The Halfling's Gem characters

Appears from the start

A dark elf ranger from Icewind Dale, fighting with two scimitars and a summoned panther, now travelling south across country where nobody has ever seen one of his kind and everybody has heard the stories. He is chasing an assassin who took his friend, and he knows the chase is exactly what the assassin wants; he is also carrying the loss of the dwarf who was the first person on the surface to call him a friend.

Appears from the start

A young barbarian king of the tundra tribes, enormous, immensely strong and armed with the magical warhammer Aegis-fang. He has left his people to go south after a friend, and every league of the journey takes him further from anything he understands. He is more certain of himself than the situation warrants.

Appears from the start

A halfling from Calimport, taken prisoner by the assassin sent to bring him home to the guildmaster he robbed years ago. He is being carried south toward a reckoning he has spent his whole adult life avoiding, and his only assets are patience, a good ear for what people want, and a talent for being underestimated.

Appears from the start

An assassin of extraordinary skill in the employ of a Calimport guildmaster, carrying a stolen halfling and a stolen gem back to his master. He fights with a saber and a jeweled dagger, wants nothing that money can buy, and has arranged his route so that the dark elf can follow it, because the only thing that interests him now is finding out which of them is better.

Appears from the start

A great black panther summoned from another world by an onyx figurine Drizzt carries, able to stay for a limited time before she must return and rest.

Appears from the start

A wizard of the Harpell family who keeps a tower on the coast north of Waterdeep, considerably more disciplined and more formidable than his relatives. He offers the travellers shelter, tests what they are made of, and knows where to find the things they will need for a journey into the south.

First appears in chapter 3

A banshee haunting the ruins near the abandoned village of Conyberry, the undead remnant of an elf sorceress, guarding a hoard she no longer has any use for. Her wail can kill, and she does not part with anything willingly.

First appears in chapter 4

The captain of the Sea Sprite, a fast schooner out of Waterdeep. Precise, professional and used to judging strangers quickly because his trade requires it, he takes passengers on his own assessment of them rather than on their papers or their appearance.

First appears in chapter 7

A dwarf king of Clan Battlehammer, who fell into a chasm in the depths of Mithril Hall clinging to a shadow dragon and whom his friends have every reason to believe dead. Burned, battered and entirely unwilling to stay at the bottom of a hole, he begins the climb back out.

First appears in chapter 8

A young human woman raised by Bruenor as his daughter among the dwarves of Icewind Dale, and a fine archer. She stayed in the north after the escape from Mithril Hall rather than go south with Drizzt and Wulfgar, and she is not finished grieving.

First appears in chapter 8

A wizard of Longsaddle, enthusiastic, scattered and reliably dangerous to stand next to, who attached himself to the search for Mithril Hall and has no intention of detaching now.

First appears in chapter 10

The ruler of Silverymoon, one of the great powers of the north, courteous and formidable. She takes an interest in the fate of Mithril Hall and in the dwarf who claims it, and she can put transport at a traveller's disposal that no road can match.

First appears in chapter 15

A merchant of the desert city of Memnon who deals in guides, camels, information and whatever else a stranger can be sold. He talks continuously, offers his services cheaply, and is loyal to whichever party is paying him at the time, which is rarely only one.

First appears in chapter 16

The master of the most powerful thieves' guild in Calimport, comfortable, unhurried and utterly secure in his own city. He has waited years to get his stolen ruby pendant back and to make an example of the halfling who took it, and he intends to enjoy both.

First appears in chapter 16

Pasha Pook's resident wizard, who keeps the guild house's defences and its scrying, and whose position depends on being useful rather than on being trusted. He is more thoughtful than most of the men around him and takes a professional interest in the halfling.

First appears in chapter 17

A wererat, leader of a large band of his kind in the sewers and back alleys of Calimport, allied to Pasha Pook's guild and pushing constantly for a larger share of it. Ingratiating to Pook's face and resented by everyone else in the organization.