After a couple issues focused on providing some backstory for the crew, “Triangles” kicks off a longer story for the crew of the Realms Master and brings a new member into the adventuring party. True to this arc’s name, it also establishes a love triangle that puts the character of Ishi Barasume to the test.

I complained previously when “Spell Games” did Vajra dirty by running through a checklist of “strong female character” tropes that were already tired by 1990. Ishi is this title’s strong female character, and she also provides east Asian representation, since her homeland of Kara-Tur is a hodgepodge of legends and stereotypes taken from our real world. Is Ishi bound for the same tone-deaf treatment that Vajra got, or does “Triangles” offer something better? Read on and judge for yourself.

A New Look for Agrivar

Our story starts off with some lighthearted tomfoolery. Foxy has plied his skills as a tailor to create a new look for Agrivar. Unfortunately, the halfling’s taste in fashion doesn’t mesh with the rest of the crew.

Vartan has no problem laughing loudly. Minder keeps her cool, and Ishi tries her best but eventually cracks. As for Captain Omen…

Agrivar takes the search for a new artifact as an excuse to change his clothing, but the Captain will have none of it. In fact, Agrivar’s clothing should mesh will with the nobility of Saerloon, where the crew is headed.

Funny how nobody else has to blend in with the locals…

A Trip to Sembia

The Horn of Valos is in the merchant realm of Sembia. That nation was originally left as blank space so Dungeon Masters could customize a piece of the Forgotten Realms for themselves, but this issue and the approach of 2nd edition AD&D represents a shift toward defining it in official canon.

While Minder watches the Realms Master, Agrivar, Dwalimor, Foxy, and Vartan approach the merchant who has the artifact. They walk in on a hunched figure who quickly heads out the back.

Agrivar notices something familiar about the woman, but can’t figure out what after only a glimpse. He doesn’t have time to follow up on the matter, because the haggling is about to begin.

Of course, haggling is much easier when Vartan has cast detect lies and is giving Dwalimor an inside track.

The whole matter seems quite anticlimactic, but Dwalimor responds to Vartan’s complaints by creating an illusory beholder to attack. This time it’s Ishi’s turn to play the fool, as she leaps into action, goes right through the illusion, and lands among some fresh produce.

Agrivar and Foxy return to the shop to see the woman again, whom Agrivar seems to recognize from Waterdeep. The woman, however, has no interest in speaking with him. In fact, she makes a hasty retreat from the shop after being told to deliver a message to the local temple of Mystra: “The carp has bitten.”

Argrivar and Foxy give chase, but…

I would complain that Foxy jumped right to ghosts instead of teleportation, but both are equally likely in the Forgotten Realms.

Working Through Some Feelings

Back aboard the ship, Ishi is upset with herself for losing her temper over a prank, especially so soon after she made fun of Agrivar’s clothing.

Ishi’s characterization gets on thin ice with me here. She’s already dangerously close to being nothing more than the “honorable eastern warrior” stereotype, and now that the hints of feelings toward Agrivar are showing themselves she’s facing the danger of her role in the story being about her relationship rather than herself. However, she does sometimes break from the stereotype, and her relationship with Agrivar has been building since she tried to kill him in “The Hand of Vaprak,” so there is hope that she won’t become too flat of a character.

Shortly after Dwalimor disposes of the Horn of Valos, Vartan becomes possessed by Labelas Enoreth again.

Minder doesn’t yet realize that it’s Labelas speaking through Vartan, but I really enjoy her dig at the prophetic speech. Hey, he’s the god of time and longevity, not of wordsmithing.

The Chase Takes a Turn

Meanwhile, Agrivar and Foxy have found the mysterious girl’s trail again. This time, she tries something more violent to get away.

Whoever this person is, she seems to garner quite a bit of loyalty. The dockhands she talks to immediately attack Agrivar. While they’re no match for the paladin, he has his hands full trying not to kill them in self-defense.

With Foxy’s help, Agrivar escapes the mob and pursues the mystery woman to a place called Lady Rae’s…which just happens to be where Vartan’s vision brought him.

The Obligatory Bar Brawl

Lady Rae’s is a bar exclusively for women, where they can relax without being in the company of aggressive men. Coming from a 2024 lens, I figure that these places don’t get much traction in the real world because men would pitch a fit about being excluded.

Vartan is overjoyed to be in the presence of so many women. The barkeep is not happy to see him, though.

Minder says the group is there to ask questions, not to brawl. Unfortunately, the ladies hear only one word.

I usually try to focus on the story beats when I provide these scans, but in this case I can’t resist showing off this unrelated bit of banter between Ishi and Vartan:

While this is happening in the common room, Agrivar realizes that he recognizes the strange woman because she looks like her mother, whom the paladin knew in Waterdeep. Determined to speak with her, he skips the bar brawl downstairs and swings through a window upstairs. The crash gets Ishi running, and she finds Agrivar in a very compromising situation.

But at least Agrivar finally found the woman.

The Winged Woman

Ishi is extremely upset at finding Agrivar with torn up clothing in a room with a topless winged woman. Her reaction isn’t fair to Agrivar, but we’ll circle back to that soon enough. The woman, Jasmine, uses the chaotic scene to make her escape.

There is an unfortunate line just before this scene where Jasmine refers to Ishi as “copper-skin” in her internal monologue. I’d say that aged poorly, but I’m pretty sure that making the color of someone’s skin a pejorative shouldn’t have flown in the 1990s, either. It’s another one of those instances where D&D and its related media has unfortunately been way behind the times.

The brawl downstairs spills upstairs into Jasmine’s room, and the crew has to jump out a window to get away. They reach an intersection, only to learn that the mob who thinks Agrivar is an assassin is still on his trail.

Jasmine decides that Saerloon has gotten too hot, so she opts to fly away. The sudden appearance of a flying ship, however, gives her pause.

The ship, which is not the Realms Master, attacks her and forces her to the ground. That’s when Ishi catches her.

Jasmine gives a good account of herself in the ensuing scrap, but she makes the mistake of calling Agivar Ishi’s “boyfriend,” which sets the warrior off.

Once again, Ishi’s characterization remains a sore spot that I can’t quite articulate. I like her having to deal with her feelings for Agrivar, but I wish we could go a scene without her acting either extremely jealous or incredibly violent because she can’t handle those feelings properly. The setup is nice, but the execution leaves me wanting so far.

The good news is that Jasmine and Ishi make their peace, to an extent, and the winged woman allows her pursuers to take her to the Realms Master…mainly because it’s a ship that floats on water and can get her out of town. (She doesn’t know about its…other capabilities just yet.)

Strange Dealings in the Harbor

Back on the ship, Vartan heals Jasmine’s Ishi-caused wounds and takes the opportunity to be an ass and ask if she and Agrivar did anything in her bedroom. Ishi, meanwhile, struggles with her feelings for Agrivar…and Vartan arrives to make things worse.

Elven arrogance is something that got toned down a lot post-2000, largely because characters like Vartan made it so players started to hate the stuck up gits. But at least hitting Vartan offers some nice catharsis.

The Realms Master sets sail, but doesn’t get far before a water elemental attacks.

The water elemental was summoned by a mage of Halruaa, Dwalimor’s homeland. It seems there has been a power struggle, and the ruler who gave Captain Omen the Astrolabe of Nimbral which powers his ship has been replaced by one of Dwalimor’s spiteful ex-lovers.

The attacking wizard, Alistair Grimwald, is an old foe of Dwalimor’s and also, it seems, a romantic rival. While he reads off Dwalimor’s alleged crimes, other mages levitate aboard invisibly, surrounding the group. Ultimately, Dwalimor chooses to surrender.

Alistair teleports Dwalimor aboard his own flying ship (the one which attacked Jasmine earlier), and the trial of Captain Omen begins.

A Kangaroo Court

Unfortunately, the trial goes poorly. It turns out that having a judge who hates your guts is quite a hurdle, and Dwalimor’s own lack of natural charm is certainly no help.

Dwalimor offers what seems to be an obvious solution: cast a few divination spells to learn the truth. Of course, that’s not as easily done in this day and age…

The unreliability of divination spells is another hint at the Time of Troubles, and another reminder that the cataclysm could have been quite amazing had it received a buildup rather than getting sprung on most D&D players through one novel trilogy and some shoddy tie-in adventure modules.

Ultimately, Dwalimor’s patience reaches its end, and he casts a shout spell. The noise from that distraction allows the crew below to overcome their captors.

The wizards go down quickly, and Jasmine threatens one of the last conscious spellcasters with a blade. Agrivar objects, but we’ll never know if Jasminewas bluffing about slitting her captive’s throat or not because nobody there can read minds.

Alistair manages to get Dwalimor under control (read: knocked unconscious), and orders one of his men to check on the hostages down below.

I guess Foxy is at least a 10th-level thief, which would give him the ability to read magical writing. Otherwise, nobody would be able to read the scroll and cast the spell.

So now the crew has the element of surprise, a few potions, a winged girl, and the extradimensional space which she uses to keep her loot. Ready for a rescue mission?

The Rescuers

Jasmine sneaks aboard the ship using a potion of invisibility, and she brings Minder in her handy extradimensional space. The two set to work on a combination rescue/sabotage mission.

Jasmine’s wings are part of a longer tale that will have to wait for another story, because this one is crammed to the gills as it is. But we do at least get Agrivar’s explanation of why he recognized her–he knew her mother years ago when he was adventuring, although his long descent into alcoholism separated them.

Ishi chases the escapee down, but not before he gets word to Alistair that something is afoot. The mage takes this news well, because it means he can kill everyone and say that Dwalimor died trying to escape.

A fight begins, but luckily Foxy has his priorities straight…

On Alistair’s ship, Minder uses her knowledge of Halruaan technology to set what is basically a self-destruct mode.

Unfortunately, the water elemental is drowning Agrivar and the adventurers down below can’t do anything to save him. If only they had a god on speed dial…

Oh, wait. They do.

Jasmine saves Dwalimor as he dives off the side of the flying ship. Alistair spends too much time cursing Omen’s name and doesn’t take the opportunity to jump off the ship.

With a big boom, the ship explodes and Alistair goes with it. Always make your escape first and shout threats afterward, kids.

Aftermath

A lot has happened in this three-issue story arc, and most of the loose ends remain untied, ready to be picked up again later.

We don’t find out why Jasmine has wings, but we do finally get a quiet moment where Agrivar can talk to Jasmine without it turning into a comedic romantic misunderstanding.

Well…almost.

So, where does this leave us with Ishi, and how does her characterization compare to the mishandling of Vajra back in “Spell Games?” It’s a bit of an incomplete grade because the romantic subplot will continue for a while yet. But I’m very much not a fan of the fact that Ishi’s role in this comic has now been reduced to two things: fighting and pondering her relationship with Agrivar. I’m also not happy that the only interactions we’ll see between Ishi and Jasmine are going to revolve around their romantic rivalry…especially since Agrivar isn’t romantically attracted to Jasmine and is largely in the dark about Ishi’s feelings toward him.

As with Vajra, this is an instance where having more voices than just the white male fantasy author perspective would have helped. Men often struggle writing women, and when it comes to multiple women interacting with each other it’s like the writer can’t imagine they have anything to talk about but men.

This isn’t to disparage writer Jeff Grubb specifically, as his storytelling in this regard is on par for most pop media in the early 90s. A view from my 2024 lens sees this as a missed opportunity for better storytelling, though. I feel like the romantic tension could seem less forced if the creative team had sought out someone who had a perspective closer to Ishi’s or at least pushed themselves to get out of their own comfort zones a bit.

But Ishi’s characterization is an ongoing thing. It will be heavily featured, for better or worse, in the next story arc where we see what happens when liches try the dating game.

_{Images: DC Comics}