Scarlett jolted awake and found herself in a cold, ironclad holding cell. It was too dark to see more than a few feet ahead, but she could hear the quiet breathing of others nearby. “Where am I? Where are the others? Khalid? Jaheira? Minsc? What about Imoen, my dearest childhood friend?” Dozens of questions raced through her head as she sat there in the dark. Even her Halfling infravision couldn’t penetrate the darkness, which only created more questions.

Suddenly a shrill scream broke the silence. Whoever it was, it was clear they were being tortured and in agony. The tortured screams pierced the silence several more times before they faded away. Somehow the darkness and silence seemed even more ominous after the screams ended. She wasn’t sure who held her captive, or what they wanted, but it couldn’t be a good thing. She needed to find her companions and escape as quickly as possible. Unfortunately the cage to her door didn’t appear to have a conventional lock for her to pick. Try as she might, her mind was too clouded to cast any spells either.

Scarlett lost all semblance of time as she sat there in the magically created darkness. Minutes, hours, possibly even days passed by in a blur. The only way she could track time was by counting the food trays she occasionally awoke to. One meal, two meals, a dozen meals or more. What did it matter? Even that was inconsistent, and thus inaccurate. There was a tender spot on the back of her head where she had been clubbed by a heavy object and knocked out, but even that began to heal and hurt less as time went on. Her mind remained fuzzy, but occasionally a man’s face would flash across her mind’s eye. At least she assumed it was a man. She couldn’t quite tell if he was human, elven, or some terrible demon half-breed. His visage was marred by some kind of injury. It looked almost like a burn that had healed long ago. The most disturbing part of all though were the man’s eyes. They were lighter in color and shone through the darkness, but seemed dead and lifeless at the same time. It was as if the man was just a broken shell, a soulless monster calling out to her from the dark. Each time his face appeared in her dreams, she would wake up later with her head throbbing and new bruises, with no memory of the cause.

After what seemed like an eternity of sitting in the dark, she heard footsteps approaching. Scarlett sat upright, propped against the far side of the cage from the door. Suddenly lights flared to life and a hooded figure stopped in front of her. He slowly lowered his hood, and she recognized him. The man from her nightmares stood before her. His cold, dead eyes pierced her like knives, and his icy voice called out, “Ahhh, the child of Bhaal has awoken…it is time for more experiments.” Before she could respond, lightning shot forth and struck her square in the chest. Slowly, insidiously, Scarlett could feel the mage assaulting her mind. He was searching for something, though she knew not what. He whispered from inside her skull as another blast of magical energy hit her, “The pain will only be passing, you should survive the process.” The last thing she saw before blacking out was a huge creature lumbering into the room. “More intruders have entered the complex Master.” And then the welcoming embrace of unconsciousness swallowed her.