Barl

"*He's a wise sage, a beacon of wisdom, and doesn't like to get his hands dirty. Every interaction with him is always a highlight and always hope it's a priority to see him when we visit Calnlian. RP wise aside, everything in my personal meta view is amazing with Barl. He has his obvious pros as a character and a great number of cons to balance them making him a well rounded NPC in the universe for being introduced randomly as a adlib NPC one session" - Dustin Sochacki*

"*Would you like some tea?" - Brandon Camden, quoting the moment Barl offered Gormastyl membership into the Cartographers Guild and would've killed him if he declined.*

An uncanny wizard which throughout his life has studied all the arts and schools of magic. Barl was considered more than just a bookworm as he would take his material into the field and practice by spellcasting dummy targets. He put himself into some trouble during his early adulthood by delving into highly combustible spells until he was able to master them. Early in his life, he joined the *Mages Guild* and served them with lively enthusiasm. He also sometimes went by the alias of *Tharod* when exploring areas of society where he felt the need to hide his true identity. The guild master became his personal mentor and taught Barl how to perform one of the most secret arts of Divination magic; to walk within the *Fade*. The process took Barl a very long time to learn, but eventually became a master at fade walking as he grew older. During his time as an apprentice, Barl undertook many pilgrimages and trials that enabled him to gain an immense amount of knowledge of various creatures, locations, and relics in the world. Eventually, his mentor passed away and the guild members nominated Barl to take his place due to his supreme expertise in all of the arcane arts. Barl gladfully succeeded his mentor and served his life as the new head of the Mages Guild. As the head, Barl had many extravagant encounters with all manners of challenges and even was involved in some small dealings with *Elder Dragon Rider Merek Uhmil* and *Elder Dragon Rider Dwight Jackson*. A few years into his new position he was recruited by the *Cartographers Guild* and used his fade walking powers to record geography safely where others couldn’t.

Barl has encountered many player characters as head of the mages guild, but is mostly fond of *Ealrith* and *Gormastyl* since they joined the guild. Barl was originally seen while fade walking and Ealrith met the “indisposed” version of Barl as his real mental state was too far away from his physical state in the Fade at the time. This caused some very comical interactions between Barl and Ealrith because of Barl’s constant need to calibrate his artifact within his ear to transfer speech to his fade self. Players learned that Barl was the best enchanter in Calnlian and would go to him for item enchantments when they could afford them.

Eventually, Barl had fade walked too far away from his physical form and became lost in the Fade. This caused Barl’s physical form to undergo seizure-like behavior and caused concern for all in the Mages Guild. *Henou and Teth* came to the guild to assist Barl as they had a close relationship before Barl was head of the guild. After Ealrith died and caused a magical explosion leaving behind the Soul Gem of Evocation in the Fade, Barl was able to use the anomaly to guide his way back home while collecting the gem and Ealrith’s body along the way. After returning to his physical form, he materialized the Soul Gem but was unable to materialize Ealrith’s body. He quickly summoned the assistance of Merek instead of Dwight in fear of Dwight’s reaction. Barl bestowed the gem to Merek after helping plan for Gormastyl to assist *Chokoff* in *Thamtaruhm* during the 4th Contest of *DhuKhan*.

Barl was charged with an assignment to investigate the events that caused the *Elemental Incursion* by King *Cailu Calnlian*. Barl fade walked to the portal’s location for safety before going in person. Upon arrival he was able to see the regional devastation, but he only saw a massive black silhouette where the portal stood and couldn’t understand what the object was at the time. After returning to his physical form, he enlisted the help of Chokoff, Gormastyl, and *Ser Ravyn* to accompany him on venturing to the mysterious object. During the adventure, the party encountered hill trolls, the gnomes of *Canthrall*, witnessed the devastation of the region and *Varhilt*, and encountered *The Druids 3* upon arriving at the portal to the *Elemental Dominion*. Barl teleported the party back to Calnlian during their battle with the Druids 3 as they were overpowered. Shortly after returning to Calnlian, Cailu talked with Barl regarding the arcane study division of the new coming order, the *Dragon Inquisition*. Barl suggested an experienced wizard he met in one of his pilgrimages named Agoros to head the division.

Before Gormastyl left for a quest with *Elder Dragon Zurrath*, Barl invited Gormastyl into his private study to have a secret discussion. Barl inquired on Gormastyl’s interest of recovering the world from its losses due to the *Dark Age*. With Gormastyl interested, Barl offered him membership in the Cartographer's Guild. Gormastyl accepted and Barl inducted him into the guild. However, Barl intended to kill Gormastyl if he declined by poisoning him. Barl had a hunch that Gormastyl would accept due to Gormastyl’s natural curiosity for knowledge.

With the assistance of Gormastyl, *Zavidur Ugadesh* requested Barl’s aid in exchange for Zavidur helping Gormastyl go along with Zurrath’s quest. Zavidur asked Barl to locate the orc warlord, *Zeezack*, who he had been hunting for a long time. Zavidur gave Barl a meager amount of material in order to track Zeezack which Barl later successfully performed a divination ritual to find his general location. However, he could only tell Zavidur that Zeezack was located in the *Gulrag Peninsula* region due to lack of material. At the same time, Barl was informed of Gormastyl’s death which he shed a moderate amount of grief after Ser Ravyn gave Barl some of Gormastyl’s books. Two books were very notable as one was the book from the Cartographer’s Guild and the other was the book containing *Galidrael*. Barl attempts to purge Galidrael once discovering his presence, but is rebuked by *Xezmon* after he comes to rescue his “servant”.

During a period of downtime, Barl suddenly had a premonition in his dreams that depicted the apocalyptic events of *Tiamat’s* summoning in *Therinox*. Barl reached out to Merek, but *Elder Dragon Rider Lilith Marrow* responded in his stead. Barl explained his visions to Lilith who in turn explained that they aligned with the divination of *Elder Dragon Rider Kaiden Armov* who described similar events to the riders. Barl suggested to Lilith that they involve the Dragon Inquisition to aid in preventing Tiamat’s summoning to which they both arrived at the inquisition’s fortress shortly after. Barl and Lilith described what they learned to *Aedan* and the dragon inquisition council where all parties adjourned with ideals aligned to thwart the summoning of Tiamat.

Barl was encroached one day by *Faeynala*, *Talon* and *Zikore Raug* who Zikore and Barl had a heartfelt reunion. Barl jested and ask for their forgiveness for his rather terribly exhausted state as he explains he’s recently been in the Fade for two days without rest. Zikore regales Barl with his recent journeys. Barl then asks the group if they’d help him fetch some ingredients for a special poison recipe which they oblige. Barl sends the group off with a list and instructs them to seek out *Kahl-El* in *Durgrax* for more information.

Zikore Raug came to Barl while toiling in Calnlian to inquire about scrying for the location of *Darius Leopold* or *Lucian*. Barl admitted that tracking them would prove difficult due to Darius being a vampire. After some time, Barl met with Zikore and his companions discreetly to suggest that they may find information on Darius' whereabouts in the *Shadowfell*. Barl has also been invited to partake in *Lysander College* which he extended the participation to the party to do while they're there. Barl teleported the party under one condition which was Zikore must resign from the guild due to his public declaration with interest of lichdom. Barl suggested that he would try to reinstate Zikore into the guild upon his return. After Zikore submitted his resignation, Barl had *Morlius* teleport the party to the Shadowfell.

Upon his return from the Shadowfell, Zikore Raug immediately conferred with Barl to scry for Darius Leopold and Lucian's location now that he had a vial of vampire blood from *Mordred Lysander*. Barl performed the scrying ritual and revealed that both Darius and Lucian were in *Bervaque*. Additionally he made mention of seeing Talon and Thalnik Ulmrus as well as *Shelaighleh*.