Personality and Backgrounds

Characters are defined by much more than their race and class. They’re individuals with their own stories, interests, connections, and capabilities beyond those that class and race define. This chapter expounds on the details that distinguish characters from one another, including the basics of name and physical description, the rules of backgrounds and languages, and the finer points of personality and alignment.

Character Details

What is contained within the Player’s Handbook related to names, gender, height, and weight are sufficient to cover most situations for newly developed characters.  There is not any reason to expand upon those.

Alignment

This detail for each character can be viewed as more of a guideline of expected behavior but will not be strictly enforced unless there is some class requirement for a specific expected behavior.

Languages

There are not any changes to the base language sets.  It is expected that all the characters will minimally speak common unless there is a specific background or story about not being able to speak common.  It is also assumed that all characters are literate, again unless there is a story reason to change that.

Personality Characteristics

The Player’s Handbook offers many different suggestions on a character should consider for different traits, both good and bad.  There are also the more specific ones offered under each of the Backgrounds.  Again, these are all considered guidelines and only to be used if the player feels they need that assistance to understand their character and their background better.

Inspiration

Inspiration is a rule the Dungeon Master can use to reward you for playing your character in a way that’s true to his or her personality traits, ideal, bond, and flaw. By using inspiration, you can draw on your personality trait of compassion for the downtrodden to give you an edge in negotiating with the Beggar Prince. Or inspiration can let you call on your bond to the defense of your home village to push past the effect of a spell that has been laid on you.

Gaining Inspiration

Your DM can choose to give you inspiration for a variety of reasons. Typicality, DMs award it when you play out your personality traits, give in to the drawbacks presented by a flaw or bond, and otherwise portray your character in a compelling way. Your DM will tell you how you can earn inspiration in the game.

It is also frequently rewarded for some brave action, superb role-playing, or the completion of a difficult objective.

You either have inspiration or you don’t-you can’t stockpile multi pie “inspirations” for later use.

Awarding Inspiration

Think of inspiration as a spice that can be used to enhance the campaign.

Roleplaying. Using inspiration to reward roleplaying is a good place to start for most groups. Rewarding a player with inspiration when that player causes his or her character to do something that is consistent with the character’s personality trait, flaw, or bond. The character’s action should be notable in some way. It might drive the story forward, push the adventurers into danger, or make everyone at the table laugh. In essence, you reward the player for roleplaying in a way that makes the game more enjoyable for everyone else.

Consider each player’s roleplaying style and try not to favor one style over another.

Heroism. inspiration can be used encourage player characters to take risks. A fighter might not normally hurl himself over a balcony to land during a pack of hungry ghouls, but they could be rewarded for the character’s daring maneuver with inspiration.

Genre Emulation. Inspiration is a handy tool for reinforcing the conventions of a particular genre. Under this approach, think of the motifs of a genre as personality traits, flaws, and bonds that can apply to any of the adventurers.

Similarly, characters in a horror story typically can’t help but spend a night in a haunted house to learn its secrets. They probably also go off alone when they shouldn’t. If the party splits up, consider giving each character inspiration.

A sensible person would avoid the noble’s intrigues and the haunted house, but in film noir or horror, we’re not dealing with sensible people; we’re dealing with protagonists in a particular type of story. For this approach to work, create a list of your genre’s main conventions and share it with your players. Before the campaign begins, talk about the list to make sure your group is on board for embracing those conventions.

Using Inspiration

If you have inspiration, you can expend it when you make an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check. Spending your inspiration gives you advantage on that roll.

Additionality, if you have inspiration, you can reward another player for good roleplaying, clever thinking, or simply doing something exciting in the game. When another player character does something that really contributes to the story in a fun and interesting way, you can give up your inspiration character inspiration.

Reset of Inspiration

All inspiration that is gained during a session, if not used, expires at the end of that session such that all the characters will start with no inspiration at the next session and must earn it again.

Homebrew Proficiencies

When new tools or kits are added to the game this also will need to be reflected in the affected proficiencies as well as where that proficiency might be acquired.

Harvesting Kit

This guide adds in the new tool: the harvesting kit. Players may have proficiency in this like any other tool, and it is highly advised for them to have it as it provides a valuable bonus when making the checks outlined in this book. To accommodate this additional tool, the following classes and backgrounds have been slightly altered to give them the option to gain proficiency in the Harvesting Kit.

• Rangers may have proficiency with the harvesting kit upon character creation (this skill is not gained in multiclassing)
• Druids may have the option to choose between proficiency in the herbalism kit or the harvesting kit upon character creation (this skill is not gained in multiclassing)
• The Hermit background may choose between the herbalism kit and the harvesting kit as its starting tool proficiency and gains the appropriate kit as part of its starting equipment.
• The Outlander background may choose between a musical instrument or the harvesting kit as its initial tool proficiency. They may also choose between a hunting trap, and the harvesting kit in its initial starting equipment.

Backgrounds

Every story has a beginning. Your character’s background reveals where you came from, how you became an adventurer, and your place in the world. Your tighter might have been a courageous knight or a grizzled soldier. Your wizard could have been a sage or an artisan. Your rogue might have gotten by as a guild thief or commanded audiences as a jester.

Choosing a background provides you with important story cues about your character’s identity. The most important question to ask about your background is what changed? Why did you stop doing whatever your background describes and start adventuring? Where did you get the money to purchase your starting gear, or, if you come from a wealthy background, why don’t you have more money? How did you learn the skills of your class? What sets you apart from ordinary people who share your background?

Expectations

Background serves not only to help give your character life, but it also provides the DM hooks to apply to the Campaign to give your character more than just a two-dimensional feel to it.  You can include a happy childhood, horror, or anything in between that feels that it helps create the personality and history for you character.

Obviously, you cannot create an unbalanced background such that it would not fit into the Campaign.  All backgrounds must be approved and most likely will be modified buy the DM to help it fit into the story everyone is about to participate in.

All backgrounds will need to be able to answers several fundamental questions:

• Why are you adventuring?  What is motivating you to live this dangerous lifestyle?
• Do you have any other motivations?
• Where did you come from?  Where did you live?  What was your life there?
• Do you have any family alive?  Where are they?
• Do you have any important friends or contacts that would be useful to your new life?
• Why would you be joining a group of strangers to do anything?  Why would you trust them?  Would you trust them?  At some point you will need to integrate with the group and if you create an onerous personality and background that will prevent that, it will be difficult for your character to participate with the group.

Homebrew Backgrounds

While the multitude of reference, modules, and other books include many different backgrounds that are available to the players, sometimes there is the need for something more than just the standard ones.  Here are the available homebrew backgrounds for this Campaign.

The following Homebrew backgrounds are available to the characters if their background would warrant the use of one of them.

• Built in a Lab
• Far East Traveler
• Farmhand
• Harvester

Built in a Lab

Some master of both magic and machinery assembled you with a mixture of arcane prowess and tinkering proficiency. Your creator may be a mad mage who meant to use you for nefarious ends, a wise sage creating a steadfast soldier, or a lonely soul seeking friendship or family through unusual avenues. Perhaps you don’t even know for sure, having awakened decades or centuries after you were initially built. Gradually, you are discovering your innate abilities, your arcane code compiling and iterating. Perhaps you are discovering arcane gifts that your master shared with you or learning newer and better ways to pulverize your enemies with your unbreakable fists. The world is strange and new, and you will absorb as much of it as is mechanically possible.

• Skill Proficiencies: Choose two from the following: Arcana, Investigation, Medicine, Perception, Performance, Stealth.
• Languages: Choose two
• Equipment:  A broken sword, a set of common clothes, and a belt pouch containing 10gp.

Feature: Quick Study

You were designed to adapt and grow, iterating on your experiences and developing a wider skill set as a result. Your arcane code rewards you for seeking out new encounters, particularly if you can challenge yourself to reproduce them. If you spend an extended period observing an expert at their craft, you gain advantage on your next attempt to mimic that skill.

Suggested Characteristics

Your praerogativa arcana determines how you prioritize your actions, interactions, and reactions to the world around you. Your attitudes may be determined by your master, or you may be developing new models of behavior as a rebellion against your creator.

Personality Trait Table

Ideal Table

Bond Table

Flaw Table

Far East Traveler

Almost all the common people and other folk that one might encounter along the Sword Coast or in the North have one thing in common: they live out their lives without ever traveling more than a few miles from where they were born.

You aren’t one of those folks.

You are from a distant place, one so remote that few of the common folk in the North realize that it exists, and chances are good that even if some people you meet have heard of your homeland, they know merely the name and perhaps a few outrageous stories. You have come to this part of Faerûn for your own reasons, which you might or might not choose to share.

Although you will undoubtedly find some of this land’s ways to be strange and discomfiting, you can also be sure that some things its people take for granted will be to you the new wonders that you’ve never laid eyes on before. By the same token, you’re a person of interest, for good or ill, to those around you almost anywhere you go.

• Skill Proficiencies: Intimidation, Stealth, and Athletics or History
• Tool Proficiencies: Gain tool proficiency in Alchemist and Herbalist
• Languages: Each Far Eastern Traveler gains a non-standard foreign language that will have to be added manually.
• Equipment: One set of traveler’s clothes, Herbalism Kit and an Alchemist’s Supplies, poorly wrought maps from your homeland that depict where you are in Faerûn, a small piece of jewelry worth 10gp in the style of your homeland’s craftsmanship, and a pouch containing 5gp

Why Are You Here?

A far traveler might have set out on a journey for one of several reasons, and the departure from his or her homeland could have been voluntary or involuntary. To determine why you are so far from home, roll on the table below or choose from the options provided. The following section, discussing possible homelands, includes some suggested reasons that are appropriate for each location.

Why Are You Here Table

Feature: All Eyes on You

Your accent, mannerisms, figures of speech, and perhaps even your appearance all mark you as foreign. Curious glances are directed your way wherever you go, which can be a nuisance, but you also gain the friendly interest of scholars and others intrigued by far-off lands, to say nothing of everyday folk who are eager to hear stories of your homeland.

You can parley this attention into access to people and places you might not otherwise have, for you and your traveling companions. Noble lords, scholars, and merchant princes, to name a few, might be interested in hearing about your distant homeland and people.

Suggested Characteristics

These are the suggested characteristics for Far Traveler.

Personality Trait Table

Ideal Table

Bond Table

Flaw Table

Farmhand

Prior to becoming an adventurer, you were a farmer, gardener, or orchard-keeper of some kind. You made your pay by tending to fruits and vegetables to produce food for your family and to sell at local markets. While most farmers grow common, edible crops, such as wheat and corn, others can grow rare fruits and magical flowers, depending on the climate and their expertise.

Many farmers live comfortably or in poor conditions, making you used to conditions that would make a nobleman turn up his nose. Caring for animals and digging in dirt is a messy and often thankless job, but it does have to be done by someone.

Farming tends to be a tradition within families, carried on for generations without much thought. Perhaps you were bored of a life of farming, or a disaster of some sort spurred you on to a life of adventure.

• Skill Proficiencies: Choose two from among Animal Handling, Athletics, Medicine, or Nature.
• Tool Proficiencies: Choose one from among Brewers’
• Supplies, Cook’s Utensils, Leatherworker’s Tools, Weaver’s Tools, or Woodcarver’s Tools. You also have proficiency with Vehicles (Land).
• Equipment: A set of common clothes, a walking stick, and a belt pouch containing 10gp.

Feature: Rustic Hospitality

Since you come from the ranks of the common folk, you fit in among them with ease. You can find a place to hide, rest, or recuperate among other commoners, unless you have shown yourself to be a danger to them.

Suggested Characteristics

These are the suggested characteristics for Far Traveler.

Personality Trait Table

Ideal Table

Bond Table

Flaw Table

Harvester

Like a miner in their cave or a farmer in their field, you too make your living through reaping the riches of the natural world. Your resources, however, are the monsters and creatures that populate the multiverse. Although there are some who would scoff and call you a mere butcher, you understand the subtle complexities in the fantastical anatomies you find in your adventures, and only you are qualified enough to harvest them.

• Skill Proficiencies: Nature, Survival
• Tool Proficiencies: Harvesting Kit, Languages: One of your choice.
• Equipment: A set of traveler’s clothes, a hunting trap, harvesting kit, a cloak made from a creature you harvested, and a belt pouch containing 5gp.

Feature: Connected

You have been harvesting creatures for a long time and as part of that, you have become deeply acquainted with the large industry of crafters and merchants that rely on the wares you bring. Whenever you enter a place of civilization, you have no trouble finding merchants willing to buy your materials or crafters that can work with your wares. You are also savvy in the bargaining techniques used when haggling over prices and are not easily tricked during negotiations. You often find yourself able to secure a good price, or even a discount on services relating to harvested materials.

Suggested Characteristics

Harvesters are an odd bunch, half outdoorsman, half entrepreneur. As someone who spends most of their time in the hunting and being elbow deep in dead bodies, you probably have a different worldview compared to most.

Personality Trait Table

Ideal Table

Bond Table

Flaw Table

Equipment

The Marketplace of a large city teems with buyers and sellers of many sorts: dwarf smiths and elf woodcarvers, halfling farmers and gnome jewelers, not to mention humans of every shape, size, and color drawn from a spectrum of nations and cultures. In the largest cities, almost anything imaginable is offered for sale, from exotic spices and luxurious clothing to wicker baskets and practical swords.

For an adventurer, the availability of armor, weapons, backpacks, rape, and similar goods is of paramount importance since proper equipment can mean the difference between life and death in a dungeon or the unclaimed wilds. This chapter details the mundane and exotic merchandise that adventurers commonly find useful in the face of the threats that the world of Dungeons and Dragons present.

Starting Equipment

When you create your character, you receive equipment based on a combination of your class and background. In this campaign your character will always start with the given set of equipment that your background and class might give you.

You decide how your character came by this starting equipment. It might have been an inheritance, or goods that the character purchased during his or her upbringing. You might have been equipped with a weapon, armor, and a backpack as part of military service. You might even have stolen your gear. A weapon could be a family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation until your character finally look up the mantle and followed in an ancestor’s adventurous footsteps.

In the Campaign we will be using the Equipment option instead of gold.  If there is something additional you believe that your character would have then bring that to the DM.  Swapping some of the packs or kits is also an option if it makes sense for your character.

Selling Treasure

Opportunities abound to find treasure, equipment, weapons, armor, and more in the dungeons you explore. Normally, you can sell your treasures and trinkets when you return to a town or other settlement if you can find buyers and merchants interested in your loot.

Arms, Armor, and Other Equipment. As a rule, undamaged weapons, armor, and other equipment fetch half their cost when sold in a market. Weapons and armor used by monsters are rarely in good enough condition to sell.

Magic Items. Selling magic items is problematic. Finding someone to buy a potion or a scroll isn’t too hard, but other items are out of the realm of most but the wealthiest nobles. Likewise, aside from a few common magic items, you won’t normally come across magic items or spells to purchase. The value of magic is far beyond simple gold and should always be treated as such.

Gems, jewelry, and Art Objects. These items retain their full value in the marketplace, and you can trade them in for coin or use them as currency for other transactions. For exceptionally valuable treasures, the DM might require you to find a buyer in a large town or larger community first.

Trade Goods. On the borderlands, many people conduct transactions through barter. Like gems and art objects, trade goods – bars of iron, bags of salt, livestock, and so on – retain their full value in the market and can be used as currency.

Monster Part Harvesting. Harvesting is the act of salvaging useful parts of a dead creature for personal use and profit.  It can be time consuming, dirty, messy, and weigh a lot depending on the creature.  But it can also be as lucrative as pillaging a small ruin.  See the section under Adventuring for more details.

Armor and Shields

In most campaigns, you can use or wear any equipment that you find on your adventures, within the bounds of common sense.

Using this variant, when adventurers find armor, clothing. and similar items that are made to be worn, they might need to visit an armor smith, tailor, leatherworker, or similar expert to make the item wearable. The cost for such work varies from 10 to 40 percent of the market price of the item. The DM can either roll d4 x 10 or determine the increase in cost based on the extent of the alterations required.

Common Material Components Costs

Casting some spells requires objects, specified in parentheses in the component entry. A character can use a component pouch or a spellcasting focus (found in “Equipment” in the Player’s Handbook) in place of the components specified for a spell. But if a cost is indicated for a component, a character must have that specific component before he or she can cast the spell.

If a spell states that a material component is consumed by the spell, the caster must provide this component for each casting of the spell. A spellcaster must have a hand free to access a spell’s material components — or to hold a spellcasting focus — but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components.

The Campaign rule is that the component pouch or arcane focus will only replace components up to a 10gp value.  Any exotic material will have to always be purchased or manually collected.

An example of an exotic material would be Dragon Scales, or Umber Hulk blood.

When the spell gives the specific cost, then that is the cost that will be used, otherwise the characters will need to collect the proper components.

Component Cost Table

Poor Quality of Equipment

When equipment is found either lying in a dusty tomb or off the warm body of a dead bandit, there is also an assumed condition, but there can be variances.  If not magical, that sword in the tomb will probably not last long unless store properly, and that leather armor that the bandit wore is most likely ratty.  Most of the time, we do not care the actual condition unless it is in a less than good shape.

Armor: When armor is in poor condition, its usability is limited, and will not usually survive the next combat.  The armor will start off with a lower AC than it would have if in good shape.  That AC will be one or more less than normal. The exact amount will be determined by the DM based off the condition.  Any hit on the armor that is a natural 20 causes the armor to have a complete failure.  The wearer of that armor still is burdened by the weight and disadvantages, but it no longer provided any defense.

Missiles: Arrows and bolts get shared around regularly, but not all are made equal.  The limitations of a poorly made missile is that it only can be fired in the normal range and automatically misses at long range.  Missiles also critical miss on a one or two and are in capable of critical hits.

Weapons: Handling a poor weapon against a competent opponent is a recipe for disaster.  Any roll of a natural one two, or 20 causes the weapon to break and be useless. On a 20, the critical hit is still valid, but it breaks immediately on impact.

Homebrew Equipment

While the Player’s Handbook is complete in what it makes available, there is always the need for a few other things that would be good to have.

Enchanted Vial

Some creature parts have powerful, yet fleeting, magical energies within them. The motes from elementals for example hold traces of their former essences in them but disperse rapidly upon the destruction of their original form.

An enchanted vial is inlaid with several runes designed to keep any magical resource within from dissipating while the lid is closed and is often the only way of transporting certain parts back to a workshop for crafting.

Items that require an enchanted vial to be harvested are fragile by nature and must be stored inside an enchanted vial quickly to prevent degradation. Any attempt to harvest a material that has an enchanted vial as a requirement must be initiated within one minute of the death of its creature.

This tool can be used a maximum of five times afterwards it disintegrates into powder.  At each attempted use, roll a d20 and if a 1 is rolled, the vial is immediately destroyed.

Harvesting Kit

This kit contains everything the average harvester needs to prepare and harvest a carcass for usable parts including a skinning knife, a bone saw, two glass vials, punches of salt, and tweezers.  Proficiency with this kit allows you to add your proficiency bonus to nay check made to harvest a creature.

Healing Pill

You regain 1d4 hit points when you swallow this pill.  If more than one is swallowed, then all after the first do 1d4 damage instead.

Spirit Paper

Spirit paper is a versatile tool that resembles a square of bleached papyrus. The secrets of its production were only recently discovered, and reverse engineered from secrets brought back from distant necromantic cults. By performing a small ritual with the spirit paper shortly after slaying certain creatures, a copy of that creature’s soul is bound to the spirit paper for later use. These copies are not a true soul and are more akin to an echo. These echoes do retain all the memories from its original body, and a few crafting techniques utilize these echoes to grant an item a low level of sentience or to mimic the abilities of their incorporeal reflections.

Using spirit paper is often the only way to harvest anything useful from creatures with incorporeal forms. Any harvesting attempt made for a creature part that has spirit paper as a requirement is done

using a Wisdom (Religion) check rather than the usual check and is rolled separately for each item. Once a sheet of spirit paper has been used successfully to harvest an item, it cannot be reused, even if the item it contained is released.

Unlike most harvestable materials, materials that require spirit paper to be harvested dissipate very quickly after the death of its creature. Any attempt to harvest a material that has spirit paper as a requirement must be initiated within 1 minute of the death of the creature and takes 10 minutes to successfully complete.

Each Spirit paper can only be used once.

Special Tools Price Table

11^th of Kythorn of the year 1492

After the visceral murder of ISAC in front of them and the disappearance of the intruder, the party was stunned and in shock.  In front of them was nothing more than a pile of clothing and gear.  The only remains of ISAC that they could see. Most of them sat in place as they attempt to understand what had happened. Fogo ran to the where ISAC had been yelling for him, but there was not an answer from the pile of ashes and dust.  Digging into the pile hoping to find ISAC, or something remaining of him, he noticed that the breastplate that ISAC always wore was missing.

Casting his Locate Object to see if he could find it, he was disappointed as he determined that what was left of the breastplate was mingled into the pile of ashes and dust that was scattered around the room now.  Much of it was fading away as if it never existed. Upset at his failure, Fogo ran out of the room and inn heading to the Allfaith’s Shrine hoping for a miracle. Asking Imdarr for help, he was told that if there is not a body, then there was little he could do except offer some prayers.  He suggested that both Angelica and Fogo try praying to their gods as well and maybe a miracle might happen.

Imdarr Relvaunder

“What the fuck? Where did that guy go?”

Dancer pulled out his sword and immediately began searching for him looking out the window first, followed by under the bed and finally under the seat cushions of the couch in the room. Fwoosh also began looking for any evidence of that person, but there was not a single trace to be found by anyone.

Avery had immediately prepared a spell in panic, but with nothing to target he let that drop. He then went downstairs as well to get something strong to drink. When he got to the bar where Gwendolyn was bartending, she stopped him and handed him a ratty looking notebook and told him that it had been dropped off for him and that he would know what to do with it.  Confused, but still eager for that drink he slammed down some of Ilmeth’s Everclear that was on hand and took a bottle of vodka back up to the room.

Gwendolyn Venelli

Back in the room Vladimir trying to take charge told Fwoosh to go and get Dhelosk, demand for Dhelosk, but bring him here. Heading down and meeting Gwendolyn Fwoosh tearfully explained he needed Dhelosk and was able to convince her to try and get him.  It did not take long for Dhelosk to come out and join everyone upstairs.

Dhelosk Quelbeard

“So, who was that guy?  Who did you piss off?”

“Never seen him before.”

Back in the room, Dancer expressed his concern while Vladimir tried to answer while starting to dig through where ISAC has been.  As he touched any of the ashes and dust, they all just faded away as if none of it existed.

“I have no idea who that was Dancer, or what the hell just happened. My only hope is that we might be able to get some clues from Dhelosk. There is clearly some magic at play.”

“You think?”

It was then that Fogo came back in still in panic mode. He was looking at gathering up the ashes and beseeched Angelica to pray to her god.  But no one was listening, and the ashes could not be gathered as they were all fading away into nothingness. Failing to the ground crying, Fogo just sobbed in a pile on the floor.

“I did not get to talk to him, and I was going to tell him that I was okay with him, and that he is important to the group and that I did not get to talk to him…”

Angelica tried to offer solace by giving out hugs to anyone receptive to that and Avery arrived back with his bottle.  Setting it up on a table and pouring enough shots for everyone, he then went to the couch and began to look through his new notebook. Inside was a poorly written love poem.

Beneath moon’s glow, passions ignite,

Bodies entwined, the world out of sight.

Whispers of desire, in your embrace,

Our love’s a fire, a passionate chase.

Dhelosk and Fwoosh arrived at the room where the group tried to explain what had happened and to see if he could help do something or see if he could find something.  Looking around using his magic he did not see anything new.  He mentioned several of the magic items that the group had, Vladimir’s maul, Dancer’s sword, Avery’s new book, and a few other things that everyone had. He did notice that there was one thing missing.  Something that they kept talking to him about, the golden statue.  Unless it was stashed in one of their bags of holding, it seemed to be missing.

“Time Stop.  That is something far, far beyond I could do. But, color disappearing, magical Time Stop does not cause that. It sounds like something different.  It is not a magic that I know of. Maybe Dlara might know something.  It sounds almost like someone tried to impose another plane on this temporally. She is the one that is expert in extra-planar research, not me.”

“It is an unusual disintegration. It does not usually affect organic stuff. If someone was disintegrated, it would be all of him, including what he is wearing.”

Still desperate for a solution, Fogo continued to beseech Dhelosk for a solution, but besides some prayers to the gods, there was not a solution that he could provide. Asking about Dlara to see if she could help, Dhelosk did say he could reach out, but told them that there was little she could do at this point.  She was not as skilled or learned as he was, and this was something far beyond both.

“Why did he choose you? If he is that powerful and he can sneak in here without me knowing. He could stop time, or suppress time, or force a dimensional merge. Why would he just kill one of you? If he wanted you dead, all of you would be dead, all of us would be dead.”

“He said we were just rats in a cage and that he was impatient.”

“He said we needed a push.”

The discussion devolved around what has happened and attempting to attribute something to this event, but no one could think of anything specific.

“I assume in whatever conclusion of whatever you are aiming to do he will be there.”

Not being able to provide any answers, Dhelosk left the group to their own. The party continued the discussion on what they should do and where they should go at this point.  It was then that the anger started to settle into the group now that the fear had settled, an anger to do something, to strike back, to not be rats in a cage. Trying to capture their memories and what happened, they started gathering everything they could remember and capturing it on paper with Fwoosh providing an eerily exact replica of the shadow’s voice saying the words that only reinforced their helplessness. To start the arduous process, Avery began to go through what was left of ISAC and the gear there. With a heavy heart and hand, they divided up what was left of ISAC’s gear.

While going through the gear, they came across the broken sword with the red jewel in the pummel and an interesting symbol carved into the hilt. Non one recognized it, nor knew anything about it.  They could only vaguely remember ISAC asking about symbols with crows or ravens but little else.

Symbol Found on Sword

While the gear was being spread around, Avery took the time to get better acquainted with his new book, especially now that he knows that it is magical.  Upon completing his attunement, he found out that the text on the inside had changed to something completely different, and once read, faded away as if nothing had ever been written.

Larmon Greenboot at Alfred’s saw some shallow graves east of here in the hills, might be related to your quest with the delegation – reply here.

Once again, they tried to talk about what they have been doing, where they should be going.  They had the lead to Beliard that they needed to follow, there were still possible bandit locations they had not searched, and Avery brought up that he suddenly had a new lead.

“I think we need to talk to Larmon Greenboot at Alfred’s.”

“Who?”

Everyone’s confusion at the sudden and unprompted new clue caused a lot more talk. It was not clear who sent the message, but it was agreed that Avery would go to Alfred’s tomorrow and check it out. Fogo still was not willing to let go and believed that somehow ISAC was somehow alive. The party overall wanted to move on. Fwoosh gathered up the pieces of the mask that ISAC had been wearing and Fwoosh took a single piece as a keepsake.

Fogo headed to the outdoors to grieve in the manner of his tribe and family.  Angelica tried to help Vladimir deal with the death of ISAC, and Dancer was in a hurry to find a new room that did not contain the ashes of his compatriot. Trying to settle themselves, some got food, some went to their room, but eventually everyone ended back in their rooms.  Fogo came in the latest with his face covered in blood and mud from his ceremony. Eventually almost everyone went to bed except for Vladimir that just sat pm the floor thinking of everything that has happened, and Avery who finished off the bottle of vodka and not getting enough rest to count.

12^th of Kythorn of the year 1492

Bumbling down the stairs in the morning, they queried about Dlara and found out that she was unavailable and would not be able to come sooner than a ten-day and was not sure if it was even worth her time since there was nothing more, she could do that Dhelosk did not already do. Fogo requested that if word came in about the armor, he had commissioned in Amphail that he just wanted it held at the Blackbutter Inn until he returned.

Avery went over to Alfred’s while Dancer went to collect his daily ration of bear claws, Fogo to Haeleeya’s and Vladimir stayed behind for a conversation with Dhelosk.  The rest went to the Wagonworks and waited for the group to assemble. Vladimir magically mailed a letter back home having not contacted them in several years and Fogo had Haeleeya send a letter to the Emerald Enclave about the current happenings.

Haeleeya Hanadroum

Upon entry to the baker’s store, he asked about Jepos from Mangobarl.  Gesturing him to the back Dancer had questions of Jepos about the attacker from yesterday.  While the Zhentarim employ assassins, Dancer was told that this assailant was something far beyond anything that the Zhentarim had on staff, or least as far as Jepos knew.

Mangobarl Lorren

Jepos Copperhand

At Alfred’s, Avery chatted with him about if he had seen Larmon or not and was directed over to a group of old men gossiping. Going over taking Larmon over to the side for a conversation.

“You had mentioned that you had seen some shallow graves to the east?”

“Yeah, not too far from the Rover Dessarin in the foothills. I’m a shepherd and I was taking my flock around because one of the homesteads that we hold them in is not that far from there and I was on my way back and heading here to market and I could see off to the side, there were a whole bunch of piled up rocks.”

“Cairns?”

“Yes, that what it looked like, they were not there a week before that.”

“Can you tell me about how many there were?”

“I do not really look around that much, but I can tell you where it is.”

Being told the follow the foothills and he should be able to find it.  Asking about their wagon, Avery was told that if they stayed in the foothills, they should not have any problems. Getting what he needed, Avery also headed to the wheelworks.

Alfred

Larmon Greenboot

With their errands completed, they got together at the wheelworks, and got their wagon ready. They now needed to decide to head to Beliard or the shallow graves. After a bunch of back and forth they decided that the shallow graces were a better clue than just asking around Beliard.  So off they headed on out to the south and east of Red Larch toward where they thought the graves might be.  Skirting to the south of the hills they realized that they would be able to go past one of the bandit locations and investigating it would not take them out of their way.

With all their capabilities in tracking they completely missed any bandit tracks, assuming there were any in their path.  Continuing they eventually got to evening and a chance to go camping.  Fogo rush forward to make a meal while the rest set up the large eight-man tent that Fwoosh had purchased. Settling in for the night. They decided to let Avery and Vladimir sleep without taking a watch so that they could recover from their exhaustion.

After a nice meal, they set up their watches and started their rest.  It was clear that they had not been camping in a while and somehow let down their guard.  It was during Angelica’s watch that they were ambushed by the bandit group they had been trying to find.  It seems that the bandits had found them first and followed them to their camping location.

Bandit

Bandit Veteran

Bandit Lieutenant

The numbers were not in the favor of the party, but they were able to take them on and out.  Everyone was wounded and the search of bodies started.  Nothing was a surprise, not even when they found the bloody eye tattoo over the heart of the bandit leader. They gathered in a little bit of cash, and a map that was in the pouch of the leader.

Tattoo on Bandit Lieutenant

Map in Bandit Lieutenant’s Pouch

With the action over, the party headed back to bed.

Campaign Notes

After a fair amount of grief and self-recrimination, the party has moved on.  After finding out about the shallow graves they went along that direction hoping to run across the bandits in the area, and they did, but it was after they started camping.

Adventuring

Delving into the ancient tomb of horrors. slipping through the back alleys of Waterdeep, hacking a fresh trail through the thick jungles on the Isle of Dread-these are the things that Dungeons and Dragons adventures are made of. Your character in the game might explore forgotten ruins and uncharted lands, uncover dark secrets and sinister plots, and slay foul monsters. And if all goes well, your character will survive to claim rich rewards before embarking on a new adventure.

This chapter covers the basics of the adventuring life, from the mechanics of movement to the complexities of social interaction. The rules for resting are also in this chapter, along with a discussion of the activities your character might pursue between adventures.

Whether adventurers are exploring a dusty dungeon or the complex relationships of a royal court, the game follows a natural rhythm, as outlined in the book’s introduction:

• The DM describes the environment.
• The players describe what they want to do.
• The DM narrates the results of their actions.

Typically, the DM uses a map as an outline of the adventure, tracking the characters’ progress as they explore dungeon corridors or wilderness regions.

The DM’s notes, including a key to the map, describe what the adventurers find as they enter each new area. Sometimes, the passage of time and the adventurers’ actions determine what happens, so the DM might use a timeline or a flowchart to track their progress instead of a map.

Details on Time, speed, and movement can all be found in Chapter 8 of the Player’s Handbook as well as different activities that are important for the players and characters.

• Movement
• Environment
• Social Interaction
• Monster Harvesting
• Drunkenness
• Lockpicking

Death and Resurrection

Death comes to all characters, most of the time violently with blood, guts, and body parts flying in the wind.  A character death can be traumatic to the player and the group they adventure with.  Luckily with magic most things can be fixed, but death is still death.  It is not as easy as everyone hopes it will be.

Any death is difficult, especially for the recovery.  Any character that is brought back after death will possibly develop issues, mental or otherwise.  Side effects after being on the other side should be considered the norm and those issues will have to be dealt with and possibly resolved.

Resurrection Spells

Revivify

This is the cheapest of the resurrection spells in terms of both money and spell level cost. It is a level 3 spell and costs only 300 gold worth of precious gems, however its scope is very limited, as it must be used upon a creature within a minute of its death. Creature returns to life with 1 hit point. This spell can’t return life to a creature that died of old age, and it can’t restore missing body parts.

The chance of success is a DC10 for the caster to overcome, only their spell casting modifier is allowed as a modifier to the casting roll, spells such as Guidance will not work.

Raise Dead

This is more expensive than revivify, costing a gemstone worth at least 500 gold and a 5th level spell slot, however the time frame for use is much larger. Touch a creature dead for no longer than 10 days. A resurrection ritual is required and, if its soul is both willing and at liberty to rejoin the body, the creature returns to life with 1 hit point. This spell has no effect on undead. This spell neutralizes poisons and cures nonmagical diseases. This spell doesn’t remove magical effects. If they aren’t removed prior to casting, they return when the creature comes back to life. This spell closes all mortal wounds but doesn’t restore missing body parts. If the creature doesn’t have body parts or organs necessary for survival, the spell fails.

Coming back from the dead is an ordeal. The target takes a -4 penalty to all attacks, saves, and ability checks. Every time it finishes a long rest, the penalty is reduced by 1 until it disappears.

The chance of success is controlled by the Resurrection Ritual.

Resurrection

The resurrection spell requires an hour of preparation and a gem worth at least 1000 gold. You touch a creature that has been dead for no more than a century, didn’t die of old age, and isn’t undead. A resurrection ritual is required and, if its soul is willing, the target returns to life with all its hit points. This spell neutralizes any poisons and cures normal diseases. It doesn’t, however, remove magical diseases, curses, and the like. This spell closes all mortal wounds and restores any missing body parts.

Coming back from the dead is an ordeal. The target takes a -4 penalty to all attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks. Every time the target finishes a long rest, the penalty is reduced by 1 until it disappears.

If you use this spell on a creature that has been dead for one year or longer, you can’t cast spells, and have disadvantage on all attacks, ability checks, and saves until you finish a long rest.

The chance of success is controlled by the Resurrection Ritual.

Forced Resurrection

The resurrect spell above, but more forceful in that this version of the ritual forces a spirit to return to its body. For this to be successful, a blood sacrifice is required, as is an object that the deceased greatly favored in life. The object must be bathed in the blood of the sacrificed individual before the resurrection ritual is performed.

The chance of success is controlled by the Resurrection Ritual.

True Resurrect and Wish

The resurrection spell requires an hour of preparation and a gem worth at least 25,000 gold. You touch a creature that has been dead for no longer than 200 years and that died for any reason except old age. A resurrection ritual is required and, if the creature’s soul is free and willing, it’s restored to life with all its hit points.

This spell closes all wounds, neutralizes any poison, cures all diseases, and lifts any curses. The spell replaces damaged or missing organs and limbs. If the creature was undead, it is restored to its non-undead form.

The spell can provide a new body if the original no longer exists, in which case you must speak the creature’s name. The creature appears in an unoccupied space you choose within 10 feet of you.

The chance of success is controlled by the Resurrection Ritual.

Reincarnation

If no material matter remains of the individual that one wishes to bring back from the dead, or an individual with a regular resurrection spell is not available, the Reincarnate spell may be used. Requires 1000 gold worth of oils. Touch a dead humanoid, or a piece of one, that’s died in the last 10 days. The spell makes a new adult body for its soul. A resurrection ritual is required and, if the target’s soul isn’t free or willing to come back to life, the spell fails.

The game master picks the new body by rolling 1d100 that determines the character’s new race and gender. The number rolled determines the new body for the soul, which may not be the same race as the old body. The creature remembers its old life and retains its capabilities save for its racial traits, which must be changed if it’s given a new race. See the Reincarnation page for a list of races that your character could become if brought back to life from the Reincarnation spell.

The chance of success is controlled by the Resurrection Ritual.

The Resurrection Ritual

Resurrection Challenge

If a character is dead, and a resurrection is attempted by a spell or spell effect with longer than a 1 action casting time, a Resurrection Challenge is initiated. Up to 3 individuals who knew the deceased can offer to contribute to the ritual via a Contribution Skill Check. The DM asks them each to make a skill check based on their form of contribution, with the DC of the check adjusting to how helpful/impactful the DM feels the contribution would be.

For example, praying to the god of the devout, fallen character may require an Intelligence (Religion) check at an easy to medium difficulty, where loudly demanding the soul of the fallen to return from the aether may require a Charisma (Intimidation) check at a very hard or nearly impossible difficulty. Advantage and disadvantage can apply here based on how perfect, or off base, the contribution offered is which is, again, decided by the game master it is an NPC. If the ritual is being used to restore a character, the game master will confer with the player of the dead character to gauge whether the contributions are effective.

After all contributions are completed, the game master then rolls a single, final resurrection success check with no modifier. The base DC for the final resurrection check is 10, increasing by 1 for each previous successful resurrection the character has undergone (signifying the slow erosion of the soul’s connection to this world). For each successful contribution skill check, this DC is decreased by 3, whereas each failed contribution skill check increases the DC by 1.

Upon a successful resurrection check, the character’s soul (should it be willing) will be returned to the body, and the ritual succeeded. On a failed check, the soul does not return, and the character is lost.

Only the strongest of magical incantations can bypass this resurrection challenge, in the form of the True Resurrection or Wish spells. These spells can also restore a character to life who was lost due to a failed resurrection ritual.

Examples of Contributions

When a resurrection ritual has begun and the other characters and/or available NPCs are seeking to return the deceased to their body (or new body via reincarnation), the contributions they provide are to have emotional or sentimental meaning and usually involves the contributor’s relationship with the deceased. Other than telling the deceased what they meant to the living, some examples of contributions to serve as inspiration are…

• Barbarian: Trophies of their conquests, their weapon, tales of their victories, music featuring war drums, firm and to the point speeches, personal belongings.
• Bard: Inspiring poems or songs about them, performances befitting of their personality, stories of their adventures, their musical instrument(s), personal belongings.
• Cleric: A prayer to the cleric’s deity, cleric’s holy symbol, candles and incense, an expression of what they meant to everyone, personal belongings.
• Druid: A beloved animal companion, beseeching you goddess for assistance, soil of the earth, personal belongings.
• Fighter: Their armor or weapons, trophies, firm and to the point speeches, personal belongings.
• Knight: Their sword or shield, pieces of their riding gear, or any signets or other objects showing their status.
• Monk: Display of their martial arts, meditation in deceased’s memory, candles and incense, personal belongings.
• Paladin: Reminding the deceased of their oath, paladin’s holy symbol, stories of how they have changed the world, their weapon, personal belongings.
• Ranger: Their animal companion, their bow and/or quiver, a preferred type of arrow, trophy from their preferred foe, personal belongings.
• Rogue: Expensive jewelry or gold coins, preferred weapons, tales of their exploits, personal belongings.
• Sorcerer: Magic items of significance, sign of their ancestry, their familiar, personal belongings.
• Warlock: The warlock’s weapon, beseeching their patron for assistance, their familiar, personal belongings.
• Wizard: The wizard’s quarterstaff or spell book, their familiar, magic scrolls and tomes, personal belongings.

Movement

Swimming across a rushing river, sneaking down a dungeon corridor, scaling a treacherous mountain slope — all sorts of movement play a key role in fantasy gaming adventures.

The game master can summarize the adventurers’ movement without calculating exact distances or travel times:

Sometimes it’s important, though, to know how long it takes to get from one spot to another, whether the answer is in days, hours, or minutes. The rules for determining travel time depend on two factors: the speed and travel pace of the creatures moving and the terrain they’re moving over.

Speed

Every character and monster have a speed, which is the distance in feet that the character or monster can walk in 1 round. This number assumes short bursts of energetic movement during a life-threatening situation.

The following rules determine how far a character or monster can move in a minute, an hour, or a day.

Travel Pace

While traveling, a group of adventurers can move at a normal, fast, or slow pace, as shown on the Travel Pace table. The table states how far the party can move in a period and whether the pace has any effect. A fast pace makes characters less perceptive, while a slow pace makes it possible to sneak around and to search an area more carefully (see the “Activity While Traveling” section later in the Player’s Handbook for more information).

Forced March. The Travel Pace table assumes that character’s travel for eight hours in day. They can push on beyond that limit, at the risk of exhaustion.

For each additional hour of travel beyond eight hours, the characters cover the distance shown in the Hour column for their pace, and each character must make a constitution saving throw at the end of the hour. The DC is 10 + 1 for each hour past the first eight hours of travel. On a failed saving throw, a character suffers one level of exhaustion (see Appendix A).

Mounts and Vehicles. For short spans of time (up to an hour), many animals move much faster than humanoids. A mounted character can ride at a gallop for about an hour, covering twice the usual distance for a fast pace. If fresh mounts are available every 8 to 10 miles, characters can cover larger distances at this pace, but this is very rare except in densely populated areas.

Characters in wagons, carriages, or other land vehicles choose a pace as normal. Characters in a waterborne vessel are limited to the speed of the vessel (see chapter 5, “Equipment” in the Player’s Handbook), and they don’t suffer penalties for a fast pace or gain benefits from a slow pace. Depending on the vessel and the size of the crew, ships might be able to travel for up to 24 hours per day.

Certain special mounts, such as a pegasus or griffon, or special vehicles, such as a carpet of flying, allow you to travel more swiftly. The Dungeon Master’s Guide contains more information on special methods of travel.

Overland Movement Table (One Hour of Travel)

Overland Movement Table (Eight Hours of Travel)

Difficult Terrain

The travel speeds given in the Travel Pace table assume relatively simple terrain: roads, open plains, or clear dungeon corridors. But adventurers often face dense forests, deep swamps, rubble-filled ruins, steep mountains, and ice-covered ground — all considered difficult terrain. You move at half speed or slower in difficult terrain.

Hampered Movement Table

Different terrains will cause different movement speeds.  This is true for Combat movement or Overland travel.

Terrain and Overland Movement Table

Quadrupeds, such as horses, can carry heavier loads than characters can.

Mounts Movement Table

Rafts, barges, keelboats, and rowboats are used on lakes and rivers.

If going downstream, add the speed of the current (typically 3 miles per hour) to the speed of the vehicle. In addition to 10 hours of being rowed, the vehicle can also float an additional 14 hours, if someone can guide it, so add an additional 42 miles to the daily distance traveled. These vehicles can’t be rowed against any significant current, but they can be pulled upstream by draft animals on the shores.

Vehicle Movement Table

Special Types of Movement

Movement through dangerous dungeons or wilderness areas often involves more than simply walking. Adventurers might have to climb, crawl, swim, or jump to get where they need to go.

Climbing, Swimming, and Crawling

Each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain) when you’re climbing, swimming, or crawling. You ignore this extra cost if you have a climbing speed and use it to climb, or a swimming speed and use it to swim. At the DM’s option, climbing a slippery vertical surface or one with few handholds requires a successful Strength (Athletics) check. Similarly, gaining any distance in rough water might require a successful Strength (Athletics) check.

Jumping

Your Strength determines how far you can jump.

Long Jump. When you make a long jump, you cover several feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing long jump, you can leap only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement.

This rule assumes that the height of your jump doesn’t matter, such as a jump across a stream or chasm. At your DM’s option, you must succeed on a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check to clear a low obstacle (no taller than a quarter of the jump’s distance), such as a hedge or low wall. Otherwise, you hit it.

When you land in difficult terrain, you must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to land on your feet. Otherwise, you land prone.

High Jump. When you make a high jump, you leap into the air several feet equal to 3 + your Strength modifier (minimum of 0 feet) if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing high jump, you can jump only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement. In some circumstances, your DM might allow you to make a Strength (Athletics) check to jump higher than you normally can.

You can extend your arms half your height above yourself during the jump. Thus, you can reach above you a distance equal to the height of the jump plus 1 1/2 times your height.

Traveling in Darkness

Unless you can see where you are going, getting anywhere will be difficult.  There are several different types of sight that will allow you to move at normal speed, but unless you can see your movement will be impacted.

Blindsight: You will be able to move up to the distance of your Blindsight and not incur any penalties.  Any attempt to move at full speed, you must make an Acrobatics or Dexterity save that has a DC of 10 + 2 for every five feet moved.

Darkvision: While total darkness is still dim light, moving around is not that difficult and you are able to move at your full speed without any difficulties.

Normal Vision: You speed is limited to ten feet per round and any attempt to move faster requires an Acrobatics or Dexterity check with a DC of 15 + 2 for every five feet moved.

Tremorsense: Much like Blindsense, this ability allows you to see where you cannot see.  You can move up to the distance of your Tremorsense senses without a problem.

Truesight: There is no darkness that can stop you.  You can move normally without any issues.

The Environment

By its nature, adventuring involves delving into places that are dark, dangerous, and full of mysteries to be explored. The rules in this section cover some of the most important ways in which adventurers interact with the environment in such places. The Dungeon Master’s Guide has rules covering more unusual situations.  There are also a lot more details in Chapter 8 of the Player’s Handbook.

Vision and Light

The most fundamental tasks of adventuring-noticing danger, finding hidden objects, hitting an enemy in combat, and targeting a spell, to name just a few- rely heavily on a character’s ability to see. Darkness and other effects that obscure vision can prove a significant hinderance.

A given area might be lightly or heavily obscured. In a lightly obscured area, such as dim light, patchy fog, or moderate foliage, creatures have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

A heavily obscured area – such as darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage – blocks vision entirely. A creature in a heavily obscured area effectively suffers from the blinded condition.

The presence or absence of light in an environment creates three categories of illumination: bright light, dim light, and darkness.

Bright light: lets most creatures see normally. Even gloomy days provide bright light, as do torches, lanterns, fires, and other sources of illumination within a specific radius.

Dim light: also called shadows, creates a lightly obscured area. An area of dim light is usually a boundary between a source of bright light such as a torch, and surrounding darkness. The soft light of twilight and dawn also counts as dim light. A particularly brilliant full moon might bathe the land in dim light.

Darkness: creates a heavily obscured area. Characters face darkness outdoors at night (even most moonlit nights). within the confines of an unlit dungeon or a subterranean vault, or in an area of magical darkness.

Blindsight: A creature with blindsight can perceive its surroundings without relying on sight, within a specific radius. Creatures without eyes, sue h as oozes, and creatures with echolocation or heightened senses, such as bats and true dragons, have this sense. Note that the range of blindsight is measured from the creature that has that vision as the origin point. There are not any special environmental situations that extend this range.

Darkvision: Many creatures in the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons, especially those that dwell underground. have darkvision. Within a specified range, a creature with darkvision can see in darkness as if the darkness were dim light, so areas of darkness are only lightly obscured as far as that creature is concerned. However, the creature can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray. Note that the range of darkvision is measured from the creature that has that vision as the origin point. There are not any special environmental situations that extend this range.

Truesight: A creature with truesight can, out to a specific range, see in normal and magical darkness, see invisible creatures and objects, automatically detect visual illusions, and succeed on saving throws against them, and perceives the original form of a shape changer or a creature that is transformed by magic. Furthermore, the creature can see into the Ethereal Plane. Note that the range of truesight is measured from the creature that has that vision as the origin point. There are not any special environmental situations that extend this range.

Additional Vision Clarification

One of the common traits of the titular dungeons in Dungeons & Dragons is that they tend to be dark. In Fifth Edition, many races and classes give features that allow players to see such conditions, such as Darkvision, but this trait is not infallible. It has drawbacks and limitations that many players and Dungeon Master’s are not aware of.

When it comes to exploration in various types of lighting, many things need to be considered, including the nature of darkness, distances, and obscurement. Bearing these in mind is important for any player or DM to preserve D&D’s mood and balance. It should be noted that the rules of vision are based upon obscurement. While there are three kinds of lighting, including bright, dim and darkness, it is obscurement that governs them. This is where having or lacking Darkvision comes into play.

For characters without Darkvision, darkness is considered heavily obscured, meaning they cannot see in it at all. Perception checks that rely on sight automatically fail. Dim light, including candles and starlight, is lightly obscured. Creatures without Darkvision can see in it, but it is difficult. This means Perception checks that rely on sight have disadvantage. This applies to Passive Perception as well, which grants a -5 to the value when the player would have disadvantage. Lastly, bright light grants full vision. It does not count as having any obscurement at all. However, if the light is from direct sunlight, characters with Sunlight Sensitivity are penalized.

As for characters with Darkvision, the obscurement is moved down a stage based on their distance of vision. For example, a character with a Darkvision of 60 feet treats darkness within that range as dim light, and dim light is treated as bright light. However, outside of that range, darkness is still heavily obscured. In it, the character is still unable to see. What’s more, a creature with Darkvision still has disadvantage on Perception checks in darkness.

It should also be noted that this only pertains to obscurement from sources of light. Darkvision does nothing to protect from other effects of obscurement. For example, the Fog Cloud spell creates an area that is heavily obscured; creatures cannot see inside of it or through it at all. Because Fog Cloud is not a spell that solely affects lighting, Darkvision provides no benefits to sight inside of the area.

Another important distinction to make is the difference between magical darkness and non-magical darkness. The Darkness spell inhibits Darkvision within its area. This spell is notoriously dangerous because even the caster is unable to see within its range. What’s more, it consumes forms of non-magical light, so lighting a torch does nothing to help.

The only way a character can see within the Darkness spell is by using a spell that is third level or higher to create light or the Warlock Invocation Devil’s Sight. This Invocation is very different from Darkvision. Primarily, Devil’s Sight allows the user to see in darkness (including magic darkness) normally, as if it were bright light. What’s more, Darkvision removes a player’s ability to see things in color while in darkness; Devil’s Sight has no such caveat.

Vision, however, interacts differently with invisibility. Creatures with the Invisible condition can hide anywhere, as they are considered heavily obscured for that purpose. However, they still must use the Hide action to benefit from this ability. Note that this doesn’t help against creatures with vision that doesn’t rely on sight, such as Blindvision. Otherwise, they must use their sense of hearing or watch for any traces left by the creature, like footprints in the snow or ripples in shallow water.

If an Invisible creature is not hiding, however, they can be detected. Creatures who try to attack them have disadvantage, and an Invisible creature has advantage on their attacks. However, the best use of invisibility is to Hide to prevent from being targeted. While D&D’s vision system is a little complex, using it properly can really elevate the immersion the game. After all, the only thing scarier than a dungeon is a dungeon cloaked in darkness’ embrace.

Note that in all cases the range of any special vision type is measured from the creature that has that vision as the origin point. There are not any special environmental situations that extend this range.

Summary

Normal Vision Table

Darkvision within Range Table

Darkvision Outside of Range Table

Conditions

Darkness – Darkness creates a heavily obscured area. Night, even most moonlit nights, are considered to cast full darkness as do any areas with a lack of bright light sources.

Dim Light – Dim light creates a lightly obscured area. This is often used to describe the hazy area between bright light (as caused by a torch or other light source) and darkness. Twilight, dawn, and even the light of a full moon are all considered dim light.

Bright Light – Most creatures can see normally in bright light. This is a well-lit room, a sunny day, the area closest to a light source, etc.

Heavily Obscured – Darkness, as well as things such as thick fog or dense foliage, cause an area to be heavily obscured. In these areas, creatures suffer from the blinded condition.

Lightly Obscured – Areas that are lightly obscured cause a creature to have disadvantage on perception checks that require sight.

Blinded – A blinded creature can’t see and automatically fails any ability check that requires sight. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature’s Attack rolls.

Passive Perception – If a creature has disadvantage on perception checks, that creature takes a -5 penalty to their passive perception score. (We’ll discuss passive perception and how it relates to darkness but check out our full article for more info.)

Magical Darkness – Magical darkness is any darkness created by a spell or other magical effect.

Social Interaction

Exploring dungeons, overcoming obstacles, and slaying monsters are key parts of D&D adventures. No less important, though, are the social interactions that adventurers have with other inhabitants of the world.

Interaction takes on many forms. You might need to convince an unscrupulous thief to confess to some malfeasance, or you might try to flatter a dragon so that it will spare your life. The DM assumes the roles of any characters who are participating in the interaction that don’t belong to another player at the table. Any such character is called a nonplayer character (NPC).

In general terms, an NPC’s altitude toward you is described as friendly, indifferent, or hostile. Friendly NPCs are predisposed to help you, and hostile ones are inclined to get in your way. It’s easier to get what you want from a friendly NPC, of course.

Social interactions have two primary aspects: roleplaying and ability checks.

Roleplaying

Roleplaying is literally the act of playing out a role. In this case, it’s you as a player determining how your character thinks, acts, and talks.

Roleplaying is a part of every aspect of the game, and it comes to the fore during social interactions. Your character’s quirks, mannerisms, and personality influence how interactions resolve.

There are two styles you can use when roleplaying your character: the descriptive approach and the active approach. Most players use a combination of the two styles. Use whichever mix of the two works best for you.

Descriptive Approach to Roleplaying

With this approach, you describe your character’s words and actions to the DM and the other players. Drawing on your mental image of your character, you tell everyone what your character does and how he or she does it.

When using descriptive roleplaying, keep the following things in mind:

• Describe your character’s emotions and altitude. Focus on your character’s intent and how others might perceive it.
• Provide as much embellishment as you feel comfortable with.
• Don’t worry about getting things exactly right. Just focus on thinking about what your character would do and describing what you see in your mind.

Active Approach to Roleplaying

If descriptive roleplaying tells your DM and your fellow players what your character thinks and does, active roleplaying shows them.

When you use active roleplaying, you speak with your character’s voice, like an actor taking on a role. You might even echo your character’s movements and body language. This approach is more immersive than descriptive roleplaying, though you still need to describe things that can’t be reasonably acted out.

Going back to the example of Chris roleplaying Tordek above, here’s how the scene might play out if Chris used active roleplaying:

Results of Roleplaying

The DM uses your character’s actions and attitudes to determine how an NPC reacts. A cowardly NPC buckles under threats of violence. A stubborn dwarf refuses to let anyone badger her. A vain dragon laps up flattery.

When interacting with an NPC, pay close attention to the DM’s portrayal of the NPC’s mood, dialogue, and personality. Vou might be able to determine an NPC’s personality traits, ideals, flaws, and bonds, then play on them to influence the NPC’s attitude.

Interactions in Dungeons and Dragons are much like interactions in real life. If you can offer NPCs something they want, threaten them with something they fear, or play on their sympathies and goals, you can use words to get almost anything you want. On the other hand, if you insult a proud warrior or speak ill of a noble’s allies, your efforts to convince or deceive will fall short.

Monster Harvesting

The act of removing useful body parts from a creature is referred to as harvesting.

Anything that can be harvested from a creature is referred to as a harvesting material or simply material. In general, only creatures that have died may be harvested, but there may be some exceptions based on context.

Appraising

Before a player begins hacking and butchering their hunt, they may instead choose to take a moment first and appraise the creature to be harvested. To do this, they must spend 1 minute examining the creature to be harvested and then roll an Intelligence check, adding their proficiency bonus if they are proficient in the skill corresponding to that creature (see table below).

The DC of the check is equal to 8 + the Harvested Creature’s CR (treating any CR less than 1 as 0). Success on this check grants the player full knowledge of any useful harvesting materials on the creature, the DC requirement to harvest those materials, any special requirements to harvest them, and any potential risks in doing so. In addition, any harvesting check made on that creature by that player is rolled at advantage. A character may only attempt one appraisal check per creature.

Monster Type / Skill Check Table

Splitting Up the Responsibilities

Some party members may prefer to let one character handle the appraisal of materials, while another more dexterous character handles the actual harvesting. In this scenario, all benefits of appraising a creature are conferred to the player doing the harvesting, so long as the player that performed the appraising assists the harvesting player through the whole duration of the harvest.

This section details the steps associated with performing a harvest, and any factors that may influence it.

Harvesting

To harvest a creature, a character must make a Dexterity ability check using the same skill proficiency as listed in the above appraising table.

This check reflects a character’s ability to not only properly remove the intended item without damaging it, but it also involves any ancillary requirements of the harvest such as proper preservation and storage techniques.

Each individual item in a creature’s harvesting table is listed with a DC next to it. Any roll that a player makes that equals or exceeds this DC grants that player that item. Rewards are cumulative, and a player receives every item with a DC equal to or below their ability check result.

Only one harvesting attempt may be made on a creature. Failure to meet a certain item’s DC threshold assumes that the item was made unsalvageable due to the harvester’s incompetence.

For most creatures, the time it takes to harvest a material is counted in minutes and is equal to the DC of that material divided by 5. For huge creatures however, it is equal in DC of that material, while for gargantuan creatures, it is equal to the DC of that material multiplied by 2.

Violent Deaths

This guide assumes that most creatures you attempt to harvest died in direct combat and thus already accounts for the idea that you are harvesting creatures that are not in pristine condition. However, some deaths are more violent than others and can make harvesting useful materials either extremely difficult or downright impossible. Such examples include burning by fire, dissolving from acid, or being completely crushed under a pillar of stone. In these cases, raise the DC for harvesting any of that creature’s materials by 5. Alternatively, the DM may decide that well- orchestrated hunts result in a carcass that is prime for harvesting, such as creatures killed mostly through psychic damage, or those killed in one clean attack. In these cases, the DM should lower the DC for harvesting any of that creature’s materials by 5.

Furthermore, the DM may adjudicate whether some of a creature’s individual materials have been made useless due to effects imposed by them during their death. Examples may include blood being tainted from poisoning, or their pelt being worthless due to excessive slashing/piercing damage.

Expiration

Many harvested goods will start to rot and decay. Below is a quick overview of how we determined expiration dates.

Meat

It is possible to harvest the meat of many creatures, although uncooked meat spoils quickly and often attract other predators. Some creature types have meat that is inedible (i.e., undead), while others carry some sort of stigma (cannibalism, distasteful, unholy). For example, eating a celestial may be considered a vile, unholy act; while eating a monstrosity may be considered disgusting and distasteful; and giants are too like most medium-sized humanoids and is often considered in line with cannibalism. Of course, while buying stigma associated meats is forbidden and possibly illegal in most places, there are always people willing to buy illegal goods (although they may be hard to find).

      * Some monstrosities have meat that is edible (DM Discretion)

The amount of meat is dependent on the beast’s size. The weight of a raw piece of meat is one pound heavier than a ration (one slab of meat, 3 lb. is needed to produce 1 dried ration, 2 lb.).

Eating Meat: Cooked meat can be eaten safely. Cooking meat requires a campfire or oven. Eating raw meat requires a DC 10 Constitution Check. A successful check results in a filling meal. A failure results in debilitating stomach cramps, causing 1 level of exhaustion (disadvantage on ability checks).

Drying Meat: The meat can be dried using salt, spices, heat, and time.

Drunkenness

A pint of ale is never very far away in the world of Faerun. A drink to accompany a fine meal a bit of liquid courage to head into battle, or a celebration after long and arduous journey. A great way for anyone to enjoy themselves, but alcohol itself is a double-edged sword It can make you feel invincible, but it can also make you think you’re seeing double, be careful when consuming for dangerous effects are never tar behind.

Intoxication

For many, alcohol can affect you differently that is where intoxication levels come into effect. Your characters intoxication level is equal to your constitution modifier plus your proficiency bonus and there are different stages to being drunk.

Tipsy

when the alcohol is flowing, and good times are being had by all you start to feel a tingle in your fingers. You gain the sense that you could do just about anything, you are tipsy.

“Tipsy” is when you are 1/4 of the way to being intoxicated rounded down. Therefore, at this stage you have advantage on a charisma-based skill checks and wisdom saves for being frightened At this stage you also gain disadvantage on ranged attacks

Drunk

As the night continues so does your drinking. You’re having a fun night, why stop? Once you’ve reached 1/2 of your intoxication level you reached the point where you are drunk.

At this stage your speech is slurred, you’re seeing double, and your limbs are a little numb. If you are drunk, you gain five temporary hit points and maintain your advantage against fright. You lose your charisma-based advantage and gain disadvantage on ALL attack rolls and intelligence checks.

Wasted

At this point in the night. you are one of the last people in the bar. You’ve ignored that voice in the back of your head saying you should stop and now you’re wasted.

When you are 3/4 of the way to full intoxication you are wasted. You gain another five temporary hit points and cannot be rightened or charmed, but you have disadvantage on all attack rolls and ability checks.

Blackout

Now you have drank too much. You have past the point of no return. You may not be able to form coherent thoughts or even be able to say your own name. You have reached the Blackout stage.

This is the point where you have reached your intoxication level You are at disadvantage for any attack rolls, ability checks and saves aside from Constitution. At this point you must make a constitution save (D.C. equals 10 + 1/2 the number of drinks consumed) every hour or be rendered unconscious.

A Simple Drink

There are many types of drinks that one could imbibe, and those drinks have different levels of intoxication.

Drink Strength Table

Racial Bonus

Dwarves, Half-Ores, and Goliaths have stronger constitutions than most. Therefore, their intoxication level is twice their Constitution modifier plus their proficiency bonus.

Lockpicking

Insert cool intro here. I mean. it’s just a homebrew on lockpicking, what kind of intro does it need? It anything, I’ll just say I think it’s cooler than your usual Dexterity (thieves’ tools) single roll. but that’s just my opinion.

Study the Lock

When faced with some kind of mechanical lock, you can use your Action to Study the Lock. You handle, analyze, and test the lock looking for weak spots and trying to figure out the best plan of attack. Make an Intelligence (thieves’ tools) check against the DC of the lock. If you succeed, you find the mechanism’s weak spots and how to exploit them giving your future attempts at picking the lock advantage.

Additionally, if you take a subtle approach when unlocking the lock, the jam the lock result becomes minor setback and the break the lock result becomes jam the lock. It you fail, you don’t gain any additional information on the lock. Future attempts at studying the lock can only be made after a short rest.

Pick the Lock

You use your Action to try to, you know, pick the lock. You must choose a subtle or a non-subtle approach and then make a Dexterity (thieves’ tools) against the lock’s DC. Creatures without proficiency in thieves’ tools can’t opt for a subtle attempt and creatures using improvised tools make the check with disadvantage.

If you succeed on the check, the lock is picked and opens. If you fail by less than 5, the lock isn’t picked but nothing else happens. If you fail 5 or more, but less than 10, you jam the lock. If you fail by 10 or more, you break the lock on the spot. Hard to visualize? Here’s a handy-dandy table.

DC15 Lock Example Table

Break the Lock

The lock is broken and can’t be picked or used. Sorry, dude.

Jam the Lock

Your attempt at picking the lock caused something to break, catch, jam, or otherwise damage the mechanism momentarily. Future attempts at picking the lock have the DC cumulatively increased by five until the lock is successful picked or properly opened by its designed opening method of the lock’s DC is increased by 15, you break the lock.

Minor Setback

Same as jamming the lock except the DC is only increased by two.

Subtle Approach

You focus on decreasing your chances of leaving visible marks of you forced entry by using subtler, gentler, and less aggressive methods. Your attempts at picking the lock are hard to see to most people. If someone tries to analyze the lock looking for marks, they must make an Intelligence (Investigation) check against a DC equal to 10 plus your Dexterity (thieves’ tools) bonus. seeing nothing out of the ordinary on a failure and signs of your picking on a success.

Non-Subtle Approach

You just want to get the job done, no fuss, no subtlety. You use more aggressive methods and whatever tools your nave in your arsenal to open the lock, like using a piece of metal for leverage. creating dents on specific places to weaken the mechanism, etc., which leaves clearly perceivable marks on the lock or on the area it was placed. Any creature that looks at the lock can see that it was the target of a breaking and entering attempt.

Changing the DC

Some locks can be more susceptible to a specific type of approach. A rusty lock is considerably harder to pick using delicate tools and trying not to leave marks than it is to simply grab a hammer or plyers and try to make the mechanism unlock by force. At the same time, some locks might be too heavy or reinforced to be reasonably made to open without the use of small tools and delicate technique. For that reason, the DM might assign different DCs for the same lock based on what approach is taken. A successful study the lock check tells the character whether one of the approaches is easier than the other or it both have the

Magical Locks

If the lock has a magical component to it. the DM might allow the study the lock check to be an Intelligence (Arcana) check instead of the usual Intelligence (Thieves Tools) check.

Titles:

• 1^st Incarnation: The Lady of Mysteries, The Mother of All Magic, Mistress of Magic, Our Lady of Spells, The Mother of Mystery, Lady Magic, Lady of Magic, Lady of Might, One True Spell, Goddess of Magic, Derogatory: The Whore, The Harlot
• 2^nd Incarnation: The Lady of Mysteries, Lady of Mystery, Our Lady of Spells, The Mother of All Magic, The Muse, The Hidden One, Controller of the Weave
• 3^rd Incarnation: The Lady of Mysteries, The Mother of All Magic, The Lost Goddess

Portfolio: Magic, spells, the Weave

Domain: Arcana, Good, Illusion, Knowledge, Magic, Rune, Spell

Worshipers: Elves, half-elves, incantatrixes, mystic wanderers, sorcerers, spelldancers, spellcasters, spellfire channelers, wizards

First Incarnation (Mystryl)

Mystryl (pronounced: /ˈmɪstrɪl/ MISS-trih), the Lady of Mysteries, was a greater deity and the first incarnation of the goddess of magic. Later incarnations of the goddess were named “Mystra”. Mystryl was most notably known as the being who embodied the Weave, the primary source of magic in the cosmos. She supplied and regulated magical energy to all, making possible spells and magical effects. But her portfolio also included knowledge and energy, invention and creativity, song, time, and the season of spring.

Description

Mystryl manifested herself in many ways through many conduits, but her followers usually described her as a beautiful human woman with intense blue eyes that wore gracefully refined blue-white robes of fine, thick silk. Her skin glowed and her hair was every color of the rainbow.

Manifestations

When being mysterious, she was depicted as a swarm of rainbow-colored will-o’-wisps in the vague shape of a humanoid female, but usually a subtle manifestation was all that was necessary: her trademark blue-white aura pulsing on the person, place, or thing she wished to illuminate. Occasionally this aura would coalesce into a point of light that she used to lead her faithful in a particular direction, write a message, or even cast spells.

Mystryl’s followers and those who used magic for good or ill were sometimes made aware of her approval or disapproval by a gift, a message, or aid in some form. Gifts were often blue or clear gemstones (perhaps containing an agathinon), multicolored tourmalines, beljurils, shieldstones, or a rogue stone. Messages, aid, or warnings were usually delivered in the form of small, translucent, magical creatures or normal creatures such as blue jays; sparrowhawks; pseudodragons; white cats; dogs; beasts of burden (horses, mules, donkeys); unicorns; pegasi; selkies; and mephits from the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Radiance. For more exigent circumstances, the goddess might send hollyphants; gem or metallic dragons; guardinals of any kind; incarnations of hope, faith, or courage; einheriar; light aasimons; devas; or a dreaded marut. All Mystryl’s incarnations, messengers, and servants had blue or mismatched eyes.

Personality

Mystryl had a mercurial personality that reflected her chaotic nature. She could be coldly serious one moment and laughingly boisterously the next. She could be blushingly innocent or sagely wise, blithely unfocused, or relentlessly dedicated, but in all her capriciousness she tried to do what she thought best for the Weave and practice of the Art in Toril. If she had a flaw, it was that at times she seemed naïve and too trusting.

Abilities

Being the embodiment and consciousness of the Weave, Mystryl could wield magic like no other being. She had no practical limitations on how many spells she could cast, how powerful they were, how often she could cast them, or what form they could take. Unless she willed otherwise, she was immune to all spells except those that bypassed her control of the Weave and drew on the raw magic from which the Weave was woven. She could withhold magic from any entity, making spellcasting impossible, and even prevent them from using magical items if she so desired. She could block other deities from accessing the Weave, but she could not prevent them from granting spells to their priests through prayer.

Activities

One of the aspects of her portfolio that Mystryl paid particular attention to was time and the continuity of the timeline. To prevent abuse of time travel, she created the time conduit spell and made its restrictions binding on all other attempts at traveling back in time. She was aware of anyone attempting time travel and caused all research into circumventing her rules to lead back to her time conduit spell as the only solution. Her awareness even extended to other planes of existence, preventing reentry to the Prime Material Plane for those that attempted anachronistic mischief.

Relationships

Mystryl distrusted Shar, who was one of her progenitors, because Shar constantly sought to usurp her power and role. She regarded her other progenitor, Selûne, as overly maternal and sometimes acted contrary to her motherly advice. Mystryl was an eternal enemy of both Kozah and Moander, whom she saw as trying to corrupt or destroy all that she and her worshipers sought to build and accomplish.

Worshipers

Mystryl’s relationship with her worshipers and followers was open and welcoming to members of all alignments. Most of her venerators were human, but all seekers of arcane lore were accepted.

History

Legend has it that at the dawn of time Lord Ao created the universe, and out of the early chaos came twin deities: Shar of the darkness and Selûne of the light. Together, these two beings created the spheres in the firmament, one of which was the world of Abeir-Toril and its spirit, Chauntea. Chauntea desired new and more abundant life for her world and asked the sisters for light and warmth to nurture it. In this, the two beings could not agree. Selûne eventually acted on her own and gave Toril a sun, which Shar immediately sought to put out, thus beginning the battle between light and darkness that raged for eons.

At some point the Dark Goddess got the upper hand and doused many of Selûne’s motes of light. In a desperate move, Selûne tore a piece of magical essence from herself and hurled it at her sister. When it hit, Shar also lost a portion of her essence and was cast into the void for centuries. From the blending of dark and light energies, Mystryl was born as a being of pure magic inextricably tied to the Weave. Both twins were diminished as a result, with the Moonmaiden’s wound being graver. However, Mystryl was ideologically closer to Selûne, and being created from both light and darkness, Mystryl (and later goddesses of magic) acted as a balancing force between Selûne and the Lady of Loss.

In −339 DR (3520 in Netherese reckoning), the Netherese archwizard Karsus took it upon himself to defeat the phaerimm that were threatening the Netherese empire. He had spent years researching Karsus’s avatar, the only 12th-level spell ever created, which was designed to temporarily rob a deity of their power and grant it instead to the spellcaster. Karsus chose to rob Mystryl, and when her godly essence poured into him his mind and body were overwhelmed and he found that he was incapable of wielding such power. Mystryl’s hold on the Weave was weakened and it began to unravel. Magical effects doubled in power briefly, then became wild and chaotic. To save the Weave from permanent damage Mystryl chose to sacrifice herself, which broke Karsus’s connection, killing him, and stopped all magic for a short time. In the time it took for the mother of All Magic to reincarnate herself, most of the floating cities of Netheril crashed to the ground.

When the goddess of magic was reborn—this time as Mystra—she used as a vessel a beautiful peasant girl who was just learning cantrips but who had the capability of one day becoming an archwizard. She immediately took control of the Weave and magic returned to Toril. In the aftermath of the Fall of Netheril, the new goddess took a much more lawful view of magic use and laid down some rules, including a decree that the most powerful of spells would fail utterly.

Rumors and Legends

• It was believed that the newly reincarnated goddess either destroyed Karsus’s notes on his ultimate spell or sent them flying off to the far corners of the multiverse.
• Ancient Mystrylan tomes spoke of three-time gates—permanent edifices that were imbued with the time conduit spell. One was believed to be buried in a cave in the Spine of the World; another was atop Misken’s Peak north of Novularond, which was sheared off by the Great Glacier ages ago; the last was on Andrus Peak near the city of Cedarsproke in the Vilhon Reach, which has seen many volcanic eruptions over the centuries.

Second Incarnation (Mystra)

Mystra (pronounced: /ˈmɪstrɑː/ MISS-trah) was a greater goddess of the Faerûnian pantheon and the second incarnation of the goddess of magic after her predecessor Mystryl sacrificed herself to protect the Weave from Karsus’s Folly. The Mother of all Magic was destroyed by Helm when she defied the will of Ao the overgod and attempted to leave the Prime Material Plane during the Time of Troubles. At the conclusion of the Godswar, Ao offered the position of Goddess of Magic to the wizard Midnight, who reluctantly accepted and took Mystra’s name to smooth the transition after so much chaos.

I am Mystra. I am the Lady of Might and the Mistress of Magic! I am Power Incarnate! Wherever magic is worked, there am I – from the cold poles of Toril to its hottest jungles, whatever the hand or claw or will that work the sorcery! Behold me and fear me! Yet behold me and love me–as all who deal with me in honesty do. This world is my domain. I am magic, mightiest among all those men worship. I am the One True Spell at the heart of all spells. There is no other.

— The Mother of All Magic to young Elminster Aumar

Description

The only known description of the mortal that became Mystra was of a “beautiful peasant girl” who was just beginning her studies of the Art.

As a goddess, Mystra could shape change at will and mortals who saw her reported she changed constantly. Others described her appearing in a form resembling a multicolored will-o’-wisp. When Mystra revealed herself to Midnight just before the gods were forced to walk the land of Toril, she was at first just a dark figure surrounded by an aura of blue-white light. As she created the pendant that held some of her power, the glow revealed the face of a “beautiful, willful young woman, with hints of a long-borne pain.” Mystra’s avatar at the time was a slim, young girl named Caitlan Moonsong who had a graceful bearing, large, dark eyes, and short-cropped blond hair. Caitlan went barefoot and wore plain ankle-length robes of a dark hue. When possessed by Mystra, she appeared taller, and her hair moved as if it were alive.

Personality

This incarnation of the mother of All Magic was quite the opposite of her predecessor, Mystryl. Whereas Mystryl was quixotic and quick to change, Mystra was said to be a manifestation of the Cosmic Balance—maintaining order in the world of magic by correcting great inequalities if things went askew. Indeed, in the wake of the Fall of Netheril, one of her first acts as the Lady of Spells was to ban the use of all magic greater than ninth level. Among sages and historians this was known as Mystra’s Ban. She was not as concerned with the ethics of Good versus Evil if the laws of magic were upheld.

Early in Mystra’s tenure, she chose a champion, called the Magister, to wander the Realms, applying the Art as he or she saw fit, choosing enemies that would bring glory to the title. She fully expected that her representative would be challenged and eventually defeated by other mages, only to be replaced by another spellcaster worthy of the office. It was her belief that in this way the Art would be strengthened and improved through conflict and adversity.

Toward the end of her reign as the keeper of the Weave, she had grown tired and bitter, fed up with the schemes, maneuverings, and blatant attacks that her preeminent position attracted from every power-hungry being, sycophant, and fawning parasite, for century after century. Her pride in her status, and the kindness and respect she received from those that aided or worshiped her for other than magical gain, kept her hopes alive.

Abilities

The Lady of Spells could cast any spell ever known at maximum level, one offensive and one defensive spell per minute. The only exceptions to this were if she cast wish, time stop, alter reality, or gate, which required enough concentration that no other spell could be cast in combination. She could shape change at will and could grant other creatures spell knowledge by touching them. She controlled and provided the Weave, allowing (relatively) safe access to the power of raw magic to mortal spellcasters and magical craftsmen.

Activities

Mystra kept watch over magical research and regulated the advancement and dissemination of magical knowledge throughout the mortal world.

Relationships

The first Magister was Azuth, a powerful and brash young wizard who found joy and beauty in works of Art. Eventually, she sponsored him to godhood to serve her and he became a demipower, the Patron of Wizards, passing the mantle of Magister on to his successor. Another strong wizard, this one efficient and methodical, caught Mystra’s eye and she also sponsored Savras the All-Seeing to godhood. Azuth and Savras both sought the favor of Mystra (some say romantically as well) and the two fought for many years, both gaining in power, becoming lesser deities in the process. Eventually, Azuth defeated Savras, reducing him back to demigod status and imprisoning him in a jewel-encrusted staff, the Scepter of Savras. Azuth grew to be Mystra’s friend and adviser and they had great affection for each other.

The Lady of Mysteries was known to work with Oghma and his cadre (Gond, Milil, and Deneir), although she had some sort of rivalry with Gond. Bane attempted to wrest power from Mystra at some point and he captured and tortured her avatar during the Godswar. Talos was another deity that did not get along with Mystra.

In the 8th century of Dale Reckoning, Mystra possessed a powerful sorceress named Elué, and in seven years she had seven daughters known collectively as the Seven Sisters. As a result of Mystra’s presence at conception and birth, all seven daughters were strong immortal spellcasters. They each served Mystra in their own unique way. Outside of Realmspace, Mystra was an ally of Wee Jas from Oerth.

Mystra’s Chosen

Mystra also had powerful unaging servants among her ranks of followers, including Elminster, Khelben Arunsun, the Seven Sisters, and the necromancer Sammaster.

The Church

All manner of spellcasters (clerics, crusaders, druids, monks, paladins, rangers, shamans, and wizards) were included in the hierarchy of Mystra’s church. Wizards who primarily followed Azuth or other deities would usually show some devotion to Mystra as well.

History

Moments after the Fall of Netheril, a peasant girl with rudimentary magical training but an aptitude for spells became the new Goddess of Magic and managed to catch three of Netheril’s floating cities as they plummeted, bringing them to rest on the ground and saving thousands of her people. Being of a more lawful disposition than her predecessor, she laid down new rules for all spellcasters, banning spells above 10th level, limiting who had access to magic, limiting how many spells of each level could be held in the mind, increasing the time it took to cast spells, and forcing long periods of memorization or prayer each day to replace spells cast previously. Arcanists no longer had to specialize in a form of magic but could generalize. This eventually led to arcanists being called wizards.

Little is known of the acts of the Lady of Mysteries except through the words and works of her church and her Chosen. Her known deeds are:

• She established the title of Magister to be granted to one master of the Art at a time and let them do as they willed for good or ill.
• She sponsored Azuth and Savras to godhood, asking them to help her govern her rather deep and vital portfolio.
• In 240 DR, she made Elminster Aumar one of her Chosen.
• In 292 DR, Aloevan of Ardeep became a Chosen of both Mystra and Sehanine Moonbow
• In 464 DR, Mystra rewarded the self-sacrifice of a wandering wizard tutored in Myth Drannor by rescuing him from death and making him the Nameless Chosen, later known as Khelben “Blackstaff” Arunsun.
• In 761 DR, Mystra schemed to create the Seven Sisters by possessing their sorceress mother Elué. All seven grew to be powerful in their own ways and became her Chosen.
• In 851 DR, Sammaster the necromancer accepted the offer to become a Chosen of Mystra.
• The House of Wonder in Waterdeep was dedicated to Mystra in 1215 DR.
• In 1358 DR, in the last hour before the gods were banished to walk the land as mortals, Mystra entrusted Midnight with a portion of her power in the form of a pendant and asked her to keep it safe for a time.

As the centuries passed, Mystra grew tired of the ceaseless grasping for power through pleading, flattery, or treachery. She and her portfolio were the target of gods and mortals alike and that took its toll on the mother of All Magic. Being thrown down to Toril with all the other gods and then being captured and tortured by Bane was apparently the last straw; Mystra sought dissolution. After securing a portion of her power with Midnight, Mystra disappeared. Days later, Caitlan Moonsong pleaded to a group of adventurers (Adon, the mortal Kelemvor Lyonsbane, and the mortal Cyric) to rescue her mistress from imprisonment in Castle Kilgrave in northern Cormyr. Midnight accompanied the band of heroes on the rescue mission and with her help they succeeded in freeing Mystra from the clutches of Bane.

Immediately upon being freed, Mystra possessed Caitlan as her avatar and retrieved the pendant from Midnight, regaining much of her power. She then opened a gate to the Ethereal Plane and took the group to the Celestial Stairway, which was guarded by Helm. Mystra argued with Helm saying she had nothing to do with the theft of the Tablets of Fate and to let her pass so that she might speak to Lord Ao and regain her rightful place as keeper of the Weave. Helm steadfastly refused to let her pass and gave her fair warning.

Furious, she attacked him with bolts and beams of energy, fire and ice, mystic blades and magical hammers, and dread creatures with fangs and claws, coils and maws, wings, and tentacles. Helm held firm, absorbing, or brushing off each of her assaults. Weeping blue-flame tears of anger and frustration, she grappled with Helm and fire leaped from her mouth. Helm held her off with one hand and raised his visor. As their gaze met, Mystra let out a terrible scream heard across the Realms as she saw her doom written in his face. Helm drew back and punched his gauntleted fist through her chest and Caitlan’s body exploded in a blindingly hot flash of devastating power.

When the heroes regained their sight, they were standing on a circular stone foundation; all that was left of Castle Kilgrave. The landscape around them was charred and blasted for a half-mile (800 meters) in every direction. Helm had lowered his visor and stood in the mouth of the gate. He admonished the group to seek out the Tablets of Fate with more wisdom than the former goddess. He then vanished through the gate as it closed behind him. Midnight looked down to find Mystra’s pendant lying at her feet.

Rumors and Legends

• Those who thought Mystra was eternal said that she gave the races of the Prime Material Plane the first lessons that unlocked the secrets of magic. Those with a wry wit said she regretted this ever afterward.
• It was a widely held belief among practitioners of magic that Mystra adjudicated success in magical experimentation to create new potions, spells, and magical items, and with good reason.
• It was believed that the newly reincarnated goddess either destroyed Karsus’s notes on his ultimate spell or sent them flying off to the far corners of the multiverse.

Third Incarnation (Midnight)

Mystra (pronounced: /ˈmɪstrɑː/ MISS-trah), formerly known as Midnight, was once a greater goddess who guided the magic that enveloped Toril and its surrounding space. The Mother of all Magic tended to the Weave constantly, making possible all the miracles and mysteries wrought by magic and users of magic. She was believed to be the embodiment of the Weave and of magic itself. Mystra’s symbol was a ring of seven stars surrounding a rising red mist, spiraling to the heavens.

You think that magic is a tool, like a hammer, something that you pick up when you need it, swing it around for a while, and put down again when you’re done with it. Not so. Magic is a living thing—part of the Lady of Mysteries, a deity to whom you only pay lip service. You can’t just grab onto her when you need magic, squeeze the power out of her, and discard her when you’re done. That sort of treatment comes back to you. There’s a reason why most old mages are obsessed or insane— Mystra punishes them for their lack of respect.

— Khelben Arunsun, a Lord Mage of Waterdeep

Powers

Mystra’s secret was that she was more powerful than any god, save for Lord Ao, but therein lay the secret. Roughly half of her power lay in her Chosen and in the lesser power Azuth, as planned by Ao so that Mystra did not rule all Realmspace. After the Second Sundering, being spread across the Weave on Toril made Mystra much harder to find, and even harder to target. As the Lady of Spells, she was the source for other gods’ spellcraft, making her normally immune to the direct effects of such spells, though not its after-effects.

Activities

Dracoliches such as Daurgothoth would become her targets only now they stepped beyond gathering magic (which she encouraged), and onto restricting it from others. Azuth and Mystra were likewise wary of Ioulaum and his attempts at controlling the Weave. They allowed him only minor successes, to keep him away from his more nefarious plans. Mystra and Azuth punished egregiously deceitful auctioneering of magical items, such as when an item was covertly exchanged for another or was not magical to begin with.

Divine Realm

Mystra ruled over the divine dominion of Dweomerheart. However, no mortal was aware that after the Second Sundering, Mystra abided within the Weave. In this way, she was ever-present & hidden across Toril, able to create other-dimensional spaces for mortals or servants seeking audience. Mystra’s failsafe ‘echoes’ resided in Azuth’s divine realm (also called Azuth), within a royal castle and surrounded by blue mists.

Relationships

Mystra’s customary adviser was Azuth, and she was also served indirectly by Savras and Velsharoon. Other allies of hers included Selûne and Kelemvor, whom she knew as a man when she was a mortal. Mystra’s greatest enemies were Shar, who created the Shadow Weave to oppose Mystra’s Weave, and Cyric, who was a mortal along with Mystra and Kelemvor.

Worshipers

The church of Mystra preserved magical lore so that magic would continue and flourish in the future even if the dominant races of Faerûn were to fall. Its members also sought out those skilled in magic or who had the potential to use it, keeping a close eye on those who were likely to become skilled. Her clerics were encouraged to explore magical theory and create new spells and magic items. Sites dedicated to the goddess were enhanced by the Weave to allow any spell cast by her clerics while in them to be affected by metamagic. Mystra honored commitments to members of her predecessor’s clergy who’d joined the church before the Time of Troubles, preventing them from being forced to leave the clergy due to alignment differences.

Mystra’s Chosen

Mystra also had powerful mortal servants among her ranks of followers, including Elminster, Khelben Arunsun, and the Seven Sisters.

History

Before her ascension to godhood, the third Mystra was a woman named Midnight, who, along with several other individuals, including the future Kelemvor, played a large role during the Avatar Crisis, also known as the Time of Troubles.

Early Life

Midnight, born Ariel Manx in 1332 DR, was the second child of Theus Manx, a merchant, and his wife Paiyse. Midnight had an elder sibling named Rysanna who assumed the role of the family’s demure “princess” whenever wealthy suitors called. As a teenager, Midnight became familiar with the night’s populace of bards, thieves, sorcerers, and fighters and was eventually nicknamed “Midnight” by these friends, a name she immediately preferred to Ariel.

Midnight’s first taste of magic began with her tryst with the conjurer Tad, who set her on her path. She began to exhibit less interest in her hedonistic pursuits and more in the quest for magical knowledge and training, gradually becoming more obsessed with her magical quest. Eventually, Midnight moved out of the family home to seek her own path.

It was during this time that she fell into the worship of Mystra, whose attention Midnight attracted during her time of service in one of Mystra’s temples. From her 21st year on, Midnight began to feel a presence from time to time. She would feel her skin tingle coolly and began to feel that she was somehow being followed or observed. After such attentions, she always found that spells, which she had labored over for weeks, would suddenly work without any problem. Midnight soon suspected that she had been granted special attention by Mystra herself and believed that she was being groomed for the position of Magister.

Sunlar, high priest of the Deepingdale temple of Mystra, took Midnight under his supervision. It was during this time that Midnight’s knowledge of self-defense and magic improved leaps and bounds and Midnight spent a year in the temple at Deepingdale before she left. For the next three years Midnight devoted herself to Mystra’s worship and pursued every scrap of magic she could.

Ascension

During the Time of Troubles, when the gods were cast down by Ao, Midnight joined with Kelemvor Lyonsbane, Cyric, and Adon in the search for the stolen Tablets of Fate. During this time, the previous Mystra was killed by the deity Helm for defying Ao’s command and trying to climb the Celestial Stairway back to the heavens. Her death caused great damage to the Weave, but eventually Ao selected Midnight to replace the destroyed Mystra, restoring the magic of Toril. Immediately prior to her ascension, Midnight killed Myrkul, the god of death, in a duel in the skies over the city of Waterdeep.

“Death”

Midnight was not long the goddess of magic and in the Year of Blue Fire, 1385 DR, Cyric supposedly murdered her, at the behest and with the aid of Shar, who sought to obtain control over the Weave. The results of Midnight’s disappearance, however, were far worse than Shar had supposed it would be and the Spellplague soon followed, causing magic throughout the planes to go wild.

In the beginning, only Mystra’s temples knew that Cyric’s slaying of her had ushered in the Spellplague. Soon after, it became well known that she had sacrificed herself to save everyone.

Resurrection

In the Year of the Ageless One, 1479 DR, while recuperating in a cabin in the King’s Forest, Elminster felt Mystra’s presence calling to him. He found her much diminished, possessing the body of a bear that had guarded a cache of items Mystra’s still-mortal form had collected. She asked her most trusted servant to find new candidates to become Chosen and to recruit Cormyr’s War Wizards.

Only a few weeks later, having been restored to his full powers as a Chosen by absorbing the silver fire of the dying Symrustar Auglamyr and then that of the Simbul and Manshoon, Elminster returned to Mystra (in agony from absorbing too much of it) and returned much of it to the Lady of Mysteries, restoring much of her power and divinity. This event became known as Mystra’s Return. But it was not until 1487 DR that the goddess was whole again.

Church of Mystra     

The Church of Mystra, also known as the Church of Mysteries and by other names, was the primary religious organization dedicated to the worship and service of the goddess of magic, Mystra, or her successor, Mystra.

The church of Mystra is very powerful across Faerûn and includes many adherents among the populace. Were more wizards and sorcerers’ devout worshipers of the Lady of Mysteries, the faith would undoubtedly be the most powerful in all Faerûn. Mystra’s followers have lost a great deal of influence since the Time of Troubles when magic ran amok and caused great destruction. The deity’s actions over the past decade have only driven more worshipers, particularly evil wizards, and sorcerers, into the arms of Shar.

Mystran clergy work hard to preserve all magical lore so that magic can flourish in the future regardless of what befalls the thinking races of Faerûn or the powers of the planes. They maintain secret libraries, private safe holds, well-guarded research laboratories, and small, hidden stashes. Mystrans also search out beings skilled in spell use and keep watch on the power and behavior of individuals likely to become magic wielders of importance.

The clergy actively seek out sources of old magic, often from tombs, dangerous ruins—even liches. They consider it more crucial to know the precise location of artifacts and items of magical power than to possess them, but wherever possible, they work to wrest control of such things from the aggressively evil, the irresponsible, and the unsound of mind. While some of Mystra’s clerics follow the teachings of the older, lawful neutral incarnation of the deity, most have changed alignment in accordance with her current incarnation or have left the faith.

All clergy of Mystra are expected to devise their own new magic (whether it be spells or items) upon gaining sufficient experience. In this way, magical study remains a growing, vibrant thing, and magic is not merely seen as a handy tool for rulers and engineers to tame Faerûn but remains a thing of wonder. Mystra’s clerics usually multiclass as sorcerers or wizards.

All priests of Mystra can cause their own flesh—all of it, or specific areas, such as a hand—to glow at will with a soft, blue-white radiance as a boon from Mystra. This radiance, known as weaveglow, is enough to read by or to allow a priest to clearly see items and surroundings within 5 feet. Most Mystrans keep this sign of the favor of the goddess secret from nonbelievers. As something mysterious, it is more useful, allowing them, for example, to feign affliction or magical attack. Weaveglow is granted to priests after their initiation, which is often a Starflight ceremony.

Dogma

The church of Mystra typically did not employ idols like statues of the goddess but had no commandments against it.

Activities

The church apparently sent out communiqués to its members with news of the opening of new temples and such. The church also found a duty to help folk driven insane by failed spellcasting. Many Mystran clergy wandered the land as itinerant clerics, seeking out and preserving old magic.

The church of Mystra preserved magical lore so that magic would continue and flourish in the future even if the dominant races of Faerûn were to fall. Its members also searched out those skilled in magic or who had the potential to use it, keeping a close eye on those who were likely to become skilled. Her clerics were encouraged to explore magical theory and create new spells and magic items. Sites dedicated to the goddess were enhanced by the Weave to allow any spell cast by her clerics while in them to be affected by metamagic.

Organization

From 1358 DR, the patriarch of the church was Adon, who had been the first priest of the new Mystra. Even itinerant clerics like Tunaster Dranik would remain in at least yearly contact with the church and be in good standing. They had superiors among the settled clergy at the temples.

Hierarchy

The hierarchy of the Mystran faith is wide and varied, separating into orders concentrating on one form of magical energy or another. Clerics, specialty priests, wizards, and bards can all he found in its ranks without regard to experience level or origin. The general rule of the Mystran faith is that talent and ability outweigh social rank or legendary feats. Only those clergy members who gain their spells directly from a higher power gain their spells directly from the goddess, but all are welcome within the church’s hierarchy.

The priests of Mystra are known as Servants of Mystery. Higher level priests, both those with title and lands and legendary adventuring priests, are called Ladies or Lords of Mystery. Titles within the faith vary from temple to temple and follow no standard form across the whole of the church, though most temples are rigidly self-consistent.

Temples

Temples of Mystra can be almost any size and style of structure; some shrines are natural caves or grottoes. All are living works of art—or rather, “Art-raised” with magic and wrapped in countless spells. Most are filled with magic items, many of which are of an esoteric rather than practical nature. Most include an open central courtyard in which daily services are held and from which one can see the stars at night or a magical representation of them. Lesser rooms house libraries of magical lore or serve as workshops and laboratories for experimentation in the Art.

Sites dedicated to the deity are enhanced by the Weave to augment spellcasting power. Through the grace of the goddess, Mystran priests who stand in a place sacred to Mystra can cast spells for the maximum possible damage, duration, or extent of effect (their choice of which). The benefit ends if the recipient leaves the location of the temple.

Rituals

One Mystran religious service took the form of an astronomy show, in which a priest pointed out, named, and revered various stars and constellations.

The Plea for Guidance was a simple prayer that was known to all devotees of Mystra. The clerics of the Lady of Mystery taught it to anyone who cared enough to learn it. The prayer was uttered while kneeling into the nearest lit candle or a visible star. The Plea was often evoked when followers Mystra faced with unknown magic or uncertainties of signs and dreams that their deity could’ve sent.

Magefire is renewal; it is the exciting feeling of great magical power surging through one’s body, blazing out as flickering blue fire as it spills forth, cleansing and renewing. With enough clergy powering it, this cooperative ceremonial magic can heal all sorts of fell conditions. Mystrans describe it as “the most blissful feeling one can know.” It is spectacular to watch. The Mystran to he affected lies down on the ground and the circle of celebrants pours power into the worshiper—until his or her body, blazing with blue fire, slowly rises to hang in midair above those fueling the ceremony, humming, and crackling with the power of the magic surging through it. Magefire often ends in a Starflight ceremony, provided the celebrants intone the correct incantation.

The Hymn to the Lady is a solemn ritual performed at funerals and mage-moots, that calls up visions of dead mages and Mystran clergy as a plainsong dirge is intoned by the living clergy present. Mystra often uses these visions to insert her own guiding scenes. A modified Magefire ceremony may be employed at the end of the Hymn to raise the honored dead aloft into a floating pyre on high.

Mystran clergy celebrate the 15th day of Marpenoth, the anniversary of Midnight’s elevation to divinity as the new Mystra, with a huge festival centered around the House of Wonder that ends in magical fireworks that go long into the night. This holiday is being gradually adopted by shrines and temples of Mystra throughout Faerûn. Otherwise, they have few calendar-related rituals, focusing more on a personal style of worship.

Wedding Ceremonies

The Mystran weddings were known for being short and simple with little fanfare. It allowed for small groups of guests and always at least one witness of the union. The ceremony was reformed by a wizard devotee of The Mother of Magic or one of her priests. If no clergy members were available, the ritual could be performed by an elder confidant of both newlyweds who prepared the Ring. The ceremony started with the officiator uttering the following words: “In the name of Mystra, be welcome.” This greeting was followed by striking a bell or a gong (deeper tones preferred). After the toll, newlyweds were escorted to the clergy person performing the wedding one at a time. The escorts were carrying sources of light, mundane or magical, while the newlyweds carried Mystra’s stars. Usually, the brides’ or grooms’ loved ones, most commonly their parents, were the escorts. The bride and groom were dressed in their best finery of no style.

The Ring was a circle drawn on the ground where the newlyweds were to stand after being escorted to the officiator. It was decorated with seven blue-white stars. The design left two gaps between the stars where two new ones were added during the ceremony, symbolizing the union in Mystra’s eyes. In the ceremonies lacking “the Art” users, the stars were made from paper, while when mages or clerics were present, these glowing stars were conjured through magic, reminiscent of Mystra’s holy symbol.

When the newlyweds reached the Ring, escorts extinguished their lights and stepped aside. The officiator continued saying: “In the name of Mystra, be welcome,” to which the newlyweds responded with, “In the name of Mystra.” Following the greeting, they tipped forward and lowered stars of Mystra onto the Ring’s gaps. Then, the newlyweds faced each other and answered the question: “Do you wish to become one?” As both confirmations were voiced, the officiator concluded with: “Before Mystra, these two desires to become one.”

After this, two newlyweds rose in the air through levitation or flying spells if possible. This was known as the “touch of grace,” during which the newlyweds recited their vows, embraced, and kissed. Typically, the votes were recited one at a time, traditionally starting with the older partner. “I am (full name), and I give myself to you,” was the final promise, followed by kissing of their own fingertips, then extending the kissed palm out and upright towards each other. Both parties moved closer, first locking kissed palms. Then the officiator announced, “The blessing of Mystra, Our Lady of Mysteries, be upon this union. Laugh together, and work magic together, and be greater thereby,” with a wizard’s wand lifted in the air. The officiator then stepped out of the Ring, and the couple locked lips.

Vestments

The ceremonial garb of Mystran clerics consists of simple blue robes, sometimes trimmed with white, accented by a cloak of deep blue in colder climates. Some form of blue headgear is required, though this may range from a plain skullcap for the scholarly orders of the Sword Coast North to wide, ornate hats and helms in southern lands.

Mystra’s symbol was a blue-white star before the Time of Troubles, but both old and new symbols are still in use. Mystran clerics are very tolerant of the older worship of Mystra, as they feel that progress comes only by learning about the past. They let established symbols of the old faith stand, but when creating new symbols, they always use the new sigil of their deity.

In the field, priests of Mystra wear armor and bear the new symbol of Mystra on their shields as a display of their faith. If armor is inappropriate, they dress in the fashion of the land they inhabit appropriate for the inclement weather.

Festivals

Lady Day, the annual spring multi-day festival, most prominently celebrated in Halruaa. The festivities ended in a grand magically illuminated skyship regatta above the waters of Lake Halruaa.

Items

The Flame Blade was a magical artifact that once belonged to the Sisterhood of Silver Fire. The enchanted short sword usable only by Mystra’s clerics. It was shaped like the Lady of Mystery’s holy symbol and engulfed in her silver flames.

Regions

By 1374 DR, the kingdom of Cormyr did not have even one temple to Mystra. In that year, a Temple of Mystra was constructed in Wheloon, but it turned out to be a false temple run by cultists of Shar and Cyric.

Relationships

The Church of Mystra was opposed to the church of Cyric, just as Mystra was opposed to Cyric.

Affiliated Orders

• Children of the Starry Quill
• Order of the Blue Moon
• Order of the Shooting Star
• Knights of the Mystic Fire
• Sisterhood of Silver Fire