The D&D Dynasty: The New Path of Alzar the Mighty

[Abe Sargent]

I've talked before about the issue of Alzar this powerful. How do I do new Alzar stories? Find really high level stories for him? Send him to other planes? Have him fight as the general of an army and conquer?

What is next for our intrepid lawful evil Path Mage?


One of the things I miss is the opportunity to run some interesting modules. He did a bunch of low level adventures, and then blazed quickly to the upper level ones. He didn't spend a lot of time running around in the middle. By the end of the Isle of Dread super campaign, he was doing adventures for people in the high single digits or better. Then toss in the power advance from the Temple of Elemental Evil, and the dose of nasty from the Giants trilogy, the Drow series, and a handful of other adventures underground, plus a handful afterwards, and you have a character who really pushes the level of power. He blew through higher level ones. I missed a bunch of modules that i was hoping to run.


So what now? What happens to Alzar now?


(I wanted to run Alzar through some more modules, especially after playing with young Alzar again in the gamebook dynasty I wrote. How could I do that? It seemed like the best way was to do something heavy handed in the great DM traditions.)





EDIT - Check out post 84 for the Death of Alzar

EDIT2 - Check out - post 366 http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3006370&postcount=366 for the Current places/people/history of the ongoing Sand Mire Campaign

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar has already created two portals for his complex that open into his large undead holding cell. Each empties as needed into a new location for fast travel of his army horde.

Today Alzar seeks to creating a third portal in the same room, this time opening up into the underdark and just a few miles outside of the Dokkalfar city he visited previously. He intends to drop out roughly 5000 undead, and then invade the city and fully capture and loot the city. Unless someone knows the 6th level Dokkalfar Teleport spell (or something similar) they may not teleport away from the city outside of a mile radius. Alzar has studied the rocks and their effect, and he believes that a portal will cross the boundary that a normal teleport spell will miss.

[Abe Sargent]

While establishing his portal the first opening is crafted successfully. Now Alzar needs to build a tunnel mystically to his intended target, which has been inlaid with magical components to receive the other end of the portal.

As he tries to link the two, something happens and the eldritch energy snaps in half. The energy coruscates around him, snapped back like a rubber band. Broken and untethered, the corridor reaches into a nearby alternate Prime Material Plane and Alzar is drawn into it……

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar blinks and pulls himself up. He focuses at the world around him. It seems similar enough to Thorasia and the air is easily breathed.

He looks down and is staggered. Where are his things? He is completely naked on this plane. That is embarrassing. He reaches out to his OtherSpace but he cannot access it on this plane. Typical. There are some planes where he is not able to access it. But he does not panic.

Instead, he just tries to leave. He can walk to one of the outer planes that he can survive and move to, and then just walk from there back home to Thorasia….

But it doesn’t work either. He sits down and pauses to consider, and he realizes that his head has been hurting badly all of this time. He has lost the knowledge of most of his spells.

Tied away from his minions, his spellbooks, his abilities, and his plane, where is he? What happened to him? Why are his things gone? Why can’t he remember his skills?

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar has arrived on the Prime Material Plane of Hamedh. He has been rolled back twelve years in the journey, and appears as he did twelve years ago.

He currently has memorized these spells:
Sleep, Charm Person, Read Magic, Empathic Control, and Ray of Ondovir

Once those are used up, they are gone, without a spellbook to replace them.

However, Alzar was not physically or mentally rolled back, just in terms of capability. He still remembers everything he did, and kept his skills, and his new sub-class.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar on Hamedh

7th level Fighter (Myrmidon), 3rd level Path Mage (Fivefold Mage)

Lawful Evil
Human

Str: 17
Dex: 12
Con: 10
Wis: 15
Int: 21
Cha: 17

Hit Points: 51
THACO: 14 as Fighter, 20 as Mage
AC: 10
Total XP: 5100
Age 54, Body - 20

Race Abilities:

None Taken

Class Abilities (Cannot use as Fivefold Mage without losing XP gain):

Specialization
Leadership (Alzar can command the tactics, strategy, logistics and more that a large force requires)
3 attacks every 2 rounds


Non-Weapon Proficiencies:

Myrmidon Bonus:

Tactical History 14
Fire-Building 16

Riding 11
Swimming 12
Reading/Writing 13
Survival 14
Blind Fighting
Etiquette 13
Endurance
Heraldry 13
Hunting 10
Fishing 14
Weather Knowledge 10
Orienteering 15

As a Necromancer/Fivefold Mage

Necrology 17
Netherworld Knowledge 14
Herbalism 14
Alchemy 15
Poison Use 11
Ancient Languages 10
Spellcraft 12
Ancient History – 14
Bookbinding – 16
Papermaking - 16
Sage Knowledge: Outer Planes, Inner Planes - 13

Languages – Typic, Sis’sharr, UnderTypic, Kuo-Toa,


Traits:

Empathy
Fast Healer
Precise Memory
Obscure Knowledge


Weapon Proficiencies:

Bonus Kit Specialization:

Battle Axe

Battle Axe
One Handed Weapon Style x2 (-2 AC when using one weapon in combat)
Crossbow
Battle Axe Weapon Mastery
Spear
Dagger

Total with normal battle axe - +3 to hit, +3 to damage, -2 to AC. An additional +1 damage for strength


Staff – Can only use this as a Path Mage


Class Ability:

1). Alzar can control undead as an evil Priest of the same level, and this ability extends to extra planar beings which are considered undead with the same hit dice for this purpose.
2). One Extra Spell/Level is Gained, must be Path.
3). Fivefold Mages reduce the spell level by one when researching spells in The Path.
4). Chance to Learn spell in The Path increased by +15%
5). Saving Throw of Targets when targeted by spells from The Path at -1.
6). No more than one spell per level can be from the group: Abjuration, Alteration, Alchemy and Geometry barring a highly unusual and temporary circumstance.
7). Fivefold Mage must invest a focus item as the method through which magic is cast. (Alzar’s Father’s Ring)
8). Must have a lab and library and workbench with 1,000 gp value per level, and an upkeep of 50 gp/level/month
9). They can store spells like an Artificer, but cannot begin to do so until level 6
10). Fivefold Mages have a chance to identify a magical item by spending a turn peering at it closely and examining it - chance is their level times 5.
11). Fivefold Mages never suffer from a negative reaction penalty due to controlling or animating undead.


Stalked by a Death Servant, who merges with his shadow. If he ever is about to take a fatal blow, the Death Servant will jump out, take the blow instead, and Alzar will be fully healed.

Immune to starvation

[Abe Sargent]

Note that some of his skills are now useless: languages and ancient languages, reading/writing, etiquette, ancient history, and heraldry. He still knows these things, but they do not apply to his present situation. Some things might be sufficiently different, such as Poison Use, Tactics, Obscure Knowledge, Herbalism, and more.

When making a roll to check with these skills, he will be penalized by three:

Poison Use, Obscure Knowledge, Herbalism, Alchemy, Tactical History, Survival, Fishing, Hunting.

While still having some use, knowledge is missing of specific plants, poisons, tactics, game animals, and more.

Some things will always be the same – Orienteering, Weather Knowledge, Empathy, Fast Healer, and Blind-Fighting. But many are either nuked or hurt.

The good news is that Alzar is still a Path Mage, and he can use some of the Path abilities to help him here in the new plane. The bad thing, though, is that he is devoid of his Focus, which is his father’s old ring. Without this focus, he cannot cast any magic spells. He must spend time in a workshop and lab to craft a new one.

He also must have a laboratory and library. Without those, he loses all class benefits of being a Path Mage. Even if he builds a focus, he will be weakened. (Yet, he still has all of the restrictions). He is completely shorn of anything to his name.

Even when he started out adventuring before, he had a familiar in Lastion, a homunculus in Megala, animal skeletons, a spellbook, some money, and some useful items.

Here he is devoid of everything. Will he be able to restart on this plane? Can he regain his level of power? How much more does he half to do? How long will it take him to return to Thorasia? When he does, what will be left of his place and possessions? He suspects that Vala will replace him in his sanctum. She does not know of everything that he has. He also has much locked into his OtherSpace. What happened to the items he was wearing?

[Abe Sargent]

He pauses a few moments to ponder the situation. He is on a hill that overlooks a small wood. It is half past noon, and there are no sounds of animals, monsters or people of any sort. He makes his way towards a large creek down off the hill and follows it down stream. You always go down stream.

The day darkens, and Alzar moves to rest. The mystic draining has been much, and it is time to rest. He finds a nice comfortable pair of branches that cross in the air and climbs up to them. Since he is fully by himself, he has to play things a bit on the safe side. He has fire-hardened two spears in the fire and then puts it out. He grabs them and holds them by himself up in the tree, and falls into a fitful slumber.

Day dawns and the light of the sun brings warmth to Alzar’s bones. After an uncomfortable night, he drops down with the two spears. (They do 1d6-1 damage in combat, minimum 0, and are at -2 to hit). He continues along the stream, and as he does, he begins to make out a large structure on a hill overlooking the valley. Suspecting that this could be civilization, Alzar moves to head up to it.

[Abe Sargent]

B Solo. Ghost of Lion Castle (1984)


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d5/BSOLO_Ghost_of_Lion_Castle.jpg

This is a solo adventure, much like a gamebook and similar to a solo module we did with the Maze of the Riddling Minotaur in the Isle of Dread campaign. I have not read one entry or even a little ahead, just the rules, and I am excited to take a weakened Alzar through it. Alright, here we go!

[Abe Sargent]

The building looks like a large lion, resting on its legs, with a diadem around its throat, gigantic glass red eyes, and a large roar on its mouth. It appears to be made of sandstone. There seems to be a keep of some sort around the lion. Alzar scouts it out and there are four sets of walls squaring off the Lion. There is a large outer gatehouse and a smaller postern one as well. He spies no people or signs of civilization around. Could this be a shrine or temple? Maybe a monument?

(Note that, if Alzar uses fighter stuff, like knowing how to use a spear, in combat, then he won’t gain XP from it.)

It’s around noon. There are four major options Alzar notes. He can try the gatehouses or he can just try to scale either the north or western wall, which are somewhat shorter than the two others. Alzar is looking for civilization and not necessarily an adventure right now. So he heads to the large gatehouse to see if anyone is there. The portcullis here is raised, but no one is here.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-OQiFljFHY8/TNxl1Z61eFI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/AIh9wbirUZ0/s1600/Stone%2BLion%2BGatehouse.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar decides to walk through it. It falls and he takes 3 damage. He chooses to dodge inside the gatehouse, and the portcullis falls down. In front are some double wooden doors, and the wall has murder holes peeking in. He calls out, but none answer. He tries to sneak under the holes. He takes 2 more damage from some rocks that rain out of the murder holes, and rushes to the door. The wooden doors creak open and slam shut as Alzar crosses into the courtyard.

46/51

A narrow path winds around the giant lion, which towers up into the sky. He chooses to move towards the south flank of the creature. Rising from the rear left leg is a 35 foot tower. He can see arrow slits from the tower and the lion as well. Somehow, one can enter it proper. Alzar lacks means of heading to the top of the Tower, so instead he turns and moves to the north flank from here. Again, there is a tower here, and no entry to be seen. Alzar continues to move around the Lion when suddenly he hears noise from some bushes, and out springs a poisonous viper!

It has 9 hp. Alzar is able to fling a spear at it before combat begins. He is fighting as a level 7 myrmidon with proficiency, against a creature with just a 6 AC. He only needs an 8 on a d20 to hit, and he does for two damage. The viper arrives and wins init. Because Alzar has no armor, he only has an armor class of 8 (minus 2 for using a one handed weapon). The viper needs an 11 to bite Alzar, but it misses. Alzar follows with a stab and misses. It attacks and bites Alzar. He loses 3 hp and makes his save vs poison. Alzar stabs it for 3 more damage and it misses. They both miss. It bites him again after winning initiative and Alzar takes 1 damage, fails his poison save, and takes 10% of his max hp in damage rounded up. He stabs out and finishes the snake.

36/51

[Abe Sargent]

After battle, Alzar grabs the viper and lays it out. It is a poisonous viper that he fails to recognize. He could extract poison sacs, cut out the meat for food, perhaps even sell the skin, so he sets it aside for now. He continues around the lion and arrives at the front paws.

The paws appear to protect an entrance into the structure. Back behind it is another raised portcullis and Alzar moves in. Expecting more traps, Alzar steps in gently, but that does not stop a glowing arrow from flying from an arrow slit and nailing him for 4 more damage. As Alzar advances further, two streams of molten lead pour from above from the lion’s nostrils. He saves and dodges them and takes no additional damage and plunges on. Again, stones follow, and Alzar fails this save, and takes 1 more damage. The portcullis falls as Alzar finally reaches it, and expecting this, he dodges under it and is in the building as it slams shut. Alzar sees more murder holes and runs under them and escapes the expected rocks. He has now left the entrance to the building.


31/51

The dark hallway begins to form as Alzar’s eyes adjust to the limited light trickling in from outside. The hallway is about 5 feet wide and roughly 80 feet long. Alzar moves along it and grabs some soiled cloth and wraps it around one of his spears. After working for a few minutes, he makes fire with a bow and tinder he packed away yesterday and has a makeshift torch. There are numerous things of interest here. There are two sets of stairs heading up, one in the southwest and the other the northwest of the lion. There are also five doors, all with what appear to be labels on them, but Alzar cannot read the language. Alzar’s basic rule is in effect, usually work on fully exploring one floor at a time.

[sterlingice]

"And Alzar dies before even entering the castle" /reroll character/

SI

[Abe Sargent]

Lol!

[Abe Sargent]

He takes the first door on the right, really a pair of double doors. It opens into a large stables, He briefly explores but finds nothing of interest. The next door on the right is pushed open. This opens into a kitchen roughly 20 by 12 feet. A few utensils and pans lay everywhere and Alzar spots a large silver kitchen knife on the floor. He tests it and sees it would be a good weapon and takes it. He kicks aside a few pans and checks a few places, but there is nothing else here of interest. He does light a fire in the fireplace in order to preserve his torch while searching here, and he manages some old kitchen oil to put in the rags and extend the life of his torch.

(Knives do 1d3/1d2 damage in combat).


He spots a down portcullis at the end of this hallway, but a quick search turns up nothing to open it. The first door on the left opens into a third staircase. He returns. The 4th door from this hallway is opened. This is a food storage area, roughly 12 by 15 feet. The room is empty. As Alzar closes the door, he hears a sound and turns. Coming down the hallway from the two stairs is a giant fire beetle. Alzar tosses the knife and misses badly. He grabs his spear and hits for no damage. It misses him. After three turns, it dealt 4 damage to Alzar and he killed it. Alzar cuts out the fire gland in the beetle to provide a source of light for his stay. This was a creature he recognized. There are some on this plane.

27/51

[sterlingice]

"And longtime character Alzar was nickel and dimed for health until he had a crit miss, slipped in a pan lying on the floor, bashed his head on a rock, falling unconscious. There he was attacked by a pair of mice who each hit him for 2 points of prone damage, ending his life in a most ignoble fashion."

SI

[Abe Sargent]

Yeah, that's he problem with early level mages. Even with the LARGE amount of hp he has, he's a bit squishy.

[Abe Sargent]

The final door is another double door, and it swings to reveal a small blacksmith. There is a 4th staircase in here, there is one in each haunch of the lion. Alzar inspects the smith. Many items are badly damaged, corroded or missing. He does find a nice smithy hammer that works as a mace and secures it with some old leather straps.

All four staircases lead both down and up. Normally Alzar heads up before down, because places like this can have extensive dungeons, but in this case, the above ground looks quite high and thorough, so he heads down. He arrives t the bottom and there are two doors, one northwest and the other southwest. He grabs the NW one. This is a tower room at the base of one of the towers. There is a well in here with a bucket tied to a frayed rope. Alzar explores the room and the well for a while, but nothing happens.

He heads back out and goes the other way. This room is a central corridor for the lower level of this building. There are double doors to the west, and another stair is here. Behind him is a wall, and back here should be where the other two stairs lead, so there appears to be at least two separate dungeon places. He spends some time searching for a secret door but find nothing. He moves to the double doors.

They open into a dark 45’ long hallway with four doors on two sides and another set of double doors on the end. At each door are words written down and on top are four images Alzar notes the symbols used, because he can identify the symbols. They are four large cats - lion, tiger, cheetah, and leopard. Alzar moves to the other double doors first, and this is a large unfinished basement area. In here are a pair of rock baboons who leap out and attack!


Alzar does not have time to fling a knife and his spear is up and ready, set for a charging baboon. It leaps at him, and he keeps the spear out, braced against his foot. He hits and doles out double damage and slays it, but took 3 from the charge. The other misses him. Twice Alzar fails to connect with the Baboon, but it smashes him for 4 with a club. Then Alzar brains it for 3 damage and follows with 5 and slays it.

Alzar moves to search the area and locates some pieces minted in silver and gold. Valuable minerals here too, it seems. He does not understand the languages or images on them, but it appears to be the same language as the words above. He also locates an oddly shaped ivory wand, with runes that are clearly magical on any plane. He finds one boot, and instead of wearing it cuts it with his knife. He carves a belt from the top to secure his items and the bottom laces to make a heavy belt pouch for the coinage he found.

56 gp
44 sp
Unknown Wand

20/51

[Abe Sargent]

He returns to the pathway. He takes the tiger and in here are three mummified tiger, in a nice burial chamber, each in a alcove on the other sides of the room without a door. Alzar searches, and discovers a topaz worth about 500 gp. Next is puma, with again, three leopards, mummified, with a 10 gp turquoise. The cheetah room is next with the same, as is the lion room.

Onyz, 50 gp
Turquiose, 10 gp
Garnet, 100 gp
Topaz, 500 gp

Alzar returns back up the stairs and takes the others down. He finds an unusually shaped weapon, a yataghan, on the staircase, and secures it. This guard-less blade is recurved back toward the user and has two different types of metal fused together.

He arrives at the other half of the basement. Its dark and disused, thick with cobwebs. This corridor curves into the staircase on the other side. Along it are six doors with both names and symbols. They are three coins, bottle, fish, grapes being pressed, shelves, and keg. Alzar heads into the three coin first. This dark empty room has the odor of old coins and metals, perhaps once a treasury, exchange, taxing office or mint. As Alzar steps around., a large scythe trap is sprung and slashes at him, but he makes his save and dodges.

[Abe Sargent]

The bottle door opens into an old wine cellar, with the racks all around. Alzar tries to take a bottle, but it hangs in midair silently, and won’t budge after being taken from the shelf. He has no way to open it or tie it down, so after a quick search, he leaves.

The fish is a smelly room that stinks up the hallway too. As Alzar enters, his light reveals a giant spider, who has made this room her home. She moves out and Alzar slams the door behind her. He is not sure whether or not she is poisonous, but he is badly wounded. She smashes the door a few times, but it holds with him securing it, and about fifteen minutes later, she has settled back down.

Alzar tries the grapes door. In here is an old, decayed wine press. A quick search turns up nothing else. The next door, the shelves, is a storage area, but its been mostly cleaned out. Empty crates and bags litter the area. It takes a while to search, and after finishing, Alzar finds a leather tube with a scroll inside. There are three Mage spells on the scroll. He chooses not to cast Read Magic to see what they are and to use them.

Mage Scroll – 3 unknown spells (Sleep, Web, Continual Light)

[Abe Sargent]

Last is the keg, and that opens into a brewery. There is a strong odor in here. As Alzar enters, something follows him into the room and he spins and engages a unknown large reptile of some sort. It is about five feet long and has six legs instead of four. He spear clangs off its scales. It snaps at him but misses. It wins init and slashes him for 4 damage. He fails his save it has a poison that makes him woozy. Alzar is at -1 to hit for the rest of the adventure. His spear is true and he smashes it for 1 damage. Both miss. Alzar hits for 4. The lizard adds another 2 damage . Alzar hits for nothing. Then both miss three times before Alzar finishes it.



16/51

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar finishes exploring this level and moves back to the first, and then up to the second level. This also opens onto six doors. He searches the rooms on this floor and they appear to be a butcher, mason, barber, baker, chef and master brewer’s rooms. He took 5 damage from two traps, but skipped past things like scissors. He did find a tray of new, fresh food and ate it.

As Alzar moves toward a pair of double doors, out burst a pair of large flying bats. Alzar’s knife actually manages to hit and pins one dead. The other chooses to fly away and leaves Alzar his slain quarry. He enters a large bedchamber, that was once richly decorated. All of the things in here are secured and cannot be taken or moved. A rough search turns up nothing. Alzar heads to the other end of the hallway and discovers he is actually on level 3, not level 2, by looking out of the jaw of the lion. The stairs must have skipped a level. He heads to the other stairs and down. He pops out on level 2 and a suit of chainmail hangs here. He grabs it and puts it on. He cannot cast spells with it on, but his AC drops to 3 with a one handed weapon. He skips taking a nearby shield. This is a large anteroom, and from the other staircase pops a bugbear, armed and ready for battle. It wields a shield, club, and rudimentary leather armor. Alzar misses with a knife and then crashes into it. The Bugbear needs a 14 to hit Alzar, and Alzar just needs a 9 to hit. After a few turns of bad odd,s Alzar finishes it off without taking any damage back.

The main value of this kill is that it is the first humanoid Alzar has found and slain. The boots are way too big, as are some other things. The club is converted into a backup torch. The clothes, leather, and other goods are turned into clothes for Alzar, including breeches, and a gold pouch with 22 bronze pieces in it.

22 bp

Only one set of double doors leaves this anteroom. It opens into a large guardroom. It has benches, tables, and a few bedrolls. It also has the windlass for the portcullis and triggers and reload points for various traps Alzar encountered on the first floor. He turns the windlass and opens the portcullis. As he does, something hears him, and the doors are opened a moment later. Out pops another bugbear. Alzar dispatches it in four turn, but took a club hit at max damage.

12/51

26 bp

[Abe Sargent]

After finishing up the second floor, Alzar heads back up and skips the third floor. He arrives at the top of each tower in turn, and then heads up the other stairs. Apparently, the fourth floor is reduced in size. The stairs lead into a large circular room with a few tables, and another stair in the center – a new one. Alzar searches around and finds a box with a ruby. Alzar reaches to grab it, and as he does, he arrives randomly in the stables on the 1st floor. He climbs back up

1000 gp Ruby

Alzar searches and finds a hidden door. Behind it is a laboratory, and Alzar’s eyes ignite as they look over the lab. Two braziers are lit and illuminate the room. Alzar is at the Lion’s eyes, and the two large red glittering crystals are stronger than the surrounding stone. He searches and sees that, although on the simpler side, the lab here would be good enough to meet his requirements here on the new plane through level 4.

[Abe Sargent]

He returns and heads up this new staircase. He arrives at the top of the head. Alzar throws open a trapdoor and emerges at a study. He hears a growling sound and something large pops from behind him. It is an ogre.

It weaves its way to Alzar and Alzar spends a quick second readying himself, and cannot throw a weapon. They clash together as the sound of weapons and armor mixes. The ogre strikes first and smashes with a war club and deals 5 damage. Alzar stabs out and misses with his spear. Then Alzar wins init and clangs on the Ogre but deals no damage The Ogre misses (the Ogre needs a 13 to connect). Alzar stabs him for 2 damage and he misses. The ogre wins back initiave and misses, while Alzar stabs out and misses as well (he would have hit, had he not been poisoned by that lizard). They both miss again, and then the ogre connects with 3 damage while Alzar doles out 4. Then Alzar retreats and moves down the stair. The ogre misses an attack of opportunity and begins to pursue. Faster in the narrow corridors, Alzar thows a few weapons at the ogre, a knife, a sword, and whatever he can. Finally, he is desperate as the ogre closes and throws his spear and redies the club. The spear strikes the ogre for 3 damage and he charges in. The ogre sweeps and misses Alzar, with a hefty penalty, still manages to smash it for 1 damage and slays it. He finds some minor coins on the body, but nothing else of interest.

52 gp


Alzar returns to the study.

4/51

[Izulde]

"And in today's ironic events, a Necromancer died and was made an undead servant to another Necromancer who wandered in after him."

[Abe Sargent]

Heh

[Abe Sargent]

The study is roughly 30’ round. It has books and shelves, plus four comfortable chairs. Alzar moves to search the room. The books that line the room appear to be in different languages, but Alzar cannot tell the topics. The furniture is too big for the trapdoor.

A ripple runs through the air. Alzar turns to see a presence gathering in the room. A swirling mass of dust and light gathers about two feet off the floor, and creating the form of an older, brown skinned gentleman. Alzar chooses to remain.

The ghost speaks to him in a language he understands. “You have done well. You have passed many tests, both seen and unseen to get here. If you came here hoping to become the heir of Sarathi the Sorcerer, congratulations. You already are. My castle’s treasures are transient ones of worldly value and fading magic. The true treasure is within. If you are ailing sleep on my bed. If you need light, seek out my lab. Go now, brave heir. Leave this place of death and decay forever. If you enter again, it will only cause you grief. I give you my ring as a sign that you are my rightful heir.”

A silver signet ring appears on Alzars finger with the head of a lion.



END ADVENTURE

[Tellistto]

Yay for fighter/mage combo's!

[Abe Sargent]

Or for having lots of HP! ;)

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar does not leave just yet. He heads to the bedroom and sleeps. After a long, dreamless sleep, he awakens without any damage, poison or disease.

This is the perfect quiet place to craft a new focus, and he has the perfect item. Alzar spends two weeks here, eating a few pieces of food he scrapes together, and crafting a new focus with the ring.

At the end, Sarathi’s Signet Ring is now Alzar’s new focus. He also cast Read Magic, and now has access to the scroll of three Mage spells. This leaves him with just four spells.

During this time, Alzar has taught himself a little of Hamedh Common, the common tongue of the plane of Hamedh. Alzar discovered a magical tome that went over all of the various differences between Hamedh and other planes.

[Abe Sargent]

Hamedh:

The alternate prime material plane of Hamedh is different in major ways from Thorasia. Magic is not as rife, and the nature of magic is somewhat different. The plane is also harder to breach when travelling, and there are some other changes as well.



Differences from Hamedh and Thorasia


1). Hamedh has a third type of magic, called Mentalism, which is very developed. This did not exist on Thorasia. There are Mentalists as a class.
2). Hamedh has a fourth type of magic as well. The practitioners are the Shi’ar class.
3). Thorasia saw resurrection magic as virtually impossible, but it’s easier to cast here, and thus a bit more common.
4). Hamedh is harder to conjure beings from outside the plane. Any attempt to do so is slower, and results in an upgrade to the next time unit. A spell that normally takes a few segments now takes a full round, a spell that took a round or three now takes a full turn, etc.
4b). One form of conjuring and planar travel is not negatively impacted, and that has led to the power and influence of the Shi’ar and those that follow this easy connection between Hamedh and the planes.
4c). Because of this, many ways of leaving the plane are locked off.
5). Extradimensional spaces, such as bags of Holding or spells which duplicate them (Rope Trick) are inert on Hamedh.
6). When more than one permanent magic item is worn at a time, a chance for miscibility occurs. The combination of magics may not work as planned. The likelihood of backfiring increases with the amount of permanent items worn. Each added item rolls on a chart to see if it works.
7). Magic spells may not be memorized more than once per day per spell. Thus, no mage can memorize two Sleeps. This does not affect Mentalism or Clerical magic.
8). Races and creatures on Hamedh are different than on Thorasia. Here we have traditional elves, dwarves, halflings, and more.
9). Hamedh has a more North African, Persian, Middle Eastern, Indian, Southeast Asian feel to it. Expect weapons, magic items, and some other accoutrements to follow styles in these areas.
10). Hamedh has a totally different set of gods and deities.
11). There is no one common tongue that is spoken throughout the land, but instead common regional languages.
12). A year in Thorasia is 283 days divided into seven day weeks and four week months. A year in Hamedh is 313 days long, and there is no unified calendar. Instead, different areas have different ways of tracking time.
13). Feldspar is inert, and does not have the magical properties it has on Thorasia.
14). Rhabdomancy does not exist on Thorasia, but it is alive and well on Hamedh.

[Abe Sargent]

(I actually did not know this adventure would come with a lab, library, and focus item. I totally ran it naked. Crazy)

Because Alzar cannot read the books, he cannot substitute Sarathi’s library for his own. (In reality, most of these books are just general knowledge, and not worth a lot.)


Total Accumulated Wealth:


Several nonmagical weapons and armor
Silver Knife
172 gp in coins
10, 50, 100, 500, 1000gp gems
Unidentified Wand (Of Paralyzation, 7 charges)
Scroll of Web, Continual Light, Sleep

Focus - Signet Ring
300 books on general knowledge, in several different languages – total value – 1600 gp
Workshop and lab – total value 4000 gp

Alzar needs to find a way to transport the items from here away, but to where? Several wandering monsters arrived and he had to fight them off, so they are coming from somewhere, but he cannot find any secret doors or portals or somesuch.

Alzar gained no XP for the adventure (Actually, the book was crazy. It was giving away Gauntlets of Ogre Strength or other massive items, said at the end the character should gain a level just for the adventure, and more. Go away Monte Hall!)

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar would have loved to have secured a magical spellbook. But considering the randomness of being on Hamedh for just a day and walking into a place where he could create a new focus, found lab equipment, and some books to begin a new library – its considerable. Most of Sarathi’s stuff had to have ben elsewhere. The power required to build a large lion shaped castle, run it, and devise some of the magical items within far exceeds the modest lab, library, and treasure discovered.

Alzar spends some time looking around and scouting the area while he is working on the focus. A nice vantage point from the castle revealed the nearby area. He spots a town about six hours distant and downriver. One day, after finishing his focus, he moves to it and introduces himself. He is beginning to learn the local language after encountering it in the lion/castle.

Alzar trades his gems, worth 1660 gp, for the following:

1). Several sets of clothes that fit him properly
2). Three wagons, and numerous steeds to carry them, plus extra.
3). A full set of armor and two battle axes.
4). A variety of equipment such as food, nets, rope, and other various items

[Abe Sargent]

WG11. Puppets


http://media.trollandtoad.com/products/pictures/133387.jpg


This 1989 module is actually two tournament modules stuck together to make one big one. I am moving this module up because I want to use it to springboard some other modules. I initially wanted to run Eye of the Serpent now, but it begins with a very heavy handed “A Roc picks you up and drops you off (safely) in its nest way up in the mountains. Now you have to get back down!” I tend not to be a fan of such plot elements unless they are needed for the story, (which I did with Alzar).

[Abe Sargent]

There are no mages in the area, the town is quite small, roughly 1100 people. However, it is the only major area of trading and transportation in the area. It is known for syrup and trapping, and several outposts surround the town that secure the raw materials for these enterprises. While in town, a merchant named Jandabad who has purchased some textiles and building tools is ready to return to a medium sized city, Arjuna, of about 40,000 people on the other side of the mountains. He will be heading through the woods, up the mountain chain, and the over the pass and thence to the other side. There are some bandits and creatures along the route. He offers to pay Alzar 5 gp a day to guard his caravan. This is a perfect opportunity to get to civilization where Alzar can acquire a spellbook and library.

He has time to head back to the castle, bring out lab equipment and books for two wagons, and then move back to town. They leave a few days later. In their troop are four other fighters as guard, Marilla, a human priestess who is quite good, several other merchants and servants, a family, and a sailor who washed up down river from an accident and is returning home.

[Abe Sargent]

The journey up and over the mountains is supposed to take about two weeks. Of course, with weather and more, it can be a bit difficult. Alzar spends the first few days finishing up his understanding of the local language, and he has a decent proficiency with it. Enough to make sentences, and know normal topics of conversation. He does not know obscure words or have a deep vocabulary. He also has a decidedly Thorasian accent, which no one can identify.

After a few days, the forest thickens and Alzar moves out. Good territory for an attack or ambush. Just as he does, arrows fly out. They mostly miss everyone. Then more follow and two people have been stuck. Alzar orders the fighters forward and the others to take cover. Marilla moves to heal some wounded. He moves up and takes an arrow to the shoulder for 4 damage. He carves out a hedge and opens up line of sight to the archers up on a hill. In front of them are about 10 bandits, and behind them, 10 archers.

More arrows fly at the caravan as the bandits move to face Alzar. Soon Alzar’s reinforcements arrive. As he moves to engage, he hears noise from the camp as arrows begin to come from another direction. He is surrounded by bandits and has to focus on them.

Ten minutes later and Alzar has taken quite a few hits, but his axe mastery has carved up 11 bandits and the rest fled. All of the fighters have died. He turns back and moves to the caravan, but it is a disaster. Arjuna’s head was pierced by three arrows, and his body is a pincushion. Almost everyone else has died as well. Marilla long since ran out of healing magic. The only ones to survive were Marilla, Alzar, and an unconscious boy about nine years of age from the family. The boy was hurt. The bandits tried to stay clear of hitting the animals – they are worth money. Just two horses and an ox died. Two more broke free. All of the other steeds of various sorts are still here.

[Abe Sargent]

Marilla moves into a position of authority. She orders Alzar to collect Jandabad’s things. They will continue on to Arjuna, sell his things, and then donate them to her church, which Jandabad also followed. The bandits fled to the southwest, toward the town, so they are behind them. There are at least 15 bandits still alive. It is smarter to press on ahead, rather than return the way they came.

Alzar searches the bodies of the dead bandits and collects a small amount of coin, weapons, food, water, and other assorted items. There is little of real value. He also gathers the items of the dead and brings them along too. All told, there are about 250 gp worth of coins of various sorts.


Marilla, Priestess of Khshathra, God of the Perfect Society, Lawful Good, Level 9

Str: 13
Int: 18
Wis: 16
Dex: 12
Con: 14
Chr: 17

AC: 0
THAC0 – 12 with +3 mace
Hit Points 42

Has several powerful magic items, including Bracers of Defense: AC 2 and a +3 mace. She also has a handful of trombashes. (These are a type of throwing stick with a upturned end and a sharpened striking edge, often made of metal – 1d6/1d4 damage when thrown A simple google search will reveal much – feel free to google the name of the God too). Her normally memorized list of spells include a lot of healing magic

[Abe Sargent]

They load everything up and move on. After two days of travel, they arrive at the foothills of the local mountain chain, the Legs of Heaven. All of the sudden, a creature flies out of the hills, a roc, and grabs a donkey and carries it off for food. Luckily, that donkey was just loaded with food and water, and with just the two of them, there is very little need to eat the large amount f food and water they have.

After a few hours, Alzar sees that the upcoming passage has been cut off. Either intentionally or accidentally, an avalanche fell across the pass and is untraversable. Scouting shows there are no ways over or around it. However, the map Alzar found of the area shows a nearby glen with a few homes and lighter woods. There might be a route through the glen and over the ridge.

Marilla and Alzar move the caravan off and enter the road to the glen.

[Abe Sargent]

UK5. Eye of the Serpent


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/37/UK5_TSR9125_Eye_of_the_Serpent.jpg/250px-UK5_TSR9125_Eye_of_the_Serpent.jpg


This 1984 adventure is both designed for one character and a small party of level one folks. (Which is crazy. You have to face a serious group of powerful foes. First level party my ass! You’ll see..) (We’ll also be adding two more adventures into this one, and then wrapping this up and continuing Puppets.

[Abe Sargent]

The path to the glen narrows quite a bit just a few hundred yards inside the walkway. It gets less than ten feet wide at the narrowest point and holds this for about forty yards. The caravan slows down to make it and they hear a voice from ahead. Soon,six men with crossbows move into the path, and then verify that we are not bandits, and let us continue.

Alzar meets with the men after a few minutes and learns about the area they are heading into. There is a valley down here among the mountains, separate from the rest of the area. It goes on for miles, and eventually, there is a path over the mountain.

There is a mage in the area, a half-elf named Garinda. He is a rhabdomere. Alzar asks what that is, and they look at him as if he is silly for asking. He’s a hedge mage who helps everyone in the area. We all help ourselves out here. Alzar obtains instructions to Garinda’s home and the caravan meanders through the narrows part of the trail, and then picks up speed again.

Two hours pass before the path opens up, and Alzar gets his first glimpse of the valley below. The path they are on continues for a few miles, and then the area widens and there is what appears to be a frozen lake in the middle. It’s not that cold – what is happening with that? The path continues and descends and there are a series of plateaus and paths that lead down into a large lush valley, and a meandering river heads from the valley out the other side miles and miles away. That is the exit.

http://oi48.tinypic.com/sevu3o.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

As they descend, they path begins to become more difficult to pass. Te angle is a little rough, so they pause to lash the animals together to help get things through safely. As they do, from out of the rocks bursts an unusual looking creature. It swam through the dir like a fish through water, and left no hole behind it. Marilla shouts out that it is a Vilstrak, and to be careful, but it is an unusual creature Alzar has never heard of or seen before.

http://www.benzilla.com/uploads/2012/03/vilstrak.jpg


Alzar runs to it, grabbing his axe. With a high AC, it is hard to hit and Alzar’s axe merely rattles off its rock-like exterior. Marilla’s trombash misses. The Vilstrak attacks with two heavy punches, and smashes Alzar once for 6 damage. It wins init, but misses. Alzar crashes it for 9 damage with the extra damage from his weapon mastery and strength. It falls down, and Marilla uses the opportunity to thwack it for 4 damage with a trombash that whistles in and finishes it.

There is no chance to follow the dead creature back to its lair (in reality, the module lets you, and there is a magic shield there. In reality, the 6 foot tall creature had 4 hp, so that’s stupid too. A 4 hp creature in a module for 1st level characters should not have a +1 shield in the FIRST ENCOUNTER IN THE MODULE. Wtf is wrong with these people?)

[Abe Sargent]

They continue on. Hours pass and they near the entrance to the upper lake area. A patch of white suddenly seems to be more than it is and a snow mountain lion rushes after the caravan. It must be really hungry to risk this. Alzar flings a knife and it and a trombash flies in from Marilla. The long range weaponry does not hit the swiftly moving cat but it does scare it off.

It’s almost evening. At the opening to the plateau and the icy lake are a handful of buildings, all of which are homes for various people who work here. This is the location of the rhabdomere. Alzar pulls over the caravan for the night, and Marilla begins to make camp while he moves on to the house of the local mage.

Alzar arrives at the house. It’s the largest one here, and it has at least three floors of local stone. Outside brushing the area is a young lady, probably 14. She sees Alzar and stops and approaches. She announces herself as an apprentice to Garinda. Alzar asks if Garinda is busy, and she goes in to check. In a few moments she returns and beckons Alzar to follow.

[Abe Sargent]

He ducks his head and enters the building. Garinda is a tiny wizened old half-elf centuries old, probably four feet and six inches on a good day. He pounds a table with considerable strength for his body as a way to motion Alzar to sit down. He beams a smile at Alzar.

Alzar can sense a lot of power from this man and eagerly sits down. After introductions, he explains where he came from, and what happened to him. Garinda listens, and then pauses for a few minutes. Garinda then speaks with a deep voice. “And now you would like my help.”

“If you can offer it, yes.”

“It just so happens that I can. I managed to procure a spellbook from an dying apprentice who risked the northern path to cross the mountain and failed. It has just two spells, and I already knew them both. I knew its value and kept it. I would be willing to let it go, if you have something to offer for it.”

Alzar reaches into his belt and pulls out the unidentified wand and hands it over.

“Ah yes,” Garinda says. He stands up and reaches for a forked branch that has been finely carved and polished. He spends a few minutes with it, and then looks up. “It’s a wand that will paralyze a target when used. It can be used six times safely, but on the seventh it will be destroyed after it s use.”

Alzar looks up, suddenly ignoring the spellbook. “Is the stick you used magical?

“This old thing? No, it’s just hickory.” Alzar inquires and Garinda tells him about the nature of being a rhabdomere. They use these rods to enhance their divination work. Apparently, rhabdomeres are quite common on Hamedh, because Alzar has never heard of them on Thorasia, and this is a branch of magic that would really interest him.

Absorbed by the potential for knowledge, he asks to be an apprentice of Garinda for a year. At the end, he would understand rhabdomancy quite well, and he will have helped out Garinda too. Normally on this world, apprentices bring a item of worth to the mage in order to pay for being an apprentice. Alzar offers the scroll with the Web spell on it, wanting to keep the Continual Light and Sleep for his new spellbook. “I have many scrolls of Web, plus it’s not really a spell I fancy.”

They head out and look through the items Alzar took from the castle. Garinda looks over the books and agrees to apprentice Alzar in exchange for the 350 books he took from Sarathi’s leonine keep. While Alzar loves books, and would normally want to keep them, he can’t read most of them, and needs this, so he agrees.

[Abe Sargent]

He goes outside to tell Marilla, and she agrees to continue with the caravan. Alzar keeps the things he brought with him, and two days later Marilla joins a group of soldiers heading down into the depths of the valley and continues on to the city.

Meanwhile, Alzar’s personal wagon becomes his new home, and he sets it up as his bedroom for the next year.

For that year, Garinda instructs Alzar in many ways. Meanwhile, Alzar and the other mages help the people of the valley, as well as travelers find lost objects, new veins of ore to mine, locate predators, and once to find a missing child. Since Garinda usually charges for this, he gets paid from people who need to find something.

Meanwhile, Alzar becomes very intimate with the valley here. The ice lake is iced year round, because there is a portal to the Para-Elemental Plane of Ice at the bottom, and occasionally an ice creature will come through. Portals here are quite rare, because of the nature of Hamedh, and Alzar wishes he could survive on the Ice Plane, because he would head out and then plane step back to Thorasia.

Alzar has gained a significant amount of knowledge and understanding about rhabomancy. While he has not changed into a rhabdomere specialist wizard from the Fivefold Path to Power, he has gained a much deeper understanding of the foundation of the Path, divination. He has met diviners on Thorasia, but none had the skill and expertise of Garinda and two other high level rhabdomere’s he met. Knowledge is the foundation of power.

And Alzar has gained it considerably. Due to his high intelligence (21), he aced the concepts quickly and blazed through it (remember, he looks 20, so people think he is young)

[Abe Sargent]

After his year, Alzar has the following in his spellbook (It came with Read Magic and Detect Magic):



Level 1:

Comprehend Languages
Craft Divining Rod
Detect Magic
Identify
Read Magic
Sleep


Level 2:

Continual Light
Locate Object


Level 3:

Lesser Rhabdomancy

[Abe Sargent]

He has gained the Dowsing non-weapon proficiency. This allows him to use a divining rod. It enables him to interpret the finer points of the tugging and twitching of the rod. For example, Alzar can tell how strong a vein of gold that he discovers with the rod will be with this proficiency. He can also try a proficiency check to break through barriers (such as lead) when using a downing rod. It won’t work for general scrying, just for when using the Rod.

Alzar has crafted a pair of Divining Rods, one to use normally, and the other for backup. He takes great care of them, and oils, polishes, and carves them.

The Lesser Rhabdomancy spell is a more powerful version of the Locate Object spell. This can be used to divine for people, locations, creatures, and other things.

If Alzar were a rhabdomere, his divination spells would become more potent. For example, a simple Detect Magic will also reveal an item’s identity 20% of the time. But Alzar is not a specialist mage.

However, the combination of training, the skill, the spell, and the right Rod means that any divination spell Alzar goes to cast will not need material components beyond the Rod itself if it just is trying to get information about something nearby (spells such as Contact other Plane are not Rod-able). So Detect Magic, Identify, Locate Object, and more require no physical component because Alzar is instead using the rod.

Over the year Alzar gains 1250 XP for casting spells, crafting rods, learning a new NWP and other things.


(6350 for him – needs 10000 to be at level 4)


(Alzar is now 55 but looks 21)

[Abe Sargent]

With his focus, he can cast spells, so he is alright there. He has no benefits from his specialization kept away from a library and lab. He still needs a library. Since he does not have class benefits, he can only memorize three spells daily.

Sleep, divination spell as needed, and Locate Object tend to be the ones he memorizes. He was forced to cast the spells he knew long ago (Ray of Ondovir, Empathic Control, etc).

[Abe Sargent]

After one year, Alzar is ready to continue. He says goodbye to his master, Garinda, and moves the wagons and steeds down the path. This path can be dangerous, so he is in full armor and axe, instead of his mage robes. He passes the iced lake and moves to the path to the lower plateau. Before beginning, Alzar sets up camp for the night.

Luckily, nothing disturbs him at night. The morning sun comes and Alzar is ready to head down the path. This one is wider and not that dangerous. The descent is gradual. During the nine hour trek down this road, the day moves on. Alzar passes a herd of Musk Ox quietly on the left and everything is relatively quiet.

[Abe Sargent]

As he arrives at the second plateau, the vista is warmed by the older day. A river cascades from the plateau above and several streams create a large lake, which is not frozen like the one above. Alzar beds down here for tonight, and after dark, he hears a scraping against the rocks. He leaves the wagons and steps out.

After a moment, he spies a giant snake, which is going into its den for the night. Alzar now has more information about this area. It’s a non-poisonous snake, and just sticks to smaller animals like rabbits and foxes and this six legged rodent that resembles a raccoon in coloration that is not on Thorasia, but it is called a Gamett. He lets it be and heads back to bed.

[Abe Sargent]

Another morning arrives, this time under serious cloud cover. It looks like rain. He arrives at the lake a few hours later, and it is quite warm. There are several geysers here that feed it, and it is warmer than one would expect. There is actually a cave to the left that Alzar has never explored. It used to be an old mine, but it ran out of silver and iron, and no other valuable ores were detected. It has not been used for decades.

Alzar decides to head over and check it out. In front of the cave is the most reliable of the geysers, and it usually goes off every 50 minutes or so. It regularly is a bit slower or faster, but about 50 minutes. Alzar sees it go off twice before he arrives at the mine. He scouts out the area and sees that there is an opening that is partially collapsed from the moisture of the geyser. He slips in and pulls out a stone with Continual Light on it so that he can make out the mine. As he reveals the light, he notices a hissing sound and turns. Here is a steam mephit, enjoying the warm geysers. (Alzar cannot attempt to control it, he does not have the powers of a Path mage, instead he is just a mage with the hindrances of the Path Mage (can’t memorize more than one non-Path spell per level, for example).

Steam mephits are the annoying nasty tricksters of the mephit world. There nothing like the loyal and clever mephit that Dryshik is/was. It floats up lazily and blinks at Alzar, and then speaks an outer plane tongue Alzar understands. It is here enjoying the geyser, and trying to undermine the celing above, where there is an ice mephit guarding a remorhaz egg. It uses its boiling rain to weaken the ceiling. Alzar moves over and hacks at the ceiling a few times to advance the steam’s plot. The steam mephit tells Alzar that there is a nasty little water ghoul in the next area, and Alzar then moves deeper into the mine.

[Abe Sargent]

After fifty feet, there is a clear pool, and the rest of the mine has collapsed past it. Alzar suspects the pool as the home of a lacedon, or a water based ghoul. He approaches it carefully. He lobs the continual light pebble onto the beach to light things up, and detects movement. In a few seconds, a lacedon begins to emerge from the water, looking hungry and angry at being disturbed. Alzar feels that familiar sensation, but he cannot control this creature.

A knife misses it, and melee range is reached. These things are nasty. They have three attacks – two claws and a bite. Any of them can paralyze their target, and Alzar has no immunity. It needs a 17 to crack Alzar’s armor though. If it does, Alzar needs an 11 or higher to keep himself un-paralyzed and free. On the other hand, Alzar needs just a 5 to connect with the ghoul, will dole out 1d8 hp if he does, and he gets 3 attacks every 2 rounds with his axe of dervish death.

The ghoul wins init. It rolls a 6. 3 and 17. Connection. It bites Alzar’s left hand for 1 damage, but that scratch is enough to force a save. Alzar rolls a 17 back and saves. Alzar rolls a 3 and misses. He wins init and attacks with the axe. He rolls a 9 and an 11. He carves it twice for 19 damage and it dies.

[Abe Sargent]

The pool is clear enough that Alzar can see the items at the bottom. He jumps into the warm water after stripping off his armor and gathers them up – the water is about 9 feet deep. There is a rusted scabbard that fell apart when Alzar grabbed it, but an untouched and beautiful pesh-kabz (Kyber Knife). It has a beautifully polished agate handle and acts as a dagger in battle save it is 1d4/1d4 instead of 1d4/1d3. (the second number is damage against large creature, like giants). The pesh-kabz is giving off clear signals of being magical, with the untouched blade. There are also various coins here, probably worth about 100 gp total.

He returns past the steam mephit, tosses the head of the ghoul at it and it dodges and chuckles. Alzar leaves the mine and heads back to the path. This detour basically cost him a day, so he sets up camp at the end of the hill. He has memorized Detect Magic today, and as expected, the knife glows. He’ll memorize Identify tomorrow to discover what it is.

Again, no major disturbances hinder his sleep. In the morning he memorizes Identify, then casts it. He has acquired a +1 Pesh-kabz. He has Sleep and Locate Object for the day as his other spells. (He can’t memorize Sleep twice a day on Hamedh)

[Abe Sargent]

Two days see Alzar cross the second plateau. He fights off a griffon that flies in, but nothing else disturbs him. On his last night here, a pack of wolves surround his camp and want a horse or donkey or oxen, but Alzar’s well thrown silver kitchen knife hits the eye of one and they retreat.


There are four routes off the second plateau and into the dale below. One is to ride the waterfall down the cliff, but that’s not really feasible. The second is to take one of the safer, meandering paths down the mountainside side to the left and right. The final is a steep path that parallels the waterfall and is quick and dirty.

With his wagons, he chooses a long, safe path. He has used them all before, and he thinks the left path is the best change, because it skips the odd grotto of bones that several creatures call home. The geyser lake falls and collects into a larger lake in the dale, which creates a winding river that looks like a serpent. Far off in the distance Alzar can just make out the shape of an island in the middle that looks like an eye in the serpent. There is also a small island in the lake below that can be reached by a long dirt walkway of sorts that has been braced by wooden supports. That island is used as a dock by locals for fishing.

One day later, the path begins to curve, and out fly a flock of 7 blood hawks. These Hamedhi species are so called because they are carnivorous and will feed on larger animals, like cattle or horses. They begin to circle Alzar and then one dives in and other follows from an opposite angle. Alzar’s axe snaps up and cleaves one in half. The others stop and move to it and begin to eat their former co-hunter. Alzar leaves them to their cannibalistic meal and moves on.

[Abe Sargent]

The rain is now pouring and one of the wagons bogs down. He spends the better part of a day just going one mile. He can’t go further and just holes up for two day awaiting the end of the storm and the path improving.

Near the end of day six, one of his donkeys twists a leg. It is badly wounded, and he is unhooking it now, and transfers over the goods it was carrying. He will leave it here, and then if a healer is available, they can come and mend it. He is about one day’s journey from the local village here. About a half hour later, he hears a large cry of fear come from the donkey and hurries back to investigate. Soon cries of pain echo in the pathway.

As he nears, he sees the corpse of his donkey being chewed on by large cave bear, with her three cubs just off to the side. They clearly thought the downed donkey was a perfect meal. He leaves them be and returns.


Alzar lands near the end of the path and camps for the night. The trip has been a lot longer than anticipated. In the morning he makes his meal, gathers his things, and moves out. About a half hour later the final bend in the road arrives, and he can see the valley stretched out below.


What he sees shocks him

[Abe Sargent]

N2. The Forest Oracle


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/31/N2_The_Forest_Oracle.jpg


This 1984 module is the next in the line that began with N1. Against the Cult of the Reptile God, written by Doug Niles. The N designates a module for newer players. N4 and N5 are expensive and hard to find and I don’t have them. But I do have N3 and hope to run it soon. In order to run this, we are going to smash the plot of this and Eye of the Serpent together, and say that both valleys are the same, and that the incident in question just happened, instead of a while ago. (I am also modifying some people. Garinda replaces the generic mage in this story, and a certain priestess replaces the random druid.) (We’ll be sort of ping-ponging encounters and people and plot between these two modules for a while)

[Abe Sargent]

As Alzar glimpses the valley, a huge change has settled over it. It has been six days and seven nights since he saw it. Leaves have browned and are falling on a massive scale. The brown soil has taken a grey tinge. The grass has yellowed. There is a smell of decay on the wind.

Alzar orders his group into the valley and they push into the area. The soil is dried up, as if no rain had fallen here in weeks, yet a heavy deluge just occurred. He plunges on and arrives at a nearby village of about 140 people. He pulls into a tavern/inn/meeting place and unloads at the Happy Farmer establishment. This is a small country place with just a handful of rooms, one barmaid and one bartender, plus the owner is the chef.

He pulls in and finds that others are already here. He pushes into the crowded space and there is a hush over the room as people are discussing what is happening. Garinda has arrived just a few hours ago, and has used his magic to determine the source.

“It seems that a curse has been laid on the valley, but not the rest of this area. It was delivered five days ago by an ancient witch who had lived here more than a century ago. She was harassed by the people of this valley as a child, and that stayed with her in her whole life. She was a bitter old woman to her death five days ago. As she died, her dying wish was a curse on the place that treated her unkindly all of those years ago. The death wish of a person of power can be an incredible thing, as you can see. In just five days, the valley had begun to rot, just as she decayed for decades before passing.”


“Now that we know what the problem is, you can fix it, right?” The speaker was Delonna, a local miller, and often spokeswoman of the village. There was no official government.

“Unfortunately, my magic cannot heal this place. We need something more, something powerful. But my magic has told me who’s aid we need.”

“Let me guess.”Alzar speaks up

“Right on queue. It’s Marilla, the priestess who passed by this way last year. Her deity specializes in ideal societies, and has the power to fix this. She likely has the right magic and everything.”

“And where is she now?” Someone in the crowd asked.

“It’s a long trek through the mountains on the east tunnels, and on the other side.”

[Abe Sargent]

The east tunnels are not the path to the city Alzar was expecting to take that go over the mountains, but instead go underneath a peak and continue up into a much smaller vale on the other side. He has not been that way before though.

Garinda turns to Alzar and asks that he go and procure aid from Marilla. He agrees. It is almost evening, so he stays the night in the Happy Farmer before setting out the following day.

Alzar leaves behind most of his things. It’s not like he suspects to run into a random library on the way and will wish for his lab. Instead he is just going to take one horse, food and drink, a basic set of supplies, and his normal items. On horseback, it should take about six days to reach the tunnels.

[Abe Sargent]

As he does he passes a small marsh to the northwest of the lake here. Soon Alzar hears a croaking sounds, and about a half dozen or so reptilian creatures come out from one side of the road. They try to squirt jets of muddy water at the head , and hopefully eyes, of Alzar and his steed. He pulls forward and then jumps off (takes one damage from the fall) and his axe is out. These medium sized lizards are around 2-3 feet tall. He slays two easily and the other rush into the brush. The ash tree they were resting on is their home, with many chewed up bones. Alzar recognizes a pole with a standard of a lizard man on it and knows the owner -it’s Swilbosh, a lizard man who lives on the island on the lake and runs the small dock there. He gathers it up and takes it back to Swilbosh and then returns to his course. It takes about six hours to deviate from the journey. Swilbosh likes to carve creatures in the valley on top of walking sticks, and that was one of the Muckdwellers that Alzar just defeated. Swilbosh trades Alzar a fine flask of high quality lizard man made liquor which is made from a local gourd.


Two days into his journey, Alzar runs into a hunting party that has come deep into the area, after losing food from father away. It is a hobgoblin, three goblins, and three hunting dogs. They are chasing a stag that just darted past.

Alzar holds up and waves them down. They stop and speak the local dialect. They live in another abandoned mine up the road about a day. They live by themselves and don’t really hurt anyone, so no one bothers them. Alzar greets them and they discuss things for a bit with the trio o’ goblins while the hobgoblin continues to chase the great hart. The valley is decaying where they are as well, and they have seen few creatures for food, so they are foraging far away. Alzar and the goblins part ways and he moves on.


One of the things that Alzar has noticed about this area of Hamedh is that really has a under-swell of Live and Let Live. There are few places in Thorasia where a good village and area of mixed humanoids lie half-elves, dwarves and humans would let goblins live nearby knowingly. It seems like there is less anti-evil or perhaps anti-humanoid evil prejudice here. Swilbosh, the lizardman does not seem evil, but these goblins certainly were. Every joke they told was about torture or killing. But they keep out of people’s way and don’t bother them.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar arrives at the place where the snaking river busts out of the valley and continues, but instead, he heads for a section of tunnel. There are a few days of woods between here and there though, and he’s heard stories about how dangerous this area can be.

As he continues a group of seven men move onto the path he is traveling and five raise crossbows. They call out to him to stop and give them money in order to pass. He agrees, and stops the horse. Slowly he takes off his armor, and they wonder what he s doing. “You want my armor too, right?” “Umm…sure!”

He then bends down to pick up some sand and casts Sleep. Five of the seven drop asleep. Both of the two still awake are hold crossbows at range. They both fire and Alzar takes 3 damage from a bolt. Then his staff is down and he charges them with it whirling about him. He fights as a Mage. He takes 11 damage from one’s scimitar before finishing him. The other has fled and is too far away to chase. Alzar takes a blade and kills the sleeping bandits save for one, who he ties up and smacks awake.

Unfortunately, Alzar has lost the ability to use ESP once a week that he gained while at Castle d’Amberville. But he is still pretty good at intimidation and torture. He tells Alzar where their hide-out is. It has about seven people still here, and the other one ran towards it. It’s miles away, so Alzar decides to bed down for the night with the bandit tied up and in Alzar’s bedroll by the campfire while Alzar is perched above, keeping watch in case someone shows up.

[Abe Sargent]

They do not. Alzar relearns Sleep, prepares a different second level spell and heads out. He has gathered the useful items from the dead bandits but has no wagon to store them in. He secures them in a hidden location in case he wants them later (and to hide them from the bandits). They bandit and Alzar head out to their camp. As they near, they see a camp with four huts and several guards. They have been alerted to Alzar’s presence. The one who escaped is their leader, and both him and his second in command are running the camp. That makes eight people to deal with. Alzar moves in. They have covered all access points. Normally, he could sneak in, but not with them alerted.

He walks calmly up the front, dragging the living bandit with him. The leader smiles and walks out to meet him. “Leave him, and he will be your toll, and you can walk free.”

That’s not a bad deal. If these were someone he could trust to keep their word, like orcs, then he might do it. But they aren’t. He hasn’t seen one thing that would imply they wouldn’t hunt him down or fire arrows at him. Seeing his hesitation, the leader orders his men to fire on Alzar and begins to backpedal. Two bolts have let go before his Sleep has let his lips, and he takes another 4 damage. This time four people fall asleep, leaving the two leaders and two others awake.

Then Alzar wins initiative and casts Continual Light at the eyes of the lead bandit. It works and the bandit is now permanently blinded. And a torch for everyone. Another bolt smashes into Alzar for 1 damage the leader screams out and falls. The second in command rushes up to her leader and bends down and grabs something from his belt.

They win init back. She grabs the potion bottle and drinks it. She turns into a gaseous form and starts floating away. Smart. With one leader blinded, the other fleeing, the other two drop their crossbows and begin to run post haste. Alzar lets them and easily defeats the leader, capturing him and slaying the others.

He uses the leader to tell him about any traps or information on the camp. After learning about the nearby area, and the camp, he slays both the leader and the surviving bandit. Just before he does the bandit cries out that Alzar promised to keep him alive. To which Alzar replied, “Actually, no I didn’t…”

(For actually winning a battle as a mage, Alzar gets full XP for this encounter – 300 XP + his normal 10% bonus for being super smart, so 330 in all)

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar then searches the camp and finds the following items:

Silver Ring, Bracelet, Necklace set – worth 750 gp as a set
Wine Barrel holding 5000 CP
Gem - 150 gp
Small Chest with 1000 cp – it was trapped, but Alzar learned how to bypass it with the leader’s info
750 sp
Various weapons, items, bedrolls, and so forth.


Alzar takes the best crossbow and 50 bolts. He actually knows how to use it and is quite happy to add another long range weapon to his repertoire. Alzar leaves behind the CP and again secures it in a private place. He takes the gem, set of jewelry, silver pieces. There are a few goats here in a corral. He knows of a village up ahead, so he takes the goats. Rather them be with him and used somewhere then set free and perhaps slain by random predators.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar camps at the bandit camp and the next day sets out. In a few hours, his route passes by a lovely sylvan setting, which is unusual in a place reeling from a death curse by a witch. His interest piqued, Alzar gallops over to take a look. There is a small lake here, and everything is very quiet. There are beautiful flowers and trees that spark the interest and attention. A dead dear lays right by the lake, and looks fresh. Suspecting poison, Alzar steps down and uses his poison use proficiency. No, not poison. And the deer is not dead.

Just in a deep sleep. It is barely breathing, but it is there. That’s odd. His spellcraft proficiency suggest it has been put to Sleep as per the spell. He spends a round waking the deer up and it groggily rises, and then moves back out. Odd. Then Alzar notes other things asleep by the lake, such as insects and a spider. He grabs a flask of water and empties it and, without touching the lake, fills the flask with lake-water.

A bit south Alzar notices a pavilion and heads toward it. It’s a simple square structure with curtains and two doors, one in the water of the lake. Alzar chooses the other door, the front. He knocks, and there is no answer. He checks and it is unlocked. Curiosity engaged, he moves in.

[Abe Sargent]

There is gentle breathing inside. Sunlight reveals a young man sleeping on a bed. The pavilion has a fireplace, two chairs and a table, and various other typical sundries. The man does not awaken as Alzar walks in. His spellcraft proficiency again tells him this is a Sleep spell, and he wakens the man.

The forester wakens, and spends a few minutes gathering his thoughts. He is out here gathering wood, and he fell in love with a nearby nymph. The two of them began a romance here by the lake, and then she apparently got jealous and cast a sleep enchantment on the lake itself. At this, she appears and apologizes. She gives Evan an antidote for the lake and the two make up. Alzar leaves. Mystery solved – the nature powers of the nymph allow her to keep this small area at bay from the curse.

Alzar spends another day moving down the path and things are clearing out. He reaches the small village at the entrance to the Horns of the Dragon as the tunnel network is called. There are about twenty buildings around, including another small inn/tavern place, the Wildwood Inn, run by a small Halfling named Bolo, who looks a bit rakish, although cheery enough. Alzar sells the goats to Bolo for a refreshed set of supplies, food and drink and lodging for the night and information.

People do travel the Horns and use it as an artery through the mountains. There have been dwarves living in the Horns before, but none know if any still do. Of course, a large contingent of bad guys has moved in and made travel difficult. That seems to be the most common story on both Thorasia and Hamedh. This time is is a group of orcs. Bolo even scrawls a rough map of the tunnel for him.

[Abe Sargent]

After night falls and everyone has retired, Alzar is dozing when someone enters the room. There is a one in six chance Alzar will awaken. He rolls…..a three. Stays asleep. He is robbed.

In the morning, Alzar awakens early, ready to head out again, but there is a serious problem. He is missing his valuables. He gets up and spots some large rat tracks in the floor. He takes a quick inventory. He is missing his gold, gems, and jewelry. They did not take anything he was wearing, so he still has his focus Signet ring.

Alzar slips down and grabs Bolo and pulls him up to the room. Bolo does not know what is going on. He agrees to stay while Alzar is searching. Alzar casts Continual Light on a random stone and then studies Locate Object for the day. 20 minutes later he grabs his diving rod and casts Locate Object, targeting a the bracelet from the jewelry set. He walks about and soon the Rod is pointing at a wall in his room. He checks and finds a secret door. Bolo tells Alzar he does not know about it. Alzar opens it and follows the Rod and the hallway that has been revealed.

Soon enough Alzar has arrived at another secret door, and the Rod is pointing right in there. He makes a divining check and the missing object is in the next room. Bolo is quiet and Alzar asks who is in there. Bolo quietly mouths – “four” and “wererats.” Wererats?

Alzar grabs his silver kitchen knife and the magical pesh-kabz. He knows sleep, but that won’t work on lycanthropes. He has used the 2nd level spell. His other spell today is Detect Magic. Alzar is very unsure of slaying four wererats with a knife or pesh-kabz that he doesn’t even know how to use. So he and Bolo slip back to his room to think it through. Instead, they pretend that they don’t know what happened or who is responsible.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar announces that some of his items went missing, and he has put out a reward for them, but that is it. He spends the day scouting and getting ready to head into the Horns of the Dragon, like normal. That night he sleeps, and no one comes into his room – smart. In the morning he memorizes Continual Light. At least that will cut down one, hopefully. Alzar sneaks to their room early, just a few hours past midnight. He places a variety of furniture in front of their door preventing an easy escape from him.

Then he moves back into his room and readies his full armor. He decides to go in as a mage in terms of armor, so he can cast Continual Light, but then fight as a warrior. As a warrior he needs a 9 to hit with his magical weapon. That’s not bad. It would be a lot worse as a mage (he needs a 17). But it deals just 1d4+2 damage in combat (from magic and his strength).

He does the expected and kicks down the door, casting Continual Light on the eyes of a wererat. Unfortunately for Alzar, it makes its save. They rise quickly and are wielding four khandas. Alzar’s weapon is out and battle begins. He wins init and slices out. He hits one for three damage. They need a 10 to hit him, and two do for 1d8 and 1d8 damage – he takes 13.

He keeps init and again carves into the wounded one. It takes five more damage. They hit once for 4. They win inti and hit three times for seven damage. Alzar misses

29/51


Alzar grabs init back and stabs it for 6 damage, and it is reeling. It retreats and screams out. The other three swing and one hits for 2 damage.

27/51

Alzar moves in and swings and misses. They add 6 more damage. They win init and carve him for 3 more, and he retreats. They swing an attack of opportunity and miss.

18/51

That was a disaster. Alzar flees down the tunnel and scoops up his armor. He hears scratching behind him. He dons the armor quickly, but they have arrived and begin to fight him back. His AC drops significantly, and now they need an 16 to hit him. They get one free round of attacks but miss.

Alzar smashes one for 4 damage. One hits for 4 back. They win init and miss. He hits again for 3 more damage. They miss He misses too. They win init finally and carve him twice for 1 and 5 damage. He dices into the damaged one for six damage and it dies. Two left. The other stayed in the room.

Commotion is beginning in the hotel.

Alzar wins init back and misses. One of the rats misses too, and the other critically misses dropping its weapon for a turn. Alzar carves for his max, six damage on a werereat. They miss and then win init and one hits for four damage, dropping Alzar to four life. He cannot flee for an attack of opportunity and has to press his attacks. They don’t know how badly damaged he is.

He stabs out and hits the wounded wererat for another five damage. They miss and they win init. They badly miss and Alzar finishes the wounded one for another five damage,

With that the other scurries back to its room and Alzar chases as if he is not that badly damaged. As he arrives, the wounded one is trying to break out of the jammed door with the stolen items, from Alzar and others. The other one, fully healthy, pushes forward and the door is freed. Alzar’s silver knife flies out and smashes the leg of the wounded one for 2 damage and kills it. The other flees out the door, rushes down the stairs and bursts out of the door to the inn.

Alzar has, barely, managed to win.

[Abe Sargent]

Bolo and others arrive to tend to his wounds. His stuff is here and he gathers it back up. There is a load of treasure, but it all belongs to others. Bolo will get messengers out to the right people. Meanwhile, Bolo allows Alzar to keep one of the items, a potion of healing, with two doses.

Alzar spends the day recuperating, and then begins the next day with 9/51 hp (fast healing trait). He heads out fully armored and ready to go. Hopefully he won’t run into any major problems in the tunnels or the other side, where Marilla is supposed to be.

[sterlingice]

What edition is Alzar?

And the dumber question: why does it take so long to relearn spells? Or does he only have a couple to begin with? I guess as a level 3 mage, there's not much to work with.

SI

[Abe Sargent]

What edition is Alzar?

And the dumber question: why does it take so long to relearn spells? Or does he only have a couple to begin with? I guess as a level 3 mage, there's not much to work with.

SI


Heya!

2.X Skills and Powers. As a level 3 mage, he normally gets 2 first and one 2nd. As a specialist Fivefold Path or Power Mage, he should get 3/2, but that doesn't happen until he has his library and workshop, which are requirements for that specialty.


He, like many, used S&P to create a nice specialist mage, and I took some abilities from various specialties and kits to make his. (His specialty must also be his kit, so he has not ability to add anything else to it). This gives us a chance to see him weaker because the disadvantages are kicking in. It;s going to be a while before Alzar is fully a Path Mage again.

He began as an Undead Master kit of the Necromancer (as listed in the DM Guide, Complete Book of Necromancers). Some of those abilities are still seen in his specialty.


It takes one day to relearn a spell, including rest. He has to spend time re-memorizing his spells in order to have them available.

My way of dealing with how weird this sounds is to have created what I call a binding process.


Suppose it takes a half hour to cast a spell. At the end of that 30 mins, you have done everything except for the last bit. All you are doing when you cast the spell is intoning the final formula for that spell. However, holding onto multiple spells is hard to do. You can only bind more than one spell as you gain experience. Plus, it can be exhausting, so you can only bind and cast so many spells a day, because it wearies you mystically. (kind of like how I spend an entire day interviewing, even if I never moved to a new room, I am exhausted. The same concept, just magically) That's my personal take on how the procedure works. You aren't memorizing it so much as binding the force using formula given.


You can;t memoriize the same spell more than once per day on Hamedh. Back on his home plane of Thorasia, Alzar could memorize Sleep twice day, so he could cast it in successive turns and drop even more humanoids. But he can;t do that here, so just one Sleep spell a day, and then he has to get a divination spell of some sort because that is all he has left. He doesn;t even like Continual Light as a blind spell that much, but that is all he has. He'd much rather have something more useful than that, but when in Hamedh...


Hope that helps! If not, just ask more stuff...

[Abe Sargent]

One of the questions I often get is, is Alzar really evil? He seems like a nice evil person. Maybe he's just lawful neutral?


Well, let's take a look under the hood to see:


1). Alzar regularly kills people after putting them to sleep with his sleep spell. This is killing a defenseless person, and in the AD&D world, it is an evil act. Alzar defends it easily - "You would have killed them violently with a blade in their hand and that is noble. I kill them peacefully while asleep and that is evil. You have a messed up view of the world!"

2). Alzar will use torture to get information from people without any problem. He;ll use it just ot find out where a camp is, what treasure they have, and more. Torture is a very valuable tool to him.

3). Alzar animates the dead en masse. Animating the dead is an evil action. It reimbues a person;s life force into their corpse, and that messes with the natural order, and is quite evil.

4). Alzar uses Charm, Suggestion, or Domination magic with ease. He will turn an enemy into a friend with magical force. Not by money or argumentation, but by magic.

5). Alzar dislikes Lawful Good people (lawful stupid). But at least they are lawful. Of the other three alignment extremes, he gets along best with these, because he can usually trust them, He thinks chaotic evil people are idiots. He gets their self centered nature, sure, but they will sacrifice long term gain for short term fun every time and that is truly misguided and wrong. But he truly loathes those chaotic good idiots. They will lie, steal, and kill for the greater good. They have all of the untrustworthiness of a chaotic evil person, with the idiotic good worldview of a lawful good person. They are truly idiots and actively hurt this world. These are the viewds of a clearly lawful evil person.


Of all of the alignments, after LE, Alzar does, it is true, get along with Lawful Neutral the most.


He does good things (rescue the village, kill the insert target X here) because it makes him more powerful. He gets gold, experience, and loyalty from others. These make him increasingly more potent. He plays the long game quite well.


And he is, lawful evil.

[Abe Sargent]

In an hour Alzar has arrived at the tunnel that penetrates the mountain. There is a large trail that leads up to them. He has arrived at the Horns of the Dragon, and can see horse prints and many other prints in the entrance. (He doesn’t know tracking so outside of the obvious, he cannot tell how many, what race, etc)

Alzar pulls out the stone he enchanted a few days ago and uses it as a light source.

The main tunnel is wide enough for a pair of wagons side by side at first. But it gently narrows. After almost a mile, a side tunnel to the south (and right) heads off. Bolo’s map shows a cavern here. Alzar decides to check it out. It’s an old dusty cavern, which looks quite weak. Old supports were added to brace it, but they look rickety, so he returns to the main tunnel and moves on.

After another three quarters of a mile the tunnel has bent to the right and then back to the front, and another tunnel passes that heads right/south. This cavern has an old collapsed ceiling. There are six dwarven skeletons here with small items, like hammers showing. Alzar’s necrology proficiency reveals that these are already animated skeletons that are just dormant. They will activate when someone tries to take any of the items or disturbs their bones. He skips the room and heads back.

[Abe Sargent]

Another 1/3 of a mile passes. The main tunnel hits an intersection with paths leading off in three other directions. The path out leads ahead. The left-north/west one leads to a cavern and that has an underground lake in the back. Right and south/east hits a large maze of tunnels that go nowhere. Alzar heads right first, but after an hour, comes up with nothing.

Left reveals a cavern with chipped rocks revealing evidence of quarrying and work. Alzar is only in here for a few minutes when a dwarf reveals himself and introduces himself as Thisvynn Talus. (every turn I rolls a d6 and Talus will either be insane or normal for the next ten minutes). He has been fighting the orcs here for a long time. They killed the rest of his dwarven friends and now he is the only one left. He tells Alzar that he knows why he is here. The orcs wanted his secret, but they could not have it, oh no.

He motions for Alzar ot follow him and picks out a very narrow ledge that is not on Alzar’s map. Alzar leaves behind his horse. They move up the ledge which heads over a crevice. It takes about ten minutes to arrive on the other side. Talus, who already seemed a bit loose begins babbling madly about the evil orcs trying to take the last secrets of the dwarves.

[Abe Sargent]

They arrive at an old forge. Talus’s loud ramblings have woken something though, and a noise can be heard up in the ceiling . Alzar looks up as an insect shoots a filament at Talus and snags him. It is a cave fisher.

It begins to drag in Talus, who ignores it. Alzar’s axe is ready and he tries to cut the filament. On the second try it succeeds. He races to the insect, but it just retreats behind stalactites and back off the crevice and walkway.

Talus gathers himself together and thanks Alzar and moves to the forge. “This is the famed lost dwarven forge of the mountain” He sighs. “Gone, all gone.”

Talus is lost in thought so Alzar searches. Weapons and a few shields are broken and unusable. He cracks a hollow base under a mighty anvil and opens up a compartment. Inside are a pair of bracers, chainmail armor, and a khopesh. Talus looks over them and tells him that the braces are cursed of fumbling, the sword is cursed too, but the chain very powerful magic. Not exactly trusting the dwarf, Alzar drops his armor and casts Detect Magic and only the bracers and sword glow. So he grabs them and will come back later for the chainmail if he wants it.

Suddenly Talus screams and grabs his club. Alzar looks up and several giant rats get onto the platform and move to attack. Alzar draws his axe and gets ready to join into the fray, but seven more giant rats pour out. Talus is completely surrounded. He calls out, “I’ve got you now you filthy orcs. I will slay you and rest tonight in the Sultan’s glory hall!” One giant rat is smashed and three more jump up. Alzar backs up and hacks a timber with his axe. Another thwack releases the ceiling and he rushes back out of the barrage. Mounds of dirt and rock land on the rats and Talus and finish them all quickly.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar backs up and heads to the main tunnel and continues. He passes a collapsed tunnel to the right. The main tunnel veers north a bit but generally continues in an easterly direction. Another mile passes before the cavern on the right appears. It has murky water on the bottom deep enough for some large eels to call it home. Alzar sees no treasure and skips the area (with low hp).

Another 2/5s of a mile pass and another collapsed corridor passes on the left. Finally the last element occurs. Just before the exit, the path will arrive at a large chamber that the orcs call home. Alzar gets ready, in case battle is needed. He knows both Sleep and Continual Light, but he also has his armor.

Alzar believes he has a better chance of surviving the fight with his spells are no armor than his axe and armor. 9 hp won’t go long either way. He scouts ahead and sees a cavern with about twenty orcs in the area. There is a crudely drawn large red hand dripping blood on a blanket that is hung on one side of the chamber. They are not actively looking for people on either side.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar steps up and calls for them. Suddenly, three grab slings and a leader looking orc moves in. Alzar demands to be allowed through the cavern.

“Why should Bloody Hand not capture you and make you slave?”

In five seconds, Alzar has cast sleep and five orcs have dropped. “In just a second I took out one fourth of your fighting force. Do you really want to give me another second?”

The leader peers at him deep in thought.

“I don’t want to kill your people, I just want to pass.”

“How about you pay.”

“No. If I were afraid of you, I’d pay you. I am not trembling. Would you like to see my next spell?”


The leader continues to look uncertain. Alzar grabs the components for his last spell. Before he begins to intone the spell, the orc relents and allows him to cross.

“Good. I really didn’t want to waste my powerful magic on you.”

Alzar crosses free. You can trust an orc a lot more than a human.


He comes out the other side, and in the bright air, he can see several humans working as slaves for the orcs, cutting wood and gathering nuts for dinner. Alzar nods at the guards and continues. In another fifteen minutes, Alzar is free on the other side and walking down the mountain side.

[Abe Sargent]

The day is growing long. Alzar has made it through the Horns, but he is growing tired. There is a river ahead, and Alzar has neared it. There is a sound of cutting wood here. Did the orcs bring their slaves this far? Rude laughter and harsh voices ring out. That is the sound of an orc enjoying himself.

The path curls toward the sound, and Alzar closes and sees two orcs cutting at a tree with axes, and then they rest and two others move in to start working at it. It is a huge oak, the tallest tree in the area. They certainly are an ambitious lot. Alzar decides to leave them to their intense work and moves on without being seen.


Then, a few moment slater, a young blond robe clad girl appears right by Alzar “Will you help me?” she implores. “Those vile creatures are trying to destroy my tree.” That phrase tweaks Alzar. “Your tree?” She nods, “My home”

Alzar suspects she is a fae creature of some sort. How can she not stop four simple orcs? Alzar sighs and moves back to the orcs. “Hello orcs.”

Startled they turn around and stare at Alzar as if caught with their hands in a cookie jar. They are cutting down this tree because the creature that lives here keeps pestering them. Just the other day she freed a slave. Alzar asks them to not cut down the tree. I will pay you if you don’t. That gets them interested. Alzar agrees to pay them each ten gold in order to stop cutting the tree. That’s worth five slaves apparently, and they leave.

-40 gold

The dryad is grateful. She lets Alzar stay the night here in her grove and she will protect him from the dire wolves that roam the river. She searches her tree and finds a small blue bottle. She gives it to Alzar and tells him it will make him float. He stays the night and in the morning, leaves refreshed.

Potion of Levitation.

12/51 hp

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar approaches the river, but there is a problem. The only bridge here is rope bridge made with a rope on the bottom and two guidelines at arm’s length. He cannot get his horse across. He returns to the dryad and she agrees to watch his horse while he journeys on.

He carefully moves across the bridge and makes his dexterity check to prevent himself from falling.

About a half hour later, Alzar is walking along the path when he begins to hear a howling sound from far away. It is answered by another from a few miles in another direction. They sound like wolves. After ten minutes, Alzar feels crashing in the woods around him and three snarling dire wolves explode from the trees and move in to attack the lone Alzar. His axe is up and he moves in to battle.

A dire wolf has one bite, and needs a 14 to hit and deals 2d4 damage when bitten. Alzar needs just a 5 and will carve for 1d8+4 with his axe. These are study beasts.

Alzar is set and swings first and smashes one for 5 damage. They bite back and miss. Then they one and one bites Alzar for 5 damage. He connects again for 9 damage, but misses once. He wins init and kills the wounded one. The others miss.

7/51


They win back init. One bites him for 4 damage and he carves it for 14 damage in two hits. RAR. Then he wins init and slays the wounded one. The other flees.

3/51


Alzar chooses to spend the day resting and taking care of his wounds and sleeping nearby. He is undisturbed. He casts identify on the khopesh and it is a +1 khopesh.

6/51

The next day he memorizes Identify again and casts it on the bracers. They are Bracers of Protection: +1 like the ring. He dons them and drops his AC one gets a +1 to saves.

[Abe Sargent]

After seven hours of travel, Alzar notices the ruins of an old, abandoned castle. He takes a path to it to explore what is there. It looks like it once guarded this path, it was probably a road at one point then. The castle is mostly destroyed, with only a rickety tower still standing. The walls are sort of there, but clearly decayed and old. Nothing stirs in the compound, covered with weeds and stones.. There is a pitted and scarred story of the keep that seems to have a bit still up on the next floor. The word Karn is above the destroyed gatehouse, but whether that is a person, a place, a prayer or even a command is unknown.

Alzar heads into the castles. The interior is difficult to pick through. He begins in the destroyed gatehouse. There are fresh tracks in the mud from something. Alzar treads more carefully. Ancient winches with rusted chains speak to the drawbridge which must have been here, once. An old stone shed that was storage is right here, but there is nothing inside. Alzar heads around. He passes an old abandoned stables, and a few destroyed buildings. The stables seem to have had animals in here recently. There is fresh dung on the floor and it smells.

He pushes through a door into one of the few rooms that has a ceiling and two women cry out not to be hurt. They were captured yesterday by the river by some goblins, who brought them here, stayed the night, and then left them here. Alzar learns that the goblins were riding dire wolves. That means this is probably their home. He pushes on, and a large old kitchen has been turned into a makeshift barracks, with piles of straw and flaxen strewn about. A room right off of this still has its roof and in here are some supplies like sacks of flour and dried meat.

On top of a shelf is some of the goblins treasure. A few jars of coins. It’s mostly low level stuff, bronze and copper. Alzar pulls out a few pieces of jewelry to review later.

Pearl Necklace – 750 gp
Silver Clasp – 50 gp

[Abe Sargent]

As Alzar moves toward the tower, the ground shifts dangerously. Perhaps a dungeon level is about to be his new home, so he carefully moves to parallel an exposed beam, so he is not walking between supports but on one. He arrives at the tower. It opens easily. The wooded stairs in here go up, but are rotted too badly to attempt., There is a dirty pallet and a small chest. Alzar uses his staff on the chest but it won’t open. He flicks the lock and it clicks open. A dagger springs out and slices him for 2 damage. There is nothing inside but dirty clothes. Even a second inspection double checking for false bottoms finds nothing.


Alzar leaves the castle behind and moves back to the path and continues on his way. The women mentioned that a priestess named Marilla was nearby, about a day and half journey east. He spends the rest of the day travelling, and then beds down for the night.

At night a group of wandering gnolls happen upon Alzar;s camp. He awakens and then casts sleep on them and draws all three of them. Slays them, and then heads back to sleep


(50 XP)

[Abe Sargent]

In morning, he packs up and moves out. Along the way, he sees a group of hyenas, but they give him a wide berth and he continues. By late afternoon, he has arrived as a large hedge and natural preserve. This hedge protects a glade and several large trees have stairs and platforms built into them.

He moves into the hedge, and just behind the entrance is a camouflaged guard he did not see before. Alzar is given a once over and allowed inside. He moves to the front tree and climbs the platform. At the top is an elven guide who escorts Alzar silently down the platforms and up another set of stairs. They arrive at a large building along the side of a giant yew tree. The building beautifully melds with the tree as if the two were one.

Alzar enters and here is seated Marilla at a long table, with several other people. They reacquaint themselves and then he sits down. They get each other caught up on their stories. She went to the city, sold the goods, and was coming back when she felt a call to come help these people from her deity. She arrived here about five months ago and has been healing them and providing a foundation for a new government. Their old leader had died childless and there was no heir, so there was great uncertainly here, which she helped to alleviate by changing their government to a representative one.

Alzar tells her about what has happened to the valley. She agrees to help, and first, she heals him. She even notices that he contracted lycanthropy from the wererat battle and cures it too.

She does have the ability to heal the valley of its curse, but it will take four day to prepare a remedy. In the meantime, the goblins have become a problem. Goblins alone aren’t a major threat, and the dire wolves are dangerous but unguided. However, the combination of the cunning of the goblins and the power of the dire wolves has created real threat to the area. She asks Alzar to return to the ruins while they are there, and finish them off.

[Abe Sargent]

Two days later Alzar arrives at the castle and slips in. The drawbridge is guarded but the collapsed walls are not, and Alzar makes his way into the east. They are on high alert – they know they were invaded. There appears to be about 20 of them.

He would like to come in as a mage, sleep five of them, but that is not possible. Who knows how many dire wolves are in the stables. Instead, he keeps his armor on and grabs his axe. With three attacks every 2 rounds, he should be able to cleave a goblin regularly. He will need a 5 to him them, and they an 18 to connect with him. Here goes.

Alzar leaps from behind a destroyed wall and smashes the ribs of a goblin and slays one. Several cry out in alert and sling stones fly in. He takes 3 damage from one. Melee range has been reached.

[Abe Sargent]

He misses on the first turn. They hit him once for 4 damage with a yataghan. About six are in close combat and others are winging in stones. One accidentally hits a goblin instead of him. He gains initiative and hits and slays two goblins. Many more have arrived and are shouting wildly at him. They are enraged and he doubts any will run. This is a battle to the death. Alzar is hit twice for 5 damage

39/51

He slays another and they all miss. Then they win init and a stabbing yataghan hits him for 4 more damage. He attacks twice, missing once and slaying another goblin.

35/51
5 goblins dead

He wins init and slays another goblin. Suddenly, the door to the stables opens and a wolf peels out and moves in. He is his twice for 4 damage.

31/51
6 dead

He loses init and they hit once for 6 damage. He slays two more. Another dire wolf exits and moves to battle and the first one is almost here, and will be able to attack next turn.

25/51
8 dead

Alzar regains init and stabs and misses. They also miss, including the dire wolf . A third one heads out. He keeps init and slays two gobblies. They miss but a dire wolf bites him for 4 damage.

21/51
10 goblins dead


A fourth dire wolf pours out and Alzar is hit once for 6 damage by a wolf and 1 more from a goblin. He smashes another goblin dead. They keep init and miss. He wrests it back and kills two more.

14/51
13 goblins dead.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar keeps init and slays another goblin. No more wolves are pouring out. Because he fights one handed, he can use his other hand for stuff (since he is specialized in that style) . He quaffs one dose of his healing potion and heals ten damage. He just takes 5 from a bite and a yataghan.

19/51
14 dead

Alzar misses once and hits his 15th goblin and kills it. Just six left. One fights better than the others and has hit him several times – he suspects it’s the leader. Alzar gulps down the last dose of healing potion, and takes 7 from a warg and the leader. He loses init and takes another 4 from a sword and then stabs out and kills another goblin.

18/51
16 dead

He wrests back init and moves to a wolf. He still just needs a 5 and hits twice, once for 6 +4 and the other for 4 +4, which slays it (they have 18 hp each). The counter misses him, save for a goblin blade that bites him for 3 damage.


15/51
16 goblins dead
1 dire wolf dead

Alzar smashes a dire wolf for 5 damage. It bites but misses, and no one connects with him. He loses init and another bite snags him for 5 damage. He stabs the wolf twice and finishes it off.

10/51
16 goblins dead
2 wolves down


They keep init, but miss. He carves but misses. They attack and miss. He does not and damages a wolf but it is still alive. He wins init back and finishes it. The remains small group can’t pin him down with his high AC, before they were hitting due to the large number of attacks. He misses once and hits the last wolf. They attack, bite him once for 4 damage, and then he attacks twice and kills the last wolf.

[Abe Sargent]

6/51

But just four goblins and the leader left.

He wins init and cuts that down to four foes. They miss. He keeps init and cuts it to two foes. The leader smashes him. It deals 1d6 damage to him. Will it roll a 6 and finish him?



The green/gold d6 tumbles over and.....

[Abe Sargent]

It does… It rolls a 6! Alzar has died!

He has pushed it a lot, especially here, and now he dies at the hands of a low level goblin leader. How humiliating.


Alzar has died! Alzar has died! Alzar has died!

[Abe Sargent]

But wait….

[Abe Sargent]

Long ago, (in a previous adventure) Alzar was blessed with a shadow that would follow and stalk him forever. If he died, instead, it would fully heal him and then leave. Alzar is restored to full health but then it leaves. He didn’t even know about it.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar does not know what happened, but feels as if something left him and weakened him that he never knew was there. Suddenly empowered, he smashes the last goblin and finishes off the leader without taking any more damage.


He stands above the carnage and ponders what just happened. He cannot be that lucky again. This was a normal combat. If each goblin had about a 15% chance of hitting him, then 20 attacks should hit him 2-3 times each for little damage. But the wolves and the leader were the lethal ones, hitting him much than they should have been. It would have been one sided against just the goblins.

On their bodies total Alzar finds about 236 gp.


236 gp

[sterlingice]

Well that was a lame way to use your deus ex machina macguffin ;)

SI

[Abe Sargent]

I know...sad but true. Stupid goblins!

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar returns to the glade and meets with Marilla again. She has prepared a large magical brew. It will not only cancel the curse, but it will also restart the growth of the land. She advises Alzar that the route he took has even more orcs than before, so he should instead take a southerly route that will cross the mountains to the south, but overland in a natural pass in the peaks. It’s longer, and will add at least a week or ten days to his travels but it should prove safer.


After his recent brush with death, Alzar wants safer. He points out that the land is getting colder and colder, and perhaps snows will begin soon. She agrees, but it’s the best way. Scouts have shown more than triple the number of orcs that were there before.

That’s a bit intimidating. This whole thing could have been handled in a week with a teleport spell. Ah well. Or he could head back, and then use Passwall or Transmute Rock to Mud to make a passage in a different point and enter the tunnel behind the orc camp. Ah well.

He takes the alternate path.

[Abe Sargent]

At first, Marilla was spot on. For a week Alzar see and hears nothing dangerous. He gathered his horse from the Dryad, and then moved down the river. This added two more days, but it gave him his full provisions for the ride.


On the eighth day, the sun is cold but bright, and the noon hour long since past. He passes by a small clearing as the path up river continues. Then Alzar sees a bit of smoke to the left on a trail that veers off to the river. Few seconds later, he sees a glimpse of something large and brown-red. Then four bugbears loom into view. For traveling, Alzar has been in his robes, since he is fully healed and its easier. A simple sleep spell drops two as thrown axes collide and he takes 5 damage.


46/51

One is barking orders to the other and it moves to the sleeping fellows to awaken them. Normally Alzar would target the leader with a Continual Light, but instead he targets the other, and it fails its save and is blinded. The other shows to it and gives it courage, and it draws a large war club and moves towards Alzar. The leader throws another axe, misses, and runs at Alzar. Alzar dismounts with his staff.

The bugbear wins init and smashes him for 5 damage. Alzar misses. After listening to directions the blind one will arrive next turn. Alzar regains init and thwacks the leader for 4 damage. Five turns later, Alzar has killed the leader barely, after getting a critical double damage hit, taken 27 damage, and the blind one has missed him every time. He finishes the blind one easily enough, and then heads over and slays the sleeping bugbears.

250XP

[sterlingice]

I was tired last night. Yes, deus ex machina. No, not a macguffin.

SI

[Abe Sargent]

He grabs their things and pulls them to the camp they have on the river. This appears to be a small raiding party. He grabs all of their stuff and uses his Rod to cast Detect Magic and looks for objects. A small set of mail glows. It’s sized for a human female, and is too small for Alzar to wear. Nothing else glows. In addition to some coinage he gathers something quite useful – a silver-tipped spear. It gives him another tool to fight creatures, since he is proficient in a spear. (He’ll cast Identify the next morning on the mail)


+1 Set of Mail, smaller humanoid female
Spear, silver-tipped
200 pp
500 gp
150 ep


He spends the day and night in their camp, eating the fish they caught, and healing.

22/51

[Abe Sargent]

He heads back out the following day and continues on the trail. As he does, a group of stirges fly around, and begin to sweep in. There are about five all told. A spear flies into one and kills it and his axe carves another before they can bite him. The others leave.


Several more days pass by. He has hit the main trail over here Marilla told him about and he has arrived in the foothills of the mountains . He has just about two days to hit the pass. Snow falls today and the first snow of the season has arrived. As he discovered in his first year living in this area, snow can be pretty serious business here.

He is forced to camp for the night here, and grabs a space by a shallow outcropping. Night falls, and his warm fire (fire-building proficiency) keeps him nice and toasty.

[Abe Sargent]

Around midnight, he hears a strange cry that echoes across the area. He does not recognize it. It might come from up higher. It silences all other noises for a good fifteen minutes before they pick up again,


About an hour before dawn, Alzar awakens to hear crunching noises around his camp. Slow, deliberate, and loud steps are heard. Alzar reaches down to grab the components for a Sleep spell and his weapon. After a minute, they move off.


After the sounds die away, Alzar moves from his shelter. In the snow is a trial of large footprints that circled the camp and moves to the mountain above. They are larger than min sized prints. He follows them for a bit after donning his gear. The sun is about to peek in when a snowdrift moves and instead it grows larger. Something large and white and loud moves to Alzar. It’s ape-like in size and movement.

Alzar tries a Sleep spell. Unfortunately it does not work. His staff is out and the creature arrives to battle him.

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130405210820/cryptidz/images/8/80/Light_Coat_Yeti.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

It swings two fists and connects once for 3 damage. Alzar misses.


28/51 (gained 3 hp a day due to fast healer trait)

It swings and hits once and misses once for another 2 damage. Alzar cracks it for 2 damage back.

26/51

It punches twice and hits Alzar twice for 5 damage. Since it hit twice, it has a chance to grab Alzar and put him into a bear hug. It misses that though. Alzar misses. Alzar wins init and misses. It misses twice. Alzar swing and hits hit for a solid 7 damage – his max with strength bonus. It punches once more for 4 damage.


17/51

It wins init back and punches him for 3 damage. (each punch deals 1d6 damage). He hits it for 4 damage.

14/51
It has taken 13 damage.

The creature keep s init but misses. Alzar doesn’t and adds 3 more damage.

It roars and moves off, running away. It moves a lot faster than Alzar. It gait is much large and it is unhampered by snow. He follows it. He doesn’t want to be ambushed by it later.

[Abe Sargent]

After a half hour of tracking the giant steps in the snow it leaves behind, he has tracked it to its lair. Alzar slows down and spends a few minutes looking things over. He crawls up an embankment and sees the creature, nursing its wounds and resting. Alzar gathers himself but makes too much noise and the flies of the creature fly open and spot him. Its roar rattles Alzar and the beast moves in. His staff is out.

It has taken 16 damage.

The staff misses and the creature does too. It wins init and punches him twice for 1 and 5 damage – 6 total. It misses the follow up squeeze. Alzar adds 5 more damage to it and it reels over and dies.


200 XP

Alzar pulls everything together and casts Detect Magic. Three things glow under the light of his Divining Rod. One dagger, one potion, and something he didn’t even see before. He would not have noticed it if he had waited to cast Detect magic elsewhere. He heads over to it and discovers a blue-white colored wand, virtually the same color as the snow.

+1 dagger
Potion of Healing – one dose
Wand of Frost – 9 charges

1500 gp
300 ep
1000 sp
10 diamonds - (200 gp each)

He gathers his treasure and adds it to his horse and continues on his way. He will identify the items in the next three days.


Two days pass and Alzar only manages to push forward through one day of journeying. The snow is thickening with more and more blasts. The going is very slow and methodical. Luckily he has a lot of food and water. But the day is cold and the evening sharper.

[Abe Sargent]

M1. Blizzard Pass


http://www.thestrong.org/online-collections/images/Z004/Z00454/Z0045432.jpg


Welcome to 1983. Blizzard Pass is another of those wacky solo modules. In the 80s, TSR was trying to find the right way to do a solo module. Like all gaming companies, modules are the worst selling product that you make. You sell a lot more handbooks or guides than you do modules. Even books which will have little impact on your campaign (such as Legends and Lore) sell more than modules do. So TSR was trying to get a hit, at a time when solo gamebooks were all the rage and books such as Lone Wolf were selling like hotcakes. They tried several methods. Lathan’s Gold is a pretty good one, it reads like a gamebook, adds some rule about sea travel, food and ships, and moves you into the game. Ghost of Lion’s Castle is also very gamebook-y, with some changes to spells and magic in there. On the other hand, M2, Maze of the Minotaur used an invisible pen to write on the book and reveal what happens. We might even see one later on that uses a red plastic screen to filter out red junk and reveal things beneath it. TSR used the tech of the 80s to push through solo adventures.

And so, that brings us to M1. Blizzard Pass. This is another invisible pen module, written by David Cook and edited by Troy Denning. None of these solo modules are on anyone’s best of list. But what they do is give me a chance to run them naked, without knowing what is coming. While I try to remove Alzar and my own knowledge and keep them separate, we all know that’s never 100% certain. But here, there is no chance Alzar knows, because I haven’t been peeking at the end.

Now, the M1 that I own only has some of the places revealed by a pen. Plus, some are hard to read after 30 years. So I purchased a football game book from Lee Publications and I will be using that pen to illuminate the sections in this module.

I am altering the plot line considerably. Instead of being a thief on the run from false accusations of murder, Alzar is just heading to the pass as normal as part of Forest Oracle, and runs into this.

[Abe Sargent]

So let’s begin, M1, Blizzard Pass!


Alzar moves up the day towards the pass and gets closer and closer. It takes a while, the snow is steep and the horse is sturdy, but slow. But progress is being made.

Alzar moves up the pass and things are looking good. Then, almost without warning, the wind picks up dangerously. Within moments, Alzar is pushed forward as gusts picks up snow on the ground and moves it around. Ten minutes later snow starts falling from the sky, and combination makes visibility poor. Alzar cannot afford to keep going in this, but there is nowhere to turn around or get shelter.

As he slowly pushes forward, the horse falls and tumbles. It has broken its leg and Alzar carves off its head to give it a peaceful death. He gathers what things he can and pushes forward. Soon the cold is increasing, and he makes an endurance proficiency check, and is able to keep on going.

An hour rolls by an Alzar keeps moving slowly forward. As he does, suddenly some forms melt out of the snow ahead and move to attack Alzar, who is focused on moving and keeping his balance. His staff is in hand for balance and walking, so he grabs it to fight. Three humanoids surround him as another circles around to his rear. His staff swings out and misses. They punch him several times and he falls over in the snow, and that about wraps him up. In a few minutes, they are on top and snow is pouring into his clothes. The weather and the enemy forces him unconscious.

[Abe Sargent]

An unknown amount of time later, Alzar awakens to a painful throbbing in his head. He hears voices nearby discussing impending death. He gently opens his eyes, allowing light to filter in and to get them to adjust. A few minutes pass, and he looks about.

Alzar is in a rocky chamber, like a cave. There are curtains on two walls, a table with four rugged stools around it, and several humanoids there he recognizes easily. Kobolds. He is in a prison cell with three others, a portly older man, a younger spry elf, and a younger female warrior. The older man tells Alzar to remain still and gently touches his head . In a few moments, Alzar has been cured of all wounds. “I don’t have much curative magic left. But I still have a few spells stored away, just in case.”


Their captors searched and took everything except for his boots and clothes. He is missing his focus Signet ring, which means no magic, even if he finds spell components, until he recovers it. Soon, three of the humanoids get up to leave and the fourth moves to the wooden bars, which look quite strong. That one grabs a spear and moves to the bars and calls out that the chubby balding priest will be a nice snack, but the thin lady won’t be much of a meal at all. It jabs her a bit and she falls to the ground. It laughs and turns and leaves.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar orders them to grab the chain and pull it and try to break the bars. They chuckle at him but he orders them to to do and they do. With all four of them puling, the chain bursts free. One says they had better find weapons. As the group moves out, Alzar hears a sound and orders them back into the cell. They argue for a second, and then do so. Then a kobold enters the room and Alzar orders it to give him some water, you don’t want dry meat. It gets upset and grabs the spear to poke at him and moves to the cell. Alzar charges out and captures it. Then one of them smashes its head in with a stool and it dies.

Alzar takes its spear and the female fighter takes its sword, in her hands a short sword. The only other thing of use in here is a lamp which the group takes. The two curtains are hiding two exits. One forward and the other right. The go forward.

[Abe Sargent]

As Alzar moves ahead, he runs into a human male and pulls back. He moves forward and Alzar signals the party to move in. Attack ensues and in two rounds they have dispatched their opponent. One takes his chainmail and another his sword, human sized. They continue forward

The corridor widens and turns left into a small chamber that continues in a corridor on the far side. There is a curtain Alzar peeks behind and sees two men drinking at a table, with weapons and armor on. The woman pushes forward with chain mail and a weapon and orders a charge and they run in. One starts intoning and the priest yells to shut up their priest. He blinds the woman as she enters and the battle begins. She stumbles and falls, and the warrior brings his weapon down and slays her. The rest of Alzar’s group move in and melee with the priest while he engages the fighter. After a few rounds, he has finished off the fighter with his spear and they captured the priest and tied him up and gagged him.

Alzar orders a search. A cabinet reveals everybody’s equipment, armor, weapons and everything else. Alzar finds


100 gp

On the bodies. They move to the entrance on the other side, and there is a portcullis here. Alzar pulls it p, abut is hit by a trap for 5 damage in doing so

46/51 hp

[Abe Sargent]

They head forward. The room they enter is a slick limestone cave with a large white statue of an oddly shaped toad like creature. It is on the ground and ready to spring into action. It’s eyes glint in the torch and lamplight. Also in the room are some furniture and other accoutrements. In one of the trunk are black robes and red medallions. The priest reaches down and informs Alzar that this is a cult dedicated to a frost deity. Alzar begins to search while the priest defaces the idol/statue. Alzar manages to turn up a flask with a magical liquid in it of unknown origin.

Flask – magical liquid

[Abe Sargent]

As they move around the room they reveal a passage to the right, which they take. After just a short distance the passage forks. The left is gated and the right has a cold breeze blowing from it. The gate is unable to be moved or picked or lifted, so they go right.

It curves back to the left for a bit and then opens up. The curtain reveals a decent sized room with a brazier in the middle. Small grey humanoids are asking for dinner from a talker human. Alzar orders a charge and leads it, flinging aside the curtain. He takes 3 damage from charging in and two of the small grey manthings move at Alzar. He swings and misses and takes 4 more damage from their clubs. Then he attack again and connects. One drops and the other trips over its body and Alzar dispatches it.

The man is engaging the priest, and Alzar rushes over and finishes him off. There is a ladder here, which they take


50 gp found

[Abe Sargent]

A sandy passage is revealed at the bottom of the ladder. They move to the right, the only direction this passage has. Alzar moves forward and overhears discussion of attacking a nearby village tomorrow, under cover of winter and storms. Alzar sides with the priest who wants to destroy this outpost rather than the elf who just wants to leave. In order to do this, you will charge the people inside and take them out. Alzar takes off his armor. Now that he has his things back, it’s time for a surprise.

You move it to attack. There is a wolf in its cage, and it pushes forward, warning the people about the attack. Alzar casts sleep and drops both people before the wolf is released.


100 XP

[Abe Sargent]

The next room has a bed, desk and table, some chests and chairs, and large curtain, which swings back to reveal a large area portcullised off. A search finds a lever, which Alzar throws. He blinds the great white ape in here with Continual Light and then kills it easily.

75 XP

It guarded a sort of treasury of the complex. In here is a chest with the Master’s plans for invading the local village. You find a secret door in here that opens into a long hallway that leads outside. After escaping the place, you agree not to head back in, and instead the elf and priest will warn the village about the attack. With the missing plans, it is unlikely to happen at all, but if it does…


End of M1. Blizzard Pass

[Abe Sargent]

The flask is a potion of Fire Giant Strength.













After escaping from that crazy pass, Alzar manages to climb down and keep going down the other side. The path on this side is much nicer and the creatures on this side of the mountain more hospitable. Three days pass before Alzar even comes across a creature that tries to stop him. It was a trio of bandits who were fleeing the frigid mountain pass for nicer air, and Alzar enslept them (caution, enslept is not a real word) and slew them, and took their horses.


Just a pair of large centipedes stand between Alzar and his arrival in the valley. He gives the brew to Garinda, who distills it and has it spread among the land. Although winter has begun, the plants do recover, and the curse has been lifted from the land.


End of The Forest Oracle

[Abe Sargent]

The Forest Oracle has been called the worst module in AD&D. I thought it would be fun to play through it. I left out some of the crap and annoying stuff. Here are some epically bad examples:

It is established at the lake that you have to remove a creature from the lake in order to waken them, but you can awaken the forester just by slapping him awake.

The distraught nymph fails to shake her man to waken him.

Here is where you encounter the 7 brigands:

“A group of seven men approaches. They are following the road east, and are making good time, neither tarrying nor running. Their faces are expressionless. One is dressed as a cleric of some sort, and another is dressed as a traveling drummer. The others could be peasants or serfs going from one location to another for the harvest season. Each carries some sort of weapon. It is plain that they are not soldiers by their haphazard way of walking. They do not seem to be joking loudly or singing as they advance.”

Later on the brigands will break and charge you. AFTER THEY CHARGE YOU, you roll a d6 to see if they are surprised by you?!? In mid-charge they might forget what they are doing and start milling around?

Here is the weak wererat scene:

“The tavern closes at 10 p.m. Bolo sends all the customers off to their rooms. The lights go out, and the tavern becomes still.

An attempt to rob the party will occur during the night whether any of the party is on watch or not. Any party member on watch has to save vs. Sleep directed at him. If he is successful, the spell will be cast on each party member coming on watch until one is successfully put to sleep. At that time, four wererats (AC 6; MV 12"; HD 3+1; hp 16 each; #AT 1; Dmg 1-8 [sword]; SA Surprise on 1-4; SD Hit only by silver or +1 or better magic weapons) enter the room and rob the party.

The party members should each roll 1d6. Anyone rolling a 1 awakens, and knows he is being robbed. He may pretend he is asleep or call for help. If he calls out, the wererats flee through a secret door located directly across from the hall door. This door stays hidden unless the party sees the rats exit. They may try to locate the door on a normal search.

When the party finds the door, they may wish to pursue the wererats. They may check for the door several times if they wish. If they do not find the door or if none of the party awakens while the wererats are robbing them, they find large rat-like tracks on the floor. Bolo will realize they belong to the wererats staying at the inn.

The wererats are armed with swords. A clever gang, they have been staying at the inn off and on for three months. They rent room #8, and use that as their base of operations. They have disguised their activities so well Bolo hasn't discovered the connection between when they stay and when the robberies occur. The wererats always seem to have plenty of money to pay for their lodging, however.”


Why are the non-mage wererats able to cast sleep over and over? Why are your only options to call for help or pretend to be asleep if you make your roll? You know, as opposed to attacking or casting a spell? (And why does Bolo, who was a former thief before settling down, not know about a simple secret door in his inn, or that people are stealing from his customers?)

It’s just downright silly

There are others too. Why do a high powered group of druids need your help to handle a small camp of goblins and dire wolves? In the module ( I removed this) you are found by gypsies (who laid the curse) and who need your help to face an Ogre. If you refuse, the gypies mages are powerful enough to cast charms and other magic to force you. To fight one ogre. (Who has a flesh golem guard who only attacks gypsies).


So, now you to can enjoy what some have called the worst AD&D module of all time. (There are others. Why does the forester, who is a level 3 fighter who is proficient with an axe only own a bow or a sword? Why does he only have 2 hit dice? Why doesn’t the recalcitrant nymph pour the antidote potion into the lake herself?

[sterlingice]

This sounds like a grippingly-crappy adventure!

SI

[Abe Sargent]

Back to The Eye of the Serpent, already in progress.



Now, Alzar wants to continue to the main city. He needs to get a real library. He gathers his wagons and accoutrements and three days later sets out on a nice day to travel.



We have a problem. See, I wrote up the rest of Eye of the Serpent and spent several hours running it. Then I had a major BSOD problem with my laptop and it’s lost. I’m very, VERY frustrated, but hopefully I can push through and continue the dynasty. It’s a major blow to know I lost ALL of that work though. (I wrote great stuff about the beauty of the area, and the stairs that lead to the mires and how the mires formed and all of that. Sigh. Waste of time. That PISSES me off to no freakin’ end).

Basically, Alzar spent the rest of the module moving through a sward of green, then onto a final plateau of mires, and thence through a small dungeon, and down the river and into the Eye of the Serpent.

[Abe Sargent]

This sounds like a grippingly-crappy adventure!

SI

It really is!;)

[Abe Sargent]

I’ma just do a quick recap:


Fought a variety of monsters – crustaceans with tentacles in a cave behind a waterfall, enemy plants, slavers in the mines, a large flying creature I made up myself which was REALLY cool, (We also missed a classic Alzar rant against the mage who created this monster. It had the body of an eagle or hawk, and the head of a snake, and it’s talons were also snake heads. Alzar gave his rant against stupid mages who don’t really understand the nature and level of power just mucking about with silly things like that).
and other stuff. He engaged a Mist Mephit who told him about a bullywug camp and moved to avoid it in the mires. He busted a small slave issue in the tunnel that led from the mires to the ground where the river continued and sprung Marilla, who had been captured. Healed again

The Eye of the Serpent saw him kill a 5th level cleric on the island itself, and then penetrate deep into the underground where he freed a low level Gen (a weaker version of a genie normally in service to others), encountered a Duergar Mentalist, who hurt him badly, and eliminated a small Duergar camp down there. Then he returned to the tunnel met back with Marilla, who is heading toward the city. (One key encounter, in addition to the Gen and the Mentalist was with a Necrophidus, a construct, which shows you can make them here. Alzar made one. This was Old Homie night, with him running into a Mist Mephit (his own familiar, Dryshik) and one of his old constructs).

Here is the stuff he grabbed from various folks:

+1 spear, +2 vs giants, +3 vs orcs and ogres
+1 short bow
Electrum Amulet – 120 gp
Silver Bangle – 25 gp
Gold Buckle – 85 gp
Gold and Malachite Headband – 220 gp
Gold and Turquoise Ring – 70 gp
Onyx Statuette of Snake – 250 gp
Copper Belt and Stones – 60 gp
Violet Garnet Earrings - 120 gp, pair
3000 ep
750 gp
1500 sp

10 Citrines – 50 gp each
Star Sapphire, 2000 gp (He placed this, after finding it, into the missing eye socket of a statue, and it was the right gem, but nothing happened)

Book - Tribal History of this Duergar Clan


He also gained 1350 XP form fighting as a wizard in many places



End, sadly, of Eye of the Serpent.

[Tellistto]

Hate BSOD's. Hope you manage to get that fixed on the laptop without having to actually replace the whole thing. My desktop had a MB crash earlier this year while playing a game. Reverted to a different one and then built a new computer with new video card and all that.

Wish I had the desire to play that game that I was playing that blew my computer up. Really enjoyed it but not feeling like replaying all that I had done.

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks, I'm sur I'll just ignore it and keep my laptop as wis, just move my external HD to it and save on it so I won;t lose anything else.

[Abe Sargent]

Let’s finish up Puppets, which frankly, we’ve barely started. I just used it as a framing story for the trio of Eye of the Serpent/Forest Oracle/Blizzard Pass modules. Sometimes on these modules I keep them virtually as is (I kept many adventures in the In Search of Adventure campaign as is, as well as Temple of Elemental Evil – I just made that one harder, and so forth.) But sometimes I change things around to fit them in geographically (like Gates of Firestorm Peak moved to the Underdeep.) I may make a random cleric part of the Temple of Elemental Earth (as I did in the Slavers series) in order to tie stories together.

So Puppets will have fewer changes than the other three, whereas Ghost of Lion’s Castle had very little (I am not doling out as much Magic to Alzar as these modules sometimes want me too). Anyway, please remember the Air Gen that Alzar rescued from the Necrophidus that was guarding it and the Duergar Mentalist who was summoning up Mephits and Gen to stir up problems. It just might come into play later…


Now Alzar has returned to Marilla, and they are moving out to Arjuna, city of roughly 40k and their final destination. He is riding the laboratory wagon, Marilla has her horse, they have a pair of extra steeds, and there are a few rescued slaves coming with them as well.

[Abe Sargent]

One day after their travel to Arjuna has resumed, they are traveling down the road when horses from behind can be made out. As the riders approach, Alzar can make out three horsemen. The center one is armored in full plate, the left is a woman in a bright orange robe and the other is a chainmail and shield on his back They have not drawn any weapons. The man in the plate armor in the center pushes his horse up to talk with Alzar.

Alzar orders the caravan to stop while he meets with the man in full armor. He rides up to Alzar on top of his wagon and demands that Alzar immediately step down from the wagon. The female in robes and with a staff has moved about 100 yards away and the other gentleman is with her.

Alzar politely refuses and asks what is going on. The man barks out that in just a few seconds, the mage will be casting a Lightning Bolt at the wagon. Alzar looks, she is just the right distance away. Reluctantly, he drops from the wagon and she hurls a lightning bolt and destroys his laboratory. Meanwhile, Alzar has grown very angry indeed and demands answers.

[Abe Sargent]

The man (a paladin) uses Detect Evil on Alzar and it comes back positive. He refuses to tell Alzar anything and begins to move away. Marilla has moved over and is trying to calm everything down, although she is clearly distressed as well. Marilla asks what cause they had to destroy Alzar’s wagon. The paladin pauses a brief moment, and clearly addresses just Marilla.

“We had been following that wagon for a bit. It is the home of avampire. We lost track of it for over a year, but here it is, ready and moving just a week or so away from before. We have to destroy all of its homes.”

“You think the wagon I bought more than a year ago is the home of a vampire? Are you just insane?”

The paladin darts a nasty look at Alzar.

“Oh sure, if the mage is evil, he certainly can’t tell the truth or make sense. I could say that 2 plus 2 was four and you’d disbelieve me. You destroyed a wagon, you never hailed yourself, gave the person a chance to explain, and now it’s just convenient for you to focus on the fact that I happen to not be a worshipper of your idiot gods rather than own your own evil actions today.”

The paladin moves closer to Alzar and draws his sword.

“Enough,” Marilla demands. Alzar refuses to draw any weapon or prepare any spell. “Will you cut down a defenseless man? Are defenseless wagons too much for you after all?”

The other two begin to gallop up.

“Why are you with this evil man?!?!” He demands of Marilla.

“First of all, I did not know he was evil per se, although I take you at your word that he is. Your temple and abilities are known to me. Secondly, he has rescued slaves twice, freed a local valley from a curse, and destroyed a major threat by taking care of a growing army of goblins and dire wolves. So really, who has done more to help this area in the last year? You or him?”


The paladin pauses briefly, and then sheathes his sword and moves off. Marilla turns to Alzar and asks why he did those things if he is, in fact, an evil person.

“Oh, I am selfish to the core, never forget. But I see no need to turn that against others necessarily. Why hurt others when it brings me nothing? No power? My word and trust are how you truly advance yourself in the long run. I help others to help myself. “

Alzar and the group gather some of the items that were not destroyed and move on.

[Abe Sargent]

Two days later, while walking through the woods, the afternoon sun is streaming down through the leafy canopy and then six halflings crawl out of the bush. They are holding throwing sticks, trombashes, but not in an en garde position, just relaxed. Then another comes down a branch with a short bow in his hand, and above the caravan. He tells the wagons to stop where they are and prepare to be searched.

“I’m getting tired of people who want to search my wagons or blow them up! I am going to sever the head of the next person who searches, destroys, attacks or prevents me from continuing down what is supposed to be an open road!”


The Halflings begin to look nervous. The one above is uncertain. Alzar presses. “What is it this time? Last time someone thought I was harboring a vampire. It is a mummy? Do you think I have His Highness Hendrick IV in here?” (He just names some random person from Thorasia, knowing they don’t know who that is, in order to push the point.)

[Abe Sargent]

One of the Halflings in front sheepishly adds, “Orcs.”

“Do I look like an orc? Do these people look like they are harboring orcs?”



The Halflings begin to melt away from their perches. Trombashes are returned to belts and the leader’s short bow is slung back over his shoulder. He bounds down the tree to the ground. He tells the caravan that more than a dozen orcs have been roaming the area recently. So? He looks a bit taken aback by the question. They have allied with kobolds, goblins and some other goblinoids. It’s quite the little force.

Alzar agrees to help the Halflings hunt for their enemy. Marilla and the others will wait by the wagons and continue for a few days down the road and then hold up.

Meanwhile, Alzar gallops off with a horse as his needed items . One of the Halflings is a ranger, and she follows orc paths that were made just yesterday. After a few hours of following them, they arrive a few miles away from an orc camp. As it is drawing the end of the day, they decide to wait until the next day to strike – too many bad guys at night.

[Abe Sargent]

The following day Alzar and his crew prepare to attack the orc camp. In the camp are 8 kobolds, 7 goblins, and 7 orcs. They will be doing a hit and run. Alzar takes point and casts Sleep. 3 kobolds fall asleep and suddenly they realize an attack in ongoing. They are very coordinated. Three kobolds are put on sleep detail and they wake up those sleeping. Soon enough the goblins are throwing darts at Alzar and two visible Halflings while the orcs move into position. That’s smart. Goblinoids usually don’t know how to fight magic very well. One of Alzar’s best weapons is gone.

He follows with Continual Light to the face of a charging orc. Four more halflings appear to the right and left and start beaming in weapons against the orcs. This slows them down. The spell works and an orc, blinded, trips and tumbles.

Soon, the Halfling weapons have finished three orcs as Alzar takes 7 damage from darts. He orders the two Halflings beside him to retreat after they took some hits. His staff is out and smash-kills a wounded orc. The goblins stop the missile weapons at Alzar the moment before the orcs arrive to prevent any friendly fire, and then move to the Halflings. The kobolds have four hanging back checking for ambushes to the rear and flank while the others are converging on the right flank.

Alzar orders the Halflings under duress to leave. He smashes another orc and takes 7 damage from two attacks. Within a round he turns and flees under the arrows of the halfling leader .

They killed 4 orcs, 1 goblin, 1 kobold


Alzar took 14 damage. 37/51 hp

Alzar gained 75 XP

[Abe Sargent]

They retreat to a designated spot to decide on the next plan. They are very well organized. It would not be too unusual to have an orc, goblin or kobold leader who was good and seasoned at tactics who could guide them as they just were. What is unusual is that some leader has not only done that, but unified them as well. That’s interesting.


They move twice more and establish camp for the night. All is quiet. The following morning, scouts reveal that the orc encampment was moved. It is now in a much more defensible location, where they have their backs to a large hilly cliff face. Normally that would be suicide (no exit in case of being attacked and needing to retreat) But there is a ravine right behind them. A rope ladder heads down, plus its’ just 15 feet or so down from their scamp spot. They can scramble down.

Without the heavy hitting nature of his Sleep spell, Alzar can’t see how the 8 of them are going to push their foes easily. He grabs his armor and spear and they will use him as a tank to finish off some while they try to keep too many away.

Two and a half hours later they arrive at the camp. Alzar flings a poisoned silver head spear at a goblin on guard. It spears him in half. Alzar roars and moves in slowly, with his magic spear ready. The halflings are currently not to be seen. A group coalesces to hit Alzar, while others start preparing for an attack on the side.

Alzar’s spear is up and he attacks an orc (+3 vs orcs). He hits and smashes the orc for 1d6+4 damage. It dies. He takes 5 damage from two attacks. They win init and hit again for 3 damage once (goblin hit). He kills another orc. The rest are goblins and kobolds on him. Trombashes fly out from the woods and slay a kobold. The halflings have been spotted and a small unit moves to intercept while they return missile fire.

Alzar hits and kills a kobold. They miss. A halfling is slain after being hit three times. The others pull back a bit. They win init. Alzar takes 8 and moves back after spearing a goblin and killing it. They melt away from his retreating form as others move back to gather up wounded and dead.

Dead: 6 orcs, 3 goblins, 3 kobolds; 1 halfling

Alzar – 24/51

[Abe Sargent]

Suddenly, Alzar orders a shift and throws the magic spear. It misses a goblin. The leader gallops in on a small pony firing in arrow after arrow, hitting with the magic short bow Alzar lent him, while trombashes snake in for a dead goblin. Alzar rushes in on the east flank.

They move to gather their scattered forces and converge in the center of their camp, just above the ravine. Alzar’s axe hews the body in half of a kobold. They slay a wounded goblin but mostly miss. The leader drops the bow and draws his magic sword. The goblins win init and attack the leader and hhis twice for 11 damage. Alzar takes a dart for 2.

Leader: 23/34
Alzar, 22/51

Alzar’s axe is out. He misses once but hits an orc for 5 damage and it is still alive until the leader gallops at him and stabs him as he rushes by. Another kobold is finished. The enemy begins to retreat, moving themselves down the rope ladder and moving to the ravine. Alzar and the leader move to it, Alxar dropping his axe along the way and unholstering his crossbow.

Alzar stabs a goblin for death and the leader unmounts and drops down the ladder as well. Others have run up from the woods while their foes retreat.

They manage to kill everybody but one orc, one kobold and two goblins. Those four manage to make it away. The ravine had a crevasse that runs along the hill before moving into it – a cave system.

[Abe Sargent]

The gather up and bandage the wounded.

The camp has nothing in it beside the typical bedrolls, clothes, tools, food, and such.

The halflings and Alzar agree that this likely ends the raids and disturbances in the area for now, so the following day they begin to move back to the road and catch up with the caravan.


As they do, a crashing noise hits up ahead and Alzar explores. Here is a large, brilliant colored yellow tomcat. It talks to Alzar and says that it is hungry. Alzar grabs some food and tosses it to the cat instead of moving to it. The cat thanks him. He was turned into a cat by an evil wizard a few months ago. Alzar is not sure he believes the cat, which has a very strange way of constructing its sentences. But the cat wants to come along, and Alzar agrees. His name is Karat.


The journey to the road is almost over when fire blackened arrows leap out of the brush and lance at Alzar’s group. He orders everyone to the road and to prepare for battle. His magic spear is out and he moves to the lead.

Suddenly a powerful flame erupts in front of him and brush catches on fire. Alzar’s horse is started and pulls up. He fails his riding proficiency, falls, and take 3 damage. As he does so, Karat, scared, leaps away and into the brush.

[Abe Sargent]

The halflings have their missile weapons at the ready and prepare to attack what is in the place ahead. Soon enough, a small humanoid made of fire, about 18 inches tall, moves into view. This is a fire Gen. A small, weak, very simple version of an efreet. They have the intelligence of a clever child, and the emotions to match. They are usually controlled by more powerful other planar masters, such as efreet or fire lords. It’s very rare to see one off the Elemental Plane of Fire. Now Alzar has seen two Gen in a few weeks, one Air and one Fire. That’s quite odd. It is unlikely a coincidence.

The Fire Gen lights some other trees on fire. While their attention is directed above at the gen, out come four hobgoblins, a trio of goblins, two orcs, and a bugbear. More united goblinoids. It might be the clever Fire gen that has united them.

Alzar’s spear is launched and stabs a hobgoblin for six damage. The halflings see his shot and combine their aim. A trombash slides in and finishes it. The goblins move in to melee, and the others are using polearms to reach over the smaller goblins. They smash and slay another halfling and hit the leader for 8 damage.

Alzar’s axe is up and he carves and kills an orc. One orc left. The halflings mostly miss. Meanwhile, they hit Alzar with a pike for 5 damage. The fire gen moves down the branches of the trees to the ground.

17/51

Alzar gets two attacks and attacks the bugbear twice, hitting both times and killing it. Two goblins are offed. The rest stab mightily at the halflings and the leader takes 8 damage. They win init. The Gen shoots out fire and kills a 3rd halfling. The leader is stabbed twice and dies. They miss Alzar. He roars and tells the halflings to retreat. His axe bites and finishes the other orc. Left – one kobold, 3 hobgoblins, Fire Gen.

[Abe Sargent]

They keep initiative. They converge on Alzar and hit once for 4 damage while the Gen ignites him for 4 as well. Alzar slays a hobgoblin with one attack and misses with the other. He wins init back and slays a kobold (with a meaningless critical hit for double damage!). His other attack missed. They win init and the Fire Gen orders a retreat. Alzar stabs out with an attack of opportunity and misses again. They move back into the woods, while the Fire Gen sets fires to cover their retreat.

Meanwhile, seeing the fire, smoke, and fire gen, Marilla has moved into the at a full gallop. She casts Hold Person on a hobgoblins and stuns it as it breaks away. She grabs a sling stone and flings it at the other one. Alzar’s silver spear and her bullet both wing into it and hit it and it drops. All that is left is the Gen, who slips away and escapes.

Marilla moves in and Raises Dead on the halfling leader. She’ll spend the next few days raising dead and healing folks, including Alzar. Meanwhile, these foes have nothing on them either. The halflings, now seeing the seriousness of their foe, are going to relocate to a new section of the forest, and they thank Alzar for their help. Alzar even casts Detect Magic on everything using his Rod, and nottttthhhhing..

Karat the cat returns about an hour after the battle.

[Abe Sargent]

Two days later, the caravan gets restarted after healing and raising. About a half day into the journey, they crest a small hill’s ridge. On the other side is an older woman dressed in normal, but dirty, clothes. She looks up after a moment and hails the caravan. She introduces herself as Ruby. She has lost her cat, a gold yellow color that is quite large. Karat has disappeared.

Alzar goes and looks and finds the cat in the wagon. He talks to Karat, and he tells him that Ruby is his mother. Alzar grabs Karat and they head out to Ruby. Karat and Ruby head off together, but not before she gives Alzar a brilliantly colored gold flecked Ruby, worth 1000 gp and looking like no other gem Alzar has ever seen before.

(In reality, this Ruby is a gemstone from a gold dragon. Karat was really young dragon, on his first excursion, found by Alzar and refusing to reveal itself, instead appearing as a cat. Ruby, was his mother. The gem is an actually gem from her coat, and blessed with good luck. For the next week, Alzar gets +1 to his saves and to his hit roll. Then the luck fades, but the gem will still hold its value)


Gold Flecked Ruby – 1000 gp

[Abe Sargent]

Three days later the caravan leaves the woods behind and as they do, something falls onto the roofs of the caravan wagons from the last tree. They are tiny, blacked garbed men, no bigger than a children’s doll or toy. Alzar shouts to the group and they move to intercept. There are five of these little creatures that are attacking with sharp little needle knives. Alzar smashes one with his axe. Instead of dying, it shatters into a bunch of pieces, as if made of glass or porcelain. Marilla kills one, and then they take some damage back.

Three turns later they have all been killed, and Marilla heals the damage. Alzar takes the bodies of the five creatures. As they move he retreats to a wagon and spends some time investigating them. They are, in fact, children’s toys. These were dolls that were somehow animated. Were they a wizard’s construct, or just an animated spell? Luckily they didn’t hit – no armor when he normally travels.

[Abe Sargent]

Eight hours later, the walls of Arjuna can be seen. Alzar and Marilla agree to push on and finish traveling. They have arrived at Arjuna about two hours after evening. As they wait in line to enter the city, a bureaucrat walks down the line, offering to sell new people to the city passes to get in. Marilla whispers to Alzar that this is all a scam. Nothing is needed to enter. Alzar agrees to buy a pass, and while the man is getting his wares, Alzar tries to stab him with a poisoned knife. Unfortunately, he misses, and the man casts invisible. Alzar is immune to low level illusions due to his intelligence, and he sees the man and stabs again.

This time Alzar connects and the man writhes in pain. Then he finishes casting a spell to grow wings, and Alzar sees him lift up. Alzar tries to cast Continual Light as his eyes, and he makes his save and is over the walls before Alzar can do anything else. Ah well, it was worth trying.

About thirty minutes later, Alzar’s wagons, a few others from the escaped slaves, the escapees themselves and Marilla enter Arjuna.


Marilla leaves Alzar for her temple and they part ways. The slaves all have family here, so they move off and well, taking their wagons, food, weapons that Alzar let them keep (for money) and other things with them. Alzar makes for the largest inn in the area with the best reputation. Their best rooms have been rented, but he gets a good one from the Golden Wyvern.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar has gained a level, and is now level 4 Path Mage.

However, he has lost his laboratory and traded the 350 books he found in the library at the Lion Castle.


What does he have:

500 pp
3186 gp
3250 sp
6000 cp
3450 ep


+1 Pesh-kabz, Khopesh, Short Bow, Dagger
Bracers of Protection: +1
+1 female, smaller, human scale mail
Spear, +1, +2 vs Giants, +3 vs Orcs, Ogres
Wizard Scroll – Web
Potion of Levitation, Fire Giant Strength
Wand of Frost – 9 charges

Silver Knife, Spear
Crossbow, 50 bolts


Flask of Sleep Water
Vials of Poison

2 Divining Rods
Focus - Signet Ring

Pearl Necklace – 750 gp
Silver Clasp – 50 gp
Electrum Amulet – 120 gp
Silver Bangle – 25 gp
Gold Buckle – 85 gp
Gold and Malachite Headband – 220 gp
Gold and Turquoise Ring – 70 gp
Onyx Statuette of Snake – 250 gp
Copper Belt and Stones – 60 gp
Violet Garnet Earrings - 120 gp, pair
Silver Ring, Bracelet, Necklace set – worth 750 gp as a set
Gem - 150 gp; 10 Citrines – 50 gp each ; Star Sapphire, 2000 gp; 10 diamonds - (200 gp each)
Gold Flecked Ruby – 1000 gp

Book - Tribal History of this Duergar Clan

[Abe Sargent]

Spellbook


Level 1:

Comprehend Languages
Craft Divining Rod
Detect Magic
Identify
Read Magic
Sleep


Level 2:

Continual Light
Locate Object


Level 3:

Lesser Rhabdomancy




These are his items of value. He needs to find a place to get a library and workshop ,each work 4000 gp. To be safe, they should be 5000, in case he increases his experience on the road.

First of all, he trades in his coins for pure gold. After conversions, he has 7721 gold. Then he finds some places in Arjuna that will purchase gems and items of value. After selling all non gems, he has 9910. Then he sells some of the armor and weapons he managed to grab for wagons and adds another 250 gp to his list. He converts all of the normal gems too, and lands at 14446.

He heads out to do a bit of shopping.

[Abe Sargent]

Arjuna is the largest city in the area and the central port of trade and commerce. There are several major bookstores and stores for alchemy and other supplies. It has a variety of specialty stores that meet Alzar’s demands.

Within three days, he has acquired enough supplies for a new laboratory, valued at 5000. He pays a few scribes a bit of change in order to track down the right books. That takes about two weeks to manage, and he spends 5250 for a 5000 gp library.

After two weeks, he has, roughly, 4000 gp left. In the meantime, he contacts a small wizards guild. He checks to see what magic items are available for trade or purchase (a very small amount indeed). He moves his magic armor and sword for several scrolls of value.

Scroll of Charm Person, Cantrip, Spectral Hand, Wizard Mark, Find Familiar and Skeletal Hands

Skeletal Hands summons a pair of hands for 4 rounds per level of Alzar. The levitate can move about. They can be used to open doors or chest, and simple movements. They cannot pick locks, use spell components, etc. They can fetch either 5 lbs each hand or 20 lbs for both combined. They have to stay within 10 feet plus 10 feet per level. They can attack each round for 1d3 damage at half casters level Thac0. Each one had AC 5, hp4, and movement 6. Spell component is two skeletal hands of a humanoid, and they are not destroyed unless the hands are. (Why trade for so many spells for just three minor items? They are all lower level spells and most of them are very, very common. Three – Find Familiar, Wizard Mark and Cantrip are in a universal school that every mage can use, no matter what. So they are really common. Charm and Spectral Hand are quite common too. That leaves the rarer Skeletal hands as the only real acquisition.)

Wizard Mark leaves Alzar’s mark behind, Spectral Hand creates a hand that touch spells can be cast through and Charm Person and Cantrip work as normal.

Alzar learns them all. He will now normally know:

Charm Person, Sleep, Detect/Identify/Comprehend as needed
Skeletal Hands, Continual Light, Locate Object

[Abe Sargent]

Three weeks have passed. Alzar has met an unusual magic-user today. She is a Shi’ar. She sends her gen (an earth gen) to go search for any spell. It might work, It might not. It can get any spell she has seen or knows, including cleric ones or ones higher than a level she could normally get. When it returns, she must cast that spell within a half hour, or lose it. Then she can send her Gen to get another spell. Gen can take a long time to search things up, and their chance to get a spell reduces by each search they have gone on that day. Gens are basically like a very powerful familiar.

Genies are not affected by the difficulty in moving from one plane to another. They are able to come to this plane, Hamedh, easily. Alzar does not know why they have an exception, but genies have a powerful presence here. Shi’ar have developed powerful relationships with the genies on this plane, as well as those elsewhere.

Sometimes a Gen goes rogue. No one knows why. Alzar has run into two already.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar takes a day to cast Find Familiar. (Materials cost 1000 gp)


It takes much longer than normal to work (on Thorasia, it would take 2d6 hours, here it takes about a day)

After an exhausting ritual, Alzar hears a noise. It has worked. What sort of familiar has Alzar attracted with his spell? (10% of an extra-planar familiar. Nope. Just a normal one).





Gilded Ears, Jackal Familiar
AC: 5, HP: 14
THAC0: 20, Damage: 1d3, bite
18 inches tall, 26 long from tail to nose – 11 pounds

Alzar gains enhancing hearing and eyesight when within 1 mile of Gilded Ears. +1 to surprise roles for Alzar as well.

Save to take no damage when touching Alzar, fail to take half from spells. She gains 1 hp every time Alzar levels.


If Gilded Ears dies, System Shock roll to die, lose 1 point of Con if successful. This is an ally with a powerful set of benefits and disadvantages. Alzar is used to battle familiars (Lastion, the ghoul) or flying ones (Dryshik, and to a lesser degree, Megala).

Gilded Ears is much less intelligent than Dryshik, although still a lot smarter than a normal Jackal. Alzar may see out of her eyes.

The benefits with a non-magical familiar are bonuses to surprise, seeing out of eyes, and getting bonuses sot one or more senses. Gilded Ears is not really a powerful attacker, and is a bit big for a stealthy spy. She is neither a slippery bat, hawk, eagle or owl, nor a small mouse or ferret. However, she is healthier than most familiars, and is harder to hit.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar has 2800 gp after three weeks stay, finding the components for Gilded Ears, and other expenses.

He comes back to the Golden Wyvern and sees a sign that was just posted. There have been a rash of burglaries for the last month from homes. Alzar heads inside and talks with the innkeeper. He has a few flyers for the local information and he gives one to Alzar.

Apparently, there is a 1000 gp reward offered to the person who can stop it. Right now, Alzar could use the spending cash. He heads to the local town guard and meets with a bureaucrat in charge of everything. He gets some basic information and then heads out to investigate.

Alzar spends the day collecting information about the robberies that occurred. They are too high profile to likely be the thieves guild. All of the attacks have occurred in the Green Garden district of Arjuna. Alzar purchases a map of the town from a local store and then finds all of the places that robberies have taken place and looks around . Are there similar places or shops around the targets? Perhaps they are all near a bakery or a blacksmith? Are they all within a radius of two blocks or so, or maybe they are all just outside of a sewer grate? None of those are the case.

The map is not getting very far, but Alzar does note something very important. Every burglary took place against one of two places. Either in one of the inns in the Green Garden district or against a mage in there. No other stores or people were targeted. All four inns have been hit at least twice.

Well, if the targets are mages and travelers, why not combine them both? Alzar grabs a wagon and some nice animals and rides to one of the local inns in that Green Garden area. It is the Roaring Stag Inn. He checks into the nicest suite they have, splashes around some serious coinage, and then retires for the night after offering to sell some spells to people.

[Abe Sargent]

That night, he lays out a few choice targets – the Scroll of Web spell, and the potion of Levitation. Maybe someone will want to grab these? One is on a table by the window and fireplace. The other on a bedstool by the locked door. That covers all three entrances to the room.

He heads to bed for the night, but will stay secretly awake all night long. Meanwhile, Gilded Ears is outside of the inn, watching the window and that side of the inn. Perhaps we’ll see something there…


Shortly before midnight Alzar hears a gentle scratching from the chimney. Alzar waits, and then just opens an eye, under the covers . There in the chimney is a tiny female humanoid, about 1 foot tall, attired in a jellaba, and holding a picket basket. She takes a quick glance around the room and makes a few gestures up and moves a foot into the room. Another set of scampering can be heard, and then a man in a flowing black cape, one foot talk emerges as well. He pushes into the room, and then motions up and pushes out into Alzar’s room. Finally, a third figure falls, and this one is three feet tall, and is a king’s fool, or jester, and holding a nasty looking dagger.


Alzar mentally alerts Gilded Ears to move to get a line of sight on the chimney. Hopefully, they can follow these people back home. They move and take the Scroll and Potion and then retreat back out of the chimney. Alzar is not completely sure, but they remind him of the animated dolls they fought as they exited the forest.

[Abe Sargent]

They pop back out of the chimney with his things, and slide over to the next room. They return from it about five minutes later with some jewelry. All loaded up, they leave the inn, and climb down the side. Alzar has his familiar follow them from a distance. Meanwhile he takes off as well, having been mostly ready to go and just hiding under clothes.

They go through some difficult places and tight, but Gilded Ears is able to follow and she keeps up easily at first. Clearly, only human intervention is expected. Then they go on top of some roofs and move and she is unable to follow and loses track. Alzar arrives on the scene about five minutes later. He grabs his Diving Rod and casts Locate Object, and targets his potion. The Rod detects it and he makes his proficiency check. It’s about five blocks away and not moving.

He follows the Rod and arrives at a large tower right in the heart of the Green Garden district. It’s four stories tall, and made of mortared stone. The windows are more like slits, and just 3 feet by 1 foot in size. No way in there. Alzar circles the tower. There are two doorways, one to the back and one to the north, behind a few hedges.

Alzar backs off and spends a few hours just watching the Tower from a block away, with Gilded Ears on the other side. Dawn breaks, and he moves off to get some breakfast, keeping his familiar on guard. While at a nearby food vendor, he asks who lives in the tower. Apparently it’s a lady named Buthaynah, who is considered to have some serious power. That’s nice.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar leaves, rests for a few hours, studies Locate Object again, and reruns around 11 am.

He knocks on her door. (As he does, he finishes writing a message on a paper and ties it around his familiar, and orders her to the local constabulary.)



After about five minutes, she answers the front door. Alzar introduces himself as a travelling wizard and was hoping to trade spells with her. After talking for a few minutes by her door, she casts ESP and Alzar willingly agrees to fail his saves. Yes, he wants to meet with her, yes he wants to trade spells with her.

She lets him in and they sit down and talk shop. He mentions that he was dispatched from another plane of existence without his skills ,items, or spellbook, so he has had to rebuild what he has so far. Since he has such a small amount of spells, he opens his book first. Are there any that she wants? Perhaps Skeletal Hands? (He doubts she wants Create Divining Rod or Lesser Rhabdomancy).


She looks it over, but is not really impressed. Then Alzar moves to another subject.

“So, let me ask you a question. I have been a Necromancer before. I know my stuff. I have seen a lot of ways of imbuing things with life with and unlife alike. I have never, in my travels, seen or heard of animating small dolls and puppets. How do you do it?”

Buthaynah is taken aback for a second, and she begins to give a halfhearted denial.


“No, don’t insult me by denying what we both know is true. You have an amazing talent. Did you come up with the formula yourself?”

As she starts to be complimented, she looks like she might warm up. “They are truly beautiful. Are they a spell or a ritual to make one?”

She is finally convinced and moves on. About a year ago she was dismissed from a college of Magic about 200 miles away. She was making unapproved experiments in sorcery. She hit the road and ended here in Arjuna. She needed money desperately when a thief was dying from breaking into a noble’s house. She grabbed him and grabbed a puppet of a jester from a nearby market. Then she modified a spell she had discovered in the college’s old tomes. She put the soul of the thief into the jester’s body, creating a servant that had the skills of a thief. She created more of these but from dolls that had normal souls in them, much like an animate dead spell imbues a body with the soul, or life spirit, of the deceased. She just moves it to this body using a different spell.


“That’s very clever. I would love to trade for that spell.”

“I won’t. It’s my own spell, and it’s too valuable to trade away.”

“I understand that.”

“Thank you,”

“Now, I would like to offer you another trade.”

“Yes?”

“I have a potion of levitation and a scroll of Web. I would like to trade them too you for gold, jewelry, or gems to their cost.”

“That’s…”

“Yes, it;’s what you took from me earlier this evening.” “Im not mad,” Alzar hastily adds as she starts up. “I just want their full value, or for you to return them. There is a reward out for your discovery of the thefts, and I need money too, as a mage who has just arrived.”

“Or I could just kill you.”

“True. But are you sure that you will? Are you sure that you can keep me from fleeing? By the way, while we chatted here, I had my familiar take a note to the local police. It is waiting just outside, patiently. Should you attack me, I can just order it there with my last breath even if you would win. Which you might not. Besides, we’ve been all chummy up until now, I see no reason to make this unfriendly.”


Buthaynah ponders for a moment. “Alright, stay here.” She gathers his items and returns them. “Here.”

Alzar checks the make sure they are his items. “I have a Web for trade too if you need that spell…” he says with a smile. She chuckles and casts Web on the ceiling.

“I don’t want to turn you in, but I need money too. This is not blackmail of course, but I would like something because I’ve been so friendly.”

“Can I trust you? What prevents you from coming back and demanding more, or going and turning me in?”

“Why would I? You are one of my people?” (Secret rolls ensue)


She pulls out a gold pouch and dumps it on the table. “I believe there is around 400 gold here. That’s all I will offer. It’s the gold I made from the jewelry sold from my last three day’s take.”

“That will be enough.” Alzar collects the gold. Contacts are more important than 600 gold.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar returns to the bureaucrat and lets him know that he could not turn in the thief or thieves. They cover their tracks really well and it is just hard to track. Sorry.


Then Alzar secretly casts Charm Person on the man. It works. Alzar tells his new friend that the thieves might be from the guild after all. They could be stealing in a new way in order to throw off attention. “That’s what I would do if I were in the guild.”


End of WG11. Puppets

[Abe Sargent]

Obviously, Alzar ended that in a very unorthodox way. You were supposed to blow the cover off the mage’s thefts, she would flee to another town, and you would explore the tower and destroy a few things and grab a suit of +1 leather armor that she forgot to take with her. But Alzar went another way, and you cannot argue with that.

This ends our mini-campaign, based around Puppets, Eye, Forest Oracle and Blizzard Pass. Now I have Alzar at the largest city in the area, and I intend to use it as a base for a bit. (There are not a lot of modules that take place in a city. Most are in small towns or the wilderness. I’ll make some changes to shift things this way.) Because he has his workshop and library, he is able to get all of his class bonuses, including the extra spells, and he can control undead/extraplanar folks again. However, there are two class differences that he now notices.

1). On Hamedh, Alzar will be at -2 level for controlling other planar creatures, because he is not from Hamedh. So he counts as a level 2 to control right now, rather than a level 4.

2). When identifying an item with his class ability, if he would successfully ID an item that has not Thorasian correspondent, then he fails.

[Abe Sargent]

HHQ2. Wizard’s Challenge

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/48/HHQ2_TSR9359_Wizard%27s_Challenge.jpg


This is one of a series of adventures designed for one DM and a single player. They are Fighters, Thieves, etc challenges. Then there is a second set of challenges later. This seems the right time for WC.

[Abe Sargent]

Five days after Alzar has met with Buthaynah, he receives a message from her, so he returns to her. She has received an unusual visitor today, and Alzar is the only mage she is on friendly terms with in the city, so she called him.

A person called Surrisk, the Ghost Prince arrived to talk with her. He tried to trade her knowledge in order to join forces with the Dead King. He wouldn’t say who that Dead King was, but he was very insistent that she join forces with him.

Surrisk, the Ghost Prince, was able to move into her Tower without any problem and penetrate her defenses. That worries her. She is thinking about leaving. Alzar and her will begin investigating Surrisk, and the names Ghost Prince and Dead King.

Alzar begins by rattling her about every little detail of the Ghost Prince. After a necrology check, he does not recognize the name or the description for any undead he is familiar with. Alright, time to do some research in local libraries.

[Abe Sargent]

Two days later, Alzar finds the name Surrisk. He used to live right here in Arjuna, and was a minor apprentice for the then guildmaster of the small wizard’s guild here, named Behrang. Behrang left behind a lot of information, and it seems he was not liked that much, but quite powerful. He had an obsession with living forever.

So, Alzar’s quick guess is that Behrang is an undead sorcerer, which means a lich most likely (could be mummy, vampire, or something else that is specific to Hamedh). Surrisk is his undead servant. That’s the best guess right now.


The following day, Alzar hears of a local Frost Mage who was slain in her quarters near the wizards guild. Are they connected? Was Surrisk, Behrang or something similar responsible?

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar heads out immediately to investigate. She lived in a modest house, and Alzar arrives just as another wizard does as well. He nods to Alzar, and Alzar recognizes him as another of the small guild here. He tells Alzar he is going to bury her, and Alzar spends a quick moment investigating her body. She is dead outside of the kitchen. He sees nothing magical, just some claws that killed her.

Alzar moves into the kitchen. It seems like she used it as a lab too. She was making ink when slain. It looks like ink for scrolls. There are some basic tools and spell components As a Frost Mage, some of the items reflect her specialty, such as a polar bear pelt on the wall and a set of melted frozen snowflakes for spell components.

The storage next to it holds mage chemicals of various, but non-dangerous, uses. The kitchen opens onto the library, and here a battle took place. It looks like some of the books were burned just a couple of hours ago. Alzar makes his spellcraft proficiency and notes that the burn marks are identical to a Burning Hands spell, because they are in a straight line. Most books survived. Did the Frost Mage use a fire spell, or was it used on her?

The next room is a large reception room. The flagstone floor is nice and smooth. There is a green gelatinous substance in here. Green Slime? He heads back to her kitchen, sets a fire in the fireplace, and pulls out the burning logs and returns. He sets the Slime on fire before it can reach him and it dies.

[Abe Sargent]

All that is left is a small lounge and bedroom. The lounge has nothing and the bedroom looks normal. Now that he has taken a look around, time to be nosy. He grabs all of her items from the bedroom and moves them to the reception room. He moves to the border between the library and the reception room, grabs his Rod, and casts Detect Magic. Is anything magical? Yes, there is a jar of beans on the counter that he takes to look at later. It looks like other mages cleaned out her other magic stuff


Magic Jelly Beans

[Abe Sargent]

So Alzar begins to open up chests and drawers to find stuff. In a chest from her bedroom are pair of letters from Surrisk telling her to meet him at a nearby crypt and that she should join his master, or else be punished. She obviously did not listen. Alzar notes the location of the crypt and heads out.


Two hours pass before he has found the right crypt in a graveyard on the other side of the city. It looks easy enough to open, but the door won’t budge. After exploring, the earth is weak in one place so Alzar forces his way into the crypt by digging in the ground for twenty minutes and breaking through.

He arrives in a corridor that heads to the door and the entrance on the other side. He reruns and opens the door to give him an exit if needed and then moves in. Expecting danger, he casts Skeletal Hands to explore in front of him. It doesn’t keep him from taking 5 damage from a spear trap that triggered from below and pierced his foot.

47/51

[Abe Sargent]

Some of these rooms have been converted into a home, but it was abandoned long ago. The first room looks like a kitchen and eating area from a crypt. Then there is a living and sleeping area put into another crypt just off the room. The Skeletal Hands are opening doors and moving things. That is the entirety of the crypt. That doesn’t feel right, so Alzar begins to search. Soon, he finds a secret door that enters into a laboratory.

This place was used to make magical items about a decade ago. There are some various items of interest in here. Alzar will collect them and take them with him and detect magic later


5 blank scroll pages, ready to be used
Many bottles of scroll ink
Wand, crafted ready to be enchanted
Proficient Staff
2 Rubies, 500 gp each

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar searches more and finds another secret door that leads to a library from this room. Four books are pulled out on benches, and the rest are on the walls. He reviews the bench books and discovers some interesting items:

A blank spellbook
Surrisk’s notes on undead, necromancy, and a spell Undead Familiar
Two reference books on necromancy


Beyond this room is Surrisk;s bedroom. It’s mostly empty, with discarded clothes in a corner and only a few papers in the desk. One is a message from Behrang, and telling him where to meet him in three days. Hmm, it leads to a nearby tower.


Alzar sends a wagon here and spends a day unloading items from the crypt to his wagons.


+1000 gp to library and laboratory (now worth 6000 gp each) – plus the various items Alzar likes. He ids the Proficient Staff and discovers a magical item in the bedroom. The staff can be used as if the wielder knows how to use staffs, even if they normally cannot. (It can hit creature sonly hit by magical weapons too, as a result).

Boots of Varied Tracks is the other item. It leaves behind wolf, bear, rabbit or deer tracks when Alzar walks, whichever he wants at the time.

[Abe Sargent]

A day later, Alzar arrives at the tower to check it out – it’s actually not in town, but a few hours outside of it. It has about ten levels, but it’s pretty small.

The door to the tower opens easily and Alzar cautiously moves in. He is in the grand entrance that takes up the whole level. There is a shaft that runs up the entire tower, and it looks like wizards would fly or levitate up or down. A thin narrow winding stairway on the side is there for others. Alzar spends some time thinking and listening, but hears and sees nothing. He moves to the second level.

This looks like it was once a meeting room, with chairs and tables now since destroyed. The third level has a quiet par of fire beetles nesting in a corner. The rooms here are lit by Continual Light spells, so Alzar does not need any lightning. He ignores the beetles and moves up to the 4th floor an old research room. The place is lined with missing and destroyed equipment and books. A rat moves out and Alzar flings a knife at it and kills it. He leans down to collect the knife and sees the rat was using a spellbook as a home. Alzar leaves it for now and notes it.

Next is the library. There are just five books on the shelves, Alzar skips them for now.

[Abe Sargent]

On the next floor is a storeroom, and Alzar senses an undead creature. He moves and sees a skeleton, and he tries to control it. He fails. It is stronger than a normal skeleton. Alzar’s staff is out and he attacks the skeleton. He misses, and the skeleton begins to run away. As it moves, Alzar begins to hear something upstairs.

In a moment, the sound gets louder and then a creature floats down in front of him. It is a beautiful form of undead Alzar is unfamiliar with. He wears a virtually insubstantial green robe and Alzar can tell he will be unable to control this beautiful creature. Alzar holds up his hands to parlay and says he does not want to kill the creature, just talk.

He stops and looks at Alzar. He opens his mouth and tells Alzar that he needs to join the master, the Death King. Alzar guesses a lich, and he nods. Behrang? Another nod.

“What happens if I join?”

“You will become as powerful as me.”

“What powers do you have?”

He becomes corporeal and grabs a few items and moves them, then turns. “I still study and learn and grow and can cast magic. I just don’t have to sleep and am much more powerful.”


Alzar nods. This is power. After magicks to extend his life ran out, Alzar always suspected he would turn to lichdom. This might be more powerful than that in some respects. It is very tempting.

But this is not on his own time, his own will, or his own power.

So he refuses. He is not ready yet, he tells Sussick. The creature tells Alzar that every mage must submit or die.

“I heard.”

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar casts Continual Light as he casts Magic Missile. Sussick goes first and three darts fly into Alzar for 12 damage. Continual Light hits the undead foe. He makes his save and is not blinded.

39/51


Alzar grabs the proficient staff and swings. He connects for 4 damage. It casts dispel magic on the Continual Light in the room to even the odds. However, Alzar surprises it and smashes for 2 more damage, due to blind-fighting. You don’t expect a mage to have blind-fighting. It casts Spook but Alzar makes his save.

It wrests initiative from Alzar and goes first. It summons a Flaming Sphere to attack Alzar. It hits for 7 damage. Alzar misses.

32/51

The sphere hits for 4 and the creature goes insubstantial this turn. Alzar misses badly (much better AC). It tries to paralyze touch Alzar and hits his left leg. That limb is paralyzed for 3 rounds. Alzar’s AC is lowered by 2. Alzar hits for 5 damage. It punches him for 4 damage and he misses. Alzar wins back init, and it paralyzes his right arm for 5 rounds, making him -2 to hit,

Most undead are immune to cold, so Alzar’s Wand of Frost is unlikely to be of value. Web likely won’t work on his while insubstantial. All undead are immune to charm and sleep. He has used Continual Light already. That’s most of his magic. His items aren’t going to better his ability to hit. Just have to swing and hope. So he does and misses. It goes substantial again and wins init. He casts Chill Touch and hits Alzar, who fails his save and takes 3 damage and loses a pint of strength (which drops his damage by one). Alzar casts Web from his scroll and encapsulates the wraith.-y looking foe. Alzar wins init, swings, and hits for 4 damage. It spends a turn phasing again, in order to escape from the Web.

Alzar keeps init, slashes and hits the incorporeal foe with his magic staff and adds another 3 damage. It paralyzes and misses. It wins init and they all miss two turns in a row Alzar misses, and it hits for 4 damage.

21/51


Alzar gains init, misses for the 5th or 6th time in a row, and it missed back. Alzar swings and finally connects for a damage. It attacks and tries to paralyze him, and hits a leg again, for 6 rounds, -2to Alzar’s AC. Alzar loses init, and it this for 4 damage. Alzar manages to connect again, smashes it for 6 damage, and it fades, screams, and dies.

5000 XP for killing it

[Abe Sargent]

With that dead, Alzar is free to finish exploring the final tower. In here, he finds:



Three books of magical history
One book on history of tower and residents


Spellbook destroyed by rat, just one spell left – Levitate


Scroll of Create Spectral Wizard
Ring of Cantrips
Crucible of Melting
Dusty Rose Ioun Stone - +1 AC
Lens of Speed Reading


Alzar takes the whole damaged spellbook, in case someday he gets his Spellbookmend spell back. The

Crucible of Melting is a laboratory aid. On speaking a command word, it heats up and melts all metal inside of it instantly for three turns (about a half hour), and then cools down. The Ring of Cantrips will enable Alzar to cast Cantrip 5x daily. The Lens will let Alzar read and triple normal spell.

The Ghost Prince was a Spectral Wizard, and he had a spell to use on one of the wizards here made by the lich. That could be a powerful tool for Alzar years down the road. It may end up being the best thing he found here.

[Abe Sargent]

Spellbooks:

Evocation Tome of Beginners – All common 1st level evocation spells

Standard Spellbook – Feather Fall, Hypnosis, Sleep, Spook, Magic Mouth, Shatter, Dispel Magic

Sussick’s Spellbook: Magic Missile, Chill Touch, Spook, Detect Magic, Read Magic, Detect Undead, Cantrip, Wall of Fog, Find Familiar, Light, Tensor’s Floating Disc, Continual Light, Flaming Sphere, Death Armor, Hold Person, Levitate, Locate Object, Spectral Hand, Bind, Dispel Magic, Hold Undead, Item, Dig, Undead Familiar


Spellbook destroyed by rat, just one spell left – Levitate (remnants owned)


Death Armor is cool. It surrounds Alzar for 1 round per level with a nasty energy shield. Any creature that hits him with their body must save vs death magic or take 2d6 damage from it. This includes attacks with natural parts of their body like nails, teeth and such. Alzar still takes any damage they would do, but it zarks them. Animals will tend to stop hitting him once they take damage. It requires 300 gp unguent to be used up to cast the spell.


Alzar learns: Death Armor, Hold Person, Dispel Magic, Hold Undead, Chill Touch, Detect Undead, Hypnosis, and Dig.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar’s new Spellbook:


1st Level:

Cantrip
Charm Person
Chill Touch
Comprehend Languages
Create Divining Rod
Detect Magic
Detect Undead
Find Familiar
Hypnosis
Identify
Read Magic
Sleep
Wizard Mark



2nd level:

Continual Light
Death Armor
Hold Person
Locate Object
Skeletal Hands
Spectral Hand


3rd Level:

Dispel Magic
Hold Undead
Lesser Rhabdomancy


4th Level:

Dig



End of Wizard’s Challenge



Yay. What's next for our wizard friend?

[Abe Sargent]

Wizard’s Challenge II


http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UXFVnbSRjm4/TorUnY0H3GI/AAAAAAAAAFg/XK-tTtBnhno/s1600/WC2.jpg


The sequel begins! This is technically for a solo-mage between 4 and 6th level. Alzar clocks in at 4th plus he has some HP and stuff from his warrior days, so it seems totally doable. I was going to run this back to back with the first one initially, but after reviewing it, I think we can handle it.

Here we go!

[Abe Sargent]

As Alzar returns from the concluding battle and bringing back objects from that exploration, he stops at an inn in a town outside of Arjuna. That night a local mage drops into the inn and talks with Alzar. It seems that another associated wizard of theirs was killed, and they suspect by the spectral wizard or his master. Perhaps, since Alzar already handled them and investigated one such death that another is warranted.

Sure. Alzar spends the night in the town and then takes his things (wagons and all) to the location of the suddenly dead wizard. About one day’s trip from Arjuna lies the sleepy hamlet of Watershead. There was one known wizard here, an older gentleman called Yaghoub.

Yaghoub was a local Naturalist Mage, a Hamedhi specialization that deals with natural and magical animals and plants. He was over 90 years old and quite skilled. Yaghoub was a jolly old sort who endeared himself to the locals, and loved to research the area. He regularly packed up expeditions to places in the nearby badlands.

Yaghoub seems to have been killed off about two weeks ago, so the Death King is an obvious candidate.

[Abe Sargent]

After arriving, Alzar unloads and unpacks. Along with Gilded Ears, he moves to the local tower that was the home of Yaghoub. It is hundreds and hundreds of years old, but Yaghoub restored it a few decades ago and then moved in. It’s a smaller home, and Alzar expected a bigger tower as the home of a supposedly powerful mage. It’s just two floors.

Alzar spends the night in the village, and he is told that a few days ago, a local force of guardsman were attacked while on patrol about a half mile from the town. That’s not too unusual, but are the events connected? Perhaps, and perhaps not.

Alzar wants information before heading into a wizard’s tower. He heads to the 3rd floor of the inn and meets with one of the survivors of the attack who is here convalescing. Alzar talks with him about what he fought. Apparently it was a large, magical creature, and it broke the fine steel blade the soldier was using when it tried to hit it. It killed more than half their number in moments, and the rest retreated. The beast was humanoid in form, had pointed sword-like arms; one of which slashed him, and a dark grey skin, with four legs, and bright yellow hair and eyes.

That’s not like any creature Alzar is familiar with. Related or not, that is not helpful information at this time.

[Abe Sargent]

In morning, he moves to the tower. There is a door on the front, outside of the round tower, and the small outhouse looking building connects to the main tower. He moves in and checks the door. It is locked, and a spellcraft check shows that it is Wizard Locked. That will need something like Dispel Magic or Knock to open. Alzar memorized Detect Magic today and his Rod is out. He casts it and moves around. There are some magical runes on the door but he cannot read them. He needs Read Magic

He spends the rest of the day doing research and interviewing folks. The next day he memorizes Read Magic, and Detect Magic, plus Sleep and Hypnotism for his first level spells (and Hold Person, Skeletal Hands and Locate Object for his 2nd level magic). He casts Read Magic and the runes are revealed to him.


They have a command listed, and Alzar speaks it. He triggers the Wizard Lock and opens the door. A day later, but it works.

[Abe Sargent]

actual tower and he is at an antechamber This room has two doors leading from it and takes out about a fourth of the layout of the tower. In here are mining equipment and excavation tools, as well as samples of local animals and plants. It’s just a work and storage room mostly. Alzar pulls out a Continually Lit stone and lights the room up.

He has the hands open the door on the left and this reveals a bed chamber, the same size at the other room. There is just a single nice bed, chest, and rugs. Clothes hang on various hooks to the side. The hands move to the chest and pull it open – it was unlocked and untrapped. In here are clothes and a bottle of greenish liquid. They pull out the bottle and bring it to him and he secures it for later inspection.

The hands move to the other door off the anteroom. Back here is a room that takes up much of the rest of the floor. A central circular staircase goes up. There are continual light spells here and Alzar returns his stone to its location. This is where Yaghoub did a lot of his living. There is a large comfortable sofa and two reclining chairs, plus a table and some chairs. The furniture in here is much wealthier and more comfortable than the relatively Spartan things so far. On the table are a bowl with some vegetables and fruit, with a fork beside it ready to eat. It is a couple of weeks old, and quite rotten.

[Abe Sargent]

There is a door here to the kitchen. It’s quite simple. Just roots, plants, and herbs. Nothing animal at all. Perhaps after studying them, Yaghoub gave up eating animals? The plants are mostly spoiled. Alzar walks the length of the floor and there is no place for a secret location. So up the stairs they go, led by the Skeletal Hands.

They arrive in a library. There are two large bookcases that cover the walls. This room takes up half of the floorplan on the upper level here. A large fireplace and comfortable chair and sitting area are here as well. There are several hundred books in the library. Alzar’s quick look shows topics on weather, plant life, and animals. Just what you’d expect from a Naturalist.

One door leads away to the rear, and the hands open it up. A horrible smell comes from the room of death and decay. Alzar moves it and recognizes the corpse on the floor as likely belonging to Yaghoub. This must have been his study. There are two small book cases along the walls here and a door on the other side. Alzar leans down. The old man here must have been dead for quite some time. His face is one of sheer terror. Next to him is an open book, and on his disk are papers and books. Alzar lifts up the open book to read the shine first. Nothing. Alzar closes the book and secures it. On the hand of the mage is a ring. He grabs it. There is nothing else on the body.

[Abe Sargent]

He moves to the desk. There are various papers, plus the journal of Yaghoub. The tomes on the shelves are about ruins and the local area. Alzar has the hands open the last doors and in here is a chamber that takes up the rest of the Tower, and it has various relics Yaghoub uncovered. Six chests are unlocked, and the Hands trigger a few poison needle traps that Alzar misses. Nicely done, Skeletal Hands!

One chest has about 250 coins of various types from centuries ago all stamped with the same logo - a raven on a skull. Another has several old weapons with that logo on them. The third, fourth and fifth have pieces of pottery or glass or shard of metal from that era, respectively. Finally, the last chest has some items of value from the era, including a ruby pin with the icon of the logo (Raven on Skull)

Also in the room is a ebony staff with a crystal griffin on top. Alzar has all of the thins brought together in one room to detect what is magical. He casts Detect Magic and these things react to his Rod – the potion he took, the staff, the ruby pin, the ring and the book.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar moves to the desk and looks over the papers. One is Yaghoub’s journal. For 41 years, he has been exploring the nearby badlands and finding relics from an old kingdom. There seems to be some ruins beneath the sand dust about a day’s journey away, and there should be more elsewhere. He mentions that a few days before he died he found this potent tome in a tomb that he has explored before but though was empty. He chalked it up to senility, but sine the book was magical and open and looked at when he died in his study with no signs of struggle, it seems very suspicious.

Alzar takes the items that viewed as magical and Yaghoub’s Journal for now for later perusing. He hires some local porters to move the two libraries to his third wagon. The Naturalist library is valued at 5000 gp and this one at 3500 gp for the ruins and local history. That is important stuff. He finds some keys and locks up the relic room and heads out.

The first place Alzar goes is to a local temple. He finds the head and inquires about raiding Yaghoub from the dead (this goes outside of the story). Due to the length of his death, he cannot be simply Raised from the Dead. He can be Resurrected, but that is an expensive spell. The cost to do so, ingredients alone, is about 5000 gp in incense, ointments, and rare spices that are consumed by the spell. Plus, it would require a local patriarch. Luckily, Arjuna is big enough to warrant one. Alzar cannot pay for it right now, so he thanks the priest.

Alzar notes that the tower was quite small. Clearly Yaghoub has secured most of his valuables elsewhere, like his spellbooks.

[Abe Sargent]

Something killed him. The book was obviously a trap to get him out of the way. But who would want to do so? Were his explorations getting too close to something interesting? If so, Alzar would like to know what or where or who was in danger of being exposed.


With the journal in hand, Alzar knows where in the badlands to look for the place Yaghoub found the book that likely killed up. However, one thing seems quite sure. The death of Yaghoub and the Frost Mage seem unconnected. Just two deaths around the same time in the same city-area.

He spends the night in town and memorizes, the following day, the same spells as before but swaps Read Magic for Identify and IDs the staff.

Yaghoub’s Staff – Counts as a Staff of Striking, with 14 charges. When held, acts as a Ring of Protection from Fire.

That’s not a bad item to come across.

[Abe Sargent]

Every fifteen minutes he travels, Alzar leaves behind marker in these changeless badlands. They have few large rocks, trees, hills or monuments that can be used to check your location and insure you’re heading in the right direction. After five and a half hours, Alzar arrives at the ruins that he believes Yaghoub mentions several times in his journal.

While unloading his horse, (he left the wagons in the town), a form moves out from the ruins around him. Another follows. Two Large Scorpions about 4 feet big are skittering out. Alzar gallops a way a bit from them and then jumps off his horse and tosses on his armor. He orders his familiar to the left to keep her out of harm. Meanwhile he moves up and flings his silver spear at one and misses. They get closer and closer. His axe is in hand and he approaches. Melee range is reached.

Each one has three attacks – two pincers, and one tail. The tail attack is poisonous. To hit Alzar in his mage robes ,they will need a 16. He needs an 6 to hew them with his axe. Their pincers do 1d4 damage each and the stinger just does a damage if it hits , but Alzar has to save vs poison.

Alzar loses init and they pincer him twice for 3 damage but otherwise miss. He hacks one for 6 damage. He wins initiative and gets to attack twice. He kills the injured one and his the other. It misses him, and wins init, pincers him for 3 damage, and he hews it and slays the beast. He doesn’t want to play with a poisonous creature. He has no idea how deadly the poison on a Hamedhi scorpion might be.

Five minutes later he has field dressed the scorpions, and taken their stingers and poison sacs. (Poison Use proficiency). He grabs his horse and unpacks his armor and sets it on the horse, and leaves the steed behind.

45/51 hp

[Abe Sargent]

There are several ruins here, mostly buried by age and sand with rock. The ruins have a pyramidal shape ,but have been blasted by time , and now merely suggest it. According to Yaghoub’s journal, this is one of the areas that was the center of the ancient empire that he studied.

Alzar suddenly hears the sound of a chittering scorpion, much larger than the ones he dispatched. It is coming from the right, away from the ruins a bit. He is moving towards the sound, and away from the ruins. After fifteen minutes, he fails to find the source of the sound. He returns, and hears it again, this time from the other direction, to the left. He heads over again, and looks, but sees nothing and after a few minutes of watching, he moves on. He won’t be distracted that easily, and he plunges ahead.

Soon he encounters a few coins on the ground from the same empire as the ones that were in Yaghoub’s old tower. He bends down and sees a few more just at the edge of his eyesight to the left. He has Gilded Eyes head over and she sees another pair a loooong distance from that spot, and even further away. Nope, he’s not that gullible.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar moves on toward the ruins. He has arrived at the large square that once marked a pyramid. It seems like the stone was cracked and perhaps an earthquake occurred to bring this place down. He arrives at the southern edge of the structure and there is a stone floor here, still standing and working after all of these years. Sand has blown over it, and it takes a few minutes to clear away the sand that blocks a natural entranceway.

After moving things around, Alzar moves to the only exit, a doorway in the north wall. This is a long main hall, and it looks like it could have been an entrance hall. There is a stone throne, worn by still a throne at the end of the hall. There is a doorway to the right and down the left. The wall to the immediate right is destroyed and in rubble. The symbol of the empire is carved in stone and the throne in a few places. There are old pictures carved into the walls that still stand that depict the ancient nation.

Alzar moves left and passes out of the main hall and into an unknown chamber. Doorways are to the left and right, as well as behind him. The exterior is in front. The rocks from the upper floors are still lingering here and the light is bad. Alzar’s lit up stone is withdrawn and there are crumbled remnants of old metal pieces from furniture barely recognizable in the dust. He heads left.

[Abe Sargent]

This room has suffered a major cave in. In order to help inspect the rocks, Alzar casts Skeletal Hands. A quick check with them reveals an old skeleton here that was covered by rocks. On its neck is a amulet with the symbol of the empire emblazoned on it. Alzar grabs it. He moves to the other room and this is once the northern entrance to the pyramid. The staircase up is shattered. He hears a scraping, and in a few minutes, a long creature emerges. A carrion crawler. This can be dangerous with just himself here. A creature with 8 attacks that can paralyze you is death to a lot of creatures. Alzar backs away and orders in the hands. They cannot be paralyzed, and the tentacles of the crawler deal no damage. Thus, the crawler cannot damage them. After a few rounds and they hit twice, the crawler views this combat as bad luck and moves away, retreating back out of the ruins into the badlands.

Alzar explores this room briefly, and then heads back and moves into the area that was smashed. Back here were the crypts that Yaghoub found the book, and like he said, they are empty. A recent tremor may have knocked someone else free, because he finds a large piece of pottery worth 500 gp from that era.

Rare Pottery – 500 gp

[Abe Sargent]

The final doorway leads to the last spot on the northeast corner of the pyramid. The place is thick with chunks of debris. As Alzar enters the room, he notices something odd and circular in the far corner. Before he can inspect it, a creature erupts from behind the ruins and moves in.

And it is the spitting image of the beast that attacked the town guard a few days ago. With hands that end in spears or swords and four legs it bounds over the uneven ground quite quickly to get to Alzar. It has not made any threatening moves though, so Alzar just waits. It stops about fifteen feet away. It’s golden hair looks odd against the coal grey skin.

Instead of speaking, it communicates with Alzar telepathically. It wants Alzar to leave the ruins. Alzar tells it that he is investigating the death of Yaghoub, and he died from a book that he collected right here. The creature admits that he placed the book there to kill the mage. He was getting too close.

Hundreds of years ago, he was tasked with guarding this pyramid during the reign of its first and only sultan. After he left and his state fell, the creature was left guarding it by himself. He keeps away those that he can. He was summoned from Earth to do this.

Wait? Summoned from Earth? Yes, he was once one of the proud race of Dao, but he has been here so long that this is his whole life and being. He left them behind long ago, but still considers himself one of them.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar asks if he was put here by the sultan himself. The creature suddenly gets massively angry at Alzar! How dare you insult me by asking that! The creature roars and moves in to attack.

Alzar barley has time to react. Yaghoub’s Staff is out and blocking. Alzar doubts he has any spell that will affect this tasked genie. It won’t slow down to Sleep, Hypnosis, Charm, and his Skeletal Hands have been dismissed. This can only be defeated by items or fighting.

Alzar needs a 16 to hit his foe. The creature just needs a 9 to cleave him with his sword arm – he attacks twice. The genie wins initiative and hits Alzar twice for 13 damage. Those are heavy hitting hands! Alzar swings with his staff and misses. The creature keeps init and swings and hits again for 5. Alzar misses.

27/51

When a Staff of Striking hits, it expends one charge to do 3 extra damage. Alzar is going to use the charges a lot of deal even more. He just has to hit. He wins init, misses, and then takes 6 damage from a sword/hand thrust.

21/51

He keeps int and finally hits, doing 3 damage from the staff, one from strength, and adds 9 damage from three charges. The genie took 13 damage. It stabs out and hits twice for 1d8 +1d8. 4 damage.

17/51

Alzar loses init, gets hit for 5 damage, and then hits again and puts another three charges into the staff for 15 damage. It decides to flee and leaps to the circular spot at the corner and then moves down and disappears.

12/51

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar rushes over to that spot and looks down. There is a stairwell here that heads down about ten feet. Alzar grabs his stone, tosses it down the corridor, and leaps down instead of taking the staircase. He makes the landing.

Down at the base is a long corridor with a shimmering magical screen at the end and something beyond it. The tasked genie is not here. Alzar moves up quickly.

He reaches the magical barrier in a few seconds and sees movement behind. Alzar grabs a rock and tosses it at the barrier and it is destroyed with electrical damage. He grabs one of his bolts and pushes it at the barrier, but it passes right through. Alzar keeps pushing and he moves right through the barrier.

Odd.

The task genie sees him come through and is surprised as well. It roars and spins. Alzar is wounded and unsure if he will kill it. He draws his Wand of Frost and puts in three charges for a Cone of Cold. The wand spits out the Cone and deals 23 cold damage to creatures in front, save for half. The genie makes its save, takes 12 damage, and dies anyway.

Alzar – used up 6 charges in Yaghoub’s Staff and three in Wand of Frost

[Abe Sargent]

He looks around. There is just a small chamber back here, with a resting area that the tasked genie apparently used regularly. After a search, Alzar finds a hidden niche here that springs open. Inside is a large and ancient tome. A spellbook.

Alzar also finds a second Amulet, a Ring, a Jellaba, and a few non-magical items.


Ruby Necklace – 750 gp
43 gold coins from the empire

Alzar suspects that anyone who could force a genie to serve them is very powerful, and that means the spellbook is likely trapped with all sorts of bad stuff. He will wait until later and cast a bunch of Dispel Magics at it over the course of weeks, and then pop it open. That alone will take level 5 when he can learn 3rd level Magic, although he is getting close to that level.




2500XP for the adventure and kill

[Abe Sargent]

Other magic items:

Ring of Protection +1

Ring of Chameleon Power – This enables Alzar a 90% chance to blend into his natural environment

Scarab of Venom – Twice per day Alzar can place this scarab on a weapon and it will coat that weapon with a poison that will deal 3d4 damage to the next creature hit if they fail a save. It takes a round to prepare the weapon. (I actually weakened this, it really does 3d4 without a save and you save to die from the poison flat out.)


2 Amulets of Neconolis (one allowed Alzar ot pass through the screen, and the genie had one on him too)

Rock Jellaba – When worn, gives immunity to petrification, and Alzar can cast the Statue spell upon himself (without needing a system shock roil and keeping the form as long as he wants) once per day.

Potion of Neutralize Poison

Neconilis’s Book of Horrors – When opened and read, bad things happen. Reader rolls a save vs spells. Make it, and you suffer the effects of the 2nd level Fear spell, even if you are normally immune to fear effects. Lasts for 20 rounds. If you fail, make a system shock roll. If you succeed, than you are paralyzed for fear for 1d6 hours. If you fail, make a Constitution check. If you make this, you are in a coma for 1d3 days. Fail it, and you die.

Alzar dons the Jellaba, and he rolls. It works with the Bracers he always has. He then adds the Ioun Stone, which orbits his head and grants him an AC bonus. It works, but this skin turns a lovely shade of bright green. He then puts on the Ring of Chameleon Nature, and his skin goes back to its normal color. All four items are currently working together. He keeps it there for now.



End of Wizard’s Challenge II

[Abe Sargent]

Alzars stuff:


4200 gp

+1 Pesh-kabz, Short Bow, Dagger
Bracers of Protection: +1
Spear, +1, +2 vs Giants, +3 vs Orcs, Ogres
Potion of Levitation, Fire Giant Strength, Neutralize Poison
Wand of Frost – 6 charges
Yaghoub’s Staff – Striking – 8 charges, Ring of Fire Protection when held
Ring of Protection +1, Chameleon Nature; Cantrips
Rock Jellaba
Scarab of Venom
Scroll of Create Spectral Wizard
Crucible of Melting
Dusty Rose Ioun Stone - +1 AC
Lens of Speed Reading


2 Amulets of Neconolis

Silver Knife, Spear
Crossbow, 50 bolts
Flask of Sleep Water
Multiple Vials of Poison

2 Divining Rods
Focus - Signet Ring

Ruby Necklace – 750 gp
Rare Pottery – 500 gp
Relics from Neconolis – 1000 gp total
Gold Flecked Ruby – 1000 gp

Book - Tribal History of this Duergar Clan
Book – Yaghoub’s Journal


For example, he doesn’t have to be wearing his Venom Scarab to use it, it provides no benefits when worn.



His library has gotten too big for the wagon, so Alzar has to pick up a bigger wagon.

Here is what is in the Neconolis Spellbook when he manages to decode it muuuuch later:

1st level – Alarm, Burning Hands, Detect Magic, Detect Undead, Friends, Jump, Magic Missile, Protection from Good, Read Magic, Spook
2nd Level – Deafness, Detect Good, Ghoul Touch, Magic Mouth, Whispering Sound, Wizard Lock
3rd Level – Bewilder, Explosive Runes, Hold Undead, Non-Detection, Secret Page
4th Level – Curse, Emotion, Enchant Weapon
5th Level – Animate Dead, Summon Shadow
6th Level – Summon Least Yugoloth

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar returns to the town and spends a few days there, identifying items, moving things around and more. He heads back to Arjuna to spend some time correcting a mistake. This was the third time he has encountered geniekind-here on Hamedh. They are not weakens in their travels, unlike the difficulty that others have in getting here.

After meeting with a local Shi’ar, Alzar begins instructions on genies. They have a massive influence on Hamedhi culture and magic. Therefore, it is only right to learn more about them. After studying for three months, Alzar has gained the Genie Lore proficiency. This enables him to know about genies, gen, tasked genies, other versions of geniekind, and he also knows about genie etiquette, genie bribery, and such.

While he spends these three months learning (and paying the Shi’ar 500 gp), Alzar also spends time looking over the books he recently acquired. As he does, he spends some more time with Yaghoub’s Journal, and discovers something quite intriguing.

[Abe Sargent]

B1. In Search of the Unknown


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6c/B1_In_Search_of_the_Unknown.jpg

Let’s hit a classic now. There have been some less appealing adventures we did, such as Forest Oracle and the solos weren’t exactly tripping goodness and daises everywhere. Puppets and Eye of the Serpent weren’t bad, but they didn’t exactly rock the block. Of the group of five adventures, Eye of the Serpent was the best. Then we added the Wizard’s Challenges, and they were nice, get your feet wet adventures.

Now, let’s move to the sexy B1, coming to ya from straight out of 1978. There are several reasons why this is a good first adventure for a lot of groups. First of all, it has pages and pages of notes on how to be a good DM. Second of all, many of its room descriptions later on are blank in terms of monsters and traps and treasure and such, giving you the opportunity to roll on some charts or just make it up yourself. This is an absolute classic.

[Abe Sargent]

The journal talks about a discovery Yaghoub made about 16 years ago when searching the badlands for more relics from the Empire of Neconolis. Two famous icons from about a hundred years ago ruled the badlands. One was a powerful warrior and the other a powerful mage. The two united several tribes. When a large nasty weather system moved in, they ordered the construction and widening of natural cave systems and created an underground complex for their men and themselves in order to ride out the storms.

It worked, but a few years later, the relationship severed. They fought against each other, and the caves were partly abandoned and the men were lost to legend. Yaghoub found the entrance to the caves deep in the badlands, where they begin to turn into actual desert, about four days ride from Watershead. After finishing up his training in Arjuna, Alzar leaves behind many of the extra books in his house he rents in the city. He takes just 5000 gp library with him, and the same with his lab.

Watershead is much as he remembered it. Quiet and bustling. Alzar secured the body of Yaghoub, and someday would like to Reanimate it, but he does not have the gold right now. Meanwhile, he prepares for a long journey. He has purchased several camels to take with him, and loaded them down with water and food. There is only one oasis between here and there (which we will actually pull out of Wizard’s Challenge II since I didn’t use it there, and run it here. I do this stuff a lot)

On the first day out, Alzar encounters a large group of jackals. They come close, curious about Gilded Ears. After a half hour of sniffing and such they leave.

[Abe Sargent]

The next day, about three hours from the oasis, Alzar notices something in the distance. At first, it is moving perpendicular to him, but then it turns. After a few minutes, he can make out galloping creatures and soon see that this is a small herd of desert centaurs, smaller and hardier than their forest friends. In a few minutes they arrive at the caravan and Alzar halts to get down and talk with them. They do not know the dialect he speaks, just a language common among desert folk. Then one comes over and casts a spell to allow communication.

They have just come from the Oasis that Alzar is heading too to refresh. They tell him that unfortunately a local poisonous serpent, the Heway, has made the place its home and has begun to poison the water. Normally they would just kill one with ranged weapons – their throwing sticks (trombash). But it has gone deep underwater, and they suspect there must be a small cave down there for it to breathe and survive. They were unable to gather the water and are moving off.

Alzar tells them that he suspects he might be able to track down this creature and kill it. As it is getting late, the herd agrees to make camp here tonight and two will go off and escort him to the oasis. If he can find the Heway, but needs help killing it, they can assist.

A few hours later, near twilight, Alzar’s caravan arrives at the oasis. It is about 75 to 80 feet across. Hyena howls can be heard in the night. No creatures are at the oasis right now, but there are some older footsteps, as if no one has used it yet.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar steps to the water and inspects it. He grabs his tools from the lab to test it and uses poison use proficiency. He can verify that the water has been moderately poisoned, but he is not familiar with the source. It is not a touch poison, and will only worked if ingested. Because of its dilution, it is not lethal, but it can cause cramps and tremors for a few hours. It looks like soon it could cause paralysis for a few hours if it continues to increase in volume in the oasis water (Find out more about Desert Centaurs and the Heway in the Al-Qadim Monstrous Compendium!)

The desert centaurs warn him that the snake creature can stun someone for a few minutes, allowing it to be easy prey. Forewarned, Alzar grabs some items to protect his eyes, mouth and nose, and dives into the poisoned water.

The oasis drops off sharply after about ten feet and there is a deeper bottom than one might otherwise suspect. He dives a few times and locates an underwater passage. He holds his breath and makes a swimming proficiency check and dives into the chamber. It takes some time. However, even with the proficiency check successful, he is unable to keep air in his lungs for long enough and after two minute begins to take damage. He emerges on the other side having taken 10 damage. (He should have had the Deep Diving Proficiency, or a spell or item such as his old reliable Necklace of Adaptation or Water Breathing magic.)

41/51

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar emerges into an underground chamber, He grabs a continually lit stone and pulls it out to give him light, it is very dark down here. There are several fungi and the air here is fresh. There is a tunnel that emerges here and moves forward. After gathering himself, Alzar moves forward.

The tunnel narrows more and more until a tight squeeze is needed for Alzar to push through. A large serpent would fit in through here easily. Alzar is worried about being attacks or engazed (not a real word, engazed, but handy for what it does), and opens the holes from this side.

After fifteen minutes, Alzar moves into the area. It is a rounded chamber, made by an earthquake. Alzar hears a hissing a freezes. He closes his eyes and moves toward the sound, with blind-fighting proficiency leading him.

The hissing continues and the scale-against-rock sound is heard as it moves toward him. He pulls out the +1 pesh-kabz – he could not fit larger weapons in the swim. The snake moves toward him and it attacks.

It gets a free shot because Alzar is fighting blind. But then battle as normal ensues.

http://www.lomion.de/cmm/img/heway.gif

[Abe Sargent]

It stabs out with its mouth and hits Alzar for two damage. That was not an attack he was expecting. He makes his poison use proficiency check. This creature has no fangs to ejects poison. His knife scrapes the scales but fails to connect. It attacks and misses.

39/51

It wins init and attacks. It misses. Alzar does as well. It adds another damage, and Alzar misses. Alzar regains init and slashes for 4 damage with his magical weapon. It misses. He misses badly, and it follows with a slash on his arm for 2 more damage. Alzar stabs it for 5 damage, and it misses. It wins init finally and stabs him for nothing as he just dances out of the way. He misses. He wins init and they both miss. It regains initiative and hits for 2 damage and he misses. He regains init and stabs out for 4 more damage and it dies.

34/51

Alzar gains 150 XP

The creature has no poison glands in its mouth, just oozes it from its skin. He searches down here and finds a few old bodies buried in the earthquake. Most have nothing, and he casts Detect Magic to see if any of the minor weapons, helmet, coins or anything glow. As his Divining Rod passes over that direction, he sees an amulet glowing.

Amulet of Neconilis

He returns with the head of the Heway and gives it to the centaurs as a sign he has slain the creature. They tell him it should take 2-3 days for the water to purify. In the meantime, he makes camp there for the evening.

(And that basically ends Wizard’s Challenge II’s Oasis encounter. I swapped an odd energy draining skeleton for the cool Heway and added desert centaurs as a fun desert encounter.)

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar decides to press on because he has no immediate need of water. The next two days are quiet, and he arrives at the location mentioned in Yaghoub’s Journal. In front of him in a narrow crevice that is big enough for a few people beside each other, but nothing more. Alzar drops his camels and leaves behind Gilded Ears to be a spy to make sure nothing comes across his stuff and he unloads items for his venture, including a pair of oil flasks, five vials of metal eating acid, two stones with Continual Light on them and other objects. His spells today are: Detect Magic, Sleep, Hypnosis, Charm Person, Skeletal Hands, Continual Light and Hold Person. He cautiously moves into the complex. (He heads in as a mage, but has warrior weapons in case they are needed, but is leaving behind the heavy armor).


The entrance is wet and musty. Wind buffets this area regularly, and the rock has blackened with dust and sand over the years. After a short walk, Alzar cuts down some old scraggy vines to make sure nothing is beyond them and moves through. He’d rather cut them down than push past them, just in case something is on the other side, or they are dangerous.

Soon enough the corridor is carved straight, and Alzar needs light – out comes a stone. He sees alcoves ahead on the corridor. They look to have once been guardposts. After passing by two pairs, suddenly he hears shouting from the final pair. They scream out dangers, warnings, and tell him to leave. Alzar fails his spellcraft proficiency check, and is not sure where they come from (it’s a few Magic Mouth spells).

[Abe Sargent]

The corridor rises a few steps, and at the top are five bodies. The corridor splits and heads right and left, and forward there are some doors and it continues for a while and opens up. Alzar leans down to look at the bodies. It looks like an adventuring party came in here a while, and smell badly. There are two guards too it seems. The first is a human who might have been a warrior, stripped of his armor and items, but with a broken sword and shield by him. A human speared by a sword wearing a red jellaba is here, and has also been searched clean. A dwarf has a helmet, nice but badly dented where it smashed his head, also stripped, and two humans of unknown profession finish the menagerie.

Ten feet in front of him are two doors that flank the corridor. He opens the left one. This appears to be a small kitchen, with a variety of pots and pans about. As Alzar moves in to inspect it, a pair of large centipedes move out of the cupboard and towards Alzar, who was making enough noise to alert them. His staff is out and he smashes out dead as it arrives. The other pecks him for 2 damage, wins init, misses, and he misses. Then he regains initiative, hits and kills it too.

20 XP

49/51 hp

[Abe Sargent]

A quick search reveals nothing too interesting here. As expected, the other door on the right opens into a small dining room. The rooms here are frugal so far, the tribe may not have had a lot of money. The furniture, while usable, is clearly made by a non-specialist, but just someone who hammered a chair or table together. There are no dishes or anything in here, just a few tables and chairs, and a banner on a wall. Alzar moves to a door on the far side. He hears noise on the other side and opens it after preparing himself. Here are three goblins, who leap up as he opens the door and move to attack. He would have been happy to talk with them, but he is just as happy to kill them also.

His staff thwacks the head of one for death. He is crit hit back by a curved dagger he cannot identify (Khukuri) and takes 6 damage. The other misses. He keeps init, and they all miss. They win init, and miss, and he slays a second. The other tries to run around him, but he slays it with an attack of opportunity.

30 XP

43/51

The goblins have nothing on them. This place appears to be a lounge. The furniture appears to be makeshift, but there is an odd object here. A large, very attractive marble statue appears to be secured to the ground. It would be worth thousands of GP but Alzar has no way to secure it. It could not have been made by the same people that made the furniture, so perhaps they procured it from another culture.

A search of the room turns up a bag of 25 gp tied under a reclining chair.

25 gp

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar returns to the corridor. It branches left and right just after the two doors. He heads right and it turns 90’ to go back in the direction he was originally facing. It ends at a door. Alzar tries it, but it is locked. He grabs a vial of acid and melts the lock.

The door swings open to reveal a different sort of room. The walls are made of better quality material, and the furniture is swank. It’s old, and has lost a lot of value. It’s also from different eras and styles, and very eclectic, as if collected from various places. There is an intricate stone carving on the wall across from him that stretches more than 50 feet. It’s of a wizard casting spells from a hilltop onto a faceless enemy below. Looking around, this might have been one of the rooms the wizard used. There are two doors leading from this room, both on the wall Alzar entered.

He moves to a desk at first. There are several drawers in here, and he uses a weapon to pry them open. Two swing freely open, and nothing in is there. The third will not open, it Is locked. He skips it and moves to a bed, with a beautifully done metalwork headboard. It has to weigh hundreds of pounds, but it has not aged at all. He slides to the door on the left and opens it.

This room is a large closet and storage room. There are some old, decaying garments in here, as well as various other accoutrements. Alzar finds four books and pulls them out. He returns to the desk and sets them down. The other door is opened and in here is a hug treasure pile! But Alzar is immune to low level illusions. He can tell that really, it’s a grey ooze creature behind a delicate glass container. Reach to get the treasure and ou would easily break the glass and out pops the ooze. Nasty little trap that.

He moves back to the books and has these tomes:

Book – History of the Badlands Tribes (20 gp)
Book – Encyclopedia of Local Plants (50 gp)
Book – Diary of the Wizard, Zelligar
Book – Meteorological Phenomena of Hamedh (75 gp)

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar moves to the drawer on the desk. He tries to force it open with a +1 pesh-kabz. He does and it springs open. A needle follows and pricks him. He fails his save and drifts off to sleep. Luckily, he wakes up after ten minutes and nothing happened.

Inside the drawer are a bunch of papers about the complex, such as inventories and pricing and other sundry things. In addition to that, there is a paperweight with the symbol of Zellimar on it, and finally a small block of incense. Alzar pulls it out and makes his ID item throw. It’s magical Incense of some sort, but not any he is familiar with.

Magical Incense, block of 20 hours (It’s Incense of Enlightenment. When burned while studying spells, it allows the spells memorized to be cast at maximum efficiency).


He heads back out and drops off the books, papers, gold, and incense before heading back out. He’s so close to the entrance, he might as well. He returns and takes the left at the passage. It bends too, in the same direction as the other passage, and passes by a large space on the right, about fifty feet long. He circles around the space on the top side at the corridor continues, and there are no entrances into that. A large space with no entrances is often a sign of a secret door, so he searches.

As he searches, he must make enough noise for a creature to wander over and find him. He hears movement in the corridor behind him, and after a pause, out crawls a large unknown spider. He grabs his staff. The creature is just two feet long. He tosses a knife at it and misses. It pulls up and spits a web at him and hits his arm and that will slow him down a bit. Make it harder for him to win initiative. It wins and tries to bite him and misses. He cracks it for 3 damage. It misses, and he does. It misses and he does. It bites him for 3 damage ad he makes a poison save. He misses. He gains init and misses, and it misses too. It regains, init, misses, and he misses. It misses, and he connects again and finishes it.

40/51

25 XP

[Abe Sargent]

Indeed, after fifteen minutes he finds a small latch which opens the door. This appears to be a modest wizard workroom, with a door on the left side. Alzar smiles widely. The furniture in here is quite well made, and of stone, except for some wooden cabinets in the right wall. The equipment in here tends to be broken, missing, not of high quality or serviceable at best. Alzar believes that can salvage about 500 gp of value from this room. The cabinets open to reveal 40 small earthen jars, stoppered with wax seals, and with no identifying marks on any of them. They could be anything from potions to poisons to lab components. Alzar remembers a page on items in the lab from the library. They were just components for research, like sand or blood. He can grab them later.

500 gp – Lab Components

He heads to the door and opens it. This room is a magical enchantment chamber and an extension of the workroom he was just in. Some of the objects in here are weird, a coffin, a torture rack, and several tables with a stopped flask on it. Alzar cannot tell if the flask is or is not magical, so he adds it to the magic pile for later. There is a fireplace in here as well, as some vats and casks and such –all empty. Nothing of value in here.

He heads back out to the corridor. Left there is a door to a triangular room. Alzar opens it and in here are a bunch of barrels and storage. Also in here are a quartet of very surprised looking orcs that were trying to decide what to eat. He casts Sleep and drops them all and slays them

100 XP

12 gp

[Abe Sargent]

He then moves to the room and starts looking at barrels. One has pickles, another edible seeds, and a third nuts, and a fourth dried berries, and so on. There is nothing in here beyond these foodstuffs.

The corridor winds back or continues forward over here on the left. Alzar moves back first of all, to make sure nothing was back there. After a few minutes, he runs into the corridor that comes from the entrance that spilt off the left. It continues. There is a corridor that winds in on itself in a giant twisting motion, getting closer and closer to the center. Alzar slows as he nears the center, preparing himself for a rap or opponent. He arrives and sees a pile of dead bones, with a large centipede shaped carrion crawler here that shakes itself and gets up. It probably hides here in this area, and then moves out to hunt and brings back the paralyzed foes to snack.

This thing is deadly. Alzar casts Continual Light at the multi-faceted red eyes it has. It fails its save, and it is blinded. Alzar backs up. He throws in a knife and hits it for 2 damage. Then it seems to gather its wits and moves with some degree of accuracy for a blinded opponent. Crawlers must have good senses. He backs up around a turn and grabs his spear. This is not a battle for the weak of heart. He spears it for 5 damage with its magic as it closes. Alzar’s axe is out and battle begins. He wins init, carves it for 6 damage, and it dies. Whew.

No XP

Back here on the ruins of the skeletons are some broken items and a few things of wealth. One is a gigantic metal gada, or mace, that weighs a lot. There is a warm blue unnatural sheen to it. Alzar tries to ID it but fails (only works 20% of the time at level 4). He grabs it and secures it. There’s a bit of coinage as well, but not a lot.

+1 Gada
21 sp
13 ep

The only other thing in this corner of the area is a meeting room, with benches and such, but nothing else.

[Abe Sargent]

He returns and takes the corridor passage forward and within thirty feet arrives at a large set of double door while the corridor bends to the left. Alzar opens the double doors and reveals his favorite room in any dungeon, castle, keep or tower. The library.

The room is covered with dust and there are three bookshelves with three tables and various chairs around the room. Continual Light spells in the corners of the room provide light. Alzar moves along the old books and sees titles that are not particularly powerful, but they do serve to add to his collection. It’s a general library after not, not a magic user one. All told there are about 300 books worth about 1000 gp total.

1000 gp library of 300 general purpose books


The corridor branch ends at a door, which is locked. After trying various ways to open it, Alzar uses his 2nd Vial of Acid to open the lock. It opens in a corridor that goes right and left. Alzar heads right first. The corridor ends after thirty feet. Suspicious. He spends thirty minute searching every inch and nook three times but finds nothing. He heads back left. After a few minutes, he arrives at a winding corridor that has three doors, and then ends. The first door opens into a small room and it has in it blackish soot and material to use to supply a forge or smith. A quick search turns up:

Four electrum plates, 40 gp each

[Abe Sargent]

Those are used to be forged into something valuable. The next door opens up into a….surprise surprise, blacksmith. There is a large fire pit that dominates the center of the smithy, and various tools around. The room is quite large and warmer than any other place Alzar has been, even with the fire unburned. Perhaps that is why four goblins are here making it their home, and they rise. Alzar casts Hypnotism as some weapons are thrown. They pin him twice with javelins for 4 damage and he orders them to drop their weapons from the spell. Three fail their save and one makes it. Alzar’s staff flies up and he smashes the one who is still fighting just as it stabs with his spear. Both hit. Alzar takes 3, it takes 5 and dies. Alzar then forces the other three to tie up and leaves them here.

37/51

40 XP

A quick search turns up a few potential items for the magic pile for later, that were used as smithing, but still in good condition, including a of hammers for the forge and a nice, pristine looking pair of tongs. Alzar also finds some ingots of iron and copper, and leaves them.


The final door in the corridor is a tiny chamber, with a round hole in the ground. Heading down is a pair of ropes and ladders. It looks like there is another level below this one.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar returns and tortures a goblin until it squeals. The pathway that led right from the entrance leads into a large section of the complex. They don’t know a lot about what is down. He kills one, and the others faint. He kills them too – not wanting to leave an enemy to his rear, in case they are rescued.

He moves back to the entrance, taking several items with him as he does, like the gada, the flask, the two hammers, and the tongs, and a few others here and there that grab his attention. He leaves them in the wagons and returns, taking the right passage.

It bends to the right after twenty feet, and then after forty it splits off to the left, and continues forward. Alzar goes forward. He wants to explore this section of the place in the back. After several minutes, the corridor takes a 90’ turn to the left and moves off that way for some time. Eventually it ends with two doors on the left, right where he wants them to be. He hopes he is on the far edge of the dungeon.

The first door opens into a corridor, and he goes to the other. This opens into a room. This is a tastefully decorated room for a woman of refined taste. There are hangings and trappings, and a four post bed with many drapes. The table to the left as he walks in has a mirror and several beauty items including a silver comb and brush. Alzar searches the room. The lace and frills have decayed and the colors have faded on most of the items in the room, except for a few of value

Silver Comb and Brush set – 100 gp
Ornate Perfume Bottle – 50 gp

[Abe Sargent]

He head back to the other door. The corridor beyond it moves forward, with a door on the left and it bending shortly thereafter to the left. Alzar grabs the door, but it is locked too. The door is weaker, and so he forces it open and it crashes with a loud bang. This is a furniture storage room, with old wooden furniture and wood chips on the ground in places. Bugs have gotten in here and eaten a lot of the items in here. Large termites emerge from the items, and Alzar shakes them away with his staff. A few moments later as he is finishing up a search, a few creatures fly into the room from the opening the insects made long ago. They must have heard the noise from the crashing and three Stirges have arrived to see what the ruckus is about.

Alzar stabs his staff at one and misses. They bite and one hits for 4 damage and attaches itself. Alzar hits and connects with that one and kill sit and the others miss. They win init and one hits for 2 damage. Alzar smashes it dead. Then they each miss for two turns before Alzar connects for 4 damage – just enough to kill it.

75 XP

31/51 hp

[Abe Sargent]

The corridor to the left bends back after a short distance and a door faces that direction, telling Alzar there is not a hidden place there like he was suspecting. The stonework around the door is getting much better quality in the carving. The door opens to a trophy room that rocks items like Brass Dragon skin, skeletons, teeth of a basilisk, and body parts he does not recognize as belonging to Hamedhi exclusive creatures.

As he leaves the room to continue down the corridor,, a snake comes around the far end, and it’s just a small cobra. Nothing major, and Alzar kills it easily from distance.

The corridor bends right and it pushes into a much larger chamber and ends. Another branch heads off to the right, and there are two doors on this corridor. Pillars have been carved into the sides of the wall and a fresco in the ceiling of a fighter on a hill holding a powerful sword and looking like he is going to cleave an unseen foe.

The first door opens into a bedroom/work chamber of probably the captain of the guard or whatever passed for him. In here are a few tables and nice bed. There is also a sleeping goblin on the bed. Alzar carefully grabs his magical spear, and tosses it and kills the goblin. A quick search reveals nothing on the corpse, but a table leg rings hollow when tapped. Alzar breaks it and discovers:

Topaz – 100 gp

[Abe Sargent]

He returns to the corridor and takes the other door. This room has a stairwell that heads down and nothing else. There’s not even the usual dust. Alzar returns and moves to the large chamber at the end and it opens into a small throne room, with a stone throne carved out of the rock itself. It looks like this was recently used as a makeshift bedroom, because old pallets are laying about and straw has been brought in for sleeping. Old draperies that once hung were torn down and used as blankets and wrapping. There is no sign of any recent presence though.

Alzar takes the right bend on the corridor. The quality of rock work drops as it goes, and in a few feet after it returns to the normal carving he expected, it meets up with the left path from the corridor coming down. There is a locked door on the left which Alzar uses his third vial of acid on – just two left.

Beyond this door is a corridor that turns to the right after ten feet. He turns and it heads straight for a bit before bending to the left out of sight. He takes the bend and it ends at a door a short distance beyond that. Alzar opens the door and he is at the end of another corridor, that heads back to the left. It opens into a large room, with a door on the left. Alzar senses something that tweaks his necromantic senses and opens the door. Inside is a small bed chamber rand work space with religious decorations for perhaps a priest. There are also a trio of skeletons standing by a corner that activate when he opens the door and move toward him. He rolls to control them successfully and….does!

The first undead on Hamedh to bow to his mastery!

He searches the room and the desk has paperwork, but the paper used here was poorer than that of the mage, and it has faded and worn out with time. There is a locked chest at the base of the bed. He searches the rest of the room and unconvers nothing. He uses a vial of acid on the lock and has just one left. He opens it with his staff and a dart flies and misses him. He sees a scarlet cloth in here and grabs it. He opens it and it was protecting a golden medallion. He pockets it.

Golden Medallion

(It’s actually a Medallion of Defense, on command it will grow into a +2 shield, and then shrink again when the command is stated a 2nd time)

[Abe Sargent]

Leading the skeletons first, he moves into the large chamber. This oddly shaped chamber has a door on the back wall he entered and many different colored pools on the ground – 14 in all. Mosaic tiles are imprinted on the floor in an array of alternating patterns, scintillating the seven colors of the rainbow over and over again in pattern.

Each of the pools has something different in it. Well, one pool is empty. Each pool has something different, and Alzar is sure some are good and some bad. One could be poison and other water and a third lava and a fourth forget-me-not potion, and so forth. It’s basic dungeon design 101when designed by idiots. He has no desire to spend a bunch of time tossing in coins and testing liquids to find the right one to heal him or whatever. Not right now at least.

Alzar has a skeleton open the door, and it opens into a large barracks, and inside are 7 goblins that are in various states of battle. Some have weapons in hand, others armor, and some nothing. The goblins move to the skeletons. Alzar summons Skeletal Hands to assist. Meanwhile his skeletons clash with the goblins. They carve two dead that were unarmored. The others dodge away and one hits a skeleton for 3 damage.

Alzar’s group win init. His knife barely misses a goblin. The skeletons kill a 3rd goblin while they finish getting weapons. They stab and slay a skeleton, They win init and mostly miss. One hits for one damage with a spear (half damage from piercing weapons). The skeletal hans and two skeletons take out a 4th goblin dn wound a 5th. They keep init. They kill the barely wounded skeleton after a crti hit, and the skeleton and hands finish of the wounded goblin. Two gobs left. Alzar arrives. His group wins back init, and Alzar stabs out with a staff and misses. His minions scrap and slay a the goblin and the last one misses and is killed the next round.

70 XP

Alzar searches with his skeleton and pair of hands. They find in the barracks:

72 gp

[Abe Sargent]

A door on the other side opens to a corridor that heads left and right. Left winds up at a small chapel and worship area, with an old alter but little else. The other heads into a corridor that ends after passing four doors. The first opens into an old armory. Most of the weapons here have been taken over the years, but a few broken or poor ones (clubs) remain. The next door opens into a guest chamber, and the third does as well. Both are empty of anything beside basic furniture- bed, table, chair, stool or bench, and an empty chest. The final room is a utility room with some basic storage. A quick search turns up nothing, but makes enough noise and a large beetle of some unknown sort flies into the room form the corridor and dies to the skeletons and hands in one round.

Alzar returns to the corridor and has finished this floor of the complex. He heads to the stairs and moves down. The Skeletal Hands have run their course by the time he is down there.

He arrives in an access room, with a cart, and stones laying about, with other mining equipment here. The rock is roughly hewn, and looks like it has not been finished at all. He heads to the only exit, a doorway in the south. It opens into a corridor with a door to the right, and the roughly turns into natural cave, and there are two natural passages that lead off.

The door is unlocked, but jammed. Alzar forces it loudly open. This room looks like an unfinished museum, with frescoes and the beginnings of statues and display cases made of rock. Nothing is in here though.

He heads back out and has the skeleton lead and they take the closer of the two passageways. It curls back on its and tightens in a few places. Soon enough it widens a bit again and a chamber is off to the side. The chambers on this floor are devoid of furniture or special objects, and just normal caves. Alzar moves into this cave, but as he does, a loud piercing scream rings out and down the passages. There is a patch of shrieker mushrooms here. He pulls off a flask of oil, douses the area, and lights it and kills the mushrooms. Meanwhile, all of the creature son this level have heard and all of them are moving on his position. His skeleton moves to the back while he uncorks the other flask and pours it along the ground on one passageway. He lights a torch and puts it right above the oil, easily able to be knocked into it and set fire to a patch of about seven wide ground.

[Abe Sargent]

Soon creatures converge. Down the passageway he was travelling comes a giant spider, much larger than the one he fought upstairs. His spear misses it, and it wins init and damages the skeleton for 5 damage. Alzar’s axe is out and he smashes for 8 damage on the spider. He wins inti, misses, and hits for 7 and the skeleton misses. It hits and finishes off the skeleton. Alzar kills it the next turn.

Then four orcs come in from the other side. They see the oil and hold up. Alzar lights it up as the orcs ready some trombashes to throw at him. Two manages to snake over, and he takes 3 damage from one.


28/51


Alzar retreats and heads the other way, and the orcs cannot follow him. They turn around. Alzar passes a webbed chamber and checks. This was the room the spider was in. Nothing else here. He pushes forward to put some distance between the orcs and him, the fire should die down quickly enough.

Then his passage ends at a large chamber, and on the other side is another passage. He moves to it, and as he does, the orcs emerge on the other side. Uh oh! He throws a spear and misses and grabs the axe. They throw their sticks at him and he takes 2 damage from a hit.

26/51

Melee range has been reached and battle begins. Alzar wins inti and kills an orc outright with his axe. He is hit twice for 8 damage. Then they win init, miss, and Alzar kills two more orcs. The fourth runs, and Alzar kills it with his attack of opportunity.

18/51 hp

Alzar searches the bodies and finds:

18 gp
3 pp
18 ep
22 sp

[Abe Sargent]

Then he retreats and checks the floors – nothing else is here to kill him. A search begins of the various rooms. The webbed one has earrings carved beautifully from ivory. The mushroom room is empty, as is this large chamber. The orcs passed by two rooms to get to him. One has a pair of statues in it, they look to be petrified people – one is a mage, and the other a warrior. Perhaps these are the two men of legend! They were facing each other and in fighting stances. There is nothing else in the room though. The final chamber was the bed of the orcs in the complex – upstairs and the ones down here too. They had found various items in the place and brought them to their room – lots of weapons, armor, and more. Alzar casts Detect Magic with his Divining Rod to see if any of it glows, and he does, in addition to some other items:


Scroll of Protection Against Magic

4 Gold Rods, 85 gp each
4 Silver Plates, 100 gp each
Emerald Headband – 300 gp
Ivory Earrings – 120 gp


And with that, Alzar has fully explored the complex created by the two men who conquered the area around 100 years ago.

He heads back to the pools, and discovery shows one is acid, one is just a pool with fish, another is clear normal drinking water, another heals, another has boiling hot water, etc. He heals up from the adventure, carts out the lab equipment and books ot the wagons, fends off a Stirge attack against his camels, and then heads back to Watershead.

XP Gained: 625 (After XP bonus)

Alzar needs just 1875 to level up to level 5.


End of B1. In Search of the Unknown

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar heads back to Arjuna and spends a week unloading objects into his local establishment and making some deals. One of which is this:

He trades his +1 gada for a spell scroll and a potion.

Potion of Extra-Healing
Spell Scroll – Genie Contract

This is a 3rd level spell, common here, that is cast when drawing up a contract with a genie to have both sides forced to keep the terms. Otherwise, one or the other could not agree, and bad things happen. One commonly told tale involves an efreet, who was forced to serve a wealthy sultan for an extended period of time. As part of their deal, the efreet could not be told to do the same thing more than once, or else the efreet would be free. After working for him for a while and being given a lot of tasks, the efreet polymorphed herself into a human slave, and then went to the Sultan for orders. The Sultan commanded the slave to do something he had already commanded the efreet to do, and freed from her bondage, she revealed herself and absconded with his firstborn son to the City of Brass.


So you want a Genie Contract generally. It can be cast by either party - Genie or other. Alzar has learned it. It is technically an enchantment/charm spell, but here on Hamedh is in universal (the small number of spells that are tools everybody needs like Read Magic, Detect Magic, Identify, Wizard Mark, etc). It’s very common.

[Abe Sargent]

L2. The Assassin’s Knot


http://dc367.4shared.com/img/nc3WrVJV/1297b1fc2f0/TSR_9057_L2_The_Assassins_Knot.pdf



This is the first module we are doing in the Hamedhi campaign that made the top 30 chart. Published in 1983, it clocked in at #29 on the list of top 30 modules written in 2004. It’s a fun little adventure that takes place on an island. The first of those, L1. The Secret of Bone Hill is pretty solid too, and I thought about running it. I still might, but the presence of a lot of undead might make Alzar a bit too powerful if he runs into and controls a lot of undead.

While this module takes place in two small towns on an island in a random location, I can easily convert it to the local city of Arjuna. Just make a few changes about NPCs and plot lines, and we are surprisingly good to go. You might think that an island based adventure might be a bit too hard to work here, but this one translates rather nicely I think.

[Abe Sargent]

Four days later, Alzar awakens to a new day and heads to the local tavern to have breakfast. As he does, he sees a purple ribbon hanging from every house in the streets. He arrives at the inn and there is a somber atmosphere. The representative from this district has been killed! She was a local noble and was slain just last night. Appointed by the mayor to serve on an advisory council, she was murdered most foul.

One of the normal patrons of this establishment are a pair of local barhops, who go from bar to bar at night in various places. They are telling the story of last night. At a pub just across the corner from where the woman was killed!

She was found with three suspicious items. One was a small red ruby near her body. The second was a red leather button in her hand. The last was a golden tanbur string under her bed. What really interests the crowd though is what these barhops claimed to have seen. Last night in the Pub, the saw an old man with long white hair, wearing a blue robe stop in at the pub. His robe has the holy symbol of his deity, with a variety of small rubies in the eyes of a local creature. Then a short time later, a local tavern owner stopped by to make some purchases. He was wearing a distinctive red vest with ornate red buttons. Finally, a travelling troubadour stopped by for a short performance on his beautiful tanbur. A tanbu with unusual golden strings.

This information shakes the crowd. Who killed the noblewoman?

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar steps into the same bureaucrat’s office a few hours later. He discusses the incident with the local official in charge of private investigations. Due to some training as a rhabdomere, his expertise is sought. No rhabdomeres live in Arjuna, they prefer much smaller than this one.

He identifies the three individuals in question – the old man is the head of a local temple, Farshid, the performer is a popular local man called Singh, and finally the man who made the purchases owns a tavern in the city. He is called Zarrin. All three work and live in the district by the south gate. This district has a bit of a reputation.

The official asks Alzar who his initial suspicion is. “Well, I doubt someone would break in, take the time to gather the items of two others to plant, and then be clumsy enough to leave behind their own sign. So I think it was none of them, but we’ll see.”

Alzar heads out to begin his investigation.

[Abe Sargent]

The first place he heads is the Shrine to the goddess Amira, whom Farshid is in charge. Several locals are around, and Alzar finds a local initiate wearing the colors of Amira, goddess of the sand. Her holy symbol is a creature made of sand, with red eyes and blue fingers.

Farshid has just begun the daily intonations at the shrine. The initiate explains that from noon on the previous day through sun-up on this day, each week, Farshid is in quite meditation as he prays over the whole of Hamedh. Thus, no one saw him last night. The initiate heard about the rumors of murder, but it looks like the locals haven’t caught on yet.

Zarrin’s Tavern, The Stale Ale is just two blocks away. There is almost no one here. A barmaid quickly grabs Alzar and leads him to a seat. It seems that hire people have heard about Zarrin;s possible involvement and have not come in much today. Nobody wants to eat a murderer’s food. She takes his order, since it is about noon. He takes lunch, and while he does, he asks about Zarrin. She explains that last night is the only night each week Zarrin has off, and he usually spends time in quiet retreat, using it to regain his energy. She worked last night, and no one saw him leave his home, which is attached to the Stale Ale. Alzar secures lodging here for the night, before heading out for the night.

The next place is Singh’s apartment, which is a block over to the east. It is right above a theater, and Singh is a regular performer there. Nobody is here, but Alzar notes that the theater is closed for two days each week to set up the stage for the next five days. That closing coincides with the murder last night, and it won’t open up again until tonight. Alzar suspects Singh’s story will be similar – not anywhere people can vouch for him


All three suspects had no witnesses to corroborate location. Each was supposed to be here in this district, and then they appear all the way on the other side of town, in a local tavern just across from where a representative and noblewoman was killed. Very coincidental. This was planned by someone good.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar moves back to the streets and looks for people to see what is up, and stop by local shops to attempt to overhear important conversations, but nothing happens. Alzar heads back to the Stale Ale for dinner, and then to the Theater of Mystic Celebration for an evening of fun.

The theater opens with a musical number by the owner of the establishment, Balmar. He plays the kamancheh for the audience and sings while he bows. While captivating the audience, Alzar’s attention is elsewhere, looking for clues. While his eyes glance about, he notices three workers moving through the mesmerized crowd. He pretends to pay deep deep attention to Balmar as his music crescendos. Meanwhile, he prepares.

As one of the people steps nearby him, he feels the telltale gentle ease of pressure that suggests a pickpocket. Immediately his hand snaps from his jellaba and snatches the hand of the man, with Alzar’s purse in his hand!

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar yells to everyone and the music stops. He tells everyone that the people here steal your money, so you’d better go now. Several others call out that they are missing an item, and many leave, while others stay and make loud demanding cries for their goods. Meanwhile, Alzar has a death grip on the man who stole his purse. He drops the arm and as the man turns to flee, Alzar casts Hold Person. He fails his save and is paralyzed.

Alzar secures the man and walks him to a back bench in the room and waits until Balmer profusely apologizes and berates the three stagehands who worked the crowd. He tells them that they know he does not approve of such measures at his shows, and he forces them to return what they stole. The other two leave the room, and the patrons fill out.

Then Belmar comes over to Alzar and apologizes for the theft. He refunds Alzar’s admission price and asks if there is anything he can do to make up for it. Alzar takes him up on his offer.

They head to his office and begin to talk. Belmar starts by telling Alzar who everyone is that works there. He founded the theater. Singh is a bard who works for him. They have an illusionist who uses pretty effects. A woman mage provides some other magic,. They have a trio of stagehands, and then a few animals, like a blink dog and some others. Their theater tends to be more magical and musical than acting, although like any troupe, they have local musicians that come in and perform, props, costumes, disguises, and more for acting and plays.

Balmar admits that he did not see Singh last night, Singh was tired and went to bed early. Alzar asks about the individuals in more detail. Noticing the interest Alzar has in the murders last night, he informs Alzar that he has been working behind the scenes against a local assassin’s guild that has taken up residence in Arjuna in the last six months. It appears that there was a splinter group that left the thieves guild after wanting to accept murder contracts, which the guild refused to take or sponsor. Several high profile murders have happened since then.

Alzar asks about Singh’s instrument. Did he break a string on it? Nope, it was fine. The last time there was an issue with the string, it was about three weeks ago when one of the stagehands broke it. Which one? The middle one in age, Wutari. Alzar asks about him. Wutari has been with them for over a year, and is fiercely loyal to Balmar.

What about the illusionist? Where was he last night? Perhaps he sent in illusions into the bar? No, he was here working on developing a new spell for the theater. The mage was helping him, and they were in a back study room, until early. Balmar saw them himself.

Hmmm…What about the disguises? Balmar agrees to take Alzar to the disguise room. They look through it. While decent, they aren’t an extensive amount of disguises, it would be virtually impossible to duplicate a person with the equipment here. What sort of things would you have to have to appear as three different people? Oh, a lot more than we have. I don’t think any of the other theaters or troupes in town would have it either – it’s expensive and specialized stuff.

That’s very interesting, thank you. Oh, which one is Wutari? The one you captured of course.

Of course. Give me some time with him, and that will be enough.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar heads out and grabs Wutari and pulls him up to a table and ties him to it. About 30 minutes later, the spell runs out, and Wutari is freed. Alzar shushes him as he starts to babble.

“You stole my purse. I can turn you into the local guard. There were many witnesses and you were caught in the act. Would you like that Wutari? On yes, I know your name now.”

Wutari’s eyes widen just a bit, but not much. He is playing it cool. He refuses to speak.

Alzar continues. “This is a nasty little knife I have here. Why didn’t you take it? It’s quite valuable. It’s a magical one. Have you ever felt a magical before? No? Well the rumors are true. It hurts a lot more than normal steel”

He is still trying to be nonplussed, but some sweat broke out and his face twitched just one. That’s enough.

“All I want is the answer to a few questions, and that’s all. Then you can go, and I put my knife away. And I won’t go to the guard.” For the first time, Wutari makes eye contact.

“Now, before I begin, I am going to cast a spell.” Alzar stand up and casts Charm Person, but Wutari makes his save. “I can tell if you are lying to me. Trust me. You don’t want to know what happens then.”

“Besides,” he says as he moves over to the same side of the table as Wutari. “These aren’t hard questions.”

“Three weeks ago, you broke Singh’s tanbur. Do you remember that? Tell me the truth, was it an accident?”

“No.”

“Did you break a string?”

“No.”

“What happened?”

“I took the string and told people it was broken so it would be replaced.”

“Where is the string now?”


“I gave it to my girlfriend.”

“Who is that?”

“Leave her out of it. She asked me for a golden string as a token of our love. I took it, leave it at that.”

“Oh no, Wutari, it’s not that easy. You heard about the murder last night, right? The high profile death?” He nods. “You know that a golden tanbur string was found under the bed, right?” Another nod. “Well, Singh’s tanbur is not missing any, and it hasn’t since you took a string, three weeks ago.”

“It could be another golden string.”

“Know a lot of instruments with golden strings do you?” A pause. “I told you, I would not turn you into the guard for theft. Instead, I can turn you into the grand inquisitor. I;m sure she would love to know that you stole a string from a tanbur right before a nobleman is murdered and it’s in the same room.”

Wutari is now really looking concerned for the first time. “She still has it. I know she still has it. She has to still have it…”

“When is the last time you saw this keepsake?”

“Not since I gave it to her…”

“Why not, if it’s such a precious item?” Pause for emphasis. “All I want is a name. Your responsibility ends there. Besides, if you don’t give it to m, I can just ask someone else. I am sure you have been telling everybody here about your new love…”

“Her name is Vamiria.”

“And she is?”

“An assistant to the local representative from this district, Bakri.”

[Abe Sargent]

Now that’s an interesting development. Alzar releases Wutari and reports to Balmar. It seems that Vamiria asked Wutari to secure the gold string for her.

Alzar heads back to the Stale Ale for the evening. It’s several hours after summer. He spends the night and in the morning, heads out for more investigation, this time with a slightly different set of spells that emphasize detection and divination.


He investigates both Vamira and Bakri. It seems that Bakri and the slain noblewoman were politically aligned. He was hoping they were enemies and this would be a natural conclusion. However, things in reality often don’t match the simplicity in our minds.

Bakri’s major political agenda has included getting more rights to local merchants, and reduced taxes on them. The slain woman agreed, and wanted reduced taxes on the local temples and shrines as well. They were a minority on the council on these issues, and the mayor often chooses to listen to the majority on issues of economics.

Vamira is a local woman who has worked for Bakri for some time. Perhaps she is setting up Bakri for the fall. She might reveal that Bakri secretly secured these three items and was actually right by the deceased’s room at that time. She could produce a doctored ledger or something as evidence of a last night rendezvous or perhaps even a romantic tryst that went badly. Vamira is in the right place.

Perhaps Vamira working for Bakri is just a coincidence. She could be helping someone secure the string or she might have even sold it without knowing what or who is would be used for.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar meets with Zarrin this morning, to continue his investigation. After Alzar explains who he is, they meet in his back office, and Zarrin shows Alzar something very damning. His jacket is missing a button. He has no idea when it went missing, but he is sure that the button at the scene of the crime is his.

Yesterday, some officials came by and accused him of the death, and he’s pretty scared, so he is looking for a way out. Alzar explains that someone stole the golden string at the scene of the murder, and e is confident that someone stole the button to. But who? How?

Unfortunately, Zarrin has no ideas right now, so Alzar and him go over everyone that works at the Stale Ale. He has a barkeeper, two serving boys and a barmaid who also cooks (as does he), a stableboy, and that’s it. The people who currently reside here include Alzar and four others. Two of which share a room, one who likes the gamble, and one who is a retired captain from the town guard.


What about the gambler? Perhaps he loses a lot of money and needed some? Actually he wins a lot. He is a professional gambler by trade and wins at card games. The two who share a room are a pair of friends. One is a hunter and the other does odd jobs here and there for money. He cut the wood for the inn a few times for some coin. The former captain, now retired, lost his house more than a year ago and now lives here in one of the larger rooms. He still pays on time.

Nothing too suspicious there. Alzar spends some time talking to the staff in more detail, but finds no major leads.

[Abe Sargent]

It’s time to find Vamira. That’s his major lead right now.

He heads out and finds the office of Bakri, and heads into the main entrance. He asks to speak with Vamira on business, but is told that she is not there right now. She is about an hour late to work, actually.

Alzar suspects something is up. He successfully Charms the desk worker and she tells her new friend Alzar all about Vamira.

She has worked for Bakri for more than a year and still fawns over him. She is always talking about how great Bakri is. But she recently began to date this person who works at the theater, and that is her new obsession. She talks about how in love she is with him. Alzar asks if he can wait in Vampiras office for her return, and it is agreed upon.

He spends the next thirty minutes quietly rifling through her things with the door closed. A few times he heard someone close and had to stop, which slowed down the process. She keeps financial records for Bakri’s time in office, many of which are sent to the mayor’s office for reimbursement. However, recently, Bakri has increased his expenditures – almost a 50% increase in the last 6 weeks. That’s pretty interesting.

Maybe Bakri is involved somehow. The expenditures appear to be normal ones, and spread out over several places. But the overall increase is there. Nothing else jumps out at Alzar.

[Abe Sargent]

He leaves and thanks the lady for her time.

It is after noon, and he grabs some food before moving on. He swings by the theater on the way to the shrine and finds out that Wutari has taken his things and run off. Him and Vamira probably ran off together. That does show that their feelings were mutual, and not just Vamira using him. He felt it was unlikely after hearing about how much Vamira talked up Wutari to her co-worker, and now that seems even more the case. She probably realized the string was the one who asked Wutari to procure for her.


Alzar arrives at the shrine and meets with the priest, Farshid. Farshid is a very old, amiable man, in his early 90s. He’s also quite scattered, could barely hold a conversation without meandering, and cast a spell randomly during their talk. Alzar then meets with an acolyte who tells him that Farshid has been getting progressively worse for years. It’s no act.

He spends a few hours investigating the local people who work at the shrine, but finds nothing of interest here either.

Alzar heads to bed after gambling with the local patron to see if anything jumps out, and nothing does.

[Abe Sargent]

On the third morning, news greets Alzar. The mayor has appointed a new representative. It is another woman, this time a cousin to Bakri. Is this just a coincidence or something more? A few mumblings are heard over breakfast, as people complain about her representing a district she doesn’t even live in. That’s not usual. The mayor has the right to appoint anyone, but this is a bit odd.

As Alzar begins his investigations, a letter arrives to him with an official seal of the city. He opens it up. It is an official meeting with Bakri later on today. That’s interesting.

Alzar spends most of the day getting ready for the meeting, heading to his estate, waiting for Bakri, and then being told that Bakri can take care of the order his own district. He has arrested Zarrin for the murder of his colleague. Therefore, Alzar can cease his investigations. He orders Alzar to collect his payment from the local official. Alzar arrives in his office an hour later and the official has authority to give him 100 gold for his services.

Alzar takes the gold.

100 gp

[Abe Sargent]

Clearly, Bakri is involved somehow, but taking the gold might get Alzar some time and space. He returns to the Pale Ale where things have grown into a wreck. Workers are very upset and the barkeeper has had to take over things. A few minutes before his arrival, it has just been announced that Zarrin will be killed tomorrow at noon for the murder.

Alzar moves to talk with the staff. After speaking with two, he runs into Falpir, the stableboy. After Alzar talks with him no longer than a minute, Falpir breaks down and cries. After a few minutes, he confesses to Alzar that he took Zarrin’s button. He was tricked by Rogan, a small gnome, into stealing the button for him after Rogan chided Falpir’s money. He said that Zarrin didn’t care about him and that one of his buttons was worth more than Falpir made in a year. He said that he valued Falpir highly, and would pay him the money worth for a button. So Falpir stole the button about two and a half weeks ago, and got the money. But now Zarrin is about to die, and Falpir knows he is innocent!


Who is Rogan? He is a student gnome who works at Bakri’s estate…


And there is your connection.

There is no question that Bakri is involved now.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar wants to penetrate the defenses of Bakri’s estate. He wants to spring Zarrin, find evidence to use against Bakri, and perhaps shut this down himself. But he was there earlier today, and there is no way he can solo that place. If he had his former level of power he could devastate it, but without the extra weapons, backup, and more, Alzar just doesn’t see it happening much.

He retires early and then memorizes a new slate of spells. He would have preferred to hit the estate around midnight but his spells were a poor choice for infiltration. Instead, he has memorized a slate of magic more conducive to gaining entry. Alzar grabs a few magic items that might be helpful and moves out.



Alzar arrives at the estate shortly after four in the morning. Dawn is around 70 minutes from now, but Alzar is ready. Bakri’s estate consists of a a large curtained wall, with towers along the sides. Then is a stable building, a garden and some guardhouses, in addition to the keep that Bakri is inside. Alzar needs to penetrate the compound generally, and then the keep specifically.

And his way to do that is via a diversion. He grabs an orange magic jelly bean. He moves to the front gate and smashes the bean against the ground right in front of the gate, and heads back. The bean bursts and out explodes an ochre jelly. In a minute, a guard notices, and an alarm rings out. The jelly has moved a bit and they wait a few minutes, organizing themselves, and then pop out of the gate and begin to attack the jelly. As they do, no one is guarding the gate, and Alzar slips inside the now empty entrance.

[Abe Sargent]

Inside there is…just a servant girl moving about. She notices him but does not think him out of the ordinary and nods as if she knows him and keeps on. Perhaps she recognizes him from earlier today.

Alzar penetrates the wall and moves into the compound. He moves into the stables and here is no one here this late at night. He grabs a grey jelly bean, cracks it against the ground, and out pops a grey ooze. He quickly leaves and suddenly there is an eruption of noise from the animals in the stable frightened at the ooze’s arrival, and it moving to them.

He slips behind some bushes, and soon some more folks emerge from the keep, while other soldiers return from outside. He uses his Ring of Chameleon Power to blend in and is unobserved. They move into the stables and prepare to engage the grey ooze. The door to the keep closes behind them, but Alzar noticed that no one was inside. He grabs his vial of acid, moves to the door, but it is unlocked and he moves in under the cover of the commotion.

He recognizes where he is. The ground floor. This place looks like it has two stories, and perhaps a dungeon. Alzar wants to head down first. He retraces his steps along the corridor. As he does, a guard pops from around the end and sees him. Alzar casts Charm Person and charms him before he can retreat or call for help. He fails the save and is now a great friend of Alzar’s.

Alzar asks him where the prisoners are kept, and the guard agrees to show him. After two turns, with the guard leading the way, they pass by a pair of servants who don’t think anything is amiss. A door opens and then descend. All that is down here are old equipment, cold storage for things like a wine cellar, and the dungeon.

They enter the dungeon, and the two guards here look at the man who befriended Alzar. The man moves to introduce Alzar, but they are suspicious. A quick Sleep spell drops all three and he collects the keys and unlocks all of the jail cells. Inside are three people: Zarrin, and two he does not recognize, who agree to come with him. They grab items from the dead guards. If the guards had a uniform, they could grab those too, but they do not.

They head back up and arrive at the end of a long hallway on the east side of the keep. The guard Alzar had charmed chatted away in a lovely bit about the layout of the estate for Alzar, since it’s not a secret. Alzar arrives back at the door and sees there is still a commotion in the stables, apparently several steeds died, and bad things are about to happen. Alzar orders Zarrin and the other two out of the keep while he moves back in for more evidence.

[Abe Sargent]

As he does, he hears a sound and turns around. Here staring at him are a married couple, one a cleric and the other a mage. “Well well. We were going out to find out what was happening when we came across a thief.” “Hello thief”

“Not a thief, actually. I was hired to investigate the murder, and it led me here.”

“He knows too much, take him out.”

They begin to cast spells. Alzar grabs his final jelly bean and casts it at their feet, but misses and hits the wall right by them instead. Out pops a green slime. That’ll still work. Meanwhile, he is hit by a Charm Person and a Silence spell. He makes the Charm save but is silenced and cannot speak or cast spells. The green slime takes their full attention, and he moves away.

He pounds out of the keep and sees Zarrin and the others in cover. He gathers them inside of his silence 15’ radius spell and pushes them forward. They move out and approach the gate. While the silence helps, soon the group is seen and numerous people move in to attack. Alzar can’t use his Wand of Frost, it requires a word spoken to activate. He mentally orders Gilded Ears to come inside the gate to help with a diversion and she begins to howl and growl. Meanwhile, he runs in front and then yells out as if in pain, shouts out “Noooo!” loudly, and then turns into a Statue while pointing to the others to go to the gate. They do, and the others are confused as to what happened to Alzar. He and his items have turned to stone.

[Abe Sargent]

Meanwhile, Zarrin and the others have escaped. Several people poke the statue with a stick or spear, and nothing happens except their items break off. Alzar is now a stone statue. The mage and cleric have finished the green slime and emerge. It looks like he has been petrified. They order a message delivered to an ally with the Stone to Flesh spell in order to release Alzar so they can capture and torture him. A guard is on him in addition to those at the gate.

After a few hours, others come to look, including Bakri and some retainers.

“You came very close Alzar. Very close. But you did no uncover the truth after all. He smiles and heads back.”

After a half a day, when the guard is preoccupied and used to his statue, and he has fully absorbed everything around him, Alzar ends the spell and returns to his state. Within a second he casts Hold Person on the two guards at the gate and they are paralyzed. The guard for him grabs his sword and yells, but a Hypnotism spell forces him to drop his weapons and stay dazed.

In a minute Alzar has escaped from the keep and meets up with Gilded Ears and they move on.

[Abe Sargent]

He returns to the Stale Ale where he celebrated as the man who stood up to Bakri and won. The other two people are here with Zarrin and Alzar officially meets them. One is a thief who was captured by the guard while escaping from a failed con attempt. The other is a warrior who has powerful arms but a limited vocabulary. He was tortured for a few months by Bakri because their families were rivals. That torture involved damage to his vocal cords, which healing magic was unable to completely fix. He speaks in a low whisper.

His name is Pashtun, and he would like to accompany Alzar. Meanwhile, Alzar takes the thief, Pashtun, Zarrin, the people from the theater, to establish that the three are innocent. After hearing testimony from the boy about taking Zarrins button, and about the same happening elsewhere, the high judge agrees that they are innocent and clears them of charges. But there is not enough evidence to go after the powerful Bakri. Instead, all that will happen is his cousin resigns from his position and a new representative is appointed by the mayor. Alzar doesn’t like leaving an enemy behind, but it will do for now.

Alzar gains 1000XP for partial success.


End of L2. The Assassin’s Knot.

[Abe Sargent]

Pashtun, level 2 fighter, Neutral

HP: 23
THAC0: 19
XP: 5000 (level 3 at 8000)


Str: 14
Dex: 13
Con: 17
Int: 11
Wis: 10
Cha: 12

Proficiencies – Swords generally, specializes in Scimitar, can use Recurve Bow and Pike.

Alzar dresses him up in armor and equips him. With armor, he is at AC 4 (includes shield)

He also knows riding, riding specialization, swimming, survival, fire-building, healing, tracking, and weather knowledge.

He grew up in the badlands and knows that area well, including how to track, first aid, and how to read the weather. On Hamedh, some people are such experts on steeds that they can do amazing feats on them, like leap off a moving horse and land smoothly, jumping onto a moving horse, and firing a bow with more accuracy while riding.

He wants to follow Alzar and adventure with him, not necessarily out of a sense of loyalty to the person who freed him, but more to break himself out of his malaise. Pashtun can only speak a weak voice that resembles a harsh whisper, and it hurts him to do so.

[Abe Sargent]

Here is Alzar’s stuff right now:

Stuff:

5142 gp


Gems: Topaz – 100 gp ; Ruby – 500gpx2;


Jewelry: Emerald Headband – 300 gp ; Ivory Earrings – 120 gp ; Ruby Necklace – 750 gp


Objet d’arts: 4 Gold Rods, 85 gp each ; 4 Silver Plates, 100 gp each ; Silver Comb and Brush set – 100 gp
Ornate Perfume Bottle – 50 gp ; Rare Pottery – 500 gp ; Relics from Neconolis – 1000 gp total ;



Books and Library:

6000 gp library, generally
History of the Badlands Tribes (20 gp)
Encyclopedia of Local Plants (50 gp)
Diary of the Wizard, Zelligar
Meteorological Phenomena of Hamedh (75 gp)
Tribal History of this Duergar Clan
Yaghoub’s Journal
Three books of magical history
One book on history of tower and residents
Neconilis’s Book of Horrors
Surrisk’s notes on undead, necromancy, and a spell Undead Familiar
1000 gp library of 300 general purpose books from Dungeon in Desert


Laboratory:

6000 gp lab generally
500 gp equipment from Dungeon in Desert



Magic Items:

Proficient Staff
+1 Pesh-kabz, Short Bow, Dagger
Spear, +1, +2 vs Giants, +3 vs Orcs, Ogres

Potion of Extra-Healing; Levitation, Fire-Giant Strength, Neutralize Poison
Scroll of Protection from Magic
Wizard Spell Scroll: Create Spectral Wizard

Wand of Frost – 6 charges
Yaghoub’s Staff – Striking – 8 charges, Ring of Fire Protection when held

Medallion of Defense
Amulet of Neconilis x3
Ring of Protection +1, Chameleon Nature; Cantrips
Rock Jellaba
Scarab of Venom
Bracers of Protection: +1
Dusty Rose Ioun Stone - +1 AC
Magic Jelly Beans – 2 Grey, 2 Green, 2 Orange, 3 Yellow (G Cube), 3 White (Crystal Ooze), 3 Black
Boots of Varied Tracks

Incense of Enlightenment

Crucible of Melting ; Lens of Speed Reading


Unusual Items:

Brass Dragon Skin; Gold Flecked Ruby from Gold Dragon – 1000 gp;

Silver Knife, Spear
Crossbow, 50 bolts
Flask of Sleep Water
Multiple Vials of Poison

2 Divining Rods
Focus - Signet Ring


5 blank scroll pages, ready to be used
Many bottles of scroll ink
Wand, crafted ready to be enchanted

[Abe Sargent]

UK4. When a Star Falls


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d1/UK4_TSR9120_When_A_Star_Falls.jpg


I am really excited to run this, it looks like a lot of fun. I have been trying to find the next adventure for Alzar. It’s hard to find something that would fit. I checked out B11 and B12 paired module set, which sound urban, but they aren’t. I wanted to shoehorn the trilogy of Sword of the Dale,s Spiderhaunt Woods, Return of Randal Morn, but they are in the Dales in the Forgotten Realms and feature characters and places and plots from there. It’s too hard to color Hamedhi. I was initially planning on running N3, Destiny of Kings, but I’ve put it off twice now and I’m not sure. I am also not feeling WG9 Gargoyle or The Silver Key.

But this? I love this. In fact, I am going to just quote the opening section in some detail. It’s that good. It looks like a blast to play out. So let’s send Alzar and Pashtun down the adventuring tunnel into this blast from 1984, and another in the UK line of modules (we ran three in the giant epic Isle of Dread campaign – UK1. Beyond the Crystal Cave, UK2. The Sentinel and UK3. The Gauntlet; ). We just ran UK5, Eye of the Serpent, although it was cut off a bit at the end by my BSOD. There are 7 modules in the series, and we are about to run the fifth one for this campaign. Frankly, I like it a lot. It has a lot of neat character. My favorite idea in the story thus far is capturing the castle where the evil big bad is, and then being forced to defend it shortly thereafter as an army wants to assault the big bad. I think that’s a nice flip of the script for an early 80s module.

[Abe Sargent]

Begin quote…


….of books and a shooting star

The Books of Prophecy are the well guarded treasure of the sages of the Towers of the Heavens. Those few who know of these ageless tomes speak of them with the hushed reverence commonly afforded to the ostentatious might of swords or wands.

The books are closed to the eyes of ordinary men since they deal not with the transient forces of arms or magic, but with destiny itself.

Each page is crammed with cryptic references to the fates of the great and the famous, written in an obscure script. In all of the world there is but one man who can read the pages of the close-written symbols; only one man who can fathom the weirdly coded prophecies.

This man is Shalfey, Elder Sage of the Tower of the Heavens. He inherited the unique power to read the books from the line of Elder Sages that came before him. For generations this line has been unbroken and, as is traditional, Shalfey has gathered a small college of lesser sages from whom to select his successor.

Like his forebears, Shalfey’s command of the books is limited. Although he is able to read them, their pages can be turned but one at a time, allowing him to glimpse only a short time into the future…and then only dimly. Yet such glimpses are rare and their sources are coveted. To protect the Books of Prophecy, and to account for their ability to see into the future, the sages make a great show of the study and practice of astrology. They have even come to use this uncertain art to tell the fortunes of those too humble to be mentioned in the books.

In an uncertain world, any precognition, however vague, can command a high price, and the sages have long offered their insights for sale. With the riches thus gathered from the great and the meek, the Tower of the Heavens was built; a secure refuge on a rocky island washed by the swirling waters of the River Keldir. This place is home, fortress and astrological observatory.

The tower is garrisoned by gnome mercenaries and for their personal protection, the sages have monk bodyguards. While the loyalty of mercenaries must be bought with gold, however the unquestioning loyalty of the order of the monks repays a prophecy granted to their brotherhood many years ago.

The origin of the Books of Prophecy has never been established. Some claim that they were written by a seer in ancient times; others that they were enscribed in the distinct future and sent into the past by powerful magics. Whatever the truth, recent events have shown the books to not only be bearers but also the instruments of destiny – the destiny of a certain shooting star…

The shooting star - omen of change, fell to earth in Therno Pass, destroying the lair of a tribe of derro. To these creatures, it was the instrument of sudden disaster, but to Shalfey, far away in his tower, it came as no surprise.

Only days before he had turned a page of the current Book of Prophecy to find blank parchment! Worse still, he found that the following pages could be turned easily, as could those of previously unopenable books. Shalfey has looked upon these books as the foundation of the tower’s prosperity, but to his horror, he found that every last page was blank! Every page that is, save the last page of the last volume. There, in clear words, the coming of the shooting star was foretold and the Elder Sage was instructed to plot its course, to find it and take it to a certain group of smiths, who in return would provide a second set of Books of Prophecy.

Unknown to Shalfey, it was the intention of whoever (or whatever) wrote the books that the shooting star should be cut by the smiths into a great flawless gem which, in future years, would serve some great, unknown purpose. To this end the smiths had been well prepared and the Elder Sage had been left with no choice but to play his role in which destiny had written for him…

[Abe Sargent]

(Normally I don’t give the whole plot in the first few paragraphs of a module in this dynasty, but that’s cool!) (I’m not giving it all away…)

A shooting star, Books of Destiny, a Tower of the Heavens, and so forth. Man, that s a fun set up to the adventure! There are so many ways I can do with that just from the preamble. For example, take the order of monks. What happened to secure their loyalty? How long ago was it? Did they dedicate themselves for a set amount of time? Is that time approaching? Will they deem their work over and move on? Are there modern members of the order who want to do more than guard books in a tower? Are there any other divisions? Did the Sage actually help the order or where they deceived? Are the stories told true, or just myths to secure the loyalty of the order? You get the idea. Lots of adventure potential with the order. And that’s just a few sentences in the preamble, a tiny detail out of the many given.

[Abe Sargent]

Three days later, Alzar leaves Arjuna for a few days to visit with an old herbalist, Indira, on the edge of the villages that surround the area. He takes his normal wagons and such with him, and this gives him an opportunity to see Pashtun in action, even if it’s just moving things from one place to another and traveling along it.

He arrives at the sleepy villa of Avonton, he arrives at the herbalist’s house, but she is not there today. They head to the tavern to sleep for the night. Alzar is told that Indira has left for an excursion to the nearby mire, a small region where a large brook hits a nearby river and a small marsh is there. It’s not that common for the area, as the rainfall is not great here and a desert is about six days ride away. She went there yet again to gather more rare herbs and such.

The mire is just a couple of hours away on horseback and so the next day Alzar and Pashtun move out down the road that leads there on horseback and leave everything else behind, save for Gilded Ears who jogs along beside them.

The mire is reached easily enough. Although bleak, has a stark beauty. It rises and dips like the waves of a frozen sea, with only the heavy gorse off the road as a contrast to the flowers and weeds of the area. Coming to the top of another rise, Alzar looks down into the hollow beyond. There, highlighted against the heath, lie four unmoving white-robed figures, enmeshed by a mass of pale clinging strands. They are about one hundred and twenty yards off the road.

Alzar makes a spellcraft proficiency. The strands at first looked like those from the common Web spell, but they are different somehow. Alzar dismounts and grabs his items and moves over, waving to Pashtun to join him. Alzar leads.

As he does, suddenly the web pulsates with energy, and then leaps at him. His magical staff is in hand and it whirls around at the magical web. He misses and the web begins to constrict, with Pashtun on the other side. He swings at the web with his non-magical scimitar and hits for half damage – just 2.

Alzar takes 1d6 damage automatically from the creature.

47/51

His staff connects for full damage – 4. Pashtun misses.

Alzar takes 4 more. They both miss. Alzar takes another 1. They both miss. He takes 3. Alzar hits for 4 damage. He takes 5. They hit for 7 total and the web stops constricting.


34/51 hp

250 XP

[Abe Sargent]

As the creature dies, it pulsates and emanates a strong psychic energy that absorbs Alzar and Pashtun minds. A telepathic mind shock hammers them as a barrage of memories flows from the web. Many are instantly lost, leaving like a dream. But some were particularly important to the memory holder, and are easier to remember for Alzar and Pashtun. These memories include:

Our master calls and is afraid and we must find the shooting star or die

Guards everywhere no better defended tower makes our master sfe

You will not mistake it the black rock, seared by great heat, dull and seemingly worthless, only it can help

Ground trembled and mountains and a great iron dragon never sleeping

Hard beds and plain walks and ornamentation is naught but a distraction

The sun shines on green dales in the pass where hunters never go hungry

Daily ritual yet again questions constantly

Wild beast men in the mountains

Master I am afraid. Trust me and believe but it moves I shall fall to the chasm

Fair is the day but fairer the jewels of evening

A scream in the night sword in rage devil men

Never far away with shifty eyes, always watching me, never trusting shadow

One last good meal before we part

Do you never covet gold?

Too late, lost in the maze, retuned but gone

Make haste to Indira’s home in Avonton but harm no living thing

Trust given in doubt honors the giver

The walls are closing in the ceiling falls

Go seek for Indira, the watcher, and give her the bestiary


Additionally, Alzar and Pashtun gain complete information about the location of the Tower of the Heavens, the nearby locations, and some things inside it.

[Abe Sargent]

They bend down to search the four bodies of the dead men, and Alzar now knows they are an order of monks. They wear white clothes. Nothing much in on them save for weapons, rations, and other minor items. But there is one item of value:

Illustrated Bestiary (250 gp)

They were en route to trade this book to Indira for knowledge. Alzar could just take the book now, and leave. It’s very valuable. He opens it and he cannot read it. But he can cast Comprehend Languages later to do so.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar and Pashtun grab the bodies of the four men and go back to the village. He’d like to look for Indira first, but he needs information. He casts a quick Detect Magic, but none of their items detect as such. He does grab some strands from the web creature for later research.

They stay another night and in morning, Alzar casts the newly memorized Comprehend Languages on the book. He spends an hour with the book until he finds a section on the creature they fought – a memory web. It latches itself to creatures and attacks them psychically. Then they absorb the memories of victims for sustenance. If one is killed before it can fully digest recent meals, it releases those memories in a telepathic explosion that sentient creatures nearby can feel and remember.

After leading up, the duo heads out again for Indira and hope to find her out in the mire. After five hours, two great eagles descend from the sky as their close. They soar about them and one communicates telepathically with Alzar, telling him that they can follow the eagles in peace, or else leave the mire. Alzar nods forward and the eagle leads him off the road Pashtun is following the other in the same way.

After a half hour of wandering deep into the mire, the ground begins to rise and they arrive at a group of trees in the wetlands. The eagles depart after telling them to wait. Alzar dismounts and begins to feed his horse and Gilded Ears. “A friend of animals is a friend to me…” Alzar turns and sees one of the smallest trees change into an older woman who smiles at him.

Indira introduces herself and leads the pair to her home away from home. As they sit down, a pair of grey langur monkeys set down dishes and utensils and serve them food. Food is eastern quickly and Indira asks them, directly, why they are her.

Alzar explains what happened, what they saw, and what they found. She tells them that the mission of that group of monks must have been to discover the location of a recent fallen star. She often spends time charting the sky, and it fell a few days journey away, in the foothills of the mountains. She can give him exact location and information, and will trade that for the book Alzar showed her, if they are interested in picking up the monks journey.

She tells Alzar that the head of the Tower of the Heavens is an Elder Sage named Shalfey, someone she has met a few times. On the other hand, if he prefers, he can pay her 500 gp, twice what the book is worth, and keep it.

“What language is it written it?” “An ancient Hamedhi tongue that is common in old books, ruins, and other places. Some still write in it today in order to keep the information hidden.” Alzar agrees because he likes the book, and trades her 500 gp of value (not with him, but in the saddlebags)

-500 gp

[Abe Sargent]

Indira retires for a half an hour and calculates and jots down the exact location of the downed meteor. It went down in Therno Pass. There is a strange race of humanoids that live there, hide under rocks by day, and launch savage attacks at night against locals.

Alzar and Pashtun grab the map she drew and directions and heads back out. The make it back to Avonton just an hour after nightfall and retire for the night. In the morning, they are healed by a nice local cleric at a small shrine for a modest fee of just 25 gp, and head out.

After reviewing their notes, it seems like Therno Pass should be four days away by wagon train. Alzar and Pashtun rest and then headed out the next day with a loaded set of supplies, including feed, water, and various adventuring gear in the wagons.

[Abe Sargent]

As they set out on their journey, the day ebbs quickly by. Near the end of the day, a large howl can be heard from the other side of the hill, and they stop to see. After a few seconds, a nasty looking hyena-like creature rounds the hill. Is it? It is. This is a lycanthrope. A werehyena. As it rushes down the path to them, about two hundred yards away, two men run across the hill two, firing arrows at it from their short bows as they rush in. The creature is moving quickly. Alzar decides to get involved and leaps off the horse and grabs his weapon. He stands right in the werehyena’s path with his magic staff at his side. The creature sees him and turns and goes left. In a flash, Alzar’s hand grabs a silver knife and flings it at the creature but misses. Another knife misses but the men hit it once with an arrow. Alzar casts Continual Light at its eyes and it makes the save. No go.

Alzar jumps back on the horse and gallops off, catching back up with the creature. He gallops to its right and turns and cuts it off and it turns left to head back to the hill, but now the two men have mostly caught up to it and another silver tipped arrow bites into it. Pashtun has almost arrived and the creature is caught, snapping at the men and moves to them. Another arrow dices into its chest and it falls, and dies.

They have slain the werehyena. The men stop and gather their arrows from the creature and introduce themselves as hunters. They came across this creature last night and have been tracking it. They thank him for corralling it, and then they begin to skin it. Alzar returns and the caravan moves on for another pair of hours before stopping for the evening. At the end of the night, nothing more has happened, and they move off the next day

[Abe Sargent]

The second day is pretty quiet and passes smoothly. The second night does not.

Around midnight, while Pashtun has watch, Gilded Ears senses something out in the local trees and perks up. A howl erupts through the night and scares people, but Pashtun makes his save and does not flee. Soon a few creatures emerge from the woods and attack, one a large shadowy mastiff, one a human and the last a huge raven. (The UK Series is heavy on running creatures from the 1st Edition Monster Manual II and Fiend Folio. Many creatures were not reprinted in a major 2nd edition source, and we are facing that now, but its alright. I grabbed my MMII and we are good to go – for the record, they include a Shade and a Shadow Mastiff)

Forewarned by his familiar, Alzar is up. He senses the presence of an extraplanar presence and tries to control the dog and fails. (Recent creatures in this tome include Crystal Ooze, Shade, Derro, Dao, Shadow Mastiff, Muckdweller, Phantom, Huge Raven, Vilstrak, and many others)

The mastiff snaps at Pashtun, misses, and blends into the shadow and can’t be seen. Alzar orders Pashtun to focus on the Raven. He’s not sure if normal weapons will hit the other to creatures.

http://www.kotll.com/srd3.5/img/MonstersS.Shadow_Mastiff.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

The Shade is a 6th level monk from the Tower of the Heavens who was sent to hunt them down. He recognizes the person and the clothes as belonging to another monk in the order. Not all are good loyal little guardians it seems. Alzar makes his Netherworld Knowledge proficiency check. This is a Shade. A powerful person can undergo a process to merge their soul or essence with shadowstuff, and they become more powerful as shadows grow. He summons Shadow Images, like Mirror Images, and there are 5 of the things made, now six images, one the real monk, are around.

A Shade is undying save from violent death via accident or battle or spell. A Shade can still gain experience, and use the abilities of its class and race. In bright light, a Shade looks like a regular person, with a darkened complexion. They can also Shadow Walk back to the Demi-Plane of Shadow.

Turning into a Shade is a long and involved process and Alzar doesn’t know anyone that actually knows it back on Thorasia. Perhaps it is known here on Hamedh. That would be powerful information.

Because of the light from the campfires and the shadows it casts, the Shade is more powerful than at any other time. Alzar grabs the bucket of water and spends a turn putting out the fire. Meanwhile, Pashtun is hit for 4 damage by the Shade. The mastiff tries to bite Alzar and misses.

Now the night is in and the Shade, still strong, is weakened. The shadow images have fallen away and dissipated. Alzar will not be casting Continual Light. Shades have an innate magic resistance as well, but its not that high, so he might get a spell in. He doubts any of his stuff will work thought. No Charm or Hold or Sleep is likely to work. Hmm… He decides to handle this warrior style and grabs the magic weapons right by him. One round wasted gathering up weapons. He is attacked, hit, and takes 6 damage from the Mastiff. Meanwhile, Pashtun has hit the raven and killed it. One less foe to worry about.

45/51

[Abe Sargent]

They win init and the monk/shade stabs Alzar again for 7 damage with a Khukuri. That’s more damage than a blade that small would normally do. With blind-fighting, Alzar stabs out with his magic spear to hit the monk/shade and hits for 5 damage. (It’s easier to hit when fighting as a level 7 fighter). Meanwhile Pashtun gets two attacks this round with his normal scimitar against the Mastiff, but he misses both times. It’s hard to hit in the darkness without blind-fighting training.

The monk orders the dog and himself to concentrate on Alzar, sensing he is the stronger target. Alzar spears it for 5 damage and takes 10 back from two hits. Pashtun misses.

28/51

Alzar regains init and misses the shade. It hits for 6 and the Mastiff misses but fades back into the night and Pashtun can’t keep his weapon on point. They lose init and the Shade misses, the Mastiff bites for 4 damage, and Alzar spears the shade for 3 damage while Pashtun finally lands a blow for another 4.

18/51

The Shade uses this turn to shadow walk away and leaves this plane for the Shadow one. Because this is Hamedh, it will take a little longer, and Alzar has a chance to spear him but misses. The Shadow Mastiff also flees into the night and a few minutes later, they have left.

The fire is relit and they heal up and then head out the next day.

50 XP for Huge Raven

[Abe Sargent]

The next day is pretty quiet. With the use of Healing proficiencies as first aid, and Alzar’s fast healing trait, they are doing well, and at the end of the day, all is quiet.

The night passes uneventfully. He feared another Shade attack, but it appears that the Shade is gone for now.


Day four arrives and they near the pass that was mentioned. The Tower of the Heavens is up in these foothills as well, although not that close to here.

They decide to camp for the night and approach the place of the meteor in the morning, with a fresh day. No issues are encountered either.

The following morning, Alzar has 27/51 hp.

[Abe Sargent]

About a mile away they can see the landing area. Sparse trees have been denuded of leaves and those close to the area have been blasted and pushed away from the landing zone. They move in to a large rocky crater in the center. The crater is nearly 100’ feet across and about half as deep. The explosion which caused it must have been enormous. Rock has been thrown in all directions but much has slid back into the crater from the slopes above. In the very bottom of the crater, a deep hole has been excavated.

It appears that someone excavated a hole into the crater from below, and took the fallen star. Gilded Ears leaps down to explore under some rocks and such. The hole is about 20 feet deep and there is a dead human here, with a broken pick next to him. No other signs of life are here and the hole heads down.

Alzar and Pashtun set up the wagons and such a good distance from the crater and Gilded Ears will remain for now as a scout. They head down after gathering and exchanging equipment. As they do, they see a deadfall of rock that killed five small humanoids. Derro. These are evil nasty highly magical creatures that have been raiding others. They must have found the rock first. Alzar searches and finds broken equipment and armor but

22 pp

[Abe Sargent]

The excavation has not been filled out, or fixed or braced, it was just a quick natural hole to get the stone. So the tunnel here is very windy and damp and more of a gentle slope in order to keep things stable. Both of them have a Continually Lit stone out to provide light.

They slide down into a larger open chamber and there are a sextet of Derros here working at a collapsed section of the tunnel and a leader. They see Alzar and turns around and shout out. Alzar casts Sleep and drops three. The other four grab crossbows and begin to wind them. They shout for help.

An arrow from Pashtun’s bow slices into a Derro for 5 damage. They mostly miss and scratch Pashtun;s armor. Alzar has his knives out and is throwing them and missing. Noise can be heard deeper down the shaft and soon another group of six Derro plus another leader arrive.

Alzar casts Hold Person and paralyzes two with crossbows. They set up and fire back, since they have numbers, they see no need to advance ot Melee range. One of the leaders barks to a regular Derro to begin waking the sleeping Derro. Meanwhile Alzar takes 2 damage from a bolt and Pashtun 4.

25/51 Alzar
19/23 Pashtun

2 paralyzed, 3 sleeping
7 Derro
2 leaders

Alzar casts Continual Light on the one about to help and it fails the save and is blinded. Pashtun hits the wounded Derro again for 4 damage with his bow. They hit each of them once again for 4 damage each.

21/51
15/23

Alzar casts Hypnotism and three drop their weapons and stop attacking. Pashtun misses

Their leaders call a retreat and leave under the cover of crossbows.

Alzar and Pashtun follow and slay the sleeping, paralyzed, blinded and hypnotized Derro, leaving behind one for a prisoner.

9 Derro finished off – 900 XP

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar hears some digging in the tunnel and they move. A quick glance shows that they are building fortifications quickly here to hold the line. As they do, 6 more Derro have arrived, two with a lot of power. One grabs a potion and drinks it and shrinks in size. The other grabs the small one and puts him in a sling and begins to twirl it. Huh.

Alzar warns Pashtun and the diminished Derro is flung past their position and comes back to normal size and casts Shadow Magic, which is basically a specialized Magic Missile like spell that fires six missiles to random targets. By being away from the battle, the only targets here are Alzar,Pashtun and the captured Derro. Alzar takes two, Pashtun three, and the Derro one. Save for half damage is allowed for each missile.

15/51 Alzar
10/23 Pashtun

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar orders Pashtun to go after the guy who flanked them while he holds up the hallway, where an advance is occurring. They have 7 warriors, 2 leaders and 2 savant students, one of which is behind them. The Savant in the back casts Charm Person on Alzar but it fails. Meanwhile, Alzar grabs the Wand of Frost and puts in three charges for the powerful Cone of Cold. Everything in front of him takes 27 damage or save vs half. That’s enough to kill every Derro unless it makes its save.

Now they have two warriors, one leader and both savants.

The final leader calls another retreat. Meanwhile Pashtun attacks and misses the Savant behind them. Alzar casts Skeletal Hands to chase down the wounded Derro. The Derro in the back casts Anti-Magic Shell to keep himself save from any magic Alzar might fling his way. A crossbow bolt hits Alzar for 4 damage from the retreating Derro.

11/51


Alzar orders the hands to pursue and attack the wounded Derro and turns and faces the one behind him. His staff is out and he moves in. The savant student swings a shiny scimitar at Alzar and misses. Pashtun;s scimitar swings twice, connects once for 7 damage and wounds it. Alzar misses. It keeps initiative and smashes and connects with Alzar for 6 damage. Alzar misses, and quaffs his potion of extra healing to gain 21 hp back. Meanwhile Pashtun hits for 5 more damage.

The Derro misses, and both Alzar and Pashtaun stab it for 11 damage and it falls.

Meanwhile the Skeletal hands dropped a wounded Derro but were destroyed.

Alzar orders Pashtun to follow and leads into the rest of the tunnel. After a short bit, they arrive at slave pens, and then a temple. Here the remaining Derro are tended to wounded and they grab their weapons and attack. A bolt hits Alzar in the front for 5 damage.

21/51


They move in on the other Savant and in two round finish it and the leader soon follows. No one else was injured, they were rattled too much to hit. A quick search turns up no other Derro in the complex.

XP – 2100

Used: Potion of Extra-Healing, 3 charges on Wand of Frost (just three left)

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar frees the slaves while he orders Pashtun to gather all of their items together in a big pile in the chapel here. There are just 6 slaves here, and they grab food from a local storage room. They inform Alzar about the dead chief’s room some undead there, and a destroyed route to an evil Lamia to the left.

Alzar investigates the chief’s room and feels the fundamental pull of undead power. He enters it cautiously, there have been some rock slides and some hit and slew people in here. Three are now animated and look like zombies. Alzar tries to control them and does. He fails his Necrology check and sees them as normal zombies.

Alzar forces them to grab all of the items from this room, including keys, weapons and other items and armor to the temple. After an hour, most of the items are here, and Alzar casts Detect Magic.

They find:

Magic Scimitar
Magic Shield
Magic Wand
Magic Ring
Magic Potion

Gold Armbands, 500 gp
98 pp
120 gp
Rock Crystal Bottle Stopper – 75 gp
Silver Dagger with Ivory Handle – 250 go
Gold Studded Leather Armor – 500 gp
Ruby Pendant – 900 gp
Silver Belt Buckle – 100 gp
Ivory and Jet Ram’s Head Amulet – 550 gp



In a locked chest, opened with the key from the “zombie” is the meteorite. It is roughly spherical, grey metallic, weighs about 10 pounds, and does not detect as magical.

Some of the items they found on dead Derro and such.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar does not want to dig to the Lamia’s chamber and free/expose/attack it. It’s way too powerful for now.

They head out and the slaves agree to come with them since they have protection. They can find a route out from the Tower of the Heavens .


After moving stuff to the wagons, including foodstuffs and more, they move to follow the path up the pass. They are going to head up the pass and then cross over the Tower, about five days away.

They go nowhere and rest close by on the first night. The second day sees a nice breeze blow down and then an unusual sight looms up above.

A gigantic beaver dam has been built here. It has stopped up most of the stream that goes along the path and stretches hundreds of feet to close things off. This barrier of mud, logs and branches is twice the height of a man and blocks the pass completely.

With the wagons, they can’t poke a hole in it and let the water through. Gilded Ears nips up the wall and looks around – there is a large body of water there, and a huge beaver ducks down under the water. There is too much water in this makeshift lake to safely drain it and it is too long to ford. The lake is about 500 feet long. The beavers here basically carved it in the pass itself. There is a village on the far side of the lake with about a dozen buildings in all.


This dam and village has to have been here for a while, but they blocked a major pass in doing so. Alzar shouts across the lake and in a few minutes a few hunters swim out to meet him. They have a camp and have been here for a few years. 7 women, 10 men and 15 children live there and they swim and hunt the local area.

Alzar tells him that they need to head up the pass but there is no other way the hunters know to get wagons up there since the beavers built their dam about a decade ago. The hunters agree to take the free slaves into their camp and let them live here. Meanwhile, they will use canoes to ferry Alzar and Pashtun and some supplies to the far shore. But even horses are too big for their passage. To be fair, the water is not that deep. At the edge of the lake, there is a ridge tight on the shore right above the dam. Alzar gets his people to work building a ramp up the dam and after ten hours, the work is basically done. Alzar takes two horses and leaves behind the zombies in his personal wagons as a trap, and Gilded Ears comes with him.

They head over and make their riding proficiency rolls and the horses make it to the far path and are out of the lake region and heading up the pass further.

[Abe Sargent]

Two quiet days pass, but on the third, a cave bear emerges from a long nap and sees Alzar’s familiar as dinner. Alzar and Pashtun force it away and it retreats.

Alzar has indentified all of the magic items by now:

+1 Scimitar, handed to Pashtun
+1 Shield, handed to Pashtun
Wand of Metal and Mineral Detection – 43 charges
Ring of Quick Action
Potion of Diminution

When worn, the Ring will always allow the wearer to win init, even if the group rolls low and attacks last.

Alzar puts it on, and the miscibility roll is made. However, the first item he ever put on, the Bracers, don’t work with it on. He pulls off the Bracers and everything works fine. He pulls off the Ring, adds the Bracers back, and then puts on the Ring again and the same things happen. Then he adds the Boots of a Varied Tracks and they do not work, but everything else does, so it works.


They head off and two days later the pass has hit its peak and headed back down. Meanwhile a large river comes down the foothills and hits their pass. The combination of their stream and that river make a wide and deep area of the pass, and on it is an island. They have arrived at the Tower of the Heavens.

[Abe Sargent]

They make for a ferry to the island. Hadley a ferryman here greets them as they arrive. He is a monk and tells them that there had been a coup. An assistant to Shalfey named Piyarz has launched a coup, claimed Shalfey is dead and named himself Elder Sage. The mercenaries and monks are now following him. But in reality, Shalfey is not dead, he sent a message to Hadley to tell him that he was locked inside his apartments and defending himself and the Books of Destiny against Piyarz. He asks Alzar and Pashtun for aid in invading the Tower of the Heavens and ousting Piyarz.

He recommends pretending to be seeing knowledge from the sages, arriving at the barbican and waiting until entrance into the tower is granted, and then getting in that way. This should secure them entrance without fighting their way in, and making things a lot more difficult. Wealthy people arrive regularly to inquire for aid and to pay for it, and Alzar and company look eligible. Alzar and Pashtun drop their steeds in the stables here cared for by Hadley, and he ferries them to the island to on the east side, which has a barbican. The west island is the main Tower, and only a walkway on the second floor allows entrance to the Tower. There are no entrances on the ground level of the tower.


They arrive at the barbican and Hadley introduces them to the local gnome guards. Alzar says that he is here to request an audience with the Sages about planar transport back home to his own alternate prime material plane (when in doubt, use a lie that is the truth. He does want to return home, so there was no lie told, in case any magical detection is about).

They are welcomed into the barbican and taken to a hostel behind it four humans wait on them as the gnome mercenaries are all around. They are led to private room of the main room, and there is food served for them in a kitchen and dining area. They stay the night.

[Abe Sargent]

Five hours after dawn the following day, Alzar and Peshtun are summoned by the sages of the Tower of the Heavens, and six gnomes and two monks escort them upstairs to the barbican. (Alzar;s spell list for today swaps out Locate Object for Death Armor)This level has some of the barracks and defenses of this structure. The doors open and they walk across a walkway 40 feet above the river and just 7 feet wide, with a small set of rails about three feet high. Double doors open and a dozen mercenaries are arranged here in a row.

This fine room has no furniture. Its stone flagged floor and the handles of the brass paneled doors are very worn by a long period of use. After a few minutes, they are led forward past a set of double doors into a large room with curtains and tapestries along all of the walls. This sombre room is lit by the dancing flames of braziers. The curtains are red, and the ceiling blackened while the marble floor is worn by centuries of use.

The 12 guards arrange themselves along the walls. A sage enters the room and is flanked by two monks. He casts a spell on himself (Alzar makes his spellcraft check - it was Non-Detection). He then asks Alzar what their business is here. He explains that he was flung here from his home plane of Thorasia, and he would like to know the way back. The cost of this is 3000 gp. Alzar grabs the requisite money, counts it out, and places it into a satin bag provided by a monk. He places it on the ground and an unseen servant comes out and grabs it and takes it back.

The sage retreats behind the curtain in front of Alzar and will return with the answer. Alzar and Peshtun wait for about 30 minutes. There is no furniture in this chamber. Upon his return, the sage pulls out a scroll with fresh ink on it. I have your answer.

“The path to own’s home is through strength of will.”

Alzar looks at him. “That is not an answer.”

“Nevertheless, it is the answer that fate has in store for you. I cannot give any other.”

Alzar asks for his money back then, since that was not an answer to the question. He is refused. So Alzar presses. Could he pay more for a more specific answer? That gets the sage’s attention.

How about 1000 more gp for a more detailed answer. He agrees to try the Fates again and takes Alzar’s money. Meanwhile, Alzar starts to plan with Pashtun. As suspected, the sage returns with another obviously fake answer, but Alzar thanks him profusely and asks for the scroll. The sage reaches out to hand it to him when Alzar slams a white and black magic jelly bean onto the ground and out pop a Crystal Ooze and a Black Pudding.

The soldiers are surprised but no more than the two monks and the sage. They move to the threat and Pashtun drops to the ground and moves out of the way while Alzar moves diagonally out of the way. Several people track them while others move into engage the creatures. A Crystal Ooze is just annoying, but a black pudding will split when attacked with a non-magical slashing weapon. Just like Pashtun did with his nonmagical scimitar, although it was damaged in the fall.

Now there are two puddings and an ooze. Pashtun drops his weapon and rolls to a corner away from the gnomes who are now more focused than ever. Missile weapons fly out and Alzar uses his Ring of Chameleon Power to slip behind the curtain.

In here is a small pathway that ends at a locked door. A minute later, the remnants of the acid lock drops and he moves down some stairs. Meanwhile, more than 30 gnomes have moved into the large chamber, being barked orders by the leader and the Sage. The ooze creatures have really pushed out and Pashtun is guarded by four gnome guards with weapons out and ready to attack. He has surrendered.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar arrives on the next level. No general alarm or anything has rung, which seriously surprises him.

A door opens at the base of the stairs and he is in a short hallway. He heads left and hits a dead end and a door. It pens into a small dorm with no one here. It’s probably monks that leave here from the lack of decorations or comfort. The other way leads into a large library. There are 10 robed figures that are working at tall desks or standing with arms folded. No sound comes from the room and as Alzar enters, no sound can be heard. Silence spell on the room. His Ring works and he blends into the background.


There are three doors on one side and one on the other. As Alzar moves to one side, even though he is making no noise and cannot be easily seen, one of the people here manages to notice him (he rolled poorly) and runs over and hits a big button on a center table and the silence spell drops. He shouts a warning to others. They turn on him.

Alzar wins initiative always and casts Sleep. 5 scribes fall asleep, one is up and five monks are unharmed and move in. Three monks close, two move to the fallen and the sage casts Light at Alzar’s eyes, but he makes the save.

Alzar casts Hold Person on the monks moving to the sleeping folks and paralyzes both of them plus the last sage is in the blast area and paralyzed too. Alzar is attacked several times and takes 8 damage from two hits.

28/51

Three monks to him. He casts Hypnotism and all three and two fail their save and the third moves to run. He gets hit with an attack of opportunity by Alzar and takes 6 damage from his staff and Alzar adds in three charges and kills him.

Used – 3 charges from Staff of Striking. Alzar moves out and slays all of those entranced by his spells.

XP – 800 – solo

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar casts Skeletal Hands and checks the three doors and they enter into small bedrooms, each a bright color and two match two sages in their rooms clothing and another matches the bright color of the one upstairs. He skips the rooms right now and moves to the other door. (He knows those rooms belong to those sages from the memories in his head.)

This is the scholar’s hall. The room before him is large and lavishly decorated and elegantly furnished. There are four dark robed figures and a raven waiting for Alzar to enter, behind some tables. Alzar identifies the center figure as Piyarz. The others are just monks. He calls out and asks for parlay. He has the meteorite and wants to trade for information. Piyarz refuses to even answer and casts a spell. Four magic missiles dart into Alzar for 15 damage.

13/51

That just made me mad . Alzar reads the Scroll of Protection from Magic and then moves into the room. The raven has gone invisible and Alzar can see it (low level illusions, including invisibility, don’t work on him.) It’s not a raven, but an imp. A sleep spell bounces off his protection The imp can’t touch him either, it’s a magical creature. Its tries its Suggestion spell and fails and a Magic Missile flies into him and fails. Meanwhile, Alzar spends those turns casting Continual Light at the eyes of a monk but it fails to blind him and casting the unusual Death Armor, memorized just for today.

The monks move up while the hands begin to attack the sage. They hit him for two damage while the sage tries to come up with a plan that will work The monks attack Alzar and one hits him for 3 damage and takes 6 back. The monks have to hit with their hands, and thus Alzar’s Death Armor works quite well against them.

Meanwhile, he rushes to the Sage’s side and grabs his staff and swings. He hits for 3 damage. Alzar wins init and misses. The hands hit for 4 damage. The Sage misses Alzar with his knife. The imp casts another spell and it fails. Alzar takes 4 and deals 8 to a monk.

6/51

[Abe Sargent]

The monks back off. Alzar smashes Piyarz for 6 damage and he moves to retreat. The hands miss. The imp, monks and sage move to the door on the far wall. Alzar grabs his Wand of Ice and uses a charge to put a Wall of Ice behind them. The Hands hit Piyzarz for 2 damage and his orders the monks to attack the hands.

Alzar spends the turn coating his staff in poison with his Scarab. The monks kill a hand and Piyarz grab a scroll and casts Mirror Image. The next turn, Alzar swings with his staff at a wounded monk and kills it when he fails the poison save. The monks kill the other hands.

Alzar spends the turn coating his staff again and the sage orders an attack on Alzar but the monks instead run around him and back toward the library and flee. The sage and the imp move on Alzar.

Alzar can see through the Mirror Image (level 1 illusion spell) and stabs with his staff, hits Piyarz who fails his save and dies violently to poison. The imp fades away, released to his own realm.

XP – 1000 solo

[Abe Sargent]

After battle, Alzar moves to the door on the right and opens it into Piyzarz’ room. Hovering above a large coffer in this black bedroom is a creature that Alzar recognizes quite a bit. It’s a spectator! He had one guarding his treasure room in his complex back on Thorasia.

He greets the Spectator warmly and is greeted back. He inquires to the creature’s health and it is quite happy guarding.

“What are you guarding in here?”

“Why, I am guarding the things in the coffer.”

“Just the items inside the coffer or the coffer itself?”

“Just the items.”

“So I could open the coffer lid, but not touch anything, and we’d be okay.”

“Of course!”

Alzar opens the coffer and inside are about a dozen books a bag, two caskets, and a mace.

The rest of the room has a bed, chair, desk, table, and more. A quick search ensues.


“What are the conditions of your guardianship?”

“I am to guard the items in this coffer for 101 years.”

“And who gave it to you?”

“Piyarz.”

“And if Piyarz dies, what then”

“My contract does not specify one way or the other.”

Alzar grabs the sage’s body and drags it in. After thinking for a few minutes, the Spectator sighs and portals back to his home plane of Mechanus.

Alzar will come back later for stuff.

[Abe Sargent]

The Wall of Ice is still blocking the other path, so he grabs piyarz’s body and heads back up the stairs to the room.

In here the sage is questioning Pashtun with gnomes as he tries to find out where Alzar went.

Alzar drops into the room with Piyarz’ body and drops it down. Piyarz is dead, and he lied to you gnomes. Shalfey was never dead, just trapped in his chambers. This sage lied to you too. Arrest him and get more information from the Elder Sage.

They don’t know what to do. The Sage orders them to kill Alzar for killing Piyarz, yet there is no clear chain of command that leads to the Sage. They move out to secret both Alzar and the sage and the two monks in the room and head out to check.

They find the many dead, but they also puncture the Wall of Ice and head into the chamber of Shalfey, who is freed by the gnomes. Alzar and Pashtun are released and healed as an apology. The elder sage banishes the last sage, and then allows Alzar to take the items of the slain ones he finished. He does and returns with the gold they took from him as well.

Meanwhile, Alzar produces the Falling Star for him. He tells what happened with both himself and the monks. Shalfey hears him, and tells him the remaining bit of the prophecy from the Books of Destiny. They are to get another set of books from creatures that want the Star.

[Abe Sargent]

After doing research, he believe he knows where to go. There is a group of xenophobic svirfneblin about 27 miles away in the foothills and up the river. They are nasty little buggers, but he believes that is where the other set of Books lie.

Alzar agrees to porter the Star to them in exchange for a powerful item of Shalfey’s choice.

They move out after resting for two days and Detecting Magic. Alzar acquired:

+1 yataghan
Folding Boat
Potion of Extra Healingx2, White Dragon Control,
Bracers of Defense: Ac 7
Ring of Warmth
Mage Scrolls – Summon Shadow, Erase, Dispel Magic
2650 gp
1050 pp
11 books on the nature of demi-humans – 250 gp
Book - Creation of the Shade
Pair of Diamond Earrings – 2000 gp
Platinum Belt – 1500 gp
Emerald Bead Necklace – 500 gp
Coral Carved Horse Statuette – 550 gp


Four spellbooks – Piyarz, Lurg, Porro and Cipolla – They have already have been dispelled by the sages and monks and Shalfey for Alzar


Piyarz – Detect Magic, Find Familiar, Light, Magic Missile, Read Magic, Sleep, Baltar’s Lightening, Magic Mouth, Locate Object, Tongues, Rary;s Mnemonic Enhancer

Lurg – Detect Illusion, Detect Magic, Emrikol’s Question, Identify, Phantasmal Force, Read Magic, Wizard Mark, Non-Detection, Illusionary Script

Porro – Change Self, Color Spray, Dancing Lights, Find Familiar, Detect Magic, Identify, Light, Read Magic, Wizard Mark, Hypnotic Pattern, Misdirection, Knock

Cipolla – Detect Magic, Read Magic, Sand Jambiya, Tensor’s Floating Disk, Wall of Fog, Invisibility, Ventriloquism


Baltar’s Lightening
Level 2, Alteration

Target – 1 container of not more than 200/coins per level
Duration – 1 hour/level
Components – VSM
Range - Touch
Casting Time - 2


This spell is cast upon a container that cannot weight more than 200 coins per level and may not hold more than that at any time during the spell, or the spell will immediately end. That container’s weight is halved for the duration of the spell. The material component is a feather, which is consumed in the process.

Emrikol’s Question is a 1st level charm spell that forces someone to answer one question asked immediately and briefly if they know the answer and if they fail the save, and if they understand the question.


This is a local spell that was made by people in Hamedh, and Alzar memorizes it. He also learns Rary’s Mnemonic Enhancer, Emrikol’s Question, and Knock

[Abe Sargent]

During his few days here, Alzar levels up to level 5. His new spells will be Dispel Magic and Lesser Rhabdomancy for now. He would normally lose his class abilities being so far away from the workshop and library, but the Tower works and is close enough. They even send out two people o check on his things at the base of that dam.

Alzar swaps the Bracers of Defense for the Protection ones and gives them to Pashtun. These Bracers work with the new ensemble without any further issues, although his Boots still won’t work, but they keep everything else working, so they are worn.

Alzar’s new AC with the Bracers is 7. He chooses not to add the Ring of Protection +1 to keep things real.


They head out to find the Svirfnebli enclosure nearby in the early morning. These deep gnomes are very mean and cruel, but they don’t bother anyone out here, and no one has bothered them either.

The day passes by quietly and they head up the river and arrive at a side passage. They travel down it for an hour and close to their destination. They are moving up a valley and nearing the end of it.

[Abe Sargent]

As they do, a warbling war cry echoes across the valley and a squad of 20 hairy, small naked humanoids bursts from behind a mountain spur and charge down. They are gibberlings. Alzar decides to deal with them as a fighter and spends a turn putting on armor. He wants to save his magic for later. Pashtun dismounts and moves to the front while Gilded Ears moves back away from the gibberlings.

They collide and Alzar will miss this turn finishing up changing. Then the carving begins. Both Alzar and Pashtun deal minimum damage (4 for Pashtun, 5 for Alzar) above that of the hp each gibberling has (4 hp) so every hit kills one. These are maddened and they will fight to a swift death. With specialization, they both attack 3/2 times. They are naked with AC of 10. Alzar needs a 2 to hit one and Pashtun needs a 7. The gibberlings need a 19 to crack Pashtun’s armor and a 17 to do so to Alzar’s. They do 1d4 with clubs.

I’ll fast sim this with random.org

41/51 Alzar
20/23 Pashtun

Dead gibberlings

Pashtun gets 100 XP


Alzar remains in combat ready clothes and armor and they move into the valley and see a small village in front. As they do, another score of gibberlings leading a duo of large subterranean lizards moves out to meet them. Again, they are maddened and charge. Another random.org battle occurs


33/51 Alzar
11/23 Pashtun

Pashtun gets 225 XP

[Abe Sargent]

They move past the quiet village and there are pens with a group of six more lizards tied down and they leave them there. A small bridge crosses the creek and they arrive at the other side, in front of an entrance to a cave. They move into the cave and quickly draw out continual light rocks. The halls of these people are very grand and highly functional, rather than ornate. The corridor is at least 15 feet tall, and it corves and winds up at a door made of iron.

The door is unlocked, and swings open. It reveals an empty hall with two doors past it. The walls, ceiling and floor have a metallic sheen to the, and is highly polished. In the centre of the room is an oval, metallic dome, about five feet across.

Alzar moves in first and as he does, the dome lifts and moves. It is a machine or construct of some kind. It rotates and out blasts a jet of steam and some darts fly out. Alzar takes 7 damage and orders in Pashtun behind him. His axe rings out against the armor and does not penetrate. Pashtun’s also.

26/51

Alzar wins init due to his ring and hacks twice. Once he cracks it for 9 damage. Pashtun;s double swing cant keep it down. The enemy spins and launches a steam blast and darts. It hits Alzar for 4 damage and Pashtun for 4 as well.

22/51
7/23

Alzar carves it for 6 damage and he orders Pashtun to retreat and he does. The machine misses Alzar. Alzar hits once for 8 damage and misses. He takes 5 damage from some darts.

17/51

He misses, and Pashtun fires at it with his bow. The machine hits for 6 damage with a blast of steam but misses with darts

11/51

Alzar misses, the machine missies, and Pashtun hits for 2 damage.

Alzar hits for 8 damage and the machine is destroyed.


Pashtun gains 500 XP

[Abe Sargent]

That was a nasty little construct. A quick search turns up nothing too unusual.

One door opens into a set of stores with food, fuel, and raw materials (like coal, oil, iron ingots, wheat, wine, etc).

The other door is locked and it takes two vials of acid to eat through it. The corridor past soon opens into ahuge inner hall. The hall is grand but plain, with air filled by vapour from a stream that crossed is. Barring a bridge over the creek are a group of five machines like the ones Alzar and Pashtun just fought, but bigger. Four are eight feet and the middle one is twelve feet. Nasty. They puff steam and remain where they are.

In a few moments, several kagu-svirfnebli arrive and more arrive after shouting follows. One knows Arjuni and shouts to Alzar “Peace! Do you come for trade for war?”

Alzar says trade, and then several of the small grey humanoids move up. Alzar says that he has a fallen star for them and they nod their heads. The time is come.

A long time ago, a magical shield was built here, and a plate to the side said that whatever was inside the shield was to be traded for a magical star which would be turned into the most beautiful gem the world has ever known. Alzar holds the star up to them.

They escort him and Pashtun to the shield. They head forward and into a gigantic workshop, which had some of the constructs being worked on. Alzar’s queries about them is waved away. They leave it and land in a long corridor and turn right, and open an metal door.

[Abe Sargent]

Here is a small circular chamber, with a pulsating magic shield of an unknown sort. Alzar steps forward with the stone, and the shield drops. It leaves behind 20 books, bound by leather. Each weighs 10 pounds. Pashtun and Alzar gather the books and secure them. Then Alzar hands the svirfneblin their shooting star. They then escort Alzar and Pashtun back to the inner hall where the stream and the set of five machines were, but they were pulled out. In a few minutes the people have left and the doors lock closed by two bars. Their complex is now shut out from Alzar. A few minutes later, while securing the books, a large explosion shakes the area, and steam seeps from the door for a bit and then ends. Nothing else happens. Alzar moves to the door and looks at the bar on the other side. He wants through. He tries the door and it won’t budge. He tries moving it with a magical spear or something, but it is too heavy. The door won’t open.

So Alzar quaffs a potion of Fire Giant Strength. In less than 10 seconds, that door is broken in half. He heads back and moves toward the workshop. It looks like they set things to blow up behind Alzar and retreated. As Alzar opens the door to the workshop, a gust of hot, humid air blasts him with a deafening sound following. There are destroyed machine parts and some working in odd order. Several move toward him and he backs off and shuts the door.

He moves to the other doors. The first one opens into pens with more subterranean lizards, and they are tied up. The other opens into the dormitory of the creatures. It is quite large but rather stark with 17 alcoves with a small iron framed bed in each. Near the end is a locked door which Alzar obliterates with his fist and opens, revealing a small closet. In addition to random clothes, there are six boxes labeled in an own unknown language. Alzar grabs the boxes and moves out.

They arrive back in the main room and then from there to the entry room. Alzar secures the six boxes, all locked, to investigate later. As they move to level the complex, something flies overhead. Holy crap!

There are a pair of red dragons circling the valley.