AATE, Part 1, Chapter 9: Hastening Doom

[Damelon]

In time, you will behold the fruit of my endeavors.

The remembered words of Lord Foul start the chapter. Linden’s dilemma, as she watches the confrontation of the croyel and the Harrow.

If I slaughter him, I will do so before you. Think on that when you seek to retrieve him from me.

The course of action that she takes now can quite possibly play into Lord Foul’s hands.

If you discover him, you will only hasten his doom.

The wrong decision taken, and Jeremiah will be lost.

-this I vow

Game on!

First though, the confrontation between the croyel and the Harrow. A confrontation of power[i/]. The dark power of the succubus versus the that of the insequents vision. The croyel, to the Harrow’s annoyance, seems nonchalantly contemptuous of the latter’s hypnotizing gaze. The Harrow studies his foe.

However, Liand acts first. He is so stunned by the evil that is the croyel that his pure spirit is compelled to act. He draws Earthpower from the orcrest to challenge the creatur ... And is promptly swatted back by a negligent wave of Jeremiah’s hand. Not physically hit by the hand, but by the dark power of the succubus. The power of the orcrest fades. This is unfortunate for Linden. The orcrest while awakened, gave her the health sense she needed, but was blocked by Kevin’s Dirt. Found, but again lost, she is helpless.

Linden is puzzled by who is missing. Roger. The croyel shouldn’t be able to stand against the Harrow, armed with the Staff of Law and the white gold ring. The Harrow knows, what Linden does not, that in the construct, the croyel can’t rely on its ally to help. The construct hides it and Jeremiah from the Elohim, including the mad Kastenessen. The Harrow, disdainfully talking to the evil creature, reveals this to Linden.

The Harrow has had enough of talk. Flourishing the Staff of Law, he awakened its might, in the process re-awakening Linden’s health sense. The croyel did call on allies. He summoned a multitude of skest. Linden now realized that the acid creatures were nourishing the croyel, in doing so keeping Jeremiah alive for both it and Lord Foul’s purposes. The Harrow stepped back from the onslaught of the skest, struggling to call forth power from the ring; for if their physical blows couldn’t hurt, the Harrow was of flesh and the acid of their bodies surely could. However, he wasn’t it’s rightful owner of the ring. Yet it was starting to answer to him. The Harrow would win.

Linden had to act. Liand had hit one of the arms of the construct and weakened it. Breaking her kneecap as she stumbled across the floor, she attacked the construct with words of power. Melenkurion Abatha! Duroc minas mill! Harad khabaal!, she yelled taking chunks of the construct out with three blows. The construct collapsed, bringing onto the scene immediately not the Elohim or Esmer as she hoped but..... Roger.

“SUCK-er!” The triumphant Roger yelled from behind the Harrow, plunging Kastenessen’s molten hand into and though the insequent’s back. The Harrow fell dead to the floor, dropping both the Staff of Law and the ring. Linden was spent, neither the Elohim or Esmer came. Roger and the croyel would combine their powers and escape to who knows where and what time. Linden prepared for one last gasp when Covenant charged into the room, wielding the krill

Family drama ensues, and Covenant, Roger, struggle. The white gold powered krill versus Kastenessen’s molten hand. Joan joins in as well with her white gold ring when she senses the struggle trying to get at Covenant. The croyel, waiting for its opportunity to attack. Covenant slowly begins to burn. His flesh roasted by the intense heat.

Into this rushes Stave. Knocking the croyel off balance, he manages to roll the ring and the staff over to Linden. She decides to aid Covenant against Roger leaving Stave to contend against the succubus. She drives Roger away from Covenant with the power of the Staff, but notices that Stave is about to be tossed in amongst the acid skest and sure death. She goes to help Stave. The croyel takes advantage of this to move towards Roger to join together.... and escape.

Not so fast though. Esmer now appears. Yelling angrily at Linden, he charged Roger grabbing him up and both vanishing.

The croyel now on its own, but still formidable with its mindless acid allies takes on Linden. By now though the rest of the company awakens from its trance and charges to her aid. In a savage fight, the company weakens the croyel. Covenant slips behind the evil creature and puts the krill to its throat, telling it not to dare him. He knows Jeremiah will die if he slits its throat, but warns it not to test him. The thing is now terrified. Linden has come away with a costly victory. For now.

On that, the chapter ends.


A rip roaring action packed chapter! A thought on the Harrow before I hand this over for discussion. What stunned me when I first read it was how easily the Harrow was overcome. However, in reflecting on reading the chapter for this discussion, it struck me how he seems a enfleshment of one of the seven deadly sins. That of pride. Pride in his knowledge. Pride in his capabilities. Yet his downfall was sudden and base. Stabbed in the back by a molten hand. His vision failed him when he discounted those he thought he had already bested. He could go out no other way.

[Savor Dam]

Nicely done!

While I need to reread and cogitate a bit before responding in any depth, I completely agree with your final point. In fact, this seems to be something that SRD is making a practice of doing; taking a major character who thinks entirely too well of himself and making his end both sudden and anticlimactic. I would cite examples, but do not want to spoil other stories for those who have not yet read them.

[Orlion]

Yet his downfall was sudden and base. Stabbed in the back by a molten hand.

I think I got a new signature!

[earthbrah]

"Don't try me."

Man, I was so pumped up when TC was giving the croyel the 411 that I started screaming to the rafters with excitement!

I loved this chapter...

[Vraith]

Nicely done!

While I need to reread and cogitate a bit before responding in any depth, I completely agree with your final point. In fact, this seems to be something that SRD is making a practice of doing; taking a major character who thinks entirely too well of himself and making his end both sudden and anticlimactic. I would cite examples, but do not want to spoil other stories for those who have not yet read them.

This kind of thing is one of the high tension threads that really holds my attention so far...
What I mean is, we've got the Harrow...he seems pretty bad-ass, then more bad-ass, then even more bad-ass...but in between, we also see him fail/suffer defeats [or at least have to compromise], which makes most around him ALSO seem even more potent [Heh...analogically, kinda like Z, and the "non-zero" in other threads, topics...everyone is lifted up]. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, the ultimate smack-down...which didn't so much make me respond "holy crap, he's dead!" as it raised the terror of the real bad guys if girly-man Roger can do that with, so to speak, one hand tied behind his back.

[SoulBiter]

Great Dissection!!

It was anti-climatic the way the Harrow died. No defense just BAM you're dead!! But I guess that's they way most deaths are... this one was just more in your face because of what is going on.

BUT that just shows you,,,,, you can have the Staff of Law and the White Gold and still be killed.. that quickly.

[Cameraman Jenn]

I didn't think the Harrow's death was anticlimactic. I thought it was compelling because of it's sudden happenstance. It opened a door for anyone to be killed at any time no matter how much power they control or think they can control.

[wayfriend]

A rip roaring action packed chapter!

No truer words ... thanks for leading, Damelon. I just have a couple of additional points.

The chapter begins with this.

Indirectly, indirectly, the Despiser had urged her to awaken the Worm of the World’s End by resurrecting Covenant. Lord Foul had provided the circumstances and the impetus that goaded her damaged heart. By dismay and desperation, he had encouraged her to surrender her powers so that she would be brought here; so that she would be forced to bear witness and do nothing. So that her futility in the face of Jeremiah’s need would break her at last.

Is this true? I am not sure sure that this is entirely true. I strongly feel that the Timewarden goaded her so that she would be here. It may be that she is starting to recognize that she's been goaded. And that she's incorrectly assuming that only Foul would do such a thing.

Or it may be that Foul's and the Timewarden's plans both require that she be here as she is now. Maybe the Timewarden is entering Foul's trap, in order to defeat it. Or Foul, the Timewarden's. Maybe the line between hope and despite is so close right now that both plans go the same way for now, only to reach some final, decisive cusp.

We may never know. The Timewarden lost his memory.

We also know that Linden came into this chapter with some sort of plan against the Harrow. To "stop him". And in the early pages, we see her waiting for the right moment to spring her plan.

She knew what to do. She had already made her decision. But she had to wait for the right moment.

Then she finally acts, when the Harrow and the croyel are completely occupied with each other.

Without further calculation, she attacks the construct. Could we believe that she knew what she would find before she came to the chamber? Perhaps she had a vague idea that a construct would be involved. It seems more likely that her plan was nothing more than an intention, and that she put it all together in the moment after she arrived.

You have to give Linden cred for sizing up the situation rapidly, and almost immediately seeing a way to do what she wanted to do.

However, once again, her plan goes awry. It fails. The results are catastrophic.

Linden had done what she could - and it was too little. She had broken the spell of Jeremiah’s construct. Surely now the Elohim were able to discern his location? Roger she had expected in some fashion. But she had also believed that at least one of the scattered Elohim would care enough to intervene. Or if none of Infelice’s people responded, Kastenessen would - or Esmer -

Here Roger and the croyel could combine their powers. They could escape through time and distance, as they had done before.

Yet no Elohim came. Esmer did not.

All Linden accomplished was to allow Roger to join with the croyel.

But lo! Have we not asked, in Chapter 3, Can any being or power aver with certainty that your folly will not be transformed to hope by the succor of some lore or theurgy which we cannot foresee?

Well, what about by some valor which we cannot forsee? Yes! In the form of Covenant. And Stave. And the Giants. And the Ardent. And the Haruchai. Yes. Of course.

Of particular interest to me is the utter heedlessness and abandon with which Covenant enters the battle. One thing is clear: Covenant is laying it ALL on the line. Its as if he KNOWS that there's nothing else to live for if they don't get past Roger and the croyel, right HERE, right NOW. We know Jeremiah is important to Covenant. Now we see how important.

And just look at how extravagantly he fights! This is a man who has learned Hamako's lesson, a man who knows how to meaningfully sacrifice his life.

So, when we look at the Harrow's demise, let's remember: it didn't come out of the blue. It's the direct result of Linden's planning and lightning calculation, helped along by some unforseen valor.

And here is this chapter's "Movie Moment".

Then Linden thought that she heard Stave shout her name. From the core of the clashing theurgies, she seemed to see a black shaft like a spear arc through the air toward her as though it had been aimed at her chest.

She dropped the Sunstone. Pure reflex enabled her to reach out and catch the Staff.

In that instant, she was transformed.

Stave. Of course. When she needed him most.

Take that, SUCK-ah.

[bossk]

While I agree that the Harrow's demise was sudden, it makes sense. SRD is not about the glorification of violence, or the TV movie bad-guy comeuppance. The Harrow's pride goeth before his fall - no build up needed.

In these books, those who stand alone are bound to fail. Yes, the bad guys team up from time to time, but they have no real connection, and they don't really trust or care for one another. In the Fellowship of the Ring and Staff, there is near constant sacrifice, insight and concern. It is only when the main characters cut themselves off from their friends that things get really bad (which is a nice lead-in to my chapter, coming up next).

[Barnetto]

Couple of points to muse on:

Firstly, does anyone else think that Linden's breaking of the construct was an incredible act of desperation? She had no idea what it would achieve! The construct appears to have been there to hide the Croyel from the Elohim so breaking the construct would mean that the possible consequences include Roger and Esmer turning up (as they do) or maybe even Kastenessen! Surely this outweighed the fact that the Harrow might gain access to her son's powers? Even if other Elohim had turned up first, given what they think of Jeremiah, they would surely have simply killed the Croyel leading to the immediate death of Jeremiah!

Secondly, (I know this is outside the text but it's fun to speculate) who exactly can access the caverns of the Viles without going through the Hazard? Well, presumably the Croyel using Jeremiah's very special powers was able to do so. What about the Elohim generally? Well, Roger (part Elohim now) was able to parachute in immediately, so he presumably knew where the Croyel was hiding but was excluded until the construct was broken? But the Hazard had just been opened so maybe that also allowed Roger and Esmer to access the caverns of the Viles? So were the Elohim excluded from the caverns by the Hazard or just from the area where the Croyel and Jeremiah were secreted?

[wayfriend]

Fair points, Barnetto. I believe I raised the question about the Hazard in an earlier chapter. There seems to be some legerdemain here.

As far as Linden's actions: well, the text after the fact shows that she expected Roger and Esmer would show up if she broke the construct. And the text in the earlier chapter showed that she planned on getting the drop on the Harrow in this chamber. I can only conclude from these things that she had some sort of plan that involved Roger appearing and doing in the Harrow.

What doesn't seem to flow is that she couldn't have known what she would find in the chamber, so that had to be an ad hoc part of her plan. That strains credulity a little bit. But perhaps I missed something. It's possible that Linden knew that some sort of construct would be in use, but not particularly what kind. (Otherwise she would have brought something like a sledgehammer, right?) It might not have been impossible to deduce that Jeremiah's powers would be used to keep Jeremiah hidden, and the rest follows.

It's more likely that Linden's only plan was to change the equation and take advantage of anything that then followed.

[Barnetto]

I may have missed certain pointers in the text (haha, what an understatement - it's a goddam certainty!) but it certainly came across to me as a sudden ad hoc act of desperation - as you say, an attempt to "change the equation". If she had a plan, I didn't see it as anymore than not allowing the Harrow to do whatever he was planning to do cos she frankly didn't trust him one iota.

Sure as hell means that she was totally unwilling to give the Harrow even a moment to show his real plan. Me, I'd been taken in a bit by his speech in the earlier chapters about how with the help of Jerry's powers etc he might be able to construct something to cage the Worm. I'd have at least waited to see what happened in the Harrow v Croyel set to before taking the risk of allowing the Elohim in....

Anyway, I was rather disappointed that we never really knew for certain what exactly was the Harrow's plan (or did I miss that)? Assuming that he'd overcome the Croyel what do we think he was planning to do? Build a cage to save the Elohim (in eternal damnation)? Build a cage to stop the Worm? Did he ever speak "sooth"? Or did he simply desire power in the form of white gold, the Staff and Jeremiah's ability to construct for the sake of power itself?

[Barnetto]

...breaking the construct would mean that the possible consequences include Roger and Esmer turning up (as they do) or maybe even Kastenessen!

Speaking of which, what (if anything) is preventing Kastenessen involving himself directly in the action of the LC?

Yes, he has mediums (Anele and Esmer) and he has endowed Roger with one arm! ...but he hasn't himself yet appeared. Is he prevented from doing so? We know that he is being manipulated by a Raver to some degree.

Not really the place for this question I know but...

[wayfriend]

The quote showing Linden was hatching something before entering the chamber. This appears in the first lines of chapter 8, just as they left the bridge and entered the Lost Deep.

The Harrow was too sure that he had beaten his enemies: the only foes that mattered. He would not be ready -

Linden was counting on that.

That she had expected Roger to appear.

Linden had done what she could - and it was too little. She had broken the spell of Jeremiah’s construct. Surely now the Elohim were able to discern his location? Roger she had expected in some fashion. But she had also believed that at least one of the scattered Elohim would care enough to intervene. Or if none of Infelice’s people responded, Kastenessen would - or Esmer -

And the Harrow's plan (if he is to be believed):

"Lady -" The Harrow hesitated briefly; glanced at the Ardent. Then he shrugged again. "It is my intent to wield both Law and wild magic in your son’s service. With such forces at his command, he will possess might sufficient to devise a gaol into which the Worm must enter, and from which it will be unable to emerge. This you cannot accomplish in my stead."

[Barnetto]

Thanks, Wayfriend.

I think I must have noted (and forgotten) the specific reference to the elohim appearing. But given their fear of her and her son, it just seemed to me a crazy plan as the most likely thing they would do would be to kill the Croyel - and Jerry with him.

I recall the Harrow's claims - I just don't know whether he ever spoke the truth - it was in his nature to discombobulate.

[Vraith]

"Lady -" The Harrow hesitated briefly; glanced at the Ardent. Then he shrugged again. "It is my intent to wield both Law and wild magic in your son’s service. With such forces at his command, he will possess might sufficient to devise a gaol into which the Worm must enter, and from which it will be unable to emerge. This you cannot accomplish in my stead."

From other hints, though, this is just a thing that needs to be done so he can pursue his real plan/goal. Only saving the world cuz he needs the world. But I sense a lie here..."in your son's service;" Others have hinted at us that his goal involves ultimate power over everything [and hints that he's not a nice guy, and that he is probably not as capable as he thinks even with the tools].
But what matters is the nature of how he obtains power. In essence, all signs indicate a large part of it is that he steals it, consumes it from others. Much like the Worm, in a way. That being the case, he surely does not mean to "serve" Jerry. His likely method would be to dominate and take, just like he tried with Linden [no less "wrong" and not much different than what the Croyel is doing to Jerry]

On Linden's hopes/plans, there's a lot going on and a lot we/she can't know. But IIRC one thing to her advantage is she knows she has a binding agreement with him, enforced by all the Insequent: The Harrow is at least in some ways at her service, unable to oppose her, until she is completely satisfied the bargain has been met. A powerful position, and leaves her much maneuvering room.

[shadowbinding shoe]

One thing that struck me in this chapter is that Linden completely misunderstood the lessons of the previous chapters. She's told never to give up because some power may intervene even when things seem at their darkest and that she has friends with her to support her and give aid.

And now in this most vital confrontation on which she has been focused from the beginning of this Chronicle and for which she's given everything she had, she latches onto the first part of the advice in a distorted form and discards the second completely. Instead of going into this battle with her friends she relies on the help of enemies and strangers she think will aid her for their own selfish purposes: Roger, the Elohim and Esmer. She does take Liand and Anele but it's only to empower her health-sense. She is dismayed when Liand tries to join the battle to save her son. This is all about the base motives to the exclusion of the better emotions.

And indeed, what happens when she makes her choice? The Elohim never show up, Esmer comes belatedly only to prevent complete defeat and Roger is all over the place helping the Kroyel and hurting her and her friends. But the utter ruins she almost created does not come to pass. Despite her, her friends come up to save the day before her folly leads to despair. That's friends for you. They help you even when you try to get rid of them.

I think I must have noted (and forgotten) the specific reference to the elohim appearing. But given their fear of her and her son, it just seemed to me a crazy plan as the most likely thing they would do would be to kill the Croyel - and Jerry with him.

There are hints throughout this book that the Elohim hope for something from Linden. Infelice keeps Talking with Linden and reveals important secrets to her. She always talks about ruin and hopelessness but I believe she sees some future the heroes can make for the world and that's why she's civil with them. If she killed Jeremiah, it would antagonize Linden too much against her and her race and they would be excluded from this possible hoped-to future.