Dark Army of the Night

The Dark Army of the Night was a cult dedicated to Shar, goddess of the night, and part of the Church of Shar in Waterdeep. Based in Vanrakdoom in Undermountain, they serve the death knight Lord Vanrak Moonstar.

History
The Dark Army of the Night had its shadowy beginnings in the noble House Moonstar of Waterdeep. When Lord Vanrak Moonstar, a minor noble and explorer, returned from an expedition to the Black Jungles of Tashalar in the, only a tenday later his father was killed by a mysterious, incurable wasting disease. Vanrak, his body and mind apparently weakened by his arduous travels, was overcome with grief and bitterness and blamed the priests of Selûne from the High House of Stars for his father's death. When he assumed leadership of House Moonstar, he publicly split from the church. Engrossed in his grief, Vanrak was an easy convert to Shar's faith, which he practiced in secret.

Meanwhile, Vanrak assumed leadership of House Moonstar and quietly started converting family members and servants. Twenty-six years later, the family was openly divided, between those who followed Shar and Lord Vanrak and those who followed Selûne and Lady Alathene, his sister. Now known as the Dark Ranger, Vanrak organized a small mercenary army led by Sharran priests, which he used to terrorize and take control of Waterdeep's harbor, committing many heinous crimes, from theft and arson to slavery and murder.

Meanwhile, Alathene took refuge, with the rest of her Selûne-worshiping family, in the High House of Stars. In the, on the night of the seventh full moon, she petitioned the Lords of Waterdeep to strip her brother of his title and banish him, providing evidence of his crimes. They ordered Vanrak's immediate arrest, but when the City Watch went to the Moonstars' villa to apprehend him, he was gone. Unbeknownst to them, Vanrak had caught wind of their plan and taken his followers through a secret portal to Undermountain. The Moonstars apparently asked a family friend, the bronze dragon Glyster, to find Vanrak and bring him back. Glyster instead tried to convince Vanrak renounce Shar, but failed and succumbed to despair himself. He allowed the Sharran priests to transform him into a shadow dragon named Umbraxakar.

Over the following four decades, Vanrak and his followers explored Undermountain and finally, in the, they conquered an area they could turn into a well-defended base. They called it Vanrakdoom after their dark master, and from here they extended their reach across Undermountain. The Dark Army even sent assassins and warriors to attack Selûnite targets on the surface whilst Vanrak consolidated his power base below and pursued his personal goal of immortality.

Eleven years after that, in the, the Dark Army scored its greatest victory to date, managing to infiltrate the High House of Stars via its cellars, kill its inhabitants, and burn it to the ground with darkfire. The loot that they plundered was enough to fund Vanrak's ascension to a death knight. Afterward, the Lords of Waterdeep regularly dispatched adventurers into Undermountain after Vanrak and his followers, while Halaster Blackcloak, master of Undermountain, occasionally directed its denizens to enter Vanrakdoom. They never succeeded and never broke the cult or the temple, but they did keep their numbers down and their attention off the city.

Thus, the Dark Army wasn't nearly as successful since, with all their major plots against Selûne's faithful being foiled. The High House of Stars was rebuilt as the House of the Moon—the Dark Army of the Night tried to consign it to the same fate on the Night of Temple Fires, but were thwarted by the Selûnites. Nevertheless, Vanrakdoom itself remained secure.

During the Time of Troubles of 1358 DR, a false avatar of Selûne appeared in Waterdeep. She was invited to a party at Castle Waterdeep, but a trio of the Dark Army broke in, intent on kidnapping her. Lord Piergeiron confronted them and the City Guard gave battle. The Dark Army unleashed darkness, which Khelben dispelled with light, made blindingly bright by the effects of the Troubles. Unhindered, the Dark Army kidnapped the avatar, but she stole their rope and apprehended them with a bind spell, and they were taken into custody by the Guard. Ironically, the avatar was not Selûne at all, but Shar herself in disguise to subvert her rival's church better than the Dark Army ever could, before Selûne herself defeated her in divine battle. In the aftermath, the faithful of Shar were driven from the city and back to Vanrakdoom.

By 1375 DR, in Undermountain, the Dark Army had already clashed with local drow and the Ch'Chitl mind flayers, and conflict with the beholders Xaungraul and Misker and their respective groups seemed inevitable.

At some point, with their numbers diminished, the last few Sharran priests conducted rituals fueled by the despair of Umbraxakar in order to transport Vanrakdoom into the Shadowfell. This too failed, for Halaster's grip on Undermountain was too tight, and only a small portion was transferred. Consumed by these failures and personal losses, Vanrak despaired and lost his faith once more, and finally destroyed himself with a sun blade in the.

Thereafter, the vampire cleric Keresta Delvingstone, a protégé of Vanrak, reigned over the debased cult and shrunken Vanrakroom.

Vanrak's Cult
The Dark Army of the Night were a sizeable community, with total numbers ranging from 112 in 1372 DR to 330 members in 1375 DR. The humanoid members were mostly human, half-drow, and half-orc, with a few halflings, elves, and others. They consisted of clerics of Shar, as well as rogues, sorcerers, wizards, monks, and fighters. The priesthood were largely clerics, of course, but no divine magic-user was excluded. The elite members were usually of paths that revolved around shadow, such as nightcloaks, shadowdancers, and shadow adepts.

Their ranks and numbers circa 1375 were as follows: At the head, of course, was Lord Vanrak Moonstar, the Dark Ranger, a nightcloak and death knight. At this side was his personal steed and guardian of the temple, the shadow dragon Umbraxakar. In the late 15 century, Keresta Delvingstone, cleric and vampire, reigned over the cult and Vanrakroom.
 * 40 Acolytes of the Night, low-ranking female clerics;
 * 40 Adepts of the Night, low-ranking male clerics;
 * 20 Watchers, clerics turned nightcloaks;
 * 43 Shadowstalkers, rogues;
 * 10 Hands of Shar, rogues turned shadowdancers;
 * 40 Shadow Guard, fighters who defended the priests;
 * 43 Darkweavers, sorcerers who supported guard patrols and worked within and away from the temple for weeks or months at a time;
 * 8 Shadow Adepts, sorcerers turned shadow adepts who commanded the Darkweavers; and
 * 3 Darkladies (two cleric/nightcloaks and one sorcrerer/shadow adept) and 2 Darklords (one cleric/nightcloak and one rogue/shadowdancer), who led and managed the church.

The Dark Army also had control of many monsters native to the Shadow Plane, like nightwalkers and nightshades, and a pack of twelve shadow mastiffs led by a shadurakul. By 1375 DR, their ranks had swelled with the addition of eighty krinth refugees from Thultanthar. The Dark Army also had fourteen zombie ogres to work their forge, and a blackstone gigant that could animate statues for defense of the temple.

Members were required to be true believers in Shar, to be studied in religion and to demonstrate their knowledge of the church's teachings. While the Dark Army cost nothing to join, members were expected to donate 25 gp each month, and furthermore contribute an item, whether ordinary or magical, valued at 50 gp or more each month. While a more valuable gift would cover multiple months, they needed to give something new each year.

Keresta's Cult
In the late 1400s DR, the cult was much in decline, now comprising mostly vampire spawn controlled by Keresta herself. The occasional living Sharran who found their way to Vanrakdoom was taken and tested: those deemed most worthy were turned into vampire spawn, while the rest were drained of blood and fed to Umbraxakar.

Training
The Dark Army declared they were servants in body and soul to Shar. They trained to fight without needing to see, whether in darkness or when blinded. They moved with stealth, like the night. On rare occasions, members could call on Shar to let their eyes pierce the darkness, bestowing darkvision to for ten minutes, or blindsight to  for one minute if they already had it.

Clergy were usually initiated into the deeper secrets of the church of Shar, learning the arts of deception and stealth as well as the spells disguise self, crushing despair, armor of darkness, and darkbolt.

Members were typically skilled in disguise, had good hearing, and were knowledgeable in magic, religion, and spells.

Base of Operations
They operated out of the area known as Vanrakdoom, lying in the Dark Levels of Undermountain. It was a sprawling but very defensible redoubt, shrouded in shadow and guarded by creatures out of the Plane of Shadow.

Activities
At the best of Vanrak Moonstar, the Dark Army of the Night worked toward nothing less than the death of the goddess Selûne herself. In the mean time, however, they settled for trying to destroy the church of Selûne and the House of the Moon, as well as their relatives in House Moonstar, and for trying to dominate the city of Waterdeep.

In the mid-1370s DR, they were working to increase their influence in the city and to increases their numbers in their base ahead of any attack. Vankrak in particular sought to recruit more krinth. The Darkweavers monitored the Farm Level and Maze Level of Undermountain, and led attacks on those who looked like threats or good sources of loot, magic, or slaves.

Around 1492 DR, under Keresta Delvingstone, the cult still focused its ire on the House of the Moonstar, but now aimed to destroy the Spires of the Morning, the Waterdhavian temple of Lathander.

Description
The three members who invaded Castle Waterdeep in 1358 DR carried longswords and wore black pants, boots, bandannas, and belts crossing their bare chests and arms. They painted their faces with black vertical stripes over their eyes and on their chins.

Notable Members

 * Lord Vanrak Moonstar, the Dark Ranger, leader of the Dark Army of the Night
 * Keresta Delvingstone, vampire and cleric
 * Gathgaer Milomynt, a slaver posing as a healer in Waterdeep

Background
The name "Dark Army of the Night" is first given in the 1990 comic "Dark of the Moon". There, it might only refer to the three Sharrans who try to kidnap the false avatar of Selûne. However, the term was revived in City of Splendors: Waterdeep (2005) and then reprinted in the "Vanrakdoom" web enhancement for Champions of Ruin, where the Dark Army of the Night are said to be behind the 1345 attempted arson, but the name is mentioned nowhere else. Instead, the texts largely discuss the church of Shar within Waterdeep. Thus, it still could be the case that the Dark Army of the Night are a separate Sharran order or a subgroup of the Waterdhavian Sharran church. Nevertheless, they are stated to be followers of Vanrak, for whom no other name is known, so it is adopted here.

Appearances

 * Comics
 * Dark of the Moon
 * Adventures
 * Vanrakdoom
 * Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage