Belgin Dree was a pirate who was a loyal crewmember of the Kissing Shark helmed by Blackfingers Ralingor in the Utter East in the late 14th century DR.[1]
Description[]
Belgin was a moon-faced individual[2] who appeared middle-aged because was dying of Edenvale's bloodforge's curse.[3]
Personality[]
Belgin was a compulsive gambler.[2]
Relationship[]
Belgin was the mind of the Sharkers, that is, the individual that had the most crazy and efficient ideas in order to help the group.[4] Lady Jaele Serwid tutored him in Edenvale and recruited him into the Harpers cell based in the Utter East.[5]
Abilities[]
Being secretly a Harper bard,[5] Belgin could follow tracks, use a dozen spells of illusion and charm, and translate the Netherese language, having had training in arcane magic.[3]
History[]
Once, Belgin posed as a scholar in Edenvale, where he studied ancient ruins,[3] while secretly training to become an active bard and member of the Harpers.[5]
After becoming a pirate, Belgin had the idea to use the name of the recently deceased Blackfingers Ralingor as an alias: all the Sharkers were Blackfingers, and he was them.[6]
Sometime in the Year of the Unstrung Harp, 1371 DR, the Kissing Shark was destroyed by a blast of smoke powder. Blackfingers Ralingor perished and only seven of the Sharkers survived; Belgin was one of them. Together the Sharkers saved one chest off the Kissing Shark. Later, the group found themselves in the tavern of Donder's Dancing Masques in Tharkar. There a mysterious benefactor named Belmer Droon rescued them from one of the frequent bar fights, and helped the Sharkers avoid the brutal law enforcement of the Daggers of Tharkar.[7]
Once the Sharkers and their savior reached the safety of the Ankle Bells tavern, Belmer revealed his agenda: for generous pay, he wanted to hire a group of mercenaries to perform a mission in the capital of Doegan. After the pirates agreed, Belmer had them sign writs and they embarked on a mission to find and assassinate a noblewoman, Eidola of Neverwinter. Belgin was the first to sign.[8]
Under the cover of night, in secrecy, the group boarded the ship Morning Bird. Soon after the ship left the port, it came under an attack from an unknown black ship that bombarded the Bird with fire pot missiles and terrifying bone balls that melted away in the flames, revealing dancing floating armed skeletons. The Sharkers and their benefactors managed to fight off the undead and evaded the black ship with the aid of Balmer's box of mists and a prayer-token of Umberlee. The box transported the ship into a different part of the sea away from the pursuit, but the prayer token of the fickle goddess summoned her servants on board a ghost ship. The ship spawned the dreaded sea zombies and the crew of Morning Bird had to appease Umberlee by tossing their valuables overboard.[9]
During the short respite, the suspicious employer mixed an exotic drug called yulchass powder in with the crew's food. The powder had a side effect of making its imbibers truthful. The ship followed them, somehow tracking them. After a long search, the Sharkers and Belmer found a magical scrying device hidden on the bottom on the Sharker's chest.[10]
Soon after, the mysterious black ship, now identified as the Black Dragon, caught up with the Morning Bird. The pursuing captain was the infamous Orim Redbeard, the pirate responsible for the death of Blackfingers Ralingor. Orim Redbeard realized that he pursued the wrong ship, and left the Sharkers in peace.[11]
Belgin survived the sinking of the Morning Bird alongside the Sharkers and a big group of Jander Turbalt's sailors.[12] Surviving the dangers of open waters and making land, they soon encountered the creatures that made Doegan infamously deadly—the "fiends".[13]
Later, one by one, all the sailors were killed by a stray bone devil and only the Sharkers remained. At last, when the survivors were near salvation on seeing the city walls of Eldrinpar, the bone devil attacked and blinded Ingrar Welven.[14]
After arriving in Eldrinpar, Belgin and the surviving mercenaries led by Artemis Entreri were confronted by the paladins from Waterdeep led by Miltiades. One group was looking to rescue Eidola, the abducted bride of Piergeiron the Paladinson, and the other group to assassinate her. So they started to fight in front of Eldrinpar's Fountain of the Kraken and in battle the pirate Jolloth "Anvil" Burbuck was killed. After the fight ended, Kastonoph Nesher joined the mercenaries and, while relaxing in a tavern, after remembering Jolloth Burbuck, Nargin Olnblade told Noph about the true identity of Captain Blackfingers, saying it was only Belgin's idea at the start.[4]
Later, during the fiends' invasion of the city, Enteri ordered Nargin and Belgin to search for the doppelganger Eidola while Enteri and Sharessa went to try to save Noph from the dungeon.[15]
While battle against the Fallen Temple raged in Doegan, Belgin and Nargin, along with paladins Jacob and Miltiades, pursued Eidola Boareskyr. The warriors pursued her to an ancient crypt deep under the palace of Emperor Aetheric III. In the heat of battle, ancient Netherese glyphs sprang to life and opened a gate through which Eidola escaped. The mercenaries and paladins had no other choice and followed.[16]
The group found themselves in the dust-swept Netherese ruins of Ularith in the desert of Anauroch. Belgin's training in the arcane revealed the origins of the ancient temple—a center of death cult worship with numerous portals that led to hidden tombs across Faerûn, in the Utter East, Chessenta, and other lands. The warriors chased the cunning doppelganger across the temple complex, eventually being confronted by its lich-lord protector. Miltiades stood up to the undead sentry but was protected from its deathly magics by Miltiades's own, somewhat undead nature. The paladins were given time until the sunrise to find Eidola and leave.[3]
Tracking the shapeshifter and surviving several encounters with undead guardians, Eidola's deceptions, paladins, and mercenaries discovered the gate she escaped through into Undermountain. Miltiades and Belgin Dree followed but only Jacob arrived in Skullport, saying the dwarf was killed at last.[17]
Eventually, the paladins and mercenaries reached Skullport once again. They came across Aleena Paladinstar, who was investigating the shapeshifter plot against her father. She revealed that Khelben Arunsun knew of Eidola's nature sometime after the doppelganger consumed the young woman and took her shape. To render her harmless, Aleena and Blackstaff created a powerful girdle of righteousness that locked the greater doppelganger into Eidola's body and personality. With the survivors, Aleena traveled to a seedy bar called the Broken Pike. Its proprietor was a known agent of the Unseen, and he was likely to know where to find the organization's safe house and Eidola herself. In the process, Aleena and Miltiades were able to cure Belgin Dree of the gravely accursed disease that was killing him like everyone in the Utter East: a curse of the bloodforges. Aleena also revealed Belgin's alliance to the Harper, so Belgin told the group his story.[18]
Later, the group was ambushed inside the Broken Pike by a gang of doppelgangers wearing familiar faces and led by Jacob. In a bloody scuffle, the shapeshifter almost got the upper hand but they were saved by the timely return of Nargin. The dwarf was on the verge of dying but his ring of regeneration saved his life and Rings came back for vengeance. With Jacob's death, his betrayal and replacement became known to all.[5]
After the heroes reached the safe house of the Unseen, they fought through its doppelganger defenders and faced Eidola once again. They chased the monster into a maze of ancient tunnels underneath the building and cornered her. Eidola revealed the reason for Piergeiron Paladinson's condition after the bride's abduction: a soul gem. She threatened to shatter it, destroying the Open Lord's soul unless the warriors left and allowed her to escape. Miltiades refused, and the doppelganger started chanting the spell to trap the paladin's soul in the gem; however, Belgin's throwing knife interfered. The spell failed, and Eidola's own soul was consumed by the magic gemstone.[19]
Appendix[]
Appearances[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ed Greenwood (February 1998). The Mercenaries. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 9. ISBN 0-7869-0866-1.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ed Greenwood (February 1998). The Mercenaries. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 10. ISBN 0-7869-0866-1.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Richard Baker (June 1998). Easy Betrayals. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 20–50. ISBN 0-7869-0871-8.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 J. Robert King (April 1998). Conspiracy. (Wizards of the Coast), chaps. 1–2, pp. 3–20. ISBN 0-7869-0869-6.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Richard Baker (June 1998). Easy Betrayals. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 72–87. ISBN 0-7869-0871-8.
- ↑ J. Robert King (April 1998). Conspiracy. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 4, pp. 27–40. ISBN 0-7869-0869-6.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (February 1998). The Mercenaries. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 1–24. ISBN 0-7869-0866-1.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (February 1998). The Mercenaries. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 21. ISBN 0-7869-0866-1.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (February 1998). The Mercenaries. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 26–60. ISBN 0-7869-0866-1.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (February 1998). The Mercenaries. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 60–67. ISBN 0-7869-0866-1.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (February 1998). The Mercenaries. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 67–82. ISBN 0-7869-0866-1.
- ↑ Dave Gross (March 1998). An Opportunity for Profit. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 15. ISBN 0-7869-0868-8.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (February 1998). The Mercenaries. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 18–19. ISBN 0-7869-0866-1.
- ↑ Dave Gross (March 1998). An Opportunity for Profit. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 58–61. ISBN 0-7869-0868-8.
- ↑ J. Robert King (April 1998). Conspiracy. (Wizards of the Coast), chaps. 1–2, pp. 5–34. ISBN 0-7869-0869-6.
- ↑ Richard Baker (June 1998). Easy Betrayals. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 12–20. ISBN 0-7869-0871-8.
- ↑ Richard Baker (June 1998). Easy Betrayals. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 50–67. ISBN 0-7869-0871-8.
- ↑ Richard Baker (June 1998). Easy Betrayals. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 67–72. ISBN 0-7869-0871-8.
- ↑ Richard Baker (June 1998). Easy Betrayals. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 87–90. ISBN 0-7869-0871-8.