Chapter 1 - Pain

*

Pain.


Pain was all Theodoric knew, all he could remember knowing. Nothing else existed before Pain, and there was no hope for any release from Pain or its herald. Through his blurring vision he could see the form of his tormentor approaching again. The young warrior clenched the bars of his cage, bracing himself for the next round of tortures.

“Curious. I had expected you to lose consciousness by this point.”

A rattle of metal – of knives – on a tray.

More Pain.

“Interesting” mused the masked figure standing outside the cage. He wiped the blood from his hands and jotted down several notes, oblivious to the other man’s screams. “Perhaps next I shall – ”

The man stopped in mid-sentence as a golem thudded its way down a nearby hallway.

Annoyance flashed in the man’s eyes. The sentry golem had no doubt come to report some measure of progress made by the invaders. He paused for a moment, splitting his attention between the approaching golem and his caged subject. Letting out the faintest sigh, he set his surgical tools aside.

“We will have to continue our experiments some other time, godchild.”



*

Imoen could hear a tremendous battle raging not far from her. Explosions and the screams of the maimed and dying echoed in the halls. She listened with great interest. It’s almost…musical, she thought. The chill that followed made her slide to her knees and clutch at her temples.

No! It’s nothing like music! Stop thinking that! Make yourself stop thinking that!


Suddenly, a pair of black-garbed men burst into the room, pursued by several kinds of small winged creatures. Imoen let out a cry and scrambled to the back of her cage. The men were obviously assassins of some sort, but she didn’t immediately recognize the creatures they were fighting. Imps, maybe?

The melee between the assassins and the creatures was frenzied and brief. One of the creatures hacked a ball of greasy smoke into the first rogue’s face, blinding him. The offending beast died a second later as the second assassin snatched a poisoned dagger from his belt and threw it with a flick of his wrist.

The largest of the creatures retaliated by breathing out a searing gout of flame, burning the first rogue badly and forcing the second to dive for cover behind a table full of alchemical equipment. The creature’s fiery breath arced after him, igniting several jars of powders and bubbling liquids in the process.

A blinding flash filled the room and Imoen was slammed against the wall of her cage. It took her a long moment to realize she was still alive. As the acrid smoke from the explosion cleared, Imoen saw that the assassins and the creatures were all dead. She also saw the steel door to her cell was bent inwards, having absorbed the brunt of the explosion.

Without a second’s hesitation she ran to the door and began kicking furiously. The ruined lock quickly gave way, and the door to her cage swung open.

Imoen ran headlong from the room, unaware that the strange noise she heard was the sound of her own laughter.


*

Theodoric was vaguely aware of the sounds of battle coming from somewhere. Not too near, but close enough that he could make out individual cries and the sound of magic being unleashed. He dared to try to stand and see what was happening, and a wave of pain and nausea was his reward. Theodoric lay in the filth and stink of his cage, unable to struggle further. From the stench he realized he’d vomited recently. Other, less savory, odors told him that he had done more than retch on himself at some point.


The door to Theodoric’s cage swung open and a figure stood over him. Theodoric, sure it was his captor, groaned his protest.

“Wake up you. We have to get out of here!”

What?

“Theo, it’s me. Imoen! Do you remember? Come on, you have to remember!”

The young paladin lifted his head and tried to make his eyes focus. “Im-Imoen? Is that really you?”

Imoen looked at him with sympathy and fear. “He did it to you too, didn’t he?”

“Who..where are we?”

“We don’t have time for this!” Imoen snapped, shaking him violently. Each movement brought sharp pains from his many unhealed wounds. Theodoric winced and grabbed Imoen by the arms, halting her attempts to rouse him. It was then he saw she was trembling with fear. Through his bleary eyes, he could see his childhood friend was pale and haggard. She also had several large scars on her body, some of which were very recent.


Theodoric released Imoen and held up his hands. “Okay, Im. Okay” he said, as gently as he could in his current condition. “Just…give me a moment.”

Thinking for a moment, Theodoric closed his eyes and focused on his taint. Though he was loathe to acknowledge it, the divine blood in him had caused him to develop several curative powers. Among them was a limited ability to heal wounds. He drew upon the power. A soothing feeling washed over him, and he found he could struggle to his feet.


“Are you okay now? Can we go now?!?” Imoen was wild-eyed with panic now.

“I’ll be…fine, Imoen” the young warrior replied, in as reassuring a tone as he could muster. In truth, it was little more than his sense of duty and concern for his childhood companion keeping him upright.

Gods, what has happened to you, Im?

Imoen’s fear receded the tiniest bit. “Good. I couldn’t wait much longer for you, not with the pain in my head….it isn’t like a normal pain, it-… don’t look at me that way!”

“Alright, Imoen. Alright.” Theodoric replied gently, stepping down from the cage. He mustered a smile and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“Let’s find out where we are and see if we can find a way out of here.”


*

The druid paced her cage, fury building by the moment. Where was she? Where were the others? Who had done this to her? Jaheira kicked at the bars of her cage in frustration. She’d tried, several times, to break free since regaining consciousness. But even shapeshifted she hadn’t had the strength to force the bars of the oddly constructed cage.

The sound of footsteps and hushed voices came from the far end of the room. Jaheira tensed and dropped into a fighting stance, though she was helpless to defend herself. When two figures emerged from the shadows, her heart leapt.

“Theodoric! Imoen!” she called.

To her surprise, neither seemed to recognize her. Imoen shrank back into the shadows and Theodoric gave her a suspicious look.

“Do I know you?” he said coolly.

“Do you KNOW me?!?” Jaheira snapped angrily. She grabbed the bars of her cage and her face flushed with anger. "What sort of idiotic game is this?!?"

Theodoric took a cautious step towards her. In the dim light, Jaheira finally saw the filthy rags and many wounds that covered his body. She gasped at the sight, and forced herself to be calm.

“We are comrades, Theodoric” she began. “It is I, Jaheira. I have traveled –”

“Jaheira…of course, Jaheira” interrupted Theodoric. “You and… Khalid. You two aided me after my foster father Gorion was killed!”

“You do remember!” she said. “Will you now aid me?”

“Of course, of course!” he replied hastily. “Forgive me, my friend. I am not…myself right now.”

Imoen came up to Theodoric, still wary but willing to accept Jaheira, for now.

“Imoen” he asked. “Do you think you can you pick the lock?”

Imoen examined the lock for several moments and shook her head. “It’s a magical ward, Theo. A nullifying magic might open it, but I don’t have anything like that right now. We’ll have to find the key. Unless you think you can force it open.”

Theodoric shook his head. He’d tried several times to break out of his own cage. “The key has to be here somewhere - you said something about a supply room a moment ago?”

“Yeah” said Imoen. “I saw it just down that other hallway. I think it was mostly weapons and armor, but there might be other stuff, too.”

“Go check and see if there’s anything like a key or wardstone for this lock, but be careful.”

“Gotcha” she said, slipping back into the shadows. Theodoric watched her disappear down the hallway and turned back to Jaheira.

“I am…sorry… for the way I treated you.”

Jaheira shook her head in annoyance. “We can worry about that later. We must see to my release and then find the others.”

“The others…” Theodoric said absently. “…Khalid! He is not with you?!?”

Jaheira’s face twisted with worry and anger. “I have not felt his presence near me since…since I awoke it this blasted cage! I swear, if he has been harmed in any way…”

“We’ll search for him, Jaheira. He must be here somewhere.”

“We can do nothing until I am free!” She slammed her fist against the bars. “What is keeping that child?!?”

*

A moment later, Imoen came running up, breathing hard. “I think this is it!” she exclaimed, holding aloft an odd-looking key.


Theodoric took it and placed against the ward glyphs. The door to Jaheira’s cage sprung open with a life of its own. He helped her down.

“Are you hurt?” he asked her.

Jaheira dismissed him with a wave of her hand. “We have more important things to worry about than a few scratches and bumps! We should –”

“We will search the rest of the room and then equip ourselves from the supply room” Theodoric said with finality. Authority had returned to his voice, surprising Jaheira with its forcefulness.

“As you would have it”, she said. “It is good to share your company once again.”


*

The three adventurers found Minsc in his cage in a darkened corner of the big room, wild with rage. Calming the Rashemani enough to even speak was no small task.

“Dynahier!” Minsc howled. “I have failed my witch!”

He slammed his head against the bars of his cage, clenching a tattered piece of cloth in his hands. For all the dried blood caked on the purple fabric, it was unmistakably from Dynahier’s robe.

“No!” cried Imoen. “n-no…”

“Minsc and Boo tried to save her, but we couldn’t!”

“Minsc” Theodoric said, reaching through the bars and placing his hands on the other man’s shoulders. “There will be a reckoning for whoever has done this. Together, we will exact justice, I swear it. But I need your help to do that. There’s no lock on your cage and I can’t bend the bars myself. Will you help me?”

Minsc nodded and grabbed at the bars. Incredibly, they began to bend before his fury. With Theodoric and Jaheira’s help, the ranger was soon able to wriggle through a gap in the bars.

“Minsc is free! Soon evil will pay for it’s evilness! Minsc and Boo will have justice!”

“Let’s see about getting you the tools to do just that, Minsc” Theodoric said. “Imoen, let’s go find that supply room.”