Lowder - Knight of the Black Rose

1991 TSR, Inc.

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Cover art by: Clyde Caldwell

eISBN: 978-0-7869-6342-3
640-A1724000-001-EN

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v3.1

To Debbie, for her patience and support, even when the death knight took over the apartment.

Many times, Lord Soth threatened to drag me into the Dark Domain with him, and I owe lots of people thanks for pulling me back: my parents and in-laws, who understood why I spent the summer at the computer; John Rateliff, whose knowledge of fantasy literature and gracious criticisms helped immeasurably; and my editor, Pat McGilligan, whose enthusiasm and hard work made the plot move and the characters breathethose that were supposed to, anyway.

Thanks especially to Mary Kirchoff; your confidence in my abilities made it possible for me to write about Soth, and your wit and friendship made it easier for me to survive months of living with vampires and ghosts.

PROLOGUE

From the Iconochronos of Astinus of Palanthas

One name recorded here, in these scrolls that make up my history of Krynn, has become a byword for corruption and monumental evil throughout the continent of Ansalon: Lord Soth of Dargaard Keep.

The Knight of the Black Rose.

Such was not always the case. Once, in the years before the gods punished mortals with the Cataclysm that shook these lands to the core, Lord Soth was a great and noble soldier for Good, a member of the renowned Knights of Solamnia. In that most famed of famed brotherhoods, Soth attained their highest honor, the Order of the Rose. For a time, he fought for justice and freedom. His heart remained pure then, his soul unspotted. When it came time to build his castle, Soth designed it himself to resemble the symbol of his orderthe flawless red rose.

Yet it was not long after Soth married and brought his wife to Dargaard Keep that darkness settled upon his life, a darkness so profound he has never escaped it, a corruption so complete it made the once-proud knight a willing agent of Takhisis, the Queen of Darkness.

Some claim that pride undermined Soths will to do good, others say lust, and still others greed. Of those who still walk beneath the triple moons of Krynn, only Soth himself knows for certain the cause of his own doom. The world is left to construe what it will from skeletal bits of history.

Soths wife befitted a man of his station and potential. A nobles daughter and only child, she offered the young knight much in the way of worldly goods. That love had little traffic in Dargaard in those days was apparent to all who visited the keep, if they found Soth there at all. The lord of the castle spent much of his time traversing the Solamnic countryside in search of suitable wrongs to right, accompanied by thirteen knights loyal to him above all others.

The summons to Palanthas, most beautiful of all cities, came to Soth early in the spring. He and his retainers set off for the Knights Council to be held in that unconquered city, but before they reached its perfectly planned streets, temptation bested the Knight of the Rose. He and his men came across a mob of ogres attacking a small band of elven women. The knights easily defeated the brutes, save one who had snatched up an elfmaid and dashed off into the woods.

Lord Soth himself battled and conquered this, the strongest of the ogres. The woman he saved, a young elfmaid on her way to take her vows as a Revered Daughter of Paladine, dazzled him with her innocent beauty. Soon after, they became secret lovers, though in doing so Soth broke both his sacred marriage vows and the Code of the Knights of Solamnia.

It seemed as if the lord of Dargaard Keep believed this blot on his soul would remain hidden forever, for he went to the Knights Council as if nothing had transpired between him and the elfmaid. Yet two things conspired to bring the Rose Knights shame to the pure light of Krynns sun. The first was the news that Soths wife had disappeared from Dargaard Keep. The blood found in her chambers cried foul play, and the noblemans almost casual reaction to this shocking news made many in his order wonder for the first time if they had judged Soth too highly.