In this text, I have tried to encapsulate the major individuals of the years of heroic action that we've all been treated to viewing. While even a partial timeline of everything that's recently happened in the Realms is impossible, I'd like to think I did hit the high points. After all, the Realms is about heroic deeds and valiant heroes and heroines.

Adon lacked ambition as a child; he realized at an early age that there was little need to apply himself when everything he wanted was provided for him. Also, he failed to inherit any of his parents physical attractiveness. On the night of his 15th birthday, Adon had a dream that the goddess Sune came to him and promised to make him her consort. The next day he swore to become a crusader in the service of Sune, and at age 18 he became the youngest person ever to become a cleric of that goddess. Within a year he was assigned to the temple in the city of Arabel. While there he met Cyric, Midnight, and Kelemvor. Together, these four adventurers were pivotal figures in the Time of Troubles and the events that followed. After the Time of Troubles began, Adon and his companions were hired by Caitlan, a young girl who stated that her mistress was being held captive in Kilgrave Castle. In truth, both Caitlan and Midnight had been invested with a portion of the goddess Mystra s divine magical power, and the inmistressle whom Caitlan hoped to have the adventurers rescue actually was Mystra, who had been imprisoned in Kilgrave Castle by another fallen god: Bane, the Lord of Strife. Bane, Myrkul, and Bhaal were the gods responsible for stealing the Tablets of Fate, the event that caused the overgod Ao to cast all the gods down from the planes and into the Realms. The band freed Mystra and dispatched Bane, though only temporarily. Mystra and Caitlan became one being, and Mystra sought to return to the planes to give Ao the knowledge of who the thieves of the Tablets were. Helm, the god of guardians, had been charged by Ao with preventing any of the gods from returning to the planes. Mystra and Helm did battle, and Helm destroyed the Goddess of All Magic when she would not heed his words and turn back. Moving on toward Shadowdale, the group stopped in Tilver- ton. It was there that Adon was struck in the face by a knifewielding lunatic. With the gods walking the Realms, there was no clerical magic to heal the wound, and a long, rough scar formed, running from beneath his left eye down to his jawline. Upon reaching Shadowdale, the band learned that Bane had mustered the forces of Zhentil Keep and was leading them toward the town. All of the band aided the town s defense, with Adon and Midnight assisting Elminster in his tower as the Old Mage was working spells to conjure and bind a creature that could defeat Bane. The fallen god sensed this and attacked at a critical time, just as Elminster was weaving a spell to contain the creature he planned to summon through a planar rift. Bane and Elminster battled, and the god drove the mage into the rift he had opened. Just then, the creature Elminster had summoned a magic elemental arrived. The creature pulled Bane into the rift, and much of Elminster s Tower was destroyed. The Zhentil Keep forces fell, but from the wreckage of Elminster s Tower, only Adon and Midnight escaped. In the af- termath, they were charged with murdering the Old Mage. Feeling abandoned by his own goddess, and seeing several other gods moving about the Realms, Adon suddenly felt as if he had had a part in something terribly wrong and deserved to be punished (as evidenced by the scar). Having lost faith in himself and his goddess, Adon s depression sunk to almost cata- tonic levels, and only his friend Midnight worked to help him. Although an impromptu trial sentenced them to death, Adon and Midnight escaped their captors with the aid of Cyric, (who himself was soon to turn to greed and evil). The three fled, pursued by many, including Kelemvor. Having learned that one of the Tablets of Fate was hidden in Tantras, Adon and Midnight headed for that city, where the fallen god Torm had decided to make his home in the Realms. Bane and his forces moved in on the town to capture the heroes. There, Adon spoke with Torm, the god of loyalty and pal- adins. Adon told Torm of the Tablets and their thieves, and Torm advised Adon not to lose himself in self-pity. Soon after, Adon spotted Elminster, alive after his ordeal in the rift. The two fallen gods, Torm and Bane, fought in Tantras over the Tablet of Fate there. After a tremendously destructive battle, both gods perished. Adon, Midnight, and Kelemvor gained the first Tablet and learned that the second was hidden in Waterdeep. Cyric had by this time turned to evil and joined the Zhentarim forces pursuing them. Adon had taken Torm s words to heart, and pledged to him- self that he would stand by them. He had been shocked to see how little the gods truly cared for their worshipers, and so he began to focus his devotion on mortals his friends. The Realms-bound version of Bhaal, the Lord of Murder, now stalked the heroes as well, trying to regain the first Tablet. The band continued to flee as their pursuers drew ever closer. In a decisive battle near Boareskyr Bridge, all the players came together. Bhaal fought Cyric over who would take posses- sion of Midnight and the first Tablet. Using an enchanted short sword he would later name Godsbane, Cyric managed to defeat and kill Bhaal, but was badly wounded in the process. Adon, Kelemvor, and Midnight sought Dragonspear Castle, not knowing that Myrkul, Lord of the Dead, had laid a trap there for them. For, in truth, the second Tablet of Fate did not reside in Waterdeep but in Myrkul s Bone Castle in the Realm of the Dead. Because the gods were trapped in the Realms, none of them could journey across the planes and retrieve the second Tablet. Myrkul s plan was to trick Midnight into going to Bone Castle and getting the Tablet for him. After many trials, Midnight recovered the second Tablet. The heroes came together again in Waterdeep, where the third Tablet was located. As a diversion, Myrkul allowed hundreds of fiends from the nether planes entrance into Waterdeep so that most of the city s defenders would be needed to repel them, leaving only the heroes and Elminster to battle the Lord of the Dead for the Tablets. After an attack by Adon and one of Waterdeep s valiant griffon riders, Midnight managed to disintegrate Myrkul. Cyric appeared on the scene, and their former comrade at- tacked, trying to take the Tablets for himself. Cyric killed Kelemvor, wounded Adon, and fled with the Tablets. Adon and Midnight pursued Cyric to the top of Mount 7.Waterdeep, where Cyric presented the Tablets of Fate to Ao. The overgod then gave Cyric status as a god, taking over the spheres of influence of Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul, and also offered Midnight the chance to replace the destroyed Mystra as the goddess of magic. At first she declined, but Adon changed her mind by insisting that her service was needed to resist the now immortal Cyric. Adon then became the first cleric of the new Goddess of All Magic. Since that time, he has worked to strengthen Mystra's church and to oppose that of Cyric. He also must fend off periodic attacks by Cyric s followers who seek to end his life. One event that helped reaffirm Adon s faith in himself and his goddess occurred in Tegea, a village in the southern reaches of the Storm Horn Mountains. The duke who ruled the village had turned to evil during the Time of Troubles, cursing the gods for abandoning him and his people. The effect was that no clerics could reach their gods while in Tegea, and hence, could receive no spells. The duke, now a hideous- looking creature, used his magic to inflict a horrible curse on all the town s women when one refused to marry him: All of them were made as ugly and warped as he was. Adon journeyed here with an initiate cleric, Corene. They attempted to help the object of the ruler s base attentions, a spirited girl named Sarafina who had repeatedly refused the ruler s offer of marriage. Adon learned that the ruler believed his form to be unchanged and confronted the mad wizard. With Corene s help, Adon showed the lord his true visage and defeated him. With the lord s defeat, his curse was lifted and all the women in the village regained their normal appearances. More recently, when Cyric sought revenge on Mystra, she came to Adon for advice. In the course of these discussions, she showed Adon an asylum for those who d been driven mad by misfired magic. Adon decided it was the Church of Mystra s duty to help these people as much as possible.

Alias's story begins with Finder Wyvernspur, also known as the Nameless Bard. He was a Harper who sought a way for his songs and stories to carry on after his death without their meaning being lost or corrupted. To achieve this vain end, Finder set about creating a magical "vessel" to contain that knowledge and reproduce it on command. His first attempt, the magical artifact that came to be known as Finder's Stone, was considered a failure by Finder. While the stone held an image of Finder and all his songs and tales, it had no will of its own, no desire to perform, and no means of judging its effect on an audience. Finder thus put aside the item and sought to create a living, sentient vessel. Finder's first effort along this line was the being known as Flattery. He considered this experiment a failure too, due to his own insistence on perfection from his new creation. When his ihtoylo didn't perform up to his standards, Finder became enraged and beat Flattery. A sequence of events followed in which the revenge-minded Flattery killed one of Finder's apprentices and maimed another one, who then later committed suicide. For his part in these tragedies, Finder was brought to trial by the Harpers. He was found guilty of letting his pride lead to the deaths of others, and for his punishment the Harpers took away all the sources of that pride. They declared that mention of him would be stricken from all records, his songs and tales were never to be repeated, and he was banished to another plane. The Harpers were not totally effective in erasing all mention of Finder, however. Eventually a powerful sorceress, Cassana, discovered Finder's place of exile: The Citadel of White Exile, at the juncture of the demiplane of gems and the Positive Material Plane. Cassana rescued Finder (now referred to as Nameless) after getting a promise from him to aid her and her colleagues in creating a new vessel in exchange for his freedom. Cassana was thoroughly evil, as were the others she had gathered who had the powers and the inclination to create a new type of tool. Her allies included Zrie Prakis, a powerful lich under Cassana's control; the Fire Knives, a group of thieves and assassins who wanted King Azoun IV of Cormyr dead; cultists of the dead god Moander, who wished to resurrect their deity; and Phalse, a fiend in the form of a halfling. A pure, untainted soul needed to give the vessel the essential iisparkld of sentient life was found in the person of the saur- ial paladin called Dragonbait. The saurial was to be sacrificed at the proper moment, allowing his soul to enter the vessel that Finder had sarcastically named Alias. Both the vessel and the sacrifice were tattooed with the sigil of each member of the group Alias on her right forearm and Dragonbait on his chest. Finder noticed Alias's tattoos after he implanted her false memories and all his songs and tales in her. By means that are still unknown (though Finder likely had something to do with it), Alias came to life before Dragonbait was sacrificed. When Finder discovered that Alias was already alive (although not yet conscious), he freed both the female warrior and Dragonbait. When the other conspirators learned of this, they imprisoned Finder in Cassana's dungeon. After this setback, the others who took part in Alias's creation began to squabble among themselves, as each put forth its own agenda for Alias. Dragonbait took Alias, who was not yet fully conscious, to Suzail, the capital of Cormyr. In the inn where Dragonbait left her, Alias truly awoke for the first time. Since Finder had not iaprogrammedl. Alias with any memories about the tattoos, she considered them to be a recent addition. She also had no mem- ory of her creation or the journey to Suzail with Dragonbait. Associating the tattoos with her memory loss, she sought magical aid. During this time, she met Olive Ruskettle and the mage Akabar Bel Akash, and Dragonbait returned. While she had no memory of the saurial, Alias felt a kinship with him and allowed him to accompany her. The conspiracy of creators was still able to exert some influ- ence over Alias, however. The Fire Knives wanted revenge on Azoun because he had banished them from Cormyr. They programmed Alias to attack at the sound of his voice. This might have worked if the nobleman Giogi Wyvernspur had not done an outstanding imitation of his king when Alias was within earshot. She attacked Giogi, but Alias was subdued and he emerged none the worse for wear. The followers of Moander were trying to bring their god back to the Realms, releasing it from where it had been imprisoned long ago. They succeeded in freeing their deity, but Alias's friends and allies were able to destroy it. Cassana tied her influence over Alias to a wand that would force Alias to obey the sorceress's wishes whenever she was within 100 feet. Zrie Prakis's motives are unknown. He may have coveted Alias's form a sane version of Cassana, who had been his lover when he was alive. Phalse had the most farsighted plan of all. Once he learned the process of creating vessels, he set about to build an army of superwarriors that would follow his every command. He constructed twelve vessels of his own based on Alias's design. After the Fire Knives' plot failed, Alias set out to discover the meaning of the sigils on her arm and her strange compulsions. Her friends, accompanying her, recruited the red dragon Mistinarperadnacles to help destroy Moander's Realmsian form, foiling another of the schemes of Alias's creators. The evil conspirators set out to recapture their errant cre- ation, but had little success. Each victory won by Alias and her friends gave the female warrior more confidence in herself and in her humanity. Winning over her foes and her creators' pro- gramming proved to her that she was more than anyone's tool or instrument,she was a person. After the battle with Moander, the heroes were recaptured by Cassana. A second sacrifice was set up on the Hill of Thorns outside Westgate, but was disrupted by Alias's friends and Finder, whom they had freed from Cassana's dungeon. Both Zrie and Cassana perished in that battle, along with the Fire Knives. Phalse fled via a gate to the Citadel of White Exile. Alias, Dragonbait, Finder, Akabar, and Olive followed the fiend. They learned Phalse's plan, found the twelve Alias dupli- cates, and discovered that Phalse's true form was that of a be- holder with stalks that ended in mouths. Alias destroyed Phalse, thus vanquishing the last evil that claimed a hold on her. Alias chose to remain a wandering adventurer with her friend Dragonbait,and her adventures were far from over. The two found themselves in Shadowdale about a year later. Elminster had convinced the Harpers to reconsider their sentence against Finder, whom they were holding in the Tower of Ashaba. When the Harpers refused to allow Alias to visit him, she passed time singing Finder's tunes at the Old Skull Inn. Akabar Bel Akash and his wife Zhara found the pair at the inn, and Akabar told them he had been having dreams that re- vealed Moander was again trying to return to the Realms. Akabar felt it was his duty to find and destroy the new Realmsian body of the evil god, then go to the Abyss where the god's true form lived and kill it as well, ending Moander's threat forever. Alias later learned that Zhara was one of Phalse's twelve replicas of Alias. Her dislike of priests in general and her jealousy over Zhara's relationship with Akabar combined to cause the relationship of these two iwsistersli to begin roughly. The Harper tribunal that was rehearing Finder's case sent for Alias. As she and Akabar were traveling to the tower, a saurial wizard named Grypht used a form of teleport spell to reach the courtroom. Thinking they were under attack, the Harpers re- sponded. Grypht fled toward where Finder was being held, with a female Harper bard named Kyre in pursuit. Grypht reached Finder's room and found him with Olive Ruskettle. The trio was then attacked by Kyre, who turned out to be an agent of Moander. She grabbed the Finder's Stone from its owner and magically imprisoned Grypht, but Finder managed to teleport himself and Olive away to Finder's Keep outside the Spiderhaunt Woods just as Alias, Akabar, and the armed forces of the Tower of Ashaba reached Finder's room. Kyre falsely informed Alias and the others that Grypht had kidnapped Finder. Lacking concrete evidence to the contrary, the heroes believed her. Shaken by a spell Kyre sur- reptitiously cast on him, Akabar fell ill. Kyre volunteered to care for him while Alias and the others continued their search, and she then used magic on him to gain his cooperation in bringing Moander back to the Realms. Despite this, Akabar managed to free Grypht from his magical prison, and the two of them killed Kyre, whose body had been possessed by Moander. They recovered the Finder's Stone, and Grypht then teleported them away. Zhara and Dragonbait joined Alias at the tower. After scrying their location, Alias, Dragonbait, and the Harper ranger Breck Orcsbane set off to track the saurial and the mage. Zhara pursued also, determined to find her husband. Akabar, upon magically conversing with Grypht, learned that Grypht was a saurial like Dragonbait, though of a different type. He also learned that Moander had brought a large number of saurials from their home to the Realms. Here, the god had been able to enslave all of the saurials but Grypht and his three apprentices. Grypht had been seeking to reach Dragonbait (or Champion, as his people call him) when the saurial wizard had appeared in the courtroom in the Tower of Ashaba. In the forest they had teleported to, Grypht and Akabar were attacked by treants controlled by Moander. The two wizards managed to defeat them, and Grypht used a dimensional spell to whisk himself and Akabar to safety. Alias and her com- panions were witnesses to the pyrotechnics the mages released during the battle and investigated the scene. The ranger Breck also discovered that Zhara was trailing them, and it was after a scuffle between the two that Alias realized Zhara's origin. Grypht and Akabar eventually joined up with the small band. Upon experimenting with the Finder's Stone, Alias was able to cast a permanent tongues spell, allowing her and Dragonbait to converse normally. She then used the Stone to teleport the group to Finder's Keep (where Finder and Olive were). There, the group battled the orcs and the Moander-controlled beholder that had been after Olive and Finder. Together, the group killed the beholder. The Finder's Stone then teleported the group to the Lost Vale, the Realmsian home of the saurials and the site of Moander's new body. After trying to free his for- mer lover from Moander's control, Dragonbait was captured. While putting their rescue plan into action, Alias and Akabar were taken prisoner. Akabar was to be sacrificed to allow Moander to enter the Realms. Dragonbait escaped his captors and rescued Alias, but they were too late to save Akabar, who had been pulled into Moander's home plane. Finder followed the mage to Moander's realm in the Abyss and tried to bargain for Akabar's life, but Akabar refused to give in to Moander. The mage's spirit ascended to its home on the planes, and Finder killed Moander. Finder is currently still in the planes, having seemingly inherited the god's powers. Alias and Dragonbait (and Olive) are next heard of in West- gate on an errand for their friend, Grypht. They were to trade a magical staff for a crystal ball possessed by a local wizard named Mintassan. The mage also happened to be a planewalker, an ad- venturer who spends much time wandering, exploring, and adventuring out among the myriad planes of existence. The heroes tracked the Night Masks' activity to a house owned by a man named Melman, who was one of the leaders of the group. They confronted Melman, but before any conclusion could be reached, Night Masks assassins broke in. Sent by the Faceless, they were supposed to kill Melman for cheating the other leaders. Bringing Melman out with them, the heroes fled. Victor eventually revealed to Alias that he was the Faceless, though only after poisoning her with a spiked ring. He had been able to hide his true goals behind an amulet of misdirection. Alias survived the poison, but the ring left a scar on her cheek. The final battle against Victor/Faceless took place atop a castle where the planar doorway to a pocket dimension was located. Victor, Dragonbait, and Alias all entered the doorway. They found that the place was filled with unformed manes (denizens of Baator), and anyone who coveted the treasures found inside it or displayed other strong, negative emotions would be trapped there with the treasures,and the manes. Victor's greed held him there. Dragonbait escaped, but Alias was initially also trapped by her negative feelings of loss over the love she thought she had shared with Victor. With the aid of Mintassan, she managed to flee through the portal, while Victor was killed. At the end of this adventure, Alias, Dragonbait, and Mintassan headed back toward the Lost Vale.

After being tutored by Keane during her formative years, Alicia was thrust into the adventuring life out of neces- sity when she was 20 years old. When her father had left on a trading voyage and her mother had fallen ill soon thereafter, it fell to Alicia (and Keane and Tavish) to journey to Fairheight to investigate reports of a new Moonwell ,the first one that has been known to appear in years. For all of Alicia's life, the folk of the Moonshaes had missed the presence of the Earth- mother, even though they had adopted the worship of Chauntea. For the five years prior to the Moonwell's appear- ance, terrible weather had reduced much of the Isles to a barely habitable state. Together with her friends, Alicia managed to defeat the schemes of the current Earl of Fairheight, Gotha the dracolich, and minions of Talos the Destroyer. Soon thereafter, the royal family received news that King Tristan had been taken prisoner by sahuagin. Malar the Beastlord had also loosed Ityak-Ortheel, also known as the Elf-Eater, against the elves of Synnoria. Alicia and several other heroes went to battle the beast. Among them was one of Tristan's oldest friends, Pawldo, Lord Mayor of Lowhill, who fell in battle against the Elf-Eater. Some of the elves of Synnoria fled through a gate to the elven realm of Evermeet, but more were trapped behind when the Elf-Eater destroyed the gate. The decision was made to sail the vast distance to Ever- meet. Alicia and the other heroes made the journey and met with some of the elves there. They even converted the ship the heroes had voyaged there in so that it could slip beneath the waves as a magical submersible craft. The heroes used this ship to great effect, rescuing King Tristan just as he was himself escaping his captors. Finally, an uprising of giants threatened the Isles as the forces of the evil Realmsian gods tried one more gambit to bring the Moonshaes under their sway. Throughout these events Alicia's sister, Deirdre, had become the pawn of these new gods, and it fell to Alicia to take the life of her only sis- ter in order to save the Moonshaes for its people and the re- turned Earthmother. After this latest threat to the Moonshaes was quelled, Ali- cia's mother announced her intent to retire and live the life of a serene and solitary druid. Robyn was joined by King Tris- tan, who bequeathed the leadership of the Isles to his daugh- ter.

Not much of Alusair's early life is known at this time. It is assumed that she led the typical life of a royal prin- cess (receiving formal education and training in courtly ac- tivities such as etiquette, riding, and martial skills) until the age of 21 when, feeling she could no longer live at court, she fled. The story is that she ran off with a cleric from Tilverton. He was later killed by bounty hunters who were after the ran- som that had been posted by Alusair's father for her return. After this loss, she wandered the Realms for several years, spent a few seasons searching for the Ring of Winter* and vis- iting sites such as Waterdeep, Ravens Bluff, Damara, and the Moonshae Isles. Finally, she came to spend time with the dwarves of Earthfast. She traveled with those dwarves who joined her father's crusade and was reunited with him there. While Alusair and Azoun were both happy to see one an- other after so long apart, they suffered from the same differ- ing viewpoints that many parents and children so often have. Their relationship remained strained until Azoun was wounded in the first battle against the Horde. In order to keep the army he had assembled calm and confident, Alusair reluctantly took command of her father's crusaders. It was her decision to pull back the Army of the West to more defensi- ble higher ground in anticipation of the next day's fighting. She also fought alongside her father (partially recovered from his wound) in the second and final battle of the crusade and did well, capturing Yamun Khahan's personal banner and snapping its pole over the Khahan's body. After the battle, Alusair promised that she would return to court in Suzail as soon as she kept some promises and settled some debts. What the future holds for Alusair, only the gods can say.

The text that follows here re- counts what happened to Alustriel after the death of Elué. Because Mystra still needed mortals to raise her daughters, Alustriel (and Syluné) were put in the care of a stern, trust- worthy Harper known as Thamator the Old. Mystra, appear- ing on his doorstep in disguise, persuaded the old man that the girls were relatives of his. Unmarried and aging, Thama- tor was thrilled to have two new heirs. He hoped to raise his adopted daughters as rangers and Harpers, but both displayed an aptitude for magic early in life. Syluné left home to study magic full, but Alustriel remained home, spending many unhappy years with her dis- appointed father. Thamator's attitude changed, however, when Alustriel used magic to fend off the attentions of an overly amorous suitor. Her imposing magical might and fierce hatred of cruelty impressed her father, and in the process she showed herself worthy of becoming a Harper. Most of Alustriel's other escapades are unrecorded at this time, but would surely fill many volumes were they ever to be collected. Since all the Seven Sisters were born more than 600 years ago, most details of their lives are unknown to current sages in the Realms.

Arilyn is the sole daughter of the human ranger. Bran Skorlsun, a Harper himself, and the elven warrior-mage Princess Amnestria of Evermeet. Because she had a human lover, Arilyn's mother was exiled to Evereska, where she took the name Z'beryl. When Arilyn was 14, Z'beryl was mur- dered, and her moonblade accepted Arilyn (who was the heir of the blade) as its new owner. Ironically, it was Kymil Nimesin, who was responsible for Z'beryl's death, who trained Arilyn in the ways of fighting. After she developed into a more than capable warrior, Arilyn became a hired sword of the Harpers and carried out a variety of missions for them. She became known as one of the best of the Harper operatives, even though she was not a member of that organization. When Harpers began to die at the hands of an unknown assassin, Arilyn came under suspicion because the victims al- ways died near where she had just been on a mission. The archmage Khelben Arunsun assigned Danilo Thann to stay close to her, because he did not believe that Arilyn was the Harper assassin. At the same time, her father was assigned by the Harpers to keep watch over her. After a series of adven- tures, Arilyn finally discovered that Kymil Nimesin was con- trolling the elfshadow creature within her moonblade and compelling it to kill Harpers. She bested her former trainer in a climactic fight and got the elfshadow under her own con- trol. Her father inducted her into the Harpers following this episode. She and Danilo remained partners for two years and en- gaged in a variety of tasks for the Harpers. Their last assign- ment together was in Tethyr, where Arilyn penetrated an as- sassin's guild and saved Danilo's life.

Artus Cimber was the son of a Cormyrean high- wayman who used money stolen from a caravan of the church of Oghma to pay for Artus's schooling. It was his mother's hope that he would be a teacher, but his restlessness and impatience dashed that hope. He tried his hand as a scribe in the Cormyrean royal court, but the dullness of government service led him to the Harpers. Even the short-term adventures that they provided lost their intrigue after a few months. On his most recent assignment for them (years ago, before he acquired the Ring), he was charged with monitoring a powerful wizard al- lied with the Zhentarim. Artus encouraged the Harpers to chal- lenge him after he witnessed the mage kill an innocent man. The Harpers declined, not wanting an open confrontation with the Zhents. Artus went to do the job himself, but was captured, tortured in Zhentil Keep, and marked for death. His good friend Sir Hydel Pontifax rescued him. Artus and Sir Hydel then undertook their search for the leg- endary Ring of Winter, which was also being sought by Kaverin Ebonhand. On two occasions, they thought they had disposed of the villain. Once they had him captured and tried, and he was sentenced to have his hands amputated. Once the sentence was carried out, however, black magical hands flew down and attached themselves to the evil mage's stumps, and he laughed as he walked free. On the second occasion, Artus located Kaverin in Tantras, and Sir Hydel blew him apart with a light- ning bolt because he had killed Sir Hydel's wife. Artus and Sir Hydel thought that killing Kaverin was justified, but the Tantran authorities disagreed, and as a result Artus cannot re- turn because he is a wanted man there. Kaverin escaped the finality of death by entering into a pact with the dark god Cyric: If he was allowed to cause as much chaos as possible by being given a second chance at life, Cyric could torment his soul eternally once he died again. The Prince of Lies took him up on the bargain. Artus and Sir Hydel searched for ten years for the Ring, and finally got a tip from a fellow adventurer, Theron Silvermace, that it was in the southern land of Chult. They went down there only to find that Kaverin had gotten there first, and his frost minions killed Sir Hydel. Artus was captured by a tribe of cannibalistic goblins, but he escaped with the aid of Bert and Lugg. Assisted by Sir Hydel's spirit, they found their way into an underground tunnel that led to the lost city of Mezro. There they found Lord Dhalmass Rayburton of Cormyr, the founder of the Society of Stalwart Adventurers, who was over 1,200 years old. (Rayburton, like the other chosen paladins of the Tabaxi god Ubtao, can be killed, but is otherwise immortal.) Eventually, with the help of the inhabitants and the guardians of Mezro, Artus found the Ring of Winter and used it to kill Kaverin Ebonhand, whose spirit was promptly claimed by Cyric's wolf-headed minions. During his adventures in Chult, Artus fell in love with Al- isanda Rayburton. Together with Bert and Lugg, they tele- ported back to Suzail, where they now live happily.

In his youth, Azoun helped form the nucleus of a band of good-aligned adventurers called the King's Men. Two of his companions were Dimswart the mage and Winefiddle the cleric, both of whom remain close to Azoun to this day. The King's Men were free-spirited, more interested in rescu- ing damsels from ogres than engaging in Cormyrean politics. One particular episode involved a young Azoun fleeing from magical Zhentarim assassins when he encountered the thief Scoril Shadowhawk, Cimber and his young son ARTUS. The Cimbers attempted to rob Prince Azoun, but were interrupted by the assassins. Shadowhawk was captured, and Azoun and Artus together fought a running battle to save him, themselves, and defeat the assassins. During many of these escapades, the court wizard Vanger- dahast often covered for the young prince, then set out him- self to find Azoun and bring him home. On more than one occasion, icVangyl, arrived just in time to remove the King's Men from some dangerous strait or other. When the Tuigan Horde that formed a few years ago turned its attentions toward the western portion of Faerûn, Azoun felt it was his duty to rally the powers of the west and stop the horse warriors before they could descend on any of the peoples in that region. Although Vangerdahast advised against such an action, Azoun persisted. He assembled some 12,000 troops from within Cormyr, recruited forces and allies from the Dales, Sembia, Tantras, Hillsfar, Ravens Bluff, the dwarves of Earthfast, and even made a deal to gain troops from Zhentil Keep. He also im- posed a ioscutage,lt or shield tax, that allowed him to employ mercenaries. Other nations donated money for more mercenar- ies or volunteered wizards to join the army, or the ihCrusade,l. as it came to be known. With the exception of the 2,000 dwarves who served under their own king, all 30,000 troops were united in one army under the command of King Azoun. Facing them were over 100,000 horse warriors of Yamun Khahan's Horde. The armies met about halfway between the free city of Telflamm and the Theskan city of Tammar. Azoun, Vangerda- hast, and a escort of 50 troops entered the Khahan's camp to parley. Neither side would back down, and Azoun and his troops returned to their camp. Both sides prepared for the com- ing battle, though the Earthfast dwarves had not yet arrived. The first day's battle was indecisive, though the Western Alliance suffered several setbacks. Azoun was wounded in the leg by a Tuigan arrow, and a disastrous charge by the Alliance's cavalry reduced their numbers to almost zero. Despite that, the Alliance showed that it too had teeth, inflicting thousands of casualties upon the horse warriors. The arrival of the dwarves during the day helped to prevent the Alliance army from being totally surrounded by the end of the day's fighting. Princess Alusair took reluctant command of the army by the end of the day. She ordered the Alliance to retreat west- ward, closer to the Forest of Lethyr, knowing that the forest terrain would benefit the Alliance's smaller force and make it harder for the Tuigan horse warriors to move freely. The second day of battle dawned with a few surprises for the Tuigan. The dwarves had dug thousands of pits in front of their lines to catch and trap the mounted warriors of the Horde. These pits were hidden by illusions cast by Cormyr's War Wiz- ards and the other mages within the Alliance. When the Tui- gan charged, the banner of Yamun Khahan was sighted and his troops were allowed to reach the Alliance army's lines by means of a horizontal wall of force cast by Vangerdahast over the pits. Azoun and a hand-picked squad went to meet them. The hidden pits, and the confusion resulting from their being revealed, completely broke the charge of the horse warriors. After the Khahan slew the king of the dwarves, Azoun unhorsed the fierce warrior and, following a brief ex- change, killed the leader of the Horde. Some two hours after their charge that morning, the Tuigan Horde was broken and fleeing toward their homelands in the east. Of the Alliance's 30,000 men, only 10,000 remained, but they had won the day and the war. The Realms were again safe,well, as safe as they ever are, thanks to Azoun.

A native of Glarondar, Brenna has worked her way up to a seat on the ruling council of Aglarond. She in- sisted on accompanying Galvin and Wynter into Thay after she delivered the council 's request for them to investigate Maligor 's recent activities. The druid and the centaur are fortunate that Brenna did come along, since her magical abilities were needed on several occasions. When one of Maligor 's darkenbeasts attacked the heroes' camp, it was Brenna who destroyed it with a lightning bolt. She also charmed a local to serve as a guide once the group was inside Thay. She consented to having her head shaved so she could pass as a Thayan woman and lead her colleagues through the hustle and bustle of the city of Amruthar. Although shocked and terrified by his undead minions, Brenna kept her head in the presence of Szass Tam, the Zulkir of Necromancy. During the final battle against Maligor in the Red Wizards ' gold mines, Brenna used her magic to kill many of the foul darkenbeasts. Though she came to care deeply for Galvin by the time their adventure came to an end, she knew she couldn 't behappy living in the wilds with him and he 'd never willingly make his home in a city. Reluctantly, they parted as good friends.

Brianna's story begins when she is kidnapped by ogres who are working for the Twilight Spirit. It is seeking to have Brianna mate with a giant and give birth to the being that will unite all the giant species and conquer the world for evil. It is later learned that years before, Brianna's own father had promised his as yet unborn daughter to the giants of the region if they helped him win a war of succession against his brother. When Brianna was of age, the giants called in their debt. The king forbade any pursuit of the missing princess, but Tavis Bur- dun and his friends followed and rescued her. When she got back to Hartsvale, Brianna confronted her father and he left the kingdom in disgrace, after which she assumed the throne. Later, another minion of the Twilight Spirit, the ettin who called himself Prince Arlien, used magic to infiltrate Brianna's court and seduce her. Arlien was eventually defeated, but not before Brianna became pregnant with his child. Brianna fled, along with Tavis and Avner, to avoid all the factions (both evil and good) that sought the child. After she gave birth to her son in a cave, Tavis finally bested the Twi- light Spirit, releasing the babe from its dire destiny.

When Bruenor was born, his grandfather was king of Mithral Hall. At that time, clan Battlehammer numbered over 10,000, and the mines of the clan were rich with the precious and rare metal known as mithral. The works of Mithral Hall were cherished and coveted mightily across the North. Incredible profits poured into the Hall, profits that no thief dared steal. But then the end came, and it came quickly. The Battlehammers of Mithral Hall dug their mines too deep and opened a gate to the demiplane of Shadow. Dark, evil things crawled out of that shadow, among them a rare shadow dragon. When the slaughter was complete, fewer than 300 Battlehammers remained, and these were the very young, the very old, and the very weak. All the other clan members gave their lives trying to fend off an evil from the one source the dwarves never expected: their own mines. Bruenor was only a pup when this occurred, but he never forgot his home. As the refugees finally settled in the Ten Towns region of Icewind Dale, Bruenor, now a young adult, was committed to someday returning the Battlehammer standard to the walls of Mithral Hall. Dwarves are nothing if not patient, and Bruenor waited for the right time. Centuries passed as he and the other dwarves went about the business of living in Icewind Dale, fending off barbarian incursions and smiting the various creatures and monsters that inhabit the area. At one point he met and be- friended the outcast drow ranger Drizzt Do'Urden. As the years slipped by, the unlikely pair became the closest of friends. Bruenor subsequently adopted a human orphan named Catti-brie. Also, during a barbarian raid, Bruenor came upon a young savage who carried not the lusty light of pillage in his eyes, but a fierce spark of intelligence. Bruenor didn't have the heart to kill him, so he knocked him unconscious and took him as a captive. The barbarian's name was Wulfgar, and the youth proved to have a strong mind and even stronger muscles. Wulfgar served Bruenor for five years and learned much in that time. His rage and his prejudices calmed, and his eyes were opened to the fact that the world didn't end at his tribe's borders. Eventually Bruenor, Wulfgar, Drizzt, and the halfling Regis had many adventures together. The first involved uniting the people of Ten Towns with the barbarians to defeat the threat of the wizard Akar Kessell and his evil Crystal Shard in the Battle of Icewind Dale. After Kessell's power was broken, Bruenor decided it was time to begin the quest to find and retake lost Mithral Hall. The dwarf had long teased Drizzt about accompanying him on this journey, and by faking a deathbed scene, the wily Bruenor got Drizzt to commit to it, after which he jumped out of the bed and set about preparing for their long, difficult quest. The following spring, the four heroes set out for Mithral Hall. What Regis's friends did not know was the reason why the halfling had chosen to accompany them. Years earlier in a place far to the south, Regis had stolen a magical ruby, and its former owner had sent out assassins to retrieve it, along with Regis's head. When Regis recognized one of the assas- sins in the Ten Towns area, he decided that going on Bruenor's quest would be safer than staying at home. The as- sassin followed, and would cause much trouble for the com- panions. Bruenor began his search in Luskan, where he sought a map from the local underworld of thieves, backstabbers, and cut- throats that would help him locate Mithral Hall's lost location. When the locals returned with the map, they had discerned who it was in their alley asking to purchase it, and they raised their price tenfold. Bruenor, with Drizzt and the ranger's magi- cal panther Guenhwyvar, battled the foolish and greedy thieves, after which they took the map. The team journeyed next to Longsaddle, where Bruenor re- ceived advice that perhaps the dwarves of Citadel Adbar to the north could be of assistance to him in his quest. Also, on their way to the dwarven citadel, the companions would pass near Silverymoon, and perhaps that city's Vault of the Sages would hold information vital to locating Mithral Hall. Upon reaching the outskirts of Silverymoon, the heroes dis- covered that Drizzt's drow heritage prevented them from enter- ing that fair city. Silverymoon's ruler, the Lady ALUSTRIEL, ap- peared before them to explain and apologize to the elf. She also passed along information regarding Mithral Hall's possible loca- tion that caused the heroes to turn back west, toward the Her- ald's Holdfast, a vast store of ancient knowledge. Once there, Bruenor was given a potion that sent him back through his own memories to the times when dwarves still lived in Mithral Hall. With some coaxing from Drizzt, Bruenor was able to pull the location of Mithral Hall from his own child- hood memories of 200 years earlier. They headed toward the ru- ined underground city now known as Dwarvendarrows in Keeper's Dale. By this time Catti-brie, who had been the hostage of the as- sassin Artemis Entreri, had managed to escape his clutches and catch up with her friends (but, as they would discover, Entreri himself was also trailing the heroes). Soon afterward, the com- panions gained entry into Mithral Hall itself when Wulfgar was tapping a wall of stone with his enchanted war hammer, search- ing for a hidden door. Once they were inside, the companions began to explore. They found many remains of dwarves and other creatures that had been locked in mortal combat. Bruenor was able to identify some of the dwarves by their armor, shields, or crests. Two such bodies he found were those of his father and his grandfather. After donning his grandfather's armor, Bruenor declared him- self the eighth king of Mithral Hall. But unknown dangers lay both behind and ahead of the companions: Entreri the assassin and his party soon found the entrance, and the corridors of Mithral Hall now held the evil gray dwarves known as duergar as well as Shimmergloom, a shadow dragon. While Entreri's party and the companions met in battle, a tremendous cave-in occurred, ending the fight and splitting up the heroes. Believing that Drizzt had been lost in the cave-in (he had fallen deep within the mountain along with Entreri), Bruenor turned to lead his remaining friends out of Mithral Hall, never to return. He felt the place was too evil, too far gone, to be retaken. This place was the source of his friends' suf- fering, and he would lead them from it. Although Entreri was out of the picture, his minions contin- ued to track the companions. Again the groups did battle, and into the midst of this conflict flew Shimmergloom. Bruenor and Shimmergloom, the true ruler of Mithral Hall and the current impostor, faced off. They fought on a ledge, and Bruenor managed to force the dragon to take flight after he had driven it back. Leaping onto the shadow beast, Bruenor struck again and again at the dragon's back, and together the two fell to the bottom of a deep gorge. Drizzt and Entreri found their way back to the action, and then the assassin made off with Regis. Believing their dwarven friend to be dead, the companions set off to rescue the halfling. Through means unknown to him, Bruenor had survived the fall of Shimmergloom, but the dragon had not. Bruenor wan- dered the corridors of Mithral Hall, now inhabited by the duer- gar, for some time, searching for an escape route while trying to avoid discovery. Finally he managed to climb his way up a chimney to the grate that led to the surface. He dislodged the grate, but was too weak (from the poison of a spider's bite) to go farther. He passed out, hanging half out of the chimney. After Bruenor was rescued from his precarious perch by Alustriel, she transported him to Longsaddle. There he was re- united with Catti-brie, who had remained behind to organize the forces that were gathering to help retake Mithral Hall. Drizzt and Wulfgar had gone ahead in pursuit of Entreri and Regis. With some magical assistance from Alustriel, Bruenor and his adopted daughter caught up to their friends just in time to save them from an attack by pirates. Together again, the four journeyed south to the distant city of Calimport, Entreri's destination. And together, the heroes fought fierce battles and won the day, winning the freedom of their friend Regis. Now free to return north, Bruenor led dwarves, barbarians, wizards, archers, and his friends in the reconquest of Mithral Hall, Bruenor's home and heritage. He then took his place as the rightful king of Mithral Hall. His reign has been anything but peaceful, however; the drow of Menzoberranzan have twice assaulted his home. The first at- tack resulted in the death of Wulfgar, and was also the occasion when Bruenor had his right eye put out by an enemy's sword tip. After the second drow attack was repulsed, both his dear friend Drizzt and his adopted daughter Catti-brie left Mithral Hall for other locales.

Cadderly is the son of Aballister Bonaduce, a poor father who was a failure and a murderer (of his own wife). When Cadderly was very young, Aballister left him at the Edi- ficant Library in the care of the priests of Deneir and Oghma. Cadderly grew up as a happy, bright lad, full of curiosity. When he was in his early 20's, he began a long adventure that culmi- nated in his becoming the Chosen of Deneir. It started when Aballister, now a mage, joined the wicked forces at Castle Trinity who conspired to take over the elven woods of Shilmista Forest and the human settlement of Car- radoon. With the help of his imp familiar Druzil, he collected the ingredients for a cursed potion known as isthe Most Fatal Horror.ln The cleric Barjin, the most powerful leader of Castle Trinity, claimed the right to unleash the curse. He made his way to the catacombs of the Edificant Library and charmed young Cadderly into opening the container that contained the cursed potion. This caused an imperceptible red mist to seep upward, and it affected all of the library's residents and visitors, causing them to indulge in their most audacious fantasies. It took the combined efforts of Cadderly, Danica, the Bouldershoulder brothers, and a heroic druid to destroy Barjin and a host of un- dead that he had summoned to guard the cursed bottle. The bottle was neutralized by immersing it in holy water and ward- ing it against further intrusion. With the death of Barjin, the ogrillon chieftain Ragnor of Castle Trinity assumed power and commenced war against the elves of the Shilmista. Prince Elbereth of the elves came to the Edificant Library for help. Cadderly, Danica, and Kierkan Rufo, a student at the Library like Cadderly, but also Cad- derly's rival, accompanied him back to the forest. Despite problems caused by Rufo and the meddling of Dorigen, a wiz- ardess associate of Aballister, Cadderly discovered an ancient elven secret that awoke the trees of the forest and added them to the battle ranks of the elves. Against such foes, the com- bined forces of goblins, bugbears, ogres, and giants had no chance, and their chieftain was slain. So also was the elven king, and Elbereth became the new leader of the Shilmista elves. Cadderly was horrified at the wanton destruction in this war, and became a recluse in Carradoon, where he could study the Tome of Universal Harmony. The destruction of the mighty forces of Castle Trinity en- raged Aballister, who had now assumed the leadership of the castle. He retained the services of the Night Masks, a group of infamous thieves and assassins. They sent a gang of twenty thugs to kill Cadderly, headed by a small effeminate assassin named Ghost. He possessed the powerful Ghearufu, a magical device that enabled him to switch souls with someone else. Ghost tried to use the device on Danica, hoping to kill Cad- derly while in her body, but she had the mental strength to re- sist it, and it took all of Cadderly's cunning and Deneir-given ability to destroy Ghost. This adventure was when Cadderly and Danica became lovers, and when he accepted his fate as the Chosen of Deneir. Once again, however, Rufo betrayed Cadderly, and Rufo was branded with the mark of Deneir. The next step was to take on Aballister himself. With Dan- ica, the Bouldershoulder brothers, and others, Cadderly went back into the Snowflake Mountains. His first task was to de- stroy the evil Ghearufu, which he had learned could only be done by dragon fire. He was able to awaken and befriend (through some hefty magic) an ancient red dragon, who did as Cadderly asked. Cadderly and his friends then made their way to Castle Trinity, where Aballister was destroyed after the he- roes evaded numerous traps and battles with the evil minions of the lair. The imp Druzil had escaped from Castle Trinity, however, and he found the disgraced Kierkan Rufo. Druzil suggested that the mark of Deneir could be removed if Rufo could recover the Most Fatal Horror from the catacombs of the Edificant Library. Kierkan did so, but then, to Druzil's dismay, he drank it down. The full power of the chaos curse manifested itself in Kierkan Rufo, who died and then arose as a great vampire. He went on a rampage and took over the Edificant Library, turning most of the priests into servant vampires or zombies, and the place was thoroughly desecrated. Cadderly and his friends came back to a very different Li- brary, and it took numerous assaults to defeat the undead. Even- tually, through the resourcefulness of the Bouldershoulder brothers, they were able to expose Rufo to the open sun and de- stroy him for good. Victory had not come cheaply, all but one of the Edificant Library's priests had perished. Cadderly was faced with a choice between devoting himself to building a new cathedral or living out a normal life with his beloved Danica. He chose to dedicate himself to Deneir.

Caledan has a long history with the Harpers. He was once a part of the adventuring band known as the Fellowship of the Dreaming Dragon until the death of his love, Kera, at the hands of a Zhentarim named Ravendas caused him to turn from the Harpers and wander alone for several years. Mari found him in Iriaebor, at a time when the city had fallen to a Zhentarim force led by Ravendas. It is also at this time that Caledan learns of the existence of his son, Kellen, who is being held prisoner by Ravendas. With help from Caledan's former adventuring companions, he and Mari rescued Kellen and uncovered a Zhentarim plot to find the crypt of the Shadowking and release that heinous monster from his imprisonment. Caledan was able to use his shadow magic to defeat the Shadowking before the crypt collapsed. Two and a half years later, Caledan noticed something going wrong within him. Fearing for the safety of those he cared for, he fled. Mari, Kellen, and other friends followed him, learning along the way that Caledan's shadow magic was changing him into a new Shadowking to replace the one he had killed. His friends reached him just as the transformation was finishing. They were able to kill the newborn Shadowking, but, they feared, at the cost of the life of their friend. Fortunately, the monster's form had not completely subsumed Caledan's, and he emerged alive from within the dead Shadowking's body. While Caledan is now safe from the threat of the Shadowking, the same cannot be said for his young son Kellen. He seems to have inherited much of his father's musical skill, and shadow magic tends to run in families.

Catti-brie's mother died in childbirth, and her father moved with his daughter to Termalaine, one of the Ten Towns. For three years, he was quite successful, but then a goblin ended the man's life. All of Termalaine might have fallen to a goblin onslaught but for the dwarves of clan Battle- hammer rushing from their valley to turn back the horde. Bruenor himself saved the orphan girl from death. When the smoke cleared, he claimed the orphan as his adopted daughter. Catti-brie has no memories of the time before Bruenor took her in, but she had a pleasant childhood with the dwarves. During the five years that Wulfgar spent in Bruenor's service, she helped him to break the bonds of his barbarian upbringing and bring out the compassion and in- telligence that was inside him. She may not have realized it then, but she was falling in love with him. The bond between them continued to grow stronger as they traveled from the cold passageways of Mithral Hall to the hot southern city of Calimport to rescue the halfling Regis from the pasha who had ordered his kidnapping. But then tragedy struck their relationship when drow seeking the death of Drizzt attacked Mithral Hall, and Wulf- gar succumbed during one of the battles. Later, when she learned that Drizzt planned to return to his home of Menzoberranzan to put an end to the drow's interfer- ence in his life, Catti-brie followed him, determined not to lose another friend. The two of them, along with the assassin Artemis Entreri, dealt the drow of that city a terrible blow. This only seemed to incite the drow, however, and they retaliated against Mithral Hall in massive numbers. It took the might of all the heroes and their allies to defeat them. With Mithral Hall apparently secure at last, Catti-brie de- cided to explore the world, and Drizzt accompanied her.

Danica Maupoissant was born in Westgate. Her mother was from the far-off eastern land of Tabot where the people have almond-shaped eyes and ways that seem strange to those who live in Faerûn. Danica had a happy early childhood, but when she was twelve years old, her parents sent her to be- come an apprentice to a potter who also hailed from Tabot. A year later, Danica's parents were assassinated by the Night Masks, a guild of thieves and killers. Her mentor told her the truth: Her father had refused to give in to threats of violence if he did not share the secrets of his trade with the evil guild members, and as a result, Danica had been removed from the household to ensure her safety. Her mentor then started Danica on her true apprenticeship, to learn the meditative, physical, and combative arts of Grandmaster Penpahg D'Ahn. Danica threw herself into these efforts. Her studies led her to the Edificant Library in the Snowflake Mountains, where some of the ancient scrolls of the legendary master were stored. There she met and fell in love with Cad- derly, a young, handsome scholar. She also met the brooding Kierkan Rufo, another cleric of the order of Deneir who desired Danica for himself. Her meditative and physical disciplines helped her through her many adventures with Cadderly and their com- panions. Once she began to understand the nature of the chaos curse that permeated the Edificant Library, she went into deep meditation and defeated it. On another occasion, the Night Masks assassin Ghost attempted to take over her body through the use of the Gheurufu, a magical device that enabled him to switch souls with someone else. It was through this device that he planned to possess the body of someone more powerful, kill his victim, and then return to his own body. Danica's iron will successfully resisted the pull of the evil artifact, something that previously had only been done by wizards of tremendous mental might. And when Kierkan Rufo was transformed into a vampire and captured her, Danica put her body into a state of physical suspension that fooled him into thinking that she had died. When Kierkan was finally destroyed, Cadderly was over- joyed to find her alive, and she looked forward to settling down with him. But her lover had decided that he was firmly com- mitted to building a new cathedral on the site of the old Edifi- cant Library, a task that would take several years and would age him so severely that it was doubtful whether he would be able to preside at the first service. Danica wondered to herself, in a rare moment of self-pity after she learned about this, if her eyes would ever again be free of tears.

Sixth son of a wealthy merchant family with vast holdings north of Waterdeep, Danilo is the nephew of KHELBEN "BLACKSTAFF" ARUNSUN. He began his study of magic under this famous mage of Waterdeep when he was twelve years old, at which time his family entrusted him to the care of Khelben in hopes of refining his skills and focusing and channeling his youthful enthusiasm. During his childhood and adolescence, Danilo received education and training in a variety of disciplines (which accounts in part for his having gained levels in two other classes prior to becoming a bard). One indisciplinel_ he has pursued continually is his study of women, and he has become an expert in separat- ing members of the other sex from their secrets. Secretly, Danilo was used as an informant and spy for the Harpers, with most of his missions coming directly from Khelben himself. After helping Arilyn Moonblade discover the identity of the infamous inHarper Assassin,ly Danilo was made a member of the Harpers. For two years he and Arilyn worked together as partners, and they were last together in Tethyr. When an assassin's guild marked Danilo as a target, however, Arilyn forced him to teleport back to Waterdeep. When he arrived, he was given a new mission by Khelben: to uncover a plot that had changed all of the ballads and songs sung by bards. Simultaneously, many different bad things were happening to Waterdeep, including the disap- pearance of several of the Lords, crop failures, and mysterious shipping losses. Also, a challenge to all bards, in the form of a riddle, had been issued by an ancient green dragon, and it was feared that the bards of the Realms would fail in this challenge and die. With the aid of several companions (an unlikely adventuring group called Music and Mayhem), Danilo succeeded in discovering that the culprit behind all the disruption was one Iriador Wintermist, a disgruntled half-elven bard who had talked a dragon out of an ancient elven artifact called the Morninglark. The magical music of this artifact was the cause behind everything going wrong, and it was up to Music and Mayhem to stop the half-elf. After solving an extraordinarily complex riddle stolen from the dragon, Danilo and his com- panions were able to get the Morninglark and sing the elfsong spell that dispelled all the chaos that Iriador had caused. Following this accomplishment, his uncle offered Danilo one of the fifteen seats belonging to the secret Lords of Waterdeep. Danilo accepted, and to this day he is one of the City of Splendor's undisclosed rulers.

In his youth, Dimswart (plus Azoun, Winefiddle, and others) was associated with a group of adventurers known as the King's Men. Most of the history of that band is unknown to all but the members (and Vangerdahast). The most recent highlight of his life was when the female sell-sword ALIAS sought him out for information about the sigils on her arm. As his fee, Dimswart sent Alias, DRAGONBAIT, and Akabar Bel Akash to rescue the halfling adven- turess OLIVE Ruskettle from the red dragon named Mistinarperadnacles.

The text that follows here recounts what happened to Dove after the death of Elué. When the Sisters were split up, Mystra turned Dove over, along with Laeral and Storm, to the (relatively) young mage Elminster. After she showed a preference for the force of arms over the forces of magic, Dove left to be tutored by Harper rangers. She immersed herself in the affairs of Those Who Harp for many years, fighting the Zhentarim and other evils of the lands around the Inner Sea. Dove encountered a band of young Cormyrean adventurers in her travels during this time. The leader of this band was Florin Falconhand, and his group was destined to be- come the nucleus of the Knights of Myth Drannor. Dove acted as a tutor to Falconhand for a time. Florin later repaid the debt when he rescued Dove from a Zhentarim wizard. Dove afterward formally joined the Knights, and married Florin not long thereafter. After the Knights moved their base of operations from Shadowdale to Myth Drannor, Dove became pregnant (an uncommon occurrence for any of the Seven Sisters). She then retired to Evermeet to give birth and raise her son. Florin visits them regularly.

On his home world (location unknown), the saurial paladin we know as Dragonbait served the god of justice. He was in love with a priestess named Coral who served the goddess of luck. Dragonbait was proud of himself, his god, and his devotion to the cause of justice. No cause was greater than that of justice, he thought. The goddess of luck was not always just, however; sometimes she was fickle. She would on occasion bestow her blessing on those who did not deserve it, and withhold her favor from those in need. Because of this, Dragonbait demanded that his love give up her worship of the goddess, and instead worship the god of justice as he did. The lovers argued, but Coral would not leave her goddess. Dragonbait knew that because he loved the priestess, he would come to accept her decision should he remain near her. He feared that his feelings for one who served an unjust god would taint him. Determined not to let his service to his god suffer, Dragonbait left his tribe to serve his god on the plane of Carceri. It was there that the fiend Phalse captured Dragonbait to be used as a sacrifice as part of the process that created Alias. Phalse was not aware of the paladin's origin or home, at least at the time. Hanging from chains in Phalse's dungeon, Drag- onbait was visited by the goddess of luck. She said that she did not care about the paladin, but the god of justice had asked her to help him save Dragonbait's life. If the paladin agreed to perform a service for the goddess, she would free him from the evil creatures who meant to kill him. Dragonbait wished to live, of course. Besides, it would have been arrogant and rude to refuse a goddess's offer of aid. He agreed to perform the unspecified service. That day Dragonbait learned that justice cannot always prevail over the forces of evil without some luck. So the paladin now serves both the god of justice and the goddess of luck, and aids Alias and his comrades in their battles against evil. Dragonbait was to be sacrificed to give Alias life. But Alias awoke early, and with Finder Wyvernspur's help, Dragonbait fled with the semiconscious, "newborn" Alias to Suzail. The name "Dragonbait" was given to the saurial by Alias when she threatened him soon after she fully awoke in Suzail ("One wrong move and you're dragon bait, understand?"). Since he had no way of speaking a translation of his real name, he adopted Alias's term as his name. Alias and the paladin's other friends later learned from the saurial mage Grypht that Dragonbait's real name translates roughly as "Champion." Using his shen sight, Dragonbait saw that Alias was basically good, but she had the potential to do great good or great evil, like so many adventurers. The paladin promised Finder that he would accompany and protect Alias, even though it's likely Dragonbait would have done so anyway (as part of his service to the goddess of luck). When the conspirators behind Alias's creation recaptured Dragonbait and Alias, it was the pair's combined will that broke the final enchantment that held Alias to her creators. The cost for final victory over Phalse was the paladin's saurial holy sword that Alias hurled, along with Phalse, into the Positive Material Plane where both exploded. Dragonbait used a nonmagical saurial sword for a time, but eventually came across a flame tongue sword that was activated by the command word i.toast.ld Now that he's spending more time in the Lost Vale with about 100 other saurials, it's possible that his fellows may someday present him with another holy sword. Dragonbait and Alias's second adventure began in Shadowdale about one year after the events of Azure Bonds. Elminster had convinced the Harpers to reopen the case of Finder Wyvernspur, also known as the Nameless Bard, and Dragonbait and Alias were waiting to see if they could be of assistance. The heroes stayed at the Old Skull Inn, where Alias entertained the inn's patrons with many of Finder's old songs and tales. One evening, the mage Akabar Bel Akash returned to Shadowdale from Turmish. He came with his wife Zhara, and with a warning that he had been having dreams about Moander returning to the Realms. When Dragonbait suggested that Akabar's dreams were significant, Alias dismissed it. She soon left with the mage to go to the Tower of Ashaba, where the Harpers' examination of Finder was taking place. Dragonbait stayed at the inn with Zhara, and not long thereafter, Zhara was attacked by a magical device of Moander's. Together, the two of them destroyed it. Dragonbait and Zhara then went to the tower to meet with Alias and Akabar and tell them of the attack. Alias took the pair to where she thought Akabar was resting. Instead they found Akabar gone and Kyre (a Harper who had been enslaved by Moander) dead. Alias, Dragonbait, and a Harper ranger named Breck Orcsbane set out to find Akabar. Zhara wished to accompany them, but Alias was jealous of her and Breck suspected her (and her husband) of being in league with evildoers. Dragonbait, who trusted her, gave Zhara Alias's magical armor and told her to follow them. While Orcsbane was tracking Akabar (and the saurial mage Grypht, who was traveling with him), the trio of heroes was attacked by treants enslaved by Moander. They defeated the evil treants, Dragonbait's flaming sword doing much damage. After the fight, Orcsbane discovered that Zhara was following them. This led to a round of arguments before the group resolved to continue the search for Akabar. Before long, they were reunited with the southern and saurial mages. From Grypht, Dragonbait learned that a group of saurials had been enslaved by Moander and brought to the Realms to facilitate the dark god's return. It was at this point that Alias used an artifact called the Finder's Stone to cast a permanent tongues spell so that she and Dragonbait could communicate verbally. Soon afterward, Dragonbait realized that Alias possessed the saurial ability of soul song, a hereditary ability that Dragonbait's mother had possessed and that Alias had apparently inherited through her connection with Dragonbait. The soul song reflects a saurial tribe's state of being, what is going on in the hearts and souls of the saurials. Through the soul song, the group learned that they had to locate Finder Wyvernspur, who had disappeared from the tower in Shadowdale. Using the Finder's Stone, the group teleported to Finder's Keep, where the bard and the halfling Olive Ruskettle were battling a Moander-enslaved beholder and his orcish troops. Once all the heroes were reunited, they defeated the evil god's forces. They then used Finder's Stone to teleport them to the Lost Vale, where Moander had brought the enslaved saurials. In assembling a plan to free the saurials and end the threat of Moander, Dragonbait pointed out that extreme cold made saurials sluggish and lethargic, and thus easy to control. The group agreed to use magical cold to stop the enslaved saurials (both to make Moander's defeat easier and to prevent the saurials from becoming injured had they sought to stop the heroes). While scouting the vale, Dragonbait detected the aroma of roses, the scent of saurial sadness. He found his former lover Coral now under Moander's influence, and tried to purge the god's enslaving tendrils using his paladin ability to cure disease. After the magic was seemingly successful, the two recon- ciled. Coral then led Dragonbait back to the saurial camp, supposedly to retrieve something before they went to join Alias and the other heroes. As it turned out, Dragonbait's cure disease had proved unsuccessful, and Coral had led him into a trap. Alias learned that Dragonbait had been captured while she was in a soul song trance. The heroes set out to rescue him, free the saurials, and destroy Moander once and for all. Olive i.recoveredl, Dragonbait's sword, and Alias used the weapon to set fires that would move the saurials into position for Grypht and Akabar to use a wand of frost to immobilize them. Alias and Akabar were captured, but Dragonbait managed to escape his captors and moved to their rescue, where he again faced the enslaved Coral. Faced with the prospect that if he did nothing his friends would die, Dragonbait released Coral from her servitude to Moander by severing her head from her body. He then helped to free Alias, but they were too late to save Akabar's life. Ultimately, Akabar and Finder both gave their mortal lives to destroy Moander forever. The saurials decided, on Elminster's advice, to stay in the Lost Vale and help it recover from the depredations Moander had forced them to commit upon it. Dragonbait and Alias were both invited to stay for a while, and they accepted. Ten years after they first iimet,la Dragonbait and Alias journeyed to the crime-infested city of Westgate to exchange a powerful magical staff for a scrying device that would allow the saurials of the Lost Vale to better protect themselves from possible attack. The pair sought the human mage Mintassan. Tall and broad-shouldered, he described himself as a planewalker, one who travels the various planes of existence as one might travel the Realms, looking for adventure. After they completed their exchange, the group discussed the current situation in the city. Conversation soon turned to the Night Masks, the thieves' guild that held much of the town in a grip of fear. Dragonbait and Alias had already encountered members of that organization, and they considered staying on in the city to see if they could do something about them. Likely due to the events that had occurred in and near Westgate ten years earlier (during Dragonbait and Alias's first adventure), Alias was recognized as a heroine. The day after their meeting with Mintassan, the heroes received an offer of employment from the leader of the town's legitimate guilds and merchant houses. Croamarkh Luer Dhostar wished to employ Alias as a means to ending the Night Masks' hold on the city. She accepted, and Dragonbait agreed to stay with her for a brief time before returning to the Lost Vale. From the Croamarkh's son, Victor, the heroes learned of the Faceless, the mysterious leader of the Night Masks. The trio also re-encountered Olive Ruskettle, who was employed by a family of halfling merchants. Victor informed the heroes of the lost treasures of a past tyrannical ruler of the city. He hoped to one day find the treasure, which he said would provide him the resources to clean up and improve the city. After much investigation and several escapades, the heroes tracked the Night Masks' trail of protection money to the estate of a man named Melman. As it turned out, his manor was the same one that Cassana, one of Alias's creators, had lived in. Gaining access via a secret door they knew about from their prior experience, the heroes entered the building, where they discovered Melman being tended to by a healer. It seems Mel- man, one of the Night Masks' leaders, had had a falling out with the Faceless, and his face had been magically branded. Before any further information could be gained, assassins sent by the Faceless attacked the manor in an attempt to kill Melman. The heroes fled the scene with him, after extracting a promise of information from him in exchange for his rescue. From Melman they learned the site of the leaders' meetings. When they explored the underground lair, they came across Victor Dhostar, who claimed to have stumbled on the place by himself. Dragonbait, suspicious of Victor, used his shen sight and learned that the young merchant was good-hearted. This was welcome news to Alias, who was developing a romantic attraction to the young man. The heroes found out the truth when the Faceless launched a plan to implicate the Croamarkh as being the Faceless himself. After his plan was set into motion, the Faceless revealed himself to Alias as Victor Dhostar. He had been using an amulet of misdirection to prevent discovery of his true motives. The adventure reached its climax when Victor managed to learn that the treasure he sought was held in an extradimen- sional pocket atop a castle. The heroes (along with Mintassan) met and battled him there. Dragonbait helped convince Alias to let go of her negative feelings toward Victor (because he had seduced her and then betrayed her) that were trapping her in the extradimensional pocket. She succeeded, and Dragonbait valiantly held off Victor's last-ditch attack until the doorway to the pocket dimension could be closed. Dragonbait, Alias, and Mintassan returned to the Lost Vale. Only the powers (especially the goddess of luck, Tymora) know where they'll show up next.

The adventures of Drizzt Do'Urden are legendary, and any reader who hasn't yet done so is strongly urged to read of Drizzt's astounding life. It would be impossible to recount here every escapade Drizzt has had, but the major events of his unique life are encapsulated below. Drizzt was born into the ninth house of Menzoberranzan, called Daermon N'a'shezbaernon, more commonly known as Do'Urden, on the night when that house wiped out one of its rivals. As a male in the matriarchal society of the drow, Drizzt was trained by his father, Zaknafein, to be a warrior in the two-handed drow fighting style. Drizzt excelled at this, be- coming an 18th-level warrior before he fled the society of the evil elves for the surface. Prior to that journey, Drizzt was first disenchanted and then disgusted by the corrupt, vicious nature of drow culture. He sought some means of escape. In the meantime, his family came to realize his abhorrent (to them) principles, and his father, the house's Weapons Master, gave his life to save that of his son when the family's matriarch wanted Drizzt to be executed as a traitor. The path of Drizzt's life took an irrevocable turn away from the evil ways of his kindred when he killed Masoj Hun'ett, a drow who had been using a fabulous magical item, an onyx panther figurine of wondrous power, for tawdry assas- sinations and other detestable work. In the panther named Guenhwyvar, Drizzt sensed a kindred spirit a fierce but brave and loyal warrior trapped in the drow's dark world of deceit. Drizzt liberated Guen from Hun'ett, and later fled Menzoberranzan entirely. He and Guen wandered the Underdark for a decade, always moving, until they found a grotto tended by the fungus people known as the myconids. While there was life here, Drizzt was still profoundly lonely. His only companion was Guen, and the magic that brought her to this world also sent the cat away again all too often. Not long thereafter, he discovered a city of svirfneblin, gnomes who make their home in the Underdark. This was what he had been seeking: a civilization that valued the same concepts of honor and loyalty and goodness that he did. Careful not to reveal himself to the gnomes right away, because they certainly would have thought him to be an ordinary drow, Drizzt stealthily made his way into, around, and then back out of the city he learned was called Blingdenstone. Later, convinced that this was the life he was destined to have, Drizzt reentered the city only to be taken prisoner by the wary gnomes. Fortunately, he came into contact with a deep gnome he had met once before. Before Drizzt fled from drow society, he had been assigned to go on a patrol. This patrol encountered a group of deep gnomes and killed them all except for one warrior named Belwar Dissengulp. Drizzt, hoping to save at least one life from being massacred, pleaded with the other elves to spare this one's life arguing that it would be better to allow him to return to his people and tell of drow ferocity than just leave another corpse. Drizzt's brother Dinin did agree to let the gnome live, but chopped off both of Belwar's hands first. When Drizzt again met Belwar, the gnome had two great metal hammers attached to his wrists in place of his hands. Belwar, remembering that Drizzt had saved his life, convinced the other gnomes to give him a chance. Drizzt proved himself soon thereafter when he, Belwar, and a pech named Clacker who had been polymorphed into a hook horror by a mad wizard worked together to defeat the wizard and the mind flayers that were in the area. During this time, Drizzt also found himself fac- ing his deceased father in combat. Zaknafein had been brought to undead status by an unholy drow ritual but knowing that this creature was not truly his father, Drizzt spared no effort in destroying the abomination. Feeling that he needed to put yet more distance between himself and his drow past, Drizzt fled to the surface world, where he witnessed a sunrise for the first time in his life. He eventually met the blind ranger Montolio i.Mooshielo DeBrouchee, who taught Drizzt the ways of the surface world and the concepts of being a ranger, and introduced him to the existence of the goddess Mielikki, the Lady of the Forest. With Mooshie's help, Drizzt began his career as a ranger, defeated a large band of orcs, and vanquished a pair of barghests. After Mooshie passed away, Drizzt again took to wandering, but this time on the surface world. After a time he came to Icewind Dale and the region known as Ten Towns. Under the terms of a deal he made with Cassius, the region's leader, Drizzt took up residence in the area in exchange for his regular pa- trolling of the region to watch for incursions of barbarians. Before long, Drizzt met the dwarf who was to become one of his dearest friends: Bruenor Battlehammer, who was busy bat- tling a remorhaz at the time. By the time Drizzt arrived to help, the beast was dead. Drizzt also came to know the dwarf's adopted human daughter Catti-brie and the halfling Regis. When Bruenor spared the life of one of the barbarians who later attacked Ten Towns, Drizzt became acquainted with Wulfgar. Over time the young man matured, due in no little measure to Drizzt's training him to use his brain as well as his brawn in battle. This training was put to good use when a power-mad mage attacked Ten Towns with a horde of humanoids. The townsfolk, barbarians, and heroes defeated the humanoids, and Drizzt overcame the tanar'ri Errtu. Drizzt and the other members of the band later accompanied Bruenor on his quest to retake his ancestral homeland, Mithral Hall. It was here that Drizzt met for the first time the man who would become his nemesis. The human assassin Artemis Entreri was originally after Regis the halfling, but found his mirror image, and his real foe, in Drizzt. After a battle with Drizzt that proved inconclusive, Artemis kidnapped Regis, and the heroes followed him all the way to the distant southern city of Calimport to rescue their friend. Drizzt and Artemis met once more, but again there was no clear winner. After releasing Regis, the heroes returned north and did re- conquer Mithral Hall. All seemed peaceful for a time, but then drow spies found a way into Mithral Hall from below and Artemis returned, magically disguised as Regis. Drizzt eventually found where Artemis was holding the real Regis, and the ranger and the assassin again did battle. They were both attacked by drow before any conclusion could be reached, however. They fought again later, and Artemis fell over a cliff. Wulfgar met his end at this time when, caught in the grasp of a handmaiden of Lolth, he used his magical hammer to collapse the ceiling onto them both. Drizzt soon decided that he had to return to Menzoberranzan to put an end to the drow meddling in his life, and Catti- brie followed him. The pair eventually discovered that Artemis was still alive and working for the drow though he suspected he was being used and would be killed as soon as he had done what the drow wanted of him. When the time came to flee back to the surface, the three of them worked together to defeat the drow. Artemis and Drizzt seemed to have come to an accord and parted without further violence. The same could not be said for Drizzt's other enemies. The drow, the fiend Errtu, and others all conspired in an attempt to bring down Drizzt and Mithral Hall. An army of drow and hu- manoid slaves invaded, and it took the combined forces of the dwarves, the deep gnomes, and the humans to defeat them. Deciding again it was time to move on, Drizzt and his dear friend Catti-brie rode away from Mithral Hall. At present, that is where Drizzt's tale ends but what is yet to be told is likely to be as thrilling and dangerous as what has come before.

While traveling as a young man alone all throughout the North, Durnan became known as isthe Wanderer.lo Soon after he met MIRT, the two of them became fast friends and companions. When Mirt decided to ioretirelt to Waterdeep, Durnan did so as well, not having the heart to continue adventuring without his friend. Later, Mirt and KHELBEN asked him to become one of the secret Lords of Waterdeep. He also is the leader of the Red Sashes, a group that supposedly opposes the efforts of the Lords. In actuality, it also works for justice, but does so in ways that the paladins among the Lords would not condone. The group's false reputation often brings Durnan into contact with plots against Waterdeep, helping the Lords to foil many such schemes quickly.

Elminster's hundreds of years of life are impossible to summarize in a compendium such as this one, but a brief review of the basics follows. Archaic records attest to the fact that a son named Elminster was born more than 1150 years ago to Elthryn, the lord of the village of Heldon, and his wife Amrythale. His family was killed by a Shadowmaster named Undarl, one of the magelords of the ancient kingdom of Athalantar. Taking up his father's broken sword, Elminster became a brigand and a thief at the ripe age of 12. He soon realized that he had no taste for killing, and gave it up when he went to become a burglar in the city of Hastarl, the capital of Athalantar. It was here that Elminster first met that era's Magister, the wizard who bore the mantle of Mystra's power. When asked if he was interested in learning sorcery, Elminster refused. After many adventures, Elminster was visited by Mystra, the Goddess of All Magic. She tarried with him and left the awestruck Elminster with the message that he should learn of magic and worship her. Soon thereafter, while he was still a young adult, perhaps to further widen his worldview, Elminster became Elmara, priestess of Mystra. This change also allowed him to move within his enemies' circles without their knowledge. After more adventures, Elmara was at last ready to become a mage, and Elminster reappeared. In the time that followed, he learned much about magic from the sorceress Myrjala reaching the point where he could finish taking his re- venge against the evil magelords who had usurped the kingdom. After a terrific battle, Elminster persevered and assumed the throne of Athalantar. However, no sooner had he gained the kingship than he passed it one to one of his friends, Helm, a knight of Atha- lantar. Elminster stated that he had wanted to avenge his family's death, not become a monarch. As he and Myrjala left the kingdom, the sorceress revealed herself to be Mystra. She offered to make Elminster one of her Chosen, and he readily accepted. Many of Elminster's adventures following this time are undetailed, but it is known that he visited such places as Cormanthor, the Towers of Song, and Myth Drannor before its fall and stayed some 20 years. For years more he traveled, and only he (and perhaps Lhaeo) knows what transpired. He also served as a foster parent to three other of Mystra's Chosen some 600 years ago: Syluné, Storm, and the woman who hundreds of years later would become his paramour, the Simbul. It is also suspected that he had something to do with the founding of Waterdeep, or at least with the organizing of the city's Lords. The next major adventures Elminster took part in for which records exist were the events of the chaotic Time of Troubles. He was instrumental in forming the Rangers Three, who aided him in recurring battles with the mysterious Shadowmasters during this time. Elminster also took time out to de- fend Shadowdale from an army of Zhentarim led by the avatar of Bane. The avatar and Elminster did battle in the old mage's tower, and both were caught up in the spell that Elminster had called upon to dispose of the avatar. Elminster was originally thought to have been destroyed, but when he later reappeared it became apparent that he had merely been transported to another plane of existence for a time. In his absence, the foes of good tried to rally, but the other Chosen, the Knights of Myth Drannor, and the Rangers Three held them at bay until he returned. With the present crisis averted, all seemed calm, but the Shadowmasters had other ideas. Elminster and the Rangers Three, along with their allies, managed to frustrate and foil the plans of this race of shapeshifters. Elminster also con- fronted the overgod, Lord Ao, over his instigation of the Time of Troubles while innocents were being killed. As the critical moment of the Time of Troubles approached, Mystra knew of what was to come and she shed most of her power into another, a mortal, so that all of her essence would not cease to exist. (This mortal was the mage Midnight, who went on to become the new manifestation of Mystra.) Since Elminster (among many other mages) obtained his power from Mystra, this change left him personally powerless at a critical juncture. He recruited one of the Rangers Three, Sharantyr, and they equipped themselves from Elminster's cache of magical items, which would still function. The two of them were later reunited with the other two members of the band, Itharr and Belkram, but even the Rangers Three could not prevent Elminster from being wounded in battle. Despite this setback, Elminster and the Rangers, along with their allies, not only freed High Dale and defeated Manshoon of the Zhentarim, but they also outlasted the Time of Troubles, and Elminster regained his magic. What Elminster is currently up to is not known, though it is rumored that he has been meeting in some far distant plane to discuss matters of deep importance with wise and powerful mages of other worlds. Perhaps, in that world, some record of these conversations exists. . . . In any case, the Realms and all its villains are sure to hear from the Mage of Shadowdale again.

By the time Fyodor was 19 winters old, he had already fought against the Tuigan Horde and become a champion of his people of Rashemen. He then embarked on a quest to recover a magical item that belonged to the witches of Rashemen, his home's rulers and mages of great power. The device appears as a dagger in its sheath, and is rumored to have the ability of serving as a storehouse of magical energy for a limited period of time. Fyodor coveted the item because he was told he might be able to use it to control his berserker rages. His travels brought him into several meetings with the dark elf Liriel, and they eventually became reluctant allies. Fyodor introduced Liriel to the amazing diversity of the surface world. Together, they traveled to Waterdeep and Skullport in an effort to gain the item they both now sought. With the aid of Qilué and the priestesses of the Dark Maiden, they defeated the drow forces that sought the item themselves. Though Fyodor fell in the battle, he survived and accompanied Liriel on her journey to Ruathym.

Born to a pair of thieves in the city of Skuld, Galvin was orphaned at the age of seven when his parents were hanged for their crimes. He fled to the woods, where he eventually learned and grew to love the ways of the forest. His mission into Thay, along with the centaur Wynter and the wizardess Brenna Graycloak, was to find out what Maligor, the Zulkir of Alteration, was up to. The heroes learned that Maligor's goal was to take over the gold mines that provide the Red Wizards much of their operating capital. He was transforming natural creatures into darkenbeasts to serve as his troops. After infiltrating the city of Amruthar, the heroes fell afoul of the Zulkir of Necromancy, Szass Tam, who also was interested in Maligor's activities. When he learned of the Harpers' mission, he re-equipped them and sent them after Maligor. Upon reaching Maligor's vacant tower, Galvin found the cages where the animals to be transformed into darkenbeasts had been kept, and was horrified at the conditions he found. He finally found Maligor in the mines, where Galvin took the shape of a darkenbeast, attacked the evil wizard, and then used druidic magic to collapse the ceiling atop both of them. Maligor was apparently crushed, but Galvin managed to escape. During this adventure Galvin and Brenna grew quite close, but both realized that neither could give up his or her chosen lifestyle. The pair parted sadly, vowing to remain friends.

Giogi's grandest adventure began when he was summoned to return to the family home at Castle Redstone in Immersea. The Wyvern's Spur, a family heirloom and reputed key to the continuance of the Wyvernspur line, had been stolen from the family's crypt beneath the castle, and the family had been called together by its matron, Giogi's aunt Dorath. Giogi's uncle was sure that the spur's thief was still trapped in the catacombs. He convinced Giogi to go below, explaining that only a Wyvernspur could survive down there because the guardian of the crypt would destroy anyone else. Giogi entered the catacombs with the burro he had named Birdie, not realizing that this was actually Olive Ruskettle, who had been turned into a donkey when she opened Giogi's magical purse. Once inside, Giogi (and Birdie/Olive) met the crypt's guardian, a giant, shadowy wyvern; some stirges; a bugbear; some kobolds; his cousin Steele; and a female mage (and duplicate of Alias) named Cat, though not in that order. Cat claimed to have been sent by her iemaster,lv Flattery, to steal the spur, but she had found it already missing. After enduring several perils, they returned to the surface without finding what they sought. Giogi promised to protect Cat from Flattery, who she feared would be enraged when he found out she had failed to get the spur. Olive, after resuming her true form when the effect of Giogi's purse wore off, discovered that she possessed the spur inside a small bag of holding that had belonged to her friend and fellow thief Jade before a man (later determined to be Flattery) killed her for attempting to pick his pocket. (Jade also was one of Alias's duplicates. Since Finder Wyvernspur created Alias, the redheaded warrior was his i.daughterlo, and therefore, all of the duplicates Phalse had created were also members of the Wyvernspur family and thus could survive in the catacombs.) Olive, posing as a Harper iainvestigator,l. passed the spur into Cat's possession, telling her it was a magical talisman. Olive hoped that Cat had the same misdirection effect that protected Alias from magical detection, which would prevent Flattery from locating the mysterious spur. Steele also sought the spur. Suspecting that Cat possessed it, he threatened her with a dagger and ordered her to empty her pockets. She complied, and he found the spur still wrapped in the cloth that Olive had used to hide its appearance from Cat. With the opportune arrival of other members of the Wyvernspur family, Cat was able to use her magic to recover the spur and deliver it into Giogi's hands. From the guardian of the crypt, Giogi had learned of the spur's powers. It was capable of turning those family members favored by "Seluné's Kiss", a term often used to refer to lycanthropy, into wyverns of the largest size and an unusual red color. It seemed that one Wyvernspur in each generation is kissed by Seluné, and Giogi's father had been the last to use the spur. Giogi learned to transform himself by concentrating on certain dreams he'd had since childhood, dreams of flying, diving on prey, and consuming that prey. Flattery, determined to prevail, attacked and kidnapped Dorath and Giogi's newborn niece. He left behind a ransom note demanding that Giogi meet with him to surrender the spur and his wayward "servant" Cat in return for the release of his aunt and the infant, and Giogi complied. When they met, Giogi convinced Flattery to let Dorath bring the spur to him. Unbeknownst to Flattery, Dorath also had been kissed by Seluné, though she had refused to use the gift. Giogi prompted her to use the spur to rescue the infant and escape. Dorath did so, after which Giogi and Cat battled Flattery and his undead minions. Olive arrived on the scene after Dorath had escaped with the baby, and she returned the spur to Giogi. He assumed wyvern form, and Flattery fled the scene, only to reappear in the form of a great blue dragon. He and Giogi engaged in a fierce, airborne battle to the death. Giogi won the battle, his family's admiration, and the love of Cat. They were married soon thereafter.

Born to a blacksmith in Suzail, Gwydion was dubbed "The Quick" early on because his fleet feet bore him out of many dilemmas . . . his feet, and his wavering faith. Once a Purple Dragon under King Azoun IV of Cormyr who served in the crusade against the Tuigan Horde and nominally a worshiper of Torm, Gwydion lost faith in his god and the causes for which he fought and became a sell-sword. On one of Gwydion's mercenary outings in the land of Thar, his party was wiped out by an axe-wielding giant, who chased Gwydion into a small cave. There, Gwydion had a false vision of Torm that was in reality inspired by Cyric, then the God of Strife, Murder, and Death. Holding high a leg bone he thought to be an enchanted sword, Gwydion charged back into battle against the giant, and was quickly crushed to death. Things only got worse from there. His onetime lord, Torm, could not rescue Gwydion's spirit from Cyric's City of the Dead because Gwydion had given up his faith. In an appearance before the two gods, Gwydion failed the test of bring able to read one of the two words inscribed on Torm's gauntlets. ("Duty" was written in every known language on the back of the right gauntlet, "Loyalty" written in every known language on the back of the left.) Cyric had Gwydion entombed on the wall of the Faithless, which surrounds the City of Bones, as a punishment for involving the god of duty. As Gwydion learned, there are three types of creatures in Cyric's realm in Hades. The first, known as denizens, are those who had worshiped Cyric while they lived. Upon their passing, these spirits were "rewarded" with horrid new bodies and made to serve the Lord of Strife. The second type are the faithless, people who in life did not believe in any of the gods. They were chained to the Wall of the Faithless. The third kind, the False, were those whose faith was not strong or true enough to allow them entrance to any other god's realm. This meant that their souls stayed with Cyric, since one of his aspects at that time was the God of the Dead. Gwydion, along with the denizens and the rest of the False, was made to search the City of the Dead for the spirit of Kelemvor Lyonsbane, a warrior hero from the Time of Troubles and Mystra's lover before her divine ascension. When he was a mortal during the Time of Troubles, Cyric had used his enchanted short sword Godsbane to kill Kelemvor. The sword held the warrior's spirit captive. Ironically, Cyric's own sword hid the spirit of the one the God of Strife hated most of all. When Cyric needed inquisitors to enforce his new orthodoxy in Faerûn (specifically in Zhentil Keep), the god snatched Gwydion and equipped him with power-armor constructed by the god Gond Wonderbringer. Against his will, Gwydion found himself back in the Realms, compelled to kill heretics in Cyric's name. At one point Gwydion confronted Mystra, the Goddess of All Magic who had been known as Midnight when both she and Cyric had been mortals, and Mystra and Gwydion did battle on a bridge over the River Tesh. She defeated him and took him captive, bearing him to Gond, who removed the power-armor. Gwydion then became an agent of Mystra and returned to the City of the Dead, where he sought to end Cyric's rule. Single-handed, Gwydion faced and defeated Dendar the Nightserpent, and thereby released the stored nightmares of all of the denizens in Cyric's realm. He then led the rebellion against his former master, storming Bone Castle itself in the center of the city. For his bravery and suffering, Gwydion was given a second chance by Torm to read the words on the god's gauntlets, and this time he succeeded. As a reward, Gwydion was returned to life and sent to follow and protect Rinda, guardian of the Cyrinishad, to keep her and it out of evil hands.

Janol was born the bastard son of King Manferic III of Ankhapur and Lady Tulan, lady-in-waiting to the queen. Manferic was an evil, plotting mage whose wife was supposedly barren, but after the birth of Janol, she bore him four other sons. He never acknowledged that he was Janol's father, but instead spread the story that the babe was the son of a knight who was carried off by a swamp troll, and that the mother had died in childbirth. Actually, the mother was thrown into the catacombs beneath the palace and ingivenl, to the quaggoth named Ikrit. Manferic assumed that Ikrit would destroy her, but the creature befriended Lady Tulan and became her protector. Manferic proclaimed Janol to be his royal ward and ensured that he was educated and was provided with a good life (including, among other things, fencing lessons). Known as "Little Jan" during his childhood, Janol grew up among Manferic's arrogant sons, and he felt as though they treated him like he was an unwelcome household dog. As a youngster, Janol started developing his thieving skills by sneaking around the royal kitchen to filch treats when the cooks weren't looking. He started developing his manipulative skills when the princes would play at being coronated, and Janol found it easy (and fun) to goad them into fights. As he grew older, he would sneak out of the palace, go into the city for some tomfoolery, and get back before the curfew horn sounded. Eventually he learned the fine arts of the cutpurse's trade in Ankhapur. When he was about 25 years old, the princes drove him out of Ankhapur, and Janol fled to Elturel, where he further developed his thieving skills, became known as Pinch, and became the regulator of his own small gang. Right after he stole the amulet of the Dawnbreaker, Janol was forced to return to Ankhapur by Cleedis, the royal chamberlain who had been sent by Manferic. Manferic had died in the meantime, but had been transformed (willingly) into a lich. Pinch was tasked by the undead lord to steal the Cup and the Knife and replace them with fakes. Eventually the lich's plot became clear: he displaced his evil soul into Pinch's body and killed his other four sons. His intent was to use his magical power to disguise himself in a strong, living body and continue to rule as as a sort of regent. This plot was foiled when Pinch (whose soul was in the lich's body) and his friends arrived at the coronation. The cleric Lissa used dispel magic to get Pinch's soul back into his own body, and Pinch used the amulet of the Dawnbreaker to destroy the lich.

Keane entered the story of the Isles when he began his service as the royal tutor. When Alicia went to investigate a Moonwell, he accompanied her as nondescript protection. During the course of this adventure, Keane's magely powers proved vital. He battled an iron golem, his ring saved the group from fiery dragon breath, and he helped Alicia and others defeat a dracolich and the scheme of an evil god. He later joined the battle against the Elf-Eater and traveled to Evermeet. Finally, after an incursion of giants into the Isles was defeated, Keane confessed his feelings to Alicia and she seemed to reciprocate. It is entirely possible that Keane and Alicia have married since she became High Queen (five years ago), which would make him the High King of the Moonshae Isles.

Khelben has a long history on the Sword Coast (no one knows his true age, but those in a position to make a guess put it at over 900 years). It is believed that he is of upperclass, if not noble, birth. Aside from his lady Laeral (and their apprentices), Khelben doesn't appear to have a family. Today, he is considered one of the most powerful, knowledgeable, and influential archmages on the Sword Coast. While for many years it was not publicly known to be true, it was widely suspected by those in the know in Waterdeep that Khelben was one of the city's Lords, and thus had access to their meetings, magical items, and their own instruments of law enforcement, Force Grey and the Red Sashes. Then, near the end of 1367 DR, Khelben shocked the city by showing up at a meeting of the Lord's Court, and immediately followed that by announcing his retirement! Now another form of speculation has arisen, suggesting that Khelben's resignation from the Lords was merely a ruse, part of some scheme that has yet to unfold. Whatever his status as a Lord might be, Khelben remains deeply involved with the Lords' Alliance, an informal association of Waterdeep, Silverymoon, Sundabar, Neverwinter, and other itgoodlr cities of the North that works to promote cooperation between its members and heighten the advance of civilization across the North. In addition, he has close ties to the Harpers and often recommends suitable apprentices for membership in that organization. Some years back, Khelben was the one who stepped for- ward when the wizardess Laeral Silverhand fell under the sway of the evil artifact known as the Crown of Horns. He was able to break the magic of the artifact and release Laeral from the Crown's thrall after a huge spell battle between the two of them that destroyed part of the High Forest. Khelben took Laeral under his wing and restored her sanity, which she had lost while under the Crown's power. Not long afterward, a deep and abiding love blossomed between Khelben and Laeral, and they are widely considered to be a iemarriedlo couple by most of Waterdeep's inhabitants. It has been learned recently that Khelben, like his love Laeral, her six sisters, and Elminster, is one of Mystra's Chosen.

The text that follows here recounts what happened to Laeral after the death of Elué. Custody of Laeral (and her sisters Dove and Storm) was taken over by Elminster. When her siblings left the Old Mage for other pastures, Laeral stayed on, playing the role of "little sister" apprentice to the first of Mystra's Chosen before eventually leaving to join the Harpers. Of the sisters who became involved with Those Who Harp, Laeral was the first to go out on her own. She founded a realm near what is now Luskan. This activity brought her into conflict with her sister Syluné, who sought to hold sway over the same area. Their conflict came to a head when they met on a hilltop for a spell battle that could have destroyed them both. Mystra was left with no option but to appear before them. The goddess explained the sisters' heritage to them and offered them the chance to become two of her Chosen. They gave up their personal concerns, accepted the honor and the challenge of being Chosen, and together traveled the planes for a time thereafter under Azuth's guidance. After returning to Faerûn, Laeral was active in the North, giving rise to legends of the ihwitch,lr Laeral. Most folk believe that the modern Laeral took the name of the legendary sorceress, not realizing that ihtheirlg Laeral is that selfsame witch. More recently, Laeral (under a different name) served as the leader of the Nine, an adventuring band that roamed the North. That is, until the vile Crown of Horns turned Laeral to evil and brought death and dissolution to the Nine. Khelben took Laeral under his wing and restored her sanity, which she had lost while under the Crown's power. Not long afterward, Laeral became his consort and the chatelaine of Blackstaff Tower. Since that time, she has tutored many prominent wizards of the Sword Coast who served as apprentices in the Tower, and shielded those same apprentices from the worst of Khelben's blustery moods. Laeral can, as a result, call on the aid of many a potent mage across Faerûn if the need arises.

Lander was born in Sembia. As a boy, he became very close to his merchant father and accompanied him on his many trading trips. His mother, unbeknownst to either of them, was a Zhentarim agent who intentionally married his father so that she could get valuable trading information for the Black Network. She maintained her cover carefully by taking her son to swordsmanship lessons. While he was practicing, she would report to her Zhentarim superiors in another room. It was his mother who gave Lander a pet hawk that took his eye out. When he was in his teens, his mother insisted on going with Lander and his father on a business trip, and she made a point of meeting all of the merchants. When his father became suspicious of this unusual behavior, he hired someone to follow her and discovered her treachery. He went to warn the merchants of Archendale of an impending Zhentarim attack and sent Lander to a friend in another town. When he was stopped by his mother and two other Zhentarim agents, she tried to talk Lander into joining the Zhentarim. As his answer, he killed the others, but let his mother go. She went to her Zhent masters and had his father killed. Later a Harper told him that his mother had died as well. Lander resolved to become a Harper and was readily accepted into the group. Florin Falconhand himself pinned the Harper symbol on Lander's shirt, and the young ranger swore to wear it always over his heart. Going to the Anauroch to help the Bedine was his first important Harper assignment. Carrying just a few weapons, coins, and some healing potions, he observed the destruction of various tribes of the Bedine by the Zhentarim and their asabi allies. He fell into the company of the Bedine witch Ruha and her young brother-in-law, Kadumi. Together they went through a series of adventures that culminated in the destruction of the Zhentarim presence in the Anauroch. This was largely due to the Bedine tribesmen eventually accepting the help of Ruha's magic and the expert tactical advice that Lander offered the Bedine. During their adventures, Lander and Ruha became lovers. Both of them were looking forward to making a new life for themselves, but on the evening prior to the final battle against the Zhentarim, Lander was killed by a Bedine assassin using a poisoned blade.

The daughter of Gromph Baenre, the archmage of Menzoberranzan, Liriel was extensively trained in the sorcerous arts. She had only recently reached adulthood (about 40 by drow standards) when she got involved with the machinations of followers of Vhaeraun, the drow god of thieves and trickery. Having read of the surface world, Liriel became fascinated with it. Her interest grew even stronger when she acquired a mysterious magical item that had been brought back from the surface by a member of a drow raiding party. The item later became known as the windwalker amulet. She discovered that the windwalker amulet, while resembling a sheathed dagger, actually contained a tiny chisel that could be used to carve magical runes. She later met Qilué Veladorn, who showed her that other drow deities existed beyond Lolth. After much trial and tribulation (and one heck of a battle in Skullport), Liriel, Fyodor, and Qilué's priestesses defeated an incursion of drow who sought the amulet. After this victory, she and Fyodor headed for Ruathym to learn more of the amulet.

Orphaned by disease as a child in Elturel, Mari was raised by a Harper bard. She met Caledan in Iriaebor, on one of her first missions as a Harper. They learned that a Zhentarim leader known as Ravendas had taken over the city and was holding Caledan's son, Kellen. Mari, Caledan, and the other Dreaming Dragon members succeeded in rescuing the boy and infiltrating the site where Ravendas was trying to unearth the Shadowking, a being of despicable evil. On the verge of defeat, Mari tossed Caledan his set of pipes so he could fight the Shadowking by using his own shadow magic. She was struck in the chest by a magical blast for her efforts, but Caledan did manage to defeat the Shadowking, until some two and a half years later, when he began acting strangely and finally ran off. Mari, Morhion, Ferret, and Kellen went off after him. On their travels, they learned that with the old Shadowking gone, Caledan was evolving into the next evil master of shadows. Together, the heroes saved the man they cared for by killing the form of the Shadowking that Caledan had taken. In a surprise to all, Caledan emerged unscathed from the ordeal. Now, Caledan, Mari, and Kellen, all three orphans in some way, hope to build a life as a family without any shadows hanging over them.

Martine grew up in Sembia with a kind father who carved dolls for her and a mother who made dresses for the dolls. Her brothers were rowdy, always wrestling and making lots of noise, and one might surmise that Martine got many of her tomboyish mannerisms from them. After leaving home, Martine became a ranger and had numerous adventures throughout the Realms, from the plains south of the Inner Sea to the Sea of Fallen Stars. It was in the latter area that she defeated a pirate lord in combat and claimed his magical long sword that she named iaSea Dog.l. Eventually she met Jazrac, a mage of Saerloon, who sponsored her induction into the Harpers. Martine grew to fear her mentor's criticisms of how she performed various Harper missions. Initially she was sent only on missions that she felt were easy or that were undertaken with someone else's assistance. She did not feel like a iifull-fledgedl. Harper. Then Jazrac gave her something definitely important and difficult to do: a mission to the far north to close a portal to an- other plane. She sought out the gnomes of Samek valley to provide her with a guide for the final leg of the journey, but was turned down. Instead, Vilheim Baltson, a hermit who lived in the valley, went with her. This started a chain of events that resulted in a war between the gnomes and the Burnt Fur tribe of gnolls. The gnoll chieftain had been slain by Vreesar, an ice elemental who had come out of the rift and enslaved the tribe. During the fighting, Jazrac appeared but in a crucial moment fled the battle. He later redeemed himself by giving his life while fighting the evil elemental. It was only through the aid of the gnomes, Vilheim, and the gnoll shaman Krote that the ice elemental was destroyed and peace returned to the valley. The adventure taught Martine the value of teamwork and the lesson that she could not do everything by herself. It also earned her the lifelong companionship of Krote.

Mirt (whose birth name was Mertonius) was raised hearing the ballads of past heroes of the North. As he grew, he was drawn to the warrior's way and soon earned the nickname iiMirt the Mercilessle on his way to becoming a enormously wealthy mercenary general. Along the way he met Durnan, and they soon became lifelong friends. Shortly after Mirt iiretiredle from active adventuring, he was invited by Khelben to become one of the Lords of Waterdeep. Wanting to become closer to the people he now had a hand in ruling, Mirt gave up his profession as a fighter to become a thief (and eventually got the nickname iithe Moneylenderlm). He joined the city's thieves' guild, and later, when the Lords decided to shut down the guild, Mirt acted as a spy for the Lords. In a week of flashing blades and blazing spells, the forces of the Lords wiped out the guild, and no other thieves' guild has been able to establish a foothold in the city ever since. Not too long ago, Mirt got involved in helping Shandril Shessair and her comrades in a conflict that took them to the inhospitable confines of Zhentil Keep.

Mourngrym grew up as a noble in Waterdeep, a youthful ally of the Harpers and Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun. Mourngrym adventured with the band that would later become known as the Knights of Myth Drannor. When Doust Sulwood decided to resign the lordship of Shadowdale, he offered the job to Mourngrym, and Khelben encouraged him to take it. Even as a ruler, Mourngrym has periodically taken to the field to vanquish foes. He was pleasantly intrigued when a diplomatic emissary from Cormyr arrived in the person of Shaerl Rowanmantle, a beautiful young thief. While there was an immediate attraction between the two, Mourngrym decided he couldn't condone her thieving ways, and the couple drifted apart, until a fierce battle against the fiends of Myth Drannor during which Shaerl sacrificed her life to save Mourngrym's. Now that she was gone, Mourngrym realized the depth of his feelings for her. He destroyed Shaerl's killers, and then began a quest to have her resurrected. When he achieved that, the lovers were happily reunited. They wed soon afterward, and Shaerl gave birth to their son about 10 years ago.

Myrmeen was raised in Calimport, and the mysterious Night Parade has had an impact on her ever since early in her life. When Myrmeen was six, her mother tried to console her about the death of her stillborn sister by telling her that the Night Parade had taken her sister's spirit to a better world. Instead of being consoled, Myrmeen was terrified by the story. She didn't believe that the creatures of the Night Parade were real, but nightmares about them plagued her childhood. When she had a daughter by her first husband Dak at the age of 20, Dak told her that the infant was iagone,ld insinuating that it had been stillborn. Their marriage ended less than a year later. Myrmeen took up the adventuring life, becoming a ranger who worked with the Harpers and eventually gained membership in that group. Her second marriage, to Haverstrom Lhal, was much more fulfilling than her first one, but he died in an ambush when she was still a young woman. Two years later, King Azoun of Cormyr became impressed with Myrmeen's leadership and named her the garrison commander of Arabel and then lord of the city. When she assumed Arabel's leadership, it was a strife-torn place on the verge of anarchy and threatened by brigands and monsters. Lord Myrmeen quickly and firmly restored order. She was extremely popular with the people as she took strong steps to end unemployment, provide housing, and ensure that families were fed. When her ex-husband Dak showed up in Arabel and was charged with murder, he asked that a message be passed to Myrmeen, telling her that the Night Parade was real. Needing to know more, she had him brought before her, and Dak tried to bargain for his life by revealing that he had actually sold their strong and healthy newborn daughter to the Night Parade. Moments after Dak provided her with the name of the person who had bought the child and told her where to go to find him, Myrmeen beheaded him personally. She then went to Calimport with a group of Harper comrades to find her daughter. They located a girl named Krystin, who had Myrmeen's looks, especially her unusual goldflecked blue eyes, and was of the right age. The group also discovered that the Night Parade, a collection of various bizarre monsters of differing abilities, was indeed real, and that it preyed on human babies. After rescuing Krystin, Myrmeen's party teamed with a man named Erin Shandower, who had a magical gauntlet that could destroy Night Parade members. Shandower was killed, along with nearly all the others in Myrmeen's group, but before the survivors left Calimshan they stopped the ceremony that would have created more Night Parade monsters and closed a gate that would have allowed even more to enter from another unknown plane of existence. They also revealed the Night Parade's existence to the people of Calimport, who tore the creatures apart in a huge riot. Myrmeen later discovered that Krystin was not her daugh- ter. Her real daughter had been raised not by the Night Parade, but by the rulers of the city of Suldolphor. They met briefly, and Myrmeen could tell that the girl (14 years old at the time) was perfectly suited for the life she already had, so Myrmeen left without telling the girl who she was. She also learned that her sister, Tamara, had in fact not been stillborn either, she had been taken by the Night Parade and then transformed into a hideous monster by a powerful apparatus that was destroyed by Myrmeen and her group in the final confrontation.

Born in Silverymoon, Narm was orphaned at the age of 11 because of a tragic accident. While his family was on a trip to Baldur's Gate, they were caught in the crossfire of a wizardly duel. An errant fireball destroyed the ferry the family was riding in, an instant after Narm's father threw him overboard to save his life. Onlookers pulled the boy from the river. Narm vowed then and there to become a mage himself, to wreak vengeance on the wizards who had caused his parents' deaths. At the age of 13, Narm finally found a mage who agreed to tutor him. Mirimmar was a sour and lazy old man, but Narm learned much about spell components and their storage and preparation from him. On a trip they made to Myth Drannor, Mirimmar was slain by one of the ruined city's fiends. Two of the Knights of Myth Drannor rescued Narm and took him to Shadowdale to recover. It was there that he first saw Shandril. Nightmares of the fiend drove Narm to return to Myth Drannor by himself, so as to confront and conquer his fears. There he saw Shandril being taken captive by agents of the Cult of the Dragon, and he hurried back to Shadowdale to assemble a party of rescuers. A group of the Knights, Elminster, and Narm invaded the lair of the dracolich Rauglothgor, where Shandril was being held. He saw Shandril's spellfire abilities come to life before his eyes as she defeated the dracolich, and he was by this time quite smitten with the lass. They returned with Elminster to Shadowdale, where the pair received training in their respective magical skills and were married. Narm has bravely stood by his wife ever since, helping her survive more foes than either thought existed in the world.

The halfling who claims to be the bard Olive Ruskettle is no relation to the justly famous bard Olav Ruskettle. Olive adopted a variant of his name in the hope that some degree of appreciation through association might be the reward (and, not incidentally, so she could claim that Olav is the one impersonating her). Although she claims to be from Cormyr, Olive's true home is unknown. She's been quite the wanderer for the last few years, never staying in one place too long. Perhaps this is caused, in part, by Olive's recent associations with the fiery warrior Alias. Olive and Alias first came together due to the machinations of the fiend Phalse, who was then masquerading as a halfling. True, Alias did rescue Olive from a dragon that had kidnapped her, but Olive also had seen the red-haired warrior attack an innocent nobleman ("Giogi Wyvernspur can be considered irinnocent"), and she had heard of another attack on a cleric. Alias seemed like quite a dangerous person; the fact that Phalse paid Olive a great deal of money to help him capture the human warrior also helped strengthen her impression that Phalse deserved her assistance. When Olive discovered that she had allied with the wrong side, that Alias was not a menace, and that it was Alias's creators who were evil, she helped to rescue the wizard Akabar Bel Akash from the sorceress Cassana's dungeon. Together, they helped to foil Cassana's plan to bring Alias under her full control. Olive also helped Alias defeat all the other conspirators who participated in Alias's creation. Olive's next adventure brought her together with Giogi Wyvernspur and not one, but two, of the Alias duplicates that the fiend Phalse had created. The first was Jade, who had been Olive's partner in thievery for several months. The villain Flattery (another living construct created by Finder Wyvernspur) disintegrated Jade after he noticed her trying to pick his pocket. Olive witnessed this attack and was horrified. She fled the scene. Later, while still distraught, she examined the articles Jade had given her earlier. Among these was Giogi Wyvernspur's purse, an enchanted object that would turn anyone other than Giogi himself who opened the purse into a donkey. Not surprisingly, Olive opened the purse. An inebriated Giogi found her (in donkey form) wandering his property and assumed that this animal was a recent family purchase he just didn't know about. Naming her ieBirdie,ll Giogi took her to the carriage house and stabled her there. She remained in this form for some time, even accompa- nying Giogi on his exploration of the family crypt in search of the thief of the family heirloom known as the Wyvern's Spur. Among their encounters there was one with Cat, a mage and another of Phalse's duplicates. Cat was unwillingly working with the villain Flattery, who was attempting to gain the spur for himself. Giogi pledged to protect the young woman from Flattery, an action to which Olive/Birdie could only roll her eyes. After a few more encounters, they exited the crypt after having found neither the thief nor the Spur. Olive/Birdie was returned to the carriage house. Later, she witnessed a discussion between two of Giogi's cousins who were scheming about getting the spur themselves. It was at this time that Olive looked down and noticed she'd regained her normal halfling form. The next morning, she appeared at Giogi's door, posing as a Harper agent and displaying the Harper pin that Finder Wyvernspur (also known as the Nameless Bard) had given her. In discussion with Giogi, she revealed all she knew, including Cat's connection with Flattery. Unknown to everyone but herself, Olive was in possession of the Wyvern's Spur at this point. She had found it among Jade's possessions. Hoping that Cat shared Alias's immunity to magical detection, Olive disguised the spur and gave it to Cat, telling the mage it was a magical item. Olive also discovered that the ihdeathle of Giogi's uncle, Drone, had been staged and that he (who had employed Jade to get the spur for him) was alive and well. Giogi's conspiring cousins attempted to wrest the spur from Cat, but she managed to get it to Giogi. Not long afterward, Flattery kidnapped two of Giogi's family members and attempted to ransom them back in exchange for the spur. Giogi and Cat went after them. Olive and Drone soon joined Giogi and Cat in battle against Flattery, although the fight was primarily between Flattery and Giogi. Using the Wyvern's Spur and the Finder's Stone, Giogi was eventually victorious, and the heroes celebrated. Olive's next appearance is when she sneaks into the Tower of Ashaba in Shadowdale to help her comrade Finder Wyvernspur escape. Finder, who was being held there pending the result of his retrial by the Harpers, declined the offer (but only after commenting that he could get out anytime he wished to), stating that he wished to stay put and wait for the Harpers to reverse the decision that stripped Finder of his name and banished him to an otherplanar prison. Olive also brought the Finder's Stone to its creator. The saurial mage Grypht soon thereafter came to Finder's cell, and the two became engaged in a conversation about the return of Moander, the evil god also known as the Darkbringer. Since they were speaking in the saurial tongue, Olive couldn't understand a word either one was saying, a fact she found intensely frustrating. The trio was then visited by Kyre, a ranger and Harper who (unbeknownst to them) had been enslaved by Moander. Olive hid, and the enslaved ranger magically imprisoned the saurial wizard. Kyre attempted to kill Finder, but he avoided the attack. Olive came to his aid, giving Finder enough time to use a teleport spell in the Finder's Stone and take them both safely away from Moander's agent, though Kyre managed to grab the Stone from Finder at the last moment. The teleport spell brought them to Finder's Keep at the southernmost edge of the Spiderhaunt Woods. In attempting to reach Finder's workshop, a repository of much magic, Olive (thanks to her size and dextrous skills) was able to explore the recently damaged halls. While working to pick a lock that was barring their way, Finder was struck by a poison-needle trap, and the pair was then attacked by orcs. They were fleeing the orcs when the poison overtook Finder. Olive revived him with a potion, left him in a place of safety so that he could recuperate, and headed off to his workshop alone. After much effort, Olive reached the door to Finder's workshop. She sang the phrase that served as the door's key and entered. Within the room, she encountered a magical trap set by Flattery on the chance that his iifatherle would return. After a speech rang out decrying Finder's crimes regarding Flattery's creation, green magical beams cascaded about the room. A lock of Olive's hair was severed from her head by one of the beams, but she was otherwise unharmed. Searching the workshop, she soon realized that Flattery had removed every spell book, potion, and magical item that Finder had stored here. Having endured so much in so brief a time, Olive's emotions overwhelmed her; she sat down, pulled her knees up to her chest, and wept uncontrollably. After regaining her composure, Olive heard noise in the corridor beyond the workshop. There, the weakened Finder was facing the orcs and their leader, a beholder named Xaran that was a slave of Moander. Finder convinced them to give him the antidote to the poison, which he drank. Xaran and Finder then entered innegotiationsl. over the bard's knowledge of simulacra and the mage Akabar Bel Akash in exchange for immortality. Olive suddenly burst out of the workshop, attacked Xaran, pushed Finder back into the workshop and reentered the room herself, but not before she was wounded by one of the beholder's eye beams. While Olive bandaged her wound, Finder managed to uncover a horn of blasting from the remains of his workshop. After a brief discussion, the pair left the chamber and were escorted to Xaran by the orcs waiting outside. During their parley with the beholder, Olive realized that Xaran was the Darkbringer's pawn. Finder attacked the beholder and used the horn of blasting to bring down the ceiling on Xaran and the orcs. They fled, with the evil creatures in pursuit. Eventually, the pair was trapped in a dead end at the bottom of a well shaft, but they were protected from their pursuers, at least temporarily, by a section of collapsed ceiling. Some time later, the pair heard Xaran's orcs digging through the rubble, and Xaran tried to attack them. In another part of the keep, Alias, Dragonbait, Akabar, and the other heroes arrived, thanks to the Finder's Stone. The heroes engaged Xaran and the orcs in battle, but Alias was captured by Xaran. Olive attacked the beholder, and that turned the tide of the battle. Soon, Xaran and all his orcs were defeated. Reunited, the heroes all prepared to teleport to the Lost Vale and confront the Darkbringer. All, that is, except Finder, who took the Finder's Stone and fled upon arriving in the Vale. Olive and the other heroes managed to defeat the Darkbringer's scheme and free the saurials that Moander had enslaved. Olive was reunited with Alias and Dragonbait some time later in the city of Westgate while the swordswoman was working for one of the city's merchant families to foil the machinations of the thieves' guild known as the Night Masks. Olive had taken a position with a halfling merchant family, to protect their interests from the Night Masks and from any other merchant houses that considered halflings inferior because of their height. Olive helped Alias and Dragonbait dismantle much of the Night Masks' operations, and she located the home of one of the Night Masks' leaders, the Night Master known as Melman. The heroes entered Melman's manor (the very one the sorceress Cassana had owned ten years earlier) and rescued Melman from an assassination attempt, although Olive was briefly trapped by a gelatinous cube. She even worked with a polymorphed Alias (in halfling form) to protect one of Olive's employers from the clutches of the Faceless, the leader of the Night Masks. Olive witnessed the final confrontation between the other heroes and the Faceless, and doubtless she is now working on incorporating these latest events into her "Chronicles of Alias of the Magic Arm", her unfinished epic about the adventures of her friend.

The son of Athar itThe Shining Knight,lo a fa- mous paladin of the North's past, Piergeiron (also referred to as "the Paladinson") had quite large shoes to fill. Much less of a wanderer than his father, Piergeiron was serving as an officer of the city guard when the current Open Lord invited him to join the secret conclave of Lords. He became the city's new Open Lord upon the death of his predecessor. The fact that his identity is publicly known makes him a target for Waterdeep's enemies (and for some foes within the city; the Guild of Apothecaries & Physicians has tried twice to have him assassinated), but few could have withstood the pressure for all these years as well as the Paladinson. Piergeiron's word is law within the walls of the City of Splendors, and very little of any import goes on within the city that he (and the other Lords) do not become aware of.

After the events involving the early years of the first six of the Seven Sisters, the Goddess Mystra was left with the problem of what to do with the unborn seventh sister now that the mother's body had been killed. The Goddess of All Magic needed to find a pregnant female strong enough to act as a surrogate mother, and time was of the essence, Mystra knew, because using her undiluted power to keep the unborn infant alive would soon cause the child's death. Fortunately, she located Iliryztara Veladorn, a drow adventuress who was leading a band of dark elves toward the surface near where the mother of Qilué's six sisters was slain. Veladorn and her companions had been cast from the subterranean drow society for refusing to kneel to the will of Lolth's priestesses. They were instead followers of Eilistraee, the goddess worshiped by drow who savor beauty and light and who believe that all dark elves should return to the surface world. Now, Veladorn was determined to found a new community for those who shared her views. Unbeknownst to Veladorn, the rigors of her journey had recently killed the unborn daughter she carried inside her. Mystra realized that switching the two unborn infants would aid both Veladorn and Qilué, and she discovered that Eilistraee herself was watching over Veladorn and was wondering how to preserve the drow's life before the unborn child poisoned her from within. In an unprecedented move, Mystra revealed herself to Eilistraee and asked for permission to insinuate herself into the life of one of the drow goddess's most ardent worshipers. Once Eilistraee was aware of the circumstances and the opportunities presented by this sort of ifmerger,ls another unprecedented occurrence came to pass: drow and human goddesses agreed to work together for the benefit of their respective worshipers. The switch of unborn infants was made and Qilué was born, thus becoming the only of the Seven Sisters to serve two powers: Mystra and Eilistraee. Qilué's youth was spent in the temple her iemotherls Veladorn founded, and she grew into a powerful servant of the drow goddess herself. Most of the events of Qilué's past are unknown at this time, but it is known that she helped to open the eyes of another drow female, LIRIEL Baenre, in her quest to find a new life for herself outside the cruelty of drow society. Liriel returned the favor by assisting Qilué and the other priestesses of the Promenade in battling a group of drow who had followed Liriel.

Regis was born in or near Calimport. His earliest recollections are of a childhood spent on the streets, begging and stealing. When he was fortunate, he would be spied by one of the girls of a local festhall and be adopted as a sort of house mascot. It was in these houses that he got his first taste of the soft life he would quest after in later years. A lady of one of these houses introduced him to one of her important clients: Pasha Pook, master of the city's thieves' and assassins' guilds. Pook was intrigued by this larcenist in a body the size of a boy's, and brought Regis into his thieving organization. The halfling did not disappoint his new master, and began to rise rapidly through the ranks. But life in a guild can be hard for those not at the top; Regis became bored, and looked for a shortcut to a higher place in the pecking order. His shortcut presented itself when he discovered that Pook used a magical ruby pendant in his dealings. Thinking the pendant to be his ticket to the easy life he sought, Regis stole it from the master thief and took to the road. Pook proved more determined than Regis anticipated, though, and wherever he went, Pook's men soon followed. Regis's flight finally brought him to the rigid climes of Icewind Dale, where he believed not even Pook's hired thugs could find him. He settled down in the Ten Towns village of Bryn Shander and used his iiinfluencel. to make himself the unofficial mayor of the place. When the evil wizard Akar Kessell assembled an army of humanoids and assaulted the area, Regis joined the other companions in the defense of Ten Towns. After the wizard's defeat, Regis was somehow tagged as the hero of the day, and was awarded the finest home, food, and accoutrements that Icewind Dale had to offer. Regis had finally found the life that he had so wished to live. All that ended not long afterward, though, when the assassin Artemis Entreri, working for Pook, entered Icewind Dale seeking Regis and the pasha's ruby pendant. Regis then hurriedly joined Bruenor's quest to find Mithral Hall. Entreri followed, gathering a group of his own that included an evil mage, a warrior, and a golem. Artemis eventually did apprehend Regis and return him to Calimport so the halfling could explain to Pasha Pook why he had taken the ruby pendant. His friends came to his rescue, however, freeing him from Pook's clutches. Regis decided to remain in Calimport and run Pook's guild, not realizing that Entreri was still out there. The assassin kidnapped Regis, imprisoned him, used a magical mask to impersonate the halfling, and showed up again at Mithral Hall as part of a plan to defeat Drizzt once and for all. Though Regis's friends were initially taken in by the ruse, it wasn't long before Drizzt found Regis and again saved his life. Entreri had led the drow to the bound halfling intentionally, to give the assassin the advantage by slowing Drizzt down and forcing him to tend to his friend. Entreri's plans were foiled again when he and Drizzt were both ambushed by a group of drow, forcing the two of them to fight off their common enemy. Later, Regis was the only one Drizzt told about his plans to return to Menzoberranzan and end the drow's interference in his life. When the halfling was soon thereafter confronted by Catti-brie, who demanded to know where Drizzt had gone, he told her of the drow ranger's plan, and she went off after Drizzt. While they returned safely (with the help of Entreri, no less), they brought trouble as well. A literal army of drow and their slaves attacked Mithral Hall, and it required all the resources of all the heroes to put down that threat. Regis's story, like that of his friends, is not complete, but if he remains true to form, he will likely be in trouble again soon.

Little is known of Ren's background, except that he grew up in the metropolis of Waterdeep and then spurned the hustle and bustle of urban living in favor of a ranger's life. For many years he wandered the woods in and around Waterdeep, learning his profession and developing a reputation for killing evil humanoids. On one of his infrequent visits to Waterdeep, he met a vivacious thief named Tempest and was so taken with her that he fell in love and became her partner. It was Tempest who taught Ren his thieving skills and gave him the ioun stones that he put in the hilts of his magical daggers. Tragedy struck when Tempest was murdered by someone using a mysterious green poison. Stricken with grief, Ren gave up adventuring altogether and took a job as a waiter in the city of Phlan. It was there that he met the mage Shal, who had come into the city to avenge the death of her master, also the victim of someone using green poison. Shal was the spitting image of Tempest, and Ren thought for a while that he had again found love in his life. He teamed up with Shal and her companion, the priest Tarl. The three went on a series of adventures, eventually freeing Phlan from an evil creature that would have taken over the city and perhaps all of the Moonsea area. Later he was involved with defeating the Red Wizard Marcus, who had magically moved Phlan beneath his tower. Ren settled in Thar, where he won a small holding known as the Valley of the Falls after he ridded it of various orc, ogre, and other humanoid tribes. He married a pale-haired druidess named Ciela who bore his daughter Daile. (Ciela later died from natural causes.) When Phlan was again threatened by an evil pool, Ren and Daile went to the aid of the sorceress. As they approached the crumbled remains of Marcus's red tower, they were attacked by a fiendish black knight, and Ren challenged it to single combat. Although it appeared indestructible, the proud ranger destroyed it, but in the battle, he also was killed. His body now lies interred under a quiet copse of trees.

The daughter of a scribe, Rinda grew up in one of the worst slums of Zhentil Keep, where she gamed an appreciation for the plight of suffering people: beggars, orphans. refugees, political prisoners, and so forth. Unfortunately, having a scribe for a father set her in the path of Cyric, the Prince of Lies. When her father failed in the task of composing the perfect book on the life of Cyric, the god enlisted Rinda for the job. Her skills in manuscript writing and illumination were peerless, and in time, she was near to finishing the Cyrinishad, the evil god's book of propaganda. Rinda's divine entanglements were not over, however, for the gods Oghma, Mystra, and Mask enlisted her to write a book on the True Life of Cyric to combat the vile enchantments of the Cyrinishad. It was her work on both books that led to the fall of Zhentil Keep and of the Lord of the Dead: Rinda's True Life was substituted for the Cyrinishad in the holy ritual intended to make all folk of Faerun followers of Cyric. Meanwhile, protected by the amulet she got from Oghma, Rinda escaped the burning, riot-torn Zhentil Keep, taking with her the Cyrinishad. She is now its guardian, wandering Toril out of the sight of the gods. Rinda was never taught how to cast spells, and has only the most basic level of thieving skills. If she were to receive formal training in these areas, she'd likely soon be on a par with other bards of her level.

Robyn is the daughter of Brianna Moonsinger, a past chief druid of the Moonshae Isles, and the niece of Genna Moonsinger. When she was one year old, Robyn was brought to the court of King Bryon for safekeeping by Brianna, who was endeavoring to halt the growth of Kazgoroth, the Beast. (She failed, and paid for that failure with her life.) King Bryon raised Robyn as his own, saying she was the daughter of a guardsman who died in battle. It was in this way that the king tried to shield the young girl from the evil forces that were gathering in the form of Kazgoroth. By the time Kazgoroth arose, Robyn had instinctively acquired knowledge of a substantial amount of druidic magic. She first became aware of her powers when she called forth an entangle spell to save the life of the king's son Tristan. As the battle against Kazgoroth continued, King Bryon gave her the druid staff and the spellbook that had belonged to her mother. After the threat of Kazgoroth was eliminated, Robyn knew that she needed to learn more about her heritage and her power. She went to Myrloch Vale and stayed with Genna to learn, pray, and grow powerful in the Earthmother's sight. When the forces of the evil god Bhaal set their sights on the Moonshaes, they found Kazgoroth's stony heart and sought to kidnap Robyn in order to sacrifice her and thereby return the Beast to life. Robyn survived the attack of a druid subverted to Kazgoroth. Not understanding the power of the stone that the druid had borne, Robyn disposed of it. A cleric of Bhaal found it, raised an undead army, and led his troops against the druids. Robyn fought valiantly alongside the other druids in an attempt to slow the army's advance, but eventually it became clear that they could not stem the tide. To prevent her followers from becoming undead themselves, the Earthmother turned all of her druids except Robyn to stone. Robyn had been drawn away from the battle, and knowing there was nothing more she could do, she shapechanged and fled to the island of Alaron. Tristan was engaged in conflict there against the new High King, a puppet of evil who had ascended to the throne after Tristan's father was assassinated. Reunited with her love, Robyn used her skills to help Tristan and his allies persevere, after which Tristan himself was acclaimed as the new High King of the Moonshaes. Despite this victory, the Earthmother was still weakening, likely because Bhaal had corrupted a Moonwell, transforming it into a Darkwell and thus poisoning all life around the place. Bhaal's cleric, ruling over the desecrated remains of Myrloch Vale, used the heart of Kazgoroth to corrupt the petrified form of Genna Moonsinger, which Bhaal then reanimated. Robyn could sense the Earthmother's weakening state, but could not forestall it. Indeed, she felt her own druidic power continue to grow despite the downward spiral of her goddess. (Perhaps her power was now being supplied by Chauntea, who was moving to act against Bhaal's plans.) After an attack at sea by sahuagin, the king of the northmen, Grunnarch the Red (whose ship Tristan, Robyn, and the others had saved), gave Robyn some clerical scrolls (of Chauntea) as a sign of friendship and of the new alliance between the Ffolk and the northmen. During a banquet celebrating the new alliance, the corrupted form of Genna, in the guise of a red-haired temptress, turned Tristan's head and led him into a compromising position. Robyn discovered the two of them together and fled, convinced that Tristan had thrown her over for another woman. Despite her broken heart, or perhaps because of it, Robyn lost herself in the clerical scrolls given to her by Grunnarch. They detailed how to master the four elements of the natural world: earth, wind, fire, and water. Using knowledge gained from the wind scroll, Robyn flew on the winds toward Myrloch Vale the next morning, since she had no wish to travel with Tristan. Robyn fought some of Bhaal's perytons and killed several, thanks to her ingenious and tactically sound use of her druidic shapechanging ability. She found her friends not long thereafter, and had an uncomfortable reunion with Tristan. As Bhaal's presence continued to extend itself across the Isles, the evil deity put his final plan into action: he intended to use the Darkwell as a gate for his avatar to enter the Realms and destroy the Moonshaes. Eventually the heroes reached the Darkwell just as Bhaal was emerging. Robyn embraced the goddess Chauntea and was able to turn the death knights that had accompanied Bhaal's avatar. She badly wounded the avatar, then helped to convince Tristan to hurl his sword into the Darkwell, breaking the avatar's link to their plane of existence. With both the Earthmother and Bhaal seemingly gone from the Moonshaes forever, Robyn began organized worship of Chauntea and forgave Tristan. They were married that winter, and Robyn gave birth to two daughters, Alicia and Deirdre, in the next two years. We next see Robyn nearly 20 years later. When Tristan went on a trading voyage, Robyn took charge of the Isles. She fell ill soon thereafter, and was forced to send Alicia and her tutor Keane to investigate the report of a new Moonwell instead of going herself. Robyn had been so long removed from the Earthmother's touch, it seems, that again feeling the goddess's gentle caress shocked her system. It was soon apparent that the Earthmother was indeed returning to the Isles. Later, when Tristan was taken prisoner by the sahuagin, Robyn accompanied her daughter, Keane, and others on a voyage to Evermeet that ended with the rescue of her husband. Not long after the family's return from that voyage and rescue, evil gods made one more attempt to destroy the Earthmother and her followers. While this scheme was defeated after Robyn became the avatar of the Earthmother herself, it cost young Deirdre her life. After this trauma, Robyn decided that she would go to live in Myrloch Vale and commune with the Earthmother. Tristan abdicated his throne to be with his wife.

Ruha was originally a member of the Mtair Dhafir tribe of the Bedine. Her mother died when she was five, and none of the other wives of her father would take her in because of her iesecond sightln power and the Bedine superstition against magic. Legend had it that competing Bedine tribes once had sorcerers summon agents of N'asr (the Bedine equivalent of Cyric) that razed the land and left the wasteland known as Anauroch. After this devastation, the gods scattered the Bedine across the land and forbade their using magic. Her father took Ruha to the old witch Qoha'dar, who raised her at the Sister of Rains oasis. There Ruha learned a bit about spellcasting, as well as how to make cheese and herd goats. Although she loved her mentor, Ruha considered the oasis a prison and resented not being able to be with her people. When Ruha was 16, Qoha'dar died, and she could not bear living alone. After a horrifying journey across the parched wasteland known as the Shoal of Thirst, she found her father's tribe. Still her father could not keep her, and he arranged her marriage to Ajaman, son of the sheik of the Qahtan clan. The Qahtan, of course, were not told that Ruha was a i.witch.la Her marriage ended two days later when Ajaman died during an attack by Zhentarim and asabis. Ruha escaped the massacre of her new tribe. After the Zhentarim left the area, she met Kadumi (LG hm F2), the 13-year-old younger brother of her husband. Together they traveled back to her father's tribe to warn them of the Zhents. They met Lander, a Harper agent who had come to the desert to warn the Bedine about the Zhentarim incursion. Ruha, Kadumi, and Lander had many adventures trying to thwart the Zhentarim plans. Success finally came when the Bedine tribes put aside their differences (subscribing to the Bedine proverb, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend,") and accepted Ruha's use of magic. This acceptance came after Ruha proposed that she, Kadumi, and Lander cross the Shoal of Thirst to the Sister of Rains oasis, retrieve her mentor's spellbook, and rejoin the assembled Bedine tribes at the oasis of Elah'zad in a short period of time. Some of the sheikhs proclaimed that if this virtually impossible task was accomplished, it would surely be a sign from the gods that magic was again being allowed to the Bedine. The trio crossed the Shoal of Thirst under great hardship and retrieved the book, but Kadumi was killed by an assassin who had followed them across the desert. Upon Ruha and Lander's arrival at Elah'zad, some of the assembled sheikhs were reluctant to believe that Ruha's magic should be accepted. Sheikh Sa'ar, whose Mahwa tribe was among Ruha's supporters, convinced the other sheikhs to "take the matter before the Mother of the Waters." The gathering moved to the House of the Moon, an alabaster palace on an island in the middle of the lake that forms the oasis Elah'zad. There Ruha's body was taken over by Eldath, goddess of the water, and she spoke to the sheikhs, exhorting them to unite in the fight against the Zhentarim. Not only did this message bring the chiefs together, but the possession of Ruha's body by the goddess added immensely to her knowledge (advancing her several levels of experience instantly), thus enabling Ruha to learn the most arcane of spells in her mentor's spell book. After setting aside their differences, the combined force of the Bedine tribes, augmented by Ruha's magic, destroyed the Zhentarim forces and their monstrous allies. The victory was marred by the death of Lander, who fell to the poisoned blade of an assassin the night before the final battle. Because knowledge of his death would have made the Bedine warriors lose heart, Ruha cast polymorph self to make herself look and sound like Lander during the climactic battle. She took great pleasure in personally seeing to the end of the evil mage who was the leader of the Zhentarim expedition.

Born into a noble family of Suzail in Cormyr, Shaerl had a standard upper-class upbringing. Desperately bored by it all, she turned her natural mischievousness into a thieving career while still in her adolescence. She became a capable cat burglar even though she had no mentor, learning instead by trial and error. Eventually her activities were uncovered by the local constabulary and she was reported to the authority of one Lord Thomdor. A friend of Shaerl's family, he did not want to cause a scandal or inflict any harm upon Shaerl. He considered his course and arranged a secret meeting with Shaerl. By using his influence at court, he had proposed to Vangerdahast that she be appointed as the next Cormyrean emissary to Shadowdale, explaining that this task would provide opportunities for her adventurous side and would remove her from the scene of her past indiscretions. When presented with this opportunity, she accepted (the unspoken alternative being having her thieving activities come to light). Upon arriving in Shadowdale she met the lord of the town, Mourngrym Amcathra. An immediate attraction was obvious and mutual. Shaerl accompanied Mourngrym on several of his adventures, and their relationship grew. They became lovers, but Mourngrym was uneasy about her past. Sensing his reti- cence, Shaerl feared she was losing him. She knew she was carrying his child, but dared not reveal that fact to him for fear that he would marry her out of a sense of duty rather than love. Then came a fierce battle against the fiends of Myth Drannor, during which Shaerl sacrificed her life to save Mourngrym's. This act caused Mourngrym to fly into a killing rage, giving him the strength to win the day, and revealed to himself the depth of his feelings for Shaerl. He immediately set about to have a resurrection performed upon his lady love, and succeeded in finding the means to accomplish that. The first sight Shaerl saw when she opened her eyes was the face of the man who loved her. They embraced and publicly declared their love. They were wed soon thereafter, and though their first baby was lost when Shaerl died, she gave birth three years later to a son they named Scotti.

As a youngster, Shal was too small to consider being a sell-sword like her parents and brothers. Instead she was accepted as an apprentice by an elderly mage. When her master became the victim of foul play during a journey to Phlan, Shal inherited his spell books, his familiar, and several powerful magic items. She made it her mission to avenge his death. After she arrived in Phlan, she became friends with Tarl, a cleric of Tyr, and Ren, a thief. These three led the way in restoring sections of the city that were occupied by various humanoid and undead beings. All of these monsters were under the control of a creature named Tyranthraxus, who was trying to assume rule over all humans and demihumans through a magical pool. Eventually this creature was destroyed and Phlan was reclaimed. During their adventures, Shal and Tarl fell in love and were later married. Ten years after the heroes' original triumph, Phlan became the target of evil once again. The city was magically transported to a huge underground cavern where a Red Wizard named Marcus and an army of other evil beings made assault after assault on the trapped city. Shal's combat wizardry against Marcus was instrumental in defeating the plot and restoring Phlan to its place above the surface. Many years later, another plot involving a pool emerged. The creature behind it was Sirana, a half-fiend who was the offspring of Marcus. Shal combined her abilities with those of Evaine to locate the pool, but the experience nearly killed her. It was up to her son Kern and several others to destroy the minions associated with this pool. Shal recovered and today still lives with her husband Tarl in Phlan.

Shandril is the daughter of Garthond, a wizard who had often fought the Cult of the Dragon, and Dammasae, an adventurer whom Garthond had rescued from the cult. Dammasae had the ability to use spellfire and passed on that power to her daughter. The family lived quietly in Elturel only until Shandril was old enough to withstand the rigors of travel, for the cult, which already knew of Dammasae's ability, wanted the child as well as the mother. When Shandril was eight months old, the family fled with Gorstag, a battle-axe wielding warrior. The four moved to the east in disguise. But at the Bridge of Fallen Men near Cormyr, the cult attacked from ambush. Garthond gave his life for the freedom of his wife and daughter. Before he died, Shandril's father destroyed nine cult mages and three swordsmen. Gorstag and Dammasae were both wounded, but they fled with Shandril toward Shadowdale. Sadly, Shandril's mother did not live to reach their destination. After Dammasae died, Gorstag turned south toward Deepingdale, hoping to leave the infant Shandril with the elves there. He then planned to retrieve Garthond's writings and the magical items that were Shandril's inheritance. The elves brought word to him, however that the cult had broken into Garthond's tower and prepared its basements to become the lair of one of their dracoliches, Rauglothgor. Counting on the fact that he was not well known to the cult and thus he would be able to keep Shandril's location a secret from them, Gorstag stayed on in Deepingdale, raising her as a servant girl. When she was old enough, she helped him run the inn he had purchased. Shandril ran off to become an adventuring thief at the age of 16, bored by her quiet life and eager to see to world. She joined the Company of the Bright Spear, but that group was soon decimated in a battle with a large party of cult members. Shandril was captured and imprisoned inside an old tomb. She managed to escape using a magical device that was hidden in the crypt. Unfortunately, the magic teleported her into the fiend-infested city of Myth Drannor, where she was again captured by the cult. The Shadowsil, the cult's archmage, intended to make iagoodle use of Shandril's virgin blood, a key ingredient in maintaining the dracoliches that the cult creates. An apprentice mage by the name of Narm witnessed Shandril's abduction and enlisted the aid of the fabled Knights of Myth Drannor. With the help of the Knights and Elminster, Narm was able to rescue Shandril just before she would have been consumed by the dracolich Rauglothgor. During this conflict, a strange creature capable of absorbing magical energy, known as a balhiir, was accidentally released from a crystal where it had been contained. The presence of the creature foiled all of Elminster's magical attacks against the dracolich. Suspecting that truly special powers lay dormant within her, Elminster asked Shandril to absorb the energy of the balhiir itself. Attempting this feat awoke Shandril's latent spellfire ability, and she absorbed the energy from the balhiir. Filled to bursting with magical power, Shandril released the force in the form of bolts of silvery, destructive fire that blew apart Rauglothgor, the cult members, and much of the surrounding terrain. His suspicions confirmed, Elminster took Shandril and Narm back to Shadowdale, where he tested Shandril's ability and helped her refine it. Shandril and Narm were soon married, in between attacks by the cult and the Zhentarim. The couple then received an invitation to Silverymoon, issued by Lady Alustriel, the ruler of that city. Alustriel promised protection from those who sought Shandril's power, as well as further instruction in the use of spellfire. Shandril and Narm prepared for a long journey. The pair's first stop was Deepingdale, where Shandril was reunited with Gorstag. They were betrayed, however, by a cult member and had to flee again. A third dracolich was sent to destroy Shandril and Narm, but Shandril managed to absorb its magical breath weapon, destroy the undead beast, and heal Narm's injuries. A dwarf named Delg Hammerhand, another survivor of the Company of the Bright Spear, caught up to the pair and joined them on their journey to Silverymoon. As the trio continued their travels, the Zhentarim began to move against them. In one Zhent attack, the evil men had dug a pit in the trail to catch the heroes as they fled. Only Delg got trapped in the pit, and the threat was easily dispatched by Shandril, after blasting his cohorts to bits with her spellfire, she ihpersuadedle the sole surviving Zhent to help get Delg out of the trap. It was not long thereafter that the trio became a quartet when Mirt iithe Moneylenderle of Waterdeep, an old friend of Gorstag, joined the company to provide extra protection against the increasing Zhent attacks. As their journey carried them into the Stonelands of Cormyr, the band of heroes was attacked by Zhentarim wizards and a force of gargoyles. Delg was taken aloft by one of the stony flying beasts, and as he rained axe blows upon the creature's body they both plummeted from the sky. The dwarf was impaled on a shard of rock and could not be saved. Shandril comforted him as he died, and then set about destroying his killers. The death of Delg was what convinced Shandril that she had to take a stand against her pursuers. She cremated her friend's body with spellfire, and then instructed Mirt to guide her to Zhentil Keep so she could take the fight to her enemies at their source. He agreed to do so, but instead of heading directly there by a long overland route, Mirt took Shandril to Eveningstar and introduced her to its ruler, Lord Tessaril Winter. After the Lord of Eveningstar came to respect Shandril's need to confront her pursuers, she consented to use a teleport spell to get Shandril to her destination much more quickly. In the blink of an eye, Shandril found herself transported to Spell Court in Zhentil Keep, surrounded by a ring of beholders. She was able to dispose of all the eye tyrants by using spellfire, but then collapsed from fatigue. Mirt, who had followed her magically through the use of a roguestone, grabbed her unconscious form and managed to keep her out of the clutches of Zhentilar soldiers who were closing in on the two of them. He got her to a safe place, a festhall that was being run by an undercover Harper, and soon thereafter the two returned by magic to Eveningstar, where they were reunited with Narm, Tessaril, and their other friends. The heroes resolved to return to Zhentil Keep and finish what Shandril and Mirt had begun. In this climactic battle, the heroes faced the evil priest Fzoul Chembryl and his minions. Another Harper undercover agent, Sarhthor the wizard, took Fzoul's javelin through the chest, a javelin intended for Shandril. As he died, he implored Shandril to touch his head, absorbing his life energy, and create a crown of fire , the most powerful form of spellfire known. Shandril did as he instructed, and with the awesome power that then came under her control she blew away the Wizards' Watch Tower of Zhentil Keep, down to its foundations. With at least that enemy out of the way, Narm and Shandril were free to resume their long-postponed journey to Silverymoon, after spending some time resting and recuperating in seclusion. After the triumph at Zhentil Keep, Shandril learned that she and Narm were going to be parents. Elminster informed her that the child would be a girl and that, as Shandril had, she would inherit the power of spellfire from her mother.

The text that follows here recounts what happened to the Simbul after the death of Elué. Mystra gave the youngster named Alassra into the care of a witch of Rashemen. In exchange for rearing her Chosen, the goddess gave the Rashemi witches powerful spells that enabled them to rule their land (and its male warriors) and to repel the future invasions that Thay would launch at Rashemen. Little is known of Alassra for some 400 years after she left her foster mother on good terms and took to wandering the planes. One of the few tales that exists says that Mystra told Alassra of her heritage after one of Alassra's consorts (allegedly a mage from another plane) perished. More than a century ago, Elminster recognized Alassra posing as the apprentice of Ilione, a lesser sorceress who at the time was the ruler of Aglarond. Ilione had designated the Simbul (the name by which Alassra now chose to be known) as her successor. ("Simbull" is a word that means "watchful warrior-wizard" in an ancient Aglarondan dialect.) When Ilione died, the Simbul assumed the throne of Aglarond. Since then she has ruled the land and the people she came to love, and protects them both to this day from the machinations of the Red Wizards to the east.

The text that follows here recounts what happened to Storm after the death of Elue. Storm was raised by Elminster, along with her sisters Dove and Laeral. In her youth, she was the wildest of all the Sisters and ran away from home continually. It was during this time that she discovered the adventuring life, and no longer was she content simply to evade Elminster's attempts to find her and bring her back home. She finally left his care for good, taking up the life of an adventurer on the roads across the Realms. While in the South, Storm was victimized by a mage who used a spell to alter her appearance so he could substitute her for a slave girl he had accidentally killed but not paid for. She spent years in this state, wandering the South and working at various menial occupations. Not even Elminster could find her during this period, but after a time Storm found him. She managed to steal a flying carpet, flew to Elminster's doorstep, and demanded that he remove the spell and give her a place in his household once again (which he did do). Storm eventually found her way to the Harpers, and had many of her greatest adventures with them. If all her escapades were known, her life story would fill many volumes this size. One episode does stand out, however. Long ago, Alustriel and Laeral were able to discern that Storm would come into conflict with Iyachtu Xvim, the Godson of Bane. They acted to prepare their sister for this battle by working unknown magics. Thus girded by her loving sisters, Storm was able to win the duel against the divine being, a fact that has earned her Xvim's eternal enmity.

The text that follows here recounts what happened to Sylune after the death of Elue. After she had spent her early childhood years with Thamator, another Harper named Hauliyr noted Sylune's talent for magic, and she went off to study with him. Many years later, she came into conflict with her sibling, Laeral. Mystra appeared, however, and staved off a battle that could have resulted in the deaths of two of her Chosen. Sylune wandered the Realms for centuries, learning all she could of magic wherever she journeyed. She spent time in Thay, Rashemen, and even Kara-Tur. During her travels, Sylune came into possession of the scepter of Savras. That item contained the essence of Savras the All-Seeing, a god that had been defeated by Azuth long ago. Savras, presumably trying to entice Sylune to help him break free of his imprisonment, granted her the permanent ability to take the shape (and use the powers and abilities) of an adult silver dragon whenever she desired. Sylune did not free Savras from the scepter; instead, she willingly surrendered the item to Azuth upon his request. In return, Azuth periodically watched over Sylune, and since her death, does so constantly. Any concerted effort to destroy her current form (besides angering Elminster, Storm, and the rest of the Seven Sisters) is likely to be greeted by a glowing hand of Azuth that hurls lightning bolts at the transgressors. Several decades ago, Sylune settled down in Shadowdale and became the wife of Aumry, the lord of the dale at that time. She stayed on after his death, because she had become attached to the folk of the area, and because, as she and her townsfolk eventually discovered, the new lord was actually a Zhentarim agent. She worked behind the scenes to keep Shadowdale intact during these trying times. When the evil lord was killed a few years later, Sylune served as the unofficial leader of the dale for three years, during which time the forces of Zhentil Keep were driven out of the area. It was during the infamous Flight of the Dragons, about one year before the Time of Troubles, that Sylune gave her life defending her home. She broke her staff of the magi in a retributive strike to kill a red dragon that was killing her. The strike destroyed her physical body (as well as the hut where she lived and all her possessions at that site), but she retains a vestige of life as one of the undead entities known as spectral harpists. Since her death, she has remained near the farm that her sister Storm now occupies, watching over those areas she can still reach. She assisted Elminster and the Harpers in defending the Realms against the incursions of the Shadowmasters during the Time of Troubles.

When he was about 20 years old, Tarl came from Vaasa with a number of Tyrian clerics who brought the artifact, the Hammer of Tyr, to sanctify their new temple in Phlan. All of the clerics except for Tarl and one other were killed by a vampire and a host of undead minions. The vampire took the fabled hammer from Tarl in exchange for releasing his brother cleric. Eventually, with the help of the mage Shal and the thiefranger Ren, Tarl not only recovered the hammer but defeated Tyranthraxus, an evil being who had inhabited the body of a bronze dragon and was threatening to take over the region. Following this adventure, Tarl and Shal married and settled down to help establish Phlan as a civilized community. Tarl, serving a deity of war, was the military advisor to the armed forces of Phlan. It was through his leadership, again aided by his allies, that the Red Wizard Marcus was defeated and his evil pool of darkness obliterated. The pool was destroyed by throwing the Hammer of Tyr into it, but the evil god Bane, who had instigated the war against Phlan, stole and hid the hammer. After the loss of the holy artifact, Phlan fell into decline and many of the clerics of Tyr were beset by afflictions, some of them fatal, as a result of the fact that the hammer had been lost. It was during this time that Tarl was struck blind. A riddle of Bane was discovered that prophesied that the hammer would be recovered by iythe Hammerseeker,lo who was Tarl and Shal's son, Kern, a paladin-aspirant. When the city was again threatened by undead forces, Tarl, although blinded, provided holy force from Tyr that held back the horde, but the strain was considerable. He would have undoubtedly fallen had Kern not only recovered the Hammer of Tyr, but also destroyed the evil pool that provided the power to the invaders.

Tavis was born iounder a red moonle, the way the firbolg refer to a birth in which the mother dies in childbirth. Since this event is considered a bad omen, Tavis was banished from his tribe and was raised by humans. He joined the Frontier Scouts of King Camden of Hartsvale (Brianna's father) when he had grown. When he was not out in the wilds, he tended an inn known as the Weary Giant, which became a home for all the orphans in the area. When Princess Brianna was kidnapped, Tavis reported the incident to King Camden. Oddly, the king did not seem alarmed by his only child's loss. He refused to send out a rescue party, and even forbade Tavis from going off to rescue her. Accompanied by Avner and Basil (whom he'd met not long before), Tavis tracked the ogres that had taken Brianna to Twilight Vale, fought those the king sent to stop them, and finally rescued her. After Tavis convinced the princess of her father's treachery, the foursome fought their way back to Hartsvale. When Brianna confronted her father and he left in disgrace, she became queen and named Tavis her First Defender of Hartsvale. The heroes learned about the Twilight Spirit (also known as Lanaxis) and his plans. It was Lanaxis who was behind Brianna's kidnapping. He sought to have a giant impregnate her, believing she would then give birth to a future king of the giants who would lead the giants back to their former glory. Not much later, someone named Prince Arlien appeared, seemingly seeking aid from Hartsvale as several tribes of giants were gathering nearby. In reality, Prince Arlien was the Ettin, the spiritual father of all ilnormalle ettins, magically disguised as a handsome human and working on behalf of Lanaxis. Using magic and drugs, he seduced Queen Brianna. Tavis managed to uncover Arlien's plan and defeat the Ettin, but not before Brianna became pregnant with Arlien's child. Avner helped her give birth while they were in hiding from all the forces that wanted to control or destroy the child. Ultimately, Tavis would have to vanquish the Twilight Spirit if Brianna and her child were to survive in safety. Knowing he could not fight such a powerful being without mystic aid, he tracked and acquired the mythical axe Sky Cleaver. This potent weapon allowed Tavis to defeat Lanaxis, but at a price, coming into contact with the weapon aged and deformed him (and Basil). When Tavis dropped the axe for good, his normal appearance was restored, except that his hair remained gray.

Tristan was born the prince of Corwell, son of King Bryon Kendrick of the royal line of Corwell. His mother died while Tristan was still a young boy. King Bryon was determined to make a good successor to the throne out of young Prince Tristan, but the king lacked the ability to make that goal interesting to the young man. King Bryon also had a charge in the person of young Robyn, the daughter of the great druid Brianna Moonsinger. Brianna had died trying to destroy Kazgoroth (a huge, evil beast that manifested the influence of Bhaal in the Moonshaes) singlehandedly. Tristan originally thought Robyn to be his sister, but after he realized they were not related, his brotherly af- fection slowly turned to romantic love. Tristan continued to disappoint his father when the young man and Robyn went on a hunting trip with some companions, and Tristan was nearly killed. When the group came into conflict with a band of firbolgs, Tristan found himself in mortal danger but was saved by an arrow from the bow of Keren, the greatest bard in the Moonshaes, who happened upon the scene just in time. The bard accompanied Tristan and his friends back to King Bryon's court, where he revealed to the prince and his father that there was a threat looming over Corwell, a mass of firbolgs and an army of northmen, both poised to invade. King Bryon, to prepare for the coming conflict and to thrust some responsibility upon his son, appointed Tristan the commander of a company of soldiers. When Keren disappeared soon after leaving for Alaron, Tristan and his friends attempted to find him. They tracked him to Myrloch Vale, and rescued him and the dwarf Finellen there. They also discovered the fabled Sword of Cymrych Hugh tucked away in a firbolg treasure hoard. (Tris- tan did not realize what the sword was until Keren told him.) Upon returning to Corwell, Tristan and his party found that the northmen had indeed invaded. After destroying several cantrevs (small towns), the barbarians were marching on Caer Corwell itself. Also, a party of northmen was moving through Myrloch Vale in an effort to cut off the escape of refugees from the ruined cantrevs and to keep them from reinforcing Corwell. While attempting to catch the Northmen, Tristan's group encountered the Sisters of Synnoria (a band of female elven mounted warriors) and met Finellen again, this time in the company of a group of dwarves planning to prevent the firbolgs from joining up with the northmen. Tristan took this disparate group and forged them into a fighting force that met the northmen and drove them off, allowing the refugees to escape to Corwell. Tristan and his party returned to Corwell to find it besieged by a force led by the warrior Thelgaar Ironhand (actually Kazgoroth in human form). Tristan, wielding the Sword of Cymrych Hugh, fought Kazgoroth and finally managed to wound the beast sorely. Wounded and with the tide turning against him, Kazgoroth fled. The heroes followed the beast to the Moonwell it had corrupted and battled it again. In the end, Kazgoroth was slain, but Tristan, Pawldo, Daryth, and Keren all paid with their lives. The Earthmother appeared at the Moonwell and restored all the heroes to life except for Keren, who had been disintegrated. In the following year, Tristan helped his father administer the reconstruction of Corwell. However, the king was still often critical of his son, who took to carousing and hunting in order to be away from his disapproving father. In the meantime, Robyn had gone away to study to become a druid under the tutelage of her aunt Genna Moonsinger. Her absence was very difficult for the young prince, because he had fallen deeply in love with her. It was also during this time that the plottings of the evil wizard Cyndre and his Council of Sorcerers came to light. Assassins hired by Cyndre to recover the Sword of Cymrych Hugh attacked Tristan and his father, killing the king. Afterward, it was not automatically decreed who would succeed Bryon as the leader of Caer Corwell. Tristan's ascension was opposed by Pontswain, a cantrev lord with a royal lineage. It was determined that the High King of Caer Calidyrr, on the isle of Alaron, should declare the next king of Corwell. The two contenders, accompanied by Daryth and others, set off on a sea voyage for Calidyrr. The boat was sabotaged along the way, and both contenders for the throne found themselves washed up by the castle of the ghostly spirit of Queen Allisyn, who appeared and told Tristan that he would be responsible for finding the next High King of the Moonshaes. "His name shall be Cymrych," she said, "and your sword shall become his." After Tristan and Pontswain finally made it to Alaron, they were arrested by soldiers of the High King of Calidyrr, who believed that Tristan was there to assassinate their ruler. They were rescued by Pawldo and Daryth, and the group later joined forces with O'Roarke, a nobleman who had been declared an outlaw by the High King. Tristan also was reunited with Robyn, who was fleeing the destruction of the Moonwell in Corwell by Hobarth, a priest of the evil god Bhaal. It was clear that before the question of the kingship of Corwell could be answered, the High King of Caer Calidyrr and the evil forces behind his rule would have to be eliminated. The heroes finally defeated Cyndre and the High King, and Tristan was designated as the new High King, not only of Caer Corwell, but of all the Moonshaes, by the Earthmother herself. The prophecy of Queen Allisyn had come true: the Sword of Cymrych Hugh was in the possession of the king (as it had been for some time), and the king's name was indeed Cymrych, as was pointed out to Tristan by Finellen, inKendrickly is actually a variation on that name that came into use when the old dwarf was a youngster. Though the forces of good had prevailed this time, not all evil had been expunged from the Isles. Hobarth still lived, and he, with the ihdivinelk aid of Bhaal, the god of murder, had corrupted the Moonwell in Myrloch Vale, turning it into a source of evil magic known as a Darkwell. Decay and despair spread throughout the vale as Bhaal instructed Hobarth to place the heart of Kazgoroth (all that remained of that evil beast) upon the petrified form of Genna Moonsinger, chief druid of the Moonshaes. (The Earthmother had previously transformed all of her druids except for Robyn to stone to prevent them from falling into the clutches of the undead monsters that were infecting the vale, keeping the druids from being turned into more undead.) It was during this time that the goddess Chauntea noticed the crippled and faltering status of the Earthmother and began to act to counter Bhaal's schemes for the Isles. The god of murder's schemes included mocking the Earthmother by creating irchildrenly of his own to help destroy the Isles, as the Earthmother had done, in a quite different fashion, for the benefit of the Moonshaes long ago. To this end, Bhaal created a flock of perytons, an owlbear, and a displacer beast named Shantu that was designated the ihkinglt of Bhaal's children. A major breakthrough in the fight against Bhaal occurred when Tristan and his companions were attacked at sea by a band of sahuagin. They fought them off, then went to the aid of a ship of northmen that also was under attack. Working together, the Ffolk and the northmen dispatched the evil fish-men. As it turned out, Tristan had come to the aid of none other than the king of the northmen, Grunnarch the Red. On that day the northmen and the Ffolk became official but tentative allies. At the banquet celebrating the alliance, Tristan had too much to drink and was seduced by Genna Moonsinger, who had been reanimated and transformed into an evil temptress through Hobarth's use of the Heart of Kazgoroth. Robyn discovered the couple together in Tristan's room and fled, furious at this betrayal. Tristan followed and attempted to apologize, but Robyn would not answer her door, and soon thereafter flew by magical means northward to Myrloch Vale. When Tristan could not find Robyn the next morning, he assumed she had gone north. He and a group of companions set off on horseback to catch up with her, and also to stop Hobarth and restore the ravaged vale. They were reunited with Robyn along the way, but initially she still would not hear Tristan's pleas for forgiveness. Unbeknownst to the heroes, Shantu the displacer beast had been tracking the group. The beast attacked Daryth one night while he was alone. Despite a valiant struggle, the Calishite could not overcome the king of Bhaal's children and perished. Tristan took this very badly, blaming himself for his friend's death. Robyn comforted him in this emotional time, despite her anger. Mortals were not the only beings to die during this time, however, as the Earthmother, weakened beyond any hope of recovery, seemingly passed away into oblivion. Bhaal's children had done their vile work very well indeed. Only after the Earthmother's passing did the full extent of Bhaal's plan come to light; he intended to use the Darkwell to allow his avatar to enter the Realms and wreak havoc upon the Moonshaes. The group eventually reached the Darkwell, at the same time that Bhaal was emerging. Tristan, wielding the Sword of Cymrych Hugh, faced the god in melee. Only the sword allowed him any chance at all against this monstrous force, but even he could not prevent Bhaal's avatar from smashing the petrified forms of the druids that still dwelt near the corrupted Moonwell. With the help of his companions, Tristan was able to sever the avatar's link to their plane by hurling the Sword of Cymrych Hugh into the Darkwell. The tactic worked, and Bhaal was cast back to his own plane. Tristan then apologized for his indiscretion, asking for Robyn's forgiveness and for her hand in marriage. She gave him both, and the couple was married that winter. Within two years, the High King and Queen of the Moonshae Isles had two beautiful heirs, the girls Alicia and Deirdre. The exploits involving the royal family of the Moonshaes took a different turn nearly two decades later. King Tristan left for a trading voyage to the Sword Coast, and before he could return home his ship was sunk and he was taken prisoner by the evil sahuagin. They maimed him by taking one of his hands as proof that he was their prisoner. After this grisly evidence was received at Corwell, Robyn and Alicia led a mission to rescue him. Tristan had suffered from temporary amnesia because of his rough treatment at the hands of the sahuagin. When his memory did return, a rage burned within him and he devised a plan of escape. In fact, he was making good that escape when Robyn, Alicia, and the others appeared on the scene. Tristan's attempts to replace his lost hand played into the hands of the Realmsian gods and the legendary giantish hero Grond Peaksmasher, who went to war against the civilized folk of the Isles. Tristan reunited with many of his old comrades to stave off the threat. He held off a horde of trolls with the sword Trollcleaver, which allowed his friends, Robyn, and Alicia to survive the battle, but he lost his other daughter, Deirdre. After the death of his daughter, Tristan went off to live with Robyn in seclusion in Myrloch Vale, leaving Alicia to rule the Isles as High Queen.

Vangerdahast spent his youth (in the time of Azoun's grandfather's rule) as an adventurer and made many friends who now are kings, patriarchs, and guild masters. These people now serve as his network for gathering information from across Faerûn. Azoun's father appointed Vangerdahast to serve as Azoun's tutor in the history and lineages of Cormyr and in matters of magic and rulership such as ethics and responsibility. In time, he became the future's king's closest advisor and friend. Vangerdahast often covered for Azoun during the time when the young noble rode with the King's Men. He would explain to Azoun's parents that their son was on some sort of expedition to recover a trinket, a book, or a map of value. He accompanied the king on the crusade against the Tuigan Horde despite protests by Azoun, who wanted the Royal Magician to stay in Cormyr's capital as a deterrent to any disgruntled faction or any of the ihnormalle evils of the Realms from making a play for power in Azoun's absence. Although he was struck down by a dead-magic area where the Tuigan had made their camp, Vangerdahast recovered in time to command the War Wizards in the final day's battle. He continues to advise Azoun to this day, often countering the king's strong sense of idealism with a healthy dose of pragmatism and realistic analysis. Further, at some point in his career, Vangerdahast crossed paths with Elminster. Although the details are not known except by the principals, a good-natured feud arose between the two mages that continues to the present.

A native of Chessenta, Vilhelm began his adventuring career as a paladin of Torm. But during the Time of Troubles, he felt his god disappear (when Torm died). He had lived such a life of piety and warfare prior to then that with Torm's passing, he felt free and enjoyed the freedom. As a result, he lost his status as a paladin and did not realize it when Torm was later reinstated by Ao. Prior to meeting Martine, he had lived in the valley of the Great Glacier for three years, and it was a full year before the Vani gnomes even introduced themselves to him. Once they did, they became respected neighbors and allies. When the ranger Martine came to the area to seal an inter- planar rift, Vil offered his services when the gnomes refused to guide her to the Great Glacier. It was he who helped her and the gnomes fight the gnolls that had been enslaved by Vreesar, an evil ice elemental. And it was Vil who died fighting Vreesar when the monster thrust an exploding ball of ice into his breastplate after he had dealt it a grievous blow with his sword.

Wulfgar was born the son of an important advi- sor to the king of the Tribe of the Elk. Although his father was loyal to the tribe, he was not a supporter of the king, and he dreamed of forging a better life for himself, his son, and his fellow tribesmen. He prepared himself for a great quest that, when he completed it, would bring him the power necessary to unseat the king, and he imparted all of his knowledge to his son. Unfortunately, the man was killed in a battle against another tribe before he could realize his dream. In the barbarians' tribal society, it was easy for Wulfgar to be raised and trained by other warriors even though he had lost his father. He grew tall and strong, and had achieved the honor of being the king's standard-bearer by the time he was an adolescent. Many in the tribe felt that he would be their next king. But then came the day when all the barbarian tribes united in a raid against the Ten Towns region of Icewind Dale. The town dwellers turned out in force and, thanks to assistance from the dwarves of the area, managed to repel the attack. That was when Wulfgar met Bruenor; the dwarven warrior easily incapacitated the boy, but didn't have the heart to kill him, because Bruenor saw the spark of intelligence in the young warrior's eyes, not the fierce bloodlust of his tribal brethren. Bruenor declared that the price of Wulfgar's life would be five years of servitude. At first, the young barbarian hated this debt of honor, and he swore to strike down the arrogant dwarf as soon as those five years had elapsed. But those years of service changed his life. In addition to picking up several practical skills and building up his body by working in the dwarven mines, Wulfgar learned a lot about other people and about himself. From Bruenor he learned the importance of patience and honor. Thanks to Catti-brie he learned to appreciate the true value of a caring woman. From Drizzt he learned stoicism and a new fighting technique. From Regis he learned . . . well, Regis probably taught him not to take himself too seriously. After his term of service was passed, he and Drizzt went out to complete his father's quest. Together they slew the great white dragon known as Icingdeath. Wulfgar then returned to his tribe with the dragon's horns as proof of his success and challenged the king for leadership. He had learned that the king had taken up with the forces of evil, including the wizard Akar Kessell, and was planning another attack against Ten Towns. Wulfgar succeeded in killing the king. He then laid a new road for his people, allying them with the folk of Ten Towns to defeat Kessell and the Crystal Shard. After this war was won, Wulfgar turned over leadership of the tribe to a close friend who he knew would take good care of his people and returned to his friends, Bruenor, Drizzt, and Catti-brie, the young lady who was becoming more and more important to him. As the group shared adventures, from the reconquest of Mithral Hall to the rescue of Regis from the city of Calimport, the pair grew closer and closer. Alas, their future together was not to be. Not long after the reconquest of Mithral Hall, the drow came back to battle the heroes and especially the ihtraitorl, Drizzt. In a fierce fight with a handmaiden of Lolth, Wulfgar sacrificed himself to save the lives of his friends.

Wynter was born in Thay, the son of a plantation worker who treated his slaves cruelly. Disgusted by his family's practices and the land that sponsors and encourages them, Wynter fled Thay when he was 12 years old. He joined the Harpers after meeting Galvin and getting the druid's help in catching some outlaws who had robbed him. On the mission to Amruthar, Wynter served as a guide, using his knowledge of the area and the culture to help his friends fit in. He was instrumental in defeating the plans of the Red Wizards Maligor and Szass Tam, and he even freed a number of slaves by posing as a buyer for the plantation his family worked. (This is an excellent example of using nonviolent means to achieve a desired end. Wynter didn't kick down the slave pens and fight the slavers; that would have blown his cover and ruined the Harpers' mission.) Though his efficiency was reduced when he was indoors, his fighting skills were critical in allowing the heroes to reach their goal.

Little is known of Zaranda Star's past except that she was an orphan and started her adventuring life as a wizard. Eventually, she turned to fighting as her primary occupation. Following the crusade against the Tuigan Horde, she purchased her estate in Tethyr and was known as the Countess Morninggold. She became a merchant and took trading caravans through many parts of the Realms. On her last expedition, she was hired to go to Thay and retrieve several magical items. Upon her return to Tethyr, she went to Zazesspur to turn over these items to her employers, but when she entered the city all of her goods were impounded by the authorities. She found the city in turmoil, and she was offered her goods back if she agreed to join a plot by Baron Faneuil Hardisty to become King of Tethyr. She refused and fled the city, taking up the life of a mercenary captain. Her venture was known as Star Company, Protective Services Extraordinaire, and its mission was to train helpless villages to protect themselves from the depredations of the bandits and robber barons that plagued Tethyr. Her exploits became too uncomfortable for Baron Hardisty, and he managed to have her captured and brought back to the city. Just prior to her scheduled execution, Zazesspur erupted in revolt and it was discovered that much of the internal struggle within the city had been caused by the Zhentarim, who were smuggling children out in a slave trade. Some of the children never made it; they became food for a horrid fiend that had the head of an ox and the body of a scorpion. The fiend in turn served a deepspawn in a section of the Underdark beneath Zazesspur. Zaranda was freed so that she and her company could help the inhabitants of the city destroy these horrid creatures. Against incredible odds, Zaranda and her companions defeated the fiend and the deepspawn although several of them fell in battle. During the battle, Zaranda discovered that her ihapprenticel. Chenowyn was a ruby dragon. After the forces of evil fell, the citizens of Zazesspur proclaimed Zaranda queen, and she reluctantly assumed the throne.