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

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar learns a few more spells to make up for the weak spellbook. It includes stuff like Haste, Evard’s Black Tentacles and Suggestion. They are from various spellbooks he has decoded.

I asterisk’d his normal spell selection, which can change from time to time, obviously.

Here’s Alzar today!

Alzar

Alzar on Hamedh
7th level Fighter (Myrmidon), 8th level Path Mage (Fivefold Mage)

Lawful Evil
Human

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

Hit Points: 54
THACO: 14
AC: 5
Total XP: 112,000 (Level 9 at 135,000)
Age 57, Body - 23

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 15
Survival 14
Blind Fighting
Etiquette 13
Endurance
Heraldry 14
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
Divining: 15
Genie Lore: 16
Riding, Specialization: 10

Languages – Thorasian - Typic, Sis’sharr, UnderTypic, Kuo-Toa; Hamedhi – Arjuni, Sand Mire Common,


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 with the axe and +1 damage for strength


Staff – Can only use this as a Necromancer, +1


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.


Immune to starvation

[Abe Sargent]

Stuff:

1730 gp
5525 pp


Gems: Diamond – 2000 gp; Topaz – 100 gp ; Ruby – 500gpx3; 17 gems – 50 gp each; 12350 generic gems; 100gpx3; 10 gpx17


Jewelry: Random jewelry worth 28580; Emerald Headband – 300 gp ; Ivory Earrings – 120 gp ; Ruby Necklace – 750 gp ; Gold Armbands, 500 gp ; Ruby Pendant – 900 gp ; Silver Belt Buckle – 100 gp ; Ivory and Jet Ram’s Head Amulet – 550 gp ; Pair of Diamond Earrings – 2000 gp ; Platinum Belt – 1500 gp ; Emerald Bead Necklace – 500 gp ; Necklace of Black Pearls, 4000 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 ; Rock Crystal Bottle Stopper – 75 gp ; Silver Dagger with Ivory Handle – 250 go ; Gold Studded Leather Armor – 500 gp ; Coral Carved Horse Statuette – 550 gp ; Gem-laced elephant bridle – 1550 gp ; Jeweled Dagger – 1500 gp ; Silver Incense Burner – 600 gp ;




Books and Library:

9000 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
Illustrated Bestiary (250 gp)
Book on history of tower and residents
11 books on the nature of demi-humans – 250 gp
Creation of the Shade
100 Books from Bone Hill Study
Neconilis’s Book of Horrors
Deed worth 950 gp
Surrisk’s notes on undead, necromancy, and a spell Undead Familiar
1000 gp library of 300 general purpose books from Dungeon in Desert
6 Books on Worship of Nabilah


Laboratory:

9000 gp lab generally
500 gp equipment from Dungeon in Desert


Magic Items:

Proficient Staff
Staff – 1 charges, Dancing Lights, Light for 1 charge, Lightning Bolt, 4d12 damage, 2 charges, Spark – 2d10, 1 charge – 30’ away
Staff of Healing, 24 charges, (1 charge for Cure Blindness, Disease, 2 for Cure Serious, Neutralize Poison)
+1 Pesh-kabz, Short Bow, Dagger, Gada, Club, Heavy Crossbow, Yataghan, Sling, Tulwar, Shamshir, Scimitar,
+2 Mace, +4 vs undead; Mace, +1 vs Lawful, -1 vs Chaotic; Spear, +1, +2 vs Giants, +3 vs Orcs, Ogres ;
+2 Battleaxe; Flail; Khanda; Macex2;
+2 Trombash of Returning
+1 Shieldx2, +3 Shield
+2 Chainmail, +2 Leather Armorx2, Plate Mail,

Potion of Neutralize Poison, Diminution, White Dragon Control, Poisonx2, Infravision, Invisibilityx6, Gaseous Formx3, Vampire Control, Growth, Sweet Water, Speedx2, Extra Healing, Polymorph Selfx2; Resistance; Super-Heroism; Flying;
Keoghtom's Ointment – 3 applications left
Wizard Spell Scroll: Create Spectral Wizard, Summon Shadow, Erase, Dispel Magic, Fire Shield, Strength, Dimension Door, Fly, Protection from Evil, 10’ Radius, Elonia’s Glamer, Globe of Invulnerability, Dazzle, Locate Object, Detect Invisibility,
Cleric Spell Scroll: Prayer, Commune, Cure Critical Wounds, Spiritual Hammer, Prayer, Detect Lie, Cure Light Wounds, Sanctuary, Flame Strike, Tongues, Create Food and Water, Cure Serious Wounds, Neutralize Poison,
Scroll - Protection from Undead, Possession

Wand of Frost –2 charges; Wand of Salt - 22 charges; Fear - 4 charges; Fireballs - 5 charges;
Wand of Metal and Mineral Detection – 41 charges ; Wand of Wonder - 63 charges ;
Buckler Wand

Medallion of Defense
Amulet of Neconilis x3
Ring of Protection +1, Chameleon Nature; Cantrips; Quick Action; Warmth; Coolness; Free Action ; Beauty;
Helmet of Underwater Action; Helmet of Reading Languages and Magic
Rock Jellaba
Scarab of Venom
Bracers of Defense: AC 7; AC: 6;
Dusty Rose Ioun Stone - +1 AC
Magic Jelly Beans – 1 Grey, 2 Green, 2 Orange, 2 Yellow (G Cube), 2 White (Crystal Ooze), 2 Black
Boots of Varied Tracks; Sandals of Speed
Cloak of Protection +2; Cloak of Poisonousness (Cursed)
Girdle of Ogre Strength; Zoster of Zeal


2 Tubes of Dust of Appearance
Incense of Enlightenment; 2 Blocks of Incense of Meditation;
Crystal Ball with Clairaudience

Folding Boat

Crucible of Melting ; Lens of Speed Reading ; Honing Stone 6 charges; Quill of Forgery
Pearl of Power, 2nd level
Kamencheh of Calming
Chest of Weightlessness

Bronze Horn of Valhalla, summons 2d4 Neutral Evil, level 2 fighters, AC4, 15 hp, spear or sword. Can only be blown by N, NE, LE, or CE Priest or Warrior.

Metal Platter (Beef, Lamb, Turkey, Pheasant) for four people once/day; Mug (Beer, Ale, Mead) six/day; Pitcher (Water, Tea, Wine), three/day.


Staff of Ruling; Star of Mo-Pilar;


Unusual Items:

4 “Special” Torches
Brass Dragon Skin; Gold Flecked Ruby from Gold Dragon – 1000 gp; Strands from a Memory Web ; 4 Debbi Hides; Various Nasnas Parts;
Skin, scales, horn, blood, teeth, eyes, etc of a Vishap dragon.
Silver Knife, Spear
Crossbow, 50 bolts
Flask of Sleep Water
Multiple Vials of Poison
Destroyed and burned out Ioun stone

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]

Alzar’s Spellbook: He can cast 5/4/4/3 spells.


1st Level:

Cantrip
Charm Person *
Chill Touch *
Comprehend Languages
Create Divining Rod
Detect Magic *
Detect Undead
Emrikol’s Question
Find Familiar
Hypnosis *
Identify
Protection from Good
Read Magic
Sleep *
Wizard Mark


2nd level:

Baltar’s Lightening
Continual Light *
Death Armor
Ghoul Touch *
Hold Person (Hamedhi) *
Knock
Locate Object
Skeletal Hands *
Spectral Hand
Unpickable Lock
Wizard Lock


3rd Level:

Bewilder
Dispel Magic *
Fly *
Genie Contract
Haste
Hold Undead
Leomund’s Tiny Hut
Lesser Rhabdomancy
Suggestion *
Vampiric Touch *


4th Level:

Charm Monster *
Dig
Evard’s Black Tentacles *
Polymorph Other *
Rary’s Mnemonic Enhancer
Unburn


5th

Animate Dead
Conjure Water Elemental
Greater Rhabdomancy
Summon Shadow
Teleport

Other Spellbooks:

A blank spellbook

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

Piyarz’s Book – Detect Magic, Find Familiar, Light, Magic Missile, Read Magic, Sleep, Baltar’s Lightening, Magic Mouth, Locate Object, Tongues, Rary’s Mnemonic Enhancer

Lurg’s Book – Detect Illusion, Detect Magic, Emrikol’s Question, Identify, Phantasmal Force, Read Magic, Wizard Mark, Non-Detection, Illusionary Script

Porro’s Book – Change Self, Color Spray, Dancing Lights, Find Familiar, Detect Magic, Identify, Light, Read Magic, Wizard Mark, Hypnotic Pattern, Misdirection, Knock

Cipolla’s Book – Detect Magic, Read Magic, Sand Jambiya, Tensor’s Floating Disk, Wall of Fog, Invisibility, Ventriloquism


Spellbook destroyed by rat, just one spell left – Levitate (remnants of book were procured and owned)

Neconolis Spellbook:

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


Telvar’s Spellbook –

1st Level – Cloud Ladder, Charm Person, Detect Magic, Magic Missile, Protection from Good, Read Magic, Identify, Sleep, Shocking Grasp
2nd Level – Darkness, 15’ Radius; ESP, Flying Fist, Invisibility, Levitate, Detect Invisibility, Magic Mouth, Wizard Lock
3rd Level – Dispel Magic, Fireball, Fly, Protection from Normal Missiles, Feign Death, Monster Summoning I, Leomund’s Tiny Hut, Scintillating Sphere
4th – Rary’s Mnemonic Enhancer, Wizard Eye

Crescent Witch Spellbook: To be decoded later:

1st – Run, Burning Hands, Charm Person, Read Magic, Detect Magic, Identify, Charm Person, Shocking Grasp
2nd – Invisibility, Stinking Cloud, Darkness 15’ Radius, Baltar’s Lightening, Knock
3rd – Genie Contract, Protection from Good, 10’ Radius, Lightning Bolt, Dispel Magic
4th – Evard’s Black Tentacles, Unburn


Dervill’s Spellbook – Read Magic, Identify, Detect Magic, Wizard Mark, Hold Portal, Magic Missile, Chromatic Sphere, Featherfall, Web, Detect Invisibility, Misdirection, Audible Glamer, Haste, Protection from Normal Missiles, Dispel Magic, Nondetection, Item, Suggestion, Polymorph other, Wizard Eye, Daltim’s Flaming Fist, Teleport, Desert Fist


Spellbooks not Decoded:



Alzar’s Others:

Undead:
3 Coffer Corpses
6 Ghoulstirges
Multiple Ghouls, Zombies, Skeletons


There are some good stuff in there, like Charm Monster, Suggestion and the Tentacles that add some serious spanking to his spell list.

So today he has gained all of those spells, and all of those warrior abilities too.

[Abe Sargent]

The morning before they head out, Alzar is approached by a local merchant in the Sandvoyagers Compound who is interested in selling him a magic lamp, with a Djinni inside. He wants 1000 gp.

“That’s not a lot for lamp-genie. What’s the catch?”

The merchant professes it is a djinni on a lamp, so Alzar agrees to the price if there is actually a genie in there and everything is as said. In order to make sure, Alzar rubs the lamp and out comes a djinni.

One who is really happy to have a new Master. The genie goes on and on about how great it is to serve new master and all of the wonderful things. He can for his Master. Alzar sends him back into the lamp for now. The genie is a bit…odd.

The merchant admits that the Shi’ar who enchanted this lamp must’ve have only done it partway. The djinni can only do one wish and that’s all, not the normal three, but it will try, really hard, to make the other two come true. The lamp doesn’t disappear. Alzar’s Genie Lore verifies everything the merchant is saying, improper containment vessels do happen from time to time, and this result is very common. There’s a famous example of an Efreet that could only take the form is a really small and pretty butterfly.

Meanwhile, the genie really tries to do a lot for the master, but is very ambitious, and makes a lot of mistakes. Alzar calls the genie back out, uses his Gem of Seeing Star and verifies everything is as stated, and he can get one wish. He hands the merchant 1000 gp .

He tells the djinni that he wants his first wish right now, and the djinni is really excited. And this will be an easy wish to perform. He wants to be plane shifted to his home plane of Thorasia. Wish magic is strong, and that should be easy to perform. The genie is happy to do so, and cracks his knuckles and then….


Nothing.

[Abe Sargent]

The djinni looks perturbed and uses the wish ability again, but it doesn’t work. Alzar is still here. The wish never worked. Apparently there is some sort of interference anchoring him to Thorasia. So instead, Alzar, for his first wish, merely wants information. Why is he stuck to Hamedh?

The djinni disappears to try and find out.

They begin to head out. They have decided to check in on the places on the map Martek scribed that are nearby. Several are three days north, and a few miles from each other, so that’s where Alzar will head first.


Their party is the normally expected one, although Alzar has switched some his items, he doesn’t need to carry staves now. On him he just has the axe, a dagger, and the Trombash of Returning and a non-magical crossbow on the giant strider he rides. The only staff he keeps is Amun-Re’s Staff of Ruling, which he suspect sis so powerful that it can’t be easily ID’d – common for very powerful, unique, or artifacts.

Alzar picked up more books and supplies for his lab and library, and they have been in more sand-friendly wagons, with a different feel to them. He still has the ghoulstirges and coffer corpses as bodyguards for those, and then undead he controls are squirreled away in a variety of places.

A few hours into their journey, the djinni reappears. He claims to have been walking the planes and talking to various people. Here’s all he can find out. Some powerful force has banished him to Hamedh, and while he is here, no magic can get him off the plane – no wishing, magical items, portals, nothing. They are all sealed to him. But he can’t find out what.

[Abe Sargent]

Their conversation is interrupted by a small amount of tracks here in the area. Alzar casts Fly and heads up to get a better view. There appears to have been a scuffle here a while ago, and up in the sky, he can see that tracks from the Oasis led here a few days ago, and after the scuffle, head off north to the Crypt of Badr Al-Mosak.

They decide to follow the tracks – it’s as good of a lead as any others.


They move forward, and the genie is summoned to go and fight some wolves on the border and to scare them away before they come closer. The genie takes way too long though, and is pretty ineffective as a fighter. And the genie is making a lot of noise, and could be creating targets for their back. Alzar sends it away. The remaining wolves flee.

From up here, Alzar can see some Airlancers probably 70 miles away, scouting around. Nothing else is near his party, although something could strike from the ground, so he never wants to break that out too soon. Anyway, Fly lasts between 2 and 3 hours long for him. He lands just before two pass and they continue one.


No other incidents emerge and they end the day. Night passes too. Alzar will memorize some more undead friendly spells for the morrow (Swapping Hold Undead for Fly and Detect Undead for Chill Touch).


The following day, they are nearing the Crypt. It’s about 25-30 miles away, and was the nearest of the targets they were considering, and it was on Martek’s map.

[Abe Sargent]

As they get closer, there appears to be a small statue in front of the Crypt, about 10 feet tall or so. The statue glares with a odd sensation of fear attached to it. There is a permanent fear spell attached to it ,and everyone in the party have to make a save. Those that fail return in ten minutes to try again, and those that fail again continue to repeat until everyone is fine.

The sand is pushed away and stone breaks free. There is a wide amphitheater that breaks from the ground in large steps up to the Crypt. They head up it and fine a shaft behind the fear statue into the rock behind. It runs 90 feet into the area, and continual light rocks are brought out to provide light.

Volcifar, ahead, finds a scythe trap in the wall and…disarms he (he only fails on a 20 on a d20 after all). The shaft ends at a large, tall, hole in the ground and continues vertically for some distance. They drop a stone and it’s just this side of 100 feet down or so. (90 actually). They grab some rope, secure it and toss it down, and Volcifar heads first, positioning himself not on the rope, but on the wall next to it to observe. He can scale the walls easily enough. The rest of the folks begin to drop down the rope.

They arrive in a odd chamber, with four archways on it, with water on the bottom. There are small alcoves with four statues at the end of each one. Alzar’s Gem of Seeing shows traps, and Volcifar comes down to disarm them – one in each alcove. One has a door at the end,, searching turns up nothing else, and they head through the door.

[Abe Sargent]

A medium sized square room is covered with ornate runes and hieroglyphs. Against the center of the south wall is a large statue of a man with his arms crossed, and a crook and flail in them. There are doors on the south, east, and west walls.

West it is. There’s a familiar sensation there. The door opens into a small office, and there are five wights in here. Three are controlled by Alzar immediately. They move to attack the other two , who move off as well. After a round of mostly missies, Alzar controls the other two (it’s automatic at level 8). 5 wights move to flank him. He casts Detect Undead to see if he can find any others in the area while the group searches the office.

Two potions
Scroll of Protection from Elementals
Pesh-Kabz

To be identified later.

He can feel undead in massive quantities towards the door to the south. A quick check of the east one shows another office, with nothing in it

[Abe Sargent]

The south door opens into a long, 12 foot wide bridge, stretching towards the south over a very long and apparently deep chasm. The bridge is more than 100 feet long. Alzar detects a large number of undead at the bottom of the chasm. He can’t tell how many, so he uses the crystal ball to scry down there and he sees dozens of different undead there. There are no other places, they are just there lingering. And outside of control range too.

They move across the bridge, led by two wights and Volcifar, who cross without being noticed. The rest cross as well and…

Locinda rolls a 13 and…makes her DEX check(DEX of 14)
Alzar rolls and…gets a 10 and makes his (DEX of 13)
Tolvar rolls….9 passes.
Pashtun? 6, uh oh….. no one is noticed!

Alzar’s Necrology proficiency tells him that all of those various undead down there suggest one central controller somewhere, since they ar types that don’t get along.

A door on the far side is opened and there is a shaft of light that pierces from above, more than 50’ circular space, with an altar of clear glass in the center, and door are south, west and east. There are black inscriptions on the altar that are too damaged with time to read.

As Volcifar approaches to inspect, his magical items glow within three feet of the altar, as if a Detect Magic spell were cast. Volcifar juts got a magic thought beamed to him. Alzar approaches and a thought hits him, asking him to place an item on the altar for Seker. Alzar tries to figure out the altar, and places a cursed item on it, the Periapt of Foul Rotting, but nothing happens other than a temporary glow. A minor potion and then minor scroll follow, with no results. It’s not until Alzar palaces his Wand of Wonder on the altar than it disappears, and in a flash a harness appears on the altar. Alzar touches it and takes 3 damage from the good pulsing from it. Tolvar tries and he can carry it. He’s neutral, not evil. It tells him it is the Harness of Seker, and created to help destroy undead. It can detect undead, and use a charge to destroy one, but can only be used by a good cleric. Lacking either, they take it with them for now.

Harness of Seker – 5 charges – After 5th charge is used Wand of Wonder will reappear in Alzar’s possession, -5 charges.

The altar is used to detect magic items they already found, and the others are abandoned.

[Abe Sargent]

They head east and there is a 30 foot octagonal room with a obelisk of black stones in the center. They find a secret door in here and it heads parallel to the bride/abyss and back to the beginning. SO they have an alternate route out. The door to the south is opened and there is a 30 square room with a 10 foot cube in the middle.

A wight heads over and finds nothing in the room around the cube. The cube sounds hollow when tinged. There’s no door or anything here. The wight checks the top and it’s open on the top. There is a book in her, guarded by four Necrophidus constructs, that look like big snake-things.

Wights head in to fight them. But one is damaged and killed by a Necrophidus. They can apparently hit creatures that normally can only be hit by magic. But it doesn’t require magic to hit it back, and the wights are doing a little damage. Two necrophidues are down (they have 7, 8, 9, and 1 2hit points, respectively) and a wight is down too (they only do 1d4 damage). By the end, Alzar has just two wights left, but their foes are dead. He has the wight bring the book to him and pockets it. The altar proves it’s magical.


Libram of Gainful Conjuring

There’s nothing else here so after heading back to the magic-room, they take another door and arrive at a west priesthood room, again, with the cube and such, but nothing is here. The final door heads to a pit that leads down and…

There is a Mummy here guarding the way down, that emerge from a open coffin, turned on its side. Alzar has Tolvar cast Flame Arrow and it takes 14 damage, (That’s with the +4 damage from fire, they rolled a 1 three times and a 2 once) and it makes its saves so it takes a mighty 8. Ah well.

The wights cordon it off and a few missile weapons come in. An Acid Arrow doles out 6 damage. It savages a wight and it’s badly injured, then the mummy wins init and slays the wight and moves in. It takes 5 more damage and then it takes 11 and 10 from Alzar’s axe and dies

They search and find in the coffin:

Helm
Carpet
2 vials of Oil
Magic User’s Scroll – Fireball

They all id as Magic., There’s also 200 GP here too.

They head down the pit here it was guarding, led by ropes.

[Abe Sargent]

The pit arrives into a area of a thousand beams of light, endlessly reflected off the walls and it is impossible to determine anything in the glare. Alzar’s Gem of Seeing Star shows the lights, and he tosses a coin and it is blasted with cold, and then disintegrates by two of the lights.

He casts Dispel Magic and the beams stop. A coin shows nothing and the wight that moves through is fine. They head through.

Stairs lead up to a vast room with a dark and evil presence easily sense. Alzar can see a large man, and passes his Genie Lore proficiency. This is Khalitharius, noble Efreet in a more man-like guise.
He is holding a large bottle with a stopper in it, clear. And he puts it down as the wight and party enter the chamber.

The amulet given to them by Sheikh Kassim Arslan has begun to glow a very bright light. A blue ray shoots out from it and hits Khalitharius in the chest and he snarls in pain. He retreats and then begins to cast a Flame Strike at Alzar. Alzar orders the people in, and to separate. He charges the Efreet, axe out.

The Efreet’s magic hits Alzar as Magic Missiles hit the Efreet for 7 damage. Alzar takes 33 damage, roll for half, and…rolls an 8 and…fails – he needs a 10.

Alzar casts Vampiric Touch and drains 11. The Efreet chooses to go astral, and disappears.

Alzar – 32/54

[Abe Sargent]

They search the room, and only the bottle is of note. Inside appears to be a woman, captured. Probably the princess. There is a door on the other side. They check it out first. A dark staircase descends to a 50 foot square room, in the center is a single pillar bathed in a column of light. A huge cut jewel is on top, and it’s the fourth Gem. Volcifar finds two traps, but can’t remove them both, so a wight dies doing so to a bunch of flames and acid. Alzar grabs the Star of Shah-Pelar, stolen long ago from a desert pharaoh by Badr Al-Mosak.

They release the princess, Shadalah, and she appears in a cloud of smoke, confused, but capable. She’s been trained and is a 5th level fighter. They get her caught up, and she agrees and they combine her palm tattoo with the talisman. When brought together, various runes can be made out, and Alzar’s helm can read them. They explain that a noble Djinni, Aeraldoth, is imprisoned and ready to be released to fight Khalidarius in the City of the Phoenix, and tell to speak a word, Atmophyryeetno to release him.

They begin to head back out, and the final wight will remain behind.


They each get 3500 XP for monsters and adventure stuff.

And they have these items:

2 Oil of Slipperiness
+3 Pesh-Kabz
Helm of Alignment Changing
Carpet of Flying
2 Potion of Extra-healing

[Abe Sargent]

Pashtun is almost ready to level up and Locinda does:



Locinda
Lawful Neutral,6th level Fighter
HP – 49
THAC0 – 15
STR: 17, DEX: 14, CON: 13, INT: 14, WIS: 9, CHA: 8
AC: 2
XP: 32230 (level 7 at 64000)
25 years old

1800 GP

Weapons – Khanda, Javelin, Pesh-kabz, Gada

Proficiencies – Riding, Charioteering, Hunting, Mountaineering, Running, Rope Use, Swimming, Weather Sense

Fights with +1 shield, +1 chainmail, +2 khanda (1d8, 1d10+1 vs giants) too

[Abe Sargent]

They begin to head back to the Oasis.

As they do, they find a patrol of Airlancers has arrived and will take the princess home immediately, and escort them back.


A few days later they arrive, and they are celebrated. Apparently, with all four gems of Martek found, there is just one left, and it’s in the City of the Phoenix where the djinni is too.

They are given rewards promised for the return of the princess. They each got 3000 gold and a +2 magical weapon appropriate for their class. That’s a +2 scimitar, +2 javelin, +2 yataghan and +2 dagger for folks.


The group is fully ready, and Alzar’s sponsor, Dhakiy Dreschul, teleports from the College of Wizardry with a gift. A Legend Lore spell was employed to figure out the staff and they now have everything needed:

Amun-Re’s Staff of Ruling

Striking tip to the ground, and saying one command word will cause itself to polymorph into a large, venomous snake: AC4, HD4, 28 HP, 1d4 + poison (save of die) THAC0 17.
Striking twice and giving a different command word will give a globe of ball lightning. Fo each turn Alzar spends twirling the staff before releasing will deal an extra die of damage eup to +10, but currently does just 1d10 at first
Striking ground three times with a third command word will cause a clap of thunder so loud that creatures nearby must save of be struck with fear for 3 rounds.

Each use can be used just once/week


End I4. Oasis of the White Palm.


If you’ll recall, Alzar can store one spell/level in his spell focus that he can in an emergency situation. He has stored:

Protection from Good
Vocalize
Vampiric Touch
Charm Monster

And now it’s time…..

[Abe Sargent]

I5. Lost Tomb of Martek





Because the Lost City of the Phoenix is at the far northern edge of the Sand Mire, past a major and minor mountain chain, it would take a few weeks to get there by sand.

So instead, they will be speeding up their arrival by using a Carpet of Flying. It can carry 4 people. A squadron of Airlancers will escort them, with an extra pegasus for Pashtun. They should arrive in a few days.

Now they have no wagons, no steeds, just what they have. Alzar will be denuded of his normal bonuses from his class which they are away from the library and lab. So Alzar will borrow a Ring of Spell Storing from Dhakiy Dreschul. It has teleport in it. After arriving at the City of the Phoenix, he’ll teleport back for a while. Study in the college lab and library for a couple of hours, and then someone will Teleport Other him back to the battlefield.

As they near the City of the Phoenix, the sand around for miles and miles around has been turned to glass and scorched. The land here is permanently scarred from some battle or other.

[Abe Sargent]

Just four days later they have arrived. This city was the playground for pharaohs well before the fall of Amun-Re. It was a resort and vacation destination. As the sands encroached on the city, a huge magical dome was created from to protect the streets, buildings, and gardens. That magical dome remains, and only a bit of it peeks out of the sand.

Alzar teleports back, hands the ring back, studies, and then returns a few hours later. The Airlancers set up a patrol and will wait for them.

They are ready to rock.

This is the Lost City of the Phoenix, and the dome, mostly hidden, would be hard to notice, and the glass sand is very inhospitable to folks, so there’s no reason to come here. It’s easy to lose things in the Sand Mire.

Alzar can’t suss out a way to get through the dome, so he decides to grab the Carpet, and fly through it, nope. Magic shield still up. He casts Dispel Magic at it, and a small hole opens up in it, and the party flies through on the Carpet to the streets below, and Alzar heads u to grab everyone/thing else and back down again.

[Abe Sargent]

They are on a street of the old city. Despite the magic dome that was erected roughly 997 years ago, there has been damage and decay regularly. From earthquakes to damages from time and collapses, many of the areas and buildings have been ruined here, a few hundred feet below the surface.

There is a large house to the right, and they enter it carefully. Volcifar finds and disarms two traps, and they find sigils that this was once the house of Khalif Mubrek. Nothing else is here. They move on and there are some bathhouses, a collapsed maze that was likely used for recreation, and more, here’s a ruined temple to check out and there a few more houses.

One bathhouse looks fully standing and they head in. Inside are a few changing rooms, and then a giant pool room, that would have been used by both genders apparently. A quick check doesn’t reveal anything other than rubble and old carvings, with details sandblasted away.

Here’s something interesting, an old museum. That might be where the fifth Star or the djinni could be.

They head in carefully, and Alzar detects something unusual here. The first creature they’ve come across – the magical barrier seems to be a strong defense. It’s a wraith, and Alzar tries, and fails, to control it – just needed a 7. They use missile weapons to attack it as Alzar unveils his axe. Locinda’s magic javelin pierces it for 6 damage and a Sling of Seeking for 3. Then Alzar carves and destroys it.

2000 XP total, 400 each

[Abe Sargent]

Of course that proves that there can be enemies down here, which is an important lesson.

The museum has a trap that Volcifar didn’t find and he took 9 damage from a spear in his shoulder. He looks sheepish

Volcifar - 19/28

The rest of the museum appears to have been denuded of anything valuable and multiple searches are turning up a grand total of nothing.

There is a run of a fountain in front, and a Temple to Ra next to it, looking is decent condition. They check out the Temple.

Two great pylons of red stone stand out amidst the ruins in front of the temple, and they have great eyes that stare out at them. The eyes are looking into them, and Alzar can tell they are trying to rummage though his mind. He is being attacked psychically, via mentalistic power.

He’s about 50 feet and stands back. Tolvar falls from the attack and Alzar drags him back. Around 80 feet or so, the attack has mostly subsided. He orders everyone here and they stab out with missiles, and are able to take down the two Eyes of Hathor after a few minutes of concentrated weapons-fire.

They head in and collect remaining missile weapons like daggers and arrows/bolts that survived.

1500 XP each, 3k total. 600 XP Each Party Member

[Abe Sargent]

A ten foot wide colonnade supported by pillars are behind the eyes. There are flowering blossoms at the top, and the Gem of Seeing notices nothing unusual, but flowers, down here? That’s very suspicious.

A few items are tossed by them, and nothing. As they approach, a bunch of snakes magically appear, and there 15 here.

Pashtun and Locinda kill two, and they disappear, and more appear. They attacks, and Pasthtun is hit for no damage, but a save vs poison is failed and he’s dizzy and gets -3 to everything (saves, attacks, AC, initiative) until cured, or after a few hours have passed.

Seeing the magical nature of these, he pulls out the Carpet of Flying and orders everyone on it. They fly above the asps, and arrive on the far side of the courtyard, through the enrty hall at the ned where a, inner gate lays. Alzar returns for Tolvar, who was in the back of the group, and the snakes disappear as they leave the court.

They have arrived at a gate, of the same stone and designed as the various pillars, with a lotus carved onto it. It’s marble and lined with a coal black colored lining and very thick. The door is not locked, and It opens, after inspections by Volcifar turn up nothing.


In the next room, and grey mist, and an odor of death, mix. There is a sanctuary on the other side to Ra, and can be seen clearly. The floor disappears from the room they are in. A coin tossed reveals nothing. A continually lit stone? Nope. The Gem of Seeing?

It reveals a hidden bridge that spans the unseen-floor on the right. Alzar, seeing it, steps, gingerly onto it, and then crosses. The problem is that the bridge stops most of the way there. A few feet away from the altar on the other side. Floating on the void is a stark white altar, and behind it a statue to Ra.

And on the altar? The fifth and final gem!

Alzar tries to rope it in, but it can’t pull off – it’s connected too hard. Next the tries to use the Flying Carpet, but its inert here, and his other magic items are as well. The mist and the room have turned them off, save for the Gem of Seeing properties of the 2nd star. Volcifar grabs the wall and climbs over, and picks it up, and as he does, the floor and room return to normal, magic items are working again, the various traps here are done, including the snakes, and a chime can be heard from somewhere outside of the temple. It rings five times and stops.

[Abe Sargent]

They head back out and up the road. There is a large statue of Set at the end of this walkway and a destroyed temple to Horus. A tall Obelisk is vibrating, and they circle it and see some glowing runes and a pentagon shaped symbol with five ends missing, and the right size for the Five Gems of Martek. One by one they are placed in, and the Obelisk lights up as the last one is placed in.

A ray of power lances from the Obelisk and hits a wall a few hundred feet away. The wall disintegrates and behind are the shiny entrance to a new and hidden space. The Gems have been drained of their energy for the moment and are now inert rocks of clear crystal. Alzar grabs them.

As they pass the statue of Set to get to the newly opened area, they are forced to get in really close, and Volcifar detects a hidden cache. They open it up, and inside is a bottle. Alzar knows what this is.

He opens the cork, intones the word on the amulet and palm that Martek planted, and the noble Djinni arrives. In a few seconds he sees where he is, and then flies away, shattering the dome of magic that protected this place on his way out, and calls for the Efreet Khalitharius and flys out to challenge him.

Alzar pockets the bottle, just in case (it’ll turn out to be inert as well) and they head into the Lost Tomb of Martek.

(I have collapsed several places and plotlines. The Temple of Set was in another long-lost city you have to get to, I combined both cities into this one. There’s no sense dragging this thing out any longer. I’m also removing any annoying plotlines like what I feel are the sillier aspects of the Final Tomb.

For example, in the final Tomb are a variety of descendants of adventurers that came this far but no further, and there are two different factions. There is a rival party of evil adventurers fighting you for the end. There is another search and fetch quest – you have to go to three different places to get three different items to attach to a magical item to give you final access. There are a bunch of places on different planes – none of which makes a lick of sense for what I’ve created and done here. Plus Alzar can’t go to other planes, so he couldn’t do them anyway. So, instead, I have created a sort of pan-Crypt that uses rooms and places from all of the various places.)

It’s time to finish this quest. Inside the Lost Tomb of Martek should be the Sphere of Power that he found and used to capture and conquer the Efreet. The Djinni will likely just weaken it. Although it would be poetry to assume one will defeat the other, this is a place of strength for the Efreet. It has prepared. As they’ve seen, it has some allies of various places, from the cultist dervish branch to undead and other servitors.

[Abe Sargent]

As they move to the Tomb, the polished metal walls have a magical sheen that belies age of any sort.


A pair of doors here are easily picked by Volcifar and then swing open.

Inside there is a 30 foot tall crystal spire above a 10 foot wide black hexagonal base. Inscriptions on the column are quite clear and mention that this is Martek’s Tomb.

After a few moments, a crystal replica of the Tomb appears. After two minutes it disappears again. They move forward and arrive at a dry staircase of powerful and exotic woods, like mahogany. The corridor ends here, and they search around and find nothing else, so they head up. Volcifar finds and disarms a trap that turns the staircase into a chute and they continue on.

The room beyond has another hexagonal platform that is huge, almost 60 feet wide, with six marble pillars rising overhead, lots of feet above. There is an opalescent dome here, attached to the pillars, and it’s broken in just the same way and places that the magic dome above is – this is the control dome for that area.

A search finds nothing, and there are no dials, or levers or anything, so they continue as the corridor heads north.

They end at majestic twin doors of silver that have a hugely ornate archway. They push open the silver doors after pressing three people together, they are so large and heavy. Inside is a medium sized room with an ancient obelisk, one of the first objects they’ve found worn by time in the No-Longer-Lost Tomb of Martek. The writings on it are worn by time but just legible. Alzar takes rubbings of them and then uses the Helm of Reading Things to tell that they talk about using the Star Stones in Martek’s tomb to find and use the Sphere of Power.

There are more doors on the other side, this time of magical glassteel. The hall is 30 feet wide by 100 feet tall, and more than 3 miles long. There are 1001 doors here. A search of the foyer turns up a secret door, #1002.

[Abe Sargent]

It leads to a roughly hewn cavern about 150 feet later or so. Within this cavern are carved stone pillars that extend to the ceiling and hold it up. The back of the cave is walled off with fitted masonry stone and double doors of an unknown stained metal open beyond.

A search turns up nothing. But the Gems of Martek have been recharged after being drained for some time. The doors open onto the 30-foot square room, with an altar with a black cloth in the middle, and double brass doors on the other side. Again, an inspection turns up nothing, and the doors stick a bit but are force-able.

Another room, virtually identical to the one they just were in is here too. And again, double brass doors on the other side, and nothing else on inspection. It opens into a revolving tomb. In a 20 foot long section of corridor is a brilliantly lit room behind a crystal column that’s twisting. There is a blue circle on the floor and nothing else in the room – no exists or anything.

The circle is a portal into the tomb and there is a spinning room here, with a few coffins, sealed Alzar can’t cast spells, he can’t concentrate in the spinning motion. They trigger two traps trying to reach the other side.

Alzar -38/54

[Abe Sargent]

They exit the strange room and cross another 20 foot corridor to a double set of doors, made of limestone. They are too heavy to open easily. The party crosses and everyone puts their back into it and it’s just enough.

They creak loudly.

In the center of this 30 foot diameter circular room rising to the domed ceiling over 20 feet overhead are four clear crystal pillars, a crystal pedestal, and a crystal globe is into the pedestal. There is nothing else in the room. They search twice and find nothing but a simple gas trap that Volcifar disarms. No mechanics or anything else. Alzar tries Detect Magic, and the pedestal and pillars glow.

Nothing seems to work, no magical items, no gems, nothing else. Pashtun points out the crystal appears fragile and they break a pillar. But then after moving to the pedestal It cannot be broken. They shatter the other three pillars and the pedestal disappears.

The crystal globe levitates up to arm length and hums. After searching, Alzar touches it and the party is teleported away.


They arrive in a large platform with a number of golems here and other constructs. Seeing the five gems of Martek, they do not attack, but instead move and open up some doors behind the party. They turn and enter a room with a large crystalline fountain and glittering waters. The golems open a few more doors from the fountain room to a vast dark area.

The area is struck with a the glow of numerous Continual Light spells, and there are stairs to a central dais, that stands 20 feet above the room. On the dais is a large cylinder, about 10 feet tall, in an unusual green stone. At the base of the cylinder are five holes for the Gems, and they place the Gems of Martek into the slots, and in a minute cracks appear in the stone. The gems ignite in a burst of power and the rock explodes into powder which drops a layer of green dust everywhere. Including on the party!

And in front of them stands a newly resurrected Martek.

“A brilliant flash surrounds you as you step into the wall. Blindingly white light softens to a blue
color. You are inside a bubble of soft glass, turning slowly. Nearby, you see the other members of
your party, in their own bubbles, also floating through a blue mist. Martek's strong and powerful
voice speaks into your mind: "Behold the prophecy fulfilled. Look upon the fruit of your courage and
determination!"
The blue mists start to change into sky. The vast Desert of Desolation stretches out, 1,000 feet
below you! Your sphere flies quickly toward huge billowing clouds on the horizon. After only a
breath, you are in those clouds, safe within your floating sphere.
The clouds suddenly part. You are floating above the center of a raging battle storm. Aeraldoth, the
Djinni Visier, stands like a giant on the desert sands. His upstretched arms command a gale of
wind and ice. Not far from the Djinni, the evil Efreeti calls down wave after wave of flame and
lightning.
A small, lonely figure suddenly appears between the Efreeti and Djinni. It is Martek. Robes flowing
in the wind, Martek taps his staff upon the ground three times. Three thunderclaps, like voices of
doom, ring across the desert. The wind and flames stop. The Efreeti looks down at Martek in
surprise and fear.
Martek speaks, "Khalitharius! I call thee by the power in thy name! This day of thy doom was
prophesied. So shall it be!"
The voice of the Efreeti rumbles like distant thunder. "Martek! Are you here now or is this but
another of my fears come to me in a dream? Leave me to my vengeance!"
Martek answers calmly, "Nay, Efreeti, no mere bottle for thee this time. Thou hast wasted thy
powers upon the desert and this good Djinn. Thou hast nothing left to fight my command!"
The Efreeti raises his arms in anger and fear. His horrible screech pierces the clouds. Martek, too,
raises his arms. As Martek speaks again, the fiery Efreeti bursts into a million streaks of flame
darting madly through the wind. A horrendous crash of wind and thunder throws desert sands about
your bubble, blocking your vision. Your bubble is moving again, and the desert sky is changing into
the soft blue mists once more.”

[Abe Sargent]

Martek returns and thanks the party for their aid. He walks them through the library, treasury, and scroll room. He offers to give them each three items of their choice from the area.


Pashtun – Diamond, 5000 GP value; +3 Shield; +2 recurve bow

Tolvar – Scroll of 7 Mage Spellsx2, Bracers of Defense: AC5

Locinda - Diamond, 5000 GP value; +3 chainmail; Potion of Invulnerability

Volcifar – Rope of Climbing; +3 leather armor; Necklace of Adaptation

Alzar – Tome of Understanding; Star of Mo-Pilar; 3 Jars of Preserving

[Abe Sargent]

Pashtun has leveled up:


Pashtun, level 6 fighter, Neutral

HP: 52
THAC0: 15
XP: 35075 (level 7 at 64000)
27 Years Old

Str: 14
Dex: 13
Con: 17
Int: 11
Wis: 10
Cha: 12

AC: -2

4800 GP; 1 5000 GP Diamond

Proficiencies – Swords generally, specializes in Scimitar, can use Recurve Bow and Pike.

He wields +1 scimitar, +4 vs undead, +2 scimitar for other battles, +2 bow, and arrows. He gets +3 to hit with Scimitar due to magic and specialization, so his THAC0 rises when he uses it to 14. He wears Bracers of Protection +1. With armor, he is at AC 0 (includes +3 shield, +2 chainmail)

He also knows riding, riding specialization, swimming, survival, fire-building, healing, tracking, and weather knowledge.

Pashtun and Tolvar are both moving on from the party after that campaign. Pashtun wants to head back to his people and Tolvar feels he’s strong enough now to go it on his own.


They fly out of the City of the Phoenix and back to the Oasis, with an Airlancer escort back.

Four days have passed and Alzar will use the Tome when he gets back to the College of Magic to gain +1 Wisdom.



End of I5. The Lost Tomb of Martek and The Desert of Desolation

[Abe Sargent]

Back to College of Wizardry for a Bit



About 8 days later, Alzar arrives back to the College of Wizardry. The apprentice era is almost over, just a little over a month left.

He spends that month-ish at the College recuperating, researching and more. He’s getting closer to level 9 – He needs less than 10k to get there.

The time arrives, and he is accepted in the College of Wizardry as a Initiate. Now, because he is more than level 7, he will (Initiates that reach level 7 may apply for full on guild-wizard-ship) be able to apply for guild wizard level of association.


Alzar officially takes the Oath. It will act as a Quest/Geas spell, and binds him to his Oath.

Alzar gives the Djinn Lamp to the College now that he knows what is and is not working to get him home.

A few days later one of the annual holidays of the College occurs – The Celestial Conjunction, a time when the Celestial Bodies are in perfect alignment, and magic is at its peak. They have a celebration and many magical items are timed to be completed on the Conjunction day.

[Abe Sargent]

As an Initiate, he gets full access to the spell books in the Grand Library, and contains a ton of spells in the 1st – 3rd level. He spends a few days with them and learns:



2nd Level:

Continual Wind – Basically like Continual Light, creates a permanent (but cancelable) breeze at 20 MPH.
ESP
Forget


3rd Level:

Sepia Snake Sigil
Tongues

He has also applied and gotten special permission to learn these spells as well, under the auspices of his sponsor, Dhakiy Dreschul.

4th Level:

Confusion
Minor Globe of Invulnerability
Remove Curse


5th Level:

Chaos
Conjure Earth Elemental
Contact Other Plane
Domination
Hold Monster
Mnemonic Negation – Sort of the Reverse of Rary’s Mnemonic Enhancer, and removes spells from target’s memory
Passwall

That’s a great setup!

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar feels he’s ready to take down a certain group of Greater Mummy. For example – In order to axe one, he needs a 4 to hit, a 1 if he uses the Zoster of Zeal, with two separate attacks, even with half damage from magical weapons, you’ll dole out an incredible 1d8+11/2 for each hit. That’s 6-10 for each hit, and that’s almost guaranteed 12-20 damage each turn. That’s pretty sexy. Plus he just got a Protection from Elementals scroll, so he could pop on over, kill one and any summoned Elementals it might bring, and then move over and kill the other two with the same scroll. Tolvar would likely come with him, Alzar could hand him a Wand or somesuch as well as his spells.

Anyway, almost ten weeks later, Alzar has learned the Research Proficiency. A successful check will reduce by 50% the amount of time to research stuff like spells and items, and increases, by 5%, the likelihood of success.

During this time, Volcifar is employed in Khaibar making money by going back to his old ways – making and setting traps for rich folks, and working a little for the thieves guild as well. Locinda is working for Volcifar, she’s just a mercenary after all. Only Pashtun, freed from jail, had any reason to be loyal to Alzar, and Pashtun adventured with him out of a sense of ending his blasé than anything else. Alzar swings by the Mint Tea Parlor a few times, and does some bonding with local non-com officers there.

[Abe Sargent]

The Summoning Gone Bad


A couple of days later, Alzar is doing some mentoring of Apprentices and hears a crash in one of the bedrooms and labs of guild wizard D’Amor. He orders the apprentices to get some news to folks and he moves in.

Alzar hears a bit of a noise some more as he approaches the lab. He listens for a few minutes, and hears a poof sound of gating.

Alzar tries the door, but it won’t open, it’s been locked. But not with a sophisticated Wizard Lock spell or anything. A simple vial of acid opens the lock, and he gets ready and opens the door…



Inside the Lab are three members of the College of Wizardry – guild wizard D’Amor, a 7th level wizard, and two apprentices. There is also a devil, a baatezu known as a Osyluth, and it is summoning, slowly (Hamedh is harder to reach) lesser devils known as Nupperibo. There must be at least 12, maybe more in here (14 actually).

The combination of Netherworld Knowledge, Sage Knowledge: Outer Planes, and personal experience leads Alzar to know what is going on. Someone summoned the Osyluth, and then didn’t do the binding rituals correctly. The devil has dominated the three mages, and then begun to gate in aid, in order to build a power base, and potential attack onto the College.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar calls out to it in its own tongue, from a position of of power and respect, suitable for a lesser baatezu. Surprised at that, it stops from it’s move. Alzar walks in calmly. Everybody stops. Alzar demands that is cease hostilities in his base of operations. The creature calls out to him, naming is Bearer of the Mark. It respects him, and is confused at a person walking in essentially having been spiritually branded as the bane of demons, addressing it in its language, with proper etiquette and strength.

After a conversation, Alzar knows that it seeks to build an army to build a power base. After all, this idiot of a mage summoned it without the right binding procedures. As someone who has summoned and controlled lower planar creatures, Alzar knows how to talk to them and how to respect them, particularly the ordered devils.

He negotiates with the devil for some time. It was unaware of the station its people had over in the Windwalker’s Tunnels, so Alzar shows it where to go. It agrees to head on over and join their waystation and free the wizards from their Domination, but it requires Alzar to erase all of the information D’Amor had about its true name, so it cannot be summoned by him again.

They leave shortly thereafter.

A few turns later, the wizards are freed from the spells and are really chagrinned at Alzar for their action. But the devils were “defeated” without combat or Magic. Alzar thinks he could solo an Osyluth in two rounds, but the additional Nupperibo and wizards made things very different.

Done and done.

Alzar would have gained 7500 from the devil and 1640 from the Nupperibo if he had defeated them in combat, so I as a GM am rewarding him a slightly lower amount. No physical risk, but role-played benefit. The 5000 he gets instead is just 1600 less than a level up after the bonus for high Intelligence.

[Abe Sargent]

If he researches a level 3 spell, he’ll get 1500 XP, plus the bonus for INT which will put him just over. But he didn’t make any level 3’s last time, so instead, he’ll make a level 4 spell he already made once before:

Alzar’s Scrollmend


Minimum time is 8 weeks normally, Alzar rolls his Research roll to get…an 8. 50% research time – 4 weeks. Now, he has a Lens of Speed Reading, which gives him 3x the reading speed. I’m knocking another week off for that. I’m also cutting it in half because he has already researched and known this spell once before – So 2 weeks, and then we begin rolling. The cost will be 1200 gp (after rolls) for acquiring special tomes here on Hamedh.

2 weeks later and…


Alzar fails his first check. He gets another week of work and….



Success!


He has gained 2k plus bonus.


Level up!

He can now cast 5th level spells. He normally will add in Domination and Hold Monster. He adds Teleport as a stored spell. His spell selection is very flexible, and he can learn quite a bit of different spells as needed, such as Chaos for large scale battles or Animate Dead or Conjure Earth or Water Elemental, and so forth.

He gains 3 more HP.

Alzar gives the Scrollmend spell to the College as well and they love it. They are willing to fund the research for the other “tool” spells he created later on. Over the next months he’ll research Alzar’s Bookcopy, Alzar’s Bookmend as well.

And then after doing that, he’s ready.

He memorizes a special slate of spells in preparation for his next venture…

[Abe Sargent]

Treasure Maps Redux


Alzar teleports to the Pyramid of the Illustrious One after using his Crystal Ball to verify where it is. There are no problems with error if you are scrying it.

He heads up and opens the door, and guess what? No one has found the Pyramids hidden entrance in the year+ since he was here.

After a few moments he, penetrates the inside of the Pyramid, and heads to the first, and then second room where the Priest of Ptah voluntarily gave his life. There will probably be a Greater Mummy inside the second Sarcophagus as well.


Alzar casts his other 5th level spell – Conjure Earth Elemental. He gets this:

Earth-y - 44 hit points, 1 attack that deals 4d8 damage, AC 2, THACo 9. Needs a +2 or better weapon to even hit it. Immune to energy attacks.

Alzar then casts Minor Globe of Invulnerability and then cast Haste, giving it double attacks.

He grabs his weapons, activates the Zoster, and he prepares to solo the Greater Mummy that his whole party had problems with before. He opens the sarcophagus…

[Abe Sargent]

Greater Mummy - 60 hp, intelligence of 17, AC 2, THACo 11, deals 3d6 plus rot for damage, can cast spells as a 15th level priest. Immune to cold, had undead immunities, half damage from magical weapons, no weakness to fire or fire spells, cannot be turned or controlled, immune to holy water.


Alzar’s axe and the Mummy try to do stuff at the same time, so…..Initiative! 7 vs 2.

The Greater Mummy casts…Holy Word. This spell will banish an evil creature from another plane – which includes Alzar. Clearly it’s trying to send him back and what makes it so good is that there is no save to it. But Alzar is anchored to Hamedh, apparently, and it doesn’t work. There is a save attached as well to slow Alzar for a while as per the spell, but Alzar makes his save.

Combat follows – Alzar – 8 and 8 dealt -16. And the Earth? It rolls a 9 and 6 for its attacks and…one hits for…4, 6,3, 7 – 20, and I’ll halve it too. There Is a cumulative 2% chance of the Earth breaking free each round Alzar does not concentrate on controlling it. He rolls a 5 (On a d100)

GMom – 34/60

Initiative. 1 vs 3. Alzar’s group wins initiative and…Alzar hits for 10 and 7. The Earth Punches for….14 and 13 – two hits and doles out (8, 3, 5,3 – 10 damage) and (4, 6, 2, 6 – 9 damage) and the Mummy has died. They roll a 12 and the Elemental is fine.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar orders the Elemental to move to the 3rd room and rushes after. (21 on the d100 with a 6% chance of failure now) They spend one round moving things around. The third room is identical to the first two, and still on this level. Alzar pushes aside the sarcophagus…

Greater Mummy #3 - 60 hp, intelligence of 17, AC 2, THACo 11, deals 3d6 plus rot for damage, can cast spells as a 15th level priest. Immune to cold, had undead immunities, half damage from magical weapons, no weakness to fire or fire spells, cannot be turned or controlled, immune to holy water.


9 vs 7 – Alzar’s team loses initiative. Like the first they fought, this G Mummy decides to summon aid, and conjures an Earth Elemental to answer Alzar’s. It has 46 HP. For combat, they dole out 6 and 8 and then the Elemental hits just once for 13. 30 rolled for control

G Mom 3 – 33/60

8 vs 2 – They go first again. The G Mom casts Cure Critical Wounds and heads itself of 24 damage. Their Earth punches and misses Alzar. Four attacks on the G Mummy come and….9 and 9, and then one hit for 11. 58 rolled for control (10% chance of breaking free)

G Mom 3 - 27/60


4 vs 7. They wrest away initiative. Alzar rolls a 6 and 5 for damage and after halves that’s 9 and 8 – 17 from him. The Elemental punches first for….12 and a hit for 12 damage and the Mummy dies. It’s second punch is on the Elemental for… 17 and then smashes for 20 damage. The summed Earth punches Alzar for 19. 55 for control roll.

20/46

Alzar 37/56


1 vs 5 and the Elemental smashes once for 22 and kills theirs. Then Alzar uses a round regaining control and they head to a doorway and to a 4th room, identical to the first three.

[Abe Sargent]

One round is spent getting ready. (66 for control roll, reset to 2%). Sarcophagus thrown open and combat begins. With 8 rounds gone, the Haste spell lasts for 12 (three rounds plus your caster level). There are just four more hasted rounds for the Elemental. The Minor Globe will last for about 8 more rounds or so.

Battle begins. 1 vs 4. Alzar hits just once, rolling that 1 and missing once. Annoying! Hits for 6 damage, and the Elemental punches and gets…3 and 16, so hits once for 12 damage, The G Mom casts…Flame Strike on Alzar for…26 damage or save vs half….Alzar misses the save (rolls an 8). 66 rolled for control


G Mom – 42/60

Alzar – 11/56

6 vs 8. Alzar attacks twice and hits twice for 5 and 6. He also quaffs a pot of extra healing and is healed. The Elemental rolls a 12 and 4 and misses once and smashes for…11. The Mummy casts Heal and is fully healed. 27 for control roll.

Alzar - 36/56

3 vs 1. They lose init. The G Mom casts Conjure Earth Elemental and this time, a bigger elemental is summoned (It’s random) more powerful one.

Bigger Elemental – 6 THAC0, 2 AC, 61 HP, 4d8 damage still, 9k XP if killed.

Alzar hits twice for 6 and 9 for 15 damage and the Elemental punches their G Mom twice with rolls of 15 and 9. It punches for….21 (Halves to11) and 18 (halves to 9). 26 for Control Roll

G Mom – 25/60

There are just one rounds of Haste action left.

9 vs 3, the G Mom casts Cure Critical. Their Elemental punches Alzar for 19 damage. Alzar attacks their Greater Mummy twice for 7 and 9 damage – 16 total. Then his Elemental punches and rolls a 7 and 11 for….19 (halves to 10) and 17 (halves to 9). Alzar quaffs another pot and gains more HP. 19 for Control Roll.


G Mom - 15/60

Alzar – 32/56

Haste fades.

Alzar uses his Ring of Quick Action to ensure that he’ll go first this turn. They win init anyway 3 to 5. Alzar himself hits for 8 and 8, killing the G Mom. His Elemental punches, just once, and…rolls a 15 for…20 damage. Their Elemental punches Alzar for 22. 20 for Control Roll.

Their Elemental 41/61

Alzar 10/56

Alzar runs behind and orders his Elemental to cover him. Their Elemental gets a free initiative win attack for….21 damage. Alzar throws a +3 Pesh-Kabz and …. Rolls a 10. Deals 1d4 +3 for weapon, 6 for STR. 10 damage) (nothing is halved). His Elemental misses though. 41 Control Roll.

Alzar’s Elemental – 23/44
Their Elemental - 31/61

4 vs 1. They win init. Their Elemental….rolls a 7 and hits for….1, 5, 3, 7 – 16 damage. Alzar’s Elemental rolls a 8 and hits for….6, 2, 5, 6 – 17. Alzar’s toss of a Trombash of Returning needs a 9 to hit and gets…..15 for 4 + 8 so 12 damage. 32 Control Roll

Theirs – 5/61
Outs – 7/44

Init? 5 vs 3. Theirs punches and….Kills Alzar’s summoned ally. Alzar tosses the Trombash of Returning and gets….12 and kills it.


Whew!

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar spends some time using the Star of Mo-Pelar in all four of these rooms. From the room with the final battle, there is a small, cramped, steep passage up at a 30 degree angle or so. But he uses the Gem of Seeing powers of the Star to find a trap and just use the Ruling Staff of Amun-Re to trigger it from a save distance.

Again, the three other burial chambers appear to have ancient objects of obvious archeological value worth roughly 12-15K in gp each room. If he stripped all four rooms, he could sell this stuff for a tidy profit.

He casts Detect Undead, and there are no other Undead in the Pyramid.

He heads up.

He arrives at a room, led by Continually Lit stone, and it opens into a large chamber that holds a Funeral Barge. This splendid vessel was charged with taking Queen Aneksi to the afterlife, and it’s huge (700 pounds) and would clearly be worth a ton of money outside, if removed safely (75,000 gp). Alzar’s Gem of Seeing shows nothing else, and there are hieroglyphs that tell that Akensi is above.

This final hallway, stair is not small and hard to find but really large and ornate, it’s the grand hallway. Apparently, they assume that if you’ve fought your way past the four dead Priests of Ptah that traps and misdirection certainly aren’t going to work.

[Abe Sargent]

The lavish chamber up top is the heart of the pyramid. There is a beautifully ornate sarcophagus here with Aneksi here in rest. Hieroglyphs discuss her life. There are some statues guarding her in death. Alzar grabs his divining rod, like normal, and casts Detect Magic and… just one thing detects as magical in this room, other than what Alzar brought with him…

He cracks the Sarcophagus to check and in here is a mummified corpse of the queen. On her face is a Death Mask with the symbols of Ptah, and that is glowing. Alzar takes the Mask.

In the rest of the room are various trinkets and items worth around 9k in gp and 35k in various archeological items. Alzar leaves behind, just taking the 1k in gold from the three coffins back with him and this mask.


He resets the block and secret entrance to the Pyramid, and spends the night here. He casts Identify on the Mask and…no, it defies normal identification. It’s a Death Mask, placed on someone after death, and it’s’ dedicated to the goddess Ptah. That’s all he can tell from here.

In the morning, he memorizes a new set of spells, and teleports back to the College.

Alzar gains…

6k and 9k from the Elementals he slew
8k from each Greater Mummy

39k total in XP!

Alzar’s current XP –

Total XP: 171,400 (Level 10 at 250,000)

You can see his power level rising rapidly!


End of Treasure Maps for now

[Abe Sargent]

Spell progression has just hit a snag. Normally, up until now, wizards gain access to a new level of spells every other level – at levels 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9. But now Alzar will be forced to three levels until he his 12 to get level 6 Magic. But from there it’s, again, every other level so at 14 (7), 16 (8), and 18 (9) he gets more and more levels of magic.

He needs level 12, with its 750k XP to clock in. At the next level (level 10) Alzar will get another 5 and a 2nd too.

Alzar spends some time in the Library researching and has discovered that his item is the Death Mask of Ptah. There was just one, and it was lost a long time ago, almost 1500 years, and lost to myth. It was used for sending deceased people to the final destination.


Death Mask of Ptah – When placed over the face of a dead person, that person’s soul is gently and permanently removed and sent to its destination in the Outer planes. That person cannot be raised, resurrected, animated as an undead, contacted via spells or communed with in any way, unless face to face on their spirit’s new plane. If placed on a live person, that person saves vs death or dies, and gets the same result.

That’s a very intriguing item.

[Abe Sargent]

Back to Country Sites Again

A day later, Alzar teleports to the Nairotan village to check on them and the mastabas. They don’t notice him. The 12 mastabas here are unbroken. The sun is definitely looking even a shade darker than it was before a few months ago. He brought the weightless chest to hold stuff and secures it.

So, Alzar is going to use Passwall to open a temporary hole into the side of a mastaba, and then explore, kill, and loot all nice and private, and then rest and do it again. Detect Undead shows the same undead in the same numbers. He chooses one of the larger mastabas in the middle for the first one and casts Passwall on the upper left one (#4 on the diagram).



This mastaba was once painted a light blue and has a very smooth surface still all this time later. There are two burial chambers in here separated by a column in the middle. There are two canoptic jars, full, and various funereal implements like burial shrouds, and items for mummification. The central column is a shaft down into a underground burial chamber as well, and Alzar scampers down and finds with a quartet of sarcophagi here and more jars, with elaborate gowns on them. Alzar casts Detect Magic and checks both floors, as uses his Gem of Seeing of course. One of the small chests beside a sarcophagus on the underground burial chamber is glowing a bit, and inside (acid on the lock) reveals 2 sealed bottles, old potions. Sometimes potions will fade or get tainted with time, so Alzar will need to check them after ID’ing them. (They’ll be fine) There’s nothing of value on the bodies and he skips past them (nothing detects as magical after all). He emerges with an ornate gold scepter that was on a wall, and 100 gp in the chest.

Potion of Sweet Water
Potion of Tongues

He secures the items (hiding the scepter in his backpack) and arrives at the Nairotan camp and checks in with the people here, including K’dza and K’drin. He stays the night. In the morning he memorizes Passwall twice and a slightly different set of spells. The one he cast last night ends and the mastaba is still fine. Anyone checking it wouldn’t see smashed items or heavy looting.

[Abe Sargent]

He heads back and double checks for patrols or anything., After verifying with his Crystal Ball that none are here, he casts Passwall on the large mastaba south of the one he checked last time. (#7).

This building is 15 feet high ,and has some faded hieroglyphs inside. They read Peace Men Killed Before Yesterday.

The layout and contents are virtually identical to those in the mastaba he explored yesterday. Only the details differ. On the wall is a nice silver shamshir that he procures, with gems in the hilt. Down in the underchamber two of the chests have potions, and they are:



Potion of Sweet Water
Potion of Healing
Potion of Flying

And he grabs 175 gp from the two chests he took down.

The next large mastaba he goes to is (#5). Passwall shows another set of Hieroglyphs that read Evil Decay Darkness Within House Bones. Mighty Bodyguard Protect This House. Enter Not This House Sorrow. Mighty Terror Under Earth. Curse Be On You Forever.

This is the tallest of the mastabas at 25 feet. There are two burial chambers, and a shaft below centrally located. The layout is different, spacer, and there is nothing in here like the canoptic jars or funeral items. Alzar heads down the shaft and the face of a human male, carved at head height in the west wall opens its mouth and speaks, painfully, in an old language. Alzar’s Helm can’t make it out. (It can only read). But it’s repeating what it said. Alzar casts Tongues and it is a warning to leave this place before the evil curse hits and to touch not this or any other house of sorrow. After touching the clay face, it stops. A quick check shows the wall here is very delicate, and Alzar breaks it open, inside is a mummified corpse. It begins to crumble to dust.
 
There are two sealed chambers Alzar opens with acid, and these are really looking pimp. He takes:

Jeweled Headdress – 1000 gp
Jeweled Scepter – 1500 gp
Ornate Necklace – 500 gp
Gold Gemmed Ring – 500 gp
Gold Chain – 500 gp

Not a bad haul. Nothing magical here though. He heads back up and out.

[Abe Sargent]

He returns (after storing items that appear to be something else). And spends the night with the village again. The party returning from the hunt brings back a large turtle and heads right past the mastabas, and notices nothing unusual at all.

The third day he casts Passwall again. This time on #8 – the other 25 foot one, these two are in the center of the City of the Dead. It was once painted a lot, but nothing much now. The layout is identical to the one from yesterday. This was the one that was detected to have 10 undead in it. The Hieroglyphs are as before. Alzar casts Detect Undead. One is in each sarcophagus here, and 8 more down.

Alzar casts Evard’s Black Tentacles in between the sarcophagus to create a large group of potential things to slow someone down and opens the first one. Out pops the expected mummy. The mummy is grabbed by four tentacles, and Alzar’s Pesh-Kabz nails it for 11 damage. It can’t; move, and it breaks and kills a Tentacle, and then dies from the damage they ar doing to it.

Alzar pops the other sarcophagus and again a mummy gets up and again is grabbed. Three turns later, the tentacles have killed it.

6k for Alzar.

The rest of the tentacles grab tables and stuff. Alzar heads down and as he does 8 lesser mummies activate. He tries to control them and does. He forces them to stay there. He has one follow him and it removes all of the various objects that each of the bodies down here have of value, they find two chests and two keys with the corpses:


Two ornate crowns – 5000 gp each,
2000 gp
1000 sp
8 1000 gp gems
Potion of Sweet Water
Potion of Sustenance

[Abe Sargent]

The next mastaba reveals a 15 foot high layout, identical to the ones oon the edge he did prior. There are the canoptic jars, and such, and he adds to his collection:

Golden Gem Encrusted Flail - 1250 GP
Potion of Sweet Water
Potion of Heroism

He cancels the Passwall spells and another day passes.

He hits the final of these larger sized mastabas and finds one with a similar layout to many others, once painted green. In here are:

Potion of Sweet Water
Potion of Fire Resistance
Potion of Free Action
Potion of Frost Giant Strength

He heads north to the crypt that detected an undead (#3) the first of the small mastabas. Although just 12 feet high, there are no sarcophagi here, just a table and other accoutrements. The undead is detected as down-shaft.

There are a pair of burial chambers here, and Alzar detects an undead from a sarcophagus, so he drops the Black Tentacles and out comes….a mummy. Dead in a few turns, Detect Magic reveals…


Tome of Understanding

Which he just got from a previous adventure. Ah well. These things are pretty valuable

With all of the enemies he is facing dead, we’ll fast sim through the remaining smaller mastabas

A few don’t even have a shaft that heads down, and are just a lesser crypt for one sarcophagus on the main level. He doesn’t even bother with a lot of these items (50 sp in a bad, a ring worth 20 gp?) they are wearing simpler clothing.


After spending a little more than a week, he teleports back, leaving the Nairotans with some items like ropes and metal tools they can use as a thanks for letting him crash for 9 days.

End of Country Sites

[Abe Sargent]

Beginning of A Darkness Gathering




This module is the first in a trilogy of modules that were printed in the late 90s to support the Monstrous Arcana tomes. The city detailed in ADG (Stormport) is going to be Khaibar instead. This isn’t the best module of all time by any means, but it fits, and that’s good enough.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar teleports back to Khaibar outside of Ibrahim’s Mint Tea Parlor and heads in for tea and company.

But in the ten days that Alzar was last in Khaibar, things have changed somewhat. The demeanor here is a bit somber and morose than normal. After grabbing a tea, he heads out and checks in. Volcifar is buildings a trap and Locinda guarding him from anybody that might be upset.

They greet him and Locinda hands him a note that they got yesterday from Nadia and her husband Retameron. They are asking him to swing by their Tower and a half hour or so their main servant announces Alzar’s presence.

The pair greet him warmly, after being freed from Skarda’s Mirror by Alzar. They then introduce him to a wild-eyed sage, who came from Shalfey, Elder Sage of the Tower of the Heavens. Shalfey was interested in the dimming of the sun, and turned a page and it was mentioned in a future prophesy.

The thin junior sage clutches scrolls and books to his chest. He tells of a darkening of the sun that can be felt, and Alzar should be able to help with it, since he helped to find the second set of the Books of Prophesy.

Nadia mentions that things have gotten a little rough here in Khaibar – more than normal, with a sardonic grin. Several people have begun to notice that change, and a few people have begun to cry out that this is the end of the world and stuff like that. Apocalyptic cults have sprung up, and one person, calling himself Brother Nadir, has nightly made pronouncements from a tower on a nearby street, with increasingly larger gatherings. Meanwhile more people than normal have disappeared from the streets, and there have been other signs and portents as well.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar decides to grab Volcifar and Locinda and check out Brother Nadir, a few hours later. This ill-maintained plaza on the eastern part of the city, a few blocks north of Retameron and Nadia’s tower. It’s after dinner, around three hours before midnight. There is a crowd of more than a hundred. A flares from the 20 foot high balcony of the westernmost tower that overlooks the plaza.

A few seconds later, a robed man steps out from the tower and moves onto the balcony, his frame illumined eerily by a lantern behind him. The crowd begins to demand that the Master should team them and show them his wisdom.

Brother Nadir begins to speak.

He talles about a coming change when the true masters will take the faithful into their fold and cast out the rest. He repeats this information a few times. It’s all pretty vague. It’s pretty substance-free-stuff.

They wait until the crowd trickles away after the speech (all three made their saves) and an hour passes. Alzar just has his Invade-Tomb spellset, with stuff like Tongues, Detect Undead, Knock, and Hold Undead among his spells. He even has an extra unused Passwall. Might as well use that stuff!

They head over to the tower, and on the back side, in a small, quiet, alley, Alzar casts Passwall and they enter the tower from somewhere other than the door – which is what matters, right? (Right!)

They are in a large room n the back side of the Tower. In front is the stairs up, there are doors that flank it to go to other places on this level, and in this room is a large hearth, cushions of the finest silk, There are a variety of opulent items, including a bookcase replete with many leather bound volumes. Some of these suggest a wizard lives here, but Brother Nadir wasn’t identified as a local mage. So who else abides here?

Better be careful!

[Abe Sargent]

They head up the spiral stairs to a sitting room in the second floor. On the ceiling are glass chips on an onyx stone ceiling and….Alzar makes his check and they are in the location of stars in the sky. There is a phantom watchdog here (Spellcraft reveals it’s Mordenkainen’s Faithful Hound) spell. Alzar points to it and uses a signal to Volcifar, who uses Dispel Magic from his ring (so there’s no casting) and it’s gone. It would have warned their wizard friend about them, as well as dismissing a potential ally. Hopefully now they’ll have surprise on their side.

The stairs continue up, Alzar heads left, led by Volcifar who is moving silently. This onyx door has been locked, and wizard locked. Volcifar finds and removes a poison needle trap and then Alzar casts Knock and Volcifar picks it too.

This is along, 30 foot corridor that in on the flank of the tower. There is a door at the far end. Alzar’s Gem of Seeing Star of Mo-Pelar shows a hidden beam of light at the end that passes across the hall at 3 feet of height. They check and there are no traps or anything prior to it. Rolling under it avoids it completely, and Volcifar checks, but it is a magical beam not connected to a mechanism. They move on.

The door is quietly opened by Volcifar to a simple studio. This looks like that of a sculptor at first with blocks of granite and onyx in here for various uses, but magically assisting devices are here as well. As someone familiar with golems and their creation, this could be a golem-creating chamber.

There in an oak door here that opens into a mage’s lab. The Gem of Seeing notices nothing major, and they head to the door on the far side. Alzar notices a sound (with his enhanced senses from his familiar) and pauses. There is the sound of someone writing frenetically in the next room. Quick math suggest that is the far side of the balcony where Brother Nadir was a while ago. Preparing for battle as if against a wizard, he makes sure that Volcifar and Locinda are ready. Locinda will charge in at the mage-looking person, if in there, Volcifar will Sling of Seeking, and Alzar will cast a spell.

Alzar’s, with his enhanced strength kicks the door open furiously!

A study is here, and at a large table Brother Nadir is scribbling his next sermon. He looks very disheveled, and there is an…odd…look about him. For a moment, Alzar swears he sees something on his skin, but it fades. He looks up scared, and Alzar’s group uses that moment to get ready.

The sling misses him (he has an AC of 2, pretty good actually)


Battle begins.

6 vs 3. Brother Nadir casts Stoneskin. Alzar casts Dispel Magic at him and drops it. Locinda swings with her weapons, rolls a 16 and hits for…8 damage. Volcifar misses. Alzar decides to charge in to melee range (just 6 feet away) and grabs his axe.


Nadir – 44/50

8 vs 4. Nadir casts Globe of Invulnerability to shut down further spells from Alzar. Alzar attacks twice for…one miss (rolled a 1) and one hit. 13 damage. Locinda misses, Volcifar adds 4 from a Sling. Nadir is no dummy, he knows that Alzar just tagged him hard.

Nadir 24/50

Init. Alzar uses his Ring of Quick Action to win init himself this round (it works once/day, if you’ll recall). His group loses init 4 vs 2, so it would have mattered. Alzar’s attacks rolls are 4 and 4. Do they hit? He needs a 4 exactly, since he didn’t use his Zoster. He will deal 1d8+11 so even if he rolls a 1 twice, the Brother is dead.

[Abe Sargent]

10k for the guy, split three ways. As he dies, Brother Nadir evinces something off – thin lines of ghostly light running in strange patterns on the left side of his face. It looks like Brother Nadir was quietly a pretty powerful magic-user.

Alzar decides to use the tower as his own home base for a while. It’s the perfect size, has a nice lab, golem creation chamber, library, study, magic items to figure out, and more. But for now, let’s finish exploring.

In the study is an odd object. It just looks like a normal lantern, but it feels…..unspeakable. Indescribable.

There is no oil reservoir in here and the wick is actually a thin strip of metal. In fact, it doesn’t even detect as magical later. It won’t be until a week later or so that college realizes it’s a psionic item.



Lamp Without Reservation, 12 charges


They continue to explore and the balcony here looks to be abjured against by various magics, there’s an anti-magic shell, permanently here, to protect Nadir when he was on the balcony.

They head up and find a kitchen, dining room, and apprentices chamber, with a dead apprentice, stinking up the room. It is missing the back of its skull and brain.

The final floor is an attic with a lot more books and…

An odd looking mirror. After Alzar does some inspections and such days later, the mirror magically traps anyone trying to teleport into the Tower. That’s a nice addition as well.

[Abe Sargent]

They head back down to the first floor and…


Two statues of black stone flank the doorway into the Tower in front of them and they have been carved to resemble madmen. These are two stone golems, and they move to attack Alzar and his party.

Onyx Stone Golem – AC0, 80 hp, THAC0 7, 1 attack for 3d8 damage; needs a +2 weapon to hit, immune to most spells, 13k XP for each one killed

They are more powerful than a normal Stone Golem, which would be a threat on its own. Two of these are nasty. Alzar orders the group to head to the Passwall area. They’ll fight there in that room, and can flee if possible. We’ll try to fighter-mage this. Alzar invokes the Zoster of Zeal. And orders Locinda in front to take the first attacks (golems are usually mindless)

As the golems arrive, battle time!

1 vs 6. Alzar needs a 3 to hit. He hits twice for…13 and 17. 30 damage. Locinda and Volcifar aren’t even touching these guys. One nails Locinda for 13 damage.

Locinda 36/49

Golem – 50/80

4 vs 3. They win init. They smash Locinda twice for 14 and 17. Alzar orders her back after she meekly misses. She’s done what she needed to. Volcifar’s Sling gets a 16 and adds 5 damage. Alzar cracks it twice for 12 and 17.


Golem – 6/80

Locinda – 5/49

Alzar really wants to win init. But no Ring of Quick Action to use anymore. 6 vs 8. Whew Alzar swings and kills the one Golem, then misses (rolls a 2) the other. Locinda’s +2 jave.lin flies in and she can’t hit, neither does Volcifar. Alzar takes…14.

Alzar - 42/56

2 vs 1. The Golem wins init back. Alzar takes another 10. Then he doles out 13 and 15. Volcifar adds another 4.

58/80
32/56

The golem keeps init (8 vs 4) and rolls….a 3 and misses Alzar. He needs a 4 and that’s the first time a golem missed Alzar. (That would have been a hit had Alzar not been fighting with his one-handed weapon style as a fighter, by the way) Alzar smashes it for a critical hit and a normal hit. 19 and 14. No one else connects.

25/80

5 vs 1. Golem keeps init and punches Alzar for 18. His axe bites into the stone construct twice and kills it


Alzar – 14/56

They split 26k -8k each

[Abe Sargent]

Volcifar has leveled up:


Volcifar
Lawful Evil, 7th level Thief
HP – 33
THAC0 – 18
STR: 14, DEX: 17, CON: 12, INT: 16, WIS: 10, CHA:11
AC: 1
XP: 42440 (Level 8 at 70000)
29 years old

X3 Backstab

Weapons – Dagger, Sling, Yataghan

Proficiencies – Appraising, Disguise, Forgery, Locksmithing, Reading/Writing, Riding, Set Snares, Swimming, Tracking, Survival

Pick Pockets – 30
Open Locks – 95
Find/Remove Traps – 95
Move Silently – 55
Hide in Shadows – 50
Detect Noise – 15
Climb Walls – 65
Read Languages - 0

Fights with Dagger of Venom or +2 Sling of Seeking. Also wears Ring of Protection +1 and Ring of Spell Storing – Dispel Magic and Mask Alignment. This Ring, unlike others, cannot be charged with any spell other than Dispel Magic and Mask Alignment (reverse of Know Alignment). Has a +2 yataghan for backup work. +3 leather armor.

Also has Rope of Climbing; Necklace of Adaptation

Gold – 4950, 100 pp

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar spends the next day refilling his Ring and learns a more friendly set of spells.

In the Tower he will detect and Identify:


Ring of Shooting Stars (12 charges)
Braces of Defense – AC6
Wand of Lightning (21 charges)
Manual of Stone Golems
Potion of Clear Thought (Raises INT by 1 for one week’s time)
Potion of Mammal Control
Potion of Poison
Scroll of Protection from Dragons
Ioun Stone – Deep Black Sphere (Can see in darkness, even magical darkness)

5000 gp magic research library
3000 gp lab components
Many other books that are added to Alzar’s sheet


To be Dispelled Later:

Nadir’s Spellbook –

1st - Read Magic, Identify, Wizard Mark, Detect Magic, Change Self, Comprehend Languages, Magic Missile, Shield, Erase, Conjure Spell Component
2nd – Melf’s Acid Arrow, Summon Swarm, Ray of Enfeeblement, Invisibility, Wizard Lock, Knock, Vocalize
3rd – Teleport Object, Dispel Magic, Fly, Lightning Bolt, Sepia Snake Sigil, Hover
4th - Fire Trap, Dimension Door ,Ice Storm, Stoneskin, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Phantasmal Killer, Leomund;s Secure Shelter
5th – Cone of Cold, Mordenkainen’s Faithful Hound, Shadow Door, Teleport, Transmute Rock to Mud, Waves of Sand
6th – Antimagic Shell, Chain Lightning, Death Spell, Disintegrate, Globe of Invulnerability, Stone to Flesh
7th – Finger of Death, Prismatic Spray, Teleport without Error, Negative Plane Protection