Rowan Darkwood was a ranger born on the world of Oerth, the son of minor nobility. He was a renowned adventurer, a slayer of evil giants and humanoids. He fought in the name of Good, but cared little for rules.
His young sons discovered a mysterious pack of cards that summoned a fearsome Cornugon called Amaggel. Rowan played a game with the Fiend in order to win back their souls. He won, but Amaggel took Rowan Darkwood back to Baator with him in their place.
For ten years Rowan Darkwood was tortured. The inventive Baatezu tried every torture they knew on the hero, but he resisted them. Finally Amaggel simply released him; Darkwood had won through sheer obstinate endurance.
Rowan returned to Oerth, but he found his sons had grown up, his wife had remarried, and his ancestral lands had been lost in the Greyhawk Wars. There was nothing left for him on that world, so he left it for others.
Darkwood reinvented himself. He fought giants in Ysgard, becoming a powerful cleric of Heimdall, god of watchmen and defenders. He carved out a new fiefdom for himself on the world of Toril. Finally he set his sights on a new prize: Sigil.
Only a few months in Sigil, Darkwood made himself factol of the Fated, who believe those who take things deserve to have them, were fated to have them. Apparently, the Duke threatened to expose the previous factol's incriminating ties to Timmon d'Arlen and possibly other shady ties as well. But becoming one of the most powerful people in the City of Doors wasn't enough for the new Factol; he wanted the entire Cage. And for that, he needed to take on a new giant: the Lady of Pain.
Researching secret and forgotten manuscripts in the Hall of Records, he learned of an ancient wizard named Shekelor, who had also sought to defeat the Lady, and an even more ancient wizard who had almost succeeded. The ancient wizard - whose name had been forgotten - had begun a spell powerful enough to rewrite Sigil entirely, but just before he completed it he had been imprisoned in a soul+gem and cast into Agathion. For over ten thousand years, from Shekelor on, ambitious fools had sought out the gem, hoping to use the wizard's soul to complete the spell.
Finally, after Tenebrous opened new chambers in Agathion seeking out his lost wand, the soul gem was uncovered. Rowan Darkwood started a Faction War in Sigil - for the greater good, mind you - and was about to complete the spell when he was mazed by the Lady of Pain.
Records from the latter days of the war are confused, but it is known the Sigil Spell was completed, though not by Rowan Darkwood. While the full ramifications of this are yet to be revealed, Her Serenity the Lady of Pain still rules the City of Doors.
Rowan Darkwood is currently considered missing in action, presumably lost in an ethereal Maze like so many factols of his day.
- 2477 reads