Samuel Drest

"A tragedy is merely a comedy where the audience understands the consequences."

- Samuel Drest

Samuel Drest was a playwright who resided in Westmarch. He had a high opinion of himself and a low opinion of the "dumb herd" that constituted the theater-going audience within the kingdom.

Early Life
Drest was a thief and a beggar. However, he was still able to write plays, which came to the attention of Lord Barimos. Barimos became his patron.

Rivalry with Marlowe
During his career, Drest had a rivalry with Marlowe, another playwright within Westmarch. Drest was jealous of his fame, and considered him a fraud. This hit hard when he turned up at the Grand Desote, during a rehersal of The Broken Four. Drest was certain that his play had found purchase, but then in walked Marlowe, who presented his own play. It was performed in the Desote, a play that Drest considered to be cliched, juvenile, and trite, but nonetheless, it won the audience over. Over the next three years, their rivalry festered, with Drest refusing to go to Marlowe's plays. However, Marlowe's fame only grew, while Drest's declined. At the height of their rivalry, Drest and Marlowe couldn't even be in the same room without trading verbal blows (or in one or two instances, physical ones), and they tried to convince actors to not work with their counterpart.

Drest made a comback of sorts with Rathma's Curse, which outsold Marlowe's most recent play. In the aftermath, Marlowe took a three month sabbatical without a performance of his work. Drest assumed that Marlowe had made a "final surrender" as the "hack" he was. However, Marlowe did make a return, this time styling himself as some kind of dark prophet, a writer of horror regarding demons lording over mankind. Drest assumed it was an act; a desparate attempt to gain fame. However, act or not, it worked, and the people of Westmarch flooded to see Marlowe's plays. In despair, and without his muse, Drest took to the pipe, hoping for inspiration to find him. However, none came. For a year, Drest lived as a "pipe fiend" until Barimos visited him. Barimos was now Marlowe's patron, but still wanted to know what Drest had been working on, as he was still providing Drest with gold. Drest assured him that he was indeed working on something; his "finest work." Barimos saw through Drest's lies, and told him that he wanted a play in one week's time. Otherwise, he'd have Drest thrown out from his lodgings.

Despite Drest's proclemations, he returned to the smoke den which he had called home for the past year. There, he was visited by a strange man, who claimed that Marlowe had put an incantation on Drest, which was why he had lost his muse. Drest's first reaction was incredulity, but the man's icy gaze gave him second thoughts. He claimed that Marlowe had struck a pact with Hell a year ago, and that only Drest could stop him. Marlowe was conducting a ritual this very moment, he claimed, and Drest had to interrupt it. With nothing left to lose, Drest headed to Marlowe's tenement. Inside, he found skulls and entrails (cow or human in origin, he couldn't say). But among all that, he found a manuscript titled The Dark Exile, Part One, as written by Marlowe. Marlowe took the manuscript home and read it. It described the events of the Dark Exile of centuries past. Drest was engrossed in the play, but then Marlowe knocked at his door, demanding that he return the manuscript. He claimed that he'd made a terrible mistake, speaking of horrors he had seen, and horrors that Drest would as well if they didn't end this now.

Drest took pleasure in seeing Marlowe reduced to such a sorry state. He taunted his rival playwright before Marlowe attacked him with unnatural speed and strength. Nevertheless, Drest prevailed, using a candlestick to smash Marlowe's head in, killing him. With Marlowe dead, Drest read the rest of the play, finding that it ended on a cliffhanger, at the point prior th the Lesser Evils launching their uprising against the Prime Evils. Drest realized that with this play, he had everything he needed to return to glory. He hid Marlowe's body under his floorboards and submitted the play to Barimos. Barimos noticed the similarities to Marlowe's style, but commended Drest for adapting "to the new tastes of our audience."

The Dark Exile
Auditions began for The Dark Exile, but things went wrong from the start. Two actors died while auditioning for Prime Evil roles. Barimos wanted to shut down the production, as the actors believed that the play was cursed. That, and there was worry as to what had happened to Marlowe. On the night of the play's debut, as Drest made preparations to attend the performance, the floorboards beneath his house began to bang, as he heard Marlowe call his name. He begged Drest not to show the play, but Drest refused, yelling that Marlowe was dead. He attended the play, and the audience was enraptured, calling out for him at the play's performance. Meriment followed, but two days later, Drest heard Marlowe call out for him again. This time, he did not fall silent.

Talk of the play spread throughout Westmarch, and people flocked to see it. It caught the attention of the Zakarum clergy, and a group of clerics led by Malchus came to investigate the blasphemy. However, the controversy around the play only bid more people come to see it. Drest however, was stuck in a living nightmare. Marlowe continued to torment him, but he couldn't move the body for fear of being discovered. Marlowe whispered that Drest had to finish what he'd started. Then, one morning, a messenger bid him come to Lord Barimos's office. Barimos hugged Drest, telling him he was pleased with the reception to The Dark Exile, but without Marlowe, the Desote was relying on Drest. In essence, he wanted the second part. Drest returned home to hear Marlowe laughing at him. For two days and nights, Drest struggled to write something that would match Part One, but nothing came. His muse had left him. He planned to cut his losses and run, but Marlowe whispered that he had to finish what he'd started. That all he had to do was ask for his help. Drest covered his ears, begged for Marlowe to stop, but in the end, he relented. Marlowe said he'd show Drest the ritual, but first, he had to set him free. He unfastened the floorboards and found Marlowe's body in a pugnant state of decay.

They began the ritual. Marlowe told him that they would be channeling the powers of Belial and Azmodan. The ritual was conducted, and Drest found his vision changed. He could see shadowy demons on the walls of his abode. He caught glimpses of the Dark Exile of ages past. He saw the banishment of the Prime Evils into Sanctuary, and how the Lesser Evils had subsequently fallen into civil war. Finally, he awoke from his fervor. Hours had passed, he could not see Marlowe anywhere, and the floorboards were back in place. And before him was a manuscript&mdash;The Dark Exile, Part 2.

It was at this point that guards burst into Drest's hovel, led by Constable Rantz. Drest fled with the manuscript in hand, but they were able to find Marlowe's body (the maggots gave it away). Drest was captured soon afterwards.

Interrogation
Drest was interrogated by Rantz and a Zakarum priest named Malchus. He told his story up to the point where he killed Marlowe. Rantz, who was impatient, declared that this was all they needed as a confession, but Malchus bid him continue. He told the rest of his story, up to where he had written the second part of The Dark Exile and his subsequent capture by Rantz. Rantz went to prepare the gallows, while Malchus stayed behind. Drest begged him to understand, that his actions were due to the influence of demons. Malchus lowered his hood and revealed himself to be the individual Drest had seen at the opium den. He revealed that Marlowe had realized what he was writing, and had been on his way to burn the manuscript, so Malchus arranged Drest to complete Marlowe's work, praying on Drest's jealousy. He further revealed that he was a servant of Belial, who had devised the play as a 'mind worm,' a tale of his victory that would live forever in the hearts of men. That he had led the Zakarum priests to protest the play had been a dogwhistle, a way of increasing its infamy. And now, the scheme had reached its climax&mdash;the last work of a hanged, mad playwright, who had told constables stories of receiving visions of demons. The play would tour, and all mankind would know of the horrors that dwelt among them. Or at the least, feel them. The story would become part of their lives forever, and those lives would never be the same.

Drest screamed for help, but none was forthcoming. The hangman's noose awaited...