This was put together by Eric Zylstra who has been playing in the
Campaign since 1990.  Eric has an eye for detail and a better memory than
the GM by several orders of magnitude!  Bravo Eric! 

        By now, you may have read turn seven, and you may be wondering who
"the greatest summoner of the past five hundred years" is.
        
        The power of a summoner derives from his ability to summon and
command creatures from the other planes.  In most places, summoners are
feared and hated by the populace, because the overwhelming majority of
those who practice this magic become as wicked as the demons with which
they consort.  Raem provides a case in point.

        Raem began his days as a lowly novice magician.  Although a
summoner, he only called the spirits of the elemental planes, and he
assured his companions that he would not traffic with evil spirits. 
However, one day he chanced upon a powerful grimoire containing the true
names of many demons.  Raem could not resist studying the book to improve
his skills.

        Soon, Raem started to summon demons.  At first he only called up
imps and other minor creatures, but he discovered that they were stronger
than the elemental spirits that he had relied upon.  He progressed to more
and more powerful demons as his corruption grew.  The slide into darkness
became irrevocable when he summoned a major demon and ordered it to attack
a fortress, killing everything inside.

        One of Raem's companions secretly worshipped Lord Eldar, God of the
Void (and thus Master of Gates).  He realized that Raem would gladly seize
any opportunity for greater power over gates, so he initiated Raem into the
cult.  Lord Eldar ordered his two disciples to recover a powerful evil
artifact from a lost city that the party was planning to investigate.

        The party's mission failed horribly, as did Raem's.  His companion
was captured by a powerful vampire, serving as food for the next century. 
(Don't waste your sympathy; he deserved worse.)  As the party
disconsolately squatted around their fire, Raem picked up his grimoire and
walked off into the night.  Although everyone knew that he would try to
summon something, they hoped that he would overextend himself and be
destroyed.  They were half right.

        Raem knew that if he failed in his mission, Eldar (an unforgiving
deity) would eat his soul.  With little to lose, he attempted to summon a
Lord of Hell.  The true name was correct, the influences were favorable,
and long practice had given Raem great skill in summoning devils. 
Unfortunately, he failed to control the creature, inadvertantly allowing it
to stay indefinitely in the human world.

       The Lord of Hell stalked into the party's campsite, carrying Raem
under one arm, and immediately killed a bard who tried to oppose him.  The
bard, a long-time advisor of the group, was more powerful than any one
(perhaps any two) of the party members.  Then the devil asked the party,
"Who will serve me?"  As the rest of the band stood frozen in shock, Raem
quickly answered, "I will!"  He received seven years of incredible
sorcerous power in exchange for his soul (already pledged to Eldar, but
oath-breaking was one of the least of Raem's crimes).

        Just as the devil was about to destroy the rest of the party, a
mysterious mage appeared and engaged him in combat.   (The mage was a
powerful and formerly very evil wizard who sought to atone for past
crimes--the party had encountered him before without guessing his true
nature.)  As the Archmage and Lord of Hell struggled before them, Raem used
his new powers to stun, cripple, or kill almost all of his former
companions.  Fortunately, they survived his treacherous attacks long enough
for their new ally to dismiss the devil lord.  Raem quickly fled, to spread
havok through the surrounding lands.  (Needless to say, he immediately
became an non-player character.)

        The party returned to their homeland in the north, where they
divided and trained individually for five years.  During that time, Raem
founded many new churches of evil, oppressed the innocent, tortured the
weak, and accumulated tremendous personal power.  He became obsessed with
revenge upon the other adventurers, whom he blamed for his lost state.  

        Finally, in cooperation with another evil cultist, he kidnapped
Tarkis the White, the kindly mentor of the party's wizard.  Tarkis was a
former companion of the martial artist Miriya, who joined the party in
their efforts to rescue him.  In the ensuing series of blunders, Raem
managed to trick Miriya into killing her friend with her own shuriken. 
Miriya departed, vowing vengeance, but before she could attack, Raem
teleported to another plane.  In his absence, she hunted down and killed as
many of his followers as she could find.

        The party later discovered that Raem was killed trying to recover
an artifact (the Void Rune) from the Temple of Lord Eldar.  Now he's back,
and the time spent in Hell hasn't improved his disposition much....

        N.B.  Branham hates the Slaad (denizens of Limbo, the plane of
Younger Chaos) because he, Tremir, and several of their companions were
enslaved there for ten years.