First Time Book

Prologue

He wondered how it all began. Here he was standing in a room of the Screaming Griffon Inn in Baldur’s Gate preparing to ambush a tyrant of a man by the name of Dakonis Rhumevelt and his two body guards. Timson knew that his dislike of cities would keep him out of the troubles that surrounded city folk. That was the reason he took up the mantle of a ranger. A warrior dedicated to preserving nature and helping to maintain a balance. It was only when he decided to come into Waterdeep to buy some supplies that he had met up with his current adventuring troupe. It was a strange band that he had happened to hook up with and he still wondered why he was with them. He couldn’t imagine being with any of them with the exception of Hannar, a fellow ranger that had also by some weird twist of fate, come into Waterdeep looking for supplies himself. Standing directly across from him was Bob Thorton, the priest of Lathander. This one seemed to be just a little to stiff and was probably just a little to dedicated to his faith, but what could you expect from a priest anyways. On the priest’s left stood the female Krillys Leley. She was a moon elf wizard of unknown power. He couldn’t imagine one of that near xenophobic race being in Waterdeep let alone traveling with two human males and two half elf males. This brought him to the most unlikely of his traveling band of the bizarre, Quincy. He wasn’t strange by way of race or profession, but it was his profession that made Timson wonder how he had managed to join up with him. He was, the way Quincy had liked to put it, a purveyor of all things valuable and mobile, and in other words he was a thief with loose to no morals. Timson wondered to himself how he had managed to end up in the company of a thief. He had never regarded thieves as one of the most trustworthy of people and on top of that he had never thought he would share company with one. To make matters even worse it appeared that the thief was running this little operation.
When he thought back on it all it seemed almost comical how he had managed to fall into this ragtag group of would be adventurers. Those were thoughts for later on, for at the moment Timson had other things on his mind. After all, the current plan seemed almost suicidal. Hannar and himself were supposedly going to bum rush the two bodyguards standing guard outside the door and the other three were going to burst into the room to deal with the tyrant they had come all the way to Baldur’s Gate to find. He desperately desired something a bit wiser to pop its head up and demand to be noticed, but so far nothing was happening. That was when Hannar popped up with a half way decent idea.
“Why don’t you climb up the back of the building and shoot him in the back with a poisoned arrow?”
“Why is it that I have always got to do these things all by myself?” Quincy replied. Quincy then proceeded to pat himself down. When he finished he looked back at Hannar, “Have you got a poisoned arrow I can borrow? No? Well that’s too bad.” Timson noticed Krillys rolling her eyes as she mumbled, “Oh gods.”
“My specialty is infiltrating places, getting things and getting back out unseen and unheard without killing anyone.” Quincy stated.
“If you climb up to his window won’t you be visible from the main street? It is after all the middle of the day.” Timson figured Quincy knew this, but thought that perhaps he should point it out so they could move onto another plan. Hannar then stated,
“Well, perhaps when we do this some one, most likely Krillys should be outside his window in case while we are dealing with his guards he should decide to make himself scarce by jumping out his window.”
“If he decides to leave in a hurry I see no reason why we should try to stop him.” Quincy replied.
“Don’t we have to kill him?”
“No, we are just here to rescue the young girl Allassandra. Besides that, what makes you think that I would want to face an angry warlord fleeing for his life when I am no great mage, but merely a young elf who has only just recently completed my apprenticeship? No thank you.” Krillys stated.
“After all what makes you think that he is going to flee just because some one is fighting with his guards?” Timson added “Generally, one does not hire guards more powerful than themselves if they are a warrior or a wizard.” Quincy started pacing the room, his face locked in deep thought. Timson noted that he had a look of frustration. He didn’t know what he had to be frustrated about, so far the only viable plan they had was a near suicidal attempt for himself and Hannar. Perhaps he was trying to find a way for them to succeed at their mission, but Timson believed that he was more likely trying to figure out a way for him to be as little involved and still grab the most glory. That would be the typical thief mentality.
“Well, we don’t even know if she is in that room.” Quincy said.
“Why don’t you go out there and peak in his window and see if she is in there?” Hannar asked.
“I plan to, but I am not going to do anything while it is still daylight.”
Bob stepped forward almost impatiently and said, “Gentlemen, and Lady of course. You must remember we are on a time schedule. We do not know how long he will be here or when he will be leaving.”
“Well he has to wait till his ship is repaired.” Hannar stated rather smugly.
“Except his ship isn’t damaged. It is merely resupplying.”
Timson noted that there was no air of superiority in Bob’s tone only the sound a parent gets when talking to a child that is having a difficult time learning. Bob was obviously becoming frustrated and Timson couldn’t blame him, for he himself was too.
“If he is just getting provisions and other supplies then he probably won’t be here for more than a day at the most.” Hannar said.
“Why did he bother to get a room then if he is only here for a day?” Quincy asked. “I mean if he wants privacy the Captains Quarters on the ship would be sufficient.”
“Maybe he came ashore to find more victims…. err, um, I mean girls.” Krillys stated, blushing a deep red. Timson patted her shoulder letting her know we all say things that they don’t mean from time to time and not to take it so hard. At that moment a thought came to Timson.
Looking over at Bob he asked, “Are you capable of putting some one to sleep?”
Bob looked at him curiously, looked at his mace then said with an amused smile, “Why yes. If you give me the right angle I can put nearly anyone to sleep with this.”
“Not quite what I had in mind.”
Timson then gave Krillys a hopeful look, but she merely looked at her feet and said, “I didn’t memorize that spell today and if I was going to, it would take me quite awhile to get it memorized and he might be gone by then.”
Timson then remembered that he had once seen a druid use magic to have the very plants themselves bind a person who had been defiling the trees of a forest. He quickly looked to both Bob and Krillys. He told them about what he had seen and asked if they could do the same, but both of them shook their heads. He decided he would stop asking about magic then for they were both looking more dejected by the moment. He realized that he was probably making them feel more worthless with each question, and this was not a time to have bad morale amidst his fellow conspirators.
“I would prefer to do this without magic if at all possible.” Quincy said “I don’t trust or like it that much.”
“Well, we should use all tools available to us even if you are squeamish.” stated Timson. Quincy bristled at the comment and responded while looking at Bob, “Fine. Can either of you make it to where no one makes any noise at all?” Once again both Bob and Krillys shook their heads. Quincy threw his hands in the air and said with a bit of irritation, “What can you do?”
“All I have memorized is some offensive spells, a defensive spell and a spell that will show me things that possess magical properties.” Krillys stated with a hint of anger edging her voice.
Bob then stated with some irritation of his own, “And I can beseech Lathander to grant me magic to heal your wounds or the others if any of you should become seriously hurt.” Timson noted that Bob’s comment seemed to put Quincy back in his place.
“We don’t even know if Allassandra is in that room. We know she is not on the ship from what we were able to see of the ship.” Hannar said.
“True, but we don’t know that she isn’t.” Quincy replied.
“Well, one thing is for certain. We will be retreating fairly quickly, successful or not and I do not think the local law is going to want to stop and listen to us explain why we broke into a room at a local inn and possibly murdered the occupant and his two bodyguards. So, we should make certain we know the quickest route back to our ship and where roughly the watch of this town is.” Timson said hoping to calm people down by focusing their thoughts on another area.
“We have our own ship.” Hannar said.
“We have a ship, yes, but it is not ours and it may not sail when we are ready especially if the captain is loading or unloading cargo. Why don’t you go make sure that the ship is ready to go and can sail when we are ready to leave.” Replied Quincy. While they were discussing these and other details Timson decided to take a little stroll down to the innkeeper. As he descended the stairs to the bar room he noticed the smell of pipe weed mixing in the air with smell of a stew that the cook was probably preparing for dinner and of course the smell of stale beer and ale. He knew he was going to probably lose what small amount of coin he still had for the information he was seeking. As he approached the innkeeper the middle aged man with mutton chop sideburns, silver streaked hair and a smile that greeted him said, “Good day to you young master. What can I be getting for you today?” Timson smiled more to himself than the innkeeper. The man had a natural charisma to himself and his contagious smile stretched to his sky blue eyes to probably win over all but the nastiest of customers right away. He didn’t feel so bad knowing that the last of his coin would be going to this gentleman.
Laying a single silver coin on the bar and smiling Timson said, “Information. I need to know if the man staying in the room at the end of the hall upstairs came in with just himself and his two bodyguards.”
The innkeeper quickly palmed the silver and said, “He also had a young lady with them. The lass was lovely enough with her golden hair, but she had obviously not been listening to her master’s cruel demands for there were some obvious bruises about her face. Even they couldn’t diminish her natural beauty… at least not as much as the sorrow that was etched into her eyes. Perhaps someday that vile curse of a man will try to push some one around who could push back… only harder.”
At this last part Timson noted the wink the innkeeper gave him and more than happily slid his last silver over to the man. Smiling to himself he climbed the stairs to rejoin his companions. When he entered the room Quincy fairly pounced on him.
“Where have you been? Never mind it’s not important. We need you to scout Dakonis’s ship and find out to the best of your ability if the girl is on it or not.”
Timson laughed gently and said, “She is in the room. I just went downstairs and asked the innkeeper. He let me know that a young woman matching Allassandra’s description was with Dakonis when he checked in. He also let me know indirectly that he would like to see some one bring about his end.”
Everyone was sort of staring at Timson when Quincy blurted out, “Well that’s good news.”
“I will go scout out the local law and find out how much time we would have before they could get here.”
Quincy looked at him, arched a single eyebrow slightly and said, “That is a good idea. While you are doing that I am going to take a look around the building and see the layout. Let’s go.”
Timson through the innkeeper a wink as Hannar, Quincy and himself came down the stairs and exited the inn. Once outside he noticed that the dock wards of Baldur’s Gate were no better than any other city he had been to. There was an assortment of crates stacked along the walls on both sides of the streets where ever there was space between buildings. An assortment of seedy characters hung around the sides of buildings and watched almost everyone that passed within their visual field. The buildings themselves were not the best but they still were far from being condemned.
He looked at Hannar and Quincy and said, “We meet back at the room in one hour agreed?” They both nodded and went their separate ways. Timson started to head down the street when he realized he had no idea where he was going. He decided to ask one of the locals and found an elderly gentleman who was sitting in front of the inn he had just exited. The old timer was helpful and after questioning him, he found much to his surprise and delight that the closest watch station was over a dozen blocks away and to make matters even better they rarely responded to anything in the docks but the most heinous of crimes. Perhaps, he was beginning to think, they would pull this off after all. As he headed back to the inn he started to reminisce about how they had all come together in the first place.
After restocking himself in Waterdeep he had planned on heading back out to the forest that he loved so much when he saw a man in the winter of his life sitting on a bench weeping uncontrollably. The man had seen at least fifty winters pass and was small in frame and stature. His balding pate was slightly reddened from the midday sun. Normally he would not have bothered talking to anyone, but this man’s weeping was so obviously a deep pain of the heart. He felt compelled to ask him what caused him such sorrow. When he approached the man he cleared his throat to announce his presence. At this sound the man stopped sobbing and looked up into his eyes.
“Are you here about the posting?”
Timson had no idea what the man was talking about so he decided the best way to find out was to ask, “Forgive me sir, but I know of no posting. What is this posting you refer to?”
At that the man dropped to his knees in front of Timson and began to plead all the while sobbing. “He took her my lord. My beloved Allassandra; my daughter was taken from me. Will you please help me sir? I do not have much, but it is all yours and any other that helps you if you will but return my beloved Allassandra to me.”
“Calm yourself good sir. First, tell me who took your daughter and second, what does she look like?”
“A vile beast of a man by the name of Dakonis Rhumevelt. He is a cruel and merciless slave master for some lord in the south, I know not who. As for what my daughter looks like that I can tell you well. She has hair the color of sunshine about to the middle of her back. Her eyes are a lovely shade of brown with slight hints of green in them. She is only fifteen winters old and stands to about your chin sir. Slender of frame she is, but not unhealthy. I beseech you sir, save my daughter.”
Timson didn’t like to get involved in the affairs of city folk, but he found the man's sorrow to be so profound that he found himself agreeing before he could stop himself. “I give you my word that I will help return your daughter to you.” Cursing himself for the fool he felt like Timson helped the old man to his feet amidst a blathering of thanks and praises. He then asked where he could find this man and his daughter and found to his horror that they were on a ship heading south to the land of Amn. To the best of his knowledge Amn was many months to the south of Waterdeep even by ship. Timson cursed himself a second time for being a fool. That was when he first saw Bob and Krillys. Bob walked with air of a traveling dignitary, slightly too formal for him to be anything other than a bureaucrat or a priest. His blond hair was neatly trimmed to match his mustache and his deep blue eyes held a pleasant set as he studied the old man’s sorrowful face. His slender frame seemed more suited to the halls of a temple than the road of adventure. Timson noticed that Bob was clothed in fine robes of oranges, reds and yellows that matched a circular disk that hung about his neck. The only weapon visible on him was a mace that hung on his side and looked to be brand new. Obviously he had never used it in combat before. The female Krillys was a moon elf that much was obvious from her long silver hair and golden eyes. She too was slender of build but stood no more than five feet tall where Bob was at least a foot taller than her. Her clothes were a dark blue silk robe with arcane symbols sewn into it. She had no visible weapons and therefore he assumed she must be a wizard. She moved with a grace that her race possessed naturally and her features were truly breathtaking.