Tim the Great & Powerful

Tim, the self-proclaimed greatest and most powerful warlock of all time, is a madman who worships the Great Old One C̶̨̨̨̢̣͉̥͍̘͙͎̳͎͍̬̍͒̀̍́̐̈̅͐̕ţ̶̰̟̤̙̫̖̥͚̲͙͗̔̄h̸̡̢̡̨̺͙̝͔͙̹͔͚͘ͅͅu̴̡͉̫͕̗̬̣̹͈͍̤̺͗̀ļ̸̫̝̯̻͓͙́̉͋̈͋͜͜͝h̵̞̮͕̤̗͕̥͇̻̹̩̖͗̃̀́̃̾́̑͐͂̽͘ŭ̷̗͓̘͓̱̹͚͂̽̄̔̽̽̈͘͠ and seeks to bring him and other Old Ones into the Material Plane from the Far Realm. His combat specialty is summoning aberrations from the Far Realms to act as his frontline while he rapid fires blasts of eldritch energy from the rear.
Tim was one of several adventurers who answered a summons from Lady Kemlar, who promised each of them information they'd been seeking and a large sum of gold if they could defeat one of Tiamat's generals, Arkhan the Cruel, on behalf of her acquaintance Marshall and bring him back (dead or alive) intact for interrogation.
Table of Contents

Trip to the Tower

The group was transported to the Nine Hells by Lady Kemlar's magic, who soon parted ways with them as she left to attend her own business. They made their way across the hellish wastes to General Marshall's war camp. The group (sans Genevieve) spoke with the general as he explained his forces would cause a distraction in the west so they could approach Arkhan's Tower from the east. He had already arranged a boat to take them across River Styx and gave them a sending stone so that he could notify them when his attack began.
Arriving at the Styx, they met the mercenary Kishin who Marshall had hired to get them across the waters. When Mr. Hydration decided to pluck a soul from the river and destroy it to stain his own soul with sin and avoid the tiring effects of travel through Avernus, Tim was the only other member of their group who made no objection to his doing so.
Arriving on the opposite side of the river, the group was spotted by a scouting part of black dragons. When negotiations failed, Tim and his companions made short work of them before heading to Arkhan's Tower in the distance. The tower lay in the middle of a flatland with no cover around it, which proved somewhat problematic when the white dragon perched atop it spotted the group and let out a roar of warning. They rushed into the tower before the dragon could charge them, only for the formerly unlocked doors to slam shut behind them as the tower's obsidian walls extended to block the doors entirely.

The Lower Floors: Battling the Undead

The tower's 1st floor was guarded by hordes of zombies. Though they were of little threat despite their numbers, each horde that fell fused together and reformed itself into a zombie clot that proved much more formidable. Hanging in the back with Ibrahim, Tim demonstrated his mastery of magic by showering the zombie hordes with blasts of eldritch magic that pushed the undead back and kept them away from the group's frontline. Eventually, the undead fell to the groups continual blasts of magic, allowing the group to continue up the tower after a cursory glance at the 1st floor.
The 2nd floor was some manner of processing chamber designed to drain blood from humanoids using a large, complicated machine. This device was powered by a chained and muzzled nightmare beast and guarded by hordes of skeletons. As the skeletons noticed the adventurers and began firing arrows at them, Genevieve used her magic to free the nightmare beast. The very free and very angry beast turned the anger from its imprisonment on the skeletons, disintegrating them with its magic and smashing them with its great hands. Throughout the battle, Tim blasted the skeletons with countless beams of eldritch energy alongside his summoned beholderkin minion.
When the fallen skeleton hordes reformed into a dragonbone golem and giant skeleton, Tim assisted in bringing down the golem first while Genevieve kept the giant skeleton busy. Though they defeated the dragonbone golem, they were sadly unable to do so before the petrifying effects of its breath weapon turned their nightmare beast ally to stone. The room now clear of hostiles, they examined the machinery and learned it was draining to blood of Good-aligned humanoids and mixing them with powdered unicorn horn for some unknown reason. After the group took a brief rest to tend to their wounds, Tim pulled a lever and activated a teleportation circle the group then jumped through.
The 3rd floor featured a round chamber that lead off into several other rooms. The group split up to explore with Tim idling in the center chamber until Genevieve lockpicked the door to Krull's study. Inside, Mr. Hydration discovered a hidden message behind the books on a bookshelf and left his companions to solve the riddle while he continued to explore. Tim assisted Genevieve with solving this riddle, though he was briefly interrupted by the noise of the living lightning bolts Mr. Hydration had released from the golem lab. With assistance from Ibrahim as well, Tim was able to destroy the hostile living spells rather easily. Not long after, he and Genevieve managed to activate the floor's teleportation circle by throwing several magic items onto the infernal symbol for "greed", which vanished as they teleported to Tiamat's horde and allowed the group to advance to the next floor.

The Middle Floors: Dragons & Golems

The 4th floor had a soft and marshy ground, like a swamp, evidentially created through the magic of its inhabitant, Slarkas the adult black dragon. Though the group attempted to simply speak with Slarkas, the negotiations failed rather quickly when the dragon smelled the blood of its brood, the dragon scouts the party had killed earlier, upon them. This room, unlike the previous floors, had several holes in the walls that allowed Tim to push Slarkas' clay golem to its doom. These openings also turned out to be a hinderance as the adult white dragon Obatala came through one and unleashed its breath weapon before retreating as the group battled Slarkas. Mr. Hydration charged Slarkas directly atop Drip, keeping the dragon's focus until it noticed how much Ibrahim's magic was aiding the party and turning its attention on the cleric. All the while, Tim took cover and peppered Slarkas with blasts of eldritch magic. The dragon did manage to injure Tim badly enough that his magic binding his aberration servant failed, but Tim simply summoned a more powerful fiend to replace his vanished servant. Overall, the adventurers were able to put the Slarkas down with relatively minor injuries. The dragon's death seemed to activate the teleporter to the next floor, allowing the group to move on.
They entered the 5th floor and were immediately greeted by Vistalancer, the adult blue dragon. His magic had turned the ground to sand, interrupted only by his glass nest and rocky pillars and outcroppings scattered throughout. Mr. Hydration once again charged his draconic opponent while Tim and his fiend provided cover fire. Meanwhile, Ibrahim and Genevieve focused on the dragon's servant, a fiendish flesh golem. Obatala returned during this battle, hitting both Ibrahim and Genevieve with its cold breath before once again retreating. Mr. Hydration pursued Vistalancer as he left his nest to put rocky outcroppings between himself and Tim, though the warlock was quickly able to reposition and put down Vistalancer. The dragon dead, the pair joined their companions and put an end to his golem as well. As before, the dragon's death activated the floor's teleporter and the group moved on.
The 6th floor appeared to be an incubation chamber, containing several glass apparatuses warm to the touch with dragon eggs inside (as well as one cold to the touch, containing a white dragon egg). The floor itself was also warm and contained several vents that blew hot air into the room. Fiddling with the incubation controls, Tim and Mr. Hydration were incapacitated by some sort of magic when they touched a certain set of them. Ibrahim tried, unsuccessfully, to cure their ailments while Genevieve determined the controls were covered by an illusion which also hid writing on the wall. Ibrahim dispelled the magic hiding the draconic writing; fortunately, the magic afflicting their companions was short-lived and the recovered Mr. Hydration was able to translate. It appeared to be some sort of riddle indicating which levers needed to be pulled to activate this floor's teleporter, which Tim immediately set his mind to solving. With assistance from Genevieve he deduced this in quick order and pulled the levers that activated the teleporter and allowed the group to move to the next floor.

The Upper Floors: More Dragons & Living Spells

The 7th floor's ground resembled a forest after rainfall, pocketed by pools of liquid poison and jutting green crystals. On the far side, the green dragon Virmilius sat in a nest of filth and attacked without attempting any conversation. It was soon apparent that the dragon was not alone as a pair of living cloudkill spells crept out of the poison pools and used their magic to cover the majority of the room in toxic gas. At the same time, Obatala returned once again and before spraying the group with cold breath during his favored hit & run tactics. Tim summoned both an abberation and demon to assist with fighting while hanging in the back to provide support (which did leave him vulnerable to Obatala's cold breath). Despite Virmilius' tricky tactics and dirty fighting, the group emerged victorious when Genevieve's rocket-powered fist shattered the dragon's skull. After the adventurers finished off the last living spell, the toxic cloud cleared to revealed an activated teleporter (presumably activated upon Virmilius' death).
Ready for battle, the group emerged onto the 8th floor standing on hardened lava with more magma (both solid and liquid) surrounding them and balls of fire floating in the air. These fireballs turned out to be living fireball spells that began to attack the group just as the Flash, the red dragon, emerged from the lava and used his breath weapon before hiding back beneath it. The adventurers were repeatedly assailed by Flash's magic, shooting lava up from beneath them and superheating the air around them. Tim's mind worked quickly to find a countermeasure to the dragon's tactics, and soon he had a plan. When Flash fully emerged to attack Mr. Hydration for having the audacity to ride a dragon, Timtook the opportunity to polymorph himself into a huge giant crab and grapple him above the lava where he could be attacked. Despite Flash's best efforts, he could not break free from Tim's claws and met his end from a blast of Ibrahim's divine magic, his death activating yet another teleporter.
The 9th floor was thankfully free of dragons, housing on the apartment of Arkhan the Cruel. The adventurers quickly found a teleportation circle (like the one from the 6th floor) on the northern side of the luxurious apartment. Tim attempted to activate this teleporter the same as the last to no effect, prompting the group to search the room for clues. Tim was still in the process of searching the northern side of the room when Genevieve discovered a hidden panel of buttons that seemed to be linked to the teleporter. After finding various clues around the room (several of which proved to be red herrings), the group pushed the panel's buttons in the correct order and activated the teleporter to the roof.

The Rooftop: Battling Arkhan the Cruel

The adventurers arrived on the roof to find Arkhan the Cruel surrounded by his inner circle (Krull, Torogar Steelfist, and Obatala) on a stone dais. A lit brazier sat in its center, casting forth a multicolored flame in the shape of the Dragon Queen. Transparent chains surrounded the shape, one around each neck. Two of these chains were already broken as Arkhan shattered a third, stating he would finish the ritual to free Tiamat from her confinement after dealing with the adventurers.
It turned out he meant "deal" in a more literal sense than they anticipated, offering them 3x whatever payment Marshall had given them to walk away. Tim considered this offer, thinking that even if Tiamat got loose she would be no match for C̶̨̨̨̢̣͉̥͍̘͙͎̳͎͍̬̍͒̀̍́̐̈̅͐̕ţ̶̰̟̤̙̫̖̥͚̲͙͗̔̄h̸̡̢̡̨̺͙̝͔͙̹͔͚͘ͅͅu̴̡͉̫͕̗̬̣̹͈͍̤̺͗̀ļ̸̫̝̯̻͓͙́̉͋̈͋͜͜͝h̵̞̮͕̤̗͕̥͇̻̹̩̖͗̃̀́̃̾́̑͐͂̽͘ŭ̷̗͓̘͓̱̹͚͂̽̄̔̽̽̈͘͠ and the other Great Old Ones that Tim intended to unleash. It mattered little as Arkhan quickly retracted the offer when Mr. Hydration mentioned it was Lady Kemlar, rather than Marshall, who had hired them. Composed before this point, Arkhan appeared taken off-guard and frightened by the mention of Lady Kemlar's name, declaring he would make no deal with anyone working for The Whispered One either directly or indirectly before ordering his followers to attack.
Tim was the first to strike as the battle broke out, firing blasts of eldritch energy at Krull and pushing the tortle far across the roof. Having presented himself as a clear threat, Arkhan ordered his subordinates to focus their efforts on Tim before dealing with the other adventurers. Their efforts kept Tim from doing much beyond trying to stay alive for most of the fight, though he did slay the white dragon Obatala before Arkhan revivified the dragon with divine magic. In the end the group was victorious, the battle ending with Tim knocking Torogar Steelfist unconscious. Though Tim attempted to his his mind control magic to mentally enslave the minotaur, Ibrahim intervened and gave their adversary the warrior's death he had requested instead.

Epilogue: The Truth of Kemlar's Deal

During the battle, the group had deduced that that Arkhan's gnarled left hand was in fact the Hand of Vecna, and that obtaining this artifact was likely Lady Kemlar's true goal. Caring little for this, Mr. Hydration left the others to collect dragon eggs on a lower floor of the tower. Ibrahim and Tim both attempted to teleport away with the artifact, triggering a cursed Mark of Evil that Lady Kemlar had placed on them when they agreed to her deal. The moment they tried to flee with the artifact and break the deal, a great pain appeared in the smalls of their backs, traveling around their torsos and down their arms to manifest as shackles of green fire around their wrists.
With teleporting away no long an option, they discussed destroying the hand only for Genevieve to inform them that, as an artifact, the Hand of Vecna could likely only be destroyed under a specific set of circumstances. As they debated a solution, Lady Kemlar and her bodyguards arrived and began questioning the unconvincing adventurers about their intentions. Lady Kemlar spoke politely, complementing the adventurers on their success slaying Arkhan and conquering his tower. Nonetheless, she was displeased at their attempt to break the verbal contract they had made with her. Her displeasure multiplied by several magnitude when Genevieve seized the Hand of Vecna from Tim (who had been trying to sneak it to her) and put one bag of holding into another, sending herself and the Hand to the Astral Plane. Lady Kemlar promptly fired Ibrahim and Tim from their contracts and advised them to leave her presence, which they quickly did via Ibrahim's casting of a plane shift spell to Mount Celestia.

Related Plots

• One-Shot: Assault on Arkhan's Tower

Magic Items
+1 Wand of the War Mage
+2 Rod of the Pact Keeper
Illusionist's Bracers