 Moadikum Moodock, 1647 GUE Moadium and Molly, 1647 GUE / (B) Moadikum Moodock Artwork |
Moadikum Moodock was a genius at manufacturing and sold arms for a living at "Moodock's Arms and Armaments" in East Shanbar. He was a blue collar sort of who who was a master strategist who really knew his swords. When IT&L was formed, he became the arms merchant of the partner of the four entrepreneurs (the other three were Trembyle, Canuk and Rooper). Before being out of harness by his business endeavors, Moodock was a veteran adventurer. During this period, he somehow managed to acquire the legendary Dwarven Sword of Zork, after it was passed down from generations of simple peasants and adventurers.
Moadikum Moodock was wed to Molly Kettle in the lobby of the Historic Inn of Isenough on Frobuary 14, 1635 GUE. They settled in the village of Shanbar in the Valley of the Sparrows.
On Dismembur 12, 1635, it was discovered that the Cluster had been stolen from the Temple of Bel Naire. Unknown to the other partners, Canuk was the perpetrator. Since he had always been an intuitive wizard, and this impulsive, it take quite some time before the others noticed that his schizophrenic (Morphius-possessed) state was dangerous.
The 1640's saw the start of the effects of the magical curse which Morphius had brought upon the valley with the disappearance of the buildings of Shanbar. The first of these to vanish and be relocated within the Great Underground Empire was the historic Inn of Isenough. The East Shanbar Times reported (Frob Day, Augur 13, 1640) that Moadikum had just finished breakfast at the Inn, walked across the street to open his shop, and turned to say something to Molly and the whole block was gone along with his wife. He moved in with his friend and partner Rooper.
One at a time, the local buildings were transported to a mysterious subterranean parallel Shanbar. In wake of these disappearances, and other strange goings on, the four partners became curious. After some tedious research and exploring, they discovered a secret door beneath the Old Mill. It led to the old underground empire, which no longer looked the same. It was a whole new world down there. Rooper talked the Wizard Trembyle, the mage Canuk, and Moadikum into further investigating the underground with him.
The vanished buildings of East Shanbar were discovered with their original occupants, having been relocated to the new underworld and Moadikum was reunited with his wife. Illumynite lighted this new world and the transported people did not seem to mind. And over time, more structures above ground would find their way to the underworld. The countless bloits of cavern that had been abandoned and dismissed as legend for almost four hundred years were once again thrown open to colonization and economic development.
The partners were excited and quickly consumed by the marketing potential of this new world: an underground resort with glowing rock formations, a giant theme park, and architecture based on the excavations of the old empire. And these were just the folks to do it. The Wizard Trembyle was a bit concerned to say the least. To him, this return to the old underground world was highly unnatural.
The four partners decided to develop the glowing illumynite caverns as an underground resort. Thus IT&L’s first underground project was Dizzyworld. Canuk drew up the plans for this and other land development prospects. In short time, the mage oversaw the designs of high technology commercial products, which would include the prototype Tele-Orb, lighting products, illumynite magnets, and illumynite batteries.
Moadikum planned the actual construction of Dizzy World. As a master strategist, the theme park was built like an army going into battle. When the partners decided to produce the Tele-Orb and illumynite batteries, Canuk was asked (since he was apparently the most knowledgeable person on illumynite outside of the dwarven community) to develop an interface between the batteries and the telepathic orbs. Canuk agreed to the task, but not out of friendship. He had been “instructed” to take the job by the silent voice inside him. Already he was submitting to the mysterious cluster’s control.
Canuk succeeded in making a device that worked with the Tele-Orb, but his personality was changing and the partnership with Rooper, Trembyle, and Moodock became strained. It was the future disappearances of East Shanbar that finally pushed them all apart, when in early Ottobur of 1640, the recently constructed headquarters of IT&L and Moodock’s Arms and Armaments, both located in East Shanbar, disappeared along with Moadikum and his shop into the underground. Thus the bugs of the Tele-Orbs were never worked out by the time the partnership folded. The unfinished orbs cold only receive but were unable to send.
It was shortly after that when Rooper turned Canuk into a duck, by reflecting one of the magic spells which the mage had attempted to use upon him. In the meantime, Moodock used his time wisely to study the ways of Morphius. He was consumed by devising a strategy based on the game known as Survivor, which he played over and over again. He knew that defeating Morphius involved winning with the wizard piece (which was impossible without knowing that the wizard piece is allowed to pass if it cannot make a move).
In 1647 GUE, Moodock aided the unknown Sweepstakes Winner in the quest to defeat Morphius by providing the adventurer with a couple things after playing him in a game of Survivor: the Dwarven Sword of Zork and a token for the ferry across the Whispering Lake.
UNFINISHED TALES
There are some snipets of Moodock's life to which dates cannot be accurate placed. One of these involved the loss of his right arm. An orc got it when he was trying to help his friends out; it got caught by the reflection in a mirror Rooper was using to deflect a spell. Another hazy tale involved an adventure Rooper and he had when they met a boar in the Forest of the Spirits.
One time Moodock designed a uniform for the Dwarven Army. It was green leather, had red stripes, had sort of a row of brass buttons across it, and was topped off by a gold visor. The dwarves rejected it for reasons he did not understand.