The Cleric Quintet

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The Cleric Quintet is a series of novels by R.A. Salvatore as a spin-off to The Legend of Drizzt in the Forgotten Realms, following the growth of Cadderly Bonaduce from childish young scribe to Chosen of Deneir.

  • Books in the series:
    • Canticle (1991)
    • In Sylvan Shadows (1992)
    • Night Masks (1992)
    • The Fallen Fortress (1993)
    • The Chaos Curse (1994)
Tropes used in The Cleric Quintet include:
  • Abnormal Ammo: Cadderly uses a hand crossbow that fires exploding darts.
  • Anti-Villain: Dorigen. Aballister has shades of this, as well.Also Rufo
  • Badass Decay: Justified with Dorigen, who has her nimble spellcasting fingers shattered before her Heel Face Turn, and never fully recovers from it.
  • Badass in Distress: The entire plot of the fifth book, where resident ass-kicker Danica is incapacitated and captured early on.
  • Bash Brothers: The trope might as well be called The Bouldershoulder Brothers.
  • Battle in the Center of the Mind: Happens a few times. Cadderly engages in a battle of wills against Druzil, and later an epic Professor-X style knock-down drag-out with Ghost.
  • Beware the Silly Ones:Ivan and Pikel are the Abbott and Costello of the series. They are also the most dangerous fighters besides Danica. On the villains' side, Druzil is rather hard to take seriously, though he is behind everything bad that happens in the series.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Bogo Rath. Even his name is trying too hard.
  • Came Back Wrong: Ghost is so unpleasant to be around that Druzil doesn't even like dealing with him. Druzil is a demon from the Abyss.
  • Calling Your Attacks: If Cadderly points his fist at you and screams "Fete," prepare to have your face melt off.
  • Carry a Big Stick: Everyone refers to Pikel's massive signature club as "his tree."
  • Deadpan Snarker: Druzil, Aballister's imp familiar. Danica has shades of this. Dorigen defines it.
  • Dean Bitterman: Dean Thobicus is an extremely non-comedic example.
  • Disc One Final Boss: Barjin acts as this, and his death reveals the greater enemy and ultimate Big Bad.
  • Face Heel Turn: Only Rufo, and it's even debatable if he was ever a Face.
  • Five-Bad Band
    • The Big Bad: Aballister, the power-hungry wizard.
    • The Dragon: Barjin, the evil priest and opposite of Cadderly.
    • The Evil Genius: Druzil, who is behind every evil plot.
    • The Brute: Ragnor, half-breed orc
    • The Dark Chick: Dorigen, wizard and sometime paramour of Aballister. The complete opposite of Danica.
  • Five-Man Band

The Five-Man Band changes significantly in the fifth book, becoming:

  • Good Thing You Can Heal: Ghastly wounds pop up a lot more often after Cadderly learns to heal people. It goes Up to Eleven when the group gets the Ring of Regeneration.
  • Heel Face Turn: Many. If you're a villain, you die or this happens to you. No exceptions.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Cadderly. Witness his Spindle Disks/yo-yo weapon and blowgun cane.
  • Interrogating the Dead: As Cadderly gains levels, he is able to do this. He starts using it as a threat to make still-living people give up the goods.
  • It Got Worse: In the fourth book, the heroes finally defeat evil sorcerer Aballister and destroy Castle Trinity and the evil forces that have been behind the entire series. Time to head back home to the good 'ole Edificant Library and Oh Crap Rufo has consumed the Chaos Curse, become a vampire, killed Dorigen, captured Danica, and turned the entire staff into murderous monsters. Druzil has also defiled the Library so divine magic is almost impossible to cast inside of it, where Rufo has set up his den of vampires.
  • Large Ham: Barjin in the first book. Rufo becomes one of these with obvious glee after becoming a vampire.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Aballister Bonaduce.
  • Mark of Shame: Kierkan Rufo gets one burned into his forehead by Cadderly after betraying the group and indirectly killing Headmaster Avery.
  • Our Elves Are Better: Played straight and subverted in the second book. The elves, especially Elbereth, certainly think they're this. Elves throughout the series are always incredible warriors or wizards, but it takes a party of humans and dwarves to prevent the destruction of Shilmista, the elven homeland. Even more so, it takes the open-mindedness of a human to convince the elves that the trees can be animated for defense.
  • Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Played straight to the point of parody with Ivan Bouldershoulder, and completely averted with his brother Pikel.
  • Religion of Evil: Aballister and his minions worship Talona, the evil goddess of poison and disease.
  • Screw You, Elves!: Ivan's entire dialogue whenever ANY elf is around, though it's mostly bluster.
  • Shapeshifter Mode Lock: The druids in the first book suffer this under the effects of the Chaos Curse, getting stuck in the form of their spirit animal. Newander is actually upset that he's still a human.
  • Start of Darkness: The first three books are Kierkan Rufo's
  • The Dragon: Aballister has a new one in practically each book, including Barjin, Dorigen, Bogo, and Ghost. In the third book, Vander acts as Ghost's Dragon and Noble Top Enforcer before his Heel Face Turn
  • The Obi-Wan: Avery has shades of this, but the true example is Pertelope who comes right out of left field to explain that she is the only one who's experienced what Cadderly is going through.
  • The Silent Bob: Pikel, sort of. He does occasionally talk, but it is always gibberish.
  • Warrior Monk: Danica
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