Dragonstone 42

Chapter 42So here's a random thought from last chapter.
We're clearly meant to hate Queen Gudrun because she refused to honor her word to Samurai Chick, and then tried to have everyone killed. The problem with that is, Our Heroes lied to her first. Specifically, Egil is a Fjordlander raider who, just a couple of weeks ago, killed Duke Rache's brother in a raid. This was not in self-defense; this was an aggressive act of theft and destruction and violence. Duke Rache therefore had very legitimate reasons to want vengeance on Egil.
Egil passed himself off as a Jordian to the locals for that very reason, something I skimmed over, meaning he entered Koniginstadt under false pretences and lied about who he was. "Who he was" was a known raider and murderer of a nobleman, which is cause for at minimum imprisonment and trial. Queen Gudrun and Duke Rache were absolutely within their rights to assume the worst when Egil was revealed. Given his history and the violent culture, immediately seeking to kill him and detain his mysterious foreign companions seems entirely reasonable.
Obviously, Gudrun was wrong to break her sworn word, but Our Heroes aren't looking so good either.
Anyway, on with the story. Our Heroes sail out into the storm and are quickly drenched. Delon is seasick, Alos is unconscious, and the other three battle the storm through the night, and by noon the next day it's calmed. No mention of anyone other than Alos getting any sleep, I notice.
Delon asks where they're bound and why they rescued him, and is told they're bound south for Pellar, and Pendwyr - why, I don't know - and they saved him because they need him for a quest. Before Egil can elaborate, Alos emerges, cursing and insisting that he's been press-ganged - he had intended to stay behind in Jute, you may recall. He and Samurai Chick snap at each other for a bit, and then Arin explains that if they'd left him, he would have been executed. They speculate on how the Jutes will be looking for them, regardless of whether Gudrun survived or not.
Alos agees to sail with them to Pendwyr, but no further. Anyone think that will actually be the case? At least McKiernan seems to have gotten tired of mocking and abusing him for now.
We skip over someone explaining the details of the quest to Delon, and find Samurai Chick cutting his collar free with her katana, "pressing and rocking the keen edge of her blade of steel against the last remaining fastener of the silver collar." I'm not sure whether you could cut through silver rivets with a katana blade, but I am sure that would be terrible for the katana. Delon is understandably grateful, Alos wants to know how he came to be Gudrun's sex slave, and we enter yet another flashback.
Delon arrives in Koniginstadt due to rumors that the queen is seeking a lover. We learn that he wears an obsidian amulet, "given over to him by his father, Elon, who had gotten it from his own father, Galon," and so on. Family legend says that it was "a gift from the Mage Kaldor for a service well performed," and "when coupled with bardish training, it made one sing like the Elves."
Because humans can't ever be as good as elves at anything unless they have artificial assistance. \~/
Delon seems to be quite the Casanova, having "spent much of the last fifteen years in the company of women, primarily in their beds." So he's been living in luxury and traveling when and where he chooses, except when he had to flee from angry brothers, fathers, husbands and fiances.
I am not liking Delon.
So he's skilled with a rapier, "though mostly he talked his way free." Anyway, he comes to Jutland hoping to impress the queen, "since he had never bedded a queen before, much less one as rich as she."
Yeah, Delon seems to be quite the cad, doesn't he? He uses women for his own support, encourages women to be unfaithful to their husbands and fiances, and flits about like a manchild concerned only with his own pleasure, and he's been doing this since he was fifteen. Now he intends to bed Gudrun because (1) she's a notch on his belt, and (2) she's rich. Truely, he is the material of which heroes are made. \~/
Time will tell whether Delon improves, but so far I find that I dislike him quite a bit.
So Delon is called to sing for the queen, and taken to her bed within a candlemark, which I shall assume is about an hour. She proves to be near-insatiable, and when he awakens he has a collar on. Some time later, he learns that when a lover ceases to satisfy her, she has them burned alive "amid a glorious show of grief, Gudrun weeping and calling out her father's name over and again."
Back in the present, Samurai Chick wonders why Delon didn't simply kill Gudrun and escape. He says he doesn't know; he just felt powerless. Arin uses her Wild Magic Sight to determine that there is a charm on the collar, and another on Delon's amulet. Samurai Chick say to destroy the collar, but Egil says they may yet have a use for a collar that "compels docility."
That's creepy, Egil.
So they sail on, and time passes. Nothing much happens. The autumn equinox comes, and Arin does the Elven Line Dance of Autumn, with everyone else imitating her because . . . reasons. Thankfully, it is not described.
Our heroes pass through the Straits of Kistan, and there is much talk of the Rovers of Kistan, who are a feared band of pirates who may be "picketing" the Straits. That just makes me think of a bunch of pirate ships sailing around waving signs in protest of unfair business practices.
On September 30th, Our Heroes make it to the Avagon Sea and eventually make port in Castilla, where they see bandaged men working to repair a badly damaged ship. Delon inquires and finds that this was the work of the Rovers; according to Egil, while they seize intact ships they let damaged ones go so they can be repaired and raided again.
Alos and Egil both curse the Rovers, and Arin calls Egil on this: "Is that not what Fjordlander raiders also do: pillage the property of others; mayhap rape the women of the conquered; slay most of those who resist; take captives for ransom; take property for ransom, too; at times destroy things out of spite; but on the whole leave enough behind so that in subsequent years, other raids can be just as successful?"
Egil's response? "Aye, love. I have done all those things you name and perhaps others as well."
Well, there you go. By his own admission, Egil is a thief, murderer, rapist, arsonist and kidnapper. He's not one of those fictional, Hollywood-style, heroic raiders who somehow never kills anyone unless they're evil; he's a murderous, raping bastard who lives by ruining the lives of others.
I hate Egil. I want him dead. He's a rapist and a murderer and he needs to die. \~/\~/
Egil reminds Arin that he promised never to raid again, and she laughs and the scene ends. After all, what's a little rape and murder between friends? It's all well and good for Egil to say he'll never raid again, but that doesn't really change the fact that he is still a murderer and a rapist. He shows no remorse. He never indicates that he thinks such things are wrong or immoral, or expresses any sorrow for his past crimes, or desire to make amends. He quite literally only quit raiding in order to get into Arin's pants. He's a horny teenage boy trying to impress a hot girl, and realistically, his vow to never raid again is probably going to be forgotten as soon as he loses interest in Arin, or she in him. If it lasts a year I'll be amazed. \~/\~/
Also, note that Arin the Sparkly Perfect Elf, who looks down her nose at humans for practicing warfare and slavery, has nothing more to say about her lover's crimes. Apparently she thinks it's perfectly fine to commit hideous, monstrous acts as long as you eventually . . . quit doing so. No need to feel bad or make amends or anything; if you just stop committing the crimes, all is forgiven. \~/\~/
I like a good redemption story, and that requires the character to have done something bad and therefore need redemption. It also requires the character to show an awareness that what they did was wrong, and a desire to truly change, to prove that they are no longer who they were, and to become a force for good rather than evil. This . . . is not that.
Our Heroes resupply and sail on, and three weeks later they come to the country of Pellar and the city of Pendwyr, or rather Caer Pendwyr, as the map has it, "the place where they hoped to find a ferret in a High King's cage."
Why?
No idea. \~/
Drinks: 9
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