If I'm reading it right, this month we have:
November 9: Draconomicon Hall of Fame: Jalanvaloss, the "Dragon Queen of Silverymoon"
11th: Eye on the Realms
16th: Channel Divinity: Torm
20th: Explore Airspur, Part 3
Needless to say, I'm looking forward to the last one most... :P
EDIT: Thanks for the correction, sfdragon. Airspure indeed!
same with me.
airspur
Gah, some day I might learn to spell. Airspur! Airspur! :P
Can you supply a link? Every time I try to find the table of contents for November it gives me October's articles. So far my active perception roll is a 7.
On November 9 IIRC an article from Draconomicon will be about one of the Wryms of the North Jsomething or an other. But this article will be free.
you mean the nice lady who lived in waterdeep??
Lord Toast, I've now included the link in the first post.
I included the info on the Draconomicon excerpt as well, Delta - thank you!
No problemo...
Edit November 9: Draconomicon Hall of Fame: Jalanvaloss
EDIT#2 Just checked out Enworld and saw the Threads about Draconomicon. People overseas got it early and are now answering questions. Draconomicon will have: Valamaradace, the "Dragon Queen of Silverymoon" in it.
We get four Realmslore articles this month? Yes! 
dacing fey!!!!
oh wait wrong thread...
so it will have the dragon queen?
two wyrms of the north confirmerd then...
Cool! If it ends up being wrong, I'll just edit the info accordingly.
so it will have the dragon queen?
Meh, this has always been a point of confusion to me. For me, the Dragon Queen, is Filfaeril Obarskyr. I remember the article well about the other one, and enjoyed it, but Fee isn't going to be losing that title any time soon.
Well, I just read the Valanjaloss excerpt and all I can really say at this point is... ouch. Comparing the original Wyrms of the North article and this? Well, the shoe-horning into a "must be an opponent" is a little obvious. I will, however, concede that with so little page space that there may have been little choice but to paint her character so... bluntly.
I am going to have to think about this one.
Well, I just read the Valanjaloss excerpt and all I can really say at this point is... ouch. Comparing the original Wyrms of the North article and this? Well, the shoe-horning into a "must be an opponent" is a little obvious. I will, however, concede that with so little page space that there may have been little choice but to paint her character so... bluntly.
I am going to have to think about this one.
I thought it was alright, it was a little brief, but atlest we got a little bit of an update, and it is Realms related so thats a plus. They also have the Dragon Queen of Silverymoon in the Dracinomicon 2 as well. Hopefully theyll do a whole update to 4e for the Wyrms of the north, like they did with Dragons of Eberron.
I thought it was pretty good.
They also have the Dragon Queen of Silverymoon in the Dracinomicon 2 as well. Hopefully theyll do a whole update to 4e for the Wyrms of the north, like they did with Dragons of Eberron.
This is the one that actually scares me. With the "reimagining" the metallics have undergone I am even more worried for Valamaradace than I was for Valanjaloss. Quoting from the original article:
"The keys to Valamaradace's character are her kindness, empathy, and desire to understand the beings she encounters and cater to their needs as long as she doesn't harm other living creatures."
I am willing to wait the 8 or so days (until the 17th Amazon seems to say) to find out, but I do not believe for one moment that those qualities have remained the "keys to Valamaradace's character".
Just read the Jalanvaloss article. It was... okay, bordering on poor. It didn't really do her justice. All it said was she has money and is crafty. Rather blunt and dull. At least it didn't make her an aggressive sort, who would provoke PCs into taking up swords against her.
I am willing to wait the 8 or so days (until the 17th Amazon seems to say) to find out, but I do not believe for one moment that those qualities have remained the "keys to Valamaradace's character".
I can assure you they haven't. Not at all.
(Popping in briefly, going away again now)
I hope you guys like the Airspur 3 article. It will be great to see what makes the final cut!
I can assure you they haven't. Not at all.
I had hoped you were joking. So I checked. You aren't.
I really really really wish I had been wrong about this one. I truly honestly do. But I wasn't. I was about as right as I could have been. What the heck is going on? Does everything have to have the possibility (nay, in this case probability) of being an antagonist? No matter what its previous character was?
Not. Happy.
I hope you guys like the Airspur 3 article. It will be great to see what makes the final cut!
I am looking forward to it. For all that I complain about over-focussing, anything that is as well written as these articles that are Realms based are something I will applaud without reservation.
I got this quote from the original article:
Jalanvaloss acquired the title Wyrm of Many Spells because of an epic spell-battle she once had with Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun: Discerning her true nature at an evening revel at the Brossfeather family villa, he casually tossed a wyrmbane spell her way, to drive her from the city. Jalanvaloss responded by peppering him with a barrage of spells, shifting from human to dragon form and precipitating a panic in the process that sent citizens leaping from balconies and trampling each other in gateways and on the streets of Waterdeep.
Distracted by the need to mitigate damage to the citizenry and the surrounding buildings, Khelben responded with magic designed to contain and hamper rather than to punish or destroy. Jalanvaloss took advantage of this tactic to make her escape.
Was this supposed to be a good dragon? Anyway, comparing the two articles I found the Draconomicon one to be an abbreviated, less flowery form of the other.
People are being trampled or leaping from their balconies in their panic and she's taking advantage of Khelben's desire not to harm the citizens further to protect herself when her life is not threatened. This does not seem particularly playful to me, let alone the actions of someone even close to good.
First of all, she isn't a dragon of luminous and unwaveringly Good character because she is a Steel of Lawful Neutral alignment. Let's just remember that we aren't talking about a Gold or Silver here.
As for her actions, I have to say. Really? And Khelben isn't at fault for throwing the Wyrmbane spell at her after realising that she was a Steel dragon at a social gathering (which Steel dragons often seem to do), and for no other given reason? I don't know what a Wyrmbane spell does as it doesn't furnish the details in the article (apart from saying it was "to drive her from the city") or in any book of spells I have been able to check, but it doesn't sound much fun to me. If I was under attack for no apparent reason then I may well try and strike back and then run away... which is exactly what the article described her as having done.
This article did change her character and I, for one, do not believe it was for the better.
Wasn't K LN in the previous editions? So in 4E he would be Unaligned? Right? I know strong goodish tendencies...
On the positive side, today's "Eye" has come out and I enjoyed it greatly.
I'm reading the article now. Here's a link for those who've got a DDI subscription already.
Theres a Realms encounter from Dungeon here. Its a continuation of the novel The Edge of Chaos. I havnt read that book yet, but it still looks like a good, useable, interesting, encounter. So far November seems to be a busy month for Realms stuff.
We're tryin'
Theres a Realms encounter from Dungeon here. Its a continuation of the novel The Edge of Chaos. I havnt read that book yet, but it still looks like a good, useable, interesting, encounter. So far November seems to be a busy month for Realms stuff.
We're tryin'
And you all have my deepest heart felt thanks for it!
Theres a Realms encounter from Dungeon here. Its a continuation of the novel The Edge of Chaos. I havnt read that book yet, but it still looks like a good, useable, interesting, encounter.
Written by Shawn Merwin, who also wrote the Ice Queen's Crossing (which ties to The Fall of Highwatch).
Gomez
However, I personally had already been expecting many wonderful things from the freelancers. The powers that are behind the article selection and future planning? Less so.
Well November is over. So what did you guys think of the Realms Articles for the Month? It was a better month IMO.
I agree, November was a great month for Realmsian articles. Hopefully theyll keep that up, Im lookin foward to more of Ed Greenwoods Eye on the Realms articles, and hopefully we shall see more backdrop articles.
People are being trampled or leaping from their balconies in their panic and she's taking advantage of Khelben's desire not to harm the citizens further to protect herself when her life is not threatened. This does not seem particularly playful to me, let alone the actions of someone even close to good.
Logic would indicate that is neither lawful (on either characters part) or at all neutral or good. It's pretty much chaotic behavior, but on the dragons part it certainly isn't construed as being evil in any way unless defending yourself somehow counts as being evil.
It's just more high level NPCs acting like complete idiots. Not a surprise at all for FR.