The Warlich of Control

The Warlich of Control is a NPC created by The Bitter Coast Quest Guild for use in the ongoing Bitter Coast Quest Campaign, which has been told over several reigns.

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Once he had a name, and a life, but all that changed ages ago. The power of a dark, forgotten entity changed him into a being of tremendous power and malevolence, which was known as the Warlich of Control.

He had the power to dominate the will of friend and foe alike, and led his armies to many victories. He also found that he could abandon his body as an incorporeal spirit and directly possess anyone. Unfortunately while his spirit was possessing an enemy King, in order to plant discord within his Kingdom; Assassins found his unconscious body and destroyed it.

Without his body, the Warlich was weakened, and couldn't posses those immune to control magic. The Warlich traveled from body to body, gathering information, and seeking a powerful being would make a suitable permanent host, during his travels the Warlich found the tower of the order of Wizards called "The Seekers".

In the battle with The Seekers, the Warlich encountered little resistance, but something happened which he did not expect, the leader of the Seekers, an ancient Lich named Garatrix the Wise, using his skill in magic, trapped the Warlich's essence within his own phylactery, from which he could not escape. Garatrix ordered his disciples to seal him in a prison-tomb for enternity as he did battle from within with the entity trapped in his phylactery (which bound them both spiritually).

Ages passed, and the Warlich slowly corrupted the mind of Garatrix until he became his willing servant, and by combining their powers, escaped from the Seeker's tower and began to formulate how to amass a new army, and take over the world.

Garatrix (now known as Garatrix the Insidious) traveled to Bitter Coast, and seeing Sir Darva's skill and experience (6th level everything) determined that he was too big of a threat to his master to ignore, and using his tainted phylactery, cursed Darva with a powerful magic that even he wasn't immune to.

Although the heroes of Bitter Coast defeated Garatrix, his phylactery wasn't destroyed, and he was reborn. Once again he was defeated, and his phylactery was destroyed releasing the Warlich of Control from his stone prison. In his mad glee, the Warlich possessed members of Bitter Coast one after another, watching them kill each other, only to be possessed themselves. The Monks and Barbarians in the group could not be possessed however, and the Warlich (when everyone else was dead) was forced to flee.

The Warlich however, had at last found his perfect vessel, the Paladin Darva. The Warlich could not directly possess him however because of his magical immunities, but by taking residence within his being, was able to corrupt his mind and soul with his dark whispers and promises.

Far away, a war between the Elves and Drow (Dark Elves), had released a powerful armored monster, which took command of the Drow armies, and began subjugating every land it came across. Darva (influenced by the Warlich of Control) decided that to maintain the security of his Barony, many threats needed to eliminated. The bandit Marauders were mercilessly slaughtered, even when unarmed and begging for mercy. The Voidstalker and his undead minions were destroyed and banished, and even a peaceful Dwarven village of craftsmen were slaughtered for maintaining neutrality.

When Mistress Alaina spoke up against these actions, she was arrested and put on trial, found guilty, and sentenced to death, many in Bitter Coast rebelled against Darva and the Ravens (who all shared their leaders dark taint through their bond), and a period of civil war erupted, and although the rebels claimed few victories, their numbers grew.

An Elven scout appeared in Bitter Coast to ask assistance of Sir Darva (who being part Elven, was a known ally of the Elven race). The rebels warned him that Darva had been changed, but suddenly a Drow tracking party appeared, led by a Drow, with several Ork followers (the Drow had conquered the Ork Horde by this time). In the Battle which followed Darva and Ravens played one side against the other, and killed the survivors to erase the existence the entire affair.

The rebels also traveled to the tower of The Seekers, where (after destroying three Golems, and slaying the three head Wizards) found the journal of Garatrix, but couldn't read it since it was written in High Arcane, which only Master Wizards could read. (Darva and Alaina being the only Master Wizards in Bitter Coast)

The journal contained an account of Garatrix's struggle with the Warlich, and due to their connection, was able to record the monster's weakness, the spell "yield".

Later, when an advanced platoon of the Drow armies arrived in Bitter Coast (consisting of Drow, Orks, and Humans), which demanded the surrender of Bitter Coast, and even appealed to the rebels to aid them in conquering Darva's forces, in exchange for loyalty to the Drow Empire, and it's laws. The rebels did not join the Drow, and defended their homeland instead.

In the battle that followed the Drow forces were beaten back, and Darva turned on the Rebels. The rebels had prepared for this however, and when he was temporarily incapacitated, they cast the "yield" spell on him, freeing Darva from it's influence, and banishing the Warlich of Control forever.

More information

• Bitter Coast Quest Guild The Group responsible for Quests and Roleplaying events.
• A Map of the Bitter Coast, made using Campaign Cartography software [1]
• The Bitter Coast Website website, complete with photo gallery, forum, and video section.

For information on other chapters in amtgard look here

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• The Bitter Coast ORK Listing[[2]]
• BCQG (Bitter Coast Quest Guild) ORK Listing[3]