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Since the greatest danger to Glantri is the magical might of Alphatia, Rad and his colleagues came up with this device in an attempt to drain Alphatia's magical energies while leaving those of his allies and followers intact. The globe shows the world; the red disk is the pointer which shows where the effect will take place. The crystal ball allows the user to move the pointer to the place he or she wants drained of all magic.
When it became clear that Thyatis would have to withdraw from the war and Glantri was doomed, Rad put his device into operation, positioning it right over the Alphatian capital of Sundsvall. To his horror, it did not work in the way he expected. Instead of simply draining away all Sundsvall's magic, the arti*fact absorbed all the magical energy in the area and then re*leased it again; the release took the form of a violent storm which laid the city to waste, killing thousands of people-the Empress Eriadna among them.
Although Glantri's situation is becoming desperate, Rad is unwilling to use the device again until he finds a way to avoid this unwanted side effect. He recently attempted to contact Ix*ion and the Alphatians to negotiate an end to their quarrel. .. only to be rejected by both. Ixion interpreted Rad's offer as a sign that victory was near and ordered his followers to redouble their efforts, while Zandor, the new emperor, seeks revenge for the attack on Sundsvall.
Alzar takes it carefully and moves to the door.
A metal tube 20' in diameter and 30' long sticks out of the box at this end. The entrance to the tube is jagged and man*gled, but looking down its length you can see it ends in a circular door.
As Alzar steps into the tube, he bumps into something that feels like an invisible wall. It’s a person that seems to completely seal the entrance. As Alzar is trying to figure out how to get by this unexpected obstacle, the air next to you begins to shimmer, then coalesce into the form of an old man wearing crimson robes and an elaborate-looking wizard's hat. He has a long white beard, sharp, piercing eyes, and a halo. He grins at you and says, "Going somewhere?"
This is Etienne D’Ambreville, ruler of Glantri, and immortal named Rad.
He'll wait until Alzar calms down a bit and asks him to explain. Eventually he should be able to get the truth or a near facsimile thereof out of them. If so, at this point he'll release them from the force field and say "Let's talk."
Rad is, by this point, desperate. The war is going against him, the Nucleus is beyond his control, and his people are in danger of annihilation. He will therefore propose an alliance: if the party can alter the Nucleus to stop it from leeching power from the Sphere of Energy with the Mirror Shield, Ixion's main complaint against Rad would vanish. Rad's allies Ka and Korotiku should then be able to negotiate an end to the quarrel that started the war.
Alzar accepts. Rad lets him enter the arti*fact and carry on with the mission; in return they will help him find a way to defuse the Doomsday Weapon and bring the Nucleus under control. Rad takes back the Doomsday Weapon.
Alzar enters a great engineer chamber
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