D&D General Adventuring Company Names and What They Are Up To

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Let’s flesh a few of the adventuring company names from the list of thirteen, above.

OK, same rules as before: three to five sentences for a general description. I reserve the right to change up the adventuring company names, so you might see some minor differences between the names in the list and the names as they appear in the posts that follow.

(Oh, and you might need a map of Cormyr. Try the Mike Schley-drawn map on page three from Wizard’s of the Coast’s free download of “Backdrop: Cormyr” by Brian R. James.)

1. The Whiteshields
A band of adventurers from Amn who carry, as their name suggest, shields painted purest white. The Whiteshields journeyed through Cormyr on their way to explore the northern Thunder Peaks, and were last seen traveling on the East Way towards the crescent shaped valley formed by the Thunder Gap. None yet realize the Whiteshields are on a mission to assassinate Calathra Hargentle, onetime Doombringer favored by Beshaba, Goddess of Misfortune. Calathra’s fall from grace made her a target for other Doombringers (the handful of attempts to slay her have thus far ended only the lives of her attackers), who are guided by visions from the Goddess and eager to do her bidding.

2. The Bold Stags of Stonebolt Fields
In Cormyr, however much nobles or the latest persons to come into possession of new properties try to give their holdings new names, the old, commonly-used-by-locals names of places stick. The farmlands north of Espar are no exception: Stonebolt Fields is known as “Spurbright Steads” to members of the Spurbright noble family, the later name used during formal negotiations made by Spurbrights and their representatives, as well as on legal documents. There is no love lost between the members of the Bold Stags and the Spurbrights, as most of the adventurers grew up on farms watched over by the nobles, who were never kind and oft flouted Crown law when it suited them. The Bold Stags braved long forgotten mines in the Stormhorns and returned with ancient coins sufficient to purchase an adventuring charter that spelled out for all who the Bold Stags are and the place they come from: Stonebolt Fields.

3. Avrauntra’s Disciples
Not a few mages have chosen to merge themselves body and soul with the Weave of All Magic. The mighty Avrauntra, greatest of all Netherese Arcanists, did just such a thing after centuries of teaching and uplifting any Netherese citizen that showed a talent for spellcasting. The adventurers known as Avrauntra’s Disciples uncovered proof of Avrauntra’s existence while staying in Myth Drannor, but fled that city when the mercenary armies of Shade overwhelmed the newly risen City of Song. The Disciples regrouped in Semberholme, then set out on horseback for the combined ruins of Myth Drannor and Shade—the later city having crashed to the ground atop the former—intent on discovering more Words of Awakening and Words of Power made permanent in the Weave by Avrauntra.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

More fleshed out adventuring company names:

4. The Dragon Chasers
A favorite activity of elder Buckfast Lords is to tell stories to Thunderstone children of their adventures in the Thunder Peaks and Hullack Forest. These tales are embroidered by the imaginations of the Buckfast storytellers, so old Lord Ravance might claim to have jumped from one mountaintop to another without so much as stopping his brave steed Thunderlance while charging headlong into the mouth of a fire breathing dragon, during which the lord lost his arm in battle with the horrible beast. There is always an element of truth to the stories, which is to say Lord Ravance Buckfast did lose his arm to a dragon of modest size after falling head over horse down a mountainside when the beast awakened inside its cave lair and gave a mighty roar. Lord Buckfast landed hard on his backside, the dragon darted out of its lair and greeted the unfortunate lordling by snatching him up in its jaws by his sword arm, and then Thunderlance came crashing down into the dragon, thereby releasing the now one-armed Buckfast. Horse and wounded rider did not wait to see how quickly dragons recover after being crashed into by horses half their size. A band of youthful adventurers that all grew up in Thunderstone on the stories of wyverns and dragons and the lurking perils that devour the unwary traveler in the Thunder Peaks, the Dragon Chasers hunt that same red dragon today.

5. The Oak Shields
All victims of a Teleport spell gone awry. The Oak Shields adventured in Damara and Vaasa, and traded a hefty bag of coins to a hiremage to be magically transported from Heliogabalus to within sight of the Pillar of Fire within the Galena Mountains. Hiremage and adventurers arrived in the Thunder Peaks, realized they had no idea where they were, then fell to arguing. The hiremage stomped his foot to make a point, the snow-covered ground gave way, and the hiremage discovered too late that he'd been standing on snow-covered ice. The Oak Shields spread out with all the haste of ripples running from a rock freshly landed in water as the lake ice beneath them groaned, cracked and split apart. The hiremage sank quickly in the freezing water, but not fast enough to avoid the wyvern that crashed half in the water, slapped its wings against ice and water to regain the air, then stabbed the poor mage repeatedly with its stinging tail as it flew off with its meal. The Oak Shields made it as far as the Hullack Forest, thanked the gods for the cover the trees provided against the hungry wyverns plaguing their journey out of the mountains, and have decided to wait out the winter before traveling any further.

6. Thiraphel’s Band
Thiraphel has yet to tire of the majestic sight of Cormyr from his prison high up in the sky. His adventuring companions have plenty of food, plenty of water, and enough gold to build a small keep out of the stuff--if only they could find a way back down. Their jailer lay dead, the giant's corpse measuring fifty feet from head to toe, the body resting atop cloud as hard as rock. The giant's killer lay equally dead, a short sword as long as a wagon buried to the hilt in its enormous chest. Thiraphel's Band were meant to be a meal for the giant, but mealtime was cut short when the second giant sprang its trap. The secret of whatever magic the giant used to make its way into the clouds disappeared when the mind keeping it passed away. The view of Cormyr, however, remains incredible.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Next on from the list of thirteen are:

7. The Ferocious Five
A quintet of sword-wielding Thunderlans that evince all the stereotypical behaviors Cormyreans ascribe to the people of Thunderstone, in eastern Cormyr. The four men and one woman that comprise the Five hunt from the saddle, brew ales made from grains grown on their own farms, find mates for the night among the local populace, and share with each other their homemade remedies for hangovers. The Five have ridden deep into the Hullack, navigated the treacherous pass to either side of the Thunderflow and discovered at least one long-abandoned keep belonging to the all but forgotten Drauthglas noble family. ("Longest gone and least remembered," as the saying goes in Thunderstone.) They have recovered coins enough to see them all safely through the next several winters, but their lust for adventure has yet to be sated despite their most recent brush with death. (By rights the Ferocious Five should all be dead, their corpses coughed up and spat out as owlbear pellets. They owe their lives to another band of adventurers—The Chase—that slew the owlbears threatening to devour the Ferocious Five.)

8. The Chase
A band of Ranger Sorcerers—mostly half elves—from Deepingdale. Swift attackers that don’t battle face to face. The Chase move in like silent shadows, slice or stab their foes, then flit away on the ground and through the trees. Experience has taught the members of the Chase how to blend their magic with their fighting tactics with deadly effect. There is no love lost between the Chase and the Dragon of The Bloodhorn; all have lost family to the dragon’s unpredictable rampages. The Chase have found work escorting caravans into and out of Cormyr. Their route follows the East Way through the Thunder Peaks and Hullack Forest as far as Masoner’s Bridge. They journey south and east through the Hullack to the Thunderflow, hunting for pleasure and to feed themselves, then take a barge across the Thunderflow to Hultail where they sell meat and pelts from their kills along with monster parts sought after by local alchemists and mages from any creatures they encountered. After a short stay, the adventurers find another caravan headed into the mountains on the Thunder Way. The Chase turn north after crossing through the Thunder Peaks, and journey onward through Archendale to their homes in Deepingdale. One member of the Chase is rumored to be a priest. (This rumor is true: The Half-Elf Maharanthalas is both a Luckpriest of Tymora and an accomplished Ranger.)

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Starting at #9 on the list of thirteen, we have:

9. Shasslan’s Swords
The adventurer Shasslan leads this band of cold hearted crafters-turned-thieves. Shasslan’s Swords are skilled at sabotaging things (e.g., a shutter made to fall apart when closed; a door made to fall off its hinges when opened for the fifth time; a drinking cup made to disintegrate when liquid is poured into it; etc.). The Swords operate by covertly “afflicting” an inn or rooming house with accidents that befall guests and tenants, and quietly spreading rumors about hauntings or curses afflicting the business. Shasslan steps in with an offer to see the business freed of whatever blight has fallen upon it, then she and her fellow adventurers—having surveilled the residents that keep to themselves and are most likely to be holding objects of value—murder their targets and take their belongings under the guise of battling spirits or monsters lurking in the walls. The victims are dressed in the clothes of the adventurers, their bodies left to burn after the building is set afire. Shasslan alone “survives” such battles, her eyes pouring with liar’s tears and her wails of grief covering the departure of her disguised adventuring companions (whom Shasslan rejoins soon after, at a predetermined location).

10. The Maids of Misfortune
An unusual name for a band of adventurers, the Maids of Misfortune are priests and adherents of Beshaba, Lady Doom. The Maids have spent half a decade adventuring in the Lightning Steppes (a triangle-shaped area of land with borders formed by The High Road, the Overmoor Trail and the Trader’s Road). Today, the Maids of Misfortune are one of several groups of disciples that have heeded Beshaba’s call to make their way to the Forest Kingdom, there to invoke her name and teach the complacent people of Cormyr to fear her properly, and to be of some practical use to the common people (by publicly thwarting the minor treacheries by nobles, merchants and the handful of guilds operating in Suzail, for example, so as to show the common people that coin wealth is no shield against misfortune). The goddess desires for her faith to become established and accepted in Cormyr just as the faith of Malar the Beaslord’s has. Only then can her faithful engage in the slow, steady destruction of Tymora’s faith in Arabel and Suzail.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Moving on to #11 on the list of thirteen:


11. The Men of the Black Hand
The eleven members of the Black Hand speak in clipped sentences and radiate quiet confidence. Their leader, the mercenary-turned-adventuring-warlord Grimmun Bloodtower, survived the destruction of Myth Drannor when the city of Shade came crashing down on top of it, then escaped the monstrous terrors that had been unleashed to defend the City of Song against the mercenary legions that had marched on it. Today, the Men of the Black Hand are organized into two banners of five adventurers each, each banner led by a lieutenant that answers to Grimmun. The Men are not priests, but they make no secret of their veneration of Bane; each wears or displays his symbol openly. This exhibit of faith has led to tense confrontations as the adventurers move through Cormyr, yet the Men have remained on the right side of Cormyr’s law keepers by not rising to petty taunts and by following Cormyr’s laws and the edicts of its Kings to the letter. In fact, the Men know Cormyr’s laws better than most Purple Dragons.

The handful of Harpers present in Cormyr know of the Men, and have crossed swords with them once. Grimmun faced the mountainous Harper Malthar Bearslayer in single combat atop Masoner’s Bridge, north of Sunset Hill. Malthar was severely wounded in a confrontation that saw plenty of swordplay and no magic, his life sparred by Grimmun that the Harper could serve as a reminder to all of the natural order of things. Though dogged by rumors, the Men are not agents of the Zhentarim and no Dark Hands—members of Bane’s Clergy—are present in their ranks. (Long ago Grimmun came to hate the self-serving, backstabbing wars among Bane’s Dark Hands, seeing it as a betrayal of all Bane stands for. He yearns for a church like the one of old: “A coldly correct hierarchy of obedience,” as the former Sage of Shadowdale put it.)

Grimmun intends to become Barron of the Stonelands. Unlike others who have tried and failed to erect, fortify and hold a castle within the bleak territory and so fail to earn the title of Barron, Grimmun will build waystop fortifications running from Gnoll Pass east along the border between the northern range of the Stormhorns and the Stonelands, and recruit mercenaries and former Purple Dragons to man them. He expects to leave each of his adventuring companions in charge of a waystop. But first the Men must recover coin and treasure enough to fund Grimmun’s enterprise.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Happy Holidays to you and yours, Dear Reader.

Here we have #12 from the list of 13 adventuring company names.

12. Darrambur’s Devils

Unlike other adventuring companies named after their leader, the elder Lord Darrambur Sultlue does not ride with the band of adventuring dearkhearts that obey his commands. Darrambur communicates with the Devils by means of magic from within his family home in the City of Splendors, where he gives instructions and hears reports of the Devils' activities on a near-daily basis. Operating in the guise of adventurers, the Devils enact Darrambur’s will up and down the Sword Coast, among the many islands on the Sea of Swords, and in the nations of Tethyr, Amn and Calimshan. Darrambur’s business is the slave trade, his style is one of depravity and lawlessness, and he never hesitates to pay good coin to his Devils when they return from a particularly difficult task, such as the kidnapping of a noble heir or the theft of a potent magic item. Lord Sultlue has personally murdered rivals kidnapped in this manner, then had them replaced with slaves magically transformed to look like his latest victim. His Devils have delivered such magically disguised slaves back to family eager to receive their lost kin, collected any reward offered, then rode off before the slave exploded in an angry blast of magic. For all his wickedness, Lord Darramber considers himself not nearly as debauched as his older brother Lord Pelmaer, who limits his interests to slaves obtained from Waterdeep.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Happy New Year, Dear Reader.

Our inaugural post for 2019 is a description for adventuring company #13 on this list.

13. The Bluestars

A roaming band of half-orcs and humans. Each member of the Bluestars was born into savagery and tribal life in the shadow of the Great Glacier. The eight barbarians, three fighters, one druid and one warlock that make up the Bluestars live to explore the wild places of the world. They establish a campsite, then walk, run, spelunk, swim, jump, climb and hunt to their heart’s content. If the spirits smile, the Bluestars find adventure and battle along the way. After a few seasons, they seek guidance from the spirits, count their coins and make plans to move on.

Every Bluestar speaks Common and Orcish. Rumor describes them as simple savages with a taste for wine, feasting and lovemaking, and no respect for law and order. Despite their origins, the Bluestars have come to embrace civilization to the extent it helps them learn about the wild places of Faerun and gives them access to the means of long distance travel. The adventurers do better than might be expected in heavily populated cities that see lots of trade and outlander visitors.

Their adventuring company name is borrowed from the name for an expensive perfume (“Bluestars,” as you might expect; 220 gp per pint in most Heartlands and Sword Coast marketplaces), which the adventurers learned to apply liberally to their bodies before entering any encampment that smelled of civilization.[1]

The Bluestars have no aversions to body odor. To them, what a person smells like says a lot about their health, where they have been and what they eat—it’s like a greeting. They would never dream of hiding their own body odor, just as they would never plug their ears when important words are being spoken, or refuse to talk when it was their turn to speak. However, the Bluestars have learned to consider the delicate sensibilities of the “civilized” people they encounter, and wear their perfume.

On the half-orcs, Bluestars dries quickly and smells of bread fresh from the oven (on the most pungent half-orc in the group it smells like sweet bread). On the humans it smells like the wind before a storm blows in. The perfume rids their bodies of all natural, unpleasant odors for a full day, whether it be body odor or food-derived odors (e.g., onions, asparagus, etc.). Given the cost of the perfume, the Bluestars never stay long in any city they visit.

Current Clack in the Heartlands places the Bluestars in Suzail, after a long voyage south from the Moonsea. The Clack has it that the Bluestars have heard of a place called The Stonelands, and that it is nigh impossible to travel through, much less survive in. They intend to tame it.

[1] From the cultural viewpoint of the Bluestars, any gathering of humanoids larger than one tent is an encampment, be it a short-lived roadside gathering of merchants or a fixed location such as mighty Waterdeep.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

From this list of 40 adventuring company names on page 1, I present:

THE BLADE HERALDS OF ORMPUR

Led by Countess Tamshalarean Kallowsar of Cormyr, the Blade Heralds are a far-travelled band of adventurers turned diplomatic couriers for the city of Ormpur on the Shining Sea. Each Blade Herald wields a longsword or saber crafted by Aldemos Prunchaerl (of Crimmorn), the blade hilts and pommels thicker than usual and made to be turned and unlatched. Messages from Ormpur’s ruler (the High Sulkh) and members of the Torch Court, as well as saffron samples and gemstones, have been transported inside the hollow blade hilts carried by the Countess (“Shala,” to those who know her) and her companions on behalf of Ormpur, and delivered to the rulers of the coastal cities of Sammarash, Ithmong, Lushpool, Sheirtalar and Yallasch. Attempts by merchant cabals, nests of yuan-ti, and at least one hive of beholders to subvert the Blade Heralds have thus far met with disaster.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

From this list of 40 adventuring company names on page 1, I present:

THE COMPANY OF THE DEAD SEMBIAN

A quintet of upland Sembians cursed early in their adventuring careers after slaying a murderous buyer of farmland and claimer of abandoned holds that hired mercenaries to butcher anyone that didn’t agree to her lower than market offers. Among the magic she had acquired from one of the Dales-edge keeps she’d plundered was a ring that drank the life force of anyone who struck her with physical blows, healing her instantly (this the means by which she dared operate with impunity). The adventurers tried to dispel her ring before striking her down, but plunged their blades before their magic had fully taken hold.

Today, the Company of the Dead Sembian is six in number, the sixth member of their band not necessarily alive—she does not speak, move or talk—but not entirely dead, the state of her body depending on how close the other five members are to her (the further away she is, the sicker the five become). The Dead Sembians busy themselves with hunting for magic capable of reversing the magic that binds them to their former prey, and with finding ever more useful ways of transporting and posing a body incapable of moving itself.

(Tip of the hat to Weekend at Bernie's.)

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

From this list of 40 adventuring company names on page 1, I present:

HORNSHULDER’S LOYAL BLADES

Six dwarves—all from House Helmhorn, a clan barely 50 years old—comprise Hornshulder's Loyal Blades. They do not hold to the old ways: of the males some wear beards shorn short, two are wizards trained in Scornubel, four are of mixed blood (dwarf-halfling and dwarf-human parings), and all have spent more time above ground than below. Hornshulder and his companions take no umbrage when called “thaelwi” (lit. “non-dwarf”) by the tradition-minded dwarves they cross paths with, the latest insults coming from dwarves that live and trade in the vicinity of Thunderstone on Cormyr’s eastern border. Hornshulder formed his band at the encouragement of his elder brother, Tathgurd, and chose to strike eastward from their shared home in (and under) Secomber. Finding and exploring the abandoned holds of extinct Cormyrean noble families in the Stormhorns is their first priority, observing how the dwarf and gnome clans of Thunderstone that do so much of the fine smithing, sewer digging, plumbing and wire making manage to live and trade among humans without causing alarm (that is, alarm at the true numbers of each race) is the second, and the third is finding husbands and wives to bring home to House Helmhorn.

(Tip of the hat to "Forging the Realms: Outcast House" by Ed Greenwood.)