The gloomy wizard of Botwa

The gloom wizard is a bounty hunter and a fellow of the zigguran fellowship of wizards. 
Roland Especter Nabukkhanazar (also called REN) is known for his role as a battlemage during the gnomish invasion of Botwa.
Ren was trained in the Zigguran capital of Kuru, specializing in summoning. While little is known of his early history, it is supposed that he comes from a small commune of satyrs living in Kuru. He traveled around the world, like many others to obtain oorps (objects of ritual power). Ren's oorps came from several deities, most notably of the god of chests, and were mostly for the transmutations and metamorphosis he was famous for. 
His search of oorps lead him to become the court wizard to the botwan king, at the time Beligarus Liffendo, where he studied the effects of physarium but when its spread was contained to the underground funds were reallocated (but not Ren's salary) and the lack of activity led the wizard to live a tranquil life in the small village of Pojin where he continued his service to the crown as an expert on physarium and curing its disease, cantankerous heart ache. This was the origin of his nickname, the gloomy wizard, for the glyph covered protective robes he wears constantly  to protect himself from the disease. The robes covered him completely save for a single eyehole.
== Premises of war ==
The premises of the war began when proto-artesian redcaps began leaving their forests to inhabit wells in villages. This arrangement was tense, but most mayors had few difficulties with the well dwellers. This situation had some benefits for the villages as access to drinkable water was a rare luxury. However, inspections revealed that several of the artesians were dissenting king Liffendo due to the lack of an heir, tithes on the produce the gnomes grow in their wells, the lack of privacy, and the lack of gnomish representation in royal parliament. This was largely ignored by the royal court as similar dissent was common among the races of botwa the pucks had previously conquered such as the Harpies. 
At the time a theological crisis was underway as Nitlokan shamanism was converting more and more of the traditionally polytheistic botwans. The religion was particularly well liked by the public for their suspiciously vast wealth.
Among these reports was one that was indicative of the coming events which indicated that the gnomes were gemcrofting alarming amounts of ore deposits in unsafe conditions for harvesting, and led to suspicions of gemmological warfare development.
Hostilities began when the artesian gnomes attacked several botwan garrisons using fortbergs that they had grown in the bases wells. Fortbergs or fortress ridgebergs are specially bred to act as war machines by the artesian gnomes. The creatures are fitted with platforms and palisades to protect its redcap handlers and warriors that throw incendiary weapons, fire arrows and other long range weaponry. The fortbergs have a redcap and a white beard painted on them. The fortbergs obey their handlers, and are capable of destroying fortifications and providing cover for troops on the field. 
Before long the capital was surrounded by five fortbergs, blocking all road access to the city, the surrounding lands were watched by gnomish gathering groups and patrols. However, in the garrisons where the wells were inspected no surprise attack materialized, which allowed some part of the military command structure to remain operational. Commanders Snailerg and Creen assumed the command of the botwan counteroffensive from the Flaxelatmus and Hoztoren garrisons respectively, sending alight the green beacons to that the smoke would alert the kingdom of the attack.
== The gnomish invasion of botwa ==
Main article: The gnomish invasion of botwa
Upon seeing the green smoke, the gloom wizard is called from his rest, and makes his way to the Flaxelatmus garrison.
Along the way he rescues travelers from gatherers and patrols, bringing a small band to the fort. He also captures a number of faeries and questions them on the situation. The faeries reveal that there is trouble in the fay realm, and some gnome lords have escaped, revealing magical secrets of gemcrofting to the artesian redcaps. 
The wizard makes his way to camp, where commander Snailerg thought he was dead, and wasn't expecting help from the wizard at all, as most of the zigguran wizards were in ziggur or dead following a fad of dueling, which Ren avoided due to his low profile and age. 
He scouts many outposts, successfully avoiding gathering parties and patrols along the way. He is sent off to find the wells they occupy while the garrison's forces attack artesian strongholds.
The scouting mission goes along well, Ren uses his summons in a variety of roles, most notable a gorilla owl he calls Gorowl as his mount. they find and capture three wells that were repurposed as warehouses supplying the artesians with produce as well as small farms, but no gemcrofting altars. They also completed several assignments to eliminate gnome patrols and gatherers in an effort to starve the gnomes.  
While raiding wells, Ren learns of the gnome stone magic, which allows them to quickly exit their underground lairs by swimming through stone, he uses this to great effect, such as poisoning the lair before quickly exiting to the surface, forcing the gnomes out where they are easy targets for his summoned creatures. 
However before long Ren is informed by courier that the attack to retake the sonniras stronghold isn't going well, and he must reinforce the attack at once.
Along the way Ren is ambushed by a fellow and is bound to duel. He defeats the wizard by freezing it and claims its staff. The staff is for summoning bees.
=== Sonniras stronghold ===
Because of his duel Ren arrives late to the assault on the stronghold of Sonniras, barely saving the platoon with his group.
At Sonniras fort, the wizard arrives on Gorowl, freezing and beating enemies to death with a frozen heart collected from a ridgeberg the platoon has defeated. The wizards group ganged up on a fierce pale warrior that led the artesians and clubbed it for hours before it died. After this, they follow the platoon to their next mission to intercept a separate artesian attack group before it reaches fort Thaeno.
=== The village ===
On the way to the fort, they discover a village that was flooded by the gnomes, but the wells are suspiciously dry. They enter the well and discover a full village underground where several ridgebergs are raised. They defeat the ridgebergs, but have to escape to a level where they find where the water is pumped to the surface, they destroy the mechanism and flood the underground complex. As they leave, they find the true purpose of the site: to train a ridgeberg into a walking siege engine, capable of carrying several platforms from which gnomish warriors can fire long range weapons. They defeat the siegeberg but the wizard is hurled off the mountainside by an explosion.
=== Fort Thaeno ===
The wizard actually fell onto his bee staff and fell very ill. The platoon carried him to a nearby outt to heal and left to reinforce Thaeno.
During the journey, the wizards band collected bounties on escaped faeries. They hint at a civil war in the fay realm. They exchange information on gnome wells and supplies in exchange for the rogue faeries.
While there they find another compromised well and realize that the platoon headed to the Thaeno fort are walking into an ambush.
The band slowly makes its way to the fort, but Ren's sickness makes progress slow. Ren is also ambushed yet again by a fellow who seeks the bee staff that broke, Ren distracts the wizard by breaking the useless staff before sending a summoned boulder crashing into the wizard. Having won the duel, Ren collects his hexing stick, a mysterious plant that when burned creates a frenzy inducing cloud. 
When the band catches the platoon, they find that they are currently sieging the fort. 
In his weakened state, the wizard used the hallucinogenic plants to get the forts occupiers to kill each other, but the wind caused many of the platoon to be affected and created casualties among the attackers. The platoon manages to retake the fort, but the platoon captain refuses to speak to Ren and the wizard is called back to the Flaxelatmus.
=== The swarm ===
While on the way to Flaxelatmus the wizard receives orders to go to the flight site so as to reinforce another platoon. Along the way the group is ambushed, and has to sneak past a troll toll to reach the site, in the meantime the horse is abandoned, forcing the recovering wizard to be carried by Gorowl.
At the flight site the wizard is sent flying and transforms into a harpy to glide to another platoon that is planning an attack on a gnome spy ship.
The flight makes the wizard wet, sick, miserable but on time to the next area, where he is surprised isn't a punitive assignment but rather a new test for the hallucinogens, which he is to deploy on a ship intelligence says is linked to the gnomes.
The operation goes flawlessly, archers are able to deploy the hallucinogens easily on the ship with no loss of life on their end, but it seems that the ship is civilian, without many soldiers aboard. The wizard ponders desertion before his frost wind staff is damaged and he is banished to Ziggur.
=== The trudge ===
The wizard in his banishment tries to escape via ascension to the surface, via a plane via a dragon, and finally escaping through a pillar (which he managed due to knowing how to use gnomish magic), but they must fight through a cemetery.
They steal from several bases along the way and nearly escape an annihilan.
The cemetery escape is thwarted by a horse rider waking up the undead.
The wizard escapes and surfaces in a desert, where a coinstash indicates he's near shelter.
=== The trudge 2 : the desert ===
Gets chased by a lizardanth that gets eaten by a sand grouper. The wizard defeats it by baiting it into ramming a rock. The wizard learns that the digestive fluids of the sabuletic fish can separate the gem from the hexing stick, allowing it to be repaired.
=== The ruby clock ===
After heisting the robot wizard Rubicog, she sends the gloom wizard to a cursed forest. The trick to the forest is to walk slowly and not towards the castle in the distance. But the wizard doesn't have time for that, so by observing birds he flies up and out of the forest, who admits it doesn't have a counter to that solution yet.
=== The burned bridge ===
He continued serving in the armed forces until he met his companion, cursed into a dragon, who would bring him to his battlefields, until he died during a battle on a bridge, distracted by the sight of the dragon.
=== The Hydra episode ===
The gloom wizard once captured a faerie who awoke a nearby fire breathing hydra in an attempt to escape. He had to find it amongst the flowers it hid in and eventually used the Hydra fire to uncover the fey. 
=== Nitlokan shamanism ===
Traveling shaman who can sense and hunt the frogs for their jewels, valued by the Botwans during the invasion because finding the frogs meant finding gnome bases.
Category:Characters
Category:Botwa
Category:Ziggur
Category:History
Category:Unfinished articles