Buddy Novs is a former smuggler turned sycophantic follower of the
vampire and former
High Rider of
Elturel Klav Ikaia.
History
At some point before the 1490s, Buddy Novs formed a successful Elturian smuggling operation that was based out of the
Maze underneath the city, specializing in smuggling goods between Elturel and its historical rival
Baldur's Gate. This operation also connected Buddy with members of the Baldurian
Guild, who he frequently worked with.
In the early 1490s, Buddy Novs sought out a mute young man named
Arcus Miursa, offering to mentor him in swordplay. The two formed a connection, and Buddy began asking Arcus for favors with some of his smuggling jobs. Arcus, seeing that nobody was getting hurt and that he could get paid, agreed. What Arcus didn't know was that Buddy had purposefully sought him out, knowing that if his operation was discovered, having a member of the famous Miursa family with him would dampen the harm.
In 1494, Buddy joined a daring heist arranged by the
Mourning Dove, the Guild kingpin of
Tumbledown in Baldur's Gate, to steal the
Helm of Torm's Sight by the merchant ship
Aremag's Blessing, which Buddy would then fence to an Elturian merchant family and split the profits with all involved. Buddy brought Arcus with him on the heist as well as
Kinsey Eridanus, a naive young
elf Buddy recruited from Elturel.
While the heist went off successfully, Buddy decided not to split the earnings he made from fencing the helm with the Mourning Dove or the others. Buddy and Arcus also had a following out when Arcus disocvered the reason he was recruited, and Buddy made a veiled threat to Arucs should the young man chose to let anyone know about Buddy's operation.
In 1497, angered at Buddy's refusal to pay what was owed, the Mourning Dove resummoned the thieves from the initial heist to go to Elturel and shakedown Buddy. The group managed to find Buddy's base in the Maze, chasing the old smuggler up through an emergency ladder up to the city streets. However, at that time the terms of a
fifty year old infernal pact came to pass,
damning Elturel and all of its inhabitants to
Avernus in the
Nine Hells. As the city was scooped out of the
Material Plane, Buddy and one of the pursuing thieves,
Odun Greenhold, were caught at the bottom edge of that teleportation, scrambling out of the escape hole and to solid ground before they could fall into the
River Styx below.
Unsure of what happened, Odun and Buddy made a temporary truce to investigate, and during their wandering in the Maze stumbled upon
Klav Ikaia, the thought to be dead former
High Rider of Elturel that was responsible for the deadly
Reign of Vampires fifty years ago. In actuality, Ikaia had been hiding in Elturel's Maze, rebuilding his forces out of the orphans and miscreants that wander into the Maze, turning them into loyal
dhampirs. Buddy and Odun attached themselves to this group, that soon made their way to
Shiarra's Market, establishing a safe haven for Elturian citizens in the Dock District. While Odun didn't trust the vampires and continued helping them lacking better options, Buddy ingratiated himself to what he saw as the winning horse, taking it upon himself to be the mouthpiece of Ikaia's will.
A few weeks later, adventurers calling themselves the
Lost Star Detectives, which included Arcus Miursa and the thieves that had chased Buddy the day Elturel was teleported, arrived in the city to attempt to free it. Their first stop was Shiarra's Market, where they again met Buddy, who cringed at the sight of them, afraid of retaliation. However, the Detectives had bigger fish to fry and used Buddy to meet with Ikaia.
Buddy remained in Ikaia's service for the rest of Elturel's damnation, jockeying to be rewarded with the powers of a dhampir, as Ikaia had done with so many of the market's defenders, but he was rebuffed everytime.
During the
Battle of Elturel, Buddy cowered in the market with the rest of the protected civilians while the dhampirs, and later members of the Lost Star Detectives, defended them.
Following Elturel's salvation, Ikaia's attempts to be reproclaimed High Rider of Elturel failed when faced with massive opposition from the surviving Hellriders, newly formed anti-vampire
Order of the Sun, and their High Rider of choice
Alcor Miursa. Alcor was also backed by members of the Lost Star Detectives and a now-redeemed
Zariel. The following confrontations forced Ikaia to take his most loyal followers and flee Elturel, and the forces of the city were too weakened to seriously pursue him. Buddy, having tied himself too closely with Ikaia's cause, was forced to flee as where. Their current whereabouts are unknown.
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