The famous Drow rangerDrizzt Do’Urdenreturns for his 2nd adventure in the Icewind Dale trilogy ! Is it skilful thanThe Crystal Shard ? Is the premiss flat repeal from The Hobbit ? Will Drizzt keep being the greatest badass in the Forgotten Realms ? Will a female character come along for more than four pages and do literally anything ? There ’s only one way of life to screw — read on !
Dungeons & Dragons & Novels : revisit The Crystal Shard
See if this voice conversant : Bruenor Battlehammer ( Thorin Oakenshield ) was forced out of his dwarven home Mithral Hall ( the Lonely Mountain ) as a nestling when the dwarves dug too deep and let loose something evil ( as the dwarves of Moria did ) , most notably a demonic dragon refer Shimmergloom ( Smaug , with a healthy portion of the Balrog ) . Bruenor dreams of retaking his ancestral home and brings his pals ( the 12 dwarves and Bilbo ) on the mission .
The original, outstanding cover of Streams of Silver by Clyde Caldwell.Image: Wizards of the Coast
Where Streams of Silver differs is that somehow Bruenor and the intact satellite forgot where Mithral Hall was located , despite the fact he has dwell in Icewind Dale for C with many of the other dwarves of Clan Battlehamer who presumably once lived there as well . So much of the account book is about Bruenor , Drizzt , the human barbarian Wulfgar , and the otiose / fat halfling Regis seek to regain the damn affair . They go from place to place , fight bunches of monsters along the way — let in troll , although it ’s a battle instead of dally on their idiocy — fall a bit more information in each location . This makes it feel like an actualDungeons & Dragons drive , which is n’t the bad thing in the world by any means , but there are more stops than the fib can bear , which is rough when the premise is already a flake absurd .
For instance , the group first travel to the city of Luskan , where Bruenor meets with a shady varlet refer Whisper ( a distaff character who gets more stemma and personation than the nanus ’s adopt human daughter Catti - Brie does in the entirety of The Crystal Shard ) to get some sort of require single-valued function which , as far as I can tell , is just a map of the Forgotten Realms . It only shows the radical where some mountains are that Bruenor thinks Mithral Hall could be located ; these mountains are n’t secret , so I ’d think they ’d also be on other maps that do n’t necessitate deal out with backstabbing thieves .
The other departure is Artemis Entreri , a cold - full-blooded assassin hired to find Regis and the halfling ’s stolen wizard ruby . Artemis is Drizzt ’s equal in fighting and opposite in morals , a mirror range of a function of how Drizzt would have ended up if he bide part of the universally evil Drow high society instead of abandon it . We have a go at it this because Salvatore distinguish us this , repeatedly . Artemis first arrives at Icewind Dale , strike Catti - Brie captive and drag her along on his journeying to retrieve Regis , and is before long bring together by a soldier named Jierden , a mage named Sydney , and a golem named Bok ; all three body of work for a sensation named Dendybar , who is sure that Drizzt is carrying around the uber - powerful Crystal Shard of the first book . ( He is n’t . )
Cover of the Streams of Silver comic adaption (issue #3) by Tim Seeley,Image: Wizards of the Coast/Devil’s Due
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It does n’t make much sense for Artemis to bring Catti - Brie along , except this clip Cat is a real protagonist and needs a reason to stay part of the narration , with as well - rounded a personality and as much development as the other main character . This is a massive advance , although her character bow starts out rough . fundamentally , despite being a very skillful warrior herself , she ’s so terrified of the assassin she ca n’t do anything , to the gunpoint she occasionally does n’t even need to be marry up . in the end , she gets ahold of herself and begin doing the “ sow seeds of mistrust among the captors ” shtick . However , when she does escape , she becomes a badass adequate to the others ( well , not Drizzt , only Artemis is on par with Drizzt ) . She manages to ensnare the robot under a rock pile during her flight , catching up with the others in good order before they accede Mithral Hall for the final routine .
That final act find to be quite good ! In addition to the dragon , the Hall is full of traps , countless evil gray dwarf yell Duergar , and hell hound . When Artemis point up , he and Drizzt fall into a hole , separate the party from their good hero . By the end , Bruenor , Wulfgar , and Catti - Brie are trying to come through a massive Duergar attack and escape before the hell hounds arrive when Sydney and the golem show up and attack , follow by Shimmergloom , and it ’s all genuinely exciting .
The Christmas tree and its decorations left something to be desired.Image: Wizards of the Coast
The close is absolutely Dungeons & Dragons - esque , with the do-or-die Bruenor jump off a gullet onto the dragon ’s back while carry a flaming cloak and a kegful of oil , which explode and kills them both . Alas , by the book ’s remainder , Artemis has taken Regis , the deep red , and Drizzt ’s magical panther - rally statuette of Guenhwyvar , which spur Drizzt and Wulfgar to hunt down the assassin in the third Quran of the trilogy , The Halfling ’s Gem . Catti - Brie stays behind , but only because she plans on organizing an army to retake Mithral Hall for goodness , which is pretty rad .
There ’s still a lot of problems in Streams of Silver ; role completely change their opinion and attitudes at the drop cloth of a chapeau ( e.g. , Wulfgar hate and distrusts all magic until he on the spur of the moment decides to stop ) , and the characters can either utterly take each other ’s mind or be utterly baffled by their friend ’s conduct . now and again someone ( mostly Bruenor ) has to make some very obviously stunned decision to give the gang things to do and crusade . believably the speculative part is anextremely cringe - worthy scenewhere Alustriel , the loss leader of the purportedly uber - inclusive city of Silverymoon , denies Drizzt accounting entry because of unspecified “ politics ” but gives him the consolation prize of telling him the the great unwashed of the Forgotten Realms will accept him at some point in the future . But it also might be when Regis uses his hypnotizing precious stone to steal a prostitute from Wulfgar ; nothing comes of it , but it is as gross as it is eldritch .
Still , the fact that the Good Book has a hearty distaff protagonist and antagonist ( that would be Sydney ) is a huge and much - need improvement over The Crystal Shard . They do n’t make up for all of the book ’s problems , so Streams of Silver range a six on a 1d20 … but it has a bonus of +1 because the ledger begins with a Drizzt daybook entry on the importance of fancy which contains as gracious a mission statement for keep & Dragons as I ’ve ever read :
Reprint cover by Todd Lockwood.Image: Wizards of the Coast
“ We make the dragons as we make the gods , because we call for them , because , somewhere deep in our hearts , we know a populace without them is a earthly concern not deserving live in . ”
Assorted Musings:
Drizzt ’s other two journal first appearance admit some labored - handed thoughts on nostalgia and the D&D equivalent of hired gun control , so do n’t get too excited .
The group encounter a grouping of barbarians called the Sky Ponies , which is not a especially intimidating savage tribe name . Now the Sky Bronies , that ’s a group to steer clear of .
Bok is a flesh golem , which is fundamentally like Frankenstein ’s monster . However , othergolems — gem golems , cadaver automaton , and iron golems — are all made up alone of their distinguish constituent . This means I ca n’t stop conceive about flesh golems as a unadulterated ambulatory sack of pelt , and now you have to think about it too .
At one period , Wulfgar is hit by lightning . He subsist , but the horse underneath him explodes , pointedly demonstrating the importance of making your deliverance throws .
Oh ! I forget that the dwarves of Moria awake the Balrog by dig too deep specifically for Mithril . Given that Bruenor ’s home is called Mithral Hall , I expect you may put two and two together .
… and to get into Mithral Hall , you have to find a secret door and mouth the countersign which Bruenor has forgotten , exactly like Moria . However , these nanus built in a failsafe where you may open up the doorway just by tapping on it with a wizardly weapon , which feels like the D&D equivalent of impart a key on the front porch under a potted plant .
I ca n’t believe I forgot to giveDarkwalker on MoonshaeandSpellfiretheir ratings ! Darkwalker rolls a five , and while the tremendous Spellfire gets a decisive miss with a natural one .
Next up : Vampire of the Mists , the first novel in the D&D ’s horror settingRavenloft ! Which , if I were smart , I should have done a week or two ago !
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