  Radnor at Borphee
Magic School
  Radnor &
Thorman
  Imprisoned in
Crystal Ball
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Radnor attended the Borphee Magic School, where he had always teased a fellow student named Frobwit the Fair. Althea, a carefree beauty who flirted with all the boys, gained the attention of Radnor. Although Frobwit wooed her, she chose Radnor over him.
After graduating, the clever Radnor was able to convince Thorman the Red-beard (one of the finest magicians of the time) to take him as his apprentice instead of the Frobwit. As life swept Radnor along on its strange path, Althea instead married a sea captain, although the magician secretly desired to yet make her his Queen. While apprenticed to Thorman, Radnor sought to gain possession of the Amulet of Egreth which belonged to his master. He never was able to, and it would not be until much later in his life when he found a way to weaken Thorman. Radnor did this by causing the death of his daughter. But as his dying gesture, Thorman threw the amulet out of his turret window, so that none but his granddaughter Lia might have it. Radnor was unable to find the amulet for many years.
While a long succession of evil magicians dwelt in the crumbling ruins of Egreth Castle, Radnor grew to become the last of these black wizards, and most dreaded of all. And using powerful enchantments, he enslaved the peaceful night gaunts and rallied the evil trolls, hobgoblins and grues to be his monstrous servants. Radnor became known both as the Evil Magician of Egreth as well as the Evil One. Those who chanced seeing him could only describe him as a sinister old man cloaked in red.
It was not until the tenth century (957-966 GUE) when the amulet returned to Radnor at Castle Egreth in the possession of a woman. His crystal ball revealed it to him during the night. It was around the neck of a female (although her face could not be discerned) who was a part of a group of travelers who had encamped in a clearing near his castle. He commanded his night gaunts to bring back the woman from among them. While they were away, Radnor went to prepare a vat of hereditary neutralizing potion which was intended to remove the last vestige of magical power from the amulet’s current owner—no longer would the granddaughter of Thorman fulfill the ancestral promise; the amulet would belong to him. Out of his bubbling vat of vile potion was born a crown anointed with the potion.
The night gaunts returned with a prisoner. Unknown to Radnor, there had been two women of the caravan, Acia and Lia. He mistakenly believed that Acia was the granddaughter of Thorman (not aware that it was Lia), and sought to take her as a bride. Acia no longer had Lia’s amulet upon her, for she had dropped it. Radnor signaled for his creatures to return to the campsite and bring him whatever cloaks they found there. In the meantime, the necromancer had his troll guards place Acia in the dungeon.
Later that night, Radnor detected an intruder in his crystal ball. It was the boy Dirinthrax, a companion of Acia who had went after her when she was abducted by the night gaunts. The necromancer did not tolerate intruders and sent a spirit guard to destroy him.
When the night gaunts returned with the garments, Radnor eagerly sifted through them to find nothing. Enraged, the dark one cast a spell of searching on the amulet. He spied the jeweled prize in the scaly hand of a night gaunt in his very own castle. Radnor summoned the creature to him.
In expectation of the night gaunt’s heed, Radnor failed to notice Frobwit’s arrival in the room. Frobwit sought to greet his former schoolmate, until he realized that Radnor was the evil magician of Egreth. They were interrupted by the arrival of a night gaunt, who in the process of his walk to the throne room had accidentally dropped the amulet. Short-tempered, the merciless Radnor murdered the helpless night gaunt. Radnor used his magical powers to bring Acia directly to him. A magical vapor left for the beautiful maiden.
Frobwit was shocked, realizing that Radnor desired the Amulet of Egreth for some evil purpose. Frobwit desired to stop him, but Radnor would have none of it. He prepared to kill Frobwit in turn. After a magical battle of flaring beams and pyrotechnics, the evil wizard was able to defeat Frobwit by morphing him into a slug.
At that moment, Ryker, Dirinthrax, and Lia burst into the room. In revenge at what Radnor had done to his master, Dirinthrax used the Amulet of Egreth to funnel his rage into a mighty spell which took Radnor by surprise. The magician’s power was subdued and Frobwit was restored to health and vigor.
Pretending that he was changed by the spell into a kind and wise old man, Radnor roleplayed. Still thinking that Acia was the granddaughter of Thorman, Radnor seduced Acia into believing that the Amulet of Egreth rightly belonged to her. Acia snatched the amulet from Dirin and quickly slipped it on. Bending Acia to his whim, he was able to convince her to become his Queen. Radnor placed his magical crown upon her hoping to neutralize the amulet’s connection to her. When worn, she was cursed into a deep trance. Radnor took the opportunity to obtain the amulet and at the same time stripped off his façade of kindness.
Ryker sprang into action, and snatched the amulet from the magician. He had barely wrenched the amulet out of Radnor’s grasp when the sorcerer unleashed an evil force to subdue the warrior. Lia fished the amulet from Ryker with its own magic. At the same time, her disguise fell away, revealing a womanly figure, and her hair lengthened. Using the power of the amulet, Lia transformed Radnor into a puddle of foul-smelling liquid. Frobwit finished the deed by entrapping the warlock’s essence in a crystal ball, and sent it into the Egreth treasury. Little did the companions know, but the ignorant Gurthark took the crystal ball from the treasury, thinking it was but simple riches.
The small caravan continued on its way from Egreth, leaving behind two of their number Dirinthrax and Lia. Unknown to the caravan, the crystal ball Gurthark took as a souvenir of Egreth was not what it seemed. The sphere was the very one in which Frobwit had imprisoned Radnor’s evil essence. The Evil One was determined to make Frobwit pay dearly for his imprisonment. The sorcerer’s malevolent force, concentrated in this small sphere, would burst out in fits of rage, wreaking havoc upon those around him. There was a series of seven evils which had been prophesied to emit from the orb.
The first peril commenced—an eerie light emanated from the ball, fabricating a flock of giant corbies from nowhere. One swooped towards Frobwit, snatched him out of the wagon, and carried him high above the meadowlands. Ryker was able to defeat the remaining ones.
The second burst of evil caused Acia to fall into a deadly illness. Coherently, Acia was drawn out of her body into the crystal orb. Although he knew that Acia was not the granddaughter of Lia, he still sought her as his queen, calling her by the name Althea (whether he thought Acia was actually Althea, or called her this because of the bloodline, is unknown). Acia was pulled out of this hellish reality when Ryker returned with the sacred gumpwort fungus. Although while he was gone, Radnor released the third burst of evil, which had set fire to the silken coverlets which Gurthark had in his wagon.
While Gurthark, Acia and Ryker were crossing the Borphee River on boat, the fourth spell summoned a great sea serpent. The monster took hold of Gurthark’s fishing line and dragged him off the ferry. The man would survive, but separated far from his companions.
The fifth spell caused Ryker to be transformed into a hideous monster with superhuman strength, while shortly after the sixth burst of evil caused Althea to miraculously regain all the loveliness of her youth while Acia became as weak, withered, stooped and wrinkled as a woman many times her age.
By the time Ryker and Acia had used the gumpfort fungus to cure themselves, the crystal ball radiated for the seventh burst of evil. At Acia’s urging, Ryker grasped the crystal to throw it out of the room before its evil could further affect them. But as he did so, the spirit of Radnor fought its way out of the crystal ball. It darted straight at Ryker and leapt into him. Then Ryker’s spirit floated out of his own body and into the crystal. Ryker’s body now belonged to Radnor. As he moved towards Acia to take her as his queen, he suddenly disappeared.
Radnor, having been summoned by Moog to participate in the ultimate evil union known as the Triax, found himself at the ancient ruins of Pheebor at the junction of the Phee and Bor rivers. This was the moment he had been waiting for all his vile life. He could see that it would be easy to dominate over Moog and Slye (the other two who formed the Triax). Combining their powers together, the Triax began its reign of the Eternal Darkness. The rivers and the sea turned to blood, as the charred land gave up its nurturing spirit. Although the records of this period are wanting, the grim tyranny would take many seasons and much valor to undo.
Due to the mysteries of temporal travel, the crystal ball which Radnor was once trapped inside made its way to the Steppinthrax Monastery sometime prior to 949 GUE.
