• 168 DR [Year of Scattered Stars]

  • A wizard of unknown ancestry calling himself Halaster Blackcloak later identified as the Raurinese wizard Hilather builds a tower (using summoned demons and other outsiders) and a fortified ramparts in the middle of the Deepwater Plateau, to the north and west of the burgeoning farms along the harbor shore in Waterdeep. The tower is called Halaster's Hold. He is accompanied by his apprentices (which included Arcturia). He begins exploration of the Underhalls of the Melairkyn and claims the delvings for himself.

    Halaster discovers the remnants of the Sargauth Enclave, and recognizing the danger posed by the future Skulls of Skullport, retreats from their area and forbids his apprentices from investigating the area. »

  • 171 DR [Year of Unkind Weapons]

  • Halaster's Hunts
    Halaster Blackcloak begins his Halaster's Hunts in Undermountain. Instead of releasing his summoned demons and other outsiders after they had completed their task of constructing Halaster's Hold, he sends them into Undermountain to drive off any inhabitants there. They last until 308 DR. »

  • 250 DR [Year of the Storm Crown]

  • Halaster Blackcloak makes Undermountain his domain. »

  • 284 DR [Year of Fallen Flagons]

  • The duergar from Gracklstugh largely abandon their holdings in Undermountain, known to them as Sargauthan Hold due to the once plentiful veins of mithral beneath what is now known as Mount Waterdeep runs out and Halaster's Hunts make their continued residence untenable. »

  • 307 DR [Year of Sundered Sails]

  • The Seven (Arcturia, Jhesiyra Kestellharp, Muiral the Misshapen, Nester, Marambra Nyghsteel, Rantantar, and Trobriand the Metal Mage), Halaster's apprentices, abandon the surface Hold and enter the dark ways of Undermountain hoping to establish their own holdings. The tower and surface holdings fall into decay and ruin, and the tribes of Blackcloak Hold, as the settlement had come to be known, quickly grows. »

  • 308 DR [Year of Promise]

  • Halaster's Hunts
    Halaster's Hunts, a series of exterminations of drow and duergar in Undermountain by the mad wizard Halaster Blackcloak, comes to an end. »

  • 309 DR [Year of the Cascade]

  • After many years of exterminating large pockets of drow and duergar, Halaster Blackcloak now rules the Underhalls of Undermountain beneath Waterdeep. »

  • 326 DR [Year of Secret Slaughters]

  • Halaster Blackcloak discovers the Crystal Labyrinth in Undermountain, and begins using it to store his most prized possessions. »

  • 658 DR [Year of the Dangerous Game]

  • Jhesiyra Kestellharp, an ex-apprentice of Halaster Blackcloak, accepts the office of Magister. »

  • 667 DR [Year of Austere Ceremonies]

  • For reasons unknown, Jhesiyra Kestelharp (the current Magister) transforms herself into a living wish spell. She is able to disappear and appear anywhere. She is later abducted by Halaster Blackcloak and forces her to create more living spells for the Mad Mage.

    She currently rules over other living spells in Undermountain's Citadel of the Bloody Hand. Driven half mad by her transformation, she rules over the living spells the Mad Mage forced her to create.

    After Jhesiyra becomes a living spell, the office of Magister passes to the mage Nerren Prentiyuel. Nither Azuth or Mystra are willing to speak of this incident. »

  • 668 DR [Year of the Telling Tome]

  • Wizards begin mysteriously disappearing this year from Myth Drannor and all of Cormanthyr; the only clue is that all the visible gates throughout the city crackle ominously and flash blue lightning within their boundaries. (In truth, Halaster Blackcloack of Undermountain is abducting at random and banishing them to the Underhalls.) »

  • 680 DR [Year of the Long March]

  • After more than a decade, wizards of the Guild of Naturalists piece together the clues and realize that Halaster Blackcloak has been abducting wizards all throughout Cormanthyr in retaliation for their plundering of his monsters in Undermountain. The guild mounts a rescue expedition into the dungeon, which never returns, and they quietly end their sorties to Undermountain. Attempts to dispel or destroy the gate connecting their hall with Undermountain meet with failure. »

  • 1148 DR [Year of the Angry Sea]

  • The necromancer Shradin Mulophor takes up residence in the ruins of Sargauth Enclave (after asking permission from Halaster Blackcloak and also becoming his apprentice), establishing a small trading settlement that will soon becomes known as Skullport, Port of Shadows. The Lord of Bones, as Shradin comes to be known, encourages trade with other Underdark powers by linking the River Sargauth with subterranean waterways and creating portals leading to distant seas. »

  • 1330 DR [Year of the Marching Moon]

  • Twisted Rune member Jhaniloth Puiral is destroyed by Prince Rythan of Tethyr. He was working with Priamon Rakesk on taking control of the many portals of Undermountain but switches his focus towards using Halaster Blackcloak's gates as a tool for the power of the Twisted Rune, and a means of escape. »

  • 1341 DR [Year of the Gate]

  • Chollas the Variant (a transmuter wizard) manages to talk to Halaster during a trek through Undermountain. Chollas is able to buy the rights to use and control the castle that is to be known as Maddgoth's Castle, the cavern where it floated, and the gate nearby. In exchange, Chollas the transmuter agrees to provide Halaster with a number of spells and a vow to help him create seven new creatures to unleash into Undermountain.

    Chollas never completed his assignment of creating new creatures. Soon after gaining control of the castle, Chollas and his three apprentices began constructing additions, as the castle was found to be only a shell. Within two weeks of claiming the castle, Chollas and two powerful archmage friends of his are slain using the gate to reach the castle. The youth known then as Phyrgoth had drawn his fellow apprentices into a conspiracy against their master and modified the gate which caused Chollas' death. Phyrgoth then turns on his fellow conspirators and slays them as well.

    Phyrgoth begins a series of schemes to entice other mages or their apprentices into his new castle where he imprisons them, steals their possessions, and experiments on them before killing them. »

  • 1358 DR [Year of Shadows]

  • Halaster's control of Undermountain's wards wavers for the first time in centuries, and the Skulls are briefly able to tap into a small piece of his power. The unlucky victim of the Skull's newfound magical powers is an archmage visiting Skullport at the time in disguise. The Rag Mage, as he came to be known, is transformed by the Skulls into his current form, capable of feeding Skullport's mantle by slowly bleeding the magical and life energies of victims through his servitor raggamoffyns and channeling it into the mantle of Skullport. »

  • 1369 DR [Year of the Gauntlet]

  • Highharvestide The lich Priamon "Frostrune" Rakesk and the alhoon Ralayan the Ocultacle of the Twisted Rune kidnap Halaster Blackcloak from his seat of power in Undermountain. Halaster's Highharvestide results in the destruction of the village of Geniste and other chaos across Faerun, until his rescue by a group of adventurers.

    Piergeiron Paladinson destroys the dracolich Kistarianth the Red on the slopes of Mount Waterdeep during Halastar's Harvestide. The transformed red dragon was slain in life by Piergeiron's father, Athar the Shining Knight.

    The female old blue dragon Araugauthos the Bluetalon escapes from Undermountain during Halaster's Highharvestide. After slaying a great wyrm red dragon that laired near Citadel Amnur and claiming his hoard, she flies south to rejoin her mother Iryklathagra. »

  • Highharvestide Arcturia, one of Halaster's apprentices, is slain in Undermountain by four frost giants (members of the Twisted Rune) in the Room of the Grim Statue. Despite her death, she still managed to kill two fo the giants and was able to activate her contingency magic to remove her corpse and leave an illusion of her dead body. After Arcturia's body was returned to her sancuary, she rises as an undead creature known as a worm that walks.

    The arch-mage Shradin Mulophor (who is without Halaster's protection due to his abduction) is shouted to death by the Skulls of Skullport, and the Skulls become the undisputed masters of Skullport in Undermountain. The form of Shradin and all his possessions instantly turns into a pale red mist and floats away. The Skulls had actually transformed him into an entity capable of feeding on the physical components of victims and channeling that power into the mantle surrounding Skullport.

    With Shradin and the Rag Mage, 2 Skulls are now able to escape the confines of their prison for a short period of time, typically into the halls of Undermountain. They try to keep this fact from becoming common knowledge.

    Halaster, who had foreseen this possibility long ago, is sure to oppose the Skulls in their attempts to be free of the mantle of Skullport. »

  • The Seven Sisters thwart a plan involving drow and the Red Wizards of Thay orchestrated by a Shar-tainted Halaster Blackcloak of Undermountain to steal the secrets of silver fire from Mystra and her Chosen. »

  • 1372 DR [Year of Wild Magic]

  • The Shadovar city of Shade attempts an attack on Shadowdale. Dove Falconhand blasts one of the shadow princes with silver fire. Since Shadovars are living shadow magic, and silver fire pure weave magic, the collision tears a rift to the Nine Hells. Elminster, realizing that the only way to close the portal before a legion of baatezu pore forth into Toril was to close it from the other side.

    Once in the Nine Hells, he is abducted and enslaved by an outcast Arch-Devil known as Nergal, who wishes to discover the secret of Mystra's silver fire. While the arch-fiend continued to plunder Elminsters thoughts and memories, Mystra becomes aware of her favorite servant's plight and enters the Nine Hells herself to find him. Realizing that her presence was less than inconspicuous (due to the Pact Primeval that prohibits the presence of any god in the Nine Hells), Mystra retreats and dispatches more subtle agents to find him.

    First Halaster Blackclock, who Mystra promises to cure his madness. He is defeated by the hordes of baatezu.

    Mystra then sends the Symbul. After much searching, the Simbul finds Elminster (and Halaster), and together they defeat Nergal and return home.

    Mystra keeps her promises and partially cures Halaster. The goddess then blasts Asmodeus with Halaster's insanity. »

  • 1374 DR [Year of Lightning Storms]

  • Priamon Rakesk is fooled by Khelben "The Blackstaff" Arunsun, his former mentor but now hated adversary, into seeking what he thought to be an ancient Shoon artifact. With this artifact, Priamon tries to take over control of the Twisted Rune. Blackstaff then strikes a deal with Sapphiraktar the Blue. The Rune preferring to have the Blackstaff deal with the traitorous Priamon rather than having to deal with him themselves. The Priamon's immobilized body is teleported into Undermountain, where the Halaster Blackcloak, in possession of the liches phylactery, takes revenge on his former kidnapper. »