Roddy McGristle

Taking up residence in a small mountain cave, Drizzt spent his days roaming the countryside around a farming community down in the valley below. He was trying to gather the courage to introduce himself to his neighbors, when he is met by a pack of gnolls, doglike humanoids that are often kept as slaves by drow in the Underdark. This pack sees Drizzt as a friend, owing to the drow reputation for violence and cruelty, and ask him to come along as they go to kill their enemies. Not entirely trusting the creatures, but not wanting to immediately mistrust them, he went along until they came to a farmstead down in the valley near Malobar. When Drizzt asks the gnoll leader's intentions, he is answered with, "Enemies. Kill oldest woman, catch men." When Drizzt asks, "What of the children?" he is met with the reply, "Dinner."

Now knowing that the gnolls are evil, and the family below innocent, Drizzt quickly draws his scimitar and slays the leader. He and Guenhwyvar quickly finish off the remaining two, leaving them in puddles of blood. When it was over, Drizzt began to second guess himself. He was new to the surface world. Who was he to judge the gnolls in such a way. Perhaps the humans and gnolls were at war with one another, and the gnolls had had relatives killed by someone in the human family. Drizzt needed time alone to learn more and consider further action. He sends Guen home and begins observing the family. He soon sees that they are a happy family of hard, honest workers. Within three days he is assured he had made the right decision in killing the gnolls. This family was good, and he vowed to protect them to the death.

Up in the mountains, much higher than Drizzt's cave home, dwelt two creatures of Gehenna called barghests. Demonic creatures, they were near maturity and had been sent to the material plane to feed on the flesh of humans and grow strong enough to return home. Ulgulua, the older of the two, is informed by one of their servants of the slaying of the gnoll by a drow. In anger, Ulgulu bites the head off the messenger, and conferes with his brother, Kempfana, as to what they should do about a dark elf in their domain. Kempfana suggests that they use the drow as a scapegoat to explain the disappearances that have occurred since they came to the area. Ulgulu decides to investigate and sends his pet quickling, Tephanis, to gather more information.
One day, when the youngest Thistledown child, Liam, shirks his chores and wanders off into the forest, Drizzt follows to ensure his safety. The boy accidentally discovers Drizzt, who, though he was stealthy, was still ignorant of woodlore. Liam runs home and tells his siblings of the dark skinned elf he saw in the woods. Liam convinces his older brother and sister into a ruse to try and flush Drizzt out, and they reluctantly agree. Drizzt, seeing through the ruse easily, decides to play along. When the maiden, Eleni, acts as if she has fallen, Drizzt reveals himself and hopes to make himself known as a friend. Conner, the oldest boy, immediatly recognizes Drizzt as a drow, draws his sword, and races to attack. Though Conner is skilled by local standards, Drizzt easily disarms the boy and offers him his sword back, a drow sign of friendship. Conner and the others panic and run back home as fast as they can. In the bushes, Drizzt has been seen by another set of eyes who are not so friendly.

By the next morning, the entire community of Malobar had heard the rumor of the dark elf. The town's mayor, Bartholomew Delmo sends a request to nearby Sundabar for a ranger to come and help deal with situation. A local huntsman, Roddy McGristle, is skeptical that Conner saw what he says he saw, but volunteers himself to track whatever creature this might be, and organizes a search party on the spot. That afternoon, a body of men were led into the nearby forest by Roddy's bloodhounds, and Drizzt shadowed them easily. He wanted to reveal himself, but understood they would likely see him as an enemy. While lost in his reverie, the quickling Tephanis dashes by, slashing Drizzt's wrist and stealing a scimitar. Drizzt cries out, in surprise more than pain, and is heard by Roddy and his dogs. Calling on Guenhwyvar as a distraction, Drizzt hoped to get away, but the bloodhounds have clearly picked up his scent and catch up to him easily. When one bursts through the brush to attack, Drizzt cuts it down instinctively, and finds himself in a battle with Roddy. Not desiring to hurt the hunter, he dashed and ducked out of the way. Roddy's great battleaxe caught on a nearby tree, cutting in down to fall on top of him, smashing him in the face. Drizzt runs as quickly as he can and loses himself in the forest.

Later that night, the barghest Ulgulu comes down off of his mountain carrying the stolen scimitar of Drizzt. All barghests are shape-shifters, and so Ulgulu took on the form of Drizzt and strode into the farmhouse of the Thistledowns. As Conner and his father, Conner Sr., sat discussing the events of the day's hunt, the false drow bursts into their home, slaughtering the entire family. The next morning, Drizzt warily came down out of the mountains, hoping the search was no longer on. He hoped to reveal himself to the Thistledowns and make his peace with the locals, but when he arrives no one is yet stirring about the farm. Drizzt decides to sit and wait, but when there has been no activity from morning through late afternoon to evening, he began to sense something was amiss. He walks down and into the house, finding the murdered Thistledowns in gruesome display all about the house. Drizzt was shocked with his failure to protect the family, and immediately vowed to avenge their deaths.

The next morning, Drizzt takes his weapons and Guen and trudges up into the mountains, where all the signs of the murderous creature pointed. As they neared the hiding place of his new enemy, he heard the familiar sound of the running creature that had stung him and stole his scimitar. Not caugh unawares this time, he catches the little beast, a quickling name Tephanis, and forces to tell him who killed the farmers. After giving the name and location of the barghest Ulgulu, the green-skinned little creature stabs Drizzt in the hand to try and get away, but Drizzt ignores the pain, smashes the quickling against a rock, and throws it down into the valley below. He pulls the tiny dagger out of his hand and walks on.

At the barghest's cave, he is confronted by two goblins, which he promptly slays and enters the cave. Inside, he finds the two demonic fiends standing inside, and immediately slips into The Hunter. Ulgulu, thinking he's found easy prey and a final meal on the material plane, jumps toward the drow but is stopped in mid-air by Guen. Drizzt turns to attack Kempfana, and is set to hopping to stay out of the huge beast's reach. Ulgulua shapeshifts into a great demon wolf after Guen bites him in the shoulder, and chases Guen from the cave. Kempfana, meanwhile, has caught Drizzt and is holding him up by the neck. When the barghest opens his mouth to bite off Drizzt's head, the dark elf shoves his scimitar through the back of the demon's mouth, impaling his brain. Released, Drizzt rushes out to see Ulgulu trap Guen near the canyon edge. When the demon wolf jumps, Drizzt uses the figurine to send Guen home, causing Ulgulu to miss entirely and plummet to the canyon floor below to certain death.
Back down in the town of Malobar, at the Thistledown farm, the renowned tracker Dove Falconhand has arrived to investigate recent events. Though she has arrived too late to prevent the family's murder, she is determined to track down the perpetrator. Joining Dove are her three most trusted traveling companions, Gabriel, a human warrior, Kellindil, an elven archer, and Fret, a dwarven sage. Having already been informed of the rumors of a dark elf, Dove and her group begin investigating the family farmstead. Pieces do not add up, such as a shattered lock, something beyond the ability of even the strongest elf. The inconsistencies are explained away by the arrival of Roddy McGristle, who blames such thing on the drow's "big black panther."
Though Dove believes that Roddy did indeed see and tangle with a drow, she is mistrustful of his motives. He blames the killing of a beloved dog and his facial scarring on the drow, and is obviously looking for some kind of vengeance. Mayor Delmo tells Dove that they will take McGristle with them because "he's a seasoned hunter and knows this area better than any." Dove is troubled by the news, but does not argue. Some of Dove's doubts do disappear after Gabriel discovers a shattered scimitar inside the Thistledown home, coated in human blood. Questions still remain, after Kellindil points out two sets of identical elven footprints, made a day apart. But one set is deeper, indicating too massive a weight for an elf's steps. Further, Fret points out a ceiling beam snapped nearly in half, a feat too great for either a drow or a panther.

Hiding in the bushes nearby, Drizzt listens to the conversations of those now employed to find them. Though he wished to reveal himself and explain everything that had happened, how it had all been perpetrated by Ulgulu, and how he himself avenged the Thistledown family's deaths, he knew he could not. As soon as the color of his skin was seen, he would be attacked and given no quarter. Returning to his cave, he gathered his things and fled the area surrounding Malobar.

Dove and her fellow investigators come upon the body of Ulgulu in the canyon, making note of the claw marks all over the creatures body. Kellindil then reports that there is another beast, a red one, and two goblins up above, both killed by scimitar. When Dove asks, "Why would the dark elf kill the barghest?" Fret immediately deduces the correct answer. "Don't you see? Somehow the barghest acquired one fo the scimitars, then, in the shape of the drow, murdered the farmers." In a rage, Roddy McGristle will hear nothing of the theory, challenging the dwarf to call him a liar. Finding further drow footprints leading away from the canyon, Dove and her crew move onward, her doubts remaining still.

Drizzt ran ahead of them, moving day and night, not daring to stop until exhausted. He used every trick he knew to evade them, running through streams and swimming lakes, doubling back on his own tracks, even jumping from tree to tree. Nevertheless, Dove and her crew was too skilled to be evaded, and stayed unerringly on his trail. Dove's own group pushed themselves to exhaustion, not daring to let a drow be loose on the surface world, even if they had their doubts about his guilt. None of them, except for McGristle had ever actually seen a drow, and the last reported sighting of one on the surface had been ten years before. Unknown to the trackers, Drizzt had been a part of that group, saving the life of a small elfin girl while his patrol group massacred the rest of the settlement. Based solely on the reputation of the drow race, they were obligated to track him down and learn his intentions.

One night, while encamped, Kellindil notices they are being watched, and shoots his arrow into the brush, hitting Guenhwyvar in the flank. She runs back to Drizzt, who pulls the arrow from her side. "So now we know their intentions," Drizzt tells her. "How far will you hunt me? We shall see."

Behind him in the next day's light, Dove is still tracking the dark elf. He was very good, but he made just enough mistakes that they could find clues as to his direction. If his woodcraft had been better, he might have been able to elude them entirely, but being a creature most suited to living underground where foilage was not an issue in tracking, he was at a clear disadvantage. If not for his speed, agiliy, and intelligence, they might have caught him nearly immediately. Drizzt himself gave them the largest advantage by refusing to put greater distance between himself and his pursuers. Each night he would work his way back to a position where he could watch their camp, the arise early enough to get a good head start. In his heart, Drizzt's true wish was to walk out of the shadows, explain everything to them, and ask to be a part of their world. Fear and experience, however, held him back from such a move.

It was on one of these nights that he was finally discovered. Kellindil had been patroling the perimeter of the camp, and came up on Drizzt. "At last we have met, my dark cousin," the light elf told him. At first, Drizzt was glad he had been discovered. He dreamed of sharing his trials and experiences with his light skinned cousin, and professing his hatred of his own race. "My name is—" he began, but was cut off as Kellindil drew a sword, proclaiming, "I don't care what you call yourself!" Kellindil only cared that Drizzt was a drow, and therefore immediately assumed him an evil creature. Drizzt refused to even draw his sword, even when Kellindil swiped at his head. He easily dodged the swing, and used his innate drow ability to created a glow of darkness, placing it around the light elf's head. Kellindil quickly jumped out of the globe, but not before Drizzt could have easily drawn a scimitar and taken his head. When he was clear of the darkness, Drizzt was gone, leaving Kellindil alone with his doubts. "He could have killed me. Why didn't he?"
While tracking Drizzt through a narrow canyon, Dove and her men are ambushed by a clan of stone giants, some of the least intelligent, but powerful types of giants. They throw huge boulders down on their heads, even striking Gabriel in the chest, and knocking him out of the battle. While Dove is caring for Gabriel, Fret spies Drizzt throw himself into the fray with his panther at his side. Between the two of them, they distract the giants long enough for the trackers below to take cover and assume a more beneficial stance from which to fight back. Drizzt jumps from shoulder to shoulder on the giants, slashing at their jugulars and eyes, taking the throwers above out of the battle in rapid succession. Having done what he could, Drizzt fled the battle before those he had helped also turned their weapons against him.

When Roddy McGristle announces that they need to hurry before the drow gets away, Dove announces, "We shall pursue the dark elf no longer. He was never our enemy." When Roddy explodes in exasperated anger against her pronouncement, Dove calmly explains that Gabriel is wounded, Kellindil is nearly out of arrows, and their supplies are nearly gone. Even if she still believed the drow to be a murderer, they would no longer be able to keep on the move without rest and restocking, something impossible in the Northern wilds. Furthermore, Dove states here belief that it was Drizzt who avenged the Thistledowns and slew the barghests. Dove and her men turn to leave, Roddy calling them cowards to their backs as they leave him alone in the bloody canyon.

Drizzt stayed on the move. It was soon apparent he was no longer being pursued, but he knew it would not be safe for him to stay in one place. In addition, the season was quickly changing from warm summer to cold winter, especially since he had been constantly moving north. The cold, unknown in the Underdark, was sapping his strength and causing him more difficulty than anything else he had yet encountered. He kept journeying until he came to a mountain pass with a river full of fish and rocky protection against the cold northern wind. He settled down, exposed in the open air, believing the cold could not possibly last long. He was sadly mistaken, having no concept of the turning of the seasons. As night fell, so too did the temperature, and Drizzt desperately worked at trying to start a fire using rock and steel. After many unsuccessful attempts, he was finally able to get a flame going, and Kellindil, who was still silently tracking him, was pleased to see that the drow would survive. Kellindil now decided he would stand watch over this strange drow that had shown him and his friends mercy and compassion when they would not. Unknown to them both, other sets of eyes watched the drow.

As days spread into weeks, Drizzt did the best he could to survive, still hoping the cold weather would not get worse. Then the snows began. Drizzt and Guenhwyvar set off in search of shelter, finding a cave. Upon entering, they find a bear just starting to bed down for winter hibernation. Drizzt stared the beast down, somehow finding a sort of unspoken understanding and accomodation. Offering the bear a fresh fish, the bear settled down and allowed the newcomers to share the cave, at least for the time being. Guenhwyvar, unaffected by the cold, foraged daily for the food and wood needed to keep the drow alive. Otherwise, Drizzt sat cold and alone in the cave, despairing as the weather produced more and more snow, and finally ice. Just when he believed he could bear no more, winter broke into spring, and the snows began to melt.

News of the dark elf's survival spread throughout the surrounding countryside, pleasing some with the news, but causing fear and trepidation in others. Minions of the Orc Chieftan Graul had seen the drow enter their environs before the snows set in, and Graul had commanded them to set a watch over him, but secretly hoped the snow would drive him away. Since that had not happened, and the dark elf had survived the winter, Graul wondered if this lone drow were a scout for a larger force to come, bringing war with them. If the drow were alone, he might come in and try to usurp leadership of his tribe. Neither situation could be allowed to stand, so he orders his men to go and kill the elf.
They found Drizzt walking through the local forest, enjoying his first spring. He was enamored by the new growth literally springing from the once dead ground. So enamored, in fact, he was caught by surprise by the attacking orcs. Drizzt easily killed the first two attackers, but was taken down by one of their feral wolves, pinned until he could call for Guenhwyvar. Even with the wolf off his back, he was severely disadvantaged, and would have been slain by a third orc if not for the timely intervention of an arrow in the beast's back. All enemies now dead, Drizzt looks up to see an old, green clad human bearing down on him with a great wooden bow. "You're my prisoner," the newcomer stately matter of factly, to which Drizzt responds, "I think not." Guen moves in to flank the human, and the man reaches out a hand to the great cat. Guen licks the old man's hand like an old friend.

Intrigued with the bearing and intent of Drizzt, the old man introduces himself as the ranger Montolio Debrouchee. Drizzt soon comes to realize that the man is blind, and is amazed that he could function well, let alone fire an arrow accurately in that condition. Montolio warns him that he had killed minions of Graul, something the Orc Chieftan will not allow to go unpunished. Because of his blindness, the orcs believe Montolio is "bad magic" and will not approach his castle. He tells Drizzt that coming to live with him is the safest place. Drizzt refuses, saying "You would be better served, Montolio Debrouchee, to keep away from me. I bring trouble." Even after more prodding and assurances of safety from the old ranger, Drizzt still refuses. So, Montolio leaves Drizzt behind, taking Guenhwyvar with him. It was Guen's trust of the man that changed Drizzt heart. He knew that the great cat's instincts had never been wrong before, and he did not relish the idea of facing an army of orcs on his own.

Drizzt follows Montolio to his "castle," which in reality was a grove of massive trees reaching as high as could be seen. Each tree was a living house, whole rooms carved out of the tree's insides, this internal stairway reaching up into the highest regions of the grove. Wood and rope bridges connected the trees to one another, providing not only easy access across the heights, but also numerous positions from which to watch and defend the grove. In his short life, Drizzt had seen dwelling places more fantastic than this, but none more welcoming. Drizzt hoped that he had finally found a place to call home, but worried that something would find him and destroy it, despite the assurances of Montolio.

A week later, Kellindil is informed by a cousin of Drizzt's arrival in Montolio's grove. He is shocked at first to learn of the budding relationship between the drow and the ranger, but is now satisfied of Drizzt's friendly intentions. If Montlio trusted the drow, then he need no longer worry about the goodness of the dark elf's heart. In the bushes, yet another interested party has heard the news. Tephanis the quickling remembered the name Drizzt very well, for the dark elf had thrown the the little man to his death just months before. When he had recovered, he had found his former master, Ulgulu, dead at the bottom of the crevasse where he had fallen. Eventually, Tephanis found a new ally, Caroak, the Winter Wolf.

When summer came, an unwanted visitor arrived, bringing all his usual bluster and lying with him, Roddy McGristle. He demanded to know from the ranger if he had seen the drow, or knew where he might be found. In addition, his lies about the dark elf continued to grow more extreme, reporting to Montolio that Drizzt had not only killed the Thistledown family, but that Guenhwyvar had also eaten one of them. Montolio lies and tells him he had heard the drow went to a place called Morueme's Cave, a place 150 miles in the opposite direction through treacherous terrain. After the evil man was gone, Drizzt came and pleaded his innocence to Montolio, something which the old ranger already knew, having spoken to Dove Falconhand, who had not only told of his innocence, but of his rescue of her and her men.

During all this time, Roddy McGristle had trudged halfway to the Nethers before he realized he had been duped. He finally determined that the ranger was trying to protect and hide the drow. Knowing he could not take on the ranger and drow alone, he turned and looked for allies, even such creatures he would normally never have contact with, Graul the Orc Chieftain. Roddy knew that Graul's minions had been unable to find the drow, so Roddy informed them he was with the ranger, and that they were plotting together against the orcs. A consummate liar, Roddy went on to convine the Orc Chieftain that they were planning on rousing all the elves, and dwarves, and forest animals against the orc tribe. This roused the ire of Graul, who then decides to muster his forces and attack the grove. At that moment, Tephanis and Caroak stride into the cave, promising to rouse the worgs against the ranger and his grove. The war was about to be joined. Hooter, having spied the preparations for the orc and worgs, flies back and tells Montolio of all he has seen. War is finally coming to the grove, a war which Montonlio had been prepared for for years.

Graul, Caroak, and Roddy were quickly successful in amassing a fairly large force in a short time, a group consisting of a hundred orc warriors, a few giants, and a dozen wargs. Together, they set out down the crags and crevasses of the high peaks and moved methodically toward the grove of Montolio below. In that very same grove, Montolio explained to Drizzt how he had known this night would come, expeciting it for five years. He had played out every possible scenario in his mind, and had stockpiled the necessary weapons and supplies to defend the grove all on his own. He now felt he had a greater advantage with Drizzt and Guenhwyvar at his side. So they began to prepare for the battle, readying weapons, calling in animal allies, and setting traps until all they could do was wait. They did not have long to rest.

From behind his seemingly overwhelming force, Graul calls for the attack. Orcs and wargs stream toward the grove, looking to tear apart any living thing they met, whether sentient being or plant. From high above on the rope bridges, Drizzt ran from crossbow to crossbow, each of which was already loaded with large bolts, and began firing into the crowd with deadly accuracy. He made every shot count, not daring to miss and lose any slight advantage over the attacking hoard. Montolio, hiding in the shadows, used the grunts and clanking armor to give him targets, their loudness creating beacon bright targets for the blind man. The bear Drizzt had bedded down with during his first winter, and other animals came out of the woods and slew orc after orc, quickly thinning the number of enemies against the grove's protectors.

While the battle is raging at the front entrance to the grove, Caroak and his wargs were sneaking into the grove through the thick growth behind the defenders. Their plan was to come up on them from behind and tear them apart, but little did they know the rear was guarded by the most silent, and possibly most deadly of the grove's defenders, Guenhwyvar. The black panther jumps on the winter wolf, and at first they seem evenly matched, Guen easily evades the freezing breath of the wolf and goes for the jugular. Caroak the Great Winter Wolf is dead, and the remaining wargs flee in terror.
When Drizzt gets to his last arrow, he finally sees McGristle in the fray below him. While he wanted to put his personal grief at an end by killing the lying hunter, he also spied the Orc Chieftain Graul next to him, and he reasoned that killing Graul would end the attack for good. His choice made, he fired at the orc, but Roddy noticed the arrow at the last moment and pushed the orc out of the way. Drizzt's final shot had been wasted. All the traps have been sprung, and both Montolio and the drow were out of arrows, so they drew their swords and leaped headlong into the remaining enemies. Whether orc, warg or giant, the two rangers were more than a match for their enemies, leaving no recourse but to run from the grove as fast as their feet would carry them. Even after all this, Roddy prodded Graul to go in himself and fight back, believing the two of them were more than a match for the rangers. Graul knew his men would follow him if he led another charge, but the Orc Chieftain was not one to risk his own life. He bashed Roddy upside the head, knocking him unconscious, and ran for his life. The battle was over.

Hours later, when Roddy awoke, Tephanis found him and convinced him that not only was the battle over, but that Drizzt had been killed by a warg. Believing the tale, Roddy felt his vengeance was satisfied, but was disappointed he had not killed the dark elf himself. They left the grove, Tephanis taking Roddy as his new master.

Over the next six years, Drizzt traveled from village to village, town to town, hoping the next one might take him in. His reception was always met with fear and prejudice which always turned to anger. Many times the dark elf had to defend himself against senseless violence towards him. Even after so many rejections, Drizzt and Guenhwyvar pressed on, believing in his heart that he would one day find acceptance, and with it a home. Unknown to Drizzt, however, his presence did not go unnoticed, making his passing the talk of the local taverns all over the region. In one such tavern, Roddy McGristle overheard the rumors, and learned of a purple-eyed drow moving from town to town. In a rage, he confronted Tephanis with his lie about the death of Drizzt, and killed the quickling for his treachery. The vengeful hunter set out on the road to find the drow once again.

Drizzt found himself on the road yet again, heading north towards the Spine of the World mountain range in the northwestern corner of Faerun. Skirting the narrow passage of land between the mountain range and the coast, he eventually made his way into the wide valley known as Icewind Dale. Originally settled by rogues with no where else to go centuries before, the Dale now boasted ten villages, collectively known as Ten-Towns. Each of the ten villages made their livelihood through fishing for the knucklehead trout which lived in abundance in the several lakes of the Dale. Good for food, the knucklehead troat was also the sole source of bone for the Dale's other well-known export, scrimshaw. When he approaches the gates, the guards halt him as they would any other newcomer. After they discover he is a drow, they panic and one of them runs to get the town's spokesman. Cassius is not only the spokesman for the town of Bryn Shander, but he is also the principle spokesman of the Ten-Towns ruling council, making him the most powerful man in the Dale. He questions why Drizzt has come to their town, and then refuses Drizzt admittance, telling him to try one of the other, smaller towns. "And when they refuse me entry where then, fair spokesman?" Drizzt asks plainly. "Out in the wind to die on the empty plain?" After asking if Drizzt is good with his blades, he tells Drizzt that "It would do Ten-Towns well to have a scout on the mountain's (Kelvin's Cairn) northern slopes." When Drizzt balks a bit at the offer, seeing it as only a way to get rid of the drow, Cassius replies, "I offer you a hole in a plie of rock where your actions, good or bad, will become your reputation beyond the color of your skin. I offer you a chance to prove yourself worthy of a place here. I can do no more than that." To this, Drizzt agrees and accepts, trading his horse for supplies and making his way toward Kelvin's Cairn within the hour.

A few weeks later, Drizzt's enemy, Roddy McGristle enters Icewind Dale. Somehow, he had been able to track Drizzt from Lurkwood all the way to Bryn Shander. From there, he was able to follow the clues to the throne room of Clan Battlehammer. Bruenor, still not believing he had encountered a drow, says he had not seen a dark elf. In addition, he states that, "If yer drow's about, he's been no bother." McGristle goes into his usual diatribe about how Drizzt attacked and killed the Thistledown family, killed one of his dogs, and scarred his face. To these accusations, Cattie-Brie calls McGristle a liar, and then Bruenor throws the ugly human out of his Hall for upsetting his daughter. After Roddy is gone, Bruenor turns on his daughter and yells, "Ye've been to the mountain and seen the drow, haven't ye? Ye've disobeyed me! And now we learn the dark elf's a killer!"

Disbeleiving the accusations, Cattie-Brie runs out into the winter snows to confront Drizzt, and tells him of Roddy and the rumors of the Thistledown family. "So that story has followed me event to the end of the world." Drizzt is shocked, but not surprised, and as they discuss the situation further, Drizzt realizes that his troubles will not soon end. He sends Cattie-Brie home, telling her not to fear for his own safety. At that moment, Drizzt decides he has no wish to further battle Roddy, and so decides to leave Icewind Dale. As Cattie is headed home, she is assaulted by Roddy, who has followed her and seen her with Drizzt. He threatens her and tells her she will take him to Drizzt, but he drow appears behind him suddenly and says, "Let the girl go, McGristle." After a brief, but heated exchange, Roddy lets Cattie go, and attacks Drizzt. Easily evading the brutish attack, Drizzt succeeds in knocking the hunter down, and has the man at his mercy. Instead of choosing to strike the bigot down, he slams his scimitar's pommels against Roddy's temples, knocking him unconscious. Drizzt leaves him lying in the snow. Hours later, Cattie-Brie brings Bruenor to where Roddy lay. He tells Roddy that he should not have touched Cattie, and furthermore should not caller her a liar. He takes a leg from the hunter's remaining dog as revenge. McGristle and his now three legged dog left the Dale and never returned, neither did he ever bother Drizzt again.