Glymuldor Gryxulmyr

[sir_blacksoutalot]

CHARACTER
First Name: Glymuldor
Last Name: Gryxulmyr

FEATURES
Race: Moon elf
Age: 120 years
Height: 70 inches (178 cm)
Weight: 145 pounds (66 kg)
Eyes: Midnight blue
Hair: Blue-black
Hair Style: Inky strands swept back in streaming locks
Skin: Pale blue
Physique: Gaunt stature and wiry of limb

PROFILE
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Deity: Shar, Mistress of the Night
Profession: Scholar, collector, prestidigitator
Base Class & Proposed Development: Wizard + Shadow Adept + Arcane Scholar + Archmage
Favored Schools of Magic: Necromancy, Enchantment and Illusion
Familiar: Black bat named Wyk
Weapon of Choice: Mage staff
Place of Origin: Silverymoon, Gem of the North
Background Feat: Appraiser
Languages: Common, Elven, Arcane, Draconic; Chondathan, Dwarven, Gnome, Abyssal
Diversions: Night foraging for mushrooms, residual ectoplasm and the rare purple lotus
Strengths: A voracious mind for learning and an acute sense for finding traps
Weaknesses: Sleep deprivation due to night terrors, a downside of the profession

 

APPEARANCE
Of gaunt stature and pale countenance, the hooded figure before you bears the trappings of a mage. Tendrils of shadow coil about his form like spectral mist. Peering more closely, you note the following details.

FACE
Pointed ears extend through slits at conical hood. Furrowed brow, hawkish nose and hollowed jawline rob him of his race’s refined features. Sunken eyes are ringed in shadow, as though deficient on sleep.

WARDROBE
Glym favors robes that evoke the colors of twilight: violet, indigo and crimson. Multilayered folds shift with cryptic patterns and emit a purplish glow. Arcane traceries wind about his long black gloves, while thick leather boots appear too heavy for his frail form.

WEAPONS
Glym wields a mage’s staff crafted from black oak. Draconic runes line the haft. At the headpiece, six steel barbs encircle an oblong crystal of pure amethyst that drones with arcane energy.

GEAR
At left hip rests a spellbook bound in dark leather secured with metal clasp. A sheathed wand is slung at right hip. Twin rings fit over gloved fingers, each forged from black platinum and inset with onyx disk ringed in purple gemstones.

BACKGROUND

UMBRAL FASCINATIONS
Among the Conclave of Silverymoon, House Gryxulmyr maintained a proud lineage of prominent mages specialized in enchantment and illusion. Glym was the first to deviate from the ancestral line, for his innate talents compelled him toward the black craft.

Unlike his fair kin who dwelt among sunlit glades composing poems to the Seldarine, Glym was ever drawn to the shadowy secrets that lurk at the dark heart of the forest. Even as a lad, conjured visions of ghostly glamours and dread phantasms set his imagination spinning.

TOMES IN THE GLOAM
By nature a loner, Glym shunned the white-walled Academy and instead conducted his studies in a nearby wood where he sought out pockets of gloom and fervently consumed knowledge under shaded willow and gnarled oak. Exiting the Moorgate at dusk, he would enter the grove at twilight, wade through mists with tome in hand and revel in the darkening gloam.

As a young cadet, not yet advanced to a true spellcaster, Glym oft pilfered the headmaster’s near-depleted wands, with which he practiced on small creatures of the forest. The sense of domination proved fiendishly addictive.

Year by year, Glym’s skills progressed, as did his lust for power. He became adept at casting minor spells of fright and life-leech. He secretly scoured the Vault of Sages for fell grimoires from which he scribed spells of the dead. He pushed and pushed until one fateful day he naively reckoned himself strong enough to engage the void.

THE SHADOW WITHIN
Glym never speaks of the darkness he encountered at the deep forest core. Whether pact-sworn or repressed by fear, whether tormented by witches’ coven or interplanar demon, the truth remains buried only in his black memory.

Slighter of frame, grimmer of presence, Glym emerged from the wood with a fanatical obsession for the Shadow Weave and a newfound faith in Shar. Pledged to the Mistress of the Night, he focused only on shadow magic and set his capable mind to mastering its dark distortions.

A DARK PATH FORWARD
Always known to be a glum persona, Glym’s deepening turn to the macabre drew both concern and scorn from his classmates. Many were sickened by his recurring failed experiments to reanimate a dead bat. When at last its leathery wings flapped back to life, the grandmaster sternly requested that he withdraw his name from the Academy.

Few folk glimpsed his silhouette that final night, clouds drifting beneath crescent moon as he crossed under the Moonbridge, swept past the charred ruins of Everdusk Hall and vanished through the Blacklar Gate. With satchel at side and staff in hand, Glym set his back to Silverymoon and turned his path south to seek out others of like-minded wizardly pursuits and necrotic compulsions.

GOALS
• Decipher the physics of the Shadow Weave.
• Master the ability to shadow walk between planes.
• Form bonds with others dedicated to Shar.

[sir_blacksoutalot]

PROLOGUE: RISE OF A SHADOWMANCER

The following narrative chronicles the adventures, encounters, blunders and fortunate mishaps of Glymuldor Gryxulmyr, elven Shadowmancer of Silverymoon. The structure of this journal is intended that each chapter summarizes a season of training as Glym’s story arc progresses from neophyte wizard to archmage grandmaster.

[sir_blacksoutalot]

CHAPTER 1: THE MAGIC EMPORIUM

After many days on the open road avoiding highwaymen and sleeping in ditches, Glym arrives at the famed city of Baldur’s Gate. Commissioned by harbormaster Stewart Hipp to perform a round of deliveries, Glym is pleased to discover Sorcerous Sundries, a mage shoppe owned by one Halbazzer Drin. The aspiring young mage spends a full night noting down Drin's inventory before completing his assigned deliveries.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FROM CHAPTER 1:

• First citizen encountered is a woman named Lyra Roofshadow who stands at fireside outside the walls. The two exchange glances but not words.
• Glym meets a woman named Rynthera Acker. He attends her to Sorcerous Sundries where she purchases a few scrolls. Glym assists by reading the scrolls and placing wards upon the woman, his very first act of spellcasting since arriving at the Gate.
• Glym discovers the head of a beholder hung as a trophy above the mantle within the Elfsong Tavern. He feels inspired to one day claim his own such trophy.
• With less challenge than expected, he clears bats from the basement of the White Mask Theater. It leaves him with a tinge of regret, for he holds a fondness for the species.

[sir_blacksoutalot]

CHAPTER 2: OF WHISPERS & BONES

Upon completing commissioned errands, Glym steps outside the city walls and dares venture into the cemetery. Stepping unto the burial grounds with great trepidation, he happens upon a halfling by name of Fridoc Bladolow. The hin proves himself a crackshot with the crossbow. The elf gains the halfling’s confidence and Fridoc whispers rumor of a necromancer who lairs in tunnels below. Glym determines to assault said catacombs, for therein might he find the forbidden secrets with which he seeks to expand his spellbook.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FROM CHAPTER 2:

• Fridoc leads the pair on a circuit around the graveyard periphery, successfully fighting off skeletons and zombies and vengeful spirits.
• Glym finds a helm of tier two protection. It sells for a respectful sum of coin.
• Though tempted to retain for personal experiment, Glym turns over a collection of undead remains to Master Angus the Sage, meriting another robust sum of coin.

[sir_blacksoutalot]

CHAPTER 3: THE NECROMANCER’S LAIR

Having set his mind to course of action, at the farmlands fireside Glym acquaints himself with Shala, a priestess of Waukeen. Returning to the cemetery, the pair encounter a swordmaiden named Charah, a mysterious woman light on words but deadly with her notched falchion. Shala leads the party through moss-grown tunnels, fighting off skeletons and zombies. In a final confrontation, the trio do battle with the necromancer, an evil diminutive being swathed in shadow. The women put the necromancer to ground and the elf claims a set of scrolls that might possibly hold the dark magic he seeks to decipher.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FROM CHAPTER 3:

• The priestess Shala demonstrates her god’s power by turning bones and decay to harmless dust.
• The swordmaiden Charah fights like a demoness unleashed, relentlessly hacking undead hordes to chunks and shards.
• The party enters a tomb where Shala disturbs a sarcophagus and a mummy bursts forth. Steel cuts deadly arcs within the tight quarters and the group prevails, raiding the crypt of its meager trinkets and coin.
• Gaining the necromancer’s lair, the trio discovers a macabre laboratory scattered with skulls and a rotting cadaver.
• Glym returns to the Elfsong Tavern where he retires to a turret study and sets to unraveling the necromancer’s scrolls writ in blood and pitch.
• On his way out of the cemetery, Glym finds an open grave with a cache that contains a Wand of Burning Hands.
  

[sir_blacksoutalot]

CHAPTER 4: THE PASSAGE BENEATH

By fortuitous sequence of events, Glym reunites with the priestess Shala. Rounding out the party are Albreth Oatgrove, a human ranger of worthy skill, and Ceilion Deshetoan, an elven rogue proven most deadly with an axe from behind. Shala leads the group across the Chionthar Bridge, up to the Hilltop Ruins , then down into darkened halls below. Having entered at midnight and traveled many leagues below the surface, the party at last emerges into morning air and finds themselves just outside the walls of the Friendly Arm Inn. Behind them lies a bloodied path of slain kobolds, bladelings, gibberlings, bats and one particularly formidable minor wyrmling.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FROM CHAPTER 4:

• Under Shala’s guidance, the party tracks their way to the kobold chieftain. Resistance was futile.
• The ranger and rogue’s skills save the mage’s throat more than once when he is ambushed from behind by devious bladelings.
• Bats attack in droves but are easily vanquished. Glym sickens upon observing ranger Albreth skinning the dead creatures.
• Two hidden Drow warriors attack the party at lower depths, but soon regret it.
• Though he was not so foolish as to touch the altar, Glym felt a lingering sensation just from approaching, a stirring of something within. It was not pleasant.
  

[sir_blacksoutalot]

CHAPTER 5: IN A GLADE AT TWILIGHT

Glym discovers a tranquil grove just east of Wyrm’s Crossing. An abandoned house lies in a vale below, and further along the path a set of ruins leads down. The elven mage descends with full wards and summoned dire wolf. Bugbears and goblins set upon them from darkened halls. With spells all but spent, Glym is forced to retreat, accepting sage wisdom to live another day.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FROM CHAPTER 5:

• Glym accepts a job from Elad of the Merchant League to retrieve stolen goods. A seemingly daunting task without comrades at hand, he purchases a scroll of Planar Binding. Upon entering the caverns north of Baldur’s Gate, Glym summons a powerful shadow mastiff who rips through brigand resistance. Elad pays out as promised.
• A few more circuits around the graveyard help accumulate gold, but no items of exceptional worth.
• Glym interacts with several interesting personas: Samael Sal, a fellow mage with most awkward mannerisms; Valerien, a priestess who took afront to his dark-tinged magics; Cyrus Ravlin, a scribe of noble presence; and Uurad Na’Gabraen, an elven warrior wielding two lethal blades, one wreathed in shadow.

[sir_blacksoutalot]

CHAPTER 6: OF BLOODSTAINED HALLS & INFECTIOUS BOMBS

Having gained proficiency with third-tier spells of illusion and necromancy, Glym undertakes the initial steps in a shadow adept’s journey. He returns to the hilltop ruins to test his newfound powers, this time descending alone rather than with full party as he had done with Shala and company. The elf mage finds a Staff of Power and a Wand of Melf’s Acid Arrow; he puts both to effective use. Advancing through darkened halls, Glym engages the kobold chieftain. After a flurry of awkward spellcasting, the chieftain lies dead, but a bomb from one of his shamans infects Glym with a disease that saps his stamina and forces his return to the surface.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FROM CHAPTER 6:

• Glym is gifted a Blackforest Staff by a mysterious benefactor, who warns him to pull it forth with caution.
• An elven druid named Ceirinohr Lastson cloaks him with a spiderskin spell. The blessing lasts a long time.
• Crossing the bridge, Glym encounters a tiefling woman by name of Amora Lithlinin. She is clad in formfitting black leather and claims to serve as a bartender at local taverns.