It has been years since I last saw my mother. She was beaten to near beyond recognition, and I remember being torn away from her as I tried to strike back at my captors. I try not think to about it often, but it doesn't take much to bring back the image to me. I escaped though, fleeing into the dark alleyways and constantly being alert in order to avoid recapture. I achieved my vengeance, though as I later watched their eyes go lifeless. I had to survive by my wits and agility in that heartless city of Zhentil Keep and I am sure that it rubbed off on me. Little matters now. The heartless bastards that rule that land engender their hate for humanity into many and one must seize what he can to survive.

After escaping, I tried to live on my own on the streets for a while, stealing what I could and hiding where I could not be found. I survived like this for sometime, but I eventually caught the eye of the thieves guild in the city. I was introduced to the thieves guild in the city by Kelin, a beautiful young thief who decided I was worthy of taking in. I assumed the name of Isek and stayed in the city, working small jobs at first, but eventually reveling in my duties and stepped up as an enforcer for the guild. I easily made a lot of enemies, but much more in gold. I took up street fighting in my spare time to keep myself on my toes and because it was so easy beating up brutes that had no brains at all. In the meantime, I took on disposing of some people who were harder to take on than just simple fear of repercussion. I was content to live there as best I could. That all changed in the Year of the Banner, when the Keep was in chaos. I decided that it was in my best interest to leave. Kelin and I left the keep amongst the aftermath of the battle and headed south to the Dalelands.

We lived well on the road, she and I, for quite some time as we traveled through Shadowdale before we ran into Nydar and Otis in an inn outside the small village of Pilgrim's Rest in Battledale. The two were in an argument about the location of a hidden shrine in the area. We managed to get ourselves involved in the conversation and the next thing we knew, we were headed out into the countryside in search of the shrine. After a long search, we found it in a long abandoned temple that was nearly collapsed in places, not to mention the creatures that inhabited the place. Nydar learned that there was a way to enchant our weapons on this shrine, provided we had the proper gemstones, so off we went to try and find some. After double-crossing a couple of gnomes and a short-stay in the lockup in Essembra, we escaped – though I imagine that I shouldn't head back there anytime soon unless under disguise, of course. We headed back to the shrine only to be double-crossed ourselves by the man that Nydar had learned about the shrine from, Grenald the Vile. Again, finding ourselves in a sticky situation, we managed to fight his goons (the idiots fell into one of the traps that I had temporarily disabled in the shrine), killed Grenald and got our weapons enchanted.

Kelin and I privately agreed to continue to travel with the pair as long as it was beneficial for us to do so. From there, we traveled down into Cormyr, spending some time in Arabel searching for clues to our next adventure. When Nydar discovered some piece of ancient text that lead us to Marsember, we were assaulted by a small group of mages that were apparently none too pleased with us nosing around some catacombs beneath the city. Too bad for them, and quite lucky for us that we managed to defeat them. The handy item that one of them carried seems to have some wonderful qualities that I will put to great use: A golden chain with a bauble containing what appears to be a small hand inside. Nydar, of course was extremely interested in the trinket…

Hitpoints: (6+1) + (5+1) + (6+1) + (6+1) + (2+1) = 30