Appearance:
Artemis Entreri is not very tall but compact with wiry muscles. He is possessed of angular features, striking high cheekbones, and prominant sideburns. Though he is usually clean-shaven, Artemis always seems to need a shave. His skin is a grayish hue resulting from an encounter with an extradimensional humanoid known as a shade, in which his vampiric dagger pulled the shade's life-force into his own. His raven black hair is thick and full, but his eyes are gray and lifeless, portraying the emptiness of his life and his soul. Though being about 40 years old, Artemis has the lean athleticism of a man half his age. Since travelling with the drow elf Jarlaxle, Artemis is often seen wearing a small-brimmed black hat.
Personality:
Artemis is a professional and always has an air of control about him. Every move he makes or word he speaks is calculated to achieve a desired effect. He never allows emotions or the circumstances, no matter how dire, to master him. In this, he is completely as determined as Drizzt. He tirelessly maintains himself in top condition, and constantly seeks to improve his martial skills, again just as his drow nemesis does. Artemis also is terribly cunning, able to out think as well as outfight his opponents. One aspect of his professionalism that is rare in a man whose business is killing is that Artemis usually never kills unless it is necessary or unless he's been hired to do so. There has been the occasional exception, such as in The Halfling's Gem, Starless Night, and The Silent Blade, where Entreri killed somebody simply because he really wanted to. On two of these three occasions the victim had made the mistake of angering Artemis and provoking him. Artemis has vowed to "never leave an enemy in his wake." He does not take threats lightly. For the most part, those who are not enemies of Entreri or his allies have nothing to fear from him.
Artemis' first friendship would have been with Dwahvel Tiggerwillies with whom he spoke openly, sharing opinions and thoughts he shared with nobody else. This is shown mostly in the Servant of the Shard book, where he trusts her as a confident, informer and helper from the start to half-way through the book. When they part different ways, Artemis writes to her a very moving letter written in a way that Artemis himself found it hard to believe he was the letter's author.
Artemis Entreri's greatest hatred and disgust is reserved for those who are willing to abandon or betray their children in an effort to save themselves. This is because of events of his childhood.
Equipment:
Vampiric Dagger - Often referred to as a "Jeweled Dagger" in various novels, this emerald-studded dagger is Entreri's signature weapon, and is the most recognized and feared weapon in Calimport. With a single strike, the magical weapon could suck the life force of the victim and use it to heal the wielder. The blade can also emanate a white, fiery light.
In battle, Entreri's favorite wielding technique with this dagger is to wield it as a main-gauche in his left hand with a sword or saber in his right. His common interrogation technique is to force the victim's palm open and use the dagger to make a single blood-drawing tear on it, thus starting the life-draining magic. He usually doesn't have to wait long before the victim yields and pleads for him to stop. When Entreri is seriously hurt and under pursuit, he would commonly use the dagger to heal himself at the expense of a poor beggar or drunkard who happens to pass by.
Charon's Claw - Charon's Claw is a sword and gauntlet combination, the perfect weapon when battling a wizard.
Entreri stole the weapon from its former master Kohrin Soulez. He had a fake duplicate of the gauntlet created and then switched it for the real one during a duel with the Charon Claw's former wielder, Soulez being killed by the sword itself. The sword is a sentient artifact, Entereri could only wield it with the protection of the gauntlet. The gauntlet, however, was destroyed when Entreri braved a lich's tower with his partner, the dark elf Jarlaxle. Although Entreri could still suppress Charon's Claw through sheer willpower, he had lost the formidable defenses against magic and psionics that the gauntlet had granted him. Anyone who touches the blade or handle of this sword unprotected must compete with it in a battle of wills.
However, Jarlaxle has the gauntlet "repaired" by his lieutenant Kimmuriel and gives it back to Entreri later. The mercenary keeps an almost identical copy of it for himself, with the same powers like the "original."
Small-Brimmed Black Hat - Artemis received the small-brimmed black hat from Jarlaxle. Though looking inconspicuous, the hat like every item of Jarlaxle has beneficial properties, magical and mechanical in nature. It has the ability to chill it's wearers body temperature to better help hide from eyes seeing in the heatsensing spectrum and it has a wire inset into the band that holds the hat in place on top of Artemis' head even when falling off a horse.
Nightmare - The black figurine of a horse was given to him by Jarlaxle. When summoned from the Lower Planes it turns into a Night Mare with flaming hooves. Smoke and fire also emits from the horse's mouth, nostrils and eyes. The summoned horse never tires and is resistant to most non-magical attacks. The Night Mare can be dispelled by powerful counter magic and temporarily sent back to the Lower Planes. The steed is fearless and charges forward with reckless abandon.
Idalia's Flute - Artemis received the instrument from the dragon sisters Tazmikella and Ilnezhara. It is a small and rather ordinary-looking flute made of wood. It is said, that Idalia put a key inside this flute to unlock any heart. For Artemis, playing the flute helps to clear his thoughts.
Bio:
Entreri reveals little about his past, but some is known about his early life. Artemis Entreri was born into the streets of Memnon, to a prostitute named Shanali, he was constantly abused by his 'father', Belrigger, and his uncle Tosso. Eventually, his mother sold him to a merchant who was, if anything, worse than his uncle; this must have been how he reached Calimport. This betrayal was enough to put a block on Entreri's emotions, making the man hide from the world by a sheer mental wall of rage and cynicism. In Calimport, he was taken in by the thieves' guild ruled by Pasha Basadoni. Basadoni taught young Artemis the tricks of the trade, teaching him the basics of fighting, and helping him master stealth. As Entreri practiced, he flourished, becoming the most efficient and deadly assassin in Calimshan and perhaps all of Faerûn. He was hired by many Pashas, his most recent employer being Pasha Pook. Pasha Pook hired Artemis to track down a halfling named Regis who had stolen an enchanted ruby from Pook. Entreri would chase Regis for several years, each time with Regis only escaping by a hair's breadth. Entreri eventually cornered Regis in the far north at the Spine of the World. Entreri then met Regis's friend Drizzt Do'Urden and became obsessed with defeating the drow after he was defeated by him. Entreri's hunt for Drizzt inevitably got him caught up with Jarlaxle Baenre and the drow, and his most recent ventures have been with them.
Entreri became so skilled in his art that he was amazed upon meeting Drizzt, his only equal. Entreri wanted to test who was the better fighter and so eventually became obsessed with destroying or defeating the drow ranger. Artemis never really got the satisfaction of a proper fight, though the few times he and Drizzt did duke it out the elf usually won out, but not in the way the assassin would have preferred.
When Artemis finally got his fight Drizzt won again. Earlier in the duel the combatants' heads had smashed together, causing swelling around Artemis' eye which increased as the battle raged on until his vision in that eye was completely gone. Drizzt finally took advantage of this to slash Artemis' wrist, depriving him of his sword, and a moment later grip his dagger arm with the other hand. Drizzt had considered the whole affair pointless, and again made his sentiments known to Entreri with his scimitar pressed to the assassin's throat. "So what have we proven?" the drow demanded. "Because my head connected in a favorable place with yours, limiting your vision, I am the better fighter?" But Entreri wanted it ended, one way or another, and told him to finish it.
Nevertheless, Drizzt refused to kill Entreri. Instead he let him live, and so Artemis, desperate for death now that he had been conclusively defeated by Drizzt, cried out and charged Drizzt. Drizzt instinctively lashed out defensively with a shot that would have killed the assassin but for the outside intrusion of a psionicist, Kimmuriel Oblodra, who had covered Entreri with a protective shield of psionic power. The shield absorbed the power of Drizzt's shot, and when Entreri reflexively fired a punch at Drizzt, the kinetic energy of the shot was transferred into the ranger. The blast "killed" Drizzt, enraging Entreri all the more, for he wanted a fair fight. Despite his initial anger and chagrin at this conclusion, Artemis wound up living a happier life from there on, though, (to whatever degree you could call the assassin's existence happy) with Drizzt "dead." Whereas he had previously been obsessed with proving himself the better fighter, Artemis was now able to reluctantly put his rivalry with Drizzt behind him and concentrate on other things. No one told the assassin, but Drizzt was healed right after Entreri had been forcibly removed from the room where they had dueled. Since he acquired Charon's Claw, Artemis has not fought Drizzt.
Entreri became close friends with a halfling by the name of Dwahvel Tiggerwillies, the guildmistress of a halfling guild based in the Calimport. He was able to confide in her, which was a rare thing indeed for the assassin. She became the first true friend Artemis Entreri possibly ever had.
After Entreri aided Jarlaxle, Cadderly, and their companions in a quest to destroy the malevolent Crystal Shard, he traveled with the drow mercenary leader Jarlaxle to the Damara area in search of new adventures.
In the short story "That Curious Sword" (which took place in Heliogabalus in the Bloodstone Lands in the Year of the Shield, or 1367 DR) in the Realms of Shadow anthology, Entreri was assaulted by a Shadovar who attempted to take Charon's Claw, claiming that it belonged to the Netherese. Entreri killed the Shadovar with his jewelled dagger and inadvertently drained some of the shade's life-force, thus becoming part shade (one infused with shadowstuff) himself. Since that encounter, his skin has taken a slightly gray pallor, and Charon's Claw feels a certain affinity toward him.
In his most recent adventure, Entreri followed Jarlaxle to the vast land of Vaasa in search of a powerful artifact once belonging to the Witch-King Zhengyi. Following his defeat in an epic war decades ago, the evil wizard's many artifacts continued to plague Vaasa and the surrounding lands. One such item was a book that would generate a magical fortress, sucking on the life force of whatever unfortunate wizard activated it.
The book had indeed been activated, and incidentally the tower generated held the item Jarlaxle sought. Thus the pair traveled to Vaasa, and infiltrated the "Army of Bloodstone." This elite mercenary band of warriors protected the neighboring kingdom of Damara from goblin and giant tribes in the Vaasan plain. While procuring the item, Jarlaxle and Artemis incidentally saved a local half-orc community from Zhengyi's tower, and the young wizardess who'd activated it.
King Gareth Dragonsbane then bestowed upon him the title of Apprentice Knight of the Order.
During the affair, Artemis discovered that a Idalia's flute, a magical artifact Jarlaxle had given him was manipulating his feelings. This was an effort on Jarlaxle's part to open up Artemis' heart. Uncomfortably, it caused the assassin to grow sudden strong feelings for the young half-orc wizardess Arrayan Faylin and a nobleborn captain in the Bloodstone Army. Jarlaxle claimed he was trying to give Entreri a reason to live besides killing, to give the man some peace in his troubled life. However, Jarlaxle's capricious nature has caused Artemis to take this claim with more than a degree of skepticism. The flute also causes Artemis to fall in "love" with the half-elf warrior Calihye. At the end of Promise of the Witch-King, he makes love to her, and their relationship develops throughout Road of the Patriarch. However, troubled by Artemis's role in the death of her friend Parissus, she later tries to kill him when he asks her to come with him and leave her home. Although Artemis is protected from injury by Kimmuriel Oblodra, the drow psionist acting under Jarlaxle's orders, and even though it is made clear that Calihye was under severe emotional turmoil and did not really want to hurt him, their relationship is obviously ended.
After a conflict with King Gareth Dragonsbane of Damara, Artemis and Jarlaxle are exiled from the Bloodstone lands. Upon leaving, Artemis, again prompted by the flute, returns to his childhood home in Memnon. He then finds and kills his abusive uncle and the corrupt priest who likely fathered him, but learns that his mother is already dead. Artemis then goes separate ways with Jarlaxle.
Still haunted by his childhood and struggling to accept what he has become since then, he breaks Idalia's flute and reveals that he is leaving for Calimport and says that he wishes to go home.
As the assassin travelled to Calmiport however, he was suddenly engulfed by a strange light and found himself in a new land....
