|
A week later, Alzar announces plans to expand to fort of Evenarrow. Even though he built it with plenty of space inside for future expansion, he expanded too quickly. Since then he has built temples to Morena, Vanya and Pflarr, and Vix one to Nyx. Temples for Ssu-Ma and Infaust have just started. He has built a huge barracks for a vastly increased army. He needs more storage for his army’s support structure like food, drink, armor, weapons, boots, bedding and such. He built an alchemist’s shop and foundry, and a huge paper-making and book binding industry, one of the five largest in the Known World, taking wood milled north and nearby and turning it into pulpwood and such for paper and books. He also has the gravity fields and such he made as well.
So he is going to double his wall to the northeast over land and gobble up some land that way, and then rebuild his moat there. He is going to move his barracks, storage and military inside of the new structures, and then a giant library where the barracks was. Alzar’s goal is to build the biggest library in Pandius. The first stage of this is to build the walls and defenses out, and the barracks and such at he same time, then transfer, destroy, and move. I am told by the Castle Guide that after Alzar helps, the price is around 185,000 GP and then multiplied to get to 320,000. He spends it from the cash he brought in in the last M2 adventure. Alzar has announced two separate campaigns. Anybody who brings in 1000 unique books for his library that he does not already own will get a 10,000 gp finders in addition to the full price of the books. He has Draconus prepare a list of all of the books they currently have and distribute them. The second is a literacy campaign. Any family that achieves 100% literacy will have a taxfree year for the next 12 months in celebration. He’ll be sending his apprentices around to set up reading learning stations across Alzar’s domain. |
Year 10, Month 5
In the first week of the month, Vix gives birth to a daughter, who is one-quarter immortal. Vix and Nyx’s blood runs strong in her as well. They name her Vixzar! (LOL. Sorry :)) They actually named her Intaria. Vix will be ready for battle again by the end of the month In the meantime, Alzar won’t be heading out adventuring this month. Instead he hosts a giant Birthday Tournament and hosts a jousting and magic dueling event, and gives a +1 sword and Ring of Protection +1 away as prizes, and domain confidence continues to rise. He also works on copying over books, working on building the expansion, and more internal stuff. He also spends a few hours in Hamedh with the College of Wizardry, and they allow him to copy 100 books they don’t think are major threats to knowledge that Alzar wants to copy. But the main thing Alzar does this month is he begins working on a new spell… Alzar’s Bookfind, Divination Level 5 Duration: 1 turn/level Range: 1 mile Components: VS Save: NA When the caster casts Alzar’s Bookfind, they feel a gentle tug in the direction of the largest unclaimed book collection with the range of a mile. If there are no such unclaimed books or collections, then the caster can move about, or fly around, until they feel one or the spell ends. As they near, the tug will change and pull harder. The value of a collection is deemed by the size, so an unclaimed collection 15 common trashy novels is going to win over a collection of 10 valuable rare tomes. If the collections are equal in number, the closest is the destination. If the caster finds and secures the collection before the duration runs out, then a tug will pull them to a new collection. The range is a full circle, and will notice books above or below the caster as well. Alzar is creating this to finish his Book Quest. It will take 7 weeks of research, and then I’ll roll dice each week to see if it was completed that week. It’ll finish after 9 weeks, week 2 of Month 8. Alzar cannot adventure until then 100 minor books from the College of Wizardry |
While working on his spell, Alzar continues to put together the Nykthos Spear for Nix. He used clerical magic to survive and Astral Spells to the Yggdrasil and carves a length off for a spear shaft a few months ago. He researches how to carve it and practiced. He looks at rival immortals to find two to bless the knife and he uncovers Liena, Lawful Neutral and young immortal from Oceansend and Bemarris. Both are local immortals, one pro-Norwold and the other pro-Oceansend. So when Norwold annexed Oceansend, you can imagine how happy they were with each other.
Both would clearly be interested in making inroads with Alzar’s nation. One as a thorn to Norwold and the other an ally of it to bring them closer together. Alzar promises to build a shrine to each to their church, and they each bless his dagger. Alzar is going to make: Nykthos, Spear of Vix: +5 Spear, sized for Vix And give it these abilities: Teleporting – A hit character is teleported adjacent to the person who threw the spear Returning – It will return to the hand of the person who tossed it. -2 AC when used in combat User is immune to level drain Alzar has researched a path for making it: Ivory Horn from an extra-planar elephant to be carved into the point by a knife made from flint gathered from the oldest mountain on Pandius. Wool from a tiger from the future must be secured, and used to rub down the spear after it’s ready Verite to make the end of the spear forged by an evil ghost, mined from another plane, and forged in the fires of a dragon’s belly. Then the metal must be cooled on the Elemental Plane of Ice and dried in the Positive Material Plane. The shaft of the spear must be cut from Yggdrasil, and carved by a shearing knife blessed by two enemy immortals. The shaft is now carved. Year 10, Month 6, This month Alzar is working on the tip. He Astral spells to the Wildlands and after a few hours found and slew a giant mammoth, and carves the tusks off and teleports back. Then Alzar is trying to find the oldest mountain on Pandius but he can’t find it yet. He has gotten the wool ready too. The metal is rough. The problem is that Alzar can’t summon an evil ghost right now (he’s not evil). But he found a lode of verite on the Mineral plane, he just needs to rest to jumpstart it. |
Return to The Rod of Seven Parts
In week 3, Alzar is flying around his domain when a Pit Fiend teleports in front of him. Surprised, Alzar pulls up. He introduces himself as Ulthut and he is very surprised to have this conversation with a mortal. Flying in the air, they talk about the Rod of Seven Parts. Apparently, about five or six decades ago, the 6th part of the Rod was found by a devil and turned over to its superiors in Hell. As soon as it arrived, a portal opened and more than 100 Spyder-Fiends pored out and attacked, trying to return the Rod’s part. They fought them off, and then Ulthut and a few other pit fiends met and realized they needed to find a safe place for the Rod. If they kept it in Hell, bad things would happen. The Queen of Chaos was so focused on the Law/Chaos wars with the Rod that she had forgotten the Blood War between demons and devils millennia ago. If they kept the Rod in Hell, then she would essentially rejoin the war against them. So they created a pocket plan and Ulthut agreed to guard the 6th piece. He knew that the Queen and the other pieces wouldn’t scry it, or know where it was. It was safe from all scrying eyes. The goal was to remove this piece of the Rod from the conversation completely, so the Queen and her minions were unable to get it, as was anyone else. But Alzar has, surprisingly, proven himself able to deal with the added attention of the Queen if chaos and took her down and stopped multiple waves of Spyder-Fiends. So Uthut can take Alzar to the pocket plane and then can assault the Citadel of Chaos, where Miska is to get the 7th and try to take him out. (The adventure is meant for the characters to sneak into the plane, and take out everyone and grab the rod and leave. But it begins with, “Ulthut and his servants defend the segment from mortals that are too stupid or too weak to prevent it from falling into the Queen’s hands, but the pit fiend will surrender it to any lawful group who seems capable of evading the queen.” It’s hard to do so, however. Alzar does!) So Alzar acquires the 6th segment of the Rod, teleports home, and that night uses the Glyph he prepares to connect them |
With 6 segments:
Alzar takes everything literally. He must follow all instructions perfectly he gets from charms or commands. He can create a whirlwind once a Day and command it for seven hours, and he can ride the whirlwind. As soon as Alzar finishes, the 6th piece of the Rod, it begins to pull him. He casts some priestly magic before they head out. Vix is in the room with him, and she grabs his hand, and they head to the farflung plane of Pandemonium.... |
Alzar had done research before. This is the Citadel of Chaos, a mostly open place that was the site of the fall of Miska and the Queen of Chaos, and the powers of law surrounded it in a Cocoon of Law. Alzar cannot cast more planar protection that protects him and Vix from the plane’s maddening effects and sharp winds, because priestly magic doesn’t work here inside the Cocoon, just in the plane.
After capturing the 7th piece, the Queen of Chaos brought it to Miska, and penetrated the Cocoon of Law. With the law-minded artifact in tow, they penetrated the Cocoon and created a tear that anyone else can follow. But only law people can leave, so no one else has managed to leave. Miska will have to have been half-alive, still wounded from the battle, but not dead either. Inside is the 7th piece. Alzar summons a Nightmare for himself and a Mount griffin for Vix as she doesn’t have her chariot. They penetrate the Cocoon of Law. Inside here, no conjuration/summoning magic will work, and you cannot teleport or leave from inside to outside, although you could move around the Citadel of Chaos They fly over and investigate. There are a few towers here on the top of the citadel. One set apart from, the others, has no windows or entrances save through the guardhouse below. They land on a nearby tower, and then enter. In a walkway near the tower, are a group of 5 Spyder-Fiends. Battle Begins (If you’ll recall, there are multiple types of Spyder-Fiends, and they tend to be weaker demons in the 4 5 or 6 HD range.) 3 vs 1 They miss Alzar (Cloak) and hit Vix once for 8 damage. This is the chance for Vix to try out her newly enhanced skills in battle and she slays a Spyder-Fiend and Alzar badly wounds another/ Here in Pandemonium, their weapons and effects suffer from a -1 effect. But a +3 spear and +4 Selnyr are still nasty. Vix – 141/149 5 vs 7 Alzar slays two, and Vix another. They are missed 4 vs 8 They slay the last Fiend and move on |
Alzar and Vix and their mounts move down the battlements up here and they arrive at an inner level of stairs that goes inside the fort and down. They head into the building and leave their steeds outside
Alzar suspects that they should be able to get to the super tall tower to find the Rod. It’s over down this hallway, down some stairs, over a bridge, into the guardhouse, and then over to the tower. They head over, and twice face small groups of Spyder-Fiends, once in the stairs, and then the other across the bridge. First group They defeat in four rounds and take 8 and 11 damage respectively. Second group? Three again, and 0 an 22. Vix quaffs a healing pot before they enter the tower 81/89 132/149 This tower is much more decorated than the other places they’ve seen and lush. As they enter, they see a well-furnishing room with a Succubus here on there ground floor. She tries to seduce Alzar, then offers to help. She is tired of Miska, who treats her cruelly and will aid Alzar and Vix with information. Up two floors and to the left is a secret door to Miska’s room, and in there is the final piece of the Rod. She’ll distract his guards and bring them down here to do some meaningless tasks that will take time and delay a response. Then Alzar and Vix can grab the 7th piece, secure it, and use it to kill Miska permanently. They head up and follow the Succubus’ instructions, and slip into the bedroom. The final piece is here  Alzar scouts the room, and the Rod and dais are untapped, and there is even a glyph here so Alzar could immediately attach it. That’s…odd |
Is Alzar being manipulated?
Is he supposed to grab the 7th part and attach it? The Succubus “distracted” the guards….they’ve only encountered 15 Spyder-Fiends in the entire castle…the Rod is here I the room open, and untrapped and has a glyph ready to go…. It all feels off. Like Alzar is supposed to play this part. But why? What’s the value? It’s not a fake part, Alzar’s tug proves otherwise. That’s a real glyph too, not a fake. That will let him attach the parts without them flying apart. As a reminder, the Rod of Seven Parts was used by law to kill Miska here, but Miska’s chaotic demon blood ignited chaos in the Rod, it broke and there have been chaotic parts ever since. Why would Miska need a fully assembled Rod here in his kingdom? Well the obvious answer is because he needs to. Maybe it’ll restore him to his full powers or maybe it will destroy the Law Cocoon and summon massive allies from the Abyss. Alzar does not feel like playing the part of a puppet. Instead of taking the part and adding it now, he tells Vix to grab the 7th part. They will head back out. Alzar will take the glyph, 7th part, and then leave Pandemonium and research what is happened. They grab the part and Alzar casts Mass Teleport (you can use it within the cocoon) to get to the steeds outside and fly immediately away. Their steeds have been slain. Alzar casts Mass Flight and 10 Spyder-Fiends appear at the battements and try to intercept them. Alzar order Vix and him to flee quickly, they evade combat and move to the tear. About 30 seconds away, suddenly a foe teleports in front of them. Miska, the Wolf-Spider  |
And then Alzar realizes what is going on, Miska cannot regain his power until the Rod is brought back together here. But, Miska cannot be slain unless they restore his power, because only the Rod can kill him now that he has invested his soul into the Rod. If they flee, nothing changes.
Miska is trying to enrage Alzar and make him angry. Alzar pretends it’s working, back’s up, grabs Vix’s Rod, and spends two rounds putting it back together. The Rod is reformed. Alzar looks up and Miska arrives and is trying to wrestle. Alzar flies back to the castle and drops down on top of a tower. Vix and Miska follow. Miska jumps and grabs at the Rod. As soon as he grabs the Rod, he is restored to his power and raging power erupts from Miska. The cocoon is falling, and he looks over at them with new power: Miska, the Wolf Spider, Restored: -7 AC, 50% Magic Resistance, 100 HP, THAC0 -3, DMG – 6 attacks for 2d6+2. Normal demon abilities like casting Darkness or regenerating (I added the 50% MR) |
Round one
4 vs 3 Miska is immune to Alzar’s Cloak, and goes after Alzar for 4 hits for 44 damage. Zang. Vix attacks and hits once for 13, Miska’s blood spurts a deadly toxic spurt and Vix just dodges out of the way. Alzar casts Time Stop. He Heals, casts Strip Resistance…and gets one more turn and drops Protection from Demons Miska – 89/100 Alzar is healed, the Strips fails his MR and will try again each round until it cracks. Round 2 - 6 vs 4 It cannot attack Alzar so Vix takes 6 attacks, and three hits for 38. Vix misses twice, hits once for 13 and the blood hits her, but she is immune to poison due to her immortal divine blood and Alzar misses and hits once for 20 and his axe carves it open to, more blood, but his items keep him safe from poison. Miska – 68/100 Vix – 94/149 Alzar 89/89 Round 3 – 5 vs 4 Vix is hit FIVE times for 55. She hits back twice for 23. Alzar hits for 16 once. Again, no need for poison saves. Strip Resist works, and the MR of Miska drops to 17 Miska – 31/100 Vix – 48/149 Alzar 89/89 Miska is vulnerable…. Round 4 - Alzar uses the Ring of Quick Action. A couple of options. Time Stop from his stored spells, Heal Vix, cast anything else, resolve, next turn. Or, try to kill Miska this turn with the five attacks they have. If they can’t finish Miska in melee, Miska WILL teleport away, and we all know it. But, Alzar uses his Quick Action ring so that would leave a 50% of killing him next round unless Alzar’s Power Word Kill or Finger of Death or whatever he has left would potentially finish this guy off. So what has a better set of odds? Attack now with everything or heal, try to cast some death stuff, and try to finish off Miska next turn if not? Well, what’ the math for hitting this turn? This is the every other round Vix has three attacks with her spear. Vix needs a 5 to hit, she’s just been unlucky. Alzar needs 9s. Alzar has a stronger battle range Vix will deal 1d6+3+4+4, so 1d6+10. She I think the math is better to attack now. Miska will die in three hits out of five, and maybe two that do very well. Vix’s first attack- 4 Vix’s second attack, 19 – Damages roll 4, +10 – 14 damage Vix’s third attack – 18 – Damage roll 2 – 12 damage Can Alzar hit once? He connects on the first hit. Miska falls. While down, Alzar gabs the Rod of Seven Parts and pieces him strong, and penetrates his heart. |
Alzar gains a level (he can now use another 7th and 8th level spell)
With the chaotic element that imbued the Rod with more chaotic power and broke it gone, the pieces has fused together, and the Rod of Seven Parts is now The Rod of One Part. However, it’s also going to be a little powered down too, not as dominant a force as before. Alzar doesn’t want to keep it. The power isn’t that much where he is and the restrictions are tough. He teleports to the Vale of Aaqa, where the Wind Dukes were on the Elemental Plane of Air, the original enemies of the Wolf-Spider and the Queen of Chaos. They also advised him early, and they made the Rod. He leaves it with them, and they give him one of their Wind Chariots as thanks. It’s a silver disc you can turn into a giant flying wind-driven chariot that protects from wind based attacks, and then turn it back, it can work four hours/day. End of Rod of Seven Parts |
WHEW!
When they return, the area ceases being a desert and has returned its old terrain. Year 10, Month 7 With himself now fully evil, he summons a ghost, opens a worldwalk, and heads to the mineral plane and the ghost mines the verite with an implement Alzar has that can be used by an incorporeal body. After verite ore is mined, Alzar has had his gold dragon allies in the Ljallenvals agree to eat the verite and smelt it. They regurgitate it, and Alzar opens a portal to Ice, then to Positive Material after it’s cooled down. Complete |
Alzar is going to make:
Nykthos, Spear of Vix: +5 Spear, sized for Vix And give it these abilities: Teleporting – A hit character is teleported adjacent to the person who threw the spear Returning – It will return to the hand of the person who tossed it. -2 AC when used in combat User is immune to level drain Alzar has researched a path for making it: Ivory Horn from an extra-planar elephant to be carved into the point by a knife made from flint gathered from the oldest mountain on Pandius. Wool from a tiger from the future must be secured, and used to rub down the spear after it’s ready. READY! Verite to make the end of the spear forged by an evil ghost, mined from another plane, and forged in the fires of a dragon’s belly. Then the metal must be cooled on the Elemental Plane of Ice and dried in the Positive Material Plane. READY The shaft of the spear must be cut from Yggdrasil, and carved by a shearing knife blessed by two enemy immortals. READY! Alzar works on rebuilding his defeated military and expanding aboard. This month a comet is seen in the sky and confidence falls by 25. A small raid by humanoids out west is stopped. Vix is back to help pacify the area and takes out two lairs. |
Year 10, Month 8
Alzar’s spell is completed. He’ll begin book searching next month. While researching a book he was referencing, Alzar found a note about the oldest mountain, it’s petty far away, but he heads there and secures a flint. He’ll make the tip and then the spear should be finished next month. Alzar is dealing with a number of latent issues with the world change back. When the area was arid and desertish, it didn’t get water from rain. When the switch happened, the area still wasn’t watered and now Alzar’s area is undergoing a major drought. He spends the month allowing resources to help, and uses these items: Table of Plenty; Decanter of Endless Water; Metal Platter (Beef, Lamb, Turkey, Pheasant) for four people once/day; Mug (Beer, Ale, Mead) six/day; Pitcher (Water, Tea, Wine), three/day.; 3 Decanters of Endless Food; to help. Him and fellow clerics are helping. Create Water is a simple 1st level spell. He and his folks are teleporting and bringing water to crops and villages and such to help bring water and either save the harvests possible, or to get water and food out there. Every little bit helps. Alzar also heads back to Thorasia for a tour. He is looking for books. He heads back to places he had been to before, like Saltmarsh, the Isle of Dread, the Cave of Horrors, and more. Most have been cleared out. But he does manage to find a few books here and there he either never took with him because his space was limited at the time, or prioritized other things. 167 Assorted books from Thorasia Then he heads to Vala and his old domicile. His star pupil, no one did as well as she. She lets him in and shows the expanded library and there are around 1222 books he wants to add. He trades some new spells he either made, like his Bookfind, or found, like some of his shadow spells. She agrees to make copies of the books and will have her apprentices send them over when completed. Finally he swings back to Hamedh and again tours areas he hit up before, like the Lion Castle or Neconolis ruins or the Sand Mire and Bone Hill. And again, he finds a handful of books he didn’t take around 12 or 15 years ago when he came through. 188 general books from Hamedh 500 books from Lion’s Castle Next he heads back to the Astrologer and fortune telling folks there he helped out. They had a sprawling library. They will let him borrow 325 of their books on Astrology, Astronomy, the Stars, and Numerology, for copying, for a magical donation. Alzar gives the Tower of Heavens a +1 short sword. Alzar had never cleaned out the general knowledge books from Lion’s Castle (I went back and checked…) Nice haul this month. |
Year 10, Month 9
Alzar finishes Nykthos, Spear of Nix So Alzar this week spends some time reviewing library competition: #1, Serraine #2, Great Library of Glantri #3, Alphatia’s #4, Lighthouse in Hollow World #5, Longrunner Clan Library, Elvish Clans in Alfheim, Mealidor #6, Alzar’s Library in Evenarrow Lighthouse of the Hollow World  Thousands of years ago, the Immortal Ka inspired learned people from the many cultures of the Hollow World to make a dangerous journey to the mountainous area where the Valley of the Lighthouse is found. There they could shed their cultural bias and dedicate their lives to the accumulation of knowledge. Alzar continues his Book Quest He spends 40,000 gp to double the size of book production here. All of those libraries have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, and represent the centers of learning on the Plane. Alzar is taking on this quest by himself alone. But he relishes it. As we know, Alzar is a bit of a bibliophile. He has always loved books and reading, even as a mercenary. Draconus has agreed to be the head librarian for the new library. Alzar and Draconus sit down to discuss the new building and create plans. I am going to go ahead and plan it and reserve the funding now. It’ll be….425,000 gp for the whole project, aimed at a full 25 floors. Entry, then 24 floors on top, reinforced, room to breathe and grow, and more. Serraine is 15 but with wider floors, and Glantri is 20. I go ahead and pull the cash off Alzar now I want to get a full book count for Alzar right now. Some libraries or books found are given in GP values, not a volume count, like a collection of books on a given subject worth 1500 gp. I am going to assign a good value (25 gp/book) for these collections to figure out how many books Alzar actually has. In a few cases, I think the collection has a few more or a few fewer books than it should, and then I assign a total number of books in an excel sheet. According to that, Alzar has, right now, 45,156 books. That’s a lot of books. One of the issues is that Alzar’s library has been specific to himself and Fivefold Path to Power adherents. How many of Alzar’s books are on magic? At least half, and most of those are on artifice (like golems), undead, conjuring, or enchanting. How many books does he have on evocation or illusion? Because it’s a topic that’s meaningless to Alzar it’s not something he has invested time and effort into. If there are 400 books per bookshelf that’s 6 feet tall with each shelf 1 foot high, then that’s just 112.89 bookshelves. But if my quick math is off because the average size of a book in the D&D world is much bigger than my Salvatore books, then suppose I can only get an average of 300 books a shelf instead. If that’s the case, we are 150.52 shelves, or about one floor of a library. Alzar has a big way to go. If the average book costs 25 gp per, then Alzar would be able to buy 4000 books with a 100,000 gp investment. Thus his collection would be worth roughly 1.125 mill. This is not going to be easy. Collecting enough books to get to a collection that’s truly epic is going to be hard. For competition’s sake, I am putting the Elven library at 250,000 volumes, the Lighthouse at 450,000, the Alphatia one at 675,000, and then the Glantri one at 850,000, and finally Serraine at 1.1 mill. So I want Alzar to get to 1.15 mill. That’s a ton of books. Right now, that would cost 28.750 million gp! Even if he brought in 4000 books a month with magic, trades, and purchases, it would take him around 250 months, or 22 years at 4k/books per month to get there! That’s a big task that Ssu’Ma has given him! Is Alzar going about this wrong? Instead of copying and buying books, should he instead steal them? This month is the first time one of the Shadow Mages arrives at his main castle to negotiate for the shade-making formula. Alzar agrees to share it for 500 books on The Demiplane of Shadow, Shadow Magic and Shadow Creatures |
Year 10, Month 10
Alzar sets up a large bookcopy shop back in Thorasia. The good thing about Thorasia is that magic works and allows mages to cast more than one spell per day of the same spell. You can cast more than one Bookcopy, so Alzar isn’t limited to the 10 or so daily copies of Bookcopy him and his apprentices can cast of Bookcopy, but instead more like 20. Alzar heads to Khaibar, former capital of the Sand Mire on Hamedh for his first use of the Bookfind spell. The decaying old area seems like the perfect place to have a few lost books, and the drier heat would allow them to survive longer. He is correct, and in one month, he’ll recover around 3344 books from Khaibar, which includes damaged copies he’ll restore with his Bookmend spell. But this is an investment of reducing value. Each month his Bookfinds will find few and few books, as the good stuff was gathered first. He buys 1250 general knowledge books from Khaibar as well for 31,250 The library project here will clearly be the biggest and hardest of the group by far. Vix heads out and brings back a previously unknown undead creature from the ruins that she found. Alzar spends a couple of days trying to figure out, and adds it to the knowledge of undead. This completes the 3rd of five tasks for Vix’s Path to Immortality. She just has two left. Building stops on all projects for the year. Alzar has begun building a new army of 4000 for the northern part of his realm. It should take about three years to fully build. |
Year 10, Month 11
On the 2nd night of this month, Alzar gets a vision one night while studying Nefti’s Spell Recall and then casting it later. It’s a few hours after midnight, when few are awake, and totally dark outside. It’s the time of the strongest connection with Nyx, Vix’s mother and Alzar’s mother in law. A direct communication from Nyx is arriving. Alzar heads down to her temple and one of her high priests is here, he motions for Alzar to enter, and the Grand Duke does (they kept their title). Her Nyx herself is wrapped in a shadowy darkness that is formless but suggestive of a physical presence that belies normal existence. Alzar bows his head in respect. Words pour from her form. She informs Alzar about the issues concerning the Entropic Path to Immortality. She reminds Alzar that it was decided that he had to do all five paths, but he didn’t have to do them sequentially. He took on one while still wrapping up one of Morena’s tasks. Nyx really likes the idea of supporting Alzar. He helped her take over as the main immortal of The Milenian Empire in the Hollow World, he’s bringing back knowledge of the long-lost shade-making process, he has research and created countless undead, sees the power and beauty of them, and more. He’s a great match. Nyx doesn’t have a lot of allies in the Sphere of Entropy. She does have some outside of Entropy, but not in it. Her major rivals are Orcus and Thanatos, both of whom seek to use undead as cannon fodder. She is also directly opposed to the Neutral Good Ixion from the Sphere of Energy, the immortal of light and banishing darkness. But that’s it. One of the main reasons Nyx helped to give birth to Vix was to bring in an ally, and she sees Alzar as another ally. There aren’t a lot of entropic entities out there that are easy to deal with. Having allies within her own sphere would be really helpful to spreading darkness and undeath. |
Therefore, she is willing to be Alzar’s sponsor proactively. This will also cut off Thanatos, her rival, whom she knows was intending to Alzar’s sponsor as they share an alignment, and very few entropic immortals are lawful. It helps her get Alzar sponsored, moves him to immortality more quickly as he can work on both at once, and he agrees. Nyx is actually one of the few entropic immortals who creates rather than destroys. (In fact in the third Edition of the game that rewrites the immortals of Pandius as actual gods, she is officially Lawful Neutral, not NE any longer, and the only LN deity in Entropy in 3rd Edition, and you can see that here with her. She even has lawful good followers).
Nyx’s 3rd edition description: Nyx, deity of darkness, death, and magic, is most often portrayed as a stunning woman with pale skin, beautiful and exotic features, long black hair, and black eyes wearing some piece of jewellery with a skull motif. Nyx is a creature of darkness and night, and her followers would like darkness to encompass all the world. Many of her highest level priests are in fact undead, but unlike most Entropic immortals Nyx is not particularly evil. She simply wants to change the multiverse to a condition where most other Immortals find abhorrent. She promises that understanding, personal power, security, order, and control over fate come with the study of magic. She admonishes her followers to respect those who came before, because they left their knowledge and died to make room for them. Her priesthood has a strict hierarchy. Clerics are known for their discipline and obedience to their superiors. They arbitrate disputes, give advice on magic, investigate magical curiosities, create magic items, and administer funerals and wear black robes at all times. Temples to Nyx are few and far between, but she counts many powerful wizards (especially necromancers) among her worshipers. Most of her temples are located in or near graveyards or catacombs, and they always contain crypts where powerful wizards are buried. They also contain extensive libraries of arcane lore and large collections of items that once belonged to great wizards from past eras. (As you can see, her Third Edition take is not dissimilar to how I have been presenting her, and I am going to push that a little here below.) (Vanya was demoted in power and shifted to Lawful neutral from true neutral as well). (Pflarr and Ssu-Ma were removed, and I made Morena for this campaign as their weren’t enough dwarf immortals). Alzar has started the Entropic Path Unlike other Spheres, there are many Entropic Paths. As the end of things, Entropy has four counter-paths that seek to undo Thought, Time, Matter and Energy. Instead of the Epic Hero, you have the Destroyer. Instead of the Polymath you have the Manipulator. Instead of the Paragon, you have the Dungeon Master. Instead of the Dynast, you have the Tyrant. However, more than any other sphere, Entropy encourages the immortal to come up with pretty much anything that works… |
Nyx’s Fifth Path to Entropy
1. Create a new race of undead, introduce them to the world, and have them grow and flourish for 2 years. 2. Find an artifact of Ixion, and destroy it. 3. Defile a temple of Ixion’s 4. Create a new school of shadow magic here on Pandius, and support it’s creation 5. Add darkness to Pandius in some major way (literally, not figuratively) 6. Create a magical item dedicated to the cause of Nyx In a few ways, Nyx is tapping in Alzar as a wizard in a way not dissimilar to how Pflarr did as well. And yet, it will help her two main spheres of influence with darkness and undead grow. |
Ixion is one of the most powerful Immortals out there. He is worshiped pretty much everywhere:
Ixion (Ayazi/ Himayeti/ Aksyri, Dazbog, Horon, Idu, Orisis, Otzitiotl, Pyrak, Pyro, Solarios, Sun Prince, Tabak, Tubak the Lawgiver, Tyr, Warruntam, Xi-Yang) Lord of Light and Energy Level, Alignment, Sphere: 36th (Hierarch), NG, Energy Symbol: a flaming wheel Portfolio: light, sun, fire, power, heroism, war, knowledge, banishing darkness, fighting Entropy and Evil, preserve universal balance Worshipped in: Alphatia, Bellissaria, Immortal's Arm (Eshu, Gombar), Cestia, Savage Coast (El Grande Carrascal, Dunwick, Gargońa, Narvaez, Nimmur, Wallara Tribelands, Torreón), Davania (Brasol, Emerond, Izonda, Meghala Kimata, Meghales Amosses, Vulcania), Great Waste, Pearl Islands, Isle of Dawn (Redstone, Shadow Coast), Hollow World (Azcans, Jennites, Milenians, Neathars, Nithians, Oltecs, Tanagoro, Traldars), Known World (Darokin, Ethengar, Glantri, Ierendi, Northern Reaches, Sind, Thyatis,), Skothar (Jen, Minaea, Nentsun, Tangor, Thonia, Zyxl), Yazak Steppes, Yavdlom Appearance: a male whose race changes depending on those who observe him. No matter which race he belongs to, however, he has always a long mane of shining golden hair, flaming eyelids and his skin tone has a golden hue. He wears a golden silk robe and carries a flaming sword at his belt, and always moves around on a giant flying flaming wheel. History: Ixion is one of the so called "ancient immortals", since his origins are lost in the mists of time and he states he does not remember (or he does not want to reveal) how he became immortal. Ixion has helped Ka and Ordana to create the Hollow World, in the attempt to save the endangered races of Mystara (and thus earning the scorn of Fugit from the Sphere of Time, who instead thinks nobody should play with destiny), and is much active as Hierarch of Energy in whichever plot involves the safeguard and the growth of the Sphere of Energy. Personality: Ixion is the embodiment of the sun in all its glory, and he has been worshipped by mortals since the beginning of times as patron of light, life and the natural order of universe opposed to chaos and death. As Tubak the Lawgiver he is revered for his ability to rule using the wisdom of common sense rather than through iron laws. Ixion promotes knowledge as means to reach salvation: the wise men are those who leave the darkness of ignorance to gaze upon the light of knowledge (and this is another aspect of his role of "light-bearer"). He pursues the victory of the positive spheres (led by Energy) against the negative influence of Entropy. He does not like strict codes or laws, so the only rules he preaches to his faithfuls are not to oppose Entropy and its followers, to maintain peace with every means (also with war) and to always pay him due worship. Ixion embodies perfectly the sphere of Energy: full passion and vigour, ironic, hot-tempered and always in motion, but also contemplative, thoughtful, wise and lenient. His most trusted allies are Valerias (his eternal soul-mate, despite all the quarrels that mark their relationships), Asterius (the most clever and merciless enemy of Entropy) and Ka (who shares Ixion's goal of protecting universal balance and the Hollow World). His most hated enemies on the other hand are the most powerful and ruthless among the Entropics, that is to say Thanatos, Hel and Atzanteotl. Patron: Unknown (probably nobody) Allies: Valerias (his mate), Ka, Asterius Enemies: Atzanteotl, Thanatos, Hel Classic D&D Stats: Followers' Alignment: clerics and follow to us can be of any alignment Favoured weapon: none (clerics can use all types of bows and crossbows, mace, warhammer, two-handed sword, scimitar, and the thrown weapons that belong to the cleric's culture) Clerics' skills and powers: +1 bonus to all dices rolled to turn undead; +1 bonus hit and damage rolls against undead; clerics can freely cast the druidic spell Produce Fire twice a day. Paladins' skills and powers: Lay on Hands, +2 bonus vs Death Ray. D&D3E Stats: Domains: Energy, Good, Fire, Sun, War, Knowledge Preferred weapon: two-handed sword Sources: HW, WotI, GAZ12, HWR1, HWR2, HWR3, SCS, CoM, DotE, GAZ4, IM1, IM3, Immortal set So, it will not be hard for Alzar to defile a temple of Ixion as there are everywhere. What about his artifacts? Alzar does some research I found a good one from the Forgotten realms I am bringing over here: The Beacon of Light Created by Ixion to help his followers in old Atlantis, it was used to guide their great ships in the void as they went from one star cluster or kingdom to another. After Alpha’s tyranny was too much, they fled here led by a vessal that lit up the night using the Beacon, and they arrived here and formed the Empire of Alphatia. Since then, The Beacon of Light has been used as everything from a navigational aid to a dungeon delving tool. It’s also been used to fight the night, and even allow a battle for a war to continue after night fell, with enough light to win by. However, the Beacon of Light has been lost for centuries. Alzar suspects that, like the Rod or Crook, it could be in another sub plane or dimension, but where? |
Alzar casts Bookfind this month in Hamedh’s city of Arjuna, another place he spent some time in, as well as the nearby desert that included Neconalis. He only got 1888 books from it, and he purchased a few hundred book from local places as well to increase his number acquired to 2500 ish
In other news, Alzar has reviewed the libraries. The only one of the five libraries above his that are used poorly is the Elvish one. They won’t even let elves from outside f their clan see those books, let alone non-elves. It’s the opposite of hospitable or library-ish. All the other ones can be purchased, or aided, or are freely open, and thus fulfill the role of an actual, proper library. But not this one in Alfheim. Could Alzar penetrate the Library Tree and secure some books? Alfheim:  Not today, but he will begin scrying and such to increase his knowledge of Alfheim, a forest surrounded by the nation of Darokin. Alzar invests 80,000 gold to build a large Mage’s Tower in Evenarrow that can be used to be a future Shadow Mage home. Work won’t begin until next year though. |
Year 10, Month 12
Alzar finds another 3322 books from Bookfind and purchases in Hamedh, this time in the Vale of the Forgotten Serpent, and those mountains and lairs, as well as purchasing books from local Rhabodomeres and other folks selling books. This year, literacy in the Grand Duchy of the Mighty only increased to 41%. Begin the Crypt of Lyzandred the Mad  This module should prove a little interesting as the module is intended to so some different things than a reader or player might expect on the first run through. I was initially expecting to run this as part of my grand Sand Mire campaign, but I ran out of time, and it wasn’t required. I like dropping hints of this module in previous places as well. But it fits Alzar and where he is now as well. |
On the 9th day of the last month, Alzar is holding court in his throne room and listening to a judicial case that was appealed to him from a local magistrate. About half way through, Alzar fades from view, and reappears in a new location that clearly isn’t in Norwold. Alzar looks about himself, and he can’t even see a clear or cloudy sky, stars, or anything else, despite a sort of light-neutral cast that let’s people see, but without any obvious signs of being outdoors. And yet, Alzar clearly is in fact outdoors.
It doesn’t appear that he is on Pandius at all. Alzar reaches out and cannot enter his OtherSpace, although he does have a bag of holding that seems to work. He was about to go head out on his quest for more books after his cases and work, and this was the penultimate task scheduled for him to do today for his realm. Alzar tries to planeswalk back with his own ability but is unable to. He suspected that. Anyone who would grab him would know enough about to keep him from going anywhere without allowing it. Alzar looks about himself more carefully. There is a large overhang to his left of a dark red stone Alzar doesn’t recognize and doesn’t look to be naturally formed. Alzar heads to it, down a russet colored path, with reddish colored plants. The scene is bizarrely colored, but the actual things are normal. As Alzar walks to and past the overhang of rock, he sees a giant and large crypt. On the crypt in front of him are runes written in Hamedhi’s Sand Mire Common that spell out the name “Lyzandred.” Is this the final resting place of Lyzandred the Mad, who was killed centuries ago in the battles that engulfed the Sand Mire? The most powerful of the successor states to form after the fall of Amun-Re was Lyzandred’s. But Lyzandred only engulfed the Sand Mire in destruction and battle, and ultimately fell to the Dragon of Shades. And then Lyzandred disappeared from history, and his final resting place had never been found. The Sand Mire covers many sins, so it was thought that Lyzandred was one of them, but clearly, there was a subplane that Lyzandred was on. |
The crypt is extremely large and oddly shaped and colored.
Alzar walks around, and about an hour later he has fully scouted the crypt from the outside. There is a large blue tinged brass door in the front that is closed, and the rest has no traps, no secret entrances. Alzar cannot get to many of his lesser items, like a Crystal ball, due to being cut off from his OtherSpace, as well adventuring gear like his Crypt Key (opens any lock at a grave or crypt) and Ear Ring. He doesn’t have a bandolier of potions or wands, or his useful adventure equipment. Instead, he will move forward with the stuff he does have, including Selnyr, which is always across his back in case of a surprise attack, Ring of Wizardry and Greater Sustenance, and more. (With his ring of wizardry, Alzar doubles his 1st and 2nd level spell load, which means he can cast around 16 Bookcopies a day without casting anything else. That does mean he’ll have access to a ton of level 1 and 2 spells today, but he won’t have the defenses of his Ring of Spell Turning, Free Action, or the sheer value of the Quick Action Ring. After checking the area, Alzar unlocks the door with his thief skills, and heads into the crypt. This plane’s rules on magic. You can cast multiples of the same spell, like Thorasia, so Alzar could cast 4 Vampiric Touches, as an example. Conj/Summoning spells do work. Div spells work twice as well as long as they are not divining the crypt, otherwise you cannot see into the crypt and such. The connection with clerics and gods is very strong, and divine casters are not effected in any way. It takes twice as long to cast any spell, so a spell with a casting time of 5 now has 10. A casting one of one full round is two, and such. Alzar arrives, and there is a great map of the crypt on the wall as he enters. The first section is a group of 40 square rooms called “Life Challenges”. There are no doors that connect any of them on the map. The next section of 20 rooms is beyond those, and is labelled, “Death Challenges”. Then, finally, is a set of five rooms that have doors leading from one of the Death Challenges, and called, “Lyzandred’s Challenges” There are even a few rules on the wall carved there hundreds of years ago. In each room is a great archway. You need to move through the first archway to go to the first Life Challenge. Once you have finished that room, there is a Ruby Archway which takes you to the next challenge, and an Emerald archway that will take you home. Going home is a one-way trip, and you will never get back. This challenge is designed to challenge the bravest and strongest and smartest of souls. The Life Challenges are designed around major life experiences you have already had. (I am changing the game up a bit, adding 10 more rooms. The actual module has 50 rooms but you have 100 room descriptions and you can mix and match and use what would make sense, until they have reached the final room, then on the 51st room, it’s the way out to the Crypt of Lyzandred. There s a very cool thing the dungeon does, as a sub-plane of Oerth, and many of the dungeon rooms are just subplanes of real places from Oerth. I love that idea! For example, here’s the Vault of the Drow! I love the idea of an adventure that could retrace the steps previously take by adventurers, but I felt that spark wasn’t fully fleshed out. However, I am modifying that for Alzar…) I will be writing all 40 of these rooms, but using that central idea and doing a better job of it! |
He arrives in the hallway of a underground facility. He recognizes the architecture as done by experts of stonecraft back on Thorasia called Svartálfar. One of the prisoners he rescued back in Thorasia was Wassilon, a Svartálfar. He recreated Alzar’s home in the beautiful traditional of his people. Back on the Isle of Dread, encountered a deserted outpost of Svartalfar that was later found to be hit hard by Gauntlet and Sentinel artifacts. This room is identical to that home, and there are 10 Svartálfar here. They give Alzar five separate math based riddles. If he fails any, then he’ll have to fight. Of course he does answer fine, and the Archway out lights up. Alzar heads to the next room…
So, as you can see, in every single case, there will be a room from Alzar’s past that has a riddle or a puzzle or a test If he fails, then he will have to fight the people in the room to move on. These are not challenging. They are things like the classic logic puzzle about crossing the lake with the wolf and the cow on the boat and such, as well as logical problems like, “Each day, a toadstool doubles in size, and on the 30th day it fully covers a small cave and prevents anyone from getting in. On what day was it half full of that mushroom?” Obliviously, the 29th day. Alzar has a 22 INT, and an 18 WIS so I am just auto-assuming that he can do them all and fully pass out of the Life Challenges without really pushing himself too hard. The 2nd room is a giant throne room that Alzar immediately recognizes. This is the throne room of Norwold, and sitting waiting for Alzar are the King and Queen. After arrives, Ericall intones an 8 line puzzle, and Alzar answers the verbal puzzle, and then the archways light up, and again, he heads to the next challenge arrives. The 3rd challenge is here. Alzar arrives in a central room of the Hill Giant’s Steading, where the Hill Giant Chief is listening and feasting. There are five Hill Giant retainers here. Alzar finds a physical puzzle and pushes pieces of the ground around to the right combination and then the puzzle is complete. The Hill Giant Chief points him to the right archway and he moves on. What about challenge four? Alzar arrives at a final room of the Tomb of Horrors. Laying on a plinth at the end of a small hidden room is a skull with gems for eyes and teeth laying in a pile of bones and dust. This is Acererak, a Demi-Lich. The skull opens, and speaks a triad of mathematical riddles. Alzar answers each one, and then the archway behind the Demi-Lich opens, and out he goes. |
The 5th room opens up before Alzar. He sees a large portal to another farflung place here, and a mutated and controlled Nigil a wizard is here, bringing creatures from the Far Realm to assist. Out comes a trio of Gibbering Mouthers from the final room of the Gates of Firestorm Peak. They each have a riddle that comes from all of the mouths that sounds pretty weird. Alzar answers the riddles correctly, and they are saddened and disappear back to the Far Realm. Alzar moves on.
Room 6? Alzar’s presence here in the final courtyard of Castle Caldwell comes across some hounds and humanoids. Luckily for Alzar, the hounds are pointing to a riddle in the earth, and he digs up various clues in the earth here in the courtyard of his very first adventure as a mage. He puts them in order and assembles a puzzle correctly, and then passes on. Room 7 is here and with it, the next challenge. Alzar arrives at the Sabre River and speaks with the dark mage at the heart of his realm with the sword-no-longer Cutter at his side. The mage gives a long mathematical problem that Alzar answers quickly, and then the river opens up, and on the other side are the archways, and Alzar heads on. The 8th challenge is here. Alzar is in the room with the Sage of the Heavens in Hamedh’s Tower of the Heavens acquiring the quest to secure the Books from the local creatures that had the Books of Prophecy, but instead, Shalfey gives Alzar a quest to find some books in this room. He walks around, finds the five books, and then puts them in the correct order on a book shelf and the doors open. Challenge 9 arrives. Alzar is here on the Demonweb layer of the Abyss, under the control of Lolth. Here Alzar must weave together correctly five separate strands of fate on the Demonweb proper to free himself and pass Lolth’s challenge. There are a few demons in front in case he fails. He succeeds and weaves all five threads, and Lolth’s angry cry signifies his victory, and on the Web, two archways open and he moves on. The 10th challenge is here. Alzar is in the underground Ruins of Neconis outside of the city of Arjuna I the local desert. There is no plantlife here, but there is a giant genie here who guardian of this level of the ruins. The genie gives Alzar his hardest riddle yet, but he easily passes, and the genie sighs, and then uses his wish power to open the archways. |
Alzar’s arrival at the 11th room does not go unnoticed. Out from the side of this room comes a quartet of Dwarf Crusher Golems, from the former dwarf hold in his land, where the Axe of the Dwarfish Lords was located. Alzar finds written on the ground in front of the Golems a logical puzzle that points to which of the flagstones on the floor in front of him that he cannot step on without fight a golem. He solves it, dances across the room, and leaves
Alzar arrives at the dark Kopru room in the final place in the ruined temple on the Plateau in the Isle of Dread. A kopru lounges methodically here, looking up gently at Alzar as he arrives, with its withering gaze settling on the human mage. It’s clearly hungry. It tells Alzar the keys to a puzzle, and he answers correctly. It’s angry, and splashes away to a corner of the room, and Alzar heads out. This is the 13th room and challenge room. Alzar arrives at the key chamber of the Pyramid of Amun-Re in the Sand Mire. Here in front of Alzar is where he got the Star of Mo’Pilar, a super Gem of Seeing that has arguably been one of his most used magical item. Alzar has to require the Star to get out of this room or fight Amun-Re. He sees, entombed in hieroglyphics, the problem of getting to the Star, and he follows it, secures the Star, puts it in a dais, and the wall slides back. He heads out. The 14th room arrives. Alzar is in the central garden of the spaceship that was unearthed in Norwold after the earthquake hit in his Expedition. This central garden was the result of nasty plants that were genetically engineers and got out of control. Alzar arrives at the bridge heading over the central garden, and sees the giant Froghemoth in the water glinting at him. He solves a puzzle that enables him to cross the bridge safely, and heads away. In the 15th challenge, Alzar arrives at the final room of The Veiled Society at the end of the Search of Adventure campaign where he fought against a secret society in the local capital of his kingdom. All of the various members are here, and each gives him one word of a six word riddle, and he solves and passes under the table to the next room and challenge though a ruby archway. |
In the 16th challenge, Alzar is here at the mastabas in the Sand Mire, where the village of local people allowed him to rest. A mastaba is right next to him, and he has to enter it and avoid the various traps. Each one is written on the wall beside him in a different language, and they involve different metal tasks, that he completes. In the center of the mastaba are two archways, and he heads out.
Alzar arrives at the Shrine of the Kuo-Toa where he was entranced and force to become their friend and learned their language. They cry out on Koa-Toan and ten Kuo—Taos are here in the Underdark and and a logical riddle is given, that Alzar passes and heads out. The 18th challenge arrives and with it, Alzar at the tavern in Orlane, the small town where he fought Against the Cult of the Reptile God. This is where one of his companions, Aleigha was spirited away in the night by Derek Densleigh and the locals and taken to the ruler of the Cult and prepared to join them. This time, Alzar has to stop them from taking away Aleigha. And to do so, he must pass three separate physical puzzles, and does. Aleigha is fine, and Alzar heads on. The 19th challenge is next, and Alzar arrives at the end of the Nightmare Keep where he faced the countless horde of Lichlings that were created by Icelia, another demilich. Alzar will have to face the 10 Lichlings here, but he passes the tests they give him, and gives an answer that impresses the undead, The 20th challenge is here. Alzar arrives at the underground Pyramid of the Forgotten One in the Sand Mire. In this room, Alzar faces a Greater Mummy, who will fight to the end unless the answer is given. A math puzzle is given by the Greater Mummy that takes around a minute to speak. Alzar answers, and the hard stone wall cracks open, and to archways emerge. Alzar is now halfway through the Life Challenges. |
Alzar arrives at a Camp in the Secrets of the Slavers’ Stockhold, and can see the various slavers here. They are whipping a few slaves, and if Alzar does not stop the whipping, they will die, but he must deal with a physical challenge from the slavers. He figures out which of 10 bricks is the secret panel that opens to a button, that will free the shackles of the slaves, and then two archways rise from the ground and Alzar moves on.
This room is the home of the 22nd challenge. He has just transformed into a Devil Swine to face Alzar’s party here at the end of Drums on Fire Mountain, where this evil lycanthrope has used magic to set himself up as the king pirate and bandit in the Sea of Dread to step into the power vacuum made after Alzar dropped the slavers. The Devil Swine is giant, and his daughter, Maerie is behind him. Alzar must answer Maerie’s challenge, or face and slay the Devil Swine. He takes it on, and instead two archways open and Alzar heads through the ruby one. The 23rd challenge arrives. Alzar steps into the Aarackocra aerie under assault from the evil demon ba’utun. Unless he solves their problems, the Aarakocra will be delayed and their aerie and village atop the great peaks will be destroyed! Alzar Is given a set of ten distinct but quick math riddles, and then answers them and moves on. The 24th challenge gets here. Alzar steps forward. This is the pelota playing room of the Hidden Shrine at Tomoachan. Alzar must play palota against the greatest gamers in their generation, and execute a physical challenge doing so to defeat them He does, and at the end if the game, as his ball goes through a vertical hole on the wall, a door rises and two archways beyond turn red and green. Alzar steps into the red…. ….and arrives at the 25th challenge. This is a subplane where Skarda’s Mirror dropped him and many others off and created a nasty dictatorial state that kept them under. But if Alzar can free them, they can even the score. Alzar has a physical challenge, then three more, and passes them. He opens up the fortress, and they escape! Two archways are behind them as they leave, and Alzar goes though the ruby one. |
The 26th challenge opens. Alzar is in Evenarrow, looking out over an invasion of almost a thousand Spyder-Fiends. He has to step forward and engage, but he can’t handle that many demons, so he’ll have to trick them, and answer some mathematical challenges. He does, and the scores of demons dissipate back home, leaving two archways behind to prove they were one here Alzar heads through the Ruby one.
Alzar arrives at his old home in Thorasia, in the central chamber where is instructing his first apprentices. Vala, as always, is smarter and cleverer than the others, and picks up on the Fivefold Path to Power much more quickly than any other he ever taught. The apprentice each ask him riddle about one of the paths, and he must answer them on charming or conjuring. Once their riddles are answered, the apprentices head up and out of the room, opening two gateways on their way out. Alzar arrives at the 28th room. This is the Star-Kingdom of Gammar in the Into the Maelstrom adventure he had with immortals where he won the appreciation of the immortal Vanya. Alzar steps into the Star Kingdom, and then sees a ruby gate here, beyond the phase ship docks, that will get him to the next challenge. First he must answer a riddle, given by the locals here, and does so. He skips past the Phase Ships and through the gate. The 29th room is here. Alzar steps in and looks around. This is the chamber of the Master of the Desert Nomads, with his golems here. The cleric shouts to Alzar that his golems will attack unless Alzar can give him the answers he seeks. Five questions and answers later, Alzar has stymied the Master, and he cannot think of any more, so Alzar leaves. The 30th room arrives. Alzar steps into the room where Zuggtmoy is about to attack in the Elemental Temple of Evil. Luckily, Alzar’s assembled artifact, the Orb of Golden Death is holding her back. She barks an order at Alzar and he has to answer the riddle contest, or else the power of the Orb will fade and he’ll have to face some of her minions. Alzar wins…. |
The 31st room is here. This time Alzar arrives at the home of the Rhabomancer he stayed at for a year in the Valley of the Serpent in Hamedh, and learned how to make a divining rod and many of the Magic spells of the local area. This is where his appreciation for divination magic’s power was honed. In a quest for power, Alzar’s ongoing realization that Knowledge is Power is increasing. Alzar is in a Divination contest with his mentor, and must answer five riddles about the magic. He does, and then moves through a Ruby Archway in the back of the building and into the next challenge…
The 32nd challenge is here. Alzar arrives at the beautiful flying city of Serraine, and the skygnome Questrix is here, welcoming him to the city, along with the pegataur Rolane. In order to secure entrance to the city, Alzar must pass a written quiz first, and does so. The entrance to the city opens, and Alzar steps through a Ruby Arch. He arrives at the 33rd room. He is in the speeding passageway that goes under the mountain and connects the Bone Hill area with the Sand Mire underground, in All that Glitters. In order to send himself through, Alzar must assemble 100 different gems and do so correctly. 20 minutes later he does, and then the portal opens, Alzar turns into a gaseous form, is blown to the other side, reforms, and then heads through the Ruby Arch here… The 34th room arrives Alzar steps through it and into the central room of the castle of Saffir, where the red-bearded Duke of Saffir waits. If Alzar doesn’t want him to turn into a red dragon and fight him, Alzar has to humor him and answer a few questions. He does, and the large toothy grin is satisfied. Archways open, and Alzar steps through the ruby one And emerges into a dark room with no lights. He is a prisoner outside of the city after being captured in his first adventure. He must give the guard an answer to a math problem or else remain trapped in his cell for the rest of his life. Luckily for Alzar (and arguably for the guard as well) Alzar is easily able to answer the question, and his bonds melt off, and the door to his cell opens. He steps out, and is challenged thrice more by guards. Eventually, he moves through eh last door and opens up a room with two arches, and heads out. |
The 36th challenge is here, and Alzar arrives at the throne room of the Queen of Chaos here in the Steaming Fen of her level of The Abyss. She smiles in gratitude for his arrival. Her ten tentacles slash out to grab the Rod of Seven Parts, and wrest it from his weak (in comparisons) human grip. However, as she does, Alzar suggests a riddle instead, and she loves the idea. Her and Alzar exchange ten riddles, and he wins, and she allows him to leave via the archways behind her and keep the Rod.
The 37th challenge arrives. Alzar arrives at the basement of the College of Wizardry as Japheth Arcane is describing their Primal Language of Magic they uncovered. Is Alzar smart enough to understand it? Japheth challenges him to three logic puzzles to test his intelligence, and Alzar passes all three. Behind the central learning chamber about the Primal Language are two arches, and Alzar leaves via the Ruby one… The 38th challenge comes next. Alzar is at the chamber of Xaene, the lich who has poisoned an entire city as part of a God of Poison and Decay’s desire to build her name. Alzar is underground, and they are at a small library here. Xaene agrees to give Alzar the cure if he’ll defeat the lich in a little logical puzzle. Alzar agrees, and he handles the challenge. Alzar is given the spellbook with the spell the lich made, and send out of a ruby arch. Alzar arrives at the home of the penultimate challenge in this first round. He is at the primal undergrowth that Alzar faced the Oerd challenge to go back in time and stop magic on the plane of Pandius. This is where Alzar is assembling the locals to fight back, and where his legend as the Lord of Wood and Fire begins. He just needs to find the secret route to the Oerd base to stop their spaceship. He must choose the right steps, and there is a code written on the ground that Alzar solves, and he opens the route and steps through and into a archway of ruby. The final challenge is here and Alzar is at his own wedding to Vix. As her mother is the immortal Nyx, she won’t marry anyone, so Alzar must defeat her. He can choose any venue, like fighting or wrestling or athletics, but he chooses a mental exercise instead, and they have five logaic puzzles she gives that her future husband answers. Alzar defeats Vix, and the wedding goes on. After, the arches open up and Alzar steps through the ruby one, and onto the first Death Challenge…… |
A light rain wets Alzar’s hair. He is in the center of a ring of smallhills, and the skeleton of a huge reptile is on the ground next to Alzar, in a carpet of grass. The abandoned remains of a small garden grow wild to the left and two large compost piles to the right.
As Alzar arrives, the two compost piles rise, and Alzar’s facing two Shambling Mounds. AC0, HP 58, THACO 9, 2d4x2 They need a 15 to clock Alzar, he needs a 3 for them with axe, and 8 with Barrier. They win init and hit once for 6. Alzar hits three times for 16, 19 and 10. On the next turn, they keep init. Alzar takes another 5. Then he lay the wounded Mound and injures the other. On the third turn Alzar defeats the Mound without taking additional pain Alzar 81/90 Alzar heads on to the next challenge….  Alzar arrives at a bright sun shining in a clearing at a dense jungle. In the center of the clearing is a two-level ziggurat like structure that has ramps leading up to each level. Two small domed buildings flanks it, and a pen half-filled with deerlike animals is just visible behind a well. Three people in simple tunics with baskets of goods are walking up the stairs. Alzar approaches, and the three people turn into Yuan-Ti abominations!  As they slither down at Alzar, another 5 emerge! Initiative - Alzar loses. In order to hit them, he needs 3, or 2 for each one with his axe, and the biggest abomination has 50 hp.But they have just one attack and need a 17 to hit. Round one: Alzar takes 5, and deals 40. Round two: Alzar is missed. He kills the wounded one Round Three: Alzar takes 8, he slays another Round Four: Alzar takes 15, He misses twice with Selnyr (rolled 1 twice) and only his shield cracks a yuan ti Round Five: Alzar slays a 3rd,and just is hit once for 3. Round 6: Another halfbreed falls (HP 35) and Alzar is missed Round 7: Alzar slays a 5th, and is missed Round 8: A 6th dies, and Alzar takes6 Alzar finishes the last two without being hit. He casts cure serious wounds for 25. He passes through a ruby gate made behind the animals. Alzar- 71/90 |
Death Challenge #3
This 120 foot diameter circular chamber is divided into eight equal sections, with a domed ceiling of arches up to 50 feet high. Floating about 5 feet off the ground is a multifacted white gem the size of a head. Without warning, a burst of brilliant yellow light bursts from the gem and momentarily envelops one of the room’s sections. This room is identical to the Soul Gem room of the Ghost Tower of Inverness that Alzar found in the Underdark back in Thorasia. Each round, the gem will fire in a random direction into one of the 8 sections, and it will duplicate one of the rays of a Prismatic Ray! Any critter in the beam is automatically hit and does not save. And the gem is protected by a box of force. If you will recall, Alzar was able to defeat this room once before, and then secure the Soul Gem., which Vala has now. He watches it for a while, and then moves it, with the artifact Bright Barrier as a shield in case it comes down. He has to make three d8 rolls for the three angles of approach needed. On an 8, the beam fires in his direction. I toss a 3, 4, and 3. Luckily not an 8 twice! He secures the Soul Gem, casts Dispel on it, and then the power ebbs and the door opens… The 4th Death Challenge awaits This is an underground maze of stone. The walls are carved in reliefs of tortured faces and bodies fused together into a hideous mass. The air smells of fire. Alzar’s Star reveals a creature in the wall that is a carnivorous wall, that will need to be killed to advance. There are 9 such walls here. AC3, HP 64 down to 32. 1d10 + paralyze. Alzar’s Selnyr is out and the Bright Barrier as well and he steps forward. He casts the 4th level Free Action spell and heads in. random.org…. Alzar took 22 and slew them all. He heads through a ruby gate… 49/90 His 5th Death Challenge arrives. Alzar arrives at the entrance to an underwater passageway, and he just make out a glint of ruby on the far end, but he also sees a number of sahuagin in the water, at least 20. He tosses in a Skulltrap and clears out many, but the rest emerge and attack him! He drops another skull trap t finish them, and took 16 from the trap. He casts Cure serious wounds. 58/90 |
Challenge 6!
Alzar arrives at a giant chessboard of alternating stones at his feet, and large white and black figures on either side. He begins on the rook space, and must play chess. As he does, whenever one of his pieces or another, is taken, he must defeat the piece, which is a golem. The pawns are stone guardians (AC2, 24 hp, 2x 1d8 for punches, need an 18 to hit Alzar.), the Bishops and Knghts are lesser stone golems, the rooks are greater stone golems, and a king and queen are marble golems. (random.org) he has to kill 4 pawns, 2 bishops, 1 knight, and 1 king before winning but because they are solo matches, and only the king has 65 hp, they ae easy kills, and he loses just 19 hp. 39/90 Challenge 7 The air in this chamber is bitterly cold, and colder than Alzar has experienced. The walls and floor are covered by clusters of needle sharp ice the lights are dim, and a stone block around 12 feet by 4 feet by 10 is in the center of the room, the only feature thereof. The room is so black that the eyes hurt to look at it. Each round Alzar is in this room he’ll take 1d4 cold damage. Alzar’s star is out and he spies a secret corridor under the block. He disarms a trap, moves it, head down, and into an underchamber where the arches are. He heads out after four rounds, and took 09 30/90 Challenge 8 This is a totally normal, featureless room, with a boom on the center on the floor and two stone archways on the other side. Alzar casts Heal now that he’s not on a cold clock. His star is out, and he sees that there are a number of micro holes in the floor on the far side, but no traps. He slowly moves around, and soon a caustic gas enters the room, totally filling it, and a few minutes later leaves, having shined the room. Then the broom animates and cleans the space up. Alzar was not damaged by the gas as he doesn’t need to breathe air in the room due to his Necklace of Adaption. |
Challenge 9
Alzar stands in a long natural passage underground, with darkened earth all around. He sees a number of vague moving earthlike forms, but there are no traps or anything. He heads down, and as her does four earth elementals animate and move to attack. AC2, Need a 9 to hit, 3d8 damage from a punch, 80, 78, or 75x2 hp Random.org One heal spell later, Alzar is at 66/90. That was the roughest Death challenge thus far! Challenge 10 This bowl-shaped valley is a very unnatural seeming place, surrounded by cliffs and a grassy area. Part of the grass has been blackened by a fire and a small pool with twisted plants is to the left. A strange green radiance shines from above. After Alzar arrives, an extraplanar beats arrives and reveals itself and attacks! It looks like a 20 foot ovoid looping maze or growth of intestines. The Thing That Should Not Exist – AC – 2, HP200, Thaco 2 (8 to hit Alzar), 3 attacks for 1d10 and once per day can set something on fire, Magic Resist 100 (I increased its stats to make it a match for Alzar and gave it full MR). Round 1: Alzar wins init and carves it once for 20. He takes no hits (cloak) back 66/90 180/200 Round 2: The Thing wins and hits twice for 12, Alzar carves for 35. 54/90 145/200 Round 3: The Thing keeps init and hits thrice for 16. Alzar hits back for 29. 38/90 116/200 Round 4: Alzar regains initiative and carves for 29. He takes one hit for 8 back. 30/90 87/200 Round 5: Alzar hits for 15, and is hit for 12. 18/90 72/200 Round 6: Alzar takes 7 and cats his 3rd and final Heal Round 7 Alzar slashes for 33 and takes 11. 79/90 39/200 It regain init and misses twice, hits once for 4. Alzar misses and then hits for 15 and misses with the Barrier 75/90 24/200 Round 8 Alzar regain init back and slays it All Heal spells used |
Challenge 11
A stiff breeze catches Alzar by surprise. He is up on a giant cloud in the sky and will need to ski across 10 other clouds to reach the archway in the distant cloud cover. He scouts out first, and as he does so, a Manticore flies around and tries to shoot him, but misses. Alzar drops it with Flesh to Stone. He skips over, and more and more Manticores fly over. He slays a few with Wail of the Banshee and Power Word, Kill and kills 15 after taking just 9 damage (cloaks helped a lot). 66/90 Challenge 12 Alzar is in an ordinary looking corridor carved from solid rock. Only one exception is carved in the wall, which is mortared with bricks. In the center of the new section is a bronze door with a tiny barred window, and o the other side of the door are two hanging iron sconces with torches burning. The door is barred on Alzar’s side. He heads over after checking for traps and sees none. He heads to the door to see what is over on the other side, and the door is a greater mimic. (Random.org) Alzar takes 15 before taking it out In the room are two archways out 51/90 Challenge 13 Alzar stands in a maze of white stone walls, and from above it is a harsh light that prevents anyone from seeing what is above the maze. Alzar can make out the silhouette of a giant ghost cat. Hit perks its back and moves and Alzar follows it around the maze, checking to make sure that there are no traps along the way. He finds and disarms two. Upon reaching the center of the maze, where the cat has some ghost kittens, it spins and attacks Alzar! AC -6, HP85, Needs 6 to claw Alzar, 2d6x2, ages you if hit. Alzar casts Protection from Undead which will last for 5 rounds and act as the scroll. The cat will be dead before then. Dead cat! Alzar also takes out the kittens. An archway appears and he steps through the ruby one. |
Challenge 14
Alzar arrives in a room in the center of a tower, with portals to his right, left, forward and back, and a large teleporting device in the middle. Alzar recognizes this place as the teleporting room in the Lost Island of Castanimir. He found this place long ago, and there was this teleporter in the middle of the tower that would teleport in annoyingly bad stuff. In this case, it just teleported in 20 ogres! Alzar casts Mass Domination, and 6 fight for him (cloak) then Mass Domination and more. In four rounds, he has 11 ogres left and the others are dead. He heads to the archway, but they won’t follow him. Challenge 15 The temple Alzar has arrived at is bizarre, with carvings of frogs and other amphibians decorating the walls as well as the large altar. The pillars supporting the high ceiling glisten with a thick green leathery slime, and sixteen giant frogs are here. One skull trap later, they are mostly dead, and behind the altar is a mutant amphisbaena, a great two headed poisonous snake! Round 1. It surprises Alzar. Free attack, misses due to cloak Round 2. It bites Alzar twice for 6 damage, no need to save vs poison due to his items. Alzar hits for 28. Round 3 – Alzar takes another 11, no saves, and then kills it. He casts his last serious wounds, and steps through the ruby archway 59/90 |
Challenge 16
This hillside is covered with strangely colored stunted plants and dotted with many cave entrances, and overhead, the sun rushes by very quickly. There are a few statues here, suggestive of a creature that petrifies, and sure enough, from the caves emerge three fast basilisks. Alzar casts Protection from Petrifaction, and takes 22 from attacks. After slaying them he casts cure moderate wounds twice. Inside one of the caves he finds the archways out. 57/90 Challenge 17 Alzar arrives at the end of a square bound corridor that is extremely wet and damp, with ooze dropping from thick build ups, and the archways at the end of the corridor, about 100 yards away. The entire corridor is covered by goo. Alzar suspects various oozes or jellies of sorts, typically, although there are exceptions, but typically they are vulnerable to fire. Alzar casts Meld into Stone and walks into the stone and heads down the corridor, bypassing hundreds of oozes and jellies, and then arrives at the end and leaves. Challenge 18 This room is fiery hot, with lava oozing in the corners over coals like fountains, and making the room hotter than almost anything, and Alzar would immediately take damage if he wasn’t immune to fire. Over those foundations sit four Greater Fire Elementals which move to fight him. If you’ll recall, Alzar’s Axe, is an axe of extinguish as one of its powers, and he is immune to normal fires of any level (as are his items) and he takes very little damage from magical fire. Between the two, this is not going to be a long battle. Alzar takes…12 damage total, and then leaves via the ruby arch 45/90 |
Challenge 19
Alzar arrives in a place without any light, and his light source is not working. In seconds, he is attacked by something! He uses blind-fighting for this fight to keep himself in it, and….he takes 26 damage, and after slaying his foes the light reappears and he finishes and casts he remaining moderate wounds spells 50/90 He is almost out of healing magic. He steps through the final ruby arch to the last Death Challenge. Challenge 20 Alzar arrives at a room not dissimilar to the one in the end of the Magist’s Tower in the Greyhawk Ruins, where he faced an elder demilich. But here, it’s just a normal wizard, who’s spell trigger fires give her three protective auras. Alzar wins and casts Time Stop he casts Laudryn’s Cleaving, Power Word, Stun, and Finger of Death. The first works, the other two nope. She casts Time Stop back and points Power Word Stun, and more shields. Alzar is immune with his spell, and then the shields raise. She drops another Cleaving and Alzar does the same. Alzar’s axe stabs her for 29. She casts Flesh to Stone and….he tosses a 4 (needs a 3 so he made it). Next round she wins against and uses Stoneskin, and Alzar casts Miscast Magic on her. She casts Mirror Image and fails. He casts Dispel and drops the SS. She wins and casts another skin, this time working, and Alzar another DS. Alzar wins init back and stabs her for 44 and she dies. Her body and the room fade |
Alzar leads the final Death Challenge,
He arrives in a long corridor where a female cleric and mage are waiting, and a larger-than-normal-sized lich is waiting, hands crossed. He introduces himself as Lyzandred. He bids his cleric to heal Alzar. Lyzandred offers Alzar a seat, which he takes. He compliments Alzar and tells him that Alzar is the fight one in 8 years to make the gauntlet and pass all 60 challenges without taking the emerald archway back home. He offers Alzar a prize for his success. Alzar tells him of his library quest, and asks specifically for a large number of illusion or evocation oriented texts. Lyzandred has 4500 evocation books he’ll let Alzar borrow to read and add to his library later. He also has about 1000 more illusion works on its theory, casting research, use and more, just like illusion magic. Alzar asks about Lyzandred in the Sand Mire, and the lich gives Alzar the entire story. When he was a child, he saw a Rod of Command misused by a vile person who used it to create slaves and push decadence. His family was hurt by it, and he swore that as long as he was powerful, he wouldn’t let people have a level of magical items if they couldn’t handle it, and for years he quested for powerful magical items that were too powerful for bad guys. This led to him joining the Sand Mire nation as a sort of agent that went out and did some tasks for his ruler, Amon-Re. His success raised his profile in the empire considerably, and soon he was one of the most powerful men. He also began to be obsessed with removing objects, any objects from people, even things like potions. He created this demi-plane to store away magical items. Eventually his power grew to the point that after the empire fell, he was able to carve the greatest state from the corpse of the Sand Mire. His massive bank of magic items didn’t hurt. His obsession and madness grew. He fought other nations, and pushed his people into battle again and again for his delusions. Near the end of the campaign, as his force was losing badly to the Dragon summoned by the College of Wizardry near Khaibar, he was tucking a number of items here on his demiplane and a moment of lucidity struck him, and he saw how far he had fallen. He sent the items he would need to get into his plane out with his allies, thus locking himself out of going home, and he built up this area, and became a lich. Afterwards, he saw all that he had done, and realized he had erred, and now he dedicated his undeath to putting things back, as well as bringing over people and working to make things right. And thus the adventure Alzar went through. The idea is to demonstrate who people truly are, and then bring out greed from those unable to deal with it, or selflessness for those who are, and send those who show good deeds away with the magical items stored here with his blessings, and those who are villainous are stripped of their items and send back. Anyone who dies here is held until raised, there is an enchantment on his plane that Lyzandred installed that keeps people from fully dying. And now the Challenge is complete, and he’ll send Alzar back with a library. He saw that Nyx had contacted Alzar, and thought that investigating this fellow master of the undead would prove useful. However, if he wants, Alzar can do a little quest for him, and when complete, Alzar will get the illusion library as well. Alzar agrees, and Lyzandred tells him a story about Thorasia…. End of The Crypt of Lyzandred the Mad |
Alzar hears from Lyzandred that his old apprentice on Thorasia had lost some weapons that Alzar had acquired around 20 years when adventuring on the Isle of Dread in a volcano. Three powerful weapons that Alzar really didn’t use much – Wave, Whelm, and Blackrazor.
Something happened to pull them back from Vala about two years ago. She never told him, but it’s not like they have daily pan-planar conferences or anything either. Alzar is to head to the volcano, reacquire the weapons, and then turn them over to Lyzandred. Begin Return to White Plume Mountain  Alzar does a little research at the Isle of Dread for a couple of days. It looks like the layout of the surrounding area has been modified in a few major ways here and there from lava flows. It’s likely the inside has at well, in at least a few places |
After spending two days preparing and scrying, Alzar teleports over at arrives the White Plume Mountain again.
Earlier, the White Plume Mountain had been the home of a older mage called Kareptis who had built this dungeon in the heart of a volcano along with svartalfar to secure these powerful weapons that had been created. Inside of power, cleverness was required to get them. But he left the scene a while ago, and Alzar and his party on the Isle of Dread came across the volcano while exploring. They entered, passed a number of puzzles, and then found the various weapons, and although there certainly was some amount of fighting, Alzar infiltrated and got the goods without too much combat, and if the dungeon layout is the same this time, he imagines the same is about to be true of his new adventure here. It doesn’t look like the old entrance survived the passage of time, and Alzar heads to the edge of the volcano trying to find an entrance. After around 50 minutes, he makes one out. He temporarily makes out the face of Keraptis in the volcanic gas for a moment, and there at the base of that gas cloud is the belch of a way in. |
Alzar heads up the stairs that lead through a small crevice, and then sees a small dvergr in a hole here watching guard. It shouts out to Alzar that it serves the real Keraptis, and Alzar inquires. Apparently, Keraptis recently returned and found three usurpers to his title, and was suitably annoyed. Anyone looking to ally with Keraptis and take out the others would be most welcome. Alzar agrees, and the guard pulls out a sticks and draws a rough figure of this area of the volcano on the ground, shows Alzar where some traps are, gives him a passcode, and shows him where to meet Keraptis. Alzar heads in.
Alzar passes a hallway of great oaken doors and then passes a about 10 more guards of various races, mostly humans, including some from the local natives here on the Isle of Dread. He passes the pit traps marked, and then finds a long passageway covered with spikes that has to be approached from the correct angle and the precise moment or be stuck by spikes. Next Alzar reaches a long corridor recently carved into the rock before arriving at an empty natural chamber beyond with nothing but bats here. One of the good things about adventuring back on his home plane of Thorasia is that Alzar’s full power work, including controlling extra-planar creatures. So he is very comfortable here. A sliding disease ridden pole must be slid down to the next level, and Alzar is covered by 20 or more guard with weapons down here. He does not contract the disease. Next is a destroyed wooden bridge he crosses with the stench of smoked fish strong in the air. While Alzar is in a long, quiet corridor passing the bridge, he is scanned by a watcher and after confirming his identity, she opens a door and offers to confirm for him all of the crazy stuff that’s really been happening here. This is Kuhlefaran, a female human mage. Alzar heads down a side passage with her and they go to another floor in some secret passages and arrive at the domain of Nix, a male efreeti. Nix introduces himself to Alzar, and he uses some Genie Lore to know the language to talk appropriately with the efreeti. He tells Alzar that the four main areas of the old dungeon were each taken over by an imposter who was able to summon the old weapon of Keraptis. Four separate clones, using the Clone spell, were created by Keraptis to allow himself to continue after he died, but apparently, all four activated when they weren’t supposed to. All four have memories of themselves, and all four have the same connection to the four weapons of Keraptis. Each have arrived here, carved out a part of the original Keraptis’s dungeon, and decried the other three as usurpers. They used that connection to summon their weapon. “Four weapons?” Alzar asks. Yes, four weapons. Whelm, Wave, Blackrazor and Frostrazor. Alzar is the one who took three of them, but Frostrazor was also made and hidden here, and was the first to leave by someone who came before Alzar arrived the first time. There is a resistance here that Nix leads, including a small but powerful cadre of people. What Nix is trying to do is to go to an old and ancient crypt of Keraptis that was not found by Alzar on his first trip here, but into which can be placed the four blades, and then the real Keraptis will return to life and will know what to do. So the goal is to infiltrate and secure the four weapons and then return to Nix, who will get them to the crypt. Alzar casts the binding spell, and Nix is bound with Genie Contract and must do what he offered. |
Alzar heads back to the first area, and goes through about 6 more rooms and areas before arriving at the central audience chamber of “Keraptis”. The room is medium sized, with four ogre guards, and another 12 servants of various types, including a cleric.
The False Keraptis greets Alzar and tells Alzar that his magical trident was just stolen from him by kelpies in a secret door to the south. He wants to hire Alzar to retrieve the trident, and Alzar nods and says simply, “I will get and return Kerapti’s trident!” Alzar heads out and to a secret door that leads to a small underground lake, with about 15 Kelpies down there. They are a water elemental creature, so Alzar immediately controls them, and they back off and show him Wave. It’s been a long time. Alzar grabs the halberd and returns, with the 15 kelpies leading the way. He orders them to fight, and in moments, the Kelpies have destroyed the clone of Keraptis, and the various guards, but were eventually dropped to 5. Behind Keraptis Alzar finds three rooms, a lab, library, and personal room. In them, and on the bodies, Alzar finds: 466 Nightfear Library books 135 scrolls and maps of Thorasia Decanter of Endless Water Amulet of Inescapable Location Robe of Stars 15 Arrows of Fire +2 Ring of Protection +2 Dagger +2 Mace Clerical Ring - +1 1st level spell when worn for 24 hours 16000 gp of lab equipment Random Wizard Scrolls Keraptis Clone Spellbook #1 Alzar casts Animate Dead and animates 12 skeletons and cuts off the head of the clone. Alzar heads on, with the Kelpies as an accompaniment |
Alzar finds an entrance to the next false Keraptis clone’s region. There is an open hallway. Alzar uses the Star of Mo’Pilar and his skeletons to walk in front, with Kelpies as a powerful central shock troops. Alzar conjures an Earth Elemental for the rear, and then is right in front of the elemental.
Alzar finds and it attacked by 10 ghouls, but they are not normal ghouls but much stronger. They cannot be turned or controlled. Alzar has to conjure another Earth Elemental, but manages to take them down, lost one kelpie, and most of his skeletons. On the corpses are: 10 Amulet of Repudiation – make the undead immune to turning, controlling, or destroying, give them 50% MR, and add 1 HD to them/month for a year, at which they will have 12 HD more and are capped. - AC, +2 THACO, and double damage in attacks. (Alzar has secured Wave into his OtherSpace, so it can’t be seen). After killing the ghouls, a number of guards of this area arrive after hearing combat. Alzar tosses the head of the clone to them and says that, “One usurper has fallen. Allow me to give praise to the real Keraptis.” They praise the news and escort him and his small army of undead, kelpies and elementals. (As they do, Alzar casts Mass Charm and charm them all). Five rooms melt away, and the orcs and ogres here move aside or join the parade. While heading, a tunneling Purple Worm emerges and they have to kill it. The guards handle it, Alzar’s short bow did 30% damage to it, and controls just two kelpies afterwards. They pass a large fungal garden, with a boiling lake directly after. They also arrive at a prison with nine cells, each with a locked cell, Alzar heads over, and the guards are ordered away for the “Ally of the true Keraptis”. He charms a few more, and then looks around. In here are a few lycanthropes. A female werewolf he releases named Snarla and she agrees to serve Alzar fully. A few others are freed, a wererat or two who will join his squad. Then he hears a familiar voice… A werebear… |
In the 8th cell, Alzar finds Aleigha, now much older. She joins his squad, and five other lycanthropes were still alive, and join his squad. A back closest is here, and their gear is secured, including her ruby Sword of Spartusia and some additional armor.
They head back out and further into the complex. (I am not making that up, they find a prison of lycanthropes. How could I *not* bring Aleigha back? Especially after no one knew where she was for years and years, and she missed Alzar’s wedding?) In the final hallway to the second Keraptis is a Flesh Golem marked “9” in its flesh. Not dissimilar to the one Alzar secured. Alzar is announced by the guards, and 9 backs up, opens the door, and moves back into to the main room. Alzar meets the 2nd clone of Keraptis and offers him the head of the dead clone. This one smiles a wide, toothy grin, and agrees to hire Alzar to kill the others, and bring back the weapons they stole to him. Alzar is meeting him in his study, with a vampire ally and two golems. Alzar reaches out and controls the vampire with his powers, and it is under his control. Alzar orders the vampire to bite the neck of the clone from behind, and it does. As the surprise attack succeeds, the clone’s golems activate, and Alzar’s elementals each take on a golem. Alzar peppers the surprised clone and kills him, and he cuts off his head. The controlled vampire joins his unit, with the undead, kelpie, elemental (one killed) and lycanthropes left. The charmed guards stayed out of the battle. Alzar asks his friends to show him the secrets of this area, and they do, He finds 4 secret tomes on cloning, total value 55000 gp 433 Spatterdock Library +2 quarter staff +1 two-handed sword Cloak of Gaseous Form Keraptis Clone Spellbook #2 65000 gp of gems Whelm, the magic hammer in a locked chest |
Alzar moves to the next area, with the charmed guards staying behind
They move into some lava tubes between the 3rd and 4th clones, that have been scoured but not secured in that war. They arrive and a quarter of Burning Golems mark the entrance to this area. Alzar steps forward with Selnyr, whose Axe of Extinguishing will make short work and tanks them. In three rounds he tanks them (they have just an AC6 again the Selnyr, and have 40 hp normally, but his extra damage is just nasty). Alzar – 71/90 Some more lights and crystal and flames belch from various vents, and they are closing to nearer the center of the volcano. A few rooms melt away, and they are at the chamber of the third clone. Here is a clone of Keraptis holding Blackrazor in his hand. Alzar offers to serve, and tosses the two heads of the dead “usurpers”. Alzar also shows Whelm, and places it on the ground as well. The clone grins, and rises, with two Efreet here flanking him. Alzar cannot control them they are too powerful. He has created an indoctribation chamber that forces everyone here to serve him completely, and he escorts Alzar and his party there, with two Efreet and another four Burning Golems following. Alzar makes a silent command in the hallway, and suddenly his group attacks, and launches a number of attacks. Alzar deals with an efreet, his Earth the other Efreet, his Kelpie the and vampire the clone, and the others the lesser golems. Alzar casts haste on his team. Their clone leads with Stoneskin, then Mirror Image, then wades in behind Blackrazor. Alzar swaps targets and casts Laudryn’s Cleaving and removes his protections and he dies two turns later. Alzar lost a wererat and Kelpie. Alzar – 60/90 Alzar finds Blackrazor 444 Killjoy Library Books Manual of Burning Golems 44500 gp jewelry Bracers of Defense AC 6 Ring of Fire Protection Amulet of Expertise (allows you proficiency in any weapon in your hand) Keraptis Clone Spellbook #3 5 sticks of Incense of Mediation Heart of Dragotha, a draco-lich in the area, that would like to return to normal dragon form. If Alzar eats it, he loses 20 years of life. Alzar cuts off the clone’s head. |
They move into the final area.
Alzar finds some unique items he’ll look at later that he thinks are really interesting: Delaying Glass Gauntlet of Life Theft Skull of Prophecy Vessel of Life Translocation They find a small prison with 3 people loyal to the resistance and Nix, and Alzar frees them to return. Alzar conjures a greater earth elemental and stores Blackrazor In the first room, they find on the desk a Desk of Destinies, different than a Deck of Many Things, but in that genre. Here are 12 Wights, that Alzar controls, and uses to flank and go in front of the unit. More lava tubes await, and here are some guards, and Alzar tells them he wants to bring news of the deaths of the three false Keraptis usurpers and show the three cut heads. They cackle with flee and escort Alzar, who uses Mass Charm again. Two, three, four rooms ebb by, with golems, Skin Puppets, and more in the way. More mold and moss is back here, and the warmth of the volcano has clearly encouraged massive growths. They pass and slay a mated pair of giant slugs easily. They arrive at a great dining chamber and Alzar is greeted by the Keraptis here. He announces the deaths of the other three, and shows Whelm and places it in the table, and backs away. He returns their stolen property, and offers to serve the true Keraptis and bring back others. Alzar prepares his forces against the 12 humanoid guards here. As the mage moves forward, Alzar grabs a lock of elven hair and casts Wail of the Banshee, and the charmed and guards here mostly die, but his other stuff (undead, werewolves, etc) are immune. They slay the rest and Alzar finished the mage with Power Word Kill. He cuts off the head and finds Frostrazor 722 tomes of Sage Lore fungus 43500 gp of gems and jewelry Keraptis Clone Spellbook #4 22000 gp of lab equipment +2 Dagger Robe of Stars 10 Darts of Homing 3 random iuon stones Alzar animates the 12 corpses here as skeletons and returns to Nix |
The efreeti sees Alzar returns, and welcomes him warmly, and then moves to open up a secret chamber, Alzar goes down, using his Star to scan and his skeletons as fodder He finds and deactivates three traps.
They arrive at a long fane, and move down a tunnel. A pair of obelisks are here, with a tomb below. Suddenly a great and powerful shade of vengeance moves to attack them, and Alzar cannot control or turn it, due to the power of completing its vengeance. Then it pulls up and address Alzar who is clear the leader, seeing the weapons out. It asks if they intend to raise the wizard, and he nods. He moves off and tells him he would see them succeed. Alzar moves to the obelisks. There are four weapons in them already, and he pulls them out: Hammer of Thunderbolts Sun Blade Molten Blade Trident of Enveloping As each of the weapons moves into the obelisk that was prepared for it, a crackling sound can be heard. Whelm is the final weapon added, and the other obelisk cracks and reveals a magic switch. They activate the switch, and the crypt down the stairs opens and a crying sound can be heard, here in the fane. The head down and see a newborn baby in the crypt. The Shade of Vengeance recognizes its aura as Keraptis. It was sent here to kill the evil mage that destroyed the druids here and it’s vengeance will now be complete! It moves to attack. Nix and the others move to intercede. The vampire and elemental, and efreet are blocking it and it attacks. Alzar casts Time Stop, and then casts Destroy Undead, Destroy Undead, and….no more spells it ends. The first fails, the 2nd? Hits and it fails its save and is destroyed. With the shade of vengeance gone, Keraptis the child is saved. Alzar offers to let Nix and the child come to his Grand Duchy, where they can be raised and he will help mentor and tutor him. They agree, and name the child “Kelvan” After, they heads back out and Alzar takes the four blades from the Obelisk and that will close the crypt down here. Alzar tells Aleiga of his new home, and offers her a chance to see it, and she agrees, but first she’d like Alzar’s help in freeing Maerie. She’s here on the island too and nearby, they were both captured, but Maerie escaped. A quick scry later finds her at the village of Tangaroa, and they head over for the night and turn over the outstanding undead to the zombie master, save for the vampire, whom Alzar will take back. Maerie agrees to join them back at the Grand Duchy, and they head back to the area…. End of Return to White Plume Mountain |
Maerie, Aleigha, Snarla, Nix and Kelvan’s descriptions have been added to the NPC section of the page by Alzar. Aleigha is taking over the shapeshifter spy network, and Snarla will help her, and Maerie will joins as one of his administrators.
Alzar teleports back to Lyzandred and pulls out the four weapons. He can’t use any of them well, of course, since they are a long sword, 2-handed sword Trident and hammer, but all four are powerful weapons, and Alzar points out that the reward from Lyzandred would be enough for one, maybe two, but returning all four and taking them off the board in perpetuity? That’s too strong, and Lyzandred agrees. Alzar gets another 10,000 books of general history and knowledge as well. Lyzandred doesn’t have any more quests for now, but he has given Alzar an item to allow him to be contacted and return to the subplane. The other items Alzar found: Heart of Dragotha, a draco-lich in the area, that would like to return to normal dragon form. If Alzar eats it, he loses 20 years of life but will permanently annoy the Draco-Lich. Delaying Glass – This item is an hourglass filled with the bust of bones. Anyone who turns it will cause the dust to fall for an hour, during which time, the user will not age. Can be used 10/day Gauntlet of Life Theft – These leather gauntlets allow the wearer to steal 2 months of life from any creatures touched, and add it to their natural lifespan. The victim can make save to prevent the life drain, after which they can never be affected by the gauntlet again. This can be used 5/year Skull of Prophecy – This cursed blue crystal skull speaks to anyone who picks it up about their death. However, it has no actual predictive properties, and exists merely to scare the user. Vessel of Life Translocation – This 6 foot tall sealed glass tube contains the living body of a male humanoid with mirrorlike skin, suspended in a clear liquid, and on one side is a palmprint on the tube. Any living critter that puts their palm on the palmprint will switch minds with the form inside (it’s currently an insane svartalfar). These were some of the items used by Keraptis to sustain his life. |
This month, Alzar animates the two silver golem bodies made by his foundry this year. He also has summoned more devils and hordelings and now has 20 Bearded Devils and 20 Hordelings to serve him permanently as a strike force.
After bringing his team back, Alzar teleports back to the Isle of Dread and finds Dragotha’s lair about 35 miles from White Plume Mountain. Alzar casts some anti-undead and anti-dragon magic and heads in. He secures a meeting with Dragotha, and they talk. She was an ancient blue dragon, but knew her time would eventually come, so she willingly submitted to Dracolich dom about 120 years ago. But in that time, she had been killed four times, because of the weaknesses of her undead state, and most of her treasure is gone. She seeks to be brought back to life, where she can regain her full stature. Sure, she is immune to some things, but she relishes the thought of eating again and lounging over her treasure and napping, fully draconic activities. Alzar and her agree to a deal. He will give her heart, which she can consume to regain her full form, And then she will move to Alzar’s plane, and serve him for 25 years. She’ll also get some more treasure than her remaining 10000 gp worth of stuff. He’ll give her some magic items, such as the wizard scrolls he just got in this adventure and one of the iuon stones. She agrees, and in three days, she joins his force. Dragotha, Ancient Blue Dragon AC -6, hp 155, 20d8 electric breath, 3/day, 3/3/2 Wizard spells, 1d8, 1d8, 3d8 physical attacks Alzar found Dragotha as a Dracolich who had reluctantly chosen to be a Dracolich for more than 120 years before Alzar restored her, with a pledge of loyalty of 25 years. He has also helped to restore her treasure, and they have determined certain things for he to feed upon that won’t interfere with his Grand Duchy of the Mighty. She is a servant, not magically controlled, and won’t do anything suicidal. But she does work well with the team he is assembling as well, and has a home in the nearby Ljallenvals. Dragotha is added to Alzar’s allies. |
Alzar gains +1 in four stats this year from scrolls that he forced his people to send him.
One of the handful of places in the entire Norwold region with an elf hold is in his Grand Duchy, near the border, in the north around one of his lakes is a single elf-hold. There are elves in the nearby woods by Evenarrow as well, but not an official Elf Hold. What makes an Elf Hold unique here on Pandius is its’ tether to the Tree of Life. Every single tribe has their own Tree of Life that grants them Elvish powers, and their life, and in return, they keep it alive and help it grow. One of Alzar’s citizens reported that the Tree of Life out there was growing sickly. But they don’t know why. Alzar heads over to inquire after verifying it’s status. The elves here aren’t as mean to him as they are to the other rules, due to his role as the Lord of Wood and Fire, but they aren’t as affable as the halflings and dwarves are, both of whom love him. They won’t tell him anything that’s happening, but they mentions that this is an Elven problem, and Elves are on the way from Alfheim to help stop it. Alzar leaves behind a few Spellcache rings to let him know if things continue to get worse, and they do. |
Immortality Update –
Ssu-Ma’s Path of the Epic Hero Win the Demonwars for Law without using the Crook of Infaust. DONE Create a legendary weapon. DONE Have the best library in Pandius. (Ssu-Ma currently ranks it 6th best). Ongoing Open up his library to more knowledge seekers. Ongoing. Turn over some of the control of his library to Ssu-Ma. Ongoing. Increase the literacy rate of his nation by at least 50% (Currently 41%) |
I just spent the last week finishing this dynasty. I did not want to post it because I had to backweave various storylines into earlier years to make them more fluid. I just finished it!
I'll slow post like it's happened live, but I wanted you to know that it's done. But it may not finish as you expected...................... |
Congrats on finishing! Looking forward to seeing how it plays out.
|
Thanks!
Let's finish this thang Year 11, Month 1 As the first decade ends as a ruler, Alzar’s popularity is high, and his people are working. This cold-wrapped month sees a nastier than normal set of snow storms fall down across the entire region. Everything is locked down. Alzar’s Bookfind uncovers another 2333 books in Hamedh. He purchases another 1000 books from local folks there for 25000. There is a successful assassination attempt on an outlying Sherriff, that Alzar tracks down the murderer and imprisons her. Vix frees another couple of smaller caves here and there. Alzar teleports to Oceansend for a meeting with “King” Jarvik the Just. Oceansend has always been independent, after their freedom from Thyatis until annexed by King Ericall about 6 years ago. Alzar wants to strengthen the ties between the Mighty and Oceansend. Ericall allowed Jarvik to retain the title, but he is a King in name only, and been demoted to a glorified Baron. Alzar and Jarvik announce greater trade deals, and Alzar will offer them lowered tariffs and Oceansend will lend their advanced shipmaking facilities and experts to help Alzar’s realm improve their naval power. While meeting with Jarvik, Alzar let’s him know that should the time come to Oceansend to declare independence, they would have the help of Alzar to secure their freedom. After all, you would be surprised at how valuable a flying castle can be in a war of independence. After meeting with Jarvik for a few days, Alzar heads back to begin to work on filling a new need on Pandius. Mercenaries. Alzar was a mercenary for decades before he turned to magic. He rose to 2nd in command of one of the more prestigious mercenary units on the world of Thorasia. Home, the view of mercenaries was pretty neutral, and based on the unit, not as a general take of mercenary-dom. But here on Pandius it’s pretty negative. Why? Hiring a soldier for pay for one campaign is the same as hiring a soldier for pay in perpetuity. But while he hasn’t heard any negative stories of mass desertion or paying for mercenaries to switch sides or anything, they are viewed negatively. Is that an opportunity? Could Alzar create some sort of central mercenary hiring because that does background scanning for things like Detect Lie, ESP, and Know Alignment to verify authenticity? A central clearinghouse for mercenaries that could be hired by various states or wealthy institutions such as church. Seems like an opportunity. Given Evenarrow’s location on a major sea shipping route, that would also make sense for those seeking to secure mercenaries. And anything Alzar can do increase the prestige of his capital city, and potentially make money downstream makes a lot of sense. In two weeks Alzar will announce yet another building to begin in Evenarrow, this time outside of the current walls, but inside of the next one. Alzar pays 82,000 gp from his own kitty. Alzar will import builders and workers from elsewhere so these projects can happen simultaneously. Alzar also attends a feast for the local leaders in the Halfling Holds of Leeha who are celebrating the 1000th anniversary of their founding. Much partying is had, and Alzar gives them a magical item he collected in Hamedh, a metal platter (Beef, Lamb, Turkey, Pheasant) for four people once/day as a anniversary gift for them to use. The item won’t do as much for Alzar as it will for his burgeoning relationship with Leeha. He still wants to bring them under the aegis of his domain from King Ericall, whose wife is here in respect, but there is a clear dissonance between them that Alzar doesn’t notice with himself or some other rulers. Alzar will teleport and stop another Frost Giant raid due to the cold weather, and will take them out about 1 day from his border. You’d think they would learn by now. More than 300 Frost Giants lay dead after dying to Alzar’s full unleashed might (summoned Elementals, Elementals from the Face of Xenous, Rings of Commands, golems from Warp Marble, Alzar’s Far Summons, Summon Ice Mephits, Invisible Stalker, Aerial Servant, some undead he animated for the battle, using mass spells like Wail of the Banshee, his Efreet ally (not Nix, whom he just brought in), Vix, Dragotha the ancient blue dragon, a Nightmare, Dire Bats, and so forth. They retreated quickly. Vix levels to level 30 Alzar has finished researching the undead to make for Vix. He wants to create a more powerful variant of the Wraith. In order to study it, he secures 20 Wraiths for study. He wants to create a self-populating undead because then he can see it grow once introduced into the world. |
Year 11, Month 2
Alzar gains 1266 books with Bookfind and purchases another 1000 Hamedhi general books for 25k. Numbers are already dwindling for Hamedh but, to be fair, due to its harsh nature, there are fewer places where books would have survived and where civilizations last. In addition to research and such, Alzar spends some of month scouting various places in his demesne as he can look around and such and find cool things. He can teleport all over to scout various places, and laying an actual eye on the area is often a lot better than using his Crystal Balls. Next he spends some more reviewing some of the various projects he is working on, from building to rehiring and expanding the army that’s ongoing and more, he has a lot of projects to work on. Nothing else major happens this month though. Alzar makes a clone of himself at level 35 Year 11, Month 3 Alzar is working to secure more folks of various roles around his nation (Another 2796 total books, including another 1000 purchased). This month Alzar has completed the various arcane rituals and such needed, and has following the formulae listed, and he can now ignore the level limit of 36 for Pandius. There is now no more limit for him! Near the end of the month, Alzar gets an update on the “Elvan problem”. A party of the best and most powerful Elves from Alfheim were unable to find the source of the problem of the dying Tree of Life, and were lost and never heard from again. Alzar teleports to the region to get an update on the various issues, but all he can do is secure a meeting at his home next month. |
Year 11, Month 4
(Bookfind is 750 and purchasing another 750) Begin CM8. The Tree of Life  At the first week of this month, an emissary arrives at Alzar’s throne room about a hour before noon at the appointed time. The three elves walk majestically into his room and bow, and he quickly motions for them to rise and steps down to meet them. They address him and beseech his aid. “Frankly, my lord, we are getting desperate. The wounded Tree of Life only had a few months left. And would prefer to keep this in house, but have been fully stopped from finding the cause and restoring the Tree of Life. Because these elves and this elf-hold is within your domain, and you have demonstrated a willingness to help demihumans with key quests in the past as well as your offer of aid, I have no where else to turn. But I have hesitations that have to be addressed first…” “You don’t trust me.” “No. We don’t. We know who you are. An evil person.” “I’m sure you see anyone human as evil, or at least typically as beneath your attention. But allow me to introduce a potential solution to your unease.” Alzar reaches to point a local cleric of Morena forward and he does. He reaches and prepares some divinatory magic. “I will willingly allow a Detect Lie spell to work on me. Will you do the same?” The Elvish leader nods. Alzar takes off his Ring of Spell Turning and Amulet of Power. The two spells are cast by the priest. Alzar turns to the Elf Leader. “Very well, despite your hesitation, know this. I will never lie. If I pledge something, I will always do everything I can to see it through, and I don’t lie. Lying is stupid.” The cleric intones, “Truth” Alzar then asks, “But I doubt that’s true of you, correct? You’d lie, and prevaricate, and mislead, correct?” “If I thought it served a better cause, like forwarding the Elvish cause, then yes.” “Truth.” Alzar continues, “Given that, you are the one less likely to be trusted than I, correct? Therefore I suggest that after we agree to terms that we also both accept a geas spell to accomplish the tasks and rewards.” The Elf nods. “As you know, I am willing to commit the resources of my people and nation and will investigate this personally. I am willing to do everything I can to ensure that the Tree of Life is rejuvenated.” “Truth.” “And what would you want in return?” “It’s very simple. Knowledge, and learning are the most important things in life.” “Truth.” “I accept your claim, but what would you want? To learn some spells? To be taught woodcraft? “Nothing so personal or mundane. I would not commit the resources of all of the people here for my own sole benefit. No, what I want is access to the Library Tree in Alfheim. I know it’s the oldest library on the plane, and normally only elves have access to it. You can keep the books to yourselves on Elvish Secrets or anything like that, I just want ongoing access to the Library Tree to copy books for our own growing library. I am trying to grow literacy and improve the reading and research opportunities here, but not trying to learn Elvish secrets, so you could keep those away from me.” “Truth” “That’s impossible! There’s no way we could agree to that! That would be at least 150,000 books you could read from our own collected history!” “Truth.” “I know. But again, you are asking the people in this room and across the Grand Duchy to help. And we will. We are good neighbors. But we are a brand new nation, and we are building up our own library. I just want you to be neighborly as well.” “Truth.” “I cannot give you an answer without consulting my superiors first.” “Of course.” Two hours later, they agree, and Alzar and the elves each allow geases. Alzar has to do everything to help, and they have to live up to their side of the bargain. It’s been more than 2000 years since a Tree of Life has died. They can’t let that happen. Alzar has a few tricks he is preparing. They agree, and he was scying, but unable to scry as normal. So he pulls his monthly wish from his ring and uses the genie so use all of the power of a wish to figure out the full issue that is going on. |
It going to take a while though.
The next day Alzar prepares a more forest and sylvan friendly set of items. He heads out with Vix.  About 15 miles north of the Elf-Hold, they are exploring. Vix left behind her flying chariot, as it seems a little gaudy right now. They penetrate the local woods here, moving away from the hold northward trying to find anything that could clue them in. After most of a day, Alzar and Vix come across a scene of death and a red dragon that attacked a nearby elven village is killing and destroying the village. Is this an undead vision? The gem shows that it’s a very powerful illusion, more powerful than the levels Alzar normally can see through. Alzar casts some divinatory magic. This is a recently cast spell, it’s only been here for a year or so. What it’s meant to do? Send Elfs off on some quest against a red dragon? Send them off on a quest of revenge against the elves who were killed by point them into the correct direction? Alzar suspects it meant to be misdirection than prove actual value. |
They move on.
They rest the night. The next day, Alzar and Vix run into a group of werewolves fighting some Sprites. Alzar casts a few spells to Dominate and Suggest and soon has the pack leader, and thus the pack, under his control, and he orders them off. He heals the damaged Sprites with clerical magic, and they thank him and after he tells them of their quest, they suggest that Alzar speak with a great old Treant. Alzar points out that elves would already have spoke with a treant, but is there somewhere to go or someone to go to that might not be where an elf would turn to for information? One of the sprites suggests a nearby bog, with some awfully evil creatures there. Maybe they would know? She can’t tell what they were, she was only there long enough to feel their presence and fled. They thank her. Alzar and Vix decide to swing by the great Treant, just in case, but as suspected, they are unable to obtain any more information. Alzar and Vix head to the bog of “uncomfortably evil” creatures that the spite suggested. They see some normal elves come out to great them, nothing evil here. They claim they just killed some evil ghosts and spirits here in the bog, and it’s been freed. It’s dinner time, and they offer to feed Alzar and Vix and suggest they stay together. Alzar agrees, and surreptitiously grabs his Star of Mo’Pilar, and investigates. He sees the true form of the 11 elves – 9 doppelgangers, and 2 greater doppelgangers. Alzar and Vix sit down, and he shares a look of knowing with her. She nods almost imperceivably and will let Alzar take the lead. Alzar looks over at the doppelganger/Elves and smiles warmly, and then grabs a large wooden spoon with a bowl of warm stew. He compliments the smell, and is about to grab some stew, when he pauses. He asks if it’s too hot to eat yet, and they shake their heads, and two of them eat. Alzar makes a gentle crack about elves, “Well, my stomach may be weaker than yours. Let me get some water first.” He rises and moves over to the water barrel, with his hand slipping to his spell component pouch, and grabs some components. He casts Time Stop, Mass Domination, and Mass Suggestion, and then lets the Time Stop finish. 9 of the foes are his. The last two see the gig is up, and begin to attack, before they realize that they the only two attacking. Alzar order the others to slay them, and 8 doppelgangers are left. They tell Alzar that they were sent as a scouting patrol to scout the area for their general, Melvorn IV, Elfsbane a great military mind who has gathered a large army and built up a large powerbase about 250 miles from here. Only doppelgangers and other similar unseen spies have been sent, and they know about the programmed illusion. There is an ancient red dragon about 40 miles to the northeast that is identical to the one in the illusion, so the idea is that it would seem like a vision or deathquest and then send folks in the wrong direction. They don’t know if it worked, but the red dragon rejecting any knowledge of torching elves a few centuries ago would play to the evidence that elves would have gathered. The doppelgangers are ordered to attack each other, and then Alzar finishes any that survive. He wants total silence about Vix and his involvement for as long as possible, but he sends a message back home for one of his armies to be moved up north about 75 miles south of the elf-hold and ready to move in for defending the hold if needed. |
They stay the night, and then the next morning they head out to the northwest towards the general direction the doppelgangers mentioned that Melvorn IV, Elfsbane is. A rain shower hits in the morning.
After a few hours, a little before noon, a great rainbow can be seen as the April shower concludes. The great rainbow seems to be close. They follow and change their direction. The rainbow fades about 30 minutes later, but they arrive in a large clearing and here are some evil fey creatures, Spriggan. They see the two enter their glade, and blink to them, and blink around them, closing more and more and more, and then they prepare to attack. Alzar casts Power Word, Kill on the biggest and it dies instantly. Seeing his power, they back off a bit and continue to move menacingly. Vix jumps out and skewers one dead and Alzar slays another with his short bow, and then they move off more. Eventually they stop attacking, and concede the battle. Alzar is told about the rainbow when asking a Spriggan. Only in Spring are the rainbows strong enough to travel, and this is their home, and one must travel the rainbow to get to their final destination, for everyone that is different. Another shower looks to be coming right now, so they grab some lunch. About five hours after noon, the next shower ends, and the rainbow arrives. It’s beautiful coalescing form is clearly physical here. Alzar and Vix step into the rainbow and disappear. Unfortunately, Melvorn IV has always suspected that someone might come at him from the rainbow itself, so has seeded it, and is prepared, even though he doesn’t know who is coming or why. If he knew, then Melvorn IV couldn’t have been faulted for abandoning his project and leaving the entire plane for a while. But the Elfsbane doesn’t know, and thus is not as prepared as he suspects. |
They step onto a bridge of light where the sun plays with clouds and mist for hours and created a giant bridge of scintillating light. They pass the bridge for about an hour and are getting higher and higher on the arch when they get the outer service of a great giant sphere of color, with all of the colors split out like a rainbow, but splayed across a great sphere instead of a bow, arch, or line.
Here the image of Pandius below has become ever more distant. The great sphere is on the bridge, and it moves up and down. After checking it, it’s whipping up and down the bridge, and another comes. Are these forms of transport? He tries with an inert object, like a coin, first, and it’s fine, it moves across the bridge. They push themselves into the sphere, and soon they are moving much more quickly down the rainbow bridge. After much of the bridges rolls away, the sphere reaches the top of the rainbow bridge, and it begins to move back to where they got on, so they get off, a little less than halfway across the rainbow bridge. Here are some giant statues that intone various prophecies laced in poorly done poetry. For example, one intones ”Through the red, blood will be shed.” There is a curtain of light here at the top of the arch. Beyond it lies an unknown and unseeable thing, and no scrying magic will pierce i.t. They plunge through. Before them is a large, open ceilinged group of rooms, with six alcoves, and in the center of the area is a triad of pedestals, blue, red, and yellow. There is no way out on the other side. The alcoves are large, and magically dark and that darkness cannot be penetrated. The Star reveals no traps or secret doors or anything… So what is happening? The pedestals are clearly magical. Alzar moves up, checks, and then touches the one nearest to him, blue. Blue lights up, but nothing happens. Then he touches red, and it lights up, and then they both turn off, and the alcove to the far right turns on a powerful purple. Out of the purple alcove come a mated pair of Purple Worms! Alzar and Vix moves out to confront the worms. (Random.org) they are slain soon, as their poison tails aren’t hurting Alzar and Vix. |
Next is Red+Blue for orange, and out comes a trio of amber golems!
After killing them Alzar is at 44/90 and Vix at 85/141. Alzar collects three Amber golems worth of Amber (50k each, 150k total). Then Green follows, and a giant two-headed troll with a magic ring that prevents any damage other than fire/acid from dealing damage. It takes a while to learn what is happening, Alzar has to Heal Vix, but they eventually take out the giant-two-headed troll with its 100+ hp once they do. Alzar pushes the blue pedestal and then blue again for the blue alcove. Out flies a blue dragon, but he’s not making any obvious offensive gestures. He doesn’t have any desire to die for the “Idiot mage” who left them here to guard the way back. Alzar and Vix let him fly off. Red+Red is red, and here is a Red Dragon who is very happy to die for the cause. A mature red. (Random.org. After all, A+V Took out one and a half reds a short time ago, and in just a few rounds, and this is a younger and weaker mature red. Alzar leads with temporary youth and drops the red in age to make the battle even simpler). They kill it, and Alzar collects more red dragon parts. Finally, Yellow and Yellow make yellow, and out flies a gold dragon, it seems all of the primary colors were dragons, Like the blue, it has no desire to fight, and Alzar/Vix allow it to leave. After the final alcove lit up, a door opened in the back and they slip out. There is a sphere here to roll back down the other side of the bridge, and after abut 5 hours, Alzar and Vix have left the rainbow…. |
They arrive in a darkly cast ancient forest hundreds of miles from where they left. The trees here are ancient and dire, with ruins of older structures barely hinting at a common destruction in time lost. The area has the feel of once-sacred-but-now-despoiled, but long ago.
They spend the night here, scouting. Alzar summons aid, and uses his Warning Trumpet spell to guard as well as conjured shadows, his Griffin from a mount spell and Dire Bats and such to explore and guard. Azzil flies up above to give an aerial view. The surrounding area seems to be covered with endless ruins, in most of the available space what once must have been oaks, maples, or great conifers or has been destroyed, with the area having a sense of desolation. Alzar’s flying creatures attract the notice of a trio of manticores, and they fly over, but he flies up and slays them quickly after casting Protection from Normal Missiles. As Alzar is above the tree line, he can see a lot of flyers up here. Over there is a Griffin nest, and a roc flying back to its aerie in a small cliff can be made out, and some wyverns flitting about to the south. The woods seems full of flying life to a way he was not expecting. He heads back down, and him an d Vix head up to the clouds, on his Wind chariot he got from the Vale of Aaqa as congrats for turning over the Rod of Seven Parts to the Wind Dukes and they head up, Alzar with his bow, and Vix with her spear, Nykthos, and they lance and attack a few aerial creatures. After about an hour, they killed two rocs, five griffins, more than 20 wyverns, another hunting pack of manticores, and a pair of fire drakes. Alzar finds 4 griffin eggs he’ll send to his aerial cavalry in Saffir, as well as a number of creature parts like wyvern poison sacs. Alzar finds a Rod of the Wyrm in a nest |
The next day, Alzar spies a group of Pegataurs moving through the area, and he heads up to talk with them. They are migrating south due to difficult hunting that has stopped them from getting enough food to feed them here. They point to an area deeper in the forest as the cause, and then fly off.
Alzar heads over, and he notices a giant bronze statue that the Star tells him is a bronze golem, as well as a recently destroyed house with a number of petrified creatures here, and a group of 6 medusa here making the place home. Alzar and Vix fly down after casting Protection from Petrification, and they easily handle the rest of their attacks, and slay them. The destroyed house has little here, and Alzar casts Stone to Flesh and brings back the statues. This is the elven party of the strongest elves for Alfheim and were stoned by the medusa, although they slew 20 before finally succumbing. The 3 elves tell Alzar and Vix to head home, they’ll take over from here, but Alzar refuses. He has a geas that forces him to go on, and explains it to them. The elves appear to have gotten here and found out the old-fashioned way, through magic and contacts, and they came here the normal way, across land for a week or so. They have a few more of these magic medallions that were from the ones in their party that were killed earlier, and Alzar and Vix each take one. These are elven magic and should help in seeing things only elves do. For example, they missed an “Elven only” scene a mile back that gave the history of what happened here long ago. They head back to watch. Apparently, before the current elf-hold was created and the tribe founded, this small forest was the home of a small elven tribe with a Tree of Life. After some time here, they were attacked by a huge army led by Melvorn (probably Melvorn, I). In order to protect themselves from an attack they were clearly going to lose (the elf tribe numbered in the hundreds, more than 5000 enemy troops were coming) they used ancient and forgotten elven magic to blend into the trees, each elf merging their spirit into the tree itself. They would slumber until awakened after the threat passed. However, by cowardly hiding rather than protecting sacred ground, the elves were punished and cursed by the elven and sylvan immortals. Around 50 escaped with the Tree of Life and would found a new Elf-Hold elsewhere, with a new tribe, and remove their failed and cursed history from memory. But the stain and curse remained, and cannot be so easily avoided. The elves in the woods here never came out of the trees, and as those trees were cut down or died, so to did the elves inside. Now the curse continues, and is going to kill the tribe and the Tree of Life. The three elves were two leaders of this tribe, and from Alfheim. No one knew this history. It was lost to time permanently. But the curse remained, and now Melvorn, IV is apparently still a threat. Alzar inquires if the curse could be stopped by freeing the elves or ending Melvorn, IV and his threat. They suggest it could be, and that was their plan after they found this out, right before losing the battle against the medusa. Alzar, Vix, and the 3 elves head deeper into the forest. They find and slay a hydra of 12 heads and secure more than 75000 gp in coins, gems, and jewelry Here is the central area of these woods they find a central tower, with a few sub-towers, clearly of elven make, but has since been dirtied and modified. As they move towards it, their medallions glow, and a door appears in the right side of the building. They head in. |
After an entry, they arrive at the throne room.
As you enter the hall , a humanoid silhouette materializes, sitting on the throne . It is apparently an old elf, dressed in white, holding a long b ack rod. He raises his hand in a peaceful gesture and says: "Welcome to our ancestral land. We have been expecting you for centuries. Listen to me , for I have little time to speak. "Very seldom am I granted the power to appear in our holy palace . I am the protector of the forest. With the spirit of our race have I been able to keep the evil hordes of the wizard at bay; however, I am bound by a powerful curse to remain in this tower. " Return at once to the holy land and travel south to our beloved city in Alfheim. Seek the ancestral secret , retrieve it from the deep of the forest and bring it to me with no delay. Time is scarce, for our defenses are weakening. The wizard is too powerful and the stakes so incalculable . Go now, my sons, and do not waste you r time." The apparition fades away and the hall becomes oppressively quiet. The elves began to back out. But why? Alzar’s Star doesn’t show any trick, but he remembers the programming illusion that pointed elves east towards a dragon for vengeance. Isn’t it possible this is also a trick? Alzar tells them of the illusion they saw in the woods near home. Two of the elves seek to leave at once, but the third agrees it’s suspicious enough to investigate the elven tower first, to confirm the story. It won’t take too much time, as Alzar knows teleport magic that will make their return journey instantaneous. They agree and move out. They pass some battlements and watchtowers that are mostly or completely vacant. Then they arrive in a long meeting room with a giant table, lit by a continual light spell. On the table is a great Horn of Plenty that Alzar takes. Invisible servants push things around and are cleaning the room. They pass from the room, and another room passes, and then they hit an inner garden with a colorful arrangement, nothing noxious or bothersome here. The back corridor has a room to the left, an office, and they inspect it. Scrying magic doesn’t penetrate the walls here, but Alzar’s Ear Ring is useful, he detects nothing though. In here is a office with a large desk and chair, sitting a giant black bear fur. The desk and chair are ancient elven make, but the bear is much more recent, and not really a trapping of elves. Alzar points it out. No elf would allow a token of a deceased animal to be disrespected as a rug. Alzar disarms four traps. In here: Quill of Copying Reports on spying and buildup of army 51 Books on warfare |
A secret door here heads to a library. This is clearly an ancient library with “bookshelves crammed with ancient and dusty tomes of all sorts line the walls from ceiling to floor, even covering the entry door itself.” Due to the heavy piling, Alzar suspects there are at least 2500 books in here. For example, one book with a spine facing him reads, “Basic and Advanced Arithmetics.” There are some gremlins back here and Alzar finds them quickly after scanning, and then casts clerical magic to abjure them back to their home plane.
2500 Books from Tower of Light , with 250000 with rare times in here Three unknown spellbooks Manual of Living Statues – Iron Statues (Can animate 10 of them) There is a normal door here to the hallway, and they backtrack and find an art gallery on the right side, with a number of art works, including many of a more mundane nature, and again, there is just way too much evidence that modern non-elves are living here. There are a number of statues, paintings, and more all here, even pottery and a faded tapestry. They head back out into the hallway, and as they do, the ancient elf is here waiting for them, having conjured allies on either side, to do battle. This is Melvorn, IV. He has: Earth Elemental, Air Elemental, Water Elemental Invisible Stalker Marilith demon 15 other minor demons (Rutterkin) she gated in Multiple defensive enchantments on himself They have flanked the door, and Melvorn mystically closes the door shut as they emerge. Alzar leaps forward and tells the others to stand back. He is adjacent to the demons Battle begins |
5 vs 6
Alzar casts Time Stop. He casts Laudryn’s Cleaving Wail of the Banshee and…still has one more spell. He finishes with Banishment on an Earth. The first works, he takes out 9 Rutterkin, and then the Banishment hits the Earth and goes. Melvorn IV naked Air Elemental, Water Elemental Invisible Stalker Marilith demon 6 Rutterkin 7 vs 4 Melvorn casts Time Stop. He casts Total Immunity, Fireball and Meteor Shower. He will be immune. Damage – Alzar – 22 (immune to most fire) Vix – 33 Elves – 44, 21, and 44 The elves are fightersx2 and one druid, so they are still up. 5 vs 4 Melvorn casts delayed blast fireball set to go off now. Additional damage- Damage – Alzar – 32 (immune to most fire) Vix – 49 Elves – 61, 44, and 61 The Stalker has died and the Elementals are badly damaged. The Rutterkin can’t connect with Alzar, but the Marilith does once for 11. Alzar Heals an Elf, the druid Casts Critical Wounds on another and heals 35. Vix kills a wounded Air. 4 vs 2 A skulltrap flies in next. Alzar -49 Vix – 69 Elves – 27, 71, 53 Vix takes one elemental smash for 11. Alzar heals the almost-dead fighter. The druid Cure Cirits the other wounded elf for 35. Vix hits and slays the last elemental 5 vs 9 Alzar’s group retakes initiative. Alzar’s axe carves the Marillith deeply, Vix takes out the remaining Rutterkin with elvish assistance, and then the Marilith teleports back home to the Abyss, leaving just the untouched mage behind his total immunity. He casts Cone of Cold and everyone takes another 25. Alzar uses his Ring of Quick Action and uses his last heal on himself, the druid casts Dispel Magic and drops the barrier, and they charge in, with Vix’s spear toss hitting, and dragging the mage to melee range. The mage took 13. 6 vs 3 The mage teleports away. |
Healing occurs. All of the denizens of the white tower have been killed or chased away, so they can explore at their leisure:
Laboratory with dark alchemical equipment. Melvorn IV, Elfsbane was not the descent of the original, but a clone of the original. They kill two more clones here before they begin. It appears that Melvorn was keeping himself alive with an elixir of immortality made is his lab by the unique ingredient made from the heart of a tree that had blended it’s life with an elf, so he would search the woods for the right tree, kill it, and then harvest the wooden heart to make the elixir of immortality. As a side effect, he appeared as a wizened elf. He only needs one elixir every decade, and each wooden heart makes 5. He has a heart ready to be distilled and three elixirs here. Alzar will not be using them, but he will secure them for later research to see what he can unearth about the process. They find a wyvern stables, now empty, a spying chamber, guard room, warehouses and storage, living quarters, barracks, and more. In Melvorn;s quarters they find: 12 magical keys 400k gp worth of coin and gems/jewels A Lamp of Long Burning Wheel of Fortune Slate of Identification Melvorn’s traveling spellbook |
They continue and find a jail with nothing in it, observation room on top of the tower, and a crypt at the bottom of the tower under where they entered that was raised by Melvorn long before.
In the crypt are 12 holes in the back wall, and the 12 keys, when inserted and flipped like switches, create a portal to a lost elven sanctuary, somewhere under the rock but nearby. They enter. This place is ancient and holy. This is the former home of sanctified elves. As they arrive, a triad of banshees arrives (I am ruling that Alzar cannot turn/control them here due to the location, despite the fact that they can be answered that way) The banshees are focusing on Alzar and Vix, which they see as non-elves invading their area. Alzar and Vix push forward, and take three wails. None of them hit, as Alzar’s Spell Turning reflects it, and Vix is immune to aging as a part-immortal. Battle begins Alzar’s axe slashes one for 33 damage and Vix adds 22. The elves miss. They hit Alzar twice for 11 damage and he ages a year. The banshees attack, Alzar takes 2 of 6 claws, ages another year, and takes 12. Then he kills the wounded banshee, and he group injure another The banshees keep their attack and this time miss. The wounded one is finished. Alzar takes 4 and 6 months of aging, and they smash and kill. Alzar casts Restoration and removes the false aging. They head into the sanctuary, and then the room fades and a vision of ancient times emerges and becomes dominant. Alzar and Vix can see due to their medallions. They see the preparations for war, and then the hiding from their tasks by the elves, but about 60 refused and left, and a few would die on the journey to their new home, stealing the Tree of Life and taking it with the. The rest open an ancient elven tome with darkly sylvan aspects, and cast the spell of unity and unite their spirits with the local trees. The scene fades. Then a new scene overtakes it. A heavenly courtroom scene can be seen, with the elves basically on trial for their actions. A curse is laid on them and their descendants. They will die out until they have repaid the losses on their conscience. The army of more than 5000 tears through the forest tearing up their homes. Alzar, Vix, and elves, see that the tome is still here after the vision fades. They read it, and see that the spell can be reversed, and they do so. They here is nothing more here to do, but there are some magical items Alzar secures, and then they head back to the white tower. 10 Oil of Sunlight Mirror of Life Trapping 744 Books on Elven Astronomy and Astrology, After reading them and taking them in, user would gain Sage Knowledge: Astrology NWP. They head back out, with the elves taking the holy elven book to return home with them. They scry and Alzar finds out where Melvorn, IV teleported to – his army. An army of 3500 orcs is marching towards the Elf-Hold to finish off the remnants of the tribe he originally took out. They scoured the forest quickly and only around 35 elves were freed, the rest died to Melvorn or time. They’ll head with Alzar back south and east. |
Alzar mass teleports to his northern army with Vix and the elves and they will marc up tomorrow to meet Melvorn, IV. The elves in the elf-hold don’t have the numbers needed to deal with this threat. Even fully assembled they could bring around 250 troops to the battlefield.
Melvorn IV is trying to duplicate his previous success, and create more elf-tree hybrids to help ensure he does not die. He has a copy of his traveling spellbook, and retains his ,magic after abandoning his home. They teleport to the elf-hold and the elves give their story, and those that can, children or those to old, will flee. The rest prepare to make a stand behind Alzar’s army in case Melvorn breaks through or tries to break off smaller units to flank or head around Alzar to hit his army Three days later, battle begins: Alzar – 109 BV, 4000 troops, Melvorn – 3500 troops, 93 BV Alzar gets these bonuses: +20 Baton of Victory +10 defender They are fighting outside of his home, so no bonuses there. So a total of +46 Alzar tosses a 29, and his foes a 61. Result? +14 for him. Tactical victory, no one is tired, they lose 20% Alzar none Day 2 Alzar – 109 BV, 3500 troops, Melvorn – 2800, 93 BV Alzar’s difference is now 56 due to beating them before. Alzar tosses a 50 even, and they a 21. Alzar wins by a lot. They are routed and lost 50% of their force, Alzar lost 20%. Alzar’s Flying castle drops behind them as the force flees, and he harasses them. Alzar sees the fleeing form of Melvorn and he teleports to him and casts Time Stop despite his magical defenses. Alzar casts Laundryn’s Cleaving, Power Word, Kill, and Power Word Stun. All three work, and his foe dies. From his body: 2nd copy of Melvorn’s traveling spellbook Dagger, +3 of Elf Slicing Bracers of Defense AC 4 Used up wand, empty potion bottles Amulet of Protection vs Scrying Ring of Protection +3 Elven Boots, Elven Cloak They gather his things and head back to the Elf-Hold, with news of victory. Alzar lost 600 troops in winning, and while some were raised or healed (Only half of the losses are deaths if you’ll recall, that’s still a big loss of life) Alzar hands the medallions back from Vix and himself. Elven scrying magic reveals that the curse that had continued onto the new hold has ended, and the Tree of Life will recover. Alzar gets access to the main library out in Alfheim, and will have permanent access to 155,000 books from a 250,000 + library. The books are everything from general knowledge to an extensive and detailed history of every nation and tribe to some minor elvish trivia, and info on things like general academic works as well as obscure topics that only sages would care about, like elven theology. But any book that deals with anything elven, like elven magic, elven history, elven locations, how to make elven items or homes, or anything like that won’t be allowed. As this is the elven library on the plane, a large part of the books are on that theme, and thus aren’t allowed either, and more than 100,000 are going to be banned from Alzar’s reading or usage. But he will check out books daily, sending a small stack to Thorasia, where they can be Bookcopied in mass. If he can Bookcopy 20 books a day between himself and his apprentices, then Alzar can copy 155,000 books in just 7,750 days, or 21.23 years. Not that bad! End of the Tree of Life |
Once again I made some changes to fit the story and to muscle up some of the combat, like increasing the army or adding conjured critters to the fight in the White Tower.
Alzar has finished preparing the four Clone spellbooks of Kerpatis but they are identical, and each has almost the identical lineup of heavy Evocation spells, with the occasional spell here or there. He doesn’t want anything from them. Four Keraptis Clone Spellbooks: 1 - Magic Missile, Shocking Grasp, Detect Magic, Read Magic, 2 - Melf’s Acid Arrow, ESP, Detect Iniv, Invisibility, 3 – Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Melf’s Minute Meteors, Flame Arrow, Dispel Magic, Haste, 4 – Ice Storm, Confusion, Enervation, 5 – Cone of Cold, Chaos, Teleport, 6 – Contact other Plane, Disintegrate, 7 – Delaying Blast Fireball, Prismatic Spray, Teleport without Error, 8 - Clone Alzar needs to find a good way to copy the many books he now has access to. Once those 155k are copied over, he currently has 246,481 books. That’s a lot of books. In the meantime, Alzar knows he is going to need to find a better printer. |
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ALZAR
I think it would be cool to take a moment to pause talk about what a normal day in the life of Alzar is looking like right now, as he rules a much larger realm than before, and yet is still a mage doing mage-things. As a reminder, while he is wearing his Greater Ring of Sustenance, he doesn’t have to eat, sleep, or drink. Therefore each day he has a full 24 hours. Also, as a reminder, Alzar doesn’t have to rememorize and recast his wizards spells each day. He only needs to do so with Nefti’s Spell Recall. That takes around 3 and a half hours daily, and that’s it for class maintenance, no studying for clerics or other wizard spells with the Spell Recall. Alzar does the follow each day On multiple occasions, he’ll scry his realm with crystal balls and see what is happening. Then, as things are hot, he might teleport over to check on them but otherwise will let them lie. Each day, on a rotating basis, he will teleport to a few different towns and keeps and such and put in a personal appearance, typically around 4 places a day. Every third day he checks on Ith K’hinax, the other two days he teleports around casting Bookfind and shopping for books. While there he will check and inspect to ensure that everything is going well, take some reports, and put in the time needed to make any changes to the infrastructure. Each day Alzar holds an open court of at least one hour, but often up to three to hear any issues that need to be brought up by anyone. Each day Alzar hears any major judicial cases that were appareled or are sticky enough to need his help. Previously he would have all of the secret lycanthrope enforcers and spies report to him, but now they report to Aleigha and he takes her reports. Snarla is 2nd in command of them, due to her massive loyalty to him. He gave her a couple of magical items as well such as a Ring of Pro +2. He also helps out with the current construction projects in Evenarrow, casting spells to help, or using magical items, as well as loaning things like the Spade of Digging or Flying Carpet, which can be used as a flying base to do detail work. The Ring of Telekinesis is pretty useful too. And Alzar will conjure allies as well that help (his earth elementals and sandlings are the best by far) Almost every day, Alzar checks on the main industries in Evenarrow, namely the Foundry and book working and alchemist’s shop. Although his magist’s are trusted to do that if needed. Similarly, each day Alzar will often check on their lab and research work. Every day Alzar spends between 4 and 6 hours working with his apprentices, and directing their tutelage. The rest of the time Alzar spends casting daily spells like summons (Invisible Stalker, for example), doing research or creating an object, reading books, and more. Remember he has some items to help with that, such as the Lens of Speed Reading. Because of the Lamp of Creation, him, and his magists and others working there, can make 2 things at once, like create magical items and research a spell, or create two golems. Alzar also has a number of time savers, like Consume Knowledge to immediately gain the knowledge of a book (at the cost of destroying the book) or his research and divining proficiencies. And’s that’s pretty much a day in the life of Alzar. |
He needs to create a new magical item, and he hits his spell and item research part of his library.
Here’s his goal: Quill of Bookcopy Can use Alzar’s Bookcopy to copy one book to another, takes two hours to copy a book over. Does not need to refill ink. That’s it, it’s a pretty simple object. One of the objects is already know, and Alzar finds receipts in the library he already found. That’s a Neverdrying Quill that just won’t ever need to be refilled, and that’s a cheap and simple magic item that only needs three things, none of which are that tough or difficult. The second is layering in the Bookcopy spell. Now that’s just a level 2 spell that it can physically do over the course of two hours (one hour per level of the spell). Alzar will also need to use permeance magic after loading his object. So he’ll need this: Cockatrice feather Ink from an ancient giant squid Verite tip created in the longest day of the year And the original recipe would cost just 2k in gold to make. And then add to it this: Wax from a hivebrood den A spark from the Elemental Plane of Lightning And then enstar the spell, create the item, meld it, remove all magical taints, and then enchant it. Alzar is going to make three of them He scouts for a cockatrice and then finds a family of them at a zoo in Glantri City. He teleports over and buys a trio of cockatrice feathers for 300 gp. Then he swings by a magical item shop here in Glantri City and purchases the right ink. One of the most common ingredients for making scrolls is giant squid ink, and almost every alchemist or mage keeps at least one jar, but ancient ink is harder to come by, but in one of the centers of magic on the entire plane, you can find it for 1k/bottle. 3k spent Alzar grabs verite from his dwarves over in Hammerhelm that mine the green-tinged metal. He has three ingots (100 gp each ingot) ready for making in two months. Hivebrood are a Pandius only special of giant bee-like creatures that are nasty. There are some here in Norwold, and he teleports to them, kills some hivebood, and harvests wax to use to seal in the magical ink. Finally he heads do the Elemental Plane of Lightning. He researched an idea which he thinks will work. It does. He takes a jar of preserving and puts a magical amount in there he can use for the sparks, and it will work. He has the ingredients ready, and he can make the tips on month 6, day 20 in two months, and then attach them to the quills, and by month 7 he should have three Quills of Bookcopy. |
Now let’s talk about a subject that probably none of you know noticed, even if you played a ton of D&D. Books and their cost and such.
So this next section is going to be a little detailed. In the core player’s handbook for the game is a chapter on equipment and purchasing it. Among that is a set cost for something very expensive with the core rules. Paper. According to the core rules, a single sheet of paper is 2 gp. There are even later books that use that 2 gp cost. For example, if I recall correctly, the Complete Wizard’s Handbooks talks about the value of a wizard’s starting spellbook being around 1000 gp due to having 500 pages. Which would mean that collection of twenty five books that clocked in at just 5000 pages would have a cost of 10000 gp in raw resources alone, let alone the additional value from what was written and the book itself. Clearly, a single sheet of paper can’t be 2 gp. Here let me quote another rulesbook: (Player’s Options, Spells and Magic) On the section on library acquisition Naturally, a library worth 10,000 gp is not a heap of treasure waiting to be carted off by the nearest adventurer….generally a library is composed of books ranging in value from 50 to 500 gp, although unusual works may cost more. A library valued at 2000 may have 15-20 in the 50-100 range, a few I m the 10-50 range, etc…. Clearly, you cannot have a piece of paper cost 2 gp each with this economy. I have ruled that books average around 25 gp each, which will include non-academic works like novels and travelogues with little gp value, as well as the academic books Alzar and others use for magic research. (It also says that 2000 gp/value requires 25 square feet of space, so a 1 mill library is 12,500 square feet, but that seems a little light on the space.) I am thus assuming that 2 gp was a type and really meant 2 gp for a blank book, not a page in it. Because otherwise, selling paper would be how adventurers got their cash. They’d scour desks and bookshelves for blank books and papers and sell them like jewelry. Can you actually imagine a 200 page journal costing 400 gp at a market? That’s clearly silly. Vix has found an nasty keep over to the west of the area in the Jotunheimr Hills she heard about from locals. After Alzar gets the quills ready next month they’ll check it out. Apparently this keep, called Hellgate Keep, has become the home or demons fleeing battle with Alzar here locally but without either a way home or an unwelcome home they are worry about. |
Year 11, Month 5
Bookfind secures just 344 books from Hamedh, and he only gets another 500 books from stores. This resource is almost ending. Next he’ll head to Thorasia for books, and that’s a normal sized world with a ton of books available. Construction continues on the various projects Alzar has started in Evenarrow. The ten Iron Statues are ready, and Alzar uses the Book of Living statues on them to animate ten Iron livening statues.. As a reminder, living statues are sort of like starter versions of golems that doesn’t require magical items to hit. He already had 2. This gives him 10 more. 12 Iron Living Statues, 25 HP, Thaco 17, Deals 2d8 damage from punch, non-magical slash/pierce weapons stick to it after hitting it. AC 2. Not major constructs, but every little bit helps. Alzar is now working on his soupped-up wrath after concluding research on it. Alzar and Vix teleport over to the Keep, and are ready to put it out of it’s misery |
Beginning of Hellgate Keep
 One of the good things about this adventure is that I just bought it and thought it’d work pretty well if used the backstory to reflect current reality. In the core module, Hellgate Keep was once a nice Keep east of Silverymoon, and then fell to demons and other lower planer dorks who took it over and used it as a base of operations. Annoyed by the power of the folks at the keep, Harper’s assembled a squad to take out the many demons and powerful critters here at the keep, and then broke many of the foundational infrastructures to prevent another group from coming in with an artifact they had, but they were not disturbed by ruins underneath the Keep, and that’s precisely what wound up happening. So we’ll be getting the Keep before it fell to the good guys, and I’ll be emphasizing the two demon types that were heavily zonked here in Norwold – SpyderFiends and Ba’atun. They’ll have more than fled here as well, but taking out the antagonists that survived and are rebuilding a new power base feels like a pretty good next step in this ongoing struggle. I also love the core bad guys here, powerful, raised demon infused characters, that if high enough a level will give the party a challenge, and I will give them allies outside of demonic fun times like apprentices, golems, charmed pets, and such. It’ll be fun. I’m also going to follow Alzar’s lead in Thorasia. It’s hard to crack a big fat small nut than a long, narrow, skinny one. The same is true of dungeons, put everything in one basket, don’t have 60 or 100 rooms across a dungeon with all of the bads split up and easier to deal with. After consideration, I would say that demons have been the major antagonist for Alzar through the entire dynasty. |
They head into the only level of the keep. There is no second story. Save in the towers. But there should be at least one under level.
Alzar scouts with his magic ahead of time and has noticed really two types of demons in Hellgate Keep. The first are a group of Alu-Fiends, tieflings, Cambions, and a handful of other humanoid looking and appearing demons that can hide back here in the Hills away from prying eyes without causing too much of a ruckus. They have ruled this keep for some tim e and have been here a while, tucked away, adding to their strength in a way very similar to how Alzar did in his dungeon creation days in Thorasia when he had his home underground that he kept adding too with local raids and such, and kept off the local map by sending his minions that would cause issues, like undead, elsewhere, and using charm and other magic as the front face of himself. These humanoid leaders have done the same, and appear to have brought in a larger amount of magical items and other things of value. Meanwhile the other type of demon is the normal, ugly, antagonistic, and prevalent demon, including the ba’atun and Spyder Fiends, and others that have fled Alzar and others, and looked to Hellgate Keep as a place of sanctuary and a base of power. The goal here is to go stealthy at first and get a feel for the Keep. Alzar uses the Face of Xenous, Censor, and Wizard spell to summon three Air Elementals, has his invisible familiar, cast an Invisible Stalker, and uses Dust of Disappearance on himself and Vix. Alzar uses his Scroll of Portals to create a Passwall effect in the Keep and they enter from a place other than the front door. They arrive in a large tower, the largest tower in Hellgate Keep. Alzar chose it because it seems to be fairly isolated from the rest of the Keep. They arrive at a central staircase and then they face a trio of ba’atun flying down, and they see through the invisibility and and one of them fails to gate in help and the others shout for aid. Battle is joined. 2 vs 8 Alzar and Vix penetrate the walls, and cleave and piece and each slay one o the two demons in front. The last flies away outside of the Keep. Vix spear nails it, teleports it back to melee range and they kill it. Hmm… why didn’t try to teleport? Dead demons that fall here go back to The Abyss, and not much happens other than being banned here. Maybe that’s their way home |
Alzar’s aid smashes hard. No one responded to the ba’atun;s cries, and they head up the tower, and find no traps, but on the next floor, about 5 demons, this time various sorts including two Nabassu, one Vrock, and two Spyder-Fiends, the most powerful of those SFs.
Battle begins! 5 vs 3 Alzar and Vix are missed (cloak, high AC). Then Alzar and Vix carve deeply into some demons. 6 vs 7 Alzar and Vix each slay a wounded demon, and another dies to elemental smashes. Then they are hit. Alzar – 82/90 Vix – 143/151 8 vs 5 They are hit a little more.. They slay the remaining demons. Again, no gating or teleporting away. Odd. Did they want to die? Alzar – 74/90 Vix – 129/151 Vix and Alzar arrive at the top of the tower, and there’s treasure here that Alzar will add to the treasure pile later. He’ll look at it later. They head back down the tower, and head to the adjacent corridor. |
This corridor is alarmed and ready!
All of the bad guys Alzar scouted have arrived at large central courtyard that is across the hallway. Like Alzar, they have cast a spell on the walls and temporarily destroyed them to hit Alzar, Vix and his handful of summoned people on the edge of their return from the tower. None of these demons can gate or teleport, they have lost those abilities. (It’s been stripped of them by higher ups for deserting their posts and such) It’s a lot of foes. During the handful of rounds Alzar/Vix and others were in the tower and cleaned it, they have assembled all of the minions here in the Keep, the towers, the dungeons, and more. They have also summoned, conjured, freed, and used items to bring out others. Here are each of the foes Alzar is facing: Countess Sarya Dlardrageth – Level 36 Mage, Cambion, AC -2, HP 88, immune to 1-2 level spells, needs +3 to hit, surrounded by aura of fire, immune to all magic/normal fire, takes normal damage from cold/water attacks, anyone trying to hit her, even if they miss, takes 1d4 heat hp in damage (Alzar is immune), uses +4 Whip of Poison as weapon if force to do so, knows a ton of magic and has multiple weapons and items equipped. She has a Ring of Earth Command on. 3 Apprentices of Countess Sarya here, each is level 5 human wizard Sarya controls, and has summoned, these (She used a Time Stop and Greater Spell Trigger to cast a lot more than you might normally expect in this small amount of time) 1 Greater Earth Elemental 2 Earth Elemental 1 Fire Elemental 1 Efreet 20 Shadows 1 Invisible Stalker 1 Nightmare Quasit Familiar Lord Ryvvik Dlardrageth, - level 36 fighter, Cambion, Ac -9, HP 162, has +5 Long Sword that deals double damage to good people, weapon grandmaster, will deal 1d8+13 for each hit, has a THACO of -12 and three attacks/round, with a powerful magical shield and a ton of items. Lord Xharl Dlardrageth, - level 36 fighter Cambion, AC-4, HP 158, has +5 bastard sword, +4 short sword, duelwielding, deals 1d8+13 for 2 attacks and 1d6+12 for 2 attacks. Xharl has a Ivory Elephant figure of wondrous power and summoned the elephant. Aliisza, Level 35 cleric, Al-Fiend, AC-4, hp 115, +5 warhammer of fighter slaying (double damage x fighters), +4 shield, etc Aliisa has conjured, or controls, these: 4 vampires 35 Ju-Ju Zombies Kaanyr Vhok, the Sceptered One – level 36 mage, cambion, AC -1, HP 78, has fear aura that causes any to look on him to save vs fear, or run for one full hours by each +1 on the failed save. Wields the powerful Scepter Malevolus in battle, one of the most powerful weapons ever, Vhok has charmed and created these allies; 2 Purple Worm 10 Iron Golems 15 Ogre Mages 1 Wyvern Ice Mephit Familiar 1 level 7 apprentice 3 level 1 apprentices The Tananukka – Level 35 tiefling thief, AC-9, THACO -3, can become invisible at will, backstab x5, can turn invisible. Won’t work against Alzar, he’s immune. In addition: 51 Spyder-Fiends 21 Ba’Atun 4 Nabassu 3 Dretch 1 Vrock 1 Marilith 3 Hezrou 9 Nalfesnee 50 skeletons with Transmute Bone to Steel cast, and +1 weapons of many sorts, and shields and armor, to give them an -2 AC and 20 hp. All of the creatures, save for the 50 skeletons, have haste cast on them. Aliisa has just cast a Demonic Aid spell that gives their entire team +1 to hit, +1 damage, and +1 THAC0. |
So, what’s Alzar’s play here?
He needs immediate help. Big help. In a normal battle, a Greater Earth Elemental or a few earths would win a bunch of battles, but at this high of a level, no way. It’s not here. Options: Alzar is facing roughly 90 undead, 100 demons of various types, mostly weaker ones, 10 golems, 20 spellcasters like Ogre magi and high level casters, and powerful melee combatants. He has 3 Air Elementals, 1 Imp, and a Stalker. Now, he has the items to summon more bad guys or the spells, sure. But he needs an instant army to fight on the same level as these. Alzar Mass Teleports himself, the elementals, and Vix away. One hour later: 4 Elementals from Face of Xenous 1 Greater Earth Elemental 12 Death Tyrants 1 Invisible Stalker 2 More Air Elementals 2 Earth Elementals 1 Fire Elemental 35 Sandlings 2 Efreet 1 Nightmare 3 Griffins 4 Dire Bats 30 Shadows 1 Onyx Dog, 1 Ebony Fly, 2 Obsidian Steed, 1 Serpentine Owl, 1 Giant Sized Ferret Aleigha with Iron Skins cast Snarla, Maerie Dragotha 20 Hordelings 35 Ice Mephits 5 Bearded Devils 1 Android Bodyguard 6 Berserkers from Horn of Valhalla 20 Lichlings Imp Alzar had Vix and others hand out nasty powerful items like Scrolls, potions, Spellcache Rings, Beads of Explosion, Wands, Dust of Appearance, and such. Vix uses the various figurines, others the Horn of Valhalla, while Alzar conjured and teleported around the big guys. Alzar casts Worldwake and opens up a 33 turn long giant portal into the courtyard of Hellgate Keep. Alzar can see thy used their time wisely and added about 10 minor Earth Elementals and a Dao. Get ready… Alzar’s major force here at stopping his foe is the Death Tyrants. 12 undead beholders dropping anti-magic rays and firing their other rays is just hard to deal with by any force, even one as large and well-coordinated as the occupiers of Hellgate Keep. Now, if you’d like, I could just fast-sim this. I could toss a few random.org chains of dice rolling. Alzar is bringing around 200 folks against about 300. But his force features some powerful minions like the Death Tyrants and the…uh…death tyrants. They are his deus ex machina…. But, this should be a lot of fun, right? I mean, how often do you get to run a fight this big. You’ve gotta gofer while you can |
Initiative….
Alzar is not wearing the Ring of Quick Action, Maerie is. He has Ring of Spell Turning and Free Action. He has given a ton of defensive items to those for whom it matters. 7 vs 9 Alzar casts Time Stop. He goal is to drop defenses (Dispel Magic) and then Wail of the Banshee to drop numbers. And then…just two castings. Some magic of there is gone, and Wail kills some fodder – Alzar kilts 16 Spyder Fiends, but that was it. 6 vs 1 They are out of Time Stops, using them before to prepare. So their plan is to move around, casting mass damage spells that can deal damage to everyone, and spread out and get away from Beholder eyes. Many beholder eyes. Their fighters and thief step forward and take out two fodder elementals, and base Vix/Aleigha, and tankers in the middle like Elementals. Only four Ogre Magi are outside of the AM Area, and cast magic missiles, that smash Vix for 56 total damage. Alzar has the Gem of MM Reflection on himself, and maybe they know that? Fodder steps forward and smashes or kills 16 of Alzar’s smaller minions on the flanks, like Mephits and such. Another elemental and two Hordelings and 1 Bearded Devil pass in that number as well. Some fodder badly damages some Death Tyrants. More weapons carve Vix for 33 more. Then Alzar’s team goes, and though they are down 18 troops, including three elementals. But the Death Tyrants beams lance out, and multiple foes die to Disintegrates or Flesh to Stone effects. Alzar ordered them to concentrate on the 5 Ogre magi outside of the AM rays, and then on apprentices and other casters. 17 fall to various rays, even Cause Serious Wounds and such. Then Alzar’s elementals and fodder take out another 9 fodder. Vix hits their fighter, Xharl, for 44, and then Alzar casts Heal on Vix to fully heal her. Aleigha, in werebear form, bites Xharl for 11. No one else of his heavies does too much, and the Efreets had a minor round on all sides as well. Dragotha breathes lightning and slew a vampire. End of Round – Xharl – 55 taken 5 vs 4 Their foes keep initiative. With it they have a great turn. They slay three Death Tyrants, take out Alzar’s Nightmare, drop the Stalker, eliminate Sandlings, Mephits, and then they hit Vix for 33, 44 and 29 with weapons and she is badly savaged. They manage a few light spells outside of the remaining AM zones, but only a few survived the first rays. They cast minor magic at Vix for 14 from a Melf’s Acid Arrow and 15 from a Shocking Grasp. Nothing too big. They took out 19 creatures this turn. They heal Xharl. People outside of the Death Tyrants were tossed Potions of Explosions and cleared out more fodder than Alzar expected. Alzar forces the Death Tyrants to finish the Ogre Mages and apprentices this turn, as their major spellcasters have moved outside of range. They do, save one apprentice makes three saves. Their Efreet falls to the punch of an angered Greater Earth Elemental. Maerie’s bow bites out and pierces and finishes a wounded purple worm. And the rest are fodder. Alzar is forced to Heal Vix again this turn. They take out another 19 foes as well. Dragotha slew another vampire. Alzar shouts at Maerie, giving her a predetermined signal. They need one turn of momentum to change the tide of this battle Next Round Maerie uses her Ring of Quick Action. Her team wins momentum. Alzar did the quick math. As of right now, his army has lost 37 of roughly 200 troops, including heavy hitters and one-fourth of his Death Tyrants, with another two badly wounded. They have lost 60 of 300, almost exclusively lower level fodder. Only major kills, like Efreet and Purple Worm have happened. None of their big six are wounded. All ten golems? Big demons like Marilith? Of their 60 losses, around 40 are either Spyder-fiends or Skeletons, and another 8 are just Shadows. Alzar needs momentum, and he has to stop losing initiative rolls to get it. Their golems are on some of his Tyrants, and that’s a rough matchup for him. There are led by the Marilith and a smart fighter well, and are very well organized. This the round they need to start winning in the trenches. His Death Tyrants rays hit 9 more fodder, and 2 decent sized dorks with their Nightmare and Vrock falling. Alzar’s other forces, not that great, but Nix and Tazneem take out a single golem between them. Still not much. Vix and Aleiga do 65 damage on Xharl. What Alzar is focusing on is getting one big kill. Ahead of battle, they saw Xharl as the weakest link, given the two weapons waddled but likely easier to hit as a result. They wanted to focus on him as the target of opportunity. Alzar’s Axe and Shield, if they all hit, would not kill him. Would a Power Word Kill drop him? Possibly, but he’s not fully sure. (It would, actually) but Alzar wants to cast something that would have a bigger effect on his foes, and his Skulltrap is cast among fodder to the right. Alzar loses two Ice Mephits and 1 sandling for 11 Ba’Atan. Good trade. Dragotha breathes her final breath and another vampire dies. They slew 31 total including his spell. Then they go. Xharl drinks an extra healing potion and is healed, Vix takes 44 from melee weapons from thief and fighter, and then their golems and folks drop two more Death Tyrants. Some of their fodder lasts and smashes more of Alzar’s fodder. Their mages and Cleric are out of AM range and cast Strip Resistance on Alzar dropping his MR to 39 and a Remove Magic tags him and hurts his spell defenses for a 10 set of rounds. They take out another 8 fodder and his team takes more explosion potions. They lost another 19 foes. Vix – 106/150 5 vs 6 Alzar casts his backup stored Time Stop. Again, he needs momentum. He casts Prismatic Spray, Cleaving on Sarya removing her protections, and then… yes has one more spell, Power Word Kill. They work, and Sarya falls. Spray takes out a few flks with rays. End of turn Quick check: They have left: 5 core Cambions, Alu-Fiends, Tiefling 12 skeletons 1 level 5 apprentice Both familiars 8 golems 11 Spyder-Fiends 5 Ba’Atun 3 Nabassu 2 Dretch 1 Marilith 3 Hezrou 6 Nalfesnee 1 Purple worm 1 wyvern 1 elephant 13 shadows 1 Fire Elemental 1 Vampire 29 Juju Zombies 1 Greater Earth Elemental 2 Earth Elemental 8 vs 4 They again get initiative. Annoying. They melee Vix for another 67 this round, kill another Death Tyrants, wound Maerie for 33, heal some damage, and Banish Alzar’s remaining elemental. Another 11of his fodder, including, Lichlings and such, pass. Maerie uses a Spellcache ring for Stoneskin, Aleigha hits for 18, and Vix gets Alzar’s last Heal and then spears for another 44. More of them die, with rays from the Death Tyrants hurting. Alzar has ordered his forces to fully smash the golems, where his flank is fading. Snarla tosses Bead for 25 damage and clears out some more of their undead fodder. His efreets savage more foes, and Dragotha kills the last vampire in melee. Xharl – 62 damage taken Maerie – 33 damage taken 2 vs 3 Alzar just wins init. Can they take advantage? Xharl is hit by Vix two of three times this round for 39. Aleigha cannot connect on her first try, and but adds 8 on the other. Alzar is right behind them, and he slashes with Selnyr and carves twice for 38 and Bright Barrier smashes for 14. Still alive…? Yes, Xharl falls! Two of their main down, but they have so many fodder left it’ll be rough. Death Tyrant rays smash and they fail some more saves with only three spellcasters remaining, one of which is an apprentice, they are good, but Alzar ordered them to fall behind fodder, and in so doing, the major mage left is exposed and can cast a spell. Dragotha takes out a purple worm. Maerie misses, and Snarla tosses another bead for more fodder. Just another golem falls. They return. Their mage casts Dispel and removes all of Alzar’s teams protections, like Stoneskins and such. They hit Vix for 40 with Ryvok and another 20 with their tiefling thief. They smash a bunch of fodder, and base again the Death Tyrants for next round. They hit Tazneem for 15 ranged damage Vix – 90/150 6 vs 1 They retake init, a rough swing. Vix takes another 67 in melee, but makes a save from a spell from a mage. They drop more Death Tyrant, and Alzar is at 5. Tazneem takes another 17. They hit Aleigha for 22 and miss Maerie. Alzar is out of full-heals for Vix. She has a Spellcache Ring with teleport but it’s early for that. Instead he’ll burn a Heal spell on a scroll he had. Vix move to Ryvok but hits just once for 19. Aleigha misses, as does Maerie. Snarla uses her final bead and kills more fodder. The bodyguar’d missil weapons find Ryvok for another 9. Again, more Death Tyrants are pulling back, and again, it exposes a mage. They kill the apprentice, and Dragotha misses. Nix kills an earth elemental, and Tazneem another major threat. Damage taken Ryvok – 28 Maerie – 33 Tazneem 27 Current Battle Roster: 4 core Cambions, Alu-Fiends, Tiefling 8 skeletons Both familiars 7 golems 10 Spyder-Fiends 5 Ba’Atun 3 Nabassu 1 Marilith 3 Hezrou 6 Nalfesnee 1 elephant 11 shadows 1 Fire Elemental 21 Juju Zombies 1 Greater Earth Elemental 1 Earth Elemental Alzar’s team: 1 Greater Earth Elemental 5 Death Tyrants 1 Earth Elementals 22 Sandlings 2 Efreet 1 Dire Bats 8 shadows 1 Obsidian Steed, 1 Serpentine Owl, 1 Giant Sized Ferret Aleigha, Snarla Maerie Dragotha 8 Hordelings 16 Ice Mephits 3 Bearded Devils 1 Android Bodyguard 11 Lichlings Imp Still a lot of fodder left on both sides like Sandlings and Skeletons and shadows and such Alright, this thing has barely started, right? Alzar has used both Time Stops, Cleaving, Power Word Kill, all of his Heals and a Heal scroll, what’s left….? Next round…. 4 to 5 They lose freakin init. That might have been a really touch time to have lost it again. Alzar’s team hits Ryvok for 55 total damage across four characters, and then he wants to force their cleric to play defense instead of protecting Ryvok, so he casts Remove Magic on their cleric to slow them down and give some screwed up spells and magic and such, like him. His 5 Death Tyrants take out more fodder, and his concentrated attacks by Dragotha and the Efreets drop two golems. As per Alzar’s command, Snarla grabs a Wand of Magic Missile and pumps their cleric with three missiles for 12 damage. Their cleric casts the final Heal spell she has on Ryvok. Ryvok hits Vix all three swings for 48. Their thif crit misses once, and makes the other attack for 15. 8 more of Alzar’s team fall. Vix – 82/150 Maerie – 33 damage taken Their cleric, 12 taken Next round 9 vs 4 They win back init. Alzar’s team loses another 11, and Vix takes….41 from Ryvok and 25 from their thief, no misses. 65 total. Their mage steps out of AM range, they cannot break the cordon keep the Death Tyrants back, but they do kill some of the protects acts that 11. Their cleric casts a heal spell to heal herself. Vix – 17/150 Maerie – 33 damage taken Alzar needs Vix to remain in the game, as long as their heavies focus on her, he is winning the flanks. If she falls or leaves, then they will need help. But if they lose initiative this round, she will fall. He is out of Quick Action tricks. 50/50 chance, here we go…. 5 for Alzar’s team…. 2 for theirs…. They smile. They know how big a momentum gain that was. Ryvok slays her, and Aleigha is missed by their thief. They hit and badly wound a Death Tyrant but cannot finish it. More fodder falls, and Tazneem is hit for another 16 long range. Their mage slips out of AM range and casts Disintegrate at their last elemental and…it makes its save. Snarla is pointed by Alzar at the cleric, and missiles stab for 14. Maerie adds 9 to Ryvok at range, Aleigha 17. Two more golems fall, and much of their fodder is down. Alzar uses his Boots of Striding and Springing to base their cleric. With Vix out, he has to be the tank. No one else on their team can do as much damage and spike players hard. Alzar’s axe bites her twice for 38, but his Barrier misses. Tazneem - Vix - Dead Ryvok - 26 Cleric – 52 4 vs 7 Well at least they won initiative back this round! Alzar’s axe attacks three times this turn with his proficiency. He just needs a 3. 16. 14. 5. He hits three times for….51 damage and the Barrier needs a 8. He tosses an 8 exactly and hits for another 12.. 63 damage. Magic Missiles from Snarla for 14 finish her. Dead cleric. That was a big turn. Death Tyrants with a lot more fodder, the last of the golems fall, Maerie and Aleigha cannot connect save for a paltry 4 damage. They hit back and badly damage Tazneem. Maerie takes another 10, and Aleigha 44. Tazneem – 65 Aleigha - 44 Maerie - 43 Ryvok 30 5 vs 7 They keep init. Tazeem teleports away. The last of their golems fall to Nix and Dragotha, and they have nothing basing the Death Tyrants now. They kill a ton more fodder, demons, and such. At least 40 foes have been petrified in this fight already. Maerie and Aleigha each quaffs an Extra healing pot and heals 25. Snarla hits Ryvok for 12 more with her wand. Alzar jumps and melees their their mage, but she has some shield that dodges his attacks, did she get off a Total Immunity? She is hit just once for 11 by the shield for 11. Maybe it’s the artifact nature of that item? Ryvok and their thief add another 50 damage, even, to Aleigha. Their mage casts a nasty spell at Alzar (Power word Kill) but hits his MR of 39. They smash another 10 of Alzar’s swindling fodder, but none of his remaining bigs were hurt. They missed Dragotha after Tazneem left. Mage – 11 Ryvok – 42 Aleigha - 69 Maerie - 17 6 vs 3 They retake init. Aleigha takes another 61. Maerie another 11. Their mage casts Power Word Stun at Alzar, and with his MR, or Spell Turning, or immunity to the spell with Free Action, we’ll just rule that doesn’t work. In the last two turns, almost every Sandling Alzar has is gone – only 2 remain. Alzar orders Snarla to switch targets, and the mage takes 14. He leaps into melee range and blocks Aleigha and melees Ryvok, replacing Vix here. He hits twice (out of three) for 39 and his shield misses too. Death Tyrants have pushed, and their mage is covered by AM and their disintegrate rays hit more demons as their petrification ones undead. Dragotha, again missed, melees and wounds their Marilith, and Nix hits it again and badly wounds her. Aleigha retreats, covered by Alzar. Maerie uses another Extra H Pot. Alzar’s last flyers, and their ain’t much, base their name, like his final Dire Bat. Mage – 25 Ryvok – 81 Aleigha - 130 Maerie - 3 7 vs 9 Alzar retakes initiative. His Death Tyrants again smash and do mad damage. He hits Ryvok twice again in melee and again misses with his shield, for another 40 even. Snarla’s missiles smash their mage for 15. Maerie hits Ryvok once with her bow for 6. Their mage takes 12 in melee damage. Aleigha quaffs another EH pot. Dragotha and Nix finish their Marilith. They hit Nix for 22 on a crit. Ryvok grabs a Gaseous Form pot, drinks it, and moves to flee. Their Thief does so as well. Their mage cannot cast spells this round as the two death Tyrants, free of any markers, have it in a vice. Instead he melees with a scepter, and one of those on melee disappears in a puff of acrid smoke. They hit more fo Alzar’s fodder, and Maerie is hit for 21. Ryvok – 127 – G Formed Thief – G Formed Mage – 37 Aleigha, 105 Maerie – 24 Nix – 22 4 vs 6 They keep initiative. They finish the mage who can’t use magic, while Alzar chases off after the two gaseous forms. He casts Control Winds and blows back Ryvok, who is now trapped in a sphere about 20 feet above the ground. He can’t get the thief as the Tiefling went in a different direction. More fodder falls Ryvok turns back into a person, falls, breaks his fall, and attacks Alzar for 41. Ryvok – 127 Dead – Magex2,cleric, fighter. Escaped Thief Alzar 49/90 Maerie – 26 Aleigha – 70 Nix 22 Snarla – 5 Dragotha – 22 5 vs 3 Ryvok is trying to kill Alzar out of spite, but misses once for 35. Very little else is done. Alzars crew, led by the fodder, has forced their remaining force into a corner, and with AM eyes, Death Tyrant rays, etc it’s done deal. Alzar hits just once on Ryvok with Selnyr for 15. But the Barrier smash for 10 and slays him. his other forces are bowing defenders behind shadows, etc Alzar - 14/90 They finish three rounds later. |
Hellgate Keep is retaken, and the tiefling won’t ever be heard from again.
Alzar uses the 7th level cleric spell he didn’t cast to Resurrect Vix. He grabs the other corpses and will use various divinatory magic on them. Meanwhile a day later they have scoured the rest of Hellgate Keep and removed all traps and found a ton of stuff. Get ready…. Laboratory for making Iron Golems 1 Iron Golem body ready for enchantment They find 666 books on Demonic Lore 350 books on Crafting and Making Golems 350 Books on Charming and its use and benefits Ring of Earth Command 2x Ring of Warmth Belt of Stone Giant Strength Necklace of Adaptation Periapt of Wisdom +4 Whip of Poison +5 Long Sword, 2x damage vs good +4 Plate Mail +5 Shield +5 bastard sword +4 short sword Ivory Elephant figurine of wondrous power +5 warhammer, 2x damage vs fighters +4 shield +4 chain mail +5 plate mail Potions: of Gaseous Form; 2 of Extra Healing; Infravision; Spider Climb 188,000 gp worth of coins, gems, jewelry. Scepter Malevolus – Chaotic Evil Scepter. When Alzar grabs It he takes 10 damage. He then uses telekinesis magic to secure it until he can review it later. It will be a +5 mace, CE, can be used 5xday to Detect Law/Chaos , when it hits a lawful creature, acts as Mace of Disruption,(save vs spell or be destroyed), can be used 1/day to cast Chaos Sphere that creates a sphere around the user that prevents any non-chaos magic from passing through, much like Anti-Magic Shell but for chaos. Lasts for 10 minutes. Aoxar’s Helm – If “worn” by a dead corpse for a day, the next wearer will see the last hour of the dead person’s life. Craenmol’s Warpick - +3, shines like the sun, can be hit on the ground to echolocate for the user, must be fend 200 gp a day to work. Dragonsheart Armor of King Convar III – This is the armor worn by a famous dwarf king made of red dragon scales, gives AC5, +1 saves vs fire and dragon breaths, -1 damage modifier on for fire damage, Glove of Taarnahm the Vigilant – Chainmail gauntlet gives a melee weapon equipped the flight abilities of a dwarf thrower +3. Ring of Invisibility Shifting – Can be used by a rogue to shift in and out of invisibility 10/day for backstabbing in combat, but each use lasts just two rounds. Lashing Sword of Samos the Skullreaver - +1 short sword, like Mace of Disruption (Hit undead saves vs death or dies) Pegasus Helm of Kloeth Ironstar - +1 AC full helm, summon a spirit Pegasus 2/day, fight only. Twinblades of Alight – Vorpal battle axe has one half forged of mithril and the other of cold steel. Functions as +3 vorpal battle axe when used b dwarf, +2 battleaxe elsewise. Tyranny’s Knell - +3 warhammer, dwarf thrower, can be shrunk to nothing. Chaldaorn Katar – Punching knife variant of Dagger of Venom Nychyaella’s Healing Spear – Can heal it’s wielder once/day, transfers all damage wielder has taken and transfer as it hits the next strike. Shattering Swords of Coronal Ynloeth – These two blades are left from a destroyed artifact, they are +2 longswords in battle and are designed to work together in battle. Once/week, they can shatter where they can break into a shard storm that deals 30 damage to all foes in melee range. Shroudcrown – Circlet allows wearer to control undead as a 10th level cleric, and renders the welder immune to things as an undead Staff of the Moon - +4 quarterstaff, can be used during a full moon to invoke a Moon-Beam that will strike all desired targets within one mile for2d6 damage if the target is evil and/or undead. Tasmia’s Heart – Bustier with jewels and gems and chain. Acts as Helm of Underwater action and Ring of Free Action. Thyrsus of the Arch-Druid – Staff topped with carved pine cone, it commands trees like a treant. Ynloeth’s Bracers – Bracers of Defense AC2, but it’s use prevents the caster from casting any arcane spells, and thus cannot be used by a mage or bard. And then finally, after these items are collected and the Keep cleaned out, this is a very goof place for a garrison and surrounding village in the tough area of the Jotunheimr Hills. It can hold a garrison of around 400 soldiers, as well as support personnel and storage, materiel, and more. And there could easily be nearby villagers as well to sprout up. It’s in a good location, and would likely require around 25,000 gp to restore, so Alzar does. End of Hellgate Keep |
Whoa, I just found something cool in my old D&D backlogue. So I really loved the idea of making dungeons and maps for my D&D adventures when I was a kid, around 10 and 11, I'd use graph paper to make this fun dungeons. I remember one was a side map of a tunnel system you got into from a Purple Worm tunnel, and such.
Well I had this epic saga I made I called "The Saga of the Tuning Fork" and each apparently disconnected seven dungeons had a great statue of a Tuning Fork at the end, each of them set to one of the notes (A, C, E, F, etc) on the chord. Once the party had found all seven note Tuning Forks and figured out how to align these statues musically, it opened up a secret eighth dungeon that could only be entered by finding and using the seven statues of Tuning Forks. I just found my notes and maps for it. What a crazy zany idea I had a kid! |
That battle was a load. Just how much did you end up buffing the bad guys up for this one?
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Quote:
Pretty heavily as I changed the story to make it so that the demons were still there and had to be destroyed, rather than you coming back to a place that had been destroyed in the past and wasn't as much of a challenge. The key characters I kept and gave them higher levels, adding things like apprentices, demons that had fled from Alzar's campaigns against them, and more. |
Year 11, Month 6
Alzar heads to the Thorasian Underdeep he explored long ago, and finds 3122 unclaimed books and buys 3500 in the Dřkkálfar city for 30gp each and cleans out everything the Dřkkálfar are selling here. Alzar heads to a ceremony for the wedding of one of the nobles of Norwold, Him and Vix send around two days there at the ceremony. This month, Alzar completes his three Quills. By themselves, working at 12 books/day, total of 36 books/day, is 4305 days, or 11.8 years. And with the extra 20 books from spells, that would be 7.6 years. Not bad. Still need to find ways to accelerate it, but not bad. Alzar teleports to visit Vala, and gives her the recipe if she agrees to make two more for him first before she makes any for herself, and she agrees. That should help even more. Construction continues, save for a week when nasty rain and flooding stopped everything. |
Year 11, Month 7
Alzar will get another 1125 tomes from the Underdark this month, and 1000 other places with Bookfind. He get 1000 books purchased as well. Alzar has finished researching his new undead, and makes it: Mighty Wraith AC-2 THAC0 – 10 HD – 8 2 attacks for 2d10 each + see below Special Abilities – Energy Drain, Str Drain Special Def - Requires +3 to hit, is invisible always and cannot be turned visible by Magic. The Mighty Wraith is a powerful version of the normal Wraith, with better hit points, THAC0, and AC. When the Mighty Wraith attacks, if it hits, then the target is drained of one level and 3 points of strength (or 30 percentage in the case of 18/ str for fighters) and gains 10 HP and +1 to hit and damage for an hour. Any opposing creature slain by the Mighty Wraith will raise as one after one week of death, unless the body is blessed. Any creature reduced to 0 STR or lvls dies. Mighty Wraiths are invisible by creation, not by illusion, and thus cannot be turned visible by dispelling any magic. As such, it requires -2 to hit and -2 to damage against it unless otherwise can be seen or made out by the attacker. It is turned as a vampire, and cannot be destroyed by turning attempts, just turned. Mighty Undead are very intelligent, and cannot be controlled by clergy or necromancers without full concentration, unlike many undead. Alzar finishes the next month after spending some time building his various projects at Evenarrow, some of which are almost over. At the end of the month, he has dispelled the three books he took from a previous adventure from the library. Scribes and Runes: Read Magic, Wizard Mark, Detect Magic, Copy, Explosive Runes, Symbol, Write, Glyph of Warding Meritol’s Meritful Magic: Magic Missile, Melf’s Acid Arrow, Fire Ball, Ice Storm, Cone of Cold, Teleport, Delayed Blast Fireball, Power Word Stun, Meteor Swarm Arresting Arcanabula Power Word Stun, Hold Person, Ghoul Touch, Hold Monster, Paralyze, Temporal Stasis, Imprisonment, Hold Undead, Hold Golem, Seizure |
Year 11, Month 8
Another 2333 books found and bought from the Underdark The Tower of Shadow should be finished next month. One of Alzar’s highest Sheriffs passes of natural causes, and is replaced. Vix has announced she is pregnant once again, and has been for at least a month. They expect delivery next year around Month 2-3. Alzar’s other Quills of Bookcopy are brought to him by his own apprentice Vala and they will be added to be added to his Copy fun times. Alzar begins work on the Nyx project to increase darkness. How? Where? How about this: Alzar’s Eclipse, Alteration Level 8 Components : VS Range: 1 mile/level Duration: 1 hour Casting Time: 8 This spell may only be cast outside during the day. For the next hour, within range, the Sun will appear to be eclipsed, and the level of light will drop accordingly. This spell will change the local light level for light based effects, such as shadow magic. It will take Alzar 4 weeks to research, 24k to create, and then 9 weeks total to finalize, so 13 weeks total. Afterwards he will make massive copies and give it away for free. Vix spends 8 days this month heading out on one of her immortality missions. She returns badly bloodied and damaged. But she comes back with an artifact dedicated and created by Thanatos. This is The Unmaker. It’s purpose it to unmake things or people. It itself was unmade by Thanatos, and Alzar and Vix will spend some time and try to destroy it, so that she can finish her fourth quest on the Path to Entropy. Alzar begins working on another statue here for Vix |
Begin M3. Twilight Calling
 To my mind, this is weakest of the five modules in the M series, but it’s still been set up, and plays to one of Alzar’s current Immortality Quests, so we’ll run it. It feels weird, and not truly M. It doesn’t feel like an epic high level adventure. While this module isn’t a bad module per se, the core conceit of the plot and how it works could be done at the CM or X level just as much, and frankly, is a better X than M in theory. This module is also poorly fleshed out, and it’s not worth a whole lot to me, other than a quick distraction from the main story. Only at the end will Alzar be an M level character with an M level choice, and it’s a big one, but the set up doesn’t feel like it works for me. |
Let’s module on!
Near the end of the last month of the year, a man enters Alzar’s court and burst through the final guards, with the strength of the dying. He rambles about the courtroom about a doom that is coming and the “Carnifex” is coming and that Pandius has to watch out. They killed him in a horrible way, and now he dies, and in a moment his body has disintegrated. Alzar casts Speak with Dead and speaks with him. He won’t answer Alzar’s question about how he died, as the “trauma was too recently” but he does tell Alzar that he died on the Guardian Mesa about 625 miles from the border of his nation, in the western reaches of the Broken Lands. Alzar is very suspicious of this person and info. According to the spell, a spell commonly used by him, they cannot refuse to answer a question, and no one he has used it against ever has. There is no saving throw or anything. Meanwhile, why would a man come from 625 miles away? Alzar suspects he is being lied to. Later that day, he casts Contact Other Plane to verify the story. He finds out the man did not exist, he was an avatar of an immortal, Alphaks. But the information given was true, there is a race of evil creatures named the Carnifex who could be readying themselves for an invasion of Pandius. Alzar teleports to Serraine and consults their Great Library. After a day of investigating, Alzar learns more about the Carnifex and the Guardian Mesa |
There is a large seven sided structure on top of the Mesa, and a Immortally placed sphere keeps off elements. In order to enter, you have to head into a cave at the base and then head up, or you can teleport in directly if you wish, the sphere doesn’t prevent magical travel, just normal travel and also keeps away the elements and those not ready for the challenge.
Squirreled away in a far away dimension is an evil race of Carnifex.  They are a nasty race of creatures that were deemed too much of a threat, so a coalition of immortals from every sphere agreed to lock them away from Pandius and there are seven sub realms and dimensions that were created and used by the immortals to lock down access to the Carnifex, although it is possible the Carnifex could escape eventually, they are magically locked down. At the top of Guardian Mesa is the entrance to the seven realms, and by collecting seven keys, and placing them into the altar in the Guardian Mesa structure, they can move to the realm occupied by the Carnifex. Riding his Nightmare, Alzar uses Unifex and teleports there, and then glides down to the Mesa and steps off of his Nightmare and looks around. There seven large rocks here, one in the front has a rainbow pattern, and the other six behind it has just one color. |
(In the module, each of the realms is just two pages. This is a 32 page module, where around 6-8 pages are maps, stats, and player handouts, and then set up for four pages or so and a table of contents. Each of the seven realms and subplanes is just two pages big)
 Alzar gets on his Nightmare, and then places his hand on the rainbow rocks and disappears. Each of these realms is meant to test one of the aspects of success of Alzar, to ensure he is well rounded and capable enough to get to the Carnifex. |
Rainbow Realm Alzar arrives in a great grey mist on the other side of the rainbow henge. Far off, in the direction away from the henge, Alzar makes out the faint reflection of a rainbow that shines in the mist. When he turns behind, the henge can still be made out, and it is clearly the way out. As Alzar leaves the grey mist and moves to the rainbow, a flying drolem, a golem made of dragon parts, arrives and attacks! Luckily, Alzar is immune to its breath as it is a gas attack. He is just susceptible to the physical attack This drolem has 90 hp and an AC of 3, so it’s likely to die quickly to Alzar’s axe……it loses init and Alzar this for 47, and then he is missed (cloak). It wins init and then misses once and hits once for 11. Alzar finishes it. 80/91 Alzar moves off and finds a giant rainbow arch at the end of the mists, and here is a large sphinx that intones some riddles to him. He can answer them, and that allows him to cross a rainbow bridge into the main part of the Rainbow Realm Alzar explores, and finds a great Quicksilver Lake at the end of one rainbow bridge. It thrives and pulses as if alive. Alzar flies above it on his Nightmare, but he can’t fly here and cannot lift off. He can just gallop on the horse instead. This great quicksilver lake is belching poisonous gas, but Alzar is immune. It pulses with life, and he stabs it with his axe but it reacts as alive, but cannot be wounded with the weapon. He needs something more anti-lake. He uses Skulltrap, and then he heads into OtherSpace and grabs some beads to explode, and churns through 10 beads. Each time he flings one, about half of the damage dealt comes back in poisonous gas, but he is immune to both twice (Necklace of Adaptation and Unicorn Horn). Inside the lake is a Master Wand with 50 charges that can duplicate any known Wand. A Ring of Protection +5 and Dagger +5 are there as well. Another rainbow bridge heads from the other side of the now dead quicksilver make and arrives at a small village with a handful of Rainbow Knights guarding the exit. They greet Alzar, and he arrives and speaks with the leader of the Rainbow Realm, a man named Nabumetis. They play a game of cards and Alzar wins, and at the end, he is given the token of this realm, and Alzar heads back out after eating. |
Green Realm
The green henge leads to a wide branch of a giant redwood tree, and behind is the henge heading back, but in front is a large tree. Alzar heads across the branch and deeper into the tree. There is a room honeycombed with rooms like an elven fortress here in the tree. There are a number of finely crafted wooden statues here, almost 100, of elves. As Alzar heads into the room, the statues transform into elves, and then they shout, “Die Carnifex” and attack, clearly thinking Alzar is a Carnifex. Alzar has no compunction about killing 100 elves, but during the round of his cloak’s protection, he visibly sets his axe down and then asks of the elves, “Would a Carnifex lay down his weapon and talk to you?” Unsure, they pull off, and one of their leaders moves forward. They nod towards him, and Alzar grabs his axe and they move forward, the elves accompanying him to ensure he is not a carnifex in disguise. They arrive at the court of a elven queen who asks, harshly, of Alzar, and he offers to submit to divinatory magic, and they show he is telling the truth when he tells her that he has come to take out the Carnifex. The elf queen has the token to give him, but before she does, Alzar must free her realm from a nasty foe. He agrees, and she takes him deeper into the tree, past a gargantuan Treeant and its 12 controlled trees, and then to a dark section of the tree to a succubus here with a small entourage. Alzar steps to the area and finds Belotra, and Alzar is immune to her charms, and he moves out to attack her. 4 vs 2 Belotra and her entourage hit Alzar for 14. He casts Magic Defiance Undone and then points a Power Word Kill at her, and she dies. 66/91 5 vs 2 They hit him for 10, and then he slays two of the lesser demons here. 56/91 7 vs 9 Alzar slays the last of the demons, and then casts Cure Serious for 25. 81/91 Alzar finds here four items: Tunic of Glory – Cleric only, Can be used to activate Anti-Magic Shel 3/day, and improved haste 5/day Shaman’s Mantle – Mage only, Can be used to cast invulnerability once/day and spell turning as the spell 2/day, and drops AC by 2 when worn (but counts as armor) Deceptor’s Boots - Thief only, Can turn ethereal 2/day, can cast invisibility on self 5/day Gauntlets of Might – Warrior only. Double melee damage Well that’s not too shabby, right? Alzar is given the token and heads out. |
Red Realm
The red henge leads to an oppressive heat that assails the senses, save that Alzar is immune to normal fire and heat effects. Flickering flames eddy and swirl like great rivulets around Alzar in the iron red and hot corridor in which Alzar stands. Behind him is the red henge back home. He opens a great iron door at the end of the corridor and finds a great tapestry of flaming iron mesh before him with sculptured iron pillars and immense flaming swords piercing up, supporting the roof. Stepping out of the great fire in an enormous wolf made of fire: Flame Wolf – AC -6, HP 125, etc. Alzar’s Axe of Extinguishing and Translating is likely to end this battle swiftly, especially as he is immune to the heat damage that radiates from it or that you take if you wound it. Alzar furthers his immune to magical fire as well by casting Protection from Fire, a clerical spell, and he autokills the Flame Wolf. Alzar heads out of the large room. A moat of acrid blazing blood laps against flaming iron walls. A tall warrior with a fiery two handed sword and great ceremonial armor rests here and blocks the exit, and this is Malkar the warrior, great servant of the Castle of Burning Iron. As Alzar approaches, he tries to push Alzar into the moat. He misses, Alzar;s cloak protects him. All fo his damage Is fire based, Alzar kills the great warrior, and he explodes in a giant fireball. Alzar exits the castle Outside of the castle is an immense battle! There is a battlefield littered with corpses and on other side are knights fighting against a slate of metal war machines, that belch gouts of flame and fury at their assailant. Alzar can detect that the opponents aren’t real, but spectral, this is an old battle he Is watching, and he can join if he wants to, but there’s no reason to, so he heads od, and arrives at a great village here led by Anator the Charioteer. Alzar has to beat him either in a race, or in battle, to win this realm’s token. Alzar tells him of Vix, his wife who would beat him with her chariot. Anator really wants to try, and he uses some magic open the planes and Vix arrives with her chariot. She’s heavily pregnant, but she is still Vix, and she is not backing down from the challenge. She still wins, and Anator hands them the symbol and the gate opens back home. They head back to Pandius and Alzar teleports her back home. Alzar’s Nightmare is almost dead from heat, so he leaves it here before heading to the next realm. |
Purple Realm
(I am changing the Black and White realms in the module to Purple and Orange ones as its just weird to have four colors, including one secondary color, and not have the other two secondary colors represented). The purple henge is touched, and Alzar arrives on a hill overlooking a lush, dense, darkly purple jungle. Beyond the jungle Alzar can make out a dark and fetid swamp, and then a large oddly shaped island in the middle with some sort of dark purple building on it. The vegetation on the floor is exceedingly thick, and Alzar measures it around 2-3 feet tall. Great purple plants are here, preventing stuff from hurting everyone. The trees are dozens of feet tall. As Alzar explores, he hears a great crying sound from up ahead, choked by some weeds. Alzar sees a huge gargantuan Basilisk here, about 50 feet big. Gargantuan Basilisk – AC 4, 195 hp Alzar casts Protection from Petrification and wades into battle. He only takes physical damage. (randomorg) Alzar takes 29 from damage, slays the beast, and then casts Cure Serious for another 25 healed. 77/91 Alzar finds three gray eggs. Alzar shows two are infertile, but the hthird is not: Fertile Gargantuan basilisk egg Could Alzar crack and raise a giant basilisk? After handling the lizard, he heads out and finds a gigantic python slithering out of the trees with an oversized head, gray film covering its eyes. It looks at Alzar and speaks with him, as five smaller snakes are here accompanying Ombiassa, the Great Serpent Alzar casts ESP and can read that the Serpent wants to eat him, and is talking to Alzar to get him relaxed. Alzar confronts Ombiassa and tells him he is warned, and knows. Ombiassa agrees to find food elsewhere, and will eat the newly slain basilisk instead. Alzar heads into the swamp and leaves the jungle behind. Here is a dark stretch of purplish-colored vegetation, and a familiar sleep mist tries to put him to sleep. Alzar sees it! This is Purple Moss, a rare moss that emits a fragrant, delightful odor that puts the smeller to sleep, and then eats their body. He found it back on Thorasia and secured a sample and fed it. He eventually had enough to coat his home dungeon, as undead, conjured, and created dorks would be immune, as would anyone with a Necklace of Adaption. Alzar hacks and collects the Purple Moss! While here, out of the swamp emerge a pair of mated black dragons. Because Alzar has a bonus with blacks due to his alliance with them they fly around dangerously, but are not attacking. Alzar heads away to the pyramid. This is the purple pyramid, on the island in the swamp. Coming out from in front of it is a great old crone named Zagriona. She beckons Alzar inside the pyramid, and a door inside opens. Alzar is stopped at the door by Zagriona sweeping at his back, trying to get at him from behind. His shadow activates, and prevent him from taking damage, and then attacks her! Alzar grabs his axe to join, and surprised by the shadow blocking and then attacking her, she fumbles quickly. She casts teleport as Alzar has already taken 55 hp from her and she is badly beaten. On the next day Alzar will reload the Guardian Shadow spell. Alzar heads to the pyramid and here he sees a dark monk mediating on a purple coffin. He looks at Alzar and asks if this realm is real, or if he dreamed it. Alzar answers it was created by an immortal. “So I’m an immortal am I?’ the mad monk asks. “If I am an immortal then I need not fear you!” The monk attacks 3 vs 2 Alzar is missed (cloak.) He hits once for 19. 5 vs 4 Alzar takes 33 from a savage set of kicks. That’s not a set of damage exchanges he wants to take. Alzar casts Protection from Normal Weapons. 44/91 8 vs 2 Alzar takes 30 again, and then casts Heal. Clearly, this monk’s physical weapons count as magical. 5 vs 8 Alzar casts protection from magical weapons. The monk cannot connect with him. Alzar wins. The monk disappears. Dead monk. He lifts the crypt up and finds the corpse of the man he slew, dead long ago here, as well as 30 sets of colored diamonds. Each set has a blue, yellow, green, red, orange, and purple diamond in it, with 5 such sets. There is a small shrine to Nyx here in the pyramid. Each of the immortals who created the spheres to lock out the Carnifex have a small shrine in their realm. This is the only sphere that entropy made, and Nyx made it. |
Blue Realm
Beyond the blue henge is a giant agricultural field of corn and mangos and pumpkins and carrots and watermelon and other fruits and berries of various types. None of these typically grow at the same time or in the same climate. Alzar walks down this great path that separates them. After a moment, a giant scarecrow animates and moves to Alzar, and stands in the path, blocking him. The Corn King tells Alzar, “I need a bit of you blood to water the soil.” He isn’t making any dangerous or combative moves. Alzar asks more and it tells him that it takes live blood to grow these plants. Alzar give up 5% of his max hp (5). 86/91 The blood is used and the plants grow bigger and the fruit larger. Alzar heads up the path, and here is a giant blue dragon flying overhead. Alzar does not attack it. It flies out. Alzar arrives at a keep and palace, and here Alzar meets with King Valeratos, a wizened king with azure robes. His throne is carved from a single lapis lazuli piece. Alzar is taken to Sorabeth the Lawgiver, who is the judge of this land, and has two archons watching over his back. Because Alzar has not killed anything since arriving, he is given the blue realm’s token. He also is given an ability: Gift of the Archons – 1/day, Alzar can create a giant two-handed Flame Sword that he will use with specialization, and get +5 to hit, and it deals 4d8 damage +5, and double damage versus undead. It lasts 30 minutes. |
Orange Realm
The orange henge leads to a sea shore. The shoreline stretches right and left as far as Alzar can see. There is a curious, dream-like quality to the area, and a bright orange light giver still has a misty unreal quality to it. Through foamy mists, Alzar can make out an island across the water. There are no obvious ways across the water, so Alzar heads to OtherSpace and emerges with a Ring of Water Walking and walks across the channel. He arrives at an island covered with a forest of oak, ash and thorn trees, with a large, orange-tinted path that makes it out from the beach and through the forest. Alzar swaps his normal ring selection back, and then heads to the path, and heads to the center of the island Here in the center of the island is a great ancient orange dragon that yawns as Alzar arrives and flies up and circles around. It breathes at Alzar and it’s an explosive breath and the dragon glides into melee range. Alzar – 57/91 5/8 Alzar casts Time Stop. He then casts Strip Resistance and Temporary Youth and then finishes with Vampiric Touch and it takes 22, Alzar heals that much, and then the effect ends, the dragon is a lot weaker as a younger dork. 79/91 4 vs 2 The dragon ignores the cloak, and carves Alzar all three attacks for 42. Alzar carves it twice for 34, but then misses with Bright Barrier 37/91 Alzar uses his Ring of Quick Action and casts Heal. The dragon bites for 16 and claws once for 11. Alzar 66/91 9 vs 8 Alzar loses initiative again. He takes 34 damage. Alzar casts from his stored spells, another Vampiric Touch and hits for 23. 55/91 4 vs 6 Alzar retakes the initiative, and hits twice more for 40 damage. The dragon sails up out of melee range and breathes again 30/91 6 vs 4 It breathes once more (It’s max is 25 due to the lower age, and now it’s used its 3rd and final breath) 5/91 Alzar casts Heal and switches to his bow and arrows. 7 vs 3 It casts Magic Middle and Alzar takes 24. Alzar fires six times and hits 3 for 22, and the dragon falls dead. 67/91 Alzar skins and takes everything. This is his first kill of an orange dragon. Beyond the dead dragon, Alzar sees a woodland shrine, with orange glistening on the nearby grass and reflected from the light above. Alzar can see a large piece of crystalline quartz that is connected to the altar and on top, with an silver hourglass that is attached to the quartz. As Alzar reaches out to take the symbol, a voice from the woods calls out, and this is a great sylvan creature named Kerrisar the Archer comes out. Kerrisar is willing to give the hourglass symbol to whomever beats her in archery. Alzar grabs his short bow, and three shots later, they are dead even. Another round….he beats her and wins. He grabs the symbol. He casts enough Cure Lights to heal himself fully. |
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