Streams of Silver - Chapter Eighteen
Jun. 6th, 2020 01:08 am![[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, Catti-brie actually got to do something! And full credit to her, it was really impressive! And when I think about it, I have to admit that Catti-brie has been having the most satisfying arc in this book so far.
So now, back to the others.
Our heroes are now standing dramatically on a ledge above a deep, rocky gorge. Bruenor identifies it as Keeper's Dale. Fortunately, there's a path down, which Bruenor remembers. Apparently there's a song about it that all of the young dwarves of Mithril Hall were taught.
It does occur to me that we don't actually know that much about Bruenor's people in Icewind Dale. Are there any elders? Is Bruenor the only one old enough to remember Mithril Hall? Bruenor doesn't seem elderly for a dwarf, so it seems hard to believe the other survivors would all be dead by now. Might any of them remember more about the place and its dangers?
How do they feel about the fact that their king has just up and decided to go on this quest? Do they think he'll succeed? Or do they think this is a fool's chase? Who's sitting as regent in his place?
So anyway, Bruenor orients himself and shows the party the way down: a long line of carved footsteps along the cliff face that are only visible from one angle. I like this kind of thing a lot. We're often told that dwarves are master stone craftsmen, so I like seeing it utilized.
Regis protests, but Bruenor isn't listening. Drizzt and Wulfgar sympathize, and Wulfgar even scoops him up in his arms when the wind gets bad. I do love Wulfgar.
When they reach the bottom, there are some giant stone monoliths. Bruenor recognizes them but doesn't know what they are or how they got there. The description of the area is nicely atmospheric:
But whatever the reason, they had stood a silent and imposing vigil upon the canyon floor for uncounted centuries, ancient before the dwarves even arrived, casting ominous shadows and belittling mere mortals who had ever walked here.
And the pillars bent the wind into an eerie and mournful cry and gave the entire floor the sensation of something beyond the natural, timeless like the Holdfast, and imposing a realization of mortality upon onlookers, as though the monoliths mocked the living with their ageless existence.
I admit, sometimes Mr. Salvatore's overblown prose really does work for me.
Bruenor takes them to the place where the secret door is supposed to be. They don't see any sign of it yet, but their search is interrupted by Catti-brie's arrival. They're, of course, glad to see her, but horrified at her bruised and bloodied condition. Bruenor and Wulfgar make threats toward whoever hurt her, while Regis hangs back. He has some idea of what happened.
So Catti-brie gets down to the point: the two dwarves from the beginning are dead, and there's a man chasing Regis, who captured her when she tried to follow them and warn them. Reluctantly, Regis tells them what we already know: The man is Artemis Entreri, and he's here from Regis's old boss for the ruby gem.
Catti-brie adds that Entreri is being assisted by wizards from Luskan, and when she mentions Akar Kessell, Drizzt understands what they want. She also warns them of the construct, though she believes that it's gone. She's justifiably proud of having crushed it in an avalanche.
Catti-brie suspects also that Jierdan is dead, and while she doesn't, and shouldn't, feel guilty, she does pity him a bit for "he was a decent sort".
Um, he DID assist with keeping you prisoner. I understand that being a somewhat honorable man in a place like Luskan is an uphill battle, but I also think maybe he could have avoided hitting a prisoner as often as he did.
Bruenor isn't particularly sympathetic to Jierdan, though he's glad Catti-brie's here, because she'll get to see the splendors he'd told her about. For his part, Regis is ashamed and unhappy. And he really should be. It's not wrong that he fled Entreri, but things might have been different if he bothered to warn anyone that he spotted him.
Wulfgar, being the best character in the book, is immediately sympathetic to Regis, and tells him that there's no shame in acting to survive, though he should have told them about it.
Aw, look at my fictional son. He's grown so much. It's a toss up between him and Catti-brie as to who got the best growth arc in the book, I think. Hers is the most obvious, but I think he's more visibly changed. Bruenor on the otherhand is pissed, and it's hard to blame him:
Wulfgar was quick to block Bruenor's path to Regis, though he was truly amazed at the sudden shift in the dwarf. He had never seen Bruenor so consumed by emotion. Catti-brie, too, looked on, stunned.
"'Twas not the halfling's fault," she said. "And the wizards would've come anyway!"
Drizzt returned to them then. "No one has made the stair yet," he said, but when he took a better notice of the situation, he realized that his words had not been heard.
A long and uncomfortable silence descended upon them, then Wulfgar took command.
"We have come too far along this road to argue and fight among ourselves!" he scolded Bruenor.
Bruenor looked at him blankly, not knowing how to react to the uncharacteristic stand Wulfgar had taken against him. "Bah!" the dwarf said finally, throwing up his hands in frustration. "The fool halfling'll get us killed . . . but not to worry!" he grumbled sarcastically, moving back to the wall to search for the door.
I'm not entirely sure why Wulfgar is described as "taking command" here when he's not doing anything different than Catti-brie is. But it's possible that given his role as slave/prisoner/foster son, Wulfgar was less likely to stand up to him.
Drizzt, of course, is more concerned with Regis's well-being, telling him to take heart and that Bruenor's anger will pass. No one, besides Catti-brie, has found the stairs yet. (And Catti-brie notes that even having seen them climb down, she had trouble finding them.) So they're going to continue searching.
Unfortunately, opening the secret door isn't working. Magic expires, apparently, which means that the magic word that Bruenor knows doesn't work anymore. A new word "must be named", and no one knows how to do that. They end up searching into the night, and then sleeping uneasily, with Drizzt keeping watch.
The scene shifts to Entreri and Sydney. Entreri has made camp a few miles down the trail and is searching for a campfire, though he figures our heroes are smart enough not to light them. Sydney is resting. He thinks about leaving her behind, which normally he would do, but Entreri figures he needs to wait and regroup anyway.
I do like that as much as Entreri is an asshole, he's not a counterproductive one. He rarely sabotages himself. And here, since he's waiting anyway, he has no reason to abandon a useful ally. When Sydney wakes up, Entreri fills her in on the fates of the late, unlamented Jierdan and Bok.
Entreri tells Sydney that when he sees to her needs, they'll split up. They'll pursue their own hunts, though he warns her away from taking what is his. Sydney has an idea though: she wants him to take her to where Bok is buried. Sydney then tells Entreri that their quest together isn't over, and she and Bok can still be useful to him. And indeed, Bok extracts himself from the rock, amazing Entreri, and they resume the chase.
I'm glad Bok is back. It occurs to me that it can be tricky to make a satisfying final confrontation when your heroes outnumber your villains. Usually it works because the villains have faceless armies or something, but Sydney and Entreri don't have that. They're two people vs five now. Their one advantage is that no one in Drizzt's group is a magic user. Bok evens the odds a bit more.
Back to our heroes: it's morning and they still have no luck. Bruenor is trying every chant he can think of. Wulfgar has a different plan, he methodically starts tapping the wall with his hammer as he listens carefully. Eventually, he gets lucky and hits a spot that starts to glow and opens a door.
Bruenor realizes that it must be because of the magic weapon, it's the only trade the dwarves would accept (...which doesn't make sense because dwarves MAKE their weapons), and that's how visitors would come inside.
They make their way into the entry hall, which has burning torches. Apparently that's a dwarf thing and not an indicator that anyone is here. The chamber is filled with the remains of many dwarves. Ew. It was apparently the site of the final battle. Bruenor realizes that the stories that he and the other younger dwarves heard at Settlestone about a last battle were true.
Okay, that actually answers some of my earlier questions.
Drizzt studies the battlefield. Interestingly, it looks like dwarf fought against dwarf, but Drizzt notices something about the skeletons: some of them, the ones in strange armor, are Duergar, or gray drow, who live underground.
Bruenor for his part finds two skeletons lying back to back, with a pile of gray dwarves around them. He knows who they are even before seeing the foaming mug crest (...I still think that sounds stereotypical, tbh): his father, Bangor, and his grandfather, Garumn, the king of Mithril Hall. Bruenor figures that Garumn cast some kind of curse when he died, and that's why the gray dwarves didn't return to loot.
Bruenor takes Garumn's remains into a side chamber and emerges, wearing his armor, which had been an heirloom from Bruenor's namesake, a hero of the clan. Bruenor looks very very grand (except for the stupid mug standard on his solid gold shield - which also sounds quite ineffective. Gold is soft!). He claims himself eighth king of Mithril Hall and the chapter ends.
So now, back to the others.
Our heroes are now standing dramatically on a ledge above a deep, rocky gorge. Bruenor identifies it as Keeper's Dale. Fortunately, there's a path down, which Bruenor remembers. Apparently there's a song about it that all of the young dwarves of Mithril Hall were taught.
It does occur to me that we don't actually know that much about Bruenor's people in Icewind Dale. Are there any elders? Is Bruenor the only one old enough to remember Mithril Hall? Bruenor doesn't seem elderly for a dwarf, so it seems hard to believe the other survivors would all be dead by now. Might any of them remember more about the place and its dangers?
How do they feel about the fact that their king has just up and decided to go on this quest? Do they think he'll succeed? Or do they think this is a fool's chase? Who's sitting as regent in his place?
So anyway, Bruenor orients himself and shows the party the way down: a long line of carved footsteps along the cliff face that are only visible from one angle. I like this kind of thing a lot. We're often told that dwarves are master stone craftsmen, so I like seeing it utilized.
Regis protests, but Bruenor isn't listening. Drizzt and Wulfgar sympathize, and Wulfgar even scoops him up in his arms when the wind gets bad. I do love Wulfgar.
When they reach the bottom, there are some giant stone monoliths. Bruenor recognizes them but doesn't know what they are or how they got there. The description of the area is nicely atmospheric:
But whatever the reason, they had stood a silent and imposing vigil upon the canyon floor for uncounted centuries, ancient before the dwarves even arrived, casting ominous shadows and belittling mere mortals who had ever walked here.
And the pillars bent the wind into an eerie and mournful cry and gave the entire floor the sensation of something beyond the natural, timeless like the Holdfast, and imposing a realization of mortality upon onlookers, as though the monoliths mocked the living with their ageless existence.
I admit, sometimes Mr. Salvatore's overblown prose really does work for me.
Bruenor takes them to the place where the secret door is supposed to be. They don't see any sign of it yet, but their search is interrupted by Catti-brie's arrival. They're, of course, glad to see her, but horrified at her bruised and bloodied condition. Bruenor and Wulfgar make threats toward whoever hurt her, while Regis hangs back. He has some idea of what happened.
So Catti-brie gets down to the point: the two dwarves from the beginning are dead, and there's a man chasing Regis, who captured her when she tried to follow them and warn them. Reluctantly, Regis tells them what we already know: The man is Artemis Entreri, and he's here from Regis's old boss for the ruby gem.
Catti-brie adds that Entreri is being assisted by wizards from Luskan, and when she mentions Akar Kessell, Drizzt understands what they want. She also warns them of the construct, though she believes that it's gone. She's justifiably proud of having crushed it in an avalanche.
Catti-brie suspects also that Jierdan is dead, and while she doesn't, and shouldn't, feel guilty, she does pity him a bit for "he was a decent sort".
Um, he DID assist with keeping you prisoner. I understand that being a somewhat honorable man in a place like Luskan is an uphill battle, but I also think maybe he could have avoided hitting a prisoner as often as he did.
Bruenor isn't particularly sympathetic to Jierdan, though he's glad Catti-brie's here, because she'll get to see the splendors he'd told her about. For his part, Regis is ashamed and unhappy. And he really should be. It's not wrong that he fled Entreri, but things might have been different if he bothered to warn anyone that he spotted him.
Wulfgar, being the best character in the book, is immediately sympathetic to Regis, and tells him that there's no shame in acting to survive, though he should have told them about it.
Aw, look at my fictional son. He's grown so much. It's a toss up between him and Catti-brie as to who got the best growth arc in the book, I think. Hers is the most obvious, but I think he's more visibly changed. Bruenor on the otherhand is pissed, and it's hard to blame him:
Wulfgar was quick to block Bruenor's path to Regis, though he was truly amazed at the sudden shift in the dwarf. He had never seen Bruenor so consumed by emotion. Catti-brie, too, looked on, stunned.
"'Twas not the halfling's fault," she said. "And the wizards would've come anyway!"
Drizzt returned to them then. "No one has made the stair yet," he said, but when he took a better notice of the situation, he realized that his words had not been heard.
A long and uncomfortable silence descended upon them, then Wulfgar took command.
"We have come too far along this road to argue and fight among ourselves!" he scolded Bruenor.
Bruenor looked at him blankly, not knowing how to react to the uncharacteristic stand Wulfgar had taken against him. "Bah!" the dwarf said finally, throwing up his hands in frustration. "The fool halfling'll get us killed . . . but not to worry!" he grumbled sarcastically, moving back to the wall to search for the door.
I'm not entirely sure why Wulfgar is described as "taking command" here when he's not doing anything different than Catti-brie is. But it's possible that given his role as slave/prisoner/foster son, Wulfgar was less likely to stand up to him.
Drizzt, of course, is more concerned with Regis's well-being, telling him to take heart and that Bruenor's anger will pass. No one, besides Catti-brie, has found the stairs yet. (And Catti-brie notes that even having seen them climb down, she had trouble finding them.) So they're going to continue searching.
Unfortunately, opening the secret door isn't working. Magic expires, apparently, which means that the magic word that Bruenor knows doesn't work anymore. A new word "must be named", and no one knows how to do that. They end up searching into the night, and then sleeping uneasily, with Drizzt keeping watch.
The scene shifts to Entreri and Sydney. Entreri has made camp a few miles down the trail and is searching for a campfire, though he figures our heroes are smart enough not to light them. Sydney is resting. He thinks about leaving her behind, which normally he would do, but Entreri figures he needs to wait and regroup anyway.
I do like that as much as Entreri is an asshole, he's not a counterproductive one. He rarely sabotages himself. And here, since he's waiting anyway, he has no reason to abandon a useful ally. When Sydney wakes up, Entreri fills her in on the fates of the late, unlamented Jierdan and Bok.
Entreri tells Sydney that when he sees to her needs, they'll split up. They'll pursue their own hunts, though he warns her away from taking what is his. Sydney has an idea though: she wants him to take her to where Bok is buried. Sydney then tells Entreri that their quest together isn't over, and she and Bok can still be useful to him. And indeed, Bok extracts himself from the rock, amazing Entreri, and they resume the chase.
I'm glad Bok is back. It occurs to me that it can be tricky to make a satisfying final confrontation when your heroes outnumber your villains. Usually it works because the villains have faceless armies or something, but Sydney and Entreri don't have that. They're two people vs five now. Their one advantage is that no one in Drizzt's group is a magic user. Bok evens the odds a bit more.
Back to our heroes: it's morning and they still have no luck. Bruenor is trying every chant he can think of. Wulfgar has a different plan, he methodically starts tapping the wall with his hammer as he listens carefully. Eventually, he gets lucky and hits a spot that starts to glow and opens a door.
Bruenor realizes that it must be because of the magic weapon, it's the only trade the dwarves would accept (...which doesn't make sense because dwarves MAKE their weapons), and that's how visitors would come inside.
They make their way into the entry hall, which has burning torches. Apparently that's a dwarf thing and not an indicator that anyone is here. The chamber is filled with the remains of many dwarves. Ew. It was apparently the site of the final battle. Bruenor realizes that the stories that he and the other younger dwarves heard at Settlestone about a last battle were true.
Okay, that actually answers some of my earlier questions.
Drizzt studies the battlefield. Interestingly, it looks like dwarf fought against dwarf, but Drizzt notices something about the skeletons: some of them, the ones in strange armor, are Duergar, or gray drow, who live underground.
Bruenor for his part finds two skeletons lying back to back, with a pile of gray dwarves around them. He knows who they are even before seeing the foaming mug crest (...I still think that sounds stereotypical, tbh): his father, Bangor, and his grandfather, Garumn, the king of Mithril Hall. Bruenor figures that Garumn cast some kind of curse when he died, and that's why the gray dwarves didn't return to loot.
Bruenor takes Garumn's remains into a side chamber and emerges, wearing his armor, which had been an heirloom from Bruenor's namesake, a hero of the clan. Bruenor looks very very grand (except for the stupid mug standard on his solid gold shield - which also sounds quite ineffective. Gold is soft!). He claims himself eighth king of Mithril Hall and the chapter ends.