The Halfling's Gem - Chapter 5
Nov. 29th, 2020 11:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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i_read_whatSo last time, Drizzt tried out his magic mask and Wulfgar tried out some character growth and they managed to hire a ship to get them south. And while bantering about Drizzt's propensity to collect magical scimitars in a society based at least loosely on medieval Europe, came to a pretty interesting realization.
If you recall, Bruenor Battlehammer met his end in Streams of Silver while plummeting to the ground on the back of a burning dragon. Drizzt has just learned that when this happened, Bruenor had been carrying the scimitar named Icingdeath, which magically protects its wielder from flame.
I'm not sure if that would really protect the wielder from CRASHING INTO THE GROUND on said dragon, but we're going to go with that, because...
Well.
At the beginning of chapter 5 (called "Ashes" by the way), we're with a mysterious figure. He's in disguise, trying to avoid a bunch of duergar (which he calls scum in his narration. That's nice), he also possesses a very fine Mithril Axe.
I think we can guess where we are and who we're with, but Salvatore's going to stretch this out a bit longer.
Just to add to the "mystery", the figure dips his finger into a pile of embers and feels no pain, as he renews his disguise by covering his red hair and pale skin with the ashes.
The "mysterious figure" is confronted by some of the duergar, who recognize that he's not of their clan (McUduck). He uses the name of a gray dwarf he had chopped down just the morning before, and I wonder how it came about that the fellow gave his name before dying. Anyway, he claims to be lost on patrol.
Happily for me, the duergar aren't actually stupid. They're wondering why someone from "Clan Trilk" would come to their tunnels, and why he's alone, and why there's a red patch in his beard. Our mysterious figure realizes the jig is up, stalls for a bit with a distracting line about a drow, and tricks one into looking at the "wicked blade" he'd found.
Said duergar gets an axe to the face for his trouble. I do like Bruenor.
Because of course, that's who this is. He takes out these guys and a few more who join in. When the last of his opponents asks who he is, he indeed identifies himself as "Bruenor Battlehammer, rightful king of Mithril Hall.".
The dude tries to flee, but Bruenor's too quick for him. As he heads back to fix his disguise, he says "twenty-two". Which is apparently how many duergar he's killed in the last few weeks.
a) counting seems kind of psychopathic dude
b) actually, going by what these guys are capable of in later books, I think twenty two dead opponents over the span of two weeks is really slacking off. Are you on vacation, Bruenor?
We get some reminiscence about what happened at the end of the last book. Bruenor had lost consciousness on dragonback, but woke up, unburned. He's not sure how long he was there, but figures his friends (and surrogate son and adopted daughter) would have escaped by now. He is also pretty thrilled that Drizzt is alive, for if you recall, they'd briefly assumed he was dead:
The image of the drow's lavender eyes staring at him from the wall of the gorge as the dragon had glided past in its descent remained firmly etched in Bruenor's mind. Even now, weeks later as far as he could figure, he used that image of the indomitable Drizzt Do'Urden as a litany against the hopelessness of his own situation.
Anyway, Bruenor's kind of stuck down here. Shimmergloom crashed at the very bottom of the gorge, and the best Bruenor has been able to do is to sneak into the lower mines, THROUGH the army of gray dwarves, all of whom are on edge because their leader (Shimmergloom) is dead.
Bruenor's been making progress, but it's risky, especially as he's heading straight into the largest part of the army. He can hear the furnaces of the undercity, and his disguise hasn't even held up to close scrutiny NOW. But well, he's not going to worry about that now.
There's a quick "comedic" moment when a duergar that Bruenor thought he'd killed manages to struggle to his feet, and Bruenor casually drops his axe blade on his head.
Look, I get that we're dealing with a novel based on a tabletop game, and that, at least at the time this was written, the alignments were hardcore set in stone. But I'd still feel a little better with less casual murder. I'm not saying Bruenor shouldn't fight his way out, or that he's wrong to take what advantage he gets. I just wish there was a bit more acknowledgment that he's killing PEOPLE not just wiping away obstacles.
That said, I do like that Bruenor gets shit done. (Also WEEKS? What HAVE Wulfgar and Drizzt been doing that they're so far behind?)
So Bruenor makes it to the undercity. The description is pretty swanky.
For the first time in nearly two hundred years, Bruenor Battlehammer looked down upon the great undercity of Mithril Hall. Set in a huge chasm, with walls tiered into steps and lined with decorated doorways, this massive chamber had once housed the entirety of Clan Battlehammer with many rooms to spare.
The place had remained exactly as the dwarf remembered it, and now, as in those distant years of his youth, many of the furnaces were bright with fire and the floor level teemed with the hunched forms of dwarven workers. How many times had young Bruenor and his friends looked down upon the magnificence of this place and heard the chiming of the smithies' hammers and the heavy sighing of the huge bellows? he wondered.
I do feel for Bruenor here.
So Bruenor, who is clearly not a character designed for stealth, is playing the sneak game, trying to avoid notice as he figures his way out. He notes that the tunnels across from where he stood should lead him out. There's a point where, to shore himself, he reminds himself that he's the rightful king here. I like it. It's a very human moment. Pun mostly unintended.
Bruenor keeps pushing forward, and finds himself bathed in the bright light of the furnace. This actually is helpful, because duergar are "creatures of the dark" and are keeping their hoods pulled down to protect them from the light.
I'm not sure why the dwarves, who ALSO live underground, are adapted better to the light but let's go with it.
There's a downside though, as Bruenor starts to realize, the heat from the furnace is making him sweat, eventually streaking his disguise. He gets to the other side of the chasm and just as he starts up the stairs, he's spotted by a dumbfounded gray dwarf above him. He dives for his sword, but Bruenor's ready, "dr[iving] his head between the duergar's knees". This headbutt to the nutsack also manages to shatter one kneecap. Unfortunately the soldier is still conscious hwe he lands, and he calls the alert.
Bruenor's surrounded now. He's made it to the next tier, but there are a lot of duergar coming at him. He has a desperate plan, wherein he drops from above down onto the duergar below him, and chops his way through. He ends up fleeing through the furnaces. Thanks to trusty Icingdeath, he survives to climb the chimney. It's desperate, but he's able to hold his breath while they try smoking him out, until he finds a side tunnel that had been intended once for cleaning staff. He's exhausted, but he keeps moving, finding other chimneys and places to climb.
He's not out of the woods yet though, as his travels take him across the path of a giant spider. He wins, but in the process they end up falling back down into the undercity. Happily a less busy section. He starts back up the shaft, ignoring his pain and the effects of spider venom. Eventually, he gets to the exit, which is blocked by a grate. Crap.
Bruenor thinks about how Wulfgar could break it, and in exhausted delirium, begs "Lend me yer strength, me big friend". Maybe it works, as we're told that hundreds of miles away, Wulfgar is dreaming of Bruenor. And Bruenor DOES manage to bend a bar of the grate low enough to slip out. Bruenor manages to get halfway through the hole, but is too exhausted to continue and passes out, with his legs still dangling over a thousand foot drop.
The chapter ends.
That was pretty fun, I think. Bruenor rarely gets center stage, and here we get some emotion, some seemingly insurmountable odds, and long lost knowledge coming into play. I could wish Bruenor got a more dignified resting place (we know Salvatore would never let Drizzt pass out while dangling like that), but he'll recover. Welcome back, Bruenor.
If you recall, Bruenor Battlehammer met his end in Streams of Silver while plummeting to the ground on the back of a burning dragon. Drizzt has just learned that when this happened, Bruenor had been carrying the scimitar named Icingdeath, which magically protects its wielder from flame.
I'm not sure if that would really protect the wielder from CRASHING INTO THE GROUND on said dragon, but we're going to go with that, because...
Well.
At the beginning of chapter 5 (called "Ashes" by the way), we're with a mysterious figure. He's in disguise, trying to avoid a bunch of duergar (which he calls scum in his narration. That's nice), he also possesses a very fine Mithril Axe.
I think we can guess where we are and who we're with, but Salvatore's going to stretch this out a bit longer.
Just to add to the "mystery", the figure dips his finger into a pile of embers and feels no pain, as he renews his disguise by covering his red hair and pale skin with the ashes.
The "mysterious figure" is confronted by some of the duergar, who recognize that he's not of their clan (McUduck). He uses the name of a gray dwarf he had chopped down just the morning before, and I wonder how it came about that the fellow gave his name before dying. Anyway, he claims to be lost on patrol.
Happily for me, the duergar aren't actually stupid. They're wondering why someone from "Clan Trilk" would come to their tunnels, and why he's alone, and why there's a red patch in his beard. Our mysterious figure realizes the jig is up, stalls for a bit with a distracting line about a drow, and tricks one into looking at the "wicked blade" he'd found.
Said duergar gets an axe to the face for his trouble. I do like Bruenor.
Because of course, that's who this is. He takes out these guys and a few more who join in. When the last of his opponents asks who he is, he indeed identifies himself as "Bruenor Battlehammer, rightful king of Mithril Hall.".
The dude tries to flee, but Bruenor's too quick for him. As he heads back to fix his disguise, he says "twenty-two". Which is apparently how many duergar he's killed in the last few weeks.
a) counting seems kind of psychopathic dude
b) actually, going by what these guys are capable of in later books, I think twenty two dead opponents over the span of two weeks is really slacking off. Are you on vacation, Bruenor?
We get some reminiscence about what happened at the end of the last book. Bruenor had lost consciousness on dragonback, but woke up, unburned. He's not sure how long he was there, but figures his friends (and surrogate son and adopted daughter) would have escaped by now. He is also pretty thrilled that Drizzt is alive, for if you recall, they'd briefly assumed he was dead:
The image of the drow's lavender eyes staring at him from the wall of the gorge as the dragon had glided past in its descent remained firmly etched in Bruenor's mind. Even now, weeks later as far as he could figure, he used that image of the indomitable Drizzt Do'Urden as a litany against the hopelessness of his own situation.
Anyway, Bruenor's kind of stuck down here. Shimmergloom crashed at the very bottom of the gorge, and the best Bruenor has been able to do is to sneak into the lower mines, THROUGH the army of gray dwarves, all of whom are on edge because their leader (Shimmergloom) is dead.
Bruenor's been making progress, but it's risky, especially as he's heading straight into the largest part of the army. He can hear the furnaces of the undercity, and his disguise hasn't even held up to close scrutiny NOW. But well, he's not going to worry about that now.
There's a quick "comedic" moment when a duergar that Bruenor thought he'd killed manages to struggle to his feet, and Bruenor casually drops his axe blade on his head.
Look, I get that we're dealing with a novel based on a tabletop game, and that, at least at the time this was written, the alignments were hardcore set in stone. But I'd still feel a little better with less casual murder. I'm not saying Bruenor shouldn't fight his way out, or that he's wrong to take what advantage he gets. I just wish there was a bit more acknowledgment that he's killing PEOPLE not just wiping away obstacles.
That said, I do like that Bruenor gets shit done. (Also WEEKS? What HAVE Wulfgar and Drizzt been doing that they're so far behind?)
So Bruenor makes it to the undercity. The description is pretty swanky.
For the first time in nearly two hundred years, Bruenor Battlehammer looked down upon the great undercity of Mithril Hall. Set in a huge chasm, with walls tiered into steps and lined with decorated doorways, this massive chamber had once housed the entirety of Clan Battlehammer with many rooms to spare.
The place had remained exactly as the dwarf remembered it, and now, as in those distant years of his youth, many of the furnaces were bright with fire and the floor level teemed with the hunched forms of dwarven workers. How many times had young Bruenor and his friends looked down upon the magnificence of this place and heard the chiming of the smithies' hammers and the heavy sighing of the huge bellows? he wondered.
I do feel for Bruenor here.
So Bruenor, who is clearly not a character designed for stealth, is playing the sneak game, trying to avoid notice as he figures his way out. He notes that the tunnels across from where he stood should lead him out. There's a point where, to shore himself, he reminds himself that he's the rightful king here. I like it. It's a very human moment. Pun mostly unintended.
Bruenor keeps pushing forward, and finds himself bathed in the bright light of the furnace. This actually is helpful, because duergar are "creatures of the dark" and are keeping their hoods pulled down to protect them from the light.
I'm not sure why the dwarves, who ALSO live underground, are adapted better to the light but let's go with it.
There's a downside though, as Bruenor starts to realize, the heat from the furnace is making him sweat, eventually streaking his disguise. He gets to the other side of the chasm and just as he starts up the stairs, he's spotted by a dumbfounded gray dwarf above him. He dives for his sword, but Bruenor's ready, "dr[iving] his head between the duergar's knees". This headbutt to the nutsack also manages to shatter one kneecap. Unfortunately the soldier is still conscious hwe he lands, and he calls the alert.
Bruenor's surrounded now. He's made it to the next tier, but there are a lot of duergar coming at him. He has a desperate plan, wherein he drops from above down onto the duergar below him, and chops his way through. He ends up fleeing through the furnaces. Thanks to trusty Icingdeath, he survives to climb the chimney. It's desperate, but he's able to hold his breath while they try smoking him out, until he finds a side tunnel that had been intended once for cleaning staff. He's exhausted, but he keeps moving, finding other chimneys and places to climb.
He's not out of the woods yet though, as his travels take him across the path of a giant spider. He wins, but in the process they end up falling back down into the undercity. Happily a less busy section. He starts back up the shaft, ignoring his pain and the effects of spider venom. Eventually, he gets to the exit, which is blocked by a grate. Crap.
Bruenor thinks about how Wulfgar could break it, and in exhausted delirium, begs "Lend me yer strength, me big friend". Maybe it works, as we're told that hundreds of miles away, Wulfgar is dreaming of Bruenor. And Bruenor DOES manage to bend a bar of the grate low enough to slip out. Bruenor manages to get halfway through the hole, but is too exhausted to continue and passes out, with his legs still dangling over a thousand foot drop.
The chapter ends.
That was pretty fun, I think. Bruenor rarely gets center stage, and here we get some emotion, some seemingly insurmountable odds, and long lost knowledge coming into play. I could wish Bruenor got a more dignified resting place (we know Salvatore would never let Drizzt pass out while dangling like that), but he'll recover. Welcome back, Bruenor.