#169 Unigol’s Bottled Fen

Age: 80 Years

Hidden or Lost?: Hidden

History: The warlock Unigol arrived at the ancient and revered Rueborg School seemingly out of the aether. He quickly rose through the ranks to take control of the famed college, turning it into the feared institution it is today. But unbeknownst to most, the secret to Unigol’s past (and his power) is sitting unnoticed on a shelf in his office.

Unigol grew up in the haunted, reeking swamp known as the Stinging Muck. Raised by a folk witch in her herb-warded stilt shack, young Unigol always dreamt of escaping that dark place. Still, he learned the ways of blood magic from his mother, studying the power of water and rot and claws. By adolescence he had surpassed her in power and knowledge, and by the time he was a teen he had ventured out to find a school that could help him further his studies.

Obsessed with the power of decay and rebirth he had discovered in the Muck, Unigol believed that by encouraging the entropy hiding in all things he could help them grow and evolve to be stronger and more productive. He arrived at the Rueborg School with a bright smile but was laughed out of the admissions office thanks to his tattered dress clothes and beetle-greased hair.

Seething with thoughts of vengeance, Unigol returned to the Muck once again. Unshackled from the rules of safe spellcraft, he built a ramshackle focus tower where he could work in privacy, and dove into a series of dark new experiments. Within a year he had murdered every living thing within the area of the Muck, and replaced them with terrible horrors summoned from the darkest hells.

Rippling with new power and confidence, Unigol returned to Rueborg, suddenly spotless and dapper. This time he presented the admissions panel with a clear glass jug that held an entire, living swamp within. No mere model, Unigol had confined pieces of reality in that small bottle, including his mother's hut, his makeshift focus tower, and all of the attendant horrors he had summoned. The deans were shocked but impressed and offered Unigol immediate enrollment. As thanks, the vengeful warlock imprisoned the deans inside of the bottled fen as well. Finally unimpeded, he quickly took control of the entire school.

Since taking his seat as the head of Rueborg, Unigol has only become more tyrannical and powerful, using the school to train an army of young decay mages to help him bring his message of entropy to the world. The only hope for stopping him now lies in the deadly history held in that bottled past.

1. Unigol’s Seal

2. The Great Slide

3. Reborn Stalking Ground

4. Pit of the Great Leech

5. The Old Focus Tower

6. Unigol’s Study

7. Unigol’s Hex Vault

8. The Rot Portal

9. The Titan Willow

10. Longarm Nests

11. Web of the Outer Crawler

12. Fetid Nursery

13. Old Deans’ Respite

14. Mother’s Hut

15. Unigol’s Eye

16. The Crack