Berun

Berun, once known as Kheil, was one of the Blades of the Old Man, an order of assassins from Sentinelspire. After his death, he was resurrected by Chereth, and retrained as a druid servant of Silvanus.

Appearance
In he was taller than most of the men in the steppes, with lean and hard features, seasoned with wind and sun. He had a single, long braid.

Personality
Per Talieth, as related by Valmir, Kheil was not much of a talker. Sauk considered Kheil to be a cold-blooded murderer, one of the highest compliments he could give a man. Talieth, too, confirmed that Kheil killed for coin and often for much less, as he enjoyed killing very much.

As Berun, he seemed seemed to present none of those qualities.

Abilities
Kheil was a top-level assassin, the best amongst the Blades of the Old Man. While disabling Sauk and his assassins, Berun had cast summon swarm. He had also unlocked the powers of Erael'len after his master, Chereth, revived him. Even as Kheil, Berun was quite cognizant of eastern spices.

Possessions
Berun had a rune-carved bow of yew, and one of his arrows was threaded with poisonous blue hemlock thread. After the Jalesh Rudra of 1374 DR, he also carried a stone hammer, likely enchanted, and a starstone shedding a blue-green glow.

History
Kheil was originally an orphan from Elversult before Alaodin took him in and trained him as an assassin. While in Sentinelspire, Kheil became close with the hunter Sauk, and became a lover of the Old Man's daughter, Lady Talieth. Per Sauk, Kheil was used for sending a message with the kill, rather than attempting a stealthy slaying, for he was a cold-blooded killer. Talieth confirmed this, attesting to Kheil's bloodthirst. It was common knowledge that Talieth and Kheil were lovers back in their time. Though little was said of how their romance ended, Talieth remembered him fondly and had feelings for him even a decade later.

On Mirtul 2 of, Kheil was sent to slay Chereth of the Masters of the Yuirwood in retaliation for Chereth's theft of the Erael'len from the Fortress of the Old Man. He failed in the task, and was tortured to death as retaliation for those Masters he slew in the process. Chereth, for reasons of his own, decided to recover his flayed body from the Tree of Dhaerow and resurrected him. The assassin accompanied the druid since, being retrained as a druid, and renamed as Berun, meaning "hope" in Aglarondan. Berun and Chereth traveled together from that point on; in their travels, they spent two seasons amongst the Yaqubi, where Berun bonded with a treeclaw lizard he named Perch.

The two parted ways after, after a fight against raiders from the Ganathwood. These raiders had struck a farm, killing all but a boy, Lewan, who became Berun's apprentice in turn. The two worked together until Berun realized that he was being sought out by Sentinelspire assassins in Tarsakh 14 of. He sent Lewan away, but the young man was captured by the assassins; Berun himself was caught in an ambush. The leader of the party was his old friend, Sauk, who sought his help in slaying the Old Man of the Mountain, lying to Berun that his master, Chereth, was being tortured by Alaodin. Though Berun was sympathetic to their plight, he would've preferred to come back in force with a number of druids. That was a nonstarter for the assassins, who valued the secrecy of their home. They rebuffed his offer to accompany them if they released Lewan, preferring to keep him as a captive for leverage.

Berun eventually found an opportunity to escape when Sauk split his party, looking to hunt some yaqubi he expected to carry gold from a recent sale. He managed to free Lewan, and slowed down to magically send thousands of spiders against Sauk and his hunting party. He gained less of a handicap than he thought from this process, however, and soon found himself cornered again by the same party. Instead of being captured by them, however, he was swallowed by a shambling mound. While buried under the earth and unconscious, he had a vision of his master, Chereth, calling for his help. The earth released him in time for the Jalesh Rudra of Tarsakh 19; he regained some of his strength with the aid of Perch. Lebeth came to him in the evening, and they performed the ceremony of the Jalesh Rudra together. She left him supplies in the morning, including an enchanted stone hammer and a new starstone.

He immediately departed for Sentinelspire, hoping to rescue Chereth and Lewan. He arrived on Tarsakh 25, and made his way through a number of assassins. Once inside, managed to fight off Sauk before killoren stopped him in behalf of the Old Man of the Mountain. When he entered the Tower of the Sun, he met with his old master, Chereth, who had been impersonating Alaodin. Chereth intended the destruction of civilization across Faerûn with a supervolcanic explosion in Sentinelspire, only needing yet Erael'len to do this. Unable to abide this, Berun chose to oppose his old master one final time. The two fought for a long time, but it was only the timely interventions of Sauk, Talieth, and Lewan that stopped Chereth, at the cost of Berun's life.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Sentinelspire