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Originally posted by rugerx

Hi all first time poster...

I would say the simple answer is the unnamed entity that AO speaks to at the end of Waterdeep... Anyone AO would bow to has to be one bad mutha!

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Long time FR book collector. (100+ paperbacks and still buying! I will own the entire collection one day!)

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Originally posted by The Sage

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Originally posted by George Krashos

Now if Halaster (with his newfound sanity and favour of Mystra) wanted to branch out and check out the Realms, THAT would interest me...

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Now where would the fun be in THAT!

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Originally posted by George Krashos

Now if Halaster (with his newfound sanity and favour of Mystra) wanted to branch out and check out the Realms, THAT would interest me...

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Originally posted by barry

All this talk and interest in Halaster blackcoak should serve as enough proof that the forgotten realms readers want a halaster blackcloak nove l. i believe so
what you think?
Ye or nay

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Originally posted by barry

All this talk and interest in Halaster blackcoak should serve as enough proof that the forgotten realms readers want a halaster blackcloak nove l. i believe so
what you think?
Ye or nay

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Originally posted by The Sage

Well, most of us...

There are some... looks in the direction of the Furry Hamster ...who exist to plague Big Al with antics that would make even a kender cry in frustration .

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Originally posted by Chosen of Moradin

Thank you very much, Wooly!!! You really give me some great infos to work on, and I´m very happy. Now, with the "recent return to undermountain" in the WoTC website, and my Lost Empires coming (good source of info about Imaskar), I think that I will do a very good job in my campaign.

Again, thank you, noble scribe and Master of Lore!

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Originally posted by Melfius

Thanks, Wooly! I didn't want to have to post that reply myself!

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Originally posted by Chosen of Moradin

I´ll prepare this changes in my campaign, so... if anyone here can help with more tips and clues, I´ll be very glad!!!

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I envision Halaster as knowing the rules of many Faerunian games (see my comments earlier in this thread for rules of some games played in the Realms), but having no interest whatsoever in dice, card, and other ‘primarily gambling’ sorts of games. I see him as being fairly good at, but essentially bored by, strategy board games (chess, et al). The reason for this is that his primary fascination and delight lies in judging character and successfully figuring out how to manipulate and ‘out-think’ opponents (for which read: any creature he wants to manipulate). Yes, ‘brute blasting spells’ can engender fear, and fear can move many an adventurer in Undermountain (greed and overconfident pride moves many of the rest), but over the years Halaster became used to matching wits with rulers who commanded many resources (including capable agents) and mages and sorcerers who had great personal mental strength -- and such struggles are what interest him most. As strategy board games don’t allow for manipulation of the minds of individual playing-pieces, and the games themselves are abstract struggles that have no lasting effect in the real-life Realms, Halaster sees them as time-wasters -- and he values even his idle moments as time too valuable to waste.



Questions:
1. What is the name of the seventh apprentice? Was it Ezzat as detailed in the Ruins of Undermountain II? Or is Nandel Greenward? Hmmm. That makes eight. I hate mysteries.

2. Do any of the aforementioned apprentices have last names?

3. Has there been documented anywhere any descendants of any apprentices?

4. Did Halaster begin holding the MageFairs on his own, or was he working with a group?

5. At what point did Halaster decide to change his name from Hilather?

6. Where/When was Halaster born?

7. What changes have been made to Halaster since Elminster in Hell? (i.e. Is he sane now?)

8. When Halster claimed to have been touched by Shar, does this mean he has access to the Shadow Weave?

9. Are there any anecdotes about any of your gaming groups’ encounters with Halaster?

10. Where/When did Halaster begin training his apprentices?

11. Who trained Halaster?

12. What would Halaster’s alignment have been a)when he began training his apprentices b)when he created Halaster’s Hold?

Answers:
1. [NDA]
2. Yes, but they’ve not been remembered by, or are not known to, our Realms sources consulted thus far. Perhaps they’ll be revealed in the fullness of [NDA]
3. No. However, that doesn’t mean no offspring exist. In fact, [NDA]
4. Halaster thought he was establishing MageFairs on his own, but in fact more than one deity of magic was whispering subtle suggestions in more than one mortal ear to bring it about. Otherwise, given the paranoid nature of most mages, it’s likely the MageFairs would never have been more than Halaster waiting in some tranquil, remote locale for one or two mages to show up (and the Fairs would have ended the moment one arriving mage attacked, or was attacked by, another). As for who these deities and other mortals were, specifically, I’d have to [NDA]
5. [NDA]
6. A long time ago, specifically [NDA] in [NDA]
7. Like any long-lived mage, Halaster isn’t what most other mortals would call ‘normal,’ and never will be. However, Mystra did some major mental healing (that also involved binding Halaster more closely to her service), ‘offstage’ in the latter part of ELMINSTER IN HELL and thereafter. Halaster did NOT become a Chosen, but reached a ‘separate peace’ with her in return for serving her as an agent (in the events recounted in ELMINSTER IN HELL). He still has his ‘raving times,’ but they’re fewer, shorter, and less severe than before (i.e. he’s far more in touch with reality, and more cunning and less reckless whilst in the throes of them); most of the time he’s in complete control of himself - - and this is no longer governed by his location (in Undermountain or outside of it). That doesn’t mean he’s a ‘happy camper.’ For one thing, he’s both enraged and ashamed at how many years he’s wasted ‘drifting’ in sub-sanity, and is just climbing out of considering himself an utter failure and a rot-fungus on the face of Faerun and into deciding what he’ll devote the rest of his life to. Consider him a magical whirlwind that’s stopped spinning and is poised to decide what to do next. Tremble, Faerun, tremble.
8. Halaster HAD access to the Shadow Weave; much of his madness was due to Shar’s whisperings (attempts to mind-control him), which is specifically what he meant by her ‘touch.’ Shar’s influence gave him access to the Shadow Weave, but Halaster’s aged, busy, brilliantly-magic-creative mind couldn’t simultaneously handle mastery of both Weave and Shadow Weave, and so he was losing his sanity (and only thereby keeping Shar at bay: she couldn’t control a mind in such internal chaos). Mystra in effect thrust Shar out (in any contest of pure magic and of mortal mastery of magic, in which Mystra and Shar can exert equal forces against each other, Mystra will always win, because she IS magic, and has supremacy) of Halaster’s mind, banishing all traces of the Shadow Weave forever. What she left behind makes Halaster one of the few mortals whom Shar can never subvert, now. She can break his mind and his body, but not corrupt and come to control him. (In other words, he’s equal to a Chosen of Mystra in this regard. The Chosen who’ve failed Mystra in the past have lost their sanity and ‘fallen away from her love,’ and so become corruptible.)
9. Yes. :}
:}
:}

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1. Halaster has been around for a LONG time, and for almost all of that time he’s been an enigma. Steven Schend and I pretty well agreed that he was only insane as long as he was in Undermountain, and it seems that ‘the new’ Mystra has freed him from the worst magical effects of its thrall, returning him to sanity. She did NOT make him a Chosen, but instead made a ‘separate peace’ with him, giving him the status of a free-willed agent (from time to time she’ll ask him to do something for her, with new spells or augmented powers as his reward or price, but she will do absolutely nothing to coerce him into service, nor look upon him unfavorably if he refuses).
Whether he’ll become a threat to the wider Realms, or a ‘good guy,’ depends on him. Right at the moment, I personally have no plans for a Halaster novel, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the good folks at WotC are pondering this topic for some scribe’s pen. He is a perfect main character for a pull-out-the-stops spellhurling novel, after all. :}

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Originally posted by Chosen of Moradin

This is my first post to that amazing forum, and I want to apologize for my english. I´m a brazilian fan of the Realms, and I have a great practice in reading, but I´m not so good in writing...

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