Mormesk

Mage of Wave Echo Cave · Zombie lord · He was right

First met	Wave Echo Cave
In life	Mage, and Urmon's colleague
In death	Zombie lord, bound to keep the Forge dark
Fate	Put to final rest by the party

The wizard who tried to stop the Forge of Spells twice — once in life, once in death — and failed both times.

The falling out

Urmon told him about the angel — the vision, the plans, the forge that could make magic items, all of it offered freely and with no price attached.

Mormesk didn't buy it. Not the angel, not the generosity, and not the idea that a gift that large came without a bill somewhere behind it. He had no proof and no vision of his own. He just refused to believe in something for nothing.

As the work went on and the infrastructure around the Forge grew — the vents, the lair beneath Tresendar Manor, the sheer scale of what Urmon was committing to — Mormesk's objection hardened into certainty. Whatever this was building toward, he wanted no part of it finished.

When arguing stopped working, he raised an army of orcs and brought it into the cave.

The battle

The orcs met Urmon and the dwarves of Wave Echo Cave, and the fighting killed nearly everyone in it — including both wizards. The Forge was left unlit and the mine became a tomb.

Urmon was taken by Diamabel and imprisoned. Mormesk got a different sentence: he rose again as a zombie lord, bound to the cave, with one purpose — make sure nobody ever lights the Forge.

What the party did

Having read Urmon's journals in the minotaur lair beneath Tresendar Manor, the party learned the Forge could create magic items. They went to Wave Echo Cave looking for instructions on how to light it.

They found Mormesk instead.

He was furious. He told them about the battle, about Urmon, about the visions, and about his fear of what lighting the Forge would bring. He told them there would be dire consequences and vowed to stop them if they went ahead.

The party wanted magic items.

The last warning, ignored

Mormesk summoned a horde of zombies and attacked. The party defeated him, put him to his final rest, and lit the Forge of Spells.

The mists took Phandalin within the hour.

In hindsight

Every warning the party received about the Forge came from Mormesk, and every one of them was accurate. He spent his life trying to stop Urmon and his afterlife trying to stop the party. The last thing he did was fail.

Open threads

• His binding held for generations. Whatever put him there is presumably aware it no longer does.
• He never knew what the Forge would actually do. He was guessing, and he staked two lifetimes and an orc army on the guess.