The Legend of Drizzt Book 1: Homeland Review; This is the Underdark

I’ve had a craving for a little while to read a fantasy novel. Maybe playing Dungeons and Dragons had reawakened my fantasy side and I wanted to indulge in it more. Only I didn’t want to read LOTR again or Warhammer books, I wanted something slightly different but just as good. My search was a little in vain, so I give up and re-read The Hobbit in prep for going to see the movie. But I wasn’t satisfied afterwards and wanted more....but not Tolkien or Prattchet. My boyfriend suggested a new author; R A Salvatore and has it turned out he was just what I was looking for because he writers fantasy novels set in the DD world.

Though he has written a number of other books and series, it’s to the character he’s most famous for that has been my introduction to Salvatore and DD novels; Drizzt Do’Urden.  

Drizzt, a drow (dark elf) is born into Menzoberranzan; an underground matriarchal world of betrayal, war, magic and monsters. Almost scarified at birth, but saved due to his older brother’s death, Drizzt must learn the way of Loth, the Spider Queen and also the skills of a warrior. However, he is no normal drow and keeps hold of his humanity, which all drow loose as they are taught the ways of Loth and to despise the world above. Though he is part of a society which would be considered evil to the above world, Drizzt stands out by his questions on killing and drow history. Somehow though his words are overlooked by other drow and he is able to keep his feelings hidden.

The plot of the story is all about Drizzt growing up and coming to realise that everything he knows is possibly wrong and he no longer wants to be a part of it. Through events he can be seen to arise to challenges and fully develop as a character. In a way the reader grows with him. We are with him in the moments before his birth when the plot twists are being set up and then as he grows up and becomes an adult. There is a lot of fighting in the plot, but it is kept fresh by the different monsters and different reasons. We also get to see Drizzt improve his fighting skills and he becomes very impressive with his swords. I was gripped straight a way into the plot and the setting, finding the 3^rd person narrative working well and giving the reader an eye over anything. The cuts to different characters and their plotting, helped move the story along and created a much bigger picture throughout the novel.

The other characters are just as intriguing as Drizzt. There are his sisters and brother fitting the bill as fighting siblings and trying to outdo each other in order to impress their mother. She is a great character being all power hungry and desperate to improve her family’s status in Menzoberranzan. Zak, the master swords man, who trains Drizzt his deeper connects to him than first seems, but during the cuts to his thoughts, the reader can see how similar in nature the two of them are. The antagonists are other drow, who use magic, which is a nice contrast to the use of weapons, but they are just as power hungry as Drizzt’s mother and want the same thing. Lastly, there is Guenhwyvar, who I liked straight a way, he is a magic panther and Drizzt’s only friend. The similarities can be seen in their fighting styles and they complement each other well too. It was nice to have an animal companion for a change!  

I really like Salvatore’s writing style, because it is fast pace, gripping and full of information that just sinks into your head. You learn a lot about drow society, but you don’t realize it from the way it is written. The vocabulary is a bit simple in some places, but this just helps the speed of the story telling. Like the Warhammer books, Salvatore makes his fantasy writing as simplified as possible, leaving out long descriptions of settings, battles and other events. This allows the reader to imagine more things and that is something I like doing. Also you don’t want to be bogged down by needless details when reading a world that many would be familiar through playing the game. Which is what I found having played the DD drow trilogy, because that is set in the same area. It’s the little details and drops of humour that add to the greatness of this novel. It is very easy to read over these or not take them fully in because of how they are placed within the story. However, I didn’t find myself flicking back to re-read, because I was just able to take the whole thing in. The dialogue of the characters is great and a lot of raw emotions come through the words. Which is great because the reader should always be able to see the emotion that way and not through the writer stating it. There was nothing heavily accented or old fashioned and the use of the drow language wasn’t over used. It really is an easy book to read and I shall be picking up the second on soon.

Ps. As an added note, I thought I’d say that the character of Drizzt’s reminded me of Malus Darkblade by Dan Abnett and Mike Lee, set in the Warhammer world. Malus is also a dark elf who though evil must fight things more evil then himself. I did think that this was interesting and though it has been awhile since I read him, the books have enough differences between them.  

Images from:

www. Listal.com
www. t411.me
 

D&D Part 8: Victory Finish

On Wednesday evening, I played the last encounter of the Council Of Spiders adventure. The large group was spilt into three small groups of 4/5 players and we were off with our DMs for the final battle. My table was warned before hand that this ending was a bit disappointing. Which is interesting when the other encounters have been building up to something that felt really big, like a epic Drow war or battling a Goddess or a wizard army. Having never experienced the last encounter of an adventure I was keen to find out what was going to happen.

I was still playing my female Drow rogue, Kai. There was a female priestess, another rogue and a human slave. Now we were searching for this Drow called Valan Jaelre, who is one of the Council's leaders. Questioning him and then killing him could be very useful and possibly help put an end to the unrest that has been going on in Menzoberranzan (that's basically the whole of the Drow society). We entered some catacombs, which then turned out to be a forgotten shrine to Lolth. There were large patches of cobwebs everywhere and we were told that disturbing them and/or killing the spiders would lower our renown points. (Renown points are given or taken away due to actions taken by the players. Worth points work in the same way, but are decided on by the characters' stats as well).

A brown cloud of smoke appeared and started speaking to us telepathically. This smoke turned out to be connect to Lolth and was a sign of her favour or displeasure depending on how we answered. It was a role playing moment with each of us answering to why we where here and though we had agreed on the goal of completing the Demon Weave, it being all telepathic meant that we could answer with something different if we had decided to have individual goals. Myself, the priestess and the slave stuck with the goal and the rogue decided to bluff a different answer and failed. Lolth was displeased and cursed him.

We were then attacked by Valan's allies and they were Hex Knights and Spellsinners. I would like to say by a cruel twist of fate, but actually it was by the DM's hand, that I who'd put Kai at the back, got moved to the front and because I'd rolled a higher number then anyone else, I had to go first! I had no choice but to fire an arrow at the nearest enemy. I hit and did some small damage. Everyone else then got immobilised, weakened or slowed down by Valan. They couldn't really fight on their turns, so I had to fire another arrow and deal some more damage. I also got hit though and had to be healed by the priestess. I was then joined in the fight, though I was still stuck leading the group. I'm not very keen on being in that position, just because Kai isn't built for fighting and I'm still learning!

The other rogue tried to hide almost the skeletons in the alcoves of the catacombs. This didn't work so well and I decided that corners were still good shields. In front of us there was a staircase going down and we had to try and fight some of the enemies on it. This was a little bit hard and then it got worse because one set of the enemies (I forget which) when they went down turned into bone spiders. So, we had to fight them off as well. They turned out to be easy enough to finish off....as long as you weren't blind or weakened. The rogue somehow was weakened for six rounds before finally shaking it off with a good dice roll. Valan then cast a spell and covered the staircase in cobwebs, making it difficult terrain. This meant for me and the other rogue that we could only move half our movement number (which is 6) down the staircase. The priestess and slave were on the last step when the spell hit, so they were the first to enter the chamber at the bottom.

We quickly dispatch the remaining enemies and were left to face Valan. The DM did a bit of RP, acting as if we couldn't defeat him and he was so powerful. However, the priestess soon changed his mind about that and hit him twice with a magical attack really reducing his hit points. It was then my turn and it was decided that we'd question him before we killed him. The DM muttered that it wouldn't matter and I rolled high numbers. Kai took aim with her bow and shot him with an arrow to the head. He dropped and silence hit the table. The DM claimed it was over and that on searching him we find the last piece of the Demon Weave. It also meant that the Drow civil war was dropped and things calmed down, going back to normal for Drow society.

So that was it and with such an anticlimax too! I have to admit that I did feel a bit disappointed by this because I'd been expecting a bigger finish and a much more victorious feel. I think if we'd not been warned before we'd started, I'd feel even worse. I'm not sure why the adventure had to end that way as it really felt rushed and unfinished. However, I'm happy to say that Kai (below) and I survived our first D&D adventure!

So, as the book closes, what is my conclusion about D&D and the Council of Spiders adventure? Well, I know I still have a lot of learning to do! But that'll come with practise and time. The best way to play D&D is really how I've done it; going to a place which holds D&D playing and joining a group with newbies and an experienced DM. I've had a great time and it's given me something to look forward too each week, which was so needed after four years of uni! I've also made lots of friends and had a lot of fun. I know at the beginning I was worried about a number of things; from not liking D&D and RP, to not being accept as I'm a girl, to being seen as silly for not understanding. This quickly disappeared though and I now have to admit that I really do like playing D&D. I like listening to the back stories behind the story of the adventure, I like creating characters, I like fighting the monsters, (even though I complain about it all the time!) I love all the little random events that happen like; characters jumping on tables, hiding in bones, arguing with the DM, role playing between the slaves and masters/mistress. Also for a change my writer and nerd sides are both happy.

As for the adventure itself; I enjoyed it and liked all the missions we had to do. It was good that everyone could be in a different house because we were all- beside from the goblin, human and dwarf slaves- of Drow race, so it was good that we were still able to have conflicted between characters because of the different houses not getting along. It was interesting how things were revealed too in twisty ways that could also be shocking. I liked doing the secret missions as it added a different element. As for the role playing, this is an area I need to work on and not be so embarrassed to be seen doing. It can make you feel a little silly at times and the DM ends up encouraging you to act in the mind set of your character. Other people are really great at RP and this just brings the game alive and gives you so many funny moments.

There are only two small negatives I can think of to add. The first is that this adventure is actually a squeal to Web of the Spider Queen and because I didn't play that I don't know if I missed some important information, which might have helped play in my adventure. My boyfriend did explain some of it to me and the background you get from the Council of Spiders is pretty sound. Still though, playing that adventure first would have been beneficial. Secondly, the ending of this adventure wasn't very good in my opinion. I was expecting something far better and greater. Okay, maybe not an all out fight with a dragon or some large monster, but a more satisfactory conclusion then the anticlimax of things just returning to normal would have been good. Saying that it's still a good adventure.

Finally, I'm happy to say that I've decided to play another season of D&D! So, there shall be more on this blog about my adventures. I've heard that things are slightly changing in the encounters though and that we are going to be given more chance to RP. That should be interesting! Next Wednesday will see the creating of new characters, so if you fancy trying out D&D then I've linked the website you need at the bottom. I also found this image whilst searching today and I thought it was cool, also if you click on the link and read about it, it becomes even more interesting and just goes to show that D&D is an ever expanding game of possibilities.  

Images from:

 http://imperioliancount.wordpress.com/dungeons-dragons/
http://www.pocketplane.net/volothamp/chap8.htm
http://dungeonsmaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/council-of-spiders-cover.jpg
http://torontoist.com/2012/08/dungeons-and-dragons-and-improv/


http://www.wizards.com/dnd/
 

Dungeons and Dragons- This Is How We Roll (Part 1)

 

Hi readers,

I'm just back from playing Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and thought I'd share my experience. This wasn't actually my first time at playing the role playing (RP) board game. A few years back for Christmas my family got a box game of it with everything already set up and the rules made simpler. This game came with us on holiday, mostly camping or the narrow boat because it's actually a great way to pass a good few hours whilst its raining or you've broke down etc. This was my first introduction to D&D and I enjoyed playing it because it was fantasy and adventures and something completely different to tradition/normal board games, which like most families we've been through them all.

My second encounter with D&D was with my ex and two of his friends some months back. We played at his house and did a small, self-contained game. This involved a lot more RP then the box game of course, but those guys really got into the spirit of the game. As for me, I struggled on the complexity of dealing with all the rules and numbers. I've always been bad with numbers and remembering things. However, I did like it and was keen to learn and play again. Then when we broke up I told myself that I wasn't going to let that stop me from having another bash at D&D. I was still interested in it, but I just needed to find someone to teach me.

Luckily, less then 2 months after the break up I met someone else and it was actually because of D&D that we got talking. We've been together 3 weeks now and today was our 5th date. I guess nearly all girls would never concerned going to play D&D on a date. But it's becoming very noticeable to me that I have a nerd side which needs to be embraced. I class myself as a secret nerd, because I'm still unwilling- as of yet!- to admit it fully. So, this evening I had another go at playing D&D and this time it was in a Manchester shop which supports such games and others of course. People gather to learn how to play all kinds of things there, which I think is really good because sometimes you can get one of these RP or fantasy games home and not have a clue what to do with it! This evening we got told that all over the world people were sitting down to play the same adventure that we were about to go on because that's the way these massive things work. (Yeah, I'm still trying to get the hang of it all, just bare with me.)

(D&D dice- more covered in numbers then your normal dice....)

 

I'm so not going into the whole this is how you play D&D and make characters and stuff like that. There's lots of websites with that information on and frankly I'm still a newbie at this. Here's the official D&D site if you want to check it out - http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Default.aspx . Also, I decided that I'm not going into the whole story and background that we are currently playing because and though I'm not confused by it, I'd rather not spoil it for people. But I shall do a little bit about the interesting events that happened in our game and my experiences of becoming a D&D player. 

 

Firstly, for the people who don't know what D&D is about and are busy wondering what's going on. D&D is actually all about telling stories. The players choice characters/heroes and the Dungeon Master (DM) who is in control of telling the story also has control of the enemies/monsters and is there to guide the heroes through the story. The game is played on a board which represents the area of the world that the heroes are currently in. There are so many different areas and so many boards!

 

The players have character sheets which have lots of information in both word and number form printed/written on them. This is each heroes stats and has normal stuff like; their name, race and language(s) spoken. There is also weapons,other items, equipment and treasure/money. A range of different skills can be picked and these are mostly chosen on the race of the character. There's things like; heal, thievery, nature, stealth, athletics and perception. Skills are useful for a large number of things like stealth would be used to sneak up on enemies

 

The main last point is about fighting. Heroes have to fight lots of different monsters, it's not just dragons all the time as the name suggests! There's a whole range of stuff from wild animals to supernatural to goblins to harpies. The health of heroes is measured in hit points and this are effected when damaged (in any number of ways) happens. For attacks there are a few things that can be done and it's actually not as simple as drawing a sword and attacking said monster....though I guess you could do that...My character can choose to do tricks to aid in the fight like knocking a monster on to its back or setting a trap, before attacking. You also get experience points too and can level up. The goal of the game is to complete the adventure and get the rewards.        

 



(A game in action)

 

 

The adventure we started this evening was all about the Drow race  and their quest. The Drow are dark elves and therefore evil. There's an awesome website my boyfriend showed me which has lots of information about them and also about D&D. http://www.kismetrose.com/dnd/MyDrow.html . I see no real need to go into this because you can just read about it all there. For the first part of our adventure we had to fight off some strange creatures. If the DM said their names I don't actually recall them. My boyfriend attacked the first one and got pinned to a wall and no one was able to get him down until close to the end. It was rather funny, though his hero almost died when someone did kill the monster and he fell to the floor. I almost died too, because I had to fight this ooze monster which poisoned me and I just couldn't get away in time. However, we both made it through and our heroes can carry on next week. In the end we did mange to kill all the monsters and move on into the next room and to the next bit of the story. Then it was home time. You play a chapter of the story once a week for between 6/8-14 weeks. We are playing 8 weeks.

I was really worried about playing D&D this evening. I felt the same the first time I really played it as I was scared I'd mess up or look like a fool in front of the others for not knowing how to play. I felt that again this time, though I was pretty much in the same boat as everyone else, as it was their first time and no one knew how to play. But my other fear was that I might have been the only girl there. Kismetrose has a great article/essay about being a woman and playing D&D. http://www.kismetrose.com/dnd/Women.html There were two other women there, so it was that bad, but it's just so rare they have girls in shops like the one I was in. Games like these have never really been seen as women's games and men have dominated playing them. Maybe it's because there's a level of immaturity in playing them and men are better connect to their inner child then women? There's also a level of escapism which seems to appeal more to men. I love escapism, I do it in my writing all the time. On reflection, I can't really explain my nerd side or why I enjoy such related things. I've never been a typical woman though and perhaps that has something to do with it?

Anyway, I'm please to say that I did like D&D and I plan to go back next week and carry on playing. It might be a hard game to understand, but it's easy enough to play. Also the social atmosphere was good in the shop and I wasn't treated like I shouldn't have been there or made to feel silly because I didn't know what to do. And as you might have noticed in the title of this post I added the (Part 1) because I strongly believe I shall be writing about D&D again, though if I decided to write every week about it or just to start that way and then just add the events into different posts, is still to be decided.

Finally, if you've read through all of this and decided that playing D&D might be for you then go and check out the official website and find a game near you. Also girls don't be scared to embrace you nerd/geeky sides! Though beware that interesting things can happen when you do....

 

Photos from:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dungeons-and-Dragons-Dice-D-D-Dice-Set-Purple-Steel-/190541147414

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dungeons_and_Dragons_game.jpg

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Drow-Underdark-Supplement-Dungeons-Dragons/dp/0786941510/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346280662&sr=1-1

http://comicsforge.com/2012/01/dungeons-and-dragons-1-2010/


(Ps. for whatever reason Blogger.com doesn't accept the 'and' sign symbol. So I had to go back through this and take them all out before publishing and that's why Dungeons and Dragons became DD.)