Spellfire Chapter Four: Many Meetings
Apr. 22nd, 2022 10:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
masterghandalfMG: And so, it’s time once again to continue our journey through Ed Greenwood’s Spellfire! Last time, the Company of the Bright Spear was (mostly) wiped out, Shandril got captured and escaped because her captors were utterly incompetent, and Narm lost a mentor and made some new friends! Today, we pick up with both our heroes in the midst of their travails. Joining us once again will be Caelum and Errezha.
Chapter Four: Many Meetings
MG: …there’s a chapter in Lord of the Rings with that exact title (the first chapter of the second book of Fellowship of the Ring, when Frodo wakes up in Rivendell and is reunited with his companions and Gandalf, for reference). Why do you insist on reminding me of better books, Greenwood?
Errezha: …regardless of title comparisons, we once again open with a quote, this one from Jarn Tiir of Lantan, whoever they may be. Always we hurry through our lives, we who travel. Only folk tied to the land wait for danger to come to them. All others blunder ever onward, swords at the ready, through many meetings. Each may be the last, for in the wilds the wolf, the orc, and the gorgon hunt and smile when they meet dinner. What is more dangerous even than these? Why, any man you meet. Can’t say I disagree, exactly, but you certainly don’t have to go to the wilderness to learn that last part. Well, we immediately find ourselves back with Shandril who desperately flung herself aside as the thing that reached for her last time we saw her closes in. And it immediately proves itself to be, in fact, a statue that topples over and smashes on the ground. *facepalm* Greenwood, I must say I find your cliffhangers and their resolutions lacking. And then we have this: So, statues could break. She’d always wondered.… Yes, stone is not, in fact, indestructible. What a brilliant deduction! *she facepalms again*
Caelum: Well, Shandril looks around and finds herself in the middle of an empty, ruined hall, where she realizes that weird bone she found last chapter must have teleported her. Which we still have no explanation for. And now she’s stuck, alone, and defenseless and has no idea where she is or how to get out. Moreover, she was thirsty, hungry, and badly in need of relieving herself. Well, I can’t help with the first two, but an empty ruin with nobody else around isn’t the worst place to do the last one… as Shandril apparently agrees, since we’re immediately told she loosened her breeches and, uh, I didn’t need that actually described (thankfully, the text doesn’t give us the details). As she’s doing her business, she reflects that Adventure, hah. Unending pain, fear, and discomfort are nearer the mark. And, I mean, you literally did sign up for this – as in you stole from the Bright Spear and forced them to take you along – so…
Errezha: Well, from the far end of the hall Shandril suddenly sees something with wings and beaks stirring in the darkness and quickly hikes up her breeches and bolts, thinking that this is nothing like the travelers’ tales (I don’t know; you’re facing danger in ancient ruins; ignoring the part about relieving yourself, that’s not unlike many travelers’ tales I’ve heard…) She finds an old, rotted door and crashes through it into the sunlight outside, still cursing her luck, and is immediately attacked by a naked woman with wings. Hmmm, ruins infested with devils – I think that sounds like a place we’ve already heard about. I wonder where Shandril could be? Sure enough, she concludes she must be in the ruins of Myth Drannor, and also prays to someone named Tymora for relief.
MG: That’s the Realms’ goddess of good luck, who’s gotten a couple of cursory mentions in previous chapters, for the record.
Caelum: Well, Shandril falls into a nearby well, and then gets saved when the devil that’s attacking her is itself immediately attacked by something with tentacles that’s in the water. Well, that’s lucky – you’d think whatever-it-is would go for the vulnerable human that’s actually in the water rather than the devil that’s hovering above it. She crawls out the other side and then suddenly the stone gives way under her and she falls through into a hole and lands on something metallic. Before she passes out, she has time to think Perhaps she’d die a rich adventurer, after all.… And I get that you’re in shock, but is that really the most important thing right now?
Errezha: In any case, Shandril falling unconscious marks a scene change, and we find ourselves back with Narm, who is traveling with two more new characters we haven’t met before, Torm, a rogue, and Rathan, a priest of Tymora. Apparently, they’re both Knights of Myth Drannor as well – ugh, how many of them are there? So far, we’ve met at least six – and the two of them are bantering with Narm does his best to ignore them. I can relate.
MG: I’ll also note here that Torm is also the name of the Realms’ god of duty, loyalty and righteousness, so while I can only assume the Torm we meet here is named for the god, it is a bit of an incongruous name for this sort of character.
Errezha: Charming. Well, the three of them are returning to Myth Drannor, apparently in service of Narm’s death wish, and Mourngrym had lent Narm the mount that snorted and grumbled beneath him. Because apparently lords are now in the habit of doing such things for apprentice wizards they’ve only just met. Torm interrupts his thoughts with this gem. “Lost in thought, good Narm? No time for that, now you’re an adventurer! Philosophers think and do nothing. Adventurers rush in to be killed without reflection. A single thought as to what they’re facing would no doubt have them fleeing!” This man, at least, talks sense. *glances meaningfully at Caelum*
Caelum: *throwing up his hands* Whoa, there, I seem to recall you made the choice to help fight those goblin raiders, and you decided to go with us to hunt down Nualia, and…
Errezha: Yes, and I don’t know who’s more foolish, you for doing those things or me for letting myself get dragged into them!
Caelum: Well, Rathan tells Torm not to worry, that his goddess will protect them; Torm insists that he and Narm are more prudent, and Rathan shoots back that nobody who worships Mask (who I guess is Torm’s god?) or Mystra is in any position to lecture anybody else on that. Suddenly, they see a devil watching them from a tree, and Torm wonders if they’ve started roaming so far and says they may not be able to wait for Elminster to return (where is he, still wandering around the countryside aimlessly looking for elves?) before they do something about it. On closer inspection, however, the devil turns out to be an illusion! Rathan casts a spell, which for some reason he does by reciting a stilly poem: By Tymora’s power and Tymora’s grace, Be revealed now wherever I face, All lives and things that evil be Unveiled truly now before me! And it’s revealed that there are six unknown creatures who are following them. The two knights charge after them, leaving Narm behind – rude – and after a few minutes of noise they come back and declare that the enemies, who are apparently adventurers out of Zhentil Keep – priests of Bane (whoever that is, but he sounds like bad news) and an illusionist are all dead, since none would surrender. That was fast, and boring. Couldn’t we at least have actually seen the fight, Greenwood? Narm just asks how they can charge into battle when they’re outnumbered two to one, and up against at least one mage, and Torm says If I wanted to risk death without having fun, I’d be a tax collector, not a thief. Which, uh, doesn’t actually answer the question, and I’m not entirely sure what the point of this little interlude was?
Errezha: Well, we have another scene change, and find ourselves back with Shandril as she comes to – or rather her sensibility returned, even though that’s something she’s so far shown no evidence of possessing – to find herself lying on top of a pile of coins. There are also two reasonably fresh corpses in the hole with her, which strangely doesn’t bother her much, as she immediately gets to looting them. Girl, if you live through this, you’ll make an adventurer yet. She takes a sword, a dagger, some boots – too large for her feet, but she’ll make do – some food, and what appears to be a spellbook. With a bit of work, she manages to improvise a torch and sets out to explore the cave she’s fallen into. After a bit of work, she finds some stairs and follows them up to the next floor; her torch goes out, but she does manage to find a door, but this one is too strong to force, prompting her to curse. Would nothing go her way? Was this the gods’ way of telling her she should have stayed dutifully at the Rising Moon? At the risk of repeating myself, once again, you did literally ask for this.
Caelum: Well, after a bit of self-pitying, she does manage to find another door and stumbles out, only to find a group of warriors under attack from more of the devil women. Wait, I get that this place is supposed to be famous, but just how many adventurers are roaming around it, anyway? Does someone sell tickets? Do you have to pay a hunting fee to kill devils? Just curious. Well, Shandril watches for a bit, and the warriors seem to have some success, even killing one of the devils: Black, smoking blood ran down the warrior’s sword as he cut the body apart. The corpse smoldered. Greasy soot curled up in snaky wisps. That, unfortunately, just makes the rest of them mad, and they tear the leader apart. Alas for you, person we never met and who’s name we don’t know! May your soul rest with Pharasma! *beat* Or, uh, whoever rules the dead in this world.
MG: Well, in most Realms fiction, that would be Kelemvor, but this early in the timeline, it’s still Myrkul. So, unless he’s in the good graces of some other god, the poor guy’s really out of luck.
Errezha: Regardless of his soul’s disposition, Shandril decides at this point that she needs to get out of there, and turns to flee before the devils see her, hoping desperately she’s heading out of the ruins. Making her way through the city, she sees more devils, who either don’t notice her or think she’s not worth bothering with, and she wonders What had brought the devils here, and what was stopping them from flying forth in all directions, murdering and wreaking havoc? Well, I can’t answer the first, but as for the second, knowing devils they are most likely bound here to defend the ruins, whether by their sworn word (which devils never break, though they will twist it to their advantage so far as they can) or by magic. She takes the time to rest near some carvings, and then continues on as the sun begins to set. Then, suddenly, In a place of tilted heaps of stone, where all the buildings had toppled, she stumbles onto two people who stand facing one another. One is a man in red robes, the other is a tall, slim, cruel-looking woman in purple. The man taunts the woman – Die, Shadowsil! – and they both proceed to cast spells as Shandril hides and wonders if everyone in Faerûn would arrive in Myth Drannor before she could get out of it. Suddenly there’s a flash of light and a roaring sound; Shandril peaks around the stone she’s hiding behind and finds that the man in red is dead and has been burned to ash, which the woman in purple stands over triumphantly.
Caelum: Shandril stares at the scene in shock, and then the woman notices her, and they lock eyes. Whoops! She turns to run, but suddenly the woman appears right in front of her and asks who she is; Shandril does notice that she was very beautiful, and is that really where your priorities are right now? Well, Shandril is too terrified to say anything, so the woman introduces herself. “I am Symgharyl Maruel, called the Shadowsil.” Wait, Shadowsil? What does that even mean? Is it Shadow-sylph, maybe? Or Shadow-silk? Or is it like a windowsill, but with shadows? *beat* You made that up because you thought it sounded cool and it doesn’t actually mean anything, didn’t you Symgharyl?
Errezha: Symgharyl or Greenwood, maybe. Well, Shandril raises her sword, but the Shadowsil just laughs and casts a spell to paralyze her. Purple robes swished nearer as she pulls out a rope, wraps it around Shandril and then casts another spell. Ulthae – entangle. Shadowsil, you are aware you can just cast the spell – you don’t need to announce what it does. Which, as it happens, is to cause the rope to wrap more tightly around Shandril and neatly truss her up. Though Shandril is at least relieved that she’s going to be taken out of the city (you don’t know that Shandril…) which is probably a measure of how bad her day has been. The Shadowsil takes the end of the rope and drags Shandril along after her and starts musing to herself. You remind me of someone. You may well be the one those stoneheads of Oversember let slip away. Are you, hmmm? The girl with the Company of the Bright Spear whose name isn’t on their charter? So, it looks like the Shadowsil is working with the same antagonists we’ve already met, and that she has roughly the same opinions of their competence that I do. She further muses that Shandril’s blood will be valuable to her, so long as she’s a virgin, for some reason (is virgin’s blood a necessary component in some spell you’ll be casting, Symgharyl?) and that in any case Shandril will be her present for someone called Rauglothgor.
Caelum: …maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s just because whoever this is, they’re apparently friends with Evil Wizard Lady here, but I don’t think there’s anyone or anything good named something like Rauglothgor. And then she finishes by adding that Shandril is so pretty, so at least we know that both Shandril and the Shadowsil think each other are hot? Weird.
Errezha: Well, we then get another scene change as we’re back with Narm; Torm and Rathan are about to leave him at the edge of Myth Drannor, where he’s met by the two women from chapter one – Storm and Sharantyr. They remember him, and Narm explains that Mourngrym agreed to let him come to the ruins, though I’m still not sure exactly why and apparently Storm and Sharantyr aren’t either, since The two ladies acquired identical small frowns and shook their heads. Well, they wish Narm luck and then ride off, and then Torm and Rathan prepare to be on their own way. Wait, are they seriously letting this boy head into the devil-infested ruins by himself? They really do want to get him killed, don’t they? Rathan at least has the decency to wish him luck and Tymora’s blessings, which coming from a cleric may be more than just kind words. Well, Narm heads into Myth Drannor, and we finally get a sense of what he’s actually trying to accomplish. He was going to see devils. He was going to look his fill of them and somehow survive. By Mystra, he was going to do something on his own, now that Marimmar was gone! Boy, you are going to die, that’s what you’re going to do, and if anyone in your life was at all responsible, they’d have stopped you! *she facepalms again*
Caelum: So, Narm heads on into the ruined city, and then suddenly he catches sight of something moving. A slim woman in purple robes dragged someone thin and longhaired along the ground. Her hapless captive was completely entangled in a glowing rope. Why, it’s the Shadowsil and Shandril! In a giant ruined city, he’s just happened to stumble onto them! Maybe the goddess of luck really is watching out for him. Or maybe not, since he’s just stumbled onto a wizard he’s absolutely not capable of defeating. Is there a goddess of bad luck Rathan might have invoked by mistake?
MG: Yes, in fact. Tymora’s twin sister, Beshaba.
Caelum: Well, she sounds fun. So, Narm chases after the Shadowsil, only thinking that she must have strong magic and that’s just what Marimmar had been after. And I mean, seriously, I’m all for charging in and making it up as you go along, but I don’t think you have any idea what you’re doing. Eventually, he follows her into a cave below the city, where she’s got some sort of magical portal set up. At this point, Narm gets a good look at Shandril for the first time and is stunned to realize that she’s the girl he made eyes at back at the inn! What a coincidence! Well, seeing that the captive is a pretty girl, he immediately attacks the Shadowsil with the spell Marimmar had forbidden him to study, the spell he’d studied while his master slept. Which just seems to be an ordinary magic missile to me, not sure what the fuss is about. A racing arrow of light bursts from his fingers, but when it hits the Shadowsil she’s startled but apparently unharmed and laughs it off. Wow. Who could’ve seen that coming?
Errezha: Why, Caelum. You’re starting to sound like me. Maybe I’m rubbing off on you after all. The Shadowsil grins malevolently back at Narm and casts a spell of her own before she dragged the struggling girl through the oval of radiance and vanished. Though I will note that Narm earlier thinks of “the girl” as “Shandril” even though he doesn’t know her name, which seems like an editing error to me. Sloppy. Well, no sooner are they gone than the Shadowsil’s spell goes off, and our chapter ends on a cliffhanger as with a shattering roar, the fireball exploded all around him. You know, I’m suddenly powerfully reminded that the Knights of Myth Drannor could likely have averted this if they had bothered to actually stay with Narm instead of riding off and leaving him to his fate. What a pity. If only I actually cared about his fate, and if only last chapter’s cliffhanger and its anticlimactic resolution hadn’t left me with little hope that this one will be any more satisfactory. As for this chapter, it honestly felt like more random fighting between people I don’t care about and people we’ve just met, with some added self-pity from both our alleged heroes, until one of those random fights turned out to be with someone who actually gets named and is therefore presumably plot-relevant. Hopefully next time things will happen which actually matter, but by this point I’m not getting my hopes up.
MG: As for the cliffhanger, it’s not, really. And I’ll note that for a chapter called “Many Meetings” we really only had two meetings – Shandril with the Shadowsil, and Narm with Storm and Sharantyr (he met Torm and Rathan off-page, and never really “met” the Shadowsil). Two, last I checked, doesn’t normally qualify as “many.” You were deliberately going for the Tolkien rip-off, weren’t you, Greenwood? Next time, though, we will indeed get some actual plot progression as we’ll find out if Narm survived (spoilers: he did), we’ll meet the mysterious Rauglothgor (who might not be so mysterious if you’ve peeked at the TOC and seen next chapter’s title…) and learn more about exactly who the Shadowsil is and just what evil schemes she’s involved in (which, if you’re up on your Realmslore enough to note the significance of her fashion sense, you may have already figured out). We’ll see you all then! No pics again this time.
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Date: 2022-04-23 07:50 pm (UTC)I've mentioned previously, but I think Greenwood was trying to write Shandril as a naïve audience surrogate, but overdid it to the point that she just comes off as completely ignorant of basic things. As for mentioning Greenwood in the same breath as bad romance... well, let's just say that next chapter is when Shandril and Narm actually meet properly, and as for how he handles that relationship, well...
Well this Torm is gonna be SMOTE and smote HARD. Bearing that particular god's name and worshipping the diametric opposite of basically everything he believes in that ISN'T named Cyric? Ahahahahahha boy you fuckin' dead.
And Cyric's not even a god yet (this series being pre-Time of Troubles) so yeah, you could easily say Mask is Torm (the god's) opposite without qualifications;).
Oh, he dead.
Well, he would be dead, if he didn't have plot armor. Seriously, the resolution to this chapter's cliffhanger is really anticlimactic.
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Date: 2022-04-24 04:59 am (UTC)If it's even fractionally as gross as Elminster and Mystra, I'm not looking forward to it.
Ah, it's PRE ToT. I should've figured that with Myrkul still being the God of Death. (His appearance in Mask of the Betrayer is pretty awesome. Yes Mask is post ToT. It's still awesome.)
Ahhhh, a true Greenwood Hero tm then.