Will Turnstone

Will Turnstone was a halfling scout and a companion of Dorn Graybrook during the Rage of Dragons of 1373 DR.

Description
He was handsome, with black lovelocks and a heart-shaped face. He often wore leather armor.

Personality
Though he took pride in his wits, Will had a streak of decency that ultimately made him ill-suited to the life of a thief. He didn't care for manual labor, and rather favored stealth and cunning, not being all that averse to violence.

He was able to appreciate comforts, and not as keen on dragon hunting as his partners.

He did not speak Draconic.

Equipment
Will Turnstone employed a hornblade weapon in battle. He wore calfskin gloves.

History
Originally from Saerloon in Sembia, Will was raised by his aunt after his parents died from a fever. In spite of her best efforts, he slowly joined the local underworld, though he did not become a full-fledged thug until she died, joining the Night Knives. After joining, he became dissatisfied because of their ruthlessness, viciousness, and violence; he ultimately broke with the Night Knives after they kidnapped a human baby, threatening to hack the child to pieces if the ransom was not paid; when his parents explained they were not that rich, the ransom was doubled. Though Will returned the baby, he was forced to kill fellow guild members in the process, and fled Saerloon shortly after for the city-states of the north, around the Moonsea. He joined with a band of dragonslayers at some point afterwards.

On Hammer 23, after hunting an ooze drake that broke his sword, 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.

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.

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, Dorn's party had reformed in 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 they reached the Hermit and fought him, he 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.

On 27 Marpenoth, after being captured by Raryn's family, who had poisoned the party for Iyraclea, Will's party arrived at a citadel in Novularond. Later that night, Zethrindor arrived with Brimstone, and attacked Iyraclea, considering she had broken faith with Sammaster. The fight ended after Zethrindor's spell appeared to annihilate Karasendrieth; Dorn had to be talked out of a suicide attack against the dragon, instead, escaping 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.

In 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; dornº 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, after a long forced march, by which they managed to successfully reach Madislak Pemsk's group ahead of Zethrindor's army, Will fought alongside Stival Chergoba's forces. After the battle began, Will and dorn fought a tundra landwyrm, which had been augmented with accellerated burrowing.

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. Zethrindor 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.

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. By Nightal 5, they managed to cross over to the dracorage mythal, fighting the tarterian guardians. After defeating the tarterians, the dragons and mages there managed to break through Sammaster's ward.

On 6 Uktar, Sammaster teleported to the mythal and 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, including Will, into the fortress, to try and break the Rage while Sammaster was still occupied. They fought the guardians to buy time for Pavel to break the wards; Pavel managed to break the mythal after five tries. Though he managed to destroy the phylactery, he sustained fatal wounds in the process.

After the fight, when Kara finally paid them, Will Turnstone decided to donate his share to a temple of Lathander.

Appearances

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