Moonsea Skysentinel

“Nothing makes me feel better than soaring over the landscape, keeping an eye out for Zhent dangers. Except maybe for knocking a Zhentarim skymage out of his saddle, of course.”

—Joatra Stelmar, Moonsea skysentinel

Moonsea skysentinels are the eyes in the sky for the Knights of the North, scouting the landscape, looking for evidence of Zhentarim activity. They employ trained dire hawks as swift aerial mounts and a variety of combat tactics that allow them to swoop in, strike enemies quickly, and race away again before reinforcements can arrive. Whether spying on a caravan flying the banner of the Black Network, delivering battle orders to a Knight raiding party, or hunting and dueling one of the hated Zhentarim skymages, a Moonsea skysentinel is the light cavalry of the Knights’ forces.

Becoming a Moonsea Skysentinel

Characters who want to become Moonsea skysentinels most often follow the path of the martial classes or druid because of the combination of skills and feats necessary to gain admittance. Occasionally a rogue or cleric can become a Moonsea skysentinel, though such characters need additional levels to gain the necessary ranks in the required skills.

Playing a Moonsea Skysentinel

You hate the Black Network, especially those loathsome Zhentarim skymages, and you’ve decided to do something about it. You and your bird like nothing better than taking to the skies and hunting for Zhents. When the morning is cold and crisp, and your breath frosts in the breeze, that’s when you feel most alive, ready to work. Winging your way across the foothills or open plains of the Moonsea, you almost dare a skymage to show his ugly face—just so you can watch his look of horror when you send him plummeting.

You serve as both scout and cavalry for the rest of the Knights of the North. Mounted on your trained dire hawk, you have the ability to race from one corner of the region to the other, delivering messages, scouting enemy movement, and guarding the skies to protect your companions. They may be on the ground, raiding a caravan or attacking a Zhent envoy, but you’re the one watching their backs.

COMBAT

Lightly equipped to travel fast, you don’t like getting into frontal assaults. Instead, you prefer to rely on your swift mount to get the drop on your ground-based enemies, coming in fast and leaving them wondering where you went. Ranged weapons are your best tactic, and with your innate defensive abilities, you can avoid similar attacks, making it easy for you to circle the fi ght and rain death from above.

In the air, you have a good chance to deliver some hefty damage upon a Zhentarim skymage while enjoying a certain degree of protection from his spells. As you gain more experience, your dire hawk can become a lethal force in its own right, and aerial battles against a skymage and its mount become spectacular— and deadly—displays.

ADVANCEMENT

You were already halfway to becoming a Moonsea skysentinel when you joined up with the Knights of the North. After you showed what you could do on the ground, the Knights saw the potential in you to take to the skies for your joint cause. You are a precious and rare breed—there aren’t more than a handful of skysentinels in existence. You and your companions know how much the rest of the Knights depend on you—and the cost not only to yourself but to the group as a whole if you get killed or incapacitated.

At first, your superiors will want you to take it slow. They use you on simple missions, delivering messages, scouting caravan locations, or occasionally doing some point work for the Knights’ own caravans. Until you get comfortable in the saddle, they don’t want you to risk yourself unduly. After all, you’re hard to replace. Once you start to get some battle experience, though, you can start tangling with the Zhent scum more regularly. Your first fight with a Zhentarim skymage will be unlike anything you’ve experienced before. Remember that you have to deal with him quickly, before he can use his magic to good effect.

Once you start gaining levels as a Moonsea skysentinel, you’re going to need to make some choices about your combat specialties. Your dire hawk is a powerful weapon in its own right, so the bonus feats you select determine how you put your mount to good use. Your style of fighting must be predicated on what you know how to do with Mounted Combat and its related feats.

RESOURCES

Because you’re a member of the Knights of the North, you have access to a wide range of specialty gear for yourself and your mount. Spend the extra coin on a combat saddle and the other equipment to help you in battles—the extra price is worth it. Also make sure you have the best bow you can, and get a spare; when you drop your weapon from 2,000 feet above the plains, you can’t pick it up again. The Black Network may be large and powerful, but it has many enemies. You can usually find someone in the Moonsea region who is sympathetic to your cause, able to provide you with spare equipment or a place to hide in a pinch. The Knights of the North maintain lots of supply caches all over the area, too, and you can draw on those when the need arises.

Moonsea Skysentinels in the World

“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the skysentinels watching my back. They’ve warned me of Zhentarim traps more times than I can count.”

—Lidrin Garneteye, Knight of the North

The Moonsea skysentinel is a paramount counterpart to the Zhentarim skymage. One offsets the other. If you have a campaign based around disrupting the foul deeds of the Black Network, particularly involving the activities of the Knights of the North, then the Moonsea skysentinel should be available to even the playing fi eld. DAILY LIFE As with all the Knights of the North, the life of a Moonsea skysentinel is hard. Often on the run from pursuing Zhentarim forces, a skysentinel lives day to day, enjoying the moments when airborne the most. When he’s not on a mission, he’s often hiding in some roosting spot in the hills and lower mountains of the region. Like the rest of the Knights, a skysentinel has dedicated his life to righting the wrongs inflicted on the common folk by the Black Network, and he works tirelessly to see that goal met. There is no other life for him.

As with any airborne branch of a military organization, the Moonsea skysentinels are a breed apart. They keep to themselves, seeing their roles as both more dangerous and more glorious than that of the common foot soldier. In the case of the Knights of the North, the skysentinels respect their ground-based counterparts and would do anything to keep disaster from befalling them, but a skysentinel sees himself as the daredevil hero who swoops in and turns the tide, saving his friends’ hides time and time again.

NOTABLES

Although she was not one of the original members of the Knights of the North, Joatra Stelmar was the first member recruited by the Knights to aid them in their cause. A druid who had a great rapport with several dire hawks nesting in the Dragonspine Mountains, she took to flying on the back of one as a means of surveying the range where she lived. She despised the Zhentarim skymages who sometimes flew into her territory, and she never missed an opportunity to send one careening to his death.

It was only a few years ago that Joatra came to the aid of a small group of Knights who had gotten caught in a trap laid for them by the Black Network. Swooping in and catching the Zhents off guard, she was able to turn the tide of the skirmish. Though reluctant at first to form a permanent relationship with the Knights, Joatra eventually agreed to facilitate bringing Knights with the right temperament together with dire hawks, helping them form a bond, and training them in the art of aerial warfare. Now, though she would likely cringe at the appellation, the Knights consider Joatra to be their master skysentinel.

ORGANIZATION

All the other Knights of the North who train as Moonsea skysentinels answer to both Joatra Stelmar and to the leadership of the organization as a whole. Beyond that, there are too few skysentinels in existence to organize them further. Instead, an unspoken understanding exists among all the skysentinels that the most experienced among them will take on the most dangerous tasks, and the others accept lesser assignments until they have proven themselves.

Joastra doesn’t attempt to involve herself in the military decisions of the Knights. Her only agenda is to see to it that the dire hawks are treated well and not put into undue danger. She understands the need for risk; her knowledge of the Black Network is suffi cient to accept that sacrifi ces must sometimes be made to thwart their schemes. But she won’t see birds pushed beyond their limits or sent on suicide missions without very good cause.

If at any point Joastra believes a Moonsea skysentinel is being unnecessarily reckless with or unkind to his or her dire hawk, she will ground that individual until amends are made. The other Knights never question her decisions in these matters, both because they value her contributions to their cause too much and because they recognize that she knows what she is doing. Reparations can be as mild as an apology to both Joastra and the bird in question or as severe as permanent removal from the skysentinels.