Dretha Scythevex

The ghost sorcerer Dretha Scythevex is the Mistress of the Undercitadel of Szitrag .

Mental characteristics

Personal history

The Scythevex family tree both sprawls and surges with sorcery. The family’s strongest bloodlines have an aberrant strain, which provides family prestige as well as sorcerous power. Generations of Scythvexes married within the family to strengthen this lineage, and the most powerful Scythvexes lived in Irhurma 500 years ago. These Irhurman Scythvexes made secret obeisance to the Dark Tapestry for great wealth and greater power. But none in the family approached the power of their youngest scion, Dretha Sythevex. Dretha had been told, every day for as long as she could remember, that she was the harbinger of Empty Death, the Eyes of Empty Death, and that she was her family’s greatest hope for power and prosperity. The Scythvexes enacted abhorrent rites in their worship, including bloody sacrifices, and the authorities eventually caught wind of their crimes. The Sythevexes were finally driven from the city into the wilderness in -652 ZR, forced to leave their estates and luxuries behind. Dretha was only 6 years old at the time, but as she grew, her rage at losing her home solidified into an overwhelming hatred of Irhurma and everyone in it.
Most of the exiled Scythevexes died in poverty, but Dretha grew strong and proud. At 17, she interpreted visions from Empty Death that led her back to the lands of Khababar to plan her revenge. Far above a subterranean shrine to the deity called the Empty Vault, in a lonely stretch of swampy forest just beyond the reach of Irhurma, Dretha erected a magical Watchtower and called it Gauntlight. She dug deep beneath it to reach the shrine she had seen in her visions, and while she worked, she began to plan her revenge. She would draw subterranean monsters and violent beasts into her secret dungeons—which she called the Undercitadel of Szitrag —and use Gauntlight’s magic to send them into Irhurma to wreak havoc. She enacted the first part of her plan, expanding the Inverted Tower and raising a defensible keep around the Watchtower. She leveraged family acquaintances to acquire powerful retainers and champions to lead her monstrous forces.
Dretha was still stocking her Citadel with aberrations when rumors of her villainy reached the Irhurman College. The Founders, a group of explorers based in Irhurma, set out from the city to confront and vanquish her. The Founders faced Dretha within Fen Watchtower and killed her there. One of the four members of the Founders, a rogue named Olman Tavish, died in this fight. Grieving their lost friend, the Founders left, sealed up the keep, founded what would become the town of Tavish and retired there. They never knew of the keep’s lower levels or the many creatures still remaining within them.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Dretha’s spirit didn’t rest peacefully. Consumed by rage and empowered by Empty Death, she arose as a powerful ghost 500 years after her family’s exile from Irhurma, the event that so dramatically altered her life. Dretha now lurks in the deepest levels of Szitrag, plotting her revenge against Irhurma and the heroes who vanquished her. The Founders are long dead, but the town they founded remains, and the icons representing their adventuring careers now have the power to penetrate Dretha’s protections.
At first, no one in Engleher realizes the danger Dretha poses. Her machinations and her monsters are well out of sight. But before she moves against Irhurma, she intends to use her Gauntlight against Engleher—the town built by the adventurers who killed her five centuries before. Only Engleher's newest heroes can prevent Dretha’s vengeance and put her spirit to rest.

Religions