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I have come to regard Agatha as one of my favorite characters in the Lost Mines module although she certainly didn’t start that way. Initially she seemed like a placeholder character in a tiresome fetch quest, but after taking some time to flesh out her backstory and motivations I believe (and I hope you’ll come to agree) that Agatha can be so much more than the trivia question answerer the module presents her to be.

First Things First: Let’s Call her Auglatha

As the My Realms Blog observes: “[The name Agatha] makes her sound like a character from an episode of Bewitched” and not an an infamous undead being who apparently knows everything about everything. (Incidentally, the My Realms blog has a WEALTH of ideas for deepening the story and lore behind Lost Mines Characters and Quests. If you want to run the Conyberry encounter with a little more depth than the module offers, this article on Agatha should be required reading).

According to the article, apparently in one of the D&D CRPGs “it was revealed that Agatha is actually a corruption of the banshee’s surname which is Auglatha meaning Winterbreeze“. This is so much cooler than the original IMHO. Also, at the end of the article we’re given a suggested given name for the banshee: Melarue.

Because Melarue seemed a better family name to me, I preferred to make her name Auglatha Melarue. Either way, the name certainly has a bit more gravitas to it.

To avoid confusion, the banshee will still be referred to Agatha with occasional references to Auglatha in parentheses.

Building Agatha’s Origin Story

While I’ve crafted my own backstory for Agatha (offered below), here are some important questions to think about should you write your own:

Who was Agatha in life? Elves live a very long time, so it follows that Agatha may have some living family members. If a member of your party is elven or half-elven they may even be related to her! Indeed, they could have a still living grandparents who knew Agatha personally. Consider incorporating this into a character’s backstory on session zero.
Since nothing in the Monster Manual seems to suggest that Banshees are adept at divining, it makes sense that Agatha was an adept of divination both in life as well as in undeath. How did she learn her powers of divination?
Banshees are, according to the Monster Manual, “the undead remnants of elves who, blessed with great beauty, failed to use their gift to bring joy to the world. Instead, they used their beauty to corrupt and control others.”¹. How did Agatha corrupt and control others?
How did Agatha die? Banshees are forever bound to the place of their demise. She probably wasn’t a native of Conyberry, as it was a mostly human settlement of subsistence farmers. How did she end up there? Why did she die there?
Who was Agatha’s enemy? There are lots of beings in the realms who can live for hundreds of years. Whoever killed Agatha may still be alive somewhere out there (This could be the perfect hook for a future adventure). This enemy might be good or evil, and could have even been a former ally who betrayed her.
According to the Monster Manual Banshees are “forced to relive every moment of its life with perfect recall, yet refuses to accept responsibility for its doom.” Is there someone or something that out there in the world who can convince Agatha to accept responsibility for her evil actions, perhaps in a much longer character arc?

My take on the Agatha Story

For my take on the Agatha story I stole another idea from the My Realms Blog that was just too good: Agatha’s family actually owned Cragmaw Castle in the distant past. If a party member makes a high history check or does a thorough investigation of Iarno Albrek’s bookshelf (Iarno would likely be interested in the history and lore of the Cragmaw tribe’s current hideout), they may learn about the location of a “Melarue Keep”, somewhere in Neverwinter Wood. The connection between the Keep and Cragmaw Castle may not become clear until later, however.

A Family of Diviners

Agatha’s family, the Melarues, were expert diviners and as such they worshipped Sehanine Moonbow, the elven goddess who was particularly adept at divination and illusion spells. As a form of devotion, all family members had been trained in one or both of those arts. Agatha was particularly adept at divination and learned to scry at an early age. In Cragmaw Castle, the altar that had been defaced by King Grol’s priests was originally built to honor the Melarue patron goddess. In keeping with Sehanine’s love of illusions, Cragmaw Castle has a secret sanctum that the Goblins have not yet discovered (I will write about the secret sanctum in another article, but essentially this secret sanctum will lead to clue hooks which will start the quest for the Redemption of Agatha the Banshee.

A Gross Betrayal

I really wanted Agatha to be a character that the party could sympathize with. So instead of being corrupt, as the Monster Manual suggests, I envisioned her as being corrupt-ed. When I ran the campaign, Agatha was seduced by an evil bard in league with the green dragon Chuth (who makes an appearance in Tyranny of Dragons–feel free to replace Chuth with another long lived baddie to match your campaign). The bard tricked her into divulging the secrets of her family keep’s defenses (See the supplementary quest: The Redemption of Agatha the Banshee). When Chuth manages to break into the family’s secret sanctum and devour her family, Agatha seeks revenge on her lover at their favorite meeting place near Conyberry only to meet her end at his hand.

Building a Better Plot Hook

Building all this backstory for Agatha, however, may become a wasted effort if the party doesn’t feel like they want to go visit her in the first place. And honestly, the quest hooks that the module gives aren’t super enticing.

We need to build a better plot hook to get the party to be interested in meeting sister Gaerele or Hamun Kost in the first place (the only two quest givers). Since sister Gaerele is a Harper, and because Harpers are enemies of the Red Wizards, it follows that Gaerele would try to track down Hamun Kost and perhaps be captured by him. Should the partyrescue her, she may trust them enough to give them the Agatha quest.

Since this plot hook covers more than just the banshee, I have created a separate article for it: Old Owl Well/Agatha Plot Hook: Sister Gaerele is Missing!

Agatha/Conyberry Lore

When researching Agatha, I also looked looked into her lore and honestly I didn’t really find anything super helpful for her backstory. However, perhaps someone else can be inspired by a tidbit in the lore of Conyberry or Agatha when building their version.

Some interesting tidbits:

In the Halfling’s Gem, a novel by R.A. Salvatore, the heroes Drizzt Do’Urden and Wulfgar, upon recommendation from Malchor Harpell, an eccentric mage, visited the banshee in order to steal a magic mask that would essentially help Drizzt look less like a drow and blend in better. When approaching Conyberry, they encountered the villagers of Conyberry who seemed protective of her. They urged the two not to kill Agatha. They plugged their ears full of beeswax to protect themselves from the Banshee’s wail, snuck in, and stole the mask. This happened about 150 years before the events of Lost Mines, but I imagine she’s still bitter about it.
Apparently the villagers of Conyberry had a good relationship with Agatha. They would give her gifts that flattered her and she would in turn protect them from invaders.
Conyberry has been sacked by the Uthgardt Gray Wolf tribe–essentially barbarian werewolves. Should you want to involve werewolves in a future quest, this would be a great connection to make. Notably, the tribe seems to have had Orcish enemies, so this could make for a compelling connection with the Wyvern Tor quest.

Vyerith, the naïve apprentice

We meet Vyerith in the shape of a female drow arguing with King Grol. Essentially Vyerith wants Grol to surrender the map to Wave Echo Cave to her to ensure that no one can learn its location. She also wants to ensure that Gundren hasn’t revealed the location of the cave to anyone. After she has done so, she will kill Gundren and destroy the map. ¹

This motivation is good enough for your run of the mill drow underling, but it seems a bit flat for a creature who has lived its whole life taking the forms of others, collecting secrets and orchestrating chaos. Furthermore, we have to ask why a doppelganger would be working for a drow wizard in the first place? We need to come up with a backstory and from that backstory a set of motives for her so that as a DM we can play Vyerith with confidence.

A Troublesome Coming of Age

It turns out that we don’t have to go much further than the Monster Manual to find the seeds for a good backstory, especially the part about how they reproduce:

“[Doppelgangers] are too lazy or self interested to raise their young. They assume attractive male forms and seduce women, leaving them to raise their progeny. A doppelganger child appears to be a normal member of its mother’s species until it reaches adolescence, at which point it discovers its true nature and is driven to seek out its kind to join them.”²

Coming of age must be a traumatic and confusing time for a doppelganger, as not only does she spontaneously develop the ability to change her form at will and read the thoughts of anyone around her, but she also learns that her parents are not her own.

Imagine living a relatively normal life and then suddenly having your mind bombarded by the incessant thoughts of strangers around you. You realize that you aren’t even human (or elven or dwarven, or what have you) but a creature despised and feared by most common folk–even by whom you thought were your parents.

So here we have a young and troubled Vyerith who thought she was human but now realizes she is something very different. Lost and adrift, desperate to come to terms with this new identity thrust upon her, she seeks out her own kind. She assumes that if she can read people’s thoughts, her brethren should be able to read hers. And so she speaks her thoughts out loud in her mind, calling out for a potential response:

“Hello? Hello? Is anyone out there like me? A changeling like me? Hello…?”

Vyerith eventually wanders into a tavern where she meets Vhalak. She recognizes what he is immediately. Vyerith, desperate for belonging, eats up every sweet and seductive word that Vhalak feeds her. And thus begins their troubled relationship.

Vhalak, the manipulative master

Vhalak is just about as one dimensional in the module as Vyerith. He takes the form of a male drow overseeing two bugbears digging for a magic artifact in Wave Echo Cave. If he manages to escape to warn the Black Spider that the party is approaching, he assumes the form of Nundro Rockseeker, Gundren’s brother, and pretends to be a hostage to gain leverage over the party.³ However, if we make Vhalak the manipulative “master” of Vyerith, there’s a lot more we can do with the character.

After they first meet, Vhalak tells Vyerith that all humans are base and evil creatures, that changelings like she and him must stick together and forge their own destiny against the world. Vhalak uses techniques that a cult leader might use to brainwash his new protegé. At some point, Vyerith becomes an unflinching devotee to her master Vhalak. I imagine their relationship might be similar to the Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman relationship in The Master (Not the best movie, but not bad either. Worth watching just for the performances).

Vhalak’s motivations stem from the want of control and power. In order to acquire these, he’s content to manipulate things from the sidelines, taking the place of a trusted lieutenant or second-in-command of someone powerful. So it makes sense that he would be curious about what the Black Spider is doing and eventually want to replace some of Nezznar’s more trusted lieutenants.

Vhalak and Vyerith Replace Nezznar’s Trusted Lieutenants

Because Vhalak is a gatherer of secrets and can read the thoughts of anyone within 60 feet of him, it wouldn’t be unusual that he would catch on to Nezznar’s schemes. There’s great potential for power and wealth with the discovery of the Lost Mines, so it makes sense that Vhalak and Vyerith would replace some of Nezznar’s existing flunkies and assist Nezznar in his overtaking of the mines. I imagine that sometime in the future the two doppelgangers may betray Nezznar, but that’s a decision for the DM to make down the road should it come to that.

Potential Uses for The Dopplegangers

While I think it’s interesting for the PCs to confront Vyerith as written in the module so that the party has a chance to interrogate and perhaps even learn Vyerith’s true identity, there are countless other NPCs the doppelgangers could impersonate:

Iarno Albrek – This would explain Iarno’s sudden departure from the Lord’s Alliance (The other explanation is he’s just selfish and evil). Perhaps Iarno was actually an upstanding member and was recently replaced. Thus his recent actions betraying the Alliance and forming the redbrands could be explained.
Harbin Wester – This makes a lot of sense as well. Why the hell has Harbin Wester ignored the redbrands altogether and focused solely on the orcs harrowing the Triboar Trail? The answer hinted to in the module is that he’s incompetent, but there’s more we can do with this. Since orcs and goblins are natural enemies, perhaps doppelganger Harbin wants the orcs out of the picture so that the Cragmaw tribe can overrun everything.
Elsa – Elsa is the gossipy barmaid in the Stonehill Inn. This suggestion was provided to me by Eric Kamander, who has been writing recaps of his party’s Phandelver and post Phandelver exploits on his blog. When Eric ran the module Elsa “was totally enthralled with the party’s exploits and was always praising them. They totally ate it up and told Elsa all about their exploits and plans, since she said she wanted to become a bard so she could sing of their tales. You can imagine their surprise when Carp found her week-long-dead body in the woods.” (See: Link to post recapping Elsa’s interaction with Eric’s party.)
Droop – I’ve run Phandelver twice, and both times the party has adopted the pathetic little goblin. Droop makes for a perfect spy.
Sildar Hallwinter – Also a possible doppelganger candidate. However, replacing him at the beginning of the adventure introduces too many plot holes: Wouldn’t Sildar’s replacement want to keep Klarg as the ruler of the Cragmaw hideout? Why would the doppelganger want to spy on the adventurers at this point in the adventure before they have really made a name for themselves? If introduced later in the story, however, fake Sildar betraying the party could make for an interesting twist.
Gundren Rockseeker – There are plenty of opportunities for a doppelganger to replace him and this could make for a compelling option as well.

The above options work better if the doppelgangers are actual loyal followers of the Black Spider and not pretending to work for him, as it doesn’t make sense that he’d direct them to replace any NPC if he didn’t know Vyerith and Vhalak were doppelgangers in the first place. For me it’s more interesting if they are their own free agents, so I had my players encounter the doppelgangers as written in the module.

Thoughts? How have you used the doppelgangers in your game?

Lost Mines of Phandelver NPC Guide: Agatha the Banshee