Mertion Hampton

Mertion Hampton

Formally amongst ARCAM's most effective agents, Mertion was a powerful mage and veteran of ARCAMs overseas extraction network. Serving a minor antagonist to the party, Mertion was tasked with hunting down Azura after they stole the Box of Dagon. Mertion was responsible for capturing Doomed 2 Die in Oskunstrond but ultimately freed them when the Cult of Dagon sunk their ship, teleporting the party to the Commonwealth to find the box and defeat the cult.
Mertion has been described as dangerous, driven, and insensitive to the collateral damage he causes. He believes every means of agression should be taken in his missions, and has caused sensitive issues for ARCAM in the past, with his capture of Doomed 2 Die seeing the intervention of Queen Rhiannon and the threat of shutting their branch down.
After recovering, it appears Mertion was demoted in rank within ARCAM. As of 1052, the archwizard is accompanying Astra Kommenian through Gehenna to retrieve John Kommenian's mansion of Mystery which mysteriously appeared in the plane. Mertion was nearly killed when Crawlthagon and his devil hordes returned to capture Astra. He was ultimately spared by Azura after returning the magical prison her mother was held in.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

A graduate of Wyvern College in The Miskatonic, Mertion was an academic high performer from an Eldrian descendend family within Saunton. During the war, he and his family were forced to live under Seldrinar tyranny during their occupation of the city, and the young human would see the dangers their use of magics could pose. In 1028, at the height of the occupation, Mertion was enrolled in the Miskatonic were he studied Abjuration in order to protect people from this magic. Consistently performing well, he was scouted by ARCAM and recruited into the organization upon his graduation in 1039.
His early ARCAM also gave him the oppertunity to take additional magic lessons, learning skills in transmutation, necromancy, and evocation in order to perform his tasks more effectively. His dedication and success ratio was noted and more dangerous and indepth missions were gradually being granted to the wizard. It was only his success record that detered the ARCAM forces and Miskatonic body from stripping him of his rank, as he was also causing extensive damage and seemed careless when it came to witnesses.
by 1050, Mertion had been promoted to Arbitor, and given his own team. in 1052, Mertion was given the files on the Box of Dagon and tasked with finding it, after numerous other arbitors had failed to attain any leads. Within a few months, Mertion had realised the box was stolen by Azura, and traced their steps, and even went so far to recruit their former classmate into ARCAM to help with the investigation. Interviews in Buchstable led him to the Corrupted Fortune, and he used his magical powers to attack the criminal elements of Ceannastra, learning the skallen ship had docked and sold the box at a shady inn. His investigations revealed a hidden member of the Cult of Dagon in the city, who was swiftly dispatched.
Mertion then headed to sea, determined to find The Corrupted Fortune and bring Azura in, suspecting them as being part of the Cult of Dagon. Posing as a merchant ship, the Fortune took the bait and attempted to raid them, but were captured, with the crew held hostage, but Azura nowhere to be found. His advanced interogation of the crew revealed Azura had fled months before, and he was back at square one.
By chance, Azura had messaged Olivir and revealed where they were. The captain's son tried to warn her, but was knocked out before he could finish his response. Olivir was interogated, and revealed where Azura was. Using the corrupted fortune, Mertoin released some of the crew onto the boat and went with Captain Vand to Oskunstrond to lure Azura onto the boat, holding the captain's son as a primary hostage. His plan worked without a hitch, and Azura was escorted back to the ARCAM ship. His manipulation and breach of Aedrinarian law was frowned up by new recruit Amy Cobblepott, and his brutal put down of an attempted prison break led by the Corrupted Fortune's crew saw him sink the ship and destroy Ashbrand.

Mertion was ruthless in his interogation, and even tried to bribe certain members of the party whilst performing character assassinations on the wizard to try and isolate her. He did release Einar upon realised they were not connected to the main crime. His interogrations were slowly revealing the wizard was simply a thief and not a full cultist like he suspected, but regardless she had unleashed a dangerous artefact on the world, and in his linear mind, she deserved to go to prison. His voyage was cut short when the Cult of Dagon's Ghost Ship, captained by Saragos the Drowned and Ebony, were searching for Azura. His vessel was sunken by the Kraken Baba Mara, under Ebony's control, and upon realising how powerful the cult was he calculated that Doomed 2 Die were the only hope of stopping them, so he freed their group and teleported them to Buchstable before seemingly dying.
The master wizard had actually been captured by Sahuagain and sea spawn and taken on the ghost ship back to Ynnsmouth with the few surviving members of his crew, where he was tortured and beaten with the intent of extracting information and ultimately sacrificing him to Dagon. Mertion would be freed by Azura, and was escorted out of the cult lair heavily injured, where he apologsied to the wizard and returned to Saunton to heal.
After his recovery, Mertion was blamed for the diplomatic incident between Sudureyja and was demoted and nearly forced out of the organization he devoted his life to. Mertion would break rank and travel with Astra Kommenian to Gehenna in search of John Kommenian.
On this visit, Mertion would once again run into Azura and Doomed 2 Die, with their new members Gallus and allies Ivar and Falia Rayes. The meeting woudl be tense, but the party saved the master wizard and Astra from the forces of Asmodeus. Ivar would ask Azura if she would like Mertion dead, an offer the diviner refused for the time being. 
Mertion used his arcane prowress to stabilise the mansion of mystery so Astra and Doomed 2 Die could make their way to the sanctum and return the mansion to the material plane. Ivar the vikingr was left behind to defend the mage, but the devils onslaught proved too much and the wizard was felled. In his dying moments, he apologised to Azura and offered a peace offering, the magical prison her mother Gwenyth Youngspell was captured in. For this action, Azura allowed Einar to heal him.

Status: Alive
First Appearance: Session 21, Divided We Fall

Species

Human

Ethnicity

Commonwealth

Age

37

Date of Birth

9th Applefall, 1015

Pronouns

He/Him

Gender

male

Eyes

Dark blue

Hair

brown, medium, waxed to left side, goatee

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

White

Aligned Organization

ARCAM

Appearances: 5

• Session 21: Divided We Fall
• Session 22: Prisoners
• Session 36: Shadow Over Ynnsmouth
• Session 68: The Mad Mage's Mansion
• Session 69: Arcane Masters