The Icewind Dale Trilogy
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The Icewind Dale Trilogy is a trilogy written by R.A. Salvatore, a SciFi and fantasy author. It contains three books: The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, and The Halfling's Gem. The trilogy tells the tale of the legendary drow, or dark elf, Drizzt Do'Urden, the mighty barbarian warrior, Wulfgar, the tricky halfling Regis, a dwarf king, Bruenor, and Bruenor's adopted daughter Catti-brie. The first of Salvatore's Forgotten Realms series', it describes the events that created some of the best-known characters in Forgotten Realms.
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[edit] Works included
Icewind Dale Trilogy series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- The Crystal Shard (1988)
- Streams of Silver (1989)
- The Halfling's Gem (1990)
[edit] Plot summary
[edit] The Crystal Shard
Even in Icewind Dale, Drizzt was not fully accepted, except by the dwarfs whom he had eventually befriended. He roamed the tundra, hunting down yeti and giants that threatened the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale. When the barbarians that were the native people of the Dale banded together to slaughter the people of Ten Towns, whom they viewed as invaders, Drizzt, with his drow stealth and ranger's knowledge of the terrain, was able to discern their plans and relay the information to his friends Regis and Bruenor. Regis, on the council of Ten Towns, used persuasion and a magical ruby pendant to convince the stubborn leaders of the towns to work together to thwart the barbarian attack. Even with the aid of his magical pendant, Regis only barely managed to sway the stubborn Kemp of Targos, one of the greatest military commanders of Ten-Towns.
Because of the warning and their unified efforts, Ten-Towns and the dwarves successfully repelled the barbarian attackers, decimating the proud warriors. Drizzt fought in the battle, personally meeting the barbarian king, Heafstagg, in combat. Drizzt wounded Heafstagg many times, including a stab to the stomach and a slash across the abdomen that should have been fatal. But Drizzt himself was wounded, and Heafstagg escaped and survived. During this same battle, Bruenor met a young barbarian standard bearer, who broke the shaft of his banner over the dwarf's head. Bruenor, unfazed, slammed the youth with his shield, rendering him unconscious. After the battle, Bruenor saved this same youth from being killed in cold blood by the townspeople, taking the young man, Wulfgar, son of (the late) Beornegar into his care. Bruenor also defended the wounded and unconscious Drizzt, slamming Kemp to the ground and breaking the nose of his Lieutenant when he found them kicking the injured drow. Bruenor told the people of Ten Towns, quite truthfully, that if not for Drizzt Do'Urden, they would even now be lying dead. After this, Drizzt found more acceptance in Icewind Dale, even respect.
Five years passed, with Wulfgar indentured to the dwarves. Bruenor taught him to smith and mine, and came to love him like a son. Though Wulfgar originally resented the dwarves and his indenture, he came to respect and even love Bruenor, like the father that had died years past.
During this same time, the failed wizard Akar Kessel, left to die in the Spine of the World, found Crenshinibon, the Crystal Shard, a magical, sentient crystal with the ability to lend power to its wielder, make tower sanctuaries in the likeness of itself, and insinuate itself into the minds of others, including that of its wielder. Crenshinibon, obsessed with gaining power, twisted Akar Kessel's mind to get him to do its will. Kessel, with no idea that he was being controlled, decided to conquer Icewind Dale for his own. He enslaved the goblins and orcs of the nearby mountains, building them into his own army, their wills completely destroyed by Crenshinibon. He even managed to gain control of Heafstagg, and through him the tribes of barbarians. He also acquired the services of a balor named Errtu to be his general, though it was far more interested in sticking around long enough to get his hands on Crenshinibon than anything else.
Near the end of Wulfgar's indenture, Bruenor forged Aegis-fang, the magical warhammer, for his adopted son. He then took Wulfgar to be trained in the ways of battle, choosing Drizzt as the young man's instructor. Wulfgar was ambivalent when he saw that his teacher was a drow, but quickly came to respect and admire the dark elf. Drizzt turned the young man into a formidable warrior. The two of them took out an entire lair of verbeeg (the least of the giant species, around a height of ten feet), led by a frost giant named Biggrin with only the help of Guenhwyvar. Wulfgar then left to hunt down a white dragon, Ingeloakastimizilian, more commonly known as Icingdeath. Drizzt tracked him, and the two of them killed the dragon. Drizzt found a scimitar in the treasure hoard, and took it for his own, eventually naming it after the dragon.
As Akar Kessel moved in on Ten-Towns, his armies sweeping aside the disorganized defense with little trouble, Wulfgar took the horns of Icingdeath and challenged Heafstagg for kingship. He won the challenge, killing the old king. Drizzt, sensing the demon Errtu, and recognizing the balor from his days in Menzoberannzan, called the demon and faced it alone with Guenhwyvar. After a battle, and the aid of the fire-banishing properties of the scimitar Icingdeath, he managed to defeat the demon, banishing it to the abyss for one hundred years.
After defeating the demon, Drizzt used his stealth and Guen's unnatural eyes to find his way into the Crystal Tower, Cryshal-Tirith, where he fought his way past Akar Kessel's orcs and trolls to face the wizard himself. The wizard, sure of victory, imprisoned the drow in a cage of magical light, and taunted him with images of the barbarians joining the battle for Ten Towns, thinking that Heafstagg still led them. However, Wulfgar led his people not against Ten Towns, but against Kessel. With the help of Regis, a halfling prisoner in the tower, Drizzt escaped his cage, and followed Kessel through a portal to the top of a mountain. There, after a short battle, the magical heat of Crenshinibon destabilized the snow cap, and an avalanche killed Kessel and took Drizzt back down the mountain. Crenshinibon, buried under the avalanche and blocked from the light of the sun (it's power source) and weakened by Regis' destruction of Cryshal-Tirth lost it's control over the orcs and goblins, who lost cohesion and were slaughtered. Bruenor, faking mortal injury, tricked Drizzt into agreeing to search for Mithral Hall, Bruenor's boyhood home.
[edit] Streams of Silver
Following on from the events of 'The Crystal Shard', Bruenor leads his friends Drizzt Do'Urden, the barbarian Wulfgar, and a suprisingly enthusiastic Regis, on a quest to reclaim Mithril Hall, the ancient stronghold of his clan. However, danger is already following them before they can reach their objective, for Regis has a particular reason for coming along; namely to elude the dangerous assassin Artemis Entreri, sent by Pasha Pook of Calimshan to recover the magical ruby that Regis stole from him.
Just as the companions are setting out, Artemis arrives in Ten-Towns, soon locating Regis' abandoned home and finding Catti-brie there. The young woman finds herself hopelessly outmatched and paralysed by fear, telling him all about Regis and the companions' quest. Entreri allows her to live, confident that she will not dare to interfere with his plans. Afraid for her friends, and desparate to regain her honour, she follows after both the companions and Entreri, hoping to warn her friends. On the way to Luskan however, Entreri realises that he is being followed, and captures Catti-brie again, this time taking her along as a prisoner to use against the companions.
Meanwhile the companions have reached Luskan, and seek out a map of the Northlands to aid in their quest. However, their visit does not go unnoticed. Dendybar the Mottled, an ambitious wizard from the Hosttower of the Arcane has heard of the Crystal Shard and believes that Drizzt still possesses it, and plots to take it for his own ends. He forges an uneasy alliance with Entreri so that both may achieve their goals, and sends his apprentice Sydney with Entreri, along with his golem (Bok) and a soldier named Jierdan.
The companions travel across the northlands towards Silverymoon, encountering barbarian tribes, an eccentric wizard family (the Harpells) and the soldiers of Nesme, who react to Drizzt with hostility, forcing the companions to divert across the Evermoors, also known as the Trollmoors, an ordeal that almost makes an end of them. Upon reaching SIlverymoon, the companions are directed to the Herald's Holdfast, where they obtain the final clues to the location of Mithril Hall.
During her time as a captive Catti-brie slowly overcomes her terror of Entreri, and begins to play on the volatile relationships between Entreri and his allies, creating an opportunity for her to escape as the evil group closes in on the companions. Reunited with her friends, Catti-brie accompanies them into the ancient Dwarven stronghold, discovering that the duergar who forced Bruenor's clan out are still there, working the mines for their own ends. Whilst within the upper chambers of Mithril Hall, the two groups clash, and Drizzt and Entreri find themselves face-to-face.
The meeting between Drizzt and Entreri marks the beinning of a long-running and deadly feud between the two. The two warriors are evenly matched in battle, and each sees a twisted mirror image of himself in the other; Drizzt the drow with a human soul, and Entreri the human who should have been born a drow. During the battle, a cave-in separates the two groups but results in Drizzt and Entreri being trapped together deep in the complex. They are forced to work together to escape, an experience which heightens both their resentment of the other's ideology, and their respect for one another's prowess. Although initially tasked with the capture of Regis and the return of the ruby for his master Pasha Pook, Entreri finds himself so challenged by Drizzt's very existence that he later uses Guenhwyvar's statue, stolen from Drizzt, to further bait the drow into following him so that they can duel to find out who is the better warrior.
Bruenor, Wulfgar, Regis and Catti-brie, believing Drizzt to have perished, continue their quest with heavy hearts; Bruenor decides that they will only scout the upper levels, and begins to doubt the wisdom of trying to retake Mithril Hall. They find the Hall of Dumathoin, recovering the magical bow Taulmaril (the Heartseeker) which later becomes Catti-brie's signature weapon. On their way out, they find themselves attacked by duergar, and forced into a battle with the shadow dragon Shimmergloom, the master of the duergar. It is only because of Bruenor's heroic sacrifice that the dragon is slain and his friends survive.
Shortly afterwards, Drizzt is reunited with his friends, although Entreri takes advantage of the situation to finally lay his hands on Regis and make his escape, taunting Drizzt to follow him. The story ends with Catti-brie making arrangements for Clan Battlehammer to reclaim the hall, along with help from Wulfgar's tribe and the dwarves of Citadel Adbar, whilst Drizzt and Wulfgar begin their chase to rescue Regis from the clutches of Entreri.
[edit] The Halfling's Gem
The dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden and Wulfgar the barbarian race to Calimport to rescue their friend Regis and his stolen gem from the vengeance of Pasha Pook.
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