While the Harpers' war council was being urgently convened at the Friendly Arm Inn.
At Blackwood Manor north of town, waves of lewd panting rose and fell.
Tall and stern-faced, with his neatly groomed pencil mustache, Sudiman Xikhar walked straight past the writhing pairs of men and women sprawled across the floor and entered the innermost room of the manor.
He was a level 5 fighter.
In his youth, he had loved violence and brawling, believing the sword in his hand could solve every problem.
After turning thirty, he had settled down and begun learning to solve problems with wisdom.
Sudiman abandoned Talos, the god of storms, for the Red Knight, goddess of strategy and tactics, then took the fighter subclass of [Battle Master].
From then on, his career began to soar. Under his exceptional command, the adventuring party he led completed one difficult mission after another.
His wealth accumulated rapidly and his reputation continued to grow, but Sudiman remained unsatisfied.
Then Duchess Sterlman issued her decree, offering a lavish reward for the rescue of her daughter, and Sudiman saw an opportunity.
If he could marry Ailei, he could use the Sterlman family's influence to enter the Flaming Fist Mercenary Company.
Baldur's Gate's inefficient and decentralized political system was precisely the breeding ground for ambitious men.
He believed that, with his abilities, within ten years he could become the greatest general on the Sword Coast, conquer vast territories, and establish his own power.
But all his grand ambitions had been shattered by the mind flayers' conspiracy.
Sudiman's party was defeated by the Shattered Tooth Tribe.
He became a prisoner, taken into some deep cavern and locked inside a metal box resembling a coffin.
Those goblins called it a "psionic alteration pod."
Inside the pod, Sudiman endured unspeakable mental torment and