Orthil Voldovan

Orthil Voldovan was a caravan driver in the Sword Coast during the mid-14 century DR.
==Appearance==
Voldovan was a hulking, hairy man, with gnarled limbs. His hair was white, and his eyebrows quite bushy as of .
==Relationships==
Orthil Voldovan was an acquaintance of Rendilar Bluthlock. Tessaril Winter, too, was an acquaintance of his.
He had numerous guards he knew for a long time; they all went by their first name only, with the inexplicable exception of Darhabran Windhome. Though some of Voldovan's guards were Harpers, he wasn't a Harper himself.
==Possessions==
Voldovan's wagons had a metal flap covering a hole in the ground to let spillages out.
==Reputation==
Orthil was a "good man", to Tessaril Winter.
==History==
In , Tessaril Winter instructed Shandril Shessair and Narm Tamaraith to join Voldovan's caravan to make the road from Scornubel to Waterdeep, telling them also that Beldimarr and Arauntar, of his men, were Harpers. Narm and Shandril stuck to the plan while in Scornubel. They were aided in finding him by Marlel, who cautioned them Orthil was leaving on the morning. Once they finally came across Orthil Voldovan, he wanted initially ten gold pieces for Narm and Shandril, but she talked him down to four.
He departed Scornubel with a caravan of thirty-two wagons, plus two "ready-wagons", one wagon for strongboxes and small cargo, and a cook wagon. Orthil was pleased when Shandril and Narm asked to disguise themselves as guards, which they did during the departure from Scornubel. However, even from the start, one of his guards, Storstil, was slain almost as soon as they left Scornubel, and spells in the wagons killed two people. He quickly began to suspect Shandril and Narm at that point, though he had eyewitnesses that placed them away from the murder scenes.
Orthil claimed to be traveling with one mage, but believe there were a dozen more amongst the travelers; rather than find the culprit, he priorized making it to Face Crag before nightfall, which made for a better defensible position. Along the way, they were attacked before making it to the crag.
During the ambush, Voldovan tied up Narm, believing him to have gone out of line by trying to go find Shandril, abandoning his post, rather than protecting the part of the caravan where he had been assigned. Voldovan later approached Shandril, who was with Thorst; he called on her to find some of his healing accoutrements, and ordered Arauntar and Beldimarr, one of which had slain two bandits during the ambush, to drive Thorst's wagon.
Arauntar informed Shandril one morning during the run that she was oversleeping and Orthil was in a rush. Orthil later personally came to demand why she wasn't up. Over some thrusk, Orthil informed them that a number of people had gone missing during the night, and that there were tracks of wild beasts near the caravan, but none of them came to the caravan itself, and also that bandits would almost certainly be shadowing the caravan along the path still. During their conversation Arauntar and Beldimarr turned up and said how they'd arranged for some goods to be moved to the abandoned wagons, still in better shape; Shandril resolved she and Narm would drive on the same wagon, which Beldimarr approved of, claiming they'd be easier to keep track of. Orthil accepted that arrangement.
During that morning, Arauntar and Beldimarr inspected the wagon belonging to Mhegras and Sabran, twice; the second time, they checked on the secret floor they had spotted the first time. Voldovan was summoned for that. The master of the caravan brought along Shandril and Narm, and the latter checked the contraband horse barding for magic; finding nothing of interest, they left.
After a later ambush, Orthil Voldovan personally sought out Shandril and Narm, and took them to Arauntar and Beldimarr. The latter was about to fulfill a pact with Arauntar, to dispatch him painlessly if mortally wounded; instead, Shandril used her spellfire to heal him. She later used her power to heal Beldimarr; she found the limit of her strength there. Voldovan called afterwards on everyone to hurry to Orcskull Rise.
During the next ambush, after Orcskull Rise, Shandril heard Orthil's expletives to the spell that Aumlar Chauntoun called down, which was rather crude. Orthil Voldovan started considering swording Shandril more seriously after he noticed about a dozen wagons wrecked and on fire at the end of the ambush. Approaching Triel, Voldovan told Darhabran Windhome that he was already willing to kill Shandril.
At Duskview house, Orthil Voldovan and Beldimarr met with herald Stormshield for hiring new sellswords as guards. Briefly, Beldimarr was distracted by another Harper he'd never seen telling him the Three Laws would soon apply on every city; Orthil, after that moment, seemed to have difficulty recognizing Beldimarr, and spoke more stiffly.
==Thavaun Impersonation==
During the night after leaving Triel, Arauntar and Beldimarr had to protect Shandril and Narm again, as a magic-drinking entity, Evaereol Rathrane, had the caravan in its influence and was blocking both her spellfire and his spells. Sharantyr reached the caravan at this point, and Arauntar took her to be another hunter after spellfire. Only Shandril's intervention prevented them from killing each other; Sharantyr, after that point, said that the man pretending to be Orthil Voldovan wasn't. Beldimarr was then mortally wounded; when Shandril attempted to heal him, she failed, and instead slew him. Orthil ordered all the guards away from Shandril at that point.
Unknown to them, Orthil had been replaced by a red wizard while in Triel: Thavaun. Thavaun had Shandril and Narm sleep in Voldovan's wagon. As Shandril's spellfire went almost completely out of control, the fake Voldovan stabbed Narm from behind, mortally wounding him. Arauntar was the one who finally slew Thavaun, after the latter lowered his guard on watching Shandril disintegrate.
==Appendix==
===Notes===
===Appearances===
===References===
Category:Inhabitants of Scornubel
Category:Inhabitants of the Sword Coast
Category:Inhabitants of the Western Heartlands
Category:Inhabitants of West Faerûn
Category:Inhabitants of Faerûn
Category:Inhabitants of Toril
Category:Year of Manuscripts
Category:Caravan leaders