Kassodarc

Kassodar and the Kassodarc, summarized

Backstory:

Kassodar's father was Chasbal Vandree, a drow of the city of Menzoberranzan in the Underdark, Captain of the guards of house Vandree. He was engaged to Viconia, an inquisitor of the church of Lolth. When the third son was born into House Vandree, Dandor, he was to be sacrificed to Lolth as all third sons of noble houses. Unable to stand this, Chasbal took his brother and fled the Underdark, coming to the surface world and raising him as a son, taking the surname Xyrfaen. When Dandor came of age, Chasbal told him of his origins, and Dandor yearned to know his people, not heeding Chasbal's warnings of their cruelty.

With Dandor gone, Chasbal lost purpose in life until he met Breda, a human priestess of Selune, the moon god. Together, they had a half-drow son named Kassodar, and raised him happily on the frontier.

The family's happy life was cut short by Chezu'ul, a twisted and crippled clone of the wizard Manshoon, who having survived the Manshoon wars, still yearned for vengeance against the other clones, but was too weakened to defeat them outright. Coming upon the Xyrfaen family's hut one night, he burnt it down in a green fireball as a gift to his demonic masters, seeking to appease their thirst for carnage. Breda's love and Selune's protection shielded Kassodar enough for him to crawl out of the burning ruin, although badly burned, grasping her Goddess's pendant. Seeing the young boy's resolve and sensing that he had been instilled with magical potential by this tragedy, Chezu'ul decided to take him for an apprentice, hiding his responsibility. Also Kassodar grabbed some ash from the burnt hut at some point, because he is weird like that.

During this time, Dandor had lived in the underdark sufficiently long to attempt to integrate into Menzoberranzan, but his good heart shone through and he could not maintain the charade. Viconia, with her inquisitor's ability to detect lies, discovered his true identity and he was subjected to a fate worse than the sacrifice he evaded: He was transformed into a Drider, giving up Chasbal's location and new surname under the torture. House Vandree sent forth Brizeyl Vandree, the first daughter and Chasbal's sister to find him, but they found only the burnt ruins of his hut and the burnt remains of Chasbal and Breda. Not knowing about Kassodar and believing the loose ends conveniently tied up, Breda returned to Menzoberranzan.

Kassodar toiled in Chezu'ul's tower for 6 years, until he was 16, never taking to his master's attempts to instill him with the learned magical studies of a wizard, and eventually being regarded as a lost cause. Then one night, Kassodar snuck up the tower and saw Chezu'ul consulting with demons in a circle of green fire, and realized his role in the deaths of his parents. Enraged, Kassodar's sorcerous powers ignited, but he fled rather than confronting Chezu'ul, swearing vengeance when he had become more powerful.

Kassodar went to the city of Waterdeep, using his magic to disguise the extent of his burns, and began running odd jobs for the Zhentarim, hoping to rise up the ranks of that organization, but his life of crime was cut short by falling in with the Storm Brewers.

While Kassodar was living in the basement of the Laughing Fish, after his return from Barovia, he was finally found by Chezu'ul's scrying, waking from his sleep with his scars burning. Chezu'ul had since discovered that Kassodar had absorbed immense magical energy between his parents' death and his presence in the tower during Chezu'ul's rituals, and he meant to claim it and use Kassodar's life force to power an immense demonic summoning, seeking to unleash a vast horde of demons on the world and hoping he could lead them against the other Manshoons.

Events of the Kassodarc:

Knowing he could not enter Waterdeep directly with the Manshoon who lead the Zhentarim potentially there, Chezu'ul went to house Vandree, having learned of Kassodar's ancestry from demonic sources, and sought an alliance, informing them of Kassodar's existence. They named him *Al-Urop*, "dead slave", and sent Brizeyl Vandree and her warriors to claim him. Chezu'ul began communing with Lolth through her Handmaidens, the Yochlol, and made preparations to sacrifice Kassodar in her name in a summoning ritual from the Demonweb Pits to give him an army. Lolth had no true interest in the surface world, but she eternally enjoyed setting her supplicants against each other, and showed great favour to this interloper to punish House Vandree for their failures with Chasbal. House Vandree, for their part, zealously sought to reclaim Kassodar, hoping to appease Lolth. Brizeyl Vandree and her scouts caught Kassodar and the Storm Brewers on the streets of Waterdeep, but were interrupted before a fight broke out by a City Watch patrol.

Kassodar decided the time was right to strike back against Chezu'ul, and with his friends lending their support, he teleported them all to a Circle near Chezu'ul's tower that he had helped the wizard prepare years ago, re-drawing its runes every day for a year. By doing so, he slipped through the clutches of Brizeyl.

The party explored the tower, which was badly damaged on its lower floors. Investigating, they found that Chezu'ul had become more maddened and desperate in his demonic rituals lately, and had clearly lost control of them a number of times, with a number of rogue demons even inhabiting the lower levels of his tower. They eventually made their way to his sanctum, and met two Yochlol, disguised as Drow, who were more than happy to show them the portal Chezu'ul was using to go to and from the Underdark.

In the Underdark, the party made their way to a shrine of House Vandree, which Chezu'ul was inhabiting. At the gates, they met Viconia, still attached herself to House Vandree by having married Chasbal's lesser younger brother, but never having forgiven his betrayal and abandonment. Although she was bitterly upset about Chezu'ul's favour with Lolth, she did not dare upset the Spider Queen by acting against him. Viconia introduced Kassodar to Dandor, and forced him to fight the party alongside several other Driders. Viconia killed herself in a suicidal last ditch attempt to kill the party, and Dandor begged for Kassodar to set him free from his cursed existence. Using his "Escher's Longsword +1, can cast Shield or Absorb Elements once per day either or", Kassodar dispatched his uncle, whose spirit was saved by Eilistraee, returning him to hunt forever under the moonlight he had dreamed of returning to.

Heading deeper into the Shrine, the party found that Chezu'ul had turned on the remaining members of House Vandree, apparently with Lolth's blessing, and crushed them all with Bigby's Hand, heading to the sanctum to prepare to both slay the Stormbrewers, and sacrifice Kassodar to Lolth there. The party entered the room, and were immediately ambushed by the prepared Archmage, who set off a green delayed blast fireball from his invisible state, and attempting to crush them with Bigby's Hand. When the fight turned against him, he desperately set up a Time Stop trap, placing another delayed Fireball on the ceiling, and reversing gravity so the party fell upwards onto it. Kassodar, fittingly, scored the killing blow with a Lightning Bolt.

Having avenged his family, and for the first time in years feeling some sense of inner peace, Kassodar decided to leave the adventuring life and the bustle of Waterdeep behind, and rebuild the Xyrfaen cabin, living a quiet life under the same beloved moon as Chasbal, Dandor, and Breda.