Miirym

Miirym, known as the Sentinel Wyrm, was a silver dragon, and the most peculiar guardian of Candlekeep.

Description
In life, Miirym was a silver dragon, but when she died, powerful magic gone awry kept her bound to the material plane, at which point she became a unique type of ghost dragon known as an incorporeal sentinel. According to the wizard Elminster Aumar, she appeared as a floating spectral pair of jaws that shuddered with magical power.

Personality
Miirym loved green, growing things and, even after 1500 years in captivity under Candlekeep, had a vivid memory of many plants, the geography of much of the Sword Coast, and the lightning storms that she used to enjoy flying through.

Being so lonely and secluded, Miirym would usually rather talk than fight, and traded tales to hear jokes or information about current events in Faerûn, although to hear of these things that she could no longer be a part of saddened her.

Her main aspiration was to somehow regain her body and be free to fly in Toril's skies once again. She was cynical of those who promised to help her accomplish this, however, as so many had tried and failed during her long existence, but despite this, she never tired of discussing the possibility.

Despite Miirym's lack of sanity, she was incredibly coherent and aware of her given task of protecting Candlekeep, and anyone seeking to take advantage of her mental state by attempting to trick or ambush her would receive the full extent of her fury.

Activities
Miirym passed her endless days patrolling the tunnels and passages under Candlekeep, idly widening passages and enlarging rooms using the few rock-shattering or matter-teleporting spells known to her, while searching for possible intruders. She desperately wanted to chat with someone, and whenever she found such an intruder she first tried speaking to them in order to understand their intentions. Even if such an intruder was hostile, she would attempt to converse with them while fighting.

She liked to leave the remains of would-be intruders as a warning, often showing them off to parties of intruders to deter them from any similar attempts to steal from Candlekeep. However, in her addled mind, all books belonged to Candlekeep, and she would suffer no claims to ownership if books were openly carried in her presence, be it the intruder's own spellbooks or other personal writings, and she insisted they be given to her so she could put them in their "rightful" place.

Sometimes, as an especially cruel and unusual punishment, a monk was sent to spent some time with Miirym.

History
Miirym was part of a large family of silver dragons who ranged across North Faerûn. At that time, the area was comparatively dragonless, and circa 2 DR, they went their separate ways to establish their own lairs and domains.

Miirym's lair was in a lone dark pillar just offshore from what later became the hamlet of Ulgoth's Beard. The lair and her hoard were unremarkable: the lair a series of naturally formed twisting caverns that had belonged to a mated pair of wyverns before she slew them and claimed it for her own; her treasures no more than coins and silver bars that were lost when the "sea stack" her lair was located atop slid into the sea in 788 DR.

Her domain covered the coastal lands between the High Moor and the Sea of Swords (as far offshore as the island of Mintarn), south as far as the Cloud Peaks, and north to Mount Helimbrar.

However, one day while hunting near Candlekeep, Miirym devoured several scholars who were on their way to the abbey, and in the process destroyed the score of irreplaceable books that they were transporting. As punishment, the powerful archsorcerer Torth bound her in service to the keep, which she had to protect for twenty years. However, fifteen years later Torth died, and his spell was so powerful that nobody was able to break the magic binding Miirym to Candlekeep.

Thus Miirym was trapped in her servitude, and although she kept to the letter of her terms, over time she became more savage in protecting the fortress, slaying intruders with no remorse, and Candlekeep gained its reputation of utter impregnability.

She was eventually worn down through age and the constant attacks on the keep, and after elaborate spell attacks made by a band of Calishite wizards in the Year of the Shieldtree, 1181 DR and the Year of the Tomb, 1182 DR, Miirym died.

However, even as her flesh sloughed away and her bones turned to dust, Torth's powerful magic kept her bound still, animated and sentient, but now undead and somewhat less than sane. What remained was a malevolent but diligent, invisible guardian force. Afraid of their own guardian, the monks hired mages to destroy her, but they were also unable to undo Torth's magic; however, they did manage to bind her within closer proximity to Torth's casket. It was only by the sacrifice of a group of monks that the casket was moved down into the labyrinthine complex of caverns and passages beneath Candlekeep, where Miirym remained, guarding the keep from below against would-be intruders.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Anauroch: The Empire of Shade • Candlekeep Mysteries
 * Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
 * When the Lights Went Out in Candlekeep
 * Card Games