Durnen

> "Currently, we are in the business of making Durnen leave. And business is booming." -- Harry, "When There's Nothing Left to Burn" (1x5)
>
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Conduit-oriented body-hopper with a penchant for daggers and possession. Comes in many varieties, can we interest you in red slither? Gardens, but just recreationally, nothing serious. Light interest in aquatic life. Leader of Team Red Eye. Or is he secretly all Red Eyes, just like, spread out? Keen taste for old books, according to Francis. Good at one-liners and copying your spells, not great at cart management or keeping horses from melting. One popular fan theory is that he's future!Set correcting the timeline, but homeboy hasn't dealt any sneak attack damage yet so \*meme voice\* who is he

Awk brought him back from death once for reasons unknown, then he disintegrated just to spite us. Currently over his okay-with-death phase, or at least is not okay with being killed by Zeno and Felegum. Looks like a Hot Topic, judging by this purloined necklace of bones, and Set both admires and detests him for it.

## Description

Red-eyed. Literally a bodysnatcher, so his looks are a bit hard to pin down. Originally, the party encountered him in hobgoblin form (several), then he reanimated Sir Bradford and piloted him for a bit, and has since gone on to acquire new lodgings. The only thing consistent between incarnations has seemed to be the red eyes. Although new evidence with Zuul has made it seem like he can choose to turn his red eye indicator light on or off, so this may no longer be a good signifier of Durnen-ness.

## Biography

### Background

Durnen has long been interested in the conduits, specifically in gaining control of them to wield great power. He passed through Greenrest years before the goblins began coming up with their magical apples and the kobold insurgence began happening, grilling Frances on conduit lore and hunting for tablets. Most people in Greenrest thought he was a strange traveler passing through and had not connected him with the disturbances since he left so long before they happened.

Little is known of what his ultimate goals are with the power of the conduits. They are probably bad.

### "All the Ghosts That Are Never Gonna Catch Me" (1x3)

Golak the goblin guard mentioned that someone named Durnen (then Derrnen) had made the goblins steal a dragon from the kobolds. Thanks to some monetary persuasion from Awk, Golak revealed he did not like Durnen; Durnen was an interloper who made the goblins hunt and steal for their colony.

### "And Even Though I Tried, It All Fell Apart" (1x4)

Golak told Harry that Durnen had killed the old goblin leader by cutting them in half and throwing them in a pit. In Golak's immortal words, Durnen was "a big, fighty guy." Durnen was with Grennel, the goblin matriarch of the colony, and he confirmed that he had indeed gotten the goblins to steal the dragon, Calcryx, for a ransom that the kobolds would never be able to pay. The party's first fight with Durnen initiated after Awk accused him of disturbing the balance of nature and he replied that was "very much [his] intention." Seizing the opportunity to wrest back control of her colony, Grennel joined the fray on the side of the party and together the alliance was able to kill the hobgoblin Durnen inhabited. Then Durnen became a red slither and went into another hobgoblin. On killing the second hobgoblin, the red slither emerged and flew down into the pit, toward the Grove.

### "When There's Nothing Left to Burn" (1x5)

In hot pursuit, the party followed Durnen into the pit and came across a variety of gardens and goblins tending the gardens. Talking with some, they learned Durnen and his skeletons had been forcing them to cultivate plants down here. Awk tried convincing a bugbear overseer that he was a druid inspecting the trees on Durnen's orders and got in a fight. When Harry claimed that we'd killed Durnen, the same bugbear laughed and said Durnen couldn't be killed, that he'd just be reborn via the tree. After the fight, Awk turned into a bear and raced ahead to the tree, where Durnen was waiting, this time wearing the body of a humanoid and raising the skeletons of the other defeated adventurers that had previously explored the citadel. Another fight ensued. When things turned bad, Durnen shifted into the tree and reemerged. He was not just a "big, fighty guy"; he had several spells at his disposal.

### "With You It's Never Good Enough" (1x6)

The fight continued. Durnen summoned the Danger Dagger from the tree and stabbed Awk with it. Eventually, the party was able to turn the tide of battle and defeat Durnen in this form. As he fell unconscious, his last words were "there are others, other conduits." While the party was busy looting and assessing damage, Awk tied Durnen's hands and healed him. Obviously this caused an uproar. Durnen laughed, simply repeated his last words, and then red-slithered away, leaving the body to disintegrate. On returning to Greenrest, Miriam confirmed that Durnen had indeed passed through the town years before, but that he had just been a traveler passing to the north.

### "And No Rivers and No Lakes Can Put the Fires Out" (1x10)

The party was surprised that M'Shel of the Lake Norka taak did not know about Durnen, despite knowing another red-eyed menace, a merman named Yuval. This was somewhat worrying to the party as it indicated that Durnen now had collaborators.

### "Nothing Can Fly With This Broken Wing" (1x11)

The showdown in Guara. When leading Quincy and his crew back to Janwald, the party encountered Durnen, Yuval, and an elf named Savas in the deserted town of Guara as they were loading supplies into a cart. Zeno attempted to distract Durnen while Helli and Set did reconnaissance and scoped out the cart. Naturally, this developed into a massive battle where things were looking very bad for the party. When the party was on the verge of running, the tides unexpectedly swung back in their favor when Awk pledged himself to a mysterious draconic entity and took on the form of a spectral dragon, routing Durnen and Team Red Eye. Thus, the party acquired the Sovereign Dungeoneering Cart.

### "They Were Right When They Said We Were Breathing Underwater" (1x12)

The party discovered a mess of tablets in the cart, emitting a faint magical aura. No one could read them.

### "Sometimes I Think of Letting Go and Never Looking Back" (1x13)

Zeno cast Comprehend Languages on himself and made a translation of all the tablet fragments in the party's possession. They spoke of six conduits, three of life and three of death. By linking the six together, one could wield massive power. This great power, the party surmised, was what Durnen was after. It also appeared to be what Awk's new patron was after as well.

### "Got a Sunset in My Veins" (1x14)

Francis revealed that he'd sold one of the tablets to Durnen, that he'd had a keen interest in them. Francis mentioned that in addition to the six conduit sites there was also a seventh place called a "locus" where "whatever was supposed to happen, would happen."

### "Trying to Hold on, Didn't Even Know" (1x26)

After the Nightscale fight, an exhausted party exited the Stone Tooth with the Aegis and was set upon by Zuul and his cohorts. The party initially brushed them off as opportunists, until Zuul's eyes burned red, exactly as Durnen's had. Unsure if this meant Zuul too was a member of Team Red-Eye or Durnen in a different form, the party fought for their survival until Felegum's dome kicked in.

### "It's So Much Easier to Run" (1x27)

Zuul stole the Sovereign Dungeoneering Cart (and its contents of tablets) back for Team Red-Eye.

### "I Fall Upon the Earth, I Call Upon the Air" (1x31)

The party shared with Letitia information about Durnen and his quest for the tablets. She mentioned that the Mage's Guild had several tablets in the library that we could look at (we did not, though Durnen might also come calling for these eventually). Csipherus being used as a death conduit, possibly exacerbating the creeping plague, has set Set even more against Durnen and his plans.