Nightblood

Nightblood is a lich that resides in The Living Crypt (Location), which is in an unknown location (see below.) As a 20th level necromancer, he is one of the most powerful spellcasters in the Land of Mists. He is most notable for the creation of the living wall and the spell that creates it.

Biography

Born as Kael Norbin in Toril, Nightblood's life began as an orphaned slave to a local Red Wizard, Coerwyn. Over time, the wizard began to train Kael in the magical arts and eventually Kael gained membership into the Red Wizards himself, as a necromancer.

Kael also had a love interest, a peasant girl named Shalla. Coerwyn considered her a nuisance and impediment to Kael's education and slew her. When Kael found out, he killed his master.

Kael returned to his necromantic studies fervently, in order to find a way to resurrect Shalla. He would abduct other women from the village and killed them to fuel his dark experiments. Eventually, the populace set itself to the task of hunting him down, and with that Kael performed the ritual to become a lich, which was successful. At that very moment, the mists rolled in and claimed Nightblood and his lair for its very own. Over time he forgot his true name, and renamed himself after his actions of abducting and killing.

Current Sketch

Nightblood is more than likely continuing the very same sort of "research" that landed him in the Land of Mists in the first place. Considering his mastery of necromancy, and as shown with his twisted creation of the living wall, it could be considered likely that he has modified or created new and terrible spells and magics.

Despite all the evil he has committed, he is not a darklord and may leave his lair, which he rarely does only to procure more victims for his experiments. It is unknown if he has encountered or communicated with the Land of Mist's more well-known denizens, many of whom he would be could easily best.

Other information

The location of Nightblood's lair, the Living Crypt (Location), is presented as being at the DM's discretion, simply inside "a catacomb beneath the lands of Ravenloft."

Boris and Itzak are currently held as prisoners by Nightblood.

Statistics

male human lich Necromancer 20, Chaotic Evil

In His Own Words

The anonymous work Interview with a Lich purports to record the time spent by its author in the presence of Nightblood. The work attributes the following discourse, seemingly alluding to a living wall, to the lich:

"There is hardly a man, woman or child who does not know at least one thing worth preserving. Yet they all are to die and rot away, even the children, damning their knowledge to oblivion. No longer. I save them. I guard what they have learnt. They endure within these walls. They are not corpses difficultly unearthed. And they are not hollowed out shells of their former selves. They are at hand. They are possessed of intelligence. And once I have mastered the rite for breaking through their raving madness, few indeed will be the secrets hidden from me. And so it is time. Tell me. Tell me all. And you will serve me in life, enjoying a natural death. Otherwise, I will give you, as I have given your servant, to their grasping hands. I will wed you to them in collective torment til stone becomes sand and perhaps beyond."

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

		Book of Crypts
		Book of Crypts - pp81-82
		Book of Crypts - pp81-82
		Kael Norbin