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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy E Grenemyer" data-source="post: 7889407" data-attributes="member: 12388">From this list of <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/adventuring-company-names-and-what-they-are-up-to.473088/#post-6771762" target="_blank">40 adventuring company names</a> on page 1, I present:TYBOLD’S TERRIBLE SHIELDSZorabrantha Tybold has been many things in her life: a shipper of goods between the coastal cities of Lushpool and Ithmong on the Divided Road in Lapaliiya, a ship’s crewman aboard the Saffron Hammer (named after the legendary blood red warhammer covered in Yuan-ti fangs that could melt the flesh of the snake men with the merest of touches and slew so many of the Coiled Cabal); a Reaching Hand for merchant interests along the Vilhon Reach responsible for solving problems in the manner of a stereotypical hardjaws (the real-world equivalent of a badass)—that is, covered in weapons from head to foot and armored with the grim determination to get the job done no matter the cost; and most recently a leader of adventurers on the Dragon Coast to the south of Cormyr.Zorabrantha’s (“Zora,” to her companions) adventuring days began not long after she and the band of sellswords she’d assembled in the guise of merchant ship crewman were unmasked in Westgate and forced to slay a trio of Loviathan priests who’d backed the Westgate-based merchant cabal that had opposed the interests of Zora’s masters in the Vilhon. Zora and the other survivors of that battle fled Westgate aboard her ship, the blood of the priests still fresh on their blades, then fought a ship to ship battle with mercenaries commanded by the Entrusted Whip (i.e., the high priest) of Painbless Hall to capture the murderers in Loviatar’s name—the fight ended after Zora rammed her ship into the opposing vessel and sank it.With a second ship in pursuit, Zora turned her wounded vessel west and rode a strong tailwind towards The Neck and onto the waters of the Dragonmere. Umberlee frowned on Zora and her pursuers, for neither had made offerings to the Bitch Queen before they set sail, then sparked a storm that gathered over the Lake of Dragons that drove both Zora’s and her pursuer’s ships into the high cliffs on Cormyr’s southern coast, the two vessels entangled against the rocks in a deathly embrace of torn masts, snarled ropes and sundered flesh. Battle shouts, barked orders and the cries of wounded sailors echoed against the cliffs that night, the cacophony drowned out by the crack of thunder each time the battle was revealed in a flash of lightning. By morning Zora stood triumphant in the middle of a ring of raised shields, her sellswords having cornered and slain all enemies on the rain and blood-soaked decks of both ships.The gnomes of Smuggler’s Stone were first to spot Zora’s bedraggled crew, and did what wise gnomes living on Cormyr’s shipwreck-strewn coast have long done: they drove a hard bargain for the best of the goods salvaged from the two wrecked ships, and equipped the survivors with coins, fresh clothes, mounts, food to travel on and the names of friendly innkeepers and merchants further up the coast. Snowed inn at Moonever and unable to make the crossing to Marsember, Zora caroused with the guests of the Dirty Dragon Inn and made friends with the owner, the Cormyrean nobleman Irlake Keskrel, who proved a ready listener to Zora’s tales or merchant business and battles fought on the waters of Cormyr, the Vilhon Reach, the Lake of Steam and the Shining Sea.[1]Today, Tybold’s Terrible Shields are a chartered band of adventurers that explore the Skeleton Shore in the vicinity of the Cliffs of Karthaut, with Lord Keskrel as their patron. Zora has found the remains of the first band of adventurers sent by Irlake to explore the Cliffs and to find the entrance to the hidden hold rumored to fill the interior of that wall of stone. Every last adventurer had been hacked to pieces, their bodies left for the coastal carrion eaters to pick over. Her Shields are currently searching for signs of the second group of adventurers employed by Lord Keskrel (the Terrible Shields being the third).Unbeknownst to Zora, Loviatar’s thirst for revenge was not satiated by the slow, painful deaths of her onetime masters on the Vilhon, this act overseen by the Entrusted Whip of Westgate. Mistress of Pain Andratha Dorntalon, of Elversult, has received a vision from the Maiden of Pain revealing the faces of Tybold’s Terrible shields and their leader, as well as a command to destroy these most hated foes of the church.[1] ] It is not within Zora’s nature to hide her past from others, though she will never reveal secrets entrusted to her by former employers or comrades in arms. She is proud of her life and enjoys recounting stories of her successes and her failures.</blockquote>

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