Note: as I introduce this group of characters, I had created an OC to be paired with Entreri whom you'll meet later, but now I am feeling some feels between Entreri and Jarlaxle whom I mildly ship. So I decided to make it a poly pairing. A slow evolving one just like most of my pairings.
It felt like it had been ages since Entreri had first left Calimport on his original mission to catch the halfling, Regis. As he peered out the top floor window of the non descript inn he had found himself in, he watched as the people below mulled about. People used to fear him. People used to move out of his path as he approached. He had thrived on that fear.
But now? He had been gone so long that the younger guild members didn't even know him. And worse yet, some thought they could challenge him. He thought of the young rogue who had attempted to kill him last night and the broken body he had left in the street, laying in a pool of his own blood. He was still Artemis Entreri. At least that's what he tried to tell himself.
Calimport wasn't so different from what it was when he first left. The city was still a massive sprawling web of wards controlled by wealthy pashas who lavished in the wealth they had accumulated by plotting and scheming, while others in the city lived in extreme poverty, huddled in doorways and alleys, or living cramped in tiny crowded buildings.
But, the criminal streets of Calimport, streets that Entreri knew so well, had changed. Pashas and guilds had shifted about, some getting more prominent and wealthy, others absorbed by rivals.
And what's more, Entreri was different. Older, and changed. Menzoberranzan had affected him so profoundly that it seemed that it had left him void of anything- anything except anger. Ambition- the ambition to be the best fighter- was what drove him to seek out Drizzt Do'Urden, and through that ambition- and obsession, Entreri had been brought down.
The city of the drow had shown him that his reputation in Calimport meant nothing. The drow saw him as a colnbluth, Iblith. Lower than pond scum. And they had treated him accordingly. They had abused him and insulted him whenever they got the chance.
Artemis Entreri was no stranger to abuse. He'd endured it as a child. But he'd managed to claw his way from the lowly street rat that he had been, the scrawny, flea ridden child that had been sold by his own mother, to becoming the fearest assassin Calimport had ever known. His reputation alone protected him. He no longer feared abuse.
That is until he had gone to Menzoberranzan. In many ways, Entreri realized how his greatest rival, Drizzt, was similar to him. They both grew up in hostile environments, both endured abuse. The difference was that Drizzt had fled and Entreri had not.
The assassin was so immersed in his own thoughts that he almost didn't hear the soft thud against his locked door. Whirling, he turned to face the sound. For a moment he couldn't discern the cause. But he sensed it. He sensed a presence.
And it was more than the rodents that scurried across the floor in this less than sanitary inn that he had locked himself away in. Stealthily, he moved silently and effortlessly to the few paces it took to reach his jeweled dagger which lay at the edge of the ratty hay filled mattress.
These accommodations were hardly befitting an assassin of Entreri's caliber. If he had wanted to, he could have returned to Palace Pook and gotten his old room back and lived in the sort of luxury he had once known. But that sort of thing didn't really concern him. He'd lived the majority of his life in squalor, or on the road. The times in which he had a soft bed to sleep in were very few compared to the times he had slept on the cold hard ground, huddled around a campfire, or curled in a corner of the tiny shack in which he had grown up.
Despite the locks and traps and various security precautions he had taken, Entreri wasn't completely surprised when the door swung open and a trio of hooded figures strode into his room.
"One would think that others would not be so foolish as to enter another's personal chambers without first announcing one's self," Entreri muttered dryly as he faced the three. "But I suppose I should have expected Basadoni's welcome committee. Though I suppose I expected you sooner."
"You've been gone too long, Artemis Entreri," the taller of the figures stated as Entreri eyed the staffs all three of them carried. Wizards... "Pasha Basadoni wanted me to encourage you to retire."
"I suppose the assassin sent after me last night had been encouraged to do the same thing," Entreri pointed out as he positioned himself into a lunge stance, jeweled dagger in hand. "I guess I found myself not too convinced."
With that, all three wizards launched fireballs at him, which he nimbly dodged, dropping to a roll as the heat singed his cloak. The fireballs impacted the wall behind him, instantly igniting the dry wood. Flames leapt into the room and smoke began to fill the air.
Entreri rolled back to his feet before launching forward, plunging his dagger into the soft flesh of the abdomen of one of the wizards just as he attempted another spell. The wizard let out a pained grunt as he dropped his staff, gripping the deep wound as his knees buckled.
But Entreri couldn't dodge everything. One of the other wizards launched a volley of arrows, raining down at him, one piercing into his shoulder as he moved to the closed window, kicking out the glass with a leg.
"We cannot let you escape so easily, Artemis Entreri!" one of the wizards exclaimed. He dove at the assassin only to stumble forward, grasping at empty air, as Entreri nimbly dodged, then noted the sudden magical passageway beginning to open up on the other side of the room.
The wizards coughed and choke as smoke permeated the air and before Entreri even noted the dark skinned, white haired figures on the other side of that passage, he dove through it, ending up crumpled on the floor, an arrow still embedded in his shoulder.
"Ahh we meet again," came a familiar voice as the assassin blinked, sitting up to look around. As he caught sight of the elaborately dressed dark elf with the wide brimmed hat and brilliant colored cape, his heart sank as his eyes widened. Anxiety welling him he glanced around at his surroundings, fearing the truth.
"Don't worry," Jarlaxle Baenres spoke with a chuckle as Kimmuriel and Rai-guy stood behind him. "I have not brought you back to Menzoberranzan. Though I have managed to save your life."
Entreri breathed a pained sigh of relief as he recognized the elaborate sewer systems and undercity labyrinth of the Muzad- or the city that lay underneath Calimport. A place Entreri was very familiar with, or so he thought.
Jarlaxle nodded to his lieutenants and reluctantly, Kimmuriel came forward, and without warning, yanked the arrow out of Entreri's shoulder, causing a pained yelp. Then, he unceremoniously pulled the assassin forward, grabbed him by the neck, forcing his head up, and dumped the contents of a vial of liquid down his throat.
Entreri coughed as he swallowed the healing potion, gripping his throat as Kimmuriel released him. He felt the warming sensation move down his body as he stood slowly to his feet.
"What are you doing here?" Entreri demanded as he faced Jarlaxle, rubbing his healed but sore shoulder. "I helped Drizzt and your son escape against my better judgment and I expected I'd never see you or your kind again."
"Ahh yes well, it seems we need your help for another rescue," Jarlaxle explained in all seriousness. "Come."
Entreri scoffed at being ordered around, but reluctantly followed the dark elf- why was he always following someone he hated so much? He followed them into a small room where there stood, in the center, a large crystal ball. Rai-guy approached it and with a wave of his finger, it activated and as Entreri peered in, he saw what he could only assume was a dungeon.
Hanging from the stone wall were the nude, battered forms of a drow and a surface elf. In many ways the scene resembled the dungeon in which Entreri and Catti-brie had liberated Drizzt and Legolas from.
"This is not the dungeon of House Baernes," Jarlaxle explained. "This is a place not so far from here. And believe it or not, that drow is my friend. And Drizzt's father."
Entreri regarded the mercenary for a moment. He felt a twinge of... emotion at the implications of a friendship with the imprisoned drow. That emotion, he couldn't quite place it, but it only made him angrier. He scoffed. "I did not think you possessed so many friends."
"I am hurt," Jarlaxle declared. "After all, I had thought you and I were friends."
Entreri said nothing. He only focused on the scheme being played out before him in the crystal. He noticed other prisoners in the dungeon, some in cages. Around them, figured wandered about, some with whips. Entreri could hear the sounds of pain, some prisoners moaned and whimpered, others screamed out as they were poked and prodded. Entreri couldn't get a clear look at the identity of the captors, they wore hooded cloaks that shielded their eyes. Although he did catch a flash or dark hair poking out of one of the hoods.
"Stop father," came a feminine voice. "They've had enough."
"Be silent," came a harsh response. "Know your place, female."
"Why are you showing me this?" Entreri asked as he stood back and regarded Jarlaxle and his lieutenants. "Why should I care about such things?"
"Because this fortress is in the Forest of Mir," Jarlaxle explained. "Not too far from here from what I understand. It is a stronghold of some Vhaerun worshiping drow. I don't know their purpose, but they've captured Zaknafein Do'Urden, once thought dead, as well as a number of elves and dwarves from Middle Earth, a quite distant land. One of them is the father of the young elf you helped rescue."
"I thought you had sent Drizzt on this task?" Entreri growled. "Why do you need my help?"
"Because Drizzt is coming from a great distance," Jarlaxle explained. "He will not arrive in time. I had hoped he would, but it would seem he has been delayed. The hooded figures, they are not drow. I am uncertain of their identity but I believe the drow are working for them."
Entreri glanced at the crystal ball again, then back at Jarlaxle. "What are we now, some valiant paladins ready to charge to the rescue?"
Jarlaxle shrugged. "I believe there are mysteries to be had here, my sour tempered friend. Shall we make preparations for our journey?"
Entreri groaned. He didn't want to go off after Jarlaxle on some ill-fated adventure. But then, what did his future in Calimport hold? Reluctantly, he found himself mentally preparing for the journey to Mir. As a side thought, he wondered how rescuing Zaknafein Do'Urden might play into his desire for a fight with his son.