Screenplay
by
Rino Cuzzetto

Adapted from the novel
by
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

OPENING CREDITS:

Scenes of rolling hills, and the forest town of Solace. Establish Solace is in a valley. Opening credits end up on a hilltop overlooking the valley where Solace is located. Close up on the dirt at the top of the hilltop. A boot comes down and the camera pans back to reveal a dwarf, FLINT.

SCENE 1 EXT. OUTSKIRTS OF SOLACE

FLINT sits on a boulder. He is obviously tired.

FLINT
I should never have left.
(slaps both hands on his knees)
And I’ll be damned if I’m ever leaving again!
(looks down to the town of Solace)
My house has been sitting empty for five years. Stupid quest. Silliest thing I ever did. After one hundred and forty-eight years, I ought to have learned!

TANIS
(off camera)
You’ll never learn, dwarf. Not if you live to be two hundred and forty-eight!

Flint smiles to himself and gets up. He turns to face the approaching hooded figure.

FLINT
Tanis?

Tanis removes the hood and smiles.

TANIS
The same.

They hug and after a few moments, Flint squirms and breaks away.

FLINT
(grumbling and trying to appear dignified)
You’ve still not learned manners. No respect for my age or station. Hoisting me around like a sack of potatoes. I hope no one who knows us saw us.

TANIS
I doubt there are many who’d remember us. Time doesn’t pass for us as it does for humans. Five years is a long time for them.
(smiles)
You haven’t changed.

Flint sits on the boulder again.

FLINT
Same can’t be said of you. Why the beard? You were ugly enough.

TANIS
I have been in lands that were not friendly to those of elven blood. The beard—a gift from my human father—did much to hide my heritage.

FLINT
I’ve been in lands that weren’t friendly to anyone of any kind of blood. We’re home know and it’s all behind us.

TANIS
Not from what I’ve heard. The Highseekers in Haven appointed a man named Hederick as High Theocrat, and he’s turned the town upside down with his new religion.

FLINT
(quietly)
I’ve heard of no evil in Solace.

TANIS
(ominously)
Religious persecution…inquisitions…

FLINT
Inquisitions! That’s only for those who defy the High Theocrat. I don’t believe in the Seeker gods—never did—but I don’t parade my beliefs in the street. Keep quiet and they’ll leave you alone, that’s my motto. By the way, did you find what you sought?

TANIS
Some sign of the ancient, true gods? Or peace of mind? I went seeking both.

FLINT
Well, I assumed one would go with the other.

Flint motions with his arm as he gets up and they begin walking towards Solace.

FLINT
So you found nothing?

TANIS
Nothing. As we discovered long ago, the only clerics and priests in this world serve false gods. I saw a lot of magic tricks, but fortunately our Raistlin taught me what to watch—

FLINT
Raistlin! That pasty faced, skinny magician. He’s more than half charlatan himself. Always poking his nose where it doesn’t belong. If it wasn’t for his half-brother, someone would’ve put an end to his magic long ago.

TANIS
I think the young man was a better magician than you gave him credit for. But what of you? How was your journey to your homelands?

FLINT
(muttering)
I never should have gone.

TANIS
What of the dwarven clerics? The stories we heard?

FLINT
Not true. They vanished three hundred years ago during the Cataclysm. So say the elders.

TANIS
Much like the elves.

FLINT
I saw—

Tanis interrupts with a hushing noise and puts his hand up.

FLINT
What?

TANIS
(pointing off screen)
Over in that grove.

Camera shows the grove.

FLINT
(off camera)
I don’t see anything.

Camera on Tanis’s face.

TANIS
I did.
(calling out)
Who goes there?

A whirring noise is heard, starting out low and getting louder.

TAS
(making his voice sound eerie and ghostlike)
Elf, turn from your course and leave the dwarf behind. We are the spirits of those poor souls Flint Fireforge left on the barroom floor. Did we die in combat? No! We died of shame, cursed by the ghost of the grape for not being able to outdrink a hill dwarf.

Flint is visibly angry while Tanis breaks out in laughter.

TAS
(merry sounding)
Damn you Flint Fireforge!

Tas leaps from the grove onto the path. He is holding a staff with a type of slingshot on the top. That is what was making the whirring noise.

TAS
Flint!

Tas runs and hugs Flint. Flint reluctantly hugs him back and then breaks away.

TAS
Who’s this? Tanis! I didn’t recognize you with a beard!

Tas holds out his arms for a hug.

FLINT
(grinning)
No thanks. I want to keep my money pouch.

At the mention of a money pouch Flint taps himself down and then notices his is missing.

FLINT
You rascal!

Flint begins chasing Tas as the three head towards Solace.