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The most colorful and widely known of the currently successful Abyssal traders is the garrulous, jovial, toad-ugly man who calls himself High Stakes Hurluu (though he never participates in gambling games, or wagers on outcomes; his only gambles are investments). Always eager to make a friend or a new trading deal, Hurluu is a roaringly amiable figure rapidly growing in legend.

No one but Hurluu knows what he truly is, but he can transform his body into at least three forms: the short, burly, wart-covered human trader most folk in the Realms see; a naga-like, human-headed snake of great length and mottled gray-green hue; and a floating or flying, many-eyed and many-tentacled body that can fight several foes at once . He wears or carries some sort of magic item that can teleport him away from a confrontation that goes badly, and he has escaped several “certain” death traps.

Hurluu deals—unscrupulously and with raw good humor—in everything. As he often says, “No deal too large, and none too small!” He is usually found lurking in a tavern, a festhall, or a seedy club in Waterdeep, Athkatla, Westgate, Suzail, or Selgaunt. He cultivates street gangs and thieves’ guilds to be his allies if things go wrong, and he has caches and hiding places arranged in his five favorite trading cities—not to mention complicated escape plans.

Hurluu is infamous across the Realms for unleashing a menagerie of monsters to maraud in the streets of Athkatla when the beasts’ owner tried to doublecross him in a trading deal.

He’s also known for hiring a succession of young and beautiful escorts to pose as his offspring, who distract clients with their charms (influencing the clients into making deals that benefited Hurluu more than themselves).

When a cabal of Sembian traders tried to have Hurluu eliminated, the jovial trader poisoned many Selgauntans by tainting casks of wine that were bound for the homes of the cabal members . . . and many other clients in the city of Selgaunt.

If someone amuses him—even a foe trying to do him ill—Hurluu will regard the source of amusement as delightful entertainment, to be goaded or even aided, so that the “jester” might survive to entertain him in the future. On the other hand, he has casually murdered folk who get in his way, and he takes glee in framing passing adventurers for his misdeeds.

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