Khonduil Ammargath

Willing Hand of the Lady Khonduil Ammargath was a thief turned cleric of Tymora, a former adventurer, and the Keeper of the shrine of Tymora in the village of Maskyr's Eye in the Vast in the mid–14 century DR.

History
In his younger days, Khonduil attached himself to the effort of the retired adventurer Gathen Swiftsword to break into the abandoned mage's tower known as Maskyr's Tower. Gathen had ridden to Mulmaster and returned to Maskyr's Vale with a 30-strong crew of hired 'strongarm' laborers whom he ordered to simply tunnel through the walls with bars, hammers, and picks. After two days of effort, they'd made one breach and almost had a second. The Swiftsword donned his old armor and collected his old weapons, and headed inside. Khonduil followed close behind Gathen, going unseen thanks to a potion of invisibility. It would save his life too. In an upper level, Gathen encountered a gargoyle-like guardian monster that proceeded to rip his arms and legs off. Khonduil used the distraction to creep by and he claimed a wizard's staff and a wand. As the guardian finished with Gathen and began to hunt for new prey, Khonduil pointed the wand and spoke the command word conveniently inscribed on its handle. The guardian enlarged and changed, transforming into a mighty dragon so massive the tower exploded around it, causing stones to rain down around the site at the start of dusk of that day. With a triumphant roar, the dragon spread wings as wide as the tower was high, and flew off to the north as the tower collapsed. Witnesses disagreed on its kind, on whether its scales were brassy, or green, or white, or even like electrum. Whatever it was, Khonduil would believe it to be the thing's true form.

Soon after the collapse, the Mulmasterite laborers began to turn over the stones, but when they heard digging noises coming from underground, noises that gradually got louder, most of them lost what was left of their nerves and fled. The remainder started to excavate and discovered a deep shaft; finding it held water, they decided it was simply a well. Meanwhile, Khonduil had survived his fall from the falling tower. He lost the wand, but kept hold of the staff. At some point, when he recovered, the tower was gone and the surprised strongarms were in their camp, so he crept away to seek his fortune some place much more peaceful.

Heading west, Khonduil operated as an acrobatic thief in the Western Heartlands, in the cities of Iriaebor and Scornubel and beyond. But a terrible misfortune brought his thieving career to a sudden close. In Iriaebor, City of a Thousand Spires, Khonduil was making his escape from a theft by climbing hand-over-hand across a rope strung between two towers in its wealthiest district, with a heavy bag of coins slung over his back. But a guard spotted him and fired a crossbow, with the bolt going through Khonduil's forearm and breaking the bone. Losing his grip, Khonduil had a long drop down into a courtyard; his leg broke his fall, and the bag of coins broke his leg. Badly injured, Khonduil abandoned the loot and desperately crawled and dragged himself away from the scene, lest he be captured and killed. He escaped into a nearby canal, and had to swim to safety, ignoring the agony.

Afterward, Khonduil had little time to rest and heal properly, leaving his leg badly twisted. Crippled by his injuries, Khonduil could no longer work as a thief, at least not one of his talents. Thus, he headed back to Maskyr's Eye and became a priest and Keeper of the shrine, devoting himself to Tymora, the goddess of luck, after it seemed his had run out.

Once, when bandits tried to rob the shrine, Khonduil defended it with an unexpected fireball.

Description
Once quite athletic, Khonduil's injury left his right leg twisted and forced him to use a staff to hobble around in his well-worn and floppy boots. In old age, he was frail and had a beard.

Personality
Even in his twilight years, he remained lively and of good nature. He made jokes and enjoyed stories of adventure.

Abilities
As well as being a cleric, Khonduil was known by the folk of Maskyr's Eye to possess magical powers of some kind, after the incident with the fireball, but none knew the source.

Home
The shrine of Tymora stood atop a wooded knoll rising beside the road little to the north of the vale. Behind it stood a hard-packed dirt-floored one-room hut that served as the Keeper's home.

Possessions
He lived a rather frugal existence—as well as spare robes, his hut furnished was with only a cot, a wooden bowl, a large covered water bowl, and strongbox holding bread and cheese. He also had an iron coffer in which went the offerings to Tymora; a typical amount was 26 gold pieces, 12 silver pieces, and 10 copper pieces. Of this, he took just enough for food, and left the rest to be collected by a priest from the Gate of Good Fortune temple in Mulmaster, Dzurdan Crommarch, every two tendays.

Yet the ex-thief had some treasures stashed away quite securely. Buried under the dirt floor he had a lead-lined coffin, which held 300 gp in three bags and a small coffer containing twelve rubies each valued at an amazing 5,000 gp, and no less than the wizard's staff of Maskyr won all those years ago.

This was a staff of power with but eleven charges remaining. Although not a wizard, Khonduil used a little-known and little-understood technique to magically link himself to it, in a process familiar to just a few knowledgeable priests, mages, and sages. It had required a few drops of his blood and a matched pair of enchanted cords, with one tied around the staff and the other around his right ankle, where it was concealed under this boot; removing either cord would break the link and cause both to disintegrate. By this means, Khonduil could wield some of the buried staff's powers just like a wizard would with it in hand, without command words or somatic components, every couple of minutes. He could cast its spells, using up its charges as normal, but could not use its smiting or retributive strike powers.

The existence of the staff was a secret to all, even the Maskyrians who'd seen him fling a fireball, but the rogue wizard Ssuntyr suspected Khonduil knew of or was linked to Maskyr's magic. Nevertheless, Khonduil would give the staff to anyone who could fully heal his injuries, but would not say where it was nor how he'd obtained until after the healing was done.

Activities
As the Keeper, Khonduil tended to the shrine and provided healing to the villagers, as well as to adventurers active in the area. Somehow, he always just happened to be there with whatever was needed, whether it was a healing spell, rope up to several hundred feet in length, or a horse with a litter on which to carry a stricken soul home.

With travelers, itinerant minstrels, and other Maskyrians, Khonduil spoke often of the legends of Maskyr One-Eye, his tower, and his rumored treasure. This was done in the name of Tymora, patron of adventurers, but also because he still wanted to know the truth of the tower, even many years later, and just didn't want to risk his life again. However, he took pains never to reveal that he had once been a thief, nor that he'd been in Maskyr's Tower when it fell. He believed most of Maskyr's purported treasure was yet to be discovered, and that reports of a silvery doorway high in the air after his fall were true.