The Vilquari

The Vilquari
Meeting Information
Server	The Silver Marches
Play Time	Inactive
Forum	Here
Party Demographics
Race(s)	Any
Religion(s)	Any
Alignment	Any
Allegiance	Any
Level Span	6+
Member Contacts
DMs	Ronan
Player Lead	Brokenbone
Members	Kmj2587, jmecha, Regas, Mikayla, loulabelle, oldgrayrogue, puny, occasional guests

The Vilquari is the name of a player group operating on Sundays on The Silver Marches, with plot centered on the initial party's sale into servitude, a period of mysterious experimentation and the machinations of the Illithid race, as mostly represented through a principal antagonist, Alator the Twice Exiled, Survivor of Glyth and Loretaker of Oryndol. The premise of the campaign involves mystery, the Underdark, great travels and the fate of the world.

Campaign-Specific Canon

People and Creatures

Coinlad (Soubar)

If you need to test a newly researched divination to go deeper than a Detect Thoughts, and a possible side effect is utterly devouring the subject's mind, and if you cannot find a hobo or teen runaway, at least turn your mind to other hourly help.

Dunaan

A dwarf of Kanaglym who was fortunate enough not to drink of Styx water, but unfortunate enough to be shepherded out of Kanaglym with many memory impaired peers by an illithid called the Xanict, hundreds of years ago. Dunaan left a trail of clues in the form of written-on bricks, but also living metal articles intended to help show the way towards wherever the survivors of Kanaglym were being marched to. These at minimum included a morningstar, a shield bearing Dunaan's family crest, but also a rapier made more in a drow-elvish style, but apparently of a living metal somehow charmed by Dunaan to still point the way to his people. Dunaan ultimately planted seeds of revolution which the population of Xanictoll nurtured in secret for generations, his gloried death was reportedly met in hand to hand combat with the original Xanict, who also met his end in that fight. The folk of Xanictoll seemed to grant a title of "the Dunaan" to a PC party dwarf, Golinar Goldforge, who helped inspire them to revolution leading to Xanictoll's drowning, as he and his main associate, another dwarf by name of Gwylla, had no end of living metal articles between them, inclusive of Dunaan's shield.

Dwarves

Violent, greedy, xenophobic drunks with severely underdeveloped social skills with which the party sometimes ally until the dwarves realize it is probably a better idea to axe or hammer everyone severely. They seem to specialize in building, then tragically losing hopeless lost cities such as Kanaglym or Delzoun, or waiting it out in intact settlements until the naturally desirable state of their becoming monster and treasure infested ruins comes to pass. Also some dwarves have demonstrated tentacle growth (as substitute limbs in the prime material, or as beard material in the realm of Shadow) as part of Vilquari related experimentation or fear-phantasms as the case may be.

Fake Alator

His accent and head-tats marked him as a Thayan, though he didn't wear the red of the feared Red Wizards of Thay. He had all the other markings of that order however: evil, a fondness of experimenting on slaves, and a feared reputation as a spellcaster. He was seemingly responsible for the deaths of dozens of slaves in some form of arcane experiment. Some of those who didn't die might've been successes (Zakresh?), while others were less so (the dwarfacle). Whether or not he experimented on the party is unclear. His bark seemed louder than his bite when he unleashed his ultimate power on the party: Summon I. His recovered spellbook confirmed that he did in fact suck at magic. Maybe he was just posing as Alator, for reasons unknown? Or maybe the whole gig with Alator as a powerful wizard was a lie? We may not ever know, as Serene splattered his brains all over a cave floor. Deceased.

Skadi

Is she a wolf? Is she a dog? She might be both, an animal companion to Njall. Her secret identity is Clue Dog, if the party blows every lead on an adventure, sometimes Clue Dog will perk up and start sniffing towards a resolution to a mystery just like Scooby Doo. Her accuracy is probably lower than Scooby Doo however, she has been dumb enough to try to fetch a bone which was attached to an animated skeleton who was lurking in a ruin with twenty other skeletal comrades. Cast your lot with Clue Dog and sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. Shameful for a party with two divination-capable casters.

Ulatoth

A mind flayer pyrokineticist known for both its oversight of a Xanictoll smelting-works and foundry involved in the production of living metal, as well as its ferocity as an enforcer of the Xanict's will. Also known for a sizeable ruby worn in its forehead, determined to amplify the ability of a psion to manifest flame-related power, but the ruby burns a bearer terribly if coaxed into use. Deceased.

Xanict, the

A mind flayer title given to the highest authority in Xanictoll, last holder of the office of Xanict was the illithid named Yantith, known for a beljuril worn in his forehead. Also known to be a prolific author, for the rare non-illithid able to read Qualith script. Deceased.

Zakresh the Half-Orc

Big, strong, charismatic, intelligent. Either he took some curious dump stats, or he's not the product of a 32 point-buy. Maybe the DM cheated, or Alator's experimentation succeeded? Either way he was the de-facto boss of the lair of experiments and slaves. You saw everyone except Alator take orders from him. He seemed to hold the late wizard (Fake Alator) in very high regard, often boasting of the "gifts" bestowed upon him. Zak was deeply evil, yet always loyal to Alator. Last seen getting stabbed through the heart by one of Brella's pirates. Deceased.

Zardoz

A barbarian so savage he didn't even have clothing, his mustache alone oozed machismo enough to keep him safe(ish). One of the initial Vilquari prisoners, played by paazin until Zardoz's mysterious journeying off into the sunset.

Places

Xanictoll

Xanictoll was what appeared to be an island town in the Underdark upon Great Void Lake. The town's majority of inhabitants were dwarven survivors of the lost city of Kanaglym, and a fairly large number of humans as well. The leadership though was more notable, as all the citizens were overseen by a small cadre of Illithid "teachers" organized by a chief local authority, an Illithid carrying the title of "Xanict" or the Singer. Apparently this title was respecting a past Xanict acting much like a Pied Piper figure, luring memory-impaired dwarves from the city of Kanaglym, which fell on hard times after its wells started running with memory erasing Styx waters. The most recent Xanict, by name of Yantith, was killed by the Vilquari party after incitement of a revolution of the citizenry invoking the memory of a cultural hero of Kanaglym, but not before Yantith could activate a Netherese device which turned out to control the island in the manner of a Netherese flying city (in this case more a floating city), condemning the town to sink beneath the surface of Great Void Lake. The party and thousands of Xanictoll survivors fled through a local portal during the submersion process, to the Underdark ruins of Delzoun beneath the Silver Marches region.

Things

Adamantine Chain Shirt, Sized for Frost Giant

If killing a traditional enemy of the dwarves and finding eighty pounds of the remarkable metal adamantine, do not be surprised if well inclined dwarves are prepared to trade with you such that at least a few weapons might be made of such a trove. Feel free however to drag your feet until the local King really dislikes you, you're all but banished from the city, the adamantine is left behind and nothing of value was received for it. It is not as if you will be fighting highly damage resistant golems put onto the battlefield by the illithid a short while later, will you?

(The) Hungry C*nt AKA Nusemne

The Hungry C*nt was a sailing vessel, captained by a bloodthirsty and acknowledged to be psychotic pirate captain who went by the name of Brella Wetblade. Apparently the vessel was named after her. An initial encounter with the Vilquari adventurers saw her nearly captured on a beach, after an escape, a more definitive sea battle saw both Brella and the adventurer party need to chase her to the sea floor with waterbreathing magic. A school of sharks drawn by the fight helped end the captain, the ship was taken as a war-prize and renamed the Nusemne. The elves of the party claimed this translated from Elvish as "daugher of the changing tides", much more pleasant than its prior name. The present whereabouts of the ship are unknown to the party, as it had been crewed, captained and maintained by the Thessans while the party was off adventuring and doing portal travel through the Underdark.

Living Metal

A remarkable special material, steel that does not corrode or oxidize, and bends, chips, cracks etc. are known to miraculously heal themselves over time. A particular "recipe" for Living Metal articles originating in Kanaglym appears not to have died out with most of the rest of the knowledge of that lost city, but to have been picked up by the illithid loretakers (such as the Xanict) who went on to establish Xanictoll, which became a major production center for this material. Some very old Living Metal items appear to have been created by the Kanaglym dwarf named Dunaan, later known to Xanictoll's dwarves and humans as "The Dunaan."

Wands

Bamshogbo is known to carve wands of Chultan blackwood found at great expense in larger markets, carving intricate maze-like patterns upon them as if to encapsulate, capture, and corral the spells imbued within, until released from such a "maze" through a command word. The party goes through wands like toilet paper, if wondering at the lack of dramatic amounts of permanent magical gear, check all pockets for consumables and say "right, dozen or more wands stashed around the party explains some of the survival here."

Concepts

Argos' Wild Theories

If a wild theory is being discussed by the party about the nature of Alator's experimentation, the Vilquari known or unknown, the alien thought processes of the aberrant illithid, who may or may not be trusted, what can really be *known* regarding the Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon, the wild theory probably originated with Argos.

Cackling

The only way Aseel Bladesmile is known to laugh.

Great Gift, the

Bamshogbo is known to frequently call upon the power of Ubtao in a way he calls the "Great Gift." In this fashion, Bamshogbo serves as a conduit of divine energy, filling the area around him with power that aids the living and saps the undead. In other words, Sacred Purification feat usage, AKA healbombs.

Njall's Libido

Star of many turns of the ranger Njall's lecherous sense of humour.

Prisoners

There is no faster way to seal your fate than to be an NPC prisoner of the Vilquari, typically submitting to the Vilquari in combat results in a grotesque, humorous or senseless death within minutes, typically before any information useful to the campaign's intrigues is possible. Zakresh, Brella, Verron, Amelia, Ronald... we hardly knew ye. All right, some lived in captivity for a short time at least, but typically with better NPC caretaking and prisoner-housing infrastructure than the Vilquari party is able to provide. All prisoners deceased, although we're not so sure about Amelia.

Qualith

Qualith is the native language of the Illithid. It is a written-only language that is similar to braille. It stores slight amounts of latent psionic energy when written and those running their fingers over it recieve these impressions. Understanding Qualith is equal parts understanding the writing and the psionic imprints. Qualith is known only to Illithid and the most diligent of scholars. Writing instruments capable of recording Qualith found in the campaign so far look like a pointed, elongated and discolored spike of bone.

Vilquari

Vilquar was the name of a famous traitor to the Gith race, the Vilquari are those deemed resembling Vilquar. A term used by a Githzerai associate of the party to describe the corrupted or tainted state of most PC party members or the varied agents being pursued by same. This Vilquari title is not an honored title nor one the group has adopted for themselves as if organizing themselves with a company name.