Lord Varl

Lord Varl is the current leader of the Tideborne Tribe and one of the two co-rulers of the Deep Spire. His position is an inherited one, having been passed down for several generations since the time of his great-grandfather, Lord Harlorn. He is a young and ambitious ruler who pines for the ancient days when his people were pirates that terrorized the Black Loch through strength of arms. It is his wish to return to these old ways and expand his people's territory beyond the Deep Spire, something his fellow co-ruler Ysri Vaerixas has told him is a foolish proposition that risks the Deep Spire's reputation and safety. While Lord Varl acknowledges that he needs House Vaerixas' cooperation to keep his people's home safe, it remains uncertain whether that will be enough to temper his ambitions.
Table of Contents

Journey Into the Underdark Arc

Meeting the Thaig Expedition

Introductions & Local History

When the adventurers of the Thaig Expedition were taking their first look around the Deep Spire, they spotted Lord Varl admiring a statue of his great-grandfather, Lord Harlorn. He recognized the group as travelers and welcomed them to the Deep Spire before identifying the statue for them. Lord Varl also offered to explain the Deep Spire's history to them, only for one of this bodyguards (who seemed used to this) to remind him he'd be late for an appointment if he stopped to tell this story. Acknowledging this, he told the travelers to seek him out should they wish to hear the story later.
And seek him out they did, several days later. Leh'ct Arlathil, Jake F. Statefarm, and Elycia Mirais went to the uppermost level of the Deep Spire where the Tideborne Tribe lived to do just that. But the Deep Spire's history was not their only reason for coming here; Leh'ct had met with matron mother Ysri Vaerixas, who had asked the young drow to try and succeed where she had thus far failed in talking Lord Varl out of his plans for war. A guard led them into Lord Varl's sitting room, where he was once again accompanied by two bodyguards (albeit different ones, these appearing to be some kind of priestesses).
Lord Varl happily told the travelers the story of the Deep Spire's founding before asking what brought them to this place. Before answering that, Leh'ct admitted that Ysri had asked him to speak with Lord Varl on her behalf. This did not sit well with the orog leader, who grew tired of the "old woman" attempting to undermine his plans. He accused Ysri of being against his plans only because she wished to consolidate resources, including his tribe, for her own plans of conquest against Vlyn'darastyl. His guests then asked who exactly he planned to fight, and why.

Plans for War

He explained that the Black Loch was plagued by many duergar pirates who were officially not supported by Brazenthrone. Deepking Oghren Orzammar III adamantly denied that these pirates had any sort of official support from his government. The pirates were clearly too well equipped for this to be true. To put a stop of this, Lord Varl intended to take Cinderfolk Foundry in a surprise attack and then sail his fleet to the river leading to Brazenthrone to blockade it and block duergar access to the Black Loch. From there, his troops would spread to the nearby tunnels and surround the city for a siege.
Lord Varl's guests tried to point out several holes in his plans, such as the duergar launching a counterattack against the Deep Spire while his tribe wasn't there to help defend it. Especially if the duergar were able to come with the dragon Yolheimsu'um supporting them. Lord Varl brushed off these concerns, stating that his attack would be swift and that the duergar would have no time to organize and plan a counterattack. As for the dragon, his people had built powerful siege weapons as part of the Deep Spire's defenses that he were confident could deal with it, should it come. He was not even convinced that the dragon would come at all, thinking it unlikely but admitting that he didn't know the exact nature of its deal or relationship with the Deepking.
The adventurers opinions on these matters were mixed. Jake had no interest in getting involved, Leh'ct openly wondered if he could help Lord Varl somehow, and Elycia was downright disgusted at the idea of war. They ultimately decided not to get involved, for now, though they would spend much of their time in the near-future thinking on Lord Varl's plans and the consequences that could result from them.

Ancient History & Religion

The conversation about war being more or less concluded, Lord Varl circled back to his earlier question on what brought the expedition to the Underdark. Each of the adventurers talked about their personal goals before stating they were accompanying a pair of dwarf brothers looking for a lost city called Auldbaern. Lord Varl raised an eyebrow and asked if they meant Auldbaern as in the Lost Catacombs of Auldbaern. The adventurers admitted they didn't know much of local ancient history and would be appreciative if Lord Varl could elaborate.
The orog leader informed them that Auldbaern was a dwarven city thousands of years ago, before it was conquered and became the settlement today known as Vlyn'darastyl. Their destination was one of the largest and most powerful drow cities on Nexus and Lord Varl wished them the best of luck surviving such an endeavor. He also told them of the Lost Catacombs of Auldbaern; said to be located somewhere on the Black Loch, legend said these catacombs were the final resting place of the last king of Auldbaern, King Aron II, who died defending his home from the drow invaders. The adventurers thanked him for this information, but before they left, Leh'ct was curious about the symbol worn by Lord Varl's priestess bodyguards.
One of the priestesses explained, in perfect Common, that it was the symbol of Luthic, Orc Goddess of Caves. She was the patron deity of the orogs and the reason their people were superior to common orcs. The light their description painted Luthic in was harsh but fair and Leh'ct, always eager to learn more about anything to do with the Underdark, thanked them for the explanation. With that, the adventurers took their leave of Lord Varl, who returned to fine tuning his war plans.

Unexpected Refugee

Weeks later, Varl was in his quarters when a bell could be heard throughout the Deep Spire. This particular bell meant a ship with injured aboard was incoming. As this was a rare occurrence, Varl decided to head for the infirmary to see who was injured and what this was all about. He arrived shortly after Matron Mother Ysri, who'd come to provide medical assistance if necessary. He was as surprised as she was to see an orog carrying an injured, unconscious high elf. While the injured man was carried inside, some of the other orogs began to fill in the Deep Spire's leaders.
The captain of the ship who'd found the injured elf stated he and his crew had noticed a strange vessel in distress. Boarding it, they found something that looked like a woman but was far more monstrous. It appeared to have killed everyone on the ship via decapitation with a hatchet. The captain threw a javelin at her as she raised her hatchet over the injured man, running her through. And she laughed, turning towards them with a mad look in her eyes and a smile on her face. The mad woman stated she wanted to kill them, but had to leave a few alive if she wanted to be famous. Her shadow lurched up around her, enveloped her, and when it pulled itself back down to the deck of the ship she was gone. The elven ship was already half sunk, leaving the orogs no time to do anything other than grab the injured man and make best speed back towards the Deep Spire.
While this news was unpleasant, to Varl it sounded like an isolated incident and not something to concern himself or his people with at this time. Not when the Conclave of the Fleet was coming up, and the glorious war he would soon bring to Brazenthrone and those loyal to them shortly after. Ysri, however, was concerned and suggested that Varl delay the Conclave of the Fleet due to this incident and other strange happenings on the Black Loch as of late. Lord Varl bluntly refused, stating that calling off the meeting (which had never been done before) would be a sign of weakness to any who meant the Deep Spire harm. Ysri appeared greatly irritated by this (the look on her face seeming to indicate she was considering doing Varl physical harm), though Varl seemed to either not care or not notice. She made no further attempt to press the issue further as the Varl left to resume the activities the bell had interrupted.

Warning from Adventurers

The next day, the adventurers came to Lord Varl claiming they had information that would be useful to him. He permitted them to enter his residence and the adventurers told him of some unusual duergar they'd encountered. These duergar had psionic powers far beyond what was normal for their people and the adventurers believed they'd enhanced themselves with a kind of mind flayer technology called incepting tanks.
Varl questioned where this had happened (the Ruins of Gyan'dis) and when (two days prior). Though the adventurers thought the added might to the duergar's fighting strength might deter Varl from his plans for war, it had the opposite affect and spurred him to strike the duergar before they had time to use this technology on more of their troops. He thanked the adventurers for the information, paying each of them with a bar of gold as a reward, and began revising his plans to seek a way to attack Brazenthrone directly. While most of them took their leave at this point, Leh'ct remained behind to ask if Varl knew anything of Mother Moth. With one of his priestesses of Luthic acting as translator, Varl explained that his grandfather had once claimed to have met Mother Moth. As Varl told it, Mother Moth had come to the Black Loch fleeing something and paid his grandfather for an escort as she went deeper into the Underdark. Leh'ct thanked him for this information and ran to join his traveling companions.

The Battle of Skatha's Rest

Over a week later, it was finally time for the Tideborne Tribe's annual Conclave of the Fleet. Lord Varl set sail for Skatha's Rest on Cairnhollow Isle after making preparations with that funny little goblin to handle the catering for the event. His ship was among the first to arrive and soon many more joined them, the captains coming to Skatha's Rest to drink with their leader while the crews of their fleet moved between ships to drink and be merry with old friends. But Lord Varl had made his plans to attack the duergar no secret and these celebrations were interrupted when duergar began to appear in flashes of silver fire and strike down the guards atop the ruins. The Architects of the Awakening had come to launch a preemptive strike against the Tideborne Tribe.
Lord Varl was quick to rally his captains and priestesses of Luthic, leading the charge out of the buildings entrance to the east while the Awakened converged on the building from the north, south, and west. The battle that followed was fierce with many orogs falling to their attackers, despite aid from the adventurers that Gobo had brought along with him. But their attackers fell in greater numbers, the duergar fighting to nearly the last man even as they focused their efforts on assassinating Lord Varl. It was not until the battle was over that some of his surviving men reported that several Awakened had teleported away during the battle.
As leader, Varl's first order to business was to signal for aid. The orogs from the nearby ships soon swarmed the beach, helping to tend the wounds of their injured brothers & sisters while separating the honorable dead from the vile cadavers of the monsters that had attacked them. After some semblance of order was restored, he summoned the adventurers to have a word with them. Varl informed them of the Awakened who'd escaped and wished to hire them to track the stragglers down, seeing as the adventurers had managed to (mostly) come out of the battle less injured than his own people. The adventurers accepted, just as Varl was sure they would, and set out shortly after making preparations for their hunt.
A day later, the adventurers returned as Varl was finishing another round of interrogation on the prisoners. In their absence, Varl had learned that the attack at Skatha's Rest was part of a two pronged offensive, the other half of which was directed at the Deep Spire. They made immediate preparations to depart, Varl and some of his people riding in the Grinning Widow at Ban's offer to free up room on his flagship for the wounded.

Aftermath of Battle

A day into the journey, Ban had a conversation with Varl to give him greater details on what they'd learned about the Awakened. Ban inquired what details Varl had been able to interrogate out of the prisoners; the orog leader hadn't had enough time (yet) to learn more than there was an attack directed at the Deep Spire. However, given the Spire was much more fortified than the ruins of Skatha's Rest, he speculated the force that attacked it was superior to the one they'd battled. Ban suggested combining the zone of truth and speak with dead spells on the heads he'd collected may be more useful than continuing to interrogate the living prisoners.
Furthermore, Ban stated this incident may be able to lead to an alliance with Deepking Oghren Orzammar III. Given that the attack seemed unsanctioned by the king and his reputation for politics over brute force, not to mention fending off the attack as a show of strength, there could be room to talk and make an ally against these cultists. Cultists that, for all anyone knew, could be making a power play for Brazenthrone's throne. He even suggested altering the memories of the prisoners magically and planting evidence to assist with making this the 'true' story, even if its not what the cultists were actually planning. Lord Varl questioned if Ban had any evidence this was actually the case and Ban assured him it was all about how you framed things. Not to mention the cultists were using mind flayer technology, which would surely raise a red flag with the duerger due to their history.
Two days later, the Grinning Widow and orog ships came within sight of the Deep Spire. The settlement was on high alert, lights in the water and air surrounding the place. In the lights, they could see that the western side of the Spire was heavily damaged. Lord Varl looked through his telescope and stated he believed the damage was done by cannons, though he wasn't sure how ship-mounted cannons could have been angled to land so many successful shots up on the upper levels. He took the first boat in alongside the adventurers, parting ways with them at the docks to find Matron Mother Ysri and learn just what had happened here.
The adventurers joined the Deep Spire's leaders in a makeshift infirmary not long after, having been summoned on Ysri's orders. She angrily interrogated Ban, wanting to know why someone who looked near-identical to him had been aboard the airship that had maimed and killed so many of her soldiers and citizens. Lord Varl stepped in and mollified her anger (somewhat) by stating Ban had taken prisoners who'd told them of the attack on the Deep Spire, which was the only reason they knew to return so swiftly.
They filled her in on what else had been learned and she (still seething) agreed that an attempt to parley with the Deepking may be the wisest course of action at present. Ysri stated that she and Varl would quill a missive to the Deepking, which the adventurers would deliver to Cinderfolk Foundry to be forwarded to him. Meanwhile, the two of them would remain here and assist with undoing the damage done by the airship. Varl raised no objections, seeming to have been somewhat humbled by the losses his people suffered at the Battle of Skatha's Rest.

Religion
Luthic, Orc Goddess of Caves