Balamer

Balamer was a male human wizard and NPC in the Om campaign.

Lord Balmar "the Blue" was an Orlesean noble and powerful wizard. He was aboard *La Flèche* when it did battle with the *Scourge* and during the Battle of Socortia and he participated in both battles. He was later at Stonewatch Abbey and was slain when the Royal Explorers captured it.

## History

Little is known about Lord Balamer's background save that he was an Orlesean noble and a powerful member of the Blue Wizards. He was part of the conspiracy to bring The Triad back to Om and was a contact of Felix Lapubelle. As a result he was searching for powerful Irda artifacts and any knowledge that could be found about them.

His quest for the artifacts was likely why he accompanied Luic Dargent, the Marquis de Provonce to his scheduled meeting with Silas Thatcher, the self professed king of the Brotherhood of the Coast in late Dragon of 465. The pirates of the Brotherhood had taken up residence on Socortia, and the island appeared to be replete with Irda artifacts and documents.

### **Battle with the *Scourge***

Luic Dargent, Marquis de Provonce had a scheduled meeting with Silas Thatcher to discuss an alliance between Orlesea and the Brotherhood of the Coast and Balamer accompanied. When their ship, *La Flèche,* met with Thatcher's flagship, the *Scourge*, Balamer did not go aboard.

Unbeknownst to everyone, the *Scourge* had been stolen by the Royal Explorers, agents of the Gildornian Crown, and three of them (Jasper Conroy, Leandra and Fynnhanar) were masquerading as the leaders of the Brotherhood to attempt to sabotage the alliance. Although Dargent did not pick up on the ruse his manservant, Jean-Paul, did and upon their return to *La Flèche* he informed everyone of this fact.

*La Flèche* promptly attacked the Scourge, and Balamer aided the ship with his magic. Unexpectedly, however one of the Gildornian agents, Fynn, was also a spell caster and the two traded spells during the battle. Eventually *La Flèche* took enough damage that it was forced to withdraw but Balamer, under the power of a *Fly* spell, remained and continued to attempt to blast the enemy ship. Eventually, however, his spell began to expire and he too was forced to withdraw.

### **The Battle of Socortia**

In spite of the efforts of the Royal Explorers the Orleseans were able to formalize an alliance with the Brotherhood of the Coast. A sizable Orlesean fleet arrived at Socortia and began to aid the Brotherhood to secure the island from the native inhabitants who opposed them.

However, it was not long before a Gildornian fleet arrived and claimed an alliance with the Umani people and attacked the Orlesean ships, catching them by surprise. Again on *La Flèche*, Balamer participated in the battle, using his magic to attack enemy ships. In spite of his efforts, however, several Orlesean ships were captured or sunk and the Orleseans and pirates were forced to withdraw, abandoning anyone still ashore.

### **At Stonewatch Abbey**

Balamer later went to Stonewatch Abbey where the bandit captain Goddard Brandik had taken up residence. Brandik's rogues had allied with Orlesea and a force of Orlesean solders were there to reinforce and train the bandits. Balamer was given space in the basement to conduct his research and experiments and ordered the others to leave him alone. From there he continued his research into Irda artifacts and lore.

However on the 1st of Twins, 465 the Abbey was attacked by the Royal Explorers. The Gildornian agents sneaked into the Abbey from the top of the tower and made their way halfway down before they were detected and holed up in the tower.

Balamer gathered with Brandik and five of his men as they tried to batter down the door to the tower. At that moment Noel Gorehammer and Jasper Conroy teleported in behind them and engaged them. They were soon joined by Fynnhanar and Opal as well. Balamer tried a number of tricks to defend himself, including raising Brandik's slain men as zombies and erecting a wall of fire that did as much damage to Brandik as it did the Explorers. The wall did not give the reprieve he'd hoped for though as Fynn, protected from flame magic, merely walked through it and Noel and Opal merely did not care about the damage they suffered as they followed.

Harried on all sides Balamer teleported to the basement to retrieve some of his vital belongings and make his escape through a secret exit. Unfortunately he found that during the battle Fernith had found his laboratory and was exploring it. She engaged him, but he effortlessly disarmed her, not bothering to waste any further time on her and recovering a magical orb he'd procured.

Balamer's arrogance in ignoring Fynn proved to be his undoing, as she began to shoot him with her bow, slowing him down just long enough for the other Royal Explorers to begin arriving. What followed was a running fight as one by one the Explores would arrive to attack Balamer, only to be knocked back or out of the fight by his magical. Still, the effect began to add up and eventually he was weakened enough that a massive *Fireball* from Fynn took him down as he tried to withdraw.

## After Death

After his body was killed, Balamer's consciousness went into the crystal ball he held. To his great delight, Fynn attempted to use the orb only hours after Balamer's death. He attempted to destroy Fynn's consciousness so that he could take over the sorcerer's body, effectively returning him to life. The two spell casters dueled within the orb in a grand test of wills. To Balamer's utter shock, Fynn proved slightly stronger and narrowly defeating him. With his defeat in the Orb Balamer was effectively slain a second time.

To intimidate the Orlesean and bandit soldiers who marched on the Abbey after it was taken, Noel Gorehammer threw Balamer and Brandik's heads at their feet to intimidate them into negotiating instead of talking. The ploy worked and most of the men negotiated a secession to hostilities.

Although the Fate Fighters did not know it at the time, Balamer was the only contact that Lapubelle and his master, Damien Shrike, had inside the Blue Wizards and so his death ended any sway that they had with the organization.

## On the Astral Plane

After his death (twice) Balamer ended up in Spire's Edge on the Astral Plane. He seemed to craft a pact with a group of Githyanki to steal souls, masquerading as demons to deflect blame from the authorities onto other demons in the city. Balamar managed to exist in a form that has half ghostly and half corporeal and he seemed to switch back and forth between the two.

Through coincidence, during the Fate Fighters time in the Astral Plane they were helping to find a missing individual named Philo, which led them to Balmar's new hideout. Eager for revenge, Balamer happily engaged the Fate Fighters in battle.