I’ve looked over some of the scaret characters (the ones where you input special names for, not the ones you find the coins), and this just kinda popped up. Thus I present:
<center>Gauntlet: Dark Legacy
What Kind of Heroes Are You?</center>
Prologue
“Where is that dratted runestone?” Garm scowled as he rifled through his brother’s belongings.
From top to bottom the tower, belonging to the greatest wizard in all the eight Realms, was trashed. Not even magical housekeepers could keep up with the sheer amount of junk being tossed around.
Most of it was sentimental, befitting a wizard of great age and experience. There were, however, many objects of great power. One of which, at this particular moment, said wizard’s brother was looking for.
Garm pounded his fist into a table, grumbling. “That idiot brother of mine couldn’t have put it too far away!”
The housekeepers took no notice of Garm’s angry rambling, being too preoccupied cleaning up the mess he continued to make. Not as if they understood anyway.
One of them got swatted away as it tried to straighten up Garm’s current search location. It was getting in the way. They were all getting in the way. “Gaaaaaah! Go AWAY! Leave me! I swear Sumner animated you just to irk me!” The housekeeper just returned and continued.
Continue this for a few hours, and see how well someone holds onto their sanity.
“For the LAST TIME, GO AWAY! LEAVE! VAMOOSE!” Garm shouted at the top of his lungs. Now he was getting worried. The wizard’s council would be ending tomorrow, and Sumner would soon be home. Things were getting desperate. The housekeepers weren’t any help. They were too busy cleaning the place, and didn’t realize that the mess was Garm’s way of knowing where he looked before.
Continue this for a few more hours. Garm’s grasp of his sanity, not the firmest on the best of days, was rapidly fleeing him.
“My power has grown in the past few years since…” Garm trailed off, muttering to himself as he abandoned his search and returned to the main hall, where a wide, but incomplete, circle of twelve runestones laid. “I could complete the summoning even without the thirteenth stone… but could I control him…” Garm stroked his chin thoughtfully, looking over the circle. “Yes… if I alter the spell, I could. I don’t need the thirteenth stone! I can do this! I WILL do this! I will be the greatest wizard in the Realms!”
And so he began his work. Standing on the podium, he began to intone the spell of summoning.
His target: the ruler of the Underworld, Skorne.
Skorne had not had a good day. Yet another Underworld rebellion had taken place. He ended it of course, and it was delightfully bloody. But he still was injured and two of his favorite concubines was killed in the struggle.
Then the cook burned the food. Of course, with as hot as the Underworld was, the food was almost always burned… but it was the principle of the matter. He’d have to find a replacement cook. One not as stringy as the previous one though.
And he still didn’t have his favorite plaything! He tried to find a way out of the Underworld so he could reclaim his toy, but Sumner locked up his Realm very tightly. And then he decided to forgive Garm and release him. It was three long years since he heard Garm’s sweet, sweet screams…
It just couldn’t get any worse.
It was during his evening tea (too hot, as usual) that he felt the first tug on his being. He knew that feeling. He was being summoned. Again.
A second, more forceful tug. Skorne accidentally dropped his favorite cup, and it smashed on the floor. He cursed.
The third tug happened, like someone was trying to pull his entrails out through his back. He resisted for a moment and then sighed. What was the point? It would only keep pulling at him, and there was no way he could sleep like this.
With the fourth tug, he was gone.
Skorne blinked as he took stock of his surroundings. They looked so familiar…
“I, the great and powerful wizard Garm, command you, Skorne of the Underworld to do my bidding!”
Oh. That was why. Skorne peered down at the small wizard near the base of the runestone circle. “Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me. You again?”
“Yes, me again! And this time, I will be the one in control. I control YOU. You are MINE!”
Skorne sighed. <i>Give them a few years and they think they’re all high and mighty.</i> “And why, oh why, should I serve you?”
Garm grinned in complete triumph. “I summoned you, therefore, you do my bidding.”
Skorne pressed his face into his palm. “We’ve been through this already. Not that I didn’t mind the exquisite way you had of screaming in pain while you were slowly dismembered, but I thought we had established the fact that you cannot control me. And…”
Skorne looked down.
Skorned looked up at Garm, still grinning in absolute, and rather maniacal triumph.
Skorne looked down again. And blinked. “You have twelve runestones here. You need thirteen.”
“A great wizard such as I have no need for the thirteenth runestone!”
<i>Interesting devlopment that. Normally you need thirteen to summon… Oh bugger it.</i> Skorne said to himself, and then brought his massive hand down on Garm, pinning him to the ground. “Understand this, you fool. YOU CAN NOT CONTROL ME. I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS. I’VE HAD A MISERABLE DAY, AND I WOULD BE QUITE HAPPY TO BE LEFT ALONE!”
Then a thought occured to Skorne. <i>Hey, I could drag him down to the Underworld with me! I did… miss… him after all.</i> Skorne grinned evilly. “I have missed you though, maybe I should… oh shit.”
He lifted his hand and looked over Garm’s body. Apparently he pressed too hard and squeezed the life out of him. Well Garm would end up in the Underworld, but souls were so hard to torture…
And so Skorne thought. Well, he had been bored anyway. And here he was, in Sumner’s tower, free as a bird. Perhaps he could have some fun after all…
Sumner appeared in the main hall of his tower. It was the usual wizard’s council, and it left him rather stressed. The usual doddery old fools, thinking they knew better than everyone else. It was a wonder that they got anything done. “Garm! I’m home! How did you… fare…”
He looked down. There was his dear brother’s dead body. Not too far away was a scorchmark where his summoning circle was supposed to be. What was going on?
And then he got a frenzied report from one of the wizards on the council. “The demon Skorne is ravaging the Realms!”
Garm was dead. His summoning circle was ruined. Skorne was on the loose…
He looked around his tower quickly. His runestones were missing. Not to mention his favorite stained glass window, depicting the various beasts he had slain, was gone.
Sumner didn’t get to be the greatest wizard in the eight Realms by being slow on the uptake. “Garm, you blasted IDIOT!”
So Sumner quickly got to work. A minor summoning would do the trick. All he had to do was summon the four heroes that aided in the last time Garm summoned Skorne, and the matter would be done.
And thus, did Sumner speak the words of the summoning spell…
And nothing happened.
Sumner looked from the lecturn he stood behind… They should have come…
He tried the spell again. Nothing.
A third time, although he now knew it was useless. Again, nothing. Somehow, he couldn’t summon them!
But he couldn’t wait until he could summon them. Skorne could be wreaking untold damage upon the Realms at this moment! So he considered for a moment. Four new heroes would do… Yes. That would work. All he had to do was summon them…
And thus he cast the summoning spell, to bring to him four new heroes to defend the Realms.
(Obviously incomplete, more to add as it comes.)