The Halls of Stormweather

The Halls of Stormweather, a novel in seven parts, is the first installment of the Sembia: Gateway to the Realms series, exploring the merchant-nation of Sembia.
== Chapters == 
:Editorial – Philip Athans
# "The Burning Chalice" – Ed Greenwood (1293–1369 DR)
# "Song of Chaos" – Richard Lee Byers (1370 DR)
# "Night School" – Clayton Emery (1370 DR)
# "The Price" – Voronica Whitney-Robinson (1370 DR)
# "Thirty Days" – Dave Gross (1370 DR)
# "Resurrection" – Paul S. Kemp (1370 DR)
# "Skin Deep" – Lisa Smedman (1370 DR)
==Summary==
The Patriarch: The Burning Chalice. Thamalon Uskevren, a businessman in Selgaunt, meets with his rival, Presker Talendar, in front of three legal witnesses and a sixth man, who claims to be Thamalon’s elder brother Perivel, thought to have died in a fire. As the older brother, Perivel claims ownership of Stormweather Towers, the home of the Uskevrens, intending to use it to pay off a debt to the Talenders. However, Thamalon realizes that “Perivel” is an imposter. He remembers how houses Soargyl and Talender attacked and burned Stormweather Towers after his father Aldimar was accused of dealing with pirates. To test Perivel, the Burning Chalice, which burns all but Uskevrens, is brought forth. It doesn't burn Perivel, but Thamalon’s hired wizard Cordrivval accuses Iristar Velvaunt, a hired wizard for the Talendars, of enchanting it. Iristar uses a spell to kill Cordrivval in a manner resembling a heart attack. The gauntlet burns Thamalon, but does not burn a maid, and Ansible Loakrin, Lawmaster of Selgaunt and another witness, declares it insufficient proof.
The Matriarch: Song of Chaos. Shamur Uskevren takes her daughter Thazienne to see an opera written by famous author Guerren Bloodquill, put on by the eccentric Hulorn, Andeth Ilchammar. She notices strange occurrences and that most of the crowd seems enchanted and unresponsive while the opera goes on. Suddenly, Shamur and Thazienne seem to rapidly shift between different times and places. First they are arriving once again at the performance, then they are outside the theater being attacked by a servant of the Hulorn, then Shamur is in the midst of robbing Gundar, a dwarven rival, in the days when she used to be a thief many years ago. Shamur and Thazienne determine the opera is causing the strange phenomena, and set forth to stop it, while Shamur has more visions of her past, including a battle from her time as an adventurer that sent her fifty years forward in time. Shamur is forced to reveal her fighting abilities, which she had previously kept secret in front of Thazienne. She has a vision of the death of her grand niece, also named Shamur, after she reconnected with her family, the Karns. The younger Shamur was engaged to Thamalon Uskevren to save the family from debt, so the elder Shamur used the family resemblance to take her place. In the present, Shamur and Thazienne find Quyance, a man who objected to the Hulorn putting on the performance. He tells them the music was composed to create a permanent realm of primal chaos. Shamur experiences a vision of her attacking Thamalon that, unlike the others, she doesn't remember. They stop the music and Shamur avoids revealing her true identity.
The Heir: Night School. Tamlin Uskevren, heir to the family, is attacked along with his bodyguards Vox and Escevar by a group of gnashers, which are strange bat-winged dogs, and a barbarian. They fend off the attack and continue to a secret meeting with another noble named Zarrin Foxmantle, a mission given to Tamlin by Thamalon. They find that Zarrin was also attacked by the dogs, and discuss the purpose of the meeting: taking advantage of the absence of the Soargyls to claim their businesses. Another gnasher attack interrupts the meeting. They escape the attack, realizing the dogs were after Tamlin and Zarrin. Returning to Stormweather, Thamalon is incensed by the poor terms Tamlin negotiated, and sends him out again to get a better deal. Tamlin gets increasingly drunk searching taverns for Zarrin, and in his drunken state agrees to hire a young artist named Symbaline for the family. Vox pays with distinctive coins taken from the barbarian, and the group hits in the idea of tracking the coins to find the others behind the gnasher attacks. They track the coins to Ratigan the Green, a wizard who has kidnapped Zarrin. They defeat Ratigan, and Tamlin negotiates a better deal with Zarrin before rescuing her.
The Daughter: The Price. Thazienne Uskevren is attending a party with her mother Shamur, where she dances with her friends Steorf and Ebeian, both of whom know she sneaks away into the city in disguise as a thief and adventurer. She plans to rob Ciredor, one of her suitors, of a diamond stud she gave him, then demand to see it once he no longer has it. She saves a blind woman from Calimshan named Fannah il’Qun from robbers and discovers that Ciredor brought her to the city and marked her arm with a tattoo that he has on his neck. Breaking into Ciredor’s home, she discovers a boy with the same mark, horrifically dismembered but still alive. Ciredor arrives, revealing he is a mage who marks many for use in his experiments and was hired by the Soargyls to kidnap Thazienne. Steorf arrives to help and together they force Ciredor to retreat, but not before he reveals that Steorf is paid by Thamalon, Thazienne’s father. Thazienne is furious and cuts ties with Steorf.
The Second Son: Thirty Days. Talbot Uskevren flees unseen monsters that slaughter most of his hunting party in the Arch Wood. He awakens being cared for by women who mention the name Dhauna Myritar, but when he hears them discussing possibly killing him he escapes. He makes his way back to Selgaunt, reconnecting with his family, his friend Chaney Foxmantle, his servant Eckart, his childhood friend Larajin, who is now a maid serving the family, and the theater troupe he is part of, led by Madam Quickly. After humiliating Alale Soargyl, a rival at a fencing school for nobles, he is rebuked by Radu Malveen, a fellow noble student and skilled fencer who criticizes Talbot for not taking matches seriously. Later, Talbot awakens to a scene of carnage in his bedroom, finding Alale and another man slaughtered and a third man locked in his closet. He learns from the third man that Alale and the men intended to break into his house and beat him, but found a werewolf instead. Talbot realizes he has become a werewolf and travels to Madam Quickly’s theater, since they have a powerful cage and an enchanted sword. However, the women who were caring for him in the forest arrive. They introduce themselves as Feena and Maleva, servants of Selûne, and reveal that there is hope for Talbot, as he has not yet killed in his wolf form. They reveal that Alale was killed by Rusk, a werewolf who serves Malar and who was in responsible for the attack on Talbot's hunting party. They offer him Moonfire, which will let him control the beast, but Rusk interrupts and attacks. Talbot severs his arm and he flees. He declines to drink the Moonfire, not wanting to commit to serving Selune, and considers the mystery of why Rusk has taken a special interest in him, noting that he has thirty days to find a solution to his werewolf problem.
The Butler: Resurrection. Erevis Cale is tailed by an assassin. Displaying similar skills, he incapacitates the assassin, learns he was sent by House Malveen, and kills the assassin. He meets with a man named Drasek Riven. Both men are Night Knives who answer to the Righteous Man, leader of the guild. Cale has been on a long-term mission to uncover blackmail material on Thamalon, but the Night Knives have become impatient with his lack of progress and need influence on the government, as they have promised to influence a decision by the Hulorn in favor of an agent of the Red Wizards of Thay. Drasek informs him that he is ordered to kidnap Talbot for ransom. Cale has become loyal to the Uskevrens over the years, respecting Thamalon and deeply caring for Thazienne, and is unwilling to go through with the kidnapping, but equally unwilling to expose his association with the Knives. He reaches out to Jak Fleet, a halfling priest of Brandobaris, for help killing the team intended to take Talbot. Cale also tells Jak his past. He was a former member of the Night Masks until he was caught skimming money and forced to flee. When attending the site of the planned kidnapping, Cale discovers dead Night Knives and realizes it is a trap. Drasek attacks with a group of Zhentarim. Cale realizes he is a Zhentarim double agent working to sabotage the plan to prevent the Red Wizards from achieving their goal. Jak leads him to safety, revealing himself to be a Harper. Since Talbot was never at the ambush, Drasek knows that Cale also betrayed the Night Knives, so they reluctantly agree to keep each other’s secrets.
The Maid: Skin Deep. Larajin, a maid, agrees to retrieve a rare flower named Selune’s Kisses from the Hulorn’s hunting garden. While there, she sees a wounded tressym and the Hulorn, whose body is partially monstrous. Later, she is accosted in an alleyway by a wild elf, but the elf leaves without harming her. She tries to pass through the sewers leading to the garden along with Talbot to rescue the tressym, but they are attacked by monstrous rats, and Talbot flees immediately, fearing a werewolf transformation. A meeting between Larajin and Talbot is misconstrued to be a romantic encounter, leading to each of them having confrontations with their parents. Larajin learns from her parents that she was adopted by her mother in Tall Trees. A close friend of her mother and a Harper, Habrith, reveals that Larajin is half-elven and that Thamalon is her father, and wild elves are in the city searching for her. Larajin returns to the garden and heals the tressym with magic granted by her prayers to both Sune and Hanali Celanil, but she is discovered by the Hulorn and an unknown mage. The mage attempts to kill her, but the wild elves who had been hunting her appear and sacrifice their lives to protect her. She returns to her duties at Stormweather Towers, now with knowledge of her heritage and origin.
==Appendix==
===Gallery===
File:TheHallsofStormweather1.jpg|Original cover
File:TheHallsofStormweather.jpg|Reissued cover
===References===
Category:Novels
Halls of Stormweather
Category:Books
Category:Published in 2000
Category:Published in 2007