Introducing Teareon the Assassin
ga_j
Member Posts: 24
So, I think I'd like to try my hand at a play through. I started one forever ago and never got very far but I've recently installed the Enhanced Edition Trilogy along with several mods by the one and only Roxanne and I'm pretty hyped.
I'm not sure the preferred way of doing this but I was leaning toward telling the story in parts, summarizing the most of what happens and only really getting into detail on the plot heavy bits, including some screenshots. I guess my style will develop as I get further into it.
Without further delay, here is Teareon.
Teareon's story starts out much the same as any other protagonist with being raised by his foster father Gorion within the protective walls of Candlekeep. Teareon outgrew the confines of the citadel early into his adolescence and slowly began to resent Gorion for, as he sees it, keeping him captive. Teareon often got into mischief and was frequently disciplined by his foster father, only adding to his hatred of the old sage.
Fast forward to the day Gorion imparts hurried instructions to Teareon that he must prepare for travel - Teareon is taken totally by surprise but is delighted all the same. As far as he's concerned, this is the perfect opportunity to slip away from his overbearing foster father and finally see the world for himself, instead of relying on stories in books and the teachings of the monks...
Notes - I will likely be using EEKeeper to make some changes as I go and I'm not really holding myself to any real rules around reloading. My main aim is to experience all the new content while making for an entertaining story for those who end up following along.
That said, let the games begin.
I'm not sure the preferred way of doing this but I was leaning toward telling the story in parts, summarizing the most of what happens and only really getting into detail on the plot heavy bits, including some screenshots. I guess my style will develop as I get further into it.
Without further delay, here is Teareon.
Teareon's story starts out much the same as any other protagonist with being raised by his foster father Gorion within the protective walls of Candlekeep. Teareon outgrew the confines of the citadel early into his adolescence and slowly began to resent Gorion for, as he sees it, keeping him captive. Teareon often got into mischief and was frequently disciplined by his foster father, only adding to his hatred of the old sage.
Fast forward to the day Gorion imparts hurried instructions to Teareon that he must prepare for travel - Teareon is taken totally by surprise but is delighted all the same. As far as he's concerned, this is the perfect opportunity to slip away from his overbearing foster father and finally see the world for himself, instead of relying on stories in books and the teachings of the monks...
Notes - I will likely be using EEKeeper to make some changes as I go and I'm not really holding myself to any real rules around reloading. My main aim is to experience all the new content while making for an entertaining story for those who end up following along.
That said, let the games begin.
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Our story begins in front of Winthrop's inn. Teareon, eager to get moving, entered the inn and made a bee-line for old Winthrop. As usual, Winthrop cracked one of his stupid jokes but Teareon ignored it and asked to see the weapons and armor. He passed the fat innkeeper enough gold to purchase some studded leather, a dagger, and some throwing knives.
Before he could leave, Winthrop also passed Teareon what looked like a magically enchanted long sword. Apparently a beautiful young girl had asked Winthrop to ensure Teareon received the sword before leaving Candlekeep, but he knew little else about the girl or the weapon. Teareon took the weapon and walked away from Winthrop.
Gorion insisted that Teareon be totally prepared for their journey out of the citadel, so of course that meant steal whatever provisions he could, right? While no one was looking, Teareon picked a couple of cabinets on the first floor of the inn before moving upstairs. He continued moving from room to room, careful not to wake any of the sleeping patrons, while filling his purse with various amounts of gems and gold.
One of the rooms was occupied by an uppity noble named Christian, who on sight asked Teareon what he wanted. There was obvious money to be had here based on Christian's attire, so Teareon joked that the other man may help him to his valuables. The noble did not seem amused and promptly told Teareon to leave.
So Teareon decided to duck around the corner and hide in stealth, before backtracking to Christian's room, sneaking up behind him and... Thud! In one swift motion, Teareon dropped the rude noble to the ground, unconscious. He made off with a ring and 60 gold pieces.
Confident that he was now prepared and not wanting to spend another second within the keep, Teareon set off to find Gorion. As he came up to the steps of the citadel he could hear arguing. A beautiful young girl he had never seen before appeared to be having a heated exchange with Gorion, but Teareon wasn’t close enough to hear what about. Before we could get any closer the young girl stormed off and… “HEY YA, It’s ME, IMOEN!”
Teareon turned to find Imoen poking at his studded leather armor. She was full of questions and pleaded to be able to leave Candlekeep with Teareon and Gorion. After hearing about as much as he could stand, Teareon told her to leave him be and pushed her aside as he headed toward Gorion.
Gorion was particularly agitated and kept mentioning some danger they were in as he practically pushed Teareon towards the gates. The duo left the keep and proceeded on their journey…
…they didn’t get far however, when a large figure in spiked armor confronted them. He demanded Gorion hand over Teareon, or he would kill them both. Gorion refused and a fight quickly erupted. Teareon ducked for cover as fireballs and lightning bolts shook the battlefield. He must have hit his head because he couldn’t remember anything more until the morning.
Teareon felt a familiar sensation. He awoke to Imoen poking his studded leather armor. She had followed us out of Candlekeep. Teareon promptly told her to go home but the sad truth is neither of them would be welcome back without a tome of knowledge to contribute to the library.
Side note - I suck at writing, lol. I might actually swap over to first person for clarity and immersion.
Imoen and I decided to retrace my steps in an effort to locate Gorion, or whatever may be left of him. We headed north and before long arrived at the clearing with circular rock formations where the battle had taken place the night before. Gorion’s body was a mangled mess of tattered bloodstained robes and flesh. Before I could take a closer look I heard someone calling my name. It was the same attractive young girl I had seen fighting with Gorion a day earlier. She appeared visibly shocked at the sight of Gorion’s lifeless body.
“Teareon, you desperately need my help!” The girl introduced herself as Sandrah and explained that she wanted to help protect me from the same danger Gorion was worried about, though she could not seem to elaborate more.
I decided to allow her to come along as she was at least somewhat known to Gorion and as it turned out she was also the anonymous gifter of the long sword Winthrop had handed me back in the inn. In a worst case scenario she would provide a fine buffer between me and that fiend in spiked armor, should he make another appearance.
I turned my attention back to Gorion’s body and looted a number of items, including a dagger with the initial ‘A’ engraved in the hilt, and a scroll from someone with the initial ‘E’. Before I had a chance to read it fully I felt a familiar poking. I turned to face Imoen.
“Is that… Gorion?” She asked.
It seemed a fairly stupid question at the time though I guess in hindsight she was taken by shock.
I pushed the body with my left foot, “It was.”
Imoen wasn’t impressed and made a half-hearted jab at me before asking what I remembered from the night before.
I told her that I couldn’t remember much except the fact that the figure spoke. He clearly wanted me dead but I knew nothing more than that.
Suddenly from out of nowhere Haiass appeared. He was a wolf I had taken in and tamed after finding him alongside his slain mother. He was a loyal companion and perhaps the only one out here I could fully feel comfortable around.
I decided I would read the letter from Gorion’s body once we had arrived at the nearest inn. Depending on what I would find out I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to share with my companions. We began moving east towards the Friendly Arm Inn.
We found our way back to the road a short time later and came upon two very strange looking individuals. One was a rough looking Halfling and the other a somewhat deranged looking mage. They introduced themselves as Xzar and Montaron. Almost immediately Imoen and Sandrah expressed their disgust with the pair but I thought it best to hear the duo out. Xzar offered me a healing potion, which I accepted but had no intention of ever using before telling us that they had business to the south. They were interested in what might be causing a shortage of iron from the Nashkel mines. I decided to take them along with us, bizarre as they were, they would do well to shield me from any stray arrows that might come my way. I told them we were heading to the Friendly Arm Inn first, but if they were agreeable to accompany us that we would proceed south soon after. They agreed.
Before he fell, Gorion has been very insistent that I meet friends of his at the Friendly Arm in the event something happened to him. While I wasn’t sold on the idea of trading one captor for another, I believed it would be wise to regroup and possibly scout out his friends Khalid and Jaheria.
We continued east for a time without anything eventful happening until we reached the Lion’s Way road. An old mage with a white beard approached us and seemed to ask me specifically about my mental state. Before I could answer he turned his attention to Sandrah, who appeared to be hiding her face from the old man. The mage made a comment to her about helping our party not to stray and she replied saying she took it as her responsibility. I wasn’t sure but it almost seemed like they had met before. I finally responded that perhaps it was the older man’s mental state that needed to be considered with how he was pestering random strangers on the road. The mage seemed amused with my response. Before leaving us he stated that the Friendly Arm was just north of our position and that he was certain we would find friends there. How the hell did he know?
I shot Sandrah a quick glance to remind her that we would need to discuss these and other events once we finally arrived at the inn.
We made it to the Friendly Arm by nightfall and were eager to rest. As we made our way up the stone steps of the inn we were confronted by a figure in dark robes.
“Hi, friend,” he started, “I’ve not seen you here before today. What brings you to the Friendly Arm Inn?”
Alarmingly, Sandrah whispered to me that she believed this person to be a bounty hunter.
“Nothing much, really,” I said, “Just road-worn travelers, looking for a place to rest.”
With that the other man said I bore the resemblance of someone he was looking for. He asked me if I came from Candlekeep. I immediately shot Sandrah another look as my stomach began to sink. Was this an associate of the armored figure?
I told him I’d never heard of Candlekeep but he didn’t believe me and began casting some spell. Without hesitation I dashed toward him to attack, Imoen, Sandrah and Montaron close behind. Before any of us had a chance to close the distance, Haiass leapt past and tore a hole in the throat of the would-be attacker. Xzar did not seem to believe the man had died and shot a single magic missile into the corpse for good measure. He made a bizarre purring sound.
I asked Sandrah outright how she knew about the bounty hunter. She replied back that it was merely intuition and that the man appeared to be overly friendly, though I suspected there was something she still wasn’t telling me. Of course, Imoen had to chime in with something stupid about having the nose of a terrier or something. I simply sighed as Sandrah continued, “Whoever sent him knows you are no longer in Candlekeep.”
Having had two attempts on my life in as many days, I snapped “You’re stating the obvious. Any deeper insights?”
She replied that the armored figure may be the one who sent this mage and that he probably didn’t know my exact whereabouts or was too preoccupied to come finish the task himself. She said that we would do well to meet up with Khalid and Jaheria inside.
I tried to hide my annoyance at her comment, realizing that I had never spoken a word to her about who exactly might be waiting for me at the Friendly Arm Inn. Suddenly things started to make sense. No doubt she was working with Khalid and Jaheria, likely on behalf of my late foster father. I was so eager to escape his overbearing protection that I hadn’t realized even in death he would not leave me alone. And what was worse was that now there was this other unknown party out there that, for whatever reason, wanted me dead. I was truly stuck between a rock and a hard place. I could either ditch Gorion’s cronies and quite possibly end up dead, or keep them around for my protection and remain a captive of the dead sage.
Of course Imoen interrupted my thoughts. I looked over to see the pink thief looting the corpse. She had found the caster’s spell book and was prattling on about how she thought she might learn some magic. At this point I was very much at the end of my temper. I told her to stop and hand over the book, or else. She retorted that I was being a jerk and said she was going to try to learn some of the simpler spells anyway. Again I told her to hand the book to me. I wasn’t going to ask again. She reluctantly complied.
There was much I needed to consider. We entered the inn.