Merlin

Merlin, before the transformation

Following a mishap with wild magic, Merlin looks to be made out of glass

## Personality

Merlin is an introspective and quiet young man. A genius of the arcane arts, he is deeply curious about all things magical and puts his efforts into creating enchanted items. Often brashly overreaches in casting dangerous spells outside of his ability to fully control.

## Backstory

Found abandoned in the forest as an infant by his foster mother Mimi Boffin, he was raised in the secret halfling village Daggerdare. Though appearing as a normal human child, it became apparent to the townsfolk that everything was not as it seemed. He grew at a fraction of the speed that a human should, and was remarkably mischievous. Given his unknown heritage, the townspeople suspected infernal influence. Reading the situation, Mimi and Merlin moved away and started an inn between Aramore and Koden Kal - away from prying townspeople.

Helping run Mimi's Haberdashery, Merlin traded and stole for as much magical books, knowledge, and items that he could get away with. One day, a certain party of adventurers rented a night at the inn. After a particularly generous tip, he had met his fundraising goals and decided it was time to move to Koden Kal city and enroll in the magical school at the Temple of Nethys. He tagged along with the adventurers on their way there.

## Story

### Daggerdare and the Dream Temple

When this group of adventurers (Valtyr, Raelith, Argus, Walton) returned from their latest mission, he had heard troubling news - a werewolf attack in the area of the hidden village of Daggerdare. Though he dare not reveal the location to the authorities, he knew he could trust this group to help - discreetly.

On the journey to Daggerdare, he found that his grandmother had been killed and 'possessed' by a Wolf-in-Sheep's-Clothing. After putting down the alien menace, he inherited her heirloom dagger.

The group investigated the town and found that, in fact, they harbored a large population of native-born werewolf halflings. The attacks were coming from a werewolf outside their pack! Staking out the night, the group successfully defended the town against undead spirits. However the real menace was still out there.

That night while they slept, the group was transported into a dream world temple. In order to get out, they had to Go Deeper. Merlin put himself to sleep while his friends protected his body. Within his own dream, he enchanted his grandmother's dagger to become the mythical **Knife of Dreams**. Using its powers, he cut a scar in through the Veil of Elysium to return back to the waking world, bringing the dream weapon into reality.

The group followed a leyline of mana back to a concealed temple and found that elves were performing some kind of dream-related ritual. In the process of disrupting the ritual, they killed Mordred, the werewolf elf who had been terrorizing the halfling village. However they retreated at the sound of his reinforcements. As a result of a wild magic surge, Valtyr's horse transformed into a chocobo-like giant chicken. He renamed it Swordbeak and rode it back home. On the way to Koden Kal, the party helped him acquire a water elemental familiar Archimedes by briefly opening a portal to the Elemental Plane of Water.

After some downtime studying at the Temple of Nethys, he worked on enchanting as many items as he could afford, and created the "rocky talkies" - Earrings of Message. He also created the Mirror of Arcane Heritage for Valtyr, which reveals the lineage of whoever holds it. Gazing into the mirror with horror, he learned his true ancestry - his mother was a human, and his father was an incubus.

### The World that Never Was

The group soon asked his expertise on a mission to the Mana Wastes to rescue the researcher Valkan, who had been researching the wild magic in the area. When they got to the research site, they found that Valkan had been trapped in the ethereal plane, anchored to a willow tree. Merlin quickly used the Knife of Dreams to cut a portal to the ethereal plane, with his companions Aldia and Fajar using their magic to hold his end of the portal open. Through the other side, he found Valkan. As soon as he entered the portal, a wild magic surge blasted through the area and his portal was closed - but not before it swallowed up Valtyr's mount Swordbeak. Merlin panicked and opened a portal back to the material plane. He heard confirmation from his party that it was correct and he jumped through it with Valkan and Swordbeak. His party had given him no such confirmation.

Merlin found himself in an alternate reality, in a timeline where an army of Dragonborn had ravaged the land and held dominion over Ragnoth. He managed to escape capture but was injured in the process. Merlin set out to find the best healer he knew - Walton Foster. He traveled back to Koden Kal and found a Walton not unlike the one he knew before, but this one was not a cleric, he was a paladin. Merlin convinced Walton to help him search for a way back to his reality, and they would go there - the reality where Walton's family and loved ones were still alive.

The trio found searched and researched for months before finding hints of a book that could link between dimensions. They quickly set out to steal it. Under the nose of a demon-possessed Elven king, they snatched up the **Atlas of the Infinite Planes**. In the chase afterwards, their mount Swordbeak was slain by the king's pursuers.

Merlin used necromancy to give the bird a new purpose. He replaced its upper torso with a small closet space, like an outhouse, and with Valkan's dimensional expertise they enchanted the closet to be bigger on the inside. He bound magic of the Atlas of the Infinite Planes into its walls and turned it into a vessel that they would travel safely between planes in.

Confident in their new vessel, they set off to teleport back to the reality Merlin and Valkan came from, which landed them nowhere near it. Instead they arrived in the Harrowed Realm.

### The Chamber of Excalibur

After a year had passed since Merlin's first portal mishap, he managed to successfully come back to his home plane. Upon arrival, he found that it was not a year for them, but mere minutes. Additionally, his old party was not so keen about the new person he brought - this world already has a Walton Foster.

Valkan, now reunited with his college lover Osvuld, told the group of how he was sent to the Ethereal Plane to begin with, and they decided to investigate the researchers at Mapplepeak Village. With the papers they stole, they found the coordinates on where to create a portal that would bypass the majority of protections placed upon the ancient artifact **Excalibur**, hidden under the Lake of Avalon. They also learned that the ones to commission this research was the evil Vaeria Coven. The group agreed that they should make sure it was still protected, and Merlin teleported them to the coordinates.

After killing a medusa and solving a series of traps and riddles, they came into a cathedral-like structure under the lake that contained the Sword in the Stone. Before they could reach it, they were confronted by Envyre Vaeria, who gave them no time to talk. The party quickly cut down Envyre and her posse, then began to loot the bodies. As they did so, Valtyr walked closer and closer to the sword - at his own sword's prodding.

Valtyr had become possessed by his blade, the **Sword of Phontaine**. The spirit within his sword attacked Excalibur and damaged it before the party could stop it. In an effort to protect Excalibur, Walton pulled it out of the stone pedestal. As their efforts to get Valtyr under control failed, Fajar made the hardest choice. He threw a fireball at his friend and killed him in a fiery explosion.

With the sword drawn from its pedestal, the chamber's magic had become broken and it began to fill with the water of the lake. Merlin teleported them back out just as the water crashed into the room.

After speaking with Moriarty, his cohort Irene Adler, and Galahad, they found that the **Sword of Phontaine** was in fact the phylactery of a lich, the ancient Godking Roygaris Ursuul. And by taking it out of its chamber, the Godking's army of kruul had become unsealed.

### The Vaults of Tartarus

Following the disaster of what happened in the Chamber of Excalibur, Merlin went back to Mimi's Haberdashery to collect himself and to drop off the tiefling slave children that they had taken from Envyre after defeating her. Upon returning to Koden Kal, he rejoined the group of adventurers in their meeting with the King of Koden Kal, where they were commanded to retrieve **Iures, the Staff of Law** from where it had been taken - Hell itself. Merlin used scrying magic to locate the staff, which had been taken to the infernal city Tartarus.

Valtyr had unwittingly taken Iures in the Lake of Avalon and put it in his bag of holding, which was given to him by the Bank of Abaddon. Since he did not name a next of kin before dying, the contents of his bag had defaulted to the bank, which had relocated its contents to a vault in the first layer of Hell.

The party was accompanied by **Elyon Vaeria**, who was commanded by the King alongside them to retrieve Iures. They made their preparations and Merlin used Housebeak to planeshift into the plane of Abaddon. Using invisibility spells gifted by the King and the Archmage of Koden Kal, they snuck their way into the city of Tartarus and into the vault. They successfully reached the deepest part of the vault undetected, until they found what they were looking for. The keeper of the vault had Iures in its possession.

In the ensuing battle, Merlin was blasted with Chain Lightning and fell unconscious. He was healed back to conscious by his friends, but then took the full force of a Horrid Wilting spell. He fell to the ground, desiccated and dead.

He would not stay down for long. Moments later, Fajar breathed life back into his body and the group finished destroying the devils in the chamber. Successfully retrieving Iures, Merlin teleported the group back to Housebeak just as reinforcements arrived.

### Breaking Contracts

Having secured the Staff of Law, the party decides to tackle two more errands: to kill the devils that hold contracts over Elyon and Aldia. This involves summoning the devils while in Hell and destroying them.

Merlin barters a deal with the party - that in return for bringing them to and from Hell once again, they must free every halfling slave that is up for auction in the city.

They return to Dis and Elyon summons Baselius, the Herald of Asmodeus. They ambush the devil and it is revealed that Baselius is Elyon's father. Jeremiah deals the final blow to the Herald and the party takes its crown, an artifact called To Reign in Hell. However, the contract upon Elyon is written into his very skin, and in the moments as Baselius disintegrates, Walton stabs Elyon in the stomach with Excalibur, which dispels it from him. Aldia collapses, as attacking Elyon had activated her contract with the Vaerias.

After nursing Aldia back to the health, Merlin takes the party to a different place in Hell, this time surrounded by deep cliffs. Elyon summons the devil that Aldia's ancestor first made a deal with using the Staff of Law, and commands it to present her infernal contract. It refuses, as Elyon does not have authority over it. He demands that they give him the crown from Baselius, which Merlin had hidden. With approval from Walton and Fajar, Merlin places the crown on his head, which fuses onto his skull. Now empowered, Elyon forces the devil to present Aldia's contract and they destroy them both.

### Champions of the Nations

Succeeding in retrieving the Staff of Law from hell, the king of Koden Kal commissioned sculptures and portraits of the party to commemorate their achievement. Merlin and Fajar are called in for a second round to pose for when Fajar brought Merlin back to life.

After examining the Staff of Law, they determine that its user has to have a certain amount of authority upon the people and regions of Ragnoth in order to use it to seal away the Kruul once again. Elyon and Walton are named as the champions of Koden Kal, representing the Human race. They decide that Elyon would be the champion of the Elves and Centaur, and Walton would be the champion of the Dragonborn and the Dwarves.

Aldia hosts a dinner party where her whole family attends. Merlin falls to the advances of her brother Mourne.

The party receives a summons from His Supreme Draconic Majesty Au Tianlong and are teleported to the Forbidden City in Draconia. They undertake his trial - to find the Mantle of Draconia within his vast horde and to take it (and nothing else!). The party defeats the beholder guarding the door and enter the vault. Among these treasure-filled halls they hear a cry for help and are lured into a cavernous room. There is a beautiful but suspicious woman named Sierra chained to a pillar, who leaves to see where the "monster" of the chamber went. They are attacked by a brass dragon. However, they see through the test and Walton defeats it in a battle of puns. The woman returns and tells them where the Mantle is. They arrive in the labyrinth naked and without any equipment, though Osvuld's keen eye gets them through without setting off many traps. After successfully returning from the labyrinth, the ruler of Draconia gives the party various gifts. Merlin receives a Lyre of Building.

Sierra invites them to see her later and they stop by the Catspaw Inn on the way back to Koden Kal. It is run by talking cats and has a large series of hot springs. They meet with Wally, the version of Walton who was originally from this world. The woman they "rescued" arrives with friends, Shaya and Remine. Merlin spends the night with the human-seeming Remine and they return to Koden Kal the next morning.

Merlin talks with Aldia and Osvuld, and determines that he'll need a place to put the slaves once they are freed. They decide to start a new village, but will need permission from the King to create it. With help from Walton and Aldia, Merlin negotiates with the King that he will be raised into the nobility and given land as a reward if they are successful in defeating the Kruul.

They meet with Ambassador Blackhammer from the Dwarven Kingdoms, who takes them to see the three Kings Under the Mountains. The undergo the trial of the proving grounds, which culminates in slaying a turkey-headed hydra.

### Prophecies and Balance

Fajar decides that they must have greater insight into the prophecies that foretold the coming of the Kruul, so he takes Merlin and Galahad to meet with Galahad's mother, Elaine of Corbenic. They learn more prophecies- particularly "A new god ascends" and "King of Witches Takes His Crown".

After finding that Elyon has succeeded in gaining the favor of the Elves and the Centaur, and intends to become the champion of the Orcs as well, Walton decides to become the champion of the Halflings and Tieflings to keep things even. Merlin and Walton go to Merlin's hometown of Daggerdare to ask the mayor about how to contact the leader of the Bluebell Society, who they assume would suffice. Following his advice, they meet with the halfling Roslyn in Koden Kal, who sets up a meeting with the leader of the halfling resistance in Koden Kal, The Shadow. Merlin witnesses Walton swear to free every single slave in Koden Kal to become the Champion of the Underdeimos.

## Relationships

**Walton Foster** - Best friend, like a brother

**Valkan** - Co-creator of Housebeak. He respects Valkan for his expertise in transdimensional matters.

Raelith -

Aldia -

Maka -

Osvuld -

Princess Anastasia -

## Goals

Free the slaves and create a safe place for them.