Hello, there--I'm Jontg, soon-to-be highschool grad and amateur writer. What you're about to read is a novelization (fanficization?) of my first and longest running D&D campaign, which began in 2001 when I started playing the game, and ended in 2003 (!). It began as a typical, babies-first-campaign sort of affair, with prewritten adventures and starring a cardboard cutout elf mage ultra-stu named, of all things, Jonathanas Darkstar. As it went on, however, Jonathanas began to become a person instead of a stat sheet--and as I matured as a player and DM, his foolhardy actions began to have serious consequences. Near the apex of his career, I began thinking ways to retire not just the character, but the world-setting that had been so drastically altered by his presence that it was no longer recognizable as Greyhawk--and I remembered the village of hobgoblins that he had so casually wiped out in between The Standing Stone and Heart of Nightfang Spire. Suppose there was one survivor from that massacre? And suppose he'd been stalking Jonathanas all these years, growing stronger and stronger just as Jonathanas had, until he possessed the same sort of broken, world-shattering power?
Thus was born Bonedevil--my first epic level character, and my first villain. Enjoy the fic.
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PROLOGUE
An adventurer is a powerful being--stronger, smarter, and luckier than any normal man. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, we often forget that all beings, no matter how powerful, are beholden to the basic laws of reality. In a world of magic, such laws may be bent, circumvented, or ignored altogether with the proper application of arcane power--yet they are always there, waiting for us to grow arrogant that they might show us our place again.
There are many such laws--"that which rises must fall," "nothing is gained without sacrifice," and "all that is must end" being among the best known--but, I think, the most fundamental and inviolable of all these is the one that we most often overlook:
"Every action has a consequence."
No one, mortal, demon, or god, is exempt from this law--whether it be the words and gestures of a mage calling fire from thin air, the stroke of the assassin's dagger which changes the fate of a nation, or the tavern brawl that forces a crew of intrepid heroes down the road to adventure, nothing happens on its own. Any given event is caused by another event, and it in turn causes yet another. So does the universe continue on its endless cycle of action and reaction--and woe, indeed, to he who thinks himself exempt from this supreme law of the cosmos.
This is the story of an action, which caused a reaction, which caused another reaction, and so forth. Through the lens of time, we may try to place blame upon any or all of those involved in the dire chain of events which form the tale you are now reading. Perhaps Bonedevil was the true villain, for the deeds he performed will leave permanent scars on the bodies and souls of all he touched throughout the travesty that was his life. Or was it Jonathanas who is truly responsible, for was it not his brutal attack on then-Grunthark's village that set the young hobgoblin on the blood-soaked path he trod the rest of his days? Was it Yarrick Zan's fault for setting Jonathanas himself upon the adventurer's path? Seshas's, for allowing the Darkstar Clan to stagnate after the death of Jonathanas I? The LeShays', for opening the portal to the Far Realm? Azathoth's, for creating reality in the first place? The farther back one goes, the more twisted and complex the web of cause and effect becomes, until existence itself is a sin. I shall leave this mangled skein to the philosophers--for I am here only to tell you the story…