Mergin’s Twisted Tales

I first interviewed Mergin nearly three months back. From this initial meeting to the present day, I compiled the following collection of stories. I cannot vouch for their validity, but his conviction was rather remarkable for a prisoner of his stature. Although the courts do not usually bend the Law for vigilantes, I would like to submit this journal as a testament to his intent. Often misguided and far from the prototypical hero, this dwarf meandered into the face of evil and lived to tell of it, many times over. While we should not encourage others to walk this path, we should not punish those who do. Exceptions can and should be made in cases like this, where the letter of the law is less important than the final outcome. Executing Mergin is an extreme punishment for his flagrant trespasses. Our lands, our people, and our lord need brave adventurers like Mergin to battle back the tide of evil. He serves us better with his attempts at heroism than we serve our pride with harsh justice. Recall the intent of the Law itself and read of Mergin’s intentions.


Introduction
After a full day of badgering Mergin the Mad, also known as Mergin the Master Locksmith, he finally agreed to speak. He bid me return after he had a full night of rest, so I obliged in return for this full confession. Once he ceased protesting his innocence and foul “luck,” the dwarf offered his past rather amicably. It seemed that he enjoyed relating his life to me. I must admit that I found his claims amusing and baffling. It riddled me that such an intelligent dwarf could do such stupid things.

I pondered that he was raised improperly and pursued a line of questioning aimed at routing out the roots of his maturation into adulthood. This proved troublesome. He evaded direct questions and repeatedly attempted to change the topic. After my persistence, he remarked that he washed ashore as a babe and was reared by humans within the walls of the city of the Invincible Overlord. More questioning only served to demonstrate that there were major gaps in his story. His vague answers raised my ire, but as I am trained to do nothing less than pursue the truth, I continued to whittle away. After quite some time, Mergin gave me a hurtful look and sneered out some curious words. I believed that he thought he was telling the truth, though it appeared rather doubtful. He claimed to have indeed washed ashore and been taken in by some benevolent humans. However, he said that he was already a full grown human when this occurred, but that he had no memory of anything before that day. He convinced me that he had nary a trace of memory of family, tribe, childhood, or any of the building blocks of his character. To say nothing of why or how he ended up on the beach. He was evidently angry that he had been forced to admit this and I felt a twinge of guilt for tweaking his emotional abyss. But this is a passing nuisance of my post. I took my leave then, to let Mergin settle and to rethink my tactics.

Entry One
I decided to abandon Mergin’s lineage and focus on his conscious memory. I inquired into how he chose a life of adventuring and where his travels began. As expected, he found himself in a bar. He spoke the language of the lizardmen and found a friend named Ug. He was weary of this lizardman’s tact and intelligence, but he liked his brutal honesty and intimidating presence as an ally. The two found a couple more friends. One was a human swordsman named Malastation. The other obviously had fallen from favor and still angered Mergin at the mere mention. of his name; some human cleric named Kozar. Anyway, a human named Sir Jeffries summoned the foursome. Sir Jeffries had a sidekick looking lurking in the shadows; a cloaked human woman with brown hair and a scar by her eye. They propositioned the party to recover a relic that their order had been protecting. Apparently, a thief named Spite stole a powerful orb and turned it over to the local necromancer Darwell. Sir Jeffries warned that touching the orb would prove devastating and gave them a bag to use to collect the orb whenever it should be found. He commissioned them with this task since his order would not approve of thievery. This hypocrisy went ignored and the group quickly found Darwell’s dark tower. Although the necromancer benefited from security patrols by the city guards, he was gone and his tower was ripe for the plunder. Mergin crept up a wall adjacent to the tower and pried open a window. Once inside, the group overcame the necromancer’s servants and found a bizarre shrine to some fiend on the third floor. Also, Mergin cut down a portrait of Darwell and took it along with some other stolen items. At a loss for their goal, they went exploring the lower levels of the tower. The party surprised three goblins taking a bath. One reached for a dagger and they cut him down. One threw a toy dragon at them, so Ug cut it down. They pressed the surviving goblin for information and locked him in the stove in the kitchen. Then they proceeded into the cellar, where a hideous undead creature battled them to its end. It threw chains that sapped life, but could not withstand the combined power of the group. They found and recovered the orb, which they found to be filled with hazy gray smoke.

In order to escape notice, they fled through a tunnel there to the city sewer system and reemerged elsewhere. After returning the orb to Sir Jeffries, they collected a reward and went about divvying up the treasure they accumulated. One of the items was a wand that Mergin employed with some success. However, it was worth much more than anyone else’s share of the treasure. Three party members agreed on the allocation, but Kozar protested even though he could not utilize the wand. This argument got very ugly and Mergin attempted to leave Kozar out of the party from this moment onward. The party split agreeing to reconvene at the Copper Cat, a bar of ill repute.

Mergin apparently offered his skills to a locksmith named Slim in turn for a room in which to sleep. Mergin spoke highly of this human, obviously it touched Mergin to have some semblance of a family. He viewed this mentor as a close father figure. Mergin talked glowingly of the kindness of this man.

Entry Two
Back in bar again, Mergin, Ug, and Malastation heard word that Sir Jeffries fell ill and was being put up at the Temple of War. The party traveled there and was joined by Kozar - Mergin sneered again at the mention of the cleric’s name - and an odd warrior named Remius. They found Sir Jeffries slipping into the grips of undeath. The clerics assured the group that they could not prevent his demise, but that they would do all that they could to preempt the proud man from walking the streets undead.

Sir Jeffries was not completely gone, however. He managed to tell them that his assistant Janice, who had followed behind him in past interactions with the party, was responsible. Mergin believed that she must have used this orb to curse Jeffries with undeath. Mergin would not describe how they came to their next course of action, but they tracked down Janice to her home at 7 Druid Drive. Mergin said that he sensed it was too easy and he circled the home to guard against a rear retreat as his companions stormed the front door. As expected, Janice flew through the rear down, but she overcame Mergin with brute strength. She left him bleeding and ran off. Remius and Malastation burst through the rear door and took off after Janice. Kozar and Ug trampled through shortly afterwards, and Kozar kindly healed Mergin. These three searched for their friends and stumbled across them sorely battered from an encounter with Janice. Ug and Mergin hunkered to a temple for healing. Oddly enough, when they arrived, Janice was there. Another unsuccessful fight started, which town guards broke up and served them each with summons for this crime.

Later, the party decided that Janice was in cahoots with Darwell somehow, and that she might have decided to return the orb to his tower. They descended into the sewers again, sneaking back into Darwell’s basement. Therein, they found Janice, the orb, another undead chain swinger, and the goblin they had left in the oven. Having rested and reinvigorated, the party posed a greater threat. They slew the undead thing again, slaughtered Janice, and recovered the orb again. Mergin maintained that he tried to treat the goblin with some dignity on this occasion and that he even gave him a dagger and some silver pieces.

After escaping through the sewers yet again, the party eventually returned to the town guardhouse for justice. I took from his darting eyes that more things transpired in this period than he spoke of at the moment. Malastation heaved Janice’s naked body at the town guard and fled. Mergin faced his punishment and accepted a sentence of labor for the temple. Ug, Malastation, and Remius were hunted down and forced to perform manual labor for their crimes. Remius was trusted with the orb, which he decided to hide under his bed. He also told the party that Kozar had stolen a sword they found and ran away.

Having been an Inquisitor for decades, I can sense when captives conceal the truth. I explored this Kozar issue further and Mergin admitted some amount of wrongdoing led to his separation from the party. More specifically, they brutally insulted him and physically beat him on numerous occasions. On different occasions, it seemed that every other member of the party joined in this squabble. Mergin was ashamed of the treatment they gave Kozar, but still flared a deep hatred for the cleric. He seemed to wince every time I breathed his name.

Entry Three
Of course, mishaps like those of Mergin and his partners do not go unpunished in the City of the Invincible Overlord. All were gathered by the town guard and reprimanded for their crimes. Mergin laughed and exclaimed that Darwell was thrown in with their lot and actually flogged in public. Apparently, Remius commissioned a bounty on the head of Kozar and left Darwell’s name as the retainer on notices that he hung all around.

After this lecture in civility, Captain Smaledon hired the party for a mission of some importance to the city. They were evidently not yet respected for their powers, since new party members enjoined them; an elven druid named Malek and a kender cartographer. Also, Kozar was included in the proposition offered and continued to travel with the party - for reasons unknown, but possibly to help clear his name with the town guard. Captain Smaledon sent all seven of them to the fire mage Shayroll.

Shayroll told the group that the Order of the Fire Mage began 7
years prior to their meeting. She stated that her predecessor, Radinol, left his service to the order to build an obsidian keep for his studies of the elements. In the eight years since, he had gone missing and other adventuring parties failed to bring back any evidence of what came of him. The party readily accepted the task and took directions to the keep. The fire mage asked each individual what they would like for performing such a task; Mergin requested any magical unlocking scrolls she could offer. Although Mergin could not speak of what the others all asked for, he did gleam a smile and state that the kender asked for maps and Remius asked for a crystal sword.

Once at the obsidian keep, they noted a river of lava behind it and a bizarre electrical fluttering about the walls. Unfettered, the warriors joined forces and bashed the door down. By the front door, there was a signing book, of which the last notation was years back by Rezrove and company. Wandering about, they found a lizard-like looking creature sitting in a chair. When it noted them, it lifted a finger and opened a side door. This prompted Labyrinth to charge into battle and the party killed it and its skeletal assistants along with a nasty troll. Later, they found a breed of dwarves with heads brimmed with fire. Mergin and Remius led the effort to befriend these odd fellows. These fire dwarves told the party that there were three main power factions within the keep; themselves, Urrakar - a half fiend bugbear, and Bruel - a half-dragon half-troglodyte with a troll named Skizzit. Also, the dwarves advised of a mysterious fellow that they called the Sage. Mergin went to work and made a lock for them while Labyrinth solicited a map from them. Next, they explored a back entrance that showed a path to a separate structure hidden in the rear. Therein, a man claiming to be Radinol appeared covered in electricity and ran up to Remius for a shocking hug. After some interrogation of their own, they found out that this was merely Radinol’s assistant Tarden in disguise. He claimed that Radinol died years ago. The party found Radinol’s journal, of which the last entry depicted an experiment in summoning greater fire elementals.

From here on out, Mergin’s tale grew more confusing and I doubt that even he knew what he meant. Inside the tower behind the keep, they found an “angelic” being called Maeril lamenting endlessly for her lost love Radinol. Also, there were mysterious stones ethereally destroyed by Mergin’s wand of fire. So to was the magic circle these stones created with their unknown powers. This disruption altered everything from fire-related to cold-based. Mergin missed the fact that the keep itself traversed the planes and that this incidentally captured creatures of such planes within its walls. This explained how they encountered a dire wolf. Ug and Mergin initially retreated from the beast, but turned around when they others insisted on fighting. Mergin bragged that he simply walked back and exploded the beast with a single attack, but there was obviously more to that than he offered up and I cared not for how they slew the beast. Ug and Mergin did come upon a frost giant, named Sandor, complaining about the “heat” outside. He bartered with them and gave them a cloak and a sword. Altogether, the group decided that Ug should attempt using these items to protect him on a trip down into a corridor covered by a river of ice water. He bravely did so, and told them of a room with more mysterious stones and odd circles. The rest used these items in the same manner, through a system of traveling and tying the items to a rope that the others pulled back. Malastation and Mergin decided to wait atop the corridor and protect the safe return of the other party members. After a short reprise, Ug decided it to be safer with his friends and left the others for the perceived safety above. Malek, Labyrinth, Kozar, and Remius played with the stones and sent the keep traveling the planes again. Unfortunately, this series of events left Ug, Malastation, and Mergin stranded in the elemental plane of air.

These events seemed highly dubious, but his conviction in the little that he knew led me to believe that something along these lines actually occurred. While he and his two friends flailed helplessly in the air, the others got an idea from Kozar that they should travel to the elemental plane of electricity and seek help from Tarden. Once there, he offered nothing, but Remius bartered possible resurrection of Radinol for the assistance of Maeril. She shifted in and accepted this offer, placing a quest spell on them to live up to their word. Maeril hastily showed them how to make use of the stones and flew through the plane of air to retrieve the three helpless fellows. These three also agreed to accept the quest and the party left the obsidian keep with prospective ideas including assistance from powerful spell casters. Back in town, there was no help to be found, even though the ended up discovering that the planar travel had not aged Radinol after his death. Hence, he appeared dead as of only a matter of eleven days, though he indeed passed of old age. Mergin admitted that they had no clue what to do, but that they were focused on this goal. The fire mage Shayrull held no answers, but she delivered rewards as promised. Mergin’s eyes glowed when he spoke of the crystal sword given to Remius.

Entry Four
All members of the last adventure were summoned to the Copper Cat by a human that appeared in his younger years and donning a black cloak. He spoke to them of Maeril’s punishment for betraying some foreign code of conduct. He wiped his hand over the party, throwing them to the floor and removing their imposed quest. Thus, their quest was neither valid nor enforceable. Each person returned to his home to rest up. Mergin stopped by the Temple of War to hear that Sir Jeffries was dead and buried.

Not long thereafter, Slim’s nephew Gilliam came to town with his buddy Brinkerhoff. Mergin saw that they were some sort of adventurers and agreed to show them the ropes around town. At a loss for inspiration and thinking these two to be innocent souls not yet ripe for battle, Mergin took them to a bar called the Wounded Goat Bar. It was slimy and Mergin bought a bag of black lotus from a rogue named Smidy. He offered a possible mission for his friend Maten at the Gnarly Naga. This chap had a problem with someone who had beat him up. They went there and upon him asking them if they were members of the assassins’ guild, Mergin realized the true nature of this mission and hastily retreated from it.

While they walked the streets, Mergin swore to me that butterflies came upon them and led them to a nice tower. There, two princesses - Azin & Iza - thanked them for coming and identified their protector as Captain Smaledon. They lamented the loss of a baby bronze dragon named Gizzard. The princesses offered some cake and perfume to help lure the dragon. They also gave Mergin and his new compatriots 200 gold pieces on sight and promised 600 more upon safe retrieval of their pet.

They followed leads that eventually brought them to the “Plague Quarter.” Therein, the saw him flee into some rubble. On his tail, they descended into unknown territory. A couple carrion crawlers nearly killed them swiftly, but they managed to barely escape death’s grasp. Some odd rat-man type creature attacked them on sight, despite Mergin’s insistence that they approached it nicely and tried banter first. After more exploration, they found a large cavern filled with more of the rat-men and a human casting a spell. The dragon they sought cowered in the corner. The rat-men were going about with many instruments and tools at the bidding of the human and it appeared to be a laboratory of some sort. Mergin advised that they attack on sight, just as they had been attacked before, centering their sneak attack on the wizard. They did so from long range and dropped the human in the midst of his spell. The rat-men put up a mild resistance, but one did escape. Brinkerhoff grabbed the caster’s body and Mergin took up the dragon and they fled at the sound of many footsteps. Chased to a rope they used to descend into the depths, Brinkerhoff and Gilliam made it to the top with the dragon in tow. Mergin attempted to defend the rear, but there were obviously too many of the beasts coming, so he fled as well. Brinkerhoff wisely cut the rope and killed many rat-men by dropping them down. Mergin regretted not being able to escape with the dead caster’s body as well, but he felt that they were lucky to have gotten off their snipe attack so well.

The girl’s were, of course, elated at the return of their pet dragon and rewarded the party as promised. Mergin smiled and implied something about Captain Smaledon’s sanitary habits not being so clean. I refused to hear any more of that aspect, which almost seemed to disappoint him.

Entry Five
Mergin claimed that Ug killed Kozar and one of Kozar’s friends somewhere, though he never saw it. He simply believed the lizardman, spouting about how he would never be lied to by the scaled one. Ug also recruited a former jailmate for the party; a human stalker calling himself Will at first and Briarwood Black upon getting to know him better. Altogether, they encountered Kozar’s group at the Gnarly Naga and Ug initiated a fight that they did not win. Mergin demonstrated some degree of humility when recalling this.

Later, Mergin received a note calling him to Gargin the Obliverator’s homestead. Labyrinth Lostmaker also received such a note, but he could not attend this adventure. Thus, Mergin traveled to 17 Bleak Street with Ug, Gilliam, Brinkerhoff, Briarwood, and a chap named Brimcyrus they met along the way. Once there, they ran into Kozar and his party, as Kozar had also gotten a note from Gargin. They two parties could not agree to a resolution, so all ten adventurers entered the home.

Gargin welcomed them all and told a horrifying story of his own tortuous past. Dragons had defeated the black man and then his ally turned on him. A thief named Turkyl left Gargin to die, robbing him of his possessions. He summoned great powers to live still, though he lost both of his legs. Gargin now asked them to retrieve a specific item known as the Icon of the Spider Queen as well as the axes wielded by Turkyl. Gargin advised that the thief wore a helm of teleportation and that they would need to distract him from using this helm to evade them, so he gave Brinkerhoff a scroll with two acid arrows spells enchanted upon it. Gargin somehow knew that Turkyl would attempt to sell the Icon to duerger of Gurdenak in a week. He guided them with an exact location of the transaction and wished them well.

The two parties parted, as Kozar and his accomplices had other, more immediate tasks to handle before facing this mission. Mergin’s group continued on to the dungeon that Gargin indicated. They slew some oddly colored goblins and their baby-eating king. Having reached the destination days ahead of the scheduled transaction, the party simply waited around with nary a plan. After some dispute, they agreed to follow Ug’s idea and simply wait for everyone to show up and cut them all down. Mergin and Briarwood hid in the shadows while the others stood waiting in the open.

The day came and Kozar’s party showed up for the countdown. Turkyl indeed teleported there, but he was surrounded by a group of adventurers. No one acted, but someone initiated some small talk with Turkyl, trying to purchase the Icon from him. Turkyl teleported away before Brinkerhoff could get off the acid arrow spells from the scroll. The remaining adventurers who had teleported in with Turkyl admitted that they were only paid to accompany him for a few minutes during the arranged sale, but that they knew he lived in the city of Kaza. Kozar’s party left with these guys to find Turkyl’s home and kill him.

Mergin and his friends waited and waited. Five duergar appeared and attacked, but neither side could claim victory and each retreated. When all was said and done, Brimcyrus left to enroll in the Invincible Overlord’s Invincible Navy and Briarwood was drastically ill with a broken leg and dungeon rot.

Entry Six
After dragging themselves out of the dungeon, Mergin and his party decided to head to a nearby town that Gilliam liked. Gilliam’s cousin - Big D - lived in Ashvan and might have been able to cast some healing spells on Briarwood, had he survived the plague that struck the town. Gilliam left to attend city hall to find out what happened and the others happened upon a wild-eyed man berating other gods and proclaiming the saving powers of Bane. Behind him was a former stone quarry in which the townspeople burned the dead plague victims. The man was called Ergot and he asked who Mergin was. This was the moment Mergin first identified themselves as Mergin and the Madmen. Ug went on to brake Ergot’s jaw and later killed him. Mergin went on the burn this body with the others. Mergin fell into old habits and sought help from those in the local bar. It was called the Courageous Cobbler and a poor man named Ned Beders offered up all the recent events that he could identify. The plague had already taken the lives of around thirty people at a rate of nearly two a week. Mergin noted the irony that all the most powerful townspeople were already dead and that all those who lived were of no great power.

Suddenly, a scream called the party into action; a man was about to cut down a female, while he yelled that she started the plague and that she was a witch. Mergin tackled the man away from her and defended himself from the onslaught that followed. Ug and Brinkerhoff quickly entered combat mode and sliced through any competition despite Mergin’s pleas for cooler heads. The woman thanked them and said that she was a Marian, a mere healer trying to stave off the plague by natural means. She gave them blue balls that she said would delay the onset of the plague should they come to suffer its effects.

Another man they came across was a former adventurer calling himself Jethrin. He freely gave Mergin some pipeweed and related a long version of his former exploits with plagues elsewhere. This conversation abruptly ended when screams called the party into action elsewhere. They came across a burning home and firemen attempting to put out the fire. Mergin swore that there were no fewer than a dozen soldiers, on horseback, cutting down the firefighters. Mergin leapt to their defense and the others attacked the horsemen. After all the firemen were killed, another horsemen rode out from within the burning building and led all the soldiers away. Mergin and the Madmen put out the remaining fires and burned the dead in the stone quarry. A ringing bell called them across town to a disheveled temple. A couple remaining clergymen lamented that the burning fire across town was mere diversion from the assault on their temple of Lathander. The holy men uttered a need for help and Mergin stated that Lathander had delivered the Madmen to perform this task. The holy men offered great rewards to the party if they could retrieve the Haft of Valador, half of a relic spear whose true name was the Spear of Logan and Word of Valador.

All signs pointed north, so Mergin’s Madmen head towards the horridly evil Blight Mires - a swampland of noted evil that did not oft go explored nor survived. On the journey, a blind sage calling himself Remedin told them that he was a sworn follower of Lathander. He claimed that Lathander picked them specifically for this task and gave them a mirror depicting a radiating sun. He said they would know its purpose when the time comes. Mergin accepted the mirror from the man, who took to calling them “The Chosen.”

A burnt out house held a family in a shelter nearby. The madmen gave them gold pieces and a horse. Following this trail further north, they came upon fire and three sickly men in the regalia of the horsemen they sought. They said that the evil Omar headed north to meet with an evil priest of Bane who offered a reward for the spear. They said that the worshippers of Bane spread the plague though they were blessed with immunity themselves. Ug gave them some of Marian’s blue bulbs and the party left the soldiers for their mission. Another stop along the way was a petty hut with a funny old man that they mildly annoyed and left alone, though Mergin maintained that he was likely a Baneite helping to spread the plague.

Having finally reached the Blight Mires, Mergin ran point on a sneak attack on a hooded figure waiting atop a building. Before any blows were struck, the figure called Mergin’s name and told him that he wished he did not have to see him in his current state. It was Sir Jeffries, risen into skeletal form and cursed to follow the orb that Darwell held. He told Mergin that he must find a way to destroy the orb and end his misery. Shortly thereafter, Darwell appeared and sprouted wings. He began to fly away, but Mergin tried taking a shot at him with his crossbow. Darwell let loose single ball of cold that was enough to send the party running. Darwell left and the party reunited to tackle the task at hand.

At the entry point to the crypt structure that Darwell came out of, a skeletal warrior wearing the ancient regalia of Logan bemoaned the return of the spear and that the evil cleric would use it to free a horrible demon upon the world. The party ushered by the ghosts of yesterday and crept deep down to find the cleric arguing with Omar. The soldier called the cleric Porfel and refused to his terms. He soon met his end, but the party saw to it that he was not alone in this fate. Porfel summoned a seemingly unending supply of skeletons to help him and fought valiantly, dropping Mergin quickly. Brinkerhoff and Ug withstood the onslaught and Brinkerhoff’s magic missiles dealt the final blow.

They plucked the Heft of Valador from Porfel and n the next room, they found a demon blob impaled with half a spear. Mergin tried to pull it out and was sucked into the amorphous mass, as had any others who had ever entered the room. Brinkerhoff adeptly rejoined the spear and banished the demon from the world. The party dredged back to Ashvan and reclaimed Briarwood from the Temple to Lathander. They kindly left the Spear of Logan with them, though Mergin offered to attempt to keep it safe, and collected a handsome reward for their work. The plague abided and the town praised Mergin and his Madmen.

Mergin invited Ned Beders to come back to his home and get some more teeth, so he traveled with them. Back home, they learned that Gargin had been assassinated, indicating that Kozar’s party had been rather unsuccessful on their trip to Kaza. Mergin lived up to his promise and nailed two gold teeth into Ned’s mouth while Gilliam healed the patient. He seemed to like his new teeth and left rather happy.

I asked Mergin kindly if he had left out any details and he denied at first, then recanted. He forgot to include an assault they suffered on the way to the Blight Mires. It seems that a group of archers surrounded them and asked for all their gold. Brinkerhoff tossed them five gold pieces, which was not enough. Mergin told the leader that he had something more valuable than gold and walked up him and shoved his sword through the back of his head. Ug went ballistic, slicing the archers down two at a time. Mergin called for the archers to drop their weapons, and the survivors did. Some tried to escape, but Mergin hunted them down. While he ran after the escapees, Ug and Brinkerhoff let the others go out of sheer pity. Mergin came back with a single surviving archer and hired him to follow. The poor Jokan only lasted a single battle before dying. Mergin buried him and felt guilt over forcing the man to follow him to death. He also expressed remorse over his lack of compassion. It seems that the dwarf learned a valuable lesson from this bloody mess. He swore this made a difference in his subsequent actions.

Entry Seven
I record the following conversation as it occurred:
“What came next, Mergin?”
“Nothing of which I’ll speak ever again.”
“What happened next, Mergin.”
“It’s unbelievable, never mind it at all. Let me tell you of something more pleasant.”
“You’ve supposedly been stranded in the elemental plane of air, stunned before a twosome of carrion
crawlers who chose to not eat you alive, and claim to have no childhood memory. How could anything
elseyou say be any less believable?”
“But this involved unspeakable evil.”
“As have your tales of battle-ready duergar and malicious necromancers. Mind you that I have heard many
other legends and accounts involving villains of infamy and others of no note to any but the courts. I
doubt that you could surprise me, dwarf. Indeed, I am trained in the arts of interrogation. I care less for the events than for the credibility of them. Tell me all you can, but keep to the truth or else I’ll coerce it out of you.”
“No, not again, anything but that…”
“Then loose your tongue and reveal your next caper.”
“As you wish.”

He then went on to describe something that even I refused to believe. I mistakenly sensed that my skills failed me or foul play denied me my wits. I whipped my prisoner. I cursed him profusely. I summoned some high mages to enchant the truth out of the poor dwarf, but all resulted in the same conclusion. I was forced to concede his version.

It began innocuously, with a mere note calling the party to Ashvan. They traveled there not knowing why they were needed or what they would face. William Bretch gladly welcomed them back and they were happy to see the town rebuilding itself. The mission itself was easy to take; William Bretch showed them a vial of mysterious gray smoke. Even more intriguing was what happened when the jar opened: the whispery smoke moved of its own accord and whisked north, towards the Blight Mires. William Bretch, merchant turned town leader, pleaded that the party find the source of this oddity in the swamps. He offered some gold as a reward and the group soon left town to investigate.

Mergin paused to catch his breath and exhaled deeply, obviously afraid of my response. He went on to state that the party had to rest on the way. He flicked his nose and bowed his head. Then he admitted to partaking in the black lotus toxin. He could not honestly relate the night in question, but it evidently involved him hunting down birds in the forest on horseback. His inebriation ended with him soaked in water and entirely lost within the forest. I assured him that I had heard hundreds of recounts of drunkenness and the like, so he needed to do better to actually surprise me.

The next day, they came across a distraught woman named Merritt wondering on a road. They noted that neither the road nor the mountain it led up was there when last they came through the Blight Mire. The lady evidently lost her husband Vincent and went wandering the woods looking for him. They took it upon themselves to deliver the disheveled woman home before seeking her lost husband. They walked Merritt back to the city of Torgorak. On the way, they helped a band of soldiers defend themselves against beasts from the wild. These men were terribly tired and claimed to have suffered nearly a full day of constant battle. These men were dying even without attack and some must have been poisoned. These poor men proclaimed that they would rather be executed than have to live any longer. Mergin tried to rouse their spirits and ended up slinging one man over his shoulder to drag him home. They spoke of fights with the Maimed Lord in Clavidius and the evil of the “Chained God.” They feared more of the undefeatable infernal warmachines. None had ever heard of Ashvan, nor the Invincible Overlord and his city. They denied that anything had happened within the past few weeks, leading the party to assume that they had somehow traveled into another land somehow. Briarwood Black espoused the theory of time travel. Mergin postulated that all the people were all ghosts. Ug thought the Blight Mires sunk under the mountain.

Anyway, they turned up at Torgorak with a few straggling soldiers in tow. They were immediately confronted by guards and brought before the town’s inquisitors. Ug was physically battered and electrocuted. The inquisitors sought information about the Sword of Doom and their sworn enemy nation - Clavidius - on their southern border. Apparently, Lord ‘Kess’ ruled Torgorak and his minions took every possible precaution against treachery. Luckily for the party, a very old man stepped forward and assumed responsibility for them. He was Moranius and keeper of the madhouse. He showed them to his madhouse and asked them to retrieve his lost inmate, Dast, and anointed king of the insane.

The party soon found Dast cornered in a back alley by five guards. Ever the diplomat, Ug demanded control of the crazed man and threatened brute force. Melee ensued and the party killed all the guards. They quickly returned Dast to the madhouse. Moranius thanked them and sent them to Loressa Berull and her retarded son for shelter. After a night of rest, someone left a severed finger soaked in blood on their doorway. Loressa recognized this as a bad omen for the party. They sought the wise Lorward Banco for information. He agreed to research the matter and concurred that it was a very bad omen. After a short reprise, he informed the party that the finger was that of an outsider. He also stated that it was consistent with a ritual involving the Book of Inverted Darkness. Furthermore, there were only two possible locations of this book: in the library of ‘Kess’ behind an iron door in the foundation of his castle or in the Shadow Room somewhere within the Citadel of Clavidius. He also indicated that it was likely in scroll form.

Mergin directed the storm of the library of ‘Kess.’ The found an immense library filled with many books. A scrollcase practically leapt into Mergin’s hands, one with a bedazzling gem stopper. Although the priceless scrollcase was empty, many books featured scribbled notes that assembled into the ramblings of a trapped mage dabbling in the dark arts. It was the work of Narick, the elder son of Kas, imprisoned for his affinity for Kas’s archnemesis V-cna. Some of the books appeared not so old, leading Mergin to stumble upon the discovery that ‘Kess’ was Kas and the Maimed Lord was V-cna.

“I was lost as Merritt when we learned that.”
“But how could it be, at all?”
“Ug was brave as ever, saying that we faced high stakes regardless of the foe at hand, but he knew nothing of the unspeakable powers of V-cna. I’ve heard many legends in bars and taverns, as well as from nobles and experienced adventurers, from beggars and heroes alike, that all told of acts of vile darkness. The cults spawned by V-cna were bad enough, but facing the fiend himself seemed an unbearable possibility. I was paralyzed. Frozen in fear. It was Briarwood who assembled the pieces. We were not lost, nor time traveling. We were sucked into the Dread Realm. The horrors of the other world, where the rawest forms of evil and pain coexist in maddening torment. No wonder they were going mad and willing to face death at their own hands. The alternative was nearly as damnable. The idea itself was unthinkable. The possibilities were all death traps. We knew that we had no other choice but to walk into V-cna’s stronghold, find a hidden library, and hope that the Book of Inverted Darkness remained within. Then, if we were lucky enough to be alive, we would have to escape undetected with the relic and pray that Banco could decipher its runes. Maybe then we could learn the plots of evil that involved us and attempt to thwart them. In time too, mind you. It was an insurmountable task. Had I not had such valiant friends, I would never have risked it. But they prodded me into joining their efforts and we did all this. We did. We sneaked in, found and stole the scrolls, scurried back to Banco, learned that the rituals were aimed at reviving V-cna himself in a baby’s body, and that the final ritual required killing a king. We soon found Dast amid a troupe of cultists and Merritt’s pregnant body screaming for help from nearby. We brought swift justice and slew the cultists. Ug decided that we should forgo any possible calamity and murder Merritt and her unborn. I prevented him from this course, but the fog quickly prevented us from pursuing any course of action. We found ourselves back near Ashvan and that we had helped drive back the evil from afar. The fogs dissipated and the threat was stilled for the moment, thank heavens.”

This was near his exact wording, every time. Each time I tortured, enchanted, or insulted Mergin, he maintained this tale. I have no choice but to affirm its validity here and now.

Entry Eight
I began enlisting the use of a scribe to record our conversations as they occurred. The following was the next such conversation:

“And then you were drafted into the respectable army of the Invincible Overlord, yes, but what did you do about it? Did you attempt a scoundrel’s escape?”
“No, no, we all turned ourselves in. The funny thing is that we never considered what the battle was against or why there were so many people drafted. I first thought that Darwell had set us up to be thrown into the army as a form of revenge. But there were so many people drafted that it seemed unlikely that we were singled out in any way.”
“But did you attempt to escape the service?”
“Well, I did forge a document that might have granted me leave of the service, but I never did use it. See, we were informed by Pholtus that we were to perform a specific duty under his orders. In fact, we were to guard Darwell’s tower against possible return of the mage. More because of what they found in his basement than anything, really. There was a hidden room with many odd vials and materials that I had not yet understood the value of, and mysterious portals magically embedded within the walls. I dubbed this Operation Lockdown and we went about trying to secure the tower as best we could, which was, well, weakly. It amounted to shoving furniture in front of windows and placing some of my locks on the doors into the tower. We each took a floor, with Ug at the front door, myself in the master’s chambers, Malastation on the hidden room, and Briarwood in the servant’s quarters on the second floor. We made sure that no one entered the tower, save Pholtus and Smaledon. However, a mage came proclaiming that he was to work on the portals in the hidden room. We denied him access, but Pholtus cam along and we then let the two of them in. The mage had a name I always struggle remembering.”
“How did you know that this was not some trick or trap?”
“We didn’t. We trusted that the location of the tower within the city meant that the armed officials were either there themselves or within an arm’s length.”
“If you had the time, Mergin. You should have known of the powers of Darwell by then.”
“Ahh, yeah, sort of. We saw him fly once before that, but none of us had really seen him in action.”
“Back to the portals, what of them?”
“Well, the mage identified two that could only be illuminated and entered through arcane powers and mystical concoctions that the mage worked swiftly to provide. He claimed that one portal led to Hondabith in Faerun to the Trinagon of Wyvenspur, which he called the ‘greatest testing ground ever conceived,’ which sounded a bit intimidating to us at the time. He thought that the second portal led to possibly the outer planes, whatever that means.”
“Exactly how many portals were there in total?”
“The mage claimed two. I felt skeptical and forced Darwell’s assistant to offer up some information on this hidden chamber. He said there were a total of six and the mage surmised that the layout of the room lent credence to this statement.”
“Assistant? You mean the poor goblin that you had brutalized? He helped you?”
“Yes, I nicknamed him Ben and tried to get on his good side. We were hard on him, but we also paid him for his time…I know, I know, we had no reason to trust him either, but we did.”
“What did you do next?”
“I wanted to wait and keep watch, but the adventuresome nature within each of us made it hard to sit around waiting. Malastation was the first to call for action. He plunged into the second portal and we all followed his lead. Within the portal was a room with three more portals. In the center was an inscription that basically offered up a ring of seven wishes should we retrieve three chromatic long swords from within each of the three respective portals. Above the inscription was an image of the ring swirling in a sphere that we could not yet access.”
“And you wanted this ring, didn’t you?”
“Yes, we all did. There wasn’t much discussion about what we would do with the ring, nor why we needed it to begin with. It just seemed more of a great challenge and test of our skills that we could not refuse.”
“And what of your service to the Invincible Overlord and task dubbed Operation Lockdown?”
“We ignored both. Totally.”
“…fools…”
“…”
“What next?”
“We decided based on seemingly random selection. The three portals were labeled as; Undermountain, Temple of Elemental Evil, and Banewarrens. We opted for the third selection, hoping that this was less ominous, as its name sounded. Next to the portal was an ice rod encased within some contraption. I plucked it out, only to see a stream of water fill the cavity and crystallize into another ice rod. WE each took one and opened the portal. Dirt flooded the room. We had to dig through this crap!”
“Easy, prisoner. Remember you surroundings here.”
“Sorry. I didn’t like that work. I traverse in more delicate things, with more precision. Luckily, Ug clawed his way to the surface. We arrived in someone’s back yard, a human called March Illers. After a gift of gold for the damage done, he informed us that we were in the city of Ptolus in the nation of Calastia. I tried to tell him that our currency had a different name on it because we were trying to start a nation of our own and that I was the Invincible Overlord. Of course, Malastation, Ug, and Briarwood each piped up that they were all Invincible Overlords, so the lie obviously failed, but he didn’t mind the gold.”
“So this was the Banewarrens?”
“No, not yet. We asked him what that term meant and where to find it. He only knew that it referred to an ancient dungeon north of town, but he sent us to Chars the Wise. Chars informed us that the Banewarrens began as the plan of a good cleric named Dan Rotisan. He scoured the wilderness and evil dens of his world, collecting evil artifacts and entombing them within a guarded dungeon. One of these objects he named included the Book of Inverted Darkness.”
“The same title as you found in Ravenloft?”
“Exactly. We had no clue what link this provided to our own world. Anyway, this tome perverted Dan Rotisan and he assumed the name Lathagus and became an evil being bent on destruction himself. This was all we gathered from Chars. We had no reason to enter the Banewarrens and no idea where to look in the first place. We tried seeking help from a wizards guild known as the Inverted Pyramid, but they threatened us and helped naught.”
“And so you returned home to research the connection with the Book of Inverted Darkness? Or to abandon this selfish quest?”
“I only wish. It was Ug who had a momentary flash of brilliance. He theorized that the portal that brought us into this world might had led directly into the Banewarrens had we not surfaced. We decided to follow the trajectory indicated by the portal and came upon an abandoned manor. It was locked, but seemed deserted, so I picked the lock and we entered. A platemail armored orc attacked and we slew the beast. We discovered bags upon bags filled with dirt, indicating that others dug their way into the dungeon below. We followed a tunnel in the basement through some devious traps and into a dungeon-like structure underground. In one room, we came across a crazed warrior named Calaressent, whose friend - Rensir the Monk - lay dead from attacks, by the “Pact Lords.” We soon found an iron door that would not open no matter what I did. Malastation kept giving me a hard time about it, so I went off on my own for a bit.” “Couldn’t take the ridicule, huh?”
“More that I felt unappreciated for my value within the group. He insulted my entire profession and I took it to heart. What would Slim say? Or Vortis? I kept my tongue and swords sheathed and tried to calm down elsewhere. Meanwhile, the others were attacked by enemies. By the time I got back to them, Briarwood was dropped and the fight was certainly not in out favor. A minotaur and some half-horse thing and their goblin cohorts posed a serious threat. So we battled and ended victorious.”
“And?”
“And we left.”
“And?”
“And that’s all I’ll say about that.”
“More arguments with your friends?”
“Yes.”
“I see. Did you return to Darwell’s tower?”
“Yes, we did. And we pretended to safeguard the city from whatever could appear or return there.”

Entry Nine
It was apparent to me that Mergin could not defend the reasons why his party did as they chose. They evidently suffered from myopia and a heavy dose of discord. The divergence of motives seemed to go towards the least common denominator. The next segment of his testimony seemingly damned half of his party as evil and branded the other half for guilt by association.

Mergin tried to claim that they guarded the tower well, but he did let slip that a couple young elflings used the tower as target practice. It appears that they were more concerned with attaining a ring of wishes than for anything else at hand. This was their motive and shallow excuse.

They returned to Ptolus and sought out Clararesent at the Church of Lorian. He was not there, but their questsions about the Banewarrens took them to some Order of the Dawn. They directed them to find Sir Nicolan at the Knights of Chord. Things got really devious from here on out.

Sir Nicolan told the party that there was a key to open the Banewarrens door, but that House Vladaam - a noble family, held it. Mergin thought that he stated House Vladaam was evil, but his conviction was too weak to support this statement. Anyhow, Sir Nicolan somehow knew the key to be in their home, in their basement. So, off the Madmen of War (another alias for Mergin’s party) went.

Mergin told an amusing tale about their plan to acquire the key. He, Briarwood, and Labyrinth LostMaker circled around the home and snuck in through a window. This part of the plan called for this half of the party to find the basement as quickly and quietly as possible. Meanwhile, Ug, Gilliam, and Malastation decided to directly enter the house under the guise of a security force offering better household protection. The half trying to be quiet actually heard their friends bumbling through some half-hatched deception. Somehow, all of them made their way into the basement. Mergin and Labyrinth set about disabling all traps therein. They came upon a locked vault and Mergin pried in open to reveal a locked coffer. Within this were many gold pieces and a wrapped mummified hand whose pointer finger bone was honed into the shape of a key. Mergin filched the hand, without touching it to his skin. Malastation, Ug, and Gilliam opposed taking any gold, as they said this would be stealing. The others disagreed and took some. The argument helped reveal one thing; they were stealing and from people they knew nothing about.

After sneaking away relatively easily, they found their way back to the iron door. The key fit and it indeed opened the passageway. However, as soon as this happened, Mergin realized that someone had lifted the key from his bag and magically escaped. This did not deter them in the least. They entered and used Labyrinth’s magical map guide to discern the general layout of the area. They decided to head towards what appeared to be stairs. Mergin and Labyrinth disabled more traps along the way. They found a secret passage that brought them to another room. Within it, two octopuses were encased inside water filled tubes in the center of the room. From across the room, a troll-like wizard attacked. Labyrinth ran, but the rest of the party returned the favor and battle ensued. Just as they felt like they were getting the upper hand, she unleashed some massive magical power from a ring she wore. They saw the ring explode, then realized that they were falling. And from three miles in the sky above a city. Briarwood swallowed his potion of flying and managed to save most of the party from a horrible fate. Unfortunately, Gilliam received no aid and smashed into the ground.

They pieced together Gilliam’s remains and retreated to Darwell’s tower. From there, they knew they could find help at the Temple of War. A priest of Tempus appeared, named Devigilus, and he summoned some great powers to revive poor Gilliam. It cost them plenty of their treasure, but they felt responsible for bringing back the cleric and also needed his healing prowess. Unfortunately, Gilliam returned without a leg and with less power than he had before he died. Also, Gilliam had a lady caller by the name Lisha. She brought him a wooden leg so that Gilliam could walk again. Briarwood thought that this was a good time to cease operations for a while. Mergin agreed. This was not so easy a conclusion. Briarwood left to attend a fair in Ashvan. Meanwhile, Malastation and Ug were bent on some investigation. Of course, they found the iron entrance to the Banewarrens locked again and them without the key. Mergin thought this was enough of it, but he was very, very wrong.

Ug and Malastation headed back to House Vladaam. Mergin trailed far behind them, just enough to keep them within sight. Briarwood and Gilliam stayed close behind, but not with Ug and Malastation, who directed entered and tried reassuming their guise as a security force. Obviously, this ruse had run its course and the lady of the house summoned city guards. Mergin knew that his allies went in without any semblance of a plan, but he knew not how bad this would get. He assumed that they would quickly escape or find themselves arrested. He went about forging a letter that supposedly granted him with the right to reclaim his friends and return them to their world. Gilliam and Labyrinth set about sneaking through the rear of the house. Mergin attempted conversing with the guards to show them inside, so that he could attempt to rescue them from the lawmen. However, by the time finally entered the house, bodies littered the floor and werewolves were attacking city guards. He immediately went into melee with the lycanthropes, helping to subdue these beasts. He found Ug surrounded by a thick layer of blood and numerous dead bodies. Knowing that more guards would surely come, Malastation guarded the front door. Mergin quickly went about picking their way back into the locked vault. Inside, they saw sort odd movement and Briarwood splashed his wineskin in the room, revealing a female form. She scooped the mummy hand and battled a bit before magically escaping yet again.

Not to be shortchanged, the party ran away and requested that Gilliam call upon his divine spellcasting abilities to locate the mummified hand key. The cleric did as asked and directed them on a long, hurried chase through Ptolus. Briarwood commandeered a horse and tried his best to trample down the lady - now revealed as the lady of the House Vladaam. He fell of his horse and slammed into a brick wall.

Now that the trail grew cold, Gilliam called upon another spell and directed the party to find Sir Nicolan. Gilliam insisted that he held the key, so the party demanded it without pause. Another chase ensued, resulted in a another battle. The party won. Mergin attempted to stabilize the lady, but Ug stabbed her through the heart and killed her. Briarwood ran the body for its possessions - in the middle of town street. They found the key and some other magical items, which they took with them back to Darwell’s tower. They identified and disbursed the little treasure they found. Labyrinth took a band of magical movement and Mergin ended up with a magical sword that was enchanted with the power of levitation.

Entry Ten
I began asking Mergin how he could reconcile adventuring with such scoundrels. He did not offer much of a defense, but he did go into another story. He claimed to pick up some arcane knowledge and used it to cast an enchantment on his lizard friend. He thought he could convince the lizardman to avoid any more needless aggression. This, of course, lasted only a few moments.

Mergin mentioned something about tutelage under the city mage assigned to study Darwell’s tower. He struggled with the name of the wizard, but I believe that it was Tyus Lomak. The wizard also revealed nothing of why the city was at war, save to say something about an unnamed enemy to the north.

Mergin assured me that he attempted to initiate dialogue about why the group should pursue the aforementioned ring of wishes and what they would do with it. He claimed that there was no significant response and that his compatriots were more interested in the adventure than the reward. He referred to having more success in conversing about new codenames for party members; Briarwood taking a liking to being called Slick, Mergin trying to call Ug Captain Crunch, and Malastation redefining himself as Stacy.

Of course, they returned through the portal. However, this time, it brought them to a different location. It seems that the local officials sought the aid of the local wizard guild - the Inverted Pyramid - who placed a trap on the other side of the portal. The party was caught and voluntarily complied with all demands. Mergin smiled, relaying that this testimony was not his first. A fellow named Lord Acadimus, or something along those lines, led the inquisition. There were multiple charges that centered around the murder of 16 town guards. Calaressant intervened and got a councilman by the name of Maxwell to represent them for a steep price.

Maxwell found out that the landowner of the former entrance to the portal, March Illers, reported that he sold this land (to avoid land taxes), which granted the party rights as local landholders. They were afforded a trial, which featured some eloquent speech by Maxwell and a hung jury. Mergin winked and nodded, but I coerced him to admit that there was a dwarf on the jury. Unfortunately, the panel of judges invoked their powers to prescribe a punishment. The verdict was fitting; the party was sentenced to enclosure within the vault known as the Banewarrens. As part of the penalty, they were allowed their possessions in turn for information pertaining to their accomplice Labyrinth Lostmaker.

At the door to the Banewarrens, a captain of the guard who lost his son to the party took out his pound of flesh with his own hands. He savagely cut off the arm of the lizardman, thrashed other party members, and threw them in the vault. They resumed their quest to kill all monsters and retrieve some mysterious chromatic orb. Along the way, Mergin apparently avoided many traps, as he gloated of his prowess in this regard. He did let something slip, however, that revealed imperfection. Somehow, Malastation/Stacy was left horribly disfigured and weakened from some noxious gas that must have sprayed from a trap that Mergin must have missed. I intuited extreme shame on his part regarding this event, so I circumvented questions dealing with this failure. He bumbled something about a bronze golum that fixed traps and helped them access the second level. Sometime thereafter, Labyrinth Lostmaker appeared as he had entered the portal and faced the same fate as the rest of the party.

Mergin stated that he spied the same troll-like creature that sent them three miles high. He said that he told the party to wait while he attacked. They charged into battled and Mergin managed a well placed backstab that dealt the final blow. It was not soon enough though, as the frail Malastation died in this combat. Other than this, there were few details of the prison, save traps and evil artifacts. Mergin ominously said that Ug/Captain Crunch kept being tempted by dark thoughts. They battled a group of Pactlords including a sphinx, an illithid, an ogre magi, a spider, and an ettin. The fight got tough, so the party retreated through a secret passage that Labyrinth found nearby. Not long after, they followed these Pactlords through a locked entrance to the next level. Another battle ensued. Mergin bragged that he brought down the illithid single-handedly. Somehow, they lived to fight another day.

Entry Eleven
The following entry came from the work of my assistant, who took over interrogations in my absence:

Mergin, the dwarven locksmith, betold a curious tale, of which continued his descent through the Banewarrens, a horrid jail for all things evil. He relayed unto me a certain specter that haunted them throughout the dungeon, one bent on gaining his ends through the means of Mergin’s party. The had encountered it earlier and ascertained that it was evil, but desperate and suffering from numerous calamities, they heeded the call of this devious being. It commanded them to place a helm atop a dead adventurer in their party, and Malastation was the name of the unlucky one so doomed. Of course, it brought back the warrior, but his nature was nothing like that of his former self, with sheer black filling the former wounds and his substance eeriliy frightening the rest of the party. The specter demanded that they cast a blessing on the helm to release his own soul from it. Mergin swore that he opposed all negotiations with the ghost, but that the starvation and thirst, along with general fear helped misguide his friends into colluding with the undead. Lucky for the specter, another party of adventurers came along, of them being an ally of Mergin’s named Caluresant. This paladin complied with the request for a blessing, and the specter was freed of the helm. The party continued onward, coming across another specter calling itself the Betrayed. Immediately, Gilliam began casting a spell and the battle ensued. Mergin testified that he placed the best strikes and dealt the final blow.
Then they went to a long room with four status on each side. Beyond the statues were doors. Gilliam detected magic and there was strong magic between the last two statues. Ug said there was one other room he wanted to check out and the party begrudgingly agreed. The next room had just a big hole in the middle of it. Mergin briarwood set about searching the place. That’s when Mergin saw Ug throw a torch down the hole. A moment later, bugbears attacked Mergin and Briarwood from behind. As the battle persisted, Mergin saw the others battling a massive ice elemental. Finally, Mergin found himself and a bugbear falling through a portal that appeared out of nowhere. The last sight Mergin saw as he fell through the portal was the whole party dead except for Braiarwood. Malistation had been turned to ice. When he fell through the portal he and the bugbear found themselves in some other underground structure. Immediately, two figures jumped over him through the portal, into the Banewarrens and the portal slammed shut.

Entry Twelve
I returned from my expedition to personally inquire of Mergin, while my assistant recorded the following:

“What happened when you escaped the Banewarrens?”
“You don’t believe me, but I fell through a portal that appeared out of nowhere. I found myself in a small room with some horrible monster and my blows merely bounced off its hide. I fled out the room and up some stairs, coming upon a massive earth elemental devouring the bugbear that came to this place with me. I leapt over both of them and ran away.”
“- wisely.”
“Right, over my shoulder, I spied the elemental engaged in battle with the demonic beast that I could not harm. The elemental formed itself around the beast’s body and dealt massive blows that would have killed the likes of me.”
“Yes, and then?”
“I was obviously in some building, somewhere, and a pair of double doors down the hallway seemed to lead outside. I ran down to them, and sure enough, found myself outside.”
“Where were you this time, Mergin?”
“I’ll be damned if I know. But it was awful. All kinds of creatures running amuck in some abandoned city surrounded by unknown forestry. I saw a blue dragon swallow something before my eyes, a foul thing that would have gladly eaten myself if given the chance. But this was no comfort, as there were many more, all horrible things. I climbed the building and looked for the safest path to the forest. A mere few steps on this perilous journey, a friendly voice beckoned me to another building. I eagerly sought alliance and found myself in front of an elf calling himself Enray. He told me that I was somewhere called Myth Drannor and-“
“That cannot be. I have knowledge of this place and it is not as you say.”
“ - I, uh, it’s what he told me and that’s all I can say.”
“Proceed.”
“He told me that his friends and him battled a demon and that they were forced to flee. His two friends, Valador the Priest and Caldwell the Conjurer, fled through a portal. Enray was looking for his friends and I assumed they fell through the portal as I went the other way.”
“The figures that passed you as you fled the Banewarrens.”
“So, Enray and I traveled back to the portal that translocated our parties. Luckily, the elemental was gone and it had been victorious, certified by the blood all around the hall. Enray demanded that I guard the door as he studied the section of wall that held the portal. I fought and defeated a couple of creatures in defense while he studied. He found an activation brick, and made an astute observation. He noticed some fog on the ceiling and discerned evil within its nature. He gave me a few scrolls to protect me from the affects of such evils and sent me through the portal to find his lost friends.”
“How could you trust him? His friends could have been Pactlords.”
“I just asked him if I could trust him when I first met him and took him at his word. Plus, he was far from monstrous and his concern over lost friends seemed reasonably innocuous. Lost as I was, I would have taken kinship with anyone, but I sensed nothing overtly malicious about this elf.”
“And how would you return his friends?”
“Oh, yeah, he gave me a sandclock and told me that after four turns he would open the portal from his side. I made a contingent plan to have him open it in eight turns as well.”
“How would he keep track of time?”
“Damned if I thought of that! I figured he was smart enough to figure that out. I was eager to get back in the Banewarrens and free all of us from its clutches.”
“So you favored saving others over your own safety?”
“Of course. Imagine the guilt you would feel if all your friends died and you ran away.”
“Perish the thought.”
“Exactly. I had to at least try and bring them back - like we did for Gilliam once before. I wasn’t
anticipating an easy task, but I was compelled. Plus, the Banewarrens held a certain intrigue worthy of exploration if our tattered party could ever pull itself together again. Besides, my short experience in Myth Drannor convinced me that it was not a destination in and of itself.”
“Proceed with the Banewarrens then.”
“First thing I noticed that there was thick fog everywhere, like that crept through the portal into Myth Drannor. Second, the spell placed on me by Enray indeed kept the evil fog at bay. Third, there were four humanoids down the hall. When I came upon them, they seemed to have lost all their senses. They didn’t even know their blasted names! One took to calling himself Big Will, and he was an adventurer wielding a sword and owning a lute, so we presumed him a lost bard. Another owned a fine bow and his discovery of his items led to the moniker Chalk to describe him. Chalk had a dead adventurer died to his leg by a piece of rope. He also found among his items a bounty on the heads of all the Madmen. I tried convincing them that the price aside our names meant the true value of our wealth at home and they seemed to take this well, without catching on to the meaning of the bounty notice. The last was a halfling that readily accepted being called Shorty. Together, we wandered the Banewarrens.”
“Working with the enemy?”
“Well, I suppose they were, but I had no qualms with them yet.”
“How did you know they were not the lost ones you sought?”
“Well, presuming from their names that they were nothing resembling these adventurers. I assumed that I sought a wizardly one and a cleric or priest. These ones were not of those types. They were more hearty and less scholarly, from all impressions.”
“Good enough, did they accept your mission?”
“They accepted anything I told them and followed me around without question. I could have abandoned them and plotted a scheme to steal the bounty and hope they forgot that they could have hunted me. They say that war makes strange bedfellows and this was something like that. I felt that I had to give them decency and not manipulate them untoward. It was a loose alliance indeed.”
“What did you find?”
“Well, we snuck back to where an ice elemental nearly single-handedly killed my entire party. It was nowhere to be found, but the remains of a couple of my friends were there; Labrynth, Gilliam, and Malastation’s affects. This gave me hope that some escaped. We plucked a door from nearby and tied ropes to it. We used this item as a sled and placed all the dead bodies atop it. We dragged this slipshod sled throughout the dungeon. Later we discovered the remains of what I later learned to be the bodies of Caldwell and Valador and we threw them on our sled as well.”
“Bringing out the dead, huh?”
“Funny, but accurate. Yes, that was the gist of it. After a short while, we ran into that ghostly apparition bent on escaping. My new allies, of course, listened to his suggestions that we utilize the evil helm that once trapped him to bring back some other person. It was folly to entertain the thought and I prevented them from actually following through with this.”
“What if it worked?”
“In one second I thought of using the evil helm to bring back Malastation, but I discarded the thought. I remembered not being able to trust him when he wore it and the fear of the potential evils bestowed by the helm. In addition, I remembered the times that the ghost lied to us and that I should never even consider his self-serving ideas.”
“Did you need his help?”
“Likely. I found no remains of my other friends; Ug and Briarwood. There were three unexplored sections, each blocked by a trap that I could not bypass. I reverted to calling out repeatedly, to no avail. I felt rather pessimistic after I could not find anyone. We did find a small section of the dungeon that was not flooded with the evil fog, but even it held no promise. I convinced the others that we should go and wait for Enray to open the portal to Myth Drannor.”
“You gave up on your friends?”
“Maybe. It was so hard looking at the remains of the ones we found and I thought there may not be any remains for the rest. I considered that perhaps Enray could help bring back Gilliam and Labrynth and that they could help me find the others in the Banewarrens.”
“A tall order for a bladesinger.”
“He seemed powerful at the time and I had no better ideas. And the new allies, Chalk, Big Will, and Shorty offered no ideas whatsoever. We justed played dominoes and waited by the portal.”
“So, what happened?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t start that again.”
“It’s true, I swear!”
“Oh, I’m sure you can come up with something.” “Well, my last protective expired and we held our breath. Then Chalk and Shorty ran away. Big Will put a bag over his head. I think I passed out waiting. I honestly don’t know what happened until I woke up sometime later. As far as I can tell, I ended up falling asleep in a room nearby.”
“Well, Mergin, this is most interesting. We’ll leave it off here until tomorrow, but you better be able to come up with all relevant facts in your tales tomorrow.”
“I shall only speak the truth.”
“It is what I seek and will exact it from you one way or another.”
“I freely give it.”
“Keep it that way.”

Entry Thirteen
My assistant attended to other matters, so could only depict the summary of our next meeting.

Mergin seemed chipper and eager to relate his next tale. His confidence was unsettling. His next tale began where he left off, passed out in a random room. He stated that the so-called new friends found him, but that they claimed to have found an angel that cleared the dungeon of the evil fog and freed them from the Banewarrens. However, they were commissioned by the Church of Lovian to find Kalurescent and his party lost inside the Banewarrens. They also befriended a barbarian that joined them on this quest. These fellows started about their search, but a cough down the hall sent them charging into unknown battle, led by the unthinking barbarian. As it turned out, the cough was that of a lizardman, but the fight began before Mergin could get there to break it up. Mergin had to fight alongside his buddy, and he repeatedly called for a halt to the conflict. The barbarian and lizardman did not concede. Either Big Will or Chalk threw a net on the barbarian and Ug took this chance to cut his head off. Mergin and Ug were happily reunited and the others were intimidated into accepting alliance with the lizardman. Mergin quickly sought a blood oath of trust with Ug and got it. He made the same offer to Big Will and was rebuked. Mergin saw this as an indication of their true intentions and he immediately distrusted those formerly called new friends. Mergin relayed that they found the dead bodies that had been dragged around on their door/sled before, but that each had been run for their respective items.

Nevertheless, Ug brought them to the room that held Briarwood. Of course, he was not there. But he did sneak up on them shortly thereafter. Altogether, the group traveled to the last point left unexplored by any of them, a room that held three ghosts. They barged in there and defeated these undead. Mergin then found a secret passage that led to more chambers. Astoundingly, at this point, Remius appeared out from the shadows. He had apparently stumbled through Darwell’s tower and been granted access to the Banewarrens under the guise of a bounty hunter looking for the heads of Mergin and the others from the City of the Invincible Overlord. Mergin was decidedly pleased to speak of the welcoming unison of his friends after seeming ages of separation. Oddly, he sought and got another blood oath from Remius.

Into the new chambers they explored, they found a chamber with a dragon form encased in the floor and massive throne. Mergin interjected that he borrowed a book about the Banewarrens from Shorty and reasoned that the dragon was the Silver King ally of the good Danar, Saggarintys. A side room held a series of plates of different types. Mergin touched all the silver plates an it freed the dragon. Big Will tried diplomatically reasoning with the dragon that they meant it no harm. Mergin claimed that he boldly addressed the dragon by its name and related the events that have transpired in the years since he was encaptured. The dragon thanked them and left, for indeterminate purposes. The group continued onward, bypassing some odd creatures and deep caverns unpassable by most people. They came through a number of rooms to a vast cylinder with many doors at different levels. They decided to go through a couple. One held the same type of demon that Mergin could not harm in Myth Drannor. It fought them and died, but it infected them all with a sort of sickness.

Sadly, Mergin fell sick with Dungeon Rot and he was forced to live out some portion of this period vicariously through his compatriots. They trudged on without him and later told him of their exploits. They managed to encounter and survive a massive gem that encapsulated them somehow. Even more strangely, they discovered a room that allowed them to control the actions of a massive technologically advanced golem in another place. They used this golem to retrieve the sought prismatic sword and stopped to rest before continuing. Mergin assured me that this rest allowed him to recover sufficiently to continue with his group the next day.

I asked Mergin some follow up questions about the motley group he traveled with at this juncture in time. He stated that Bug Will evidently supplied some powerful and effective spells and bardic abilities, but the poor person associated with Mergin and the Madmen affected Big Will to the point of near opposition at times. The antagonistic relationship was not helped when Ug needless slaughtered of the unthinking barbarian. Chalk added no sympathy, but seemed to hold no grudge either. But his allegiance obviously was not to strangers from another world. Shorty actually detracted from the larger group, as he repeatedly tried picking the pockets of the Madmen. Mergin conceded that he could have done more to help keep this peace, but he also evoked serious doubts that anything could have rectified the ills done in Ptolus. All he and his friends could do was to prove their valor in battle and hopefully do more good than harm along the way. The search for Kalurescant may have been a self-serving key to freedom, but it offered a seemingly admirable task for the Madmen to help perform, in an effort to display their righteousness.

Entry Fourteen
Mergin assured me that he wanted nothing but the best for everyone. He admitted that Ug and Briarwood voiced opinions about simply leaving with their prismatic sword, as this was the original goal. However, Mergin reiterated that they should seek the missing Kalurescent and this was the course they settled upon.
One of the first things encountered the next day was a massive blue dragon going by the name of Darkstar. It besieged them for magic. Briarwood turned over some spellbook found along the way, and the dragon seemed to be content enough to leave the party alone. However, Big Will could not be deterred from attempting to sway the dragon with his melodic tunes. The attempt succeeded in capturing the dragon’s attention, but it also threatened to require Big Will to never stop entertaining Darkstar. The enraptured dragon refused any attempts to separate the bard from himself. Big Will advised the party to explore the next room over, which contained a foul thing made entirely of chains. The form attacked and the party fled. However, it shot out chains that blasted Ug and Big Will. Ug withstood the blow, but the other chain drew Big Will into the chain monstrosity’s place. Mergin ran for the dragon’s assistance and an epic battle ensued, with the dragon blasting electrical beams in and chains flying out. The party used this distraction to escape, with Big Will safely back in the fold again.

The next chamber contained a massive ruby. Mergin admitted that he could not resist the temptation. He tried fiddling with the gem and released three bolts of energy. He managed to dodge two and settled on leaving after feeling the effects of the third. The very next thing they came across was Kalurescent and his party. Two were dead and a third turned to stone. All that remained were Kalurescent and his female leader. Big Will turned the stoney one back to flesh. Altogether, they trudged back to the entrance to the Banewarrens and called upon the Church of Lothian to release them. Among the dead allies returned with them were Gilliam, Labyrinth Lostmaker, an unnamed barbarian that Ug slew, two Lothians, and the fingers of Valador and Caldwell. What happened next was entirely unexpected by all.

Tobias, priest of Lothian, indeed released them all, despite conceding certain distrust for Ug, Mergin, and Briarwood. However, once outside the Banewarrens complex, two wizards from the Inverted Pyramid appeared. They demanded that the criminals of Ptolus be returned to their sentence within the Banewarrens. Then, an angel appeared with an elderly man. They pleaded for the release of the criminals and supported the virtue of the party. Amid this debate, the angel stopped and sensed something about the room. He wiped his hand and revealed numerous invisible creatures surrounding the party. These were the Pactlords and they demanded a vile relic called the Grail. Before any discussions could continue, Darkstar emerged from the Banewarrens complex. At sight of the blue dragon, the elderly man aside the angel turned into the Silver King, Saggarintys. The dragons immediately attacked each other and battle ensued. The Pactlords went after the party. The Inverted Pyramid went after the Church of Lothian. The chaos of battle ensued.
Mergin and Briarwood tag teamed a monstrous ninja, and Mergin dealt the deathblow. Then he helped Ug kill an evil lizardman. During this time, the dragons took their battle into the Banewarrens. The angel used this chance to close the vault door and he was then banished by one of the Inverted Pyramid. Mergin noticed that Briarwood was dropped, but could not discern why. He went to help out Shorty, who was fighting a bird-like horror. On the way there, he bumped into an invisible creature, who he attacked valiantly. The unknown enemy was revealed by the magical assistance of Big Will, and it was the ogre magi that escaped their clutches once before. They battled him, but he again turned into a misty vapor that they could not harm and he fled safely once more.

The party sent out their unknown counterparts, Remius and Chalk, to purchase a caravan to transprt them all to the portal back home. Big Will distracted the city guards nearby and they successfully used the caravan to make their way to where March Illers lived. Briarwood and Mergin went about digging back the tunnel to their portal home. Of course, the homeowner came outside to determine the disturbance. Only it was Mark Illers. He recognized them and cooperated for a price. They dug back to where they knew their portal was, and found a second portal blocking the way. Chalk went to town and purchased potions to make them all smaller, and they all entered through the space between the portals to enter the one back to Darwell’s tower.

Once home, they found Darwell’s tower guarded and that another party tasked with guarding it had been lost as they were determined to be. Also, the war with the northern enemies waged on. They hurried to the temple of war and paid handsomely for resurrection of Gilliam and Labrynth, Ug had his arm regenerated, and those infected with nasty bulbs from the devil were cured of it entirely.

Mergin said that he set about studying his arcane abilities and working about the locksmith store again. Ug gladly rested up in Slim’s basement. They agreed to take some time off from adventuring and agreed to take a needed break from dungeon exploration. After all, they had friends die, limbs lost, memories lost, abilities drained, infectious bulbs, starvation, dehydration, and the looming threat of final death behind them now. There was some consensus to seek out Darwell and also to learn more of the ongoing war, perhaps for their involvement. In any case, they were all quite happy to be alive. For some reason, Big Will and Chalk remained in the City of the Invincible Overlord. Chalk claimed a new name and asked that his new friends call him Caladin, but Mergin reiterated that it had already been weeks that they called him Chalk and that old habits die hard. Big Will retired from adventuring and seemed content to go about performing and selling scrolls to make a living. Labyrinth also indicated a desire to be left alone for some time being. Rumors of the return of the Brinkerhoff surfaced, but nothing came of them.

Mergin smiled and recounted the simple times they had. Drinks at the bar. Jokes. The pleasures of humble life. Confidence from having survived the Banewarrens. Many retellings of their times there and times before that period. They enjoyed this fleeting safety and reforged their bonds together as trusted friends and allies. Mergin said that he wished that they had more times like these.

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