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

[Abe Sargent]

This cave heads nowhere else, so they move to the center passageway. It enters a medium cavern that appears empty. There is no evidence of lair or nest. Rough pillars of rock formed of calcite and aragonite break up the chamber in random symmetry, making it impossible to view the entre extend of the hollowing from one observation point. A large pile of rubble rests against the southeastern wall and the dampness of the earth looks recently disturbed. There is the gleam of metal and maybe even the hilt of a sword from there.

He orders the troops to fire into the fresh mound trying to see if another mouther is there, but nothing. A skeleton moves across. As it reaches the mound, suddenly a mass of eyes on stalks, tentacles and mouthed tentacles emerge from the ground. One casts Hold Person on the party and no one is paralyzed. Another has a giant sword in its grip and a third a magic wand that spits magic missiles at Alzar for 7 damage. The others move to attack and the skeleton is destroyed.

Battle begins against this Deepspawn, from the Far Realm

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar’s team wins init finally. Invisible Stalkers are ordered to face the wand tentacle while the demon goes head to head with a sword one and the others are undead targeted. The Undead stab a mawed tentacle and the others bite and slay a second skeleton. Alzar finishes the round by using the Mud Ring to clean out the rock in the bottom of the floor and expose the Deepspawn hiding below. Alzar took 6 from two missiles.

It wins init and slays two skeletons and Alzar takes another r9 from two magic missiles. The sword carves into a Vrock image and the Earth Elemental pushes it in the body for 16 damage. It takes another 26 damage from ranged weapons from the fighters and hellhound and the gargoyles flying it against its body . It casts Heal on itself, and then Alzar takes another 7 damage. They carves the tentacles gone and the body takes another 32 damage. It moves to flee and Alzar’s team finishes it off.

+2 Two Handed Sword
Wand of Magic Missiles – 2 charges

A large crystal rod

2 potions – Fire Breath and Diminution

[Abe Sargent]

This chamber enters another with a large amount of fungus. Alzar recognizes a rare mushroom called Darkscape. It’s famous in manuals as a massive intoxicant. If you eat one of those its like drinking tons of alcohol. It’s also a powerful narcotic and pain reliever. Alzar cuts twenty of them for storage.

This chamber ends and they take the third one out of the room. It moves south and hits a room that has five exits. A small widening of the tunnel ahead forms a small chamber from which a total of four other tunnels branch. Standing guard are four tall, gangling humanoid figures with mottled skin and sharp claws on their hands. These are trolls, but not as Alzar knows them. They have been severely mutated and some have extra arms, extra legs, purple skin, warts, vestigial wings, and so forth. A large drum stands in the middle of their guard post, with a drum stick in the hand of a maiden. There are four of them total. They do not bang their drum at Alzar, and instead peer at him and his group closely and menacingly. Alzar casts Tongues and speaks with them. He wants to come through to go elsewhere. They do not want him to enter, and there is no exit from their chambers, save for one way through the northeast corridor leaving this room. It is not their complex, and they will not fight if Alzar leaves now and goes that way. He does and moves on.

In the next chamber it is wide and clean and empty. There’s an exit to the southeast. Before Alzar leads his party there he goes invisible and takes the Spider Climb Slippers. He wants to go explore the troll mutates chambers. The three chambers behind this one are a nursery and home of the matriarch, and main chambers for eating, sleeping and socializing. Alzar uses the Gem of seeing and notes nothing in the two outer chambers, but two items glow in the matriarch; s chambers. Both are in her trash and not considered important – there are 26 troll mutates plus the double headed matriarch. Alzar wants the items, but facing 26 trolls is not easy, especially if they have extra attacks. Knowing their fear of acid and fire which they cannot regenerate, he grabs a few flasks of oil in a corner where no one is and lets the oil drain out and accumulate. Then he strikes flint and sparks it on the first try and starts a fire. The trolls notice immediately and an alarm sounds. While they panic, rush about and come to take it, Alzar walks across the ceiling and falls, grabbing the two magic items when no one is looking and leaving.

Cloak of Displacement
Gauntlets of Striking – deal 1d6 damage each time melee damage is dealt

[Abe Sargent]

The quest continues. The demon has to go in a few minutes s Alzar moves it to the front of the line. This large cavern seems empty. There do not appear to be any other exits by which one can leave and a large chasm breaks up the ground. There is nothing at the bottom or down it, save for webbing about twenty feet down if incredible size. A gargantuan spider moves up along the lip of the chasm and moves to attack firing a web at 50’ fee t at the party. Alzar moves in front (immune to web – Ring of Free Action) and takes it. Alzar’s army moves it and it skitters away. Alzar moves to the edge but can’t see it anywhere. It was very fast and very huge and it’s difficult to find it.. There is a doorway on the other side of the chasm, and Alzar has to find a way across, because it’s very deep, perhaps a quarter of a mile. Alzar grabs Zaddax and flies down and finds the spider hiding underneath the edge where a 40’ ledge covers it. He summons a Water Elemental with the Censor from the stream a the bottom and orders it to attack the Spider. Meanwhile he uses both the Demon Staff and the Orb to summon two Vrocks and they teleport in and attack from above. The spider turns and bites a Vrock, but is immune to this nasty lethal poison (normally a -5 to poison save).

After taking 15 damage, the spider flees and moves diagonally to avoid the elemental. The Vrocks teleport in front of her as Alzar’s dagger flies into her for 13 damage. A few more round so fighting retreat fail and she is dead.

[Abe Sargent]

He sees some rock here than can be used as a ledge across the chasm and orders the elementals and demons to get it up so that the party can cross. Alzar uses Broom of Flying for humans and gargoyle cloaks to ferry across undead.

They arrive at a room with a wounded Duergar and another that were knocked off course while hunting Darkscape mushrooms. They know enough to try and lay low. Alzar tells them that they will return for them after investigating the nature of the corruption. They doubt he will, but he leaves behind water and food for them for a week, just in case.

They arrive at the western edge of a nasty bit of corruption. It has been blocked by a wall, but what a wall. The barrier appears to be a rotting bulwark of limbs, hands, bones and faces. Twisted and fused together into a mass of protoplasm and with a humanoid form in the center. She demands to be pulled free from the wall.



Alzar pulls out a crossbow and takes aim, firing at the wall. A hand snakes out and stretches with the protoplasmic matter and reaches him from 20’ away and attacks him. He backs up 45 feet away, the max, and attacks. It can’t reach that far. He orders everyone back here to attack with missiles. It takes a while, but they manage to destroy it, and he uses Acid and Fire on everything to prevent regeneration.

As they move through the area protected by the wall, they leave behind the Twisted Caverns and enter the Inner Sanctum.


Slain – 42 Duergar, 3 Giant Skeletons, Crypt Thing, 13 Giant scorpion, 17 large bats, 4 Steeder, 7 Gibbering Mouther,115 Gibberling, 5 Brood Gibberling, 1 Giant Gibbering Mouther (worth 1950 XP), 1 Whisper Spider (worth 3000 xp), 1 Living Wall (5000),

Used – Conjure Earth Elemental, Stone and Mud Ring Elementals, Passwallx2, Speed Potion, Skulltrap, Animate Dead x2, Invisible Stalkerx2, Earthquake from Orb,

[Abe Sargent]

As he moves closer, this area radiates the wrongness even more strongly. His soul hurts with a new pain no human has felt before with each step he takes. Revealed beyond the fused flesh of the western wall is a large rectangular room obviously carved by the original hands. A dull blue sludge covers the floor of most of the area, apparently secreted by the dozens of white, wet and doughy looking hand sized lump moving upon the ceiling. They are fixed to the ceiling along with a satiny black bulb with a mass of fibrous roots with orifices eating the roots by the lumps. The floor is canted so that the blue goo slithers along out of here. Alzar studies the unusual organisms here, and clearly they are from the Far Realm. He uses two Jar of Preserving on the black balls and white lumps, and hopes he can study them at length later.

He follows the good trail to a cavern where a glacially slow flow of the blue sludge snakes into a pool of it in the southeast about 15 feet across and of unknown depth. The surface of the liquid is regularly agitated with ripples, as if some sort of large creature swims below. Alzar orders a skeleton to approach the pool and when it gets about 7 feet away, four Wystes burst out and attack it, slaying it.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar orders attacks on the four worm-like creatures and battle begins. The army slays one but not any others. The three turn to attack and they each attack with four clawed cilia and a gargoyle is slain due to their apparent ability to take out magical creatures as well. Alzar’s army engulfs them and slays the other three. Alzar moves the gargoyle cloak to a skeleton and after uses the Censor to summon a Water Elemental from the sludge and doesn’t know what will happen, but he just gets a 8 HD one. He was hoping for a bigger one, but no, that wasn’t to be. It only has 49 hp. He summons another with the Ring of Water Command.

They enter a vestibule that has several breaches in the eastern wall to another chamber beyond. There are some resin of a greenish nature extruding from the next room and gray polyps that have come into it. There is nothing else here, and the polyps are the size of tulip bulbs. They appear to be some sort of vegetation creeping from the next room, so they move to a room where a rockfall happened centuries ago and destroyed most of the normal walls and opened up a new passage. These grey polyps ar ethickly congested in the room and in he middle of the room is a large, plantlike growth with wide fan-shaped leaves of bright yellow that cover the floor thickly. Alzar has a skeleton move into the room, and it brushes a leaf of a plant. It releases a puff of acidic pollen that eats into the bone. The gray polyps are the seedlings of the yellow fan-plant with the acid leaves and that’s quite interesting. Alzar takes them for a 3rd Jar of Preserving.

They take the scabrous tunnel out coated with the same resin from the plants. Out from behind some rocks comes Melf’s Acid Arrow at Alzar, and it hits and he takes 10 damage this turn, and an equal amount of damage next. He orders the army in and it reveals a Neh-thalggu behind the wall, a spellcasting monstrosity that sucks the brains out of its victims, puts them in pouches in its head and uses the extra gray matter to supplement its spell casting ability.

[Abe Sargent]

It wins init and casts another Acid Arrow at the Giant Skeleton, dealing 9 damage this turn and 9 next. Alzar’s swarm attacks and cuts it to just 10 hp and Alzar tosses a dagger to fish it off but misses. The creatures wins init and hits Alzar again and then goes down. They find a couple of rooms the creature made into its lair but none have any items of value.

They move to a large domed chamber open to the hall to the west. It looks like it was originally designed to display art, but now a grayish sludge is pooled in the chamber and is quite turbid. As Alzar’s group nears it, it gets more agitated. A skeleton that nears it gets no results. After ten minutes of nothing, they move on.

They then move to and through another display room with a large stone statue in the middle that looks like a thundercloud carved into a blue stone of about 2 tons of weight. Suspecting a trap of a golem, Alzar moves in a skeleton, but again, nothing. This statue would be worth 5000 on the market, but it too heavy to move.

They move down a long, wide corridor that turned north right after the second display room. There are small alcoves, empty, in the walls. The hallways is free of any growths from the Far Realm on the other side of the Vast Gate. The Gem of Seeing notes a discarded statuette in the back of an alcove that is magical. Alzar collects it:


Dragon, unrecognizable, statuette with crystal – thumbprint on back. Placing thumb there casts burning hands for one charge. It must be placed in sunlight for one full hour to get a charge, and it can hold five before exploding. It currently is charge less.

[Abe Sargent]

As they continue on, a few tentacles reach out of nowhere and destroy the skeleton in the lead and then move in and stab the demon for 11 damage. This is a Dharculus, a creature from the Far Realm that stays mostly in another plane of existence for safety, and phases in its tentacles and mouths to attack and feed:



If this creature were on one of the four elemental panes, Alzar could move there with the Orb and fight it. But it’s not, so Alzar has no way of slaying the creature. The tentacles are destroyed and severed and it leaves

[Abe Sargent]

They continue along this area and arrive at a crossroads where Alzar can go forward or right. He continues his strategy of going clockwise when he can’t tell which is the better direction. There is a silvery grass like growth on the floor which grows in size as the tunnel heads forward, so that’s the way to go.

In this room is another display chamber but the silvery grass has thickened in density and height. In the middle is a giant amber pulpy bulb five feet tall. It slowly thickens and then contracts, like it might be breathing or something else. A skeleton moves up to it, but nothing happens. Alzar grabs his 4th Jar of Preserving and puts some of the tough silver grass into it, with roots, and they move carefully on.

There is a locked door of nephelium and it is picked by thieves. Alzar’s group then opens them and moves into a corridor with a light strip at the bottom being drained of energy, but Alzar can tell that a Continual Light was cast upon it sometime long ago.

They move to a corridor of many door four to be exact. The first are old quarters that hold mostly dust. There is a crystal nephelium sphere in the dust, and it detects as magical. When holding it, Alzar sees a family in the ancient past in this area, waving to the viewer and then the image returns. He concentrates and it happens again. This object is called a Memory Sphere, and it only shows the memory printed on it.

[Abe Sargent]

Another door is just a lavatory from ancient times, so they move to the third door. This opens into a very interesting workshop. It has four stone tables equally spaced about the room and most hold dust, but one holds a strange item – manufactured of iron, nephelium, and crystal cables about 2’ in diameter, and making a roughly caged-shape ellipsoid item. The tubes glow dimly. Alzar takes the object.

There is a locked door here which is picked and trapped and they are found, picked and disarmed. The door opens to a closet. It’s lined with lead, and on a pedestal is a carved box of bone. Inside is a Ring.

Ring of Djinni Summoning – Can only open a gate to a random Prime Material Plane once/month, and nothing else.

He can’t ID it yet, so he doesn’t use it and instead pockets it.

There is nothing else here to they take the final door; a complex locking mechanism is figured out by Wassilon. The chamber’s rounded crystal walls rise upward to form a 30’ circular dome. The chamber has 6 equidistantly placed cages like the one Alzar found. They are placed in iron mounts and connected to the center by crystal rope. In the center is a flickering manifestation of an upright pool of quicksilver that rotates about the center on the room on its upright axis. Two of the inversion engines are broken, but four remain working.

This is a gate to another world. Alzar can’t determine where, but it’s clear that this is not the Vast Gate nor is that the Far Realm on the other side. This is one of the earlier gates Nigel’s diary spoke of.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar leaves the gate for now, and then return to take the left passage from the crossroads. There are great black doors of an unknown stone and Alzar can sense the closeness of the Vast Gate. It’s time for subterfuge and he moves to the front and grabs the Ear Ring. He can hear the voices of Duergar beyond this door. There’s enough noise in there to cover his tracks, so he slips on the spider climb slippers.

He allows the time on the demon to ebb and summons a Glabrezu. With a new ally on the force, Alzar grabs his stealth items and moves to the top of the doors. His Axe casts Passwall on the top and…the Duergar do not notice. Now, they will as soon as he causes a commotion, but it’s way above their line of sight.

From here Alzar casts Sleep and goes invisible. 4 of the Duergar drop sleeping. The others look puzzled and Alzar drops another Sleep and all of the others fall asleep. No alarm sounds and no Duergar come rushing out of the three doors on this room. Alzar climbs in and opens the doors for his party.

They have left the Inner Sanctum and arrived at the Support Complexus.

[Abe Sargent]

This chamber is a work room and kitchen. The duergar were cleaning clothes, preparing food, and other tasks for this area. There are doors to the right, left, and forward. He heads left. The first room is just storage and the next is vacant. The third room has been colonized by some dark plant growth with hundreds of vines. A skeleton is slain by them and there is nothing in here. He returns, and based on emanations from the front, that way is the Vast Gate, so he heads right instead. He finds a door that opens a beautiful planetarium. Using this, the ancient race could track the Dragon’s Tear comet despite not being deep underground. It has been restored by Madreus recently. It shows the constellations, and later experiment will allow Alzar to see how to zoom in on some constellations and stars, and to focus on the comet.

At the back of this corridor are two doors and Alzar takes the one of the left. In here is a bedroom with shelves of many books – the entire northern wall is covered with them. There is a large table of stone, used as a desk with ink wells, and papers around. There is a mattress, basin and wardrobe. There are no occupants, so Alzar will return later.

The other door opens into a room with a large fountain and a door in the back. There are iron dippers and a bucket and this appears to be where people get fresh water here. There is nothing else in the room.

The next room is another bedroom. It has cloth draped on the walls reflecting the many candles and just a mattress, bathtub, chamber pot, and chest of wood. There is also a statue of a beautiful women with a faint smile carved of onyx. A crystal rod rests against the chest and Alzar takes it.

Knowing that nothing back here can flank him, he moves to the last doors, casts Haste on the elementals, demon, gargoyles, Hell Hound , the Stalkers, and a few skeletons, casts Shield-Maidens, and the doors are flung open to the Chamber of the Vast Gate.

[Abe Sargent]

Past the metallic door lies a vast quadruple valved chamber lined with nephelium. The crystal heart of a god hollowed out to contain vast energies is in the center of the spectacle. From that stream three beams of searing white light that spring from three crystal columns. There are shapes moving in the spherical gate of malevolence. Near the center of the chamber is a podium with a large black tome on top. Madreus, the Alienist himself, is there, incanting, when he stops to look at Alzar and his party. At a nearby table is another mage, Nigel himself, who looks up. There are allies charmed and dominated in here. Five Duergar enlarge and shield Nigel and Madreus from isle attacks. Two myconids, 3 brood gibberlings and 4 troll mutates are also here and move forward.

Battle begins.

Alzar wins init. He orders the hasted elementals and demon to smash into their Duergar. With double attacks, they slay three of them outright and badly wound the fourth. The Invisible Stalkers, hasted, move around to combat the flank of the duergar where the other monsters have arrived. They carve both myconids – living intelligent fungus creatures. The undead can’t get in attacks but the gargoyles fly over and get in the face of Nigel, but don’t hit. The fighter fire in an take out the wounded duergar, leaving just one. Alzar casts Evard’s Black Tentacles by the mages in the back. Several of the 13 that are summoned attack the podium and a nearby column and table, but three attack Nigel and one brings him down and four attack Madreus and two bring him down. The monsters move into the place left by the dead Duergar and carve deeply into a Water Elemental. The Duergar finishes it with a great hit for 22 damage. Nigel cuts himself free of the one tentacle on him, and Madreus uses his dagger to teleport to the other side of the room behind everyone else and away from the tentacles.

They win init. The monsters wound another water elemental. Nigel casts Acid Arrow on a gargoyle and brings it down. Madreus Dominates Estaish successfully and he is now an enemy. Estiash attacks nearby Maerie and hits for 13 damage. Alzar’s group moves and slays the Duergar and the trolls. The fighters slay a Brood Gibberling. The gargoyles peck at Nigel for 9 damage and Alzar casts Ray of Ondovir at Madreus and he fails his save.

They keep init. Madreus casts domination at Estiash but misses. Estaish his Maerie once out of two swings for 12 damage, and Nigel finishes another gargoyle with another acid arrow. The gibberlings damage the water elemental again but can’t bring it down. They fall and the monster flank is gone. Several close with Nigel. Alzar casts Charm Person on Nigel and it works and breaks the charm already on him, and he is back. Alzar orders his army to move away from Nigel and converge on Madreus.

Madreus loses init. He is attacked by a variety of forces. Nigel casts Acid Arrow on him as well, and he falls. Alzar steps forward and collects the Book of the Gate and begins a conversation with Nigel. Madreus was performing a ritual outlined in the Book that had to be performed for eight hours a day and all twenty eight hours of the Vast Gate’s opening. Had it been completed, Madreus would have received a greater patron from the Far Realm which would have had the power to keep the gate open permanently.

[Abe Sargent]

Nigel was part of an adventuring party that came through the last time the Gate was open to try and stop it. Three of the four made it this far before the Dvergr Wellfast and himself were charmed and the other was turned into a Living Wall. He has been a thrall of Madreus ever since. Time passes differently in the Inner Sanctum, and it’s been less than 10 years since he arrived. He has become a seer on the Gate and various other gates by researching them.

Nigel is Lawful Neutral, and let’s Alzar know that the Book of the Gate will cause someone to lose some Wisdom, but will enable them to cast spells attuned to the Far Realm versions of normal spells. In fact, Madreus destroyed his spellbook, and Nigel was forced to use it during his stay.

Nigel wants to use the three crystals objects to refocus the Vast Gate onto another plane. Alzar does not, not yet at least. He wants to keep it open during this opening to analyze it. If he can find a way to study it, and tap into its power. The world has survived exposure to the Far Realm for thousands of years. The only reason it pushed outside of the normal spreading, according to Nigel, was Madreus’s experiments.

Madreus’s workshop here in the Vast Gate room is extensive for spell research. During the next month, Alzar creates a new spell, and learns about the Gate and gives Nigel a new blank spellbook and lets him copy some generic spells. Meanwhile, Alzar collects the items from Madreus, and there are some nice ones:

Robe of the Archmagi, Evil
Eyes of Humanoid and Monster Charming
Unifex
4 Pots of Extra Healing
Wand of Light – 23 charges
Ring of Arista

Bars of Platinum, 1000 gpx5
3245 gp

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar’s Far Summons (Conjuration/Summoning)

Level 5
Duration: 1 turn/level
Range: 10’/level
Components: VSM

The caster opens a gate to the Far Realm and summons a creature from there to serve the caster for one turn per level of the caster or until slain. Due to the nature of the creature summoned, communication and telepathy are not possible, and the caster cannot control it with the exactness of other creatures. He may only give it basic instinctive commands, such as attack, flee, move, and so forth. It will not attack allies of the caster. When summoned, roll randomly to determine what answers:

1 – Gibbering Mouther – 29 hp
2 – Neh-Thalggu – 36 hp – knows 4x Acid Arrow
3 – Wyste – 30 hp
4 – Sharn – 33 hp
5 – 4x Whipsting – 9 hp each
6 – Casura – 30 hp

The material component for this spell is a small bit of material from the Far Realm, not bigger than a fingernail, which is destroyed in the process.



At the end of the month, the Vast Gate closes, and Nigel wants to stay and guard and explore it and World Gate Omega, in the other room which Nigel wasn’t even aware still worked. Madreus was obsessed with the Vast Gate and refused to have anyone explore the rest of the complex. Alzar gives him the crystal components so he can rekey it when needed

[Abe Sargent]

Slain – 57 Duergar, 3 Giant Skeletons, Crypt Thing, 13 Giant scorpion, 17 large bats, 4 Steeder, 7 Gibbering Mouther,115 Gibberling,17 Brood Gibberling (950), 1 Giant Gibbering Mouther (worth 1950 XP), 1 Whisper Spider (worth 3000 xp), 1 Living Wall (5000), 4 Wystes, 1 Neh-thalggu (2000), 2 Myconid (420), 4 trolls (1500xp each).


138515 XP Total, which is divided into really small chunks and done later (I still haven’t divvied the XP for the fighter/thieves after Descent…


A look at the items Alzar got at the end – very nice stuff.

The Eyes are a pair of crystal glasses and Alzar can, at will, use either Charm Monster or Charm Person with a -2 to the save. Alzar also gives a -1 to the save with his class ability. Now, here’s what is really potent

Robe of the Evil Archmagi – 5% Magic Resistance – when targeted by a spell, there is a 5% chance it won’t work. It counts as AC5, which doesn’t improve his AC. But if he has to shift to other Bracers, his AC only drops two. +1 to all saves by Alzar. The target’s save is at -4 when targeted by Charm and Hold Person and Monster, Polymorph Other, Suggestion, and Friends.

It does not give -4 to Dire Charm ,Mass Charm, or other spells with those in the title, just those seven spells. So, when using the Eyes, people get a -7 to their save, and Alzar can use it every round. With that, you can see why Madreus charmed Estaish easily and kept Nigel under a leash for years.


Unifex - +2 Dagger made from unicorn horn, AC2 given and can teleport once/day

Unifex replaces one of the daggers on Alzar’s bandolier, and he wears both the Robe and Eyes.

The Ring of Arista will drain one hp permanently when worn, and then allow the user to turn a person to onyx but there is a chance is will backfire and turn the user to onyx instead.

The Book is a spellbook, a list of the Rite, and a description of the connection between this world and the Far Realm, and was written by Madreus. It was how Alzar created his spell, but he did not lose a point of Wisdom because he has not read it in its entirety. Because he has not, he cannot access the spells or use the Rite himself.


Alzar takes the spell component research lab now that he freed space by swapping to the jewelry in the market.

The items here were a major haul and a big upgrade in Alzar’s power level.

[Abe Sargent]

Here are the spells Alzar now will typically memorize during the trip:

Sleepx2, Hypnotize, Identify, Comprehend Languages; Empathic Control, Blastbones, Knock, Tasha’s… Laughter, Ray of Ondovir; Dire Charm, Slumberx2, Skulltrap, Vampiric Touch, Dispel Magic; Rary’s Mnemonic Enhancer turned into Slumber, Evard’s…Tentaclesx2, Shield-Maidens, Greater Malison; Conjure Earth Elemental, Dominationx2, Animate Deadx2; Invisible Stalkerx2


Despite the fact that the Gates have been closed off for a while, Alzar’s plan is simple. They will take the back exit, and then not worry, because it’s closer than the gates in front to the Døkkálfar and their original route. There are about 12 days journey away from getting back on track.

Meanwhile, Alzar has Dispelled Magic on several captured spellbooks and learns:

4th – Detect Scrying, from second Lich book
5th – Presper’s Moonbow, from Darr’ess’s book


After leaving the Duergar complex on a friendly basis with the new ruler and his lawful evil Duergar, Alzar heads off to the UnderDeep to return to their original path.

[Abe Sargent]

D2 . Shrine of the Kuo-Toa

During the next 12 days, the group has several battles. They fight off a trio of Ropers, they handle a dozen Piercers, a Gelatinous Cube is slain, twice they destroy a Cave Fisher, a flock of Dire Bats is scared away,a slicer beetle is taken out and a Giant Slug is defeated. It’s a normal set of travelling.

At the end, they arrive back in the same tunnel they left, but down the tunnel by three miles or so. The road had divided and split into two sections temporarily, then the avalanche happened to close down one of the two branches, so the tunnel still works on the other path. They resume their travels. Two quiet days later, save for a pack of silent cave lizards, they arrive at a spot where a red rock is facing east and a large tunnel comes from that direction. Alzar was informed that this signifies that the Kuo-Toa establishment is nearby.

The group leaves the tunnel and after a little more than a mile, they arrive at the shrine.

[Abe Sargent]

The building itself is a stepped pyramid shape, with water at the base. The fish people are equally at home in the water or above ground. Alzar leads the party with Wassilon next, since they both speak languages the Kuo-Toan might now. They one they met knew UnderTypic.

The entrance is a low cavity, open to the outside, with no doors. Greenish phosphorescence from lichens combined with the grayish luminosity of slug-like creatures as large as a fist on all of the walls gives the area an undersea appearance. There is a salty tang in the air as well. There is a giant statue in the center on top of a large raised dais, but that is some distance away. There is a hallway and door to the right. The shape of the stones is worn with time, and the architecture here is akin to the that of the elder Døkkálfar who cared the complex behind the Gates. The entire area does not have the same proportions that land-based creatures would expect and based on the wear, Wassilon comments that it was likely undersea for some time.

There are stairs up to the left, in addition to the door and hallway on the right. The space to the north is a large sunken area with steps leading down before a dais heads back up. There are many hallways and doors leading to this central area. There is traffic in the area, and no one seems to be paying much attention to Alzar or his group. He moves forward and begins to descend. This appears to be an arena which be able to hold up to 2000 humanoid creatures of human size. The Kuo-Toans are a bit bigger and much pudgier. The steps descend into water, but the water is never more than four feet deep, so Alzar moves forward and has everyone else hold their position. He arrives at the dias and there are three altars on three steps, much like a small ziggurat. At the top is a 20’ statue of a malachite impression of a creature with a combination of human female and lobster parts.

On each altar are a large number of shells in a stacked section, and a donation shell, quite large, with 300 or so gp in it. He moves to the second level and third to study the statue. As he does, a gate opens up and he is taken to the Elemental Plane of Water. There, the Sea Mother herself finds him and Geases Alzar. He fails his save. Alzar arrives back to the Shrine.

His geas is thus:

He must either give 60000 gp in gold or gems or jewelry to the Shrine or bring back 60 levels of Døkkálfar combined for sacrifice. He chooses the second. He is also permanently gifted the ability to speak Kuo-Toan, and he cannot hurt the worshippers of herself – Blibdoolpoolp, he is given knowledge of her service and the other Kuo-Toa will know he has been marked by her and will grant him passage.

(This is actually not how the Shrine is supposed to work, it’s supposed to be your normal attack, assault, take everything, go home, but Alzar is inherently evil, and in a place where evil is embrace and accepted. So I’m turning the Shrine from a place to fear to a place of safety and sanctuary using what Gygax gave me in the book itself in section 4 about non-worshippers reaching the statue and just pushing it.)

Considering how much the Kuo-Toa despise the Døkkálfar and how few and far between civilizations that aren’t xenophobic or massively evil are here, Alzar get sanctuary now from two evil places – the Duergar outpost and now the Shrine itself.

Six miles away in a Døkkálfar outpost with a wall and such. Alzar will head out there and take them out, capturing as many as possible. Then he’ll bring them back here for sacrifice. Once he does, his Geas is over.

[Abe Sargent]

D3. Vault of the Drow




For a bit, these modules are going to ping-pong back and forth, because that outpost is the first encounter area of D3. This is the best module of the series and one of the best modules of all time, to my mind.

[Abe Sargent]

He heads out and gets no issue with nearby creatures. Unfortunately, Døkkálfar are immune to Sleep and similar spells, so Sleep, Slumber and others won’t work. He has a different set of spells to replace them. He has out both Ropes of Entanglement and the Prison of Zazig. His goal is to capture as many Døkkálfar as possible. He will be wearing the Ring of Spell Turning and Mud Ring.

Spell list is very different, for example, no Animate Dead.

He arrives at the battlements with allies – two invisible stalkers, three earth elementals as a smash force, one air elemental, two water elementals, four gargoyles, one glabrezu with 16 Dretch, one Vrock, both Zadazz and Zadran, Dryshik and Megala. Everything else is home. He has handed ropes to the fighters and thieves as they are the most intelligent of his group – they will bind Døkkálfar as they fall. The rest will smash hard. Alzar also has a slightly different set of magic items out and ready to be used. As a reminder, Døkkálfar are also immune to charm person and monster.

This is a large chamber 130’ long, 150’ high and 12’ wide. Buttress and flying arches protect an outpost of dozens of soldiers. There are 4 fighters on sentry on the wall and five more at the gate below, which is up. Alzar’s invisible+elven boot scouting reveals an eastern building with about 15 off duty men in the barracks. The western building has the commanders and a much smaller group. That’s the compound, and a pathway to the city and further canyons is on the other side, but un-gated and un-guarded.

Alzar’s plan is thus:

The Earth Elementals will lead the other elementals to the wall of the outpost and bash on the wall. In so doing, they will rile everyone else. The dretch will swarm around them. The flyers will hope over the wall and block people from fleeing and Dryshik will drop a Wall of Fog, preventing escape easily that way. Dryshik will breathe three times, trying to blind enemies without slaying them. The glabrezu and Vrock teleport in, and the glabby with Power Word Stun the strongest looking enemy, who will be tied up by the fighter/thieves. Alzar will open with casting the Transmute Rock to Mud spell he memorized at the five people on the gate, and then will use Ropes and Prison and other spells to capture people. The goal is to capture the entire outpost. None of those serving him are given a command to slay.

[Abe Sargent]

The Transmute spell is away, and the area in front of the gate turns to deep mud and the five Døkkálfar are temporarily caught in it. The fighters run in while the elementals start smashing the wall next to them. Cracks immediately appear. The flyers move up and crossbows from the four on top of the wall miss them, as they are surprised. Dryshik drops a Wall just as he gets line of sight to a place for it.

They win init. Crossbows move to Alzar, who is clearly in control. They all miss (Cloak). 16 soldiers pour out of one building and 12 move to the wall and four towards the creatures and the Wall. Several commanders arrive and one flies out and hovers above the scene. Alzar throws the Rope of Entanglement at the ones on top of the wall and gathers them. They can’t break out with strength, but perhaps by attacking the rope they can. Carum blows the Whistle of Flying Alzar gave him and flies up to gather them before they can try to attack it. The others capture two fighters in front. The rest take damage from those fighting back. The Glabrezu casts power word stun on the one flying around and he falls, taking 8 damage from the fall and will be stunned for 8 rounds. The glabby brings him back to the front. Cracks in the wall splinter and the wall will be brought down next round. Dryshik blinds one of the four running to the back but just for two rounds.

Six level 2 fighters captured. Mage/fighter captured.



They win init. The four heading to the back reach it after the one is led by the others. They attack a gargoyle and slay it. The rest push down the gate and pout out, hacking at an Earth Elemental and bringing it down. Four globes of Darkness sprout out. Alzar tosses in a Ropes blind and captures five fighters. Maerie captures one of those in Mud, and the other two climbed out. The Vrock flies over to help out the flyers after Alzar sees what is happening. The wall is opened by the elementals.


12 level 2 fighters captured. Mage/fighter captured.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar’s group wins init. Alzar casts Dispel Magic at the darkenesses and drops them. Dryshik blinds the Døkkálfar again and the Vrock captures it. Estaish gathers those in the Rope of Entanglement and brings it back. An Invisible stalker has managed to wrestle a fighters to the ground and is tied by Wassilon. They attack back and hack an Air Elemental, and then drop four more globes of Darkness around.


14 level 2 fighters captured. Mage/fighter captured.

They win init. An Earth is badly damaged and a gargoyle, damaged last round, falls. Alzar casts Dispel Magic at the globes and drops them again. Three more are captured by wrestling Dretch, who can now get in there.

Alzar’s group wins init. He grabs the Horn of Blasting he prepared and blasts the area with sound. He captures Maerie in the blast, the elementals, Dretch, and many of the enemy. Everybody is stunned next round. Three aren’t, and attack and finish the damaged Earth Elemental. Another gargoyle is damaged.

They win init, but most can’t do anything. The three in each section who can finish a 3rd gargoyle and try to break out only to face an angry hell hound and carve into it. Most are gathered this turn while they are stunned. Alzar puts the front person in the group of three into the Prison of Zazig. There are just two left, and three in the back.

20 level 2 fighters captured. 2 level 5 fighter, Mage/fighter captured.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar’s group wins init. The dretch managed to wrestle down the last two in the front, and Alzar runs throw the open gate to the other side, where he casts Empathic Control on a guy in the back. He fails his save, and Alzar orders him to be tied up. The Vrock ties him up. They flee in the back, dropping Darkness globes to cover their tracks.

Alzar moves after them and keeps up. A Suggestion spell at a -5 penalty to the save works and forces one to turn back. The other is gathered two rounds later after he made an Empathic Control save but failed a Domination one.

24 level 2 fighters captured. 3 level 5 fighter, 1 level 7/7 Mage/fighter captured

Døkkálfar Items:

24x +1 chainmail; 4x +3 chainmail; 24x +1 shield; 3x +2 shield; +3 shield; 24x +1 short sword; 3x +2 dagger; +3 dagger; 4x +2 short sword; 24x hand crossbow; many vials of sleep poison

2 pairs of tinted lens; 4 black medallions

Wand of Viscid Globs – 48 charges
Wings of Flying

Wizard Scroll – Wall of Fire, Invisible Stalker, Charm Monster, Passwall, Acid Bolt

10x 100 gp gems; 4x jeweled goblet 3500gp each; Platinum Tube – 1000 gp
2 potion of healing, sweet water; plant control


Alzar’s group gains 12,745 xp. The Døkkálfar are carted back by Invisible Stalkers, demons on rotating shifts, and other various creatures Alzar has at his command. Their binds are very tight, checked regularly, and Alzar casts Domination on other and brings it under his control, giving him two allies in keeping them in check.

[Abe Sargent]

They reach the shrine the next day and he turns over them to Va-Guulugh, the head priest. He entertains them in his own private wing, and not in a pseudo-throne room, since Alzar is an honored guest.

He initially has a conversation with Alzar in Kuo-toan as thanks, and then they share a meal together with his guards and a conversation is held in UnderTypic, which the group can largely follow now.

Alzar is encouraged to visit, stay in a guest quarters, and explore as he wishes. He agrees to, and the following day explores the Shrine. He first comes across the slave quarters. He offers to buy some of the slaves, and while they aren’t really for sale, he manages to purchase several anyway with a large amount of money for the temple. He has purchased:

2 dvergr, 3 svartalfar, 1 half-orc. He leaves behind the 21 humans, because there are too many to buy, and there’s a lawful good paladin who’d want to cause problems by attacking the Kuo-Toa or something silly. He spent 10000 gold on all six slaves. He goes on an “expedition” to outside the shrine for a while, and lets anyone go who wants too. The short guys all leave together, but the half-orc decides to stick around for a bit:


Gamholt, level 4 Neutral Evil Half-Orc
Priest of Camulos, God of Conflict and Strife
HP- 24
XP -10,000
Str – 10, Dex – 11, Con – 15, Wis – 15, Int - 13, Cha – 9

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar and his retinue return and explore. He uses his Gem of Seeing everywhere. They find meditation rooms with scriptures and religious texts of a valuable nature. There is a breeding pool for the Kuo-Toan females to lay eggs, and a fighting chamber to train physically. Kuo-Toan culture has lapsed after millennia, and the normally neutral evil people sometimes have people go crazy and turn chaotic, and they have to be culled. Special agents called monitors guard the place and look for any Kuo-Toan who has gone crazy and needs to be dispatched.

Alzar finds a library with 1786 books according to the catalogue. The Gem shows a secret panel in the wall, and Alzar slips Maerie a Ring of Invisibility for her to use. She manages to find the opening trigger for it, pulling down one of the six incandescent lamps held by ropes from the ceiling. The inside is lined with lead and bronze to block some detections, and there is a black iron box. Maerie picks it and there are no traps. Alzar opens it and there was a curse on the box and he is teleported to the Elemental Plane of Fire. He can survive there because the Orb of Golden Death is on his person and he just comes back and continues.

Inside are four tomes, and Alzar has them taken. They are all magical. Here is what he finds:

Manual of Puissant Skill at Arms – Fighter gains a level by reading
Grim Grimoire – Assassin gains a level by reading
Book of the Planes – See later
Libram of Gainful Conjuration - +1 level for neutral wizard

Alzar takes all four. His geas to not harm the worshippers of her does not apply to these books. Maybe they don’t even know these are here. He couldn’t steal from the high priest or anything, but these he can take.

[Abe Sargent]

He continues to explore. He visits several other pools, including ones for fingerlings and a pale to send out a request for help for their deity. Alzar even manages to find the temple’s hidden treasure in a well with a secret door. He checks it out, but his geas prevents him from taking anything from it. There’s nothing here that he truly covets.

He finishes exploring the Shrine, and his party readies to head out and slay some guys and investigate.

The shrine is three days from the Døkkálfar city – Erelhei-Cinlu. They return to the Døkkálfar outpost, and face a flock of Stirges that are slain or driven off and a patch of brown mold covering the tunnel that had to be burned off. The outpost is still empty, and he presses on. A mile later, a side tunnel opens up. Alzar’s map of the area shows this side tunnel hits the side of their destination. After capturing an entire outpost of them and taking them to the Kuo-Toa for sacrifices, Alzar is not sure if he will still be welcomed in Erelhei-Cinlu, so he decides to take the side tunnel.

Another mile ebbs quickly, and they arrive at an unusual place. Overhead is a starry sky, bright crescent moon, dwarf flowing trees, and shrubs and bushes. There is an odor of sweet flowers and lovely grotto in the center of the place. There is a breathtaking sculpture of a nude human female and bird are twittering.

Alzar’s Gem is out immediately, and this room is covered by a permanent illusion. None of the things seen are here, save for the statue, which is actually Silussa, a succubus. Alzar tells the others and then tries to control her and succeeds!

This is very bad though. As she comes to him, her lover in the room gets quite upset and materializes, a powerful Døkkálfar vampire! Meanwhile the “birds” are actually 60 bats and a horde of rats and bats attacks the party! A few pecks are taken before Alzar blastbones them and does some damage to his party as well.

Battle begins!

[Abe Sargent]

The vampire wins init. He tries to charm Alzar and fails (immune to charm due to belt with Gauntlet Gem). The party lashes out. Alzar begins with an attempt to control him, but he fails too. Estiash lashes out and misses, but Aleigha hits with her Sword of Spartusia. He takes 8 damage. Maerie hits for 5 and that’s it for the fighters.

The vampire keeps init and lashes at Alzar with his claws for an energy drain attack but misses (cloak). Aleigha attacks twice and hits once for 9, Estiash hits once for 10, Carum hits twice for 12. Alzar’s Axe is out and he hacks into the vampire for 13 damage. Alzar’s party wins init and finishes him.

Alzar takes the Succubus and orders her to tell him what is in the cavern and what she knows She does so. Succubi are really poor in combat, and are best at charming, suggesting and manipulating behind the scenes. They are also very hard to control and after showing him everything, he orders her to free a male svartalfar charmed slave from her charms, and dismisses her. The male chooses to leave back to the Shrine and thence to home alone. Meanwhile, Alzar collects the items here:

Ring of Protection +1
Gemmed Basin, Ewer, Chalices 13000 gp set; Coffer of Rose Quartz – 1000 gp
6 gems, 5000 gp each; jewelry worth 35000 gp total
Oil of Etherealness 3 doses
Poisonous Cloak
6 Magic Mice

Ring of Spell Storing (8, 2, 4, 5) – Maze, Knock, Polymorph Self, Animate Dead

Alzar knows how to use all of those items immediately due to the info from the Succubus

The Magic Mice turn into real mice that can chew wood, and answer yes/no questions. They can’t attack and have just one hp. They stay for a half hour or until dismissed or slain, per day. That is a powerful Ring as well.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar decides to rest here for the night and in the morning, they set out on the side path again. Two miles pass. Another large cavern opens up. From the tunnel can be seen many corpses, bones and such littering the floor. Sensing a need for subterfuge Alzar goes invisible, grabs the Elven Boots, and heads to spy.

As Alzar enters, despite his invisible nature, he is detected, and 3 webs launch at him from above.. he is immune (Ring of Free Action) and he assesses the situation. In the ceiling are many giant spiders of various sorts. They appear to be great black widow spiders and seven are scurrying down to attack Alzar right now.

He casts Skulltrap and launches it at them and hits three in its radius. One dies, and two are badly damaged. They arrive and battle begins.

Alzar wins init. He casts Skulltrap from a Ring and blasts right beside himself. He clears out four of the spiders, fails his save and takes 30 damage. Just two are left. Missile attacks fly in and slay them.

Alzar moves into the cavern and investigates, but not before summoning a Glabrezu to help out. There are several off shoots, and down one is the queen, who attacks him for daring to intrude on her. As she scuttles towards him she fires a giant web and he is immune. He responds by ordering te glabby in and he casts Power Word Stun and drops her. She is slain easily.

There are several items back here:

8 +1 arrows
8 50 gp gems
Poison Potion
Wand of Polymorph – 2 charges

2 sets of crystal lenses

Lolth Statuette – 200,000 gp – Immediately tells Alzar that he can use it to fire a Web, 40’ away; immune to webs; walk on them as giant spider; cause Fear in spiders all size as per the spell


They keep moving, and end up staying the night just four miles from the city. That night, a group of 6 wererats attack but are slain easily by magic and monster alike. Alzar has added 24 skeletons to his retinue form the spider room with all of the corpses. The morning opens, and they move with some degree of speed. There are no further incidents.


They have arrived at the Vault of the Døkkálfar

[Abe Sargent]

The party leaves the passageway and enters the Vault, a strange sight greets Alzar. He is unable to see clearly past 40 yards. He grabs the lens that he found and puts them on, and he can se out to 240 yards clearly and 480 vaguely. He gives them to the other humans – Estaish, Maerie, Carum and Aleigha. He doesn’t have pairs for Wassilon or Gamholt, but they have the ability to see in the dark anyway, although not as well as with the Lenses.

They are walking down a descending gorge, and it’s open. Alzar grabs his Gem and the Vault is splendorous. Here is a radiation that he Lenses tap into for seeing, and this is a gigantic cyst in the crust of the earth. A domed, fault over six miles in length. The entire space that’s inhabited is like a big great bowl. There is a radiance of nodes of gems in the top, and lichens growing in many places.

The road stretches down between the cliffs o neither side and abnormally large lichens flank the road. There are all sorts of fungi, from mushrooms to mosswort to toadstools and more. All sorts of fungi known and unknown are growing here, of all different sizes.

About a half a mile down the road they close on a great black tower built on a mesa like mound of rock that corks the bottle neck of the entrance and the road splits off to two sides. There are dozens of Døkkálfar soldiers on guard here, with ballistae on top of pivots and arrow holes. Alzar is commanded to stop and present himself. He does and presents his Black Medallion. They ask how he got it and he tells them he took out a Mind Flayer outpost and was given it. He wants to come to their city to explore their market and make purchases. The Black Medallion is confiscated (he has 5 more hidden away), and his party are given cloaks to wear. Everybody must wear one at all times and are otherwise free to move about the city. The cloak glows lime green in infravision.

The city proper seems to be on the right path, so they head that way. Left sees some warehouses, a ridge, and a gate and wall about a mile away near the wall of the cavern. A mile passes, and they see some merchant houses throughout this area, and many more fungi forests. They approach the gate to the city and pass through the tunnel to Erelhei-Cinlu.

[hoopsguy]

After capturing an entire outpost of them and taking them to the Kuo-Toa for sacrifices, Alzar is not sure if he will still be welcomed in Erelhei-Cinlu

This made me laugh.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar has never seen quite a sight. Not only are there many Døkkálfar walking about, and of course humanoids of various underground races such as the duergar spin off of dvergr, illithids, and kuo-toa, band of course various evil goblinoids that are slaves or servants such as bugbears and orcs. There are also humans in small number, undead moving about freely, the occasionally demon, and more. This is like a crossroads of evil with about 7000 people living in the city, an equal number of servants and slaves, and up to 1000 visitors for a total population of 15000. This is the sort of place that is thick with thieves, so Alzar orders all valuables secured, and drops some magic items from his bandolier, belt pouches, and so forth.

This is a place without a lot of structure. Alzar stops by a tavern and in into check into a few rooms and gather the lay of the land. After a few hours, he has a lot more information than he had before.

This city is run by noble houses and to a lesser degree merchants houses. Each merchant house is tied to a noble house. There are eight noble houses, and each is vying for leadership of the group, and they are ranked 1st through 8th based on power and support. His enemy, Eclavdra ,is the matron of the top house, Eilservs.

Recently, they’ve cast aside their support of the Spider-Queen Lolth “religion” and embraced a new cult around an eldritch entity. None of the 27 deities of Thorasia are officially worshipped in the noble houses, but Lolth herself is a servant of Baetylus, god of deceit and greed. Therefore, he grants Lolth’s servants their spells and power.

The rest of the city has been very irate with House Eilservs due to their abandonment of the Lolth worship. However, due to the power of the house, little has been done. An alliance with the 7th ranked house, but a big mover recently, has been House Tormtor. They are willing to set aside the anti-Lolth invective in order to advance themselves, and the alliance has been quite beneficial for both houses thus far. The three houses at 2nd, 3rd and 4th each are banned against the Eilservs-Tormtor alliance. They are Kilsek at #2, Despana at #3 and Noquar at #4. They each want to take down the Eilservs, which would bring them up, but since two are also anti-Kilsek eventually, they have not been as effective as allies as Tormtor and Eilservs, because Eilservs has nothing to fear from them.

The #8 house is Aleval, and they are officially neutral and have no alliances. They will join whichever side wins, and no one comes after them, because they are the weakest house, thus the only one with no one looking over their shoulder. Also biding their time is #5 Everhate, which nominally dislikes the anti-Lolth stance but is doing nothing about it. Finally, at #6 is Godeep. They perceive that they will gain more from a victorious Kilsek, and thus are helping the triple alliance behind the scenes.

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

This made me laugh.

Luckily for Alzar, the folks he is moving to aren;t exactly unified. They are the very opposite

[Abe Sargent]

Recently, in order to expand their power, the Eilservs House tried to expand above ground by forging a nation, but failed with Alzar’s slaughter of the three major giant outposts and a few other setbacks he is not aware of. This loss of prestige has forced Eilservs to hole up for now and take a more defensive posture. Raids and attacks are not uncommon, and neither are politics, and the houses must be good at both.

Each house and merchant house has a pin that their folks wear. Behind the city of E-Cinhu proper, is a plateau with the noble houses, and behind them the temple of Lolth. The Vault also has two outposts for the military in various sectors, and some bugbear and trog dens in various places on the outskirts.

Due to the chaotic nature of the Døkkálfar, Alzar could slay four outposts and still be welcomed and used by one house against another. He could also be enemies with some and allies with others. Alzar spends three days here getting the lay of the land and fully exploring.

Erelhei-Cinlu is an odd city. Despite the presence of many Døkkálfar, it’s a bit of a cesspool. The best and brightest are taken for the armies, the priesthood, the mages, the merchant houses or the noble houses. With all of those vying for attention, there are few Døkkálfar that fall through the cracks who are competent. Therefore, the great mass of Døkkálfar are those who weren’t good enough for the various institutions, and they are forced to lesser jobs. Even the thieves’ guild, which Alzar had initially suspected would be really powerful, is very minor. Most thieves are individuals working for themselves, with fencing very easy and high quality thieves being used by merchant and noble houses, it leaves the less useful ones as cutpurses and confidence men. The power to mobilize and the need for it is small. You can buy thieves tools at a store on the promenade and there are no questions asked about how you acquired your merchandise.

The same is true of assassins. It’s a bit different here, because the houses usually want the others to know about the hit. There’s no amount of subterfuge needed. The mages towers are in the west of the city, and there are connecting pathways above the city, so even the magi don’t need to muss themselves with the great unwashed mass.

[Abe Sargent]

That is where Alzar is today, trading spells with several Døkkálfar wizards and getting some very useful ones, including one he really wants:


Døkkálfar Teleport – 6th Level


This spell is exactly like teleport, save that it ignores the magnetic vibrations within the earth.


Backlash – 4th Level - ,made by Døkkálfar

This spell enchants a person until they cast a spell and either the target makes the save or interrupts them casting a spell or a spell is used against an immune target. When that happens, the spell immediately hits the caster instead at full force with no save. There is a save to be affected by Backlash and it stays until used.


Summon Least Yugoloth – 6th Level

Need truename of one, and you can bind it to service for a long long time. Alzar currently does not know of any.


These spells are all rare to Alzar, and he trades some that he made for them. He also runs into a sorcerer who makes some of his own spells, and picks up one.

Hornung’s Random Dispatcher – 8th Level


Alzar trades four of his spells for it, since it’s such a high level and he can’t cast it for a while. It sends a creature within 30’ and their stuff to a random plane of existence. There is a save against it and that’s it. It’s a powerful Abjuration.

[Abe Sargent]

The following day, Alzar teleports back home and checks on everything and it’s all fine. He drops off some things, clearing up some space, and then heads back. He also notices that some dark hair is growing on his left arm. He cuts it off.

The fifth day there, some more dark hair is fast growing, and it’s beginning on his right thigh and stomach as well. Again, he shaves it. The hair grows back after a few hours and darkens in color.

On day six, Alzar casts Remove Curse on himself as the hair deepens, with the intent of curing a curse he picked up along the way somewhere. After studying his items, he believes that this is a curse affected with the Lolth statuette he picked up. However, later that day, it’s not enough. There is a smaller temple to Loth in the city and he visits it. The priest doesn’t have access to the high level magic Alzar needs, so he uses the teleport spell to teleport himself to a large city he has visited and spied through his Crystal Ball, and then gets a powerful set of spells all cast on him, including Cure Disease, Naturalize Poison, Remove Curse, Restoration, Atonement, Bless, Heal, Regenerate, and Dispel Evil. He teleports back after paying the temple 2500 gold and it has worked. Those spells ended the curse. The statuette is still able to be used, and will certainly curse another, but Alzar is free of it.

Alzar and he group explored the area around the city, and found the trog and bugbear homes while he was cursed. He also tried to find some nice magical items, but nothing he found was really worth the money or trade.

[Abe Sargent]

On day eight, after finishing exploring, Alzar takes a meeting with a representative from House Noquar. They know he has had an issue with Eclavdra and Eilservs, and want to meet. He was expecting this, but it came a little later than he thought it would. He is sent to a merchant home in the Vault outside of the city walls. He meets with a merchant who is allied with Noquar. They have a common enemy in House Eilservs and want to know if Alzar is willing to assist their alliance against the house. He says he might be, and is given a pin that is a bronze nightmare head. He can take off the cloak and put his displacer cloak back on, and this is his ticket, not only through the Vault, but also into the Noble Plateau and through the gate there. None of those with him are given one.

Three hours later, Alzar is moving past the gate and entering the noble area. There are eight estates here and the one he is heading for is near the front. The estates have various men at arms, pets, steeds, hunting beasts, monsters, slaves, servants (often the same thing) and more. The Noquar House is opened and Alzar is ushered into a room with the matron of the house.

She greets him and explains that she knows who he is and his whole history with her race.

1). He ran into a House Eilservs outpost at the Fire Giant place and destroyed it, as well as destroying two other giant outposts, which Eilservs were working with – this is very good for House Noquar.
2). He then chased Eclavdra and ran into a checkpoint of Døkkálfar which he annihilated. There were no Noquar nobility there, so she doesn’t care.
3). Then he met with some merchants and traded with them without attacking them. This shows he can be on good terms with her people.
4). He slew a small mind flayer outpost, and freed a Døkkálfar merchant and escorted him to a checkpoint where he received a black medallion. This again shows his value to them.
5). He then left the main area for a while, having little adventures. The demons he summoned were summoned back and they learned about him then.
6). He arrived at the Kuo-Toa shrine about two months later and was geased by them and left to capture an entire Døkkálfar outpost, which he did and turned over priest for sacrifices There were a few soldiers from her house there, but no officers, so this was not a major blow to her.
7). He slew vampire Døkkálfar who protected one of the entrances to the Vault and again, he was not of her house.
8). He arrived in the city and did not slay a single Døkkálfar, showing that he was no longer under the geas and that he could get along with them.

Due to his actions, other houses have lost officers, outposts, soldiers, clerics and more, but hers has only lost 5 level 2 fighters, easily replaced. Therefore, her house has gained strength as a result of his actions. She proposes additional assistance. She will get Alzar to the Eilservs compound, and he is to assault it with all of his might. If he fails to crack it, then nothing happens. He will have slain many of their people, and helped her out a lot. If he succeeds in breaking in and doing some serious damage to them, he can get the revenge he wants.

She knows how high of a level he is, and as the highest level mage in the city unassociated with anyone, he will become a valuable commodity. The highest leveled mage in a house‘s nobility is the consort of Eclavdra, who is a bit stronger than he. While most magi associate with a house, they rarely fight on their behalf. Alzar’s assistance would be highly valued. As a thanks, she will give him two death lances right now, and she will make sure his troops get through into the plateau to assault the complex.

Alzar agrees and takes two Death Lances, with six changes each. A charge is used each time they hit in combat, and they deal 3d6 extra force damage and poison for another 2d6 damage. He will strike the following day and he is escorted out. He plans his assault with the fighters/thieves and prepares spells and items for an all out attack on the Eilservs complex.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar will use the Demon Staff, Orb, Stone, Censor, Brazier, Mud Ring, Water Ring, Figurines of Wondrous Power, Horn of Valhalla, and more to create a large squad of enemies. What he will do is summon a demon from the Orb – and if it succeeds in gating in a demon, then he will bring out everything else. He will be bringing out items such as Ropes of Entanglement and Horn of Blasting for the battle, and his spells are as seen below:

Sleepx3, Hypnotisex2; Continual Light, Blastbones, Empathic Controlx2, Tashas…Laughter; Dispel Magic, Skulltrapx3, Vampiric Touch; 2x Evard’s Tentacles, Shield Maidensx2, Minor Globe of Invulnerability; Dominationx2, Conjure Earth Elementalx3; Invisible Stalkerx2

Haste is in Ring and he will use it on Earth Elementals #1-6, Stalkers #1-2, and demons from staff and Glabrezu from Orb, plus random air elemental.

The day begins, and the Glabrezu summons a Vrock successfully. Dryshik also brings out another Mist Mephit. Alzar uses the Orb for four elementals, as well as the other elementals. He conjures three, conjures two invisible stalkers, blows the horn, the Vrock from the Demon Staff fails to summon any Dretches, summons Shield Maidens, brings out Zadaxx and Zadran and here is Alzar’s army:

Earth Elementals, all 12 hd – 61, 65, 57, 70, 63, 59; Water, 8 HD – 40, 42; Fire, 8 HD - 44, 44; Air, 8 HD – 50, 39.

Vrock, Mirror Image, 63; Vrock, Mirror Image, 67; Glabrezu, 77; Mist Mephit – 18 hp

Level 2 Berserkers – 15 hp

Invisible Stalkers - 55, 53

4 Gargoyles, 1 Hell Hound, Dryshik, Megala, Zadazz, Zadran

39 skeletons

Estaish, Wassilon, Maerie, Aleigha, Carum, Gamholt


Their troops total numbers:

5 nightmares, 10 displacer beasts, 50 slaves, 15 bugbear servants, 25 trog servants, 22 “unarmed” females, three demons – Vrock, and two Hezrou, 32 “unarmed” males, 15 2nd level fighters, 18 3rd level fighters,10 4thlevel fighters, 5 5th level fighters, 3 6th level fighter, 1 7th level fighter, and these are not the actual nobility but their troops. You have some children, and Eclavdra and her mage consort, and a few more clerics and magi about in the family.

Alzar likes his chances. Several wizards on a friendly basis with the house cast seven passwall spells on the giant wall behind the Eilservs compound, and Alzar’s army flows through and he casts passwall on their walls twice and they are in as the alarm sounds. There is no subtlety here as Haste drops and battle begins.

[Abe Sargent]

Round 1 – Due to the small nature of the compounds and Spartan nature of their homes it does not take long for their force to arrive. Many are already in the ground and they came in at the stables and kennels so the nightmares and beasts are in front. For this battle, we will not be rolling initiative, but just determining who goes first each round and trading blows.

The major point of Alzar’s raid is not to take out nightmares and displacer beasts but their soldiers and such. Alzar’s group wins init. He orders the demons, stalkers, undead and berserkers to handle them while the backbreaking elementals focus on the fighters pouring out, with fighter/thief and hell hound backup. The demons tear into nightmares and two fall from them and undead. The stalkers focus on displacer beasts and finish one. The berserkers take out two of the beasts. Elementals smash four male and female unarmed folks (they have +1 daggers in fact) and ready for the attack. Long range fire takes out two more unarmed folk by the fighters. Alzar casts Minor Globe of Invulnerability.

The counter attack arrives. Beasts slay two berserkers and nightmares cleave 3 skeletons. Their soldiers arrive at the elementals, and some missile fire flies over, mostly missing.


Slain in this battle – 2 Nightmare, 3 Displacer Beast, 6 unarmed,

Slain by them – 2 berserkers, 3 skeletons

[Abe Sargent]

Round 2 – The demons and crew finish the mares and beasts. The Elementals, with double attacks, smash six fighters dead. Missile attacks finish the remaining three unarmed fighters. The Mist Mephit drops a Wall of Fog behind the first row of attackers. Zadran slays a fighter. Alzar casts Shield-Maidens.
Attacks pour in and they slay a Fire Elemental and badly wound a Earth. They drop six globes of darkness around the battle as reinforcements arrive in force.



Slain in this battle – 5 Nightmare, 10 Displacer Beast, 9 unarmed, 4 level 2 fighters, 2 level 3 fighter, 1 level 4 fighter,

Slain by them – 2 berserkers, 3 skeletons, 1 Fire Elemental



Round 3 – Alzar casts Continual Light and blows away the darknesses. The demons and crew move up and slay 6 fighters and the elementals five more. Alzar’s missile attacks come in. The Hell Hound finishes a level 5 fighter that Carum hit with his Sling of Seeking. Their fighters bring down a wounded Earth and slay an Air. Casting magic is heard and a lightning bolt cracks into Alzar but does not effect him – Minor Globe. Another casts Silence, which also does not work. A third casts Hold Person at Estaish and that works and he is frozen for 7 rounds. Their demons teleport in and slash the hasted Fire Elemental badly. Unarmed ones arrive and drop six more globes on the party



Slain in this battle – 5 Nightmare, 10 Displacer Beast, 9 unarmed, 10 level 2 fighters, 7 level 3 fighter, 3 level 4 fighter, 1 level 5 fighter,

Slain by them – 2 berserkers, 3 skeletons, 1 Fire Elemental, 1 Earth Elemental,

[Abe Sargent]

Round 4 – Alzar casts Dispel Magic and drops the globes. The glabrezu casts Power Word Stun and blasts a cleric/fighter female for 6 rounds of stunning. The berserkers and undead slay the bugbears that came to enforce the battle – 8 fall. Carum, given a Ring of Spell Storing by Alzar for the battle, casts Sleep form it and drops three more Bugbears. Elementals savage a Hezrou and slay it, and the other is badly damaged. Gamholt’s Cause Moderate Wounds spell finishes it. Dryshik fails to blind the mage with a mist ball and the other Mephit also fails. Their fighters blast the hasted Fire and carve into the last Air badly, and the Vrock finishes it. An Acid Bolt flies into an Earth Elemental from their mage and does at least half of its hp in one blow due to a failed save. Eclavdra has arrived and casts Flame Strike on it and finishes it. Six more globes of darkness drop.


Slain in this battle – 5 Nightmare, 10 Displacer Beast, 11 bugbears, 9 unarmed, 10 level 2 fighters, 7 level 3 fighter, 3 level 4 fighter, 1 level 5 fighter, 1 level 8, level 5 cleric/fighter, 2 Hezrou,

Slain by them – 2 berserkers, 3 skeletons, 2 Fire Elemental, 2 Earth Elemental, 1 Air Elemental,

Round 5 – Alzar casts Skulltrap and aims at the area with the first cleric in the back. He hits and slays eight trogs, two bugbears, and several fighters. He can see with the Lens, as can the humans, despite ht magical darkness. The fighters finish the wounded cleric with missile weapons. Elementals punch but a few misses with darkness drop their combat ability and they finish the last bugbears, and a fighter. The mass finishes some trogs and a few unarmed folks that closed. They carve into an Earth Elemental and finish it, while the mage summons a trio of giant spiders and Eclavdra conjures an Earth Elemental of her own.



Slain in this battle – 5 Nightmare, 10 Displacer Beast, 15 bugbears, 15 unarmed, 13 level 2 fighters, 12 level 3 fighter, 4 level 4 fighter, 1 level 5 fighter, 1 level 8, level 5 cleric/fighter, 2 Hezrou, 11 trogs, 1 5th/3rd cleric/fighter,

Slain by them – 2 berserkers, 3 skeletons, 2 Fire Elemental, 3 Earth Elemental, 1 Air Elemental,

[Abe Sargent]

Round 6 – Alzar casts Dispel Magic from a Ring and blows out the Darknesses. Carum uses his Ring for another sleep and drops 7 trogs. The demons dash into a high level fighter and finish her. The remaining elementals smash more fighters. The fighters slay another as well. Dryshik manages to blind the mage for three rounds. Stalkers finish the spiders, The minor attacks take out five unarmed folk, 1 fighter, and a few trogs. They smash a Water Elemental and slay it and blast an Air deep. Their Earth wades into battle and punches our Glabrezu for 21 damage. They are out of people to drop globes, since they don’t want to skip fighters’ turns. Eclavdra retreats after fully healing a badly damaged level 8 fighter. Alzar orders the Vrocks and Glabrezu to teleport after her.


Slain in this battle – 5 Nightmare, 10 Displacer Beast, 15 bugbears, 20 unarmed, 16 level 2 fighters, 12 level 3 fighter, 5 level 4 fighter, 2 level 5 fighter, 1 level 8/level 5 cleric/fighter, 2 Hezrou, 20 trogs, 1 5th/3rd cleric/fighter, 1 level 7 fighter, 3 giant spiders,

Slain by them – 2 berserkers, 3 skeletons, 2 Fire Elemental, 3 Earth Elemental, 1 Air Elemental, Water Elemental


Round 7 – Alzar orders his troops to focus on their Earth Elemental. We just drop it, and only the undead and berserkers can hit anywhere else, and they finish another 5 trogs. Alzar follows with a n Evard’s Tentacles and he finishes three wounded fighters and ties down two more. They smash a Water and slay it and bring down two skeletons. The demons have gotten in front of Eclavdra and force her back. She orders a retreat!

Slain in this battle – 5 Nightmare, 10 Displacer Beast, 15 bugbears, 20 unarmed, 18 level 2 fighters, 12 level 3 fighter, 5 level 4 fighter, 2 level 5 fighter, 1 level 6 fighter, 1 level 8/level 5 cleric/fighter, 2 Hezrou, 25 trogs, 1 5th/3rd cleric/fighter, 1 level 7 fighter, 1 Earth Elemental, 3 giant spiders,

Slain by them – 2 berserkers, 5 skeletons, 2 Fire Elemental, 3 Earth Elemental, 1 Air Elemental, 2 Water Elemental

[Abe Sargent]

Round 8 – Alzar pulls the Horn and blows it, stunning all living creatures in front of him for a turn and they all take a small amount of damage. He slays a level 3 fighter, his tentacles bring down a level 5 one, and all of the people in front lose this turn stunned, including the demons and Eclavdra and the blinded mage. Taking advantage, the undead and elementals smash their army badly. All of the remaining level 3 fighters have been slain, all but one level 4 one as well. Meanwhile, Carum uses the final spell in the Ring – Ray of Ondovir on Eclavdra and….it works, She will spend the next turn doing what she did this turn (nothing).



Slain in this battle – 5 Nightmare, 10 Displacer Beast, 15 bugbears, 20 unarmed, 18 level 2 fighters, 18 level 3 fighter, 9 level 4 fighter, 3 level 5 fighter, 1 level 6 fighter, 1 level 8/level 5 cleric/fighter, 2 Hezrou, 25 trogs, 1 5th/3rd cleric/fighter, 1 level 7 fighter, 1 Earth Elemental, 3 giant spiders,

Slain by them – 2 berserkers, 5 skeletons, 2 Fire Elemental, 3 Earth Elemental, 1 Air Elemental, 2 Water Elemental


Round 9 – Alzar’s crew attack as they retreat. More fighters fall. Hasted demons stab Eclavdra twelve times for 7 hits (easier to hit her) for 56 damage. Alzar tosses a skulltrap at her and the fleeing and destroys her, badly hurts her consort, and finishes some wounded fighters. Only the mage, a level 8 fighter, a level 5 one and a level 6 one managed to escape. Alzar orders his troops to clean up and gather forces while he gives pursuit with the Stalkers, hasted, earth elementals, hasted, and demons.



Slain in this battle – 5 Nightmare, 10 Displacer Beast, 15 bugbears, 20 unarmed, 18 level 2 fighters, 18 level 3 fighter, 10 level 4 fighter, 4 level 5 fighter, 2 level 6 fighter, 1 level 8/level 5 cleric/fighter, 2 Hezrou, 25 trogs, 1 5th/3rd cleric/fighter, 1 level 7 fighter, 1 Earth Elemental, 3 giant spiders,

Slain by them – 2 berserkers, 5 skeletons, 2 Fire Elemental, 3 Earth Elemental, 1 Air Elemental, 2 Water Elemental


Round 10 – Alzar runs into the compound building where they are gathering forces and smashes face. He launches a Tentacles and grabs everyone with at least one tentacle. Teleporting and hasted creatures arrive to smash – this is the last round of haste for them. Their mage teleports away, and Alzar;s group finishes the fighters. His outside group finishes the Vrock


Slain in this battle – 5 Nightmare, 10 Displacer Beast, 15 bugbears, 20 unarmed, 18 level 2 fighters, 18 level 3 fighter, 10 level 4 fighter, 5 level 5 fighter, 3 level 6 fighter, 1 level 8 fighter,1 level 8/level 5 cleric/fighter, 2 Hezrou, 25 trogs, 1 5th/3rd cleric/fighter, 1 level 7 fighter, 1 Earth Elemental, 3 giant spiders, Vrock

[Abe Sargent]

They search and loot the mansion. Many unarmed fled the battle and aren’t here now. Two other noble wizards are unaccounted for and never fought in the battle. The magic items and vault were ransacked and most of the items gone – only those on bodies were found. There is no spellbooks, magic items, gold or gems or anything else.



Wand of Viscid Globs, 19 charges
+3 Ring of Protection
Cold Sword, +2, +4 vs Fire Creatures, deals 3x damage when natural 20 is rolled; acts as Ring of Fire Resistance when held
Stone of Earth Elemental Summoning

The Cold Sword works for triple damage when hitting anything, even non-fire enemies, so it’s a bit like a minor Frost Brand but with that special ability.


Døkkálfar Items:

20x +1 dagger; 18x +1 broad sword, 18x +2 broad sword, 10x +2 longsword, 10x atlatl, 8x +3 broad sword, +3 dagger, +4 short sword, 3x +3 long sword; 40x +1 shield, 15x +2 shield, 40x +1 chainmail, 15x +2 chainmail, 4x +3 shield; 4x +3 chainmail

Great tentacle Rod

[Abe Sargent]

The massive blow that Alzar has dealt Eilservs will last for a while. In a few weeks, the consort will reveal a clone of Eclavdra, and together with the treasure and two missing mages they will re-establish the House, but back at #8, and everyone has moved up one in the order. The alliance that put Kilsek into #1 spot is already pushed Kilsek to ally with Godeep and Everhate against a new alliance of Noquar and Despana who have brought Tormtor into their alliance. Alliances shift and change.

Now that he has access to the plateau of noble houses, Alzar decides to finish exploring the Vault. There is a tunnel to the temple of Lolth and he takes it. He’s by himself, as this is a solo visit just to explore. A third of a mile later he arrives at a large hexagonal room carved from the rock with a egg shaped temple in the middle, at least five stories high. Around the temple is another path and Alzar follows it, and arrives at the Døkkálfar docks. This is the same Svartjet River they crossed on the Kua-Toa raft a long time ago, and it wound its way here. There are two galleys on the wharf, with undead and demon guards. Alzar returns to the temple.

There are numerous people moving about, and giant black widow spiders protect the temple from any who are not noble Døkkálfar from entering. No one else is allowed in. A small shrine to the left holds two great altars outside that sacrifices are allowed at, even by non-Døkkálfar. A priestess is overseeing the ceremonies of sacrifice, either blood or money, with one altar for each. Alzar moves to it and there appear to be many people and a great tapestry at the back with Lolth on it.

Alzar doesn’t serve any god in particular. They are there certainly, and they do sometimes reward good service, but it’s a bit random. Alzar would rather rely on himself than on another. He wouldn’t dispute the right of another to worship a deity, but it’s just not his thing.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar slides to the back of the shrine, and the great tapestry hides a set of stairs heading down. He moves forward and joins the worshipping, placing ten gp on the money altar and then leaving. An hour later, he turns invisible while in the tunnel to the wharf, and then returns, with Elven Boots. No one seems to see him. He arrives at the shrine and the same underpriestess is performing ceremonies and rites. He slips to the back easily and drops down the stairs. There are a few normal rooms here – supply room, barracks for a few guards, slave chambers, jails for sacrifices, kitchen. He finds a six room complex in the left that houses the clerics. At the front is the high priestess of this shrine for the normal Døkkálfar and those not of the race to worship and Alzar’s eyes pique. He notices she has a demon staff at her side as she studies and eats. The rest of the chambers here have another underpriestess, and two acolytes. Alzar wants the Demon Staff badly. He leaves for ten minutes to a quiet chamber where no one is, and summons a glabrezu. He will move to the high priestess, and then he will teleport in and casts Power Word Stun. Assuming success, Alzar will grab her stuff and the demon will slay her noiselessly and the assassination will be complete and quiet.

It works, and she is slain. Alzar takes the Demon Staff, and a few Døkkálfar items. The glabrezu teleports to the tunnel above and waits for Alzar to summon it back. With a death in the shrine, it won’t be long before she is discovered. Alzar moves invisibly into the priestess quarters where he saw riches before. An Empathic Control spell captures an acolyte, and Alzar uses her to finish exploring. This is swank place and he finds the head priestesses chamber. Alzar arrives and slays the controlled one. Then he begins a search led by the Gem. He absconds with everything that looks nice and then teleports away after finding a trap door and trap with the shrine’s treasure.

5780 gp
Jewelry – 8400 gp total
Platinum Coffer – 2500 gp
100 50 gp gems
1000 pp
Jeweled Platinum Temple Service Set, Ewer, Chalice, Dish – 60000 gp set

[Abe Sargent]

He got away with the death of the high priestess, but someone will eventually magically figure out who did it. He might not be welcome in the area again. While he is here and largely worn out his welcome, he moves to the Egg which is the Great Fane of Lolth for just the nobility. The windows are guarded and there are 50 gargoyles in the roof probably ready to attack, plus spiders everywhere. It is guarded well. Alzar’s invisibility does not shield him from the Spiders, as he has noticed before.

He moves to the rear of the Fane when the fungi obscure him somewhat, and when the place is clear, he casts Passwall at the ground with his Axe and does it again. He moves down and then uses his Mud Ring forward and cancels the first two, and they leave. He wants to be below the temple and come up, but he is facing a dungeon wall on a floor below it, and he uses the Mud Ring again to get through it.

Alzar is near a jail complex probably holding people for sacrifices. The Glabrezu teleports in and Alzar uses his staff to bring out a Vrock, and the Vrock manages to add 8 Dretch. Alzar senses undead guarding it and controls them. He now has four large ghasts and eight large ghouls. They open the cells. Inside are 11 prisoners. There are one way doors that open from the other side that come into this chamber. He uses the Ear Ring to spy and hears a rustling behind them. He casts Passwall at the door and there are countless webs in here. The undead and demons move forward and Alzar enters the chamber.

This web-strewn chamber is the current temporary home of Lolth herself, and she is angry that someone would dare invade her home!

[Abe Sargent]

This is the second battle between Alzar and a demon lord. The first was against Zuggtmoy in the Temple of Elemental Evil, and now this is the second. However, Alzar is unprepared. He doesn’t have the right spells nor has he summoned an army ahead of time. Without preparation or allies, he is fighting her cold.

He orders the demons and undead to charge her, but the Dretch can’t fight a demon prince so they stay where they all, but the others move in. Alzar wins init and gets a chance for a spell or item. Alzar grabs the new Ring of Spell Storing and throws a Maze at her. Let’s talk about how likely it is to work.

As a demon lord, Lolth has 70% magic resistance, and then her normal chance to make a save. Therefore, any spell cast at her has to get past both. Spells that don’t require saves, such as a Power Word or Maze still have to penetrate the Magic Resistance. She only has 66 hp, but she also has an AC of -10. The combination of a great AC with a powerful magic resistance and very good saves means it will be really hard to injure her.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar knows that he only has a 30% of it working, but if it does, she will b in the maze for a few rounds until she comes back, during which time he can prepare by summoning allies. He rolls a 74 and pierces her resistance and she is gone for 3 rounds.

When she returns to the same spot, three Earth Elementals await her from a Stone a Mud Ring and a spell. She wins init and battle begins again.

Lolth tries to Gate in a demon ally and she succeeds and brings in a Vrock of her own. Alzar summons a 4th Earth Elemental. Not all of the allies can attack Lolth, but the elementals, demons and some undead can. In come attacks and one Earth managed to smash her for 17 damage. 49/66 hp left for her.

She summons 11 giant black widows to her aid. Her Vrock carves into an Earth for 17 damage back. The elementals and demons miss and the Dretch can attack the Vrock and it loses an image. A Mist Ball flies in and fails to blind Lolth. Alzar brings out an Invisible Stalker. His party misses.

Her spiders slay four Dretch. Her Vrock misses the wounded Earth Elemental. Lolth fires a powerful web spell at Alzar and he is immune. She scurries out to him and stabs him with her bite and misses naturally. Alzar casts haste on the four elementals, Vrock, Vrock, Glabrezu, Stalker, and four ghasts. They attack Lolth 22 times, and that’s a lot of chances for a hit on an AC – 10. An Elemental punches her for 20, and she takes 15 from a Vrock and 5 from a ghast. 9/66 hp left. His undead ghouls slay a spider.