Honor Among Thieves: The Road to Neverwinter

Honor Among Thieves: The Road to Neverwinter by Jaleigh Johnson is one of the two prequel novels for the Honor Among Thieves movie and published on February 28, 2023.
==Summary==
The story opened with Edgin Darvis, an ex-Harper who left the organization over a decade previously, telling a bedtime story to his loving daughter Kira. After some negotiations, Edgin settled on telling the story of their thieving crew, their first meeting, and the first big heist job – the Staff of Aorth from a manse outside of Neverwinter.
The first part of Edgin's story took place a decade before Kira's bedtime story in the remote town of Targos. He was a new father, left alone with a newborn child after the recent death of his wife Zia, not too long after Edgin's encounter with a banshee, whose scream he mentally compared to the wailing of his newborn daughter. Zia's death was still fresh in Edgin's memory. He blamed himself and his blind devotion to the Harpers for his wife's death. Sleepless for countless days, running low on food, and unable to stop the child from crying, Edgin decided to use his dwindling emergency funds to buy a meal at a local tavern – Trip and Shuffle. The warmth of the inn's hearth and a bottle of milk calmed the child. A bowl of fresh stew did the same for the exhausted ex-Harper. Edgin fell asleep as his newborn cooed nearby. When the bard jolted awake, he saw a muscled tattooed woman holding his daughter. Groggy and panicked, Edgin attacked the barbarian, thinking she was looking to harm the baby. Instead, he witnessed both the woman and the newborn being completely enamored with each other, playing "got your nose." After awkward introductions, Edgin learned that the woman, Holga Kilgore, saw the sleeping father and took it upon herself to keep cooing Kira safe. After dinner, the barbarian offered to walk the father and his daughter home. Edgin realized that Holga was hesitant to leave them. She did not have anywhere to go. The bard offered her to stay with them for a little while at least. The little while became a long while. Kira never cried again.
Edgin's and Holga's first robbery occurred just a month after their first meeting. After the ex-Harper's wife perished, he had pawned much of what he owned to Raylin Pendro to make ends meet. The man ran a shady pawnshop on the outskirts of Targos. Edgin was convinced that Pendro had dealings with the infamous Zhentarim and, with Holga's encouragement, decided to take back what was pawned months prior. After asking around town, Edgin discovered that the pawnbroker was disliked and spent his evenings drinking after locking the shop. Edgin's and Holga's heist was a success. The bard reclaimed a delicate gold and emerald ring that once belonged to Zia, and Hilda reclaimed a stash of pans, pots, dishes, and other household items. Lastly, Edgin uncovered Pendro's hidden lockbox, filled with gold and silver skimmed from the Zhentarim. As an ex-Harper, Edgin knew how to pass word along so that the Black Network learned about Pendro's thefts. Soon after, Raylin Pendro mysteriously stopped town, leaving everything behind. His pawnshop was taken over by Pendro's nephew, who turned it into a bakery renowned for its cinnamon rolls.
Nine years later, Edgin Darvis and Holga Kilgore received a new member to their thieving crew, Kira, and her new magic tool, invaluable for their profession – a "pendant of invisibility," a gift from the barbarian woman. The trio successfully pulled off a heist, robbing Lady and Lord Bantakent of Neverwinter. After they returned back to Targos, the bard and the barbarian bonded over their lost mates. Holga managed to convince Edgin to take up his lute again and start performing. He'd not sung in many years; even Kira had never heard her father perform. The following evening the thieves headed to Trip and Shuffle, but the bard decided he needed liquid courage. When Edgin climbed the stage, he was visibly intoxicated, and his performance of "When the Battle is Over" failed spectacularly. Despite the performance, a single man at the tavern appreciated the spectacle. After buying the bard ale, the older foppish human with a charismatic face introduced himself. His name was Forge Fitzwilliam. Forge's introduction was seemingly friendly, but he was searching for a drunken fool to challenge to a game Three-Dragon Ante. Edgin agreed. His "hustling sense" caught the fellow scammer, and the two locked in a battle of wits. Eventually, Forge noticed Edgin's cheating, and the attempt to swindle each other turned into a competition that was rudely interrupted by a band of gnoll raiders who barged through the Trip and Shuffle's door.
Gnolls did not hesitate to attack the tavern-goers and, after losing one of their own to Edgin's table cutlery, fled with loot, including the coin the two hustlers were gambling over. Holga, Edgin, and Forge set out in pursuit, eventually finding the gnolls' cave hideout. By luck, the group stumbled across a swarm of hungry stirges and used the creatures to their advantage against the gnolls. As the hyena people panicked, the bard noticed a familiar face – the four-year-old brother of Kira's babysitter. Sief Talvick was snatched in the chair of the tavern brawl; his fate seemed grim. Edgin imagined his daughter in place of the boy, and that image turned the ex-Harper into an enraged berserker. His companions followed Edgin into battle and subsequently rescued the child as well as much of the stolen loot.
Sief's rescue made the trio heroes of Targos. Several months after the rescue, Forge Fitzwilliam returned to Targos bringing a duo of commoners from a coastal village. Del and Grace lost their friend and drinking buddy Feltin to mysterious happenings on an island just off the coast of the unnamed village. Before reaching out for help, the village hired a sorcerer – Simon Aumar, who failed to return from the island as well. Forge successfully convinced Edgin and Holga to investigate the disappearances by claiming it was an easy job, and the reward collected by the villagers was hefty.
Kira was not allowed to join in on the adventure. Edgin thought it was too dangerous. The trio of thieves headed out horseback to Del's and Grace's village. Along the way, the group shared some personal information. Forge Fitzwilliam longed for the riches of Neverwinter and maybe a family of his own. When asked about her past, Holga tensed up and only shared it with Edgin in private. She never had children. She wanted to, but Marlamin left her before the couple could start a family. This loss of a possible future weighed heavily on the barbarian; she had never thought of a family before meeting her ex-husband. When he left, the woman questioned her self-worth, wondering if Marlamin left because Holga was not enough.
The haunted island attracted the group from afar. Edgin heard a female voice calling for help. The bard realized that calling for help was the oldest trick in a book, just like the "Neverwinter Haunting Job" that involved bandits luring unwitting do-gooders to their doom. On the island, they discovered strange black oily vines that dragged creatures and restrained them against the trees, slowly consuming them. Simon Aumar, the missing sorcerer, was among the vines' victims, still alive and begging for help. The young half-elf convinced the thieves to cut him free in exchange for a lead to a grand target in the city of Neverwinter that would give them enough coin to last a lifetime. The investigation led the group to the lair of a green hag named Drueena. To everyone's surprise, Kira somehow managed to follow her father traveling on horseback for two days and to swim to the haunted island, beating the group to the hag's cave and ending up captured. Ed and his band confronted the hag and her enthralled roper, but eventually, they broke her magical control over the monster. Angry roper ended the hag's life, and with Drueena, oily black vines withered across the island.
On the boat ride back, Edgin was furious with Kira for disobeying his orders. Holga received part of the blame for Kira's endangerment as it was the barbarian who gifted the girl her amulet of invisibility. Father and daughter went into a shouting match, making the rest of the thieves uncomfortable, while Forge Fitzwilliam complimented Kira for her actions in the battle with Drueena. Eventually, Edgin and Kira reconciled, and the daughter comforted the darn over his guilt. Edgin still thought himself to be solely responsible for Zia's death and feared ruining what was left of his life and losing Kira. Despite the hag's death, Edgin's band failed to return Feltin or his body to Del and Grace. The villages did not believe Ed's and Forge's telltale and refused to pay. Simon, however, found companionship among the thieves and was offered to stay in Targos, to Kira's delight.
Simon indeed delivered on his promise. Edgin's thieves received many details about the West Caraway Acres mansion outside Neverwinter through its owner's disgruntled servant half-elf Alyanna. The group hatched a heist plan to infiltrate the eccentric dragonborn wizard Torlinn Shrake 's masquerade party and steal the legendary Staff of Aorth. They needed a way to get inside, and Forge Fitzwilliam had a contact that could help. Lady Sofina of Longsaddle had an invitation for Forge to make excellent forgeries. Edgin and Kira accompanied Forge to an audience with the mysterious woman. Forge brought an offering of gemstones to the woman as an apology for an incident that, according to him, involved emerald earrings. Safina was intrigued by the group targeting Torlinn Shrake and agreed to help them just to see what would happen after warning the group that not all was as it e about the dragonborn wizard.
The group infiltrated the party successfully. Edgin, Kira, and Forge arrived as guests brandishing forged invitations, and Alyanna smuggled Holga and Simon through the servant entrance to pose as wait staff. It didn't take long to find the Staff of Aorth. The dragonborn wizard eagerly demonstrated the item's magics by giving a performance. Supposedly, the staff was returned to the vault, and the thieves regrouped, infiltrating Torlinn's treasury. Instead of successfully claiming the booty, Ed, Kira, Forge, Holga, Simon, and Alyanna ended up sealed within the treasure room, with the Staff of Aorth being only an illusion. Forge demonstrated his thieving skills by uncovering a secret passage that led from the vault to the manse's dungeon. There, the thieves faced the first of the dragonborn's traps. A copy of the ballroom above with an illusory orchestra playing music on the ceiling. While the thieves were distracted, the passage back sealed itself shut. Simon accidentally triggered a trap – one of the violins transformed into a boulder and fell onto the dance floor, nearly crushing the sorcerer. Edgin realized that the solution to the puzzle was to dance across the ballroom. Ed and Holga danced to a cheery melody across to the barbarian's displeasure. When Simon and Alyanna attempted to waltz across – they triggered an avalanche but survived. Kira quickly realized that the dance had to be the Light-Footed Maiden the group heard while mingling upstairs – Torlinn Shrake's favorite tune.
The next room was a copy of the manse's library. Not remembering the name of the poem favored by Torlinn, the group activated the trap. It collapsed one of the bookshelves and unleashed a basilisk, who already petrified another unlucky guest earlier that day – an elven priestess of Tymora. The group managed to survive the battle as Holga beheaded the beast, but not before he was hurt and cured by a healing potion. The thieves followed through the opened passage and reached the dungeon's bestiary – a collection of cages with giant spiders, dire wolves, kobolds, an amphisbaena, and lastly, Torlinn Shrake... It was revealed that that the dragonborn wizard was defeated in a spell duel all those decades ago against the beholder Sharrestren, who took on Torlinn's form and claimed his life in Neverwinter. The eye tyrant discovered the Staff of Aorth and hatched a plan to restore the damaged artifact to full power by feeding it positive emotions from lavish weekly parties and negative emotions from the death dungeon underneath. Edgin knew there was no way out of the manse without Sharrestren's knowledge. The group agreed to let the wizard out and help him claim the staff – the only magic strong enough to destroy a beholder. Meanwhile, Forge Fitzwilliam attempted to convince Ed to steal the staff after the imposter was dealt with.
With help from the staff's rightful owner, the thieves recovered the staff. Simon could not harness its magics, and it fell to Torlinn to destroy the beholder. The group confronted the imposter in the mansion's ballroom. Ed attempted to warn Lady Sofina of the beholder battle that was about to erupt but resorted to screaming of a gnome on fire in the kitchens to "encourage" the guests to vacate the estate. Sofina recognized the spell being cast as the disguised eye tyrant attempted to seal the guests in, but the real Torlinn broke the creature's concentration with an incantation of his own. Holga was able to push Kira out of the room before it was sealed, to Edgin's relief. No other option was available; they had to defeat Sharrestren to survive. Edgin, as always, concocted a plan. He served as a distraction, touting the massive floating eye with a pottery shard to allow his teammates to act. One of the beholder eye-blasts barely killed Ed, but he was pushed out of the way by Alyanna, who was not as lucky, grazed by the deadly magic. Holga ended up receiving a blast of telekinetic magic that left her hurt but living. Last ditch attempt to survive was to destroy the Staff of Aorth.
Despite being hurt, Holga plummeted onto the beholder's fling carcass and grappled its swaying stalks. As the creature was distracted, Edgin planted the staff in the middle of the ballroom underneath the pipe organ. Simon quickly cast dispel magic onto the instruments suspended above. The real Torlinn Shrake did not want to see his treasure destroyed and aimed a spell of flame and death at Simon. Under pressure, the half-elf forced himself to be steeled. He recited counterspell perfectly, waving the offensive magics away. In the next moment, Simon whispered another incantation, and the grand organ crushed on the staff, breaking it and causing a massive magic explosion. In its final moments, Sharrestren unleashed one last eye-beam at Edgin. Once again, the ex-Harper was saved. Torlinn Shrake was running towards Ed and received the brunt of the magical offense that ended the dragonborn's life.
When the explosion was over, Ed, Holga, and Simon managed to survive, but Forge was gravely hurt. Lady Sofina remained unscathed by the struggle. She used a potion from her personal collection to heal Forge, leaving the conman in Sofina's debt. Upon departure, Lady Sofina revealed to the ex-Harper that she was at the party on behalf of an organization interested in Torlinn's sorcerous activities. The revelation should have alerted Edgin. He assumed she belonged to the Harpers or the Lords' Alliance. When it was revealed that the mansion hid an expansive dungeon, Sofina showed interest and informed the thieves that her organization would be arriving shortly.
The thieves lost the staff but got away with some of the dead wizard's art and treasure. Alyanna was invited to Ed's house in Targos to divide the loot.
==Index==
===Characters===
: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 
::
:: • • • • 
===Creatures===
: • • • • • • • • • • • • • fey • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 
::
:: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 
===Locations===
:;Settlements
:: • • 
::
:: • • • 
:;Buildings
:: • • • 
:;Regions
:: • Icewind Dale • 
::
:: • • 
:;Other
::
:: • 
===Organizations===
:
::
:: • • • 
===Magic===
:;Spells
:: • • • • • • • • • 
:;Magic Items
:: • • • • • 
===Religion===
: • • • • • 
===Items===
:;Food & Drink
:: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 
::
:: • • • • • 
:;Vegetation
:: • • • 
:;Works
:: • • • 
:;Miscellaneous
:: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 
::
:: • • 
==Appendix==
===Background===
The novel had the working or preliminary title Neverwinter Heist with a different cover (possibly a mock-up), which was shown in the Habsro 2022 Investor Day: Winning with Stories presentation on October 4, 2022. This was only a day before the actual title and cover were revealed.
===Notes===
===Gallery===
Neverwinter Heist.jpg|Preliminary cover with former title.
===References===
Category:Novels
Category:Works by Jaleigh Johnson
Category:Published in 2023
Category:Year of Manuscripts
Category:Books