Description

William is the legitimate Duke of Viremore. He is a disciplined man who likes talking to people. He is judgemental, yet more than willing to help his comrades since it is the most beneficial course of action to do.

He was squired at a very young age of 12 to Sir Darillion Maulvorn who taught him how to fight and he was actively taking part in border raids and internal squabbles with other duchies.

William recently took to a faith, he’s a follower of Siwan, an obscure draconic god of death after almost dying and seeing a vision during this near death experience, it makes sense to him how he was able to survive so long.

He is currently being hunted by bounty hunters, knights sent by Cormyr. A fanatical religious organisation called the Harbingers of the Black Scriptures have also been ruthlessly pursuing William nonstop in the four months he has been on the run.

Duchy of Viremore

The Duchy of Viremore is the ancestral home of William D’Mortaine, It is a disputed duchy on the eastern border of the Kingdom of Cormyr, just south of the Thunder Peaks. It borders the Vast Swamp with the D’Mortaine's seat of power being the Gravemarch Keep that borders the swamp, which is a large and imposing fortress.

The culture of Viremore is of obedience and authoritarianism. It is a stratified society that is mostly human with elves and half-elves as minorities. It borders High Dale and is part of an ongoing dispute about ownership of the duchy between Cormyr and the Dalelands and, as such it has a large amount of autonomy.

It has developed a diverging culture which others in the region would consider lawful evil but they do not see themselves as such; it's just the proper way to do things, it’s others that do not see the truth! It is a stratified society where the nobility rules with authority and iron fists.

It’s main exports are copper, coal, iron, weapons and furs.

William D’Mortaine's Exile and Fall of the House

Williams father Duke Alveric XI ruled the duchy much the same as his ancestors, a competent authoritarian complete with the destruction of opposition. However, as he grew into an old man he lost his edge in the eyes of the court and started to be lenient to criminals, allowed his insubordinates to openly ignore his rulings, and allowed outspoken opposition. As the only trueborn heir, William was put under a lot of pressure to be the proper ruler but Alveric allowed scheming to occur.

Over a few months there were numerous clandestine meetings held amongst various members of the court and they schemed together to fabricate a plot to frame William as a usurper, to overthrow Alveric.

The court approached Alveric with this and summoned William to court. Upon the presentation of this “plot” Alveric lost all semblance of a backbone and sided with the schemers. He exiled William from Gravemarch Keep to “preserve the peace” but allowed him to stay at the countryside summer residence. William, being loyal, accepted but was furious.

One month passed and Alveric came down with a sudden serious illness and passes away quickly. William suspects poisoning because soon after the court Justicar Xerethor D’Angelo took control with the support of the court and the backing of nearby duchies.

Xerethor managed to get the wider kingdom to issue a royal decree for the immediate execution of William, complete with a very hefty bounty for his head and that of any friends he is found with. Luckily there was a few friends left and he was given just enough notice to escape with only what he could equip and carry on himself. As he fled on horse he could see his manor burning down. Luckily he got the household staff to flee so they would not be killed.

But he lost everything and was now on the run inside his own domain, a disgraceful state of affairs; William managed to escape Viremore but was chased throughout Faerune.

The Chase Begins

Whilst William was well versed with the duchy troops of Viremore, since he trained with them all his life, he is able to out move and deal with them as they arrive and the various lowly bounty hunter organisations that have been contracted to hunt him down.

The real threat to him is the Harbingers of the Black Scriptures. An order of glorified bounty hunters structuring themselves like some kind of religious organisation, who do they think they are anyway? They take coin for hunting targets.

Nevertheless they sent five members of the elite fighter order called The Order of Onyx, they are:

Atilira Heran Vael

• The Verse of Silence - why do they call themselves preposterous names? But in this case she is  a deafly silent half-elf, almost killed me on many occasions, yet I still live; is this Siwan’s doing?

  I hear she slaughtered an entire Noble house in a single night with no alarms being raised yet cannot seem to sneak up on me!

  

“Brother” Kallen the Riven

• The Verse of Endurance - Ignore the moniker, there is not a single ounce of Brotherliness in him, he is a well built human, large by our species standards, he has carved words in an unknown language onto his skin, he is a brutal fighter I have seen him best multiple foes at once, yet prayed when they died? Yet is not able to disarm me or corner me?

“Mother” Syrentia

• The Verse of Judgement - Do not let her youthful image fool you, she is an old elf that is an advanced magic user, she wiped out an entire village hunting me down; yet all her spells miss me or are miscast?

“Father” Vitrel Ashvein

• The Verse of Mercy - This human was once an executioner, now he is a heavy armour clad paladin that is able to channel “divine flames”.

“Sister” Marreth Vaun

• The Verse of Pursuit - She’s a rarity in our lands a half-orc; she’s a ruthless ranger with a brutal aim with her longbow, yet somehow keeps missing me?

  

Sudden Arrival

William was going through the Sword Coast after having narrowly avoiding another attempt on his life by the Verse of Silence when the floorboard creaked and William was able to swing at her but missed and he was able to escape.

He was exhausted, starving, injured from weeks of fighting bounty hunter groups and adventurers who want to get the gold and the odd bandit when he stumbled upon an elderly mage with the sigil of a squid embroidered onto the robe.

“You look like death friend” The mage said to William. William responded “It’ll meet me soon, who are you? Want to test your luck too, old man?”.

The man named himself as Gregory Archibald, says he is from the Questly's Squids. William laughs at it; “What is that, a Seafood restaurant?”

He tells William about the quests they do and that he does not long have long here, soon he will die but offers William a choice; work for the guild.