Baldurs Gate fanfic, evil party

[Enforcer Talen]

Journal of tyrion blackheart, day 1

Long have I lived in the shadows of candlekeep, a servant of my god bane and an agent of the zhentarum. I was raised by the Harper sage gorion, and my proximity to him meant my information was worth high price.

And yet, when the order came to flee, I was surprised. Gorion had given no indication he knew my secret, but whispers had come by secret paths, and I knew I was being hunted.

I went out my daily tasks, ever watchful of that knife in the back, but the first assassins declared their intent. I killed them quickly, and I  believe they were Harper agents, for all of gorions pretended ignorance. I must be wary.

When I approached him, gorion said that we must hurry, as I was in danger. Did the Harper council keep him in ignorance? Or was he willing to forsake his vows to protect me? A strange thought. Either way, I do not believe I am compromised; he would not protect an agent of his most deadly  foe, no matter our kinship. 

Before going, I went to visit Winthrop, and return a scroll to the elf. I pawned a gem I had stolen long ago, and equipped myself in readiness. My next action makes little sense without an explanation, so listen a moment.

For those who do not know Winthrop, his proudest saying is "as clean as an elven arse." This is not merely the ribald statement of an innkeep, but instead, the confession of a hungry sodomite. 

When I brained the elf with a hammer, winthrop was on the body in seconds, grunting like a pig. While his beady eyes were closed in focus, I helped myself to the bin of coins he had in his desk. I cleaned the brains off my hammer, found gorion, and said I was ready to leave.

OOC: killing the elf meant I hit level 2 early, and applying this motive pleases me. This also justifies the 300 gold I get from talking to him 30 times.

Ic: the dawn was especially cruel this morning. Gorion didn't drop any good loot.

Let me explain. The Harper team did intercept us, as I had been warned. Two ogres, a Mage, and a man in plate mail. Their motives were a loss to me; my value to the zhentarum was only as a spy of Gorion, but the strike team killed him first. Perhaps they viewed his defense of me as a betrayal of their organization?

Regardless, ogres and platemail are not quiet, and I was able to escape them in the darkness and brambles. When dawn came, I looted the bodies. Strangely, Gorion lacked any of the items a Mage of his skill would carry. Perhaps they had been taken? But it does not explain the gold they left behind. It is a mystery viewed from any angle.

Returning to the road, I found the sneak thief Imoen. She asked to come along, and I saw no reason why not. More firepower was always welcome, but I did not know if she would fire on harpers. Further up on the road, I encountered my contacts, a halfling assassin and a human necromancer. 

I cursed my prior caution. We spoke quietly, in the code I had been taught, and they expressed their concern on imoens reliability. She may have to be lost soon.

Before his death, Gorion had spoken of allies at the friendly arm inn. Knowing that they were most likely harpers, I knew it to be a place kept far from. They would kill me for my allegiance and because of my proximity to Gorion. instead, we would travel south and west. Zhentarum had a mission for us in the town of nashkel.

However, the roads were swarming with their agents. We saw a large red hat through the trees, and skirted carefully around it's wearer. Unfortunately in the process, we encountered an ogre. No doubt he was another agent of the enemy, and he brained imoen before we could escape. 

She was barely human after that, walking only with guidance, showing none of her previous skill or fire. The necromancer, xzar, stated he knew someone in beregost who could take care of her. As well, there was a fellow dwarf there who was at least friendly to our cause. We agreed that beregost would be our next stop.

Journal day 3 ?

Montaron is apparently not good in the woods; even though we headed in a southerly direction, he lead us to a place called High Hedge. He was smiling nervously when we got there, so I was half expecting a betrayal, but aparently he was fearing abuse on my part. We made the best use of the trip though; Xzan was able to scribe many spells from the mage Thalantyr. He gave us precise directions to Beregost, and we made it with little trouble.  

We didn't stay there for long, however. Our first stop was at Feldposts Inn. A barfly tried to start a fight, and I gave him a cock and bull story of destiny while Montaron stealthed behind him and stabbed him in the kidneys. No one said anything as he bled out; the halfling was giggling, and the necromancer had a strange light in his eyes. He told me the trader Algernon was upstairs, so I grabbed imoen and we went up. 

Algernon was a fat, sweating man who smelled of corruption and filth. His eyes lit up when I pushed Imoen into the room. We dickered over the price for a bit, and I eventually got his cloak; a glamorous thread made from a nymph. Imoen was staring vacantly at me as I went downstairs, and then the door closed.

In the main room, Xzar was having a conversation with the animated corpse, and Montaron had pinned a courtesan on a table, the ruffles of her skirt up around her ears. I interrupted Xzar to find out where our next ally was. He told me to the store to the north.

The dwarf there had much in common with me, and I took an immediate liking to him. We traded some tall tales, and he said he'd join me, but wanted to hit up a place before we go. We went to a nearby tavern to talk about it; I was finding my other companions distracting.

Unfortunately, we were attacked upon entering. Kagain performed well, and we dispatched him quickly. We checked the body for loot, finding a bounty on me placed by the harpers, and then left. I don't think our trail of bodies was what our employers had in mind.

We went back to the Inn; our companions were outside. Xzar was counting fingers with a third hand, and Montaron was chatting up another courtesan. I waved them off, and told the party I wanted to bail tonite. 

It took some arguing, but they agreed. We went east through the city, but were stopped by a bard of some sort. He wanted us to do a bodygaurd mission. It seemed quick enough, so we went along with it. 

I didn't pay much attention to the target; they were easy enough to take out. Kagain tossed me a look, and I nodded, so we backstabbed the bard and his ward too. Loose ends were a bad idea. They had some decent loot, and we took out Kagains choice on the way out; a smith of some sort. We then went east at a quick pace; we had left eight bodies in that town in one night, and I didn't expect to be welcome there for sometime. 

OOC: did the chicken quest while near high hedge, and grabbed a prot petrificaton spell, among other things. Imoen left cuz of rep, but I like this reason better. We obviously pickpocketed algernon for the cloak.

IC:

Journal day 5 ?

There was a church on the way out; we bypassed it and continued deeper into the wild. There was a small desert with baskilisks, but Xzan had a spell of reflection. Montaron was giggling madly and running around so he could be chased by a dozen of the things. By the time we caught up to him he had found another party of adventurers. They were petrified instantly, and we chopped the up whole lot of them. 

Traveling north, we came across more baskilisks and statues. Chopped them both up, and a mad caster who was entirely too devoted to his lizards. There was also some sort of warrior woman who wanted to duel. After I smashed her up some, she offered to work for me. She wasn't a bad fighter, so why not?

It took about six hours until I found her curled up on the ground, bleeding profusely with a set of man bits next to her. I must have looked somewhat confused, as Montaron went into this whole story. Apparently that first ogre we ran away from was a gender bender, and Monty had grabbed his/her? belt of gender changing. He slapped it on this warror chick, and she castrated herself. 

Xzar did offer to animate the corpse if anyone wanted some playtime. I will have to watch that man. Kagain thinks Monty said no only because the hole was too big for his taste. 

We stripped the body of gear and went on north. Ran across some Red Wizards of Thay. We let Xzar take a look at the gear apparently some of it was worth keeping. The rest we put in a bag to sell later. 

The woods are ridiculously convuluted this deep in the wilderness. All sorts of crazies; a Druid spotted us and attacked, and no sooner had we dispatched him then a second Druid came running up. Repeated applications of blunt force took care of him, but you'd think seeing what happened to his buddy would slow him down some.

Found a drow, as well. Black as my heart and twice as pretty. I told my party that she was mine, so no games like Imoen or Amazon Woman. They complied after a bit of grumbling, and we went in and stomped the mercenary who was hassling her. Literally stomped, his brains are on my boot. The drow was named Viconia, and I fully expect some warm friendly rewards later on.

The farther north we went, the more bandits we encountered, until it was squads of ten or twenty at a time. I found it exasperating, till Kagain said they were worth fifty a scalp to someone in Beregost. We started skinning them with a will, and Monty started working on his ear collection. Xzar was going at it with a knife, too. For spell components. I hope.

A little bit south of Baldurs Gate, we found the source; an entire army camped out in the middle of nowhere. We didn't approach, as even I know when we are out classed, but I had to wonder what they were there for. It looked like a staging area to seige Baldurs Gate itself, and Bane knows they had enough lumber to make a large seige train.

I wonder how much thus information is worth, and to whom? We would take our path back south, and try to find the town of Nashkel.

Day 15 ?

We had a pleasant little layover in a halfling town. The mayor wanted us to investigate some local kobold raids. This sounded entirely too much like honest work, so Xzar cast charm person, and the mayor declared us sucessful. We spent the next week enjoying everything the sweet young things had to offer; I expect the village to be half dwarven in a few years. Viconia says she discovered the origins of the raids and solved the problem, but I expect she was just jealous. Also, I was waist deep in a halfling redhead, so nothing she said could have been as important right then.

We ran into more Harper assassins as we went south, but nothing serious. Eventually, we saw a vast fortress on the horizon; Xzar said it was a dwarven deathtrap from ages past. More importantly, Monty knew it was near Nashkel. He took point and we traveled west. 

I knew we had a problem when we ran into a woman who wanted us to quest on the nearby coast. While more loot was always nice, getting lost everytime we went into the woods aggravated. I beat Monty with the haft of my warhammer until he was curled up and crying, and smiled meaninglessly at this new girl. "treasure?" (kill monty here?)

She smiled back. Cute smile. Nice chest. Good legs. I might let her and Viconia catfight over me. Her quest treasure wasn't hard to find, and neither was her pirate treasure, if you know what I mean. This dwarf got some human booty that night. I really should give the drow a turn, she's probably lonely by now.

North was candlekeep, so we went south. The new girl, Safana, said she had heard of a ruined fortress down there, so we went to check it out. I sometimes wonder about this countryside. Can't travel a day without another set of ruins or ancient castle or haunted catacombs. We found another drow, also, but Viconia and him drew blades at first sight. I didn't really catch what they were fighting about, because we pincushioned him with arrows.

The southern fortress wasn't that much. Gnolls and xvarts; we've killed dozens of the things in this area. What *was* interesting was a human female we rescued; sorceress of some kind. She wasn't that appealing; hadn't been eating well, of late. We didn't demand our usual rescue sex, because it turns out she had something far more valuable - the route to Nashkel!

She got us there in less then a day. As we approached civilization, I found displaced earth near the farm. Someone had buried a beautiful set of platemail, and I liberated it. One of the farmers saw me, unfortunately, so I crunched his face Into his chest. He only had a journal on him. It was mostly drivel; a day by day list of bruises from rocks thrown at him.

We started to cross the bridge into Nashkel proper when a Red Wizard walked up to us and lit gnoll girl up with half a dozen magic missiles. We were about to crunch him to paste when he declared that his quarrel was with her, not us. He then walked into town, talking to himself, cheering, and laughing. A giant of a man was waiting for him, asking for help to find the gnoll girl, and the wizard laughed in his face, saying her body was on the bridge.

A more one sided fight i've never seen. The walking muscle got bigger, if that was possible, and rushed at the wizard. Only to flee at the sight of him, be lit on fire, skin melting to the effect of acid, and roar bestially. I think rats were leaping from his body at one point, also on fire. The wizard was laughing maniacally the entire time, and, I think, monologuing. 

Well, any wizard that crazy and powerful needs to be in our crew. Talking with him, he would be happy "for us to serve him." Well. We can explain group dynamics to him later. We geared him up with Xzars leftovers, and starting selling all our loot.

A dozen winter pelts, an evil holy symbol, two emeralds, a good aligned scimitar, a beserking sword, dozens of bits of jewelry - yes. We were well into the tens of thousands of gold.