Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will arrive in theaters on March 31. However, you don’t have to wait until then to learn more about the movie’s adventurers. Prequel novels for Honor Among Thieves will get you ready for the movie before you sit down to watch it. The Road to Neverwinter by Jaleigh Johnson focuses on Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine plays him in the movie). Nerdist has an exclusive excerpt from the D&D prequel novel, and guess what? Edgin has a daughter—a daughter who works alongside him on heists. It’s a solid family business.
Before you meet Kira in the below excerpt, here’s the synopsis for The Road to Neverwinter:
Edgin Darvis’ life is a mess. All that he has left are his lute, his dashing good looks, and…not much else. After a chance encounter with badass bruiser Holga, Edgin is forced to take a hard look at his bad choices. But the road to redemption is long, and paved with unforeseen expenses. Fortunately, the world is full of rich fools begging to be parted from their money.
And so Edgin and Holga do what any sensible entrepreneurs would do—they form a crew.
Joined by a charming rogue, Forge Fitzwilliam, and Simon, a sorcerer with an intense inferiority complex, the team sets out to line their pockets with both well-earned and ill-gotten gold. Together, Edgin’s crew battles monsters across the realms: gnoll raiders, fey witches, and more fall beneath their sharp weapons and sharper wit. But when they encounter a new, more sophisticated villain, keen blades and piercing blue eyes may not be enough.
Their target? Torlinn Shrake, a wealthy eccentric known for abusing his servants and hosting lavish parties.
The plan? Play dress-up, sneak into the Shrake estate, and fill their pockets with as much loot as they can carry.
The catch? Shrake is hiding a terrible secret: one that could endanger the lives of everyone Edgin has come to care for—even if the loot is too good to pass up.
“We’ll all be murdered by the faceless dead!”
It was definitely a challenge to pick a lock while the lord and lady of the house were screaming their heads off downstairs, but Edgin was a professional.
“Set the scene for me, Holga,” he said, glancing over his shoulder. “What’s Kira doing?”
Standing watch at the door to Lord Bantakent’s study, Holga was shaking her head in pure admiration. “Told you that invisibility pendant would pay off, Ed. She’s a master.”
The lock clicked open. Edgin threw back the lid of the chest and buried his hands in a pile of gold and gems. Sweet victory. He scooped the loot into a bag and tossed it over his shoulder before joining Holga at the door.
Downstairs, the Lord and Lady Bantakent, one of the most unscrupulous merchant power couples in the city of Neverwinter, were huddled together in their nightclothes in the center of their grand foyer, while a pair of what looked like priceless vases floated around their heads. The rest of the room was a shambles. All the paintings had been turned upside down or pulled off the walls, tables and chairs were knocked over, and through it all, a high-pitched, disembodied voice intoned, “Yooooouuuu shall join me in the emptiness of the beyoooooond!”
“She improvised that line,” Edgin said, nudging Holga.
The servants had all fled as soon as Kira started throwing plates and dinnerware against the dining room walls and howling in a voice of ghostly despair. Lord and Lady Bantakent had retreated to the foyer, where an invisible Kira had cornered them to continue the haunting while Edgin and Holga cleaned out the upstairs.
“Miffles!” Lady Bantakent wailed. “No, not my baby!”
“Oh, that’s a nice touch,” Edgin said, “using the dog.”
He watched Lord and Lady Bantakent quail before the sight of Miffles the terrier sailing through the air, dipping up and down, his pink tongue lolling out the side of his mouth, to all appearances having the time of his doggy life.
“Time to go,” Holga said, pulling Edgin toward the half-open window and the rope they’d left hanging there.
The three of them met up at the rendezvous point in an alley a few streets away, Kira appearing in front of Edgin with a huge grin on her face. “Did you see me, Dad? Did you see?”
“Fantastic job, kid,” Edgin said. “That was a one-in-a-million haunting.”
“Profitable too,” Holga said.
It was well after midnight by the time they got back to the cottage.
“It’s time to admit the truth,” Edgin said with a sigh as he, Holga, and Kira sorted the loot at the kitchen table. “I’m a damn good thief.”
Holga snorted. “Ought to be, after nine years of practice.”
“Well, I’ve always known it, of course, but I’m a humble man,” Edgin said.
Kira laughed as she sorted the coins from the small pile of gems. Edgin did a double take every time he looked at her these days. She’d grown from a squalling newborn to a nightmare of a toddler and was now all skinned knees, skinny arms, and dark curly hair at nine years old. The change from baby to person had seemed to happen in an eyeblink.
Of course, as soon as she was old enough to understand what they did for a living, Kira had insisted on joining him and Holga on their heists. Edgin had been unsure at first, but she’d quickly become invaluable. The rest of the time . . .
Edgin had hoped that when she was able to walk, dress herself, and take care of the basics of being a person, to speak and tell him exactly what she needed, things would get easier when it came to raising Kira.
Oh, what a sweet, innocent, naïve man he’d been.
Being able to walk meant that she could run. With sharp objects. Toward horses or deep bodies of water.
Being able to speak meant that she had opinions. Suggestions about when her bedtime should be, or critiques of his cooking.
After nine years, he still had no idea what he was doing.
Reprinted from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: The Road to Neverwinter by Jaleigh Johnson. © 2023 Wizards of the Coast LLC. © 2023 Paramount Pictures Corporation. Published by Random House Worlds, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: The Road to Neverwinter hits shelves on February 28, about a month before the film. You can place a pre-order now.
