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wo hundred and fifty-four years ago, Sir John of Gont, a paladin of Pelor, led a band of brave souls and old friends to face down Kath’Karos, a half-drow lich that had been terrorizing elven settlements in the Summerhall Forest, beneath which he laired.
Kath’Karos had in both life and lichdom dabbled in “wild magic”, occasionally known also as “chaos magic”. By tapping into the primitive chaos from which all things were born, he was able to empower his spells, but occasionally this boost came with a high price. During the fight with Sir John and his friends, Kath’Karos slew two of them, then tried to cast plane shift against the (unnamed) dwarven cleric of Pelor just as SHE attempted to use a greater turning on HIM. The wild surge backlashed tremendously – everyone’s senses were flooded with explosions of light and darkness simultaneously – and when people regained their wits, they realized that both Kath’Karos and the dwarf were nowhere to be seen. All the furnishings of the room lay in tiny pieces all around, as if shattered by a concussive blast.
Sir John and his surviving comrades returned to Harpton to report their adventures to the High Church of Pelor, and the priests were able to raise Kerwyn and Martello back to life. They made haste back to Kath’Karos’s lair, and spent the better part of a month searching every square inch repeatedly, but found no trace of the lich, or of his phylactery, or of the dwarven priestess. High Holiness Derania was saddened by the last, as she did not possess the sort of power needed to restore “Dwarf” without at least some part of her corporeal self. Still, she felt that the sacrifice of one cleric was a reasonable price to pay to eliminate the menace Kath’Karos had been, and she commended Sir John and the others for their courage as well as their loyalty to a fallen comrade. As the years passed and the menace did not return, eventually Sir John was moved to agree with Derania, despite the grief he felt over his lover’s death.
eanwhile, the chaos surge from the lich’s magic had sent the dwarf directly and bodily into Pelor’s own domain in Elysium. She was welcomed by a leonal who explained to her that the lich’s chaos surge had trapped her on this plane. However, because she had just happened to act at the same moment, to try and send the lich away, the magic had imprisoned Kath’Karos as well – in the plane of Elemental Chaos that he had drawn upon for so long. The leonal bade “Dwarf” follow him if she wished to find more answers. The leonal led her to Pelor’s halls, and Pelor himself addressed the priestess. As best as the god’s mind could fathom the workings of Elemental Chaos, he seemed confident that “Dwarf” would be able to return to the Prime Material plane if ever Kath’Karos figured out how to escape his prison, but then and only then. Pelor then expressed sincere hope that the priestess would not consider her stay in his home to be imprisonment.
38 years ago, a horrible rift sundered the sky above the Prime Material plane. Kath’Karos had found a way to escape his prison, and waves of chaotic energy poured over the land. Within moments, “Dwarf” too arrived home, but one look at the situation and she realized that for all she and her friends had invested in defeating Kath’Karos, it was no longer the most urgent thing she needed to do. Opening herself to Pelor’s might and will as never before, the priestess was able to channel enough divine energy to seal the rift and more or less save the Prime Material plane, but at the cost of her own life. And although the Prime Material plane remained intact, it had been forever changed by the raw chaos which had permeated it. (OOC: How better to explain the vast changes between 3rd and 4th edition? ;)
Now…the lich stands alone.