Author's Note: As a side note, the name I gave to the main character, Greywulf, is indeed similar to the bounty hunter Graywolf you fight in BG1. Chose the name before I even played BG1... Meh, talk about your coincidences.
Minsc rubbed his stomach with obvious satisfaction as he finished the last remaining morsel of food on his plate. "A magnificent meal! Dynaheir, Imoen, you two have made a meal fit to satisfy man, woman, or hamster. Boo expresses his approval as well."
"Uh… thanks, I think." Imoen said cautiously as she loaded the last of the food supplies into their packs.
"S-So, where are we headed after we reach Beregost?" Khalid asked.
"We should go to the town of Nashkel afterwards, to check on the situation there. We may have gotten rid of the iron shortage the last time we were there, but it is said they still reel from bandit attacks and others looking to take advantage of the situation." Greywulf shot a wry smile Jaheira's way as she finished speaking, amused at her ease in claiming leadership over the group.
He knew that while she did not attempt to undermine his authority in any way, shape or form, her personality was not so easily diverted. Greywulf thought back to when Jaheira and Khalid had first joined Imoen and him on their travels. Jaheira had, naturally, wanted to take the position of leader, not believing Greywulf to have nearly enough experience, skill, and from her caustic comments, intelligence, to lead the group. Still, Greywulf had demonstrated his abilities throughout their battles against Sarevok's forces and had earned Jaheira's respect and camaraderie. Even so, there was no stopping her from slipping back into her commanding personality every now and then.
"Jaheira's right. After Beregost, Nashkel is the only logical place to go. After that, perhaps a trip to Amn might be in order, maybe even an expedition to Rashemen." Greywulf confirmed.
"A trip to Rashemen!" Minsc boomed. "That would be a most excellent journey. Dynaheir and I would be able to complete my dajemma by telling of all the heroic things Greywulf, Minsc, and company have done. Plus, Boo has never seen the snowy land of Rashemen and would be very excited to do so."
Greywulf looked at the rest of his company and, having seen no signs of disapproval said, "It's settled then. After Nashkel, it will be onward to the land of Rashemen."
"But Minsc," asked Imoen, "Once you reach Rashemen again, won't that mean your dajemma is complete and you and Dynaheir won't be traveling with us anymore?"
"Hmm… this is true." admitted Minsc sadly. "Well, I suppose we could wait to see Rashemen until another day."
"I agree." frowned Dynaheir. "I do not believe that our time in these lands is over yet, nor our time with Greywulf."
"In that case, Minsc and Boo will be happy to stay with you and help you apply the triple boot stomp to the butt of any villain who dares show himself!" Minsc said happily.
Greywulf stared at Minsc for a second, shook his head, then turned and said slowly, "Right. So after Nashkel, our destination is Amn."
The rest of the group nodded agreement and grabbed their bags, preparing to head onto the road once again. As they started their trek across the field, Greywulf could barely hear Imoen at the end of the line asking Minsc if he'd ever considered getting restorative magic for his head. He stopped listening with a sigh while Khalid walked up beside him. "W-well, we certainly have come a long way since our meeting in The Friendly Arm Inn, haven't we?"
Greywulf nodded and said with a short laugh, "You could say that. I'm no longer the wannabe mage who only knew how to cast one Magic Missile. I've had good teachers in you and Jaheira."
Khalid shrugged embarrassedly, and said, "You've also done a good job in training Imoen in the m-magical arts. Soon she'll b-be as powerful as you, with thieving abilities to boot."
"True, but Imoen had to learn the art of magic through intense study." Greywulf said, brow knit in thought. "Not that I didn't have to study hard as well, but I seemed to be born with a natural ability to use magic, more of an intuition rather than a learned skill. Quite possibly a result of being born a Bhaalspawn."
"Yes, but what about Sarevok?" Khalid questioned. "He w-was a Bhaalspawn as well, and he didn't seem to have any magical abilities, other than the powerful Bhaal enchantments on his weapons and armor, like the sword you took from him."
Greywulf glanced back at Minsc who now wielded Sarevok's enchanted Sword of Chaos, and responded, "Well, I didn't say everyone who is a Bhaalspawn has magical powers, now did I?"
Khalid shrugged and slowly began to lag behind to keep pace with Jaheira, leaving Greywulf at the head of the line alone again. However, as they continued traveling, Greywulf's thoughts grew increasingly darker without someone to keep his mind occupied. Khalid was right: We have all grown much since the beginning of this journey. But how many more enemies have we made along the way? And how many more are we going to attract through our current and future actions? My destiny as a Bhaalspawn is one that puts me in continuous danger: what right do I have to put my friends in this kind of risk?
As these and more questions entered Greywulf's mind, he was jolted back to reality by a loud, inhuman screech, coming from a slightly forested area to their left. The entire party whirled around, moving into battle formation: Minsc, Khalid and Jaheira at front with melee weapons, Imoen behind them with bow drawn, and Dynaheir and Greywulf aside Imoen, ready to blast enemies with a wide range of spells. As the formation slowly moved further towards the trees, a barrage of arrows flew out, the majority missing, but a few requiring Khalid to block with his shield. Jaheira pulled one of the arrows out of Khalid's shield, her eyes burning with fury as she examined the arrow.
"Goblins!" she spat angrily, throwing the arrow to the ground, while moving back into battle position.
As soon as she said the word, as if it were a signal, massive hordes of goblins and orcs rushed out of the wood, brandishing clubs, swords and small wooden bucklers, ready to swarm over the group of adventurers. Their numbers were massive enough to cause concern; a bit of strategy might be required here.
"Hold steady!" Greywulf yelled, seeing Imoen begin to launch arrow after arrow into the oncoming swarm of beasts. He could hear Dynaheir uttering the words to cast her spells, as she sent a wave of magic missiles into a cluster of goblins, killing a few and wounding the others. While they drew closer, Greywulf launched his own barrage of spells, mostly fireballs, scorching and killing large groups of creatures every time a fireball detonated. When the goblins reached melee range, Minsc uttered a battle cry and waded into the goblins, hacking and slashing with his sword, cutting through the mass of beasts. Khalid followed suit, though with slightly more restraint than the berserker ranger. Jaheira acted with a cold precision that still impressed Greywulf. Her enchanted spear was thrust out lightning quick, impaling goblin and orc alike, but never leaving her open to attack for more than a split second. Even so, some goblins got past the three melee defenders, reaching Imoen. One ducked under a hasty swing by Khalid, coming up directly in front of the surprised Imoen. It swung his club, hitting Imoen squarely on the shoulder. The abrupt blow was just enough for her to drop her bow, stumbling backwards to avoid a second attack. Greywulf quickly turned and reduced the goblin to ashes with a Burning Hands spell, giving Imoen time to recover her weapon and fall back slightly, attacking from a safer distance. As the six heroes continued their struggle, Greywulf glanced back at the forest to see a number of orc archers hanging back in the trees, firing shots at the adventurers as well as providing cover for wounded goblins to retreat back to the wood.
"Dynaheir!" Greywulf shouted over the sounds of battle.
"What is it?" She yelled back to her fellow mage as she blasted another goblin away.
"Archers! Back in the trees! Give me enough time to prepare a spell!"
Dynaheir nodded and began to concentrate her spells around Greywulf, destroying any monster foolish enough to approach, while falling back to keep from being attacked herself. Though while Greywulf continued to prepare his spells, Minsc, Khalid, and Jaheira were slowly being pushed back as well.
"Greywulf! There are too many! We must fall back to regroup!"
Greywulf responded to Khalid's cry with a cry of his own, saying, "Just hold them off for a few more seconds!"
Minsc turned to his fellow fighters and yelled, "Let us provide him the time he needs! Go for the eyes, Boo! Go for the eyes! RAAGGHH!"
As the goblins were driven back slightly by Minsc's ferocious counterattack, Greywulf finished preparing his spell and began casting. Once he finished his incantations, multiple fireballs flew from his hands towards the orc archers in the trees. Their eyes opened wide in fear when they saw the balls of flame headed toward them, but they completely erupted into terror when they saw the fireballs' true target: the forest they hid in. As the flames began to engulf the trees around them, the remaining goblins and orcs fled the wood and were pushed out towards the battle, with no place to fall back to any longer. When Jaheira saw what Greywulf had done she gave a shout of triumph and began to push the lines of the goblins, forcing them back toward the burning wood, giving the choice of dying by sword, spear, spell, or fire. Once their escape route was cut off, the doomed creatures no longer possessed the morale or organization to pose a true threat. The rest fell quickly, mostly by the swords of Khalid and Minsc.
The six wearied adventurers finally gathered together to rest, discussing the recent battle.
"A most invigorating battle, eh Greywulf?" bellowed Minsc between breaths. "Good work has been accomplished today, and all the forces of good lift their voices in cheer. Even Boo, though he cannot cheer quite so loudly."
Before Greywulf could respond, Jaheira spoke up and said, "There are still things that disturb me about that battle, Greywulf."
"What are you talking about, Jaheira? The goblins attacked, we killed them and now we're resting, all's fine and dandy in the world we live in." Imoen said with a puzzled look on her face.
"No, Jaheira's right. There were more than a few oddities." Greywulf affirmed. "Why did we find so much gold on the goblin captains we killed? It was almost as if they had just been paid for something, say, attacking us. Why were there so many goblins and orcs? I realize that goblins live in large numbers, but that was an abnormally large force that attacked us. And besides, whoever heard of goblins having that much organization? Orcs maybe, but goblins never have the kind of sense they showed just now, or the restraint."
"Um, I noticed during the battle that different groups of goblins had different colors and armor on them, as though there were many different goblin clans fighting us at once." Khalid voiced.
Dynaheir nodded, saying, "That would explain the large number of attackers, as well as the amount of gold on the goblins. But who could have convinced the clans to cooperate? Goblins don't cooperate except in a select few circumstances. Whoever paid them must have also paid them to fight together, making them harder for us to beat."
"Possibly," Imoen admitted, "But why goblins? Even with the amount we fought against, we still were able to defeat them without much question of the outcome. I mean, goblins aren't exactly the toughest critters, even with the orcs helping."
They were abruptly interrupted by a laugh, one which did not exactly inspire thoughts of humor.A group of six cloaked figures stepped out from the still smoldering wood close by. "Those goblins were just there to soften you up. We'll finish the job!"
Greywulf and Dynaheir both immediately jumped back, launching fireballs at their new attackers. The others drew their weapons and watched as the fire engulfed the cloaked figures, expecting to see a few of them fall, but all were surprised to see the six walk out of the fire unscathed.
"Sorry friend, but you'll have to do better than mere fire tricks if you want to beat us." said one of the men, his cloak unmarked by the fire.
"Cloaks of Fire Resistance." Jaheira growled, recognizing the patterns on the men's robes.
As if in response, one of the figures threw a dagger that missed Greywulf's head by a hair's breadth.
"That was your only warning," said one of the men menacingly, pointing another dagger at the group. "Now you either come with us quietly or we take you by force."
"Ha," Greywulf laughed, "If you think we'll surrender, then whoever hired you didn't tell you much about us."
"All right then. We'll do this quick and painfully." said the speaker figure, as the others drew a mix of short swords and daggers.
Khalid and Minsc drew their swords, Jaheira brought her spear to battle position, Imoen placed an arrow in her bow, and Greywulf and Dynaheir brought their hands to bear, ready to cast.
"Fools." the cloaked man said as he pulled a potion from his robes. "Attack!"
The attackers leapt forward, slashing at their adversaries with a ferocity and quickness that pushed all six of them back.
"Imoen! Give us some cover!" yelled Jaheira as she parried two dagger slashes with her spear shaft.
"I'm trying, but they're too fast!" Imoen said frantically.
Imoen launched arrow after arrow towards the cloaked attackers, but each shot fell behind the amazingly quick men. As the battle continued, Greywulf, casting another few magic missiles, suddenly looked around and shouted, "Where's the sixth man? The one with the potion?"
A moment of silence followed the question, which was then interrupted by a scream of pain from Dynaheir. All turned to look, and saw the sixth man behind Dynaheir, his dagger buried in her shoulder.
"Dynaheir!" Minsc yelled ferociously. He rushed towards her and her attacker, disregarding his former opponents, ready to defend his witch, but when he reached her, the man had once again disappeared.
"What devilry is this!" yelled Minsc as he fended off another attack from behind him.
"Potion of Invisibility." Greywulf said as he leapt aside, dodging a sword slash. "Only explanation."
"The others must be using Potions of Speed!" Imoen cried out, insight coming to her even as she ducked under another attack.
Just as she spoke, a voice from behind her whispered, "Very good, little one. But it's time to shut you up for good."
Imoen whirled to the side just in time to dodge a dagger thrust by her invisible attacker, a blow that would surely have been mortal if it had connected.
Greywulf began another spell and as he cast it shouted, "Get ready to take them down! They won't be nearly as fast in a second."
Just as he finished speaking, the power of a dispel magic spell flew from his fingers and penetrated the bodies of everyone in the area. Immediately, the invisibility of the leader ceased and the others slowed down considerably, a fatal occurrence for one of the men who was in front of Jaheira's spear.
Imoen launched an arrow from her bow to slay one of the men reaching for another potion. Khalid and Minsc both immediately counterattacked as well, killing two more of them before they could reach their potions, while Greywulf 's acid arrow spell slew the fifth of the men.
"Now for you." Jaheira said, putting her spear to the leader's throat before he could bring the potion to his lips. "Tell us who hired you, and you might just live."
"I…I…I can't." the man said, trembling as he dropped his vial to the ground, shattering. "He'll kill me if I tell you anything!"
"And you think we won't kill you if you remain silent?" asked Greywulf, putting his quarterstaff next to Jaheira's spear.
The man looked at both Greywulf and Jaheira, as well as the other adventurers, gauged his chances of escape, and finally said, "All right, I'll tell you… just back off."
But as soon as Jaheira and Greywulf lowered their weapons, the man pulled another dagger with lightning speed and screamed, "I swear, I'll kill myself before I let that madman have me!"
He thrust the dagger into his own heart, dropping to the ground before the eyes of the group.
"Who do you think he was talking about?" asked Imoen as she helped the wounded Dynaheir to her feet.
"I don't know," said Greywulf with a grim expression on his face, "But one thing is certain…it's starting again."
X X X X X X X X
"Did you find anything on the bodies that might give us information about who hired them?" asked Dynaheir, her shoulder now cleaned and bandaged after her wound in the last battle.
"Not so far," Greywulf said as he rummaged through the pockets of the man lying dead before him, the man's own dagger through his heart. "Doesn't look like he left anything for us to… Wait. Here's something interesting."
"What is it?" Jaheira asked, her interest piqued.
Greywulf held up a scroll with a slight splatter of blood on it. "This scroll says something about me in it…"
As Greywulf continued to read the stained parchment, his eyes narrowed in anger, and when finished, he threw the scroll to the ground, cursing.
"What is it, Greywulf?" asked Imoen in a concerned voice.
Greywulf gritted his teeth, trying to settle the taint-driven anger welling inside him. "Just read this."
Greywulf picked up the scroll and handed it to Jaheira, who read aloud,
To: All members of this guild.
The man known as Greywulf, ward of Gorion, is herby targeted for capture, along with the girl Imoen, and the rest of their traveling companions. All necessary measures must be taken to capture Greywulf and Imoen alive. The others are unnecessary and may be disposed of at your leisure. The bounty on the two main targets is 50,000 gold each, while the price for each head of his companions is 10,000 each. Be warned, they are extremely dangerous, and are quite capable of dispatching any enemies who attack them directly.
"Guess these guys didn't listen to the part about direct attacking." said Imoen.
"No signature, or any sort of identification on who it's sent from, or who sent it." Jaheira said as she handed the scroll back to Greywulf. "So we're being hunted once again, and this time we don't even know who's after us."
"By the gods, this is getting old." Greywulf said, sighing. "How many people have been out for my death now? I bet I can tell you why they're coming after me, too."
His thoughts drifted back to what risks he put upon his friends by their presence. He owed them his life; didn't he owe them the chance to escape this constant torment and battle? He had long thought on this, whether he could in good faith keep them here with him and thus endanger their lives. After Sarevok had been killed he had hoped there would no longer be the need to consider it, but with thae attempts on his life renewed... He opened his mouth to speak, but Jaheira cut him off with the look that signaled the beginning of a retort.
"Do not even think of sending us away because you fear for our safety, child. We are not foolish; your ideas of noble self-sacrifice are wasted on us. Khalid and I accepted this risk when Gorion asked us to watch over you if such a thing was ever needed, we will not break that promise idly."
"Jaheira is right." affirmed Dynaheir. "Until thine safety is assured, Minsc and I shall fight by your side."
"Indeed!" Minsc bellowed. "Lead the way, and these new enemies will fall by our swords! You point, I punch!"
Imoen laughed and put her hand on Greywulf's other shoulder. "What, do you think I'm going to let you have all this fun and adventuring by yourself? Besides, that note said I was being targeted for capture too, for whatever reason that might be."
Greywulf raised his head with a smile and said, "Am I really that obvious?"
"You could never hide your emotions." Jaheira tsked. "By Silvanus man, it's like you wear them on your sleeve."
"Either way we should stay on our present course. If this mystery attacker is really out to get us, we'll see more of his handiwork, and hopefully we'll be able to find out what he wants with us." he said, straightening his posture a bit.
"I would agree," said Dynaheir. "If the assassins slain are but the beginning of the attacks, mayhaps we'll be able to get more information out of the next group that cometh."
"We do need to be more careful, though." said Greywulf. "Word will spread that we dispatched this group, and the next ones probably won't make the mistake of challenging us directly. Everyone stay alert. The attacks will come when we least expect it."
"Let them come!" cried Minsc. "For wherever Minsc goes, evil stands aside! As such, we will all be safe as long as Boo and I are here."
Greywulf smiled and spoke to Minsc, "I wish I had your confidence in this matter, my friend. But let's get packed up. We've wasted too many hours here already if we are to reach Beregost tonight. We may have to camp one or two nights in the wilderness before we get there."
"That's nothing new." said Imoen with a shrug. "It's what we've been doing since we started our journeys."
"True, but not even Sarevok had bounties this large on our heads. We don't know how long this bounty's been out, or how close other groups are to finding us. Sleeping out here isn't safe anymore. If we don't make Beregost by nightfall, we'll take turns keeping watch over the camp. Hopefully, it will be unnecessary."
The rest of the group nodded as Khalid spoke up and said, "I'll take the first watch tonight, if it comes to that."
Greywulf nodded as Jaheira said, "I will watch with you."
However, Khalid turned to Jaheira and said, "No, take your rest. I'll take this responsibility to bear myself."
"We'll all have to bear this responsibility eventually, so Khalid is right, Jaheira. Get sleep while you can. I have the feeling we'll need all the strength we can muster to make it to Beregost, much less survive the trip." said Greywulf, a serious tone to his voice.
Khalid yawned as he continued surveying the area around the campsite. Despite their best efforts, the group of six could not make the safety of Beregost by nightfall and were forced to camp about twenty miles away from town, thanks to the delay of fighting the goblins and assassins. At least we didn't haven't had to fight anyone since the first two incidents, Khalid thought.
As he continued to watch the starlit night, he suddenly heard a sound, one that caused Khalid to flinch despite himself and turn to investigate. Khalid paused briefly to consider waking the others, maybe just Jaheira, but he eventually decided against it. It was probably nothing, and the rest of the group needed sleep. Besides, he would be waking Minsc up for watch duty in less than a hour, and he wanted Minsc to have as much rest as possible when he awoke... Minsc was somewhat notorious for falling asleep on guard duty.
So Khalid slowly walked towards the direction he had heard the sound, sword and shield at the ready. His eyes quickly flashed from side to side, trying to make use of his limited ability of infravision to spy any hidden danger, though nothing seemed to be forthcoming. Despite his best efforts, he could not find or hear anything else. Still, I know I heard something out here. Oh well, I'll look over here tomorrow morning. Khalid thought as he headed back to his post at the camp.
Waiting for another hour, and fighting off waves of sleepiness at the same time, Khalid slowly walked over to Greywulf and Minsc's tent, trying to ignore the loud rumblings emanating from it. Slowly slipping through the entrance, Khalid quietly slipped over Greywulf and towards Minsc, quickly rousing him. Just as Minsc began to wake, opening his mouth to bellow threats of butt kicking to whoever had awoken him, Khalid clamped his hand over Minsc's mouth, forcing Minsc to look at him, getting his attention before he woke everyone in the campsite, much less everyone in a mile radius.
"M-Minsc, it's your turn to watch over the camp; get dressed and get your armor on so you can stand guard."
Minsc looked at Khalid with a large smile and said in only a slightly hushed voice, "Do not worry, my warrior friend! Minsc and Boo shall stand guard, and let no messenger of evil pass into this camp! For Boo can sense it when evil approaches, and he will give us any warning needed."
Khalid smiled and nodded, heading back to his and Jaheira's tent, ready for a rest. He fell upon his bed by the sleeping form of Jaheira, who only moved briefly to embrace Khalid before she fell asleep again. As he listened to Minsc's footsteps patrolling the camp, he suddenly remembered the noise he had heard. I forgot to tell Minsc about that. It was probably nothing, and if there was something, I'm sure Minsc can take care of it. With that thought Khalid fell asleep, leaving Minsc the lone guardian of the camp. Throughout the night, Minsc changed guard position with Dynaheir, who later changed with Greywulf. After a while Greywulf changed with Imoen, who finally changed with Jaheira, who woke the entire group up at sunrise.
As everyone packed up their supplies and prepared to leave once again, Khalid quickly remembered his night experience and walked over to the area he had been in the night before. Greywulf walked up to Khalid and said, "Khalid, we're heading out now. You ready?"
"Y-yes, I was just looking around. Last night I heard something over in this area, but I didn't find anything. I just wanted to take one last look before we left this morning."
Greywulf nodded and walked back over to the rest of the group, leaving Khalid to his searching.
"Just don't take too long, Khalid, it might take us another day to reach Beregost, and we want to be as close as possible before nightfall." Greywulf tossed over his shoulder.
Khalid nodded as he continued searching the small area. As he looked through the dust and surroundings, he suddenly noticed something in the dirt, which glinted off the sunlight.
"Greywulf! J-Jaheira! All of you, come quickly!" Khalid yelled frantically.
The other five companions ran over to Khalid's side, where Khalid stood up, holding a small item, dusting it off.
"What did you find?" asked Greywulf.
"I'm not sure, but I think it must have been left by whatever I heard around the camp last night."
"You heard something and you didn't bother to tell any of us?" Jaheira asked her husband incredulously.
"W-w-well, I didn't want to disturb the whole camp over something that might not have been anything." Khalid stuttered with an embarrassed look on his face.
"Khalid, my dear," Jaheira sighed, "T'would take a sailor to untie that tongue of yours."
"J-Jaheira," Khalid protested, "Must you be so…so…"
"Insufferable?" Jaheira answered, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Yes! Yes, that's the w-word." Khalid confirmed.
"It's all right, Khalid." Greywulf said, trying to break the tension. "Let's have a look at what you found."
Khalid handed the item to Greywulf, who gazed at it for a few seconds. "It appears to be a clasp to a cloak, in the design of a black mask stabbed through by a dagger. Symbol ring any bells to you guys?" asked Greywulf.
The group shook their heads, until Dynaheir bent down towards a shrub and picked up a piece of cloth stuck to it.
"I recognize this. No doubt a part of the cloak that went with the clasp, and with an identify spell," Dynaheir said as she cast her spell upon the cloth, "We should be able to find out just what this cloth is made from. Ah yes, just as I had presumed. It is indeed part of a Cloak of Fire Protection."
"Just like the ones that the assassins were wearing." Jaheira said coldly, remembering the brutal fight.
"You know what these means, don't you?" said Greywulf warily. "If they were prowling around our campsite last night, it means they could have attacked at any time. And if Khalid hadn't been guarding us, they probably would have gone ahead and slaughtered us. They're being smart, waiting until we get sloppy before they attack."
"So what do we do now?" asked Imoen with a shiver born of more than just the wind.
"We make for Beregost. No breaks until an hour after dark." answered Greywulf after a moment of thought. "If we're quick, we just might make it there before night falls."
"But Greywulf, Boo and I must know why we run from this threat?" asked Minsc. "We have faced many other foes in our journeys, and we have dispatched them all. What makes these men so much tougher than the others to make us run like frightened prairie dogs?"
"Because for starters, we don't know anything about them other than the fact they want us dead. Well, most of us. And besides, I'd rather face them on our terms than be ambushed or surprised."
Dynaheir added, "Also, in waking up in the middle of the night for guard duty, I couldst only recover half of my spells I used yesterday. I imagine it is no different for thou, Greywulf."
Greywulf nodded, mentally cursing the properties of magic. If a lack of complete rest continued along with the use of spells in battle, soon, neither he nor Dynaheir would have the energy left to cast their spells, and would be dependent upon their comrades to fight, as well as their own somewhat unimpressive combat skills.
"I still have all my spells, Greywulf." said Imoen. "But after the battle with the goblins and the other guys, I'm starting to run low on arrows. I knew we should've stocked up while we were in Baldur's Gate."
"It's not just Imoen, I think we're all running low on supplies." sighed Khalid, looking in his pack.
Greywulf put his hands in his face, then looked up with a groan and asked, "So what are our options? Can we head back to Baldur's Gate, or will it be quicker to finish our trip to Beregost? Because if Baldur's Gate is indeed closer, I would just as soon head back there and regroup. It's not only better fortified, but the supplies are better. Plus, it may not be what these assassins expect. It might just throw them off our trail, for at least a few days. Also, we might even consider going to the Friendly Arm Inn. It's closer than both Beregost and Baldur's Gate."
"Beregost will be quicker." Jaheira spoke, shaking her head. "With the terrain we had to cross to get where we are, it will take maybe twice as long to get back to Baldur's Gate. Besides, there's no guarantee that going back to Baldur's Gate would afford us any extra protection than Beregost. If our attackers are as stealthy as they seem to be, they would have no trouble getting in after us. And as far as supplies are concerned, what with all the turmoil following Sarevok's bid for power, the majority of the supplies will be used in rebuilding. All the confusion will be perfect for assassins to ambush us in; Baldur's Gate is no longer a safe place for us. The Friendly Arm Inn might afford us some quick shelter, but the supplies there will not be suitable for restocking what we need. It would be folly to go to either city."
Greywulf sighed and said with a forced smile, "All right then Jaheira, if what you say is true, we should continue towards Beregost, and we also don't give these mystery assassins any opportunity to attack. Two people on guard duty from now on, to make double sure that we don't get taken by surprise. Imoen and I will take first watch tonight, followed by Minsc and Dynaheir, then Khalid and Jaheira. Hopefully, it'll be enough to discourage any attacks until we're restocked."
And if we're lucky, thought Greywulf, these assassins aren't listening to our plans right now. Because with their skills, they could be within fifty feet of our group, listening to every word we say and we would never know it.
The group nodded in understanding, and turned toward the beaten road, starting their journey once again. Meanwhile, in a darkened and smoke filled room of stone and chains, faraway from the six traveling adventurers, a figure shrouded in darkness stood, gazing into a magical cloud of mists which pictured the intrepid group on their road.
"Impressive," the man said with an amused tone to his voice. "Despite everything they have seen and undergone, they still believe they can escape me and my assassins. Poor, deluded Greywulf. Your end, as well as Imoen's and the rest of your friends shall come much sooner than you know… but not until I have gotten everything I want out of you."
The man's cold, emotionless tone was more sinister than any laugh could have been, and as the spell expired, the mists disappearing from view, he was left alone once again.
"Yes Greywulf… all hope you have of survival is doomed and fleeting as these mists. There is nothing in your power that you can do to stop me. No one can stop me. I am your doom."
The man left the room, his footsteps echoing down the stone floors, as Greywulf and company continued on their road to Beregost, unaware of the danger that threatened, and just as unprepared for the ordeal to come.