S'gothgah

S'gothgah

S'gothgah is a powerful aboleth, unique among his kind for his extreme religious devotion to the god of tyranny Bane. S'gothgah was the mastermind of the 1496 Banesmark Crisis, an attempt to create an Avatar of Bane in the body of kraken, which was foiled by the Heroes of Saltmarsh.
Having escaped from the attack on the Neveren Trade Fleet, the final conflict of the Banesmark Crisis, S'gothgah is still at large and one of the most dangerous living creatures in Northwest Faerun.

History

Early Life

S'gothgah was born amongst other aboleth, likely in the Endless Nadir, a deep underwater pit full of vile aquatic races. However, unlike many aboleth, S'gothgah was not content with spending his existence growing more powerful for power's sake, and his curiosity led to S'gothgah abandoning his people to explore the greater world, finding purpose for his life.
In Flamerule of 1490, S'gothgah was drawn to the Isle of the Abbey, where he became beached upon its shores and rescued by Ordurn, the head of the island's Cult of Bane. Ordurn and the cult were working and researching the secret to Bane's power and control during the Century of Strife, and the cult leader found in S'gothgah an intellectual equal.
Building a secret holding area for S'gothgah in the abbey, on New Years' Day in 1492, the two of them rediscovered the Banesmark, a powerful symbol that, when placed on a living creatures, allows one to exert control over their thoughts and actions. S'gothgah realized that the Banesmark, when combined with an aboleth's natural ability to mentally dominate others, would give him the unprecedented ability to dominate scores of individuals miles apart from each other. Ordurn, jealous of this secret to power, kept it from the other cultist acolytes.
S'gothgah's time with Ordurn also had another unexpected result. The aboleth became religious. In Bane, S'gothgah found something worth living for, a god whose power and control over others were a perfect match for the natural disposition of aboleths.

Formation of the Crisis

Now that the Banesmark had been rediscovered, S'gothgah wanted to leave the abbey and take use this newfound power, abandoning Ordurn, who by this point had become unknowingly enthralled to the aboleth.
S'gothgah's chance came when the Sea Prince Syrgaul attacked the isle, raiding it for gold and treasure, though the pirate's crew weren't about to get into the abbey's lower levels. Desperate, Ordurn released S'gothgah into the waters around the isle to deal with the pirates, allowing S'gothgah to mentally control Syrgaul, ordering his crew to leave. However, S'gothgah planned to leave with the crew, and he gave Ordurn a parting gift with a graze of a tentacle, transforming Ordurn into a skum, silencing the only other individual aware of the Banesmark.
Now with Syrgaul, and shortly the entire crew of the pirates ship, the Tammeraut, under his control, S'gothgah began sending the crew across the Sea of Swords looking for a creature of great power. Inspired by the Bhaalspawn Crisis of the 1480s, S'gothgah believed the power of the Banesmark give him the ability to dominate creatures normally beyond an aboleth's control to create an Avatar of Bane the likes of which have never been seen before.
S'gothgah's search with the crew of the Tammeraut bore fruit, when a nest of magically preserved kraken eggs were found in the Whalebones. Utilizing the power of the Banesmark and dark magic, S'gothgah sunk the Tammeraut over the nest and transformed its crew into undead guardians, while taking one egg for himself.
In 1493, S'gothgah formed a base for himself in a long-abandoned and half-sunk temple of Bane in the Styes. From here, S'gothgah began forming the core of his personal cult of Bane.
In 1494, S'gothgah's first atempt to manipulate the leadership of the Styes was stymied when his first follower in the city, Pathos Gloombright, was killed by two associates of Seaton Committee member Mr. Dory. However, S'gothgah soon found a better helped in Mr. Dory himself, who willingly aided the aboleth in exchange for flesh-warping powers. 
That same year, S'gothgah gained powerful minions in the form of the Twilight Monastery, where shadow monks trained in the Neverwinter Wood. By subtly contacting the monastery's Grand Shade, S'gothgah lured her to a place where he could fully dominate her with a Banesmark, allowing her to spread his influence, and Banesmarks where necessary, among the monastery's rank and file. This allowed S'gothgah to be secretly transported to an aquatic holding area in the monastery's library, where he discovered the last critical part of his plan: the Feast of Corruption, a forbidden ritual that would accelerate the growth of any creature placed in the center by feeding on the despair, fear, and other negative emotions within a small radius. S'gothgah, a divinely inspired scholar is his own right, was able to greatly expand the range of the Feast of Corruption to encompass nearly the entire Sword Coast North from its placement in the Styes, at the cost of each individual instance of misery being weaker.
Here, S'gothgah's ultimate plan became clear. The kraken egg he procurred, and then the resulting newborn kraken, would be placed inside of the Feast of Corruption and Banesmarked. Once the kraken reached maturity, it would become the vessel for a summoned Sliver of Bane, a piece of Bane's soul, becoming an Avatar. With the resources of the Twilight Monastery, S'gothgah would be able to inspire fear all over, stoking the flames of conflict and creating fear through clever instances of assassination, murder, and theft.

The Banesmark Crisis

In 1495 and 1496, S'gothgah began creating and coopting conflicts, including the Free Focos Movement opposing Lord Hargrave Decker of Focosgost, racial tensions surrounding orcs in Neverwinter, resulting in the Neveren Orc Riots in the tail end of the year, creating serial killers, such as the Lantern Ghost Killer, in the Styes to worsen conditions there, controlling Anders Solmor, a member of the Saltmarsh Town Council, to exacerbate tensions between the towns Emberist and Traditionalist movements, and corrupting Baroness Seklaz of a sahuagin warband, among others.
In early 1496, Seklaz's sahuagin warband conquered the Javan River Spire from its native lizardfolk owners, the Sunny Shore Tribe. The tribe, wanting to reconquer their home and fearing the strength of a sahuagin war band, gathered together a group of like-minded aquatic species to go to war against the sahuagin, as S'gothgah planned. In order to increase the bloodshed, Sanbalet, a Banesmarked smuggler, began selling weapons to the lizardfolk from his base of operations in the Haunted Mansion of Saltmarsh.
This operation got the attention of the Heroes of Saltmarsh, who investigated and disrupted Sanbalet's smuggling operation, causing the group to mistakingly believe the weapons to the lizardfolk were intended to be used to attack Saltmarsh. However, following their raid on the lizardfolk lair lair, the Heroes learned the lizardfolks' true intent and petitioned for Saltmarsh to join their anti-sahuagin Dunwater Alliance.
During this time, Pearce, the apprentice of the town wizard of Saltmarsh Keledek, discovered the Banesmark while investigating the Styes, drawing S'gothgah's attention and ire. Pearce was killed by S'gothgah, turned into a skum, but the Heroes of Saltmarsh managed to recover the image of the Banesmark Pearce had discovered.
Despite these incurrsions, S'gothgah still believed that the Heroes would ultimately be a force of chaos and pose little threat to his overall plans. However, during the attack on the Neverwinter Gala, a false flag attack by Banesmarked shadow monks posing as members of the Free Focos Movement, the Heroes managed to recover the soul trap used to hold the soul of the court wizard and Hand of Mana member Brisk and rescued Krisella Ferox, who the shadow monks attempted to frame for the attack. The Heroes then investigated the Isle of the Abbey, uncovering more of the Banesmark, and S'gothgah's involvement, though they only knew an aboleth was involved, not his name.
While helping Saltmarsh prepare for the attack on the sahuagin stronghold, the Heroes drove away a group of hill giants threatening Leilon, which were manipulated and led there by Bo Latarn, a Banesmarked Twilight Monastery monk, who was also driven away during the attack. 
Angered at his plans being slowly unraveled, the aboleth arranged for his puppet on the Saltmarsh Town Council to advocate for a violent uprising against the Neverwinter Guard garrison in town, while most of the guard were out fighting in the Battle of the Spire. Anders was relying on tactical murders by Bo Latarn to increase fear and paraonia, but the B-Team, a group of newly arrived adventurers, managed to track down and capture Bo and Anders, resulting in the formers execution and the latters' arrest.
Following the overwhelming victory of the Dunwater Alliance at the Battle of the Spire, causing far less fear and despair than the aboleth intended, S'gothgah began treating the Heroes as serious threats, and spent the next month corrupting more people in Saltmarsh with Banesmarks, including close allies of the Heroes, such as Manistrad Copperlocks and Crab.
In Uktar of 1496, the Heroes raided the Twilight Monastery, killing the Grand Shade and disrupting the aboleth's control while learning about the Feast of Corruption. The Heroes then traveled to the Whalebones to aid in Krisella Ferox's investigation into the missing Tammeraut, resulting in the group discovering the preserved kraken nest, killing the undead pirate crew and destroying the remaining eggs. Furious, but realizing that his plan was close to nearing completion, S'gothgah left his base in the Styes to confront the Heroes outside of the kraken nest, first failing to mentally dominate Micah and then giving the Heroes an ultimatum. They were to return to and remain in Saltmarsh. If the Heroes told anyone about S'gothgah's plans or the Banesmark, were found leaving, did not return promptly, or made any clear move against him, S'gothgah would order his Banesmarked minions to go on a rampage, destroying themselves or riling up the town to destroy itself.
However, the Heroes managed to avoid S'gothgah's notice, and a majority of the group snuck out of town in Nightal of 1496 to retrieve the God Trap, a powerful ancient dwarven soul trap that they believed would prevent the Sliver of Bane, if summoned, from merging with S'gothgah's kraken.
For his part, S'gothgah was also busy during this time, Banesmarking Micah Pierce's brother Pallu and bringing him to the Styes alongside Lyra's mentor Brenvark Coldscar as last-minute insurance.
That decision paid off, as the Heroes managed to isolate all of the Banesmarked citizens of Saltmarsh by convincing the town that the mark was a parasite from the Shadowfell that caused irrationality. The Heroes then sailed for the Styes and discovered S'gothgah's base by interrogating Mr. Dory. However, S'gothgah's insurance wouldn't be leveraged, as Necian Arrzen used a fireball inside of the base's main chamber, mistaking the robed Banesmarked cultists for true believers, killing Brenvark Coldscar outright, and forcing the majority of the others to flee out into the Styes.
S'gothgah, speaking through his puppets, taunted the Heroes while he and the kraken, still just short of full maturation, fled their base, with the kraken carrying the stone bearing the Feast of Corruption in his tentacles. Needing one last great work of terror, S'gothgah had infiltrated the Great Neveren Trade Fleet with Banesmarked merchants, soldiers, and sailors, and he and the kraken planned to destroy the fleet to finish the Feast of Corruption's ritual.
The Heroes pursued S'gothgah, arriving too late to stop the wave of destruction from the Banesmarked moles being told to destroy and fight their crewmates nor the kraken from destroying a few ships. However, while the majority of the Heroes faced off against the kraken, Oceanus dove into the frigid waters to fight S'gothgah personally in an attempt to distract the aboleth and break his control. Though not able to give his full attention to the battle, S'gothgah was able to summon the Sliver of Bane and fought Oceanus within an inch of his life, but fled when the Heroes managed to both kill the kraken and trap the Sliver of Bane inside of the God Trap.
Since the attack on the Neveren Trade Fleet, S'gothgah's whereabouts are unknown.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

S'gothgah rarely engages in physical combat, but is known to be able to hold his own, having successfully fought of the triton warrior Oceanus during the attack on the Neveren Trade Fleet at the climax of the Banesmark Crisis.

Special abilities

While most aboleth have the ability to control a dozen or two individuals, S'gothgah has proven himself to be able to simultaneously control many dozens. This ability comes as a result of the Banesmark, a magical symbol that allows one to mentally dominate others marked with it. The natural synergy between the Banesmark's and the aboleth's mental control have strengthened S'gothgah to be one of the strongest aboleths in recent memory.

Mental characteristics

Intellectual Characteristics

Even more than most aboleth, S'gothgah is an intellectual genius when it comes to the inner workings of magical rituals and device. It was S'gothgah that was able to rediscover the controlling properties of the Banesmark centuries after it had been erased from world's memories after the Century of Strife and S'gothgah managed to take the Feast of Corruption and great expand its effective range.
S'gothgah is also an effective manipulator. During the Banesmark Crisis, he used his minions to infiltrate dozens of organizations and use them to serve his ultimate goal of sowing chaos.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

While most aboleth aspire to elevate themselves above all, S'gothgah is unique, and dangerous, in that all of his time and effort is spent in service of another: Bane. S'gothgah is a fanatic in his devotion to Bane, viewing the god of tyranny as being a natural fit for aboleths as a whole.

Vices & Personality flaws

As an aboleth, S'gothgah struggles to have less than total control over his followers and subjects. While the Banesmark greatly empowered him, it also exploited this flaw further, as nearly every member of S'gothgah's cult of Bane was either personally controlled by the aboleth or was following someone the aboleth controlled, limiting the group's effectiveness based on S'gothgah's personal attention.

Current Status

Current location unknown

Species

Aboleth

Honorary & Occupational Titles

The Whisperer

Sex

Hermaphrodite

Presentation

Masculine

Belief/Deity

Bane

Aligned Organization

S'gothgah's Cult of Bane

Ruled Locations

• Seaton Temple of Bane