Sojourn - Chapter Eighteen
Sep. 24th, 2023 04:28 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 a lot more preparation for a big ass battle. This chapter is titled "the battle of Mooshie's Grove". That's a good sign that we're gonna get a fight scene!
So we rejoin Drizzt and Montolio. Montolio's troubled - Graul has split his forces. Some are coming from the west, and some from the south, led by Caroak, the Winter Wolf. Montolio hadn't expected that alliance and he's worried.
Guen, by the way, knows what the winter wolf is and does not like the thought. Montolio clarifies:
“It’s a large creature,” Montolio went on, “and too smart for a wolf. I have fought Caroak before. Alone he could give us a time of it! With the worgs around him, and us busy fighting ores, he might have his way.”
Guenhwyvar growled a third time and tore the ground with great claws.
“Guenhwyvar will deal with Caroak,” Drizzt remarked.
Montolio moved over and grabbed the panther by the ears, holding Guenhwyvar’s gaze with his own sightless expression. “Ware the wolfs breath,” the ranger said. “A cone of frost, it is, that will freeze your muscles to your bones. I have seen a giant felled by it!” Montolio turned to Drizzt and knew that the drow wore a concerned expression.
I feel like you don't need to manhandle her, dude. She can understand you.
There is something interesting that the panther from the Astral Plane is somehow more natural than this winter wolf chap.
Montolio amends the tactics though: Guen has to keep Caroak's forces away while they deal with Graul, then they'll "make arrangements" for Caroak.
Then swats Guen hard on the scruff of the neck. Dude, what's your fucking problem?!
But she does run off "a black arrow aimed at the heart of doom".
When Graul's attack comes, Montolio yells at Drizzt to aim for the southern group only as they've got friends in the other group. Animal allies, including Bluster the bear, are attacking the western group.
I'm actually a bit surprised at the implication that Drizzt might have imperfect aim, and thus not be able to only shoot the enemies in the attack. But we're early in his life yet.
So anyway, Drizzt shoots the crossbow. Montolio lobs a few normal arrows over until he falls back to the center of his trapped trees. Drizzt spots him and drops a spell on an object above Montolio's head. It does say which one, I assume a Globe of Darkness.
Anyway, more proof of Drizzt not being infallible yet, the quarrels actually don't do that much. The traps are much more effective, and as the orcs see their companions' "pain and peril", it does slow them down.
Drizzt has one last shot:
With the commotion growing in the field, Drizzt paused and carefully considered his final shot. He noticed a large, finely outfitted orc watching from the closest boughs of the northern copse. Drizzt knew this was Graul, but his attention shifted immediately to the figure standing next to the ore king. “Damn,” the drow muttered, recognizing McGristle. Now he was torn, and he moved the crossbow back and forth between the adversaries. Drizzt wanted to shoot at Roddy, wanted to end his personal torment then and there. But Roddy was not an ore, and Drizzt found himself repulsed by the thought of killing a human.
This is Catti-brie and the duergar all over again. Cat's fine killing a shit ton of gully dwarves, but balks at one, provably evil human. It almost makes sense for Catti-brie, who is raised on the surface and likely has incorporated her adopted people's opinion about the gully dwarves. But Drizzt is new to everything on the surface. There's no reason for him to instinctively balk at killing a human.
I suppose, to be fair, McGristle has been more talk than action at this point. But the fact that he's basically helping lead the attack on an innocent former ally, should be enough to prove that he's evil.
This kind of thing is why I'm glad D&D has gone away from the "always evil races" idea.
Drizzt tells himself that Graul is the more important target. As it happens, he misses, hitting the trunk of the tree above Graul's head. Roddy grabs the king and pulls him back in the shadows while a stone giant takes their place and throws a boulder at Drizzt.
Kinda serves you right, dude.
The boulder misses, but comes close. A second shot takes out a support post of the bridge. Drizzt is "amazed and horrified" by the uncanny accuracy, even as he leaps out and tarzans himself a hold of some branches.
The leaders of the main host reach the wall, and some are taken out by traps.
Guen is in wait. Caroak is leading his charge. Guen pounces and we get cat and dog fight. Guen is magic, Caroak is "wizened and old" - meaning he's got experience to spare. There's ice blasts and a chase!
Drizzt, for his part, ends up kicking off his boots (?!) and tarzans himself toward the crossbow. He uses a flint to light the rags that tipped the quarrel on fire. But he's got an issue - his foot can't reach the trigger.
OH, that's why the lack of boots. He needs to shoot with his feet. Why, I'm not sure. Maybe it's too big. Okay.
Montolio has a good idea of what's going on. He hoots, calling down owls to bear down on the orcs who are trying to climb the rock wall. Not much damage, but confusion helps.
Bluster and company are doing well though. At one point, Bluster encounters a much smaller, quicker enemy. He misses though and Tephanis gets away. Tephanis is not fighting himself, but he now needs a better hiding place. Instead, he gets caught in a trap. Oops.
Drizzt's firey quarrel attracts attention, but happily somehow it leads to him being able to shoot. It sets off the brandy-filled trough. Woo. Fire trap!
Cat and dog fight continues: She gets up a tree and jumps down on Caroak, biting his ear. She manages to turn his head to the side so his ice breath gets his own followers. And then, she snaps his neck. Woo! Go kitty!
There's still the pack left though. And they ring around her. She's trapped.
Back to Montolio - the traps are working. Some quite funny:
One of the orcs found Montolio’s net, then, the hard way. It stumbled over a rope, fell facedown on the net, then went high into the air, one of its companions caught beside it. Neither of them could have imagined how much better off they were than those they had left behind, particularly the ore unsuspectingly straddling the knife-set rope. When the trees sprang up, so did this devilish trap, gutting the creature and lifting it head over heels into the air.
Flying orcs. Hee.
Montolio is also able to use the sound of the traps to shoot arrows. It's working well.
Drizzt is still in a tree. Guen is surrounded. She jumps twenty-feet up into a tree. Now she knows where to lead the wolves - they chase her to a chasm. She makes a great leap. The worgs cannot match. They'll have to go around the long way to follow. They seem like they're going to, but a sudden arrow shower discourages them. Kellindil and his reinforcements have arrived!
Drizzt uses faerie fire on the orc attackers hands, freaking them out. Some toss away their torches, one drops it on his mounts head. Poor worg. The worg attacks the orc in rage.
Finally, Drizzt gets the opportunity for some melee. He's got his scimitars though. He shouts out Montolio's taunt as he gets to his prepared spot. One foot on the butt of his hidden weapon.
Montolio ends up trading bow for sword too, but only to slash a rope. The shield, that had been empowered with the darkness spell, drops right to his waiting arm. Montolio, of course, is fine. The invading orcs - not so much.
Drizzt keeps taunting the orcs and the giant. It works, the giant charges. So what IS Drizzt planning?
When the giant got only two long strides from Drizzt, committed fully to its collision course, Drizzt dropped all of his weight onto his back foot. The ranseur’s butt dropped into the hole. Its tip angled up.
Drizzt leaped back at the moment the giant plowed into the ranseur. The weapon’s tip and hooked barbs disappeared into the giant’s belly, drove upward through its diaphragm and into its heart and lungs. The metal shaft bowed and seemed as if it would break as its butt end was driven a foot and more into the ground.
The ranseur held, and the giant was stopped cold. It dropped its club and rock, reached helplessly for the metal shaft with hands that had not the strength to even close around it. Huge eyes bulged in denial, in terror, and in absolute surprise. The great mouth opened wide and contorted weirdly, but could not even find the wind to scream.
...I don't understand how that happened. Drizzt finds himself about to cry out, but controls it. He realizes though, that what he'd been about to yell had been praise to Mielikki. So Montolio has a convert after all.
Drizzt gets a sense of righteousness in his heart...oh, that's Mielikki's fault. Okay then. And he runs up, slashing the giant's throat. Then uses him as a springboard to attack the orcs. The orcs break rank, and Drizzt cuts down the nearest ones.
Yeah, chasing down a fleeing opponent is fine. As long as he's not a human?
Twenty feet to his left, a ball of darkness rolls up. Hi Monty.
Whoa. Apparently the entire torch-bearing force is two orcs and three worgs. They're trying to get behind their enemy, thinking they could still win. Guen has something else in mind though. Oops.
Graul is inclined to give up at this point. Roddy is upset. We are told that if Graul had pushed the attack, his remaining forces, still more than fifty might have been successful. But Graul sees a bigger problem in the north. The old ranger and drow aren't worth the effort. Roddy is upset, of course.
Bear charges are pretty scary. They like swatting orcs. Meanwhile, Tephanis wakes up, the only living being on the field. The trap's got him good. And he's got no choice but to cut his foot off (it's only hanging by a piece of skin at this point) to escape. He does.
Ow.
So Drizzt and Montolio get stragglers. The elves are happy to report the battle is done. Kellindil is still concerned. He sends his kinfolk back, but he wants to stick around and investigate the real cause of this attack (figuring there's something beyond Graul). His kinfolk wish him well. He's an adventuring type after all, and tends to wander.
Roddy is griping at Graul. Graul doesn't like this and swings a club at him. He's decided Roddy brought ruin to them, and orders his minions to kill him. Roddy gets away, only to run into the pommel of a swinging sword.
Kellindil, the wielder of said sword, is not surprised. And the chapter ends.
So we rejoin Drizzt and Montolio. Montolio's troubled - Graul has split his forces. Some are coming from the west, and some from the south, led by Caroak, the Winter Wolf. Montolio hadn't expected that alliance and he's worried.
Guen, by the way, knows what the winter wolf is and does not like the thought. Montolio clarifies:
“It’s a large creature,” Montolio went on, “and too smart for a wolf. I have fought Caroak before. Alone he could give us a time of it! With the worgs around him, and us busy fighting ores, he might have his way.”
Guenhwyvar growled a third time and tore the ground with great claws.
“Guenhwyvar will deal with Caroak,” Drizzt remarked.
Montolio moved over and grabbed the panther by the ears, holding Guenhwyvar’s gaze with his own sightless expression. “Ware the wolfs breath,” the ranger said. “A cone of frost, it is, that will freeze your muscles to your bones. I have seen a giant felled by it!” Montolio turned to Drizzt and knew that the drow wore a concerned expression.
I feel like you don't need to manhandle her, dude. She can understand you.
There is something interesting that the panther from the Astral Plane is somehow more natural than this winter wolf chap.
Montolio amends the tactics though: Guen has to keep Caroak's forces away while they deal with Graul, then they'll "make arrangements" for Caroak.
Then swats Guen hard on the scruff of the neck. Dude, what's your fucking problem?!
But she does run off "a black arrow aimed at the heart of doom".
When Graul's attack comes, Montolio yells at Drizzt to aim for the southern group only as they've got friends in the other group. Animal allies, including Bluster the bear, are attacking the western group.
I'm actually a bit surprised at the implication that Drizzt might have imperfect aim, and thus not be able to only shoot the enemies in the attack. But we're early in his life yet.
So anyway, Drizzt shoots the crossbow. Montolio lobs a few normal arrows over until he falls back to the center of his trapped trees. Drizzt spots him and drops a spell on an object above Montolio's head. It does say which one, I assume a Globe of Darkness.
Anyway, more proof of Drizzt not being infallible yet, the quarrels actually don't do that much. The traps are much more effective, and as the orcs see their companions' "pain and peril", it does slow them down.
Drizzt has one last shot:
With the commotion growing in the field, Drizzt paused and carefully considered his final shot. He noticed a large, finely outfitted orc watching from the closest boughs of the northern copse. Drizzt knew this was Graul, but his attention shifted immediately to the figure standing next to the ore king. “Damn,” the drow muttered, recognizing McGristle. Now he was torn, and he moved the crossbow back and forth between the adversaries. Drizzt wanted to shoot at Roddy, wanted to end his personal torment then and there. But Roddy was not an ore, and Drizzt found himself repulsed by the thought of killing a human.
This is Catti-brie and the duergar all over again. Cat's fine killing a shit ton of gully dwarves, but balks at one, provably evil human. It almost makes sense for Catti-brie, who is raised on the surface and likely has incorporated her adopted people's opinion about the gully dwarves. But Drizzt is new to everything on the surface. There's no reason for him to instinctively balk at killing a human.
I suppose, to be fair, McGristle has been more talk than action at this point. But the fact that he's basically helping lead the attack on an innocent former ally, should be enough to prove that he's evil.
This kind of thing is why I'm glad D&D has gone away from the "always evil races" idea.
Drizzt tells himself that Graul is the more important target. As it happens, he misses, hitting the trunk of the tree above Graul's head. Roddy grabs the king and pulls him back in the shadows while a stone giant takes their place and throws a boulder at Drizzt.
Kinda serves you right, dude.
The boulder misses, but comes close. A second shot takes out a support post of the bridge. Drizzt is "amazed and horrified" by the uncanny accuracy, even as he leaps out and tarzans himself a hold of some branches.
The leaders of the main host reach the wall, and some are taken out by traps.
Guen is in wait. Caroak is leading his charge. Guen pounces and we get cat and dog fight. Guen is magic, Caroak is "wizened and old" - meaning he's got experience to spare. There's ice blasts and a chase!
Drizzt, for his part, ends up kicking off his boots (?!) and tarzans himself toward the crossbow. He uses a flint to light the rags that tipped the quarrel on fire. But he's got an issue - his foot can't reach the trigger.
OH, that's why the lack of boots. He needs to shoot with his feet. Why, I'm not sure. Maybe it's too big. Okay.
Montolio has a good idea of what's going on. He hoots, calling down owls to bear down on the orcs who are trying to climb the rock wall. Not much damage, but confusion helps.
Bluster and company are doing well though. At one point, Bluster encounters a much smaller, quicker enemy. He misses though and Tephanis gets away. Tephanis is not fighting himself, but he now needs a better hiding place. Instead, he gets caught in a trap. Oops.
Drizzt's firey quarrel attracts attention, but happily somehow it leads to him being able to shoot. It sets off the brandy-filled trough. Woo. Fire trap!
Cat and dog fight continues: She gets up a tree and jumps down on Caroak, biting his ear. She manages to turn his head to the side so his ice breath gets his own followers. And then, she snaps his neck. Woo! Go kitty!
There's still the pack left though. And they ring around her. She's trapped.
Back to Montolio - the traps are working. Some quite funny:
One of the orcs found Montolio’s net, then, the hard way. It stumbled over a rope, fell facedown on the net, then went high into the air, one of its companions caught beside it. Neither of them could have imagined how much better off they were than those they had left behind, particularly the ore unsuspectingly straddling the knife-set rope. When the trees sprang up, so did this devilish trap, gutting the creature and lifting it head over heels into the air.
Flying orcs. Hee.
Montolio is also able to use the sound of the traps to shoot arrows. It's working well.
Drizzt is still in a tree. Guen is surrounded. She jumps twenty-feet up into a tree. Now she knows where to lead the wolves - they chase her to a chasm. She makes a great leap. The worgs cannot match. They'll have to go around the long way to follow. They seem like they're going to, but a sudden arrow shower discourages them. Kellindil and his reinforcements have arrived!
Drizzt uses faerie fire on the orc attackers hands, freaking them out. Some toss away their torches, one drops it on his mounts head. Poor worg. The worg attacks the orc in rage.
Finally, Drizzt gets the opportunity for some melee. He's got his scimitars though. He shouts out Montolio's taunt as he gets to his prepared spot. One foot on the butt of his hidden weapon.
Montolio ends up trading bow for sword too, but only to slash a rope. The shield, that had been empowered with the darkness spell, drops right to his waiting arm. Montolio, of course, is fine. The invading orcs - not so much.
Drizzt keeps taunting the orcs and the giant. It works, the giant charges. So what IS Drizzt planning?
When the giant got only two long strides from Drizzt, committed fully to its collision course, Drizzt dropped all of his weight onto his back foot. The ranseur’s butt dropped into the hole. Its tip angled up.
Drizzt leaped back at the moment the giant plowed into the ranseur. The weapon’s tip and hooked barbs disappeared into the giant’s belly, drove upward through its diaphragm and into its heart and lungs. The metal shaft bowed and seemed as if it would break as its butt end was driven a foot and more into the ground.
The ranseur held, and the giant was stopped cold. It dropped its club and rock, reached helplessly for the metal shaft with hands that had not the strength to even close around it. Huge eyes bulged in denial, in terror, and in absolute surprise. The great mouth opened wide and contorted weirdly, but could not even find the wind to scream.
...I don't understand how that happened. Drizzt finds himself about to cry out, but controls it. He realizes though, that what he'd been about to yell had been praise to Mielikki. So Montolio has a convert after all.
Drizzt gets a sense of righteousness in his heart...oh, that's Mielikki's fault. Okay then. And he runs up, slashing the giant's throat. Then uses him as a springboard to attack the orcs. The orcs break rank, and Drizzt cuts down the nearest ones.
Yeah, chasing down a fleeing opponent is fine. As long as he's not a human?
Twenty feet to his left, a ball of darkness rolls up. Hi Monty.
Whoa. Apparently the entire torch-bearing force is two orcs and three worgs. They're trying to get behind their enemy, thinking they could still win. Guen has something else in mind though. Oops.
Graul is inclined to give up at this point. Roddy is upset. We are told that if Graul had pushed the attack, his remaining forces, still more than fifty might have been successful. But Graul sees a bigger problem in the north. The old ranger and drow aren't worth the effort. Roddy is upset, of course.
Bear charges are pretty scary. They like swatting orcs. Meanwhile, Tephanis wakes up, the only living being on the field. The trap's got him good. And he's got no choice but to cut his foot off (it's only hanging by a piece of skin at this point) to escape. He does.
Ow.
So Drizzt and Montolio get stragglers. The elves are happy to report the battle is done. Kellindil is still concerned. He sends his kinfolk back, but he wants to stick around and investigate the real cause of this attack (figuring there's something beyond Graul). His kinfolk wish him well. He's an adventuring type after all, and tends to wander.
Roddy is griping at Graul. Graul doesn't like this and swings a club at him. He's decided Roddy brought ruin to them, and orders his minions to kill him. Roddy gets away, only to run into the pommel of a swinging sword.
Kellindil, the wielder of said sword, is not surprised. And the chapter ends.
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Date: 2023-09-25 05:05 pm (UTC)That's all I can really say at the moment.
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Date: 2023-09-26 01:39 am (UTC)