Zan

Zan (Zanerith) Derlyn

Race: Half-Drow, Class: Sorcerer 3/Warlock 2 Background: Smuggler (Variant), Alignment: Chaotic Good Patron Deity: Eilistraee, the Dark Maiden Factions: Harpers 6

Ability Scores

Strength 10 (+0), Dexterity 16 (+3), Constitution 12 (+1); Intelligence 10 (+0), Wisdom 10 (+0), Charisma 17 (+3)

Proficiencies

Bonus: x Saving Throws: Constitution & Charisma Skills: Deception +7, Perception +4, Persuasion +7, Stealth +7 Tools: Forgery Kit, Disguise Kit, Thieves Tools, Flute, Pan flute Languages: Common, Drowic, Orc, Undercommon Armor: Light, Medium, Shields Weapons: Martial Weapons, Simple Weapons

Traits

Darkvision, Fey Ancestry, Drow Magic, Sorcerous Origin: Divine Soul, Divine Magic: Chaos, Favored by the Gods, Font of Magic, Metamagic, Otherworldly Patron: The Hexblade, Pact Magic, Hexblade's Curse, Hex Warrior, Eldritch Invocations (Agonizing Blast, Devil's Sight)

Feats

FEATS

Combat

Attacks: • Dagger: +6, 1d4+3,• Rapier: +6, 1d8+3,• Eldritch Blast: +6, 1d10+3 Armor Class: 16 (+1 against melee weapon attacks), +2 shield (+1 against ranged weapon attacks), Initiative: +6, Speed: 30 ft Hit Points: 32, Hit Dice: 3d6, 2d8

Social

Personality Traits: I stretch the truth about almost everything, even when there’s no good reason to. • I’m a born gambler who can’t resist taking a risk for a potential payoff. Ideals: People. For all my many lies, I place a high value on friendship. Bonds: I owe everything to my mentor — but I know he's not the saint everyone thinks he is. Flaws: I’m always in debt. I spend my gains on decadent luxuries faster than I bring them in.

Character Relevant Links

Harpers: Faction Info • Harpers of Waterdeep • Dusken Glade Cell
People & Places: Local Neighborhood • Dusken Glade Inn • Rivals • Promenade-in-Exile
Campaign Info: House Rules • Group Treasury

Appearance

Age: 36
Gender: Cisgender Male
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 170 lbs
Hair: White/Silver
Eyes: Amber
Skin: Slightly ashen

Zan appears outwardly as a handsome, charismatic man. Smooth slightly ashen skin covered in black tattoos. Silver white hair that is usually kept shoulder length and often pulled back in a pony tail. Amber, almost red eyes that sparkle with playfulness but somehow also hint at a deep well of anger laying just beneath the surface. He often wears a black chain shirt, leather breeches, and a black cloak of protection.

Traits

Racial Traits

• Ability Score Increase Charisma +2, Dexterity +1, Constitution +1
• Languages Common, Elvish, Undercommon
• Darkvision See in dim light within 60 feet as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light
• Fey Ancestry Advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
• Drow Magic A half-elf of drow descent can forgo Skill Versatility and instead choose the drow’s Drow Magic: You know the dancing lights cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the faerie fire spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the darkness spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Sorcerer Features

• Proficiencies:
  • Armor: None
  • Weapons: Daggers, darts, slings, quarterstaffs, light crossbows
  • Tools: None
  • Saving Throws: Constitution, Charisma
  • Skills: Insight, Persuasion
• Sorcerous Origin: Divine Soul Sometimes the spark of magic that fuels a sorcerer comes from a divine source that glimmers within the soul. Having such a blessed soul is a sign that your innate magic might come from a distant but powerful familial connection to a divine being.
  • Divine Magic:
    • Your link to the divine allows you to learn spells from the cleric class. When your Spellcasting feature lets you learn or replace a sorcerer cantrip or a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher, you can choose the new spell from the cleric spell list or the sorcerer spell list. You must otherwise obey all the restrictions for selecting the spell, and it becomes a sorcerer spell for you.
    • In addition, you learn the Bless spell, based on the Law affinity that is the source of your divine power. It is a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn’t count against your number of sorcerer spells known. If you later replace this spell, you must replace it with a spell from the cleric spell list.
  • Favored by the Gods: Divine power guards your destiny. If you fail a saving throw or miss with an attack roll, you can roll 2d4 and add it to the total, possibly changing the outcome. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
• Metamagic:
  • Quickened Spell: When you cast a spell that has a casting time of 1 action, you can spend 2 sorcery points to change the casting time to 1 bonus action for this casting.
  • Twinned Spell: When you cast a spell that targets only one creature and doesn’t have a range of self, you can spend a number of sorcery points equal to the spell’s level to target a second creature in range with the same spell (1 sorcery point if the spell is a cantrip).

Warlock Features

• Proficiencies:
  • Armor:Light
  • Weapons: Simple
• Otherworldy Patron: The Hexblade You have made your pact with a mysterious entity from the Shadowfell — a force that manifests in sentient magic weapons carved from the stuff of shadow. The shadowy force behind these weapons can offer power to warlocks who form pacts with it. Many hexblade warlocks create weapons that emulate those formed in the Shadowfell. Others forgo such arms, content to weave the dark magic of that plane into their spellcasting. Because the Raven Queen is known to have forged the first of these weapons, many sages speculate that she and the force are one and that the weapons, along with hexblade warlocks, are tools she uses to manipulate events on the Material Plane to her inscrutable ends.
  • Hexblade's Curse: You have the ability to place a baleful curse on someone. As a bonus action, choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. The target is cursed for 1 minute. The curse ends early if the target dies, you die, or you are incapacitated. Until the curse ends, you gain the following benefits. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.
    • You gain a bonus to damage rolls against the cursed target. The bonus equals your proficiency bonus.
    • Any attack roll you make against the cursed target is a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20 on the d20.
    • If the cursed target dies, you regain hit points equal to your warlock level + your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1 hit point).
  • Hex Warrior:
    • You have acquired the training necessary to effectively arm yourself for battle. You gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, and martial weapons.
    • The influence of your patron also allows you to mystically channel your will through a particular weapon. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the two-handed property. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls. This benefit lasts until you finish a long rest. If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with that feature, no matter the weapon’s type.
  • Eldritch Invocations: In your study of occult lore, you have unearthed eldritch invocations, fragments of forbidden knowledge that imbue you with an abiding magical ability.
    • Agonizing Blast:When you cast eldritch blast, add your Charisma modifier to the damage it deals on a hit.
    • Devil's Sight:You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.

Smuggler Background Traits

On a rickety barge, you carried a hundred longswords in fish barrels right past the dock master’s oblivious lackeys. You have paddled a riverboat filled with stolen elven wine under the gaze of the moon and sold it for twice its value in the morning. In your more charitable times, you have transported innocents out of war zones or helped guide herd animals to safety on the banks of a burning river.

• Skill Proficiencies: Perception, Stealth
• Tools: Forgery Kit, Thieve’s Tools
• Shady Contact:
  • You have a reliable and trustworthy contact who acts as your liaison to a network of other smugglers and criminals. You know how to get messages to and from your contact, even over great distances; specifically, you know the local messengers, corrupt caravan masters, and seedy sailors who can deliver messages for you.

Faction Traits

• Sponsor: You have a senior Harper who has not only brought you into the Harpers, but helps to train you. The time it takes to learn one of the mentor's proficiencies by the Training downtime activity is reduced in half. Any given mentor usually knows 1d6 languages and 1d6 tool proficiencies. They can also arrange training with other Harpers for proficiencies outside of their own baliwick.
• Signs at Twilight: All Harpers learn the methods for contacting and getting information to the Harpers. The use of certain songs, signs to look for, identifying phrases - all the techniques that Harpers use to find one another in a cold and dangerous world. Harpers also learn the meaning, placement, and discovery of the specific Harper sigils.

Harper Pins

Wondrous Item, rare (attunement)

Wrought by certain finesmiths and enchanted by Harper magicians, the Harper pin provides a number of benefits to the attuned wearer based on their standing within the Harpers as a faction. Pins manifest power based on their attunement to Harper bearers. An un-attuned pin is referred to as being dormant.

• Basic Abilities: No ranking. Harper pins, even those which are dormant, are themselves immune to divination magics. They never register as magical to spells or spell-like abilities.
• Rank 1+. The Harper attuned to the pin may, as a bonus action and mere act of will requiring neither speech nor gesture, command the pin to change its shape into another piece of jewelry. It never appears to be worth more than 5gp, although this value can be for a piece that is obviously costume jewelry. If the wearer is in any way targeted by a dispel magic, even if the pin is not the target of that spell, it automatically reverts to its normal harp-and-moon shape.
• Rank 3+. In addition to the above abilities, the pin functions as a ring of mind shielding, without the soul-retention property of that ring.
• Rank 4+. Harpers with some experience can learn to invest their pins with a fragment of personality. Instead of causing mind-reading to simply fail (which is suspicious), they can cause the pin to "loop" a set of thoughts of their choice, usually setting a cycle of thoughts appropriate to their current cover story. A pin's thought loop can be reset during a short rest.
• Rank 5+. The pin is capable of playing a counter-tune when the attuned Harper encounters spells that would charm them, granting the bearer advantage on all saves against such spells and abilities. The pin also drinks in the power behind magic missiles, rendering the bearer immune to them. Either of these effects cause a shapechanged pin to revert to its normal, harp-and-moon shape.
• Rank 6+. The pin protects the bearer from electrical attacks, granting resistance to lightning damage. This effect causes a shapechanged pin to revert to its normal, harp-and-moon shape.
• Rank 12+. A shapechanged pin is now immune from reverting to its normal shape by any means.

• Song Training: Rank 2+. Harpers use music for a great many things - to subtly identify themselves to one another, to pass coded messages back and forth, and even the use of musical metaphor in their interactions. The Harper of this Rank may choose proficiency in a musical instrument or the Performance Skill for singing. A proficient Harper may play music that communicates something to other Harpers who hear it in a coded fashion, as well. Proficiency - Flute
• Harper's Pin: Rank 3+. Fully acknowledged agents of the Harpers receive a Harpers pin magic item (see sidebar).
• Harper Cell: Rank 3+. Harper agents are frequently put into a cell structure, giving them the support of allies without endangering the entire organization should they be compromised.
• Harper Lore: Rank 4+. Harpers gain access to repositories of arcane lore - spells known only to Harpers. These are taught by mentors or provided as spell-scrolls. These spells may be considered to be added to the spell-list of the character.
• City Lore: Rank 4+ A Harper gains familiarity with the backways and shortcuts of their main city of operation, or of any other city they spend at least a season (three months) in. These months do not have to be cumulative. You gain the "City Secrets" ability of the Urchin Background for those cities.
  • City Secrets: You know the secret patterns and flow to cities and can find passages through the urban sprawl that others would miss. When you are not in combat, you (and companions you lead) can travel between any two locations in the city twice as fast as your speed would normally allow.
• Continuing Training: Rank 5+. Harpers of this degree of experience within the group have continued their training in music, choosing another musical instrument to be proficient in. (Pan flute) They may also choose proficiency in a disguise kit, herbalism kit, or poisoner's kit. (Disguise Kit)
• Magic Access: Rank 5+. Harpers can get access to Common potions and scrolls at half the cost it takes to create those items, and have them within one day. They can get access to Uncommon potions and scrolls at the cost it takes to create those items, and have them within 1d6 days.

Spellcasting

Drow Cantrip

• Moonlight Orbs (Dancing Lights)

Sorcerer Cantrips

• Blazing Starfall
• Hand of the Dark Maiden (Mage Hand)
• Minor Illusion
• Prestidigitation

Warlock Cantrips

• Dark Maiden's Kiss (Eldritch Blast)
• Dark Moon Blade (Green-Flame Blade)

1st Level Drow Magic

• Luminescence (Faerie Fire)

1st Level Sorcerer Spells

• Absorb Elements
• Bless
• Heal (Cure Wounds)

1st Level Warlock Spells

• Frost Armor (Armor of Agathys)
• Hex
• Shield

2nd Level Drow Magic

• Darkness

2nd Level Sorcerer Spells

• Darkness
• Mirror Image

Spell Slots

Pact Slots O O Sorcerer Spell Slots O O O O

Feats

None

Resources

• Coins: x cp • x sp • x ep • 215 gp • x pp • Other coins: x
• Gems: x

Magic Items

• Cloak of Protection (w/Guardian Quirk): You gain a +1 bonus to AC and saving throws while you wear this cloak and it whispers warnings to its bearer, granting a +2 bonus to initiative if the bearer isn't incapacitated.
• Stone of Good Luck (Luckstone): While this polished agate is on your person, you gain a +1 bonus to ability checks and saving throws.
• Chain Shirt of Melee Weapon Resistance: You have a +1 bonus to AC against melee weapons while wearing this armor. Has the Vanguard quirk.
• Deflecting Shield: You have a +1 bonus to AC against ranged weapons while using this shield. Has the Deflecting quirk.

Equipment

Carried Equipment

• In Hand: Rapier, shield, daggers (2)
• Worn: Cloak of Protection, a Harper pin, chain shirt, luckstone, component bag
• Belt: component bag
• Backpack: crowbar, flute, forgery kit, hammer, mess kit, pitons (10), playing card set, potion of healing (2), rations (1o days), rope - hempen (50ft), tinderbox, torch (10), waterskin,

Stored Equipment

• clothes - common, traveler's, fine

Lifestyle

• Modest: (1 gp/day).

Backstory

Zanerith has never been entirely sure of how he came to be in custody of Arddeth Derlyn, the Half-Elf Harper who went on to raise him. Arddeth has been, and remains, tight lipped about that mission into the Underdark that saw him emerge with a Half-Drow infant. Zan has also never been sure why Arddeth didn’t hand him over to the Drow in the Ardeep Forest, where Arddeth’s estate rests beside. The gods know that Arddeth wasn’t afraid to place the infants and children that he was known for “rescuing” in unconventional situations, like he did with that bugbear infant he placed with the Dwarven Mountainflowers in Waterdeep, so placing Zan with the Drow in the Ardeep would have seemed like a good fit. However, some of the children Arddeth came into possession of he ended up raising himself on his estate. The reasons why Arddeth placed some children with others to raise, but raised some himself remained a mystery to Zan.

While Arddeth was gruff and a demanding disciplinarian, he was also not without love for his adopted charges. Zan spent his childhood and adolescence being well provided for. He enjoyed the company of his adopted brothers and sisters, of all races. But Arddeth also made sure his charges paid close attention to their studies and to their training in fighting and combat. For Zan that meant training in using his chosen weapon, the rapier, and that he was trained in the use of magic as it developed.

Arddeth had always assumed that natural magic in Zan was due to the Drow side of his heritage. However, that perception changed when Zan was 17. During that 17th year Arddeth decided it would be beneficial for Zan to experience some of his Drow cultural heritage and brought Zan, along with some of his other charges, into the Ardeep to participate in one of the festivals of the goddess Eilistraee hosted by her Drow followers living in that forest. At that festival, Zan was introduced to one of Eilistraee’s priestesses who was also known for her proficiency for seership. She proclaimed Zan as one who has been directly touched by Eilistraee with the potential to become a powerful defender and advocate of her faith. But there was more. The priestess also saw the touch of another. She gave Zan the strange title of “the Doubly Chosen” and told him that it was unclear if his path would lie with the light or the dark. She advised him that his path through this uncertainty would lie in his ability to balance both these energies and find his own way.

Zan didn’t know what to make of these proclamations. They just sounded weird. The future can’t be fixed. He was in control of his own destiny and he wasn’t going to let some old Drow woman he just met dictate his life to him. At the same time, he felt a strange pull to this new faith. He had never heard of Eilistraee before, and he had never encountered Drow before despite himself being Half-Drow. Meeting these Drow and seeing their joyous festival made him feel like he had a place to belong. And he wanted to learn more about Eilistraee.

For Arddeth’s part, he took the seer’s words in a way that Zan wasn’t expecting. Instead of embracing those words, Arddeth advised Zan that they would not be paying anymore visits to the Ardeep Drow, and he doubled down on Zan’s combat training, almost as if Zan might be able to fight off the outcome of the seer’s words.

The relationship between Zan and Arddeth started to become strained. Zan started to see his adopted guardian as a controlling taskmaster. There were many arguments. Zan also failed to heed Arddeth’s command not to associate with the Drow in the Ardeep. He regularly snuck away from the estate to meet up with the Drow and began learning about Eilistraee and her faith, participating in as many festivals as he could. He also began supplementing his combat training from Arddeth with training from Eilistraee’s followers. In particular, the Drow wizard named Dalnyon Ki'ntriel began training him in the sorcerous magic that was blossoming in him. He found in Dalnyon a mentor, a friend, and sometimes a lover.

As Zan’s training with Arddeth and the Ardeep Drow continued, He was brought into the Harpers. Arddeth started taking Zan on some missions, but never on any that involved rescuing and placing infants. Arddeth kept Zan off those missions. Zan knew they happened, but he assumed he was not yet high enough in the Harper organization to be trusted with that work.

One night, Zan overheard Arddeth and the Harper agent Zavalinda arguing. Zavalinda was chastising Arddeth, criticizing his methods, accusing him of manipulating the situations in which he was rescuing children from.

“I love all the children I save. Sometimes they need me to move their situations along so that I’m able to rescue them. The outcome is never in question. We know these children will need saving eventually. It’s better that I hasten their situations so I can put them in a better place.” Arddeth declared.

“Hasten?” Zavalinda replied. “There is a big difference between saving children and creating the situation from which they need saving.”

Arddeth was indignant. “I have provided some of the best Harper agents we have to this organization, as you well know!”

Zan had heard enough. Had Arddeth “hastened” Zan’s need for saving also? How different would his life had been if he were allowed to experience the love of his mother and father and raised among his own kind? This was the last straw. The final proof of how controlling Arddeth had been in so many ways. Zan decided that he wanted no part of Arddeth’s manipulations. Zan quickly and secretly gathered his things, left a brief note, and left that night.

The next several months were difficult. Zan made his way to several different cities, getting by as a he could. He soon found that the most effective way for him to make coin was by selling his skill with the rapier. Sometimes this meant taking on the title of an “adventurer” and sometimes it meant something a little less savory.

Eventually he met Akshay, a Half-Orc who headed up a small crew of smugglers. Zan found that it wasn’t his skill with the sword that made him useful, although that did come in handy from time to time, but he found that he was quite skilled with deception and stealth, and had a certain talent for persuading others to his point of view. All these skills combined, along with the fact that he and Akshay got along rather well in each other’s beds, made him an excellent addition to Akshay’s crew.

He picked up additional skills from Akshay, and soon found himself with a growing reputation as someone who was able to move items quickly, efficiently, and secretly, from one location to another. This did mean that at times he was working with criminals and moving things that were quite illegal, but just as often he found he was able to help people too by moving them out of dangerous places or by smuggling weapons to those who are oppressed. This helped justify the times he took on other, less noble jobs. And the coin didn’t hurt either.

On one such job, the crew was tasked with sneaking a small group of people out of Thay. The group consisted of a young noblewoman, her guard, her much older maidservant, and several others. After they had successfully completed the job, Zan found a rapier with a jet black handle left in the compartment where the people had been hiding. He assumed it had belonged to one of those they had just transported. When he touched the blade, it whispered to him. “Chosen.” It whispered to Zan in his dreams all that night. In fact, it almost felt as if Zan had made some sort of agreement, or had bargained with those whispers in his dreams. When he woke up the next morning, he couldn’t quite recall the details of those dreams, and the blade was gone. But he knew something had changed. He felt that he had new power that he had not had previously.

Several months ago, Akshay’s crew took on a job that involved smuggling a woman into Luskan. It soon became apparent that Zan and the woman knew each other. Much to his surprise, their client was the Harper agent Zavalinda. After her successful mission, she reached out to Zan. “Come back to us,” she requested. “I know how angry you are with Arddeth. Some of that is not without merit. But you’ve grown into a man of some skill. The Harpers can put those skills to good use. Do something important with those skills. Change our world for the better with those skills. You are in control of your own destiny and the Harpers truly want to help you shape that destiny... apart from the influence of Arddeth. We have a place for you if you want it.”

Important Individuals

	Zavelinda Harper • Current Mentor Zavelinda is a monk of some skill
	Arddeth Derlyn Foster Parent/Guardian • Former Mentor
	Chumley Loyal Companion • Mastiff Knows the guard trick
	Akshay Govind Smuggler • Former Employer
	Dalnyon Ki'ntriel Hand of the Protectors • Friend/Lover/Magical Mentor