Sojourn - Chapter Nine
Jul. 17th, 2023 08:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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i_read_whatSo last time, we saw CSI: Faerun, and Drizzt make frenemies with a not-long-for-this-world giant. Who's surprised?
Our chapter starts with Fred, Dove and Roddy. They've discovered Ulgulu's body and are trying to make sense of it. Dove figures out that it's been dead for more than a day. Roddy guesses a half-breed, while Gabriel thinks it's a shape-changer. Dove agrees: killed half-way through.
Roddy is skeptical of the idea of goblin wizards, but Fred is about to tell us about one (Grubby the Wiseless), when he's interrupted by a new member of the group: Kellindil, an elven archer. I'm not really sure when he joined up. Anyway, he's found two goblins and a red-skinned giant.
There's another member of the troupe, Darda. Dove just keeps collecting people when I'm not looking.
They end up finding a plowshare that Roddy recognizes as belonging to the Thistledowns. Darda notices the blood on it, deducing that a creature hit it hard and tumbled over the ravine.
Dove tries to put it all together Sherlock-style...
All eyes focused on Dove as the ranger pulled her thick hair back from her face, put her chin in her delicate but calloused hand, and tried to sort through this newest puzzle. The clues were too few, though, and a moment later. Dove threw her hands up in exasperation and headed off along the trail. The path wound in and left the cliff as it leveled near the top, but Dove walked back over to the edge, right above where they had left Gabriel. The fighter spotted her immediately and his wave told the ranger that all was calm below.
But fails. Alas.
Fred recognizes Kempfana's corpse as a barghest whelp, noting that this also explains Ulgulu. We get a belated explanation:
“A creature from another plane of existence,” Fret explained. “Gehenna, it is rumored. Barghests send their whelps to other planes, sometimes to our own, to feed and to grow.” He paused a moment in thought. “To feed,” he said again, his tone leading the others.
“The woman in the barn!” Dove said evenly.
The others follow her logic, except of course Roddy, who insists that the drow killed the Thistledowns. Dove asks him for the broken scimitar: it matches the wounds on the Barghest. Roddy had said that Drizzt carried two?
Roddy clarifies: the kid had said two, he'd only seen one. This is true, but Roddy is not mentioning that he saw the scabbards for two scimitars on Drizzt's back.
Dove is piecing it together: the goblins and barghest were killed by the drow. She intends to keep quiet about the rest of her theory, but Fred, annoyed with Roddy, blurts it out: The Thistledowns were killed by the barghest in the form of a drow.
Things get tense:
Roddy glowered at him and Dove cast [Fred] a leading look, wanting the dwarf to remain silent. [Fred] misinterpreted the ranger’s stare, though, thinking it astonishment of his reasoning power, and he proudly continued. “That explains the two sets of tracks, the heavier, earlier set for the bar-“
“But what of the creature in the gorge?” Darda asked Dove, understanding his leader’s desire to shut [Fred] up. “Might its wounds, too, match the curving blade?”
Dove thought for a moment and managed to subtly nod her thanks to Darda. “Some, perhaps,” she answered. “More likely, that barghest was killed by the panther-“ She looked directly at Roddy-“the cat you claimed the drow kept as a pet.”
Roddy kicked the dead barghest. “Drow killed the Thistledown clan!” he growled. Roddy had lost a dog and an ear to the dark elf and would not accept any conclusions that lessened his chances of claiming the two thousand gold piece bounty that the mayor had levied.
So why IS Dove playing along with Roddy's bullshit? He's outnumbered here, at least five to one, and that's assuming she doesn't miraculously conjure more group mates. He's clearly homicidally inclined, and if Drizzt is innocent, which she's starting to believe, then why continue to bring Roddy on this trek? She's just putting an innocent person in danger of being murdered?
If Roddy leaves in a huff and goes off to hunt Drizzt on his own, who cares?
So anyway, Kellindil has tracked Drizzt to the cliff edge, he thinks he's jumped down in pursuit of panther and barghest. Dove wants to go back down, to find a trail and "clearer answers".
Roddy, of course, doesn't care. He wants Drizzt's head.
Dove Falconhand was not so certain about the murderer’s identity. Many questions remained for both the ranger and for the other members of her troupe. Why hadnt the drow killed the Thistledown children when they had met earlier in the mountains? If Connor’s tale to the mayor had been true, then why had the drow given the boy back his weapon? Dove was firmly convinced that the barghest, and not the drow, had slaughtered the Thistledown family, but why had the drow apparently gone after the barghest lair?
These are all good questions, and you're in a group of thinkers who are putting things together. Why keep quiet for Roddy's sake again?
This doesn't mean that she thinks Drizzt is a good person, mind. She's thinking out possibilities: was there an alliance gone sour between drow and barghest? Had Drizzt gone to avenge the family? If so, why? Did it interfere with a drow raid?
If there was a planned raid though, why would Drizzt have revealed himself.
Something inside Dove told her that this single drow had acted alone, had come out and avenged the slain farmers. She shrugged it off as a trick of her own optimism and reminded herself that dark elves were rarely known for such rangerlike acts.
This "rarely" intrigues me. As far as I know, canonically, Drizzt was the first good drow known to the surface in Faerun. Well, admittedly, later story developments with Vhaeraun and Eilistraee probably mess that up. Based on CURRENT canon, there are likely quite a few Naked moon-dancing drow on the surface. And while Vhaeraun is evil, his particular followers seem to allow for a bit of ideological variety in a way that Lolth's doesn't.
Not sure how many of these concepts were in the works though, when this book came out.
Fred has a good question: what happened to the Panther. Dove has no idea.
We have some scene shifting here: Drizzt spots Dove's campfire and wants to take a look.
Meanwhile, Dove and Gabriel are busy laughing at Fred's antics, while he cleans his clothes and mutters. Why is that funny?
“Oh, bother for this dirt!” [Fred] groaned. “Never, never will I get this outfit clean! I shall have to buy a new one.” He looked at Dove, who was futilely trying to hold a straight face. “Laugh if you will, Mistress Falconhand,” the dwarf admonished. “The price will come out of your purse, do not doubt!”
Why is your friend being upset funny? Seriously, why are you people so mean to him?
“A sorry day it is when one must buy fineries for a dwarf,” Gabriel put in, and at his words, Dove burst into laughter.
Wow. WOW. Hello, species-ism.
Roddy tells Fred to shut up, asking if he means to bring the drow down upon them. Gabriel glares, but Dove thinks Roddy has a point, if rudely made. So why do you have a campfire up?
These folks aren't incompetent though. They spot Guen in the trees, watching them. Roddy is actually the first to spot her, which I rather like. He's obnoxious and awful, but he's competent too.
They're closing in, but apparently Fred crashes out of the campsite, stumbling into Roddy. This alerts Guen, who runs. This happens:
Kellindil heard the barking and shouting in the distance, back by the camp, but had no way of knowing what had transpired. Any hesitation the elf had, however, was quickly dispelled when one voice called out clearly.
“Kill the murdering thing!” Roddy cried.
Thinking then that the panther or its drow companion must have attacked the campsite, Kellindil let his arrow fly. The enchanted dart buried itself deeply into Guenhwyvar’s flank as the panther rushed by.
Then came Dove’s call, berating Roddy. “Do not!” the ranger shouted. “The panther has done nothing to deserve our ire!”
I mean, you did set up an ambush for Guen, Dove. Kellindil is mad:
Dove and the others came upon him a moment later. Kellindil’s elven features, always angular and beautiful, seemed sharp as his angry glare fell over Roddy.
“You have misguided my shot, McGristle,” he said angrily. “On your words, I shot a creature undeserving of an arrow! I warn you once, and once alone, to never do so again.” After a final glare to show the mountain man how much he meant his words, Kellindil stalked off along the blood trail.
I mean, you didn't have to shoot either, dude.
Roddy is awful, don't get me wrong, but you guys are really trigger happy. And, I don't know, maybe if CERTAIN folks shared their theories more, other people in the group would be less likely to shoot first and ask questions later?
Guen gets back to Drizzt. He cuts out the bolt and sends her home. Understandably, he gets the wrong idea about all of this and decides to head off and try to avoid bloodshed. The chapter ends with Drizzt issuing a challenge of sorts:
“How far will you follow me?” Drizzt whispered into the morning breeze. He vowed in a somber but determined tone, “We shall see.”
Our chapter starts with Fred, Dove and Roddy. They've discovered Ulgulu's body and are trying to make sense of it. Dove figures out that it's been dead for more than a day. Roddy guesses a half-breed, while Gabriel thinks it's a shape-changer. Dove agrees: killed half-way through.
Roddy is skeptical of the idea of goblin wizards, but Fred is about to tell us about one (Grubby the Wiseless), when he's interrupted by a new member of the group: Kellindil, an elven archer. I'm not really sure when he joined up. Anyway, he's found two goblins and a red-skinned giant.
There's another member of the troupe, Darda. Dove just keeps collecting people when I'm not looking.
They end up finding a plowshare that Roddy recognizes as belonging to the Thistledowns. Darda notices the blood on it, deducing that a creature hit it hard and tumbled over the ravine.
Dove tries to put it all together Sherlock-style...
All eyes focused on Dove as the ranger pulled her thick hair back from her face, put her chin in her delicate but calloused hand, and tried to sort through this newest puzzle. The clues were too few, though, and a moment later. Dove threw her hands up in exasperation and headed off along the trail. The path wound in and left the cliff as it leveled near the top, but Dove walked back over to the edge, right above where they had left Gabriel. The fighter spotted her immediately and his wave told the ranger that all was calm below.
But fails. Alas.
Fred recognizes Kempfana's corpse as a barghest whelp, noting that this also explains Ulgulu. We get a belated explanation:
“A creature from another plane of existence,” Fret explained. “Gehenna, it is rumored. Barghests send their whelps to other planes, sometimes to our own, to feed and to grow.” He paused a moment in thought. “To feed,” he said again, his tone leading the others.
“The woman in the barn!” Dove said evenly.
The others follow her logic, except of course Roddy, who insists that the drow killed the Thistledowns. Dove asks him for the broken scimitar: it matches the wounds on the Barghest. Roddy had said that Drizzt carried two?
Roddy clarifies: the kid had said two, he'd only seen one. This is true, but Roddy is not mentioning that he saw the scabbards for two scimitars on Drizzt's back.
Dove is piecing it together: the goblins and barghest were killed by the drow. She intends to keep quiet about the rest of her theory, but Fred, annoyed with Roddy, blurts it out: The Thistledowns were killed by the barghest in the form of a drow.
Things get tense:
Roddy glowered at him and Dove cast [Fred] a leading look, wanting the dwarf to remain silent. [Fred] misinterpreted the ranger’s stare, though, thinking it astonishment of his reasoning power, and he proudly continued. “That explains the two sets of tracks, the heavier, earlier set for the bar-“
“But what of the creature in the gorge?” Darda asked Dove, understanding his leader’s desire to shut [Fred] up. “Might its wounds, too, match the curving blade?”
Dove thought for a moment and managed to subtly nod her thanks to Darda. “Some, perhaps,” she answered. “More likely, that barghest was killed by the panther-“ She looked directly at Roddy-“the cat you claimed the drow kept as a pet.”
Roddy kicked the dead barghest. “Drow killed the Thistledown clan!” he growled. Roddy had lost a dog and an ear to the dark elf and would not accept any conclusions that lessened his chances of claiming the two thousand gold piece bounty that the mayor had levied.
So why IS Dove playing along with Roddy's bullshit? He's outnumbered here, at least five to one, and that's assuming she doesn't miraculously conjure more group mates. He's clearly homicidally inclined, and if Drizzt is innocent, which she's starting to believe, then why continue to bring Roddy on this trek? She's just putting an innocent person in danger of being murdered?
If Roddy leaves in a huff and goes off to hunt Drizzt on his own, who cares?
So anyway, Kellindil has tracked Drizzt to the cliff edge, he thinks he's jumped down in pursuit of panther and barghest. Dove wants to go back down, to find a trail and "clearer answers".
Roddy, of course, doesn't care. He wants Drizzt's head.
Dove Falconhand was not so certain about the murderer’s identity. Many questions remained for both the ranger and for the other members of her troupe. Why hadnt the drow killed the Thistledown children when they had met earlier in the mountains? If Connor’s tale to the mayor had been true, then why had the drow given the boy back his weapon? Dove was firmly convinced that the barghest, and not the drow, had slaughtered the Thistledown family, but why had the drow apparently gone after the barghest lair?
These are all good questions, and you're in a group of thinkers who are putting things together. Why keep quiet for Roddy's sake again?
This doesn't mean that she thinks Drizzt is a good person, mind. She's thinking out possibilities: was there an alliance gone sour between drow and barghest? Had Drizzt gone to avenge the family? If so, why? Did it interfere with a drow raid?
If there was a planned raid though, why would Drizzt have revealed himself.
Something inside Dove told her that this single drow had acted alone, had come out and avenged the slain farmers. She shrugged it off as a trick of her own optimism and reminded herself that dark elves were rarely known for such rangerlike acts.
This "rarely" intrigues me. As far as I know, canonically, Drizzt was the first good drow known to the surface in Faerun. Well, admittedly, later story developments with Vhaeraun and Eilistraee probably mess that up. Based on CURRENT canon, there are likely quite a few Naked moon-dancing drow on the surface. And while Vhaeraun is evil, his particular followers seem to allow for a bit of ideological variety in a way that Lolth's doesn't.
Not sure how many of these concepts were in the works though, when this book came out.
Fred has a good question: what happened to the Panther. Dove has no idea.
We have some scene shifting here: Drizzt spots Dove's campfire and wants to take a look.
Meanwhile, Dove and Gabriel are busy laughing at Fred's antics, while he cleans his clothes and mutters. Why is that funny?
“Oh, bother for this dirt!” [Fred] groaned. “Never, never will I get this outfit clean! I shall have to buy a new one.” He looked at Dove, who was futilely trying to hold a straight face. “Laugh if you will, Mistress Falconhand,” the dwarf admonished. “The price will come out of your purse, do not doubt!”
Why is your friend being upset funny? Seriously, why are you people so mean to him?
“A sorry day it is when one must buy fineries for a dwarf,” Gabriel put in, and at his words, Dove burst into laughter.
Wow. WOW. Hello, species-ism.
Roddy tells Fred to shut up, asking if he means to bring the drow down upon them. Gabriel glares, but Dove thinks Roddy has a point, if rudely made. So why do you have a campfire up?
These folks aren't incompetent though. They spot Guen in the trees, watching them. Roddy is actually the first to spot her, which I rather like. He's obnoxious and awful, but he's competent too.
They're closing in, but apparently Fred crashes out of the campsite, stumbling into Roddy. This alerts Guen, who runs. This happens:
Kellindil heard the barking and shouting in the distance, back by the camp, but had no way of knowing what had transpired. Any hesitation the elf had, however, was quickly dispelled when one voice called out clearly.
“Kill the murdering thing!” Roddy cried.
Thinking then that the panther or its drow companion must have attacked the campsite, Kellindil let his arrow fly. The enchanted dart buried itself deeply into Guenhwyvar’s flank as the panther rushed by.
Then came Dove’s call, berating Roddy. “Do not!” the ranger shouted. “The panther has done nothing to deserve our ire!”
I mean, you did set up an ambush for Guen, Dove. Kellindil is mad:
Dove and the others came upon him a moment later. Kellindil’s elven features, always angular and beautiful, seemed sharp as his angry glare fell over Roddy.
“You have misguided my shot, McGristle,” he said angrily. “On your words, I shot a creature undeserving of an arrow! I warn you once, and once alone, to never do so again.” After a final glare to show the mountain man how much he meant his words, Kellindil stalked off along the blood trail.
I mean, you didn't have to shoot either, dude.
Roddy is awful, don't get me wrong, but you guys are really trigger happy. And, I don't know, maybe if CERTAIN folks shared their theories more, other people in the group would be less likely to shoot first and ask questions later?
Guen gets back to Drizzt. He cuts out the bolt and sends her home. Understandably, he gets the wrong idea about all of this and decides to head off and try to avoid bloodshed. The chapter ends with Drizzt issuing a challenge of sorts:
“How far will you follow me?” Drizzt whispered into the morning breeze. He vowed in a somber but determined tone, “We shall see.”
no subject
Date: 2023-07-18 12:21 pm (UTC)Anywho, Roddy, as I recall is the reason Drizzt finally finds a place to call home.
no subject
Date: 2023-07-18 01:00 pm (UTC)Though I'll give Salvatore credit: Dove hits a nice balance of cautious and suspicious, but reasonably open-minded. Her assumptions about Drizzt make sense based on general drow behavior and don't seem based on personal bigotry.