William Garrix

**William Garrix**, later known as **Benshin**, was a Human that lived between 43 B.C. to 8 C.E. He served as the initial leader of the Heroes of Faerûn and the coalition against the Sundering, as well as a commander to the Order of the Paryborn. He was exceptionally skilled in swordplay and negotiation, and considered himself a conman of no particular talent. William was killed by Frosa after opposing her in Ankar.

William comes from a troubled and abusive past, and sought out an adventurous lifestyle to run from his childhood. After an adventure in an abandoned temple went horribly wrong, William was left scarred and with the nickname "the Silver Hand", as well as the interest of a particular bounty hunter group, the Scarhunter Organization.

## Background

### Younger Years (43 B.C. - 16 B.C.)

When he was a child, William was constantly abused by his alcoholic father, who blamed him for his mother's death. He took to adventuring as an escape, and he soon found himself within Waterdeep, a city rife with adventuring opportunities. He quickly made friends with a local group of thieves, who passed themselves off as budding adventurers in pursuit of a greater lifestyle, something that attracted William greatly. The young William drafted into this adventuring group, and was soon put to use in a criminal manner, stealing both coin and priceless items from rich noble houses within Waterdeep. William's expertise drew the attention of the city watch, and he was soon kicked out of the group of thieves. Without work and pay, he took to the streets to find a new career.

For a brief while in his life, a desperate William served as a thief for a black market organization that offered him protection in return for his services. The cost was great, and oftentimes William was lucky to have made an escape from being caught by the nobles he was stealing from, but the organization was pleased with William's skills, and so they set him up as their smuggler. He smuggled goods all across the Sword Coast, visiting major cities like Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, and Mirabar, as well as establishing contact with several important figures.

On a trip to Neverwinter, William had a moment of downtime. He took this opportunity to strike up a conversation in the Black Salmon Pub, swindling and incorporating his way into a group of naive adventurers, misleading them into believing that he was the most talented swordsman in the Sword Coast. The adventuring party negotiated with William, and through a stroke of luck, he joined them on their adventures. Having forgotten about his duties back in Waterdeep as a smuggler, he went on several dungeon delves with his newfound friends.

Aspiring to go on larger raids, William had heard whispers about an abandoned temple far north of Neverwinter that was said to house a powerful and expensive artifact. Seeing this as an opportunity to become rich, William informed his adventuring party of this temple, and they set out on an arduous journey to find it. After several long days and nights, they had finally stumbled across the ruins of the temple, and they delved deep inside it, haplessly moving through the temple's labyrinthine design, ignoring the blatant clues that something terrible lurked within.

As they delved deeper into the temple, the young mage Arlin felt a strange magical presence coming from what he described as a "main chamber". Excited that the source of the magic must be coming from the artifact, William dashed ahead of his group and made it to the entrance of this chamber, astonished by its size and what it contained; a large sphere of metal, floating in the center of the chamber. The air in the chamber vibrated, and a faint hum could be heard echoing throughout. As the rest of the party ran forward, they too were astonished by the object held within.

   William felt a wave of desire wash over him, and he approached the sphere slowly, holding his hand out as if he were to touch it, but knowing in the back of his mind that he couldn't reach it. As he stepped closer, a bolt of energy struck William's hand and coursed through his body, a wave of force swept out from the orb and struck the rest of the adventuring group. Visions of a world ablaze flashed within William's mind, and towards the end of these visions, he saw his own death at the hands of a demonic figure, his body burning and the sounds of unfamiliar voices screaming in terror.

When these visions dispersed, William found himself still standing in front of the sphere, his hand still outstretched and his body locked in position. His hand had felt cold and lifeless, and as he examined it, to his surprise, it had become silver, with an occasional crackle of blue electricity dancing across it. He turned around to the adventuring party behind him, but was met with nothing except smoldering piles of ash, his friends had been disintegrated. Realizing that none of this would have happened if he hadn't have been so greedy, William was filled with guilt, and he fled the temple, returning to Neverwinter to recuperate.

William spent many years afterward in an attempt to establish a connection with anyone of importance in Neverwinter, but he was met with no responses. Thinking ahead, he began to forge documents in order to keep his former adventuring party's headquarters, and he established the false identity of Benshin, a traveling nobleman from distant lands. He gathered all of the money he had made on his adventures and pushed it into a fund to keep the headquarters paid for, confident that he would find a use for it eventually.

### Order of the Paryborn (15 B.C. - 2 B.C.)

Now with nothing left for him in Neverwinter, William came to remember that he was still in debt to the organization he worked for in Waterdeep. Upon his arrival in the city, he was met with looks of concern, the townsfolk taking notice of his silvered hand. On his way to the organization's base of operations, he was attacked by a group of thugs, who began to beat him with crude clubs. As he struggled to fight back, he was rescued by two others; a human and a rather bizarre hydra-like humanoid.

His saviors introduced themselves as Melfen and Valythin respectively, and they said they took notice of William and his scarred hand, telling him that their duty is to protect people with scars such as his, referring to it as a spellscar. Melfen explained to William that if he is ever in need of work, that he should consider joining the Order of the Paryborn, as they will offer him protection in return for simple work. William agreed to join the Order, Melfen slipped him a business card, and the saviors left.

In a few short days, William was inaugurated into the Order of the Paryborn, and his simple duties involved overseeing the shipment of supplies to and from the Order's headquarters. He worked closely with Melfen, and the two of them exchanged helpful bits of knowledge. Through this, William had learned that the black market organization he had worked for previously were now the ones hunting him down, and that they also go by the name of the Scarhunter Organization, searching for and killing those that possess a spellscar.

Unsure of what his spellscar meant to him, William sought out the leader of the Order, Gren Paryborn, and had asked him for help. Gren lectured William on the nature of the spellscars and how they come to be, and he told William that later in his life, he will learn the secrets of his own. Later that night, the Order received word that Gren had been assassinated by a member of the Scarhunter Organization.

Now in a panic, the leaderless Order scrambled to find a new commander, going through their ranks to find a willing candidate. With the threat of the Scarhunters looming overhead, no one was willing to take the risk of becoming the commander of the Order. Bearing the belief and guilt that he inadvertently caused the death of Gren, William offered to become the next commander, fabricating the lie that he founded several successful adventuring guilds in Neverwinter. The desperate Order believed William was loyal to his word, and so they quickly appointed him as the new commander.

While William lead the order, he continued to work as the overseer of shipments, and he took Melfen in as his right-hand man. While the two of them were preparing a shipment to Neverwinter, William had taken notice of a weak drow attempting to steal from them. Instead of killing the drow on the spot, William felt remorseful, and he took the drow under his wing, learning that his name was Naz'lethch, and that he has suffered from a terrible past. William decided to mentor Naz'lethch, feeling similarities between himself and his newfound apprentice, teaching the young drow in the art of subtlety, thievery, and manipulation.

William and Naz'lethch became close friends, and William began to see Naz'lethch as the son he never had. Just when he thought his life was looking up, William had learned that his father passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, and he was filled with grief and more guilt. He had wished for one day to return to his father, to redeem himself to him and to get to know him better, but he realized it was too late for that. He left Melfen in charge of the Order while he returned to Red Larch to mourn over his father's death, accompanied by Naz'lethch.

After some long weeks of mourning, William returned to Waterdeep to resume his position as commander of the Order, but upon his arrival, he discovered that a large number of the Order's members had been assassinated by the Scarhunters, and that the remaining members were in panic and disbelief that such a thing could happen. The stress of the situation took its toll on William, and he became reclusive and bitter, his hair graying and his skin wrinkling prematurely as he aged.

The distraught William soon became vigilant, and he began hunting for clues as to who might be acting as a spy within the Order. He brought Melfen along on his search, and the two of them watched many of the Order's members carefully. Little did Melfen know, however, that William was also watching him, raising his suspicions that Melfen had something to do with the assassination of Gren Paryborn. After a month of investigation, William confronted Melfen about what he had found, and Melfen quickly fled from Waterdeep.

After announcing to the rest of the Order that William had rooted out who the traitor was, he suggested that the Order move out of Waterdeep, where the Scarhunter presence was extraordinarily high, and that Melfen would have given them information on the Order's whereabouts. He appointed Valythin as the acting commander of the Order, and directed them to rebuild their headquarters in Neverwinter, reminding himself that he was still in possession of his old adventuring party's base of operations.

### The Sundering of Faerûn (1 B.C. - 1 C.E.)

Now free from his duty as the commander of the Order of the Paryborn, William sought to better himself as an entrepreneur, so he decided to form strong bonds between various adventuring guilds in Waterdeep, accompanied by Naz'lethch. Noticing his knowledge and strong influence on the adventurers of the city, the Lord of Waterdeep gave William a nobleman's status, offering him wealth and luxury for his continued support of the guilds.

As he worked with the adventuring guilds, William was particularly interested in the sudden rise in the drow population in Waterdeep, specifically those that joined the adventuring guilds William was directly involved in. Furthermore, he had taken notice that Naz'lethch consistently pardoned himself from meetings, gatherings, and meals, and he grew suspicious.

Through observation and his natural talent for subterfuge, William concluded that the increase of drow was not a coincidence, and he learned of an event that they referred to as "the Sundering". The more William learned of this event, the less he enjoyed hearing about it, and soon he began to worry for the safety of his city.

He took it upon himself to secretly inform several of the adventuring guilds of this plot, and he made his way back to Red Larch, a place he knew none of the drow would seek out. William began to seek out willing adventurers or people valiant and loyal to Faerûn in order to form a coalition that could take down the perpetrators of this event before it got out of hand. William knew that there were too many drow to make short work of this situation, so he masked the call for aid as a startup adventuring guild.

William's first thoughts were that his coalition had to come from expendable adventurers, and while that put him through guilt, he knew it was the only way he could ever imagine defeating these drow, based upon what he had learned from Naz'lethch. Now without the Order of the Paryborn, William took on a short temper with training new recruits, but he ensured them that their service would pay well.

While resting in his home, William had taken notice of a lumbering figure out in the farm fields of Red Larch, and he cautiously went outside to approach it. Upon closer inspection, William discovered that the figure was a red dragonborn, collapsing in exhaustion right in front of him. William saw this as an opportunity to draft a new warrior, so he dragged the dragonborn back to his home to bring it back to health.

When the dragonborn regained consciousness, he greeted himself as Drakontos, and he said that he was the last of his tribe and was a refuge. William listened carefully to Drakontos' tale of struggle, and made a proposition to help his new companion if his new companion helped him. Drakontos agreed without question, and this pleased William, who immediately instructed the young dragonborn to undergo training with him.

William and Drakontos trained often, and William was surprised at Drakontos' natural capabilities, joking with him that it seemed as if the dragonborn was born with an greataxe in hand. Drakontos mentioned that William's training sessions reminded him of his father's, and William felt solemn, recognizing Drakontos as the son he never had, just as he did with Naz'lethch.

Following this recognition, William stopped Drakontos' training early and offered an explanation for his intentions, detailing the dangers that loomed over them. Drakontos was quick to recognize these dangers, and much to William's surprise, agreed to join the coalition, even if it resulted in his own death, stating that he would rather die with honor than to die without cause. This struck a positive outlook in William, who realized that his coalition could be something greater than expendable soldiers.

The two made plans and recruitment posters, and they set out for Waterdeep, ready to draft people into the coalition, disguised loosely as an adventuring party. Within days of putting up their posters, William was met with applications from all sorts of folk, including the half-elf Saraqael, the human Alucard, the lizardfolk Rozzak, and the tiefling Frosa. The group met up frequently in the city to discuss their plans and what the coalition was truly about, pleasing William with the results.