*The Legacy of Kiergaunt Pandarre by Wulfhen Rayliad[#je652745]

Kiergaunt Pandarre, an unknown name to many which is surprising due to the fact that many know of his legacy. Indeed, one of the sights most travelers to the town of River's Rest encounter on their voyage as they arrive by sea is his old dwelling. Thanks to the remains of written documentation within his previous place of residence, the Ruined Tower, a lot is known about his demise. Yet, everything else is very much unanswered.

To start with some basic facts, Kiergaunt Pandarre was an extremely capable wizard with a prime interest in the Elemental Planes, particularly that of water. His tower, constructed right on a bluff by Maelstrom Bay, must have been apparently perfectly suited for his research. Within, he also housed several apprentices and servants, along with his own quarters for himself and magic workrooms. It is once you venture underneath the tower, however, that questions truly begin to emerge.

Located underneath the Ruined Tower are a series of caverns and chambers, with only one real purpose in mind: that of imprisonment and torture, with every cell being barred with hefty oak doors blocking all means of escape. Various implements of pain are located in several sectioned of rooms, the actual bedrock from which they are carved dyed red in the memories of anguish they hosted. These dungeons appear as old as the tower itself, each showing the same apparent period of disuse as the other. Yet, Kiergaunt Pandarre was a celebrated wizard who, if the images depicted on murals are true, was occasionally visited by persons of means either from River's Rest or elsewhere in the Empire.

From outward appearance, there isn't any real connection. A wizard who was obsessed by his work with the Plane of Water, kidnapping and torturing people? The real question is, for what purpose? With the lack of any hard physical evidence, only circumstantial theorizing can attempt to provide any sort of answer. Kiergaunt Pandarre's obsession with the Plane of Water seems to focus primarily on the beings known as Water Wyrds. Various examples of these can be found still haunting his tower among with Hisskra, another type of creature who displays origins much like that of a Lizard.

Now, we've two facts, Pandarre's obsession with the Plane of Water and the dungeons beneath, on which we can speculate. During the time Pandarre was alive, roughly around the year 5018, smugglers were rife within the town of River's Rest and it was not uncommon for many to deceive ships in thinking it was safe by utilizing lanterns or such to cloak themselves as a beacon of security, mimicking a lighthouse. Pandarre, perhaps did much the same thing using his tower. A mural within the entrance hall of the tower shows it being as just that, a lighthouse. To keep the citizens of the town safe under misconception, perhaps he did mostly guide ships to safety using mage lights while a few others he broke to ruin, in order to ferret the sailors down to his dungeons.

Here, they were obviously tortured, as well as perhaps experimented on furthering Pandarre's craze for water and all that belong to it. Within his notes, he comments that he was attempting to find a solution to allowing Water Wyrds to survive when removed from their own Plane of existence for a more permanent duration of time. It is possible that the Hisskra which lurk there today are the remains of experimentation and crossbreeding that were released and allowed to survive on their own after the destruction of their creator. Perhaps the Hisskra themselves could answer this question, if they were hospitable. The sad fact remains, that they are not and due to the poor condition of most of Pandarre's notes an answer may never be found.

The demise of Kiergaunt Pandarre occurred amongst strange circumstances, which can't entirely be explained, much like his previous place of residence. Kiergaunt Pandarre frequently travelled to the Plane of Water, parts of which can be viewed using a scrying sphere located in the upper levels of the tower. To do so, he used a large pool set at the bottom of the tower near the water level. Apparently, when it was in use it contained water with which a wizard could transport himself with using the proper ritual.

Unfortunately, during the year 5018, disaster struck. Whether the disaster was mere misfortune, as one of Panderre's apprentices believed it to be when he scribbled a hasty note within Panderre's own journal with a date of the 22nd of Phoenatos, or one of the consequences Panderre himself questions on in his journal entry on the 1st of Phoenatos, the day he ventured for the last time through the portal pool, is unknown.

Regardless, the results were the same. The great Cataclysm, a major earthquake that was centered on the Isle of River's Rest, changed the face of the nearby landscape. It ruined all trade upriver from the town, due to the creation of the Tempest Falls, as well as rent asunder the pool through which Panderre transported himself. The salt water kept within drained through cracks that his apprentices were unable to repair and the wizard was never heard from again. The journal note on the 22nd is the last known piece of information regarding Panderre's men, who wrote that the Wyrds which their master kept had grown increasingly restless over the three weeks since the Cataclysm. The apparent attempts to barricade the entrance to the Tower's courtyard suggest a fairly violent ending to their existence.

As per usual, my small work leaves more questions in the mind than answers. Most importantly, was Panderre responsible for the Cataclysm or, like many others, was he merely a casualty of it? Perhaps some day another Wizard travelling to the Plane of Water that Panderre adored so much will learn the fate of this man beyond the legacy that his tower has left.

~Wulfhen Rayliad, wanderer


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