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

[Abe Sargent]

The night passes amicably enough, and they open the next day at breakfast. They are planning the day of exploration when a man dressed in furs, escorted by ten soldiers, walks down the street. Two of the soldiers are playing a special flute-type instrument called a tutek, and a third a frame drum called a daf, the three are used together on special and formal occasions. As everyone pauses, the man in the middle grabs a large scroll, unfurls it, and begins to read:

“Whereas the scheming, greedy and cunning nature of centaurfolk is known to all,

Whereas their horse-stature and human appearances are an affront to the sensibilities of decent humans,

And whereas, the citizens of Ber-Gathy have already borne the insulting presence of these creatures for too long,

It is thereby decreed that a state of war exists between the foul and corrupt domain of the desert centaurs and the virtuous and principled Kasbah of Ber-Gathy,

Furthermore, any centaur found to be within the limits of said Kasbah within one hour of the reading of these decree shall be considered a dangerous criminal, subject to arrest. Its punishment shall be a public shaving of the horse part, and a sawing in half, separating the human half from the horse half, in order to attain a more human complexion.

Such is the word of the Sheikh of Ber-Gathy.”

[Abe Sargent]

On the streets passing by is a desert centaur who looks downright pissed. The other locals are quiet. It doesn’t look like they are too loyal or want this decree. Alzar asks a few about the desert centaurs, and they have a large tribe up north. If they came to war with Ber-Gathy, it’s no doubt that the desert centaurs would likely emerge victorious.

The centaur who heard, Grimvat, is sputtering and ranting against the locals. Alzar stands and heads out into the street to talk with him. After talking with Grimvat for a few moments, it appears that something else is happening.

Grimvat tells him that the centaurs had noticed some odd goings on around the barracks. In fact, there seemed to be people coming and going that had no right too. He wouldn’t be surprised if that discovery had led to the third proclamation. Grimvat and his people will be leaving Ber-Gathy and heading back north. It’ll take them about 5 days to reach their tribe, more than a week to rally everyone, and then another 5 days to get back. All told, they could be back, with the full tribe roused in anger, anywhere from 15-22 days from now.

Mage Alzar decides to investigate Sheikh Alzar a bit more, and after some conversation with the party, they head out to investigate the barracks.

[Abe Sargent]

They arrive at the barracks and begin an investigation from outside. It’s two floors, and there is a wall around shaped like a rhomboid. The bottom and upper levels are more of a square. Stairs must be inside to head up. There are some other buildings, smaller inside the gates. The wall is lightly guarded, and looks pretty thin.

There are five gates on the barracks, three of which are open right now. Through the gates they can make out a stables, prison, a small building for…servants? And some storage, as well as the main building.

Tolvar casts Invisibility on Alzar, who will slip and do some investigating. He has slipped on the Sandals of Speed, which make him move 50% faster, but have no additional impact. In order to get them to work, his hair has changed color to bright yellow blonde. (The magic miscibility rules, in effect here on Hamedh).

As long as he doesn’t attack, cast spells, talk or become detected, he’ll remain invisible. He has two invisibility pots in case he needs to renew it.

He slips into the area. He makes footprints in the sand, but there is no much traffic here that it’s not noticeable.

[Abe Sargent]

He heads to the stable first, and there are just some camels in here, nothing major. He can’t get inside the prison, it’s locked. The storage building is actually an armor, and Alzar ducks in and out of traffic. Weapons and armor is kept in here and a few soldiers are on duty, cleaning and checking weapons/armor in and out.

The main barracks are easily opened. There are eight doors that open up to it. Alzar has secured a Magic jelly bean in case he needs to create a diversion. He enters via the barracks kitchen, and then moves into the mess hall. Off the hall is a barracks and quarters for higher level officers in the army. It’s barred right now, and Alzar doesn’t want to open it in case some of the local soldiers are watching.

He heads left instead, and arrives at a large barracks, with about 25 or 30 bunks. Each bunk has two beds, so at night, this room can house…..quick quick math, 58 soldiers. There are around 5 or 6 soldiers in here right now. Easy to pilot a path that keeps him out of their grip.

A door is open, and there are stairs here, and he heads up. To the entry room here. There is a trapdoor, shut and barred, to the roof. The door to the right is locked, the others aren’t. No soldier here, so he opens up both (to have one open for later) and reveals a hallway in front of him and a smaller mess hall on the left. Maybe for the officers? He heads over into the mess (between meals, currently empty) and checks out those doors. There are some servants quarters behind the officers’ mess, but nothing further in.

Mage Alzar returns to the mess and takes another door. This opens into a hallway that meets the one from the other door. There appear to be some smaller bedrooms here, but they are secured. Down the hall are a quartet of locked doors as well – 7 all told. Probably officers or something. He heads back down the corridor he passed. There is a practice room, huge, that opens off the hallway. There are some officers practicing right now as well, three of them. There are five more locked rooms, likely all bedrooms along this hallway. It heads back to the opening room. Alzar needs to get through that locked door in the entry to the right, so he grabs a vial and waits until the entry is clear. This will leave behind a mark.

But the acid destroys the lock. He has four more vials if needed.

[Abe Sargent]

This sparsely furnished room contains a table, four chairs and a pair of benches, and there is a tapestry of the desert on one side. The door on the far side of the room is also locked, and another vial forces the issue.

This is a elegant private dining room. There are ornate straight-backed chairs, and soft armchairs around those, silver on the tables or on a shelf along the wall along with crystal is worth some cash. About five or six expensive, unopened bottles of wine are here, some elegant rugs, and more. All told, the rough value of items in eh room is in the neighborhood of 5000 gp. And if a Bag of Holding worked here on Hamedh…

And open doorway to the left reveals a large servant’s quarters with two working right now. There are three kegs of beer in here, rare right now in the Kasbah. A door off the dining chamber is unlocked. Behind here is room with two comfortable chairs, a desk, and simple wooden bookshelves laden with books. The desk is strewn with papers. There is a book on the desk entitled “The Escapades of Marzuq, Scourge of the Desert” Alzar takes it for later reading. The papers are requisition forms for more items, and one authorizing the drafting of 100 soldiers from the local population, signed by Marzuq, and dated four days from now in the future. Alzar grabs that form as well. He does a quick inspection of the books, and they are about trading, building things, and other manuals and how-to books.

The door behind opens into an unusual room with lush layers of furs, shins, hides, and other trophies taken from various monsters. Giant scorpion stingers and even a debbi coat. There is a door at the far end, locked, and now en-vialed with acid.

This large room contains a bedroom with a large amount of pimp-age from Marzuq. Crystal goblets, wine, rich tapestries, a large closet, and more. But there is nothing else here.

Alzar hasn’t come across anything too unusual yet. The draft for a few days hence is odd, but could easily be explained as needing more troops for the war with the desert centaurs. The book is thumbed through, but nothing too terrible is in here, it’s a puff piece about his exploits killing desert creatures and such, maybe even written by Marzuq himself.

Hmm… Alzar begins to search the room. The three acid locks won’t be hidden for too long, but he needs to find something more. This is the right place to start. Does he roll that 1 on a d6? Nope, a 4.

[Abe Sargent]

A few minutes later and nothing. He can’t keep up with this, so he pulls out a Wand of Metal/Mineral Detection. Normally it reveals ores, stuff like that, but it can also sometimes reveal hidden switches or doors if they are metal, and on the surface. In this case…

That is exactly it. One charge gone, and he finds a metal switch that pulls back some of the wall behind a tapestry. Back here are three chests, stacked on top of each other, and a table with some letters. He secures the letters for later reading, and all three chests are locked. Just two vials. Which ones, one, or, or three? He begins with the middle one, the lock is destroyed, and inside are some coins. Nothing too major, but he can’t take the whole chest with him. He uses the vial on…the first chest, and as he pops it open, a gas trap is triggered. He fails his save and takes 11 poison damage.

Inside the chest is an ornate desert-style helmet. He secures it. (The best two chests would have been 1 and 3, 3 has a bunch of light, easily carried gems). He also picks out some platinum pieces from the middle chest quickly, and begins to leave

40/51 Alzar
110 platinum pieces
Helm of Reading Languages and Magic


Alzar begins to slip out, but he’s taken too long. Someone has noticed the acid on the locks in the main area, and began to ring an alarm and around 20 guards are milling around. Alzar slowly closes the doors and at the office from the trophy room, uses his yellow jelly bean, cracks it against the floor, and out pops a gelatinous cube.

As he guards search, they see the cube all call out for help. Alzar hopes that the acidic nature of the cube will keep doubt in their mind as to what happened here. And perhaps eliminate clues of his presence. A battle begins in the dining room, and Alzar slips out.

He waits until the stairs are cleared, and then leaves the barracks, and returns.

They head back, and from his room, Alzar uses the Crystal Ball with Clairaudience to spy and listen on events. They killed the Cube, and four of their own died as well. Their best guess is that a mage or thief with magic penetrated the area, broke into the places, including the chests, and then summoned the Cube with a monster summoning spell of some sort in order to create a diversion. Actually, that’s spot on…hmm…these folks are smart

[Abe Sargent]

Afterwards, a Detect Magic spell works on the Helm. The following day he’ll memorize Identify and see the score he just grabbed.

Meanwhile, he also learns Comprehend Languages, to cast on the letters he can’t read. He used that first, pre-ID, and the letter is from a High Priest of Nabilah named Xanathon, written to Marduq, calling him the future Sheikh of Ber-Gathy. The wheels are now in motion and the pronouncement of war against the centaurs is forth-coming. Little resistance is coming, and the curse that Xanathon laid is working.

After doing some inquiring, the Temple of Nabilah here in Ber-Gathy is where Xanathon can be found…


The same trick is probably not going to work twice with investigating.

On their way to the temple, a fourth decree can be heard:


“Be it known to all that His Benign Munificence Sheikh Alzar has declared that following official decree:

Whereas it is apparent to all but the most feeble minded that the sun is the most illustrious of heavenly bodies,

And whereas it is of utmost importance to maintain the goodwill of this most blazing orb of flame during the coming strife,

It is hereby decreed that the burning of all combustible materials – to wit wood, dung, oil, cloth, peat, etc – is outlawed during the period of the sun’s resting, lest we incur the jealous wrath of his most hateful self!

Such is the word of the Sheikh of Ber-Gathy”


Man this guy….

[Abe Sargent]

They arrive at the Temple of Nabilah. Many come in and out of the front, so the party does as well, calmly.

They are in a large sanctuary with massive stone columns, ancient and carved. A statue of the bizarre Nabilah and her scowling face, and part-beast, part-person persona looms above from a dais in the center of the room. Numerous priests and followers are here, intoning their respects and watching the crowd. There are a bunch of small rooms to the back here, and one door is open and shows acolyte chambers back there, and nothing else. There are two doors leading from the sanctuary on the far side of the room.

Nabilah is popular with folks out west, and most of the people here are nomads or their descendants from the western part of the Sand Mire. Alzar decides to try the invisibility trick again, and the two mages step outside for a few minutes. And just one, Tolvar, appears to return.

Alzar easily opens the door but just barely dodges a priest coming out.

There is a very long corridor here and both doors open onto it. They wrap around the temple and come to the front – one into a room that holds the various offerings brought to Nabilah, such as goat meat or furs. Nothing of wealth. The other is a small dining room with about ten fighters here eating and hanging out. They are worshipers of Nabilah and wear her charms, but have the dirt of the road and appear to have newly arrived in town. They aren’t temple guards or anything. Both of these rooms are right beside the exterior of the temple and beside the main room. The back corridor had no doors off it. Clearly, there has to be a secret door somewhere on the back wall, about half the temple could fit there!

Alzar heads back and gives Volcifar one of the potions of Invisibility. They search, and quickly find a secret door to a corridor that opens into long hallway that apparently runs the length of the temple on the south flank. They find another door as an acolyte comes to the central hallway, and leaves the door open. That way has a long corridor as well, and doors closely, one of which is open.

[Abe Sargent]

They slip down and the first one opens into a private sanctuary – no one is in it right now, but it looks very similar to the main one. The door behind opens into a dining hall for the priests. They continue, and the corridor wraps around to the north. They take that and open the door to a large exercise room in progress of being used. There’s even a well back here.

They head down, and there is an alcove that ends in nothing, and finally a door.

The corridor wraps around and brings them t a hallway with three doors off it. All three are unlocked, and have storage for things like supplies, wet goods (including a lot of kegs, barrels, and other alcohol) and dry goods. Mostly it’s food.

They head back to the corridor, and there are two small alcoves to the south. The first has two doors on the right. They open into a library and archives. There is a priest here studying right now. A quick glance at the many musty tomes reveals nothing major, they are on religion, Nabilah, many of her servants, histories of the nomads, and so forth.

The final alcove back here is to a single door. It’s locked. Volcifar tries to pick it and….succeeds.

The door opens into a odd looking chamber. Flanking the door in are two large crystal statues of Nabilah, and the room has quartz tiles. In front is a door and another chamber, and part of the room continues on the right and left beyond the chamber and cannot be seen. No other room they’ve seen appears like this.

The crystal ball scouts the room out, but finds nothing more than two more statues before it ends.

As Alzar walks into the room, the statues suddenly animate and begin to move towards him. They must sense him, even invisibly. In a few seconds, the door swings open and a mage can be seen, with his chamber behind. Alzar tells Volcifar to go check out the other hallway while he fights.

[Abe Sargent]

All four statues are coming, and the mage casts Detect Invisible, revealing Alzar, who is quaffing his potion of invulnerability. It has a short life, but a powerful effect. Not knowing what it is yet, the mage casts Haste on the four living statues, Alzar grabs his staff, smiles, and begin combat with the wildly swinging creatures.

The wizard casts magic missile, and the damage is dealt, Alzar takes 15 damage. (Magic damage goes through a potion). Alzar smashes a statue for some damage. They hit a few times, but nothing happens. It’s like hitting him with the full ferocity of a light breeze.

Alzar - 36/51

Seeing Alzar injured, but knowing about the potion yet, the mage sees Alzar shrug off the physical attacks. He tries Web but Alzar pauses to switch rings to the Ring of Free Action and is fine.

The mage sees Alzar’s invulnerability to the statues, and decides to leave. He turns around and begins to collect some things, spellbook, magical items, and so forth. Over the next three rounds, he removes all of the important stuff, then he’ll cast teleport and leave.

The statues will be, slowly, killed by Alzar. He gets 800 XP for killing them. He skips the room for now, knowing that anything of value was likely taken. There are no other rooms out here.

[Abe Sargent]

Meanwhile Volcifar, still invisible, heads into the other secret corridor. There is an alcove near the end that opens into nothing, and a door. Locked. Volcifar tries to pick it and fails, so he decides to do a little searching, and finds a secret door in the alcove, and it opens into the library from before. No one is here now.

Alzar, delayed by about 15 minutes, is running out. It looks like the area around the room is denuded people, probably warned about the attack in the crystal room. Alzar heads back up and hears some people in the final corridor he needs to go to. He grabs the Crystal ball and uses it again (3/day normally) to spy and sees an ambush being prepared for him by about 5 clerics and 15 fighters. They are waiting in the hallway just east of the main sanctuary, where the party awaits, the alarm has not reached. They are on both sides of the hallway, so he can’t go invisible and slip through or drop another jelly bean as a distraction and move behind it. Hmm…

He is still invulnerable. He should be for another 15 minutes or so. He can be the diversion. He silently orders his familiar to lead the party to the door. Most of the priests have melted from the main sanctuary, there is one acolyte left. (Alzar sees through his familiar’s eyes) He grabs his staff and leaps into the hallway and shouts out. The fighters and priests charge him and after a few rounds, realize they can’t wound him.

Meanwhile the jackal has led the rest of the party past the back door and down the corridor where Volcifar waits.

In the confusion, Alzar slays a few fighters, and shrugs off some spells like Hold Person (with the Ring of Free Action still on). They realize they are losing, so they back off, and Alzar charges the group that’s between him and the party. They back off and retreat into the sanctuary, and he moves past them and opens the secret door and moves down quickly. He gives a vial of acid to Tolvar to use and stays in the back, keeping his distance.

[Abe Sargent]

Tolvar takes out the door’s lock as a small mob moves into the corridor, staying away from Alzar, but keeping him from fleeing. This is a small entry chamber, with a comfortable chairs, couches, and such. Pashtun leads folks in and opens the door on the far end, and finds a dining room, quite swank, with wealthy accoutrements of value. The mage apparently teleported back here and warned the priest, Xanathon. They have begun to set up defenses, overturning a table, and such. The mage cast protection from normal missiles and Xanathon has just cast Striking on his mace.

Xanathon moves in, lead by a glowing mace. He is a tall, gaunt, balding man in his early 40s. He is really enjoying the personal combat. A gold chalice is secured by the invisible Volcifar while the others move in to attack.

The mage casts polymorph other on Pashtun and it works, and Pashtun is now a bunny rabbit. Meanwhile, Volcifar has slipped behind the mage and backstabs him invisibly. His dagger of venom hits and does 14 damage via backstab. No poison comes out though (only on a natural 20 roll will it). The mage cries out in pain and Volcifar is now revealed. Attacks hit the cleric, but nothing damages him.

Alzar is closing on the battle after seeing it in Gilded Ears’ eyes. Alzar sees the damage get shrugged off and suspects a potion of invulnerability on the other side. He shouts down the hallway for Volcifar to use the Ring’s Dispel Magic on the cleric, but he doesn’t hear, and instead stabs the mage again for 3 damage. This time he actually rolls a 20! But the wizard rolls the save and….makes it. Ah well.

The mage is clearly scared for his life. He stands and runs back into the room behind him. Which is Xanathon’s chambers, and Volcifar follows. Meanwhile Locinda takes 11 damage from our good cleric. Tolvar’s Acid Arrow does nothing.

Alzar arrives this round and sees the crowd coming for him. He casts Dispel Magic at the cleric and it works. But the enchantment stands, and the acid from the arrow from last turn still does hurt him, and neither do the magic missiles that follow. A few more weapons bounce off the cleric. The mage in the back is grabbing a potion from the pack he packed up and Volcifar has followed him. His dagger hits the wizard a third time and kills him with 4 more damage. Dead mage. He grabs the vial and backpack the mage had and comes back to the battle room.

Alzar orders Locinda to grab the bunny rabbit and fight a retreat. Tolvar pulls out too. Alzar moves in front to take the hits from Xanathon who is more than happy to switch targets, but his mace bounces off Alzar’s invulnerability.

Mad he demands questions of Alzar. How does this pagan enjoy the same blessing that he gets from his goddess? Is his spirit also removed from his body? This wizard trick won’t stand for long! Alzar orders Volcifar to Dispel the polymorph since it didn’t work on the cleric instead of answering. Locinda drops the bunny and Pashtun is back.

[Abe Sargent]

They move to attack the screen of fighters and clerics in front of them, tired of facing an invulnerable Alzar, spent of most of their spells, and tired and wounded, they aren’t much of a challenge, and as Tolvar casts Burning Hands to take down two, and the three others with weapons drawn, moving forward, they decide to retreat, but tactically.

Meanwhile Alzar and Xanathon continues to exchange meaningless blows. He does the same, pulling back from Xanathon who follows. He has Gilded Ears slip behind and scout the back rooms while he continues to fight. The familiar sees a small kitchen, bedroom, but nothing else and pulls out.

As she does, and the party is pushing forward against the retreating folks in the corridor, almost by the sanctuary in front, suddenly blood erupts from the mace hit on Alzar’s shoulder and the priest’s face become some of sure joy. And so the falsity has been revealed. Alzar takes 9 damage.

29/51


Alzar begins to retreat for real, full on running now, and the party has broken into the corridor, the priest is laughing at him and casts Silence in him and it works. They reach the corridor and break into the now-confused sanctuary. Soon enough the party breaks out of the Temple of Nabilah and after a few minutes, is not being chased further. They flee to a different tavern to grab a room and heal up.

[Abe Sargent]

They look over the things they know. The backpack has a spellbook, some vials, and some spell components in it. Non e of the magical items the wizard, named Dervill, had on him.

Five Vials, all potions – Poison, Gaseous Form, Polymorph, Healing, Super-Heroism

Once it is decoded, this is…

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


Everybody gets 100 XP for various soldiers and priests in the corridor, and Alzar and Volcifar split the kill of the wizard evenly, they each get 1250.


Alzar sells the golden chalice and splits the gold with the for other folks in the party, skipping himself.

They heal up, and focus on where to go next. Alzar does some research with another temple, and finds out that there is a shrine to Nabilah about two day’s journey away up the Oued Khaud. Maybe they can find more about what is adding Xanathon, and how, there.

[Abe Sargent]

After a night’s sleep at a new inn, they head out for the shrine.

This area of the Sand Mire is a bit more civilized due to the presence of water, military, and more. The first day out is pretty tame. That night it’s too. The following day thought things are far enough away from the Kasbah that anything could happen. About three hours from the Shrine it does.

A giant centipede emerges from behind a hill, and suddenly, a few more do as well, and a quartet of giant centipedes, each a few feet long are coming at the party. Tolvar’s Magic Missile kills one and prompts them to head elsewhere.


The Shrine to Nabilah is built into the rock face at the top of a set of hills. There is a large cave moth that opens up. An entry chamber with a statue to Nabilah in front, and there are two green, glittering gems in the eye sockets. It takes a short while for Volcifar to search for any traps or anything else, and then they are pried out

2 green gems – 50 gp each

There are three corridors off the entry way. They head left and find some doors that open into grain and other storage closets. The corridor takes a right angle to the right and they continue, and a door on the right reveals wine storage in casks.

They continue down the corridor and it hits a T. Left is a passage that bends to the right and a door to the left. The right choice sees a pair of alcoves vanish to the left. They head left and the door is locked and picked by Volcifar. The room contains several large tubs, two huge, tightly-lidded vats, and a cluttered workbench. There is a strong stench coming from the room. They are fermenting wine here.

[Abe Sargent]

They head right and the two alcoves open into a pair, of doors. As the party nears them, a shout cries out, and both burst open, and two clerics pop out, moving to attack the party. They stop and each cast Hold Person. Locinda is now held.

As combat begins, Alzar casts Continual Light at one, who fails his save, and she is blinded. The other one moves in, and Pashtun moves to intercept him. Battle begins

We win init and miss, mostly, only Volcifar’s Sling og Seeking cracks for 3 damage n the cleric. He smashes Alzar for 5 damage with his mace; it’s humming, likely magical of some sort.

Alzar 46/51

They keep init and Alzar’s staff and Pashtun’s blade each crack the cleric’s 2 AC for 8 total damage. The cleric misses.

The next round the cleric wins init and misses. Tolvar’s thrown dagger critically hits for 7 damage. Alzar adds 4 more from his staff and the cleric falls.

They dispatch the Continual Light cleric.

Alzar grabs the mace, and finds keys on this cleric. They add a bunch of items from their bodies to the magic pile, and then search the two bedrooms and find little.

[Abe Sargent]

They head back and take the bend. They carve around the bend and continue, and it bends again and they are at a corridor facing down. They take the right door and try it and in here is a room with a stench, they are making wine here. The items they pulled out and piled outside of the bedrooms can be seen down the corridor.

Probably a portal or teleport spell or somesuch.

He heads back towards the tunnel again, and this time, after taking the bend, turns around, and sees the stairs down behind him. The trap simply teleported you to the end of the tunnel, turned around, so you’d think you were still walking the same way.

They head down.

They arrive at a hall of statues, with a variety of people who must have been famous worshippers of the goddess here. They have her mark on them. They are columns too, reaching the ceiling and supporting the place.

There are two paths out, north and south. With a faint feel of something…necromantic here pulling him, Alzar chooses to head north to a room off the main hallway.

Hello friends. 10 zombies animate to attack them. Alzar controls them all. They will move out and act as people to walk down corridor, scout, try locks and doors, and are in front of the party at all times.

[Abe Sargent]

They follow the corridor west and pass b y large, irregularly shaped room, with three statues in it, once in each of the alcoves. Two small hideous ones flank a giant one of Nabilah. As zombies enter, the two smaller ones animate and attack, they are gargoyles. Since they can only be hit by magical weapons, Alzar orders that the zombies move out of their way. No sense wasting their potential here.

Battle begins as a slingstone misses. Pashtun’s magical scimitar slices off a wing of a Gargoyle for 10 damage after a critical hit. Alzar has Tolvar wait on spell use until a better target arrives - his staff misses cleanly. One gargie carves Pastun for 3 on a bite and 2 on a claw.

Pashtun - 33/38

The gargs attack and carve some more off Pashtun – Locinda and Pashtun finish off the wounded gargoyle


22/38


Garg keeps init again, and hits once more for 1 damage. Each one gets three attacks. They attack the gargoyle back and only Volcifar’s sling hits for 4 damage.

The next turn they win initiative for the first time, and then kill it with three hits.

Pashtun – 21/38

They each get 80 XP

[Abe Sargent]

There’s nothing else in here. They head back out and find another hall of stone columns, followed by two doors as the corridor bends to the left. The doors are barred, not locked. Zombies open the first door and this is a prison, with ogres trapped, for some reason. The two ogres in this cell immediately attack the zombies. Alzar orders the crew to attack back.

Two zombies die, and both ogres bite it. There is nothing in here, it was a jail.

The next door is identical. They get weapons ready, throw it open, and 4 more ogres are in here and attack. Three more zombies die.

5 zombies left

Everybody gets 150 XP

The corridor goes on for a while. It hits a room with some carrion crawlers, three in all. The zombies kill them all without taking damage. The carrion crawlers can only paralyze, they deal no damage – zombies are immune to paralization.

Everybody gets 100 XP

[Abe Sargent]

This cavern appears to be the end of the carved area, and behind it are natural caves. There was nothing else in the room save for some old, decayed and rusted metal fro, a few victims.

The next room curves into a large cave, with little in here save for a well that was dug, there are two exits here. One heads back to the stairs back up. The other finds a large stone across the passageway to the right, They roll it and behind is a cavern that is very large, and has a coasting of dust on the floor around 4 or 5 inches thick. At the far end is a block of stone.

Alzar begins to feel something necrotic awakening. He orders everyone back, and suddenly the block bursts open, and out comes a mummy.


There are some undead Alzar knows so well that he doesn’t need to roll his Necrology proficiency to remember. Since he used to control a mummy back in Thorasia, he knows them pretty well, although not all ancient dead are the same, there are variations on a theme.

Mummies are often pretty durable, hard to hit (this one is even harder to hit with AC 1) durable (this is stronger than normal with 39 hit points) and they have a few special things. Their attack can cause a terrible wasting disease. They can only be hit by magical weapons. They take extra damage from fire attacks. They are a rare undead that gets energy from the positive energy plane, not the negative one.

But, their sight causes fear . Roll to see who stays. Tolvar, Alzar, Pashtun, are still here. The others are paralyzed with fright for 3 rounds. (Humans get bonuses to their saves)

Let’s start this thing. Tolvar doesn’t need permission and an Acid Arrow hits the mummy as it comes at them for 5 damage this turn. Alzar doesn’t have a lot of magic that’ll work here. Vampiric Touch certainly won’t. He didn’t prepare anti-undead spells like Hold Undead. He has no chance of controlling it. His spells today are his normal – Dispel Magic, Vampiric Touch, Sleep, Detect Magic, Hypnosis, Charm Person, Identify, Continual Light, Skeletal Hands, Ghoul Touch, Hold Person. None of those are going to really shine against a mummy.

What else can he bring to the table besides his magical staff? Wands of Salt and Fear won’t work. Frost is weak here. He grabs his staff and uses two charges from it for a lightning bolt, which will do 4d12 damage, save for half. Not exactly the most damaging item he has, but it’s all he can do right now.

I’m going to need some dice

3, 8, 3, 11

Total damage – 25… time for a save… Mummy rolls…10. Don’t know, hold on, let me check the chart.

Save is an 11, fails. By one!

Boom Mummy boom!

Pashtun moves up to screen. The Mummy arrives.

The Mummy wins init. It swings at Pashtun and misses. (it has an THACO of 13, and that’s Pashtun’s AC< it’s not going to hit that often) Meanwhile, it takes 6 more from the Acid Arrow. Alzar and Tolvar miss it.

The mummy wins init, rolls a 4 and misses. They hit and kill it. Dead mummy.

Everybody in the party gains 600 XP

A search of the rock-coffin turns up some gold and gems, and even a wand….


To identify later – Wand of Fireball, 6 charges
2000 gp
52 25 gp gems

[Abe Sargent]

They head back to the corridor and continue pressing. As the zombies move down the corridor and past a bend, a snake-like horror slithers into view. It’s eyes seem to while in a hypnotic pattern and it tries to hypnotize the zombies.

Well that’s not going to work. The zombies tear into the hypnosnake. It starts to bite, and one bite kills a zombie. The Hypnosnake is not like carrion crawlers, it has other attacks. Alzar moves in and closes his eyes, closing to the snake, he takes 4 damage from the snake’s chomp.

While holding onto it, it guarantees, he’ll be hit, and it bites him again for 5 damage, but then he casts Vampiric Touch, and it takes 13 and he is healed. The zombies hit the snake for some damage too. A sling stone from Volcifar crushes it and it dies.

50/51 Alzar

Each person gets 400 XP

Volcifar has leveled up, but we’ll finish that post-adventure

They carve open the hypnosnake, since Alzar is not familiar with this creature, and find nothing. You never know, you might find something useful in digestive tracts or some such. There are a few items on the ground though, a mace and shield that look quite nice.

They add the items to the magic pile:


Mace +2, +4 vs Undead
+1 Shield

Will be found later

And the mace Alzar has is:

Mace, +1 vs Lawful, -1 vs Chaotic

[Abe Sargent]

They continue on. There is a haunted chamber with a stuck door that had to be forced open, and then there is a haunting feeling here that has to be saved against. Those who fail come across a few minutes later. This area has been carved again. Very lazy work too. Looks unfinished.

A door to the next chamber reveals a wight. Two zombies are blocking the door way. We have 4 zombies left. The wight rushes forward. Alzar tries to control it. But fails.

The wight and the zombies are fighting, but that is a battle the wight will win – it can only be hit by magical weapons. Wight’s are, comparatively, pretty weak, their energy drain is the only think worth moaning about. With the zombies blocking it, Alzar orders Tolvar to use Burning Hands from behind them. He aims it so it hits mostly wall, one zombie and the wight, for 7 damage each. Another zombie steps into the gap before the wight recovers. Angry it begins to slash a zombie as magical missile weapons come in. Two rounds later it dies, but Alzar is down to two zombies.

Considering how many undead they have been fighting, he hands magical weapons to the zombies.

They move in.

The chamber is empty and there is a door on the far side. The zombies open the door and another undead presence can be felt.

This is a Spectre, and she was once a powerful cleric of Nabilah. In fact, she still serves it seems. She is coming out to the wight’s room and cannot be contained by the zombies. A hit by her will remove 2 levels. Its arguably just as powerful as that mummy, and the energy drain is a lot worse. And they are out of spells.


He orders missile weapons from the people and physical attacks from the zombies. Desperate, Alzar uses the same trick, and drains two more charges from the staff. He rolls 10, 5, 9, 4 for 28 damage. This spectre has 27 hit points. If it fails its save too, that’s it. I grab a die 20 and I already know the target is 11. It rolls….2. No good. It dies!

600 XP again.

Both fighters Locinda and Pashtun are close to leveling as well.

[Abe Sargent]

Anyways, they find a vault that was guarded back here and that’s the end of the shrine.

Back here are some holy items of Nabilah. They include some of her holy symbols, non-magical book s on her worship, and a lot more.

They also find:

A +2 Khanda
Zoster of Zeal – A belt that can be activated once/day to give +3 to hit for one full turn
Potions of speed and flying
Kamencheh of Calming - When this instrument is played, acts as a pacify spell to everyone who hears so long as it is being played

Chest of Weightlessness

The chests are Hamedh’s answer to a lack of extra-planar storage space so common elsewhere. Alzar has heard about tem, but this is his first one he has found. It’s a medium sized chest, that has been enchanted so that it weighs nothing, no matter how full it gets. This one can hold about 4000 coins worth of space, if they were stacked.

There are other others of import here as well:

1 brightly glowing diamond of unknown make and reason.

210 pp
1550 gp
13000 sp
Gems worth 500gp; 100gpx3; 50 gpx7; 10 gpx17

Since they can carry everything else, they put 4000 sp in the chest.

Alzar takes the 6 books here as well

6 Books on Worship of Nabilah

[Abe Sargent]

They begin to head back to the Kasbah, and they lay in for the night one hour away from the shrine. Alzar uses the night to review the books and finds out that one is a diary of one of the chief priests of Nabilah. Xanathon is a servant of the Master of the Desert Nomads. He was sent to foment civil war in Ber-Gathy by turning the Sheikh Alzar against his second in command. He was never interested in a coup, just in a war.

By weakening Ber-Gathy with the civil war, the Master can send some of his tribesman over to capture the city, now denuded of most of its defenses, and then capture it, and use it as a base of operations for points north, east, and south. It’s not like Khaibar is in any condition to take it back. That would remove a thorn, take a major, vital outpost, and give his growing power another victory.

It’s a smart plan. Even if discovered and stopped, it’s not like the Master is out anything major. The traitors will still be ousted and that weakens things for the nonce.

As Alzar reads he also discovers that the spirit of Xanathon is in this diamond. If you bring it close to Xanathon, they should cancel each other out.

The next morning, as they make breakfast, a sound is heard from overhead. A Manticore is flying at them to attack them.



It fires a volley of tail spikes at the group targeting… Tolvar. It hits twice for 8 damage.

Tolvar 6/14

Battle begins. Tolvar casts Invisibility on himself. Alzar uses the Zoster and then throws a knife. It still misses. Even a certain Sling of Seeking does. The Manticore fires another spray, this time at Alzar – trying to take out the mages. Alzar takes 11 from a few hits.

Alzar 40/51

They launch another round of weapons at It as it flies above. It has 22 hit points, and fires a salvo at Alzar and hits just once for 3 damage. It is missed as well.

37/51

This time it pegs Alzar four times for 4d6 damage and deals another 11 damage. Meanwhile a sling nails it for 4 damage.

26/51

Since no one is dead, and it’s used all of its spikes, it flies up and heads away.


They gather their things and hit the road a half-hour later in case it returns or brings friends.

[Abe Sargent]

Nothing else bothers them until they return to Ber-Gathy

As they near the Kasbah, they prepare themselves in case they have a hot entrance to make, but no one seems the wiser.

Alzar and party arrive, and do some inquiring. A 5th edict was passed while they were gone requiring all steeds to be fed nothing but meat. That would be fine by Alzar and Pashtun’s giant striders, they like meat. But most are looking rather weak right now.

Since there is a curse on the Sheikh, and Xanathon probably has the cure, or knows how to acquire it. And Alzar has the bribery needed.

They head down and to the Temple of Nabilah. Alzar moves to the front and enters the sanctuary, and then sees a few acolytes and a priest.

“Hey! You guys remember me. I was the one beating down half of your forces. I killed your pet wizard. Remember? Well tell Xanaphon that I found something of his, and he might want it back. It’s a glow-y diamond-y thing. Oh, and tell him that I want him to bring the cure. He’ll know what I’m talking about. Have him meet me at the local fountain, in three hours from now. Well go on, tell him now.”

After a pause, the priest leaves the sanctuary and Alzar heads out. Out to prepare.

[Abe Sargent]

Xanaphon comes as expected. He has a small sack with him. Pashtun and Locinda are with Alzar.

“I’ll make this simple. I know that you are vulnerable when the jewel is here I know you don’t want to die, that was the point behind this whole thing after all. You are here. That means you have the antidote with you. You wouldn’t want to risk our…excitement… by giving us a fake cure for the curse.

So, you have one shot to produce the cure.”

Xanaphon opens the sack and pulls out a tube of white dust. “Just put this in the Sheikh’s face and my curse will be lifted.”

Alzar checks something really quickly over Xanaphon’s shoulder, just a flick of his eyes, and then looks back, with a small smile.

“Do you what I don’t like?”

“No.”

“I don’t like liars Xanaphon. You see, while you were paring, I was too. Turn around. “

As he does, he spies three clerics from the other two temples.

“You see I hired them to all cast Detect Lie on you, guarantee that you would be affected by at least one. And there you are, just lying to me.”

Silently, Xanaphon puts another tube of identical looking powder on the table. “That’s the real cure.” Nods from the clerics.

“Alright. I have your gem right here.” Alzar takes the glowing diamond from around his neck and places it on the table. And that’s the signal.

[Abe Sargent]

Suddenly a sling stone smashes into Xanaphon’s side, and while he takes no damage, the light in the gem winks out, leaving behind a 2000 gp diamond

Battle begins, Xanaphon cast be touched. He’s level 10, had 41 HP, AC 2, and has some solid spell-age.

Xanaphon wins init opens up with his most powerful spell – Slay Living, the reverse of a Raise Dead. Right at Alzar. Alzar is forced to roll to save. He needs…a 10 on a d20. Rolling….13, he’s fine. He still takes 12 damage though. Alzar casts Vampiric Touch back and deals 8. A few weapons crash against the priest for 5 damage.


Alzar – 47/51

Xanaphon – 28/41

Xanaphon wins init again. He casts sticks to snakes on a few sticks by the fountain and makes some allies for the battle. Alzar casts Ghoul Touch on him but he makes his safe. Acid Arrow flies in for 2 damage. Pashtun stabs his for 5 more.

21/41

Xanaphon loses init and Alzar tries Hold but fails. He takes 5 from the Arrow and 4 from Magic Missiles. Weapons miss. He casts Cure Critical Wounds and heals 27 damage.

39/41

He takes initiative back and casts Striking on his Mace. Locinda and Volcifar each hit for 6 total damage. Alzar’s Continual Light works, and the cleric is blinded.

33/41

Alzar’s team win init, and it’s a lot easier to hit Mr. Blindy he takes 12 damage from weapons this urn can’t cast magic, so swings and misses with his mace.

21/41

Two turns later Xanaphon is dead. He his Alzar for 9 damage.

Alzar finishes with 39/51 (Healing)

Everybody gains 1050 XP

Pashtun and Locinda both leveled up and are now level 5 fighters

Alzar casts Detect Magic and just the mace glows, he didn’t need any other magical items

+2 Mace

They head over to the Sheik’s Palace.

[Abe Sargent]

They have to break through the guard here, since many are on the side of a certain Marzuq. They do the invisibility trick again. They don’t know who’s on which side. After a half hour of trying to find the Sheikh Alzar, Mage Alzar comes across him in the boudoir. He looks rabid and crazed. Alzar opens the tube and throws the powder in the Sheikh’s face. This makes Alzar visible.

The Sheikh in a moment is back, and he orders Alzar out for a few minutes to clean up. After ten minute or so he has bathed, shaved, and changed. He remembers everything, including the treason of Marzuq.

In an hour Marzuq has been found and hung. The edicts have been repealed and ambassadors have been dispatched to the desert centaurs with an apology and explanations.


Alzar greets Alzar and throws an official banquet in his honor, and those of his party. The news spreads, and Alzar informs Alzar about the real reason behind the treason and what he uncovered. This was a plot by the Master to break the Kasbah of Ber-Gathy and claim it for themselves.

The group is considered heroes here about for a few days, and a few things are free – lodging, food, supplies, and so forth.


End of X3. The Curse of Xanaphon

[Abe Sargent]

There are a few things I like about the module – firstly, it has a decent enough mystery theme to it that really does work. It’s in the D&D world which has less subtlety, but there are places where the writer, Douglas Niles, just says really annoying things to the Dm, such as:

“the tapestries are quite valuable, but of course no lawful characters would even consider stealing from the legally appointed Duke.” The italics are not mine, but Niles’s. That’s just bad writing. Just include the info, and let me run the module. But while he gives the value, in detail, of all of the items in the Shrine and Temple, he doesn’t bother with the barracks and Ducal Palace. Why not? What if I have characters who aren’t lawful? I could have a neutral thief or something right?

The module also suffers from some uneven editing and playtesting. For example, sometimes, the monsters come with hit points already rolled, and other times they don’t and I have to do it myself. In the first battle with Xanaphon, he’s not bothering to wear any armor and is super easy to hit. The description for the final battle simply says, “uses the stats from chapter 2”. That’s just stupid. I get why he’d be armor-less when invulnerable, why bother wearing it? That’s fine. But when coming to meet the people who have the one item on Hamedh that weakens you? Why wouldn’t you pause to toss on some mail or plate or something? I bumped his AC up for the final battle, or else it’s a cake walk that anyone could win.

So there are uneven elements like that to the module. Overall, we made a lot of changes to have it fit the Sand Mire campaign, and I hope you like them!

[Abe Sargent]

Levels up!

Locinda is now 41/41 HP
Pashtun 45/45

Volcifar – 24/24

Pick Pockets – 30
Open Locks – 65
Find/Remove Traps – 90
Move Silently – 40
Hide in Shadows – 40
Detect Noise – 15
Climb Walls – 65
Read Languages - 0


His backstab rises to x3

He can also take a new weapon proficiency any time now as well.


Alzar is getting closer to. Total XP: 35835 (Level 6 at 40000)

[Abe Sargent]

Back to College of Wizardry

The next day, a guard wizard from the college teleports to the Kasbah. Dhakiy Dreschul is a transmuter who has lived in Ber-Gathy earlier in his career. After helping out the town Dreschul meets with Alzar and they head out to talk.

After an hour or so, Dreschul has agreed to sponsor Alzar to the Arcane Order.

Alzar is teleported back and the company will stay here for a while, safe.

Alzar meets with a few other Regents and guild wizards from the college.

He spends some time with Dreschul though, who walks him through some of the more ancient history of the College of Wizardry…



Long ago, before the fall of Amun-Re led to the opening stanza of the Sand Mire, to the west of Khaibar stood a citadel and home to mages and elders from all over Hamedh. This citadel, named Mathgamhna, was the home to an ancient order of warlocks and wizards.

During the time of Amun-Re’s reign, an evil demipower Dargeshaad, cast down from the heavens, arrived in the area. After seducing many with promises of power and prestige, Dargeshaad began to grow in strength in the area. He was banished to Hamedh because he would not be able to leave easily.

He gathered forces, knights, and mages and began to grow in power and influence. He was checked by the people in Mathgamhna. His followers crafted a shield called the Bright Barrier and stole the Halberd of Mathgamhna and renamed it Betrayer.

Then Amun-Re fell. Wielding these items of power, Dargeshaad saw the beginning of the collapse of the nation Amun-Re forged, and he begun to carve a swath of death across the area, creating his own little fiefdom. No one, save for Lyzandred the Mad, who would fall to lichdom, carved a more powerful or devastating nation as Dargeshaad.

Various elders rallied at Mathgamhna to try and put down Dargeshaad’s advances, but all they could do is build a stalemate. Eventually, via sedition and treason, Dargeshaad won the day, and began to destroy the citadel. As a result, the surviving elders invoked the most powerful of their Language Primeval, a lingua that described magic power in mere words instead of incantations , gestures, and ingredients. They let loose Speech of Twilight, and the world opened up and the Dragon of Shades entered.

Arriving at Dargeshaad’s citadel of Ascavalon, the Dragon began an enormous battle with Dargeshaad. But none from Hamedh could stand against the creature of shadow, power, and malice. And the battle was lost, and Dargeshaad and his side fell.

But the Dragon of Shades was not sated. It vented a massive amount of rage and destruction against an already war-torn and damaged land, and pushed the Sand Mire even further into forming. It would take years before it had its fill and left Hamedh.


And Mathgamhna would lay, silently, a testament to the old days, towering above the growing sands.

[Abe Sargent]

Japheth Arcane, the Headmaster meets with Alzar to make the college’s offer official. After looking over his records, magic items, and expertise. In particular, they need someone to teach the Necromancy courses. The last Necromancer they had, Drake, was torturing, experimenting on students, and a lot more. It was pretty serious stuff.

But that won’t be for a while. As of today, Alzar is accepting as an early initiate.

As an Initiate, Alzar cannot leave the area for more than two days without approval from the College, but that’s often granted, especially so with a person of Alzar’s peerage.

Alzar is given a full tour, including the Grand Library and more. Alzar may use the library for research and study, but not for spell making or for copying spells. They have a lot of spellbooks you can use to copy spells from.

The next day Alzar goes to the Grand Library and begins to pour over the texts.

[Abe Sargent]

Begin Treasure Maps




In 1992, Slade Henson published this unusual treasure-map themed supplement/module. It features visual treasure maps for players, and a DM’s copy for himself with what is on the back. The players find the map somewhere, hunt it down, and then explore and face the results. It’s very simple.

I will be using at least one map from these, which fits the Sand Mire campaign perfectly. I don’t know about any others though. It’s not a well-known or received supplement.,

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar grabs one of the Treasure Maps he procured earlier. It’s clearly done well before the fall of Amun-Re and the subsequent devastation that resulted. It shows a mighty river with a few cataracts and a delta march. On the river is an island, with a pyramid on it. The map calls it Holy Isle, and the Pyramid of the Illustrious One.

But that was a long time ago. It’s hard to figure out where this Pyramid would be today in the Sand Mire. And there are lots of little ruins, landmarks, burial tombs, and more all over.

The map is made out of papyrus, and fells ancient, centuries, and it could be a lot older than Amun-Re. After investigation, the cartographer used full paint from crushed jewels and smells of old spices.

That’s an expensive map. It simply shows a pyramid, but there is no indication that there is anything special there, so Alzar wants to check up on it. It’s a point of research.

Alzar spends four days researching it, while also helping out with the occasional task in the College.

He finds out a few things:

1). The map shows an old burial place of a great pharaoh, one a lot older than Amun-Re. His name is lost and unknown.

2). There are reports of expeditions to the Pyramid of the Illustrious One, but no records of anybody returning with anything

3). There is a rumor that the area, once holy, was despoiled in the general carnage that defiled the area.

4). The old mighty river mentioned is supposed to be west of Khaibar by about 110 miles. There is no mention of those texts of the Holy Isle or its pyramid. But Alzar is pretty sure about the river’s old location, he found four mentions of it.


Alzar contacts his current superior, his sponsor, about taking a trek to find the pyramid. Dhakiy approved. It’s his first adventure, after all.

Regent Dirganun meets with Alzar prior to this foray, and the two of them agree for him to head on out and see what he can uncover. You never know!

[Abe Sargent]

He is teleported back to Ber-Gathy and meets up with the various folks here. The next day, they set out.

The river is three and a half days away from the Kasbah. In fact, the Oued Khaud is supposedly a former artery of the mighty river. All they have to do is follow it. They cross is and follow on the north side to avoid the hills on the south.


Two days out they come across a monster that is flying towards them. It’s a large chimera! (I am lifting this encounter from the Curse of Xanathon, which I never ran because I sent in my own desert stuff). More powerful than any other monster they have faced yet in the Sand Mire, it lands.

Erg Chimera – 49 HP, AC 6/5/2 (depending on target), 5 attacks, or a breath weapon, three heads, wings, and the whole problem.

As it swoops down, it leads with its breath weapon. A fire breathe for 3d8 hits most of the group from above.

1, 7, 6 – 14 damage, save for half.

Three camels die in the attack.

The Chimera lands as Alzar’s party moves in for combat.

Tolvar casts Acid Arrow from the back at it, and hits for 3 damage. Alzar runs up and casts Vampiric Touch on it and drains 13. No weapons hit. It attacks Alzar in front with five attacks at an THAC0 of 11 and hits four times for 14 damage.

Alzar 37/51

Chimera – 33


The Chimera wins init and hits three times for 10 damage on Alzar. The acid deals another 4, Magic Missiles 4 more, and Volcifar nails it for 4 damage with his Sling. No one else hits.

Alzar 27/51

Chimera - 21

They wrest the momentum away and attack. Alzar’s staff cracks it for 2 damage, and it takes 10 more in weapons damage. It flies up instead of attacking, looking to flee.

Chimera 9

As it flies off, their missile weapons are missing. Before it leaves range, Alzar uses a Wand of Fireballs charge to hit it while it’s far enough away to not hit the party in the backsplash. It deals 5d6 damage. 2, 6, 4, 5, 2 – 17 damage. Even if it saves for half damage (9) it dies. So the Chimera cries out, and falls down to the ground and dies.

They split the 8000 XP from it 5 ways – 1600 XP each.

They choose to continue on down the road rather than search to try to find its lair. That would take too long, and could be guarded.

Fire breath damage wounded the whole party, and they need to consolidate their mounts and such.

[Abe Sargent]

The rest of the day is quiet as scavengers are quite happy with the camel and chimera corpses left all over.

The evening passes quietly, and the next morning they finish up and arrive at a long north/south valley that appears to have been in existence long, long ago. Alzar’s best guess is that they are north of where the island used to be, so they head down.

As they do, a large rumbling in the ground can be heard. Soon a giant worm, almost the size of a purple worm but dun colored, emerges from the ground. Meanwhile, more sounds follow, and 5, 8, 10, 12, 20, 25 of the things pop out of the ground. Now it’s 28 total it looks like. Giant worms that are multiple people lengths long each pop out of the ground and then back under again. They keep on. This pack of Thunderherders are peaceful, but create pseudo-earthquakes when they come through that can cause a lot of damage.


They keep south along the valley, and the rest of the day passes quietly. At night they hear some debbi again, but they never approach the camp.

[Abe Sargent]

The next day they continue to march down the old river valley. They pass by some minor ruins, like a few broken obelisks. Other than that, the area is quiet from civilization, but there is a feel of something uncomfortable in the air. Not something Alzar is used to.

Later in the day, the feeling has grown worse, and disquieting. Then Alzar feels a powerful attack against his psyche as some creature, somewhere is attacking him mentally. All of the party are similar effected, and psychic attacks commence.

Soon, the light begins to fade from Alzar’s eyes as he passes out from a mental blast. Only Volcifar does as well though. The rest made their save. Becoming visual is an unearthly insubstantial undead creature. A large battle was once felt here, and it still is. The creature made from many dead replays the death scenes over and over again, and incorporates more and more victims into its final battle.

The people who made their saves decide to grab everyone else and pull them away from the area, and after a half mile that seems to work and the undead creature fades. They make camp, and after a few hours Alzar and Volcifar awaken. Alzar’s intrigued, but has been warned, and he doesn’t have a lot of defenses for psionic attacks.

The next day they travel around the creature’s battlefield, now hunting grounds, and continue south.

There aren’t a lot of creatures here, maybe because of that. They are nearing the pyramid former river-bed is widening considerably and appears to be nearing a delta stage. Alzar can sense undead in several directions as the battlefields from here must have been rife with them.

A few more hours and Alzar can make out a large “island” in the river. His eyesight after all is enhanced by his familiar. Only some minutes pass and others can make it out, and a gleaming pyramid can be made out as well. Alzar feels a pack of undead coming closer from the old island as they near it.

It’s a pack of ghouls. They don’t like to rove at day, they must be really hungry. As they come closer, Alzar reaches out and connects with them on a necromantic level. He persuades 3 to join his forces and they begin to attack their compatriots. The others won’t join him. The three kill 2 before dying themselves, but the pack is reduced from 8 ghouls to 3. They arrive at missile range, and Alzar just tells the troupe to use missile weapons, and stay clear of spells or anything else. The ghouls are dead before they reach the party.

80 XP each

They head over the island and are on the old, ancient Holy Isle.

[Abe Sargent]

The Pyramid of the Illustrious One is about a mile away from here, low to the ground, and Alzar wants to save time and resources. He has the group pause, and he uses the Crystal Ball to scout around the pyramid, and sees no entrances, windows, enclosures; nothing. Maybe the entrance has been buried with time. But there are no creatures here either. There are a pair of really small pyramids on the far side. There are a few smaller buildings, mastabas, there are well. They would have held lesser known individuals like court officials, engineers, builders, and so forth.


They head up to the pyramid and establish camp among some rocks in a mastaba, now abandoned. A quick search shows that the ghouls hunted from one of them. The rest are all ruined and dilapidated. After preparing their steeds and such, they have a few hours of light left, so they begin to search the pyramid for openings or clues.

Two days pass. Alzar memories a different, Undead friendly set of spells. He needs to prepare. He cast Detect Undead on day one and found some undead inside the Pyramid. So he prepares.

On the journey here, he finally decoded the spellbook from the Temple of Aumata-Perion by the Hek.

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


He learns Fly and Leomund’s Tiny Hut, He was hoping for some tool to use against the undead. Instead, he’ll memorize Detect Undead for Sleep, Hold Undead instead of Vamp Touch, Death Armor instead of Ghoul Touch, Knock instead of Hold Person, and Comprehend Languages instead of Charm Person, in case they come across something his Helm can’t read.

Meanwhile Tolvar learns Shocking Grasp and will memorize it for the journey as well as his 3rd spell instead of Detect Magic.

[Abe Sargent]

On the third day, while more than 30 feet up from the ground, Volcifar makes a successful find traps roll and uncovers a trapdoor, perfectly built to show no hinges or edge, and precisely the size and shape of a stone. Without pushing the right trigger, it wouldn’t have opened, and held Volcifar’s weight about 15 minutes ago without ringing hollow or anything. It was built well.

They have found the entrance to the pyramid.

Alzar orders everyone to go in very slowly, and to check and recheck for traps. This corridor is ancient. It heads straight into the pyramid, and Alzar pulls out the Continual Light stones and uses them to help see.

Within 30 yards, the hallway, apparently trap-free opens into a large funeral temple dedicated to a god called Ptah. Alzar reads the hieroglyphs around the room with his Helm. In this temple final rites were performed and the body of Queen Aneksi was made ready for voyage to the afterlife under the auspices of the clergy of Ptah. In front of them the corridor leaves and narrows and heads up. They search the funeral temple and find nothing else here, until near the very end, Volcifar detects a trap in front of the far away corridor and takes care of it (Volcifar’s skill is 90% - pretty darn good)

They move into the narrow corridor and there are old braziers that lifted off the ground, and the ceiling drops to about four feet of clearance. They arrive in another chamber, called the First Burial Chamber according to Alzar. It would have been used had Aneksi died while they were building it, and then moved to the proper place above when finished, but it obviously was never needed and there is nothing else here besides the wall decorations.

The narrow corridor moves up again, and back into the center of the pyramid. It’s a long climb up. This is a crypt. Once the funeral rites were completed, and the queen placed in the hands of Ptah, the priests killed themselves to protect her in death, and to keep the secrets of building the Pyramid of the Illuminated One.

[Abe Sargent]

And here is a sarcophagus. There are undead here, somewhere, and Alzar needs more info, so he casts Detect Undead. The spell will last for a half hour, and Alzar can detect any undead by number and direction, but not type, by concentrating. There is one undead in the sarcophagus. To the narrow passage to the left, there is one more. Behind him, on the same level, is a third presence, and there is a fourth diagonal from him, between the positions of the other two. His best guess is four separate crypts, each with an undead priest in the sarcophagus. But nothing else. Odd. He would have thought Aneksi would have been one. It’s possible that we have three priests and one queen instead.


Best guess is a mummy. Undead powerful priests tend to be mummies. Could be something else of course, but something like a vampire needs to feed, and a lich would be bored in there. Mummy is the best guess. A priest of Ptah.

While getting ready, Volcifar checks the rooms for traps, and finds one on the platform the sarcophagus was one and disarms it. Alzar hands out Holy Water to everyone. They have some torches light up as well, mummies can take damage from fire if needed. Alzar gets the Wand of Fireballs prepped in case the maybe-Mummy has a shot of opportunity. Locinda gets the undead smashing mace they got from the previous adventure in that Shrine. Because she know show to use a mace-like weapon – the Gada, she only gets a -1 when attacking with it. Her +1 khanda would normally be +1 to hit and +1 to damage, The Mace is +4 to hit vs undead and deals 1d6+4 rather than 1d8+1. Better odds. He hands the Girdle of Ogre Strength to Pashtun, and the Horn of Vahalla to summon the soldiers if needed. It can only be used once/week, so he doesn’t like to rely on it that often, but they may need the cover.


In case this is a vampire, he readies the potion of Vampire Control and a few other items. He has an ultimate weapon, Scroll of Protection from undead, in case this gets really bad. But it won’t protect from undead magic, just undead physical attacks. So if this is, say, a Lich, they still need an answer to its magic.

Alzar has Ring of Free Action and Quick Action; Sandals of Speed, Zoster of Zeal, Rock Jellaba, Bracers of Def, Iuon Stone, on. He has stark blonde hair as well.

They have Pashtun head over to open the sarcophagus. He’ll run back to the line as soon as it cracks open.

Here we go.

Pashtun opens the sarcophagus and heads back.

In a second out climbs a mummy…

Alzar makes a necrology check….and passes.

This is no ordinary mummy. Alzar has heard about them before but never encountered one. This is a Greater Mummy. And his party is in trouble. A Greater Mummy is, for lack of a better word, a cross between a lich and a mummy, in all of the worst possible ways.

[Abe Sargent]

It can cast all of its old priest spells, just like a Lich could. It takes half damage from magical weapons, and nothing else physical can harm it. Unlike mummies it is immune to normal fire. It’s also immune to holy water. It steps out, garbed in priestly vestments wrapped around bandages, and wielding a holy symbol of Ptah.

This will not prove easy. It’s too powerful for Hold Undead. There’s no tool in the tool chest for this thing.

It has a fear aura that kicks in and… Volcifar is rooted to the spot and paralyzed with fear.

One down.

The 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.

It’s one of the nastiest undead you’ll see. And our party has just stumbled into it.

Initiative.

Alzar’s group rolls. 5. The GMom…5. I roll again, 9 vs 6.

The GMom goes first, but his spell is so long (conjuration on Hamedh) that it will go later.

Alzar wins init bascially Tolvar casts Melf’s Acid Arrow and doles 5 damage to it. That’s a start. Alzar really doesn’t have an obvious play here, spell-wise. He uses one charge from his staff for spark, 5 charges left, and it will deal 2d10, save for half. 12 damage, it made its save.


Pashtun closes and swings. With the girdle, he gets +3 due to strength, +1 to his weapon, and +1 to specialization. That’s +5 ot hit. The GMom has an AC of 2. Pashtun rocks a 16 THACo, so he would normally need a 14 to hit the GMom, with his bonuses, its just a 9. He rolls a 14 and hits. He will deal 1d8 from his scimitar, +2 for specialization, +1 for sword, +6 from Girdle. That’s 1d8+9, so 10-17. After being halved, it’s 5-9. He deals 6.

Locinda closes too. She needs a 10 to hit (+1 STR, +4 Mace, -1 not too familiar needs the same base 14 as everyone else – needs that 10) she rolls….8 and misses.

The GMom intones one of her most powerful spells. A level 7 spell. Conjure Earth Elemental.


Earth Elemental – 48 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.

Now that’s a major problem.

The GMom ends the turn having taken 17 damage and dropping to 43/60. That’s a hard monster to kill already, but add in the Elemental!!!

Uh oh.

[Abe Sargent]

Initiative. We need this. 2 vs 5, we are faster. Whew! Tolvar adds Magic Missile for 2d4+2 damage. 2 and 4. That’s 8 damage. It also takes 2d4 from the second turn of Acid. 1 and 3. 4 damage. 12 more damage from the GMom. Pashtun rolls a 12 and hits for 7 damage. Locinda rolls a 3 and misses. Alzar adds 15 on a staff charge that is not saved.

And then the Greater Mummy does what high level clerics across the world have been doing for a very long time. It casts Heal on itself. It is fully healed. The Earth Elemental sees Pashtun as the threat and punches. Pashtun is 0 with the AC so it needs a 9. It rolls a 14 and hits for 4d8 – 8, 2, 4, 6. 20 Damage.

Pashtun - 25/45

Now we have done nothing but force the G Mom to cast a few high level spells, and we’ve burnt through some of our best things. Alzar used his dues ex machine, the pot of invulnerability already.

Just have to slug this through.

They win init. The Earth Elemental rolls a 5 and misses Pashtun. The GMom casts Prayer. This gives himself and his Elemental a +1 to attack, damage and saves, and -1 to Alzar’s party.

Alzar has no obvious answer. He grabs something he never hoped to use. The Wand of Wonder. He grabs it and fires off a charge at the Mummy. Let’s grab some dice to see what random effect occurs:

He rolls….38. Ironic. That’s a lightning bolt, as per the wand. So, here’s a 6d6 lightning bolt for ya. 2, 2, 3, 5, 2, 3. Not great rolls. He fails his save and takes the full 17. Pashtun rolls a 5 too and misses (he needs a 10 to hit now). Locinda (who now needs an 11) rolls a 12 and hits for …5 plus 5, so 5 damage after halved. Tolvar moves over and casts Burning Hands on both enemies for 1d3 plus 8 damage. 11 damage (no save for Burning Hands).

11 + 17 +5 – 33

GMom 27/60
Earth Elemental – 37/48

They roll for init. Alzar’s 3 vs their2….uh oh. Alzar uses the Ring of Quick Action to go first anyway. It’s not easy, but if he can shoot the Mummy with the staff for 2 charges and 4d12, and it fails its save, it might die before it can likely heal itself. It may hit and not even deal 27, or it may do so and the Greater Mummy makes the save. It’s a long shot.

Alzar uses two more charges. It just had 2 left. 8 and 2, 9 and 3. Not enough. 22 damage total;. Save? It makes it, just 11 damage to the Mummy. But it doesn’t have another Heal spell and casts Cure Critical Wounds instead for 24 damage healed. The Earth Elemental, needing just an 8 to smash Pashtun, rolls a 13 and hits, take 13 more.

Meanwhile the rest of the team attacks. Pashtun needs that 10 and…gets a 17 and hits for…8 damage. Locinda need an 11 and rolls…10. Would have been a hit save for the Prayer spell. Tolvar casts Shocking Grasp for 1d8+4 damage. It’s his last spell other than Invisibility. 6 +4. Ten more damage.

GMOM 22/60
Pashtun – 12/45

[Abe Sargent]

Initiative. 5 vs 7, we win it back. We might be able to take out that Greater Mummy. Locinda’s mace rolls a 14 and hits for….4 damage. Tolvar swings with his +1 dagger and needs a big number. He rolls a 19. That’s a hit, for…3 damage. Pashtun? He needs a 10 and gets a 5. Alzar spits his last charge into the staff for a Spark effect and it hits for…7 and 9. 16 damage, one more than needed ot kill it….if it fails its save….It rolls a 5 and does just that.

Whew!

One down.

The Earth Elemental swings and….

Rolls a 4 and misses Pashtun.

Alzar orders Pashtun to back off, he can’t hit the Earth-y. Neither can Tolvar. Alzar has Tolvar invisibility Pashtun, and then moves in front of the Elemental to block it from following Pashtun as he pulls out. Locinda misses, the Elemental smashes Alzar for 17 damage. Alzar drops his +2 axe and +2 Trombash of Returning on the floor for folks to use.

34/51

The Earth just needs a really low number to hit Alzar and does so again for 15. Alzar uses Dispel Magic and banishes the Prayer spell. Locinda hits for 4 damage. The Trombash is picked up. This turn, Volcifar’s fear runs out, and he can do stuff next turn.

19/51

33/48 - Earth

3 vs 6, they win initiative. Alzar drinks a simple healing pot. Volcifar’s Sling can hit. He needs a 14 to do so and does just that. He hits for 1d4+2 for 3 damage. Locida and Tolvar miss with their weapons (Tolvar is throwing the trombash that he has no ability to normally use; he’s just hoping to get lucky). The Elemental, rolls a 6 to hit Alzar and…that’s a hit. (Alzar has a 5 AC, the Elemental, needs a 4 to hit him). 18 damage taken

Alzar 11/51
30/48

Alzar rolls away, leaving just Locinda facing the big bad.

They keep init. Alzar uses the Wand of Wonder again but just grows grass under the Elemental. Locinda misses with a 3, Sling boy hits with a 15 for 4 more damage. The Elemental punches Locinda and her 2 AC. It rolls a 9, which hits, for 21 damage

Locinda 20/41
26/48 – Enemy

[Abe Sargent]

They lose init, and it punches Locinda rolling a 15 and…rolls 6, 4, 1, 4 for 15 damage. Locinda rolls a 13 and…that;s a miss she needs a 14. Sling boy misses, and Tolvar rolls a 20 and actually hits for 4 damage on the Earth. (No crits when only a 20 hits). Meanwhile Alzar rolls….35 in the Wand of Wonder – summons aid in the form of a…mouse. Well, that’s not going to do much! Locinda pulls away too. Alzar orders in Volcifar, he can take a hit. And he orders Pashtun to base it and try one hit with the magical battleaxe.

5/41 - Locinda
22/48 Enemy

The Earth wins init again and punches. Only a 1 or 2 will miss and…That 11 isn’t it. But it’s just a hit for 10 damage – got lucky with the 4d8. Volcifar’s uses the Sling close range and gets a -2 to hit and needs a 16 and rolls….an 18. Dang! Take 5 damage! Can Pashtun finish him? He gets bonuses to hit as invisible, and +3 for strength, +2 for axe and -2 for no knowledge. So he needs a 9 to hit here as well with the invisibility bonus and….He gets that 12 for….1d8 - 3, plus 6 for strength and 2 for magic weapon. 11 damage. Not enough to kill it. Tolvar misses. Can Alzar’s Wand of Wonder finish the job? Chromatic Orb on the target, at 6th level of ability is….1d12 damage and it is blinded. It makes the save for blinding, but there is none for damage. If we roll a 6 or higher the earth is dead, and… and it takes…4 damage with no save.


2/48 Earth Elemental
13/24 - Volcifar


I have played this battle for almost two hours it’s that epic. And it just keeps on going. Alzar orders the newly visible Pashtun to hold course and Volcifar to back off, with his solid AC Pashtun might, have a chance at surviving the hit. Initiative? If we can just win this….


3 for us, really fast
7 for the Elemental

Whew. Pashtun needs a 9 to connect and…………….




2

That a swing and a miss. It was our best chance to hit.

What else?

Tolvar needs a 20 to hit with his returning thrown weapon. He got an 18. Alzar orders Locinda to throw her mace and…..She rolls a 12 and…she needs a…12 so….she hits for…5 damage. Dead elemental.


That was a miracle.

8000 XP for the greater mummy, 6000 for the elemental.

Everyone splits 2800 XP

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar levels up!

Tolvar is almost there. He needs about 700 or so.

There is no chance that they can take on anything else. Volcifar searches and finds nothing else trap/lock ish here.

A search of the sarcophagus reveals about 1000 gp of ancient coinage, and some ancient archeological items of merit that could be worth 10000 gp or more.

They grab the coins and leave everything else for now. Before they head out, Alzar tosses a Continual Light stone into the corner of the corridor at the left of this room and uses his Crystal Ball to scry down. The next room is virtually identical to this one, and probably has a Greater Mummy there as well. And another past that one. There are at least two more G Mummies here.


They grab their things and head back for camp. They sleep the sleep of the damned. It’s most normal tomorrow, although they are badly injured. He marks the area for coming back via teleport, and they’ll leave and not come back to this Pyramid. They choose to stay here for two more days healing up. It’s easier to make out incoming folks from here than anywhere else. They sealed up the pyramid so no one will know where the secret entrance is.

Over the next two days, Alzar uses Healing and Herbalism prophecies to help heal folks as needed. Vampiric Touches are used on a variety of targets he scouts out to heal himself.

He can cast 5/3/3 spells.

Normal spells again – Sleep, Charm, Hypnosis, Detect Magic, Identify; Continual Light, Hold Person, Ghoul Touch; Vampiric Touch, Dispel Magic, Fly.

On the way home they’ll swap Fly for the Tiny Hut, which can make a shelter each night that has a force shield to protect against weather and temperature. Not too hot or cold, no rain, snow, sandstorms, etc.

Alzar will tithe 10% to the college when they arrive, and they’ll get 100 GP.


End of Treasure Maps. For now…

[Abe Sargent]

I made up a bunch of the story, the location and such.

Anyways, they travel home and find a few adventures, and take care of a few bad guys, but a little more than a day from the College, near Khaibar, they spot a mated pair of huge scorpions. They let them approached, and a twinned set of Vampiric Touch and Magic Missile finishes one immediately. The others miss and it’s tail stabs out and smashes Pashtun for 4 damage and poison. Smaller than giants, the poison is not auto kill if you fail a hit. He fails the save and takes 15 damage.

Pashtun - 26/45

They lose init to the scorpion, and it swings and misses. They finish it off and deadly 19 non-magical damage from weapons and kills it.

Alzar carves a few tails and claws and poison glands from it. They split 420XPx2 – 840, divided by 5, 170 XP, and that’s enough to send Tolvar up a level.

Tolvar now has access to level 3 magic.


He learns some more spells from Alzar – Monster Summoning I, Vampiric Touch, Fly.

[Abe Sargent]

Return to College of Wizardry

They arrive back at the College of Wizardry. Almost 3 weeks have passed.

Alzar reports, and delivers the 100 GP - not a lot, obviously.


Including his research time, there’s just five months left.

Begin – Drake’s Legacy


Alzar is here by himself two days later when he is approached by one of the Regents. There have been a recent barrage of sightings of undead creatures inside the walls while he was gone. There are some underground areas here that might be related.

Alzar is told a little more about Drake. There have been some wizards that had to be banished or killed after they violated their agreements. One famous was a few years ago was Buthaynah, who was dismissed from the school after unapproved experiment in sorcery turned dark as she captured people’s souls.

(That’s right folks. She was the antagonist in Puppets in one of the first adventures we ever did her in Hamedh. Go back and reread my foreshadowing all the way back then! Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - The D&D Dynasty: The New Path of Alzar the Mighty )

[Abe Sargent]

Anyway, Drake was doing experiments on fellow students that turned them into undead. But his major laboratory was never discovered, and some of the students never found.

Alzar is going to check out Drake’s old room, never used, and then perhaps slip around and such.

He memorizes Hold Undead instead of Fly. Detect Undead instead of ID.

A frightened apprentice saw a spectre like creature and a few apprentices have gone missing again.

Those are Alzar’s leads. As the College’s only expert in undead and Necromancy, he’s the obvious choice to investigate.

Even after an inspection, Alzar can’t find anything in the room. He is in the Incelsis Tower, and third floor from the top. He walks outside and inspects, but nothing. He tries the Wand of Metal but nothing there either.

He tries a different tactic and casts Detect Undead. Maybe there’s something hidden…and that works. There is an undead behind a wall in the hallway. That’s odd.

He inspects and keeps inspecting until he finds the secret door cache. The Detect spell is over, but he is prepared, and opens the door. This chamber is old, and from the original incarnation of the college. The 8 foot chamber has a circular metal disc, 5’ in diameter, on the floor and on top is a wight who is quite angry. Alzary tries to control it and…he needs a 13 or higher and….14. Controlled.

The Wight is an apprentice turned to undead recently, and still wearing apprentice clothing. Alzar grabs a continually light stone to light up the room there are no light sources in here. The Wight tells him the disc can transport him below to secret labs that have no access point down there, only the teleporter here. Down there are some more wights. Alzar uses his Zoster of Zeal.

They step on it and teleport down.

[Abe Sargent]

They are in a chamber with horrible smells. The stone lights it up and there are three wights here. One, a Wight sorcerer, casts Darkness 15’ radius and cancels the light temporarily. Alzar orders his wight to intercept while he uses his controlled powers to try and bring over another. This he rolls just a 2 and none of them join their friend.

Battle begins.

Alzars team wins init. He casts hold undead, since it doesn’t need a target, just works on the closest undead, and he can feel his one closing on the sorcerer while the other two come at him. These are half strength Wights with 2+3 HD, so they count as 3 for his spells. As a level 6 sorcerer, his has a casting level of 6 and he can therefore Hold two apprentice wights. They get a chance to save. One freezes in its tracks. His wight closes and attacks the sorcerer. 18 hit for 1 damage on it. Their energy drains don’t work on each other. The sorcerer Wight casts protection from good. Their wight misses Alzar.

The next turn, Alzar’s wight misses. Alzar casts Continual Light at the one in front of him, hoping to hit it. With blind-fighting, he has about a 50/50 chance of hitting its eyes and…he does. The wight rolls a save and…fails and it blinded, and the place lights up again. The blinded wight can’t get anywhere near him. Their wight attacks Alzar’s and hits for 2 damage.

Alzar uses the light to smash the Wight. He gets +3 to hit, +4 from the blindness, and then +1 from his strength. As a mage, he needs just a 4 to hit, and he does, for 6 damage. It fumbles around and can’t even get near him (it needs a 19 to hit him with its one attack)

The Wight Sorcerer decides to switch tactics and casts Spider Climb on itself and scurries above Alzar’s controlled one. It’s going to leap down on Alzar next turn. Wins Init and does that, Alzar stabs out with his staff and cracks the wounded one again for 5 damage and spins it around. His Wight finishes it off.

The next turn Alzar wins init back. Alzar can’t control the super powerful enemy, so he swings once misses, and then uses his Rock Jellaba to turn into a statue. The enemy wight is confused for a moment and takes 4 more damage. Then it turns and attack Alzar’s Wight and hits for 1 damage.

Suddenly Alzar switches back and smashes the Wight for 5 damage from behind. The wight spins, and it claws by the non-mage wight for some more damage. It’s starting to get tired. A normal wight would have been killed by now, but this one is a lot more powerful.

Alzar swings again and hits for 5 damage. Again it changes tactics and casts Invisibility. But Alzar can see it. Pretending not to, it creeps around using Spider Climb to position itself to ambush Alzar, and instead, he waits, then attacks with surprise and momentum, cracks it for 4 more damage. It falls, and Alzar’s wight pounces on it and hits it while done for another 2 damage. A round later they finish it off and Alzar gains 7500 XP for the various kills, and will find a few items here particularly the items that glow when it grabs his divining rod and casts Detect Magic.

Wizard Wight had Bracers of Defense 6, and a Cassock of Protection, and special item given to guild wizards here when they are promoted. It acts as a Cloak of Protection +1, and can be used to create shield spell once/day at 9th level.


Alzar takes the wight upstairs. He gives the school the Cassock back. He wasn;t able to save everyone, but he did capture one wight. They bring in a priest to Resurrection him (a normal Raise Dead would kill it, but not bring it back)

Alzar is sort of thanked for being successful, more than they thought, but it’s odd to have someone who embraces the undead so much here.

[Abe Sargent]

He begins to have conversation like this:


“People have a culturally biased view of undead, that makes them and their animation evil in their mind, no matter what the facts are.”

“And you think that *I* , a high level wizards have this bias?”

“Of course! Allow me to show you why. Imagine that I cast Animate Dead spell to animate one skeleton. Remove from the conversation truly evil and self-serving creatures like the Wight I caught, and just focus on a skeleton, for argument’s sake.”

“Okay.”

“So I animate a skeleton. I have brought back a part of the spirit of the deceased to take the form of its bones, and it’s not fully conscious or aware, and follows my instructions directly. And you believe this process is, by definition, evil. Right?”

“Correct. Taking someone’s spirit against their will is the key part here.”

“Then let’s focus on the key. Now I assume you don’t think creating a golem, such as Flesh Golem, is automatically wrong.”

“Of course not, we even have golems and other constructs of various types here in the College!”

“Precisely so. Ive created golems before, I know how it works. You take an elemental spirit and bind it into a flesh golem, and it will be in that body, not fully conscious. And more over, as you stated, this elemental spirit is doing so against its will. Where is the difference? Both have the same process, same method, and same result. I submit to you either both are wrong and evil, or both are not. It can’t be one and not the other.”

Then the wizard either goes to think or invariably comes up with some non-logic related issue about undead or constructed not under the question. But the discussion of how similar a flesh golem and a skeleton are to each other hits home.

And this is one of the ways that Alzar has this class ability:

11). Fivefold Mages never suffer from a negative reaction penalty due to controlling or animating undead.