Ilthane
Ilthane was powerful and driven, obsessed with freeing her father, Dragotha, from his prison in the Shadowfell. Desperate for aid, she came to the attention of an illithid mage named Zyrxog, who offered her the power to free her father if she worked for him. Zyrxog was secretly part of the Ebon Triad, which had its own reasons for wanting Dragotha free.
An Ebon Triad agent, Hank Selbar, learned of the discovery of a dragon boneyard near a small farming village called Winterhaven. A group of knights called the Dragonshield had claimed the Astati Basin centuries before and long defended the outreaches of what was then Sembia from the ravages of dragons coming out of the peaks. Their vistims where burned and interred in the boneyard. Ilthane was dispatched to investigate and collect intact bones for a ritual that could free Dragotha. Unfortunately, the boneyard was controlled by a tribe of kobolds under the leadership of a blue half-dragon, Ominak. Zyrxog bound Ilthane into humanoid form using a magical band. Unsure of her power in this form, she instead baited Ominak away from the safety of the kobold caves so she could fight him during the one hour before sunrise when she could assume her draconic true nature. They battled in the Winterhaven burial grounds, where the power of their conflict accidentally created a shambling mound infused with remarkable abilities. This mound grew and used the corpses of the graveyard as puppets, stalking the surrounding forest for prey.
Fortunately for Ilthane, a band of adventurers came by and routed the kobolds from the boneyard. One of their number even collected the femur of a gold dragon wyrmling. Ilthane was able to bargain for the bone and move on to the next step of her plan.
Zyrxog guided Ilthane to the Citadel of Grey Exile. There, Ilthane activated the portal to the Wyrmhold, a draconic prison dimension. Ilthane opened the door for an outsider agent of the Ebon Triad that freed Dragotha. Unfortunately, Dragotha was only able to escape into the Shadowfell. Ilthane returned to her makeshift lair in the Astati Basin. Upon returning, she discovered that the adventurers had destroyed Ominak. Ilthane imposed herself as the tribes' new leader and quickly set to work contacting her father using a mirror discovered within the caves south of Winterhaven. With this mirror and the power of the gate, she guided Dragotha across the Shadowfell to a weak point near Suzail where Zyrxog's agents were waiting to breach the planar boundaries and free the mighty Dracolich.
Dragotha did not take his thwarted rescue well. He raged at Zyrxog and blamed Ilthane for her weakness and ineptitude in serving the illithid. Ilthane redoubled her efforts to free him on her own, hoping to earn a true bond with her father. She attempted to use the Ebon Triad's resources to her own ends, claiming Zyrxog was ordering it all. When this duplicity was uncovered, she fled to Damara to escape their wrath. From here, her work continued until she found a way to weaken the barrier between worlds and free her father. Sadly, Dragotha showed no interest in his daughter. He immediately set to work reclaiming his place as the herald of Kyuss, going so far as to order hunts on Ilthane using the very dragons she had helped the Ebon Triad free from the Wyrmhold. Ilthane's hopeless flight caught her in the snare of Strahd von Zarovich and the Domain of Dread. Ilthane, still trapped in humanoid form most of the time, was only able to barter a deal with Strahd - allow her to return to the Material Plane and she would bring him a true contender to be his queen, in exchange for her safety in Castle Ravenloft
Ilthane caught Hope alone in Wrafton's Inn and brought her to the Domains of Dread, fully expecting the ever-troublesome TTT to follow. The adventurers would be useful if Strahd betrayed her. And they were.
Hope's words about unity and loyalty resonated with Ilthane, given the endless betrayal by the dark powers she had so long chased. After freeing her from Strahd, Ilthane felt indebted to Hope and TTT, and finally rose to face her father in the skies above Winterhaven. The days afterward, when the kobolds tried to heal her, were a fitting eulogy, she decided. A life of obsession and hiding, of experimenting on other creatures to feed her own ends, could have only one ending. She understood the kobolds' nature. Indeed she had manipulated that very nature when she infused their best warriors with her blood. Now, they would take what power she had left. It was all she deserved.
Comments