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Magical Mishaps / Irregular Ranger MashUp
Nov. 12th, 2023 12:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
senmutIrregular Rangers and Magical Mishaps (1932 words) by Sharpest_Asp
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Forgotten Realms, The Legend of Drizzt Series - R. A. Salvatore
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Drizzt Do'Urden, Lilinthar Aerasumé, Original Elf Character(s), Original Human Character(s)
Additional Tags: Ensemble Cast, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gender, involuntary gender changes, Unplanned Pregnancy
Summary:
Drizzt wandered over to see what the pair of Harpers who had just returned had, curious as ever, and not ready to go back to the house when Rusie had chased him out for being underfoot.
"Hey, Drizzt, we were just thinking about you. Look at this." Josiah held out a box, and Drizzt took it on instinct… and felt the latent magic in it even as he admired the black cat on the lid.
"Chest of holding?" Drizzt asked.
"Not sure yet; we didn't have a wizard with us when we ran afoul of the hag," Case told him. "We saw the cat, thought you'd like it, but don't think I'd realized it might be magical."
"Well done if you dealt with the hag without a mage," Drizzt congratulated, "and yes, it is."
"You keep having so many tricks," Josiah teased. "Magic detection just by touching something!"
Drizzt grinned, then put the box on the table. "Probably should get someone to look at it before it gets opened. I can only tell it has magic, not what kind."
"At least we're certain it's not a mimic!" Case said with a laugh before she turned to go see if they had any wizards on hand.
Josiah leaned back on the wall opposite the table, looking at the box intently. "If it is a chest of holding, it's awful pretty."
Drizzt grinned, knowing Josiah had been found thieving in Waterdeep, and been encouraged to turn his skills toward helpful things.
"I'm sure Case will be willing to play dice for which of you keeps it once the wizard checks it over," Drizzt said.
Josiah nodded, and looked away. Drizzt moved to leave… and turned back as the Harper lunged to the table, overcome by a need to open the box. All of Drizzt's senses went off, and he moved to stop that —
— only to wind up juggling the box out of Josiah's hands in a way that made the box open with him touching it, looking at the opening.
In Josiah's defense, it turned out there had been a compulsion on the box. That it had not affected Case spoke of something aimed at men in particular, given Drizzt found himself no longer one when he woke.
The Harpers pooled their knowledge when the highest cleric there shook her head, unable to break the curse, and Josiah set off overland to the one cursebreaker they knew that had a stellar reputation for breaking polymorphs.
Samiar had found Those That Harped to be useful to keep on his good side, as they often knew the best buyers for magical artifacts he had found and removed curses from.
The whole way back by phantom steed, he got the sense that beyond being overly repentant for initiating the action, that Josiah was nervous about the meeting to come.
Sam was met at the door of the orphanage beside the Twilight Hall by a lass of dark skin and a definite Calimshite accent.
"If you're here to help my ranger, you're welcome. But if you think because you're an elf you're any better than he is, go back where you came, and we'll find someone else."
"Miss — "
"Rusie. Rusie Do'Urden, as he saw fit to share his name with all of us that he brought out of Calimport to live free."
"I gave my word to look at the matter, and I will be very polite, I swear to you," Sam said, rather liking the fire in her. It reminded him of Syluné Silverhand's blunt protective spirit.
"Come in, then. Mind the small ones; we don't believe in penning them up once they can crawl."
Rusie led him inside, where she seemed to be the eldest of the immature beings Sam saw. Mostly human — oh halfling tots were as chubby as some grew in adulthood — and he did have to skirt around that one. She took him to a room with a door and knocked.
"Come."
Rusie opened the door, and gestured for him to follow her in.
"Wizard's here, Drizzt," she said, the room barely more than a bed, chest, and a stool.
On the stool was a drow.
Samiar's interest only grew, based on what he knew so far.
"Samiar Ravarel, you are Drizzt Do'Urden, and I am here to consult on, and break if at all possible, the curse you are under." He came to sit on the edge of the bed, while the drow set aside knife and whetstone.
The purple eyes were a shock, but after a long searching look, Drizzt nodded.
"I hope you can. I hate seeing my mother's face in the mirror."
Drizzt barely heard the cleric. He'd grown to be good friends with the wizard in the months he'd stayed in Berdusk, had been very worried when the closest they got to snapping the spell had made Sam black out for a few moments.
The offer of a practical attempt had… been odd. But once Drizzt considered it, he had latched onto the idea, and even found that sex was not so bad when it wasn't forced.
He'd been the one to ask Sam to leave, though, when it had evidently failed. He didn't want the wizard risking another attempt and the spell ensnaring him. Yet now, the cleric having told him his illness was actually a new life —
— he had a chance for a child. He loved the children he protected, the ones he had brought here and the ones they had taken in. He knew Rusie would be a good influence on the child, that there would be no lack of love, even if the drow features came through strongly.
"—could stop the pregnancy—"
"No." Drizzt looked at the cleric warmly, choosing. "I appreciate the offer, but if I could be given materials to study on gestation and what comes after… I wish to go through with this. Perhaps that was the end goal of the curse, to make a child, and teach me what a woman must endure.
"I accept that."
Josiah brought back word that though the wizard's tower was still in place, the wizard was gone. Drizzt accepted that, and focused on being the best parent he could. Eventually his daughter would be big enough to travel safely, and he'd take her with him to wherever this wizard lived.
It was only right that Sam know he had a child, strange as it might be. Drizzt wanted nothing of obligation, though. He hoped Sam could understand the choice he had made.
When Lin needed to lay low in Berdusk, he had not anticipated stumbling onto a mystery. The woman running the orphanage was polite, and the children were in varying stages of development, but the startling one was the very small almost-drow colored elf.
To complicate it more, she had a face that reminded Lin strongly of Del at that barely walking stage.
He didn't want to be nosy; the woman in charge was very busy. And then he realized that might be a key, and help his guilt over crashing with her and the orphans.
"I've got seven younger brothers, Miss. Can I lend you a hand with something? From watching them to changing the little ones to taking on some of your chores inside?"
Rusie sized him up, decided he could work on the laundry a bit for her, and set him to it after giving all the supplies over. As the washroom was just off the kitchen, it let Lin keep an eye on the not-drow child, who was too big to stay in a crib, and too small to play with the older children.
Lin was utterly fascinated by her, and the longer he looked, the more convinced he was that she favored Del. Maybe Tar had had a fling, but... Tar knew what to do, with drow-born, and would never leave a child away from a watchful place near family.
A little discussion with the ranger when he returned had proved revealing to Lin. When he found out from Case that the wizard, a man that Lin thought had to be the same one in his father's and uncle's stories, lived outside Yartar, he went to see.
The wizard tower he found was certainly elf-like, being a transfigured, animate hiexel, but the wizard was not home.
He decided he'd check back every now and then, but kept everything to himself — for now — and merely made certain some of his income made its way to donations for Berdusk's orphanage.
Thyl wound up telling Syluné. Lin didn't tend to hold back his odder things that he saw from his twin, and Thyl grew concerned. If this wizard really was their father's cousin as she thought, why was he so close to their Mother without visiting.
"Sam often lost track of time," Syluné said thoughtfully, remembering the sociable elf that she had traded magic with so often in those early years of Alustriel's courtship with Sharrevaliir. "Hmm. You know as a cursebreaker, he has necromancy available to him?"
Thyl blinked, not seeing where that was relevant — until he did. He sat back heavily in his chair.
"Yeah, but… why hasn't he gone to see Mom? What if he's just using the name? What if it is one of the wizards you mentioned he got in hot water with, masquerading?"
"Dear, you're as wary as your Aunt Storm. I doubt he could have pulled the wool over the harpers' eyes as to his nature." She sipped at her tisane. "Stay here, keep watch for me?"
"Aunt — " At her look he dropped his protests. It actually was good to see her take an interest.
When Sam came back to his home, he didn't even get fully within the wards before a silver flicker-flash teleport came into view, and Syluné Silverhand was standing just outside the line of them.
"Samiar, you are very frustrating. I had to set a spell to keep watch for me!"
"Hello, old friend," Sam said with a chuckle. "I've been away in the Haunted Lands, trying to trace a map back to a magical cache said to be there. Alas, I had little luck, but have a number of new components waiting to process.
"Come in, and tell me why you have come?"
She held her peace until they were in the tree, where Syluné took the time to coo and praise the tree for its amazing growth and interior space. Sam was chuckling as he went to drop various bags where they needed to be. He came back to find her in the kitchen, laying out a small meal from cabinets the hiexel had opened for her.
"You charm my home," he said with amusement.
"Well, dear, it's only polite when I am about to upset your world."
He looked at her, saw the serious nature of the visit under her gentleness, and fetched a bottle of brandy to go with the simple meal.
Zanna was four, and it had been five years since Sam had seen Drizzt, when they finally met. Between aiding Syluné in restoring her husband, and then a family-wide effort to get Sharrevaliir back to the living, it had taken a while.
But Sam was smitten, and when Drizzt proved willing to move up to the Yartar region, they hammered out agreements that let them live together, and raise the girl together.
It was an odd family, with drow and half-elves and humans and elves, but ultimately, it was a good one. Lin was more than pleased at his meddling turning out this way.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Forgotten Realms, The Legend of Drizzt Series - R. A. Salvatore
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Drizzt Do'Urden, Lilinthar Aerasumé, Original Elf Character(s), Original Human Character(s)
Additional Tags: Ensemble Cast, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gender, involuntary gender changes, Unplanned Pregnancy
Summary:
A blending of different AUs where Drizzt is in Berdusk with his orphans when the cursed box crosses his path.
Irregular Rangers and Magical Mishaps
Drizzt wandered over to see what the pair of Harpers who had just returned had, curious as ever, and not ready to go back to the house when Rusie had chased him out for being underfoot.
"Hey, Drizzt, we were just thinking about you. Look at this." Josiah held out a box, and Drizzt took it on instinct… and felt the latent magic in it even as he admired the black cat on the lid.
"Chest of holding?" Drizzt asked.
"Not sure yet; we didn't have a wizard with us when we ran afoul of the hag," Case told him. "We saw the cat, thought you'd like it, but don't think I'd realized it might be magical."
"Well done if you dealt with the hag without a mage," Drizzt congratulated, "and yes, it is."
"You keep having so many tricks," Josiah teased. "Magic detection just by touching something!"
Drizzt grinned, then put the box on the table. "Probably should get someone to look at it before it gets opened. I can only tell it has magic, not what kind."
"At least we're certain it's not a mimic!" Case said with a laugh before she turned to go see if they had any wizards on hand.
Josiah leaned back on the wall opposite the table, looking at the box intently. "If it is a chest of holding, it's awful pretty."
Drizzt grinned, knowing Josiah had been found thieving in Waterdeep, and been encouraged to turn his skills toward helpful things.
"I'm sure Case will be willing to play dice for which of you keeps it once the wizard checks it over," Drizzt said.
Josiah nodded, and looked away. Drizzt moved to leave… and turned back as the Harper lunged to the table, overcome by a need to open the box. All of Drizzt's senses went off, and he moved to stop that —
— only to wind up juggling the box out of Josiah's hands in a way that made the box open with him touching it, looking at the opening.
In Josiah's defense, it turned out there had been a compulsion on the box. That it had not affected Case spoke of something aimed at men in particular, given Drizzt found himself no longer one when he woke.
The Harpers pooled their knowledge when the highest cleric there shook her head, unable to break the curse, and Josiah set off overland to the one cursebreaker they knew that had a stellar reputation for breaking polymorphs.
Samiar had found Those That Harped to be useful to keep on his good side, as they often knew the best buyers for magical artifacts he had found and removed curses from.
The whole way back by phantom steed, he got the sense that beyond being overly repentant for initiating the action, that Josiah was nervous about the meeting to come.
Sam was met at the door of the orphanage beside the Twilight Hall by a lass of dark skin and a definite Calimshite accent.
"If you're here to help my ranger, you're welcome. But if you think because you're an elf you're any better than he is, go back where you came, and we'll find someone else."
"Miss — "
"Rusie. Rusie Do'Urden, as he saw fit to share his name with all of us that he brought out of Calimport to live free."
"I gave my word to look at the matter, and I will be very polite, I swear to you," Sam said, rather liking the fire in her. It reminded him of Syluné Silverhand's blunt protective spirit.
"Come in, then. Mind the small ones; we don't believe in penning them up once they can crawl."
Rusie led him inside, where she seemed to be the eldest of the immature beings Sam saw. Mostly human — oh halfling tots were as chubby as some grew in adulthood — and he did have to skirt around that one. She took him to a room with a door and knocked.
"Come."
Rusie opened the door, and gestured for him to follow her in.
"Wizard's here, Drizzt," she said, the room barely more than a bed, chest, and a stool.
On the stool was a drow.
Samiar's interest only grew, based on what he knew so far.
"Samiar Ravarel, you are Drizzt Do'Urden, and I am here to consult on, and break if at all possible, the curse you are under." He came to sit on the edge of the bed, while the drow set aside knife and whetstone.
The purple eyes were a shock, but after a long searching look, Drizzt nodded.
"I hope you can. I hate seeing my mother's face in the mirror."
Drizzt barely heard the cleric. He'd grown to be good friends with the wizard in the months he'd stayed in Berdusk, had been very worried when the closest they got to snapping the spell had made Sam black out for a few moments.
The offer of a practical attempt had… been odd. But once Drizzt considered it, he had latched onto the idea, and even found that sex was not so bad when it wasn't forced.
He'd been the one to ask Sam to leave, though, when it had evidently failed. He didn't want the wizard risking another attempt and the spell ensnaring him. Yet now, the cleric having told him his illness was actually a new life —
— he had a chance for a child. He loved the children he protected, the ones he had brought here and the ones they had taken in. He knew Rusie would be a good influence on the child, that there would be no lack of love, even if the drow features came through strongly.
"—could stop the pregnancy—"
"No." Drizzt looked at the cleric warmly, choosing. "I appreciate the offer, but if I could be given materials to study on gestation and what comes after… I wish to go through with this. Perhaps that was the end goal of the curse, to make a child, and teach me what a woman must endure.
"I accept that."
Josiah brought back word that though the wizard's tower was still in place, the wizard was gone. Drizzt accepted that, and focused on being the best parent he could. Eventually his daughter would be big enough to travel safely, and he'd take her with him to wherever this wizard lived.
It was only right that Sam know he had a child, strange as it might be. Drizzt wanted nothing of obligation, though. He hoped Sam could understand the choice he had made.
When Lin needed to lay low in Berdusk, he had not anticipated stumbling onto a mystery. The woman running the orphanage was polite, and the children were in varying stages of development, but the startling one was the very small almost-drow colored elf.
To complicate it more, she had a face that reminded Lin strongly of Del at that barely walking stage.
He didn't want to be nosy; the woman in charge was very busy. And then he realized that might be a key, and help his guilt over crashing with her and the orphans.
"I've got seven younger brothers, Miss. Can I lend you a hand with something? From watching them to changing the little ones to taking on some of your chores inside?"
Rusie sized him up, decided he could work on the laundry a bit for her, and set him to it after giving all the supplies over. As the washroom was just off the kitchen, it let Lin keep an eye on the not-drow child, who was too big to stay in a crib, and too small to play with the older children.
Lin was utterly fascinated by her, and the longer he looked, the more convinced he was that she favored Del. Maybe Tar had had a fling, but... Tar knew what to do, with drow-born, and would never leave a child away from a watchful place near family.
A little discussion with the ranger when he returned had proved revealing to Lin. When he found out from Case that the wizard, a man that Lin thought had to be the same one in his father's and uncle's stories, lived outside Yartar, he went to see.
The wizard tower he found was certainly elf-like, being a transfigured, animate hiexel, but the wizard was not home.
He decided he'd check back every now and then, but kept everything to himself — for now — and merely made certain some of his income made its way to donations for Berdusk's orphanage.
Thyl wound up telling Syluné. Lin didn't tend to hold back his odder things that he saw from his twin, and Thyl grew concerned. If this wizard really was their father's cousin as she thought, why was he so close to their Mother without visiting.
"Sam often lost track of time," Syluné said thoughtfully, remembering the sociable elf that she had traded magic with so often in those early years of Alustriel's courtship with Sharrevaliir. "Hmm. You know as a cursebreaker, he has necromancy available to him?"
Thyl blinked, not seeing where that was relevant — until he did. He sat back heavily in his chair.
"Yeah, but… why hasn't he gone to see Mom? What if he's just using the name? What if it is one of the wizards you mentioned he got in hot water with, masquerading?"
"Dear, you're as wary as your Aunt Storm. I doubt he could have pulled the wool over the harpers' eyes as to his nature." She sipped at her tisane. "Stay here, keep watch for me?"
"Aunt — " At her look he dropped his protests. It actually was good to see her take an interest.
When Sam came back to his home, he didn't even get fully within the wards before a silver flicker-flash teleport came into view, and Syluné Silverhand was standing just outside the line of them.
"Samiar, you are very frustrating. I had to set a spell to keep watch for me!"
"Hello, old friend," Sam said with a chuckle. "I've been away in the Haunted Lands, trying to trace a map back to a magical cache said to be there. Alas, I had little luck, but have a number of new components waiting to process.
"Come in, and tell me why you have come?"
She held her peace until they were in the tree, where Syluné took the time to coo and praise the tree for its amazing growth and interior space. Sam was chuckling as he went to drop various bags where they needed to be. He came back to find her in the kitchen, laying out a small meal from cabinets the hiexel had opened for her.
"You charm my home," he said with amusement.
"Well, dear, it's only polite when I am about to upset your world."
He looked at her, saw the serious nature of the visit under her gentleness, and fetched a bottle of brandy to go with the simple meal.
Zanna was four, and it had been five years since Sam had seen Drizzt, when they finally met. Between aiding Syluné in restoring her husband, and then a family-wide effort to get Sharrevaliir back to the living, it had taken a while.
But Sam was smitten, and when Drizzt proved willing to move up to the Yartar region, they hammered out agreements that let them live together, and raise the girl together.
It was an odd family, with drow and half-elves and humans and elves, but ultimately, it was a good one. Lin was more than pleased at his meddling turning out this way.
Tags:
- au: canon divergence,
- au: gender changes,
- author: sharpest_asp,
- category: m/m,
- character: drizzt do'urden,
- character: lilinthar aerasumé,
- character: rusie,
- character: samiar ravarel,
- character: zanna do'urden,
- pairing: drizzt/samiar,
- rating: general audiences,
- rating: teen and up audiences,
- warning: no warnings apply
