I Read What?!

Belated Happy Halloween!

Speaking of scary things, Canticle's been going pretty strong with the horror movie stuff. Now the hot tough lady's in the basement too! I hope she gets to punch Barjin in the dick!



So we start off with some inexplicable dwarf speciesism:

Ivan wiped a line of blood from his brother’s neck.

“Druid?” Ivan asked, and there remained little sarcasm in his tone. Pikel’s wild fighting obviously had impressed Ivan, and the dwarf had no way of knowing how much more there was to being a druid than barking animal noises during a fight. “Maybe that’d not be so bad.”

Pikel nodded gratefully, his smile wide under his low hanging helmet.

...why would a dwarf with a functional mind, who works in a library that has frequent druid guests have "no way of knowing how much more there was to being a druid" again?

And I mean, okay, I'm going at this from a third edition onward perspective, where dwarves actually can be druids, but I don't get why Salvatore seems to think the concept is so absurd. Except for this inexplicable bit of ignorance, and the curse of course, Ivan seems as intelligent as most of the human characters in the story. Pikel is a bit harder to figure out, given that he's non-verbal, but a druid's primary stat is wisdom, not intelligence.

Leaving that aside, they've got to get back to where they started before the attack. Fortunately, dwarves have a good direction sense underground. And the obvious solution is to go back the way they came - except, there's more undead there. So they have to go forward instead.

There's a moment of tension as Ivan takes offense at Cadderly's seeming cowardly aversion to fighting, but it's defused when Cadderly reminds him of the bottle. After, they can smash skeletons.

Unfortunately, the path forward leads to the sound of more undead. Cadderly wants to turn back, but Ivan thinks that they could end up fighting both groups at once. So they go with building defenses instead.

And actually, Ivan might be ignorant about druids, but he might well have been right when he wanted to fight that original group of undead as they realize that the new group seems to be heading to join up with the first.

This leads Cadderly to realize that the skeletons, not known for strategic ploys, are probably being directed. And maybe he should leave combat decisions up to more experienced heads. I'm honestly vaguely impressed that Cadderly is being shown as somewhat inept at something. It's completely understandable, as he's a cleric rather than a fighter. I'm just not used to a Salvatore hero having gaps in his knowledge. I like it.

Anyway, there's a bit more fighting with the dwarves taking the lead and Cadderly trying to find the leader of the undead.

-

We shift focus to said leader: Druzil. He's invisible, so not likely to be spotted. He's concerned though because the invaders are kicking undead ass. Druzil is also particularly unnerved by Cadderly:

Yet, it was something about the human that bothered Druzil most of all. His eyes, the imp thought, and the careful and calculating way he swept his light beam, reminded Druzil pointedly of another powerful and dangerous human. Druzil had heard of dwarves’ resistance to all magic, even potent spells such as the chaos curse, so he could understand how the two had found their way down, but the human seemed even more clear-headed, more focused, than his companions.

He realizes that Cadderly must have been Barjin's catalyst, as that would explain his immunity to the curse. But the fact that Cadderly is here at all implies Barjin fucked up somewhere. Druzil is intrigued but also inclined to end this threat.

-

Back to Cadderly and the dwarves. Trusting the dwarves turns out to be a good plan, as Pikel manages to save Cadderly's life from a sudden, unseen attack. It's Druzil, who, conveniently becomes visible as it flees after stinging Pikel. Cadderly realizes Druzil is an imp, and that imps are venomous, but fortunately, Pikel's got a shit ton of Constitution and ends up making his saving throw. He's okay after all.

And Cadderly gets to show his stuff too. Because now is the right opportunity to do some cool gadget tricks involving his walking stick (with a removable cap), a dart, and that lovely drow sleep poison from a few chapters ago.

Druzil's invisible but still present, and Cadderly throws a plank in the direction where Druzil's attack had come from. Druzil mostly dodges, but gets nicked slightly and the sound gives Cadderly a location. The dart hits.

Sadly, Druzil does manage to flee, turning into a centipede and hiding before the sleep effect really hits. But taking him out does severely weaken the skeletons, who don't have the wherewithal for tactics. This means that our heroes get to go on the offensive and sweep through the corridors. The plan is still to backtrack and find the altar room.

Unfortunately, Pikel's saving throw was temporary, I guess. And oh, no. This is actually pretty sad:

Dwarves were as resistant to poison as to magic, but if the imp had hit Pikel solidly …

“Oo!” Pikel cried one final time. His trembling mocked Ivan’s desperate efforts to hold him steady, and with a sudden burst of power he threw his brother aside and stood staring blankly ahead for just a moment. Then he fell, and both Ivan and Cadderly knew he was dead before they ever got to him.

Aw. Damnit. I wanted to see him actually become a druid.

The chapter ends here.