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

[Abe Sargent]

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

What is next for our intrepid lawful evil Path Mage?


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


So what now? What happens to Alzar now?


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





EDIT - Check out post 84 for the Death of Alzar

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar on Hamedh

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

Lawful Evil
Human

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

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

Race Abilities:

None Taken

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

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


Non-Weapon Proficiencies:

Myrmidon Bonus:

Tactical History 14
Fire-Building 16

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

As a Necromancer/Fivefold Mage

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

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


Traits:

Empathy
Fast Healer
Precise Memory
Obscure Knowledge


Weapon Proficiencies:

Bonus Kit Specialization:

Battle Axe

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

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


Staff – Can only use this as a Path Mage


Class Ability:

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


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

Immune to starvation

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

B Solo. Ghost of Lion Castle (1984)




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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

46/51

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

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

36/51

[Abe Sargent]

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

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


31/51

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

[sterlingice]

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

SI

[Abe Sargent]

Lol!

[Abe Sargent]

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

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


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

27/51

[sterlingice]

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

SI

[Abe Sargent]

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

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


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

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

56 gp
44 sp
Unknown Wand

20/51

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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



16/51

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

22 bp

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

12/51

26 bp

[Abe Sargent]

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

1000 gp Ruby

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

52 gp


Alzar returns to the study.

4/51

[Izulde]

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

[Abe Sargent]

Heh

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

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



END ADVENTURE

[Tellistto]

Yay for fighter/mage combo's!

[Abe Sargent]

Or for having lots of HP!

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

Hamedh:

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



Differences from Hamedh and Thorasia


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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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


Total Accumulated Wealth:


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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

WG11. Puppets





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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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


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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

UK5. Eye of the Serpent





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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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




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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

“If you can offer it, yes.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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



Level 1:

Comprehend Languages
Craft Divining Rod
Detect Magic
Identify
Read Magic
Sleep


Level 2:

Continual Light
Locate Object


Level 3:

Lesser Rhabdomancy

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


(Alzar is now 55 but looks 21)

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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