’t really a bad one. Unfortunately, the execution is pretty terrible. Ithboltar’s barely been foreshadowed at all – before last chapter, he was mentioned by name once when Gartos tried to reach him (which didn’t single him out as more than an ordinary magelord), was probably the one controlling Gartos’s sword after he died, and I’m pretty sure he was the one scrying on the aftermath of the Magister killing Hawklyn back in Chapter Five (I think it had to be either him or Myrjala, and Ithboltar makes more narrative sense – though maybe I’m overestimating Greenwood). And that’s it. He’s not even been alluded to in the magelord meetings we’ve seen, nor is there any indication that there was anyone behind them who wasn’t present (and really, would it have been that hard to foreshadow the idea that there’s another magelord, more powerful than the others, who prefers to lurk in the shadows and control things from behind the scenes? I don’t think it would have). And now that he is introduced properly, the book is almost over, making it feel like too little, too late. Making it worse… most of this history is implied more than spelled out in the book itself. I pieced the full story together from various other sources, including the entry in the Villains’ Lorebook (which, amusingly enough, also takes a swipe at the magelords’ overall lack of organization), which came out several years after Making of a Mage. And yes, it’s a D&D setting and so lots of information about setting and characters is going to be in sourcebooks rather than novels… but I still think that you shouldn’t have to get another, unrelated book to find out the relationship between the main villains in this book (especially since the magelords are just the bad guys for this book, not established Realms characters)! To add insult to injury, as we see this chapter, Ithboltar is a pretty terrible man behind the man, barely able to control his disciples at the best of times, even with the “crown” that supposedly lets him dominate them (and, for all the real threat of the magelords is supposed to be how dangerous they are when working together… I think we can already see they’re going to prove to suck at that too, even with Ithboltar coordinating them).
One last thing… I’m pretty sure Undarl’s inclusion here is a mistake (as in, a literal screw-up, not just a poor decision). We already learned that he was a latecomer to the magelords, and that destroying Heldon and killing Elthryn was a test Hawklyn set for him to join their ranks (apparently, he passed). He was never Ithboltar’s apprentice, unlike the others, and we’ll soon learn that he has an entirely different origin and that he’s running his own game separate from the others – and indeed, views Ithboltar as his chief rival for power. So, I’m pretty sure his name was included by accident; especially since he doesn’t speak in the ensuing magelord conference, when you’d expect the Mage Royal would.
Keeri: Okay, so that’s… a lot. We then cut to Elminster pointing out a particular building to Braer and the other elves. Elminster makes himself incorporeal, while the elves shroud themselves in concealing spells, and then he drifts inside. He passes a booby trap Farl had apparently set, and into a richly appointed bedroom. Farl had certainly come up in the world. Yeah, well, he’s still probably a creep. In the bed itself, he spots two figures. Farl on his back, one arm spread possessively over the small, sleek woman who lay curled against him: Tassabra. And Tassabra was… oh, right, one of those pointless other thieves Farl was recruiting back in chapter six. Also, considering Farl’s track record, “possessively” is really bothering me, there. Elminster himself ogles the sleeping Tassabra a bit. *rolling her eyes* Oh, yeah, his time as Elmara really taught him to respect women, didn’t it? Her beauty, sharp wits, and kindness had always stirred him. But… we all make choices, and he’d chosen to leave this life. Yeah, and maybe Greenwood could’ve shown us this back when Elminster was still a thief, rather than telling us about it now. Anyway, Elminster’s glad they weren’t killed by the Moonclaws, and then he greets them both by name. Tassabra immediately wakes up and goes for a knife, but Elminster says that he’s their friend Eladar come back, and he means them no harm. Farl, still groggy, recognizes him, and then Tassabra tries to hug him but falls right through him. Elminster assures them that it’s really him and admits that he’s something of a mage now *snorts* yeah, that’s a bit of understatement, and that he’s taken this form to get by their traps. Elminster makes himself solid, and Tassabra manages to embrace him for real this time, smooth skin sliding across his dark leathers. Oh, so it sounds like she’s naked too; fun. Farl hugs them both and says he’s so glad to see him, and Tassabra asks where he’s been. Elminster tells them he’s been all over Faerun, learning the powers he needs to destroy the magelords (and Greenwood skipped through all the interesting bits…) and that he means to do so within the next three days. Farl jumps at the chance to help him, though he’s not sure how he can. We spend much of our time just evading the casual cruelties cast our way by those wizards. Tassabra explains that they’ve become very successful since they defeated the Moonclaws, who did indeed turn out to be a front for the magelords, and shrewd investments and trading make us more coin than we ever got slipping into windows of nights. Oh, and at that moment Elminster gets a telepathic message from Braer, letting him know the elves are still cloaked, along with a nice lass, there. Wait, is Braer creeping on Tassabra, too? I mean, he could just be complimenting her business skills, but… it’s Greenwood.
Elminster has Braer make him invisible too, then tells Farl and Tassabra that he has friends with powerful magic of their own. Ye could steal from the magelords and stab at them without fearing their magic! Farl is stunned, and Tassabra wants to know who these allies are, and then Braer and the other elves immediately appear in the bedroom as well. Braer at least has the decency to apologize, saying that he normally doesn’t make a habit of intruding into people’s bedchambers – that’s a very low bar to cross, but in this book, I’ll take it – and that he would be honored to fight the magelords alongside them. Farl and Tassabra are stunned at the prospect of fighting beside real elves – okay, you people need to get out more – and Elminster assures them that together, they can defeat the magelords. And for dealing with the armsmen, they’ll have the help of Helm and his knights. Farl thinks this sounds like old legends and children’s stories and asks why the knights would follow him; Elminster says they’re following their prince. Me… Eladar the Dark is also – Elminster, son of Prince Elthryn. Farl is stunned; he can’t believe what he’s hearing, but he wants to. A chance to live free, and not have to fear and bow to wizards anywhere in Athalantar… Well, if Elminster wins, you’ll still have to bow to a wizard, just a different wizard. Tassabra says she’ll do it; Farl worries she’ll be killed, but she reminds him that all their success could be wiped away by the magelords at any time (seems to me you already took care of the magelords’ minions off-page, and they didn’t raise a finger – or a wand – to help them…) and besides, Tassabra wants to do something for once with her life that’ll matter, and that people will remember her for. *whistles* Glory’s not the most altruistic motivation, but… I already like Tassabra more than almost anyone else in this book, so I’ll take it. If she wants someone to write and perform a song about her exploits, I might be available… She then glances out the window and sees yet more elves watching her from a nearby roof (is she still naked, by the way?); they salute her and she waves at them, and then turns and tells Farl that she can’t think of a better cause than freeing Athalantar. Finally, Farl relents and tells Elminster he can depend on them and the Velvet Hands. Elminster says they’ll need to send someone to get in contact with the knights, preferably Tassabra – ‘tis best if she looks like a pleasurelass. *rolling her eyes* Because clearly, an experienced thief can’t sneak around inconspicuously unless she’s dressed as a sex worker. Meanwhile, the rest of the Velvet Hands can work with the elves to start stealing important magical objects from the magelords; the elves can cloak them and tell them what to take. Farl thinks it sounds like it’ll be fun; Elminster tells him he hopes it will be, and the scene ends.
Mira: We then find ourselves back with the magelords – why do I have to comment on these people? – as Malanthor sarcastically asks if the attack has started yet. Or did I miss it? I did spend a few moments in the jakes this morning. I, ah, didn’t need to know that… Ithboltar smiles coldly at him and tells him that the threat is still very real, and reminds him that pride comes before disaster, especially for mages (again, I agree? How odd…). But Malanthor’s still not convinced. And old men start to see things, until the shadows of their dreams seem more real than what is truly around them… if we’re trading platitudes. I, ah would think this would be about where Ithboltar ought to seize hold of Malanthor with magic and remind him why he is the master and Malanthor the student… but alas, he does not. He only shrugs and tells Malanthor to be ready for battle. Chantlarn then walks into the room and asks in a breezy tone if they’re under attack again. Malanthor, affecting the tone of a hysterical matron for some odd reason, sarcastically says he fears so, and Chantlarn asks Ithboltar how he’s doing this morning. Ithboltar says he’s surrounded by idiots and turns back to his reading, while the other two magelords just grin at each other. And, I must say, Ithboltar isn’t terribly impressing me either. He makes some good points… but then does nothing about it? And lets his own students walk all over him (which would not be tolerated where I’m from) even when he has the means to compel them? He’s really not very good at this, is he?
We then cut to Tassabra, who’s, ah, gotten into character. *she blushes furiously* Small brass bells chimed here and there on the web of leather straps that displayed, rather than clothed, her body. Strips of ruby-red silk proclaimed her trade to any eye; even her thigh-high boots were trimmed with red. *still blushing* Ah, I don’t have much firsthand experience, but I’m told that subtlety sometimes works better for seductions? I don’t think anyone told Tassabra that… Elminster just stares at her, licking his lips and saying he should never have gone away (I have to echo Keeri’s earlier statement -he clearly learned so much about respecting women, didn’t he?). Tassabra only laughs as he helps her into her cloak – which also has daring cutouts, which just sounds cold. Elminster then says that she’s supposed to make it to Helm and his men unnoticed, not draw the attention of the whole city (maybe you should have let her use her own methods, yes?) and Tassabra protests that this was supposed to be fun. Elminster takes her in his arms, but instead of kissing her teleports them both to the streets behind some barrels (if he could do that… why not teleport her to Helm in the first place, instead of needing to, ah, disguise her first? Oh, right; Greenwood). Tassabra likes the spell, but Elminster reminds her it took him years to learn it and tells her she needs to find Helm and not get killed or half-crushed under the rush of amorous men and I still think teleporting her directly there would have been better! Tassabra makes a rude gesture at him and heads off, and Elminster hopes he’ll see her again alive soon (I just do not understand the point of this plan…) and then the scene ends as he heads off, with more to do tonight. We then cut to Tassabra as she slaps men’s hands away and tells them they can’t touch her without paying; if she was supposed to not attract attention (and not be harassed…) I don’t think it’s working? Finally, she finds Helm waiting by the burning refuse pit. She tells him she’s here for him, and he immediately draws his sword and asks who sent her and why. Tass stepped smoothly back and parted her cloak to put her hands on her hips. One of the men craned his head for a good look at what she was displaying, but Helm’s eyes were fixed on her hands, and his blade was raised and ready. A male character of Greenwood’s who isn’t taking the opportunity to ogle a woman – I’m genuinely shocked! Tassabra says she comes from Elminster and Farl, and Helm lowers his sword and invites her inside to talk, and the scene ends. And my, that sequence feels like it served exactly no purpose, other than to put Tassabra in that… outfit. I wonder why?
Keeri: I don’t wonder; I know. Greenwood. So, we suddenly cut back to Farl (ugh), who’s telling Elminster that the mage royal is elsewhere… or I’d never have kept my life. Elminster assures him that he’s alive, and that’s the important thing, though Farl is still worried Undarl might have had some spell going to capture his image and track him by it later. Elminster and the nameless elf with him examine Farl and can’t sense anything, so Farl hands over a bunch of gems, vials and pouches he took from Undarl’s chambers; apparently Undarl also had some sort of device built into his bed (excuse me?) that Farl wasn’t able to carry out. There were so many thieving apprentices trying to get past Undarl’s ward to steal spell scrolls that I kept falling over them! I still don’t know how they missed seeing me… that shadow of mine must be good. Uh, any reason so many apprentices were there trying to steal from Undarl? Or is this a regular occurrence? If so… doesn’t speak well of his reputation, if his apprentices have so little fear of him (or respect for him) that they’re willing to line up like that to steal from him. Elminster reports that none of the other thieves have had any trouble, save one girl named Jannath who ran into a servant she had to kill to keep her cover, but the elf who was with her hid the body. Farl asks if there are any magelords left for his thieves to hit, and Myrjala literally speaks out of thin air to say that We leave the tower of Ithboltar alone… so that leaves only Malanthor for you. Tassabra, meanwhile, was forced – Greenwood’s word - to change out of her disguise by Elminster (that “forced” is making me really uncomfortable for various reasons, not least that Farl and Myrjala laugh at it) and is currently infiltrating Alarashan’s tower; her elf partner has reported nothing amiss, so they assume she’s fine. Farl’s relieved to hear it and asks them to take him to Malanthor; Elminster points out a distant tower and says that they’re going to take Farl to the smaller window, since that’s his jakes and the windows to the main rooms will be trapped. For one, he should have trapped the window to his, ah, jakes too, to be on the safe side. For another, this is the second time this chapter Malanthor’s toilet has come up, and that’s two times too many. Farl’s still a bit disoriented about Elminster being both a mage and a prince, and Myrjala assures him that Elminster himself isn’t used to either of those either, and the scene ends there.
We then cut to Farl in Malanthor’s tower as he reaches for a ring and thinks to himself that this is all too easy. From a nearby bath, he hears a pettish female voice complaining that they’re out of wine, and another voice tells her to go get more. So, wait, Farl is literally robbing Malanthor and his… apprentice? Paramour? Both? – when they’re literally in the same room taking a bath together? And people call me reckless… well, a hand reaches out through the bath curtains and just happens to grab Farl; I guess that was the woman’s hand because she starts screaming, and then he hears Malanthor’s voice yelling curses and then starting to cast a spell. The elf with Farl speaks in his mind, telling him to fall to the floor and lie still, which he does, and apparently the elf casts a protection spell on him, because the next thing he hears is Malanthor ranting about a spell-shielded thief in my own chambers! *waspishly* well, maybe if you listened to your mentor earlier, you wouldn’t be in this mess, would you? So Malanthor gets out of the bath and advances towards Farl – still dripping wet – and says he’ll get some answers from him before he dies, and that he wants Nanatha – I guess that’s the woman with him – to bring him wine while he works. *rolling her eyes* Oh, so a cultured sadist; lovely. And that’s when Elminster suddenly materializes in Malanthor’s chamber pot. And yes, it’s that sudden, and yes it’s literal, as he starts complaining about the smell and wondering at the bad luck that made him teleport right to that location, specifically. Personally, I kind of think Elminster should be dropped into chamber pots more often, but… to each their own. So, Malanthor is equally stunned and shoots lightning bolts at him, realizing too late that Elminster matches the description of one of the two enemy mages Ithboltar warned him about – and then the lightning bolts rebound and hit him instead, sending him flying across the room. Nanatha starts screaming some more, and Malanthor curses and calls for help from Chantlarn; he knows Chantlarn will make him pay for his aid, but it’s better than dying. And, you know what, not to rub it in anymore, but… you did bring this on yourself.
Mira: So, Elminster calls out to Myrjala and asks if she’s nearby (and calls her Myr, which is far too close to my name for comfort), and she says she is, but there’s a patrol of armsmen coming too. Meanwhile, he climbs out of the chamber pot, trying to ignore the… things… he’s dripping all over the carpet *wrinkles her nose* and goes looking for Malanthor. He barely manages to duck as Nanatha hurls the wine bottle at him – and Myrjala quips that she’d rather she just pour her a glass – and he notices that, of course, she’s naked. Did all these magelords walk about naked? *she sighs* No, just Greenwood characters. He finally spots Malanthor, realizes that both he and Nanatha are not only naked but dripping wet, and realizes that they must have interrupted them in their bath. Myrjala teleports herself and Farl to safety, and then Elminster confronts Malanthor. For the death of my parents… die, magelord! Did… did Malanthor even have anything to do with that? He then launches exploding silver spheres across the room, and Malanthor starts screaming. A moment later, another voice comments on how dramatic Elminster’s speech was (it wasn’t even a speech? It was barely a sentence…) as a smug-looking mustachioed man in purple robes appears beside him and shoots a wand at him. Elminster gets slammed into the wall and actually passes out – that’s not something I was expecting – as the newcomer, Chantlarn, goes to search him for anything useful. He doesn’t even pay attention to the sobbing Nanatha (who is, apparently, an apprentice – am I the only one who thinks it a little gross that the only female magelord we’ve seen is an apprentice who is, it seems, sleeping with her mentor?) or Malanthor’s contorted, blackened bones which were still writhing in an eerie, futile struggle to stay upright. *she blanches* Oh, well, he is dead, apparently. And that seems like very unpleasant magic…
Suddenly, another voice calls Elminster’s name, and Chantlarn whirls to see Myrjala, who he recognizes as the other wizard Ithboltar described. He blasts her with the wand as well – to no effect! What a surprise! He tries to shoot her again, but she simply walks through the blast and then shoves him out the window. He’s still falling when he suddenly comes under a compulsion to take his wand… and thrust it into his own mouth… and then trigger it… The bloody explosion sent the wand into a wild discharge. Its bolts burst in all directions, hurling flaming spell forces at the castle wall, and scattering a terrified patrol of armsmen. Oh, that was… disgusting. And sadistic… Meanwhile, Nanatha is still screaming as Myrjala approaches Elminster’s crumpled body and picks it up. Before she teleports away, she turns towards Nanatha and lets her appearance change… into that of Undarl! Undarl Dragonrider sneered at her, dropped his cold gaze down her nakedness and then up again, and then waved in a mocking salute. So, apparently even Myrjala can’t resist the urge to leer at naked young women… I’m so glad I’m not in this book! And then Myrjala and Elminster vanish, Malanthor’s skeleton finally collapses, Nanatha faints, and the scene ends. We then cut to Elminster painfully coming to as Myrjala tells him he’ll be all right. He asks if she cleaned his boots, and she assures him she did – and that she assumed Undarl’s appearance and let Nanatha see her that way, so she’ll report to the magelords that this was all Undarl’s work. Elminster is pleased to think of the magelords being set against each other, then faints again. Myrjala watches him, then hugs him and starts crying, since he nearly died. Oh, why couldn’t your vengeance have been something lesser? Ah, because it was Undarl the magelord who killed his parents, not someone else? Vengeance is usually a response to someone else’s actions, after all… but in any case, the chapter ends here!
MG: And so, this chapter… isn’t as bad as some, but it’s still got some real problems. For one, it’s still badly rushed, as Elminster kills three more magelords and his associates rob the rest of them blind, all without any sort of weight to make it feel like an accomplishment (even Chantlarn blasting him feels more like Greenwood just decided to hand the magelords a very brief and temporary win than anything earned). Especially since the implication is that the Velvet Gloves and elves, working together, can just casually stroll into Athalgard, the heart of the magelords’ power, and take everything that’s not nailed down, all without getting caught or (with the exception of Farl and Elminster at the very end) suffering any negative consequences at all? Ithboltar’s sudden entrance to the story and revelation as one of its big bads is very out-of-left field, without nearly enough actual buildup – and for a secret evil mastermind, he’s very underwhelming, making some good observations about the situation but utterly failing to wrangle his students or get them to take either said situation or he himself seriously (even while supposedly possessing magic that enables him to control them, which accomplishes exactly nothing). The magelords in general, for that matter, become less impressive with every appearance, here completely blowing off their mentor/leader and ignoring the real danger they’re in even after three of their most powerful members were murdered in less than a week. The chapter title is also fairly misleading, as we don’t really have mages going to war here, more like mages skirmishing and a lot of set up – really, this title would be better for next chapter. And of course, we still can’t escape the trademark Greenwood fanservice, which felt especially gratuitous this chapter. Anyway, we’re in the home stretch now, with only two more full chapters and the epilogue to go! Next time, the battle for Athalantar (and also the return of some characters you probably never expected – or wanted – to see again). We’ll see you then!
MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to continue our journey through Ed Greenwood’s Elminster: The Making of a Mage! Last time, Elminster returned to Athalantar, hooked back up with Braer and the elves, and killed two magelords, all while an unseen someone was spying on him. Today, he starts taking the fight to the magelords in earnest. Joining us once again will be Keeri and Mira!
Chapter Sixteen: When Mages Go To War
Keeri: Well, the title sounds exciting, at least… let’s just wait and see how Greenwood screws it up, eh? Like last chapter, our quote this time is from a ballad (stop sticking your nose into my profession, huh, Greenwood?) which is also called When Mages Go To War, appropriately enough. A star rushes past, to crash upon the shore / But the first of many many more / stoke the fire and stout bar the door / for this is the night mages go to war. Yeah, in my experience, if mages really are going to war… barring your door isn’t going to be enough. Not by a long shot (oh, and the meter’s still awkward, too). So, we open the chapter proper with someone we’ve not seen in a while – Helm the knight, who is in fact still alive, apparently. You know, if this guy’s been fighting the magelords for pretty much the entirety of Elminster’s life (and I think Elminster’s in his late twenties now or thereabouts) and he’s still alive… that doesn’t really make the magelords seem all that impressive, does it (not that Helm’s apparently made much progress, either)? Anyway, Helm hears a noise behind him and wheels around to find himself facing Ruvaen the elven warrior from last chapter, who he apparently knows. Helm asks him if he has news, and Ruvaen holds out a large crystal, which he says is apparently a scrying crystal of a sort used by human wizards. Helm immediately thinks of the magelords and asks where he found it, and another elf who’s with Ruvaen says it was buried not far from here… and Ruvaen himself says that he saw one of Helm’s own men hide it when he was done using it. Helm realizes that the magelords may know all of his plans… and, okay, the magelords had a spy in Helm’s band, reporting his every move, and he’s still alive? Since Helm’s got no magic of his own to protect him, that we’ve seen, I can only conclude the magelords spied on him and decided he wasn’t worth killing. Considering he’s apparently accomplished nothing in all the time he’s been active and all, aside from killing some armsmen that one time I guess and all.
Ruvaen slips Helm the crystal, tells him they’ll be watching if he needs them, and then vanish back into the forest; a moment later, Helm’s men have all joined him. All who dared swing a blade in defiance of the magelords, clinging to the thin shield of elven mastery and providing the Fair Folk a front line of blades and bows to keep the woodcutter’s axes from hewing out a new and larger Athalantar unopposed. Wait, how many of you are there? Can’t the magelords raise thousands of troops, like we saw a few chapters ago? I’m not sure this is such a good plan… Apparently, elven magic has hidden them from the magelords - *glances back at the scrying crystal* good job with that – but isn’t well suited for open combat. But the magelords are still wary of confronting the elves directly (funny, they were about to do that a few chapters ago, before Elmara – somehow – stopped them singlehandedly) Lending Helm time to plan a rising that might – just might, with the gods’ own luck – shatter this rule of wizards, and give him back the carefree Athalantar he'd fought for and loved, so long ago. But the longer they fight, the less anything changes, and Helm can feel his chances of victory slipping away. Sorry, friend, but that’s your sad lot for not being the protagonist – you’ll have to wait for Elminster to show up and save everything for you. But Helm now thinks that with the discovery of the scrying crystal, he’ll have to act now before he’s discovered and killed. Finally, Anauviir, one of Helm’s men, speaks up and asks him what’s wrong, and Helm holds up the scrying crystal. Another of his men, Halidar, immediately panics and turns to run, so Anauviir decides he’s the traitor and stabs him through the throat. That was fast. Also, probably not the most accurate way of finding a traitor – maybe he just saw the scrying crystal and knew what it was and panicked, did you think of that? But Helm apparently assumes that he was indeed the spy all along and tells everyone that the magelords have been watching them, maybe for years; he calls out to Ruvaen and asks if he has any use for it, and he responds that properly used, it can burn out one magelord’s mind. And so, I imagine it’ll end up being used for exactly that.
Mira: Only if the magelords are very sloppy… which, alas, they’ve consistently proven themselves to be. Helm looks around at his men; there are about forty of them, and he thinks that if he had another forty, he could take back Athalantar, magelords or no magelords, but he doesn’t. Beg pardon, but unless all of your men are literal heroes of legend, I don’t think any country can be easily taken with a mere eighty soldiers? Magelords or no magelords? Suddenly, Ruvaen says that a man is approaching to speak with them and means them no harm. A moment later, a strange figure steps out of the trees, and greets Helm by name – and he recognizes him. Out of sight for so long… surely the lad had died at the hand of some magelord or other… but no. Helm immediately goes down on one knee and offers his sword – an impressive gesture, considering this is the same prince he admits he had completely lost track of and presumed dead! I’m not sure Helm is a very good sworn knight, is he? Anauviir doesn’t understand, though he presumes Elminster must be a wizard or a powerful priest, to approach without being detected. Elminster tells Helm to rise, and he in turn tells the rest of his men to kneel, for this is Elminster, son of Elthryn, the last free prince of the realm! One of the outlaws asks if Elminster is a magelord, but he corrects them that while he is a wizard, he’s here to destroy the magelords, and needs their help. He tells them all to rise, insisting that for the moment he’s prince of nothing and needs allies, not courtiers, and though he has enough magic to defeat any of the magelords in single combat, he knows that if he acts openly they’ll call for reinforcements and in a breath or two I’ll have forty or more of them on my hands. *surprised* Forty or more? By Nemorga, how many of them are there? How many can Athalantar support? I mean, there are more necromancers than that in Hollowfaust, but we’re rather more organized than the magelords are, and the entire city is built around the guilds – after all, we were there first, and the city sprang up later! But that’s not the case here!
MG: Based on the Villains’ Lorebook (a mid-nineties 2e supplement that covers various major Realms villains and villainous factions and has an entry on the magelords in its section on historical villains) there were around seventeen full magelords at any given time, plus thirty-forty apprentices and hangers-on. So, counting them all as “magelords,” Elminster’s numbers are probably accurate (though most of those wouldn’t be very powerful). But yeah, this book hasn’t given a good sense of their numbers (or, as we’ll discuss here in a bit, their structure and hierarchy – possibly because the magelords themselves don’t seem to have a good handle on those, either).
Mira: Oh, dear. Well, the outlaws chuckle darkly at this, but Helm can tell that Elminster’s confidence has given them real hope for the first time in years. Elminster admits that he can’t defeat all the magelords at once, but the elves have already joined him, and he hopes to find more allies in Hastarl. Apparently, he plans to attack Athalgard itself within the next tenday – oh, this is moving rather fast, isn’t it? Have you considered actually taking time to plan? – and wants to know if the outlaws are with him. One of them demands to know how they can be sure this isn’t a trap, or if Elminster’s really as powerful as he says; Ruvaen says that he’d asked the same questions, and then earlier today Elminster and another mage have already killed two magelords. Wait, that was earlier today? Elminster is working quickly, isn’t he? Personally, I’m of the philosophy that it’s better to do a thing right than to do it quickly… Helm then adds that I’ve known the prince since the day the mage royal’s dragon slew his parents, an’ he vowed to me… that he’d see the magelords all dead someday. Ah, know you don’t know Elminster. You’ve met him a handful of times, all of them years ago, but you know nothing about his life since he left for Hastarl. I think that’s a bit of an oversight? Elminster says that his time has come and asks if he can depend on the last knights of Athalantar; Anauviir asks how he plans to protect them from the spells of the magelords. Ruvaen says that the elves will go to war with them, and so their spells will protect them – beg pardon, but if you could do that all along, why haven’t you? Even if you don’t care for any human, much, I think there’s an old saying about the enemy of my enemy being my friend… Helm jumps in to say that the magelords have been slowly wearing them down, and within a year or two they’ll all be dead (I’m surprised it’s taken this long…) and at least this way they might take some of the magelords down with them. At this the outlaws agree, and Helm asks Elminster to command them. He instructs them to go to Hastarl, in disguise in small groups to avoid attention, and to find a refuse pit where an impromptu market has been set up. Once they’re there, they’re to ask for a man named Farl – oh dear, I’d hope we were done with him. And wouldn’t Elminster’s instructions for contacting Farl be years out of date, at this point? Helm says that there’s a nearby caravan carrying clothes and mounts they’d been planning to hit, and they could get disguises there, which gets the outlaws excited at the prospect of battle with the magelords. Helm draws his sword and holds it up; For Athalantar, and freedom! The rest of the group echoes the cry, and Elminster tells Ruvaen to watch over them and go with them; he apparently has business elsewhere. He then vanishes, and one of the other elves comments that nothing good ever comes from hot haste, and I have to agree; in my line of work, the hasty necromancer is likely to soon be the dead necromancer. Nonetheless, Ruvaen thinks that with their haste and their numbers, humans will soon rule all Faerun, and wonders what that would look like as the scene ends.
MG: Also, I’ve mentioned this before, but… by this point in the setting’s history, humanity is not some new, upstart race – they’ve been a major power for a long, long time. Again, Netheril has already risen and fallen by this point, and Netheril was the most powerful human empire, well, ever. And some of these elves may well be old enough to remember Netheril, and thus know firsthand what a powerful empire of humans looks like. Sure, northwest Faerun (where this story takes place, largely) is pretty desolate at this point, without many large cities or nations – but for a real world comparison, it’s less “humanity rising out of the stone age” and more “western Europe after the fall of western Rome” (albeit a bit more dramatic, since Netheril was more powerful than Rome ever was, and its fall was far more sudden and more catastrophic)… and like the real-world medieval age, there’s powerful human empires elsewhere in the world that never did fall at all. So, unless these elves are engaging in cultural posturing to a literally self-deluded level (which, admittedly, wouldn’t be out of character for a lot of Realms elves) they already know what a world ruled by humans looks like, and are literally living in it.
Keeri: *shaking her head* Elves. Anyway, we cut to Hastarl eight days later, as we follow a pair of spiders as they crawl down a tree, through cracks in the ground and into an inn’s cellar, where they turn into two short, stout pox-scarred women of elder years… they surveyed each other’s tousled white hair, rotting clothing, and sagging, rotund bodies – and in unison reached to scratch themselves. *blankly* Uh, okay. Well, it turns out these two are Elminster and Myrjala in disguise, Elminster tells Myrjala she looks lovely, she pinches his cheek and returns the compliment, and together they waddled through the cellars, seeking the stairs up into the stables. And the scene ends there. So, that happened. We then cut to the magelord Seldinor in his study, where he’s frustrated because for two days now he’d been trying to magically graft the cracked, severed lips of a human female – all that was left of the last wench he’d seized for his pleasure – onto the unfinished golem standing before him. *flatly* Well, guess I know why everyone hates Seldinor so much, then. Also, yeah, it’s a bit weird that Myrajala apparently thinks Elminster needed to have spent time as woman to understand how bad this guy is. I think we can all, regardless of gender, agree that kidnapping and raping random women, killing them, and then tearing off their lips to stick on a golem is pretty damned evil! Anyway, Seldinor can fit the lips onto the face, but for some reason can’t activate the magic to make them actually work. Apparently, he’s not had any trouble with this before, and sweet Desna, how many times has he done this? Anyway, he tries another spell, and this time sees the lips start twitching, amusing him as he recalls the last time they did that – she’d pleaded for her life… Kill him! I don’t care who does it, just… somebody. Anyway, with the lips apparently working he’s ready to transfer the consciousness of a creature he’d “prepared” last night (and is now quivering helplessly in a cage, so I guess that means nothing good) into it. This seems to work, too, as the golem comes to life and whispers Master. Seldinor excitedly asks if it knows him, and it says it does… and then it grabs his throat and starts choking him. Strangling for air, hands frantically shaping spells out of the air, Seldinor had time for one last horrified glimpse of a magical eye appearing on the blank face of the golem and winking at him, before the golem snapped his neck like a twig – and then, unleashing its awful strength for a moment, tore the wizard’s head from his shoulders in a bloody rain of death… Well, that’s it for Seldinor, I guess. Not that he didn’t have it coming, but still, that was sudden. And it looks like all three of the magelords Helm mentioned in the first chapter – Hawklyn, Kadeln and now Seldinor – are dead now. And I’m pretty sure they could all three be cut from the story without changing a damned thing.
Mira: I will have you know; I am personally offended by this scene. Morally, of course, but also professionally! It’s not my guild’s specialty (the Animators could tell you more…), but I assure you we do not tolerate such sloppy work as Seldinor’s in Hollowfaust! *beat* And I do hope Elminster and Myrjala laid that golem to rest properly somewhere once they were done with it – particularly the soul or souls of the poor people (how many were there?) used to make it. Alas, my expectations aren’t high. We then cut to last chapter’s nameless watcher, as he witnesses Seldinor’s end through his scrying crystal and is very pleased by both the death itself and the means of it. He then turns to a hidden cabinet and draws out two wands, which he slides up his sleeves, and a skullcap set with tiny gems, that he places on his head. The gems start flickering as the old man speaks spells, and then the cap vanishes completely into invisibility. And his eyes had become a flat, glowing red, which is ominous indeed. He then raises his head and speaks a series of names, some of which we know. Undarl. Ildryn. Malanthor. Alarashan. Briost. Chantlarn. He can see each of the named magelords responding to his summons by placing their hands on their own scrying crystals, and then using the magic of his crown – which I guess is the same as the skullcap he’s wearing? – he reaches out and binds them to him. They were his, now. One of them addresses him by name – communicating through the scrying crystals, I guess? – as Ithboltar. And so, we know who our mysterious watcher is – that magelord who was mentioned by Gartos a few chapters ago? And may have been the one controlling the flying sword when it went after Elmara? And who we know literally nothing else about? That’s very underwhelming, isn’t it?
Ithboltar addresses the other magelords first as colleagues and then as students, telling them that strange mages have come to Athalantar to threaten them, and shows them the images of Elminster and Myrjala. But the magelords aren’t impressed. Two? A boy and a woman? Old One, have you plunged asudden into your dotage? I’ll have you know, in Hollowfaust we don’t speak to our guild masters in such tones! Also, wasn’t Ithboltar using his skullcap to control them all, earlier? *beat* I don’t think it’s working… Ithboltar tells them to ask where Taraj, Kadeln and Seldinor are, and then get back to him. Which seems appropriate enough. One of the magelords asks who the intruders are, and Ithboltar admits he doesn’t know. Rivals from Calimshan, perhaps, or students of Those Who Fled from Netheril and flew far to the south… though I’ve seen the woman a time or two before, riding the lands west of here. Briost says he recognizes Elminster, since he saw him at Narthil years ago and thought he’d died there. Wait… he immediately recognizes that Elminster and Elmara are the same person? And doesn’t even stop to wonder that he’d thought he was a woman before? When Ilhundyl, who actually met Elmara and then later fought Elminster, never made the same connection? I think our Briost has very impressive powers of observation, doesn’t he? Ithboltar says they have to act now, before they’re picked off one by one, and asks Chantlarn if he’s done scoffing. This time it’s Malanthor who asks if this is another frantic defense of the realm and if it can’t wait until tomorrow; the others realize he must be amusing your apprentices again, which causes him to make a rude gesture at them and drop out of the communication. These people really are terribly unprofessional, aren’t they? In more ways than one, apparently… Ithboltar says he’ll wait to speak again until tomorrow and ends the communication, though privately he despairs. When had all his students, once eager to bend the world to their wills, become such spineless, self-indulgent fools? They’d always been reckless and arrogant, but now… How strange… I have to agree with the ancient evil wizard. But he decides that if Elminster and Myrajal do start killing more of them, they’ll see reason – and if nothing else, he can use his crown to compel them into battle. And nothing this side of the archmages’ tombs of Netheril, short of a god, could hope to stand against the gathered might of the magelords of Athalantar. And gods interested in the Kingdom of the Stag seemed in short supply these days. Ah, if only you knew… but in any case, the chapter ends here.
MG: A few comments before we move on. First off, “Those Who Fled” is probably a reference to the wizard-lords of Halruaa, who were refugees from the fall of Netheril who fled to the far south and established their new kingdom there… and subsequently bound themselves heavily with laws and traditions, enforced by magically binding oaths, to avoid repeating the hubris that led to Netheril’s fall. I say this mostly because Halruaa is a far, far more interesting magocracy than Athalantar, and honestly, I think I’d preferred it if Elminster had gone there to study. As for the next matter… Ithboltar. We have to talk about Ithboltar. So, Ithboltar is the true, secret leader of the magelords – the first crop of them were all his apprentices, and he apparently allowed the eldest and most powerful of those apprentices, Neldryn Hawklyn, to become the Mage Royal and public face of the regime while he pulled strings from the shadows. And on paper, the idea of there being a hidden power behind the magelords isn’t really a bad one. Unfortunately, the execution is pretty terrible. Ithboltar’s barely been foreshadowed at all – before last chapter, he was mentioned by name once when Gartos tried to reach him (which didn’t single him out as more than an ordinary magelord), was probably the one controlling Gartos’s sword after he died, and I’m pretty sure he was the one scrying on the aftermath of the Magister killing Hawklyn back in Chapter Five (I think it had to be either him or Myrjala, and Ithboltar makes more narrative sense – though maybe I’m overestimating Greenwood). And that’s it. He’s not even been alluded to in the magelord meetings we’ve seen, nor is there any indication that there was anyone behind them who wasn’t present (and really, would it have been that hard to foreshadow the idea that there’s another magelord, more powerful than the others, who prefers to lurk in the shadows and control things from behind the scenes? I don’t think it would have). And now that he is introduced properly, the book is almost over, making it feel like too little, too late. Making it worse… most of this history is implied more than spelled out in the book itself. I pieced the full story together from various other sources, including the entry in the Villains’ Lorebook (which, amusingly enough, also takes a swipe at the magelords’ overall lack of organization), which came out several years after Making of a Mage. And yes, it’s a D&D setting and so lots of information about setting and characters is going to be in sourcebooks rather than novels… but I still think that you shouldn’t have to get another, unrelated book to find out the relationship between the main villains in this book (especially since the magelords are just the bad guys for this book, not established Realms characters)! To add insult to injury, as we see this chapter, Ithboltar is a pretty terrible man behind the man, barely able to control his disciples at the best of times, even with the “crown” that supposedly lets him dominate them (and, for all the real threat of the magelords is supposed to be how dangerous they are when working together… I think we can already see they’re going to prove to suck at that too, even with Ithboltar coordinating them).
One last thing… I’m pretty sure Undarl’s inclusion here is a mistake (as in, a literal screw-up, not just a poor decision). We already learned that he was a latecomer to the magelords, and that destroying Heldon and killing Elthryn was a test Hawklyn set for him to join their ranks (apparently, he passed). He was never Ithboltar’s apprentice, unlike the others, and we’ll soon learn that he has an entirely different origin and that he’s running his own game separate from the others – and indeed, views Ithboltar as his chief rival for power. So, I’m pretty sure his name was included by accident; especially since he doesn’t speak in the ensuing magelord conference, when you’d expect the Mage Royal would.
Keeri: Okay, so that’s… a lot. We then cut to Elminster pointing out a particular building to Braer and the other elves. Elminster makes himself incorporeal, while the elves shroud themselves in concealing spells, and then he drifts inside. He passes a booby trap Farl had apparently set, and into a richly appointed bedroom. Farl had certainly come up in the world. Yeah, well, he’s still probably a creep. In the bed itself, he spots two figures. Farl on his back, one arm spread possessively over the small, sleek woman who lay curled against him: Tassabra. And Tassabra was… oh, right, one of those pointless other thieves Farl was recruiting back in chapter six. Also, considering Farl’s track record, “possessively” is really bothering me, there. Elminster himself ogles the sleeping Tassabra a bit. *rolling her eyes* Oh, yeah, his time as Elmara really taught him to respect women, didn’t it? Her beauty, sharp wits, and kindness had always stirred him. But… we all make choices, and he’d chosen to leave this life. Yeah, and maybe Greenwood could’ve shown us this back when Elminster was still a thief, rather than telling us about it now. Anyway, Elminster’s glad they weren’t killed by the Moonclaws, and then he greets them both by name. Tassabra immediately wakes up and goes for a knife, but Elminster says that he’s their friend Eladar come back, and he means them no harm. Farl, still groggy, recognizes him, and then Tassabra tries to hug him but falls right through him. Elminster assures them that it’s really him and admits that he’s something of a mage now *snorts* yeah, that’s a bit of understatement, and that he’s taken this form to get by their traps. Elminster makes himself solid, and Tassabra manages to embrace him for real this time, smooth skin sliding across his dark leathers. Oh, so it sounds like she’s naked too; fun. Farl hugs them both and says he’s so glad to see him, and Tassabra asks where he’s been. Elminster tells them he’s been all over Faerun, learning the powers he needs to destroy the magelords (and Greenwood skipped through all the interesting bits…) and that he means to do so within the next three days. Farl jumps at the chance to help him, though he’s not sure how he can. We spend much of our time just evading the casual cruelties cast our way by those wizards. Tassabra explains that they’ve become very successful since they defeated the Moonclaws, who did indeed turn out to be a front for the magelords, and shrewd investments and trading make us more coin than we ever got slipping into windows of nights. Oh, and at that moment Elminster gets a telepathic message from Braer, letting him know the elves are still cloaked, along with a nice lass, there. Wait, is Braer creeping on Tassabra, too? I mean, he could just be complimenting her business skills, but… it’s Greenwood.
Elminster has Braer make him invisible too, then tells Farl and Tassabra that he has friends with powerful magic of their own. Ye could steal from the magelords and stab at them without fearing their magic! Farl is stunned, and Tassabra wants to know who these allies are, and then Braer and the other elves immediately appear in the bedroom as well. Braer at least has the decency to apologize, saying that he normally doesn’t make a habit of intruding into people’s bedchambers – that’s a very low bar to cross, but in this book, I’ll take it – and that he would be honored to fight the magelords alongside them. Farl and Tassabra are stunned at the prospect of fighting beside real elves – okay, you people need to get out more – and Elminster assures them that together, they can defeat the magelords. And for dealing with the armsmen, they’ll have the help of Helm and his knights. Farl thinks this sounds like old legends and children’s stories and asks why the knights would follow him; Elminster says they’re following their prince. Me… Eladar the Dark is also – Elminster, son of Prince Elthryn. Farl is stunned; he can’t believe what he’s hearing, but he wants to. A chance to live free, and not have to fear and bow to wizards anywhere in Athalantar… Well, if Elminster wins, you’ll still have to bow to a wizard, just a different wizard. Tassabra says she’ll do it; Farl worries she’ll be killed, but she reminds him that all their success could be wiped away by the magelords at any time (seems to me you already took care of the magelords’ minions off-page, and they didn’t raise a finger – or a wand – to help them…) and besides, Tassabra wants to do something for once with her life that’ll matter, and that people will remember her for. *whistles* Glory’s not the most altruistic motivation, but… I already like Tassabra more than almost anyone else in this book, so I’ll take it. If she wants someone to write and perform a song about her exploits, I might be available… She then glances out the window and sees yet more elves watching her from a nearby roof (is she still naked, by the way?); they salute her and she waves at them, and then turns and tells Farl that she can’t think of a better cause than freeing Athalantar. Finally, Farl relents and tells Elminster he can depend on them and the Velvet Hands. Elminster says they’ll need to send someone to get in contact with the knights, preferably Tassabra – ‘tis best if she looks like a pleasurelass. *rolling her eyes* Because clearly, an experienced thief can’t sneak around inconspicuously unless she’s dressed as a sex worker. Meanwhile, the rest of the Velvet Hands can work with the elves to start stealing important magical objects from the magelords; the elves can cloak them and tell them what to take. Farl thinks it sounds like it’ll be fun; Elminster tells him he hopes it will be, and the scene ends.
Mira: We then find ourselves back with the magelords – why do I have to comment on these people? – as Malanthor sarcastically asks if the attack has started yet. Or did I miss it? I did spend a few moments in the jakes this morning. I, ah, didn’t need to know that… Ithboltar smiles coldly at him and tells him that the threat is still very real, and reminds him that pride comes before disaster, especially for mages (again, I agree? How odd…). But Malanthor’s still not convinced. And old men start to see things, until the shadows of their dreams seem more real than what is truly around them… if we’re trading platitudes. I, ah would think this would be about where Ithboltar ought to seize hold of Malanthor with magic and remind him why he is the master and Malanthor the student… but alas, he does not. He only shrugs and tells Malanthor to be ready for battle. Chantlarn then walks into the room and asks in a breezy tone if they’re under attack again. Malanthor, affecting the tone of a hysterical matron for some odd reason, sarcastically says he fears so, and Chantlarn asks Ithboltar how he’s doing this morning. Ithboltar says he’s surrounded by idiots and turns back to his reading, while the other two magelords just grin at each other. And, I must say, Ithboltar isn’t terribly impressing me either. He makes some good points… but then does nothing about it? And lets his own students walk all over him (which would not be tolerated where I’m from) even when he has the means to compel them? He’s really not very good at this, is he?
We then cut to Tassabra, who’s, ah, gotten into character. *she blushes furiously* Small brass bells chimed here and there on the web of leather straps that displayed, rather than clothed, her body. Strips of ruby-red silk proclaimed her trade to any eye; even her thigh-high boots were trimmed with red. *still blushing* Ah, I don’t have much firsthand experience, but I’m told that subtlety sometimes works better for seductions? I don’t think anyone told Tassabra that… Elminster just stares at her, licking his lips and saying he should never have gone away (I have to echo Keeri’s earlier statement -he clearly learned so much about respecting women, didn’t he?). Tassabra only laughs as he helps her into her cloak – which also has daring cutouts, which just sounds cold. Elminster then says that she’s supposed to make it to Helm and his men unnoticed, not draw the attention of the whole city (maybe you should have let her use her own methods, yes?) and Tassabra protests that this was supposed to be fun. Elminster takes her in his arms, but instead of kissing her teleports them both to the streets behind some barrels (if he could do that… why not teleport her to Helm in the first place, instead of needing to, ah, disguise her first? Oh, right; Greenwood). Tassabra likes the spell, but Elminster reminds her it took him years to learn it and tells her she needs to find Helm and not get killed or half-crushed under the rush of amorous men and I still think teleporting her directly there would have been better! Tassabra makes a rude gesture at him and heads off, and Elminster hopes he’ll see her again alive soon (I just do not understand the point of this plan…) and then the scene ends as he heads off, with more to do tonight. We then cut to Tassabra as she slaps men’s hands away and tells them they can’t touch her without paying; if she was supposed to not attract attention (and not be harassed…) I don’t think it’s working? Finally, she finds Helm waiting by the burning refuse pit. She tells him she’s here for him, and he immediately draws his sword and asks who sent her and why. Tass stepped smoothly back and parted her cloak to put her hands on her hips. One of the men craned his head for a good look at what she was displaying, but Helm’s eyes were fixed on her hands, and his blade was raised and ready. A male character of Greenwood’s who isn’t taking the opportunity to ogle a woman – I’m genuinely shocked! Tassabra says she comes from Elminster and Farl, and Helm lowers his sword and invites her inside to talk, and the scene ends. And my, that sequence feels like it served exactly no purpose, other than to put Tassabra in that… outfit. I wonder why?
Keeri: I don’t wonder; I know. Greenwood. So, we suddenly cut back to Farl (ugh), who’s telling Elminster that the mage royal is elsewhere… or I’d never have kept my life. Elminster assures him that he’s alive, and that’s the important thing, though Farl is still worried Undarl might have had some spell going to capture his image and track him by it later. Elminster and the nameless elf with him examine Farl and can’t sense anything, so Farl hands over a bunch of gems, vials and pouches he took from Undarl’s chambers; apparently Undarl also had some sort of device built into his bed (excuse me?) that Farl wasn’t able to carry out. There were so many thieving apprentices trying to get past Undarl’s ward to steal spell scrolls that I kept falling over them! I still don’t know how they missed seeing me… that shadow of mine must be good. Uh, any reason so many apprentices were there trying to steal from Undarl? Or is this a regular occurrence? If so… doesn’t speak well of his reputation, if his apprentices have so little fear of him (or respect for him) that they’re willing to line up like that to steal from him. Elminster reports that none of the other thieves have had any trouble, save one girl named Jannath who ran into a servant she had to kill to keep her cover, but the elf who was with her hid the body. Farl asks if there are any magelords left for his thieves to hit, and Myrjala literally speaks out of thin air to say that We leave the tower of Ithboltar alone… so that leaves only Malanthor for you. Tassabra, meanwhile, was forced – Greenwood’s word - to change out of her disguise by Elminster (that “forced” is making me really uncomfortable for various reasons, not least that Farl and Myrjala laugh at it) and is currently infiltrating Alarashan’s tower; her elf partner has reported nothing amiss, so they assume she’s fine. Farl’s relieved to hear it and asks them to take him to Malanthor; Elminster points out a distant tower and says that they’re going to take Farl to the smaller window, since that’s his jakes and the windows to the main rooms will be trapped. For one, he should have trapped the window to his, ah, jakes too, to be on the safe side. For another, this is the second time this chapter Malanthor’s toilet has come up, and that’s two times too many. Farl’s still a bit disoriented about Elminster being both a mage and a prince, and Myrjala assures him that Elminster himself isn’t used to either of those either, and the scene ends there.
We then cut to Farl in Malanthor’s tower as he reaches for a ring and thinks to himself that this is all too easy. From a nearby bath, he hears a pettish female voice complaining that they’re out of wine, and another voice tells her to go get more. So, wait, Farl is literally robbing Malanthor and his… apprentice? Paramour? Both? – when they’re literally in the same room taking a bath together? And people call me reckless… well, a hand reaches out through the bath curtains and just happens to grab Farl; I guess that was the woman’s hand because she starts screaming, and then he hears Malanthor’s voice yelling curses and then starting to cast a spell. The elf with Farl speaks in his mind, telling him to fall to the floor and lie still, which he does, and apparently the elf casts a protection spell on him, because the next thing he hears is Malanthor ranting about a spell-shielded thief in my own chambers! *waspishly* well, maybe if you listened to your mentor earlier, you wouldn’t be in this mess, would you? So Malanthor gets out of the bath and advances towards Farl – still dripping wet – and says he’ll get some answers from him before he dies, and that he wants Nanatha – I guess that’s the woman with him – to bring him wine while he works. *rolling her eyes* Oh, so a cultured sadist; lovely. And that’s when Elminster suddenly materializes in Malanthor’s chamber pot. And yes, it’s that sudden, and yes it’s literal, as he starts complaining about the smell and wondering at the bad luck that made him teleport right to that location, specifically. Personally, I kind of think Elminster should be dropped into chamber pots more often, but… to each their own. So, Malanthor is equally stunned and shoots lightning bolts at him, realizing too late that Elminster matches the description of one of the two enemy mages Ithboltar warned him about – and then the lightning bolts rebound and hit him instead, sending him flying across the room. Nanatha starts screaming some more, and Malanthor curses and calls for help from Chantlarn; he knows Chantlarn will make him pay for his aid, but it’s better than dying. And, you know what, not to rub it in anymore, but… you did bring this on yourself.
Mira: So, Elminster calls out to Myrjala and asks if she’s nearby (and calls her Myr, which is far too close to my name for comfort), and she says she is, but there’s a patrol of armsmen coming too. Meanwhile, he climbs out of the chamber pot, trying to ignore the… things… he’s dripping all over the carpet *wrinkles her nose* and goes looking for Malanthor. He barely manages to duck as Nanatha hurls the wine bottle at him – and Myrjala quips that she’d rather she just pour her a glass – and he notices that, of course, she’s naked. Did all these magelords walk about naked? *she sighs* No, just Greenwood characters. He finally spots Malanthor, realizes that both he and Nanatha are not only naked but dripping wet, and realizes that they must have interrupted them in their bath. Myrjala teleports herself and Farl to safety, and then Elminster confronts Malanthor. For the death of my parents… die, magelord! Did… did Malanthor even have anything to do with that? He then launches exploding silver spheres across the room, and Malanthor starts screaming. A moment later, another voice comments on how dramatic Elminster’s speech was (it wasn’t even a speech? It was barely a sentence…) as a smug-looking mustachioed man in purple robes appears beside him and shoots a wand at him. Elminster gets slammed into the wall and actually passes out – that’s not something I was expecting – as the newcomer, Chantlarn, goes to search him for anything useful. He doesn’t even pay attention to the sobbing Nanatha (who is, apparently, an apprentice – am I the only one who thinks it a little gross that the only female magelord we’ve seen is an apprentice who is, it seems, sleeping with her mentor?) or Malanthor’s contorted, blackened bones which were still writhing in an eerie, futile struggle to stay upright. *she blanches* Oh, well, he is dead, apparently. And that seems like very unpleasant magic…
Suddenly, another voice calls Elminster’s name, and Chantlarn whirls to see Myrjala, who he recognizes as the other wizard Ithboltar described. He blasts her with the wand as well – to no effect! What a surprise! He tries to shoot her again, but she simply walks through the blast and then shoves him out the window. He’s still falling when he suddenly comes under a compulsion to take his wand… and thrust it into his own mouth… and then trigger it… The bloody explosion sent the wand into a wild discharge. Its bolts burst in all directions, hurling flaming spell forces at the castle wall, and scattering a terrified patrol of armsmen. Oh, that was… disgusting. And sadistic… Meanwhile, Nanatha is still screaming as Myrjala approaches Elminster’s crumpled body and picks it up. Before she teleports away, she turns towards Nanatha and lets her appearance change… into that of Undarl! Undarl Dragonrider sneered at her, dropped his cold gaze down her nakedness and then up again, and then waved in a mocking salute. So, apparently even Myrjala can’t resist the urge to leer at naked young women… I’m so glad I’m not in this book! And then Myrjala and Elminster vanish, Malanthor’s skeleton finally collapses, Nanatha faints, and the scene ends. We then cut to Elminster painfully coming to as Myrjala tells him he’ll be all right. He asks if she cleaned his boots, and she assures him she did – and that she assumed Undarl’s appearance and let Nanatha see her that way, so she’ll report to the magelords that this was all Undarl’s work. Elminster is pleased to think of the magelords being set against each other, then faints again. Myrjala watches him, then hugs him and starts crying, since he nearly died. Oh, why couldn’t your vengeance have been something lesser? Ah, because it was Undarl the magelord who killed his parents, not someone else? Vengeance is usually a response to someone else’s actions, after all… but in any case, the chapter ends here!
MG: And so, this chapter… isn’t as bad as some, but it’s still got some real problems. For one, it’s still badly rushed, as Elminster kills three more magelords and his associates rob the rest of them blind, all without any sort of weight to make it feel like an accomplishment (even Chantlarn blasting him feels more like Greenwood just decided to hand the magelords a very brief and temporary win than anything earned). Especially since the implication is that the Velvet Gloves and elves, working together, can just casually stroll into Athalgard, the heart of the magelords’ power, and take everything that’s not nailed down, all without getting caught or (with the exception of Farl and Elminster at the very end) suffering any negative consequences at all? Ithboltar’s sudden entrance to the story and revelation as one of its big bads is very out-of-left field, without nearly enough actual buildup – and for a secret evil mastermind, he’s very underwhelming, making some good observations about the situation but utterly failing to wrangle his students or get them to take either said situation or he himself seriously (even while supposedly possessing magic that enables him to control them, which accomplishes exactly nothing). The magelords in general, for that matter, become less impressive with every appearance, here completely blowing off their mentor/leader and ignoring the real danger they’re in even after three of their most powerful members were murdered in less than a week. The chapter title is also fairly misleading, as we don’t really have mages going to war here, more like mages skirmishing and a lot of set up – really, this title would be better for next chapter. And of course, we still can’t escape the trademark Greenwood fanservice, which felt especially gratuitous this chapter. Anyway, we’re in the home stretch now, with only two more full chapters and the epilogue to go! Next time, the battle for Athalantar (and also the return of some characters you probably never expected – or wanted – to see again). We’ll see you then!