|
Alzar checks the underwater viewing platform and it’s nice and quiet. He heads to OtherSpace and grabs the items that work underwater. He jumps into the water and swims down. There are some fish here but they aren’t attacking him, for once. He finds the nest of the creature easily, enough, and in here is:
Atmosphere Analyzer Poison Gas Grenade Metal Chest with – 100 100 gp gems; He heads back and finishes exploring this level. There’s nothing left. He heads over to the tube and heads down to the 5th level. This level is very similar to the 2nd. It very open. In fact, most of the level is the lower level of water from the pond above the water, and support statures for the above floor. Otherwise you just have some pillars and storage. Alzar searches it. It has some machinery in it too. He kills some grey ooze and yellow mold in places. He finds two dead repair robots and another analyzer. That’s it, so he heads down. |
According to the schematics he saw before, this is a recreational floor, and it supposedly had large areas for that purpose. Alzar and his Stalker head out. They begin next to a cargo hold, and in here are a group of….
 …stasis cages with various robots around them – 6 robots in all. The cages are used to capture various monsters until needed for later. The robots are shut down right now. As Alzar moves around in the cargo hold, the robots comes back to life, and then move to tilt the floor and open the doors on the far side. And Alzar falls out of the vessel and onto the ground. As he does, two more upend a stasis cage that has a Bulette on it.  |
Alzar heads back in before the door closes, and the creature awakens. The robots have begun to go back to sleep.
A violet door makes way to the hallway and Alzar heads left. He cracks grey card for a cargo hold as well, and back here is some storage. As he does, he feels a familiar sensation. A mental blast from an illithid!  Alzar is immune and runs up to melee. As he does, it uses Domination instead and….Alzar rolls a 4, which….fails….but….destroys a Protective Amulet instead. 3 vs 8. Alzar tries to card its AC5. He hits 3 times for….51 damage and…dead mind flayer. Boom! On the body, and in the room, he finds: Temporal Shift Cube, 6 charges Orange Card Blaster Pistol, 1 charge Portable Spotlight, 3 charges 1 Poison Gas Grenade 4000 gp worth of jewelry |
Alzar finds a theater with some props and lurker above his Stalker killed outright. There’s a robo-snack room and then another.
Soon enough a gymnasium opens up and in here are some physical training androids. They want to box and wrestle:  Practice swordplay:  And Martial arts:  Alzar chooses not to spare with any of them. |
A store room he comes across has:
Anti-Grav Belt, 6 charges Later on, Alzar will find a physical fitness workout and again, skip an opportunity to work out with a android:  A major section of this floor is taken up by a large swimming a pool and another by an auditorium. A few more empty rooms pass by. One of the final cargo holds has a huge crate that shifted and landed on a android. As Alzar nears, he turns back on and asks for assistance. Even with 18/00 strength, Alzar can’t move the heavy crate. He conjures a greater Earth Elemental, who moves the crate easily. The Android stands up, for the first time in decades, and checks. Some auto-repair function has fixed its internal circuitry. It was a bodyguard android, and then its master died when the hip crashed. Alzar offers for it to be a bodyguard for him, and it agrees and changes its functions over ot consider Alzar as the person to bodyguard. Android Bodyguard – AC -1, HD 7, HP 40, THAC0 – 8, 1d8+4/1d8+4 attacks. Programmed to use any human weapon, from missiles and physical weapons to the energy weapons on the ship. Immune to cold, and all of the normal construct immunities. Half damage from acid or fire. If hit with electrical attack, 1% chance per damage point dealt that it shuts down. As a guard android, has full stats = 18 dexterity, 18/90 strength, 18 constitution, can see 150% vision, hearing, and has infravision. Intelligent. It can self repair minor damage, major damage cannot be repaired save by returning to the ship and finding a way to do so. |
The bodyguard shows him how to use the various items he didn’t know. One of the benefits of having this mobile attack platform is that he can use the best weapon for a battle without any disadvantages. For example, if they are fighting fire creatures, give the android a Frostbrand sword. Give it the vorpal yataghan normally, and maybe Wyrmcleaver or the +3 Flail of Disruption against undead and so forth. It punches twice or can use a weapon in each hand or a shield and a weapon and so forth. Plus it can use a weapon that might normally try to control the user or dominate it without any issues.
Alzar heads back out from this chamber, and the rest of the area is cleaned out. Alzar emerges and heads home. It seems the vegepygmies were the ones causing the ruckus, they had emerged in droves and Alzar killed both tribal leaders. After returning home, and unloading all of the many things he collected from the boat of the stars, Alzar begins to discreetly do some investigating. It turns out that Pandius has had a few such visitors in the history books, and probably more to boot. End of S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Well, I hope you enjoyed the classic. Alzar left with a lot of stuff, and he knows how to use it all. Some aren’t that great. |
CM6. Where Chaos Reigns
 This module is the last of the CM series we’ll be doing. After this it’ll be craziness in the DA series, and then moving on to bigger and better things. This module is odd and I’m folding it’s history into the planes. In the mainline adventure, you are saving another Prime, and were chosen to do so for no reason at all. Random? Here we’re making this a part of the main arc. Published in ‘85, this module has all of the quirkiness of the UK modules you’ve come to love and respect (or not I suppose). Get ready |
Two hours later, Alzar is moving his items out of his Bags of Holding and Other space and pulls out the Temporal Shift Cube. As he does, a mist begins to rise up.
In a moment, an immortal’s servant has appeared and informs Alzar of an immediate need that Pandius has for him. What has happened is that a race of creatures, named the Oard, from another planet in this realm, arrived at Pandius a few years ago. The Oard hate magic. They are a technological race only, and they pilot their starships with great power and destruction. They wanted to create a base of operations here on Pandius for their empire in this region of space. But the problem is that Pandius is not the right place for them. It’s too magical, too powerful, and would never work. So the Oard have sent their people back in time to several places along the history of the planet and in particular, here in Norwold. Ancient Norwold, named Aelos, is the area that the Oard seek to subvert, by removing various adherents of magic and pushing those of technology. Oard –  (Ignore the Borg to the right, I can’t find an image of just an Oard). The Oard have used anti-magic technology to prevent a bunch of ways of getting someone to their area, but the Cube Alzar just acquired is technological in nature, not magical. It can penetrate their shell, and Alzar can arrive in various places along the timeline, stop the Oard from pushing the anti-magic agenda that results in Pandius following their lead and becoming technology-only and a part of their empire. Alzar’s Cube has just been set up, and he can go at any time. He asks a few questions first. If the changes were made in the past, why hasn’t the future already reflected them? Because Alzar has already gone into the past and fixed things and succeeded. Now all that’s left is actually to do it. The Oards are pretty violent, it’ll be easy to figure out what their plans are. Alzar agrees, and he packs some stuff into his OtherSpace and memories some different spells. He has the tabi, imp, and two of his constructs – Fangs and Coils, in the OtherSpace. Meanwhile the stone and bronze golems are in the flask and marble. Alzar can’t take anything or anyone else with the Cube, they have to be stored, so no Android or Amber Golem or anything else. The next day, with his stuff ready, Alzar uses the Cube. |
In The Beginning
Alzar arrives and the landscape is gorgeous and virginal, pristine and dangerous. He heads to his OtherSpace and grabs Azzil. As he leaves, he hears a raid that is currently ongoing. He unfurls the Carpet of Flying and heads over to check it out. There is an elven village here of about 25 huts, and there are almost 100corpses scattered around. Alzar sees around 12 villagers running in a panic, and 13 small rocs, with 13 brutish humanoids on them are attacking. The Flying Carpet swoops in and Alzar needs a distraction. Wanting to get their attention, he casts Death Spell and two of the pilots die. The rocs are too powerful, but two of the 13 are now riderless. Others turn to face him. The riders have spears add gourds, and a few throw them and the guards ignite into small fire, like a flask of oil might. Alzar takes 19 fire damage. Init. 2 vs 4. With many of them having moved near him, Alzar casts Wail of the Banshee. 4 Rocs and 3 more riders die. The rest attack him for 15 fire damage from another pair of gourds, and then the group beaks and flies off individually. Alzar uses Finger of Death to slay one more rider as she’s flying away. Dead – 6 riders, 4 small rocs |
Alzar flies down after the elves. There are 30 more in an underground chamber beneath the village, so 42 survived, mostly women and children. Alzar can’t make out what they are saying until he quaffs a Potion of Tongues and can speak with them .
They thank him profusely for his aid, and invite him to come with them to the dangers of the forest to Loralis. Everything here is primitive, their weapons, his foes’, the huts, their clothes, and more. This forest is untouched by civilization and teems with game. There are just three villages left with the destruction of Callafae that Alzar witnessed. Alzar has two wounded placed on his Carpet and has a 4th to give him the lay the of land. Loralis is the last elven village, and Jo-Lak the last human one, and Galgrove the last treant one. The creatures, called, garls, and their rocs have been attacking and destroying for some time. Alzar is given the layout with various landmarks and such shown to him. A few hours pass, and the village is on the horizon and Alzar and his group arrive. Alzar is introduced to the village elders, and the elves celebrate him but they don’t want to feas t or anything, it’s just not appropriate right now, but the elder Halliani apologizes to hm. . A few humans from Jo-Lak are here as well, including an emissary. After dinner, an ambassador from Galgrove, Ffertting arrives at the village. The treants have spotted a large army of Garls moving this way. He urges that the elves join the humans in one community to fighter together against the threat. After a council is held, the elves agree. They will leave their village, but they have to go through swamps, and the treants are guarding a “Great secret” and can’t help. |
Post council, Alzar is approached by all three ambassadors or leaders. The treant wants him to join them in protecting their secret, the elves want him to accompany their trek through the swamp and the humans want him to go to Jo-Lak, learn where they live, and that the fight to them.
Alzar asks for some information. How big is the army? (I’m massively increasing it from the module) it’s 10 Mastodons, with howdahs on top and 5 garls in each howdah, 10 on small rocs, 1 leader on a large roc, and 25 unmounted garls, with 10 sabretooth tiger pets. There is also an advance guard of 10 gnarls and 5 kitty cats. They will arrive at the forest in 7 days, and it will take 2 days for the elves to pack up and leave. That’s it? Just 100ish bad guys in the army and 15 in the advance party? Yes, that number is confirmed., and 6 days until they even get here? Yes. By that time, Alzar promised to have cleaned out the army and advance party, both. They grin, but he ignores them and grabs a Crystal Ball. After scouring the area, Alzar heads to OtherSpace and grabs the right items. Then he casts Mount, and gives himself a Griffin to ride, and casts Teleport. He’s about five miles from the advance guard. This guard is mounted on 10 small rocs with the tigers in the brush. Alzar grabs the skull and bones and sets up a blast area with Skulltrap and Blastbones. It’s right in the way of their tigers. He sets up behind the Tigers, and uses Conjure Earth and Conjure Greater Earth and Invisible Stalker to give himself some strong allies that will remain behind the traps. He chose well, there are hills to both sides so the tigers will have to come over the Skulltraps. He moves to the Carpet and uses the Griffin as a spare aerial fighter if needed. He flies up and soars toward the bad guys. They see him and move in. He prepares a spell and casts Polymorph Other on a Roc in the front, trying to turn it into a pig and….it works. The Roc falls and both will die. The other 9 begin to swoop down towards him. Alzar uses he Carpet to pull away, but they are faster than the Carpet. Their fire missiles fly at him, and although they miss (due to his Cloak they hit close enough to still catch him for 11 damage). |
He drops down to the area where the Elementals (and Stalker) wait, and soon he hears the cats coming. Fire pots begins to move in. One and two begin to swoop down to attack. Alzar uses his Pearl of Power to regain the Polymorph Other.
Init! 5 vs 6. Alzar casts Ray of Ondovir on the front Roc as it dives down. Does it save? 10. Nope, it crashes into the ground instead, and it mostly dies, it has a bit of HP left, and the Garl crawls away a bit. The Elementals are guarding Alzar and he has the Stalker charge the Garl and Roc while down. Alzar is missed by melee attacks (Cloak). The tigers, racing to the scene, blows into his traps, and they are all killed to a cat. Dead smilodon. 5 vs 3. They hit Alzar for 15 damage from a pair of rocs and then swoop up and begin to move out. They clearly want to get away. Alzar casts Polymorph Other on one roc as they do and…it rolls a 7 and falls dead. The Stalker kills the wounded roc before it can get free, and the Elementals move into the blast zone to make sure nothing else is there. He sees the one in the back order a retreat. 3 vs 7. Alzar’s Carpet is up and chasing. They made a mistake. They are flying back in formation. That’s an error Alzar will need to teach them. Alzar casts Time Stop, and then speeds into their midst for a turn, and casts Mass Domination and then Power Word Kill on the leader’s roc. The Stop lifts and the roc dies, the leader falls and dies too, and Alzar dominates three garls. He forces them to attack their brothers, and in the carnage, Alzar turns a roc to stone of one fleeing away. At the end of the battle Alzar has slain the advance party – none got away. The .leader polymorphed into an Oard after death. On the body was: Image Amulet Technology, not magic. |
Alzar uses Animate Dead to give him some nice servants, and then he Mass Teleports the Elementals, and undead and Griffin and Stalker to close to the army. Using this temporary army, and supplementing it with a Searing Serpent, Summoned Shadows, and Faithful Shield-Maidens, Alzar sends the mixed group and controls them with the Crystal Ball observing battle from far away. He is missing a lot of magic and doesn’t want to get too close. But the army manage to kill:
2 tigers, 6 unmounted garls Before dying. Alzar heads back to bed, and then memorizes a slightly different set of magic the next day. The next day is the day he raises an out and out strike force. Near a stream, he casts Conjure Earth, Water, and Air Elementals, Invisible Stalker, Mount, Greater Earth, and then uses the two stones to make two more earths, the Censer to make an Air, and the Face to make three more 16 HD elementals. He then animates bodies from last night and adds them to the horde as well. The opponent is a little more defensive today after his raid on them last night. He suspects the leader on the big roc is another oard in garl’s clothing. Today he wants to assassinate that guy, and then take out their group, as much as feasible. He has grabbed the Fire Resist Ring and has it on one hand, since the Free Action one seemed not needed. Alzar scrys the army, and then uses the Dust of Disappearance and casts teleport. He arrives about a half mile above the army, on the Flying Carpet. About three miles away is his own little army. He teleported here because beneath him, about 120 feet, is the leader on the giant roc. Alzar casts Time Stop. Then he casts Power Word Kill on the leader…..Flesh to Stone on the Roc and…runs out of time. Which work? The leader dies, and the roc? Is petrified (rolled a 709 and both are dead, and the roc is going to break to pieces in their army). |
Alzar knows they know he’s there, so he begins to move towards his army.
They split up into smaller units or around 2 mammoths and some support in each unit. Alzar heads to the one that’s going tangentially to the one near his place and lands right behind them and casts Wail the Banshee. He kills many, but the elephants are still there. A Skulltrap finishes the small army. Other have left and the two moving towards his army and now running there In ten minutes, Alzar’s army will kill both of those smaller units. All opposing enemies are in small groups of 3 or 4 and fleeing everywhere. The Air Elementals and Griffin are flying about searching and killing survivors. By the end of the day, the force will have been reduced to 18 total people (cats, rocs, garls, and mammoths combined) and will have broken and been ended as a force. On the leader, Alzar finds: 3 Fireball Gems Image Amulet Alzar teleports back and reports on his success. That night they have a feast in his honor. He scouts with crystal balls after wards. The next day Alzar intends to hit their camp. It seems they have: 40 female garls, with spears 8 mounted garls on small rocs 30 unmounted garls 10 beast handler garls 2 mastodons, 10 tigers They have cruel defenses, like palisades and such. |
Alzar can’t rely on the use of his items, but that’s okay. He has the rest of his spells. Again he conjures, animates and Stalkers a nice army, and this time, using the Crystal Ball, with himself in the center, he Mass Teleports the lot right into their home and past their defenses!
In a moment they are devastated. That many creatures, including many that can’t be taken out by anything other than magical items are just going to tear through the force. Alzar casts mount and rides his Griffin around, and making sure that people and creature wanting to leave and flee are moved down by himself and his spells. The bodies show that no Oard were left, Alzar just killed the Garl outpost. Alzar frees 60 human slaves that were kept by the garls. He also finds 33,000gp in uncut gemstones (right now, it’ll increase epost-cutting). He teleports back and teleports over allies from the villages to help escort the slaves back home. He helps as well. In a few days time, Alzar is held as a huge feast. The treants present the elves with trees of life that they have been growing, and that will become the center of their communities much later on. A elvish craftman gives Alzar a leaf-shaped amulet of crystal worth 4000 gp. Alzar gains a level, and is now rocking 79 HP and has an additional 9th level spell. And with that, Alzar uses the Cube to move to the next place and defend against the next Oard attack. |
Forge of Power
After a moment, Alzar appears on a boat. It’s sailing east. The boat is rocking gently from side to side and a few birds can be made out. Alzar heads out and sees an olive-skinned man wearing a plain grey tunic and carrying a wooden bowl. He shouts out something, and Alzar uses another potion of Tongues. A second or two pass, and from the top deck emerges Captain Selios, greets Alzar, and brings him into his cabin. He explains that he has been a merchant all of his life, and he is a middle-aged human man, short, stocky, with a full beard. They are leaving the shores of Aelos because he has just visited with the five oracles and they told him that he would never find rest until he had been reforged on the anvil of the world in the company of strangers. The stranger would come with least expected. And here Alzar is. Fate has bound them together. Five Oracles? Alzar gives a brief description of the Crones he encountered. “Exactly! You must have met them too!” |
They are sailing to an island called Kol (in Alzar’s day, it’s off the Isle of Dawn). They’ll be at sea for a few days, and arrive within a week. Alzar switches to his water-friendly equipment.
The Deltara is a galley and sailing ship combo, since it was just a merchant vessel. Crew of 90 men. That evening the Deltara comes in sight of a low rocky islet that’s about 50’ across and 300’ away. By the islet are what look like harpies and they are beginning a song. Alzar detects something else though and tries to control it. It’s undead, not harpies. It’s a vision showing the death f sailors here. Broken from the spell, Alzar moves over and pulls the ship away before it can land while everyone else is engaged with the vision. Alzar flies over to the islet and searches and finds the ship that crashed here, and pulls out the body of the undead Vision and buries it under a small cairn he erects. That’ll end the Vision. He also finds…. Jeweled Belt and Armband – 10500 gp Ring of Water Walking The next day, there is a small hill of grasslands with small patches of woodlands about three miles across. Alzar heads over to check things over, and there are two Cyclopes that live on the island with about 75 giant sheep. Alzar has the vessel bend around it, and then they steer clear of any potential danger. At dusk the next night, the ship is attacked by a large sailing ship manning by shadows that rounded a bend. The ship is made of shadow stuff as well. Alzar controls some shadow sand has them attack each other, and then controls a few more, and soon enough the ship is under attack by some many shadows that their own ship passes by, unmenaced. |
On the final day, the winds are becalmed and mist rises from the water. In a few moments, and huge bone ship, with a bone golem and 400 skeletons emerges and moves to attack. As before, Alzar orders everyone back and to use missile weapons. He conjures a water elemental to hit the ship before they collide and then begins to control skeletons. He can control them very quickly, and the water elemental is killed, but the vessel slows down and Alzar has roughly 50 skeletons under command attacking the others, and gaining more and more of the crew. Eventually, the ship also falls back under the water under its own power and they emerge free and safe.
They arrive at the island a few hours later. The island is rocky and barren with only the wind as a sound. There are high, rugged cliffs all along the cast. On the eastern side is a large bay, and that’s where they’ll berth. As they sail around the island, 2 chimera and 16 harpies fly from the island to attack them. After casting mount to fly up, Alzar drops a few spells like Mass Domination and Wail of the Banshee to slay half and drive the remainder off and he returns to the vessel. They land in the bay and put up sail and arrive at the island. Captain Selios is in front. There is a large cave here on the island and they explore it. There are two great bronze golems here guarding the entrance. Alzar grabs his Whistle and tries and fails on the first but succeeds on the second and makes one fight the other, and then nips in to attack the uncontrolled one. Then leading with the damaged one that survived the battle, they head in. |
There is a great cavern here that was widened by hand, and is huge – big enough to have giants. In fact, there are six stone pillars all female giants here.
Meanwhile a tall, carven giant is here, protesting their arrival. Alzar sends the controlled Bronze at it and then conjures an greater earth elemental while it is distracted, followed by an Invisible Stalker. He damaged golem dies quickly and Alzar has the summoned creatures join the assault. The giant takes 15 damage from a elemental punch and then retreats to the next room and casts Wall of Iron, and seals themselves off. Alzar grabs his forces, summons some shadows and a pair of earths from the Stones he has and then lobs a Dispel Magic at the Wall and brings it down In this room is forge, a giant, a oard, and its two tigers. They aren’t golems, but instead are robotic tigers. Alzar has the force concentrate on the dangerous giant while he heads in to take out the Oard. Initiative. 4 vs 9. Alzar casts Power Word Kill and drops the Oard. The giant takes two hits for 22 damage. Then it smashes the Stalker dead, and the tigers bite Alzar and hit hit for 13 damage (they are immune to the Cloak’s effects) 3 vs 2. They hit Alzar for another 16 and the giant misses. Alzar casts Time Stop, then drops Maze on a robot, and then Finger of Death at the giant. Maze works, Finger…15 rolled, sorry. Living giant. The elementals hit the giant for 19 more. 5 vs 7. Alzar attacks a Tiger and…hits for 28 damage. Alzar takes another 14 and the giant connects with an elemental for 20. 5 vs 8. Alzar kills the robo-tiger and the giant takes 22 from two hits, then smashes and kills the elemental. 6 vs 7. Alzar casts Vampiric Touch on the giant for 22 damage and the giant then takes some elemental damage and dies. Alzar takes the Mattock of the Titans it was using as a weapon. Alzar checks the forge, and on the oard finds: Ray glove Fireball Gem He takes the dead robo-tiger and the other one comes back from the Maze, kills and take sit. There is a Forge of Power in here, the relics used by every dwarf-hold. After rescuing one early in Pandius in Hammerhelm, he knows it. A door to the south heads to some dwarves that were driven back underground by the giant and the oard. They return to the chamber, collect the Forge of Power, and the first dwarf hold begins here. Alzar has now stopped the enemy here as well. He rests the night, the Captain is now a hero, and memorizes new spells, and then uses the Cube again. |
There is a great cavern here that was widened by hand, and is huge – big enough to have giants. In fact, there are six stone pillars all female giants here.
Meanwhile a tall, carven giant is here, protesting their arrival. Alzar sends the controlled Bronze at it and then conjures an greater earth elemental while it is distracted, followed by an Invisible Stalker. He damaged golem dies quickly and Alzar has the summoned creatures join the assault. The giant takes 15 damage from a elemental punch and then retreats to the next room and casts Wall of Iron, and seals themselves off. Alzar grabs his forces, summons some shadows and a pair of earths from the Stones he has and then lobs a Dispel Magic at the Wall and brings it down In this room is forge, a giant, a oard, and its two tigers. They aren’t golems, but instead are robotic tigers. Alzar has the force concentrate on the dangerous giant while he heads in to take out the Oard. Initiative. 4 vs 9. Alzar casts Power Word Kill and drops the Oard. The giant takes two hits for 22 damage. Then it smashes the Stalker dead, and the tigers bite Alzar and hit hit for 13 damage (they are immune to the Cloak’s effects) 3 vs 2. They hit Alzar for another 16 and the giant misses. Alzar casts Time Stop, then drops Maze on a robot, and then Finger of Death at the giant. Maze works, Finger…15 rolled, sorry. Living giant. The elementals hit the giant for 19 more. 5 vs 7. Alzar attacks a Tiger and…hits for 28 damage. Alzar takes another 14 and the giant connects with an elemental for 20. 5 vs 8. Alzar kills the robo-tiger and the giant takes 22 from two hits, then smashes and kills the elemental. 6 vs 7. Alzar casts Vampiric Touch on the giant for 22 damage and the giant then takes some elemental damage and dies. Alzar takes the Mattock of the Titans it was using as a weapon. Alzar checks the forge, and on the oard finds: Ray glove Fireball Gem He takes the dead robo-tiger and the other one comes back from the Maze, kills and take sit. There is a Forge of Power in here, the relics used by every dwarf-hold. After rescuing one early in Pandius in Hammerhelm, he knows it. A door to the south heads to some dwarves that were driven back underground by the giant and the oard. They return to the chamber, collect the Forge of Power, and the first dwarf hold begins here. Alzar has now stopped the enemy here as well. He rests the night, the Captain is now a hero, and memorizes new spells, and then uses the Cube again. |
Bronze and Iron
Alzar is in a dim, rock-cut chamber, with its far end hidden in shadow. It’s contents are strange and familiar too. A table sized grey slab of rock before, a jug and some fruit upon in and a basket of fireflies hanging from the ceiling providing light. The walls are carved and the air heady with the smell of honey. Then from the darkness, a older woman in green garments approaches. She intones: Greetings Lord of Wood and Fire! You are come in answer to my summons. Scorn now upon those who say you are but legend, a phantom by which mothers comfort their infants. Fear not and follow me, the circle awaits to welcome you!” Alzar follows her and she introduces herself as Sewynne. She leads Alzar to the far end of the chamber and then along a rock-cut passage which slopes gently up to ground level. It emerges in a circle of 30‘ feet tall trees, that focus the night sky, rich with stars. At the foot of the trees stand members of the druid’s circle. When Alzar fully emerges they cease chanting and proclaim that he is the Lord of Wood and Fire. Then, without further ceremony, Sewynne and her entourage begin to give Alzar all of the information about what has been happening. A few decades ago, a cruel, vindictive tribe called the Kolmedes were given the ability to work iron by strangers from the stars. Ever since they have moved to dominate all of the other human tribes, and grown in power, then adding some demi-humans as well. The various tribes and clans did not unite, they stood apart, and they lost to the Kolmedes. And now the Kolmede have an empire they have carved, and only Arqwen stands against them. The druids have failed to unite the various groups within Arqwen, and they believe that only Alzar, the Lord of Wood and Fire, can do so. According to legend, he was the one who gave the elves and dwarves their clan items and helped the humans survive. His tales are just impressive. And so he has been summoned here to help the people in their final dark hour, to unite Arqwen, and to stand against the Kolmede Empire, and their anti-magic ways. |
Alzar asks for a layout of the area, and a druid pulls out a crude map. There are 8 areas that are claimed by various human warlords and a dwarf, elf, and halfling hold here in Arqwen, the northern part of the region. The humans are barbarians, tribal in nature. Alzar asks if there is a neutral place the 8 barbarians would come for a grand council, and the druids suggest here, in Bara. Alzar has the druids to head out, and the human leaders should be here in a week, tops.
With that done, Alzar gets more information about the various holds. He scrys them out and teleports to each in turn, beginning with the halflings. The halflings of Arqwen are the first group of halflings in Pandius. There are only around 300 halflings all told. They greet Alzar warmly, and give him some information about the army. The foes of Kolmedes are near the halfling hold, and they tell Alzar about the incoming armies. They should arrive at the southern borders of Arqwen in 7 weeks time. They won’t fight, they don’t want to lose their people in the battles, but they will help scout and give Alzar information. That’ll work. There’s a nearby elf-hold, so he flies 2 miles and three-quarters of another over to it with a pair of halfling guides on the Flying Carpet, and lands. This clan of elves live in the tangled depth of the Erydall Forest. Alzar lands and the halfling introduces him as the Lord of Wood and Fire to the elves. Alzar greets them and after some time, he shows them the elven-made pendant he was given after defeating the oard inspired attack against him, and they agree to give him command of their forces during the upcoming struggle. Alzar thanks them, leaves behind one halfling to be a go-between, and then scrys the dwarf-hold a few hundred miles away and teleports over with the other halfling. He arrives and they are introduced. After dinner in their mines, they refuse to believe that Alzar is the one from 431 years ago that helped their race. That’s just magic puffery. Even his pendant doesn’t convince them (it was elf-made and given after all, not dwarven). After insisting, one dwarf does point out that an ancient dwarf, Heorlbold, was with the first group of dwarves that emerged from underground and was there that day. If Alzar is who he claims to be, then Heorlbord would confirm it. |
Of course, Heorlbord isn’t here. In fact, no one has heard of him in some time, at least a few months. Alzar heads out to the pass where he is supposed to live, flying his Carpet over. After a bit, a pair of large wyverns waft up to Alzar and move to attack. A Power Word Kill droops one and as the other flees, Finger of Death….nope, it’s fine. It can’t escape Alzar though, so it turns and attacks as he casts Time Stop. Then he casts Polymorph Other and Flesh to Stone, and when it pops back it dies since it’s not a pig without wings.
After killed the two creatures, Alzar finds the cabin where Heorlbord supposedly lives, and lands. He knocks and the old dwarf opens it, and then in a moment amazement glares on his face. Astonished that Alzar is there, and Alzar tells him about the army attacking, and the wyverns and everything. The wyverns kept him from heading back home. He head sup on the Carpet and they head back. In a few moments, the dwarves meet him, and then after Heorlbord tells them of Alzar’s deeds, including the slaying of the two large wyverns, they agree to submit to him. Alzar leaves the halfling behind and teleports back. He has secured the various demi-humans. They will send emissaries to the council as well as the 8 tribes. Alzar uses the night to scry some more. Days pass, and the preparations ensue. The meeting commences 6 days later. After hearing of the dangerous army coming from the Kolmedes, two warlords agree to unify. After hearing of the alliance by the demi-humans already, more join the cause, and more when Alzar is told to be who he is, and a demonstration with his magic unfolds. At the end, the 8 warlords agree to unify as well, and Alzar begins to look over troops and such, trying to figure out what is what. |
Meanwhile, more scouting is coming in from the Halflings. There are three enemy armies, one advance force of 200 that will arrive in 10 days from the eastern edge of a mountain chain, and one that is heading for the mountains and their main force that’s moving west of the mountains. Alzar tells the assembled committee that he will destroy the advance force himself, personally. Of course they doubt his word even though they know who he is.
The next day, after preparing the right magic, he teleports over a halfing, elf, dwarf, and two humans – all leaders, or sub-chiefs, and has them watch from a hill. Alzar builds a huge fire, and the over the course of the next 10 minutes, Alzar summons elementals, even two fire elementals, his Stalker, Griffin, Shadows, and such. Then he uses similar tactics as before, and flies to the other side of the army and uses mass attack spells like Skulltrap, Death Spell, Wail of the Banshee, Chaos, Mass Domination, Mass Charm, and more to dominate that area of the battle. Then as they retreat before him, they run into his assembled forces. The group is thoroughly destroyed as a fighting unit and suffers more than 50% casualties. Alzar was safe with his Bracers of Protection Against Normal Missiles and flying overhead. (It’s hard to damage when you have eschewed magic – that makes it hard to take out the elementals as well). As they break and flee, Airs and Griffins chase them down and a slaughter engulfs. 143 soldiers have died, while the remaining 67 include 22 that are now Alzar’s friends. The friends give Alzar detailed information about the battle plans, including a fourth army that has set sail and intends to land behind their forces. Alzar lets them head back, he wants the sort of these 45 people to demoralize the rest. The five he brought are Mass Teleported back and give a great story. The next day, Alzar memorizes the four Elemental spells again (Conjure Greater, Conjure Air, Water, Earth) and then Mass Teleports them into the middle of the main army. It takes them a while to kill them (they do, the oards are with the army and their weapons work on it), but again, Alzar wants to slow them down. That night Alzar teleports over and scouts the ships that are sailing. They are about 18 days away from the area ,but they have 1200 soldiers on board more than 100 ships. It’s a major army, and not just some small force. He heads into the OtherSpace for tonight and learns new spells and readies himself for the morrow. The next day, Alzar has memorized a pro-water campaign and will be a little different – stealthier. He uses a pinch of dust of disappearance and then flies down. Using his Ring of Water Command, Alzar can walk on water, purify it, create it, water breath cast Airy Water, and then cast spells Lower Water, Part Water, Wall of Ice and summon a water elemental. He moves to one of the boats and casts Virus Charm on a crew member and then leaves it. He then heads to another ship and casts some other spells here and there. He conjures a water elemental and it punches up through the bottom of a ship and will sink it. But that’s the only overt thing he does. The rest of the hour or so he spends here he casts subtle spells, like Sleep (and then knocks them overboard) or Charm Person or Mass Charm/Domination. He uses Dire Charm and someone attacks their neighbors and is killed. He uses the Eyes to Charm a full boat of people, he uses Summon Swarm to summon a swarm of small dragonflies who attack the sailor in the top deck, who dies. And the one or two people he suspects may have seen him do something he uses Forget or Ray of Oblivion on. By the end of the day, three ships are been charmed enough to be under his control, and a 4th was destroyed. |
And using different version of this story, over the next 6 days, the same things happen. One ship will be destroyed (under different circumstances.) and then ships will, quietly, come under Alzar’s control while he uses quiet spells like Hold Person and Power Word Stun to freeze people, and keeps things on a natural level. By the end of the week, there are 93 ships left, and 21 ships of those are now friends (or dominated) by Alzar.
Alzar then appears to the ships on the morning of the 8th day out, and he gets them to veer off and pull away from the fleet. He conjures three water elementals (Ring, Mask, Spell) and three airs (Mask, Spell, Censer). And they are a smashing force that moves against the others. He uses range spells like Death Spell and more and at the end, 10 ships have been destroyed. With 21 veering off in another direction, and 7 more destroyed in the week before, that drops their numbers. They change their plan and retreat, having lost too much of their number to pull out. With the two armies that were going to create flanking issues handled, Alzar heads back to check on the preparations. He wants all 8 humans together in one army, and they have bene working together. The dwarves and elfs are in separate support armies. The humans lack missile fire, but the elves have it. Alzar is informed by the halflings that the main army has a huge iron dragon that has been brought with them. He scrys on the army and they are partially correct. There is a very large war-oriented four legged robot that the oard have assembled and “dragon” is a term that works, only because of its size and threatening nature. There are two oards on top, guarding it as it moves. An hour later, Alzar conjures an greater earth elemental, uses his Zoster, and then the two teleports over, next to the thing to take it out. He is immediately hit by beams coming from the alien’s ray gloves. He takes 13 damage. They were on the lookout for him, and got the jump on him. Initiative. 6 vs 9. Alzar hacks at the robot with his axe and shield. 14, 10, and 12. He hits three times for…44 damage. The elemental needs a 5 and rolls….6. Hits for 13. The “creature” roars at Alzar and stabs him with a spiky tongue for 12 damage (Robots ignore all illusions, including his Cloak). The Oards use a pair of fireball gems at him and his friend, and hit for 19 and 22 damage. Alzar is reeling. Alzar 15/79 4 vs 7. Alzar switches out the shield for a potion, carves the robot twice more for 22 damage and it dies and the oards fall. He quaffs a superhealing potion to gain 40 life. 7 vs 6. They use rays and strike him, and then he carves and kills one and the Elemental smashes the other for 20 damage. 3 vs 5. Alzar kills the wounded one. Their army is moving towards them. Alzar orders the Elemental to charge into them and conjures other aid, like shadows and the Stalker. Then he uses the time they buy him to collect various items: 2 Ray Gloves 4 Fireball Gems Parts from large robot He teleports back home after taking out the dragon and reports his success. |
On day 39, their main force arrives in the area. Alzar troops are one day away. His Banner is back in Evenarrow, but he brought the Rod of Victory out for battle from his Otherspace.
Their foe: Kolmede Main Force – 1500 troops (After Alzar softened them from 1600) BFR – 109, current BR 132 They are coming after: Elves of Erydall - 400, 191 BR Dwarves of Jalndrup – 320, 125 BR Humans Tribes of Arqwen – 2590, 104 BR – Led by Alzar Their enemies have to divide. They split into 500 each. Elves vs Kolmede – Elves are defending - +10 – 69 difference. 24 vs 30. Win by +63. 20% casualties for elves, 50% for enemies. Moderate vs Severely exhausted. Dwarves vs Kolmede - +10 for defending, 3 difference…27 vs 39 – lose by 12. 20% losses for dwarves, 0% for humans Humans vs Kolmede – Defending +10, Rod of Victory, +25. +60 for Troop ratio. _95 diff. 65 vs 87. 73 win. 30% vs 60% losses. Humans, Elves, kept the map. Humans lost more, but are not tired. Alzar sends them against the not tired Kolmede. Kolmede get +10 for winning against dwarves, and Alzar gets +10 for wining too – cross that off no longer defender. Alzar’s forces are not just +45 for size, +25 for Rd - +41 overall. 60 vs…20. 81 victory. 10% vs 50% losses. Although it was bloody, Alzar’s forces lost 40% of their group (20% permanently). But they forced 60% and 50% in two engagements and won the day. The Elves also lost 40 of their number completely, but destroyed their unit. The dwarves may have lost, but they helped to split the numbers. With more than 50% of their main army killed, the ocean one retreating and the advance one destroyed, they halt their offensive and begin to retreat. Alzar orders harassing attacks by everyone for days, and does so himself, not let them sleep, hitting them with Mass Teleported elemental. They won’t try that again. At the end of the war, Alzar is hailed as the great hero and Lord again. Each of the four groups give him a powerful item of themselves. From the halflings, he receives a +4 Sling of Seeking. From the elves a set of Elven Cloak, Elven Boots, and +3 Bronze Elven Scale Amor. From the humans, a s+4 shield. But from the dwarves? After seeing his love for the axe, they have crafted for him a truly inspired creation they have named Selinor, dwarf for “Frost Speech”. They carved the name on it in runes. Meanwhile the halflings, barbarians, and elves also carved symbols in their gifts. Selinyr - +5 Axe, with two talents – Translating and Extinguishing. When on his person, he always translates every language that is said, and can speak them back. And, the axe is cool to the touch, extinguishes normal fires when placed in them, and is +10 to hit and damage vs fiery foes (Red Dragon, Fire Elemental, Hellhound, etc). Alzar thanks them profusely for the gift. After the celebration is over, he uses the Cube and disappears. |
Island of the Sorcerers
Alzar finds himself in a hexagonal chamber. In one wall is an open lancet window, and there is the russet orb of the sun beyond, sitting behind a placid sea. In a tree beneath the window, a nightingale is singing, and the scent of jasmine drifts in on the gentle breeze. The chamber is lit by a glowing gem hanging from the ceiling and has a bench fixed to the wall opposite the window. The remaining walls are decorated with frescoes of fabulous beasts and in the bench is a crystal vial, some powders and a dish of black residue. A trapdoor in the floor is open and a figure is coming up, and spies Alzar, mouth agape. The man introduces himself as Sfar, a servant of the great wizardess Giagfena. He grabs the items that were meant for her from the bench, and then begs Alzar to follow him, and leads him to the refectory. There are a dozen or so mages here eating dinner. Alzar is introduced to them. He is at The Bibliotheca, an underground library on an island that is the center of knowledge and research for all things magical and arcane in the known world. The complex includes the guesthouse here, as well as modest ports and such. Then there is the library itself with nine floors of books, one for each level of spells. The center of the library sports the Luminance. This is a powerful artifact in the form of a shimmering crystal (sometimes shifts to a throne) that protects and defends the Bibliotheca. It prevents any magical travel to the location, and Alzar’s arrival, although not possible by the laws of magic, was probably enabled via the usage of chronomancy – in other words, he was already on the island, he just shifted in time. Apparently chromomancy is a loophole in a lot of things. Anyway, the Luminance also creates a powerful storm cover, summons creatures to defend it and the Bibliotheca, and can be a powerful weapon. In fact, when it’s in throne form, a powerful (24+ level) wizard can sit in it and control, to some degree, the defenses of the island. Anyone who sits in the throne can also gain inspiration in their research for golems, magical items, spell learning or crafting, potion brewing, scroll making, and so forth. |
After learning about various places, and such, Alzar begins to move out to the Bibliotheca proper. The guesthouse is just about 1000 feet from the library proper, but no Fly, Levitate, Dimension Door, Blink, Teleport, Astral Spell, Gate, etc will work here, except the Luminance’s.
He’s about halfway there when suddenly a group appears from being invisible and strike! Multiple spells are cast at him! Three spells get off from three casters, and they are…. Polymorph Other (to a pig); Disintegrate, Power Word, Kill. Alzar rolls…1…15…(No Need, currently too many HP to be PWK) Now, when he fails to the PO, instead a Protective Amulet is destroyed and he’ll need to reup that tomorrow. Initiative! 2 vs 3. Alzar casts Time Stop! Three wizards are visible and he casts Power Word Kill on the one that led with a 4th level spell, probably a lower level mage, and then Major Globe of Invulnerability and then...nothing else. Time Stop ends and…The one had a Contingency spell in place that triggers and fires an Anti-Magic Shell, rather than killing. The wizard is still alive, but won’t be able to cast anything. 6 vs 8. Alzar casts Mass Domination and actually does not dominate the other two, but instead frees them from Dominations to others (Akin to how two charm effects break each other) and they stop and shout and drop their weapons. The three reach over and wrestle the last one to the ground and tie him up, under his Shell. Then Alzar uses Cleaving on the Shell to drop it, and then casts a normal Domination and ends that one, and all three are good. |
They tell Alzar that when they were on the throne incarnation of the Luminance, that something was used against them to dominate them and they were going to leave the island and do the bidding of something else, but now that’s gone. But they are also confused – nothing magical should have worked on them while they were on the artifact, so how were they effected?
Alzar moves to the Bibliotheca, bringing those three with him, and begins to inspect things. Very soon thereafter, he uncovers something interesting. After they arrive at the Luminance at the heart of the area, the others unanimously pointed to one spot that was controlling them. Alzar heads over and while Detect spells find nothing, he uses his axe and pries open the wall. Inside it is a metallic construct, similar to the ones made by both the race that landed the starship in the mountains, and also the oards. This is a Hypnosis Cube. Alzar secures it, The three wizards mention that others may have been dominated as well. They know a few Domination spells, and use them to free others, who do the same. In two days, all of the controlled mages in the Bibliotheca have been freed. |
And Alzar is already feeling the pull of the Cube. It’ll only be a day before he is forced to use it. He spends that day learning a few spells from the Bibliotheca.
9th – Worldwalk – Lasts 1 turn/level, opens up large gate between two planes that anyone can cross, user must know and have an item from the other plane 70+Level% of it working, requires item from each plane that is destroyed on casting 6th – Wizard Seal – Like many spells, this spell protects an item and seals it. Opening it causes a save vs spell or be cursed, as per 4th level spell, but permanent. Unlike other protections, this one is removed via Remove Curse spell from the book, scroll, etc, not by Dispel Magic. Requires 1000 gp gem, crushed and used at the end of the spell 2nd – Zala’s Lifeforce Guardian – When targeted by an effect that drans life, such as energy drain, finger of death, death spell, trap the soul, etc, Grants a save, and if made, the Guardian absorbs it and dies. Duration is 2 rounds/level. No material component to the spell 7th - Younger – Spell which requires a pound of marrow from a newborn dragon, can be cast once/year. Target loses one year/caster level, and the caster loses one point of CON for one year. Roll 5% cumulative for each time spell is cast, the loss is permanent, and the effect cannot be duplicated on any target more than once, ever. So if he cast it on himself, he’d lose 26 years, and have a 5% of losing 1 CON permanently, but would still lose it for 1 year. 7th – Hold Golem – Used, no save, to detect and hold one golem, even those not normally able to be held or immune to magic. It works for 1 rnd/level. And after frenzied spell-memorizing, Alzar disappears and… |
The Entropy Bubble
The four attempts by the oards to break the power of magic on the planet, and the region of Aelos/Norwold specifically was stymied by Alzar. The foundation of their future reality have been critically undermined. They have prepared for this and crated a refuges where they could gather their strength before moving off on another assault on the planet and perhaps from a new angle. This refuge is called the Entropy Bubble. Inside it is the outpost of Cijal. There are robots, high level technology, and more all over. There are moving images on the walls, bright twinkling lights, three-dimensional illusions, and more. Alzar doesn’t want to be seen, so he uses a pinch of dust of disappearance. Then he flies up. Their technology is immune to his magic, and vice versa. He passes by buildings such as outposts and such. The oard have various slaves and people serving them. A large number of rope-like cables can be seen coming from a central building to the lef,t so Alzar flies over and checks it out. A large, horn-like substance is here, about a foot high, and there is energy running from it, and it’s a central object somehow. Alzar’s axe carves into it and destroys it, and suddenly the power goes out in the outpost, and the various slaves and servants, now freed begin to turn on their masters. And as the chaos erupts, Alzar is pulled from the oard outpost. He grabs the Temporal Shift Cube and disappears…. End of CM6. Where Chaos Reigns Well, that’s about as crazy a ride as you will ever see in a D&D module. Zang! |
DA2. Temple of the Frog
 Now the Temple of the Frog has a major pedigree. The Blackmoor supplement was the 2nd released for D&D, and although most were the introduced of new items, spells, monsters and such, in the back was an adventure – the first published adventure for an RPG – Temple of the Frog. I was initially going to run DA1 – DA4. But after rereading DA1, I don’t see it. The basic framework for DA1 is extremely simple. Adventurers find a tavern that is only mentioned in legends and myth. The inn is between worlds. After exploring the inn and its people, they end up in the inn 3000 years ago when a king was abducted. That king was taken to the inn of the near future (From when the adventures entered, like 3002 years or so). Adventurers need to go to that inn and free the king. That’s it. Not exactly a world-beating adventure, and hard to tie into Alzar’s campaign. And I’m not 100% sure about DA4 either. But DA2 and 3? Get ready… |
….and Alzar appears in a swamp, deep in the dank, smelly, sweaty Swamp of the Frog. In front of him about a half mile in the distance is the grandiosely named City of the Frog. It’s no city at all, but rather a small cloistered settlement.
Hidden at the end of an inlet on the northern shore of a small river is a Frog Island, a tangled jungle of sawgrass and mangrove swamp in northeastern part of Loch Gloomen, the city consist of four areas separated from each other by walls or water barriers the temple compound, out bailey, temple garden, and Frog Town. Surrounding the City of the Frog is the Frog Swamp, a pestiferous fen populated by all manner of carnivorous horrors, with waters of the swamp roughly 2 feet deep and sinkholes not uncommon drilling deeper than two Alzars. Dotting the swamp at various intervals are sand barriers and grassy hummocks of dry ground. Alzar flies up with the Carpet to get the lay of the swamp. From here, Alzar can make out a large moat surrounding the temple compound and garden as well. There are three drawbridges that support three iron-barred gates that are each glowing magically, and appear to extend below the water one of the moats. The local avoid the dangers of quicksand and deep water by using flat bottomed canoes and a set of poles and ropes alongside the waterways that Alzar can follow if he wants. Or he can just fly. Today there is a dense fog over the area, but the place around the Frog Swamp, City and Temple have ebbed and can be made out. |
Alzar thought that he was done with the oard invasion plans, but perhaps they have created new ones after he destroyed their outpost, or maybe even they have renewed a different attack here. (Alzar is 4032 years in the past)
He heads to OtherSpace to pull out Azzil and some items that are probably good for this area, such as his Ring of Water Command and Bracelets of Swimming (Which increase his swimming speed considerably). He flies over to a large tree to hide behind it, in the air, and uses the Crystal Balls to scry (With three Crystal Balls, he can scry 9 times a day.) He uses these to get a feel for the surrounding environment. After he spends some time with his magic, he returns and flies down to the swamp. Frogs are clearly considered holy or special here, since there are multiple species of frogs kept in cages and roosts, and a special version of frog people in a nearby villa (Frog Town) as well as the motif of the frog everywhere. He’s confused. This doesn’t have the feel of another press by the oard. There is some updated, non-Mystaran technology here it seems, but it’s not like the oard. Here is the front view of the Temple of the Frog As you can see, there is another interstellar vessel here of some sort, and this is not the style of the oard. It’s too soon to tell, it could certainly be another vessel from another group, but that’s a bit odd. There have been a few animals in the great Frog Swamp that have missed him, like giant leeches and crocodiles. He is going to float over aerially, rather than float over water, in order to keep clear of the creepy crawlies and to keep his presence undetected for now. The carpet slides over and Alzar drifts from tree to tree, taking things in and watching to make sure that nothing is coming after him. After a short while, Alzar unloads from the swamp and enters the temple compound and uses his Ring of Invisibility. |
And this is a good place to do an aside on Alzar and illusions and invisibility.
As you might recall, Alzar is a Path Mage, a specialization he created himself in a book he penned called The Fivefold Path to Power. He wants spells that have longer durations or are permanent. That includes knowledge, summoning, creating, enchanting, and animating. Because of its insubstantial, temporary, and unreal nature, Alzar absolutely can’t stand illusion magic. He sees illusion as weak, and thereby not powerful. And that’s the goal of magic, to go things you can’t do on your own, to imbue yourself with power. And if illusion is the weakest form of power, then Alzar doesn’t want to be a part of it. And that applies, to a lesser degree, to evocation magic. So since Alzar is not a fan, invisibility, which is an illusion that the user is not there, when they are, is a false path to power. There are better things to do with your time. And yet, Alzar gained that Sword of Lyons back on Thorasia, an invisible short sword, and every time it was drawn the user would turn invisible until sheathed. That was a powerful, but permanent tool, that used invisibility. And ever since then, Alzar has been comfortable using items of invisibility to penetrate the defenses of an area. Now he’ll use others, like a Hat of Disguise or polymorphing to a new shape completely, but why reject an item that you came across? It’s not like Alzar made potions of invisibility (which he can’t do – if you can’t cast the spell, you can make the item) but he certainly can drink it when he finds one. And the same is true of a Ring of Invisibility and Dust of Disappearance and more. So let’s get all invisible. Because it may not be that powerful, but it’s still something. |
This 90-yard square walled compound built atop an outcropping of rock 200 yards from
the lakeshore is a veritable fortress. Its 10-foot thick limestone walls loom 20 feet over the surrounding moat, and the gatehouse and four big corner towers top the walls by another 10 feet. A wooden drawbridge in the gatehouse connects the compound with the temple garden.The order’s massive temple is built in the likeness of a giant frog. Its windowless, green limestone walls soar 130 feet above Ihe temple compound. Between its front legs are a pair of monumental bronze doors whose surfaces are blueish green with verdigris. Here and there, greasy smokes emanates from vents in its sides or roof to mingle with the mists that cloak the city The temple’s doors are electronically sealed except during services, and that’s not right now. So they are closed closed. The courtyard is laid out with rough white marble chips and a wide walk that leads from place to place. He checks out the gatehouse from beyond and…spies “Sunk into the right wall of this tunnel is a smooth red plastic alarm button. Hitting this button causes the computer to sound the alarm throughout the temple.” There are two towers at each of the two gatehouses on this side of the compound, and each seem to have a soldier on top. Alzar heads over to the Temple Garden. when the first monks dug a moat around their new temple and a U-shaped canal from Loch Gloomen to carry supplies to their doorstep, the resulting channels drained the water from a 90-yard by 180-yard segment of Frog Swamp. This area became a wooded garden, a stretch of solid ground over which the monks could stroll for exercise and refreshment of the spirit. Since various species of nasties kept wandering in from the nearby swamp and sticking fang and claw into the soft-bodied monks during their constitutionals, the brothers eventually walled this garden off from the swamp. Like the temple compound, the garden today is protected by a 10-foot thick, 20- foot high limestone wall  |
The temple looms large. There are some guard towers, and a beautiful arbor walled of rare species of flowers that are donated to the Cult by someone named St. Stephen. (According to the tablet on the bottom – Alzar’s Axe, Selinyr, can read it for him perfectly). There’s a large lily pond that large frogs are using, and giant fish can be seen in, and so forth.
There is a third gate here, with a giant frog statue in front.  It looks like it could come alive at any moment, and it’s currently playing with a human creature made of an unknown metal. There hasn’t been a lot of traffic for Alzar to dodge. He’s passed by small numbers of people or priests of various sorts. There just haven’t been a lot of them. No need to play dodge-em priests or anything to prevent being noticed. The Outer Bailey is next. As the temple grew, the monks drained the swamp to the east of the temple and walled the area in with a barrier almost identical to that around the temple compound. Part of this area was a natural harbor, which became the center of commerce. Even a temple compound and the surrounding area has to trade and connect with others. There are 5 lay brothers working on docks here. Alzar passes more sentry towers, and a common house, and then pens of sharpened close-set palmetto stakes pounded into the ground to create a makeshift palisade. There are some draft horses, slaves, and more in here. There is a trade block in front where slaves and animals are purchased. Alzar skips them and moves past some barracks as well and warehouses for storage of less-vital things like dry goods and such. There are open doors that reveal casks of clean water, low quality wine and beer, lumber, and grains from trade. |
He passes guest houses and such, and then makes his way into the Frog Town section of the city. Here’s a very long copy and paste about it:
During the temple’s early days, some fur traders wheedled permission to set up trading posts along the southern shore of Frog Island beneath the walls of the outer bailey Over time, others came to these posts-drifters, bawds, criminals on the run. They formed a small community called Frog Town. As it grew, Frog Town ceased to he a haven for traders and became a nest of bandits who preyed on the Duchy of Ten and the Barony of the Lakes. When their many depredations finally threatened to bring too much attention to the temple and draw a punitive expedition down on the monks’ heads, the order acted. The newly installed high priest, Saint Stephen, led the monks and their armed lay brothers in a surprise night attack on Frog Town. Once they had control of the town, they executed its leaders and worst bandits (generally one and the same). The survivors were brought under temple control, exercised by an inner circle monk who served as its “resident” and had veto power over all activity. Thereafter, Frog Town became a dumping ground for persons whose services were desired by the temple, but whom it could scarce enslave and did not want to recruit as lay brothers. Now, it is little more than a labor pool for the order, a kind of warehouse for their hirelings. Most of the members of the order’s slaving parties dwell in Frog Town. So do the “swamp rats,” the hunters and fishermen who provide the temple with fresh meat and fish. Bawds, publicans, and a few slaves round out the little town’s current population. The residents of Frog Town are pretty much left alone within the town, but they can’t leave without permission. To ensure that they abide by this restriction, they all wear plastic collars containing miniature transmitters similar to those worn by the killer frogs. The collars emit a steady signal showing the wearer’s location. The Frog Towner’s collars also contain a self-destruct feature that causes them to explode (doing 8- 32 points of damage to the wearer) if tampered with. This and other indignities have spawned much resentment in Frog Town. If given the opportunity, at least half of the slavers and most of the other residents would sack the temple and win their freedom. For the present, Frog Towners keep their mouths shut and bide their time, hut, unless otherwise noted, if the PCs reveal their true purpose to a Frog Towner other than Ratty Tom (1-28), there is a 50% chance that their confidant will assist them and a 5% chance that he will turn them in to the order. Even if the players make no attempt to raise Frog Town against the order, it is an excellent place to gather information. During the day, almost all of the residents are abed, and no Froggies are visible. At night, the place comes alive, and most Frog Towners are at revel in one of the taverns or bawdy houses. Since Frog Town boasts the only real entertainment in the City of the Frog, most off-duty Froggies below the rank of saint usually end up there. None of the celebrating Froggies speak of the temple’s lower dungeon, but there is much “shop talk” on other order-related matters. Many of the dwellings here are in much lower disrepair and condition. There is a tavern and here a brothel, and then a low-quality gambling house. Slaver shacks and sheds, and shacks. As Alzar moves around, a man with an odd gait walks out of one of the stores and stares straight at him, and then he comes over and pulls Alzar into his den. He introduces himself as Weewak, a cyborg who was created to destroy the Temple of the Frog and all of it’s technology. Alzar learns more about the Order of the Frog from Weewak. Their opposition, the Order of the Frog, is led by a man of resource and ambition. High Priest Saint Stephen and his four sainted companions appeared out of nowhere and took over the order five years ago. They now rule it with an iron hand. Though Stephen and his companions appear normal enough (except for the slight greenish cast of their skin), they are quite literally not of this world. They are aliens, members of a scientific expedition that crashlanded on this planet some years ago. A minority, led by Security Officer Stephen (“the Rock”) Rocklin, argued that rescue was uncertain and that the crew might be forever trapped in their sealed hibernation chambers. This faction maintained that contact with the locals would be the key to survival if no rescue materialized. When the captain and chief science officer overruled them, Rocklin and his faction mutinied. their bid to take over the stranded ship failed, and a mere handful of them escaped in their lifeboat. As they sped away, a loyalist sent a Hellbore missile after them. Try as they might to evade the deadly seeker, it caught up with the lifeboat and knocked it down in Frog Swamp. That lifeboat is now a part of the Temple of the Frog. |
Stephen pretended to be a prophet from the Order of the Frog. Set u[p shop, took over everything, and the Order has been a lot more antagonistic ever since. Meanwhile the captain had one of the officers create Weewak to infiltrate the Temple and blow it up. It can sense Alzar’s mission is similar, and wants to join up. Alzar is incognito though. A potion or somesuch work on the cyborg. Alzar tries a pinch of Dust of Disappearance and it works. Weewak and Alzar will penetrate the Temple together.
In a few minutes, they head back over as a loud bell rings, and a post-dinner audience begins in the temple, and the doors are opened up. More cut and paste: The walls of the frog-shaped temple building are constructed of finely dressed 500-pound blocks of green limestone, closely morticed to make it appear that the entire structure is an organic whole-as if it is, in fact, a giant frog. Even the limestone flags that cover the floors of all of the rooms are tightly joined to further this effect. Generations of sculptors have labored to carve the exterior stone ofthe temple in the likeness of a frog, softly rounding angles to make them appear more lifelike. Inside the temple, these same sculptors have decorated walls and pillars with spectacular friezes of frogs and froglike beings in all manner of poses. Nor have the sculptors confined themselves to the walls. Every doorway inside the aboveground temple boasts an elaborately carved door hand-crafted from a single slab of white oak. Sconces carved in the shape of grinning upthrust frog faces are set in the walls of all halls and corridors at intervals of 10 feet, the mouth of each frog accommodating a white candle symbolizing the purity of the frog. The tops of pillars are decorated with carved ferns, through whose leafy fronds peek dozens of tiny, grotesque amphibian visages. Alien technology multiplies the impact of this weird decor. In fact, the temple is permeated with the magic of technology. From the lighting to the plumbing, this temple is rife with the technology of the landed craft’s escape vessel. They enter into the temple nave and the great temple itself opens before them. There are a bunch of columns, and doors, and strong beams of light from a cupola high above the altar. Priests are gathering to begin the post-dinner service, and there are a variety of people entering or milling about, and it’s much more crowded than anywhere else. |
There is some machinery behind the altar and a short hall there leads to a dusty ramp that rises in the darkness and slants off over the altar and ends there. It raises the alter by a few feet though, for the service.
There is a small door back here, found by the Star of Mo-Pilar, and a mechanic lock that Weewak picks instantly. Inside is an alcove with five brass shelves, and they include a large green statue statue of a frog on a lily pad and holding a struggling human in its mouth -like the one outside. (Worth 11,000 gp) There is an unlocked jade box, and he opens it to reveal a jade ring. Ring of Frog Calling – Once/day, wearer can summon a frog swarm, obscures vision, and drives off creatures of less than 3 HD. Swarm stays for up to a day or until dispersed. Only be used if swamps are nearby and frogs can reach the user. A few rooms open off the back corridor as it bends. A quick check shows no one is in the Sexton Horis Tisa’s quarters, and Alzar grabs: 72 theological books, Temple of the Frog Really quickly and places them in his Bag of Holding. They pass a guard room with a lot of priestly vestments and arrive at a latrine. The corridor bends and there is a organ room that overlooks the temple, a few rooms of prayer or resting, and a command center with a metal cabinet dotted by jewels. It controls light and sound during the service. There are slots to recharge power packs here too., |
An outer sanctum is off the room as the service is underway and there are tapestries and such, with the expected frog motif. Alzar moves into the next room, and inner sanctum with a variety of books and cabinets and pillows and such. In here is a man in powered battle armor, who can see both Alzar and Weewak, and the armor apparently ignores his protection. This is Saint Stephen,
Alzar’s mighty Selinyr axe escapes the thong it has and they get ready for battle. 6 vs 7. Alzar…rolls a 8 and a 11, and hits twice for…..38 damage. His shield rolls a 12 for 10 damage Weewak stabs out with each fist for 10 and 4. That’s one hit for 1d8 damage….4 – and that’s enough to kill St. Stephen. As the leader of the Cult dies, a few acolytes move into the chamber and shout out an alarm. Alzar moves out and casts Wail of the Banshee, which doesn’t effect Weewak but kills a bunch of the local clergy. Three cast Silence at him and 2 work. Init. 2 vs 8, Alzar casts Vocalize, which will ignore the Silence spell. Alzar is attacked a few times by missile weapons and many acolytes chose to begin to flee. 5 vs 6. Alzar casts Time Stop, then moves in and casts Mass Domination and Mass Charm to either force or befriend virtually all of the remaining acolytes. Those left will be killed easily enough by the dominated acolytes. Battle ends, they have the first floor secure. |
Alzar hands a spare Bag of Holding to a few friends and has them empty a bunch of books into them (gently of course)
He’ll wind up with: 232 Light Reading Books, 1st Floor Temple of the Frog St. Stephen’s Damaged Battle Armor 2 Hand Blasters Temple Ring The ring will open up virtually everything here, including the metal cabinet that holds open a computer terminal, that Weewak jacks into. After a moment, the alarm was ended, and doors have bene opened and such. In an office on this level, the ring opens a stash of weapons and armor: 4 heavy blasters 2 hand blasters 6 spare power packs 6 vibro-swords 4 vibro-maces 2 Inner Circle, 2 Outer Circle Rings With Weewak now using a hand blaster he secured from a dead acolyte (deals 6d6) damage they are moving out. Just before the exits is a chancellor, trying to put all of the temple’s supplies away and run with them, but they stop him and he surrenders. They take his: Power Armor Off and secure it. They now have 4 of the 5 leaders of the Cult of the Frog down. |
They arrive at the Hall of Peace, and here the enemy has chosen to set up their defenses from below. The final leader is here, organizing a variety of guards, acolytes, and such. All of the remaining people from levels 3-6 are here:
3 people in powered armor, including the last leader 10 guards 4 acolytes Norn, a cyborg 4 draco lizards as pet/guards Norn has an autocannon blaster that is plugged into the main circuitry and can fire twice a turn and dole out a massive amount of damage. Initiative 4 vs 9. Alzar casts Death Spell and…6 guards and 2 lizards die. Weewak charges in. He orders the Stalker to cover, and people can see it. Blasters ignite Alzar for 23 damage (no illusion with the Cloak) and the autocannnon nails the Stalker. Alzar - 57/79 8 vs 3. Alzar takes…..24 from several hits. Norn kills the Invisible Stalker with the autocannon. He grabs the Gem of Delusion from his belt and uses it. A flash rings out and everyone (other than Norn and Weewak and the people in powered armor) save and if they fail or make it, they are stunned and then enfeebled for a few rounds each. Weewak tears into a powered armored defender for 14 damage. 34/79 1 vs 8. Alzar summons a greater Earth Elemental who is blocking the line of sight. Weewak finishes the damaged dork. Others fires and the Elemental takes some hits and Weewak takes some from Norn. 9 vs 3. They carve out some damage again. Weewak took 13 and the Elemental some more. Alzar conjures a normal Earth and advises Weewak to pull back from behind the Earths and he does. 2 vs 5. Alzar’s axe is out and he take down one, two guards. Weewak blasts a draco lizard, who is finished by the elementals, and they take out the stunned group before they can recover. The final leader orders a general retreat. And Norn covers for them, moving into the breach. 3 vs 2. Norn hits Alzar for another 10 damage. They smash-hammer Norn to death, and then fire weapons at the retreating two powered armored folks, and they both drop after two turns. They have cleaned up the rest of this place 8 hand blaster 2 heavy blaster 3 damaged power armor 1 blaster autocannon Alzar and Weewak and the elementals spend the time recuperating, and fixing his various wounds and searching the last three floors, all smaller. |
They find bedchambers and bathrooms, storage and meditation chambers, and then a large computer room and power plant. Alzar has the items they grabbed recharged. There is a machine shop, cistern, and a map of the area carved into the floor. Apparently there is a basement to the temple, and it’s reached outside the main building. They head out and use the ring to enter.
Alzar grabbed the bags of holding from his “friends” before leaving the floor. They penetrate the dungeon, led by the elementals, and Alzar summons for shadows to join them. This is a place for storage of undesirables like slaves, prisoners, and such. After hearing the alarm upstairs, many of the guards have fled. They took some of the good stuff with them. Here are some slaver’s quarters and there some guards. Here a wash room and there a wine cellar. Some food storage here and some slave pens there. But Alzar knows of a lower level, according to the schematics they saw on the 6th floor. Alzar’s shadows find it first and report it to him. Here is a rector’s chamber and few monk quarters. All empty. |
Behind the monk’s quarters was the secret door to a secret archive.
This 20x30 room is lined with glassed-in shelves containing leather-bound books and green-lacquered scroll cases and a 15 foot long carved oak table flanked by 6 chairs is in the center of the room. These are the secret records of the Cult. They include the information on how to make frog people, the various frog-oriented magic items and wizardly, and more. A quick Star search reveals a few magical items in here, but Alzars wants the library too and cleans it out in ten minutes: Secret Archives – 4 lined shelves of Cult of the Frog secrets, including how to make items, spells, and frog people. Ring of Frog Control (Like a Ring of Animal or Mammal Control, for just Frogs) The Lower Dungeon is behind these archives, and they head down. The first room us a tunnel running south, and along it is a main watch room, and this is a choke point with a keeper and soldier, and there, people have not fled, but after the shadows penetrate their defenses, they scream and try to run but are brought down after a low level cleric tried and failed to control them. In a waiting room beyond are a triad of mutated frog folk that are strapped to the beds.  After being turned into frog people, they are still being held by the locals. Alzar frees them and speaks to them in their own tongue to get the lay of the land, and then they head upstairs. |
As Alzar moves forward, a large group of people on this floor have assembled and move to attack them.
1 bronze golem 1 monk 10 solders 4 keepers 1 Commander in battle armor 70 killer frogs controlled by a Ring of Frog Control by a monk Alzar suggests to Weewak that he hold back and he casts Skulltrap and waits until he can get the majority of the frogs and takes them out, killing a few shadows, and hitting himself for 22 damage. Most are dead. Init. 8 vs 6. They hit and kill some shadows, and even a wounded greater elemental with blaster fire. Alzar casts Power Word Kill on the commander and she dies. Weewak fires blaster fire at a monk and kills him. 3 vs 5. Alzar casts Hold Person and 2 soldiers stop in their tracks from firing. Weewak and an elemental smashes into some of their forces and destroy them. Their golem punches and kills a shadow. Alzar takes 10 damage. 4 vs 3. Alzar takes 13. They finish some more soldiers, and the rest retreat. Alzar orders his minions to chase them down while he animates some dead to assist. Eventually they report back that all is clear. 6 Ichor-Green Potions – Turn drinker into frog-person if they fail a save They free some special prisoners in the back, but the secret level was exclusively for creating and holding killer frogs and frog people and prisoners for turning into frog folk. After all of the slaves and prisoners and frog people are freed from the dungeons, Weewak heads up to the control room and self-destructs, destroying itself in the process, but taking the Temple with it. As the Temple of the Frog collapses and the technology is destroyed, the Cube begins to pull. Alzar grabs the two Bags of Holding and spends an hour or so moving many of the books to his OtherSpace. Then he spends the night there, and memorizes new spells the next day, and he uses the Cube. End of DA2 Temple of the Frog |
I removed a lot of the story behind why you wanted to take out the Temple (in the main story, the Temple has kidnapped a Baroness of Blackmoor and the King wants you to find and retrieve her). Here, we have a different reason for taking this thing out.
But get ready… I think it’ll be really interesting for me to do a deep copy and paste from DA3 for you: Far from the sun that helps Blackmoor, almost a third of the way around the galaxy lives light and life to The Federation, a loose confederation of planets and peoples dedicated to the preservation of internal order and peace. Within the vast bureaucracy that governs this federation is a small bureau that is a tiny part of a big department that is but a fraction of a huge secretariat. This microscopic organization, the Galactic Survey Bureau (GSB), is charged with the long-term mission of exploring and mapping the galaxy, specimens of its flora and fauna, building a comprehensive directory of planets. One of the ways the bureau accomplishes its mission is by sending forth hundreds of Federation Survey Ships to visit and catalog the stars and their planets. A little over five years before the events related in this module, one of those survey vessels, the FSS Beagle, suffered a serious malfunction in its drive pod while in orbit around the sole inhabited world in a minor and heretofore uncataloged star system. Based on what was known, this accident was not supposed to happen. In fact, the engineers flatly maintained that it was impossible. Nevertheless, a power plant explosion destroyed the ship’s spatial discontinuity field and even damaged its conventional drive. As a result, the crew of FSS Beagle found itself in a decaying orbit around a primitive world in a ship that was never meant to enter atmosphere. Fortunately, Captain Bork Riesling found what appeared to be a dead sea bottom and managed to bring his ship down on it by badly abusing his conventional drive. Riesling’s maneuver saved both ship and crew, but Beagle’s propulsion pods were so badly damaged that the vessel would never lift again-at least not without a new drive and power plant. Following the standard operating procedure, the captain sealed the ship and sent out survey robots to examine surface conditions. When their data was processed, there could be hut one unhappy conclusion. The Beagle was stuck on a Class 9 pretechnological world inhabited by a number of sentient species, of which the dominant species seemed to be genetically related to the principal species on the Federation Board of Governors. In fact, many members of Beagle’s crew, who were drawn from that principal species, could easily be mistaken for the dominant sentients of this planet except that their skin appeared to have a slight greenish cast under the light of the local sun. It would have been extremely easy for the aliens to mix with the locals and gain global dominance within a few decades. But the very backwardness of the planet was its protection. Federation regulations clearly prohibited cultural intervention in Class 9 worlds. Of course, regulations can be bent; and this was an emergency situation. The Beagle could not repair itself, and it could not lift. There was enough power to keep the ship operational for decades, for perhaps as long as a century with a reduced crew. And, in a few years, the vessel would be missed, and a Federation rescue mission would begin backtracking its planned itinerary. Any vessel that came within a light year would almost certainly pick up Beagle’s powerful distress beacon. There always the chance, though, that some combination of events would delay the rescue. Budget cuts in 2946-2958 had delayed the rescue mission that was to search for FSS Foxglove, and the ship ended up being forgotten for almost 50 years until a minor bureaucrat noted that the vessel was still reported overdue. In weighing these factors, there were those in the Beagle’s crew who favored a radical course of action. They wanted to contact the locals, establish cultural ascendency over them, and mobilize them to create an industrialized civilization. Using Beagle’s technological resources and with an entire planet to draw from, it would be possible to establish a comfortable colony on the planet that would remain viable even if rescue was delayed for 500 years! The local sand folk, who occupied the desert surrounding Beagle, were already overawed by the aliens, calling them gods and their ship the City of the Gods. If the other planetary cultures were as easily swayed, control of the globe might be established within a few short years and a global industrial base built within two decades. It was a compelling argument, but one that Captain Riesling rejected. Regulations, he felt, could not he so easily flouted. When the rescue mission did show up, he would be accountable for all action taken; and the last captain to flout the nonintervention regulation had been cashiered and shipped to the ice mines afFreya as an involuntary colonist. So FSS Beagle would adhere to regulations. Most of the crew would be placed in stasis. The robots would utilize the time to gather specimens on this world (thus impressing the superiors who would eventually review Riesling’s performance). A watch crew would run the ship until the rescue mission arrived. One of the crewmen who opposed Riesling’s decision was Security Officer Stephen (“the Rack”) Rocklin. As a senior line officer, Rocklin was part of the watch crew, charged with establishing groundside defenses against the natives. During the course of his duties, Rocklin became aware of some very strange aspects to Beagle’s new home. Many of the species captured by the e-bots (ecology robots) used as scouts displayed remarkable characteristics never encountered anywhere else in the galaxy. At first, it was thought that these were manifestations of unique parapsychological talents, but further investigation showed that they were related to a strange energy field permeating the planet, but strongest just north of where the Beagle was grounded. Some of the aspects of this energy field were so bizarre that Rocklin and others took to referring to them as “magic,” (which, of course, is what they are). After months of exposure to the bizarre phenomena of this world, Rocklin reached the conclusion that Beagle’s crew absolutely had to explore the planet further. The power represented by its energy field was a unique treasure that could change the lives of countless billions of yet unborn sentients throughout the galaxy. It must be studied and understood. Knowing that the captain would never allow the cultural contact needed to accomplish this end, Rocklin recruited others to his cause and plotted a mutiny. Some crewmen joined because they agreed that what they had discovered on the planet justified breaking any and all regulations. Most, though, were simply scared that they would never he rescued. As so often happens, the mutiny failed because it was betrayed. When Riesling was informed of the plot, he tried to arrest the ringleaders. Rocklin and his people fought back. It was touch-and-go for awhile, but the captain eventually regained control of the ship. Opening all of the envoi-pods in order to create a diversion, Rocklin and a handful of mutineers managed to escape in a stolen lifeboat. Though most of the loyal crew members were occupied rounding up the specimens who had wandered out of the open envio pods and into the ship’s corridors, one gunnery officer noted the lifeboat’s departure and sent a hellbore missile winging after it. The missile eventually caught up with the lifeboat and sent it plunging into Frog Swamp, where Racklin and the survivors made contact with the Order of the Frog, which he eventually took over and turned into a personal power base. |
DA3. City of the Gods
 ….Alzar is flung roughly two years into the future. Rocklin was resurrected after the Temple of the Frog incident by an itinerant priest, and Capt. Riesling became increasingly unstable, suspicious of everyone, and Rocklin is rebuilding his forces. Meanwhile Alzar arrives in front of an egg in the desert, about six miles from the City of the Gods. About 20 yards east of where you stand is a large, smooth, ovoid metal object. One end of the metal object is slightly crumpled as if it had struck something, and a long burrow of plowed earth behind it appears to mark where the object skidded to a stop. A closer examination reveals that the surface of the abject is not as smooth as it at first seemed. At one point, the base is broken by an etched circle three feet in diameter. The surface of the circle is depressed except where it is bisected by a 7inch wide undershot bar. Beside the etched circle is a legend written in red runes. The runes are a set of instructions written in Galactica and mounted on a decal. They can he read using a read languages spell. They say: Warning! Authorized personnel only. Entry to this vehicle is restricted. To open manually, grip handle and turn all the way to the right. Pull hatch out. |
Alzar heads to OtherSpace and grabs his imp familiar, and then moves towards the egg. As he does, the hatch opens out, and out comes a small, rotund figure, and then another. They are a pair of brothers from the local Blackmoor government, wizards, who were dispatched to figure out what this egg structure is.
After Alzar introduces himself, they recognize him from reports of the one who helped to bring down the Temple of the Frog. After magically confirming his identity they explain their issues with the egg and such. One takes Alzar over and shows the various objects they gathered from the egg, two of which are working and they demonstrate it. They think the egg is some sort of craft, and they are able to get it operational and show him how to move it if it could lift off. It can’t leave the area, it’s too badly damaged. As they are detailing this for Alzar, when one of the rectangular areas that has been blank until now suddenly lights up. And the mage is extremely agitated by this phenomena since he has never seen it before and did not touch any studs or protrusions that could account for it. Etched into the rectangle is a bewildering array of glowing green shapes, most of them straight lines. There are six pulsing lights. Alzar looks out and six large humanoid robots are flying towards the vessel. High in the sky, Alzar can see six flying objects. You stand transfixed for a moment, then the mage cries with dismay, “Men. They’re flying men. And they’re made of metal.” As you squint in their direction, you can now see that they are indeed flying men whose glossy black bodies gleam like burnished steel in the bright sunlight. As fast as rocs, they speed toward you, and the Two people are now clearly disturbed. Both of them dash from the egg. The robots split into three groups each and one group moves towards Alzar and the two people and the often towards the craft. Suddenly, something shoots from the hand of one of the metal men, and a billowing green cloud forms in their midst. Another of the metal men swoops down and snatches Bosero, the wizard. Cradling the wizard in his arms like a small child, he flies off to the southwest before anyone can react. Alzar is able to carve his axe into one as it flies overhead, and the robots are just too fast and he can’t catch them in his Flying Carpet. Then he hears the sound of breaking and turns around. The egg has been destroyed. Smoke drifts through large rents in its shell and fire licks at the magic doorway. Alzar heads back in and does a quick search and finds: Alien Translator Badge Medkit Still operational. Alzar grabs them and flies off, on the Flying Carpet, in their general direction. They are heading to the nearby City of the Gods. The spacecraft, still operational, is two miles long and around 3/4s of a mile wide. It’s an enormous, sprawling design. |
Alzar flies around a bit and can make out considerable defenses. There are multiple places where the ship was breached where it landed. There are glowing security fields around the entire ship, huge autoblasters on wheels and leveled formations at the breeches and airlocks, and who knows what else. Alzar stops, around a mile and a half above the ship, and grabs the Crystal Ball and uses it to scout around. There appear to be explosive devices in the ground and various robots here and there patrolling the area.
It will not be easy to penetrate the City of the Gods. Could he do so magically? Even areas that have no breach or air lock have the fields, mines, robot patrols and autoblasters. Because of the robots that captured the wizard have long since returned to the City, Alzar slides back to do some additional scanning, and investigating, to see if he can figure out a way in. For example, maybe there is a way from underneath – any caves or caverns that run close by? Unfortunately, the walls of the City are keeping his scrying from penetrating, and he can’t see it to there’s no chance to trying to teleport in. After staying back and watching, a few hours later, a huge party of robots, powered armored folks, and dozens of frog people, carrying technological weapons like blasters and light sabers arrives, landing in 10 of those scout craft that were shot down just outside of the range of weapons to the south of the City of the Gods. Alzar is more than a mile away, but his Crystal Ball scries over and he can see St. Steven, the guy he killed – he was probably resurrected, leading an attack on the Beagle. Steven has more than 100 well equipped troops including major weapons, carving a path. There is a large breach from the landing in front they are likely targeting. This might be why he was brought here today of all days. But is Alzar supposed to side with the Cult of the Frog? Or the captain and his ship? Or is he here for something else? Whichever reason, this is certainly his chance. Robot patrols are redeploying and taking local defenses with them to counter this assault. Alzar waits a few moments, and then swings down to hit the fields and mines in the northern part of the City. He hits several explosives and takes some damage, and sets off an alarm, and then arrives at a breach newly denuded of its other defenses. And heads in. |
To natives of Blackmoor, the City of the Gods is a strange place indeed. They see the commonplace wonders of technology on every side as a new form of magic. The very structure of the place is intimidating. Beagle is constructed of prefab 60-foot wide by 180-foot long by 60-foot high modules manufactured from exotic substances that can't be damaged by any nonmagical means at the
PCs disposal. Some modules are linked to form large areas; others are partitioned into much smaller areas. Each area formed by the modules is called apod and is sealed by an internal lock consisting of a single pressure door. Linking these modular areas is a system of circular tubes designed for use by air cars (which the sand folk call steel dragons). The atmosphere inside the vast, cavernous ship is one of emptiness and desolation, hut (except in green-lined areas) not one of ruin or disuse. There is also a feeling of indefinable menace as the PCs encounter the fearsome steel dragons and hear ghostly, voices over the intercom speaking in an odd tongue (Galactica). This sense of something .mysterious and dangerous behind the echoing emptiness is heightened now and again by sudden terror as the PCs encounter some fearsome monster confined in an envia-pod, or meet cyborgs, robots, or crewmen The corridor pattern is a system of circular tubes (each 60 feet in diameter, but normally kept dilated to only a 20-foot diameter). Special cars much like capsules (but 20 feet long and 10 feet in diameter) fly down these tubes on a cushion of air. A car is programmed via a numeric keypad beside its circular, 10-foot diameter entry hatch. These cars work only inside the City. |
There is a huge corridor here that opened from the local blast. A quartet of robots have been dispatched to help show up defenses and they appear like a giant cylinder, with motive parts on the bottom, and various arms and tools on the front. One is black, two are blue and the final is orange. The Black one issues some commands in Galatica, which Alzar can make out, telling him to stand down. Alzar relaxes his axe, and slings it back, and then bends down gently to pick up some dirt that has drifted into this corridor over the ages. As the robots move towards him, he casts and conjures a greater earth elemental. The robots don’t consider his actions offensive in nature and still have not attacked so he does the same and out comes a normal earth. The black robot orders Alzar and his people to hold out their appendages for en-shackling, and then they will be taken to holding.
At this point, Alzar sends out a control and the Elementals move to hit the robots, and Alzar’s axe is out as well. He wants the black one down first, (A DBot for defensive bot). Suddenly a grenade flies out and lands and bursts and it’s a stun grenade meant to subdue. Alzar is immune (Free Action Ring) as are the summoned elementals. Init. 2 vs 4. Alzar’s elementals punch the robot once for 11 damage and he adds one axe and one shield hit for 31 damage, An explosive grenade and blasters from the SBots, the blue one (Security Bots) fires of, and Alzar takes 26 damage total. 6 vs 1. Alzar takes another 16 from some damage, and then kills the DBot and carves a blue bot for 19. Then it’s punches twice and dies. The other bots begin to retreat, and pull out. From the wreckage, Alzar finds a few grenades. Most of the items were a part of the machine, and broke when they were destroyed. Grenades - 2 Sonic; 2 Tangler |
While there is no general alarm that has fired off, revealing Alzar’s presence it seems, but there is a heightened security. Alzar takes a minute to flip to OtherSpace to swap for a +3 Cloak of protection, which should be better than the Clock of Displacement he wears now, since it doesn’t stop people with targeting sensors.
This passage is very long and extremely big. There are numerous panels flashing and lights glistening. Alzar heads down, led by the elementals. They arrive at a huge door that opens as they pass, and here are four large circular containers, almost like carriages. There is nothing else here, no other exits, so Alzar heads into one with his escorts and then they hit a few buttons on a control and move to a randomly determined room. The vehicle shoots down a huge aerial tunnel, but feels no motion at all. It arrives and opens into a large 180x180 area, a separate pod for storage. There are hundreds of large crates. Alzar uses his Chime of Opening to force one open, and inside are a jumble of items – hardware, clothing, toiletries, and so forth. Nothing useful, like weapons or power packs, and the whole thing seems like a jumble, probably to help protect the items, or to require them to just open up one case at a time as supplies ebb. After a quick check, they head into one of the four cars here and stab onto the panels and hit… Another 180x180 pod opens up, and this one is divided into three tiers of trough-like cradles, each of which is surrounded by a bewildering array of machinery that is whirring and clicking as it works on the vehicles here. Maybe it’s a factory of some sort. There are 10 of the orange utility-maintenance bots (UBots) here, and they send a signal to inform the central computer of Alzar’s location. His Elementals destroy two and the rest flee, never even trying to defend themselves. |
They head back into the car and try again….
The pods where junior crewman live are dreary affairs. Each crew pod represents three 60’ x 180’ pods with their own individual locks. Each pod is dominated by a 20-ft high wire-mesh platform in its center A narrow 10-font aisle runs around this platform. Atop the first platform is an identical second platform. Atop each platform are three tiers of cubbies. Each platform is cut by many aisles with mesh floss across them. Two lifts give access to the platforms. Each cubby is a 6‘ high x 8’ wide X 8’ long padded platform surrounded on three sides by lockers. The door to each cubby swings up so that the user can slide in. It can be lowered for privacy. Each junior crewman has his own cubby where he sleeps and keeps his few personal possessions. The floor of the crew pod beneath the tiers of cubbies is an open area with plants and waist-high partitions designed to create an illusion of privacy Here, there are eating booths where crew members can dial up food served at their table by the ship’s computer. There are also holotanks for entertainment, physical training machines, and, in one corner, an open, multi-stall fresher for showers and sanitary needs. Alzar’s entrance has alerted 6 crewmembers who grab weapons from their lockers and move to intercept him. Battle begins. 5 vs 8. Alzar casts Mass Charm and the room is now his. They agree to show him around the pod, and they give him a spare blaster with all of their spare clips – 8 of them. They teach him about things like the panels and such, and two agree to accompany him. |
They head to the car, and ask Alzar where he wants to head next. They give him some options, maintenance, storage, transit stations, robot depot, crew pods, stasis pods, the observation decks, environmental pods. Alzar asks where they might keep the wizard that was captured, and is told Environmental Pod 6A is the one that has new captures until they can be verified, scanned, cleaned on infection and then moved elsewhere. That’s most likely where he’d be. They punch in that pod.
A few moments later, they arrive at that pod. Alzar has been asking questions the whole time about the City of the Gods, or the crashed Beagle. Most of the crew are still in stasis and haven’t been awoken. Apparently, Steven Rock, the for security chief for the Beagle has reason to believe that a second coup might work where the first failed and has organized one. Apparently some soldiers in the Beagle were still loyal and have jumped sides. There are 6 robots here guarding the prisoners – green EBots (for environ-bots). The crew gives a code and the bots don’t attack. Alzar heads over and behind some force fields is the wizard they captured from the downed scout vessel. They turn it off and the mage is released. They don’t have any of his items, and Alzar loans him a few items from his OtherSpace. Alzar then asks about helping their captain fend off the incursion. They are definitely on board with that, but the better weapons are keep in an armory in the B Deck and they are on the A Deck, it’d take a long time to get there. They head instead via the car to a different storage pod and grab some items that might help: 2 Communicator 20 Glow Wand 2 Medkit 6 Snoopers 2 Translator Badges 2 sets of battle armor 30 power packs Hand Blaster, 8 power packs |
They head to another crew pod to pick p the weapons the crew have there and a Mass Domination spell brings them all under Alzar’s sway as well – there were 5 in here. Alzar grabs the items from their personal stashes to use in battle:
2 Grenade Launcher 4 Blaster Rifle 2 Needler Pistol 4 Hand Blasters 16 power packs Grenade – 12 of each (Gamma, Sonic, Neuron, Tangler, Light, Opacity) 2 Battle Armor They head out and move to a robot pod. Alzar wants to check it out. Each 180' x 180' robot depot looks like a big hangar with tiers of racks filled with robots of all types. Each rack is surrounded by an indescribable tangle of maintenance equipment. Damaged robots are being repaired by the robotic maintenance equipment while magnetically secured to their racks. Robots that aren't on duty are undergoing routine checkups. Robots not yet in service are vacu-sealed into their racks with heavy duty plastiform sheeting (that can only be damaged by magic or magical weapons). There are a bunch of robots in here patrolling. They grab the 4 security bots (Sbots) and order them to help, and then Alzar has his group of crew-robots, freed wizard in power armor with a blaster, and elementals to head to the area where the Cult of the Frog is now attacking the vessel. Meanwhil, Alzar summons some shadows and an Invisible Stalker while waiting. A few minutes later, their two cars open up at a crew pod that is listed as under attack in the computer’s manifest. They see battle and unload. |
In here are a group of cyborgs, bots, powered armored troops, and people facing off against each other. Both teams have auto-cannon blasters. Alzar’s side has arrived and flanks the Cult of the Frogs position. Some frog-men in armor with hand blasters reposition themselves to meet his forces. In a moment, his side has begun to force them back, especially after Alzar’s Skulltrap softened or killed many a lot more than any grenade could have.
The opponent launch some grenades at Alzar’s forces and then pull back under the cover of radiation grenades. Alzar is wounded from the radiation, and one of the crew tell him to use the Medikit he has to heal it. He does, placing the Cube against his skin, and in a moment after scanning, it begins to heal him, and after a minute and a half he is cured and healed. But the Medikit is all used up, and cannot be recharged – they are designed to be disposable. Alzar’s force is greeted, gently, by the locals. They call down the Captain, and make sure the Cult forces are in full retreat. After chasing them out of the City, the Captain arrives and introduces himself to Alzar. The wizard, a representative of the local government of Blackmoor is properly introduced. Captain Riesling agrees to open diplomatic relations with the local nation, gives them a few items as a token of his sincerity, and then they move to pick up the various pieces. In here Alzar finds: 2 Light Sabers 1 Working Pressure Suit 1 Medikit Various grenades 1 Grenade Launcher They escort the party back off the ship after Alzar releases the crew that he dominated. (The charmed ones aren’t as obvious, and will wear off after time). Already Alzar can feel the Cube pulling at him gently. He has the Carpet out and floats gently over the landscape, and then is pulled back, once again, this time, back to his time. End of DA3 City of the Gods |
Again I gave this a different back-story, and we didn’t need to do things like have Alzar ambushed on the way there by locals who revere the City and stuff like that. We didn’t need to find it or travel to it.
A few days after Alzar arrives back home, he receives a message from the dwarves in Hammerhelm. He teleports over to talk with them and the leader there meets with Alzar. He asks to see the axe his people made for him so long ago. Alzar pulls out Selinyr and shows it to him. It’s one of the greater axes that his people have ever forged, and was a gift from long ago. Alzar smiles, “You always knew I was the one from the legends, didn’t you?” “Of course we did! You got the Forge of Power for my people long ago, do you think we’d trust just any human with getting ours back for us? But you didn’t know that you were the one, so our own priests told us to just wait, and then you would remember.” “And now I do.” Alzar has a similar story with the barbarian leaders as well, who recognized him from long ago. He’s always had friendlier relations with the halflings of Leeha than the other humans, and now he knows that too. Even the elves aren’t that antagonistic towards him. After a week back, Alzar casts Younger. For a year his CON will lower to 9. He loses 26 physical years. Roll for……..67, not permanent. Month 8, Year 5: Minor Growth How does building go? 32 Havendrop - Full defenses, castle, etc – 13 weeks. Month 8 - Mid-Summer Convocation – 10% of income that month - holiday |
Alzar has been using the Summon Lycanthrope spell for months now. He created a summoning circle in a cave near the mountains, away from the cities. Then three nights a month (full moon, day before and after) he casts the spell and chooses a species. The nearest member of that species is summoned into the circle. Alzar has usually gone for those that are reliable and easily controlled. They have begun a secret campaign to serve him. They tell him about any comings and goings, and report directly to him, no one else knows what is going on.
This gives him a few tools. For example, if there are any lycanthropes threatening his people, he can summon and kill them. The threat ends. So he is quickly doing a sort of census of all of the various lycanthropes in his realm. Plus he has around 15 loyal servants right now spying and being his eyes and nose across the area. This month, after returning from his adventures in time, Alzar has begun to use one of his spells he learned back in the past library. It reminds him of a place he has heard about in the planes. Alzar teleports to Hamedh and grabs a rock, and then casts Worldwalk and creates a large gate from just outside the College of Wizardry to just outside of his castle in Pandius. This portal will remain open for 26 turns, or 260 minutes – more than four hours of time. Alzar’s first class crosses over from the College. He has agreed to resume his studies teaching Necromancy there, and has a three month course to teach for three hours a day. Meanwhile, he is searching for a major item. A rock, or anything else, from the plane of Jaspa’a. |
Month 9, Year 5:
Minor Growth Havendrop’s defenses only need 9 more weeks. The only major event in the realm is a flood from the Bay that hits Bergholm Island and does some damage. It takes two days of work by Alzar and his nation to free it, and they spend 4000 gp to restore things and to replace some broken items. Alzar’s class continues, and near the end of the month, one of the wizards from the College brings back the rock. Alzar will use the rock to Worldwalk to that plane after the class is done. In the meantime he begins to do some scrying and investigation. Meanwhile Alzar has been working on a summoning room for summoning aid of a lower plane nature. He had been teleporting animated dead to the underground Beholder city he uses as a base of operations. No living or intelligent creatures guard it – just undead, summoned, and constructed. By the end of month 9, there are 8 Necrophidus Golems that have been made by the local Magist (minor snake-like ones with small hit points) and bunches of Spellcashe Rings that were made giving spells to various officials of various sorts, usually related to their job. For example, a Sheriff might get a spell with a divinatory nature, in order to figure something out, while town guard on a frontier might get something like Stoneskin to stay alive or Fireball to slay a bunch of bad guys that may attack out of nowhere. But the major use has been to give every officer in the army a one-shot spell of considerable power that can be used in battle if another war occurs. So, as an example, imagine if every one of 100 officers used a variety of combat spells like Magic Missile or Burning Hands to kill a ton of enemies all at once. Now the spells have been used more intelligently than that. There are some spells that help everyone with buffs or damage over time spells, and so forth, but the idea should prove pretty powerful. Meanwhile Alzar is casting some spells like Wizard Seal and such to protect many things in and around him. |
Month 10, Year 5:
Harvest Festival this month Just one week of work finishes and then the weather turns and it’s too tough to do anymore. 8 weeks left of work at Havendrop. Growth stagnates this month and there won’t be any growth in Winter this year. Right now in one month we make 60216 GP in taxes, tariffs, and trade. Current Expenses: Military – 14,960 Navy - 2750 March Staff - 3,420 Specialist Staff – 8050 Stronghold Staff - 7160 Taxes to Ericall – 20% (12200) Tithe to Matter Temple – 10% (6100) 54640 GP in expenses to staff, army, navy, taxes, and tithes. So we’re making roughly 6k a month Alzar’s Android Bodyguard stops an attack on another person in the castle. Everyone just thinks it’s a golem that Alzar made and don’t question it. |
Month 11, Year 5 –
Alzar’s 3 months of teaching Necromancy have concluded. This month there is a huge electric storm in the north of the Ljallenvals that hits and rages for two days around 350 miles north of Alzar’s March. In other news, Alzar’s World Walk spell works, and he opens a gate. (There is a 70+level% chance of that spell working - so 96% chance). Alzar gets his things he has prepared, and steps through… On the other side of the Gate to Another world is the city of Loccia (pronounced Looo-Cheee-uh) on the Prime Material Plane of Jaspa’a. Loccia is famous as one of the largest centers of learning among the planes. There are thousands of mages of every specialty here, sages and scholars, merchants and artists and the learned from countless planes, from alternate Primes to the Outer Planes. Loccia has numerous guards and wards all around, and some unusual ones to protect it. While in the city proper, no person can open a portal or summon anything, nor can any creature or natural phenomenon do so either. This is a ward set by a Deity of Knowledge who resides in this city. It cannot be broken by mortal means of any sort. Another Deity here, his wife, is of Justice, and she has decreed that no one can lie, mislead, sneak around, or hide anything. Everything is visible and honest here. This prevents merchants from scamming customers, it prevents thieves from slipping in and stealing, and more. Alzar has arrived about 2 miles from Loccia proper. He bends down and picks up a number of rocks – they are all reddish, as is the sky. He’ll use them for future travels here. Because the wards in the city prevent any extra dimensional usages as well, Alzar slips into his OtherSpace to store some things, and then reaches over to collect the Super Light chests that he had from Hamedh, and they have numerous items like gems and books and supplies in them. In Loccia, coins are not accepted as trade, due to the fact that too many realms have different size coins, different strengths of metal, and more. Therefore, gems are the major currency of exchange here, and additional trade is a big thing as well. So Alzar has some magic items, and more. Alzar has a wagon of items with him, plus a few guardians and such from his realm, including his bodyguard, a golem, his imp familiar, and more. Alzar rolls into town. Alzar find a place to hold up, and begins to spend some time exploring and shopping. He trades, shops, and exchanges goods, and four days later, Alzar returns back to Pandius, with the following trades and purchases. Alzar took with him various things, including a pair of Tomes with the spells he created to trade as well as a few others. His first major acquisition is one he is particularly happy with |
Spayle’s Book of Spellbook Spells – Animate Drawing, Copy, Erase, Organize Spellbook, Protection from Bookworms, Protection from Liquids, Read Magic, Ink Transfer, Explosive Runes, Illusionary Script, Ink Luminance, Secret Page, Sepia Snake Sigil, Fire Trap, Avoidance, Damage Link, Leomund’s Secret Chest, Spayle’s Pocket Spellbook, Temporal Corridor, Symbol
(From Dragon Mag #262) This book, copied multiple times, has a variety of spells that Spayle created near the end of his adventuring days, after losing two traveling spellbooks when adventuring. He created and gathered together a compilation of spells that would be the ultimate protection for your spellbook. Several of these are ones Alzar has never encountered, and of them, he likes these: 1st Level - Organize Spellbook Cast it on a Spellbook to reorder the spells as desired. You can do the same with a group of scrolls as well. Protection from Bookworms – One item is protected from Bookworms and other paper eating pests for one week/spell level. You may also cast this to protect one area for the same duration 2nd Level – Ink Transfer – This spell moves a spell that is copied in one Spellbook to another. This can be used to organize a collection, consolidate, and more So if you needed to copy a spell down on a page in a Spellbook that’s normally for 4th level spells or adventuring, but which is not really an adventuring style spell, you can transfer it to another book. 3rd – Ink Luminance – This spell is used to add a substance to the ink before transcribing a spell, and it’s sort of like Continual Light and the spell combined. When commanded, the runes will glow with a translucence that can be made out in the dark in order to memorize and study in dark or at night. 5th – Damage Link – This is a great spell, and it lasts permanently. Two nonliving physical objects of roughly the same size are linked together. Each gains the physical properties of the other. You could link a book and a rock, and the rock would burn like paper and the book would resist like a rock. When one is destroyed, the link is gone. Initially created to protect a spellbook or precious tome, it can be used on lots of other stuff. Only a vial of molten silver is needed to link them, which is cheap, but limits where you can use the spell. So you couldn’t do it in the middle of battle, for example. Temporal Corridor will shove an item into the future to protect it, and the Pocket spellbook works on just one book and requires a Portable Hole to use, not really something Alzar cares about. But these spells add a useful flexibility to his repertoire. When he returns he’ll teach Protection from Bookworms to the Magist, and she’ll begin to set up protections in the Royal Library. Alzar also trades for: 5th Level – Temporary Youth – Alteration and Necromancy spell. If target fails the save (or chooses to voluntarily), loses one age category for 1 turn/spell casters level. This can be used to turn back the clock for someone to help them remember who they were, to make them strong again, or to weaken something like a dragon or a giant. If cast on a hearty young man for example, would turn him into a child, on a child, to a baby, on a middle aged man, to a young man, etc. Requires an part of the body of the target. From Dragon 1999 June (I think it’s 260.) From a Dragon Hunter Mage. He also interacted with an Abjurer who specializes in protection magic, and picked up THREE lower level spells from her: 1st Level – Innocent Bearing – Enchantment/Charm – Any intelligent creature of 30 feet radius makes a save. If they fail, they treat the caster as if an innocent and harmless creature. They won’t tell them secrets, or allow them into “dangerous” places, but won’t suspect them of any wrong doing or of any antagonistic action. They will not attack the target unless they are attacked first, even if in combat with that person’s party. 2nd Level - Wild Swing – Abjuration – Any opponent that connects with the caster in melee must make a save. If they fail the save, then that attack only does base damage of the weapon only. Any additions from skills, strength, or magic are not added. So a +1 magic sword would deal 1d8, not 1d8+1. It only works on melee attacks. Bone Block – Necromancy – The caster grows 1 bone arm/7 levels (Alzar gets 4 at 21 caster level, and 5 when he gets to 28). The bone arm parries various attacks that come towards the caster. Each arm grown reduces the AC of the caster by one/arm against weapons like arrows, maces, daggers, and so forth. Not against natural attacks, or against really big stuff like a ballista bolt or something. So Alzar would get -4 AC while casting spell spell, for those attacks. Bone Block lasts 1 rnd/level, and each arm can be attacked for AC 6, and take 4 hp of damage before being destroyed. (These are from Dungeon 271) But the greatest thing Alzar leaves with? An Ally…. |
Alzar encounters a Shadow Mage named Gwifa, and she is a long standing expert in the so-called Grey Art. She has a kit called the Shadow Caller that specializes in summoning and controlling undead Shadows and other undead creatures from the Demiplane of Shadow or Negative Material Plane in that genre, as well as controlling of shadows, shadow spells, and the creation of shadow items. It’s a kit Alzar has never heard of before, he has read of a few Shadow Magi on Thorasia, but they are not many, and probably not with this expertise.
In fact, her expertise and specialty are extremely similar to Alzar’s own Fivefold Path to Power. They come to an agreement, and in a week, Gwifa will travel to Alzar’s castle. She will teach him the ways of Shadow Magic generally, and Shadow Calling specifically, and Alzar will, in turn, teach her about Rhabdomancy and the Dowsing proficiency, which is something that is not known back on her home plane. Alzar will put her up in his castle. She’s a 15th level, lawful evil, Shadow Caller kit of Shadow Mage. And because they have to tell the truth while bargaining here, they know that they can trust each other. And she has a huge number of spells and magic items that he does not. They can make some exchanges and such of the course of the year. (This all comes from Dragon July 1999 edition, which is all about Shadow Mages – three kits, tons of spells from two articles, magical tomes, and an article on magical shadow-y items – and I was struck by how close the Shadow Caller was to Alzar, I knew I had to bring that into the campaign). Month 12, Year 5 – ... |
AC7. The Spindle of Heaven
 Actually, AC7 is the Master Player Screen module, but it comes with an 8 page mini-adventure called The Spindle of Heaven. We’ll run that now in order keep things At the end of the first week of the month, Kabloona, who is the leader of the Bear Tribe of barbarians to the north uses his Spellcache Ring that Alzar gave him to contact him about something odd that has happened out in his territory. Alzar teleports over to check it out. There is a giant spindle-like structure about 25 miles away from Kabloona’s camp, and there is a huge cyclone over top of the structure that is giving off massive gusts of wind and blasts of lightning. The storm is sessile and locked to hover over the structure, and would prevent any climbing or flying nearby. Alzar grabs his crystal ball and begins to scry it. The walls are uniformly circular with a glistening white sheen. There are no windows or doors, but a small chasm at the bottom of one of the walls. The walls are not made of any substance that Alzar is familiar with, and resist all attempts to penetrate the with divinatory magic. He can’t follow the chasm past the wall either. Kabloona tells Alzar that this structure was not here recently, but instead came about recently. The storm is never ceasing. Alzar heads back and teleports over some stuff to use to divine what has happened, but it resists all attempts. He tries to fly close with his Flying Carpet, but he is blown out of the sky before he even gets close, and he cannot secure a aerial reconnaissance. |
Alzar spends that night preparing to head out and explore. The following morning after changing up his spell list, he heads out by himself without any wagons or allies or anything else.
In the late morning, a storm of seven small cyclones strike Alzar from suddenly, when he has crossed around 4 or 5 miles (magic acceleration a bit). The cyclones criss cross over Alzar and then begin to move to attack. Alzar seems to think these might be a bit suspicious (He is a Sage in Inner Planes knowledge, he has a certain proficiency that would help, and he has a 20+ INT, more than the 18 max a human can usually get too, he’s smarter than the smartest humans) Alzar tosses the dice and makes a Genie Lore check. (From his time on Hamedh) Yes, djinnis are known to turn into cyclones just like these, and then attack to protect their home. Alerted to this possibility, and armed with the knowledge that he can converse with them appropriately, he calls out that he knows who and what they are, and they suddenly pause. A pair of hearbeats pass and one of the cyclones reverts to its djinni form. It addresses Alzar and tells him that he is either lucky to have guessed or wiser than he appears. It’s a bit of an insult to his human nature, clearly. Hmmm….djinni and big giant cyclones. It doesn’t take the world’s biggest genius to connect these dots, and realize this is probably an Elemental Air base of some sort. They willingly tell him that they were sent to test him, not to slay him. They cannot tell Alzar who their master is, and such. All the creature can do is direct Alzar to enter the structure through the chasm in the ground, if that is truly what he seeks. They fly off at that and leave him. |
As they leave, Alzar heads into his OtherSpace for a few minutes to take a quick assessment of his items. Suspecting Air based forces, he looks at potential protections or ways of dealing with them. He grabs a potion of Elemental Form, Scroll of Protection vs Elementals, and that’s about it. Not a lot of anti-electric, anti-air, or anti-elemental stuff here.
A few more miles rolls by and as they do, a trio of giant winter spiders led by a frost giant. Alzar prepares spells as the giant spiders breathe large snowy webs at him. His Ring of Free Action keeps him from being tied down, and he takes 8, 11, and 10 from them – 29 damage total. The giant flings a boulder at him and misses (Cloak of Displacement) - 50/79 Alzar doesn’t need to cast his best magic spells to blow through this encounter. Instead he casts Evard’s Black Tentacles and 26 tentacles launch from the ground to grab and secure the spiders and the giant. They take some minor damage and are tied down. It’ll take a few turns to deal with all of those tentacles. Alzar then grabs a small bone from his belt and casts the 2nd level spell Blastbones on it and launches it at them. The combination of the blast and the Tentacles badly wounds them. The spiders have died, and Alzar secures the Giant with the tentacles, which hit him some more. He agrees to tell Alzar what he knows for his freedom. He was hired by the master of the Spindle to guard in a couple of weeks ago. The Master is a great, noble, giant Efreet. Alzar laughs. An Efreet with djinni as its servants? That controls a great giant cyclone? Hardly! He frees the giant and shoken up, he gathers it’s things and flees. 7500 XP |
After doing some resting and continuing, Alzar finally draws within physical sight of the Spindle. The cyclone continues to kick up snow all around. The wind is so strong here that Alzar’s robes are whipping about, and he takes moment to secure his stuff before plunging on.
There are some large, dragon like creatures circling the top of the Spindle as Alzar nears, there is apparently an eye in the middle of the storm just above the structure. Alzar gets up to a wall and grabs the Scroll of Portals but he can’t use Passwall spell in this wall. It’s protected against such magic. He can’t chip off any pieces or get any more information about the strange material that makes it up. Without any other ideas, Alzar heads over to the chasm. As he gets near, he realizes that it’s more like a gully. About 10-15 feet wide, around 15-18 feet down from the ground, and It varies as it nears the Spindle. Alzar begins to move cautiously down. He tries to scry from here, but his ball still can’t penetrate the defenses of the Spindle. After about 20 feet from the mouth of the structure, there is a very quiet magical pop from the flasks and vials that Alzar has with him. He peers over and the contents of his potions have been disturbed. He takes off the stopper of the Elemental Form one and it’s been soiled and ruined. He also tries some others - healing, super-healing, invisibility, gaseous form, all ruined. Even the highly valuable potion of invulnerability is done. He leaves them behind. There is a small passage in front and Alzar grabs the Ioun Stone that enables him to see in darkness and begins to spin it about his head and he leads in. |
A tunnel around 10-15 feet wide and 8 feet deep penetrates the structure. After ten or fifteen feet in Alzar again tries the scrying stone, hoping that the protection has been passes, but it still won’t work. Similarly, the walls are made of the same stuff on the outside, and he can’t use passwall or other spells to penetrate them.
There is no light here, and Alzar chooses not to use any, he sees better in darkness with the Iuon Stone than a creature with infravision can. He’s in a good spot here. The passage begins to widen a bit and then, Alzar can make out a wall, crenellated, with some presence behind it. He pauses about 30 yards away to try and make it out. Before he can, 8 hobgoblins who have similar enchantments fire a set of arrows at him - they are magical arrows, and they are trying to hit Alzar’s shield, and such. He is not currently wielding a weapon. None hit him, but they have his range and now know about the Cloak. Alzar springs up and readies a spell as more arrows fly. Who wins Init? The hobbies do. They are firing +4 arrows from +4 bows and get +8 to hit. With those bonuses, they need 16 to hit Alzar, and two of the 8 do. All of them are firing Arrows of Dispelling, and suddenly two Dispel Magics fire off. Alzar’s Iuon stone drops to the ground and he is blind, which forces him to stop his spell this round. He doesn’t have any active magical spells or protections, but his non-artifact items won’t work for two rounds, one/arrow. Alzar takes 10 and 11 damage 38/79 (Fast Healing + Healing Proficiency by Alzar) Alzar reaches down to secure the stone and then begins to retreat. One more round of weapons fire, this time with +4, +7 vs weapon wielding foes, and Alzar is not carrying a weapon (the shield does not count) so he loses magical bonuses (except from his shield, which is an Artifact). Alzar is hit three times for 4+4+4 - 12, 4+4+4 = 12, and 3+4+4 =11 34 damage - close - 4/79 for him Alzar flees. He stops and mediates for one round and then enters OtherSpace rather than continuing to flee. He quaffs a pair of Healing Potions, and readies some spells to heal him. The dispelling arrows have ended, and he uses the Iuon Stone again, and he casts Bone Block to drop his ac by 4. That will make it a lot harder to hit him with these dorks. He casts a few other spells - Friends and such, and then he pulls off the Ring fo Wizardry (which normally would double is 1st and 2nd level spells) for a Ring of Regeneration, and he grabs the other artifact he has, the Face of Xenous, in case he needs it. He doesn’t like it though, it’s only used in dire circumstances. He grabs the Dusty Rose Spindle to drop his AC by 1. He head back out with 28 hp already from healing and regeneration. The hobgoblins fanned out to try and find him and shout out his location. Alzar rushes to one readying a third level spell he has prepared. Init. Alzar casts Sleep and drops 3. Arrows fly out from four, and one hits him for 10 damage., The last one uses this round to wake a sleeping Hob. They are smart and trained well. 19/79 Alzar stops, grabs the skull at his waist and casts Skulltrap, and then launches it. 4 hobs are caught in the radius and die, 1 of the sleepers too. They miss him, and the hob wakes the last one, and 4 are left, and they begin an orderly retreat. Alzar loses init this time and two further away fire at him and the closer ones get further away. Alzar is missed (they need a 20 now) and then follows with him grabbing the Dagger at his belt made of unicorn horn. He hoists his axe, uses Unifex to teleport in front of them, and then attacks from behind. Two turns later they are all dead. Alzar grabs: 8 +4 short bows 4 +4 arrows, +7 vs weapon using foes 2 +4 arrows of dispelling survived 8 +4 Arrows of Climbing survived |
Alzar stops and collects his thoughts. He has been owned by a handful of 1st level hobgoblins and some tricks outside that spoiled his potions. The goal here is clearly to wear him down, and use up his spells and items to make it harder later on. So Alzar waits for a while, letting the Bone Block spell subside as he instead waits and lets the Ring heal him. Fully healed, he swaps the Ring of Regeneration for the one of Quick Action.
Alzar continues and finds a giant pit that is closely covered up, but he makes it out with the Star of Mo’Pilar, which acts as a super Gem of Seeing. There are roughly 40 rust monsters at the bottom, ready to zark out any metal objects that fall down, and this theme clearly continues. Weaken him. At the end of a tunnel is a shaft with a strong wind that blows up it. Alzar has arrived at the bottom of the shaft. There is a moaning that can be heard in the shaft. At first, Alzar suspects something undead, but he reaches out and cannot control anything, there is nothing necrotic here . He heads back and grabs a rock and moves to the shaft and places it on the ground and it begins to gently rise on the current. After experimenting a few times, Alzar moves onto it and begins to move up. As Alzar rises, a face floats down on the wind and tells Alzar he should return. He was a seeker here for knowledge and was condemned to life as a wind after he demanded to life forever. Alzar continues to rise on the wind. |
The room the shaft arrives at is a circular room with walls made of more of the old smooth surface. It is decorated with murals and various pieces of furniture, pillows, and food are here. There is a fine, old rug in the middles, and a well in the left side of the wall. There are two sphinxes here, mated…
They are not happy that Alzar has penetrated their lair!  They have -4 AC, 65 and 55hp, deal 3d6, 3d6 and 2d8 bite, and the male is a mage and the female a cleric. They are worth 7500 and 6000 XP each if slain. Forewarned by the gust of wind, they have cast Haste, Bless, and Protection from Good, on themselves. They have cast and summoned an Air Elemental, and such. The Mage casts Magic Missile at Alzar and the female cleric Finger of Death at Alzar as he arrives!!! The 6 missiles hit, and Alzar has the Gem of Protection that he procured earlier, and he launches the 6 missiles back at the mage for….6d4+6 damage and that’s21 damage and he has 44 left. Alzar’s Gem loses 6 charges and has 60 left. Meanwhile the Finger of Death comes his way… Alzar tosses……an 8 which…..fails. All Sphinxes give their targets -3 to saves to how powerful their magic is. Does Alzar die today, right here, vs these Sphinxes? Nope! His Protective Amulet is destroyed. It is set against Finger of Death spells. He’ll need to make another, but he’s fine. Alzar’s turn and he cast Time Stop, because he knows that he needs to end this battle now. He rushes up and casts Maze at the female cleric to pull her away for a while, and then Finger of Death and grabs his axe and then…. Times ends. The female disappears into the maze for three rounds. The Finger does …..not work on the male. Alzar’s axe is out and he swings for…13 damage and misses with the second attack but hits with the Barrier for 8 -21 total damage. The sphinx casts invisibility and moves away. The Air Elemental misses Alzar but now knows about the displacement. Alzar loses init. The Air misses him, and the sphinx flies off near the tunnel and begins to prepare. Alzar sees the Sphinx, and can see through Invisible naturally due to his intelligence. He casts Ray of Ondovir at the Sphinx. Alzar charges over. Next round, Alzar wins init automatically, and hits the Sphinx who Is doing the exact same thing as before, flying gently off with the same motions and such. The Sphinx is dead. The Air punches Alzar for 19 damage. 60/79 The female arrives back on the scene, with her dead mate at Alzar’s feet. She roars at him. She will not flee. She will not cast spells, she flies over ot attack, twice a turn, with6 attacks, from Haste, in order to try and kill hm. She wins init and attacks him, the first wave misses due to displacement, the second she hits once for 11 damage. The elemental misses. Alzar stabs out with his +5 battle axe and swings twice at her, and needs….. 7 on a d20 with e Axe and a 13 with the Barrier. The axe bates her twice for 28 damage. 49/79 She roars back and smashes him 3 times for 9, 12, and 5 damage - 26 total 23/79 Alzar swaps his axe over and then casts Vampiric Touch and hits her for….19 damage and heals it back 42/79 Alzar She wins init and casts Cure All and heals herself and the Air keeps missing. Alzar carves her for 20 damage with a massive axe swing (7+5+6+2 for 20 with one hit). She wins and hits him twice for 15 damage and the Air finally punches for 8. 23 damage to him. He hits her once, twice, and then a barrier smashes her for 41 total damage and she’s down. 20/79 Alzar still loses init. The Elemental misses and takes two hits from axes for 36. Alzar finishes it next turn. Alzar gets 17500 XP for Elemental and Sphinxes |
Alzar checks the room and there’s a great well in the wall, and there are runes above it. Alzar’s axe can make it out and he reads the ancient runs out and the wall backs away and there is a domed shaft that raises above the room and heads into the wall. Alzar begins to rise up the well’s shaft.
After more than 100 feet, Alzar comes through the top of the well and arrives at a large room with a swirling white mist, sticks and sort branches protruding, and countless beautiful birds everywhere. There is a large humanoid off the to side with a peafowl and is talking to it gently. Alzar also notices 5 invisible stalkers in the room - he can see them. It’s a bit small for a giant, around 18 feet, and wearing rings. Alzar grabs the Star of Mo-Pilar gently and notices that the giant is a polymorphed Airdrake. There are four more in the room as birds, and the stalkers are here as well. Alzar simply tells the Airdrake that he notices the Stalkers and that he is a true and proper Airdrake. He asks if there is anything he can do to help with the birds or this room. The non-giant creature smiles, and then announces that the deception is over, which is good, it’s not really something he cares about, nor is he good about it. They have been tasked with insuring that nobody moves through a door in the ceiling of this aviary. If Alzar is content to leave, they will let him go, un-accosted. Otherwise, battle will occur. Alzar does a mental inventory of his spells. He normally has a few spells to banish summoned creatures. And he can summon an Invisible Stalker or elementals of his own. He has held onto them fearing they could be stolen by whoever is in control here. He came in without any golems (which are controlled by elemental spirits) or any extra-planar creatures. The airdrakes and Stalkers shouldn’t prove that tough. He should be able to kill one every other turn. Ignore the Stalkers until the end. Alzar instead tries to speed this up with Mass Domination. The Airdrakes are the only legit targets. Alzar can Dominate 2 hd per level, so 26x32 - 56 HD of intelligent creatures, and these are 6 hd creatures, so just 30 HD here. They can each save, but they get -4 from the spell, -1 from Alzar’s kit. So -5 to their tosses. Four fail, and one succeeds. Alzar has the four attack that one. Next turn, they have killed their friends, and Alzar has them order the Stalkers away from him as well. They do. They are geased to not reveal who their leader and master is, and they cannot leave the room. But they do tell Alzar about a trap with a Black Pudding in the next room and how ot avoid it, and he does. Alzar gains 4500XP |
Alzar passes through the small trapped chamber and then enters a stair way up that opens into a huge room with many numerous strange sights. There are a pair of purple colored clouds at the top of the stairs flanking it, and in side are a large open pyramid structure, with a great force field on top that keeps outside out. Seated on the force field, on the outside of the Spindle is a huge greater djinni.
There are numerous creatures of air here. A few more airdrakes, a bunch of Air Elementals, a cloud of flying Air Fundamentals, and more. A few lesser djinni are here, and there;’s a few Aerial Servants and Invisible Stalkers aiding and serving people. A number of pillows, table,s and chairs are here and most of the people are sprawled about. Alzar is greeted by a Stalker who motions for him to follow. After a moment, he chooses to do so and he is seated at a table with some other Air creatures. They explain that there are two sets of food - one invisible and sustaining to the spirit and soul, and the other visible and sustaining to the body. Alzar can choose which to eat. The invisible spirit-food is unable to be seen, it’s not something that’ s normally visible but hidden, but instead lacks visibility at all and is beyond it. Alzar chooses to eat the visible food and its quite delicious. That’s i. He chooses not to eat the invisible food though. You never know what could happen, and air creatures are known as very capricious. Its in their nature. None of the other feasters have grown upset at Alzar for being here. None have attacked. Again, they are capricious… Hmm… The Star of Mo’Pilar is up and Alzar does a quick investigation. There is just one magical item in the room, an amulet worn by an Airdrake. They also notice something about the clouds that flanked the stairs. Alzar gets a familiar feeling. Something familiar, and something he didn’t expct here…. Something dark. Something evil. Something necrotic…. |
Two vampires, in gaseous form sort of acting as bouncers. You wouldn’t even know what’s going on here. Alzar puts the Star away and heads back to eating. After six minutes pass, he reaches out with his necrotic powers and begins to dominate the Vampires mentally, and control them. As he does, no one notices. Alzar refuses to look up which may give a guilty look. They Vampires begin to float towards the feasters. Alzar needs a distraction. They turn into their normal forms, and then launch an attack in a nearby Cloud Giant and Air Elemental.
In a moment, battle has begun. A few folks are turning Alzar’s way, suspecting he is behind it, but the lock of elven hair is in his hand and he begins to cast one of his most powerful spells….Wail of the Banshee. Up to 26 listeners hear him. Here are the targets: 2 Airdrakes 8 Air Elementals 4 Lesser Djinni 2 Cloud Giants 4 Stalkers 4 Servants 50 Air Fundamentals 5 Airlike Humanoids So there are 26 targets, and 3 humanoids left, skipping the Fundamentals. Here’s what happens: Make a save. Fail? You die instantly. (-1 to the save due to Alzar’s kit) 11 enemies fall dead. The vampires are immune and untargeted anyway. They slay an un-Wailed Air Elemental. With 12 creatures dead in one round, and with their vampires turning against them, they make a morale check. All begin to flee except the mindless cloud of Air Fundamentals, and the 3 Stalkers and 1 Servant left alive, since they are controlled. Alzar lets them. Initiative. Alzar wins (7 vs 9) and needs a way to clean out the low level Air Fundamentals. He casts Death Spell. This kills all creatures, no save, of 2 HD or less, and will hit 4d20. That’s more than enough to snuff out the horde of Fundamentals. One of Alzar’s vampires takes 9 damage from a Stalker. Alzar loses init, and the vamp takes 10 more, bu regenerates as well. Alzar casts Hold Monster and two enemies are frozen for a few rounds. The vampires move in and snack on a frozen Stalker. A few rounds later, Alzar’s vampires have healed, and the Stalkers and Servant are done. Alzar grabs the magical amulet from the dead Airdrake’s body. The giant noble djinni and Pasha has been watching the battle and getting more and more irritated, but not enough to do anything. Only a handful of airs are left in the area, around the edge of the large space. Those air creatures that could flee, went back to the Air Elemental Plane. |
Alzar wants to bring down that Force Field, but he doubts his 3rd level Dispel Magic is up to the trick. Alzar instead readies and casts the 9th level uber-Dispel Mordenkainen’s Disjunction and drops it.
The Pasha, Greater Djinni - AC - 6; HD 15, 100 hp, AT 2 fists 3d10 each hit; THACo 5; Has magical items on him too. Alzar has time to get off one spell as the Pasha flies at him. He casts Major Globe of Invulnerability to protect him from spells of 7th level or fewer. Battle begins. 3 vs 6, The Pasha smashes, and knows about the Displacement already seeing the earlier battle, and needs a 9 to smash Alzar and hits twice for 15 and 13 damage. Alzar’s +5 axe needs a 9 as well to smash, and he this once for 18 damage and then misses with the Barrier as well. The vampires need 19 to hit. They get two attacks and both miss as well. 52/79 Pasha - 82/100 Alzar uses his Ring of Quick Action to guarantee winning initiative this round. He rolls a 10, a 6, and a 15. Then a 6 - 19 damage, and 4 - 13 damage - 32 from his shield and axe. One vampire hits once for 7 damage and no energy drain - foe is immune. Pasha - 43/100 Pasha reaches out and punches Alzar and tosses a 17 and a 4. Hits for…..2+4+7 - 13 damage. 40/79 8 vs 5. Lost init. The Pasha punches and gets 13 and 8. Hits once for 4+6+5 damage - 15. 26/79 Alzar hews at the great djinni. He tosses a 1, 13, and 10 for 15 damage. One vamp hits one for another 7 damage. 21/100 The Pasha calls is and surrenders. He has been subdued. Alzar knows what that means to one of the genie kind. He calls off the vampires. He uses his Genie Lore proficiency to talk to the Pasha with knowledge. He’s a bit surprised, he didn’t realize that such knowledge was common here. But Alzar may not be common here either. He will do a favor for Alzar. He can do and conquer nearby territories to give them to Alzar. He can go fight some of Alzar’s enemies for him and dispatch them…Hmmm…no? Alzar points out that a wish could do that but a lot more. He tries a few more times but quickly realizes that Alzar’s won’t be swayed by simple tasks and offers the Wish. After all, it can smell wishes on Alzar, he’s cast them before! Actually, he has. He has cast wishes before. That’s true. He knows that a properly worded Wish can have a powerful impact on him. He gets it. The Djinni is preparing for the wish spell, and Alzar reminds him that he has neither agreed to the wish, not is he inclined to use it. Fine! The Djinni tries and tries but to no avail. What does Alzar want then? |
“The path for immortality spelled out for me.”
“….I really hate when people ask for that. Normally punish them for their impudence. But you have earned it. I will give you my freedom for understanding the path to Immortality. When you wake up from your next night’s sleep, you will awaken with the knowledge of how to pursue the paths.” “And when that happens, as you have stated, without any harm to me, my companions, things in my sphere of influence, and with that knowledge permanently, then, and only then, will I release you.” And with the stated release only coming after, Alzar uses Genie Lore to close off any angles of cheating the agreement. The Pasha nods, and then sighs. He’s really tired of this plane. It wasn’t any fun this time. The cyclone ends, and the Spindle begins to fade from sight. Alzar casts Mount and rides the Griffon back to the Bear Tribes camp, after having the Vampires turn into gaseous form to follow. He reports to Kabloona what happened in genera details, and then moves away. He Mass Teleports his earnings, Vampire, Mount, and more to Ilth K’hinax the Beholder city, where he unpacks and will send the vampires to guard. Then he returns home. He’ll have the Magist send Kabloona another Spellcache Ring later. XP gained - 67500 XP for combat + 6750 for XP bonus 5976570 - level 26 comes when he gets to 6,000,000 Magical Sapphire Amulet, in the shape of a dragon Bows and Arrows listed before. The potions lost and used are marked, and the 6 charges off the Gem is gone too. As sphinx magic is innate, there were no scrolls or spellbooks or anything that they used. The dungeon has disappeared before Alzar could secure the nice furniture or anything like that. It was a quick little 8 page adventure, and the first page is the cover sheet, page 4 is the map, and there are two half page pictures as well, so you have just 5 pages of stuff. It’s super easy to do. But, what it does is set up Alzar nicely for the next chapter in the plot of Pandius. The Spindle of Heaven should prove to be a sort of pre-adventure that gives you a taste, a very small taste, of what is to come…. End of AC7. The Master Player Screen, with Spindle of Heaven Adventure! |
Alzar heads to sleep that night and awakens…
The Path to Immortality: 1). Must be at least 30th level. Alzar is 25th, almost at 26. You can begin the path later, but you must wait until level 30 before taking it 2). An aspirant must select a path for the Sphere of Power that they want to serve. Matter, Energy, Entropy, Time, and Thought. 3). An aspirant must find an Immortal to sponsor them After Alzar gains sponsorship, he must “stay true” to his chosen path until he finishes the various quests and struggles that are required. The Sphere of Energy is the easiest path for a Mage. He’ll have to gain 400,000 after getting to level 30, rather than 600,000 others need. He must create an entirely new magical item of extreme power, an array of spells, transform his land, etc, The Sphere of Time favors the clerics, and is the “good” place, but one of the major paths that is required to drop it is to and found a dynasty, and then help his dynasty succeed. He would need 600k for this path, maybe require questions like destroying chaotic artifacts and such. Tends to be more lawful and good. The Sphere of Thought, tends to favor thieves and rogues, and is more neutral in alignment. They want the epic hero, the person who finds an artifact and recovers it o become a huge name on Pandius and to really push themselves. The Sphere of Matter tends to lawful and neutral, and is the path of the fighter. It requires time spent as other classes, and massive amounts of adventuring and such. The Sphere of Entropy tends towards chaotic and evil, and due to its nature, any aspirant must create their own unique path to Immortality. Alzar has aspects of multiple paths already. Energy is likely the easiest for him as a Path Mage, he specializes in artifice and creation already. But a sphere that leans chaotic and neutral is not necessarily what he wants. He has developed a name for himself here in Norwood as the Lord of Wood and Fire and aided the barbarians very well. The Sphere of Thought’s concept of the great hero suits that. He has founded a nation that is in the Time’s concept of long-lasting impact on the world, and even Matter’s path is more towards him as he is both a fighter and a mage already - the others are easily done. He could even do entropy. Alzar recalls what the Barbarian Immortal told him, that there were guidelines in place to prevent a bunch of people from other planes to come to Pandius, and then seek immortality. He would likely need more than one sponsor and such. But that is information for later. For now, Alzar begins to consider his options… |
Nice stuff, Abe! Glad to see this back in action. Looking foward to the next saga!
Tell |
End of Year 5
This the first year that Alzar’s domain does not grow geographically The March of the Mighty Ruler – Marquis Alzar Hex #1(Evenarrow) – Villages – Evenarrow - 331 families – On the southern coast of the little jutting peninsula, this village fishes south in the Great Sea and the entrance there brings in some nice saltwater fish. With a small set of docks, Alzar will be expanding Evenarrow into the capital of his March. It’s in the perfect place. The rest of the Hex is really small villages here and there or individual shepherds and there is large area, near the mountains on the western part of the hex that has Cassiterite deposits that can be opened to mine. Details – 634 families 7 resource gp Monthly Income – Standard Income - 720 gp/month Tax Income – 72 gp/month Resource Income – 504/month Total – 11412/month (x18 multiplier) Hex #2 (Storn) – North of Evenarrow is this highly populated hex, southeast of the mountains, and with some amount on the Alphatian Sea. Forest and some hills. Villages – Storn – 409 families, inland, center of the hex, they grow grapes on the hills here. Riverton – 204 families, On a small river from the mountains to the sea, shepherds Details – 853 families Monthly Income - Standard Income - 890 gp/month Tax Income – 89 gp/month Resource Income – 267/month Total – 11,942/month (x14 multiplier) Alzar will be building up Storn here as well, later on. Hex #3 (Augustia)– East of Evenarrow and Storn, and flanked by the coast, this hex is the last full hex in the area in the waters. Lead has been mined before just south of Farhome and there’s open mines there ready to be used, if they are cleaned out and reinforced. Villages - Augustia – 191 families, on the northern coast, fish the Alphatian Sea Farhome – 70 families, grapes, on hills by western edge of hex Asantia – 104 families, farmers in southern coast of hex. Details – 531 families Monthly Income - Standard Income - 540 gp/month Tax Income – 54 gp/month Resource Income – 378/month Total – 9558/month (x18 multiplier) Hex #4 (Rostock) –, this heavy forested hex is next to the Ljallenvals and has an elf-hold of 122 elves living here too. Village – Rostock – 139 families, they have a small quarry here they use to harvest stone and rocks of quality and send them elsewhere. 3 resource GP Details - 282 families, 1 good – Stone Monthly Income – Standard Income - 560 gp/month Tax Income – 56 gp/month Resource Income – 168/month Total – 3948/month (x14 multiplier) Saffir - in Ljallenvals - This mountainous region has a central valley and the major northern route through the Ljallenvals. It is north of Rostock and northwest of Storn. Village – Saffir – 291 families, they farm vegatables here and sell them on the trade route. 1 resource GP. Saffir has a castle just built. Details - 408 families, 1 good – Farming Monthly Income – Standard Income - 3320 gp/month Tax Income – 332 gp/month Resource Income – 332/month Total – 4896/month (x12 multiplier) Hammerhelm - in Ljallenvals - This mountainous region has a part of the southern route through the Ljallenvals. It is south of Rostock and southwest of Evenarrow. No humans live up here, just dwarves. Unlike other hexes, this one will not grow via immigration. Dwarfhold- Hammerhelm – 346 families live in this dwarfhold, now the second largest in Norwold. They mine verite, several other ores, and harvest fungus. +9 resource GP. Details - 346 families, 1 good – Farming Monthly Income – Standard Income - 3460 gp/month Tax Income – 0 gp/month Dwarves don’t pay taxes Resource Income – 3114/month Total – 6,574/month (x19 multiplier) Raider’s Point - This hex is the far point on the peninsula that is across the channel from Evenarrow and Bergholm Isle. It’s just four hexes from the Barony of Moonhold, where Sandralane is. It has two resources – fish and salt. Raider’s Point – This hex is the far point on the peninsula that is across the channel from Evenarrow and Bergholm Isle. It’s just four hexes from the Barony of Moonhold, where Sandralane is. Villages – Raider’s Point - 101 families – This coastal village is on the bay to the east of the province, and brings in a lot of salt. Havendrop – 39 families – this northern village is near the tip of the hex. It fishes north. Details – 388 families 3 resource gp – Fish and salt Monthly Income – Standard Income - 690 gp/month Tax Income – 69 gp/month Resource Income – 207/month Total – 5432/month (x14 multiplier) Hex #5 - (Spearhold) – This hex is southwest of Raider’s Point and northeast of the mountains in Eagles’ Barrier. With just two resources, it has only grain and potatoes here. Villages – Spearhold - 60 families – Virtually everyone lives in this farming village, growing either potatoes or grains. Details – 208 families 2 resource gp – Grain and Potatoes Monthly Income – Standard Income - 680 gp/month Tax Income – 68 gp/month Resource Income – 136/month Total – 2704/month (x13 multiplier) Bergholm Island – Although it spreads across via two hexes, it’s really the size of one full hex, and we’ll treat it as such. Heavily mountainous and with very few places to do stuff. 250 Families; 2 resources, 1 mineral, 1 vegetable – Copper mines and berries. Just one village: Bergholm Villa – 176 families, they are on a river where it meets the Great Sea, and the place is elevated too. Form here they can reach both some copper mine and harvest the numerous berry bushes that grow all over. Monthly Income - Standard Income - 290 gp/month Tax Income – 29 gp/month Resource Income – 116/month Total –3750/month (x15 multiplier) EXPENSES – + Tithe, Taxes Military – 14,960 Navy – 2750 March Staff - 3,420 Specialist Staff – 8050 Stronghold Staff - 7160 Taxes to Ericall – 20% (12200) Tithe to Matter Temple – 10% (6100) Treasury - 318,592 Holidays: Month 8 - Mid-Summer Convocation – 10% of income that month Month 10 - Harvest Festival - 15% of income that month Month 1 - Year’s End Divine Liturgy – 5% of income that month Month 2 – Tax-Free Month March Staff – Chaplain – 500 gp 3 Magistrate – 600 gp 9 Sheriff – 900 gp 26 Provost – 520 gp 20 Warden – 400 gp Reeve – 500 gp Specialist Staff: Steward – 1000 gp Engineer – 750 gp Herald – 300 gp Chief Magistrate – 2000 gp Magist(15th level) – 4000 gp Stronghold Staff: 2 Marshall - 160 gp 10 Bailiffs – 200 gp 2 Chamberlain – 240 gp 2 Senechal – 400 gp Castellan (Lvl 8), 2000 gp Guard Captain (Level 10) – 4000 gp March Military – Light Foot Soldiers – 750 troops, 20 leaders – 1500 gp – AC6, longsword + dagger Heavy Foot Soldiers – 400 troops, 10 leaders – 1200 gp, AC4, longsword, spear, dagger Light Horse Soldiers – 200 troops, 5 leader – 2000 gp, AC6, longsword, lance Heavy Horse Soldiers – 250 troops, 6 leader – 4000 gp, AC 2, longsword lance Crossbow Troops – 400, 10 leaders – 1600 gp, AC 5, heavy crossbow, shortsword 51 Officers – 510 gp, AC 2 better than troop they lead 25 Armorer – 2500 gp 10 Smiths – 200 gp 4 Equerry – 200 gp Artillerist – 750 gp 2 Flying Equerry – 500 gp He gets income and expenses each month, and then rolls for population changes, and events. It will take 2 months before they will start getting taxes in. He also gets XP on an even level with his taxes, so he makes 2902 XP the first month, and then it heads up from there. Navy – 8 ships Current Confidence of March – 355 – Healthy Since his military hasn’t grown this year, it was rising to numbers he increased the previous year, he again invests in growing his army. He will hire: 250 Light Foot Soldiers - 500 gp a month 100 Heavy Foot Soldiers - 400 gp 100 Light Horse - 1000 gp 100 Crossbow Troops - 400 gp 6 Officers - 60 gp 2 Armorer - 200 gp 1 Smith - 20 gp 1 Equerry - 50 gp Total increase of 2630 gp a month in army expense. |
Quote:
The next chamber might get a little more gonzo than that Defender of the Plane traveling through time one we just had. :) |
Month 1, Year 6
This month a major comet comes through the skies and drops domain confidence by 15. There is a Divine Liturgy this month. The church gets an extra 5% donation to start off the year. The bows and arrows are simple to figure out, but thus far, Alzar is unable to decipher or figure out the sapphire pendant. It’s clearly magical of some sort, and since it was worn by an Airdrake and in the shape of a dragon perhaps it is a draconic enhancer or in creation nor some such. Alzar has been unable to find an expert or someone who knows enough to tell him Halfway through the month, Alzar receives an appearance from one of the local dwarven clerics from Hammerhelm. They have brought a message to Alzar from the Immortal Morena to whom their church is dedicated to. It was Morena who freed Alzar from his curse, but that was for helping dwarves out in the finding of the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords and removing the infestation in a local dwarven city. Alzar pledged himself to helping out once more. There is a dwarven society deep underground. They need the services of someone extremely powerful to help them to simply survive. It’s that bad. Alzar spends a day doing some prep work, and then heads over to the Church of Morena for more information…. 4 days later, Alzar can’t believe what he has found out. It’s largely a secret from most, but Morena herself confided in him as to what is happening. See, Pandius isn’t really a round planet. With a variety of lands and nations. No, it’s more like a big, great, bubble. And the with a world of nations and cultures on the outside, and another on the inside… |
The Hollow World:
Here is the Ancient history of the Hollow World: “BC 10,000: The Brute-Men race is on the decline in the outer world. They are gradually being replaced by hardier, more adaptable races- the Neathar men, dwarves, elves, and halflings. (PWA1012) BC 6000: The Hollow World is very sparsely populated. Many regions are inhabited by giant reptiles which are now extinct in the Outer World; the only sentient race in the Hollow World is a species of Neanderthal-like near-human. (HW) BC 5500: Powerful burrowing monsters created by Thanatos infiltrate the Hollow World and begin to corrupt the Brute-Men culture there. (HW) BC 5300: The Brute-Men tribes begin to fall upon one another in savage, irrational wars. These wars rage, off and on, for three centuries. (HW) BC 5000: The Immortals destroy the corrupt elements of the Brute-Men culture, and then cast their Spell of Preservation on the Hollow World; now, sentient races placed within the Hollow World will always retain their distinctive characteristics. (HW) BC 4000: With the situation on the outer world relatively stable, the Immortals confine themselves to placing a few human tribes and a few animal species within the Hollow World; this is a time of comparative peace there. (HW) BC 3500: A large number of Neathar tribes are placed in the Hollow World so that the original Neathar culture will be preserved. They are placed to the north of the great equatorial mountain range, away from the Brute-Men. They swiftly grow in numbers and spread in all directions through the northern hemisphere. (HW) BC 3300: Ka now implements Korotiku's ideas for a massive centre of mortal knowledge in the Hollow World. He instructs certain very wise beings of all sentient races to travel to a very secluded mountain valley; there, they are to interact, to build a great library, to accumulate and exchange knowledge. This secret library, protected by Ka all through its history, is to become the Lighthouse. (HW) BC 3000: The Blackmoor’s spaceship explosion catches the Immortals off-guard; they cannot summon enough power to prevent its most harmful effects. The Blackmoor civilization is eradicated before they can preserve any part of it. The Oltec and Azcan races are threatened with imminent extinction by the changing climate brought about by the Rain of Fire, so large numbers of both tribes are magically whisked to the Hollow World. They are placed in the land to the north of the great equatorial mountain range; the Azcans are located in the forests next to the sea, which they name the Aztlan Ocean. The Oltecs are placed to their southeast, with a great swamp separating them and the Azcans. Both races encounter the numerous Neathar tribes; the Oltecs leave them alone, while the Azcans wage war on the Neathar, always trying to expand their borders. (HW) BC 3000-2500: Ka and his ally-Immortals must spend hundreds of years and incalculable magical energy to prevent the sudden change in the planet's axis from destroying whole regions of the Hollow World. The Immortals create new, gigantic, fog-clad openings to the outside world at the location of the new poles, and seal up the former (smaller) polar openings. They also work madly to preserve numerous Known World human tribes from extinction; these include some of the Tanagoro tribes. The Tanagoro are placed in the plains south of the great equatorial mountain range, south and west of the Brute-Men; the Tanagoro think of those races as monsters and keep well away from their hills and mountains. (HW) BC 2410: It is obvious to the Immortals that the southern elves are doomed, but this leaves them with a quandary. They want to preserve that Elvish culture, but not the technologies which nearly destroyed the world. They settle on a compromise: They will magically alter the devices upon which the elves have grown so dependent, so that these devices will operate in only one certain valley in the Hollow World. That way, the dangerous sciences of Blackmoor cannot infect any other part of the Hollow World. Many of the elves of the southern continent are transplanted to the Hollow World. They are placed in a warm, volcanically-heated series of valleys near the southern polar opening, far away from any of the other Hollow World cultures. (HW) BC 2400: The Immortals are intrigued by the Beastmen. Since they are now beginning to breed in recognizable strains, the original "chaotic" race is threatened with extinction. The Immortals take a few Beastmen tribes, magically restore them to their original chaotic state, and lead them to the Hollow World. They don't magically transport the Beastmen into the Hollow World; they inspire one leader/colonizer to lead followers northward, and those Beastmen eventually wander their way into the Hollow World. They settle in the icy lands near the northern polar opening. (HW) BC 1800: The dwarves transplanted to the Hollow World, who mostly belong to the Kogolor clans, thrive in their new lands. They have been placed in eastern mountains just north of the great equatorial mountain range, fairly distant from other sentient races; they have occasional contact with the Neathar tribes to the north and west, but are largely left to their own devices. (HW) BC 1722: The Immortals Odin and Thor have sent whole Antalian tribes into the Hollow World, placing them in icy lands south and east of the Beastmen territories. The Antalians thrive in their new home, happily fighting among themselves, with the Beastmen to the north and with the Neathar tribes to the southwest. (HW) BC 1650: A surviving clan of Glantrian elves from the outer world finds its way to the Hollow World through thousands of miles of subterranean passages. The tribe emerges in lands thickly occupied by hostile Neathar tribes and dinosaurs; they migrate northward, to lands similar to frozen Glantri, and settle in the mountains south of the Beastmen and west of the Antalians. They call their new land Icevale. (HW) Atziann, elf-king and sole survivor of his clan, emerges in the Hollow World near the Azcan capital; fascinated by them, and using his magic to move unseen among them, he stays with the Azcans for several years before embarking on his own path to Immortality. (HW) BC 1600: The Immortal Tarastia preserves several clans of the self-destructing Jennite culture, choosing to save only the more traditional horde. She transfers them to the Hollow World, placing them in the southern hemisphere, south of the forests and plains occupied by the Tanagoro tribesmen. The Jennites begin a fierce rivalry and occasional warfare with the Tanagoro men. (HW) BC 1500: The elf-king Atziann, now calling himself Atzanteotl, achieves Immortality in the Sphere of Entropy and begins his plans to corrupt the Shadow Elves and the Azcan race. He begins whispering to selected Shadow Elves and Azcan rulers of the power and glory he can bring them, and lures them away from their faiths. Increasing numbers of Shadow Elves (especially those of the Schattenalfen clan) turn from the worship of Rafiel to that of Atzanteotl; likewise, many Azcans turn away from Otzitiotl and Kalaktatla. (HW- note that Shadow Elves didn't begin to worship Rafiel until finding the Refuge of Stone in 1104 BC- see GAZ13) BC 1494: A terrible plague strikes Chitlacan, killing almost two-thirds of its population. Atruatzin, himself a survivor of the disease, is driven from Chitlacan by his rivals, who are secretly supported by the Immortal Atzanteotl. Atruatzin and his loyal followers retire to the mountain fortress of Quauhnahuac. (HWR1) BC 1484: Driven by the whispers of Atzanteotl, and his own fears that Atruatzin may reclaim the throne, the treacherous new Azcan emperor leads a massive assault on Quauhnahuac. Everyone found in the fortress is slain or sacrificed, but of Atruatzin there is no trace. The priests curse the land on which Quauhnahuac is built, and sow salt among the ruins. (HWR1) BC 1470: The Chochomecs (an Azcan tribe) desert Atacalpa, migrating to Oltec lands of the east. (HWR1) BC 1468: Atruatzin and his followers find a resting place, where they build a temple to the old Immortals. They name it Mictlan, after the legendary land of the dead. (HWR1) BC 1420: The underground elven wanderers stumble upon Mictlan, and overthrow the humans. Those elves who have been seduced by Atzanteotl declare that the temple is sacred to him, and he has given them victory over their enemies and a place to call home. These elves become the Schattenalfen. Most of the elves are uneasy about this alien Immortal, but they are weary, and so they settle and build the city of Aengmor. Atruatzin escapes alone. (HWR1) BC 1400: A colonizing party of Shadow Elves, mostly Schattenalf followers of Atzanteotl, retraces the path of that earlier, lost expedition, and finds the Hollow World. They emerge just north of the great equatorial mountain range, right in the middle of the Kogolor dwarf territory. They immediately begin a war against the dwarves, whose lands they want. The Immortal Kagyar causes Denwarf, the former leader of the Outer World's dwarves, to help the Kogolors against the Shadow Elves. (HW) BC 1395: The Schattenalfen are badly beaten by the Kogolor dwarves and must break off the war. They continue travelling west, to an area not infested with dwarves, and settle there. But due north of their new lands are the Azcans, whose culture and architecture are disturbingly and insultingly like theirs (a result of Atzanteotl's guidance of the Schattenalf culture, though they don't know this); the Schattenalfen hate these people, whom they see as a mockery of their culture, and begin an ages-long war with the Azcans. (HW) Kagyar places Denwarf in a state of suspended animation, transferring him to a cavern deep beneath the Dengar caverns of Rockhome. (HW) BC 1290: Atzanteotl surrounds Aengmor with lava, slaying many underground elves. The survivors flee into the deepest tunnels and recesses below the Broken Lands. (GAZ13) BC 1000: In the wake of the humanoid invasions, the Immortals are quite busy selecting endangered cultures for preservation in the Hollow World. The Traldar and many other cultures are preserved in this fashion. The Traldar are placed on the coast of the Aztlan Ocean right where the great equatorial mountains reach the ocean; they call that body of water the Atlass Ocean. They're south of the Schattenalfen and north of virgin territories. They quickly spread out to inhabit all their mountainous seacoast lands. Not co-operative enough among themselves to form an empire, they occupy themselves with pirate raids into Azcan territories. (HW) Many Makai are transplanted to the Hollow World to preserve their culture in the face of Nithian assimilation. Placed in an archipelago south of the equator, they resume their carefree, peaceful existence. (HW) Meanwhile, an expedition of Shadow Elves leaves the City of Stars in an effort to find the path to the surface world. Instead, they find their way to the Hollow World, where they are fatally poisoned by the rays of the eternal sun. Some of them make it back to the City of Stars with news of their voyage, but all soon perish. (HW) BC 900: Atruatzin visits Quauhnahuac. (HWR1) BC 896: First Shadow Elf exploration to the surface world ends in disaster with few survivors. They find only a fiery, deadly, red sun. (GAZ13- note similarity to BC 1000 entry above) BC 795: Atruatzin completes the Path of the Polymath and achieves Immortality; he joins the Sphere of Matter. (HWR1) BC 500: The Immortals gather up great numbers of Nithians, those untouched by the evil of Thanatos and Ranivorus, and transplant them to the banks of a great river similar to the River Nithia in the Hollow World. They swiftly rebuild their civilization. They are near only to the Tanagoro warriors and Jennite riders to the west; they begin on-again, off-again wars against the Tanagoro and Jennites to seize their fertile plains and acquire slaves. (HW) With the destruction of the Nithians, the Immortal Pflarr, insulted by the Nithians' betrayal, turns his back on the outer world. He turns his attention to the Hollow World Nithians, and sets up a colony of Hutaaka in a sheltered valley of the Hollow World- west of the Brute-Men, north of the Nithians. (HW) The Immortals also cure and transport remnants of the Malpheggi lizard men race to the Hollow World, placing them in the great swamp between the Azcans and the Oltecs. Both the Azcans and the Schattenalfen find mercenary allies among the Malpheggi. (HW) Kepher becomes the first Pharaoh of Nithia in the Hollow World. (HWR2) BC 492: The Immortal Karaash takes pity on a band of particularly valiant orc-warriors led by their chieftain, Krugel. Trapped by dwarves during their assault on Rockhome, surrounded in the Sardal Pass, and in imminent danger of being wiped out, they demonstrate ferocity and gallantry unusual in orc-warriors. Karaash transports them to the Hollow World, to the arid plains north of the Kogolor dwarves. (HW) BC 450: Krugel, leader of the Hollow World orcs, dies. In his lifetime, he has transformed a couple of hundred followers into a well-trained, well-motivated, well-supplied horde of conquest minded plains riders, who now take his name to honour him. They will be called the Krugel Horde. They continue to attack and sack communities of the Neathar to the west and the Kogolor dwarves to the south. They do not want to conquer lands; they want loot. (HW) BC 322: A Schattenalfen attack annihilates the southern Azcan city of Axateotl for the seventh, and last, time. (HWR1) BC 250: The Immortal Korotiku, charmed by the cleverness and ruthlessness of the pirates of Thyatis, transplants several communities of them to the Hollow World, establishing them in equatorial islands not far from the territories settled by the Traldar. He has conceived an interesting experiment for the Hollow World. He's decided that it would be interesting to populate one area of the Hollow World seas with pirates, creating a new culture which is exclusively piratical. (HW) BC 100: The newly-transplanted Milenians begin to reforge their civilisation along its original lines. Placed on the virgin seacoast far south of the Traldar lands, they have the warlike Tanagoro and Jennite races to their east. They build their empire on the coast and in lands seized from the Tanagoro and Jennites, who become their recurring enemies. (HW) AC 50: An Alphatian wizard, by magical experimentation with wood-imps and pixies, creates a small humanoid race he calls the Kubitts. They average a foot and a half tall; he gives them their name from an old Milenian word for the measurement a foot and a half. He makes them independent and strong, but when he tries to force them to perform deeds against their wishes, they rise up against him and kill him. The Immortal Vanya, smitten by these diminutive warriors, transplants the entire race to a hidden jungle valley in the Hollow World. (HW)” So that’s ancient history. Here’s the key points to take away. The Hollow World is a place where some Immortals (Ka, Vanya, Thanatos, etc) put their favorite cultures, people, monsters ,and more to store them away and keep them as is. They have protected the area with a few things, and the key to that is the Spell of Preservation, which keeps everything fresh from their own nature. There are immortal spells about that prevent anyone from teleporting or magic’ing from the outer world to the hollow world, or vice versa. In fact, you can’t even circumvent your way around that by moving through planes. If you enter another plan from the Hollow World, you cannot appear in the outer one later, and vice versa, you’ll always come back to the one you left. You have to get there the old fashioned route of travel. In fact, the Immortals don’t even know how it got here they just came across the Hollow World and began to use it - Ka the Preserver is the major driving force behind HW. Ka was originally a reptile who achieved immortality and now is a major player. There is a great World-Shield that keeps detection magic, transportation magic, and such from one side to the other. The World Shield and Spells of Preservation make magic harder to learn and cast here, people are a bit xenophobic and prefer their own cultures and people to others. Spells that open a gate to any other plane can only be used to exit the Hollow World, they cannot be used to summon others - like elementals or invisible stalkers and such. They aren’t going to be down there unless they took the long way. They could be banished back home though. Almost 900 years have passed since the end of that timeline. There is one great ball of red light in the middle of the “sky” that is constantly on all day long. There are islands in the sky as well, and they are pretty big. As those islands pass overhead, shadows move and change - and locals tell time by those shifting shadows and where the islands are in the orbit around the “Sun” So there are flying continents in the sky, and then ground-based civilizations and such as well. There is no horizon. You can see land curving up and all around as far as your eye can make out. While north and south are still relatively up and down, east and west are reversed here. Left is east, and right west. There are two major entrance at exists at the poles, and Alzar is fairly near the north pole here in Norwold. So he’s going to head over, and then begin to head down. Much like he did when he plunged into the Underdark, he’s taking as much of what he needs ahead of time, since he can’t quickly teleport back if he needs a different set of spells or a different set of magical items. |
Let me toss you some pics of the Hollow World
How about this cross-section?  |
 Hmm...too wide? How about if I find a smaller one? That's better. |
This is Northern Iciria, where we'll be:
 Note the Antalian Wastes, in the North-East of teh map (which is in the upper left corner, get used to wonky directions here) |
Morena needs someone of Alzar’s power level to help out her sub-race of dwarves that is being driven to extinction. There are not a lot down there (Mages, for example, have to have an INT of 16 rather than 9 to be a mage. And there are not that many spells down there - it’s not very diverse, magically) So she gives him a heads up as to what doesn’t work, magically, here in the Hollow World pre-expedition:
Holding - Hold Person, Hold Monster, Ghoul Touch Charming and Domination - Snake Charm, Charm Person, Charm Monster, Geas, etc Summoning - Invisible Stalker, Conjure Elemental. Monster Summoning III, etc Coming Back To Life - Raise Dead, Resurrection, Reincarnation Instantaneous Travel - Blink, Teleport, Dimension Door, Gate, etc Changing travel speed or things like Fly and Levitate work. Divining with other People - ESP, Know Alignment, Commune, Speak with Dead, etc. As divination works with the surroundings, Read Magic, Detect Magic, Locate Object -that works Within that context, there is a lot of wiggle room. For example, Necromancy is unchanged. Alzar can animate a plethora of dead stuff. He can kill with Finger of Death, Death Spell, Wail of the Banshee, use Vampiric Touch and more. Any magic item that duplicates those effects also doesn’t work, so Alzar frees a lot of his space by moving that out. He also grabs a couple of spells from his spell books and memorizes them to make up for this: He will swap these spells in from his spellbooks: 2nd: Melf’s Acid Arrow 3rd Level: Mummy Touch 4th Level: Rain of Terror Merald’s Murderous Mist 5th Level: Fiendform 6th: Dimensional Blade Lich Touch 7th: Prismatic Spray All of these spells have various effects that Alzar can do. He finally just commits and grabs Melf’s Acid Arrow and similar stuff from the conjuration school. It’s not something he normally wants. A spell like Blastbones or Skulltrap can be used in combat, but can also set up traps, used defensively, and give permanent benefits until triggered. They are more powerful. But the Arrow is just a dorky little combat damage spell. And yet, the whole point of creating the Fivefold Path to Power is to embrace power. And here, under the world, with his Ring of Wizardry giving him 12 2nd level spells, and with many of the more powerful ones not working, and with this world only allowing one memorization per day per spell, Alzar can’t turn away, from this specific situation, from a spell like Prismatic Spry or Melf’s Acid Arrow. Time to head down. |
If Alzar takes any summoned creatures down, then when their duration expires, they still go home, so a griffon from the Mount spell will disappear and an Earth Elemental does the same. So Alzar uses one final teleport to get him to the Northern Pole, hundreds of miles to the north, and then begins to descend. The pole is open and miles and miles across.
Other than his normal spells (Dispel Magic, Ray of Ondovir, etc) what does he now have? 1st - Enlarge, Warning Trumpet, Protection from Good (Replace Mount, Charm Person, Hypnotism) 2nd - Melf’s Acid Arrow, Spectral Hand, Skeletal Hands, Undead Mount, Wild Swing(Replace Summon Swarm, Ghoul Touch, Empathic Control, Empathic Control, ESP) 3rd - Mummy Touch (Replaces Dire Charm) 4th - Merald’s Murderous Mist, Rain of Terror (Replace Charm Monster, Morden…Maidens) 5th - Chaos, Deathmaster’s Vial, Fiendform, Vile Venom (Replace Conjure Elemental, Domination, Summon Shadow, Hold Monster) 6th - Dimensional Blade, Curse of Lycanthropy, Lich Touch(Replace Geas, Invisible Stalker, Teleport Other) 7th - Prismatic Spray, Amorphous Blob, Negative Plane Protection (Replace Mass Teleport, Conjure Greater, Teleport w/o Error) 8th - Power Word, Blind (For Mass Charm) 9th - Energy Drain, Lauthdryn’s Cleaving (For Mass Domination, Virus Charm) Obviously, as things change, his spell selection may as well. But this is likely to be his default spell list. Alzar wants to take some permanent aids with him. He sets up a “Quick Station”. He has his Tabi here at the North Pole, and he’ll have Megala the flying Homunculus about 20 miles past the World Shield. He can communicate with Megala, but not the Tabi, due to the World Shield. So he has a variety of scrolls of blank parchment and ink wells and such. He will have Megala write down any messages to send to the court, and deliver them to his tabi, Ak’Kabar, and then Every day the magist from his March checks on the Tabi to see if it has any new messages. Meanwhile, the magist can send a message to Alzar by teleporting it to the Tabi, and having Megala pick it up on his daily visit. Alzar will have just a handful of allies with him: Azzil, his Imp Otherdimensional space works here. Aleph is in the Warp Marble: Bronze Golem, Named Aleph: Bronze Golem – AC 0, HD 20, HP 97, THAC0 – 3, 1 attack fist 3d10 damage +1d10 heat damage; Deals 1d10 heat damage from its scaling hot “blood” inside the being. That fiery liquid spurts out when it takes damage to whoever hit it, or when it punches because it makes contact. Immune to heat, and requires a +2 magical weapon to hit. This is the Golem that he controlled with the Talisman of the Golem. He’s leaving behind all other constructs to guard things, and his Android Bodyguard is in OtherSpace, and has a few items from the crashed spaceship to use. Technology won’t be affected by any of this anti-magic stuff. Alzar has added some high-tech items to his armory, when removing others that aren’t of value here. Alzar heads down. The World Shield itself has anti-magic properties, so Alzar rides the cold winds down with his Flying Carpet, and then when he hits the anti-magic area, and the Flying Carpet stops working Alzar and his carpet begin to plummet. He activates the jetpack on his back and grabs the carpet. He rides it down for around 20 miles and then drops off Megala shortly thereafter. Then he stores the jetpack and finishes on the carpet. About one day passes. Alzar’s Ring of Warmth keeps him fine. Alzar arrives in the Hollow World… |
Welcome to the Hollow World. Place where ancient nations and cultures, like the Nithian Empire, the Azcan Empire and the Milenian Empire still rule, and where ancient Neanderthals with stone weapons fight off attacks from dinosaurs and werewolves, and undead packs prey on the countless pirates of the high seas.
The human settlement closest to the entrance by the North Pole are the Antalian Wastes, ruled by village-dwelling hunters and reavers, and very barbaric. They are former descendants of the barbarians in the northern part of Norwold. They are a hard-frozen area where life is harsh and hard won. Alzar’s first target is supposed to be in this mountain range. Begin the Lost Shrine of Bundushatur  Published in 1998, I like adding it to the collection for a few reasons. Firstly, it has a dwarven presence, so I can slide it in very easily. Secondly, it is layered on top of a very strong chaos vs law element that plays nicely in Mystara. I can amp up the power level a bit here and there easily enough. Finally, it’s a module that Alzar would obviously have a easy ability to handle, and one that therefore makes sense for him to be tied into. |
A day after searching, Alzar finds an entrance to the lost land of Isar, where the Isarite Dwarves are found. The Isarites were a favorite branch of dwarves of Morena from above that were threatened with extinction around 1300 years ago. She moved a group of them to the Hollow World to keep them alive, and the last Isarites died around 1250 years ago, leaving just the tribe here, under the world.
There is a single village of Isar people, here in the peak of the Thunderdelve Mountain. Alzar passes by some entrances, and arrives into a corridor carved by the dwarves. There are no dwarves to greet him here, however. Alzar presses on, and after a half hour, finally finds the city of Isar, a dwarfhold of around 2000 dwarves. It has been largely destroyed very recently. The temple to Morena was leveled, and there are numerous buildings, homes, and more destroyed. There is a great cavern here that stretches up, and an underground lake next to the homes that was used in part for food and in part for drink. Alzar begins to investigate. There are a few bodies of dwarves here, but not more than 20 or 30. As he does, he comes across some wounded and battle tested Isarite dwarves. He speaks their language via the axe that other dwarves once made for him in Mystara’s past. They were recently attacked by undead and forces of chaos that hit the city hard. Most of the dwarves made it out alive, and are hiding in some tunnels nearby. But they have been driven out for now. Alzar connects with them and tells them about Morena sending him, and the three of them begin to tear up at Morena continued loyalty. They show Alzar where it all started. In the center of the lake is an old shrine that rose from the waters around 2 weeks ago, and from which the undead and chaotic forces came. That shrine is an old shrine of chaos. Long ago, about 75 years before the Isarites arrived, Thunderdelve Mountain was the site of a pivotal battle between a group of seven powerful creatures that called themselves the Lords of Chaos. The local powers of law fought against them, and eventually they won. The temple of chaos’s foundation was destroyed and it was driven underwater. The Isarites were here in part to keep an eye on things to make sure that chaos would never again get a handle on the Mountain that shrine or the area. Clearly, that did not happen. Alzar tells the dwarves to head back to the others, and heads away himself to prepare to investigate the once-hidden shrine of chaos… |
(from the back of the module:
“Long ago the Lords of Chaos strove with the forces of Law and were defeated. Their great temple destroyed and their minions scattered to the four winds, the Chaos Lords withdrew, and a new balance held sway in the land. But prophecy said that one day the fallen temple would rise again, heralding the Lords' return to spread Chaos across the world once more. And now comes a cry for help from the dwarves of Isar, saying that the Lost Shrine has risen from beneath the dark waters of the lake that kept it hidden for thirteen centuries. Already forces are gathering - some eager to plunder the temple's legendary treasures, some wishing to join under the Chaos Lords' banner, some desperate to destroy the shrine before the world they know is swept away. "Find the Chaos Key," says the prophecy. "The hand that holds the Key may shape the future." But will you be in time to be the one?”) PDF here if you want to follow along: http://cporter.net/rpgs/books/Dungeo...undushatur.pdf Some Shrine keys: Doors are locked and require a Break Doors roll to open (Alzar’s magically enhanced str auto-succeeds, but it’ll be loud.) Everything radiates magic Everything is intensely chaotic. Lawful characters get -1 to saves, to hit ( I added this one to increase the level of difficulty) All undead here are Chaos variants of undead and cannot be controlled or turned by lawful characters (I am amping this defense as well). Any attempts to do so that would normally succeed simply turn them “off” for 2 rounds. All encounters are hostile, unless otherwise stated ,and cannot be negotiated by a lawful character. No surprise chances by Alzar |
The shrine itself is a bit worn and beaten. It has been hit in over a millennia of disuse, although it still look better than would be expected. There is an octagon shaped pointed structure that can be made out, and its flat, with no levels above it.
Alzar knows he’ll be unable to scry down here in the Hollow World and doesn’t even try. Alzar moves to scout out the entrance for a bit. There is a doorway, but no door. After a few minutes of nothing coming out or any additional information, Alzar moves to the island, and he swaps a few items from OtherSpace. Knowing he has fewer ways to handle people en-masse he has a few items in his person, like wands and such ready. He has Azzil on his shoulder invisible, and smashes his Warp Marble at the opening to pull out Aleph, the bronze golem. He’ll lead with the golem down here, since Aleph is eminently disposable. Inside the entrance are numerous bodies, all fresh, of humanoid creatures. There are almost 25 of them here, and one in front has a gold necklace and a blood-written message on the ground in an ancient tongue that reads, “Flee, All is Lost.” Alzar can feel a necrotic presence in the room. All of the bodies are undead, and Alzar’s Necrology skill tells him they are ghouls, although a bit altered. Alzar reaches out to control them like normal, but it doesn’t work. 6 shut down like they are puppets and their cords have been severed and 17 ghouls rise to attack him! Alzar pulls back behind the Golem, who is body blocking the doorway. A bronze golem like Aleph requires a +2 magical item or magical spells to hit it. And normal undead like ghouls would not be able to touch it. But these are chaos infused ghouls, and they have been magicked by the Shrine a bit. And they are fully able to damage his Golem. It’s still hard, it has a huge AC, but two scratches claw it for 7 damage. They take damage from the fiery metallic liquid inside that causes it to run. Aleph Golem - 90/97 Alzar does have a spell that should clean these out quite nicely, but it’s a high level, and it could be required later on. Most of his mass damage is necromantic in nature, like Skulltrap, and these Chaos Ghouls are immune to that damage. Spells like Death Spell, Wail of the Banshee or Merald’s Murderous Cloud are going to be totally ineffective here. He grabs the Wand of Fire from his bandolier and fires a small Fireball in the room for 5d6 damage. He’s already seen that they still take fire and heat damage, so that’s the best bet. He’ll save his more powerful magic spells for later. His golem is immune to heat damage, and he ticks off 3 charges from the wand. 4000 XP |
They enter and the ghouls were cleared out. Nothing is left in the chamber, and there are exits from here to the left and right. Doors appear off the right side down each corridor and then the corridors bend out of sight. Alzar heads to the first. He tries the star of Mo’Pilar but no good. The Ear Ring is similarly not-helpful, and the Finger Nail won’t work here in the Hollow World anyways.
The first room is a 15x15 room that is totally empty. The golem heads in to search and finds a grey ooze hidden and slays it. Nothing else here. The other door opens to a similarly shaped room. There appears to be some writing on the southern wall. The magical dwarf-forged axe made for Alzar Selinyr allows him to translate it. It’s in an ancient tongue as well and reads, “Don’t look now.” Alzar waits for a moment and nothing. Not able to detect traps or anything, he has the golem toss a fiery ghoul corpse into the room and the walls begin to close and crush the corpse. Nothing else can be detected here. They head down the corridor, golem leading. It bends twice to the left and there are two doors on the left and an open chamber at the end. After the golem forced open the first door, there are some more undead inhere - 6 ghouls and 3 ghasts. There are a trip of corpses on the ground being snacked on - those are all dead dwarves that were recently killed. Alzar ‘s axe is in hand. He gets three attacks a turn (Axe, Axe, Shield). With his bonuses he needs a 3, a3, and a 8 to hit, and he can kill a ghoul with one hit and a ghast with two. He smashes and hews two ghouls dead on his first turn. His golem punches and kills a 3rd. The ghouls attack Alzar and miss (cloak) and then the ghasts attack hi, and the golem and miss. They win init. Alzar takes 9 damage from three hits (they do little damage, and do not paralyze here (Hollow World). Alzar smashes some creatures, and two turns later, the room is cleared out. Alzar grabs his Ring of Regeneration and pairs it with the Ring of Wizardry on the other hand. 1500 XP Jeweled Bracelet - 1500 gp There is a secret door in here, Alzar finishes the corridor first though. |
The next door bursts open as well. There are 4 Juju Zombies here, more powerful undead creatures in the service of chaos apparently. Alzar’s weapons are out.
2 rounds of death. Alzar takes more damage - 17 total. But the Ring is quickly ending that. Brooch of Shield Spell - 9 charges left, use one charge to activate the Shield spell, 1st level. 3500 XP At the end of the corridor there is a room with a Gelatinous Cube that the Golem auto-kills. +1 Dagger 250 GP Cursed - +2 Long Sword of Cowardice While waiting for the Ring of Regeneration to fully heal him, he casts Deathmaster’s Vial. He has five small vials he prepared, and can use them as missile weapons for the next two hours before the go stale. They are on his belt. Alzar heads back and skips the secret door for now and heads to the other corridor. It turns twice to the right and there are two doors to the right and an open chamber beyond the corridor. Identical to the first. This 15x15 chamber opens to reveal some desiccated bodies of selkies that must have penetrated here to explore. There is a giant web casing above, and a giant water spider above. The water spider recoils from him, and climbs up the web and wall into the corner, not wanting to mess with the power radiating from him and the golem with him. Smart. Nothing else in here and Alzar continues. |
The next door opens to reveal an old and deserted guard room, with another quartet of Juju zombie,s who are also slain in 2 rounds, and are guarding another secret door.
Alzar heads to the end of the corridor and there is a damp. 15x20 foot room here with a large rend in the side of the shrine. The ruins here also penetrated. There are numerous aquatic plants here, and a number of them are dying, having been away from water for as long as they have. There is a triton in here, who introduces himself to Alzar. He introduces himself and says he is here to inspect the shrine, since it rose and disturbed the nearby ecosystem. Alzar uses the Star of Mo’Pilar to check on it, and it’s an illusion of a human mage. “How is a triton from deep under-seas in a lake in the cave?” The man whispers Alzar is too clever by far, and then states that there is a channel that runs to the south. Fair enough, Alzar accepts him, and his offer of help. Alzar bends down to grab a dead plant and slips one of the Vials underneath the fronds of it. He asks the Triton what it was, since he’s not seen it before. With the human’s attention on the plant, and trying to come with a good answer, Alzar mentally has Azzil slip invisibly over the human to position himself flying gently over him. He uses the vial and tosses it at the illusionist as he orders Azzil to strike him from behind. Alzar’s grenade his for 3d8 damage and deals 5+5+2 - 12 damage total. No save. Azzil gets an ambush but still misses. The opponent is angered, and roars in anger. Battle Alzar gets 7, he gets 6. The foe casts a 5th level spell that simulates a 3rd level Lightning Bolt, but Alzar knows enough now to disbelieve and takes just 20% of the damage - 31 was rolled, so 7 damage. Azzil stabs with his tail and….rolls a 12 and misses. Alzar spends the turn smashing him with the Barrier and casting a spell (cast do both if in melee, if you’ll recall, the Barrier is an artifact). He attacks and hits for 12 damage, and then casts Vampirc Touch and drains 23 from the target. He is fully healed. 47 damage and….his foe is also a cleric too (dual classes, just like Alzar) and has more hp than normal 58. 11 left Next turn? He wins init and casts Cure Critical Wounds and heals 30. Azzil finally hits for 2 damage and forces a save vs poison or death, and our foe survives. Alzar’s Barrier smashes him for 10 damage and he grabs his axe. Golem punches and misses. Alzar wins initiative and…wins. Dead cleric/illusionist 12500 XP Bracers of Defense AC7 Changestaff - changes to any weapon and always deals 1d6+1 damage in combat Oil of Slipperiness Grave Key - Magical item that opens any locked coffin, tomb, crypt, etc. And… A small sliver of a larger item No spellbook. Some rope and food and such, but nothng special. |
Alzar returns and the secret door cannot be opened, and he even tries the Grave Key to no lock. Alzar uses the Chime of Opening to open it.
This is a clean and open space. Undamaged by the sinking beneath the lake and the subsequent years. There is a large staircase down in the center of the chamber, and there are small rooms inside here that Alzar can see around. There are 4 large statues in the area, probably golems, guarding it. You how that is. Can’t have a secret area without a statue coming alive. Alzar heads to the door to the right, and will check out that area first. There is a room here that is roughly triangular with a 30x20 feet rough shape to it. It’s an old, well furnished apartment. There are numerous old pieces of furniture or decorations that have faded with time. Silver candle holders, a canopy bed, and such. Alzar’s eyes light up when he sees a bookshelf in the far wall. But this room gives off a palpable Antipathy effect for any lawful characters. It feels somehow off to Alzar’s sense of order. Alzar has to make a save to enter the room, and fails. He steps back and heads back in after a few minute and makes another save. He wants to check out that bookshelf. Alzar loses a point of Dexterity when he heads into the room and two more while searching. They’ll return after ten minutes of leaving it. Meanwhile, after searching everything first ,a pale voice comes to alzar… “Who visits me after all these centuries?” A form begins to coalesce into the velvet chair, an insubstantial form of a ghost. He is hiding behind the cowl of his cloak and Alzar cannot see his face, which of course protects him from an aging attack. With such a proper host, Alzar agrees to sit down. This is the ghost of Draconus, an old 20th level wizard who helped rally forces of law against the Lords of Chaos. This shrine was intended to be the launching point for a major offensive against the Hollow World, and that could not be allowed. Therefore the ghost was imprisoned in the shrine as he died as a punishment for the victory he helped achieve. He tells Alzar about the top level, which is the shrine, and a lower level below it the proper base. He knows little of it, having been here forever . There is a key that must be assembled to head down, and it should mostly be in the center area, although a mage took one piece with him and fled. Alzar inquires about how Draconus kept himself sane, revealing his under Necrology expertise. “Oh I know that you are fully evil, and not aligned with my own good interpretation of law. But are a greater champion for law than you realize, and we both struggle against them. I cast a Wish to keep my alignment, and another my spells, and now I am a ghost with my old memories, beliefs, and powers.” He talks to Alzar’s long as Alzar wants. He has not spoken to anyone in a long time. The books on the shelves have been read over and over again. But he cannot leave this shrine, he is cursed to remain here. He does have one of the keys, and it fits the one Alzar already found, and he begins to assemble the Chaos Key. Alzar heads over to take a look at the books and reviews them. They are actually ancient books on magic and religions. They are all documents that relate various histories and such of societies and people down here in the Hollow World. Alzar asks if he can come back later to make copies of them for his collections and Draconus agrees. There’s no secret knowledge. Alzar heads into OtherSpace and grabs a generic book there that’s on some minor topic he was reading and loans it to Draconus to read. It’s from Thorasia, so it’s not even this plane, but hey, it’s something, right? Alzar tells Draconus about the huge library he has been collecting all of his life. Books from various worlds, and from places like the home of Castanamir, the Temple from the UnderDark, and even from Mystara’s own past, and the Temple of the Frog. As Alar tells him more and more about this library. Draconus is increasingly intrigued. Building it up is one of Alzar’s passions. And Alzar makes Draconus a deal. Alzar will take out the Temple of Chaos below, and end it, before it regains it’s full power and reawakens Chaos here below, and then Draconus will come with Alzar back home and can move into the library and become its warden, guardian, and read all of the various books he has there. They make the pact. (See the cover image for this room and this person, btw |
Alzar heads out and opens the next door. This room has a large pool and fountain, not working, with a pool of water in it. The golem heads in and the water is acidic, and there’s nothing here. The next room has a bunch of selkie here that died, and two corpses of wights on the ground. There is an old pillar here that was broken in the recent fight, and a 3rd part of the chaos key is here and taken.
Alzar heads to the door to another room and the door changes as he gets closer… The door turns into a mighty portal of stone, and then one of wood, with steel bars and then shifts again. It shouts that it is a magic door, and that magic doors need to be fed. Alzar’s Star reveals nothing - no illusion or anything. This creature does match the description of a few creatures. Alzar heads into OtherSpace and grabs some feed and leaves it here. It begins to eat, telling him that the door has to been fed in a long time. Alzar inquires about a piece of treasure, the 4th piece of the key, and the “Magic Door” tells him about the dark robed wizard that came by, and there’s a piece right here. Alzar agrees to feed it more food, and it moves so that Alzar’s staff can slip into the doorway and pull out the 4th part of the key. Alzar begins to move away… “I am a magic door and I can be really handy! I have a million and one uses! We open. We close. We block halls and openings…surely my awesome magics will be of great aid against dire trouble!” “You want to come with me!” “Yes!” “But you are a mimic, aren’t you?” “I don’t know what a ‘mimic’ is, never heard of it. But I’m a magic door.” “Sure you are. And you’ll come quietly?” “I will, I can grab you and go.” “Hold on, “magic door”.” Alzar slips back and grabs a potion from the OtherSpace. “This is a potion of Universal Solvent. If you are a mimic, and you attach yourself to me with your glue, then you will be removed, and you will suddenly be an e-mimic, or ex-door, if you prefer, got it?” “Got it!” The Mimic, aka Magic Door, whose name is Bevidoro changes shape to that of a large box, and attached itself to Aleph, the golem, who won’t be disturbed in the least with the extra weight. Alright, let’s go. |
The next door opens to a chamber of 8 frozen stone gargoyles. Alzar suspects moving gargoyles, and tosses a dead selkie into the room. They do animate as expected, but just move on wheels around the room, stabbing all over. They are not creatures, just moving weapons platforms. They are protecting one corner of the room, and the golem heads over and unearths a locked and trapped box. They open it, and a poison gas puffs out (Alzar is immune with his Necklace of Adaptation). Another piece of the Chaos Key is inside, and a gem worth 1500 GP
Gem - 1500 GP There is a triangular room with 13 Wraiths in it, and this is what Alzar was saving that spell for. A bunch of powerful, energy draining undead. Alzar casts Negative Plane Protection. He wades in, immune to their attacks and draining effects. They have 35 hp each, they deal 1d6+energy drain with every hit. And They can’t touch Alzar with his spell. A few turns later, as some start to flee after he kills a bunch, he “controls” them which freezes them for a moment, and then carves his axe nto them and finishes them. 26000 XP Alzar grabs another section from the Chaos Key in here. Another room has five statues in them that seem to be carved of sandstone and they are vaguely humanoid. They look like adventures, and are beginning to crack and sand is breaking slowly. Alzar has time to do something. Alzar fails a Spellcraft proficiency check and does not know what they are under (Temporal Stasis spell, in case you care). Round One - Alzar casts Transmute Rock to Mud - a common spell to weaken earth and rock creatures. It does not work on them ((had he made his check, he would have skipped this, knowing it wouldn’t have worked) Round Two - Alzar decides to just stand back and wait, preparing some items and switching them around, in case. Round 4 - They are freed. Five champions of chaos who willingly allowed themselves to be prisonered here until they were needed again and the shrine rose There are three warriors, one mage, and one cleric. Alzar greets them. They demand to know who he asks, and speak in an ancient language, but as he speaks it, their suspicions begin to ally (They are speaking the secret chaotic tongue of the temple from more than a millennia ago). They introduce themselves to Alzar and asks if he is a Champion of Chaos as well. He tells them the truth, that more than 1300 years have passed since the shrine was defeated and sunk beneath the lake’s waters. It rose again two weeks ago, and waves of undead attacked, but have since died. But no, Alzar is not a champion. He won’t lie to them. They order Alzar to leave this holy place. He is not welcome here. He can’t leave, not yet. He has not finished exploring, nor has he done whatever it is that brought him here. The fighters raise their weapons, the mage and cleric begin to attack. Battle begins Cleric - Bless cast. Wizard - Haste Cast. Fighters move to flank Alzar from getting to their spellcasters, and attack with axem. Sword and sword. All miss - cloak. Alzar’s golem punches a fighter for 11 damage. Alzar casts a spell that will actually work on the living - Wail of the Banshee. The mage and a fighter drop dead immediately. They look a bit confused. That’s not the sort of good, clean, magic they would normally expect. Next round. The cleric casts Silence at Alzar and it works. Alzar takes 9 damage from a slash. Alzar slides to his Axe and begins to attack. He other wise misses. Next round - Alzar wins init and smashes and hit with axe and shield and a fighter takes 44 damage. The golem hits this turn too and another 14 damage is doled out. The fighters attack multiple times each with specialization and Alzar is hit for 17 damage. The cleric casts Cure Critical and heals 30. Alzar’s squad adds 55. They win and hit Alzar for 12, and then add 20 more healing. Alzar and the golem finish him though. Just one fighter and cleric left The last fighter, begins a fighting retreat and Alzar slashes him with his Axe for 20 damage. Azzil who has been trying to invisibly stab the cleric finally succeeds, revealing him, but dealing 3 damage to the cleric (who makes the save). The cleric heals the fighter of 20/ Two turns later only the cleric is left. The cleric curses the “Desecrators of Holy Chaos” before he dies. Alzar gains 22000 XP +3 2 Handed Sword +2 Battle Axe +2 Broadsword |
There is a glowing chest in here that the golem breaks open, and is immune to the fluid that comes out. It’s foul smelling. The last piece of the key is here.
There are four rooms in the chamber that can only be opened by the Chaos Key, and the first does so now: There is a shrine in this room to chaos, and a sword is embedded in the shrine. Alzar grabs a corpse of a chaos champion and tosses it in here, and a trap goes off after a second. The room’s doors close, the walls turn glass, light beams fire from the shrine and bounce off the walls until they snark the corpse for some funky smelling effect, and then a reverse gravity effects occurs and the body rises to the ceiling and then a glue issues from the ceiling and the body sticks to it. The trap then resets about ten minutes later with the corpse still attached to the ceiling. That is one funky trap. I mean, if you are ever going to make your own trap that has to be it. Alzar grabs the Rope of Climbing that he has in OtherSpace and knots it and tries to cast it on the Sword. Then he pulls it back. It slides out, and then moves across the floor. The trap springs before it gets out of the door, and Alzar has to wait, but the Reverse Gravity effect doesn’t force it to the ceiling or the glue there due to the Rope of Climbing’s magic Alzar heads to OtherSpace and grabs a Ring of Telekinese and forces it into a a Bag of Holding for later 0 it could be a cursed ot anti-law sword. Sword of Chaos,+4, +6 vs Law, Levitate 3x day, Lawful characters that grab it to use it take 20 damage, neutral 10 damage The next room of the four is similar arranged in terms of spaces and dimensions, but has a Beholder in it that attacks! Having a strong knowledge of Beholders, as well as making an INT check secretly, Alzar suspects something odd here. They aren’t chaotic, but lawful evil like him, and he’s run into illusions here already. He disbelieves it and hefts the Star of Mo’Pilar. It’s an illusion Nothing in the room |
Room 3?
There is a black pudding in here, in the same temporal stasis as the others. Nothing else. Alzar leaves and shuts the door before it can fully reform. Room 4? The walls, floors, and ceiling of this room are covered with mirrors. Alzar grabs the Star and can see through some illusions. There is a chest in here. The Golem enters and breaks through some mirrors and then busts open the chest. It takes 4 damage from a magical spike that was hoping to kill someone. Golem - 86/97 Inside are a bunch of items that the Star reveals are fake - 5 fake glass gems. 2500 copper pieces gilded gold, a Ring with Nystul’s Magic Aura cast on it to look magical. Alzar;s Star detects a secret panel behind a mirror and it is smashed away. Chest with these items: Small Quartz Figurine - Wand of Wonder 19 charges 300 gp Amulet that glows with a soft white light. The Figurine is… A Figurine of Wondrous Power “Balo” Full Sized Ferret, AC5, Thaco 30, 3 hp, deals 1d2 damage, infravision of 60 feet, move silently 100%; hide in shadows 95%, pick pockets 75%, very fast,can be used for up to 6 hours at a time for up to 3 times a week. Alzar takes 8 damage when he holds the Amulet. It’s actually a powerful good creature known as an Agathinon, a form of Aasimon, powerful angels of good. It’s here turning into an Amulet to help Morena’s champion to take out the Shrine, but since Alzar is evil, Alzar puts the Amulet in a pouch at his belt after it tells him what he is doing here. It can heal him, and can turn undead, and actually turn them. The key is used to have the statues and the golem that are guarding the stairs down pass, and they way down is now free. Alzar heads down. |
It’s even more uncomfortable for Law down here.
There is a long corridor at the base of the stairs. Is stretches out long down a wave and ends with statue at a wall. There are doors to the right and left, and then four doorways with statues in front of them. The first door to the left opens to reveal a sprouting gout of lava and flame. Again an inspection reveals this to be illusionary. Nothing else is here. The door on the right opens to a strange buzzing sound There is a ancient and wrinkled old man sitting at a desk of black wood, writing, with a variety of books to the table nearby. Light is provide by fire beetles crawling about. Hundreds of insects are crawling about the room as well. Many tomes and papers are scattered on the floor. There is a large barrel next to him, with a tube connected to it, and that tube feeds ink to a quill in the man’s hand. Sometimes the man pops a random insect into his mouth to eat, mindlessly and continues to write. The star reveals that everything in the room, other than the man, is magical. He looks up after a few minutes, and looks a bit startled. “So long so long since I have had visitors! Too few nowadays seek to consult the wise and almost do I forget when the last one came. But allow me to recover with manners. I am Asaru, Keeper of the Hall, Who are you, and what do you seek?” Asaru is very happy to talk with Alzar, again, few visitors here. Alzar asks him about his writing: “Things! I write of things. Marvelous things. Hideous things. Unsettling things. Things that no one has ever known or wished to know. I write of futures and of pasts, of whens and wheres and nows. Things unseen and unheard and unimagined, this is what I write.:” He shows Alzar a book from the desk he penned called “In Praise of Holy Chaos.” Other works include, The Blood Wars, an Unbiased Account; 101 Things to do with a Dead Adventurer; Paladins and Other Trifles; Law is Good For? Nothing!; and more. Alzar grabs one that is proffered to him. The runes are shifting and he cannot make them out. At least not right now. Asaru is clearly either not all there, or fully chaotic. Alzar asks him about the shrine, but his information is out of date, and eventually, he demands that Alzar leave. So he does. Alzar can always return if he wants. |
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