Vellynne Harpell is a member of the prestigious Harpell family, based in the town of Longsaddle. Cold and dispassionate, she took to magic only a decade ago in her late forties and is skilled in the arcane tradition of necromancy. She has a lifelong struggle—a nervous disorder that manifests as trembling. It can affect her balance and her stride, but she has learned to cast her spells unimpeded by it.

Despite her firm grasp of the dark arts, she would not have been admitted into the Arcane Brotherhood without her family connections—a fact that sticks in her craw.

Vellynne brought a family heirloom with her to Icewind Dale: a professor orb (see appendix D) that she refers to by its proper name, Professor Skant. This orb has knowledge about Netheril that could be important if Vellynne locates the lost Netherese city buried under the Reghed Glacier. The orb was recently stolen by Nass Lantomir, one of Vellynne’s rivals in the Arcane Brotherhood. Vellynne intends to get it back before resuming her quest to find Ythryn.

Companions. Since arriving in Icewind Dale, Vellynne has secured the services of six Icewind kobolds that act as her valets and guides. Two of them were killed by a Melf’s acid arrow spell (cast by Vellynne’s rival, Nass Lantomir), but Vellynne animated their corpses, turning them into zombies.

If she is wounded, Vellynne can cast vampiric touch and use the spell to regain hit points at the kobolds’ expense.

Familiar. Vellynne’s familiar is a snowy owl, which the wizard uses as a scout. It uses the owl stat block in the Monster Manual but is a celestial instead of a beast.

Spellbook. Vellynne’s spellbook has black leather covers around pages of ragged parchment, all wrapped in a crimson sash. The necromancer’s personal sigil is written in goat’s blood on the title page. The tome contains the spells Vellynne has prepared plus the following additional spells: bestow curse, blindness/deafness, false life, find familiar, magic weapon, polymorph, protection from evil and good, remove curse, shield, and Tenser’s floating disk.