Melgorhen's Reach

A Tale of Melgorhen's Reach
Author Unknown

During the second era, a rather powerful Wizard named Loul the Enchanter dwelt in the domain of Elanthia. Loul was most notable as a researcher of magic and a collector of rare magical artifacts. Loul's greatest difficulty in practicing his research was the limited number of times a particular magic item could be used before it ran out of charges, and sometimes was destroyed in the process.

The latter half of this Wizards life was spent in the pursuit of a solution to this problem. Like others of his stature, Loul knew the common spells for recharging wands and staves but these were useless for recharging such items as amulets and other artifacts. So after many years, Loul was able to develop a method for recharging these items; but the process required some very unusual situations.

Loul determined that there were a few places where the elemental energies were strong enough to bleed into a magical item under the proper conditions. He also found, quite inadvertently, that the powers of spirit were also at their prime in these conditions. The Wizard managed to locate an ideal energy flux, but was disappointed to find it was located several thousand feet in the air. This problem was solved by the formation of a mountain which reached high enough to provide a place to stand. A rare artifact of magic was lost forever warping the earth so.

Loul visited to Dearven city of Rhakhaan where he commissioned the clan of dwarves known as the Granto'k to build a way up the mountain to his exacting specifications. At the top they also built a chamber at the precise location Loul had instructed. The way up the mountain was designed to both ward off the uninvited, and prevent machines of siege to be moved up the trail even with the best engineers. Further Loul had the trail built to be a one way trip and let it be known that those who would attempt to climb it would not find getting back so easy if he failed. How Loul himself managed to get down is not clear.

The conditions where the item recharging were optimum required a conjunction of the great moon Liabo and its satellite Tililok as viewed from the exact location of the major energy flux. Unfortunately for Loul, this situation occurred only once every four thousand years and lasts but a few brief moments. To overcome this inconvenience the Wizard warped the time continuum at the peak of the mount, such that the proper conditions would cycle by many times a (normal) day. This warping caused the peak to be shrouded in a perpetual cloud. Another artifact was lost in the creation of this time dilation.

For many years Loul continued his studies, aided by his new tool. But as fate would have it, Loul had made a fatal miscalculation: Dragons, although quite majestic, are very predictable creatures. It was not long before a great red variety happened along the only mountain for leagues. It was inevitable that the creature would find this a suitable home and in doing so ripped a mighty gash into the mountain and hollowed out a suitable cavern in which to rest.

Loul was outraged by this intrusion and set out to slay the dragon before any more damage was done. The Wizard was promptly eaten...

When Loul was never heard from again, the Granto'k claimed the mountain and renamed it Melgorhen's Reach, after the Wizard. At the base they constructed a draw bridge for which they charged passage to anyone who wished to explore the peak. This practice went on for many years, with some reported success on the part of explorers. The dwarves, however, were suffering a great many casualties from forays by the dragon which also called the mountain home and eventually abandoned the enterprise for safer projects.

Despite Loul's blunder, he was not a stupid man. Before leaving to seal his fate in the battle with the dragon, the Wizard had cast one last ward which when tripped would shift the entire mountain out of existence. In his haste, however, this ward did not trip for many years. But, eventually, the ward was triggered and the mountain ceased to exist. It is thought that eventually this spell will wear off and Melgorhen's Reach will return.....

End.