Errevastica

The specter of Errevastica, looming over 'Xvartette'.

**Errevastica**, known to her followers by the name **Xvartette**, was an annis hag living in the city of Silverymoon under multiple different guises. The most prominent of these disguises was that of a giant female xvart, which granted her the affections and loyalties of a xvart tribe. In 1491 DR, she plotted to overrun the city of Silverymoon with xvart followers she had cloned using the powerful hair of the korred Bezoar. Due to murderous tendencies of her warlock servant, her plans were eventually put to a stop by adventurers hired by a lone city guard.

Errevastica was an NPC present in the completed two-shot *The Barber of Silverymoon*, where she was the primary antagonist.

## Description

In her true form, Errevastica was an imposing, malformed, and muscular old woman with sharp iron teeth, sickly pale eyes, gray skin, and black hair. She stood tall at around 8 feet (2.4 meters) and weighed about 325 pounds (147 kilograms). Covered in boils and wielding massive talons on her hands, Errevastica was a terrifying sight to behold whenever she chose to be seen in her true form. More often than not, she preferred to take less imposing forms, such as a beautiful noblewoman with unsettling iron teeth, a kind grandmother, and other forms that could allow her to remain in Silverymoon without suspicion.

To her xvart followers, Errevastica appeared as a giant female xvart with lilac skin, red eyes, and dark purple hair. Wearing a white dress and cap, 'Xvartette' was considered attractive (by xvart standards), a quality she used to manipulate and charm her male xvart followers. In and combat, Errevastica wielded a large cream-colored hair comb the size of a greatclub, known as *Errevastica's evil comb*.

## History

The history of Errevastica, ancient and enigmatic even among fellow hags, is unknown to all but the hag herself. At some point in the early 13th century DR, Errevastica left the Feywild to live in the foothills south of the Spine of the World, in the Sword Coast North. For decades, Errevastica preyed upon orcs of the Kingdom of Many-Arrows as well as the Uthgardt tribes, until the War of the Silver Marches starting in 1484 DR brought the city of Silverymoon to her attention. Masquerading as an old refugee she left the Spine of the World to live among the humans and elves of Silverymoon, joining many other hidden fey residing in and below the city. During her time in Silverymoon, Errevastica primarily preyed upon communities that could not easily seek aid from the city guard, from the deep gnomes living beneath the city to the fey creatures living within Silverymoon's walls in secret.

In 1491 DR, the powerful korred Bezoar came to Errevastica's attention, and she could tell immediately that the korred was unlike any other she had met before. Keeping a close eye on him, she discovered Bezoar's friendship with the human barber Jooge Nopsmoth, who Bezoar visited regularly for free haircuts and good conversation. Recognizing that she might be able to use Jooge to capture and use the korred's magical hair for her own purposes, Errevastica began planning for that eventuality. In the month that followed her discovery, Errevastica created a large hair comb, capable of giving life to inanimate hair and forcing it to be an evil servant of her will.

Eventually, Errevastica's opportunity to strike against Bezoar came when Jooge took a huge loan from the Night Blades, a criminal organization run by Darklings underneath Silverymoon. Jooge needed this loan of 10,000 gold pieces to buy a live flail snail from the visiting merchant Mercurio DuLoc, and Jooge's financial reputation was so known by his neighbors that even the enigmatic Errevastica could predict he'd fail to repay his moneylenders. Thus, the annis hag enacted her dark plans to claim the great power of Bezoar's hair. First, the hag sought out a small tribe of xvarts that she had previously preyed upon in the past, appearing to them as an imposing and attractive female Xvart named 'Xvartette'. Swaying the lesser members of the tribe, which by this point only had eight members, gained her enough power to force the hands of two warlocks that led the small group. Errevastica then appeared to the Night Blades as a human noblewoman, buying Jooge's debts off of her fellow fey to ensure they would not interfere with her future business with Nopsmoth. Finally, she appeared before Jooge in the form of Xvartette, easily overpowering the commoner alongside her xvart minions.

Using a mixture of coercion and fey enchantment magic, Errevastica ensured Jooge's obedience in her plans to ambush Bezoar as he came for his regular haircut. Bezoar did so the next day, falling victim to Errevastica's scheme and being rendered helpless under her powerful charms. Bezoar was caged in a cage protected from his great strength, and *Errevastica's evil comb* was used to gain control of his magical korred hair. Jooge was forced to witness as the tribe of xvarts ripped clumps of Bezoar's long hair with their hands and teeth, creating perfect and sentient clones of themselves in the process. Errevastica, in a moment of evil brilliance, then forced Jooge to partake in act, having him rip out two clumps of hair- one that had been brushed by the evil comb and one that had not. The process created two clones of Jooge, one good and one evil.

While the original barber would be of no use to her, Errevastica saw great potential in both new clones she had forced the humble barber to create. While the good clone had his senses dulled to make him an unwitting spy and pawn that could run the barbershop in the day, the evil clone was granted the powers of a fey warlock and was made Errevastica's second-in-command. The original Jooge was then locked up as Bezoar was, first in Jooge's basement and then in a cavern system she had her xvart minions mine into. From this spacious cavern system, Errevastica grew her own power, experimenting with Bezoar's fast-growing hair to create an ever-growing army of xvart clones as well as attracting other fey to her service. When Jooge's daughter Mops began to see differences in her father after a run in with the evil Jooge, her sadness caused the boggle Wallace to manifest, who Errevastica quickly made sure to intimidate.

In the two tendays where she was allowed to reign as 'Xvartette', Errevastica aided her warlock Jooge with the creation of numerous bizarre magic items, and she encouraged this Jooge to kidnap customers to experiment on. The string of kidnappings led to the disappearances of numerous citizens of Silverymoon, a trio of grung, the tabaxi wanderer Two-Llamas-Running, and the abjurer Bernadette Wavesilver. More importantly however, this string of kidnappings and murders drew attention to Errevastica's evil plans, and she ultimately had to deal with the interference of a group of adventurers that had been hired to look into Jooge during a stay at the *Bright Blade Brandished*. These adventurers eventually slew Errevastica's minions, freed her numerous prisoners, before eventually slaying her. Her death and the following reveal of her annis hag nature drove the xvarts, who all had memories of being preyed upon by Errevastica in the past, to panic and try to flee. The adventurers, convinced in the inherent evil nature of the xvart clones, massacred them regardless. Afterward, the adventurers were rewarded by the city guard, and Errevastica's evil caverns underneath 'the Barbershop of Evil' were sanctified and blocked off, to prevent usage by other malevolent forces in the future.

## Gallery

Errevastica, as drawn by Jason Bradley ThompsonErrevastica's Token during Barber of Silverymoon.