The Nine

The Nine was a powerful, long-lasting band of adventurers that wandered the Realms for over thirty winters, formerly led by Laeral Silverhand.
==History==
===Circa 1300-1330 DR===
The band maintained a subterranean stronghold, the Stronghold of the Nine, in the High Forest, on the banks of the Unicorn Run. Before they disbanded, they had links to the Harpers and the Lords of Waterdeep. One of the members, Laeral Silverhand, was using a different name as a leader.
The fortress used to be a dwarven outpost, but under contract, the dwarves expanded it closer to the Unicorn Run under contract for the adventurers.
===Crown of Horns===
In the , the Nine acquired the Crown of Horns from a crypt underneath Yûlash. When Laeral Silverhand, the leader of the group, donned the headpiece, she descended into madness and the band fragmented into three warring parties.
By , four of the Nine had died; only "Laeral", a wizard, a thief, a warrior, and a priest remained alive and still ensconced in the stronghold. The "Laeral" in that stronghold was visited briefly by Amelior Amanitas, who became imprisoned while looking for a potion of stone to flesh, sometime between Marpenoth 1 and Nightal 1. Unknown to him, that was a simulacrum left behind by Laeral, who had been rescued by Khelben Arunsun; while it was publicly believed that he'd rescued her around , she had been in his tower by already, up and active after a long recovery from madness and from a battle of spells with Khelben that left malingering sequels in the High Forest.
===After Laeral's Rescue===
Laeral only kept regular contact with two members of the Nine after her enslavement and subsequent rescue from the Crown: Thanadar of Dragonrock and Arnthiir Windrivv. The two of them were forced to change their names due to a magical curse that allowed any knowing hordlings to teleport themselves to the location of any of the Nine simply by speaking their names.
The stronghold was largely uninhabited a decade later; it was reasonable to expect a gate to Blackstaff Tower. Shortly after, it was reclaimed by a band of elven adventurers who claimed the same name, apparently with the previous leader's blessing.
===1479 DR===
Most nobles of Cormyr had heard rumors that some of the Nine still existed in the post-Spellplague world, trapped in magic items, and could be summoned forth from those items by those who hold them - and know how to activate them - to fight as the item-bearers' slaves. By 1479 DR, only two of these entrapped spirits, known as Blueflame ghosts, had been discovered: Treth Halonter and Relve Langral, trapped in the Wyverntongue Chalice and Flying Blade respectively.
Manshoon claimed to know of the existence of six - maybe seven - items containing souls of the Nine.
==Known Members==
* Laeral Silverhand was the leader.
* Thanadar of Dragonrock was one of the survivors, a ranger;
* Arnthiir Windrivv was another such survivor, a bard.
* Treth Halonter was a warrior who almost certainly perished before the Crown was destroyed,
* Relve Langral was another survivor, a rogue, who also most certainly perished before the Crown's destruction.
* 4 other members, a fighter, a rogue, a wizard and a cleric, left unnamed, had endured to , but only two survived past Laeral's rescue.
==Appendix==
===References===
Category:Adventuring companies