Kalen Dren first saw his spellscar as a curse. It numbed his body, snuffing out sensation and making pleasure -- and pain -- impossible for him to feel. Until he met Gedrin, who gave him the magical sword Vindicator and a cause worth fighting for: justice. Now he uses his supernatural physical durability to aid him in fighting crime by night, under the guise of the masked vigilante Shadowbane. Rath is an assassin, in that he is paid to kill. He is also a dwarf, a former monk, and his kills are as beautiful as they are deadly. But one man keeps standing in the way of his work with his delusions of greater good. A masked man who calls himself Shadowbane. But if this would-be hero thinks to play in the dark alleys of Downshadow, where the law of the sword is the only law there is, he"s in for a rude surprise. The bustling city of Waterdeep are filled with intrigue and danger -- and Downshadow, the labyrinthal passages beneath its streets, more so. Kalen Dren takes justice into his own hands and into the streets, becoming Shadowbane. But not everyone is happy to see him haunting Downshadow, and between his foiling their crimes and protecting a dangerous -- and extraordinarily magical -- woman who is caught up in some tangled web beyond his understanding, Kalen Dren"s life is about to get very complicated. Downshadow is part of the Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep series. Each author in this series has been hand-selected by the creator of the Forgotten Realms world, Ed Greenwood, who also reviews each novel personally. These stand-alone novels, set in Waterdeep, can be read in any order. Once you finish reading Downshadow, check out City of the Dead, also part of the Waterdeep series, or Depths of Madness, for another dark adventure written by Erik Scott