Grodoveth

Lord Grodoveth was a nobleman of Cormyr in the mid–14 century DR who served as an envoy of the crown. Secretly, he was also a member of the Iron Throne mercantile organization and part of a spy ring based in Ghars.
==Description==
He was tall, with a big, muscular build. For official duties, he wore a cloak displaying a royal crest. He was left-handed.
==Personality==
Grodoveth was known to have quite a short temper. For example, while in Ghars, he had the local tailor sew the crest back on his cloak, but the hungover man did the job a little crooked and, enraged, Grodoveth nearly drew his sword on him.
He was also rather lecherous, with a predatory eye for beautiful women. Though he attempted subtlety, he lacked tact and would make advances that were unwelcome or even offensive.
==Relationships==
He was the husband of Beatrice, who was a cousin of King Azoun IV, which made Grodoveth a relative to the crown as well.
Grodoveth was a former student and later friend of Tobald. Later in life, they often played chess together. However, Benelaius suspected they had a deeper bond forged from them both having known disgrace and resenting their superiors, which led to their spying and betrayal of their kingdom.
==Activities==
As envoy, it was Grodoveth's duty to carry news and messages to King Azoun IV in Suzail and to Lord Sarp Redbeard in Wheloon, who was his supervisor. This involved much hard riding between all the towns of Cormyr's southeast, from the Way of the Manticore to Thunderstone and from the Wyvernwater to the Vast Swamp, with the town of Ghars near the center.
In this capacity, Grodoveth acquired much economic data from across southeast Cormyr, information that was coveted by the Iron Throne. Thus, while in Ghars, he related this information to fellow Iron Throne member Mayor Tobald and to their recruit, a local blacksmith's assistant named Dovo. Dovo's task was to go out at nights to the edge of the Vast Swamp and signal coded messages to another, unnamed agent within or beyond the swamp in Sembia. To allay suspicion, Grodoveth suggested that Dovo disguise himself as the ghost of the bandit chieftain Fastred; this scared off those who saw him, and if caught he could pass it off as just a prank. Grodoveth was too high profile to be caught doing this himself. They used the Swamp Rat tavern outside town as their base of operations for their signaling and fake ghost sightings. Worse still, Grodoveth and Tobald both received from the Iron Throne vials of blackweed meant to poison the whole town and assassinate the Grand Council of the Merchants' Guild during their meeting in Ghars on Eleint 19 in 1367 DR, marking them both as would-be mass murderers as well.
==History==
As a young man, Grodoveth studied at the University of Suzail, where he was a student of Tobald, who was later dismissed from his position for unknown reasons.
Although a relative of the king, Grodoveth was said to have committed a wanton indiscretion (rumored to involve a prostitute in a Suzail tavern) that not only dishonored himself but risked embarrassing the throne. With only his family connections protecting him, Azoun had him effectively exiled from the city by making him a lowly envoy. Given Grodoveth's resentment of his situation, it seemed likely that an unknown Iron Throne agent found him a perfect target for turning to their side with promises of wealth and potentially even a position of power should Sembia invade Cormyr. Tobald, now mayor of Ghars, invited Grodoveth to stay at his house when in town, which was roughly every two weeks. On these occasions, Grodoveth presumably brought Tobald into the Iron Throne and the spy ring as well, and local man Dovo, who was probably duped with a false story of serving Cormyrean agents or smugglers and tempted with the money and the chance to frighten the town.
While on his journeys, Grodoveth started visiting the Ghars library in Tarsakh of the , where he researched the Vast Swamp and the legends of the bandit chieftain Fastred. He would come in occasionally over the following months for this purpose. These legends gave him the idea of disguising Dovo as Fastred's ghost to cover up his signaling.
But by mid-Eleint, Dovo had become a problem, overstepping his place and acting too familiar with the mayor and royal envoy. He asked too many annoying questions of the envoy at Aunsible Durn's smithy and, when Dovo pulled too hard whilst leading his horse and causing it to stumble, Grodoveth hit him, knocking him to the ground, before giving him a veiled warning. Finally, on the night of Eleint 16, Grodoveth and Tobald visited the Bold Bard for drinks and briefly met the merchant Barthelm Meadowbrock, his daughter Mayella Meadowbrock, and her little dog Muzlim, but the envoy made a crude advance that upset Mayella and angered Barthelm, not to mention the dog. Later, the adventuress Kendra entered and Grodoveth tried it on with her, but he soon angered and insulted her too. But after their co-conspirator Dovo's more public misbehavior and cocky hints at his secret activities, Grodoveth and Tobald resolved to be rid of him before he risked giving them and their spying away. Later that night, while Dovo was dressed up as a ghost and signaling out in the swamp, Grodoveth met him, took his axe, and beheaded him with it, before taking his broken bullseye lantern to hide what the ghost was actually doing, though some pieces remained to give enough of a clue as to what was really going on. Either Grodoveth or Tobald also hid Dovo's clothes at the Bold Bard to further divert attention from their activities around the Swamp Rat.
The next day, Grodoveth visited the Ghars library again for more research into legends of Fastred's tomb. There, Jasper, who was investigating on behalf of retired War Wizard Benelaius, asked him if he knew anything of brigands who might've murdered Dovo, but Grodoveth impatiently rebuffed him. That evening, Grodoveth and Tobald met in the Bold Bard again, but, after a surprise mouse outbreak, they relocated to the Swamp Rat. Grodoveth elected to spend the night there, ostensibly to save himself a journey when he headed south in the morning. Instead, during the night, he secretly went into the Vast Swamp to find Fastred's tomb and the treasure said to lie within. He was successful and went inside, but was swiftly and bloody beheaded by Fastred's axe, which had been set as a trap at the entrance. Meanwhile, Benelaius had also located the tomb, went there, hid while Grodoveth went in, and planted evidence framing Tobald as Grodoveth's murderer.
The open tomb and Grodoveth's body were discovered the following morning by the gnome peat-cutter Darvik, who alerted Captain Flim of the Purple Dragons. Flim, Jasper, and War Wizard Lindavar investigated the crime scene. On the journey back, Grodoveth's corpse was struck by a thorn from a thornslinger tree and partially putrefied, and was to be returned to his family in Suzail. Later, Royal Magician Vangerdahast ordered Benelaius to investigate and that Captain Flim should immediately execute the killer. Benelaius speculated Vangerdahast had done this to avoid controversy because of Grodoveth's familial relation to Azoun. When Benelaius revealed the spy ring to townsfolk on Eleint 21, he blamed Tobald for Dovo's and Grodoveth's deaths and covered up Grodoveth's involvement to protect the honor of the Cormyrean crown. Instead, he painted Grodoveth as bravely seeking to expose the spies until he was betrayed and murdered.
==Appendix==
===Appearances===
===References===
Category:Humans
Category:Nobles
Category:Messengers
Category:Spies
Category:Members of the Iron Throne
Category:Inhabitants of Suzail
Category:Inhabitants of Cormyr
Category:Inhabitants of the Eastern Heartlands
Category:Inhabitants of Interior Faerûn
Category:Inhabitants of Faerûn
Category:Inhabitants of Toril