Tulrun Tulrun of the Tent ( pronounced " TULL - run " ) was an uthgardt weretiger archmage who was , for a time , cursed into the form of a tiefling . Description . When Tulrun was a weretiger , he was tall and powerfully built , with pale skin that was covered in fine red and white hairs , striped like a tiger ' s . He had bright blue eyes , and wore his red hair long and unkempt with a red goatee beard that stretched beyond his chest . When he was a tiefling , Tulrun was instead a short , slender man with fine features , red scaly skin and short white hair . His hands had turned into talons . He tended to wear a thick , wolfskin jacket and bearskin leggings along with a woollen kilt . He was most often seen bearing a roughly hewn ironwood staff shaped like a large cat , a necklace of totems and a pair of mithral bracers in the shape of tiger ' s heads with sapphire s for eyes . Personality . Tulrun was bad tempered , argumentative and uncooperative but had occasional bouts of friendliness and cheerfulness . He avoided people when he could , never truly having escaped the distrust of civilisation inherent to his ancestors . He didn ' t trust easily or make many friends for fear of losing them . This was because , beneath his almost hostile facade lurked a soft hearted , personable individual who loved easily and was sensitive enough to drift into a deep sadness when that love was unrequited or lost - angrily regressing into himself when those he was closest to died . He never possessed even half a dozen close friends at any one time , but they saw his true self : a talkative man who laughed heartily and often ; A man who enjoyed good food , strategy games , strong mead and wrestling . Tulrun ' s one true love though , was magic . Abilities . As a weretiger , Tulrun possessed uncanny strength and had a natural affinity for acts of acrobatics . He was also a highly adept spellcaster , specialising in the transmutation and conjuration schools . He was a skilled herbalist and , having lived through much of its recent history , was an adept sage on the lore of the Silver Marches . Combat Tactics . Tulrun preferred to avoid direct combat , instead employing spells that would force others to do the fighting for him . A favourite tactic was to use a " summon monster " spell to distract an enemy , " teleport " to a monster lair that he knew of and then use another " teleport " spell on the lair ' s occupant , sending it to the middle of the fight he ' d just left . If the abducted combatants proved victorious , Tulrun would return them home with half of whatever valuables his attacker possessed . Tulrun also kept " imprisoned " enemies deep beneath the surface of the Cold Wood . He would sometimes lure a foe to the location above where such an enemy was trapped , cast " freedom " and " teleport " away to " scry " on the outcome , re - " imprison " ing the exhausted winner . If forced into a direct confrontation , Tulrun would cast several defensive spells upon himself and " polymorph " into another shape to battle in melee . Possessions . Tulrun had access to a large number of magic items but his most iconic was his " catstaff " , which granted him the stealth and agility of a feline while he was in his human form , as long as he was in physical contact with it and could create supernatural shadows for him to hide in . Relationships . Tulrun ' s enemies seemed numberless while his friends were few . He had managed to upset the majority of the powerful individuals he ' d met in his life and in particular , was vilified by white dragons . He was frequently challenged to combat by his personal foes , monsters and ambitious wizards . He would rather lose contact with a friend than risk seeing them hurt and rarely ventured outside of his tent to meet people . He had lost too many friends in the past to actively wish to make more and later lose them too . History . Tulrun was born Tallrunner Tigris to Chief Tawnclaw Tigris of the Red Tiger Uthgardt tribe and " the Mother Tiger " , a shaman of Chauntea . Tallrunner was a natural weretiger , a condition that he inherited from his father , but grew fascinated with magic , which was frowned upon by his barbarian fellows . As a young man in 659 DR , Tallrunner discovered a golden scroll while exploring the lands surrounding Beorunna ' s Well and , against his father ' s wishes , travelled to Silverymoon to demand an audience with Ecamane Truesilver . Tallrunner offered his scroll to Ecamane in return for apprenticeship to a powerful wizard . Ecamane accepted the trade and sent him to Myth Drannor to study in the Incanistaeum . Tallrunner was apprenticed to Mentor Wintercloak , one of the Seven Wizards there and when the elves mispronounced his name ( calling him " TOOL - roon - AYE " ) , Tallrunner adopted Tulrun as his new name . Tulrun was adept at his craft but struggled to find peace in Myth Drannor , instead quenching his wanderlust in Anauroch to the west , taking as his travelling companion a crystal dragon named Krustalonos , who also hailed from Tulrun ' s ancestral lands . Tulrun also tried his hand at teaching others , and was one of Elminster ' s tutors . While travelling without Krustalonos in the centre of Anauroch in 692 DR , Tulrun rediscovered the lost Abbey of the Moon and encountered one of Selûne ' s Shard s , who led him through a " portal " to Ysgard , where he spent more than a century . When he returned to Faerûn in 811 DR , he discovered Myth Drannor in ruins and Krustalonos seemingly vanished . He spent most of his time as an insane tiger in the north for the next quarter - century until he met Lynnàsha Nharimlur , who calmed his bestial spirit and became his lover . The two lived in Silverymoon together and , after a failed attempt to resume teaching at the Lady ' s College , retired to a tower outside of the city . They thereafter both accompanied Elué Dualen and her apprentices to the Outer Planes to battle a tanar ' ri lord with designs on northern Faerûn but Lynnàsha was killed in the fighting , leaving Tulrun inconsolable . He transported himself to the Beastlands and resumed his life of bestiality as a tiger . An avatar of Selûne appeared to him to once more calm his spirit in 937 DR and he returned again to the Material Plane but refused to go near Silverymoon again . Instead , he decided to search for his lost friend Krustalonos , a search that took three years and ended in the discovery of his friend ' s skeleton in the lair of Sneighfanglen , a powerful white dragon . In a rage , Tulrun slaughtered the Spawn of Auril , her mate and all but one of their children , a hatchling named Arauthator , who managed to evade the furious archmage . Tulrun retreated to the Cold Wood to study transmutation s for the next three centuries and created his famous tent until finally being drawn out of seclusion by the battles between Alustriel Silverhand and Shaloss Ethenfrost in 1235 DR . Tulrun led an army of orc s to Alustriel ' s aid in the Battle of Tumbleskulls and aided in Silverymoon ' s reconstruction once Alustriel had consolidated her rule . Although he refused to join the Spellguard , Tulrun was a reliable ally in the face of danger for the next four decades until suddenly , in 1279 DR , Tulrun severed all contact with his friends and allies . Two weeks later he repelled the first of a decade ' s worth of attacks against his tent . Despite offers of help from Silverymoon against the waves of foes he faced , Tulrun faced every one alone and won , fearful of bringing harm to the city . In 1289 DR , Tulrun contacted the one he had long known was responsible for the attacks , Arauthator , now a mature adult dragon who hoped to remove the danger posed by the one who ' d killed his entire family . Face - to - face with his foe , Arauthator agreed to leave the civilised parts of the Silver Marches alone if Tulrun extended him the same courtesy . Tulrun was convinced that some greater evil was manipulating Arauthator and spent the vast majority of his time attempting to discover that entity ' s identity . Towards that goal , he took to exploring Anauroch once more but while doing so , triggered a powerful Netherese curse that transformed him into a tiefling . He retreated to his tent , cutting himself off from the world and becoming a reclusive hermit , his only companions , a trio of beautiful flesh golem s . In 1374 DR , Tulrun numbered among the many powerful mages Khelben Arunsun brought together in order to restore the denizens of the lost city of Miyeritaar and cleanse part of the High Moor . He also regained his true nature as a weretiger . Activities . Even before he was transformed into a tiefling and became a recluse , Tulrun had delegated his investigations into Arauthator ' s alleged controller to a network of spies who looked for any clue they could on his behalf in the western realms . He also took personal responsibility for the welfare of the Red Tiger Uthgardt , making sure that Luruar ( a project he supported ) , when it was in the process of being formed , did not encroach on his tribe ' s ancestral lands . The tribe venerated him as a particularly honoured ancestor in thanks for his work . Appearance . " Blackstaff ( novel ) "