Man with the black amethyst ring

The man with the black amethyst ring is a figure of the Sürgün Günlükleri ("Exile Chronicles") campaign whose face is never seen. He first appeared in a dream of the drow Ephorus, who does not normally sleep: sunk in an unusual slumber on a terrace, Ephorus saw a child in a spider's cradle and heard a lullaby of obedience to a mother and blessing of the spider queen. In the same dream a man wearing a ring of black amethyst offered a wagon full of money and weapons to hobgoblins, then watched a battle from afar and left in anger.¹

The trail of the stone

A black amethyst was also left behind by the devil the company defeated in a haunted stone town (see Black amethyst pendant). It was later to be learned that such stone came from dwarven mines and from one particular family, and that the hidden owner of a ring set with the same stone had taken an interest in the company.²

Fearing that the man could harm his friends and their families, Ephorus went ahead alone to another province to hunt for him and gather word through his contacts, travelling north past the inland sea beyond White City. Disguised as a rich elf, he learned that the ring he remembered held not a cut gem but a raw black crystal, carefully set, and that the mines of the dwarven kingdom of Dağaltı, exporting through the fortress of Gazad, are the chief source of black amethyst.^{3 4 5 6 7}

In Gromkar the company wondered whether the ring was the mark of a family or of old nobility. Ephorus drew its sign for a scholar, who said it was not a dwarven symbol and that its answer would not be found there. The company told the city's baron that they linked the man with the goblin troubles in the south and with the rebellion of Rainer Karga, and that following the stone had brought them to the house of Demirkapı and the drow.^{8 9 10}

Further dreams

Later Ephorus said that, as he had once sensed the coming of a ruinous night at the gaming tables of White City, he now smelled a far greater calamity. He had dreamt of a man who watched the war between the Empire, the rebels and the goblins from afar, as calmly as if changing cards, and he tied the black amethyst left by the devil to the same thread. The one he spoke with said dreams might be ordinary, or signs from the gods or from other powers, and that their source could not be known; the company remained suspicious of the coincidences linking dream, devil, stone and the siege of Gromkar.^{11 12 13 14}

Soon afterwards an unsigned letter warned that the threat before them was among the greatest in the realm's history, and that "the Puppeteer" did not like those who spoiled his plans. The company did not know whether the Puppeteer was a person, a spirit or a creature.^{15 16}

Spoiler: Later eventsRevealSpoils: Sürgün Günlükleri #48 · Say what you have read

When the company at last confronted the Puppeteer, he told them they had brought trouble on themselves by digging into his past, and claimed that his appearance in their dreams had been someone else's doing, since he could not work such a thing himself. Whether the man with the ring and the Puppeteer are one is not known.¹⁷