<strong>Baldur's Gate<br/>A few days ago</strong><br/><br/>Master Pellius sat in his study, where he could usually be found pouring over old books and recently unearthed scrolls. He was a short, stocky man, light of skin, who appeared to be in his middle years but was in fact much older than that. He ruffled his neatly manicured fingers through his full head of short black hair, glancing back at the magic circle he had constructed and mounted on the wall behind his desk.<br/><br/>He was so close, he thought to himself as he gazed at the five pointed star etched in gold within the large wooden circle. At four of the five points, and in the center as well, were mounted ancient looking masks, each one beautiful or grotesque in its own way. The four masks at the points positively seethed with magical power. The one in the middle, a mask of solid, black metal with silver stars etched in where the eye holes should have been, seemed oddly devoid of any magic whatsoever. And of course he was still missing one. But he was so close...<br/><br/>Soft, pattering footsteps brought the old wizard out if his reverie, and he turned back around to see a little girl standing in the now wide open doorway. She was wearing a long white dress, her skin was paler than even his was, and long hair the color of a dark, starless midnight draped loosely down her shoulders.<br/><br/>"How did you...?" the man's voice trailed off into silence as he felt a chill creep through his old bones. Surely his servants would not have let in some little girl... He felt compelled to turn around and when he did, his heart skipped several beats as he noticed that the black mask was suddenly missing. He whirled back around, his brow sweating, glowering down at the girl who was still just standing there, hiding her hands behind her back and shuffling her feet innocently. She looked for all like this was just some kind of game.<br/><br/>"Looking for this?" she asked in an eerily soft and sweet tone. She held out her right hand, and sure enough she was holding the mask, but not for long. She held it up to her face, and as it melted against her childish features, the silver stars receded into nothingness... two small pools of deep void into which Pellius could only stare into for so long before he started to worry he might go mad and had to avert his gaze.<br/><br/>"I should thank you," the girl spoke again, but now even as he heard her voice out loud, her words seemed to echo in his mind, in the sultry voice of a grown woman. "For recovering my own mask and four of the others, I really should show some appreciation and reward you with a quick, painless death. And don't be so hard on yourself... even I have been having some trouble finding the last one." She giggled softly, "But... you were indeed soooo close..."<br/><br/>Pellius just shook his head, "Foolish little girl, whoever you are," he muttered, reaching into the pockets of his robe and pulling out a wand with each hand. He held up the wand in his left hand, shooting out a small spark of flame which erupted into a large explosion, but the girl just nimbly dodged out of harm's way without so much as a single singe mark on her body. His knuckles whitened as he gripped the wand in his right hand, sending forth a barrage of magic missiles, which seemed to be sucked into the pools of void on her mask, also to no apparent effect. All the while, she was stalking towards him until she was standing on the desk, close enough for him to hear her little heart beating wildly in anticipation...<br/><br/>...His death was neither quick, nor painless...