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Everard Browning

Summary

Everard Browning, usually called Browning, is an ancient mage-engineer and one of the five creators of the Dome / Barrier, alongside Ennui, Brutor Ruby Eye, Valenth Cardonal, and Lady Evalina Hartwall. His work includes automations, maps, laboratories, Grand Towers, and concealed technical systems beneath the Barrier. Browning is associated with the pursuit of overwhelming magical power: he sought Pride’s power, may have planned a godhood ritual, and intended to strengthen the Dome with a crystal. Although he allegedly arranged for others to believe he had died, his present whereabouts and role in later Barrier events remain unknown.

Known Details

  • Day 24 names Browning among the figures commemorated in the desert laboratory statue and later in paintings from 314 BD.
  • The Dome / Barrier was created by Browning, Ennui, Brutor Ruby Eye, Valenth Cardonal, and Lady Evalina Hartwall.
  • The desert laboratory had automation construction manuals by Everard Browning, and the kitchen was said to have been made by Cardonal and Browning.
  • The reference image The known lands, after Hephaestoos invasion, by Magi Everard Browning.jpeg is a separate pre-Dome map created by Browning before the Dome was made.
  • Browning allegedly spread the word that he died of old age so magisters and Justiciars could act as his proxy.
  • Day 28 connects Browning and Ennui to something beneath Grand Towers, possibly an advance in dome technology or a power source for the workshop.
  • Day 30 places Browning’s lab near Craters Edge and records that he bargained to rid fishes from the Barrier in return for a peace treaty.
  • Day 33 gives more detail on Browning’s scroll: Geldrin tried to inspect arcane writing and cast Dispel Magic, making the words disappear; the scroll generated a new random spell every morning at 2:37, was valued at 600 gp, and sold for 6,200 gp.
  • Skutey Galvin was linked in a warrant note about impersonating a Justicar, but the notes do not establish whether Skutey Galvin is Browning, an alias, or a separate impersonator.
  • Day 36 Grand Towers visions show Browning with Pride’s power, wanting the biggest tower and to be the greatest wizard of all time, trapping Garadule downstairs, making Ruby Eye obey him, activating a device that made Hartwall disappear, and contacting a giant green dragon to help get rid of his husband.
  • Day 36 memory tampering showed Icefang shouting at Browning before a dark elf dropped a grub in Icefang’s ear.
  • Day 41 reports four towers springing out of the ground around Grand Towers and making a new Barrier; Browning’s responsibility is not confirmed but remains highly relevant.
  • Day 43 reports that Mr Browning did not like The Mother, Betrayer, Ennui’s dark-skinned elf apprentice, that Hephaestoos may have been asked to attack the dome by Browning, and that Browning’s reputation as a nice man conflicts with what the party has seen.
  • Day 44 places Everard Browning as a student or young mage in the old Riversmeet mage school, asking about Lord Bleakstorm’s immortality and planning to reach the tower through tunnels with the janitor’s broom.
  • Day 47 records a sentient Hartwall-lab door saying Everard Browning entered a day after Evalina left and departed with a key; a nearby corridor also bore runes reading Fuck you Everard.
  • Browning’s old group wanted to see secrets of emotional elimination, memories, and automations to help defend the land because they did not think the elemental truce would last.
  • Icefang warned that if Browning acted, the future could be desperate, with broken tower fields, chromatic dragons, hidden settlements, and elementals destroying things.
  • Day 56 shows a Grand Towers control-room table trap manifesting a giant bearded Browning head. The party countered the spell, but the voice still completed: and the flight of the gold ends.
  • Dirk’s ancestors reported Browning’s godhood ritual takes 1,000 years and could have completed 13 years earlier if Soul had not crashed into the tower. The dome was said to drain the party like elementals, especially near its edges, and Browning intended to increase power with a crystal.

Open Questions

  • Is Browning alive, dead, hidden, or operating through proxies?
  • What exactly did Browning, Ennui, Ruby Eye, Valenth Cardonal, and Lady Evalina Hartwall build under Grand Towers as part of the Dome / Barrier?
  • What was the peace treaty tied to clearing fishes from the Barrier?
  • Who is Skutey Galvin, and what was the Justicar impersonation?
  • What bargain did Browning make with Pride, and did he engineer Pride’s consumption by Garadule?
  • Did Browning cause or exploit the new four-tower Barrier around Grand Towers?
  • Did Browning’s student-era tunnel expedition cause the later Grand Towers, automations, memory, or emotion-removal disasters?
  • What did and the flight of the gold ends accomplish despite the counterspell?
  • Which crystal does Browning intend to use to increase the ritual or dome power?