Blades of the Old Man

The Blades of the Old Man were a cult of Bhaal-worshiping assassins led by Alaodin, the Old Man of the Mountain. They operated out of Sentinelspire.

Organization
The leader of the Blades of the Old Man was Alaodin, a priest of Bhaal better known as the Old Man of the Mountain. After 1365 DR, however, leadership was contested on three occasions. The last was in 1369 DR, when Chereth slew Alaodin and became the new Old Man of the Mountain.

Activities
The Blades of the Old Man were hired out as assassins to nobles and the wealthy throughout Faerûn. Though the payment was sometimes in money, they preferred services such as official sanction for establishing the worship of Bhaal. The ultimate purpose of the Blades was to spread the worship of Bhaal.

Base of Operations
The Blades of the Old Man resided at the Fortress of the Old Man, which was hidden within a canyon in the mountain of Sentinelspire. The Fortress itself was Imaskari in origin, but the Old Man of the Mountain had repurposed it as a paradise for his followers.

History
The Old Man of the Mountain built a paradise-like dwelling for his followers in the former Imaskari fortress while Bhaal was still alive. There, he began a cult of assassins who would serve evil rulers and ambitious men with the ultimate purpose of spreading the worship of Bhaal. He maintained the fortress with divine inspiration and aid.

After the death of Bhaal during the Time of Troubles in the, the divinely granted abilities of most of his followers were losty. To compensate, the Old Man of the Mountain recruited fighters, magicians, and priests of Bhaal, and began looking for relics and artifacts that could grant him the power he needed. By, there were about fifty killers in his employ and 200 servants were kept in the fortress.

In the, the Old Man of the Mountain sent his best assassins against the Masters of the Yuirwood. His best assassin, Kheil, was slain and the some of the druids managed to escape. This great loss, combined with the loss of his god, made him weak in the eyes of many of his followers. He survived two uprisings, the second one led by his own daughter, Talieth, in the. However, his forces had not recovered from the uprising in time before the attack that the druid Chereth mounted on the fortress that year. The Old Man was slain and the cult accepted Chereth as their new leader.

But as the druid's goal was to destroy civilization all across Faerûn, Talieth conspired against him as well. She sent out a band led by the assassin and hunter Sauk to fetch Erael'len, an artifact that the druid needed for his rite, in an effort to better thwart it. In Tarsakh 25 of, the druid's attempt at his ritual was thwarted by his own student, Berun, who was actually Kheil resurrected. Of the original population of the fortress, only three assassins and one servant survived, all of them loyal to Talieth, most of the others slain by infighting and the druid's killoren servants.

Notable Members

 * Alaodin
 * Talieth
 * Sauk
 * Berun
 * Valmir
 * Chereth

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Sentinelspire