Personalities of Selenica

Selenica is noted for its distance from the other major cities of Darokin, which makes it an intriguing hub of ambitious merchants, fortune-seeking adventurers and others with more esoteric (and sometimes sinister) goals.^¹ Even in the aftermath of Wrath of the Immortals it remains so, although Darokin has become a darker and more dangerous place following the Hulean invasion, a meteor strike in its northern region and the sudden arrival of the Shadow Elves where Alfheim once stood.

It is the home base of two merchant houses, Al-Azrad (known for their strong connections to Ylaruam) and Hallonica (the dominant house in eastern Darokin), with a third house, Umbarth, also seeking a foothold there after the war. Selenica is known for two things, the first being the relative peace with which its merchant houses co-exist (though the recent arrivals of Umbarth and Silverpick is still being sorted out), and its strong sense of independence from the rest of Darokin, a sense made easier by the fact it lies more than 400 miles from the capital and the many visible foreign influences in the city.^²

Recently, however, a new development has arisen which offers both new trade opportunities and potential threats. This was the discovery of planar gates^³ in Darokin, the first of which was discovered in Selenica when a planar traveller from the City of Glass^⁴ in the Elemental Plane of Water literally ended up in the living room of a prominent Darokinian merchant lord; a second was discovered shortly thereafter in the dwarven district of the city. But Darokin is not a nation that shrinks from such surprises; its emphasis on trade and diplomacy allowed its merchants and other prominent figures to see the possibilities inherent in such a development, and within a few short years many new ties had been wrought between the City of Glass and Selenica, with the merchants leading the way.

[SIDEBAR] The City of Glass

The City of Glass is probably the most famous city of the Inner Planes, a trading mecca found on the Elemental Plane of Water. Many gates connect the city to worlds in the Prime Material Plane, including Mystara. The city exists in an air-filled dome, one of the wonders of the planes–it looks like glass, five feet thick, but is hard as steel and bars teleportation and ethereal travel. Populated by a multitude of races, the city is dominated by a number of merchant houses who govern the city via a merchant council, much like Darokin. While the council mostly keeps the peace so that trade can flow freely, conflicts between the city’s houses are hardly unknown, and can often turn violent when gangs of enforcers employed by many of the houses clash in the back alleys and shadows of the city.

For a full treatment of the City of Glass, please consult the Vortex of Madness supplement. A few of the city’s houses are detailed here; these are the ones that are currently interacting with Darokin:

House Silverpick: This dwarven house primarily deals in gems, and also brews a number of potent ales and lagers famous throughout the planes.

House Meladril: This house of air-breathing sea elves controls gates to many Prime Material worlds, where they often trade with the elven populations found there.

House Lublaboorp: This house specializes in bounty-hunting, but also secretly runs slaving operations through tunnels underneath the city.

House Acquar: This house, run by a clan of nixies, provides spidersilk and other items used in aquatic environments. They also know the locations of many gates, and are willing to guide others to them for a suitable fee.

House Sharpeye: This halfling-led house deals in fine jewelry and also is renowned for its legal expertise.

But not everyone in Darokin was unaware of such gates; some had been plotting to use them long before the merchants had learned of their existence. Others saw the potential to profit through villainy and cruelty, bringing new threats to the nation. And, of course, Darokin now has a number of planar travelers traversing its roads and cities, and some Darokinians have found themselves finding new markets in the City of Glass. Many interesting changes have come to Darokin, and Selenica is the hub of these new developments.

This article details some of the interesting personalities that can be found operating in or around Selenica following the events outlined above. Each is designed to serve as a springboard to help game masters in creating adventures in Darokin (and possibly beyond). Game statistics are not covered in detail given the wide variety of systems that can be used, but the inspiration for these characters arose from the 2^nd edition Dungeons and Dragons rules, the Planescape setting, and The Republic of Darokin Gazetteer (GAZ11).

The personalities which follow are listed in the following format: Name, Race/ Gender/ Class, Alignment, Affiliated organizations, and finally the locations where the character is most likely to be found. The events mentioned here should occur sometime after AC 1013.

Eshram Al-Azrad

Alasiyan Male Mage/Merchant AL: LN
Affiliations: Al-Azrad House, Darokin Merchants’ Guild
Locations: Selenica

Eshram has been head of Al-Azrad House for nearly three decades, and his patience, education, mercantile expertise and skill at diplomacy are all legendary in Selenica, and even throughout Darokin at large. He has managed to run a successful merchant house without most of the conflict and brutal competitiveness that characterizes how many other merchants and merchant houses conduct their business. He has managed to develop an impressive reputation as the ideal merchant, one who can deal honestly and fairly and still make an exceptional profit and raise his house to prosperity.

Al-Azrad House has strong connections to Ylaruam, and imports and exports many goods to and from that nation. Eshram is always on the lookout for promising talent to help steer his caravans safely to where they need to go, and is certainly willing to hire adventurers for this purpose, making him a good contact for such fortune-seeking individuals to have. He also has many contacts throughout Ylaruam, and is an excellent catalyst for adventures in that land should a band of Selenican adventurers decide to travel with or guard a caravan out that way.

However, things have not gone well for Eshram recently; his daughter, whom he loves dearly and wishes to make his successor, did not return from a trip to Ylaruam, and her attendants and bodyguards disappeared without a trace. He then received a message informing him she had been kidnapped by fanatical Magian Fire Worshippers,^⁵ and if he wanted to see her alive again he would need to follow their instructions. The only instruction that has been given thus far is to turn over a prized ruby of immense value his family has owned for generations.

Having a powerful merchant house under their control would be a tremendous boon for the Magians, and Eshram is all too aware of the evil they could cause should he go along with their demands. He is currently desperate to find a band of capable adventurers to travel to Ylaruam and find his daughter before her kidnappers run out of patience. What he does not know is that the Magians are controlled by a powerful efreeti who is interested in gaining control of a long-dormant gate to the Elemental Plane of Fire, and the ruby in question is the key that will open it. This means that the Magians are more capable than he realizes, and they have sent agents to Selenica to keep an eye on his house. Should they spot a band of adventurers paying him a visit, they may decide to proactively deal with that problem...

Cael Wintershelm

Planar Half-Elven Male Fighter/Mage AL: NG
Affiliations: Sojourners sect, House Umbarth
Locations: Selenica, City of Glass

Cael is a planar half-elven adventurer who belongs the small sect^⁶ known as the Sojourners, a group of mixed-blood warriors and mages who hold the belief that individuals should be judged based upon their strength of character and importance of their deeds, as opposed to their racial or cultural background. Many of the Sojourners, such as Cael, feel they have never really fit into the societies they hail from, and as Sojourners seek to acquire the knowledge, skill and legendary deeds that will allow them to create their own place for themselves wherever they choose to go.

In accordance with the tenets of his sect, Cael found himself in the City of Glass, a planar metropolis known to hold numerous gates to other places. It is also a city rife with intrigue, given the constant rivalry between the merchant houses that run the city as well as the activities of numerous criminal organizations. Having heard tales of battling gangs in darkened alleys, a ruthless slaving ring moving victims to planar battlefields and numerous portals to other places, he was certain he’d find something noteworthy to accomplish there.

He found his opportunity when a representative from House Meladril, sea elves who trade with numerous Prime Material worlds,^⁷ asked him to explore the Prime World beyond an unknown gate they had discovered. (The portal actually lay within one of their properties in the city, but the key had been lost for over a century and the destination unknown, a result of the secrecy practiced by a former head of the house.) Cael agreed, eager to see what destination the former head had tried to keep secret, and with the long-lost key they provided him he stepped through.

He found himself in the study of an opulent mansion with a surprised half-elven male staring back at him. He later learned, after hours of conversation, that he was in the city of Selenica in the nation of Darokin on the Prime Material world known as Mystara. The man he had surprised, Greenleaf Vickers, was a merchant lord, the head of Umbarth House. Although mostly based in Akesoli,^⁸ the devastation wrought on that city by the war and the loss of the trade opportunities the house had enjoyed with Alfheim had given Umbarth House reason to begin investigating other locations to establish a secure base within.^⁹ Selenica seemed ideal to Vickers, as the houses which were based there, Hallonica and Al-Azrad, were more disposed to negotiation and peaceful co-existence than many of the other mercantile interests in Darokin.^¹⁰ The threat posed by the new Shadow Elven nation of Aengmor also jeopardized the essential trade route through Selenica,^¹¹ creating an opportunity for bold, new talent to make a mark.

Vickers was fascinated with Wintershelm’s tales of a thriving planar merchant city, one which the mansion he had recently purchased in Selenica just happened to have a long-lost portal to! He quickly made an alliance with the Sojourner, offering him a place of influence in the house as his advisor. Cael, in turn, was intrigued by what he learned of Darokin; that it was a nation where people of numerous racial and cultural backgrounds could find success and acceptance through trade, and that Selenica was the most notable “melting pot” of that nation. This appealed greatly to him, as it fit perfectly within the ideology of his chosen sect.

In the several years since that fateful (and unexpected) meeting, Wintershelm has helped Umbarth House prosper, both through assisting in securing the trade route through Selenica with his skills in combat and magic and through guiding Vickers in his travels to the City of Glass, helping him forge trade deals with the houses there by allowing them to access the Darokinian markets. Umbarth House has also made a tidy profit re-selling goods from House Meladril, which seems content to let Umbarth oversee sales of their goods in Darokin. Of course, the amazing new products Umbarth had acquired through such deals to sell in Darokin and beyond has attracted the attention of the other houses, who are also seeking similar advantages. As Umbarth House is still short on personnel, it is entirely possible adventurers might find employment with them as bodyguards or agents while Vickers and Wintershelm journey to the City of Glass.

Bertram Hallonica

Darokinian Male Merchant AL: LN
Affiliations: Hallonica House, Darokin Merchants’ Guild
Locations: Selenica, City of Glass

Bertram is the current head of Hallonica House, the richest and most dominant house in Selenica. Like Eshram Al-Azrad, he and his house have a reputation for eschewing the cutthroat tactics often employed by the other houses, preferring negotiation and peaceful co-existence with their fellows. This has contributed greatly to the overall stability of Selenica throughout the decades, with Hallonica House and Al-Azrad House agreeing to specialize in different markets to reduce competition. The arrival of Umbarth House presented a new challenge, but the sudden opening of a long-dormant gate to the City of Glass proved the solution, with Umbarth House allowing Hallonica to use their portal to access the city (though both must pay a toll to House Meladril on the other side) in exchange for Bertram agreeing to avoid dealing in certain items Umbarth wishes to specialize in.

The wealth of new opportunities afforded by the gate made this a profitable solution for House Hallonica. After spending some time forging deals in the planar city, Hallonica now deals in diverse new trade goods such as jewelry made by House Sharpeye, spidersilk from the nixies of House Acquar and even occasionally magic items obtained through Krazy Koroaker’s.^¹² Bertram has found that these items will fetch a good price in Darokin, good enough to help smoothly integrate Umbarth House into Selenica while preserving the city’s cordial atmosphere.

House Silverpick was yet another surprise, but as this new dwarven-led house specializes in gems and alcohol, neither of which Hallonica deals in often, it has been a fairly rancor-free development. Furthermore, the Silverpicks provide House Sharpeye with the gems they need for their jewelry, which brings Hallonica House a tidy profit. This further encourages both houses to keep the peace, and the fact that Odessa has made efforts to ingratiate herself with the city’s other houses also helps greatly in this regard.

And yet there are also some potential storm clouds brewing. Bertram, pleased by the success of his house and also frustrated with the disorder that often plagues the rest of Darokin in the wake of recent calamities, has started thinking in a direction he had not before—namely, that Selenica, given its prosperity and independent spirit, might be better off on its own. He envisions a new nation of Selenica in eastern Darokin, with Selenica City as its capital. He believes nearby communities such as Reedle and garrisons such as Fort Hobart will be amenable to this, making such a bold plan possible. In truth, however, this is unlikely, as Darokin needs Selenica more than ever, and while it would certainly attempt to employ diplomacy to resolve the issue, they also would never ultimately agree to let the region split off.

Normally, Bertram would recognize this and would never conceive of such a plan. But he is not exactly himself as of late, for a rogue Shadow Elven agent has been using a custom enchantment spell to infiltrate Bertram’s dreams and slowly, over time, twist his thoughts in this direction. This agent has been dispatched by Synn the Night Dragon who, unlike Deimos,^¹³ isn’t focused upon destruction for Entropy's sake, but rather enjoys such carefully-crafted chaos that allows her to shape the course of the land and its peoples. One cannot be a puppeteer without puppets to dance to her tune, after all.

Eventually, Bertram will seek audiences with influential individuals in the region to discuss his plans, which will alarm other members of his house who will quickly realize how uncharacteristic this is for him and seek to hire investigators. The Shadow Elf agent in question has used her spell before on others in Selenica for fun and practice, so potential investigators may hear of these accounts and realize something strange is going on here. They may also run into Galesian Kelnenites and his elven allies who are also searching for Shadow Elf saboteurs.

Odessa Silverpick

Dwarven Female Fighter/Merchant AL: NG
Affiliations: House Silverpick, Darokin Merchants’ Guild
Locations: Selenica, City of Glass

Odessa is the daughter of House Silverpick’s current leader, and is determined to make a name for herself as an unequalled merchant without relying upon her father. When she learned of the Darokinian merchant cutting deals in the City of Glass, she was intrigued by what she heard of this place called “Darokin” on the Prime Material — it seemed like a place where a savvy dwarf with a nose for business could make a profit. After her research showed that other portals to Mystara existed, she consulted the nixies of House Acquar, who were reputed to know the locations to many gates and would divulge that knowledge for the right price.^¹⁴ Much to her surprise, they not only knew of gates to Mystara, but knew of another one to Selenica, one which the water-dwelling nixies had little use for previously. Remarking upon her good fortune, she passed through the gate to that city and found herself in Selenica — in Dwarftown, no less.

She wasted no time in making use of this second gate in the very same city to make contacts among the dwarven community, quickly hiring dwarves to form the nucleus of the Darokinian branch of House Silverpick, upon which she used her control of the second gate to import the lagers, ales and gems her house was famous for, and quickly made a tidy profit upon discovering that Darokinian taverns were eager to stock Green Lager and Golden-Brown Swill.^¹⁵ The gems she had for sale also proved popular, as the locals had never seen such planar-sourced gems before and were eager to possess them.

She also spent a good deal of effort ingratiating herself into the Darokinian merchant community, joining the Merchants’ Guild, making contacts, and learning all she could about this new land. Within a year, she had built House Silverpick to be one of the biggest minor houses in Darokin, and at the current rate of growth seems poised to one day enter the hallowed ranks of the top nine merchant houses. With three such houses already based in Selenica, this development only makes the city more attractive to traders and fortune-seekers. It has, of course, also brought her enemies, particularly those houses who feel most threatened by these upstarts such as Toney House. The latter has already hired a group of dwarven troublemakers newly arrived from the Northern Lands (and thus no ties with or loyalty to the dwarves in the city) to cause trouble. Odessa may have a need of adventurers to protect her interests sometime soon.

Myriana Nen’Talir

Planar Human Female Paladin/Merchant AL: LG
Affiliations: Legionnaires of the Light
Locations: Excelsior, City of Glass, Selenica, Western Darokin

Myriana is a steadfast paladin of the Legionnaires of the Light, based in the Outlands gate town of Excelsior.^¹⁶ While pursuing a corrupt merchant who was providing fiendish Blood War generals with slave soldiers, she found herself in the City of Glass. There, she discovered that slavers were using the portals to help move slaves kidnapped on the Prime Material to the Lower Planes. Her early efforts to liberate some of these unfortunates revealed that they hailed from a world on the Prime Material, Mystara.

This, in turn, led her to Selenica, which possessed a mercantile culture completely foreign to her. Quickly finding herself in over her head but unwilling to give up her mission, she endeavored to learn all she could about this new land, hiring herself out as a caravan guard and forming friendships with good-aligned merchants. This was an eye-opening experience for her; she had thought of merchants as simply obsessed with money and dismissed their profession accordingly, but now saw the possibilities of trade to connect communities and spread prosperity, understanding and security. She also discovered that her keen mind and charisma made her quite adept at pursuing such activities herself, something she was encouraged to do by her merchant allies.

In time, having learned enough about the merchant's trade, she decided the best way to uncover who was funneling slaves from Darokin was to become a merchant herself. As Al-Azrad House does not typically transport goods all the way to Western Darokin,^¹⁷ she has become one of the domestic traders to take on such work, transporting them through her small caravan to Northern Darokin and sometimes even Glantri. She has profited surprisingly well from this, given her exceptional charisma and ability to read people, though she is scrupulously honest and deals fairly at all times (this does not stop her, however, from securing the best price from those she knows can afford it).

Her real mission, of course, is to find out who has been collecting slaves and how they are making their way to the City of Glass. She has already discovered cases where a few small isolated villages in Darokin and Glantri have disappeared without a trace. As their proximity to the Broken Lands required these villagers to be tough and well-defended, she is starting to realize that she is dealing with far more than a few corrupt merchants.

Deimos

Lich (formerly Thyatian Male Mage) AL: CE,
Affiliations: Synn (Night Dragon)
Locations: Broken Lands (Sable Tower)

A millennium ago, Deimos was the senior apprentice of Lucinius, the Thyatian mage who led the revolt against Alphatia along with his general, Zendrolion.^¹⁸ With the success of the rebellion, Deimos had good reason to believe that he would prosper in the new Thyatian empire his master would control, but those plans crumbled to dust when Zendrolion betrayed and assassinated Lucinius, taking the title of emperor for himself. Deimos was forced to flee, destroying his own tower in an attempt to convince the assassins on his tail that he had died in a misguided effort to control magic beyond his grasp.

For years, he wandered the continents of Mystara and even ventured into the planes beyond, driven by anger and a fervent desire for revenge against the nation he felt had betrayed him. He gained much knowledge and power in his planar travels, even becoming a lich via lore he had gained from servants of Orcus. In the centuries that followed, Deimos’s desire for revenge against Thyatis mutated from a simple desire to punish and take control of that nation to a simple desire to spread death and destruction all over Mystara and rule over its ashes in a bid to become an Immortal of Entropy.

He believed the key to accomplishing this, however, was through drawing upon his planar knowledge and his pacts with Orcus to summon an army of fiends to do the work for him. Upon discovering through his centuries of research that the lands of Darokin contained a number of portals to planar nexuses that were largely unknown there (with several in and around Selenica), he decided to focus his efforts there. It was precisely because of this fact that a reckless Darokinian mage from the Ithel family had been able to summon a terrible demon in their island castle three centuries ago;^¹⁹ the demon was, in fact, strong enough to resist the summons of the foolish mage, but chose to accept the invitation because it recognized the value of Darokin’s portals. Fortunately, the doomed mage was competent enough to keep the demon bound in the castle in spite of lacking the power to control it.

Deimos made contact with the demon, Razrog,^²⁰ and forged an alliance: he would help to free the fiend from his prison, who would in turn help him with taking control of Darokin and making use of its portals to bring yet more fiends to assist in dominating Mystara. But Deimos knew how plans could be undone all too well, and he recognized that despite his power and knowledge, Mystara was not lacking in powerful mages who would oppose his efforts and had the power to do so. In order to distract such would-be heroes from stopping him, he initiated long-term plans to destabilize Darokin, secretly working to undermine the nation during the Master’s invasion. After the war, he gained control of numerous humanoid tribes from the Broken Lands and the humanoid-dominated parts of Darokin, which he used in slave-taking operations. Many such unfortunates ended up sacrificed in the rituals Deimos enacted to weaken Razrog’s binding, something which the Ithel family had also done centuries ago to summon the fiend.

The sudden appearance of a planar adventurer through one such important portal in Selenica was an unwelcome development for Deimos, as it alerted the merchants of the nation to the existence of such portals. But Deimos was adaptable; he simply expanded his slaving operations and sold the surplus to the Lublaboorp slavers in the City of Glass^²¹ via another portal in the Broken Lands they controlled, hoping that any heroes investigating such would be directed away from him. He also forged an alliance with Synn, the Night Dragon, who in turn used the Shadow Elves and monsters under her command to further destabilize the nation. Currently, Deimos is making use of Synn’s Shadow Elven agents to cause trouble on the vital Selenican trade route to interfere with the focus upon the two portals discovered there by local and planar merchants. Deimos believes Synn to be a useful resource in achieving his long-term goals in Darokin.

Deimos, however, underestimates her power and fails to realize that she grasps his ultimate plans and has no intention of letting him take control of the region — but his demonic ally in Itheldown Castle is of great interest, indeed.

Rionarr Blacksaber

Sea Elf Male Fighter AL: CG
Affiliations: House Meladril
Locations: Selencia, City of Glass

Rionarr is a member of House Meladril, air-breathing sea-elven traders from the City of Glass. Rionarr, however, is no merchant or craftsman, though he has few peers when it comes to swordsmanship. Long ago, he was a member of the Steelcross Duelists gang^²² often employed by the house to defend its interests in the bloody, back-alley conflicts that often occur in the City of Glass at the behest of various houses and commercial interests. His skill with a blade led him to the direct employ of the house itself, which has trade dealings on numerous Prime Material worlds it controls gates to in its city district. Rianarr has fought for his house on many of those worlds, and has seen much in that time.

This includes Mystara, for the Meladrils possess a gate that leads to the Minrothaddan islands. The sea elves of the house are quite similar in appearance to the sea elves that dominate that land, which gives the house a tremendous advantage in circumventing the many restrictions those islands place upon foreign traders. House Meladril was able to acquire a discrete and wealthy clientele there, trading with Merchant Princes, sea elven pirate captains and elite members of certain elven clans, namely the Meditors. This secretive trade network has benefitted many such individuals in Minrothad, and angered their enemies in the process. The Kasan sea-elven clan,^²³ in particular, has heard rumors of these mysterious elves whose timely aid has thwarted their plots before, and has made use of their contacts in the Blue Eels and other criminal enterprises to find out where these mysterious benefactors came from. As the Blue Eels have contacts throughout the world of Mystara, this has caused House Meladril to be more circumspect in their dealings to avoid attention. This became all the more important when a small group of House Meladril elves decided to make an exploratory journey to Thyatis to examine the possibilities there, and were subsequently murdered. The hallmarks of these killings were disturbingly similar to another set of murders of house members in an entirely different Prime world.

Upon discovering that contact had been made and trade relations established between Darokin and their home city, House Meladril decided against involving themselves in the markets there, preferring to let Umbarth House serve as their middleman to hide their presence. They allow Umbarth House and Hallonica House to use the gate to travel to the City of Glass (for a fee, of course), but rarely use it themselves to travel to Selenica. Nonetheless, Selenica does seem a promising avenue for future revenue, so while trading ventures are not carried out there (yet), they have chosen to send Rionarr as an agent to keep an eye on the city to evaluate what dangers may be present there.

Disguising himself to seem like an Alfheim wood elf, Rianarr has opened his own dueling school, The Crossed Blades, where he teaches swordsmanship to those who wish to learn and can afford his prices. Many Darokinian fighters have taken lessons there, and those who hold positions in the military or as bodyguards for the merchant houses are excellent sources of information. The school is an excellent place for characters to increase their proficiency with the blade, and excellent cover for Rionarr to keep an eye on the city. Should whoever is targeting members of his house of multiple worlds find him here, they will find him more than a capable foe.

Galesian Kelnenites

Thyatian Male Forester^²⁴ AL: NG
Affiliations: Karameikan Foresters’ Guild
Locations: In and around Selenica

Galesian originally served in the Thyatian Guild of Foresters, but after the troubles the guild suffered in the war he chose to emigrate to Karameikos to help set up a new guild there.^²⁵ After several years there, he decided to make a journey to Darokin to evaluate the threat of Aengmor and possibly lay the groundwork for a Darokinian branch of the guild, if possible.

He made his way to Selenica, as, given the importance of the trade route that it lies upon, the city would make a tempting target for mischief on the part of Aengmor. Keeping his allegiance secret, he has worked as an adventurer and caravan guard around the region to gather information, search for potential allies and spot any signs of trouble. He was successful in finding allies, making the acquaintance of several former Alfheim elves unwilling to let their homeland go. From them, he learned much of the Shadow Elves, and he revealed his true identity and purpose to them in return. They now form an adventuring band seeking their fortune around Selenica, but in truth this is a cover to search for Shadow Elven activity.

At first, little was discovered, as Aengmor is not currently planning any trouble in the region. This changed, however, when Synn started sending her Shadow Elven allies in, such as the one who is currently plaguing Hallonica House. Several Shadow Elven bands have launched attacks on certain caravans at Deimos’s insistence; Synn humors him for now, but usually has an ulterior motive for such attacks (such as undermining confidence in Darokin’s ability to keep the roads safe and thus make Bertram Hallonica’s call for Selenica to forge its own path more appealing). Galesian’s band has engaged one such group already, which only spurs them onward in their current quest.

However, he is starting to become a nuisance. Synn might very well send assassins after his group or attempt to lead them into an ambush which player characters might get caught in the middle of, or characters investigating the strange behavior of Bertram Hallonica might discover Galesian and his group investigating the same thing, suspecting Shadow Elven foul play. This band of adventurers can serve as a catalyst for many adventures involving the Shadow Elves.

3See the Planescape Campaign Setting

4See Vortex of Madness and Other Planar Perils (Planescape adventure supplement)

5See GAZ2 The Emirates of Ylaruam

6Information on sects and factions can be found in the Planescape campaign setting. The Sojourners are the author's creation.

9See Wrath of the Immortals

11See Wrath of the Immortals

13See the Chronicles of Mystara video games and the Poor Wizard’s Almanac for more information on these two

16The Legionnaires of the Light are mentioned in the Blood Wars card game; Excelsior can be found in the Planescape boxed set A Player's Primer to the Outlands

17See GAZ11; Darokin City is over 400 miles from Selenica

18See Dawn of the Emperors boxed set

20In BECMI, Razrog is a Roaring Fiend; in AD&D 2e and later editions this is a Balor, which is nowhere near as powerful as its BECMI counterpart. The author made him a Nalfeshnee Augmented Wizard (see the Planescape supplement Hellbound: The Blood War) who via an Abyss-infused magic jar took the body of a Goristro (see Planes of Chaos).

23See GAZ9 : The Minrothad Guilds

24Foresters are a class in BECMI, found in Dawn of the Emperors: for suggestions on how to use Foresters in other editions, see THRESHOLD Magazine issue #11

25See THRESHOLD Magazine #11 for details