Legacy of the Drow

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Legacy of the Drow is a fantasy series. It is the third series by R. A. Salvatore about the Forgotten Realms character Drizzt Do'Urden.

[edit] Works included

The Legacy (1992)
Starless Night (1993)
Siege of Darkness (1994)
Passage to Dawn (1996)

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Legacy begins where the Icewind Dale trilogy left off. It continues with Wulfgar and Catti-brie preparing for their marriage and Drizzt returning after traveling to Silverymoon to visit the Lady Aulustriel, which he had began to do quite frequently. Drizzt returned to meet a disturbed Catti-brie and a few differences in Regis who comes back to Mithril Hall after having taken over Pasha Pook's thieve guild and he seems to be running.

Bruenor is making plans for the wedding while most of the dwarves are carrying on with business as usual. Wulfgar's tribe settles in Settlestone and are prospering greatly with their new king. Yet Wulfgar is becoming more possessive of the fiery Catti-brie and she feels he is baring down on her to keep her from getting hurt, and himself as his protectiveness could cost them both. Wulfgar unexpectedly attacks Drizzt lashing out at him and trying to actually kill him. Drizzt thwarts Wulfgar's attempt and for a while things seem normal. You also meet a battlerager named Thibbledorf Pwent who was around at the taking of Mithril Hall by the Duergar and Shimmergloom. He was knocked out and out of the fight for some time before regaining consciousnous and found it was taken. He returned to serve his king. Many describe him as smelly, as in never-bathes-smelly, and his armor squeaks annoyingly. He wears armor that is his weapon with metal points at his helm nearly half his height, on his elbows, knees and shoes. He has a pair of gauntlets as well that he uses to impale. His main offense however is the ridges in his armors in which he uses to cut his opponents up with.

In Menzoberranzan, Drizzt's sister Vierna (Whose house was destroyed and was taken in by Matron Baenre, the first mother of Menzoberranzan) is preparing to recapture him and has enlisted the aid of a friend in order to trap Drizzt. Vierna believes that this is the path back to glory and that if she succeeds, she'll be in the full favor of Lloth, or Lolth, the drow spider queen. She enlists the help of Bregan D'aerthe, the most prominent mercenary band in Menzoberranzan, in order to capture Drizzt. However the leader of Bregan D'aerthe, Jarlaxle, begins believing that the quest might just be that of a crazy high-priestess who is power hungry. Yet as time goes on and his sister turns her brother Dinin into a drider, he begins to believe her quest is ordained by the spider goddess.

Well, there is a disturbance of goblins in the lower depths of the unexplored tunnels in Mithril Hall. Bruenor, being king of mithril hall, gathers his forces together and annihilate the goblins and a group of stone giants in the tunnels and everything seems to go back to normal for a bit. Bruenor continues to prepare for the wedding and Wulfgar still acts strangely, by telling Catti-brie what to do and presenting more problems for the young woman. She had disobeyed him when she when to help with the goblins as had he.

A bit of time went by since the goblin massacre and a patrol group went missing. It fell upon Drizzt to return with Guenwhyvar, a panther summoned from an onyx figurine from the astral realm. However, Bruenor suggests that Regis go with him and so they creep off into the tunnels. Drizzt and Regis find the lost patrol, slaughtered. The work resembled the work of the dark elves. Regis and him confront the elves in which they manage to escape. Drizzt confronts Regis about his abilities and then finds out that it is Artemis Entreri disguised as Regis, via a mask Drizzt received after defeating a banshee that could change your appearance. Yet Drizzt didn't realize at how extensive the change could be. He had just changed into a surface elf. Entreri had turned into Regis exactly. Entreri turned Drizzt into the dark elves who began to take them back to the underdark.

Entreri challenges Drizzt as the group reaches a cylindrical chamber but is told that he can't kill Drizzt as he is to be an offering to Lolth. That apparently being the deal for capturing Drizzt, he is granted a fight.

Meanwhile, Bruenor recalls Regis trying to use the pendant to tell him to let him go with Drizzt. Wulfgar then recalls that Regis had told him about Catti-brie kissing Drizzt when she had not. The group of Catti-brie, Bruenor, Wulfgar, Cobble (The high priest of the Dwarves in Mithril Hall) and the battlerager known as Thibbledorf Pwent went to rescue Drizzt.

As Drizzt and Artemis Entreri begin to fight, Drizzt starts out slow and lackluster as Artemis is not allowed to kill him, so he can only embarrass Drizzt. Yet Artemis prods him with thoughts of a captured or killed Regis. As he continues to fight, Jarlaxle and Vierna are impressed with Drizzt and allow the fight to continue for some time before the door busts open with Aegis-Fang flying through. As the door busts open there is a lot of confusion followed by the Dark Elves countering back. Cobble is crushed with a steel door erected by Vierna. Drizzts had noticed a chute before in which to escape and he does so, after dispatching of a single guard. As he reached the bottom he realized that his vow to never kill dark elves was selfish and that if it meant protecting his friends, he would.

All the while a small battle wages, the friends escape and Artemis Entreri asks if he can go after Drizzt. Vierna sends two soldiers with him and they jump down the chute. At the bottom of the chute, Entreri kills the two soldiers and then goes on his search for Drizzt who is hiding.

Drizzt's friends commence to looking for him as well a bit higher up. As Drizzt realizes, the only way back up is through the chute or through the north. Many of Vierna's patrols are sent up north (including drow from House Baenre and Bregan D'aerthe) to block the second path. Drizzt's friends search for him while he continues to evade Artemis Entreri and look for a way out.

Then one of the biggest twists happens in the story thus far. Bruenor and the rest confront the dark elves and commence to fighting them. Bruenor takes on the Drider formerly known as Dinin, while Catti-brie shoots several dark elves and Wulfgar smashes them up with Aegis-Fang. Thibbledorf Pwent is lead away from the battle after causing a lot of chaos. Pwent catches one dark elf of the two leading him down the path, many of them shooting him with poison arrows that don't phase him because of a fermented drink or potion he had with him. He manages to catch one and scrapes him across the ridges in his armor, shaking him apart. He is then tricked into falling into a pit and knocked unconscious briefly. As the battle wages, Vierna summons a Yochlol, or a handmaiden of Lolth's. As the Yochlol attacks Catti'brie, Wulfgar becomes protective once more and charges the creature and is soon captured by it. The monster tears through his ribs as it chews on him, just shortly before Wulfgar cries to Tempus and begins hitting a stalactite, knocking it free onto the Yochlol and himself, sacrificing himself for Catti-brie.