Gauntlgrym (2010) (edit title/settings)

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Drizzt Do'Urden: the goodly drow hero of R.A. Salvatore's Legend of Drizzt saga. Drizzt has begun to long for the open road and adventure as he watches the years slowly claim the lives of his companions.
• Bruenor Battlehammer: Drizzt's dwarf companion and King of Mithral Hall. Feeling that he has reached the end of his long life, Bruenor wants nothing more than to find the lost dwarven city of Gauntlgrym before he dies.
• Jarlaxle Baenre: the cunning, charismatic leader of a drow mercenary band and Drizzt's sometimes companion. Jarlaxle has such a reputation for having a contact, magical trinket, or plan for almost every situation that he can rightfully be called the Swiss Army knife of Faerûn.
• Athrogate: Jarlaxle's dwarf traveling companion. Athrogate wields twin morning stars and is fond of speaking in rhyme.
• Dhalia Sin'felle: the very young, very confident wielder of Kozah's Needle. She is a noble of Thay and servant of Szass Tam.
• Barrabus the Gray: a fearsome assassin who has been forced into the service of the tiefling, Herzgo Alegni. He has a long and complicated history with the drow in Luskan.
• Herzgo Alegni: a Shadovar tiefling leading an expedition to find the Xinlenal Enclave in Neverwinter Wood.
• Thibbledorf Pwent: a battlerager - Bruenor's right-hand dwarf for many years and adventures. Known for his spiked armor that he uses by making bull rushes and by rolling around on the ground to turn enemies into hamburger. Also doesn't take baths.
• Korvin Dor'crae: Vampire lover of Dhalia Sin'felle

Quotes edit see section history

• “'Lolth preserve us,' Jarlaxle breathed. . . 'Well,' Bruenor said, 'at least the dragon's dead.'”

• “Don't you understand?" Jarlaxle went on. "I watched you—we all watched you. Whenever a matron mother, or almost any female of Menzoberranzan was about, we spoke your name with vitriol, promising to avenge Lolth and kill you... But whenever they were not around, the name of Drizzt Do'Urden was spoken with jealousy, often reverence. You do not understand, do you? You don't even recognize the difference you've made to so many of us in Menzoberranzan.”

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• We all tell ourselves these hopes and dreams and expectations, and with conviction, for the goal is needed to facilitate the journey. But in the end of that span, be it one or five or ten or fifty years hence, it is the journey and not the goal, achieved or lost, that defines who we are. The journey is the story of our life, not the achievement or failure at its end, and so the more important declaration by far, I have come to know, is, “This is my life now.”

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• “Well,” Bruenor said, “at least the dragon’s dead.”

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• Every person I have known tricks himself into thinking that this current way of things will continue on, year after year. It is so easy to speak of expectations, of what will be in a decade, perhaps, and to be convinced that the important aspects of one’s life will remain as they are, or will improve as desired.

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• “Oh, joy,” Drizzt deadpanned. “They have a dragon.”

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• for even when one believes strongly in something, the actual confirmation comes most often as a shock.

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• “Ye telled me a million times, it’s the journey and not the ending,”

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• the anticipation of pain provided more incentive than the pain itself.

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• “By Moradin’s bum and Clangeddin’s beard, who’d ever be seein’ such a sight?” he recited. “A party o’ five with weapons in hand and ready to take up the fight. But me gods are all posin’ and scratching and shakin’ and got to be questionin’ theirself, to think a royal would be sharin’ their spoils with the likes o’ two drows and an elf!”

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• “A drow and a dwarf, a dwarf and a drow, a hunnerd times better’n a fox and a cow! Bwahaha!” Athrogate added with unbridled enthusiasm.

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• “Aye, and I’m bettin’, sure as the sun’s settin’, that one o’ them fools’ll go for her jewels. And oh, then they’ll know in the heartbeats to come, that her sticks’ll play skulls with the sound of a drum.”

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

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• Gauntlgrym: an ancient dwarven city.
• Luskan: the once prosperous City of Sails.
• Neverwinter: a once charming and wealthy trading city on the Sword Coast.
• Menzoberranzan: a magnificent city of the drow located deep in the Underdark.
• Icewind Dale: a tundra to the far north that is home to rogues, dwarves, and barbarian tribes.
• Mithral Hall: Bruenor's recovered kingdom.

Organizations edit see section history

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• Bregan D'aerthe: Jarlaxle's mercenary band. While very few of his band appear in this book, Jarlaxle's mercenaries are mentioned with such frequency that they continue to feel omnipresent, even when Jarlaxle assures us they are not.
• Shadovar: a subgroup of the Netherese. Shadovar are portrayed as a vicious, savage group of people.
• Ashmadai: The Ashmadai are the fanatical worshipers of the Arch-Devil, Asmodeus. They come from Thay and follow Szass Tam, the necromancer.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Drow: The drow are a race of dark-skinned, white-haired elves. They are typically cruel, cunning, and treacherous beings, and they think nothing of anyone who is not a drow. Most drow live in the subterranean cities of the Underdark, but a few choose to live on the surface. Both subterranean and surface dwelling drow tend to have matriarchal societies.
• Shades: Shades are powerful humanoids that have merged with the essence of shadow. They become exponentially more powerful in dark places, and they have the ability to shadow walk. They tend to have longer lifespans than their non-shade counterparts, and they may have healing abilities or regeneration. Salvatore's prominent full and part shades in Gauntlgrym acquired their powers; they were not born with them.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by Neverwinter.

Preceded by The Ghost King.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. R. A. Salvatore (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Todd Lockwood (Cover Artist)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3569.A462345 G38 2010
• Dewey: 813.54

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Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy

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