Lanseril Snowmantle

Lanseril Snowmantle was a druid and a member of the Knights of Myth Drannor.

Description
Lanseril was tall. He had dark hair, delicate features, and blue eyes. He was ambidextrous. And he typically wore simple robes.

Personality
He was generally friendly, but could sometimes come across as condescending. He was known to have a somewhat bad aim and had sometimes hit friendly folks with magical lightning. But he was also very diplomatic, a good field strategist, and rarely forgot anything.

Lanseril bitterly hated wolves.

Abilities
Lanseril was capable of casting the spells animal friendship, call lightning, call woodland beings, charm person or mammal, cure light wounds, entangle, faerie fire, goodberry, heat metal, know alignment, locate animals or plants, neutralize poison, pass plant, plant door, summon insects, transmute rock to mud, tree, trip, warp wood, and water walk.

Thanks to his druidic powers, Lanseril could also shapechange into the form of other animals, such as sparrows and eagles. And he could pass without trace through overgrown areas.

Beyond his druidic powers, Lanseril was proficient in identifying fungi and training badgers.

Possessions
Lanseril possessed an enchanted circlet called the firecrown, which he had obtained during one of his adventures, as well as a scimitar and quarterstaff.

History
He was born in the tiny village of Snowmantle. His father was Raunaeril, one of the "lost" elves of the Border Forest. One day in his youth he met and played tag with a green-clad elven stranger in the woods, whom others believed may have been the elven deity Rilifane. When his father angrily approached, the man turned into a mighty oak that vanished a week later.

At the age of six, Lanseril's father and mother were killed by raiders from the Citadel of the Raven. He was taken in and taught the ways of druids by Haemfaest Sarthun. He learned from him the worship of Silvanus, whom the young Lanseril considered to be more believable than Rilifane. A year later, on a cold winter night, Haemfaest was killed by a pack of ravenous wolves who then chased after Lanseril, leading him to flee southwards through the wilds to Highmoon in Deepingdale.

There, Lanseril found work as a runner, errand boy, and animal keeper for the local merchant Braun. Lanseril faithfully served Braun for twelve years, during which time he witnessed many of the local businesses and roads, but all that time Braun's younger cousin saw fit to make him miserable. Then one day Briadorn, a ranger of the Circle of Shadowdale, witnessed him tending to an injured hare with herbs and offered to take Lanseril with him to Shadowdale.

Accepting the man's offer, Lanseril moved to Shadowdale and went on to become a stalwart of the Knights of Myth Drannor. He proved himself to be a master in diplomacy and strategy, as well as the possessor of a phenomenal memory. In 1350 DR, Lanseril and the Knights attacked the Flaming Tower alongside a group of treants, destroying the structure and laying claim to the firecrown that had belonged to a resident fire giant.

Later in 1357 DR, Lanseril participated in the first battle of Shadowdale and played an instrumental role in defeating Zhentil Keep's reinforcements by casting the spell insect plague.

Around 1369 DR, after hearing that his home village had been conquered by the Zhentarim he petitioned both the Knights of Myth Drannor and the Harpers to aid him in driving the Zhents out. Finding that both groups were too preoccupied to help him, Lanseril became even more determined. He took a leave of absence from the Knights, marched off into the Border Forest by himself, and began rallying the woodland's creatures and druids to aid him in liberating Snowmantle from the Zhentarim. Barring that, he sought to slow their logging operations until his fellow knights could arrive. The first several weeks were successful for Lanseril, but eventually the Zhents sent in a special group of mages that killed many of his druid allies and captured him.

The Zhent forces drag Lanseril back to Snowmantle and trapped him within a new prison there. Knowing it would be easy for him to escape with his shapechanging powers, the Zhents warned him that they would kill five slaves upon discovery of his escape and would then go on to execute more with each passing hour that he was absent, beginning with his closest friends.

Relationships
Lanseril was a companion of Florin Falconhand and Jhessail Silvertree. During his time liberating the village of Snowmantle, he was friends with a badger by the name of Lawrence.

Background
Lanseril Snowmantle was originally created by a man named Ian Hunter as his player character in the home campaigns that helped Ed Greenwood to shape the Forgotten Realms.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Felled Hopes