Heroes of the Mist

It's been a decade now since the events with Lloth and the elven nation of Galendale. Soon after those events we managed to convince the dwarf Feldon to leave his new temple to Xvim and help us explore Myth Drannor. It turned out to be a a terrible idea. The group consisted of the bard Eejonna, the enchantress Kara, Paul the cleric of Shaundakul, the cavalier Jory, Aerin, Weylyn, Feldon, and myself. With the mythal around the city creating pockets of wild magic or dead magic zones, we could not count on being healed. My arcane abilities were very dangerous to use, causing us harm as often as benefiting us, and yet we needed them as we found ourselves fighting for our lives almost constantly. We did manage to rescue several magical items of elven make. However, Feldon and I had a disagreement over a wager initially made in jest, and there is now some definite animosity between us.

Leaving well enough alone, we decided to travel back to safer terrain. Upon returning to Newmoon we were asked to explore a dungeon that had recently been discovered and might pose a threat to the local populace. The dungeon turned out to be the resting place of a demi-lich, and in the course of exploring its lair Feldon was disintegrated and then his body was revived as a zombie. For my part, my soul was sucked into the skull of the demi-lich. As soon as my lifeless body fell to the ground, the Selu'Kiira gem in my forehead popped out. Aerin and the others returned the gem to the elves of Galendale, and in return the elves grudgingly agreed to resurrect me.

However, I had no desire to part with the Selu'Kiira. These gems are artifacts, each holding the memories and thoughts of past archmages and holding the secrets of elven High Magic. I knew the stagnant and isolationist elves of Galendale didn't have the skill to use the Selu'Kiira that they already possessed, and this second Selu'Kiira would simply be locked away in their vault. Apparently my sentiments were shared by others, and I received a sending from an unknown person asking to meet me. With my comrades in tow, we attended the clandestine meeting and were surprised to be met by the high clerics of Hanali Celanil, Sehanine Moonbow, Aerdrie Faenya, and Angharradh the Triune goddess that is the embodiment of the previous three dieties. For their own purposes, they tasked us with stealing the Selu'Kiira from the Vault of Ages. Aerin vowed to safeguard it until someone worthy was found, and we then proceeded to raid the very unusual Vault and retrieve the Selu'Kiira.

I retreated back to the city of Newmoon, managing my brothel and researching the arcane arts. The rest of the group went on a long quest to find a way to revive Feldon, whom we later discovered had become a haunt. The group was ultimately successful, but Feldon had been affected by his long time between life and death. I heard that he retired to his temple, and may have eventually died in battle.

During my own time for contemplation I began to think about my future. I had been obsessed with improving my craft, but I could see that there would be a time when I would eventually master it. My thoughts turned to elven High Magic, and the precious few elves who could still wield it. I decided I would be content being a High Mage, helping to ensure that High Magic would not be a forgotten art some day.

I sought out Aerin and she gave me the Selu'Kiira, as she recognized my goals and agreed that I would be a worthy wielder. Unfortunately, in a battle with fiends who tricked us into fighting each other I was destroyed by Mormotor, our sometimes fellow adventurer and priest of Xvim. Aerin safeguarded the gem, and in time I was resurrected by Jackson, the furry crusader of Selune. Unfortunately, the spellfilcher Avielle stole the Selu'Kiira during the interim, and to this day we cannot locate him. We did stumble upon his grave, but found the body of his uncle interred therein instead of him.

With the aid of powerful divination magic, we were able to at least track down the Selu'Kiira and retrieve it. To my dismay, we discovered that it had somehow been tainted with a foreign source of magic. This was unlike High Magic or even traditional Weave magic. Already the gem contained the memories and thoughts of a drow archmage, from whom I originally took the gem, but this was far worse. As much as I wanted to, I knew that wielding this gem would likely taint me as well, and therefore we sought ways to purify it.

More pressing matters arose however, and we traveled to the Bastion of Broken Souls in an attempt to stop the birth of soulless infants occurring on the Prime Material Plane. We accomplished our goal, but in doing so released a horrendous fiend that we were unable to stop. Bruised by our previous fight with the guardian of this place, we had no choice but to let it leave. Afterwards, by immersing the Selu'Kiira within the stream of unborn souls, we were able to remove the drow archmage's presence from the gem. But the other taint remained, and we were at a loss for explaining this other source of magic that corrupted the gem.

Aerin left soon after our journey to the Bastion of Broken Souls, looking for Avielle, and I have not heard from her since. Disheartened, I wandered for a while, doing what I could to learn as much as possible about this new source of magic, which I learned was called Shadow Weave magic. As I was exploring a forest near the nation of Amn I was accosted by a gold elf named Lucanth and a half-elf woman named Arameal. They had been sent by Khelben Blackstaff, a Chosen of Mystra and a powerful human archmage. He was presently looking for ways to fix the mythal surrounding Evereska, which had been damaged during the long siege with the Phaerimm. A young well-intentioned elf who used Shadow Weave magic had aided the other High Mages in repairing the mythal, but in doing so had tainted the mythal. Khelben believed that I may be of help, and that the mythal and Selu'Kiira were both tainted in the same way.

But first, before I could aid, I had to be healed of my own taint. My soul was owned by Shar, having given it to her willingly in order to save the elven nation of Galendale. In addition, Shadow Weave magic was controlled by Shar, and I would never be able to help, much less become a High Mage, if my own soul was tainted by what we hoped to purge from the mythal. As much as I chaffed under Khelben's instructions, I knew that he had far more knowledge of High Magic than I did, and I had no choice but to follow his advice. Khelben had a plan to reclaim my soul -- he gave me a magical ring, and instructed me to activate it when I was ready. I gathered my friends, we readied ourselves, and activated the ring.

We appeared a moment later, disoriented, in the outer plane of Gehenna and standing in front of an Arcanaloth. He seemed pleased to see me, and eventually I recognized him as the creature that has been trying to kill me for over a decade. He explained that he had eventually realized his hatred for me was due to a tarot card that I had pulled from the Deck of Many Things, and that I was bad for his business. He offered a way for both of us to be free of each other. If I would do him a service, he would give me what I wanted and our pact would free him of his obsession. All we had to do was retrieve a blood-red gem from a group of demons and then meet him in Sigil afterwards.

We defeated the demons after a tense struggle, and immediately fled to Sigil, the city at the center of the multiverse. After a day of shopping, we met up with the Arcanaloth who gave us what we wanted: a map showing the location of a spell that would aid us in sneaking into Shar's domain. The idea was to steal the abstract representation of my debt to Shar from her own domain, in the plane of Shadows. I had my doubts about stealing anything from Shar, but I could offer no other alternatives. We travelled to the location indicated by the map, and after successfully fighting our way through the crypt of an ancient mage, we managed to find the spell, as well as a diary and a mask. The diary was of the mage, and had notes on the research of the spell. But I could decipher another message written within, hidden among the rest of the text, which read "Tanus, use this mask to hide your presence in the plane of Shadow".

This was alarming, as by all accounts I was reading the diary of a mage that had died long ago, and he could not possibly know of me nor of my goal. Nonetheless, I put on the leather mask, which seemed to act like a Ring of Shielding. Gathering my friends, we travelled to the plane of Shadow and made our way to Shar's domain. I began getting insights into where my "debt" was kept, how to evade the patrols and magical barriers, and when to use the spell that I had just recently learned. I could not explain how this was happening, and I began to fear it was Shar herself baiting us on further. Eventually we came upon the mark that was the abstract representation of my debt, but before I could act it vanished. I heard an urgent voice in my head telling me to leave immediately, and we all fled back to the Prime Material Plane.

Putting it all together later, we realized that the mask that I had donned was in fact the god known as Mask, the god of Trickery, Shadows, and Thieves. He had used us as pawns to get close to Shar, and he stole my debt for himself, as well as symbolically reasserting his portfolio of Shadows. Shar has long desired that portfolio for herself, and this was part of an ongoing power struggle between these two dieties. Caught in-between, much like we had between Shar and Lloth, we had been used to further their own plans. Khelben professed to know nothing about Mask's plans, but pointed out that it was far better that my soul be claimed by Mask instead of Shar. Mask had no control over the Shadow Weave, and I could now be of use in purging both the mythal and the Selu'Kiira of their Shadow magic taint.