This tale is a parable of the Guild of Arcane Lore, most commonly told among the Torazan convocation of the T’ara Kul; but from northern Kildora to southern Tolus, everyone knows of the great folly of Baylora.

Born in 2902, in the northern mountains of Arushal,  Baylora Ariath was one of the greatest, and undoubtedly one of the most eccentric, Torazan mages of her time. Legend tells that Baylora had been an alchemist and herbalist in her youth prior to her being taken into the Guild of Arcane Lore by a wandering mage in the 2920’s. Baylora had a deep knowledge of Torazan lore and an almost uncanny knowledge of plants and animals. One of the youngest mages to achieve the rank of Vendari, doing so in her twenties, Baylora was considered a leading light of her profession, a mage of enormous talent and power.

Alas, Baylora had a terrible temper and a stubborn pride. After a long series of personal conflicts with other mages of her convocation, she stormed from her chancery, vowing never to return, and disappeared for five years. Rumor suggests that Baylora traveled widely during this period, perhaps even to the furthest reaches of eastern Ishkala. In any event, she returned to Arushal in 2942, a changed woman. Her hair had become wild and unkempt, her garments ragged and torn, and her eyes held the gleam of a visionary (or a fanatic). After a brief appearance in Lithkor, Baylora soon vanished again, this time into the the western vastness of the Pelon Delta.

Baylora settled deep in the trackless marshalnds of the Delta, setting up her sanctum in a small abandoned tower on an isolated island. There, she was free to conduct research and live free of the disputes that had so marred her career. Her servants were few and Baylora, with the aid of powerful enchantments, discouraged visitors from disturbing her peace.

While it is true that Baylora was a master in all aspects of Torazan lore, but she seemed to delight most in enchantments that dealt with plants, and particularly with accelerating their growth to monstrous sizes. Unrestrained by her peers, she begun to dabble in powerful arts far beyond her capacity to understand, much less control.

In 2948, one of Baylora’s servants was found drifting at sea off the Pelon Mouth in a small coracle; he was raving, almost incoherent, and in a deep state of shock. He was eventually nursed back to health, but if questioned about his mistress, his eyes would flash with fear, and he would ramble on about “horrific plants”, “putrid doom,” and “wretched death.” Obviously, something momentous, and dire, had happened to Baylora and all her household.

The fears of what Baylora might have unleashed are magnified due to the already unsavory reputation of the region – it is associated in the popular mind with the Necromancer, who’s haunted capital is now a sinking ruin at the heart of the Vindus Swamp, on the northwestern edge of the Delta. It may be that Baylora and those around her were simply killed, and nothing more… but many who knew her fear the horrors that might yet be growing in the isolated reaches of the Delta. Growing, and perhaps one day spreading beyond the marshes of Pelon…