Sojourn - Chapter Five
Jun. 11th, 2023 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kalinara posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
i_read_whatSo last time, we saw the humans react to the news that a drow has been playing peeping tom. We also met walking machismo caricature Roddy McGristle. I'm sure he's not the kind of adversary that will keep making trouble throughout the book.
I don't normally include or comment on the chapter subtitles in the Drizzt books, but this one is "the Stalk of Doom", which is admittedly pretty funny. Not "smelled of beeswax and power" level, but still amusing to me.
Of course, it looks like the events of the chapter are going to be less amusing. We're starting with Ulgulu, as he's heading out for some bloodshed. He's got the scimitar in hand, and isn't terribly happy about the idea of using it. He likes his own teeth and claws, but he's a smart dude who remembers that today is not about devouring life essences. It's about the good old fashioned frame-up.
Barghest whelps have cool, extra-dimensional abilities by the way. I like how his is used here:
UIgulu’s consciousness fell back into itself, focusing on that spot of his being that fluctuated with magical energy. He was not a creature of the Material Plane, and extra-planar creatures inevitably brought with them powers that would seem magical to creatures of the host plane. UIgulu’s eyes glowed orange with excitement when he emerged from his trance just a few moments later. He peered down the cliff, visualizing a spot on the flat ground below, perhaps a quarter of a mile away.
A shimmering, multicolored door appeared before Ulgulu, hanging in the air beyond the lip of the ravine. His laughter sounding more like a roar, Ulgulu pushed open the door and found, just beyond its threshold, the spot he had visualized. He moved through, circumventing the material distance to the ravine’s floor with a single extradimensional step.
Ulgulu ran on, down the mountain and toward the human village, ran on eagerly to set the gears of his cruel plan turning.
They also, it should be noted, have shapeshifting abilities. And Ulgulu has just turned into a drow elf. Uh oh.
So we rejoin Bartholemew Thistledown. He's sitting with his own father, while the wife and mother are out in the barn. The kids are in their beds. Bartholemew would normally be sleeping by now too, but the news of drow in the area is worrisome. That tends not to end well for little settlements.
BUT, Bartholemew does admit to himself that he's not convinced that Drizzt means harm. He COULD have easily killed the kids and didn't. Connor suggests they go to town and shelter there. But that means leaving the farm that's their livelihood. Markhe, Bartholemew's father, suggests just sending the younger kids. Bartholemew is thoughtful, but, well. It's a little too late for those kind of plans.
That's when there's a sound of breaking wood, a muffled cry, and a drow at the door. But not our drow.
A single spring of his powerful legs had brought Ulgulu right up to the farmhouse door. Connor charged over the threshold blindly, slammed into the creature-which only appeared like a slender drow-and bounced back, stunned, into the kitchen. Before any of the men could react, the scimitar slammed down onto the top of Connor’s head with all the strength of the barghest behind it, nearly splitting the young man in half.
That's..surprisingly gruesome. It gets worse, of course. Bartholemew goes after him with a pitchfork. Gets pretty close, but Ulgulu catches the shaft and lifts it, slamming Bartholemew's head into a ceiling beam hard enough to break his neck.
He almost ate Markhe (and there's mention of him feeding on a young woman in the barn), but comes to his senses and murders him with scimitar instead. And right before the scene shifts, there's a confused cry that leads him to the room where the children sleep.
We don't get any details there, fortunately.
So we scene shift to Drizzt. It's the next day. He's decided to try for another meeting with the children. He's emotionally invested with this place and doesn't want to give up. He notices, however, that the farmers aren't out with the sun. He thinks maybe he'd scared them into hiding.
Then he hears a buzzing - Tephanis. But it's gone quickly enough. Day turns to night and still no sign of activity on the farm. Drizzt goes to investigate...
When he came around the side of the barn and saw the broken door, Drizzt knew instinctively that this was not the case. His fears grew with every step. He peered through the barn door and was not surprised to see the wagon sitting in the middle of the barn and the stalls full of horses.
To the side of the wagon, though, lay the older woman, crumbled and covered in her own dried blood. Drizzt went to her and knew at once that she was dead, killed by some sharp-edged weapon. Immediately his thoughts went to the evil sprite and his own missing scimitar. When he found the other corpse, behind the wagon, he knew that some other monster, something more vicious and powerful, had been involved. Drizzt couldn’t even identify this second, half-eaten body.
I wonder if this slip up by Ulgulu will end up exonerating Drizzt in the end. But we're still early in the book, and problems won't get solved that quickly.
He rushes through the farmhouse, finding the bodies in the kitchen, and the children lying "too still" in their beds. He's so distraught that he flees the house, missing, the narrative tells us, his missing scimitar which was snapped in half and left under the bed for the villagers to find.
The chapter ends here. It's a short one, but also the end of "Part 1". Part 2 will begin next week.
I don't normally include or comment on the chapter subtitles in the Drizzt books, but this one is "the Stalk of Doom", which is admittedly pretty funny. Not "smelled of beeswax and power" level, but still amusing to me.
Of course, it looks like the events of the chapter are going to be less amusing. We're starting with Ulgulu, as he's heading out for some bloodshed. He's got the scimitar in hand, and isn't terribly happy about the idea of using it. He likes his own teeth and claws, but he's a smart dude who remembers that today is not about devouring life essences. It's about the good old fashioned frame-up.
Barghest whelps have cool, extra-dimensional abilities by the way. I like how his is used here:
UIgulu’s consciousness fell back into itself, focusing on that spot of his being that fluctuated with magical energy. He was not a creature of the Material Plane, and extra-planar creatures inevitably brought with them powers that would seem magical to creatures of the host plane. UIgulu’s eyes glowed orange with excitement when he emerged from his trance just a few moments later. He peered down the cliff, visualizing a spot on the flat ground below, perhaps a quarter of a mile away.
A shimmering, multicolored door appeared before Ulgulu, hanging in the air beyond the lip of the ravine. His laughter sounding more like a roar, Ulgulu pushed open the door and found, just beyond its threshold, the spot he had visualized. He moved through, circumventing the material distance to the ravine’s floor with a single extradimensional step.
Ulgulu ran on, down the mountain and toward the human village, ran on eagerly to set the gears of his cruel plan turning.
They also, it should be noted, have shapeshifting abilities. And Ulgulu has just turned into a drow elf. Uh oh.
So we rejoin Bartholemew Thistledown. He's sitting with his own father, while the wife and mother are out in the barn. The kids are in their beds. Bartholemew would normally be sleeping by now too, but the news of drow in the area is worrisome. That tends not to end well for little settlements.
BUT, Bartholemew does admit to himself that he's not convinced that Drizzt means harm. He COULD have easily killed the kids and didn't. Connor suggests they go to town and shelter there. But that means leaving the farm that's their livelihood. Markhe, Bartholemew's father, suggests just sending the younger kids. Bartholemew is thoughtful, but, well. It's a little too late for those kind of plans.
That's when there's a sound of breaking wood, a muffled cry, and a drow at the door. But not our drow.
A single spring of his powerful legs had brought Ulgulu right up to the farmhouse door. Connor charged over the threshold blindly, slammed into the creature-which only appeared like a slender drow-and bounced back, stunned, into the kitchen. Before any of the men could react, the scimitar slammed down onto the top of Connor’s head with all the strength of the barghest behind it, nearly splitting the young man in half.
That's..surprisingly gruesome. It gets worse, of course. Bartholemew goes after him with a pitchfork. Gets pretty close, but Ulgulu catches the shaft and lifts it, slamming Bartholemew's head into a ceiling beam hard enough to break his neck.
He almost ate Markhe (and there's mention of him feeding on a young woman in the barn), but comes to his senses and murders him with scimitar instead. And right before the scene shifts, there's a confused cry that leads him to the room where the children sleep.
We don't get any details there, fortunately.
So we scene shift to Drizzt. It's the next day. He's decided to try for another meeting with the children. He's emotionally invested with this place and doesn't want to give up. He notices, however, that the farmers aren't out with the sun. He thinks maybe he'd scared them into hiding.
Then he hears a buzzing - Tephanis. But it's gone quickly enough. Day turns to night and still no sign of activity on the farm. Drizzt goes to investigate...
When he came around the side of the barn and saw the broken door, Drizzt knew instinctively that this was not the case. His fears grew with every step. He peered through the barn door and was not surprised to see the wagon sitting in the middle of the barn and the stalls full of horses.
To the side of the wagon, though, lay the older woman, crumbled and covered in her own dried blood. Drizzt went to her and knew at once that she was dead, killed by some sharp-edged weapon. Immediately his thoughts went to the evil sprite and his own missing scimitar. When he found the other corpse, behind the wagon, he knew that some other monster, something more vicious and powerful, had been involved. Drizzt couldn’t even identify this second, half-eaten body.
I wonder if this slip up by Ulgulu will end up exonerating Drizzt in the end. But we're still early in the book, and problems won't get solved that quickly.
He rushes through the farmhouse, finding the bodies in the kitchen, and the children lying "too still" in their beds. He's so distraught that he flees the house, missing, the narrative tells us, his missing scimitar which was snapped in half and left under the bed for the villagers to find.
The chapter ends here. It's a short one, but also the end of "Part 1". Part 2 will begin next week.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-12 03:09 pm (UTC)Either way, Drizzt is going to have to move.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-12 03:14 pm (UTC)