Chapter 24 preamble

The weather was terrible, the cold was biting my fingers, and the ice had crusted over my eyes, making it too painful to see.Danger lies in every path - an avalanche awaits, a monster prepares to leap.We might be buried in any bunker we found (if we were lucky enough to find one) and could not climb out, and we would die knowing that every night we knew it. Not only am I in mortal danger, but so are my dearest friends. I have never been so joyful in my life. Because there is a goal that guides our steps, each step across deep snow and powerful snowstorms.Our purpose is clear and our direction is correct.Through the snow-covered mountains, tracking down the pirates of the Kree and the Fang of the Warhammer Aegis, we stand by what we believe in, and follow our hearts and souls.

Although many people look for shortcuts to truth, there is one simple principle that cannot be bypassed: Hardship leads to achievement, and achievement leads to joy—true joy, and the feeling of success that defines us as Thinking creatures.I have often heard people lament that if only they had the wealth of a king they could be really happy, and I am careful not to argue this, though I know they are certainly wrong.It is a fact that I am willing to admit that to the poorest of the people a certain degree of wealth confers a certain degree of happiness, but beyond the satisfaction of basic needs, the road to happiness is not paved with money, especially unearned money .

Not at all!The road to joy is paved with a sense of self-confidence, a sense of self-worth, a feeling that we might have made the world a little better, or a sense of Our faith is paved with a sense of struggle in the face of adversity.During my travels with Deudermont, I dined with many of Waterdeep's wealthiest families.I share food with many kids from very wealthy families.Deudermont himself was in this group, and his father was an important landowner in the southern district of Waterdeep City.Many of the current group of young nobles are very willing to take Captain Deudermont as their example, because he does not want to rest on the honor of the previous generation.At a very young age, he saw through the pitfalls of unearned wealth.So the good captain decided in his youth his course in life, a life that followed his heart, trying very hard to make the waters around the coast of swords better for the upright and honest sailor place.

Captain Deudermont may die young because of his chosen career, just as I may die because of my choices, just as Catti-brie may die beside me because of her choices.But the simple truth is that if I had stayed in Menzoberranzan decades ago, or if I chose now to stay safe and secure in Ten-Towns or Mithril Hall, in many ways I would have been died. No, give me the way and the danger, give me the hope to which I am resolutely moving, give me the sense of success, and I will know joy. I have become so sure of this that I can even say with confidence that if Catti-brie died beside me on the way, I would not return to that safer place.For I know that on this subject her mind is almost exactly the same as my own.Knowing that she would—and she must—put these efforts into practice, no matter how dangerous, pointed out to her where her heart and her moral heart were.

Perhaps it was the result of being raised by dwarves, for no race in all of Toril knew this simple truth of joy better than the gruff, grunting, bearded race.Dwarf kings are almost always the most active of the clan, the first to fight and the first to work.The first to imagine a huge underground fortress, the first to clean up the mud that blocked the huge hole, and this huge hole is where the fortress will be in the future.Tough, hardworking dwarves learned long ago the value of achievement relative to luxury, and long ago understood that spiritual wealth is far more valuable than money - though they do love their gold!

So I found myself in a cold blizzard, on a treacherous road, surrounded by enemies, and we were en route to a battle with an undeniably formidable foe. Will the sun shine brighter? — Drizzt Do'Urden