Every end of a tale has a beginning, and my beginning started seventeen years ago. Not the beginning of when I first took breath, but the beginning of the life that mattered. A life in Baldurs' Gate. The Gate was one of the largest metropolises and city-states on the Sword Coast, within the Western Heartlands. It was a crowded city of commerce and opportunity filled with prospering merchants from nearly everywhere in Faerûn. In the early year of 1345 DR was when I first arrived in the city of Baldurs Gate. The memory of my arrival still remains vividly clear as if it was yesterday.
The night was young, the fog was thick, I had just stepped off from a ship and strolled around the docks until I asked a sailor named Captain Deudermont for work. He wasn't hiring at the time, but directed me to the East Harbor and told me to find Malt'z, further informing me that if it was work I sought, it was there that I should pay a visit. Walking along the East Harbor in the dead of the night, one had to constantly watch ones surroundings. There were far too many dark alleys and narrow paths, such elements far too easily for any thief to take advantage of. After finding Malt's shop I entered pushing the old wooden door fast seeing a harden faced man behind a counter. He offered one job then, to pick up supplies from Beregost from another smithy. With less then five hundred gold to my name, I was eager for more. I found the street that lead me out of the east gate and followed the road that lead me to Wyrm's Crossing. It was a massive double bridge structure that spans the River Chionthar just outside Baldur's Gate. I had been weary and tired at this point, but I had no place to stay. I soon came upon a campfire as I crossed the bridge. Seeing several people gathered around the fire. I dared an approach to ask directions to Beregost. The unknown faces gave me the directions but had explained the distance was far, and more dangerous during the night. They further explained that it be best that I save such a travel after a nights rest and best that I had company.
I returned to the city soon after, finding a patch of grass surrounded by hedges next to the Elfsong tavern where I sat and watched people pass by from a distance. I saw merchants, minstrels and various adventurers and even knights. I even saw a man, clad in all black with a hood pulled low that concealed much of his face. He walked up to a bulletin board reading notices and whatever bounties that was posted. I remember being curious of his intentions, wondering what he sought to find on that board. I never learned whom that man was, nor did I ever see him again but I made a mental note to visit that board after I had some sleep. Little did I know it was that very board that would start me off in a journey of my new beginning. A beginning of my tales in Baldur's Gate.
"You want my name? Fine I shall give you my name if it appease's you before your death"
Sometimes fate is like a strange, unpopular tavern filled with barmaids who brings you a drink you never asked for and don't always like. Other times fate doesn't place you where you had wish to be, instead, it places you where your suppose to be. It had been three days and four nights since my arrival to Baldurs. I ventured in the Hilltop ruins, using stealth and guile to maneuver around the dim lit corridors looking for valuable finds. The ruins had been a dwelling for Kobolds. I wore simple leathers at the time, nor did anything I possess was of any magical enchantments , I was as mundane as mundane goes but not without resources. Traps had been my ally.
A proper well placed trap could be fatal to anyone. I had used traps that exploded with acid, paired with traps that tangled their feet. It was a perfect combination, hurt them badly, immobilize them after, then run my blade through their backs after until they fell lifelessly on the stone floor. Sometimes I found myself crossing blades or dodging crossbow bolts. I had enough agility to handle two Kobolds at once. What minor wounds I would suffer from fighting pairs was easily mended with my healing supplies of magical curing potions. My combat experience from each fight improved , I was using less traps, becoming more daring and bold. If they didn't see me coming, they surely died quicker. I was starting to feel like death itself. A fatal end for the Kobolds. But due to my eagerness to cut as many as I could down, I had made too much noise. More Kobolds were alerted by the sounds of fighting and I was becoming outnumbered, and worst of all, I had one potion left. Life is full of running. The key to a life lived or an existence tolerated is held in the single decision as to the direction in which we will run.
And I ran down the maze of corridors in those ruins as crossbow bolts zipped past my head. It was soon that I lost the chasing band of Kobolds and rushed out of the entrance of the ruins with many wounds and injuries. And just after I drank my very last potion to cure some of my injuries, I got ambushed by a pack of hungry wolves. I was already badly injured, but still clung to my sword. If the wolves were going to feast upon my corpse, they would have to earn it with a fierce fight. Fending off a pack of hungry wolves in that moment was no easy feat. Their claws and fangs found my flesh, I was exhausted from my fighting with the Kobolds, the loss of blood only made me slower and weaker. But by sheer determination and desperation I manage to slay each wolf but I couldn't feel any sense of triumph. Because I was dying, bleeding out, I couldn't even move, I had no strength left to even try, I had nothing to heal myself. I simply laid in the grass saturated with my own blood waiting for my death. How pitiful I was, it had not even been a tenday of my arrival and I was at deaths door. By cursed wolves.... My breath was shallow, I closed my eyes because that very night there wasn't even a moon look at. I was ready to die. But it was at that moment I heard something. What I heard would forever be etched into memory. What I heard was the end of the silly worthless life I knew, and the birth of a new life that I would call my rebirth. What I heard was the beginning of one of the many complicated tales in the Sword Coast. What I had heard was simply....
"Psst..."
"You want my name? Fine I shall give you my name if it appease's you before your death"
