Gondegal

Gondegal, known as the Lost King, was a warrior and warlord who, in the Year of the Dragon, 1352 DR, attempted to establish a kingdom centered on the city of Arabel in northern Cormyr. He and his mercenary army launched lightning raids in which they seized much land but looted and pillaged many communities. He was driven out after barely a season by the standing army of Cormyr, the Purple Dragons, led by King Azoun IV, and their allies. But Gondegal survived to be a figure of fear to Cormyreans in the generation afterward.

Description
Gondegal was a tall and muscular man, with grey hair  that he let grow long and hang loose and a long mustache that drooped below his jaw.



Possessions
Gondegal typically wore a suit of black plate mail that had emblazoned on the breastplate his family's ancestral crest. Alongside this he was known to wear a black and yellow cape.

His badge and his family's crest was the head of a grey wolf with red eyes, viewed face on.

Gondegal was also the owner of a number of magical rings, which changed his appearance or that of his armor.

Personality
He was known to be intelligent and highly skilled. Gondegal desired to be king, but the only course open to him was to seize land by strength of arms and become king by his own hand. And so he went ahead and did it.

Abilities
An extremely skilled fighter, Gondegal was a specialist in both the longsword and two-handed broadsword.

Preparation
Basing himself out of the Cormyrean city of Arabel, Gondegal recruited mercenaries from throughout Cormyr and the Goblin Marches and the Stonelands. A good number of them were goblins and other demihumans. Chief among his allies and supporters were the saddler Arth Tembroar, the herbalist Azunt Haelcloak, and the clothier turned thief Culdath, a.k.a. Bresk Thrattul, all of Arabel, as well as Baerendros the Blade, a Sembian hiresword wanted for robberies and killings. He was secretly supported by a little-known minor nobleman, Lord Vorik Aris. To pay them for their service, he said they could have whatever loot they could lay hands on as they went. To his commanders, he promised noble titles and land concessions. But first they would have to carve their kingdom out of the heart of Cormyr.

Meanwhile, Cormyr's young king, Azoun Obarskyr IV, was disinclined to deal with issues of the realm outside the capital city of Suzail.

Initial Success
First, they took over Arabel. Then, with his army bought but not paid for and carrying his banners, Gondegal launched guerilla-style raids throughout Cormyr. They ranged as far north as the Desertsedge Mountains and Tilver's Gap and other mountain passes, and captured Tilverton. They crossed the Wyvernwater and captured Immersea in the south and Wheloon, Hultail, and Wheloon in the east, and crossed the Eastern Plains to the edge of the Vast Swamp. They went west to Eveningstar, raided the surrounding farms, and briefly laid siege to the town but could not take it. One of their bases was the former bandit stronghold of Wyvernhunt in the foothills of the Storm Horns beside the High Road.

Gondegal and his mercenary soldiers proved capable and more agile than Cormyr's standing army, the Purple Dragons, able to move swiftly, react faster, and strike without warning. Meanwhile, the majority of Cormyr's army had been stationed in High Horn, ready for an external threat, not an internal one, and hence struggled to muster sufficient forces that could challenge Gondegal. The Purple Dragons also made fatal missteps; en route to a strategic location, the three-dozen-strong Starburst Swords unit elected to avoid the Stonebolt Trail, which was threatened by Gondegal's Twilight Brigade, whom they could've handily defeated. Instead, whether out of laziness or cowardliness, they took a safer path to get their target sooner, Unchallenged, the Twilight Brigade assaulted, pillaged, and razed a small village near the trail, Darkenshield. A journal recovered from the ruins fifteen years later recounted how the militia were taken by surprise and the farmers fought back with agricultural tools before barricading themselves in their hall, and there distributing a painless poison to the young and old before fighting to the death. Meanwhile, wandering trolls wiped out the Starburst Swords, and they were recorded as missing. Intelligent monsters such as these had seized the opportunity to spread their own chaos.

In this way, Gondegal enjoyed much early success and rapidly gained control of most of northern Cormyr. He even got to be king, having placed a throne in Arabel and declaring the independence of his improvised kingdom. Styling himself "the Lost King", he had made certain claims of a lineage to the royal bloodline of some fallen realm and a desire to reestablish his rightful kingdom; some folk who thought wistfully of these lost realms were even sympathetic to his cause.

But his rule didn't even last a season and he spent much of it in the saddle and on the battlefield. He would only reign as king for but eight days, and actually sit upon his throne for five. His kingdom didn't last long enough to even have a name.

Reaction and Retreat
Gondegal failed in his bid for power for a number of interrelated reasons. First, as they'd been promised, the mercenaries took their payment wherever they could get it. They pillaged the farms and towns they occupied and inflicted great suffering. Behind them, they left many ruins and countless people killed. This also left captured towns emptied of resources and therefore unusable as supply points in future actions. Gondegal's own treasury of loot wasn't great enough to keep paying them, and quickly ran out.

Second, Gondegal had not yet dealt with the Purple Dragons. Once they regrouped and formed a cohesive unit, they would retaliate in significant force. It would be the first time they were required to put down an insurrection. Even common farmers quickly volunteered to join the Purple Dragons in the face of Gondegal's threat. Meanwhile, the surviving defenders of Tilverton quickly retook their city.

And third, the Cormyrean crown would summon reinforcements from neighboring lands. Gondegal had disrupted the local balance of power and disturbed or even assaulted the other realms, and seized more territory than he could keep from them. As a result, Tilverton, Sembia, Daggerdale and others of the Dalelands were willing to ally to aid Cormyr in bringing down the rogue conqueror.

The Cormyrean authorities also made sure to disprove Gondegal's claims of a right to rule. Agents researched his genealogy in court and temple documents, but turned up no evidence of any noble or royal bloodline. They even interviewed elves, dwarves and even dragons of sufficient and familiarity, and with the participation of the independent and unbiased High Heralds, but they knew naught of it either. Thus, Alaphondar, the Sage Royal, issued a missive dated Ches 11 to the so-called "signet list" of senior Crown servants. In it, he refuted Gondegal's claims, though omitted repeating what they actually were, perhaps deliberately, and condemning the bloody warmongering even if they should turn out to be true. It went onto declare Gondegal to be killed on sight and his key followers Arth Tembroar, Azunt Haelcloak, Baerendros the Blade, and Culdath to be outlaws, wanted dead or alive. A similar royal proclamation followed, even as the Purple Dragons mustered for war.

Thus, after regrouping and enlisting the support of its neighbors, the Purple Dragons and a combined allied force brought the fight to Gondegal. They marched simultaneously out of High Horn, Thunder Gap, Tilverton, and High Dale. One force of troops was led by Azoun himself, in his first military command as king. It seems he'd had some hesitancy, however, for several advisers quietly encouraged him to lead the troops in person. A famous story claimed that the well-known gold dragon Tarlacoal, who'd long involved himself in Cormyrean politics, was among these whisperers.

But entering the occupied lands, they found scenes of desolation and despair. Many of Gondegal's troops broke and retreated in the face of the advancing Purple Dragons, pillaging all they could as they left and seeking unclaimed loot in fresh places. A significant number of Gondegal's forces, having depleted local food supplies, simply surrendered and even proposed joining the Purple Dragons in exchange for food and shelter. The majority, however, elected to fight as they felt they were left with no choice and should die fighting rather than go home in shame. In all the allied advances, not one major battle was fought and not one more than an hour long or seeing more than a hundred slain. The remnants of Gondegal's army scattered.

Downfall
King Azoun IV led his Purple Dragons on the march to Arabel. He expected to face the so-called King Gondegal in massed battle or a lengthy siege of his stronghold. Yet they encountered no kind of opposition and entered one morning Arabel with no battle or bloodshed at all. The mercenaries there had been left to look after themselves and they had no wish to fight and die for Arabel and not gold. so they seemed to simply melt away in the night. Azoun would fondly recall the liberation of Arabel in the years afterward.

In the aftermath, it was learned that Gondegal had already escaped, having disappeared in the middle of the last night of his reign or even one or two days previously. He made it out of Cormyr and was reported to have fled north and then east through Teshwave, but after this only contradicting rumors and tales gave his whereabouts after this.

Legacy in Cormyr
Although Gondegal's kingdom was short-lived, it played a significant role in defining the Kingdom of Cormyr thereafter. Gondegal's rebellion forced Azoun IV to pay attention to matters beyond Suzail and take action, to rule a kingdom rather than a city. Thereafter, he would rule more capably. Realizing he'd grown apart from his subjects, he took to personally touring the towns and villages of his kingdom in disguise—something he hadn't done since he was a prince—and meeting the people. He also began to strictly enforce laws requiring groups of five or more armed adventurers to have a royal charter to operate, in order to limit future rebellions. Arabel received an especially large Purple Dragons garrison, for fear of Gondegal's return, his offspring, or his imitators.

At least one of Gondegal's pay-ships, loaded with looted gold, was known to be sunk in the murky waters around Marsember, still lost by 1358 DR.

Gondegal himself was never captured. His condition and whereabouts remained a mystery in the Realms, but remained much discussed in taverns through the mid-1350s to the mid-1360s DR, usually when caravans went missing anywhere from High Dale to as far as Impiltur or when brigands seemed more active than normal. Thus, the Lost King became a fixture in the Cormyrean imagination. Many assumed he still lived, and linked all kinds of actions to him. A popular story circa 1356 DR was that he survived as an outlaw king, holding court in the wilderness some place with twenty-or-so loyal followers. This Gondegal was thought to be careful and ruthless, and of course killing all witnesses to his attacks to stop word about him spreading.

In one odd incident in the winter of the, a large but dilapidated ship entering the Lake of Dragons was attacked by pirates while in the Neck. When its captain emerged to fight, one of the pirates declared him to be Gondegal himself, momentarily halting the battle with everyone's surprise. That the man had hair as red as a dwarf's and promptly fled by diving overboard mattered not a whit to the tale. The pirates overwhelmed the sailors two-to-one, captured the sailors, and seized a cargo of goblin-made swords and other weapons; since goblins fought in Gondegal's army, this was also seen as evidence of the Lost King equipping a new army. Questioned by the pirates, some of the sailors said they knew the captain was Gondegal, though not where he was based, but that he was going to Westgate. They even threw in a story of a great treasure to fund his new army, and added the first officer was in the captain's trust and knew its location. The first officer was also questioned, but he too escaped, taking any truth with him.

Through the mid-to-late 1360s DR, rumors told of small groups still loyal to Gondegal or sympathetic to his cause, usually placing them where no such group was to be found. Yet there was one—Lord Vorik Aris survived the war without blame and in the, plotted a new rebellion, believing he could avoid Gondegal's errors. He returned to Darkenshield to do it, aided by survivors of the Twilight Brigade. They were defeated by adventurers and the ghosts of the Starburst Swords, who'd been barred from the afterlife by Torm, god of duty, but now had their chance for redemption. Meanwhile, the cooperation of kobolds and troglodytes on ambushes in the Hullack Forest, who were not usually known to work together, was attributed to some charismatic, outsider; naturally, Gondegal was put forward as the most likely candidate for his hypothetical leader.

In the late 1370s DR, a gang of brigands called the Sons of Gondegal and carrying his wolf's-head standard had started harassing caravans and farms between Arabel and the Shadow Gap. They'd escaped capture by 1379 DR and it's unknown what connection they had to their namesake.

Gondegal's Fate
But Gondegal's ultimate fate was very different to what people believed. Somehow, he came into the Buried Realms of the Underdark beneath Anauroch and there stumbled between two standing stones wreathed in mist. Coming out the other side, he ended up on the Demiplane of Dread. The mist dragon Thalagyrt, "Old Lord Memory", was reputed to know the true fate of Gondegal.

After a sojourn in the realm of Falkovnia, to which he was initially attracted due to its ruler's adherence to military discipline, he eventually realized the corruption of evil in the lands and ultimately became a righteous, honorable champion of the oppressed, a Knight of the Shadows.

Some time before the late 15 century DR, a story went around that Gondegal eventually emerged from the mists, and did… something.