Dusk was falling on the outlying areas of Waterdeep. Marishna was just returning from the inner city, with her baby in one hand and much needed supplies in the other. "I wish my husband were still alive..." she thought, knowing full well that bandits had been operating in the area of late. "I've only a quarter of a mile left to go," Marishna kept thinking hopefully. "Unfortunately, anything can happen in that time..." With this in mind, Marishna quickened her pace. At this sudden movement, the baby in her arms began crying, a mournful wail that cut through the lonely, open fields on the road leaving Waterdeep. Marishna slowed, attempting to hush the child, fearful of the attention his cries might bring. "Please! Please hush!" Marishna whispered incisively. She failed to hear the soft crunch of gravel behind her, the muffled breathing surrounding her; nor did she notice the faint glimmer of steel, visible in the last vespices of light straggling from the western horizon.
"Well isn't life interesting," Halwell thought, smirking. "We have an opportunity here, and I don't intend to miss it." Halwell, leading his team of fellow bandits, had been tracking the woman for the past ten minutes. "I can't believe our luck," Halwell thought, "although I can't see what use he'll be; the woman is obviously insane to be traveling alone this late. All I have to do is wait for the perfect moment and..." suddenly he froze, noticing that Marishna had paused to silence the young one she was carrying. "It's now or never," Halwell muttered under his breath. At this, he let loose the signal to commence the ambush.
Marishna looked up from her child. "Something's wrong..." she murmured fearfully. The sound she had just heard, the piercing cry of a Southern Sword-Coast Raven, had no earthly reason to be this far north. Only one thought crossed her mind as she straightened quickly; "Oh Helm, please don't let it be a signal, please don't let.."
Suddenly, a flurry of dark shapes rushed at her from all sides, war cries electrifying the air as they came. "Let's get what we came for, men!" Marishna heard a voice roar as she broke into a sprint in the sudden brilliant torchlight.
Halwell broke into a laugh, a scornful, jeering sound, as he saw Marishna break into a run in the brilliant torchlight. "Idiot woman!" he bellowed, "as if you could escaped from us!"
Marishna ran, just ran, energized by pure fear. Everything was a jumble, blurred. All the sound, the voices, the unnatural light; they all blended into one nightmare. "I don't want to die!!" she wished fervently, "I don't want to..." The thought ended suddenly as cold steel connected with the back of her skull. The dull thud echoed resoundingly through the surrounding area. Marishna fell forward, into blackness...
The old farmer ambled along the road toward Waterdeep, with his collection of produce to sell during the morning hours. No one in Waterdeep could recall exactly when he had come to the area; yet the man was friends with practically everybody in and around the city. Under the already blazing sun, he stopped momentarily, noticing a multitude of tracks that had been made after the last of the caravans and the horse-drawn carts had gone through on the previous day. "Hmmff..." the man grunted, "wonder what this was all about..."
Looking up, the old man saw a dark shape up ahead, lying still on the sun-warmed gravel. "Better see what that is, I guess," he muttered. With this, he started forward again. As he got nearer, recognition suddenly flooded through him. "What the...! Oh, Helm! Marishna, what happened!?"
Marishna lay on the ground, unmoving; untouched supplies scattered on the ground all around. "Why her! Why Marishna!" the farmer cried in anguish... In his despair, it took him a moment to notice something. "Her child! Where's her child!" he cried out. Marishna's child was gone...