Rhespen Ash

Rhespen Ash was an elven wizard, deputy to the gold dragon king Orchtrien of Dawnfire during the Time of Dragons. In his betrayal of the king, he furnished the elves with the fundaments of the creation of the Dracorage mythal.
==Personality==
Rhespen Ash was honorable, loyal, and cheerful to a fault, concerned mainly with working within the laws of the kingdom to improve the lot of its elves. However, he had no patience for fiends or for those who chained the minds of others.
==Abilities==
Notably, Rhespen could speak with animals.
Rhespen possessed an extremely broad repertoire of spells, including one to amplify his voice, and a number of protections, which he employed during an ambuscade in -25090. He also showed the ability to cast invisibility. During a later duel, one of his wards was effective against lightning, and he employed spells akin to manyjaws and shatterfloor. Another of his charms bolstered vitality, and he possessed a spell that lifted him in the air. He also showed a number of other spells in combat with a dragon, including sending, silent image, some variant of summon monster, web, fleshshiver, another spell akin to Horizikaul's boom though predating it by millenia, and an especially aggressive form of major creation capable of creating a stone inside someone's throat; that spell's material component was a chip of granite, and another spell that summoned whirlwinds. Another spell created an icicle, otherwise behaving similarly to ice dagger. Other spells he was known to cast included a version of suggestion and forget. Other spells he cast were virtually identical to dimension door, mirror image, blink, ice storm, Melf's acid arrow, magic missile. lightning bolt, shrink item, some manner of spell that broke existing enchantments, akin to banish, a spell that altered magical auras, akin to Nystul's magic aura, and some sort of mass summoning spell that brought literate air spirits to transcribe enchantments. He also had spells to disguise himself long-term, to transform into a small bird.
After transcribing Orchtrien's magic, Rhespen also showed knowledge of teleport and likely power word, stun. Other spells he had gained were almost certainly black blade of disaster, acid rain, fly, and likelygreater dispel magic.
==Possessions==
The wizard had a truesilver staff, that granted him the power of levitation. The staff was keyed to him, and he could call it to himself with his voice, or in extremis, with an act of will. That staff had the power to unlock doors it was touched to, and also store spells. He also had boots that made no noise with each step, almost certainly boots of elvenkind.
==Activities==
To better curry favor with King Orchtrien, Rhespen constantly sought to be at the heart of the fighting.
==Relationships==
Rhespen Ash was a deputy for King Orchtrien; he was a rival of fellow deputy Maldur Breakstone. One of his lieutenants was Serdel. He fell in love at one point with the spy Winterflower Duskmere. One of his informers was a small raven, called Thorn (bird).
==History==
===-25090 DR===
As of -25090 DR, Rhespen Ash had served under King Orchtrien of Dawnfire for over a century. On that year, he was drawn into an ambush by three elven houses in the heart of Orchtrien's kingdom that had requested for help with raiding trolls; before he was able to issue a surrender, his forces were bolstered by Prince Bexendral, who teleported into the situation, broke enemy lines, and routed the rebels. He later argued before the king in Dawnfire that being merciful with the elven traitors might be advisable; the King heeded him, and called on him to be the tutor and host to the heirs of the Starfall, Vilirith, and Duskmere traitor houses, so that their children would be educated in Orchtrien's own court and serve as hostages to ensure their good behavior. Rhespen protested mildly about this, as he meant to join the king in his wars, but went unheeded. The elven wizard later met with the hostages, including Winterflower Duskmere, who came in a covered coach. He cast a spell of invisibility on the coach to push her into showing herself and into seeing the city of Dawnfire. Their converse was nonetheless somewhat coarse throughout the trip, with her finding fault with all during the trip, and Rhespen defending it.
During a later feast in celebration of Orchtrien's victory over the forces of the red triumvirate, Winterflower Duskmere was asked for a song by King Orchtrien. After Maldur Breakstone accused her of maligning the king with its lyrics, Rhespen rose to her defense, and Orchtrien commanded them to fight, so that there would be a martial amusement to celebrate the martial victory, and also to put a conclusion to their long-ongoing grudge. Rhespen was the victor of the contest, but Orchtrien bid him stop rather than deliver a killing blow. After the feast, he gained the favor of Lady Winterflower, though they both admitted that they knew Winterflower meant offense with that song. They grew closer together after that; by the next ball, Rhespen transmitted a similar request to Lady Winterflower, but with a less suggestive song this time. Rhespen helped her somewhat with her jitters prior to the performance, but took note of how many dances the King had with her afterwards. He noticed later that the King continued on this fixation with Lady Winterflower, and requested that Orchtrien stop pursuing her. Orchtrien, in response, sent him to do some winter raiding, an especially grueling and likely deadly task. Rhespen talked with Winterflower about this, and promised he'd request her hand in marriage once he returned.
===-25089 DR===
During that winter raid on ,The year changes during winter in Faerûn, and the scenes in the winter raid imply a significant amount of time has passed since the start of winter. Thus, this article is written under the assumption that these scenes take place in -25089, rather than -25090; the rest of the story happens in spring and after, which must unambiguously happen in the next year. Rhespen Ash was faced with an attack come from a green dragon personally, and attempted a sending to request King Orchtrien's help. The summons went unanswered, but clever use of spells allowed his men to defeat the dragon, earning Rhespen the title of dragonslayer. Upon his arrival to Dawnfire, Rhespen Ash was met by Maldur, who provided him with fresh horses and clothing, and also informed him that Winterflower had become the King's consort. During the reception, Rhespen Ash mentioned the spell he'd sent requesting the king's help; the king simply said that the sending never reached him. After the party, Rhespen noticed that Winterflower seemed occassionally distressed in the King's presence, staring at Rhespen himself with horror.
Rhespen went to her one night while the King was away at the south, bewitching the honor guard watching her tower, and convincing them to let him pass, ostensibly so he could retrieve an important document. Inside, he talked to her, and was told that she was under an intermittent charm cast on her by Orchtrien, to better convince her to be his concubine. He cast a spell to make her forget their meeting, and devised a new plan. He snuck inside Orchtrien's laboratory at the top of a tower, and became aghast at a bound ghargatula, realizing the king was not above binding fiends; nonetheless, unable to prevail in direct combat against it, he still managed to banish it. He then summoned creatures to transcribe all of Orchtrien's sorcerous materials. After studying them, he managed a great charm of unbinding, which appeared to be sufficient to break the magic on Winterflower; however, he was caught mingling with her by Maldur, who believed he'd been seeing her behind the King's back. To Maldur's surprise, Rhespen admitted to having transcribed Orchtrien's magical texts, denying he had been seeing Winterflower. Winterflower took the texts, Rhespen's staff, and escaped.
Rhespen was tortured afterwards, and then visited by Orchtrien. The dragon assured him that he had placed no enchantments on Winterflower, and reasoned that she'd responded to his flirting to better position herself as a spy and potential regicide, then convinced Rhespen of her mind control so that perhaps he'd be turned against the King, and maybe slay him. Rhespen was aghast, and asked for an opportunity to redeem himself, but he was rebuffed. Afterwards, still trapped and injured, Rhespen managed to call on his staff to come to him, despite being gagged, and escaped, sneaking into the king's forces with a disguise to try and get ahead of them, recover the book copies, and perhaps regain the king's favor. One of his bird informants showed him the way to the rebel hideout, but Orchtrien arrived soon after, trapped the rebel stronghold under a dome of magic, and Rhespen's plan fell apart that way; he quickly decided to join the rebels instead, and fight perhaps for a Faerun with elves wielding some of that dragon magic.
When Orchtrien finally came with his army, Rhespen held him off, giving the rebels time to scatter with the copies of Orchtrien's spellbooks. However, he was ultimately slain.
==Legacy==
After his death, Winterflower Duskmere was the only runner who managed to elude the forces of Orchtrien. However, rather than powerful spells, the copy of his tomes only contained a treatise on the relationship between dragons and the fundamental forces. She almost gave up, but her work afterwards formed the basis of the Dracorage mythal.
==Appendix==
===Notes===
===Appearances===
===References===
Category:Elves
Category:Wizards
Category:Males
Category:Inhabitants of masculine gender
Category:Commanders
Category:Inhabitants of Toril
Category:Inhabitants of Faerûn
Category:Officials
Category:Inhabitants of Dawnfire