North of the mountain lake, the trees thin and disappear along the slopes of Mount Baratok, its monolithic presence oppressive at this distance. The ground here is rocky, uneven, and tiring to navigate. Even the wolves avoid these snowy reaches. Soon, you climb above the blanket of fog that engulfs the valley. Snow swirls overhead.
You see an elk standing on a rocky spur about sixty feet away. Suddenly, it assumes the form of a man in tattered black robes. His hair and beard are long, black, and streaked with gray, and his eyes crackle with eldritch power.
The Mad Mage has forgotten his name and remembers few details from the world whence he came. He suffers from the paranoia that powerful enemies are hunting him, and that their evil agents are everywhere and watching him.
Background
According to
Ismark Kolyanovich, this strange wizard appeared in the
Dibril Valley more than a year ago. He rallied the people of
Brashov to free themselves from the
Countess Ravna van Roeyen's tyranny, but he underestimated Ravna’s hold over the land and the creatures in it.
After a battle between the two forces at
Castle Roeyen, Ravna drove the Mad Mage to the mountains and sent the wizard hurling over the
Tser Falls. The wizard, his staff and spellbook lost, survived the fall and retreated into the mountains, hoping to regain his power, only to be driven mad by the realization that he no longer has any hope of defeating Ravna or escaping from Dibril.
Developments
At the
Tser Pool Encampment, the party hears a tale from the
Vistani Ivan that the Mad Mage and Ravna battled in the skies over the waterfall. Ivan claims to have seen the wizard fall into the water below the Tser Falls. He searched all around the pool at its base, but could find no trace of the wizard or his potentially valuable items. The party searches the base of the falls themselves and finds a broken staff topped with a gem of solid amber.
Later, with the help of the werewolf shaman
Zuleika, the party locates the wizard at the base of
Mount Baratok where he is living in a "pocket dimension" mansion along with
Ireena Kolyana. He has been hiding Ireena from Ravna, and also helping her hone her arcane skills.
The party learns the wizard was once a guardian of the
Amber Temple two thousand years ago, along with several other wizards known as the
Circle of Eight. The wizard, whose name is probably Mordenkainen, hurled himself through time when the
Dark Powers overwhelmed the wizards' defenses and set them against one another.
The party also learns that another guardian wizard named
Exethanter turned himself into a dragon in the fray. The party suspects this may be the same dragon referred to in
Syanka's tale of
The Dragon and the Prince and involved in the founding of the
Order of the Dragon and
Argynvostholt.
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