Finothere Shinebright

An elderly elf who claims the title of Master Transmuter and the legacy of the Shinebright clan — a long, identical-looking lineage preserved in a worn family portrait of ten matching faces. By his own account, Finothere is at least seven hundred years old.

The party first met him as a sheep. His former apprentice, Ahmed Noke, had used his stolen wand to true polymorph him into livestock, and Finothere had escaped the treehouse through a tunnel of his own digging. He carried a written distress note in his teeth until Jorath broke its seal and freed his voice.

His reputation, however, did not survive contact. He could not solve the riddle to his own workshop. His personal chest puzzle was, in his words, simply a ranking of his favorite animals. Quick's recovery of the workshop notes painted a damning picture: Noke had done the actual research and experiments for years while Finothere signed the papers and took credit.

After the party defeated Noke and Kouzlo restored him with the wand's last charge, Finothere surveyed the wreckage of his treehouse and decided to start over elsewhere — a pragmatic instinct born of seven centuries. He still bleats mid-sentence on occasion. Before leaving, he bestowed upon the party a title — B.A.A. — whose meaning, he insists, will reveal itself in time.