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.