Gumbril

Gumbril was a bumbling academic from the city of Waterdeep, active circa 1372 DR.

"Stop! I need more time to think...time to study this shrine! The choice is mine to make! Begone, all or you! Leave me in peace!"

- Savant Gumbril

Description
Gumbril was an old, learned, and embittered man with a groomed white mustache and a long beard. His back was permanently hunched from bending over ancient tomes his entire life, and his pale skin was aged like parchment. He wore a simple grey gown of a scholar and carried his papers, journals, and valuable possessions in a leather satchel.

Activities
Savant Gumbril penned a draft of the Uncovering Umgatlik book during his work on researching the lost "god." It was nothing more than a collection of notes and sketches that remained unpublished as of 1372 DR.

History
In the, Gumbril accidentally unearthed a crypt in the Crab's Claw Coast cliffs that he thought to be an ancient shrine. Despite evidence of otherwise, Gumbril convinced himself that the tomb was a shine to a lost ancient Netherese. In reality, the crypt was a prison of an ageless undead, a powerful Netherese lich, Umgatlik. The creature ran a cult and was worshiped as a wanna-be deity. Gumbril's desire to become a famous scholar depended on the excavation's successes as he promised to deliver the academy an ancient deity.

Secretly, Savant Gumbril's excavation team was infiltrated by Vetrixia Nightmaiden of Velsharoon, a cultist follower of the lich. She strove to open a gate to Umgatlik's planar prison in exchange for power and godly reward. To unleash the creature, Vetrixia received aid from the Hero of Daggerford, misleading the adventurer of her true intentions.

Within the crypt, Vetrixia Nightmaiden's true agenda was revealed. Even if the Hero refused to get involved, the cleric would've attempted to manipulate Savant Gumbril into doing her bidding through promises of ancient wisdom and academic success. However, a cleric of Kelemvor, Jared Deathstalker, was part of the expedition and tried and prevent the creature from escaping the prison.

Some said that the gate to the ancient prison was unsealed by performing a ritual, but Umgatlik was unable to step through the gate. And through magical enthrallment, the lich ordered Gumbril to join the ancient creature within the prison, knowing that the goodly heroes were to follow selflessly in, attempting to rescue the Savant.

Gumbril's final fate remained undocumented. However, if he were to have survived the experience, he would've been annoyed at the Hero and Jared Deathstalker for ruining his research into the "god" by either slaying the creature or sealing the prison.

Appearances

 * Video Games
 * Neverwinter Nights: Darkness over Daggerford