Again, I dream. Irenicus, again, telling me of the death in my blood with which I am already too familiar. “Follow,” he said, and I would receive the gifts of my heritage. And then Imoen was there, standing gagged and bound by his side by ropes of lightning-like magic. They constricted around her, scorching her flesh and slicing into muscle. She whimpered behind the gags and looked at me with such terror.

 

“Follow,” he said. “If only to protect the weak who fell because of you.”

In the Time of Troubles, the gods walked the earth in mortal form — among them Bhaal, the Lord of Murder.  To escape the death which he foresaw, he sired mortal progeny:  half-divine children, doomed to be slowly driven mad by the Taint inside them.

Cassandra is one such child.  Hunted by the holy as an abomination and by the evil as a threat, she trusts only one person:  her adopted sister, Imoen.  Raised together in isolation and sharing an extraordinary friendship, they are inseparable.  They would die for each other.  They would kill for each other.

And then came Irenicus.  A cold, calculating mage with a hidden agenda, he performs ‘experiments’ designed to break body, mind, and soul.  When he kidnaps Imoen, Cassie is faced with her worst nightmare.  She would die for Imoen; even kill for her.  But how far will she go to save her?


Crumbling Down is a fan novelization of the Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn computer game, based on the Imoen Romance modification by Lord Mirrabbo.

Contents