a.k.a. YK
DECEASED
A version of Haserton Pragmus Lowls IV that the party met at the Forsaken Caravanserai in the Dreamlands.
He appeared as the actual Count did in his early 40’s, wearing an impeccable yellow and orange silken doublet that made his little square hat seem more jaunty than odd. Claimed to be the only person left who knew how to get to the Mad Poet. Like Lowls IV, was uncomfortable with cats. He was created at the Mad Poet’s oasis, when the Mad Poet made Lowls look at a book, which caused him to shatter, and lose so much of himself and his memory.
In Chapter 101, the party returned to the Caravanserai and enlisted the aid of the Yellow King in researching the gifts for the Mad Poet.
In Chapter 102, over the course of a six-month period spent hanging out in the caravanserai together, he forged a bond with Vik unlike anything he had ever known, and experienced growth in a way that could only happen through the influence of a mortal.
During that same period, Vik worked out that the Yellow King would indeed be able to find the Mad Poet’s oasis, even though he could not tell others how to get there. But “YK” stated outright that if he and the party were to travel east from the Caravanserai (towards the Mad Poet’s Oasis), the further they went out into the Eastern Desert, the likelihood would grow that he (the Yellow King) might cease to exist and that they (the party) might either lose their minds or never wake up.
When the party returned to the Forsaken Caravanserai after collecting all seven of the gifts for the Mad Poet, they discovered that the Yellow King had been captured by Weiralai and delivered to a prison on the Dreamlands moon.
He was rescued from the Lunar Prison by the party in Chapter 149.
In Chapter 150 (Part 1), YK told the party that he felt as though he had been held in the Lunar Prison for months, but he sustained himself through the neglect and torture with the unwavering belief that Vik would come to rescue him.
He then shared that he had been recovering memories of his two previous trips to the Mad Poet’s Oasis, and shared that it didn’t matter how well they prepared for the journey because the Oasis was “not located at a point on a map, but rather at the darkest part of their souls,” past the point of no return. The only way to reach it was to arrive at the end of their rope. It’s a journey of letting go.
After crossing the Eastern Desert, at the Oasis’ edge, YK sacrificed himself and ceased to exist, saying to the party, “I Choose to break my ties with what I was. I Choose to abandon Count Haserton Pragmus Lowls IV. And as I die, he will be left forever alone. Which is perhaps the greatest gift I can give you. I don’t know how you stop him. I still can’t really process what it is he’s trying to do. I don’t know what happens after this moment, but I know this: you will have each other. But he will always be ALONE.”
In Chapter 150 (Part 2), the Mad Poet revealed to the party that the Yellow King was created when the pages of Alhazred’s copy of the Necronomicon were shown to Lowls.
First Reference: Chapter 98
Other Notable References: Chapter 99, Chapter 101, Chapter 102, Chapter 116, Chapter 147, Chapter 149, Chapter 150 (Part 1), Chapter 150 (Part 2)