In the beginning, the player finds out that their party was ambushed by assassins of some sort and taken captive into a mysterious dungeon. The player character awakens in a cage being experimented on by a mage, Jon Irenicus. As Irenicus prepares to perform more “endurance” experiments on the captured player character, he is interrupted by a jailkeep golem servant. The golem reports a commotion in the upper levels of the dungeon, and Irenicus is forced to depart as a band of Shadow Thieves raid his underground complex. Also kept in the dungeon are old friends Imoen, Minsc and Jaheira from the original Baldur’s Gate game, who will make the player character’s escape from the prison very easy if they are all conscripted.