Emrys Valerian

Emrys Valerian, shortly before his introduction to the party

The Demon of the Well

Emrys Valerian was born to a line of Dragonslayers who were apart of King Prierven Enemar's Valanar Brigade. Raised by his parents and comrades in arms in a ruthless martial society to be a competent and unparalelled warrior, capable of fighting dragons. By the time Emrys was born during the reign of King Melandrach, the dragons had been thought extinct for over a millennia, this meant that while Emrys had some of the most extensive training in fighting dragons amongst elvenkind, it was unproven and untested. The Valanar Brigade would end up becoming a ceremonial honour guard as the Brigade was highly valued, but served little purpose in the present time. Emrys felt that this ceremonial stature was a waste of his ability and skills, his belief in his abilities often exceeded that of his actual prowess, this aswell as the fact that he believed the Elves were the driving force in the first war, would often lead him to look down on what he counted as the "lesser races". This stemmed also from a deep resentment over the fact that he was never allowed to prove himself as a warrior in battle.

### Early life and the Valanar Brigade

As a young elf, Emrys was often considered the most promising of the younger members of the Brigade. This gave him a great belief in his ability to the point where he felt superior to all his peers. Emrys grew up with stories about the Dracorage and the First war, often admiring how the Valanar Brigade was depicted in the stories and legends. Emrys was captivated by the thought of fighting and meeting a dragon in battle, proving himself worthy of the heritage of the Valanar Brigade would become one of his highest ideals from a young age.

The Valanar Brigade existed from the First war and onwards to this day. The Brigade was founded as an elite force of specially trained dragonhunters and were renowned for their prowess. The standards of the brigade has fallen over the millennia as there has been a shortage of dragons to hunt and dragonslayers to teach the art. Emrys however lived with the notion that fighting a dragon would be glorious, honourable and that he would be well suited to it. Little did he know that he would later in his life be humbled greatly by one in a damp cave.

#### The Young Brigadier Cuirassier

Emrys rose high into the Brigade and was named Brigadier Cuirassier by King Melandrach in a lavish ceremony befitting the ceremonial honour guard the brigade had become, he was filled with pride and swore undying fealty to the King as part of his office. At this time a young Emrys Valerian caught the eye of a beautiful Elven girl who had admired him from afar, this turned out to be the lovely Lady Melaria Thorys, the daugther of a minor noble. Emrys was smitten and fell madly in love. A short courtship turned to marriage and the two wed at the tender age of forty seven.The young Elf felt a true bond to his wife and loved her deeply, If anything could make Emrys shrink from his duty, it would be his wife.

#### The Resentment

As the years rolled by, Emrys became more negative towards other races. He was engulfed in how the history of his beloved Valanar Brigade was depicted, this meant that Emrys became obsessed over Elven superiority. He felt that the other races had failed the Elves in their time of need and that the Dracorage was needed to quench the dragons. As his position in the Valanar Brigade was purely ceremonial, he felt his abilities wasting away as the years went by. Emrys wanted to prove that he was a true Valerian by fighting for his King. His ceremonial duties meant that most of his time went to matters of court. He began to resent the fact that the Valanar Brigade did not get the honour and glory it deserved. It deepened his resentment of the "lesser races" whicch meant that the other peoples and races had to prove themselves to him before they could be trusted.

### The Dragons return and the meeting of the party

One day a party of adventurers were imprisoned in Elven Lands under King Melandrach. The Dragons had returned and an eager Emrys was ready to charge into battle with the Dragon Cult, but he was ordered by King Melandrach to free and accompany these prisoners, much to his own initial dismay. Emrys felt that he had been given a babysitting mission while his beloved Valanar Brigade was being reinstated and readied for the war to come, little did he know that this assignment would be the greatest feat of heroics he would ever endeavour. The Party at this point had already had its fair share of adventures, Emrys was resentful and not pleased on becoming a glorified dignitary, but he would follow his Kings order and serve in his own way.

#### The Dragonslayer meets the Dragon.

The Party had been given an assignment from the council to hunt down one of the speakers of the dragon cult. This involved infiltrating a cavernous hideout that held countless dangers and Emrys' first encounter with an actual dragon. An event that would forever humble him in the fight against the Dragon Cult. The party found themselves fighting the Green Dragon Chuth and it's rider, the king's son Eronbain, in an attempt to capture the rider alive. This fight would end in a long series of unfortunate events that led Emrys and his wounded party member Sylas in a dark and damp cave. It was here they came face to face with the dragon, with Sylas being close to death, Emrys tried to surrender to the dragon in hopes to save Sylas' life. The Dragon looked him in the eyes and laughed, snapping its jaws around him, biting down and sending him flying several feet into a pool of living plants to drown.

As the dragon was readying to kill Sylas, the Dragon as well as its rider seemingly vanished into thin air, revealing Duon had banished them both to an unknown plane. Emrys managed to make it to shore and force his way towards his party members. At this moment, Duon's true nature would reveal itself. A Sword was placed into solid stone and spoke to the party, revealing that unless a sacrifice was made, the entity that lived inside Duon's sword would reverse the banishment and bring the Dragon and its Rider back to the cavern, something that would most certainly mean death for them all. Emrys would then feel a great shame over having tried to surrender to the dragon and the fact that he was not ready to face the legendary enemy of his people. Emrys volunteered to give his life to the sword to make sure the Dragon stayed in the unknown planes. As he stepped up towards the Sword an armoured figure appeared from the sword, becoming a towering figure of frightening stature, but Emrys was steadfast. Duon leapt to tackle the armoured figure, unsuccesfully. The Figure turned, swung the sword and took Duon's head clean off and disappeared. Emrys felt cheated of his sacrifice and felt great shame over the fact that he was relieved to be alive.

### Xonthal's Tower

The Party was sent to find a Dragon Cult defector in Xonthal's Tower, little did they all know that it was guarded by a magical maze and devious traps. Emrys was accompanied by his party members Tazgar and Sylas, they managed to enter and solve the Maze Puzzles and enter the tower.

Once inside the tower, the party was met with a corpse, after some examination they realised that it had been stabbed to death with a dragons tooth. This room had two balconies with teleportation devices on them, after some time, they managed to find a way to activate them, with a control panel, with symbols on it. Emrys was eager to try out these symbols and pressed a star symbol, after a shimmer of green, he stepped on the Teleportation circle and vanished.

Emrys found himself in a grand observatory, with a massive telescope, rows of books and a balcony to the side, being eager to tell these news to the party he turned only to find the same set of controls with the same set of symbols. He quickly deduced that the Star would mean Observatory, but he had no clue as to what the other symbols meant, or even which would lead him back to his party members.

Emrys noticed an hourglass symbol and pressed it, suprised of the fact that it did not work. He then decided to press the Chairs symbol, he pressed it and vanished, appearing infront of his party members. After sharing his news and after a bit of debate, the party decided to go on to the observatory.

Arriving at the observatory, the party started rumaging around and searching for clues as to find the mysterious defector and the reported mask he was holding. Little did they know that they should have checked the balcony. after some time of searching, they were ambushed and an intense fight ensued with a few dragon cult mages, ending in Emrys being severely wounded. On the corpses of their foes, the party found an hourglass, they then theorized that it might be the key to open the hourglass symbol on the controls and thus they decided to test their theory.

#### The Creature

The party had tested their theory of the hourglass and found themselves on another floor of the tower, spotting three bodies on the floor, one with stab wounds much like the first they encountered and the rest having been killed by magical means. A trail of blood led the party into what seemed to be a study, most likely Xonthal's.

The Study was guarded by three seemingly inactive elementals, one being of fire, one of stone and one of earth. At Sylas behest, the party decided to sneak past and avoid awakening them. Sylas managed to sneak past, but Tazgar and Emrys, being clad in noisy armour, did not. The Elementals sprung to life and attacked the party.

This fight would prove to be tough for the party as Tazgar and Emrys were both wounded in the last fight, the fire elemental lit Emrys on fire, despite Sylas' demands for them to run, Emrys and Tazgar thought they could take these on. Emrys became badly wounded again, on his last breath he was about to be smashed by the Stone Elemental, but Tazgar deflected the blow and told him to run. Emrys fled to where Sylas was standing and Sylas put out the flames.

Tazgar fought heroically and tried to fend them off while he retreated towards Emrys and Sylas, only to be caught by the elementals, Tazgar was smashed to the ground and Tazgar lit up his pipe for the last time, lighting it with the very fire that was engulfing him, taking one last puff and was mangled. The Elementals went back to their inactive positions. Emrys was horrified of what had just transpired and fled further down a corridor, leading to a bridge over endless space. Sylas snuck back to tazgars body, leaving a shortsword in respect.

Sylas went across the bridge and found Emrys quite badly wounded, limping and breathing heavily. They both went further along a corridor, discovering a new room, with a red humanoid looking creature inside a circle of salt, sitting at a chessboard. Sylas spoke to the creature and much to Emrys' disapproval, freed the creature.

Emrys and Sylas then followed the creature back to the bridge, Emrys stopped at the entrance of the bridge while Sylas followed to the middle. The Creature stood at the middle with Sylas and tried to grab him, but SYlas teleported behind and Emrys fired off his arrows into the Creature. Sylas desperately treid to make Emrys flee while he fought the creature, Emrys did not flee. Emrys had just lost another companion who sacrificed themselves for him, he was not going to let Sylas be the Third.

Sylas fought nobly and Emrys provided ranged support with arrows, but the Creature slashed and beat Sylas down, Emrys sent a last desperate volley of arrows as the Creature turned towards him and ran at him. Emrys dropped his bow and readied his double edged sword, slashing at the Creature as it came at him. The Creature laughed at Emrys and grabbed him, pulling him off his feet, throwing Emrys aswell as his sword down the endless chasm of space. as Emrys fell and fell for what seemed an eternity, his last thoughts went to his wife Melaria...

### The Elemental Plane of Fire

Emrys slammed into the ground of a hot and uncomfortable location, felt the ground burn his skin and woke to the visage of an Efreeti. Emrys was taken to the Brass City and enslaved, kept as a worker in the mines. Emrys stoically mined and refused to be broken by the ordeal. Emrys spent several weeks mining a powder with explosive properties. A Female Dwarf with the name Yari Underfury took contact, they devised a plan for escape by pocketing some of the powder each time they mined. Eventually they managed to pull off an escape by throwing themselves out into a canal of lava, wrapped in a fire-resisting cloak.

   They fell and flowed down the canal and down a lavafall, eventually reaching a shore of the lake, having escaped the city, Emrys took a look back and saw a black figure jumpinbg down the lavafall. Emrys and Yari decided to run in fear of being pursued by their captors.

They made it to a set of ruins, where Emrys found a set of Efreeti Chainmail, which he equipped along with a spear in two pieces which had to be screwed together. Yari also found equipment for herself, but was possessed by a mysterious entity. Yari proceeded to attack Emrys, defending himself he stabbed her quite a few times, leading to the entity leaving Yari and Emrys battled the entity, vanquishing it.

Emrys tried to save Yari and carried her up a mountain where Yari had mentioned a cave which supposedly had a portal to escape the plane of fire. Emrys had to carry Yari while climbing and Emrys had become accustomed to hardship over the course of the weeks he had spent in slavery and managed to keep going.

Emrys with Yari on his back made it to the entrance of a cave, while looking back on the rock expanse he spotted a few figures and a flash of red, he then feared that their captors were onto them and headed into the cave with Yari. Emrys saw a stoneface that blocked their passage deeper into the cave, he sat Yuri down against a wall and as he was about to see to Yari's wounds a strange figure entered the cave. Emrys feared this figure might have been sent by his captors and was on guard but asked him who the character was.

The Mysterious figure was not forthcoming but seemed to indicate that he knew Emrys. Still wary, Emrys decides to trust the character. The Stranger read the inscriptions of the stoneface and concluded that he must wield fire and blood to enter. The Stoneface revolved into the side of the cavern and Emrys helped Yari into a chamber with an Efreeti Statue holding a savage spear. Emrys and the stranger tried to figure out how to active the round stone portal and concluded that they had to use bloodmagic.

Emrys was conflicted, but suggested that they sacrifice Yari as she was so severely hurt that she might not have made it out alive anyway, this resulted in a strike in the face from the stranger. Yari overheard and volunteered to be sacrificed. Emrys had seen his error of trying to sacrifice her and his thoughts went back to Duon, Tazgar and Sylas, who had all sacrificed themselves for him and suggested that Yari did not have to. Yari insisted and Emrys asked her what her full name was, Yari said "Yari Underfury of Silverhind". Emrys and the stranger reluctantly agree to sacrifice her. Emrys said "Yari Underfury, thank you for your sacrifice" and made the killing blow with the stone savage spear, opening the portal.

Emrys laid Yari's cloak upon her and as a gesture of respect both towards Yari and Sylas, he placed her axe in her hands beneath the cloak and said "Yari Underfury, we thank you for your sacrifice, may you rest in peace." The Stranger nods in respect to Emrys and they step into the portal.

###

### The Blackrazor

After the events in the Fireplane, Emrys regrouped with the council and met some new companions. After being away for a while, the council had arranged to have some new heroes to pick up where the last one died out. During a lenghty search for the armaments of heaven, the party cam upon a cave beneath the ocean in the Adingard bay, where they happened upon a cavernous system, solving puzzles. At some point they managed to enter the Tomb of Wulf Rudd, where they discovered a Demon named Zarnamag who watched over the tomb.

The party discovered that Zarnamag was stranded, fighting the soul of Darnon Karvius over the Soul of Wulf. In the Tomb, Ahriz claimed an armament of heaven which manifested into a staff of great power. Zarnamag offered a deal to the party, in exchange for disturbing the bones of Wulf, which would shift the balance of the millenial battle between him and Darnon, they would recieve another armament, but imbued with the power of Zarnamag.

Emrys made the difficult choice and accepted the deal, he disturbed the bones and Zarnamag rejoiced, turning into Blackrazor. Blackrazor would speak to Emrys as Emrys would kill enemies and absorb their souls with the power of the Sword. Ahriz swore an oath to kill Emrys should he survive the battle against Tiamat.

Returning to the council, the party recieved a mission to travel to Thay to secure mages to the assault on the Well of Dragons. This mission would prove to become more complicated than first imagined. The Party were teleported to Thay only to discover that the Red Wizards had an ulterior motive. They would torture the party in their dreams, leaving Heranis practically braindead. The party was tasked with slaying a Demon Lord beneath Thay after Emrys let slip that his sword was capable of consuming souls.

The Battle against the Demon lord proved to be a difficult one, but the party emerged victorious and Emrys slayed the Demon, fueling his sword, much to Zarnamag's delight. They secured the support of the Red Wizards and prepared to assault the Well of Dragons.

### The Well of Dragons

The Battle of the Well was a massive battle that involved a staggering two to three million people, all fighting to either doom the world to Tiamat's reign or save it. The Party and their allies assaulted the Well of Dragons, managing to cut a path through the hordes of cultists and mercenaries. eventually finding a way inside.

Inside the party came upon a Drake, they freed prisoners and fought Ahriz's brother, only to find themselves inside the temple of Tiamat, with mages performing the unholy ritual that would see Tiamat return from the Nine Hells.

After trying to distrupt the ritual by striking the mages performing it, the Party also flung Severin, the head of the Dragon Cult into the hellgate, the Party discovered that the Ritual was not easilly disrupted. Tiamat clawed her way out of the portal and returned from the Nine Hells with a terrible fury.

After a lethal battle that claimed the life of Pietr, the party managed to defeat Tiamat at the last second, Emrys made the killing blow and cut off the heads of Tiamat and absorbed her soul. As the temple started to crumble, the party was faced with Emrys growing demonic wings. Ahriz and Emrys locked eyes and Ahriz saw the good in Emrys' eyes disappear as his eyes turned black. Emrys unfolded his demonic wings and flew out of the temple, leaving the Party to fend for themselves. The Party escaped the Temple of Tiamat, but Emrys was nowhere to be seen.

### Aftermath

The Quest to defeat Tiamat would forever change Emrys from an arrogant and cocky young man to something quite different. His losses and his defeats through the events that transpired would break Emrys and rebuild him into a very different man than the one who joined the party so long ago.

Emrys had seen his comrades been slayed and broken before his eyes, while he was helpless to intervene, he had been enslaved and seen horrors of which he could not stop. Emrys was tormented by the comrades he could not save and humbled by the very creatures he had trained his entire life to slay. Emrys would during the cource of the quest end up to become haunted by this and it culminated in his deal with Zarnamag, which would forever change the course of his life.