The Brass Blades were a mercenary guild that was founded in the City of Brass in 1523 SE. The guild worked for various noble efreeti in the city and occasionally for the Sultan himself. The Brass Legions handled the defenses of the city, but when planar travel was required to deal with threats or desires, the Brass Blades were the ones that answered the call.
The founder of the Blades was Zokhail The Mighty, a former member of the Crownfire - an elite efreeti formation in the City of Brass. Zokhail left his post in the Crownfire after wounds suffered when frost giants attacked the city left him unable to carry out his duties. His reputation secured many clients for the Blades in their time on the Xathoryn.
In 8496 SE, while carrying out a contract for a noble efreeti from the city, the Blades committed treason against the Sultan. The records of the Blades are not clear on whether this was willful or if they had been misled by their patron. Records of the actual events that lead to their banishment from the Xathoryn are gone. What is known is that Zokhail was imprisoned in the vaults of the Sultan and the rest of the Blades were cast from Xathoryn. The historians of the Blades have come to refer to this as the Melting of the Blades.
After their expulsion the Blades wandered across the Physical Universes for many years, working for various governments and recruiting additional members. Over time, the presence and influence of the Elemental Plane vanished from their ranks. In 8721 SE, the Blades formed a permanent base of operations in Elgaard, Brass Bastion. They built a reputation as a company that could be counted on to complete whatever contract they took on, and the company flourished.
Their skill attracted many noble clients. In 8751 SE, an agent of the Blades, Davrek Valzorwyn , accepted a contact on behalf of the Ariessus family. The contract required the Blades to find or plant evidence that Luther Mortanas had been involved in the abduction or murder of a member of the Ariessus family. While some members of the Blades carried out the contract, Mortanas had the Brass Bastion put to the torch and most of the members that were on the job were killed. Davrek and Phelps were the only Blades on the job to survive. They retreated to the small town of Trinswood.
When the inn of Trinswood was attacked by lycanthropes, Davrek and Phelps found an unlikely group of friends and recruits for the Brass Blades, they were joined by Abendigo, Chan Kong-Sang, Hannibal ‘Tusky’, and Darieth Ariessus.
The group made their way back to Elgaard and search the home of Darieth Ariessus and the ruins of the Brass Bastion. In the Ariessus home, they found notes about a merchant named Brenton Woolfe. He was the intermediary that provided the contract to Davrek as well. After interrogating him, Darieth murdering him, and the party resurrecting him, they made their way to Shadowmere Cavern. This is where the Ariessus family had harvested something called motes of shadow for Luther Mortanas. Darieth encountered a being there that removed some pact that had been made. The shadow touched powers that Darieth had previously wielded were gone.
After returning to Elgaard, the Blades needed more information about Luther Mortanas. Their investigation led them to Arcanist Thordahr, a dwarven artificer, in the city of Krynhold. Working to assist Thordahr in exchange for the information, the Blades discovered a group of Duergar enslaved by a beholder in caverns under the city. They captured and convinced the Duergar that they could work together to remove the beholder. Then the group proceeded into the chamber of the beholder and caught it unaware. Davrek transformed it into a crab and then it was submerged in lava nearly killing it immediately. During their explorations under the city, they also found a strange column that gave visions of an entity from the Nascent Expanse to Davrek and Abendigo.
Thordahr gave the group a lead on Zhaken Amberheart. He was tied to an archeological site where Tusky’s mentor Fenro disappeared. The site only had a symbol of a red hand on it, but Thordahr knew that to be associated with Amberheart. The group headed to the Aessjorthe Plains, where Thordahr had heard Amberheart’s tower, Adamantis Tower, was located. On reaching the tower, the group found documents that linked Amberheart to Luther Mortanas in some sort of plot. Fenro was found at the top of the tower and was being used in a ritual that Amberheart was performing to attune to an ancient Ordai mechanism called the Clockwork Heart. Exposure to the artifact’s vast network of simultaneous rhythms severely damaged Fenro’s mind. The Blades were unable to stop Amberheart from completing the ritual, but they rescued Fenro. As they fled, Amberheart invoked Adamantis’s inherent spatial magic and teleported the entire tower away.
The Blades returned to Krynhold with Fenro. His mind had been damaged by the ritual and he was unable to speak. Leaving Fenro in the care of Thordahr, the group went to Nmothusin, a place they learned of from the obelisk under Krynhold. Once there, the Blades found that there was something off about the townsfolk. After more investigation, they discovered a crypt where artifacts were left by an ancient magic user named Talora. Here they found a staff that allowed teleportation and a strange key. The key unlocked a concealed chamber associated with the town well, through which the Blades reached an extraplanar space containing the Rift Spar. After this discovery, the Blades saw or had a vision of a large otherworldly tentacle emerging from the sea beside the town. The Blades fled the town with the teleportation staff and attempted to return to Elgaard.
When trying to teleport back into the city, they were interrupted by a magical ward on teleportation. There were guards at the gates that were scanning people with some sort of divining rod. They took Phelps. The group ambushed the prison caravan to rescue Phelps with the help of some highly detailed maps drawn by Zackon Truehelm. The guards had been increasing security to deal with the Lycan Raids of 8752 SE orchestrated by Mortanas, Ronin Meruvis, and the Moon’s Shadow. With the help of the Moon’s Shadow and Ronin Meruvis, the Blades completed the contract on Mortanas to the letter, dismantling his political support in Elgaard and finding a link to the missing Ariessus brother whom Mortanas had made a vampire. They also found that Mortanas had been performing some sort of magical experiments or procedures on citizens of Elgaard he had kidnapped.
Davrek took up the mantle of Blade Commander, with the construction of a new mining enterprise outside of Trinswood and the construction of a keep. As their saying goes, the Blades have been bent, but remain unbroken. In addition to the friends he and Phelps had recruited, additional former Blades members and survivors, Bozas Dask and Zackon Truehelm, were found and rejoined the Blades.
The re-forged Blades then set out on their next objective, curing Relvan Ariessus of his vampirism affliction. Darieth had a vision that led the Blades to the Iron City, the seat of the Master of Appointments on the Second Depth of Vharath. Using their contacts in Elgaard, the Blades found a way into the city. While there, they uncovered records showing that Mortanas had been sending stolen mortal souls into Vharath for centuries and that the experiments in Elgaard were trials for a much larger harvesting operation. The records revealed the scale and destination of the traffic without exposing the method by which Mortanas actually seized the souls.
After negotiations with Azradel, chamberlain to Vezhuran, the Master of Appointments, Darieth surrendered the eventual claim to his soul and accepted future infernal service in exchange for his brother’s cure. Azradel committed the services of an Elder Succubus whose specialized knowledge allowed her to separate the supernatural condition sustaining Relvan’s vampirism. Relvan, in turn, was able to provide additional information on Mortanas, leading the Blades to involve themselves in wars among the Djozanates of the Kenai Mountains, whose refugees had been crowding Elgaard for some time, believing them to be influenced by Mortanas.
After consulting with Tusky, the Blades made their way to Danto in an attempt to secure reinforcements for the town of Entwood. After obtaining a letter from the court wizard in Elgaard, they argued before Danto’s government that unchecked aggression from the Leopard Song Order and the wider conflict in the Djozanates of the Kenai Mountains could eventually threaten the island as well. The Pradhan of Danto and Sabha of Danto ultimately authorized an unusual foreign deployment, and a division of Danto’s army was sent to aid Entwood’s defense.
After securing aid for Entwood, the Blades travelled there to inform the people of the coming help from Danto and to scout for information on Mortanas. Bozas Dask had travelled ahead to get a feel for the city, and discovered Mortanas had lived in Entwood as a member of the ruling council for some time. The Blades aided in the defense of the city from a Djozanate attack, captured a prisoner, and met with members of the Council of Entwood and the leadership of the city guard. After gathering some additional intel and sharing concerns without tipping their hand too much, the Blades agreed to secure some crystals for Nicomachus Ruanar to help power the city’s defense.
The Blades travelled to Gorneduhr, an abandoned dwarven city beneath the Kenai Mountains. While there, they encountered Veris Imilar, who joined them on their explorations. The Shriekstone that was supposed to be easy to retrieve from fairly far up in the mines was nowhere to be found. The Blades journeyed into the Underdark following recently dug tunnels from Gorneduhr. They eventually reached the Drow city of Terl’Narquel. Once there, they discovered that the Shriekstone had been harvested by a clandestine revolutionary organization known as Venorik Killianen. Venorik Killianen had more fighters in the city than the Blades could handle once their infiltration was discovered and they had to flee with only a small portion of the Shriekstone they had intended to recover.
Upon returning to the city of Entwood, Nicomachus informed the Blades of an alternate plan. Tusky and Darieth operated a construct called the Fist of Beskatel while the rest of the Blades helped the city in other ways against the assault of the Leopard Song Order and the rest of the Grand Army of the Djozanates. In the end, the defenders discovered a large-scale illusion that allowed a force of Drow to appear as members of the Djozanates. Breaking the working and defeating the wizards maintaining it ended the deception and caused chaos in the ranks of the assaulting army.
With the Grand Army in disarray, the Blades took the opportunity to follow another lead. With the help of Rof Riverflame, they had discovered a ritual to allow them to reach the home of Baba Yaga. Once there, they journeyed through the seemingly endless rooms in her hut before finally reaching the Queen of Hags. She granted them wishes and the opportunity to draw from an enchanted deck of cards whose draws produced bizarre and unpredictable effects. This went very poorly for the Blades and they sacrificed much to achieve the goals they sought. Abendigo managed to find an item he could use to take the next step on his path and Tusky was able to restore the mind of his mentor, Fenro.
After returning from the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga, the Blades discovered that the Huraz Confederation and Tadrium were close to war. The Cult of the Stars had accumulated influence among important tribal leaders and within the increasingly centralized institutions of Qaranth, giving the movement enough leverage to direct Huraz policy toward confrontation. The Blades reunited with Akari Taiss, a former member of their group whose brother, Saajid Taiss, had joined the Cult. With Akari’s guidance and assistance from the Qaranthi shopkeeper Dardzada Tariq, they traced the movement’s leadership to a pyramid east of the capital. There they discovered Zhaken Amberheart directing a ritual in which Saajid was sacrificed and the Rift Spar was used to reach toward the Nascent Expanse. The working established a connection that Othrazhul was able to exploit, and the Blades could not prevent the resulting intrusion into Kor Sirok’s physical universe. Amberheart was transformed into an aberration before the Blades banished him from the pocket realm. Saajid was later resurrected and returned to Akari for care and deprogramming.
With Tusky as the new keeper of the Clockwork Heart, they returned to Elgaard to find an unusually large number of refugees from the Kenai Mountains. After some investigation, they set out to confront Hiuh Lao and the Leopard Song Order. The Heart proved capable of disrupting the synchronization magic underlying the devices Zhaken had supplied to Dhuulan, allowing affected defenders and leaders to break free of their reinforcing magical influence. The Blades reached the Kenai Mountains where they rescued the Djozan of the Bear Paw Order, Ip Cham. The Blades worked with the Bear Paw Order and Eagle Wing Order to create a resistance to the control of the Leopard Song Order. After weakening the control of the Grand Army of the Djozanates, the Blades infiltrated the monastery of the Leopard Song Order to confront Hiuh Lao. Upon defeating him, it was revealed that he was actually Dhuulan Havar and had used magic to control and manipulate the Djozanates of the Kenai Mountains, especially Yuen Lung. Yuen named Chan as his successor to the Leopard Song Order. Chan accepted the appointment but promised to return only after his journey with the Brass Blades was complete. Yuen then transmitted the secret religious knowledge carried by the Djozans; the binding covenant governing that succession caused Yuen to die when the transfer was complete.
With the Djozanates of the Kenai Mountains back out from under the influence of Dhuulan Havar, the Blades turned their focus to helping Abendigo. He opened the item that Baba Yaga gave him, which turned out to be a door to Morgrom. Passing through it, the Blades found themselves in a hall of the Returning Flame, a faction whose philosophers had long argued that a mortal being might be capable of becoming something greater, perhaps even divine. There they met Azarek, a master door-maker working under Returning Flame patronage. After a journey into the deepest levels of the Eightfold Depths to retrieve an item, the Blades ventured to Numedios, where Abendigo learned how to reach the lair of the time dragon Giotractuszeit. The Blades understood the remote temporal place they reached as the end of time, without realizing that Giotractuszeit’s lair lay within the Broken Hour. Consulting with the dragon, Abendigo learned how to conduct a ritual that would allow him to travel through time.
The Blades returned to the Physical Universes with the new knowledge that Abendigo had gained. They discovered that in order to get one of the components they needed for the ritual, Luther Mortanas would need to be confronted again. Phelps was especially interested in this since he seemed to be the biological son of Mortanas. The group journeyed to Mortanas’ castle in the mountains on the eastern border of Tadrium through a portal opened by Phelps’ blood in Mortanas’ home in Entwood. Phelps and the Blades learned of the tragedy that had befallen Mortanas when his wife died and his daughter was murdered. Mortanas had bargained directly with Veshar to preserve the life of Phelps’ sister, Rose, in exchange for a quota of souls that doubled at each required interval. Mortanas had already spent centuries meeting that obligation through a unique means of seizing human souls and sending them to Vharath without infernal contracts. By 8753 SE, maintaining Rose’s life required 393,216 souls. The Blades defeated Mortanas before that quota could be met, and Rose was finally able to pass on to the afterlife.
With the assistance of allies they had gathered through their journey, the Blades conducted a ritual led by Abendigo to open a passage through time. The journey did not overwrite history or restore Abendigo’s family into a revised present. Instead, the Blades became participants in a closed temporal sequence in which their interventions formed part of the same coherent history from which they had departed. During that sequence they encountered Abendigo’s future apotheosized self and witnessed the destruction associated with Othrazhul’s return. The world they saw had fallen under Othrazhul’s influence and the Harrowing had begun. Through the events of the Harrowing, the Blades defeated the Aspect of Othrazhul and forced Othrazhul back beyond Creation, ending the immediate threat to the world.
With their work completed, some of the Blades moved on to their own goals, and others continued to lead and guide the company. In the aftermath of the Harrowing, Davrek Valzorwyn founded the Aegis Regnum to guard Kor Sirok against future incursions connected to the Nascent Expanse. Davrek remained Blade Commander rather than taking control of the new order himself. His lieutenant, Zurok, left the Brass Blades to become the Aegis’s first Grandmaster, while Davrek continued to advise and cooperate with the organization.
Phelps remained with the Blades. Chan Kong-Sang left to lead the Leopard Song Order. Darieth Ariessus wed and founded an orphanage in Rose Mortanas’ honor on the grounds of the castle Luther Mortanas kept in eastern Tadrium. Veris Imilar traveled Kor Sirok sharing stories of the Brass Blades and opening franchises of the organization that were not officially sanctioned or, initially, known to Davrek and Phelps. Tusky returned to Pakuley and joined his sister, while continuing to support the Blades on occasion and helping defend the city. Abendigo ascended to godhood as the god of time.