Research. Also, Trying Not To Die.

Vharad didn't like the smells. Or the people. They were rude, and undignified, such that he couldn't help but feel complete and utter contempt for them. However, he was here for a purpose, and that was the glorious research that this little dung hill of a town had promise of potential for.

You see, he loves research. Research is his path to power. He just didn't really care for the path he was on. His focus was necromancy. It's applications as well as ways of deterring and countering it. It was academic and dispassionate. He learned early on he had an innate gift for it's subtle intricacies. Something his master would no doubt approve of, and often would not let him forget it!

To him... Necromancy was just this....thing he had a knack for. His true passion however was for Evocation! Oh the blasts of lightning and fire! The thunderous booms of mountains, shattered off in the distance by the magical might of those who would reshape the world! But no. Fate would have him studying in crypts, learning various methods of reanimating dead, interacting with corpses (purely academic of course) and manipulating necrotic energies.

Honestly! Who does that? The dying and the desperate. Alas, it was a gift he would not squander. And so it goes, he enters Shadowdale. The guards work him over pretty good, looking for various things that would be considered a threat. They found multiple journals all written in Thayan. His spellbook did not contain any actual necromancy spells as of yet, not whole ones anyway, just notes on how they could work. This of course earned him various types of dark looks, if not outright hostility... however cooler minds prevailed when he explained that he was there to study the issues plaguing Shadowdale to help in a solution that would cause the undead threat to be more manageable, at least... more manageable than a horde of flesh eating corpses in any case. It was bad for business! Especially if they were to establish an Enclave there. Zombie outbreaks simply wouldn't do. Plus they'd reap the rewards of having magical arms and armor if they did find it lucrative enough to place a nice little shop there.

Thus he entered the town. Now... not many things happened at first. He spent a lot of time in the crypts taking samples and would return to town to record his findings.

Then reality set in. In a single day, his life was threatened, not once, but twice! He knew that the lands outside of Thay were uncivilized, degenerate, and lawless, not to mention lacking the intellect to properly understand his homeland, it's people, or it's motivations, but this was just ridiculous.

So he sits in the Old Skull Inn, in the corner, reading his research, jotting down notes, and drawing diagrams.