Pavel Shemov

Pavel Shemov was a cleric of Lathander who traveled with Dorn Graybrook, the song dragon Karasendrieth, and the vampiric smoke drake Brimstone during the Year of Rogue Dragons, 1373 DR. He fought against Sammaster and died freeing the Dracorage mythal from the lich's influence.

Description
He was lanky and blond, handsome and with brown eyes. By 1373 DR he had grown tawny. .

Personality
As an initiate, he was well aware of how unproven his abilities were. Nonetheless, he was willing to go to great lengths to repay anyone's kindness, even that of gang members, and in more dire moments, he turned out to be confident enough in his reasoning that he was willing to take extreme measures, even going so far as to threaten a lawman while in chains himself.

He liked playing cards anywhere. .

Abilities
Pavel's observance, intuition, education, and grit were superlative even as a novice.

He used his strongest healing spell to heal Kara on Hammer 16,. . Pavel also knew spells akin to bless, shield of faith, and silence. As of that time, he was not capable of casting a spell akin to flame strike. . He could enspell objects with a spell very similar to daylight. . He could also cast a spell akin to remove paralysis. . He could also cast neutralize poison; his spell also removed inebriation. He also had a spell that informed him when someone dissembled, almost certainly detect lies. He also employed a spell that made targets heed short commands, akin to command.

Pavel could somehow cast crimson whip of Bane. Pavel had become capable of turning away Brimstone by Eleint 25. Lastly, he had grown adroit at undressing women.

Equipment
Though originally he wore the red and yellow vestments of a priest, Pavel had replaced all of his accoutrements by sturdy wool and leather garments by, keeping only his holy symbol of Lathander. .

Pavel fought with a mace and divine spells.

Relationships
During their shared journey, Pavel and Brimstone often butted heads because of the former's distaste and distrust for the latter's status as an undead thing.

He had a play-feud with Will Turnstone. .

History
Pavel Shemov was once a novice at the Temple of the Dawn in Heliogabalus. He made an acquaintance of Kosef Demsk one summer night while playing cards at Rat's End; the gangster interceded in his behalf after the novice was accused of cheating. Before two summers had passed, he witnessed the seizing of Kosef Demsk from his residence at the Boot and Whistle tavern, and he became involved in the investigation after Tara Darag, an associate of Kosef, asked him to look into it. Kosef stood accused of the murder of Mivar Greyman, a jeweler; his signature blade was found still struck inside the corpser.

Encouraged by Tana darag, he briefly interviewed Quendar Horn and dor Stavask, both of them companions of Kosef, then impersonated a priest to talk to Kosef himself. When talking to the gangster, he learned that the blade he thought he kept evaporated just as the guards arrived. From there, he reasoned that one of the guards had spoken the words to end the spell; quickly, he honed in on Iref Marsk, a guard who had taken part of the raid, after noticing that he had been spending lavishly recently. Before they could interrogate him, Iref Marsk was slain by a barghest that attempted to kill Pavel and Tana too. He reasoned the barghest meant that the summoner could only be dor Stavask, as a barghest would not have answered Quendar's summoning.

Tana and he slew Stavask and accidentally burned down his home while sneaking inside, destroying all the evidence; however, when Glar only threatened him instead of indicting him, he realized Glar was a co-conspirator, and threatened to call upon his superiors in the temple to ask him point-blank with truth-detecting spells during the trial. Glar relented of killing Kosef once so-threatened.

On Hammer 23, after hunting an ooze drake Dorn Graybrook and his party learned of a flight of dragons rising to attack Ylraphon. . By early Hammer 24, the town had been razed, and his band agreed to accompany Kara to Lyrabar in a ship. Along the way, they spotted signs of another flight of dragons, and began suspecting a full-blown Rage of dragons. Further evidence mounted as they spotted more destroyed coastal settlements; during the trip, they were approached by a flight of silver dragons, the first ones Dorn's band had ever seen. The two dragons, Moonwing and Azhaq, were looking for Kara, who they explained, was actually a song dragon named Karasendrieth, whom they intended to take back with them. Dorn struck at the dragons rather than yield Karasendrieth; though the ensuing fight led to two casualties amongst the crew, Dorn's team ultimately prevailed. Kara afterwards explained that a Rage was underway, and the gold dragon king Lareth expected it to be one of the worst; the party, against Graybrook's instincts, chose to aid Kara in finding Helder Gorstag in Lyrabar.

In Lyrabar, Will and Pavel consulted Gorstag Helder's landlady, Mureene, about him. After bribing and threatening her, they learned that his room was ransacked by the Cult of the Dragon and then by Mureene herself; Pavel determined, and Mureene confirmed, that Gorstag was taking instruction as a swordsman. This led them to Taegan Nightwind.

The whole party met with Brimstone at his lair, learning he was a smoke drake. After a brief battle with Brimstone, who was possessed by Sammaster's notes while trying to read them, the vampiric wyrm bade them to attack the Cult of the Dragon and find clues; over Dorn's opposition, the party agreed. . On the evening of Ches 14, the party protected Taegan Nightwind, who set himself out as bait for the Cult by pretending to be drowning his sorrows in too much alcohol. They afterwards interrogated one of the cultists that they captured, learning that the cult hid in a dungeon beneath a tannery. After a fight, they captured the Wearer of Purple Cylla Morieth and managed to learn of Sammaster's plans for the Rage.

Taegan Nightwind agreed to petition Queen Sambryl to send warriors to fight the Cult of the Dragon close to Lyrabar, to which she ultimately agreed. Dorn, Kara, and the others instead left for Elmwood, which they found to be under Zhentarim occupation. After the fight, they joined Thoyanna Jorgadaul and other authorities from town in a small grove to which a small bird led them. There, after learning of the Zhentarim activities through the area, they decided to break their control over the town, blaming dragons for any damage. During their following raid, Dorn managed to secure a craft. They took the craft to Thentia, and then to Northkeep, where they were joined by Chatulio. After a battle against Sammaster's guardians, Dorn pleaded with the ghosts to allow his company to search the ruins. Surprisingly, he was heard out. After days of searching, they finally located a number of reliefs that showed the origins of the Rage.

Pavel and Will traveled to Hulburg on their own, arriving on Mirtul 1. There, they were attacked while at sea, and later learned that the Zhentarim were using a trapped emerald dragon, Vercevoran, as part of a network to monitor the Moonsea. Later they released Vercevoran, who rewarded them the next day by telling them about the King-Killer Star.

On Mirtul 19, Pavel Shemov and Will Turnstone came across the war party of Yagoth One-Eye, who were still injured from fighting a wyrm. . They made contact a week later, in Mirtul 25, after helping them fight off a dragon. Yagoth ultimately agreed to guide Will and Pavel to a ruin he knew of.

On Kythorn 2, Pavel, Will, Yagoth, and the latter's forces arrived at the ruined temple to Vaprak of the Claws; they sought to search through the ruin. After a fight against some squamous spewers, Yagoth double-crossed his guests and captured Pavel; Will managed to escape. Pavel was kept captive by Yagoth, who tried to get him to find something he could personally use in the tablets kept within the ruined temple; though he ran out of tablets by Kythorn 6, the ogre kept him alive and bade him continue for good measure. He also broke Pavel's leg and splinted it wrong, using magic to keep him hobbled, as well as prevented him from regaining spells every dawn since his capture. Meanwhile, Will, who was in no condition to fight, lured a flight of green dragons to the temple in order to create a distraction. He was able to slay Yagoth and free Pavel shortly afterwards.

On Kythorn 15, Pavel and Will were retrieved from Thar by Brimstone, who bore them to Damara; the drake had learned of King Dragonsbane's state, and meant to counter it so that Kara and Dorn were able to retrieve lore from the country unimpeded. However, Pavel made a note of the amulet which Brimstone bore, considering it was likely what allowed it to stray far from its hoard. On Kythorn 25, Pavel and Will, together with Pavel's old master, Patriarch Kovor Gemetsk, met with queen Christine Dragonsbane to propose them Brimstone's plan. The next evening, Brimstone brought them, alongside a number of Dragonsbane's men, to the Plane of Shadow, to break the curse on Dragonsbane. Though Brimstone knew the curse, he needed Pavel's aid to break it in the end.

By Midsummer, the party had returned to Thentia, where considerable progress had been made in decoding Sammaster's notes.

On Eleint 12, Taegan and Jivex had rejoined Dorn's party, and taken to exploring the steppes of ancient Narfell, following Sammaster's explorations. Despite carrying a token of Gareth Dragonsbane's favor, they were attacked by a Far Quey raiding party. Kara attempted to lure in the Nars for a friendly talk, but they attacked when Brimstone attacked them, unbeknownst to her; they broke off after Pavel rescued their captain. Afrer the conversation with the Nars, they learned of the Hermit. After a battle, the Hermit related upon Dorn's party that it had realized, during the first Rage, that the elves had built a citadel in Novularond, but knew little beyond that.

Raryn rescued Joylin from the tirichiks on Marpenoth 14; later, they went to Raryn's home village. There, his brother Wurik poisoned all of them; when the Queen's servants arrived, they slew Wurik for trying to hide his brother Raryn. On 17 Marpenoth, Iyraclea charmed Pavel and, though she was trying to learn of Sammaster and the rage, she almost killed him; he narrowly broke free, and she explained her interest in the Rage.

On 27 Marpenoth, Pavel's party, pushed by Iyraclea, arrived at a citadel in Novularond. Later that night, Zethrindor arrived with Brimstone, and attacked Iyraclea, considering she had broken faith with Sammaster. Through the battle, one of Zethrindor's spells appeared to annihilate Karasendrieth and Pavel had to talk Dorn out of a suicide attack against the dragon; instead, they escaped in the commotion. Some time after the victory, Zethrindor ordered his forces to find and retrieve Dorn's party. Though an ice wyrm came after them, they managed to narrowly defeat it.

On 8 Uktar, after nearly sneaking out in the morning, dorn noticed several people in white clothes attempt to ambush his comrades in their sleep. Those were warriors of Sossal; dorn stopped them long enough for Pavel to defuse the situation. On Uktar 16, Zethrindor maneuvered his dragons to block Stival Chergoba's forces from joining Madislak Pemsk's, and pincer the latter's, after Stival Chergoba's group ran into his main force.

On Uktar 17, Pavel got up to a meal of lentils and beef stock soup, after having slept through most of the day because of the previous day's forced march, by which they managed to successfully reach Madislak Pemsk's group ahead of Zethrindor's army. during the fighting, Will Turnstone had an idea, and with Jivex's help, he reached the enemy commanders under Zethrindor and informed them that Iyraclea had been killed by Zethrindor. Zethrindor, upon noticing, decided to confirm it. The dracolich accepted a challenge from Will Turnstone to fight dorn's party and Madislak Pemsk, wagering that the losing party's army would surrender, advised that if he chose to forfeit the challenge, he would look weak.

Ultimately, albeit Zethrindor slew Madislak Pemsk, and may have slain dorn's group, the ice giants in his army struck at him, sensing weakness, and destroyed him; even the dragons in his army chose to flee after his death. Stival Chergoba discovered that Natali, who'd been injured during the fight, had actually survived. Zethrindor's body was burned through the night; per Pavel Shemov, he was not likely to have cached bodies to inhabit after death.

dorn and his party returned just in time for their meeting on the Feast of the Moon. The meeting was attended by a number of dragons, including Nexus, Tamarand, Azhaq, Moonwing, LLimark, Wardancer, Vingdavalac, and the Talons of Justice, amongst other dragons, and the wizards of Thentia, amongst them Firefingers, Scattercloak, darvin Kordeion, Sureene Aumratha, Baerimel, and Jannatha Goldenshield. With no other ideas, the metallic dragons and the wizards of Thentia attempted a Grand divination; the ritual failed, instead leading to the death of Moonwing. Pavel Shemov finally proposed attempting to use Brimstone's hoard near Lyrabar as a focus for contacting Brimstone's necklace and Brimstone himself, under the assumption the drake had made it through the gate.

Kara finally lost her battle to Sammaster's rage on 5 Nightal, when she attacked her companions for trying to stop her from suicidally striking at the tarterian wyrms in the valley, believing she'd kill them if she didn't kill herself. Brimstone decided to stop her, kill her, and slake his thirst by drinking her blood. They were stopped by the sudden arrival of the tarterians, and then by the metallic wyrms that had teleported themselves through Brimstone's hoard in Lyrabar. After defeating the tarterians, the dragons and mages there managed to break through Sammaster's ward.

On 6 Uktar, Sammaster called upon pacts with a number of wyrms from other planes to defend the dracorage mythal. In the middle of the battle, Pavel led the majority of the non-dragons into the fortress, to try and break the Rage while Sammaster was still occupied. Taegan Nightwind and Jivex joined them afterwards when they decided to block off a howling dragon from pursuing them into the fortress.

Per Pavel Shemov, Sammaster's modification of the mythal was based on channeling abyssal force through his own phylactery to feed the dracorage. That would make it difficult to damage the mythal through the original counterspell, but it would also render it vulnerable to a cleric's ability to turn undead. The mythal's protections had also been augmented with wards that created tumors within intruders who got too close, and caused extensive bleeding, as well as deal numerous kinds of damage. Pavel managed to break the mythal after five tries. Though he managed to destroy the phylactery, he sustained fatal wounds in the process.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * The Year of Rogue Dragons (The Rage • The Rite • The Ruin)
 * Short Stories
 * Realms of the Dragons: The Prisoner of Hulburg • The Silverfish