Kourend Salmonpuddle

Lord Kourend Salmonpuddle

This character was the creation of Brady Kopsala.
Kourend Salmonpuddle was the last of the line of Salmonpuddle nobles of Tumult. He died a hero in the Demon Troubles of Dusk when an old rival Tomias Flitterfoot sought his vengeance upon him for stealing his love Nymira. His life was a drama that went full circle, but ended with hope.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Son to the high-class gnomish family, the Salmonpuddles, Kourend was but an infant when his mother died from a curse and his father was left penniless trying to find a cure. Being forced onto the streets, his father soon too succumbed to a similar dark power. Alone, Kourend struggled as one of the many street urchins in the capital city of Tumult, Felicity.
In and out of the custody of various jails, nursing the bruises given to him by the hated guard, Kourend decided to leave the city for good. With his pet mouse in tow, he departed his home and lineage behind to live off the abundance of Neih. There, he learned to hunt and read the land. But after a decade of this, another tragedy occurred. His one and only friend, the mouse, was dying.
He always had a precarious relationship with the fey of the woods, but he was willing to swallow his pride to save his mouse. He heard of a coven of hags deep in the mountains of the Southern Farmlands, in a place called the Sisteins Lair, whose magic tapped into the essence of Neih itself. With much supplication, he pleaded his case to the horrid creatures. They told him that no mouse could live long without the spirit of a greater being maintaining him. The coven had one sleeping in the cavern below and told Kourend to retrieve the blessing of this being then the hags would perform the ritual to prolong the mouse’s life. Going below, he found a great green dragon sleeping deeply. Desperate, he woke the creature.
Thinking he was a child, Bamerrait, Lord Of The Green, laughed at the measly meal his jailers brought to him. He decided to entertain the brave child and heard his story. Bamerrait was curious of the new creatures who’ve entered the Wellspring (Neih), as he has been trapped here since the last rainstorm 10,000 years ago. Never before has he wanted to escape but could not. He thus gave Kourend his blessing, linking his essence to the mouse, but under the condition that he slays the ten hags that have a mark on his heart. He gave him a set of bone pipes to play to see if a hag is nearby. Kourend accepted but knew he could not do so until he grew powerful enough, knowing that hags that could hold a dragon would be formidable foes. After the ritual, he left the three hags with a vow to return and honour Bamerrait.
He spent the couple decades traversing the Western Edge, the Southern Farmlands, and Tumult, staying clear of the cities and their politics. He mostly spent those years looking for the hags. But after years of fruitless search, he grew tired of the whole venture and decided to spend his life in tranquility.
By happenstance, he was near the town of Vigil scrounging for some food when he got a mysterious letter inviting him into town for the first time in years. This letter though was the catalyst to the misunderstanding which killed Kourend, as it was the letter meant for Tomias Flitterfoot. He inadvertently intercepted the lovers message.
Before that though, he met up with a dragonborn named Daequis and got caught up in some shenanigans that ended up with the death of the innkeeper Von and the destruction of the local inn. His first time in civilization in decades has started off poorly. So when he met up with Nymira, a noble of Val'ul, he quickly thought up of ways to get out of any upper class drama by lying that Tomias was dead and he was but a messenger. This serve his purposes at the time, as the lie got him out of dodge, but it started an even bigger drama that his attempts to ignore and run from proved deadly. See the posts on Nymira Fenfyx and Tomias Flitterfoot for that side of the story.
But before any of that, Kourend Salmonpuddle joined a group of adventurers in Vigil who were investigating the Dormant Cult. He met up with three adventurers other than Daequis, the Dharkness Hunter Julius Dharkness, Frillith (before she was a prophet), and a bard by the name of Dingus. Through their efforts, they found the cultists and stopped their plans on taking Vigil and corrupting the Fifth Minor vein of the Veritian Leaf. See the Vigil Conflict for more detail. Now heroes of Vigil, the lord of the town, Lord Clearseeker, invited Kourend and his party to the Felicity Ball. He also wanted them to join his caravan as they were carrying one captured Dormant Cultist, Gloranna Briarfell.
On the way there, the party stopped at the town of Crossroads and got involved in the Demon Troubles there. They may have passed through without incident if it were not for their charge, Gloranna, dying at the hands of animated scarecrows of an Uzite trap. See the Resurrection of Gloranna for more detail on that. Kourend spent much of his time here trying to avoid the attention of Nymira Fenfyx who was travelling in the same caravan. He did so by hanging out with Daequis in his ridiculous misadventures in murder. Yet, by circumstance, they got caught up in troubles at the Rowland estate, as the merchant was being used by demon cultists to open a portal to hell under the city. The party found it and stopped it, but were left cursed by Asmodeus' insidious negotiations. Kourend was the only one not having any of the devil's sophistry, and left the place not cursed.
They made it to Felicity, and after a few days of relaxation, attended the Felicity Ball. That is when the name of Salmonpuddle was reborn. Yet, even with King Iscalon, the Willowrush family, and Nymira Fenfyx being impressed by his lineage, Kourend was not so keen on rejoining the nobility, preferring his own ranger lifestyle. He stayed with his group of adventurers and did things around the capitol such as reclaiming the Salmonpuddle estate, getting rid of their curses, and fighting the Neih's Breath entertainment troupe. He also found and killed one of his targets for Balmerrait and had a scuffle with the Greenscale Hunters. Ultimately, he was doing adventuring things with adventuring people.
The Dance Incident changed that. In the attempt to unearth a plot that the city's bureaucrats had in motion to open a portal to a hellish plane, Kourend and Frillith infiltrated the Silvergraft's estate with the help of Lord Clearseeker and Andujar Szereban, and warned the king and Lord Silvergraft of potential danger within the estate. Kourend discovered that the dance platform was hollow, and determined that a room was underneath. He caught a group of demon worshippers opening a portal and interfered. They did not know that one person accompanying them was not who he seemed, as Andujar was actually the paraclete of Uz, Vox. She commandeered the rift, opening it to the plane of Uz instead. While this was to her plans, she did not foresee the rift attracting the demon god Dread Sin of Gluttony. The abomination entered the Veritian Leaf and began to feast on the Silvergrafts. But, rather than run, Kourend faced the deity to save a goblin child.
Kourend was a hero of Tumult from that day, a title he maintained even after the regicide of King Iscalon the Fourth. After the Dance Incident, Kourend helped lead Riverside in the Frozen War, gaining more renown. King Iscalon, the traitor, did not like these developments brought about by this returned noble ranger, so he planned his own assassination to assassinate Kourend's reputation.
After the killing of the king, Kourend was sentenced to life in the Pit mining cosmic sugar for the gith. But that was not to be his grave. The Ambershard dwarves, an ally to Kourend Salmonpuddle, smuggled in some aid to Kourend to help orchestrate his escape. Kourend left that prison gloriously, commandeering the gith's best flying ship and ramming their way out in a massive jail break. The renamed the ship the Dragon of the Deep in honour of the escape.
After the escape, Kourend sojourned south out of Tumult to Val'ul for a stint and a month long trip to Sistern's Lair to see his master Balmerrait and kill a few of his hag jailers. The regicide has soured public opinion of Kourend like Iscalon desired, so on his return, Kourend needed to achieve something to win back public favor. Thus, he decided to rescue the prince who has gone missing in the Pinecone region, and defeat the warlord necromancer who has been plaguing the region while he was at it. See the Fall of Caskajaro for more detail.
With the prince rescued, Kourend joined the procession which crowned Bedrich as king. But Bedrich inherited a weakened country by his father's machinations. He needed to start cleaning things up. He started with the most pressing concern, the Demon Troubles up north. He tasked his champion and rescuer, Lord Kourend Salmonpuddle, to go assist his friend Andujar Szereban in the Battle for Dusk. This unfortunately would be the last adventure of Lord Kourend Salmonpuddle, as after successfully reclaiming the key hospital district from the Lady of Dusk's demon forces, the lie he made in Vigil came back to haunt him.
The revenge of Tomias Flitterfoot could be read it detail on Tomias' article. Kourend knew the vengeance was in the works, despite his successful attempts at shunning any relations with Nymira Fenfyx. The first cost of this drama was his pet rat, who died after Tomias' first wish severed Kourend's ties to Balmerrait. But after a victorious one-on-one fight with Tomias, with his last breath, Tomias wished for the death of Lord Kourend Salmonpuddle, who promptly faded into ash.
Thus ends the tale of Lord Kourend Salmonpuddle...

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

He desires to free Balmerrait, Lord of the Green, and thus hunts down the hags that hold him prisoner.

Social

Contacts & Relations

Head Butler Poston is a devout servant of Kourend Salmonpuddle. He holds onto his legacy until the Salmonpuddle name could be revived.
Kourend was also good friends with the Prophet Frillith, the assassin Malvo, the Dharkness Hunter Julius, and several other prominent adventurers in the Tumult conflicts of 1040. 
Kourend was a servant to Balmerrait Lord of the Green, working towards freeing the ancient green dragon from his fey prison in exchange for immortality for his pet rat. He succeeded in killing half of Balmerrait's jailors before dying.

Wealth & Financial state

Kourend had a couple estates under his name, one in Pinecone and one in Felicity. He also accrued a sizeable fortune, but much of that has been invested in the surviving adventurers of his party who went off to fight the Dormant in the Southern Farmlands. By right of claim, if another Salmonpuddle were to return to Tumult, they would inherit all his wealth.

Species

Gnomes

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Kourend was a lord of Tumult. He was also lord of Pinecone.

Age

60

Life

980 1040

Circumstances of Death

Killed by a wish from Tomias Flitterfoot.

Birthplace

Felicity

Aligned Organization

The Salmonpuddles

Other Affiliations

• Tumult