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Faerthin Seshore

Faerthin Seshore was born in the formidable fortress keep of Hornshield* and raised to continue on with the long tradition of crafting, metalwork and glasswork that Hornshield's artisans are famous for.

A tall, thin man with a rather square head and a long, freckled nose who tires quite easily, Faerthin moves about in an ungainly, not-quite lumbering sort of way and sits with a bit of a slouch owing to much time spent as a youth leaning over a workbench while doing fine, detailed metalwork and engraving. For all his clumsiness Faerthin possesses exceptionally nimble hands and is skilled at manipulating small objects such as lock tumblers, artisans tools, clockwork gears and spell components.

Faerthin grew to despise the idea of a life lived in solitude, where endless hard work, long hours and the never ending dictates of the council of elders who collectively rule over Hornshield would come to rule his own adult life. He vowed to free himself from Hornshield and pursue his own interests.

The discovery of his arcane powers led Faerthin to secretly pursue his magical studies, believing this to be a gift from the gods meant to remove him from a life of endless toil and servitude. He masked his interest in magic as no more than curiosity about how the group of mages who magically transport goods to other parts of Cormyr conduct their business, just as he claimed his interest in the long-dead mage Aumrathar Uernhands, who once resided at Hornshield, as a passing curiosity about Hornshield's history.

Faerthin diligently pursued the art of crafting locks and the creation of ornate metal work, eventually earning himself his own workspace. He learned to quickly create objects of surpassing quality and used his remaining time alone to secretly study ritual scrolls and a single tattered old spellbook he'd stumbled upon after getting himself lost in the depths of Hornshield's catacombs.

Faerthin soon realized he had learned all he could from the limited means at hand and, as he was of age, he chose to rebel. In a burst of unexpected defiance, Faerthin revealed his powers of the Art, but made it clear to his immediate family that he'd not become another magemule, hidebound to the dictates of the keep and its need to have finished goods magically transported to warehouses in Suzail.

Before his father could have him run out of the castle, Faerthin begged transport from one of the mages who moved Hornshield's goods to Suzail, convincing the mage to take him to the next Council of Mages meeting so he could present himself as a fresh recruit to the War Wizards.

Fortune favored Faerthin, for his encyclopedic knowledge of Hornshield's activities, as well as his relative frailty, was sufficient to earn him a watch post at the Royal Court. His duty is to receive, catalog and meticulously store information and reports from War Wizard spies** who keep watch over all commerce in Cormyr. He reports to Vainrence once a tenday.

With the passage of time Faerthin has grown accustomed to sitting behind a desk, receiving information from War Wizard agents across Cormyr and forwarding the occasional order or decree from Ganrahast.  Faerthin keeps to the Royal Court as much as possible.

Faerthin pursues his work diligently and with great care. His greatest nightmare is making a mistake that leads to him being stationed in the "outland" regions (that is, anything beyond Suzail and the Royal Court) or horror of horrors being forced to camp in the wilds with a pack of brutish Purple Dragons and their smelly mounts.

He greatly prefers having a roof over his head, avoids inclement weather and is ill at ease when there is no ready access to food, drink and a warm bed. He considers Suzail to be the epicenter of culture and civilization, its every part designed to keep him comfortable and safe.

His time in Suzail has given Faerthin something of an eye for architecture and how the finished products produced in his old home are used. He keeps in his quarters the old tools of his family's crafting trade.

In his free time he sits alone, patiently creating wood, metal and glass replicas of his favorite buildings in Suzail.

Faerthin idolizes the one-time Defender of Suzail (Maxer Hlaar) and is curious to recover any of Maxer's lost constructs and creations. As Faerthin is not one to go poking about into dangerous things on his own, he has instead quietly researched as much as he could about Maxer's creations and former abode and is considering approaching the Society of Stalwart Adventurers—by means of an agent—to enquire if any of its intrepid members would be willing to pursue the matter further on his behalf.

I have not used Faerthin in my Realms campaign yet

*See Volo's Guide to Cormyr, page 212

**The wizard who transported Faerthin out of Hornshield, he was surprised to learn, was just such a spy.

Hello Imruphel,

Thank you for your kind words and for reading to at least page 2.   

I will do my level best to get one of these done every day, even if I post after midnight from time to time to do it.

When I started this I knew it would be a challenge, but I didn't realize just how difficult it can be to sit down every day and say, "OK, I'm gonna write up another War Wizard." Volo's Guide to Cormyr is my life preserver in all of this.

Question (or two): Is there anything missing from these write-ups you'd like to see? Should I try my hand at Ed's style of shorthand NPC game info? (LG hf M14 being Ed-speak in 2^nd Edition D&D terms for Lawful Good, Human Female, 14^th level mage, that sort of thing?)

Again, thank you so much for reading!

Almarr Massingham

Almarr Massingham is a liar, a murderer and a scoundrel of the first order. He has been nearly drummed out of the War Wizards on at least three different occasions.

The latest near-expulsion occured under questioning over events that took place in the mining town of Hillmarch.

Almarr was (and still is) suspected in the murder of at least one noble: Blaise Hawklin, second in line to head the Hawklin family after his brother Berendor, who invested heavily of his own funds in Hillmarch to reopen an abandoned mine rumored* to have yielded up strange, magical ores.

Aside from murder, Almarr is believed to have blackmailed a successful sword maker into double paying fees for the inspection, sealing and transport of his blades through the realm. He has been accused of abandoning his watch post and other duties as well.

For all this Almarr has managed to successfully lie, implicate others, once eliminate a witness and generally do whatever it takes to pull himself out of the fire.

Ganrahast has chosen to keep Almarr in Suzail where he can keep an eye on him. This is well, as Almarr has prepared and secreted away in an abandoned mine north of Hillmarch a cache of secret Cormyrian documents listing known gates, portals and extradimensional hideaways created by the Sword Heralds of Cormyr, as well as their means of activation and known destinations.

It is in this mine that the last of Blaise Hawklin's considerable personal fortune may be found, as well as his moldering corpse.

Almarr's portal and refuge list is lengthy and in some cases damning. In the wrong hands it could lead a would be gang of criminals to untold hidden away riches belonging to several noble families and provide them with objects presumed lost, as well as incriminating documents that would allow such criminals to extort at least three extant noble families into ruination.

Almarr is being investigated and closely watched by the Alarphons and at least one Highknight. He is aware he's being surveilled and currently keeps a low profile, seeing to his assigned tasks with simple, unhurried efficiency.

His wish to be done with and gone from Cormyr grows with each passing day. Almarr is toying with the idea of hiring adventurers through his merchant contact in Arabel to retrieve his hidden cache, then have the merchant hire assassins or less scrupulous adventurers to eliminate the first party outside the mine and dispose of their bodies in one of its dark shafts.

Almarr has no interest in turning the list over to an enemy of Cormyr such as Sembia, Netheril or even Westgate, as this would be "wrong" to him. He is not, however, above selling the list to the highest merchant bidder. What they choose to do with it is none of his concern.

I have not used Almarr in my Realms campaign yet.

*Rumors supplied by Almarr's merchant contacts, with the strange ore no more than common iron ore enchanted by Almarr to seem rare and magical.

Well I am up to page 3 now and you have yet to disappoint. Love your work.

Imdar the Stout

Imdar the Stout was born in 1442 DR (the Year of Darkenbeasts Risen), in the village of Wormtower*, itself nestled between the Mistwood Trail and the Bluemist Trail, southeast of Kirinwood.

Imdar is called "the Stout" thanks to his wide build, solid features and protruding belly. Imdar's corpulence has often led others to mistake him for a soft, biddable man, or to think him no more than a lazy glutton.

While he does like to eat (Imdar can consume a whole basket of Kirinwood-raised apples in one sitting) he is by no means spineless. On the contrary, Imdar is a resolute man with a will of iron and an almost fanatical belief in the righteousness of Cormyr.

Like many youths of Cormyr, Imdar was raised on tales and legends of Cormyr's many conflicts and the prevailing glory of its wise rulers and way of life. But unlike other youths, the tales told to Imdar were imparted to him by the dragon ghost who dwells at the heart of the tower ruins that gave the village of Wormtower its name.

As a boy Imdar chanced upon a small, oval shaped stone with a strange rune carved into one side, with a mithril loop jutting out from its top and a chain of the same material running through the loop. He found the stone half buried in the earth near the border of the village where Wormtower's cobblestoned lanes and hedgerows end.

Not knowing any better, the lad set the chain around his neck and placed the stone beneath his woolen shirt. As he made his way down the path, the stone warmed over his breast and a voice spoke in his mind, ’Finally..."

Curious, but not yet scared, Imdar said aloud, "Finally what?" To which the voice in his head replied, "Finally one has come who is worthy and can be taught. Seek me in the ruin, boy. I trust you know of which ruin I speak?"

At this Imdar did know fear. Try as he might, he couldn't remove the necklace, his fingers flowing through it and the pendant as though they were made of air. Imdar rushed home to get help, not caring for the consequences levied on him for getting a strange magical thing stuck around his neck. Yet when he did find his parents and tore his shirt off no necklace with a pendant could be seen, though Imdar could still feel the weight of it on his neck and its warmth on his chest.

In bed later that night the voice came to him again, "Come to me, boy. I have much to teach and your lives are too pitifully short. Come. Now. Hesitation is for the weak."

Anxious to be rid of the pendant, Imdar snuck out of his home and visited the ghost dragon that night at the ruins of Wormtower, where the voice beckoned him to come forth and sit before the massive skeleton of the dragon. The five tower spires that girded the ruins did not rain lightning down upon him, though he greatly feared they would. Nor did he get turned into a bat or a toad or a rock and then disappear like so many before who'd dared tresspass Wormtower.

That night the ghost dragon told Imdar of its birthplace in the Eastern Stormhorns, of how mages of Anauria and Asram slew its parents and carried away its brothers and sisters while they were still in their eggs, of how the men discarded the dragon's egg upon seeing it damaged, and how a now-dead goddess appeared before the struggling hatchling with the gift of vigor and the means to survive alone.

It told Imdar how the goddess taught it secrets of the Art, then bade the dragon go forth to find humans who were not like those of the now-dead Netherese survivor states, but were worthy to learn the Art and could be taught by the Dragon as it saw fit. The ghost dragon told him of how it and others like it taught free mages the art of Dragon Lair Magic and how to create extradimensional safeholds to secret away truly valuable things.

Fascinated, Imdar returned the next night and the night after that. In all the tales told by the ghost dragon of its many centuries of teaching magic to humans of Cormyr and the surrounding lands, it wove in the story of Cormyr's long history, the nature of the pact between men and elves that binds the Obarskyrs and the people of Cormyr to the land, of its many rulers, its heroes, its mistakes and its struggle to grow, fight and survive.

When not telling tales, the ghost dragon taught Imdar secrets of the Art. He taught the boy that the power of magic came from the land, the oceans and life itself and flowed through all things, and that from this was born the Weave. He taught Imdar that until recently the Weave was the best means to access this magic, but in its absence great magic was still possible.

The ghost dragon tempered young Imdar's impatience to learn new magic with threats to withhold its tales of Cormyr. The boy learned well under its tutelage.

When Imdar came of age the ghost dragon told Imdar the story he'd long wanted to know: How the ghost dragon died and why it slew the mage Nendar Thrinn, whose remains lay beneath the bones of the ghost dragon in the ruins of Nendar's former tower.

Imdar had great pride in the nation of his birth, but this last accounting inspired in him such love for Cormyr that he resolved to travel to Suzail and present himself before the Council of Mages to be accepted as a War Wizard.

Ganrahast almost lost newly minted Wizard of War Imdar to the King after the Mage Royal commanded Imdar to deliver a message of minor importance to his majesty, then return swiftly for his next assignment. A group of sages were imparting to the King information about the known history of dragons lairing in the Stormhorns as Imdar entered that particular chamber of the Royal Court.

His interest piqued, Imdar waited patiently and listened to each sage's remarks. But upon hearing the sages confidently declare the number of dragon lairs to be found in that region of Cormyr, Imdar politely interrupted and good-naturedly corrected them, noting there were at least sixteen other dragons, now dead and gone, whose lairs in the Stormhorns the sages had failed to include--of which ten were infested by beholders** and one the lair of the dragon whose bones sat at the center of the Wormtower ruin.

Surprised and more than a little put out by the fat, ruddy faced young Wawr wizard's bold claims, the sages went on the offensive by peppering Imdar with a series of difficult questions regarding dragons, intending to betray his ignorance and drive him off. But the young man answered with ease and levied his own questions at the sages.

The coterie of learned sages could not answer even half the questions Imdar asked.

King Foril was on the verge of reassigning Imdar to the Royal Court when an impatient Ganrahast appeared in the chamber and spirited his fellow mage away from the King and his advisors.

Imdar's duties revolve around advancement of the Art and the creation of new spells and magic items that can mimic the power and efficacy of rituals (which take much longer to cast and are quite costly). He works in the fortress barracks shared by the Purple Dragons and the War Wizards and has personally researched over twenty battle spells now in wide use by the Brotherhood.

Imdar still bears the last passage stone created by Nendar Thrinn, which according to the ghost dragon is bound to Imdar until he dies or becomes unworthy. When in need of coin (the ghost dragon has opened its hoard to Imdar) or advice on the Art, Imdar conceals himself by means of his magic and visits the ghost dragon of Wormtower.

I have not used Imdar yet in my Realms campaign.

*Information on Wormtower can be found on pages 118-120 of Volo's Guide to Cormyr.
** See Ed Greenwood's Eye On the Realms article: Xrarnuarr Will Triumph, Dragon #406