Veiled Ones

The Veiled Ones, or "talibund", were the group of adventurers formed by Elminster Aumar in 1369 DR who defeated the Cult of the Dragon's Kya Mordrayn and her dracolich ally, Pelendralaar, fulfilling the prophecy of the Song of Faerûn preformed in Kara-Tur at the dawn of the 14 century DR.

"How one becomes "talibund" I do not know. My master says it has something to do with foolishness. I believe it has more to do with courage."

- Volun

Organization
The Veiled Ones were a group of adventurers, heroes, and survivors, who were bound together by a fate prophesied in the Song of Faerûn and their mysterious ability to be hidden from divinations of the future.

Base of Operations
Even though the Veiled Ones were an accidentally-assembled adventuring group, they remained together after the events in the Myth Drannor and remained active in Phlan and the wider Moonsea region.

Possessions
During their adventures, the Veiled Once collected (and lost) some of the more unique and rare enchanted items of the ruined City of Song, including the unique ice shard dagger, the Borea's Blood; the Mystran sword, the Flame Blade; a powerful mageshield; ; a duo of spell-proof mantle rings; magic silver sword, the Pathfinder; ; the sacred staff of sunlight; and a spellstaff, among others.

For their mission to stop the Cult of the Dragon, they were entrusted with the powerful Gauntlets of Moander by Elminster.

History
The Veiled Ones were brought together in 1369 DR, when Elminster Aumar put the call for heroes out after the pool of radiance under the city of Phlan mysteriously returned after a decade of being inactive. The pool's magics started affecting the citizens of New Phlan, slowly draining them of their life energy. Elminster entrusted an accomplished warrior Athan with the Gauntlets of Moander, the enchanted artifact that saved the city in the past from the corrupted pool of radiance. Athan's band assembled heroes and volunteers and set out to the ruins of Myth Drannor following Elminster's directions.

Athan's expedition, although it was not the group later known as the Veiled Ones. They were Ghleanna Stormlake; a wizard and Elminster's apprentice; Durwyn, a city guard from Phlan; Kestrel, a thief who promised to stand guard over the resurfaced pool under the influence of firewine; and Corran D'Arcey, a nobleman paladin of Tyr. Once the guardians of the pool assembled in the pool chamber underneath Valjevo Castle, a gate opened, showing Athan and his band being massacred. Ghleanna rushed through without second thought. Overly zealous, Corran grabbed Kestrel by the hand to stop a thief from escaping and forced her and himself through the gate to attempt and aid the adventurers in trouble. As the duo was moving within the gate, its magic became unstable. Kestrel used her grappling hook to pull them to the safety of the other side, and Durwyn trapped the rope the last moment and followed them.

The reluctant heroes emerged on the other side of the usable gate, but they were too late to help Elminster's band. They were greeted by scorched earth and dead bodies of Allyril, Loren, and several others. Athan's body was nowhere to be found as well as the Gauntlets of Moander. The heroes encountered orcs scavenging through the possessions of the dead and disposed of them as Corran D'Arcey took the lead. Committed to finishing Athan's mission, despite Kestrel's reluctance, they headed into the ruins of Myth Drannor. Shortly they came across a halfling "entrepreneur" Nottle, rescuing him from the restless walking dead. Grateful, the help, little thief, introduced the adventurers to Faeril and Beriand, survivors of the mysterious attack on Athan's gang. The survivors provided the Veiled Ones with shelter and a warm meal, as well as the way to enter the sprawling underground complex of the Dwarven Dungeons. As a favor, Beriand asked the adventurers to recover his staff, the Deathbane from marauding orcs.

The following morning the heroes entered the dungeon. The complex eventually led the heroes to Jarial, a wizard who's been trapped in stone since 1353 DR. Cursed by his lover Ozama, the wizard remained untagging and alive until Kestrel solved the puzzle and freed him. Grateful and lovely after years of solitude, Jarial joined the adventurers, hoping to find out what happened to his lover. Together, the group encountered the collector of necklaces who murdered Ozama years back, Preybelish, a dark naga. With negotiations failing, the heroes faced the venomous spell-slinging creature in combat, slaying the beast. In the naga's trove they found the Wizard's Torc. Further into the dungeons, the group came across humanoid creatures that resembled humans with lizard-like or draconic features. Myth Drannor's corrupted mythal changed the Cult of the Dragon members. The heroes rescued one of the Athan's gang, a warrior named Emmeric who joined the group on their next task - recovering the Ring of Calling that would allow them to move to the next part of the ruined city, the Speculum Grounds. The group remained at odds with each other, torn between Kestrel's and Emmeric's pragmatism and Corran's straightforward strategy that endangered them every hostile encounter. Subsequently, Coran's lack of strategy and selflessness led the group to confront a group of Cult of the Dragon wizards. Emmeric was killed by a deadly lightning bolt during the confrontation, to Corran's shame. But the Veiled Ones ended up rescuing Nottle from the Cult in the process.

During their trek through the dungeons, the Veiled Ones encountered many challenges, such as recovering the stolen Deathbane, standing against two warring orcish groups of Mol the Great and Zud, freeing the ormyrr Sharpstick clan from the mind-controlled chief Pujik, and returning them the land taken from the ormyrr by the marauding humanoids.

Soon after finding a way out of the Dwarven Dungeons, the heroes encountered an ancient elven seer Caalenfaire and his loyal floating skull Volun in the old dragon-shaped grand structure of the Speculum. The ancient creatures revealed to the heroes that they were the Veiled Ones, heroes whose future was clouded from the seer's sight and who were destined to free the City of Song from the Cult of the Dragon occupation. The diviner pointed the heroes towards several allies in the ruins who were destined to help them in the quest: Odelinde the Golden Serpent; spectral Dwarf Lord Harldain Ironbar, and the Sisters of Silver Fire and their ancient founder - Anorrweyn Evensong.

The Veiled Ones found Anorrweyn Evensong's spectral shrine to her goddess - Mystra and helped her return to full power, reuniting the elf's body with her stolen skull. For that quest, Faeril joined the group, anxious to help the priestess of her goddess. Anorrweyn pleaded with the heroes to restore the mythal, badly damaged by the clumsy magics of Kya Mordrayn. The only way to do it was to replace the Gem of the Weave, the magical focus and communication interface with the great mythal.

With the ghost's guidance, they traveled to the House of Gems and restored the ancient magical and mechanical water pumps, giving strength to the ghost of the Dwarf Lord Harldain Ironbar. Harldain's dwarves created the original gem used as the Gem of the Weave, and the ghostly lord found a worthy replacement - a giant emerald to become the new Gem of the Weave. The next stop was reaching the Protector of the mythal, the ancient baelnorn lich Miroden Silverblade. The lich claimed he destroyed the Gem of the Weave when he became aware of the corruption. However, that was untrue. Silverblade was ashamed of his foolishness. He gave the gem up to Kya Mordrayn, who convinced him that she wanted to restore Myth Drannor to its old glory. In order to heal the mythal, the Veiled Ones needed to confront the Cult, destroy the gem, and allow Anorrweyn Evensong to become the new guardian of the mythal.

Eventually, the Veiled Ones gained entrance to Castle Cormanthor with the help from a shaky alliance with Nathlilik Kilsek of the drow House Kilsek who were betrayed by the Cult of the Dragon and the drow of House Freth. Fighting off soulless drow, dragonkin, the cultists, and rescuing Athan, the Veiled Ones eventually reached the chamber of the pool of radiance. Kestrel faced the evil sorceress Kya Mordrayn and successfully summoned the disgraced baelnorn to destroy the corrupted gem of the weave in the Cult's possession. Miroden Silverblade sacrificed his unlife, destroying the gem, and in the process, incinerating the cultists, leaving Mordrayn alone to face the rogue. After a long and fierce spell battle, Kestrel used Borea's Blood to finish the sorceress off. Instead of dying, however, Kya Mordrayn was ragged to the lower planes by the creatures she made a pact with to reach her villainous goals. The fight was not over, as Pelendralaar arrived to aid his ally. The heroes fought tooth and claw, and eventually, with Corran D'Arcey's bravery, they destroyed the mighty undead dragon. Athan used the Gauntlets of Moander, claimed from the sorceress, to drain the pool of radiance and the heroes returned to the city of Phlan to help the Moonsea recover from the devastating event. Anorrweyn Evensong merged with the mythal, slowly fixing the corruption, and Faeril elected to stay behind, along with Beriand, to help with the priestess.

Members

 * Athan: the hero entrusted with the Gauntlets of Moander by Elminster and half-brother of Ghleanna Stormlake.
 * Bronwyn: an elven ranger guide of the members of the Sisterhood of Silver Fire who survived the dangers of the ruins and guided cleric Kellan to savery with the help from the Veiled Ones.
 * Corran D'Arcey: a young paladin of Tyr with rigid moral and poor tactical prowess. He assumed the initial de facto leadership role of the team only to prove himself incompetent.
 * Durwyn: a young city guardsman from Phlan.
 * Eadred: an ancient cursed military man from Myth Drannor who remained in magical stasis through centuries past the Weeping War. Eventually, he was returned to the cursed existence.
 * Emmeric: a fighter from Phlan who joined the Veiled Ones after being rescued from the Cult of the Dragon, only to perish shortly after in a battle with villainous wizards.
 * Faeril: a cleric of Mystra who accompanied the Veiled Ones through the ruins and aided them in the battle with the dracolich and the evil sorceress.
 * Ghleanna Stormlake: a half-elf sorceress and an apprentice of Elminster Aumar circa 1369 DR.
 * Jarial: an unlucky cursed sorcerer who was rescued by the Veiled Ones from being trapped in stone for several decades.
 * Kellan: a cleric of the Sisterhood of Silver Fire who survived their mission into the ruins of Myth Drannor after being summoned there by her goddess, Mystra.
 * Kestrel: a reluctant rogue hero and one of the leaders of the Veiled Ones circa 1369 DR.
 * Tudo: a young and lucky rogue treasure hunter and an ally of Nottle the hin trader.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * ''Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor
 * Adventures
 * Pool of Radiance: Attack on Myth Drannor
 * Video Games
 * Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor
 * Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor