It’s no secret that I really like Kyriani, especially after her makeover during “The Ostus Legacy.” Once she combined her “good” and “evil” halves, she became confident, charming, and clever. Her flirtatious ways, usually avoided in 1990s fantasy heroines, are something she has no shame over but do not define her character. So I should be very happy that she gets a story arc focused on her, especially since she’s been mostly a side character since “The Ostus Legacy.”

I should be happy…so am I?

Well, let’s dive into “Death and the Dragon’s Eye” to see if Kyri gets the treatment I think she deserves.

A Date Gone Wrong

Our story begins with Kyri paying a visit to one of her many paramours in Waterdeep.

Unfortunately, Carril is not feeling up to playing tonight.

Despite the tragedy before her, Kyri remains calm. Her nights with Carril weren’t just about the romance, but about a certain treasure that the noble kept hidden in his bedroom.

The watch shows up moments later despite no alarm being sounded. It seems that Kyri has fallen into a trap, but she has tricks of her own.

The web buys her a little time, but the treasure she seeks is already gone. The guards burn through the webbing, meaning that it’s time for Kyri to beat feet.

Despite the stumble, Kyri manages to dive out a window and make a hasty retreat toward the woods. Unfortunately, someone is there waiting for her.

It’s a night to remember for Kyriani, but not in the good way.

Capers and Conspiracies

As has happened so often in this series when mysteries pick up momentum, we cut to Khelben “Blackstaff” Arunsun and Piergeiron Paladinson, two lords of Waterdeep, discussing events.

Khelben seems to have played matchmaker between Kyri and Carril, suggesting that the former might do a service to Waterdeep by stealing from the latter. Of course, that didn’t involve murder, which Kyri is now accused of.

Khelben’s involvement is pretty typical Forgotten Realms, where the PCs often act at the behest of some hidden group or powerful NPC. It’s an aspect of the Realms I personally dislike, but it’s a way to get adventures going. Regardless, it’s pretty obnoxious of Khelben to set Kyri on this path and then butt out when things turn sour.

Meanwhile, the man who stopped Kyri is Hedrick, yet another one of Kyri’s romantic entanglements…and someone who is deeply involved in these matters himself.

Hedrick helps Kyri escape the pursuing guards. He followed Kyri to Carril’s manor, so he knows she didn’t kill him. However, his word alone won’t absolve Kyri once their relationship gets discovered.

And, speaking of discovery, Carril’s wife shows up as Hedrick and Kyri search the house.

Luckily, cooler heads prevail…sort of.

Rellamyn stops the fight and reveals that they’re all after the same thing: the gem known as the Dragon’s Eye. In fact, Carril’s own wife hired Rellamyn to steal it.

Everyone in the room seems to have been after the same thing, and everyone has a motive to kill Carril. But Hedrick gets in a little slut-shaming while the conversation’s going.

I’m going to let Hedrick have that one, but I hope it doesn’t become a trend. One of the things I like about the new Kyriani is that her promiscuity is acknowledged but not really shamed in the way that fantasy literature usually leans in on the virgin/whore dichotomy.

It all ultimately comes back to Selûne’s Smile, which has been rebuilt following its disastrous crossover with Dwalimor Omen’s crew. Kyri brings Khelben and Piergeiron to the bar to reveal what she knows…

Insert joke here about how all politicians are crooks anyway.

Puzzles to Solve

Although we see the other protagonists of our story, this is really Kyriani’s tale. She goes looking for Rellamyn but gets ambushed by some thugs in his inner circle. Unfortunately for those thugs, Kyri’s more than they can handle. They get tied up thanks to a black tentacles spell.

Since Rellamyn told Kyri that Carril was a Lord of Waterdeep, she hopes he has more information for her. Unfortunately, that’s not how Waterdeep’s politics work.

Waterdeep is run by masked lords who keep their identities secret to both the public and themselves. Only Piergeiron, the unmasked lord, is known to the people. (I imagine most know that Khelben is one, too, since there’s no way such a powerful wizard isn’t involved in all the clandestine politics of the city.)

It’s kind of a dumb way to run a government, but it’s not necessarily worse than the electoral college in the United States, so…

Political rantings aside, someone calls the watch on Kyri, and she and Rellamyn have to beat a hasty escape.

It’s only at this point that I recognize Rellamyn as the guy with a flying horse who helped Kyri all the way back in “Phases of the Moon.” I’d say something about Kyri having too many lovers for me to keep straight, but really it’s just that he was never given a proper introduction, so I didn’t recognize him when he came back.

Rellamyn drops Kyri off in a cemetery, and I’m sure nothing can go wrong there…

Carril’s spectral words disappear once Hedrick and Timoth show up. Then the three of them chase after Rellamyn as Kyri’s plan is revealed: she had Timoth call the watch so Rellamyn would think the law was closing in. Rellamyn flees to confront Brianne, Carril’s widow. Kyri’s spying reveals that Brianne is also a lord of Waterdeep and gets her a quick overview of the truth behind the Dragon’s Eye.

Of course the gem is actually a real dragon’s eye. Everything is the Forgotten Realms is both figurative and literal at the same time.

Brianne doesn’t respond well to Rellamyn’s confrontation and uses a telekinesis spell to throw him out a window. Luckily, as villains tend to do, she turns her back without checking to make sure he hits the ground. This allows Kyri to save him with a feather fall spell.

The confrontation does lead to one thing, though: Rellamyn reveals that Brianne still loves Carril, taking her off the list of suspects. She planned to steal from him, not murder him.

Messages from Beyond

As we pass the halfway point in the story, Kyri hides out at the home of Fenn, another of her lovers. She has a creepy dream involving Carril, who says the Dragon’s Eye is his now and forever. Carril strangles Kyri, and she wakes after making the sort of face that I would swear was traced from porn if this comic wasn’t a decade ahead of the days of the infamous Greg Land.

This is fantasy literature, so of course a dream is also a clue.

Hedrick helps Kyri return to the scene of the murder, where she finds that she didn’t just trip over her own feet while running from the watch. In fact, she stumbled across something that was invisible.

The object is an invisible portal that leads to a demiplane where Carril has stowed the actual Dragon’s Eye. Unfortunately, opening it isn’t exactly easy…

While Kyri lies unconscious, Hedrick has to fend off suspicious members of the watch. Things get out of hand when one of them takes a tumble out the window.

I’m not saying that Hedrick just killed a cop, but I find it hard to believe he’s supposed to be alive when it looks like he just handed on his face after falling out a second-story window.

Meanwhile, in the demiplane, Kyri finds what is left of Carril.

Carril’s soul died while it was away from his body, which means that he not only doesn’t know who killed him but can’t leave the demiplane.

Or maybe he can…just not as Carril.

But Kyri has experience with fragmented souls, having only recently been given a full life herself. In that regard, Carril is out of his depth.

Kyri returns to her body, and she now has the Dragon’s Eye. Unfortunately, she’s not alone.

Time for a parlor scene to wrap this mystery up…or rather, a big-ass dragon fight.

Mysteries & Mayhem

And so we come to the story’s climax, with Kyri, Hedrick, Rellamyr, and Brianne all vying for possession of the Maguffin…er, Dragon’s Eye. Brianne gets things started in a fiery way, nearly torching her own home.

Kyri beats a hasty retreat, but dimension door has a limited range so she’s got her two paramours and a jealous wife hot on her heels.

Kyri is soon surrounded, and can I take a moment just to note that Rellamyn’s horse suddenly has red eyes and breathes black smoke once its owner shifts allegiances?

Kyri buys some time by going through the detective routine of recapping our mystery and revealing the killer. Carril’s murderer had to be somebody who would kill him for the Dragon’s Eye but then needed to sic Kyri on the trail to find where it was magically hidden…

But why would Hedrick want the Dragon’s Eye in the first place?

Dun dun DUNNN!

With this reveal, Hedrick snatches the eye from Kyri…

…and transforms into a massive black dragon.

Rellamyn and Kyri try to escape on the flying horse, but the dragon closes in quickly. Then, suddenly, he gets disturbed by a visit from beyond the grave.

Kyri uses the moment of confusion to pluck out Hedrick’s magical eye.

She drops the eye into the harbor, where Khelben waits and snatches it up.

It would have been nice for the nigh-omnipotent archmage to join the fight instead of playing mop-up duty, but whatever.

Reverted to his mortal form, Hedrick plummets into the harbor and Rellamyn refuses to go looking for him because, “From that height, he was dead the instant he hit the water.” I guess the blond dummy doesn’t feel like working overtime, because he himself survived a fall not too long ago thanks to an act of magic.

So what about Carril’s ghost? Well…you should always try to disbelieve the illusion.

Brianne was actually on Kyri’s side the whole time, so why didn’t Khelben tell her?

Ah, political intrigue in the City of Splendors.

Our story comes to an end with Brianne, Kyri, and Rellamyn “unwinding” at Selûne’s Smile…or at least the girls do. Rellamyn gets dragged there with one on each arm. I’d call him a lucky bastard, but I don’t know if the two spellcasters really have good intentions.

Thus ends Kyri’s solo outing. Did it leave me satisfied as a fan of the character? For the most part, it did.

The story highlighted all the things I like about Kyri: her wit, charm, and intelligence. It continued to deal with her multiple lovers in an interesting way, highlighting that while she sometimes has an ulterior motive to her dalliances, she still cares for them. It’s a hard line to walk, but the comic does a good job of neither slut-shaming Kyri (outside of a few barbs from jealous lovers) nor getting overly fanservice-y with her promiscuity.

The only thing I think was missing from this story was Kyri’s comrades in arms. While we got to see Vajra, Onyx, and Timoth here and there, only Timoth actually did something to help the story along and it would have been nice to see the group as a whole featured.

Alas, as we will see in further stories, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was on the back nine as a comic and there were more solo outings than true group adventures on the horizon. We’ll dig into another one of those next time, when it’s Onyx’s turn.

_{Images: DC Comics}