The Dark Fate of Lord Vanrak Moonstar
Lord Vanrak
Adherents of Shar have been active in the shadow of Mount Waterdeep ever since a disastrous expedition to the Black Jungles mounted in the Year of the Dark Dawn (1104 DR) by Lord Vanrak Moonstar, a charismatic, outgoing swashbuckler. Vanrak was but a pale shadow of his former self when he returned. A few tendays later, his father, Lord Andvarran Moonstar, the family patriarch, died of a strange wasting disease that could not be cured by healing magic.
Upon assuming leadership of House Moonstar, Vanrak publicly broke with the temple of Selûne (god of the moon), which he blamed for his father’s untimely death. Consumed with bitterness, the Dark Ranger, as Vanrak came to be known, secretly embraced Selûne’s sister: Shar, the Lady of Loss.
By the Year of the Howling Moon (1130 DR), House Moonstar was in open schism. Family members who still venerated Selûne aligned themselves with Lord Vanrak’s sister, Lady Alathene, and Selûne’s priesthood. Meanwhile, Lord Vanrak and his followers extended their dark influence over much of the city’s harbor with the aid of a small army of mercenaries bolstered by followers of Shar.
Lady Alathene appeared in open court and asked the Lords of Waterdeep to strip her brother of his title and banish him from the city. She also presented evidence of her brother’s numerous crimes, including slavery, arson, theft, and murder. The Lords ordered the immediate capture of the Dark Ranger, but by the time the City Watch had breached the gates of his villa, Vanrak and his followers had already fled through a secret portal into Undermountain. He and his followers remained there until, in the Year of the Dark Mask (1171 DR), they conquered the level of Undermountain that came to be known as Vanrakdoom.
Operating from his new base, Vanrak extended his influence throughout much of Undermountain and even periodically dispatched elite strike teams to battle followers of Selûne in the city above. He achieved his most dramatic success in the Year of the Tomb (1182 DR), when his followers infiltrated the High House of Stars through its cellars, slaughtered most of the inhabitants before they could raise an alarm, engulfed the temple in black fire, and burned it to the ground. The invaders also acquired enough treasure from the temple vaults to fund Lord Vanrak’s personal quest for immortality. Within a few years, the Dark Ranger had transformed himself into a death knight.
The Lords of Waterdeep didn’t make things easy for Vanrak Moonstar in the years that followed. They hired waves of adventurers to descend into Undermountain to bring Vanrak and his followers to justice. Although none of these adventurers succeeded, they winnowed down Vanrak’s army to the point where he could no longer threaten the city.
Halaster Blackcloak compounded Vanrak’s woes by urging other Undermountain dwellers to invade Vanrakdoom from time to time. In a desperate move, the few remaining priests of Shar performed rituals to harness the despair of Vanrak’s shadow dragon mount, Umbraxakar, and use him to transport Vanrakdoom into the Shadowfell. In the end, Halaster’s magical hold over Undermountain proved too strong to overcome, yet a small section of Vanrakdoom crossed over into the Plane of Shadow and became ensconced there.
Confronted by failure, Vanrak came to believe that Shar had deceived him and had orchestrated his downfall solely to spite her nemesis, Selûne. Vanrak had lost his family, his title, and most of his army, and he was in danger of losing hold over his domain. In the Year of Silent Shadows (1436 DR), he renounced his faith in Shar and begged Selûne’s forgiveness for the destruction of her temple and its followers. In a desperate act of redemption, the death knight destroyed his undead form using a sun blade. A vampire cleric of Shar named Keresta Delvingstone has ruled Vanrakdoom ever since.
With the shadow of Vanrak faded from memory, House Moonstar has prospered. The Waterdavian family is currently overseen by the once shrewd but now senile Lady Wylynd Moonstar, a venerable human noblewoman who, by last estimate, is well over a century old. Although she has no children of her own, Wylynd is surrounded by distant relatives, including a savvy half-drow grandnephew named Helion Moonstar, whom she has chosen to be her heir. The family’s business interests lie in cartography and exploration, and Wylynd has been known to fund expeditions to Undermountain from time to time for reasons she prefers to keep to herself.
