Streams of Silver - Chapter Twelve

[kalinara]

So last time, the adversaries made alliances as they beat our heroes to Silverymoon. At least a certain amount of suspense is absent, given that half of the group is after something that is buried under a mountain of snow. But the other half is still effectively a threat.

This time, we get to rejoin our protagonists in "the Trollmoors".



So we start out with a pretty decent description:

This was a land of blackened earth and misted bogs, where decay and an imposing sensation of peril overruled even the sunniest of skies. The landscape climbed and dropped continually, and the crest of each rise, mounted in hopes of an end to the place by any traveler here, brought only despair and more of the same unchanging scenes.

The brave Riders of Nesme ventured into the moors each spring to set long lines of fires and drive the monsters of the hostile land far from the borders of their town. The season was late and several weeks had passed since the last burning, but even now the low dells lay heavy with smoke and the waves of heat from the great fires still shimmered in the air around the thickest of the charred piles of wood.

We're told that Bruenor had led the group into the Trollmoors out of defiance, but a day in he was beginning to doubt that decision. They all have to be very alert for hazards like mud pits. Meanwhile, Drizzt can smell trolls.

So anyway, Bruenor had thought they could make it through in five days if they keep up their pace. But he wasn't counting on the backtracking necessary to avoid bogs. But at least they didn't encounter trolls, or "any other kind of fiend".

Drizzt ends up keeping watch, the whole night, because Drizzt is the only one with good enough senses. He doesn't think anyone will actually be sleeping though. And apparently when it goes dark in the Trollmoors, it goes DARK. Lots of noises, and stenchs. Drizzt ends up commanding the group to pack. up. Regis complains of course, but there really isn't much of a choice.

Drizzt leads, and sometimes the group has to hold hands to keep from stumbling. Wulfgar keeps the rear. It sounds like a cute mental picture. Eventually the moon rises, and the others can now see the trolls that are gathering around them. They start running, with Wulfgar swatting the trolls away with his hammer as Drizzt keeps leading the way. Even Regis is able to keep up.

Eventually Drizzt realizes running is futile so he leads them to defensible ground: a ten foot high mound, that they can reach by climbing a tree. Bruenor has trouble, but Wulfgar gets him up. (Regis is "surprisingly nimble", as though dexterity isn't the trait halflings and thieves are known for). Drizzt is the last one left, fighting on the ground. Wulfgar hesitates, but Drizzt commands him to go, pointing out that his delay doesn't help. Wulfgar reluctantly obeys. Drizzt runs into a wave of trolls, while his friends watch horrified.

So then we get a reasonably chaotic fight sequence, as the trolls try to ascend the mound. It looks hopeless for Bruenor and Regis at one point, but Drizzt, of course, comes to their rescue. He runs off to dispatch more trolls while Bruenor and Wulfgar gape. Then they go back to fighting too.

We're given a vague explanation for Drizzt's survival, but who cares really? I don't think anyone reads these books or plays Dungeons and Dragons for realism. Anyway, he's with the group now and the focus on fighting.

Regis ends up being the one to come up with the solution. He realizes that the dismembered limbs are still moving, and he ends up pulling out his tinderbox and flint and igniting one of them. He then uses it as a torch and waves it in the face of another troll attacker. Its head "virtually exploded into flame". It then falls from the mound into more trolls, and the fire spreads.

Fire is the troll's one weakness, we're told. Just chopping off limbs or heads doesn't kill them, instead it leads to two more trolls! But burning works. You'd think these guys would have known that. Or someone from Longsaddle could have told them to bring torches. But whatever, Regis gets his heroic bit.

Bruenor has oil in his pouch, while Wulfgar yanks a sapling from the ground, Bruenor chops it to pieces with his axe, which seems like a very good way to damage a weapon, but then they don't really have a lot of choice. They end up winning the day, but no one gets much sleep.

In the morning, they resume their travel. At one point, Wulfgar throws his hammer at some trees, to hit a monster hiding there. Even he doesn't know what caused him to do that, but they're all running on instinct.

They end up finding a massive bog, and Drizzt suggests that they try to break out of the moors: they might have gone east enough that they'll emerge past Nesme's influence. Bruenor is concerned about being caught along the bank. Wulfgar suggests crossing. None of them know how the trolls take to water, but it's worth a try. Drizzt orders them to get some logs to bind together as a combination raft/buoy. Drizzt and Wulfgar are able to walk at least part of the way, while Bruenor and Regis are on the logs.

Then there's a troll ambush. Regis gets thrown off the log. Wulfgar is hit in the chest by one, but is sturdy enough not to move. The one attacking "the ever-alert Drow" gets two scimitars in the face, because god forbid Drizzt get caught off guard. They end up winning (and Regis is fine). Since they can't burn the trolls, they just hack them up farther, hoping that they can mutilate them enough that they won't come back any time soon.

I feel like that might mean a LOT of them will come back, but again, I can't really see a better solution. This is a pretty nice peril set up, all things considered. And I'm not really seeing any easy solutions that they're missing. I like that.

While the others are preoccupied with hacking at trolls, Regis ends up drifting into the path of a giant worm. Regis attempts to use his ruby on it, which doesn't exactly mind control the thing (it really doesn't have a mind), but the dance of light does distract it long enough for the others to come to his rescue.

The fight is pretty good. Drizzt uses globe of darkness to disorient the thing (Regis also gets disoriented, but recovers quickly enough). Wulfgar and Bruenor get to hack and slash. Guenhwyvar, who got summoned at some point, also gets to play. Drizzt goes archer for this one.

Eventually they win, as the worm "topple[s] into the bog in a sleep that would outlast any it had ever known - the endless sleep of death".

So the chapter ends there. There aren't very many good character beats, but as an action sequence, I can't complain. It's nice and tight and tense. I feel like Harkle Harpell probably should have given them a crash course on trolls while they were in Longsaddle, since then they might have known to bring torches. But all's well that ends well.