Prolouge
A knight in steel plating was running as fast as he could up a moldy spiral staircase. He glanced back every now and then as if someone or something was following him. When he reached the top, he threw the flimsy wooden door to the roof open, latched it shut, and ran into a corner. Before he even got there, there a smashing sound, and looking back. A figure, in huge amounts of black armor, stood where the door had been moments before. The figure stalked slowly toward the knight as the knight kept mumbling out sentences. The figure reached him and the knight pulled out a broken sword and tried to stab at the figure. The sword glanced of the armor and the figure grabbed the knight's arm and, with a stomach churning crack, broke it. The knight screamed as the blood from his arm burst out. He tried to run to the other side of the roof but the figure caught him and held him up by the throat. The knight managed to croak out a sentence, "Please. I can help you! I can help you find them! Just please!!!" The figure held him, dangling, over the edge of the rooftop. The figure laughed evilly and with a loud snap, crushed his neck. The figure flung the knights body over the edge of the roof and said,"I am the only one who will sit on the throne, and I will share it with no-one!"
Chapter I, Candlekeep
The warm sun beat down on Lan's neck as he worked in the old, musty smelling stables for old Winthrop the barman. Lan had light brown hair and wore a light brown leather tunic over a blue shirt. He was in the library fortress of Candlekeep, and, as always, had a mountain of things to do. Lan rubbed the sweat out of his eyes and went inside the old inn. Winthrop was behind the bar and there were a few mages in the corner. Winthrop smiled at Lan and said, "Well, are my stables done, Lan? You know what your reward is if you did."
"Yes Winthrop," Lan replied, "they're done, now, can I have the sword and armor? You said you owed me enough to pay for them."
Winthrop looked shocked, "Did I now? I thought I said with a few more stable cleanings and errands." He finished, grinning. A voice came from behind him, "Winthrop, you are so full of it. You owe him over 200 gold pieces and you know it."
A young girl with deep chestnut hair and a pink tunic with a hood stepped out from behind Winthrop and threw Lan a bag of coins.
"Thanks Imoen." Lan said to the girl.
'Hey, he owed you the money didn't he? And he was going to give it to you anyway Right?" she finished looking at Winthrop.
"Well, yes I was. But just because I was putting it off a little didn't mean you had to cut my purse strings, again."
"Well, its my money now Winthrop, and I want that armor and sword."
"Fine, here you go, that'll be 150 gold, Lan. Thank you, now, would you kindly get out before you make Imoen think I owe you any more money?"
"Hey thanks Imoen. I really doubt he would have paid me." Lan said as they left the inn.
"Ah, don't mention it. Oh hey Gorian wanted to see you. He's in front of the library steps."
Ah, Gorian, foster father to both Lan and Imoen. He had been talking about a trip that he wanted to bring Lan on and it looked like he had finally settled on a day.
"Hey, did you hear me?" Imoen shouted
"Huh? Sorry I didn't, what did you say?" Lan said absent mindedly.
"I said he told me to tell you that you might want to be well prepared, and to see if you could find Erin." Imoen repeated
"Imoen, you know where Erin is; he's on the roof of the library like he always is."
"Yeah, but Gorian told you to get him, so see ya." Imoen left and headed toward the southern end of the keep."
A voice from over Lan said slyly, "Ya know, I think she's ticked off."
Lan looked up to see Erin, sandy hair, and tight scarf around his neck, was staring down at him from the library roof.
"Erin, shut the heck up, and come on, Gorian wants to see us." Lan said His patience was always worn to breaking point just talking to Erin.
"Heh, fine." Erin said "wonder what the old man wants?"
"Hopefully to set you straight." Lan said under his breath
Erin jumped down, apparently ignoring his statement. They both headed toward the library steps, but Lan saw a really shifty looking guy walk into a guardhouse.
"Hey, Erin, I'll meet you in front of the library ok?" Lan said looking toward the guardhouse.
"Fine, see you there." Erin replied lazily and left toward the steps.
Lan headed toward the guardhouse and opened the door quietly, he drew the sword he had bought from Winthrop and went inside. Lan looked around and saw some movement in the corner of his eye and turned. The man was there, he had on moldy smelling leather armor and he smell like the stables that Lan had cleaned. The man walking slowly toward him and said, "Well, I thought that would get your attention. I'm Gerick, and what's your name?"
"I am Lan, foster son of Gorian. Why are you in here? This place is banned to everyone except the guards." Lan said, growing more suspicious by the second.
Gerick laughed under his breath, "Well, that was easy enough to do, sorry kid but I got a family to feed." And faster than Lan's eye could follow, Gerick had whipped out a dagger and cut Lan's arm almost down to the bone. Lan yelled in panic and pain, he slashed at the would be assassin and cut him from right shoulder to the center of his stomach.
Gerick doubled over, blood streaming out of the wound and said weakly, "I thought… this would be… easy." And died. Lan covered his cut as much as possible and left the guardhouse.
Outside, Lan saw the head priest Parda. Lan yelled at him, trying to get his attention. When Parda finally noticed him, he rushed over and yelled, "Lan! What happened?! I saw you go in there and something seemed wrong so I waited out here."
"I really need your help Parda" Lan said, gasping for breath, "I need you to help heal me, or I think Gorian will have to find a new foster son."
"Ok, take that binding off and I can do something" Parda said. Lan did so, and Parda started to chant an incantation. A moment later, a bright light flashed out of parda's hand and the cut on Lan's arm instantly healed.
"There you go Lan. Its fine now, go, Gorian needs you at the steps now." Parda said.
"Ok," Lan said, flexing his newly healed arm, "I'm going. Thanks again Parda."
"No problem, but hurry! There are more rats here that you would care to know about." Parda said to Lan's retreating back.
When Lan finally reached the palace steps, Erin and Gorian were at the top of the steps. Lan put his hands on his knees and put a finger up indicating that he needed a moment to catch his breath. "Well, I hope you have an excuse Lan." Gorian said sternly after Lan got up. He was an old man, graying beard, silvery hair, and dusty gray robes. Erin stood behind him, mimicking Gorian moves and making them look strange.
"Sorry Gorian, I ran into a little trouble. There was a guy that walked into the guardhouse and when I went in after him, he sliced my arm open." Lan said, still out of breath.
Gorian stayed silent for a moment, and then said loudly "We must leave now. I trust you are both prepared for this journey?"
"Whoa, whoa, you mean he's coming with us Gorian?!" Lan yelled, pointing at Erin.
"Hey," Erin said darkly, "I didn't exactly sign up for this. So drop it before you really start something."
Gorian just shook his head and said, "Both of you stop arguing right now. You will both meet me by the gate in five minutes. Make sure your ready, alright?" And with that, he left in the direction of the keeps gate.
"Well," Erin said when Gorian was out of sight, "that was a little weird. Wonder where we're going?"
Lan shook his head "If Gorian had wanted us to know he would have told us. So don't ask. Got it?"
Erin looked offended. "Why would I ever do that? That's offensive; why would you jump to that kind of conclusion so quickly?"
"Because," Lan said blankly. "I know what kind of person you are. Now come on, Gorian's waiting."
They reached the gate where Gorian was and stopped in front of him. He motioned them into a corner and said, "Listen carefully, both of you. All I can tell you now is that Candlekeep is no longer safe. I have decided to take you both with me to insure your safety. If we are separated, make you way to the Friendly Arm Inn. Find Khalid and Jahiera, they will help you."
Lan and Erin nodded and Gorian motioned a guard to open the gates. They slid open with a lot of high pitched squealing and dull scraping, and the three left. Little did they know that it was the last time they would see the place for a long time.
They pressed on past the rolling hills and jagged mountains that Lan had seen on a smaller scale from one of the highest windows in the Candlekeep library. They pressed on past them to a small forest beyond the mountains. The sky was starting to take a dull gray look as if promising rain, within the next thirty minutes, it did so. Gorian looked up and said dully, "We must find shelter soon. The night will only get worse so we must…" He stopped in midsentence, staring straight ahead, where they had all heard something, and now saw something roughly the size of a grizzly bear on its hind legs and a head roughly the size and shape of a small boulder. Lan recognized them as ogres from some of the illustrations that he had seen in Candlekeep. Two of them stepped out of the brush in front of us, and two more behind. Soon after, they heard a metallic clinking sound, and then, a large figure in armor so dark it looked like a shadow, and eyes such an evil, sickly yellow that it made the whole group want to turn and run, stepped out from behind the ogre's in front of them and stared at them. Gorian took out a long dagger, as did Erin, and Lan took out his sword. The figure stepped forward, closer to the small group, and when he was about ten feet in front of them, he stopped and glared at Gorian. The figures eyes bored into them, paralyzing them, when the figure finally stopped glaring, he turned to the ogre's and simply said, "Kill them." All of the ogre's lurched forward and started to swing axes and large morning stars, sticks with spikes all over one end. Lan charged at one with an axe and sliced of the hand with it's weapon in it. The ogre screamed and flung itself at Lan, He jumped back and shoved the blade into it's stomach. Lan knew the Beast was finished and turned in time to see Erin stab one of the other ogres in the chest and Gorian cast a stream of magical energy that killed the other two ogres at the same time. The figure laughed, it was facing Gorian, it started stalking closer and as it did, it pulled out a massive sword, bigger than Gorian was tall, and pointed it at Lan. It then said, "You know why I'm here old man, hand over your ward and no more blood shall be spilled. If you refuse it shall be a waste of your life!"
Gorian looked at Lan, then back at the figure, and said, "You are a fool, I would never trust your benevolence. Leave now and you shall escape unhurt."
The figure rushed toward Gorian and stabbed at his chest. Gorian dodged the blow and released more of the magic bolts he had used on the ogres. The bolts hit the figure with a splash of bright red color, and then the figure, striking quicker then a cheetah, slashed at, and cut, Lan's calf. Lan gasped from the extreme pain and tried to limp away from the figure, it followed even Gorian's bolts of magic didn't stop him. It kept following Lan until Gorian, leapt upon its back and stabbed it in the shoulder with his dagger. The figure roared in pain, and threw Gorian off, it then ran to where Gorian landed, picked him up, and shoved his massive blade into Gorian's stomach.
Lan knew he screamed, he couldn't hear himself, but he knew he had. The figure wrenched its blade free, and started after Lan again. The figure reached Lan and picked him up, but, before it could gut Lan, it yelled out in pain, both Lan and the figure looked down and saw the bloody body of Gorian, he had stabbed the figure in the back with the last of his strength. The figure dropped Lan and started groping at the dagger that was imbedded in its back, Lan took the chance he had been given and ran, Erin was right behind him, and both were sprinting away from the monster in black armor that had killed the only type of father the two had ever known.
