Prologue: Slouching Towards Entropy-This is my Song!
The young warlock, Effrain Renier, sat slumped on a barstool in the famous Laughing Goblin Inn of the city of Phlan. He was, supposedly, celebrating the successful completion of a rather arduous adventure in the Dragon Spine Mountains. Despite that, Effrain found himself in a bitter mood. It was getting late… or maybe early depending on how one looked at it… and his fellow adventurers had long since retired from the revelry. Effrain had been filling the vacuum of companionship by talking at a nervous looking barwench to his right.
She had made the mistake of asking how he felt after tracking down a dangerous fugitive and protecting the city. In response, Effrain was trying to explain to her how what he did mattered very little. He wanted to describe how the material plane slouches toward entropy, and how all of history would eventually be lost to the ravages of eternity. That, even if the fugitive had prevailed and been successful in his schemes, the universe would have ultimately fared the same. Therefore, all things considered, Effrain felt nothing about the episode one way or the other.
However, the warlock was deep into his cups by this stage, so all of this came out of his mouth like: "It's all the same, you know? The big empty, the nothingness, the nil… I do things because I have to do something, right? But none of it ever means anything. I mean, it's supposed to be SOMETHING, but it sort of feels like sweeping the floor, you know?"
It was mid-rant that Effrain noticed the barwench had wandered off towards a dwarf who was tossing around GP like he'd just opened a new mine that tenday. Effrain shrugged. It was probably for the best, anyway. He raised two fingers to summon the bartender for his… eighth…?... ninth tankard of ale…? He'd honestly lost count around the fifth or sixth which was usually the best time to lose count. It's preferable not to know the exact number.
He forcibly spit through his order in the direction of the bartender, and then he heard the bard on stage pluck a succession of familiar notes… Effrain pushed himself away from the bar, hopped off his stool, and threw his grinning head into the air.
"This is my song!"