Shadows of Amn - A Massive Project

[mistral4543]

Hi everyone,

A few weeks ago, I was quite geared up to write my own version of the story of SoA. The project has so far been KIV-ed, due to lack of time. Anyway, I just thought I would share with you a little of what I came up with.

Any comments are more than welcome.

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Chapter 1


Footsteps. Confident, authoritative and relaxed. I hurriedly opened my eyes and gazed at the emotionless expression of that familiar yet unknown person. Redundantly, I looked around. Of course I was still in the caged cell; what else did I expect?

And because I knew what was to come, I trembled inwardly. How long would my ordeal continue? Forever, it seemed. The purposeful way in which he licked his lips was repulsive, and yet fascinating. Who was he and how had I fallen into his clutches?

“Ah. The Child of Bhaal has awoken.” he announced to nobody in particular. “It is time for more… experiments.” Before I could gather my breath for a quick retort, blinding arcs of lightning had leaped from his fingertips towards my upper torso.

“Urgh.” Years of training as a kensai had prepared me for pain in combat, but I had yet to accustom myself completely to wounds inflicted by magic. It was a reminder of my weakness; I could swipe an enemy and deal out a fair bit of damage, but magic would always be my Achilles’ heel. Briefly, I contemplated dual-classing into a mage in the future, if the opportunity arose.

“Interesting. You have much untapped power.” the villain observed, as he hurled magic missiles carelessly at me. As I struggled to my feet, a chromatic orb appeared between his palms and flew towards me.

“Do you even realise your potential?” the rhetorical questions were swimming in my head as I cursed my weakened state. The onslaught continued and my body was drenched in perspiration. The translucent cloth draped over my body was stained with blood. Yet I knew that for some reason, this sadist did not intend to kill me. His powers were so immense that I had no doubt he could exterminate within a minute if he so desired.

Suddenly, footsteps thundered through the hallway. I lifted my head and beheld a massive clay golem. It bowed obsequiously and spoke in a robotic and deep voice.

“Master, there are intruders in the building.”

“What? They come sooner than I had anticipated. No matter; they will prove to be only a slight delay.”

And with that, I was left alone. For a while, at least. It was difficult to sort out my train of thoughts, with the amount of noise coming from a distance. Shrieks filled the air as bodies collapsed, one less than five feet away from my cell. To my surprise, my captor did not return immediately...

“Quickly! We must hurry out before they find us!” A clear and bright voice urged me. I turned to see a lithe young lady with a key in her hand. She had pale luminous skin, emerald green eyes and purplish hair tinted with auburn. As always, it was her!

“Imoen, what are you doing here? What’s going on…”

“Don’t you remember? He did that to you too, huh? Look, we’ve no time to lose. We’ve got to get out of here before he comes back. But first, we should go to the room to the west. I think I saw some weapons there, which we should equip ourselves with. Come on now… or do I have to leave you alone?”

As I looked at those pleading yet mesmerising eyes, I decided to put my doubts aside. For Imoen to be so brusque, she must be really desperate. I could almost forgive her for everything; she had come so far with me since Gorion’s death and her loyalty was unquestionable. We were so inseparable in spirit and soul that I sometimes wondered if we had closer bonds than those of friendship.

“Alright. I’ll move on… my body aches, though.” I gritted my teeth as I dragged my feet out. The wounds were still fresh, but I knew Imoen was right. We had to get out soon or lose this chance forever.


The room to the west turned out to be guarded by a clay golem. Strangely, he made no attempt to attack us as we pilfered the weapons off the table. Imoen, I soon discovered, had dual-classed from a thief to a mage. As her powers as a mage had exceeded her thieving skills, both these abilities were active. In this particular room, she now detected a trap, disabled it and unlocked two chests. Our reward: healing potions, a magic dagger and an assortment of armour. She blushed and shrugged her shoulders awkwardly as I smiled admiringly at her.

I wondered whether there was any point in getting the armour, as kensai are trained to fight without this and Imoen couldn’t cast spells when wearing leather. But figuring I had nothing to lose (after all, my strength could well afford it), I lugged it along anyway. I soon discovered that there was also a key… to what, I wondered. Ah well, I thought, as I placed it into my pocket.

We made our way out and I was taking a final glance around when I noticed my fellow prisoners. Imoen and I walked up to one of them. It was Jaheira, the half-elf fighter/druid whom Gorion had entrusted my care to, at the event of his death. But her husband and my other guardian, Khalid, was nowhere to be seen.

“Quickly! We’ve got to get out of here… I swear, travelling with you is never dull.” The tone of grim amusement in Jaheira’s voice barely hid the lines of fatigue on her still-youthful face. Elven blood had helped to preserve her looks. Not that it mattered; she was obviously more concerned about Khalid’s whereabouts than her own appearance.

“Yes. I seem to have found the key to your cell.” I replied, fishing it out thankfully.

“Well, open the door then! Surely you don’t need me to teach you all that?”

Momentarily, her irritation was infectious; I knew that if I didn’t hold my tongue, I would be rebuking her again. She had always wanted to be the leader, thinking she had more experience and wisdom than myself. To me, it was clear that this could not be the case. Had Gorion lived on, I would have been happy to serve him till his death. But as he had been so cruelly wrenched from me before my very eyes, independence was the key to my survival. Jaheira could provide all the counsel she deemed fit to discourse; I would make the final decision for the party.

I unlocked the door and wordlessly thrust her a sling, quarterstaff and a set of chain mail. Perhaps she realised my annoyance, for she remained silent herself. I moved on to the next cell.

“HHAARRGGGHH! Minsc will be free! These bars will not keep him aside!...!!!” a massive warrior ranted indignantly. Minsc! That meant his hamster, Boo, would be in the vicinity as well. I wondered where his witch, Dynaheir, was. I soon found out; she had been killed ruthlessly and the remorse on Minsc’s face was plain for all to see.

Back to reality, I told myself. The immediate task was to release him, and our combined efforts would raise our chances of escape. But how could I release him when there was no door to unlock in the first place? For a while, I was stumped. And then, I remembered how muscular my ranger friend could be.

“Minsc! A strong man like yourself must feel terrible being locked up like that.” I intoned in a most pitying manner, hoping that it would hurt his manly pride.

“Ah. But you will surely think of something…yes?” he looked hopefully at me. His powers of intelligence were such that he relied on others’ judgement almost all of the time. I turned away in disgust, before trying once again.

“I know I promised that I would try to help you, but I also need something to unlock!”

“You…you refuse to help me?! Why you…” Minsc’s face contorted with rage and the knuckles on his bare hands crackled. Within five seconds, he had torn the bars of his cell and was charging at me. Mercifully, he recovered sufficiently to realise what had happened.

“Ooh, I see you’re a smart one… you wanted to get me angry so I could open the bars myself. Boo is glad to see you. Say hi to Boo.” he chuckled, and shoved Boo into my face. The little hamster sniffed at my nose and scurried back into Minsc’s pocket.

“Ah, yes. I see that you still have that… rodent of yours?”

That triggered another five minutes of enthusiastic confirmation and proclamations of Boo’s feats from Minsc. To silence him, I handed him the plate mail, and a two-handed sword. We decided on the spells Imoen and Jaheira should memorise, that would best serve our purpose for the long journey ahead. But fearing unnecessary loss of time, we pressed on without rest.

[AzureWolf]

Bloody good work
better than the original i should say

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"I was born of darkness. My fathers eyes closed before mine opened. I am not of this world or the other, and I have the right to be what I am..."