Sultlue

The Sultlue clan were members of the nobility of Waterdeep in the mid-to-late 14 century DR. Their primary legitimate interests were in horse breeding, mercenary work, and trading. Unlike the other noble houses in the City of Splendors, the Sultlues never gave up trading in slaves, managing to keep this and other depraved practices behind a facade of normalcy for centuries. Many of the clan had yuan-ti blood in their veins but did not have any unusual physical features that revealed their heritage.

Organization
The ostensible patriarch of the family, from at least the, to at least the , was Lord Asbrior Sultlue (nicknamed "The Serpent"). His most recent consort was Lady Pera, and his heir was his eldest son, Asbrior II (nicknamed "The Asp"). However, an ancient master yuan-ti pureblood, Sylsinssath Sultlue, resided in the family crypt in the City of the Dead. Sylsinssath was well over a century old in 1372 DR, but he was asleep for great lengths of time. As of this date, the family had seventeen living noble members, not all of whom could be considered completely sane.

There were two factions inside the family—one that maintained a willful ignorance of the shady deeds and depravities of the other. Lord Asbrior, his consort Pera, their daughter Taszeana, and two of their five sons all turned a blind eye toward the scurrilous activities of the rest of the clan, spearheaded by Asbrior's uncles, Darrambur and Pelmaer, and his aunt Jaszmaeril. The entire family considered themselves above the law and were known to hold grudges and be prone to irrational hatred.

Activities
The Sultlues did not mearly traffic in slaves, they also experimented on them with poisons, drugs, and scents to develop more potent wares to sell in their trading business. The mistreatment of captured humanoids did not stop there. Slaves that might be recognized were often transformed into beasts of burden and sold for use or for food. For the right price, the Sultlues would polymorph someone into an exact replica of a hated rival or an object of desire for a client to abuse as they wished. Likewise, a duplicate body could be used as convincing evidence to frame someone for various crimes. They even turned slaves into living bombs, placing bags of nails inside their bodies and magically detonating them from a distance. At the top of the long list of perversions, the Sultlues practiced cannibalism, and took particular delight in serving this vile fare to unsuspecting honored guests.

Base of Operations
The Sultlues made their home in a large walled compound of two-story buildings located in the North Ward, fronting on Vondil Street and spanning from Shield Street to Copper Street. To the east, across Copper Street, was the Cragsmere villa, and to the southwest, across Shield Street was the Manthar family compound.

Sylsinssath Sultlue and a number of tainted ones resided in the Sultlue family crypt, located in the City of the Dead. The Sultlue vault was the first major structure south of the Andamaar's Street entrance.