Rylarion

A powerful tiefling wizard and an integral member of the Bismarck Frontier Force. She joined the party on their way to Zingherra to help stop the Lords of Dust. She soon became the arcane specialist of the group, and one of the moral compasses of the party; helping them contend with the madness of the Lords of Dust and undead monstrosities of Saracen.

During their climatic fight against Father Llymic and Duristanan the Wyrmbreaker; Rylarion fell under the sway of a powerful curse of insanity and was dragged, by Klon'ix, through a portal to the Far Realm in pursuit of Duristanan.

## History

Rylarion's mother was a young barmaid named Martja who lived on  a village called Cracknell. Unfortunately for the village, and especially for Martja, local wisdom had quite forgotten *why* it was called Cracknell. Less than a mile away lay the Crack of Knell, a sometime portal to the infernal regions of the Nine Hells. Only occasionally did it open, but one sultry summer night it did and a band of fiends led by the cambion Stryggaldwyr breached the material plane.

Unprepared, Cracknell was wiped out, but poor Martja caught the especial attention of Stryggaldwyr and her ordeal for the next nine nights can only be imagined. Finally, the monster grew bored of her and, abandoning her bleeding and naked in the ashes of her village, led his band to wreak further havoc elsewhere before escaping back to the Hells.

Martja was very close to death when a party of tinkers and peddlars arrived at the scene. They took her with them and healed the hurts to her body; the damage to her soul was beyond them. A few weeks later they passed the Blue Wheel academy of magic and - having learned that Martja was pregnant - left her in the care of the kindly wizards there.

Nine months later Rylarion was born. The wizards, most of whom had become rather fond of their sad, quiet guest, had hoped that her child would give her something to live for - but when Martja laid eyes on her daughter's short horns, muscular tail and piercing clear red eyes, she withdrew utterly into herself. From that day forth she uttered no word and took no action for herself, simply sitting staring into space, her soul utterly crushed by the cruelty of her fate. The wizards managed to sustain her with magic until Rylarion was four years old. Then, without warning or any fuss, she died.

The tiefling girl grew rapidly, her dim memory of her mother and her growing awareness of her differentness a constant goad, making her abrupt and impatient and - as her mind developed - sarcastic. As she matured, her guardians realized that her mind was eminently suited for the arcane arts, and started her training in the Art Magic. Rylarion took to wizardry like a duck to water.

After three years' training, she had mastered her first basic spells and passed the initiation tests for the Blue Wheel. Traditionally, a young mage would go out into the world to experience the variety of its magics at that point, so one fine day Rylarion packed up her assorted possessions - including a most unwizardly sword, the use of which appeared to be a legacy from her father - and headed out into the World.

It was only three days later that she stopped for lunch and a refreshing ale at the inn in the small town of Water's Edge, only to have to take refuge in the cellar as a horde of orcs, ogres, giants and Gods only knew what all else descended on the town and began to take it to bits looking for some gems or a skull or something.

She was just contemplating making a break for it when a terrible battle erupted above and a party of the most incredibly mismatched individuals imaginable carved through the monsters with only a flattened bard to show for the experience.

*Perhaps,* thought Rylarion as she cautiously emerged and introduced herself, *in a group like this I won't be such a misfit...*

## Rylarion's End

In her moment of lucidity atop the Dome of Stone, it struck Rylarion that if she went through the portal, she could pursue and finish Duristanan in his weakened state, removing his threat forever from the world. However, the effects of the madness had spiked that plan, as her struggles to control her fractured mind were successful only once in a while, preventing her concentrating long enough to re-prepare her spells - most of which she has already cast.

She had seen the portal close, and knowing that her comrades have completed the most important part of the task - stopping monstrosities from the Far Realms escaping into the real world. That comforted her, even when curled into a ball weeping with terror while immersed in the place the horrors of which have caused her madness.

Her only hope was to have that madness cured, and she racked her brains as best she could for a solution within her available magic. Finally the answer comes, from one of Duristanan's own spellbooks, hiddden in her Bag of Holding; nestled next to the petrified statue of John the Bard. When her next moment of clarity came, she hoped to scroll-cast *Summon Monster IX* from that book, bringing a Leonal to her to which she would ask to use its' *Heal* spell-like ability on her.

If this succeeded, she planned to attempt to persuade Kholonik to help her pursue Duristanan and Klon'ix through the nightmares of the Far Realm in order to kill the rakshasa once ang for all.

It is undocumented whether she ever succeeded...