Ssaalithra Stormfane

Species: Sahuagin
Distinction: Storm-shaman and matriarch of the Rift of Teeth warband.
Companion: Ul’thuun the Drowner — a colossal, scar-scarred giant squid said to have eaten an entire ship and learned its crew’s screams.
Name Meaning: “Stormfane” translates loosely to “Favored of the Deep Tempest.”

Captain Tidevein’s Notes

You don’t often see a sahuagin talk to the sky. Most of them only pray downward — to sharks, to trenches, to whatever abyss answers when the light runs out.
But Ssaalithra? She speaks to the thunder like it owes her something.

A few days before the siege, fishermen off the coast swore their craft was lifted clean out of the water — a giant squid coiled around their hull, squeezing until planks groaned. Then she rose from the sea, standing on the squid’s back as the waves hissed with lightning. She spoke Common — rough, rasping, like a stone dragged through saltwater.

“There is an elf among you,” she said. “One who kills beneath clear skies. Tell me where she sleeps.”

The fishermen told her of Calaethar Willowshade , the bowyer on the northern ridge.
Ssaalithra nodded once. Then she smiled — too many teeth for a smile — and said,

“Payment for the information.”

She let them live.

Reputation Among the Deep

Among sahuagin, Stormfane is not a title earned; it’s inherited. Ssaalithra’s grandmother led the first storm-hunters of the western trenches — and died on land, pierced through the throat by an elven arrow.
They say the arrowhead still lies in the family shrine, blackened with old magic.

To the sahuagin, that death was sacrilege.
To Ssaalithra, it was prophecy.

For sixty years, she has listened to the storm currents for the heartbeat of that same elf — or the line that bears her blood.
When Mielikki whispered to Calaethar, the depths whispered back.

Abilities and Tactics

• Call Lightning / Control Water: She bends storm and tide as one, turning harbors into maelstroms.
• Companion Command: Ul’thuun the Drowner obeys her voice alone — striking from beneath to drag ships down or fling wreckage ashore.
• Voice of the Abyss: Her chant can drive mortals mad with the sound of waves breaking inside their skulls.

She seldom comes ashore, but when she does, the air itself thickens with humidity and the taste of copper.

Captain Tidevein’s Last Word

“Ssaalithra Stormfane isn’t hunting Leilon.
She’s hunting memory.
Elves live too long — long enough to make enemies that don’t forget.”

Rumors Among Leilon’s Fisherfolk

• Nets drawn up near the Rift of Teeth sometimes come back full of singed fish — as if struck by lightning beneath the sea.
• A child swears she saw a “red moon” reflected in the water one night; old sailors say that’s the glow from Ul’thuun’s eyes.
• The priest of Tymora claims the storms over Leilon have a rhythm, a pulse — the same as a heartbeat slowed by hate.