The Transitions Series is a series of fantasy novels by R. A. Salvatore, the famous science fiction and fantasy author, consisting of three novels: The Orc King, The Pirate King, and The Ghost King. The Orc King was published in September 2007, The Pirate King in October 2008, and The Ghost King in October 2009. This series will be Salvatore's latest work in the long saga of the companions of Mithril Hall. It continues the tale of the famous renegade drow (dark elf) Drizzt Do'Urden and his friends. This series is a follow-up to The Hunter's Blades Trilogy. Like the rest of the saga, it is set in the Forgotten Realms, a popular Dungeons & Dragons role-playing setting.
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| The Orc King | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | R. A. Salvatore |
| Cover artist | Todd Lockwood |
| Country | U.S. |
| Language | English |
| Series | Transitions |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Wizards of the Coast |
| Publication date | September 25, 2007 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 346 |
| ISBN | 0786943408 |
| Preceded by | The Two Swords |
| Followed by | The Pirate King |
The story begins a century after the events of The Two Swords. Drizzt Do'Urden still wields Twinkle and Icingdeath and he now wields Taulmaril, Cattie-Brie's magical bow. Drizzt defeats a group of bandits calling themselves Casin Cu Calas, a group that wears black and travels through the Orcish Kingdom of Many-Arrows and slays Orcs in their sleep. He is angered when one of them mentions Bruenor Battlehammer's past weakness by allying with the Orcs.
The sixth heir to the throne of Kingdom of Many-Arrows, Obould the Sixth, is visiting the house of a "beautiful" Orcish maiden who is set to marry an elf from the Glimmerwood (formerly Moonwood).
The book then returns to the "past" where Drizzt, with his traveling companion Innovindil, are returning from the journey to the grave of Ellifan. A group of Orcish shaman start conspiring against Obould, and coax forth the Half Ogre-Half Orc Clan Karuck. Innovindil and the rest of her clan are attacked by Clan Karuck, where Innovindil and her Pegasus are slain. Hralien and his friend find her corpse in a tangle below a tree. Another drow, Tos'un and one of the instigators of the Orcish war, has been living in the area alone. Hralien begins hunting for Tos'un, believing him to have masterminded the ambush as it was too well organized to have been orcs. The real mastermind is a powerful Gnomish wizard named Jaculi, that has been trained by Illithids and other powerful creatures, who has been secretly controlling Clan Karuck's different Shaman for centuries.
Back in Mithral Hall Drizzt accompanies Bruenor to a place they believe to be the ancient and lost dwarvern home of Gauntlgrym. With Regis and the dwarves Thibbledorf Pwent, Torgar Hammerstriker, and Cordio Muffinhead they enter, only to discover a cavern full of powerful, otherworldly monsters. Regis and Drizzt silently share doubts about this place being Gauntlgrym, upon seeing the buildings. The buildings look like ones you'd find above ground, and not under. After a vicious battle with two monsters from the Plane of Shadow, they enter into a massive building and find statues of Orcish and Dwarven scholars and tapestries of Orcs and Dwarves living together. A frustrated, dejected Bruenor takes several scrolls and heads home to Mithral Hall.
Cattie-Brie and Wulfgar search for Colson, Wulfgar's surrogate daughter, and with the help of Alustriel, ruler of the city of Silverymoon, finds her in the town of Nesmé. Once she is retrieved, Wulfgar leaves the Companions of the Hall to return her to her original home of Auckney and her birth mother, Meralda, before departing for Icewind Dale and the Tribe of the Elk. Cattie-Brie, saddened by Wulfgar's departure, returns to Mithral Hall with Alustriel.
To avenge Innovindil's death, Hralien goes to find Drizzt in Mithral Hall and asks him to capture Tos'un Armgo. Tos'un also wields Khazid'hea, a sentient sword previously wielded by Catti-brie.
Clan Karuck gathers up several tribes along the River Surbin and races towards dwarven and Silverymoon wizards as they finish construction on a bridge across the river. Several dwarves are slain in the nighttime battle as well as a very powerful wizard. After collecting the dead the next morning, Alustriel, who gave Catti-brie three wizardly items, promises to train Catti-brie in the Arts.
After several days of work, Nanfoodle and Regis finally decipher the text on the scrolls. As it turns out, the language is a mixture of Dwarven and Orcish alphabets. According to the text, Dwarves and Orcs had lived together for centuries, and relations were continuing to improve. After gathering information from Regis, Nanfoodle determines that the only reason the city fell is because something melted the permafrost beneath the city, sucking the entire town and its population under.
Drizzt departs Mithral Hall and eventually captures Tos'un. Bruenor, Regis, Hralien, Torgar Hammerstriker, Thibbledorf Pwent and Cordio Muffinhead track down Drizzt and together with a bound Tos'un they set out to kill King Obould Many-Arrows and end the war.
Throughout the book Clan Karuck chieftain Grguch has made Obould's armies restless. Obould sends his Shaman to parlay with the dwarves, apologizing for the attacks and sends a messenger to Grguch. The runner sent to Mithral Hall is captured by treacherous Orcs, and the other messenger is slain by Grguch himself. Grguch, believing he is following the ways of Gruumsh, prepares an assault on Obould's encampment. As Bruenor and his group marches towards Obould, Drizzt and Hralien search for a way to prove Tos'un innocent. After hearing a discussion between two of the original conspirators proving Tos'un innocent, Drizzt heads off with Bruenor alone. Grguch and Obould are in a desperate battle, with Obould slowly gaining the upper hand until the Jack-possessed Karuck shaman, Hakuun, starts firing lightning bolts at Obould. Drizzt forces Bruenor to choose the destiny of the land and Bruenor leaps atop the back of Obould, and spring boards himself into Grguch. Drizzt runs after Hakuun and slays him and the shape shifting Jack.
Bruenor is fighting a terrible battle with Grguch which ends with a disemboweled and headless Grguch. A battered Bruenor and dying Regis are brought before Obould. As Obould stares down at Bruenor, the Shaman messenger meant for the parlay heals Regis at Obould's command. Obould lowers his weapon and seemingly agrees to a parlay with Mithral Hall and the North. Hralien allows Tos'un to live in the Moonwood and the group returns home.
In Garumn's Gorge, Bruenor and Obould sign a treaty, ending the war and establishing the Kingdom of Many-Arrows. Catti-brie takes on the enchanted robes of the wizard Jack and accepts the mentoring of Lady Alustriel and Nanfoodle.
Back in the future, Hralien and Drizzt remain with the captured members of Casin Cu Calas. They discuss Tos'un and his elven wife Sinnifain and their children, the renaming of Moonwood, and the current state of the Orcish kingdom before they part ways once again.
| The Pirate King | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | R. A. Salvatore |
| Cover artist | Todd Lockwood |
| Country | U.S. |
| Language | English |
| Series | Transitions |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Wizards of the Coast |
| Publication date | October 7, 2008 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 347 |
| ISBN | 978-0-7869-4964-9 |
| Preceded by | The Orc King |
| Followed by | The Ghost King |
The Arcane Brotherhood has long held the city of Luskan in their power, but when corruption eats away at their ranks, Captain Deudermont comes to the rescue of a city that has become a safe haven for the Sword Coast's most dangerous pirates. But rescuing a city from itself may not be as easy as Deudermont thinks, and when Drizzt can't talk him out of it, he'll be forced to help.
The story begins with Captain Deudermont and the Sea Sprite crew still fighting pirates. One of the captured pirates raises questions of the effectiveness of Deudermont's actions, suggesting that Deudermont is allowed to capture pirates purely as a show and then stating that the Arklem Greeth, a lich who controls the Hosttower in the city of Luskan, supports the pirate trade. On Deudermont's return to Waterdeep, he meets with Lord Brambleberry of Waterdeep, and the two of them decide to stop Arklem Greeth and his pirate crews.
Meanwhile Drizzt and Regis decide to travel to Icewind Dale to learn the fate of Wulfgar. Their path leads them Longsaddle, home of the Harpell family. During their visit, a philosophical debate ensues about crime and whether the 'greater good' justifies the use of severe punishment. Drizzt and Regis leave Longsaddle and head for Luskan, where they meet with captain Deudermont and learn of his plan. They decide to help in the fight.
The task of saving Luskan is presented as moral conflict between trying to better the city at the risk of destroying it or accepting stability under less morally pure rule. After a few battles that tears the city apart, Arklem Greeth blows up the Hosttower, killing a large percentage of Luskan's population.
With the war apparently over, Drizzt and Regis continue on their path to Icewind Dale. There they find Wulfgar living in a cave invaded by a carefree Drizzt and Wulfgar many years ago, testing himself against the harsh seasons before he plans to return to his people.
Back in Luskan, while Deudermont tries to rebuild the city and keep the people of Luskan safe and fed, the High Captains work against Deudermont, hoping to turn the people of Luskan against him and assume the position of rulers. Eventually, civil war breaks out in Luskan. Drizzt and Regis return to help. The final battle sees the death of Deudermont, the sinking of the Sea Sprite, and the return of the rule of the High Captains in Luskan. Drizzt and Regis leave the city with the rest of Deudermont's crew.
| The Ghost King | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | R. A. Salvatore |
| Cover artist | Todd Lockwood |
| Country | U.S. |
| Language | English |
| Series | Transitions |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Wizards of the Coast |
| Publication date | October 6, 2009 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 352 |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-0786952335 |
| Preceded by | The Pirate King |
Released October 6, 2009.
In The Ghost King, when the Spellplague ravages Faerûn, old friends and foes alike are caught in the chaos. The blinding light released from the destruction of Crenshinibon burned out the eyes of the mighty Hephaestus, leaving him angry, sullen and defeated. A strand of Mystra's falling Weave released the necromancy of the ruined shard, reviving as apparitions the seven original liches that created it and giving sentience to the dead mind flayer Yharaskrik. Yharaskrik tricks Hephaestus into breathing onto Crenshinibon again, which transforms the dragon into a dracolich. Yharaskrik compels Hephaestus to smash Crenshinibon into his skull, binding them together. Yharaskrik's sentience then binds with Hephaestus/Crenshinibon, the three becoming the Ghost King.
The three minds, with no privacy and never alone in the one body, had a great shared power: the dracolich's flight, strength, breath and an aura of death and disease, the militant and strategic mind - as well as psionic powers - of the mind-flayer, and the Crystal Shard's necromantic powers and patience combined. Seeking revenge on those responsible for his blindness, the mind of Hephaestus immediately set his sights on Jarlaxle.
Traveling with the silly, but undeniably dangerous, dwarf Athrogate, the latter rhyming the whole way, Jarlaxle snapped out of Reverie one night at the intrusion of the dracolich threatening to find him. Not unintelligent, Jarlaxle had not missed the Spellplague beginning around him as Mystra's Weave itself collapsed. And after being attacked - first by the undead and second by one of Crenshinibon's liches, who he inadvertently destroyed when he threw his pocket hole dimension over the top of the lich, which collided with the dimensional gate the lich contained - they caused a rift and the lich disappeared. He knew the only way to survive and perhaps stop this horrid monstrosity of a foe was to enlist the help of the mighty drow Drizzt, as well as the holy Deneirrath priest Cadderly. He also knew, due to the last encounter with Cadderly - ending in a threat should Jarlaxle ever return to Spirit Soaring - that the only way to get Cadderly was to get Drizzt, and the only way to Drizzt was Cadderly. As he journeyed to Mithral Hall, attempting to discern a way to get the drow on his side, he learned of a terrible side effect of Mystra's falling Weave touching Drizzt's wife Catti-brie. He then decides his only chance - maybe Faerûn's only chance - was to convince Drizzt that Cadderly was her only chance and to let him go with him as well. After using a disguised Athrogate to convince Bruenor and Drizzt that Cadderly was Catti-brie's best hope, Jarlaxle meets up with Drizzt, Bruenor and Pwent, explains to him their plight and how their problems may be connected.
Meanwhile, Spirit Soaring is filled with priests, mages, sages and scholars of all sorts, all gathered to discuss the recent failures in magic, the failure of some gods to answer but not others and other effects of the Spellplague. Shortly after Cadderly's children and the druidic dwarf Pikel arrive at Carradoon, the town starts being assaulted by the Ghost King's undead which, despite their great martial prowess, drives them and the town's people deep into caves under the mountain. At the same time creatures of the Shadow Plane begin assaulting Spirit Soaring but the combined might of the remaining empowered priests and wizards, led by Cadderly, hold them off until sunrise, when they retreat. Shortly after, as the remaining people at Spirit Soaring equip themselves with magical weapons of the cathedral's collection, their patrols begin to report heavier losses as magic begins to fail completely. Cadderly attempts to find Deneir and finds his god weaving the Metatext and therefore himself into the broken Weave to fix the damage and stabilize it. Soon after, a group of priests and mages who have lost faith sally forth against Cadderly's advice to escape and return a few minutes later as zombies at the forefront of an army of shadow creatures, who had returned even during the day.
Drizzt and company run into Danica, Cadderly's wife, who had been out searching for their missing children when she stumbled across what appeared to be the death of Ivan Bouldershoulder at the Ghost King's foot. Barely escaping alive and with Jarlaxle's help, she recovers in time for them to reach the battle at Spirit Soaring. They attempt to press through with the unconscious Catti-brie on a wagon but not even a fierce charge by the dwarven heroes followed by the speed of the drow could break through the unstoppable tide. Seeing his wife and some friends in danger, his need to act called out and something answered. Reciting off unknown spells, he creates a flying horse and carriage out of a cloud and rides down to rescue the fighters below displaying godlike power in the form of potent and great unknown spells.
The Ghost King is defeated but escapes to the Shadowfell, where he recovers rapidly. He returns and is defeated a second time, disappearing to the Shadowfell again. Cadderly uses Catti-brie as a conduit to enter the Shadowfell to finish off the Ghost King. In the end, Cadderly defeats the Ghost King at the cost of his life and becomes the new Ghost King, forever reinforcing and guarding the ward containing the rift left by the old Ghost King. The rift is in the shattered remains of Spirit Soaring. Catti-brie is allowed one last night with Drizzt, before she and Regis both die from the Spellplague and are taken by Mielikki as a reward partly to Drizzt. The goddess puts them into a pocket paradise plane for all time.