Hey guys, I've been having a lot of fun building a campaign out of Candlekeep Mysteries, but I'm having trouble coming up with a main antagonist. I'm not well versed in Forgotten Realms lore, and could use some names that already exist in lore as a starting point. Aside from that, feel free to post any other ideas you had for your Candlekeep campaign here!
Currently, I am in need of an antagonist/organization, or sections of other adventures that would fit either of these main plots:
A) stealing the knowledge of Candlekeep for themselves (Possibly stealing the entire castle, à la Elturel in Descent into Avernus)
B) Making the information in the library available to everyone, to allow for more equal access. (Those stuffy Avowed have been hoarding information that could make the world a better place, but they keep it locked up)
Two that I personally like are having scholars ambush the party on the road looking for entrance gifts to steal, as opposed to bandits.
I'm also combining the crashed gnomish mind-flayer Nautiloid ship in Rime of the Frostmaiden into the Kandlekeep Dekonstruktion story.
The Nautiloid crashed into Candlekeep several hundred years ago, and the Avowed started studying it. Eventually, the mind-flayers held in stasis were able to exert some control and cause the Avowed to forget and build the Barn Door over the crashed ship, although it is still recorded in the diagrams in Kandlekeep Deconstruction.
The subtle psionic waves emanating from the sleeping mind flayers made local animals gravitate towards the Barn Door (giving it its name). Anyone whos pet runs away in Candlekeep knows to check The Barn Door first.
Recently, as life support systems began to fail and the gnome ceromorphs began to wake up, they reached out telepathically and found Stonky, and have been guiding him in the creation of his rocket-ship.
One of the first homebrew monsters i ever made was a book golem called the Omnipaedia, which absorbed concentrated knowledge in an ancient library till it came alive and, as the name suggests, is trying to become a book of everything, absorbing as much knowledge and power as it can.
For some reason, reading your post made me think of it again as a good bad "guy" for a library themed campaign. Maybe it's lurking somewhere in the bowels of the library feeding off the knowledge of other books to make itself powerful, until it's strong enough to consume the whole library. Maybe it can even infect other books and get them to do its bidding, or possibly even mind control the odd mortal or two in search of the strongest, most ancient books it can find.
I don't know about taking all of Luskan, but The Arcane Brotherhood in Luskan could probably pull off something to acquire some of its holdings. They'd never admit it and I think the security of their tower is limited by DM's imagination. If you're puling from Rime of the Frostmaiden, you got some good templates for some of their members and associates.
I like your "information wants to be free" sorta Candlekeep hackers hook. I don't know how that would really play out in the Realms. Maybe an internal or external group looking to compel the world to Hear the Prophecies of Alaundo, like the chanters somehow become a sort of compulsory stream in every sentient consciousness.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I'm currently leaning towards using the Harpers as an antagonist whose goal is to infiltrate the avowed and assume control of Candlekeep, in order to make the vast hoard of knowledge publicly available. Was doing some reading and saw this page. Faction -- The Harpers | Dungeons & Dragons (wizards.com)
They sound pretty perfect. I've always loved the Harpers, and it could make for some really interesting choices for my players, depending on who they choose to support. The Great Readers might end up the villains, with the players aiding the Harpers in overthrowing the Avowed.
Either that or a charismatic young upstart within the Harpers has gained a large following within the organization, pushing for the Harpers to put all of the information and influence they've amassed over the years to good use and start making some changes to the balance of power in the world.
I mean if you want to play the Harpers that way, I guess. But they're a _secret_ society for a reason. Their creed, "one can never have too much information" applies to them and they regularly engage in campaigns and acts of misdirection against enemies and even allies. They fight things they think most of the world shouldn't know about, and some of the spoils they take they wouldn't want even their closest allies coming to possess. I want to say the Harpers and the other factions all have liaisons to Candlekeep, any of whom would probably not advise against direct action against Candlekeep as it's more useful as a useful resource than broken or something the Harpers get kicked out of.
Again, I sorta like the liberation idea, mostly because I'm not quite sure how it would work. It also sorta flies against the traditional role of Candlekeep. Sure it's a good DM move to subvert expectations; but let's make sure we got a strong grasp on that tradition. Candlekeep isn't a book dungeon, it's a fortification to ensure the light of knowledge is forever lit. It holds, and has probably witnessed, knowledge outside its walls so easily destroyed or otherwise lost. The barrier for entry, at least for adventurers isn't that steep. Let's also remember it's more modeled after libraries from history. I have some experience in libraries' rare book rooms and archives. The public model of libraries is a very recent, and at its inception radical, innovation. Traditionally books were kept under an almost "don't touch the paintings" museum model. If there was a book you wished to consult, you need to have the credentials (credit) to ask for them, because of the care needed to maintain books. The fact that Candlekeep is maintained by an avowed order is very reflective of the history of books in Western Europe where constructing books and maintaining libraries were often _the_ thing (or vocation) practiced by monastic orders. tl;dr Books in a lot of game worlds are precious and actually need protection from the grabby hands of the masses, that's why people are willing to defend them with their lives. Some could see it as an oppressive dynamic, and in terms of static power structure, I'd say it is. There doesn't seem to be an education system for commons other than some rote learning for the skills to be "commons." (Adventurers are "exceptional" but the power privilege dynamics of that is a massive digression). However the ability to use books, especially academic/magical texts, isn't something the general population presumably has. I mean most of us can read on a message board, but not many of us have the versatility to read say the Dead Sea Scrolls, and those aren't really that old. So it's not really that different (though there are a lot of digital initiatives to make such text accessible to the public, William Blake Archive is an early example -- and arguably innovative in its word and image indexing functions).
It would be interesting if some Wizard, say Geoffrey Bezos of Canterburrazon (Archmage patterned after Order of the Scribe with probably some Illusionist thrown in), arrived at Candlekeep wishing to do some sort magical "digitization", where he could scan Candlekeeps contents and make them available to anyone in possession of one of his Kindle devices. Unfortunately, while brilliant, the process drains any magic books of its magic or some other deleterious effects that would really freak out the avowed. Maybe in the final act the party is aided by Harpers who have finally received authority from the House of Lords, Order of the Gauntlet and Zentarum to finally exact taxes on Bezos. I think I'm going to run with that as my own players are meandering toward Candlekeep themselves.
There could be a Red Wizard from Thay who is desperate to acquire a book within the library and is trying to recruit the party to retrieve it for them under false pretenses.
I think I figured out the rough storyline for my campaign. Something is very wrong at Candlekeep.
The avowed lost control of Candlekeep some time ago to something that was contained within a book. The Keeper of Tomes and First Reader have been taken over by this entity, and the eight Great Readers will slowly disappear in strange accidents or be converted one by one over the course of the campaign, the ones who disappeared to be replaced with up-jumped members of the Avowed. The lower ranks of the avowed begin to get suspicious as the campaign progresses, and start to aid the players investigation.
Whatever entity is now in control needs a crucial piece of information (quite possibly contained within a Nether Scroll), in order to achieve it's own goal. Maybe it just wants to get home to its own plane, but whatever it's goal, the result is not going to leave Candlekeep intact.
It is using Candlekeep to consume information, and gets more desperate for the information as the campaign progresses. It turns Candlekeep into a hive of information processing, ramping up the intake of books by creating a new rank of Avowed adventurers who are sent to investigate promising leads.
Once the players hit level 16/17 and finish the content supplied in the adventure, this entity will get the Nether Scroll, (either from the players, or a rival NPC adventuring party), and uses it to transport itself and Candlekeep to another plane.
The ending would involve penetrating the defenses of Candlekeep, getting past Miirym, taking out the ghost pirate ship, defeating the Readers/Keepers (hopefully without killing them, because the players will probably need help returning Candlekeep to the material plane), and engaging all of the other crazy mechanics in Candlekeep.
I am also going to combine the Book of Cylinders into the Tortle Package - (the cylinders are impressions of tortle shells that had these future events depicted in the patterns on the shell). A tropical volcanic tortle island sounds way more fun to run than a swampy fish village. The Snout of Omgar is also quite close to Tashluta, so I can drop in some tie-ins with the Canopic Being.
The story in the Book of Cylinders could easily take place on the Snout of Omgar - the crab maze would look deceivingly safe on tropical blue waters, and seems like the kind of defensive structure a Tortle might come up with to protect their clutches of eggs, and the Yuan-ti temples can be combined.
Once the Book of Cylinders is solved, they have the rest of the island to explore. It could also span a couple of levels to replace one or two of the less appealing books.
Cool ideas! Personally, I’m running CandleKeep like a treasure hunt. The players are first approached by an ally of the NPC who dies in the first adventure, who mentions that the NPC has discovered text that points the way to a fabulous treasure hidden within CandleKeep. However, he does not feel competent enough to handle the threats that might guard the treasure and proposes a fifty fifty split. When the players arrive, he has gone into the mansion from the first quest. The first adventure plays out as normal, except when the players leave glowing letters appear in the air- a message from the mansion’s creator. The message is a clue that leads them to the book for the next adventure, which has another clue leading to the next book at the end of it, and so on and so forth. The final clue points to the archives under CandleKeep, where the treasure is hidden. I have not yet decided whether Miirym will be guarding the treasure or unaware of its existence and whether she will help or hinder the PCs. I also haven’t figured out what the treasure will be, actual treasure, important knowledge, where to find the creator of the mansion/free her, or a portal to another plane of existence.
That's a great way to link all the books together. It's pretty incredible seeing all the different types of campaigns that are being created from this adventure. I haven't seen any two that are alike. I gotta give WotC credit on this one.
I actually just figured out another pretty good story that makes better use of the material provided - It's hard to settle on any one idea. Each one I settle on and start researching just makes more ideas.
This one uses Miirym for the main storyline, and involves a string of clues left by the Archmage who bound Mirrym to Candlekeep 1500 years ago, and foresaw these events in the Prophecies of Alaundo.
Candlekeep mysteries claims that Miirym invaded Candlekeep intent on adding it's "riches" to her hoard. (an odd thing for a Lawful Good Silver Dragon to do, especially considering they tend to prefer antique and beautifully crafted objects more than dusty old books.)I believe this is a false story that is told to visitors to Candlekeep who inquire about Miirym. Those who dig deeper might uncover that Miirym was in fact a Mist dragon, who consider knowledge to be the most valuable treasure.
The second key fact is that the reason no one has been able to break the spell on Miirym is that Torth never cast an "unbreakable" spell on Miirym - He stole Miiryms hoard and hid it away. Perhaps he cast a spell to physically prevent Miirym's body from travelling beyond the walls of Candlekeep, but I'm thinking that she has been "free" of Torth's magic ever since her transition to undeath.
This old quote by Ed Greenwood from a Dragon Magazine sounds more like the truth. Wyrms of the North: Miirym, "The Sentinel Wyrm" (nobl.ca)
"Long, long ago, Miirym was a silver dragon who dwelt near Candlekeep. In her playful hunting, she devoured several scholars and destroyed a score or so irreplaceable books on their way to the abbey, so a mage attached to the abbey bound her to service: She was to defend the monks, buildings, and books of the abbey for some twenty years.
Unfortunately for Miirym, the spellcaster was the archsorcerer Torth, whose spells were so mighty that when he died -- fifteen years along in Miirym's sentence of twenty -- no one could break the bindings. The monks apologetically wrote up a tome describing the situation and all that was known of Torth's spells, then set a copy of it in a crypt beneath the keep, in a casket with the sorcerer's bones and staff.
Eventually worn out by advanced age and the attacks of foolish would-be intruders -- notably several bands of Calishite wizards, who planned and then tried to carry out elaborate spell attacks on Candlekeep in the Year of the Shieldtree (1181 DR) and the Year of the Tomb (1182 DR) -- Miirym "died." That is, her body rotted and fell apart, losing flesh before bones, and then bone after bone crumbled away to dust, while the spells that bound her animated her still, keeping her sentient . . . if not entirely sane."
According to older Forgotten Realms lore, a dragon's hoard serves a purpose. When a dragon reaches old age and their life naturally comes to an end, a dragon must eat its treasure horde as a form of payment into the afterlife. Specifically the hoard must be worth at least 120,000 gold and in the possession of the dragon for at least 200 years. The dragon and its treasure then vanish - presumably to whatever afterlife dragons have. If a dragon does not have a treasure horde, its spirit will be unable to depart from this life until it manages to procure a new hoard, or a stolen horde is returned to it. Either way, it must consume a treasure horde that meets the requirements.
1500 years is a long time for a dragon to plan, and Miirym is finally setting hers in motion. She is going to steal Candlekeep itself, and the vast treasure horde of knowledge stored within. Once its hers, she just needs to hold onto it for 200 years before she can consume the books and be free of her tormented existence. She wants the Nether Scroll in Alkazar's Appendix, so that she can use it to transport Candlekeep to an alternate plane (or turn Candlekeep into a flying castle with a Netherese Proctors Move Mountain spell) - where she can wait for the end in peace and quiet with her books.
Players, with the help of the Prophecies of Alaundo, have to follow a trail of clues scattered in apparently random books to track down Miirym's stolen horde of knowledge and return it to her, before Candlekeep is utterly consumed by Miirym. (Miirym will gladly accept her old hoard, she only wants to depart as soon as possible)
Hey guys, I've been having a lot of fun building a campaign out of Candlekeep Mysteries, but I'm having trouble coming up with a main antagonist. I'm not well versed in Forgotten Realms lore, and could use some names that already exist in lore as a starting point. Aside from that, feel free to post any other ideas you had for your Candlekeep campaign here!
Currently, I am in need of an antagonist/organization, or sections of other adventures that would fit either of these main plots:
A) stealing the knowledge of Candlekeep for themselves (Possibly stealing the entire castle, à la Elturel in Descent into Avernus)
B) Making the information in the library available to everyone, to allow for more equal access. (Those stuffy Avowed have been hoarding information that could make the world a better place, but they keep it locked up)
Two that I personally like are having scholars ambush the party on the road looking for entrance gifts to steal, as opposed to bandits.
I'm also combining the crashed gnomish mind-flayer Nautiloid ship in Rime of the Frostmaiden into the Kandlekeep Dekonstruktion story.
The Nautiloid crashed into Candlekeep several hundred years ago, and the Avowed started studying it. Eventually, the mind-flayers held in stasis were able to exert some control and cause the Avowed to forget and build the Barn Door over the crashed ship, although it is still recorded in the diagrams in Kandlekeep Deconstruction.
The subtle psionic waves emanating from the sleeping mind flayers made local animals gravitate towards the Barn Door (giving it its name). Anyone whos pet runs away in Candlekeep knows to check The Barn Door first.
Recently, as life support systems began to fail and the gnome ceromorphs began to wake up, they reached out telepathically and found Stonky, and have been guiding him in the creation of his rocket-ship.
Thanks to CharlesThePlant for this idea:
One of the first homebrew monsters i ever made was a book golem called the Omnipaedia, which absorbed concentrated knowledge in an ancient library till it came alive and, as the name suggests, is trying to become a book of everything, absorbing as much knowledge and power as it can.
For some reason, reading your post made me think of it again as a good bad "guy" for a library themed campaign. Maybe it's lurking somewhere in the bowels of the library feeding off the knowledge of other books to make itself powerful, until it's strong enough to consume the whole library. Maybe it can even infect other books and get them to do its bidding, or possibly even mind control the odd mortal or two in search of the strongest, most ancient books it can find.
Just spitballing.
Zhentarim is always an awesome villain- Halia Thornton from LMoP and DoIP is my favorite Zhentarim member.
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
I don't know about taking all of Luskan, but The Arcane Brotherhood in Luskan could probably pull off something to acquire some of its holdings. They'd never admit it and I think the security of their tower is limited by DM's imagination. If you're puling from Rime of the Frostmaiden, you got some good templates for some of their members and associates.
I like your "information wants to be free" sorta Candlekeep hackers hook. I don't know how that would really play out in the Realms. Maybe an internal or external group looking to compel the world to Hear the Prophecies of Alaundo, like the chanters somehow become a sort of compulsory stream in every sentient consciousness.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I'm currently leaning towards using the Harpers as an antagonist whose goal is to infiltrate the avowed and assume control of Candlekeep, in order to make the vast hoard of knowledge publicly available. Was doing some reading and saw this page. Faction -- The Harpers | Dungeons & Dragons (wizards.com)
They sound pretty perfect. I've always loved the Harpers, and it could make for some really interesting choices for my players, depending on who they choose to support. The Great Readers might end up the villains, with the players aiding the Harpers in overthrowing the Avowed.
Either that or a charismatic young upstart within the Harpers has gained a large following within the organization, pushing for the Harpers to put all of the information and influence they've amassed over the years to good use and start making some changes to the balance of power in the world.
I mean if you want to play the Harpers that way, I guess. But they're a _secret_ society for a reason. Their creed, "one can never have too much information" applies to them and they regularly engage in campaigns and acts of misdirection against enemies and even allies. They fight things they think most of the world shouldn't know about, and some of the spoils they take they wouldn't want even their closest allies coming to possess. I want to say the Harpers and the other factions all have liaisons to Candlekeep, any of whom would probably not advise against direct action against Candlekeep as it's more useful as a useful resource than broken or something the Harpers get kicked out of.
Again, I sorta like the liberation idea, mostly because I'm not quite sure how it would work. It also sorta flies against the traditional role of Candlekeep. Sure it's a good DM move to subvert expectations; but let's make sure we got a strong grasp on that tradition. Candlekeep isn't a book dungeon, it's a fortification to ensure the light of knowledge is forever lit. It holds, and has probably witnessed, knowledge outside its walls so easily destroyed or otherwise lost. The barrier for entry, at least for adventurers isn't that steep. Let's also remember it's more modeled after libraries from history. I have some experience in libraries' rare book rooms and archives. The public model of libraries is a very recent, and at its inception radical, innovation. Traditionally books were kept under an almost "don't touch the paintings" museum model. If there was a book you wished to consult, you need to have the credentials (credit) to ask for them, because of the care needed to maintain books. The fact that Candlekeep is maintained by an avowed order is very reflective of the history of books in Western Europe where constructing books and maintaining libraries were often _the_ thing (or vocation) practiced by monastic orders. tl;dr Books in a lot of game worlds are precious and actually need protection from the grabby hands of the masses, that's why people are willing to defend them with their lives. Some could see it as an oppressive dynamic, and in terms of static power structure, I'd say it is. There doesn't seem to be an education system for commons other than some rote learning for the skills to be "commons." (Adventurers are "exceptional" but the power privilege dynamics of that is a massive digression). However the ability to use books, especially academic/magical texts, isn't something the general population presumably has. I mean most of us can read on a message board, but not many of us have the versatility to read say the Dead Sea Scrolls, and those aren't really that old. So it's not really that different (though there are a lot of digital initiatives to make such text accessible to the public, William Blake Archive is an early example -- and arguably innovative in its word and image indexing functions).
It would be interesting if some Wizard, say Geoffrey Bezos of Canterburrazon (Archmage patterned after Order of the Scribe with probably some Illusionist thrown in), arrived at Candlekeep wishing to do some sort magical "digitization", where he could scan Candlekeeps contents and make them available to anyone in possession of one of his Kindle devices. Unfortunately, while brilliant, the process drains any magic books of its magic or some other deleterious effects that would really freak out the avowed. Maybe in the final act the party is aided by Harpers who have finally received authority from the House of Lords, Order of the Gauntlet and Zentarum to finally exact taxes on Bezos. I think I'm going to run with that as my own players are meandering toward Candlekeep themselves.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
There could be a Red Wizard from Thay who is desperate to acquire a book within the library and is trying to recruit the party to retrieve it for them under false pretenses.
I think I figured out the rough storyline for my campaign. Something is very wrong at Candlekeep.
The avowed lost control of Candlekeep some time ago to something that was contained within a book. The Keeper of Tomes and First Reader have been taken over by this entity, and the eight Great Readers will slowly disappear in strange accidents or be converted one by one over the course of the campaign, the ones who disappeared to be replaced with up-jumped members of the Avowed. The lower ranks of the avowed begin to get suspicious as the campaign progresses, and start to aid the players investigation.
Whatever entity is now in control needs a crucial piece of information (quite possibly contained within a Nether Scroll), in order to achieve it's own goal. Maybe it just wants to get home to its own plane, but whatever it's goal, the result is not going to leave Candlekeep intact.
It is using Candlekeep to consume information, and gets more desperate for the information as the campaign progresses. It turns Candlekeep into a hive of information processing, ramping up the intake of books by creating a new rank of Avowed adventurers who are sent to investigate promising leads.
Once the players hit level 16/17 and finish the content supplied in the adventure, this entity will get the Nether Scroll, (either from the players, or a rival NPC adventuring party), and uses it to transport itself and Candlekeep to another plane.
The ending would involve penetrating the defenses of Candlekeep, getting past Miirym, taking out the ghost pirate ship, defeating the Readers/Keepers (hopefully without killing them, because the players will probably need help returning Candlekeep to the material plane), and engaging all of the other crazy mechanics in Candlekeep.
I am also going to combine the Book of Cylinders into the Tortle Package - (the cylinders are impressions of tortle shells that had these future events depicted in the patterns on the shell). A tropical volcanic tortle island sounds way more fun to run than a swampy fish village. The Snout of Omgar is also quite close to Tashluta, so I can drop in some tie-ins with the Canopic Being.
The story in the Book of Cylinders could easily take place on the Snout of Omgar - the crab maze would look deceivingly safe on tropical blue waters, and seems like the kind of defensive structure a Tortle might come up with to protect their clutches of eggs, and the Yuan-ti temples can be combined.
Once the Book of Cylinders is solved, they have the rest of the island to explore. It could also span a couple of levels to replace one or two of the less appealing books.
Cool ideas! Personally, I’m running CandleKeep like a treasure hunt. The players are first approached by an ally of the NPC who dies in the first adventure, who mentions that the NPC has discovered text that points the way to a fabulous treasure hidden within CandleKeep. However, he does not feel competent enough to handle the threats that might guard the treasure and proposes a fifty fifty split. When the players arrive, he has gone into the mansion from the first quest. The first adventure plays out as normal, except when the players leave glowing letters appear in the air- a message from the mansion’s creator. The message is a clue that leads them to the book for the next adventure, which has another clue leading to the next book at the end of it, and so on and so forth. The final clue points to the archives under CandleKeep, where the treasure is hidden. I have not yet decided whether Miirym will be guarding the treasure or unaware of its existence and whether she will help or hinder the PCs. I also haven’t figured out what the treasure will be, actual treasure, important knowledge, where to find the creator of the mansion/free her, or a portal to another plane of existence.
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
That's a great way to link all the books together. It's pretty incredible seeing all the different types of campaigns that are being created from this adventure. I haven't seen any two that are alike. I gotta give WotC credit on this one.
I actually just figured out another pretty good story that makes better use of the material provided - It's hard to settle on any one idea. Each one I settle on and start researching just makes more ideas.
This one uses Miirym for the main storyline, and involves a string of clues left by the Archmage who bound Mirrym to Candlekeep 1500 years ago, and foresaw these events in the Prophecies of Alaundo.
Candlekeep mysteries claims that Miirym invaded Candlekeep intent on adding it's "riches" to her hoard. (an odd thing for a Lawful Good Silver Dragon to do, especially considering they tend to prefer antique and beautifully crafted objects more than dusty old books.)I believe this is a false story that is told to visitors to Candlekeep who inquire about Miirym. Those who dig deeper might uncover that Miirym was in fact a Mist dragon, who consider knowledge to be the most valuable treasure.
The second key fact is that the reason no one has been able to break the spell on Miirym is that Torth never cast an "unbreakable" spell on Miirym - He stole Miiryms hoard and hid it away. Perhaps he cast a spell to physically prevent Miirym's body from travelling beyond the walls of Candlekeep, but I'm thinking that she has been "free" of Torth's magic ever since her transition to undeath.
This old quote by Ed Greenwood from a Dragon Magazine sounds more like the truth. Wyrms of the North: Miirym, "The Sentinel Wyrm" (nobl.ca)
"Long, long ago, Miirym was a silver dragon who dwelt near Candlekeep. In her playful hunting, she devoured several scholars and destroyed a score or so irreplaceable books on their way to the abbey, so a mage attached to the abbey bound her to service: She was to defend the monks, buildings, and books of the abbey for some twenty years.
Unfortunately for Miirym, the spellcaster was the archsorcerer Torth, whose spells were so mighty that when he died -- fifteen years along in Miirym's sentence of twenty -- no one could break the bindings. The monks apologetically wrote up a tome describing the situation and all that was known of Torth's spells, then set a copy of it in a crypt beneath the keep, in a casket with the sorcerer's bones and staff.
Eventually worn out by advanced age and the attacks of foolish would-be intruders -- notably several bands of Calishite wizards, who planned and then tried to carry out elaborate spell attacks on Candlekeep in the Year of the Shieldtree (1181 DR) and the Year of the Tomb (1182 DR) -- Miirym "died." That is, her body rotted and fell apart, losing flesh before bones, and then bone after bone crumbled away to dust, while the spells that bound her animated her still, keeping her sentient . . . if not entirely sane."
According to older Forgotten Realms lore, a dragon's hoard serves a purpose. When a dragon reaches old age and their life naturally comes to an end, a dragon must eat its treasure horde as a form of payment into the afterlife. Specifically the hoard must be worth at least 120,000 gold and in the possession of the dragon for at least 200 years. The dragon and its treasure then vanish - presumably to whatever afterlife dragons have. If a dragon does not have a treasure horde, its spirit will be unable to depart from this life until it manages to procure a new hoard, or a stolen horde is returned to it. Either way, it must consume a treasure horde that meets the requirements.
1500 years is a long time for a dragon to plan, and Miirym is finally setting hers in motion. She is going to steal Candlekeep itself, and the vast treasure horde of knowledge stored within. Once its hers, she just needs to hold onto it for 200 years before she can consume the books and be free of her tormented existence. She wants the Nether Scroll in Alkazar's Appendix, so that she can use it to transport Candlekeep to an alternate plane (or turn Candlekeep into a flying castle with a Netherese Proctors Move Mountain spell) - where she can wait for the end in peace and quiet with her books.
Players, with the help of the Prophecies of Alaundo, have to follow a trail of clues scattered in apparently random books to track down Miirym's stolen horde of knowledge and return it to her, before Candlekeep is utterly consumed by Miirym. (Miirym will gladly accept her old hoard, she only wants to depart as soon as possible)