D&D Dynasty: 3rd Path of King Alzar the Mighty - FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Abe Sargent]

Yellow Realm

This is the final of the 7 realms.

This is a realm of magnificent glowing sun, and a bright, scorching desert. Alzar is on top of a great sun-baked mountain, and can see a few things, including a shrine to Ixion here, the immortal who created this realm. Alzar heads over and uses some unholy cleric magic to despoil the shrine here.

There is a desert floor about 1000 feet down and Alzar heads down, and spies an oasis. Alzar comes across a battle between a large gold dragon and a pair of manscorpions. Each us wounded. They see him coming down the path, and each asks for his aid. Alzar moves and attacks the manscorpions, an untrustworthy foe that Alzar wants to end. From behind, he tosses a Firebead and does 31 damage save for half, and the dragon is, of course immune. One dies, and the other is crunched. Alzar heals the dragon with some lighter magic a few times.

The Dragon thanks Alzar and agrees to fly him around the Yellow Realm, which is a realm of people working together and cooperating. Alzar finds some caves, valleys, and more. He leaps down and slays some trolls attacking an artist, and the heads back up until they reach the center of the realm.


The ruler here is Morilon the Golden, a peaceful cleric who is a pacifist. For helping, Alzar is helped in return, and given the token.


Alzar returns to the Guarded Plateau in Pandius.

[Abe Sargent]

He begins to place each of the seven symbols into the pedestal and in a moment, the world fades




It appears that Alzar is at a great fortress here. He spends some time scrying and investigating, as he has to make it to the fortress first. Here is a great black horn attached to the ground by a metal pole, and in front of him is an odd maze that must be passed, a hall, and then the keep doors are at the end of that great hall.

He decides to blow the horn, and a nasty undead creature appears in front of him.



He has to face the creature! Alzar tries and fails to turn or control the undead creature, but he cannot, those powers aren’t working here.

Battle:

AC 4, HP 50


Alzar loses init, and it misses he doesn’t, and snacks it three times for 41 damage.

It fails it’s morale roll and moves to break off. Alzar’s bow is up and he hits it for 15 damage and it falls dead.


Alzar steps up to the oddly made and trapped maze. This was not made by a mind that would be considered sane or one connected to Pandius. Due to the disconnect and madness, detect and remove traps abilities have just a 50% chance of working. Alzar’s Star of Mo-Pilar won’t work at all in the maze.


Alzar slows down. He’ll scan everything slowly. He casts Protection from Trap. There’s a Glue trap here, a deadly gas trap there, here the floor, walls and ceiling turns into quicksand. A heat metal trap, a poison coated hallway and more. But Alzar is protected from some with poison or gas, some from heat, etc, and the rest with his Protection from Traps.

Alzar arrives at the hallway and feels a necrotic tug.

[Abe Sargent]

The is the Hall of the Undead.

In here:

Lich

Lich controls revenant, Shade, and the other undead was slain

Alzar enters, and the Lich is ready and casts Time Stop.

The Lich casts Total Immunity, Strip Resistance and Power, Word Kill

Alzar… his MR drops to 15, and the PWK will not work (Ring of Spell Turning, only a 1 fails with his protections, he gets an 11).

6 vs 8

Alzar casts Time Stop from his stored spells back, and then casts Cleaving, Destroy Undead, and then Destroy Undead. The Cleaving removes all protections, and it has to make two saves, needing a 6 or better. It fails the 2nd and passes.


4 vs 7

Alzar controls the remaining undead, with their master dead.

Alzar gets:

70k gp
25k pp
100 gems worth 100k
50 pieces of jewelry worth 250k gp

Potion of Longevity
+2 Helmet
Talisman of Elemental Travel


Undead: Revenant and Shade

Alzar orders his undead to open the door to the fortress, and to take the lead. They do.

[Abe Sargent]

He enters the castle

In the front door are 4 Carnifex sentries, one of each class. They are close to the Shade and Revenant

Init!

1 vs 3

Alzar casts Wail of the Banshee, and undead are immune. Two Carnifex die, the thief and cleric. His undead miss. The mage casts Fireball, Alzar takes 15, and his undead 30. The fighter moves for Alzar, recognizing the value of hitting a mage, and misses (cloak)

Revenant – 51/81
Shade – 30/60

4 vs 8

Alzar casts Skulltrap, and he takes 12 himself, and another 14 from a Fireball and 25 from the fighter. The undead base the mage and hit for some damage.

It looks like on this plane you can cast the same spell more than once! Perfect!

46/91 Alzar
Revenant – 21/81
Shade – 16/60


Alzar casts Time Stop, and then casts Power Word Kill on the wounded Fighter and Silence on the mage, and then melees the mage. TS ends. The fighter falls.

7 vs 2

The mage wins, but can’t do anything with it, and turns and flees, but undead are blocking him. The mage falls dead.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar casts a few cure moderate wounds, and then moves his undead to guard the gates given their wounded status.

Alzar heads in, and at an interior corridor, he finds a pair of Death Tyrants making the rounds. Alzar casts Control Death Tyrant and orders them to the gate as well.

2 Death Tyrants added

Alzar then spies a shrine to Alphaks, and he slips over and also spoils it,

While doing do, some roving dorks come around a corner, and see him and attack!

Two carnifex fighters.

6 vs 3

Alzar is missed. He carves one deeply for 41.

7 vs 4

They hit him for 44 damage. His Vampiric Touch for 24 kills the wounded one.

71/91

8 vs 6

Alzar takes 26. He Vampiric Touches for 21

66/91

5 vs 7

Alzar wins init and carves and slays the last fighter

Being able to cast the same spell over and over again is going to be really powerful here.

Alzar spies a great black shrine with pillars 70 feet wide and 50 feet long. The entire shrine is covered with gold plated panels with gems encrusted in them, and the room would easily be worth millions of GP in gold and gems.

Alzar slips into the area. Resting on this shrine is a great black staff, requiring two hands to use, and Alzar makes out a set of six gems, one of each color, and as Alzar moves in, a shadowy fog billows into the room.


It lifts, and the gems are drained and now glass, and Alzar sees an undead version of himself!

[Abe Sargent]

It casts Time Stop.

Alzar is hit with Strip Resistance, Remove Magic, and Greater Malison.

This undead Alzar has all of the same spells and abilities, but none of the items Alzar has, so it has just nonmagical items and weapons and armor and such. But fighting a mage with his level of power is pretty good. If Alzar leads with Protection from Normal Weapons or something, it can be easily dispelled, and the Remove Magic effect is no joke.

Alzar decides to just melee, where he has an advantage.


4 vs 7

Alzar hits for 40 damage, and he casts Heal.

Alzar – 66/91
Undead Alzar – 91/91

2 vs 3

Alzar carves for 37, misses twice.

Undead Alzar casts Time Stop and then casts Cause Critical Wounds and Cause Serious Wounds.

Ring of Spell Turning stops 30% and 60% of those damages. Alzar takes 24.


32/91
54/91

5 vs 3

His foe casts spells and drop him another 20

Alzar needs a Time Stop to work. But with Remove there is a 20% chance of spell failure. And that’s game over. But if it hits, the healing and smashing could win the battle this turn. He also has a 20% of failing a heal.

Alzar casts Time Stop and….fails.


12/91
54/91

3 vs 8

Alzar uses his last 9th level spell, Time Stop. And? He gets a 23, made it. He casts a Heal on the undead, and then Cure Critx2 on his foe and himself. Result? First works, almost dead Alzar, the 2nd? Doesn’t work, fails the spell cast. Alzar heals.


A – 47/91
UA - 4/91

5 vs 6

Alzar carves undead Alzar and wins

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar finds the Black Staff:

Black Staff - This strong black staff can be powered, with a set of colored diamonds, to undead clone everyone in the area of effect of 200 yards. Alzar has enough diamonds to use it five times

Alzar also sees secret panel in the altar. He slips it open, and there is a magical beacon in here

It’s the size and appearance of the Ixion artifact he has been chasing.

A large portal has opened back to Pandius. Alzar finds a scroll here and sees that the Castle was closed down until a lawful person willingly opened it, and then the portal could be opened. So Alzar was enticed here by immortals to free the Carnifex, who could then invade the realm. But without their Black Staff, it will be a lot harder to win, and they will likely keep back.

There are at least 2500 carnifex here. Alzar can hear them coming. He heads back to grab his undead and they will portal out after each grabs as many golden panels as they can. The TK eye on the Tyrants should help with a few panels. Alzar drops his warp marbles and out pop a trio of golems to move them home. Alzar needs a quick defense, so he grabs his Daern’s Instant Fortress and makes a tower to defense and hold up behind.

Over the next 30 minutes, they assault his tower, and he holds up. Alzar casts spells that repair the tower or assault the people in the hallway like skulltrap or Evard’s Black Tentacles a few times and such. The Carnifex are immune to charms so no Domination magic. Alzar secures a 3rd Death Tyrant and sends it on.

After about a half hour or work, his golems and undead allies have secured the panel:

1225 Panels -Each panel is 2 feet tall, 2 feet wide, weighs 200 pounds, gem encrusted gold. Each panel is worth 50k gp.

They room was 50 by 70, with panels on every wall. How many panels where there? 625 on the 50’ walls and 1225 on the 70’ ones. I am ruling that only half of the walls were so covered and the rest were too damaged to get off the walls. But that’s still 61.25 million worth of gold and gems.

Alzar secures his fortress and they head out.

As they leave, the portal collapses. It will take Alzar days to get these panels back home, but the financial value is worth it.

[Abe Sargent]

As Alzar stands up, with the gate closed, coming out of the seven henges are the seven rulers and leaders. The seven magical realms offer Alzar their fealty. He bested them, so now he can rule them.

As he found out while there, no time passes outside. He should be able to control every creature in the realm, and then Alzar will be able to teleport to the realm at will, and if an intruder is detected, he will be teleported back to deal with the intruders.


This is The Choice.

Alzar knows what is being offered due to his own heavy walks on the various paths to immortality. There are sometimes shortcuts to immortality that one can find without being sponsored. This is likely one. On Pandius, only an immortal can rule a realm like that. If he takes these 7 realms, Alzar will become immortal, but tethered to those realms and not necessary powerful.

On the other hand, the Choice comes with permanent and powerful rewards for those who show humility. As a general rule, Alzar would get multiple great benefits geared towards his own power.

So the Choice has arrived. Stay on the Path he is already on, and then gain additional benefits, or switch to take these realms, and gain immortality now.

Which is it?

Alzar rejects the offer of realmship.

Alzar gets:

(Some of the benefits mentioned in the module for party members are poison immunity, using True Sight and ESP permanently and constantly, being able to become invisible at will, getting +1 prime stat, inheriting a large realm, getting an artifact…etc, getting a Resurrection spell that will raise you the next time you die, etc. ).

All good stuff!

Pflarr looks upon Alzar’s actions of humility and decides to give him an arcane bonus that Glantrian wizards who studied at their School of Magic also have.


Each day, Alzar can cast a number of spells equal to his total number of spell levels.

So for example, if Alzar were level four, he could normally cast 2 firsts and 2 seconds, for a total of 6 levels of spell. But with this he could cast 4 firsts and 2 seconds, or 3 seconds or 6 firsts. You get the idea.

Alzar still is bound by the limitations of the plane, so he can’t normally cast a bunch of Time Stops. That’s a gentle brake on the ability.

Alzar gains a level and is now level 36.


End of M3. Twilight Calling

[Abe Sargent]

I find that boring. High level adventurers with items and spells typically of high level adventurers can sleep though it. There are whole realms you get through quickly. Why just one drolem in the first realm? I added combat in a few places (manscorpions, trolls) and such, but the realms aren’t that interesting. They are too small, too one-note, and too-minor.

You have a final fortress that’s huge, but just the entrance and shrine in there are fought, you are supposed to destroy the black staff (Alzar kept it, obviously) then then flee taking 5 panels each.

But why? The 7 realms add nothing to the story. Find the plateau. Teleport to the realm with the Carnifex Castle, and then spend the module blowing out these rumored to be powerful creatures. If they are so powerful, vile and evil hat even entropy agreed in locking them away, then it feels like a joke and a handwave. Give me a fortress of evil, spend that 20 pages of fleshing out the Carnifex home and exploring and slaying them. I don’t even have a monster description of them, you only fight them fleetingly (I gave the 2500 number, but that was not in the module, it suited their power though.)

Not a good module.

Alzar suspects the Beacon is the one he was looking for from Ixion to destroy. A little research will show if that is the case.

[Abe Sargent]

Year 11, Month 9


Another 2400 UnderDark books acquired this month

Alzar has figured out how to destroy the artifact. It must be created. Alzar has explored different was, and like any magical item, he will create the Unmaker by gathering together various components.


In Evenarrow, the Shadow Mage Tower is completed. Alzar has reached out to various of his pan-planar shadow mage allies he made, and a few agreed to move into the Shadow Mage Tower and begin to teach Shadow Magic as a specialty school of normal Magic here on Pandius.



Alzar major projects this month are his spell and creation, so he has little time for adventuring when dealing the rulership as well. Vix spends the month clearing out another 3 major holds that proved to be too difficult for others, and ongoing task she has taken on after massive expansion and independence, to make this place a lot safer. This month it was a Remorhaz nest, Cyclops cave, and an abandoned tower that had been taken over by local enemies of higher level that someone like Vix was needed to take out.


Alzar’s Worldwake to Hamedh this month for some research tools for his projects and an item to create the Unmaker, thus removing it’s existence, saw him run into the College of Wizardry, which is expanding and now has about 30 mages of high enough level to teach and research. By now, most of the major secrets of the Sand Mire have been dug up.

Alzar also needs to really push into more book ownership. No one has taken him up on his offer to give the purchase price plus a 10000 gp prize for those giving him a 1000 book lot of unique titles.


Alzar hires a cleric of Ssu-Ma and will pay her 2500/month to secure more books, and she’ll help to direct temple construction as well.

[Abe Sargent]

Year 11, Month 10

Construction work on the various projects ends for the year.



Alzar collects another 1255 books from the UnderDark and appears to have tapped out that collection, and then 1222 from Regalsford.

Begin Glantri: Kingdom of Magic








I love this video by the way, at giving you the full rundown and feel of Glantri. Enjoy! Please stop at 18:00 minutes because one of my campaign ending modules hasn’t happened, and this video’s background is taking place after that, unless you don’t care about heavy spoilers.

[Abe Sargent]

Welcome to Glantri! Glantri is the smaller of the two heavily pro-Magic nations on the world, and it’s much more a favorite of magic and magical beings, and clerics are banned and despised, and fighters and thieves tolerated. Glantri City is the main city of the nation of Glantri.

This is a boxed set with a lot of descriptions of GC, as well as a few adventures you can run from the city. This is the nation with shapechangers and lycanthropes rule alongside magic users, and centuries of magic use have seen people literally sculpt their land with pretty and various effects.

I want to roll in Glantri City to Alzar’s Pandius campaign, as we did with Serraine already in the Top Ballista expansion for the world already.

Glantri is considered one of the most intriguing and popular places in Mystara/Pandius to adventure in. The Glantri Gazetteer is one of the best in the series, with a lot of interesting details.

For example, Gaz 3 is the first in the Gazetteer Series to make strong connections to the Blackmoor modules (DA-series). The incredibly powerful artifact known as the Radience has ties back to the City of the Gods. One of the nobles, Prince Jaggar von Drachenfels claims Blackmoorian ancestry and carries a weapon of Blackmoor Era origins. The module even includes an adventure outline allowing PCs from Mystara to travel back in time to Blackmoor and execute events that would permanently change the face of the Known World.

[Abe Sargent]

That’s very much in the style of the world. Glantri is divided into 12 principalities, each of which has its own distinct culture. many of which feel eastern, central, or southern European. We have the Principality of Boldavia, which is downright Transylvanian in feel, and deals with “night creature” infestations.

Aalban is a principality of plains and pastures. Despite this peaceful look, it is the most militaristic dominion of Glantri. Warriors and mercenaries are plentiful in the area, and the locals are renown for their remarkable siege weapons and equipment.

Belcadiz is a lightly forested area that serves as the home of the famous winemaking elves. Not only is their wine in high demand throughout Glantri, but so is their metalwork, something unheard off for elves anywhere else on Mystara. Belcadizians are hot-tempered, easy to offend, and enjoy nothing better that a sword duel or two to try and prove their superiority.

Bergdhoven, resting in northern Glantri, is relatively flat. It is a picturesque land with wild flowers growing almost everywhere. These flowers are the base of Bergdhoven's perfume and oil industry. They also attract several mages who need the rare flowers for rare or unique experiments.

Boldavia is a word that causes many to shiver as that principality is often associated with rumours of powerful undead and necromancers. The local Traladarans, who live in small villages among the craggy bluffs and forested hills, are a superstitious lot and are accredited with all the undead legends of the area that spread through Glantri.

Bramyra is a principality that was created to serve as the first line of defence should the Ethengarians decide to invade Glantri. There is nothing of note here except for the vast herd of sheep that roam the hills.

Erewan was once the home of many famous poets, scribes, and artists. Now, the Erewan elves sulk and whine about the goblinoid dominion, spreading false reports about several evil deeds Kol and his minions apparently committed. These elves have been threatening to leave Glantri if the Princes don't fix the situation. So far, all the Princes have been ignoring them.

Fenswick is the newest dominion granted to the remarkably charming and attractive Dolores Hillsbury. As yet, not city or town has been built as the Princess is content to let her land prosper with its logging industry. This principality is almost completely in the mountains.

Klantyre, the famous fog-shrouded highlands, is another place where the sheep are probably the most interesting feature. The weather is the second most popular subject for the inhabitants; they often wager as to whether it will rain 3 days out of five or 4 days out of five.

Krondahar is one of the most cultivated lands in Glantri. The locals are renown for their silk as well as their leatherworking.
Morlay-Malinbois is a forested land where werewolves are probably as common as non-werewolves. In fact, they are considered full citizens while within this principality and have all the rights that any Glantrian would normally have.


Nouvelle Averoigne is famous as the home of Étienne d'Ambreville, ruler of Glantri, and founder of the Great School of Magic. It is also renown for its cuisine, and theater plays are so popular they often sell out months in advance. Nouvelle Averoigne is flat near the river, but gets significantly more hilly further inland.

Sablestone is home to Harald of Haaskinz, the Grand Master of the Great School of Magic. There is nothing much in this principality either, except for stubborn farmers who continuously demand that the wizards just leave them alone.

Finally, there's Glantri City, home of the Great School of Magic and capital of the magocracy. In this city, canals replace the traditional roads of other cities, making the gondola the only way of getting around. Glantri is the heart of fashion and style for the nation, and any new trend will soon be copied by all of high-society. Currently, the dark Gothic style of Boldavia is in favor, where aristocrats dress up as vampires and werewolves (or at least how they imagine vampires and werewolves would dress).

[Abe Sargent]

We have had three minor interactions with Glantri in this campaign thus far. We ran into folks from Glantri in Serraine who were major players of that quest, including a Nosferatu. We also came across them with Sandraline of Glantri, a noblewoman up here in Norwold who was a cleric, and thus unwelcome in her homeland, and then a third back in Thorasia. Do you remember the iconic but bizarre Castle Amber? Guess where that is actually set! You can even see the disappearance of Etienne d’Ambrevile mentioned in the Nouvelle Averoigne description above, if that makes sense.

So those three places should give you a good feel for Glantri, both small and in large. No clergy are allowed, because they are jealous of the attention immortals get and mages are jealous of their power. Glantri is the nation with the highest concentration of mages on the world, and in Glantri City that number is as high as 1 out of 7!

Glantri City, city of canals…














Hm….I wonder what city or culture it takes after?


Yes, it feels like Venice during the height of the Renaissance and it’s political wrangling.

[Abe Sargent]

Here’s one weird thing in Glantri – the coins. The largest coin is the Platinum Crown, a large platinum piece worth around 50 gp. It’s magical, and can act as a Ring of Spell Storage, 1st level for one spell/day! That’s how magical Glantri is. Even the coinage is weird.

More than 1000 students are at the great school of magic and it’s costs of tuition are very high, with only around 10 full scholarships offered annually, and most wizards coming from across the world to study there.

In previous planes, the study of Magic was different. On his home plane of Thorasia, there was no school of magic, but there were guilds associated around it with masters and apprentices. On Hamedh, it was the same, other than Japheth Arcane’s College of Wizardly by Khaibar. Here on this plane, it’s different, with the Glantrian School of Magic an incredibly detailed and intricate area with 1000+ students, tons of faculty, secret schools of magic within the Great School, and more. And Glantri City isn’t as much about money as it is about magic and power, and the appearance of power.

Alzar teleports to the City for few stays and explorations. He has already purchased licenses to cast magic and to have his axe handy on his back. Because he is a foreign envoy, he is allowed inside of Glantri (as he is a cleric) While in the city, he will find a few things here of note. He is going to trade for a few spells, and then learn a new non-weapon proficiency described below, and finally trade for entrance to the School and some serious book loving.

[Abe Sargent]

At the end of the month, Alzar will know:

Spellflash – This NWP will allow the caster, when a successful proficiency check, to add a flashy element to a spell, such as making a Fireball sparkle. It has no effect on the spell, and just impresses a little more.

Their spells are going to have very showy names as well, so get ready for his new spells. For example, one evocation spell which is similar to the 3rd level spell lightning bolt but a little better is called Spout of Scalding Wrath. Another spell is called A Summons One Dares Not Deny


New Spells:



Remove the Instruments of Death, 1st Level, Alteration, Enchantment/Charm

Range 100 feet
Component : S
Duration: Instantaneously
Casting Range: 1
Area of Effect: 1 person/5 levels
Save: None

This spells causes a weapon-wielding target to drop their weapon. They must invest a round to reequip themselves.

Sorcerous Transcription, 1st, Conjuration/Summoning

Range 10 feet
Components: VSM
Duration: 10 minutes +1 min/levl
Casting Time: 1
Area: See below
Save: None

This spell animates a quill to record everything the caster says for the duration of the spell. It requires ink, quill, and parchment of some sort. The caster must remain in 10 feet of the quill for it to record.


Cloak Against All Peril, 3rd level, Abjuration

Range – Self
Comp: VS
Duration: See below
Casting Time: 3
Area: Self
Save: None

This spell creates an invisible energy shield around the caster that will absorb the next 3d4 points of damage, +1 point per level. It can deflect damage from a single attack or multiple attacks, until the damage is removed. The spell lasts 1 round per level, or until the damage is absorbed. It absorbed weapon or magic damage.


Everpresent Record, 4th level, Conjuration/Summoning

Range 10 feet
Components: VSM
Duration: 1 day/levl
Casting Time: 5
Area: 1 creature
Save: None

This is an enhanced version of Sorcerous Transcription, with enhanced length, and can be used on someone to record what they say, instead of the caster if desired.


Warding Against Subtle Enchantment, 4th, Enchantment/Charm
Range: Touch
Components: VS
Duration: See below
Casting Time: 1 turn
Area: 1 creature
Save: None

This is a contingency spell that a wizard can cast onto an ally, servant, to themselves. When that person is targeted successfully by a charm spell that influences the person, such as Charm Person, Domination, Suggestion, Geas or Command, that magic is overridden, and the person on whom this protection as cast will instead take an order given by the caster of this Warding, such as “Attack the person who tried to control you” or “run away.” This spell can be used cleverly to give a command such as, “Pretend you are charmed, but give away false information” or some such.


Jaggar’s Strengthened Bastion, 5th level, Alteration, Enchantment/Charm

Range: Touch
Components: VSM
Duration: 1 hour/level
Casting Time: 5
Area: 1 object
Save: See below

This spell grants a physical object the ability to save vs various magical effects against the object. For example, a wall enchanted with the Bastion would normally allow a Passwall effect freely. But with this would instead save to see if it worked, and saved as the level of the caster. This will work on spells like Dig, Move Earth, Knock, Passwall, and such. It can be made permanent. The material component for this spell is a piece of chalk used to inscribe runes on the object prior to casting. These runes disappear but remain, and can be seen and made out, thus showing the protection, to those familiar with this spell.


Magic Defiance Undone, 5th level, Abjuration

Range: None
Components: V
Duration: None
Casting Time: 5
Area: See Below:
Save: See below


When this spell is cast, the user immediately chooses a spell they know that can target an enemy. That spell is immediately cast at the target, and will penetrate any magic resistance the target has, even 100%. The spell attacks to Magic Defiance Undone does not change, and any saves that need to be done still must be used.



Seek the Traveler, 6th Level, Divination

Range: None
Components: VS
Duration: Instant
Casting Time: 1
Area: 100 foot radius from vaster
Save: NA

When this spell is cast within a round of someone leaving the area of effect by sorcerous means such as teleport or dimension door or similar magic, the caster will know where they went and see it in their mind. They can teleport there with other magic if they want.


Spelldoor 8th level, Alteration

Range: See below
Components: VSM
Duration, Special
Casting time: 1 round
Area: Special
Save: None

This powerful teleport spell essentially teleports a spell’s effect. The caster could Spelldoor a fireball to explode into a place like teleporty magic. The Spelldoor is cast first, and then the spell is chosen to send, and any spell of 7th level or lower can be teleported to a site. The rules for Teleport magic apply for ensuring it arrives in the correct place, and scrying, magic like crystal balls or Wizard Eye or such will help to ensure it arrives and hits the correct target or area. The material component for this is a gold ring worth 25 gp twisted into a moebius strip that is consumed by the spell.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar takes a meeting while here with the head of the School of Divination here. He wants to set up a trade. He read a lot of great things about the libraries down here, and he wants to trade access to the Divination library for full information and knowledge on Dowsing and the sub-field of rhabdomancy that could prove pretty useful in a city of magic. After consideration, they agree partially, and Alzar offers his various books and information, and teaches the non-weapon proficiency that goes with it and has to give away a few more Divination spells he has they don’t in order to secure the lesser Divinatory library.

Alzar gains access to a spell research and theory library for 32500 tomes.


One of the best things he has to trade is the removal of a cap limit and how to do that, so if he can use that secret to get access to more books here, it’s worth it.

I am ruling that Alzar, for 40 gp each rather than the normal 25 gp, can buy a hugely large selection of books at one time:


Alzar spends the money from various recent adventures on 20,000 books. But this selection of books is getting tapped, and every vendor here is devoid of books moving forward. He also lost a ton of gold, 800,000 but it’s a big step closer to his goal.


Alzar returns inspired by many of the changes here to the infrastructure and will make the changes in his own area.

The first is sewage and trash. As they did in the bottom off the Dungeon as well as in Glantri City, Alzar will be Charm Monstering some lesser creatures and then building them into the infrastructure of his sewage and trash. He is going to build a cage to keep a Gelatinous Cube in, and then have it be the place where trash and sewage are heading, and he’ll do it in a few places around down, underground. The Cube is charmed to prevent any major issues, but he’ll also have it unable to move, trapped in this Cube-container as an extra level of protection.

Alzar will be handing out the Everpresent Record spell to his Magists’s to use and distribute. Having cast them for a Sherriff to record their investigations and such could really help to speed up the process of recording important information. He’ll be casting the Strengthened Bastion on most key exits and doors of his area, and will later use Semi-Permanency on them. Alzar will cast the Warding spell on various allies, ambassadors, and more to protect them from charm. He already has to use Divinatory magic to check and see if they are charmed or geased or anything on a regular basis, and he finds it pretty commonly.

Alzar is using Continual Wind spell to create permanent breezes to air places and keep air flowing, on shutters that can be closed to cut off the Wind, just as he does with Continual Light

Alzar also uses his Decanter of Endless Water to fuel a water system that will feed plumbing into each home, while also using magic to lock the temperature of ice for iceboxes and keeping food fresh.

Alzar heads back home for a bit, and he’ll teleport in and out of Glantri for a while. He has some Alzarian spells they will be interested in, but it’s a whirlpool of internal struggle that’s not unlike that of the Dokkalfar in Thorasia and their own strife that kept them from taking out the UnderDark.

[Abe Sargent]

Year 11, Month 11


Alzar finds another 2444 books with Bookfind from Thorasia and invests into another 1000 purchased. The UnderDark was tapped out as a resource last month. He’ll teleport down to Glantri City and trade some more spells of his for books from locals, and acquire around 500 books from local wizards.


This month, Vix takes out a few more smaller lairs and such. Alzar hires some adventurers to take out a home of goblins around 25 strong, and then again with some more goblins. Like each month, Alzar is also doing things like going to a few tournaments, weddings, feasts, funerals, diplomatic meetings, and more. He attends a meeting with the central barbarian tribes of his area, and speaks with the leaders of the tribes, and such.


Glantri, by the wall, isn’t that far from Norwold. From Landfall, a city in Norwold, head south to the Heldannic Freeholds along the coast. Now the Freeholds and north and west of The Ethengar Khanate as well as Glantri, so it’s pretty nearby on a map, but Glantri is landlocked, and that makes trade there not as easy.

Alzar takes a meeting with the ruler of Glantri, (Etienne D’Amberville) and they speak about a few things, including enhanced trade and such. But nothing really too substantive comes out of it. He has established official trade with the Freeholds, Oceansend, Norwold, Alphatia, and others nearby.


Unbeknownst to Alzar, Etienne is also an immortal named Rad.

[Abe Sargent]

Year 11, Month 12

Alzar adds another 2223 Thorasia books and 650 Glantrian.

Vix is getting to the point late in her pregnancy where she cannot head out anymore.

Winter is calmer than normal, and appears to be the same for the rest of the winter, with fewer storms and such.

Alzar finishes his two major tasks, his Eclipse Spell and his Creation of the Unmaker, which destroys it, and Vix completes her 4th task, and she has just one left to reach immortality.


Literacy is up to 45%

Alzar gains +1 to stats.

[Abe Sargent]

Year 12, Month 1


Alzar increases the incentives for literacy. He also gives the children that have learned reading/writing a 100 gp bonus and a Norwold History Book.

Alzar quaffs the Pot of Longevity and loses 10 years.

Alzar animates two more Silver Golems that were prepared elsewhen.

Alzar has confirmed the Beacon is the Ixion artifact and begins working on a way to destroy it.

With Alzar suddenly having the financial resources to make the Great Library Project work, Alzar is going to focus on purchasing, not finding or trading or copying books. Those are still in the background happening, just not on the forefront.


If I assume that Alzar going hog-wild everywhere and purchasing books en masse will

1). drive up their price
2). require purchasing more expensive books
3). Require to pay more than purchase price to buy a book from a private owner who might not want to let go, or
4). Paying for a quick sale,

I am doubling Alzar’s average book price to 50gp each. Even with that, Alzar should still be able to convert the panels he secured into more than 1 million books.

Where would he go to purchase books in those quantities?

1 – Serraine. Lots of private vendors, and people with private collects. I’d guess he can purchase around 75k here
2 – Glantri City. Even though he just purchased a lot of books, raising the price should unlock another 20k
3 – Sundsvale - The capital of Alphatia should be the best place to buy Books, and with Alzar’s rank, he should get into a lot of places. From private collectors to merchants, I’d guess Alzar should be able to get 250k at the high price he is offering.

That’s just 345k though and would require a ton of visits back and forth.

Even if Alzar cast worldwake and opened up a great portal for a few hours and used Bags of Holding and 20 people, they couldn’t really get more than 5000 books a day while still treating them with respect.

Alzar is going to hand the Book Moving and care process to Draconus and that will happen behind the scenes.

Alzar purchases 345k worth of books this month from Glantri City, Alphatia, and Serraine

With those purchases, Alzar’s collection is at around 670k when everything arrives

In other news, Alzar’s realm has a minor winter ongoing, and there are some festivals and such celebrating the lack of real cold or freezing temperatures throughout his realm that he goes to.

He also attends a major wedding in Hammerhelm, one of his dwarf holds.

Alzar uses his monthly wish to increase the literacy rate in his nation. He’ll do this each month

Hellgate Keep is now fully operational in the Jotunhemr Hills.

[Abe Sargent]

Year 12, Month 2


Alzar has animated the Iron Golem:

“Rebound”, Iron Golem: AC 3, HP 80, THAC0 – 3, 1 attack for 4d10, 24 STR for lifting or carrying, requires +3 magic weapon to hit, immune to cold and elect, Fire heals it, can breath gaseous cloud of noxious vapors, save or take 25% of max hp in damage.


This month, Alzar visits lesser places in Mystara, like Thyatis City, Karameikos, and such, and includes places like Ierendi, The Republic of Darokin, Isle of Dawn nations, Heldannic Knights, and more. I am ruling that between these lesser places of learning but centers of commerce, that Alzar is getting another 115k books.

Alzar has discovered a way to destroy the Beacon.

Alzar finds some minor enemies to face in the month, and will teleport a few times to wipe them out.

Winter ends early, and construction on various projects has gone ahead and started.

Near the end of the month, Vix gives birth.


Their new child is another girl, Juri. Like her older sister Intaria, Juri gains all of the bonuses of quarter-immortalness.

[Abe Sargent]

Year 12, Month 3


Alzar has purchased every book available in the entire plane. Where next? Chance

Here on Mystara, the largest city is the capital of Alphatia empire at 500,000. On Thorasia, there is a city with more than 2 million, Chance. Chance’s size and economic strength is so much that it heavily influences the economy of the plane. Chance’s coins are the default coinage used, Chance’s navy is the strongest, and it’s a free city state that’s more powerful than most nations in the entire plane. There is a surrounding section of the city state called the Chance Protectorate of hundreds of small little dales and such, all of which create perfect buffers for Chance.

Chance is where Alzar is going to find books, after exhausting books elsewhere. Here on Thorasia, Alzar should be able to finish his Great Library.

For the first month in Chance, Alzar gets 250k but there are more for later. That’s who Chance is. Everything is for sale. Alzar lets folks know that he’ll be coming back next month as well to dig into their larders and personal libraries and such.
Vix is back out and heading and breaking things.

The temple of Infaust and Ssu-Ma are finished at the end of the month. In about a year, the temple of Infaust, which is more of a monastery than a temple, will begin finishing training of a new cadre of monks dedicated to Infaust in Pandius, many of whom will stay local and take up new roles here in their temple as well as with Evenarrow and Alzar’s demesne. So it benefits everyone.


Ssu-Ma’s temple completion is good because the new clerics both have a training facility, although not as big as Infaust’s, but also should have a number of clerics to help Draconus manage the library.

Alzar and Draconus created a transport system for the Grand Library that should, ideally, work to find and collect books quickly. Each floor will have it’s own subject, and larger versions of Alzar’s teleport jars will be used to transport books quickly. If you’ll recall, teleport jars were a four-set that you could put something in Jar 1 and it would pop into Jar 2, and then into Jar 2 and it would pop until Jar 3, and so forth. It’s a pretty common item that Alzar used frequently, and having a teleport box for books should prove to create a giant opportunity for people getting books quickly.


The Great Library is too big of a project to be finished this year. It won’t be ready until next year

Alzar invests 250k on getting a new castle to the northern edge of the border to create another keep after examining the local defenses. It should be finished in Year 13, Month 8.

Alzar’s military, across the Flying Castle, Hellgate Keep, the main northern castle, the Evenarrow army, the western flank is now at 12,500 total troops before calling on any demihumans like dwarves or elves or the barbarians.

This month Alzar orders an expansion of his military by another 2,500 that should be ready by the end of the year.

[Abe Sargent]

Year 12, Month 4

Alzar purchases another 200k Chance books, but has tapped out the great city. It took two months though. He suspects he can find a few books and book collections later from places like Vermani, but for now, the book-shopping is finished.

A number of major things happen this month in Alzar’s Grand Duchy. From an earthquake in the west to a work stoppage in Evenarrow for a week due to a nasty disease that hits the workers. The disease is stopped magically, but still takes around a week to finish its course.

Vix tells Alzar that she is about to finish her path. She has found a deep tomb that connects to the Demiplane of Shadow, and intends to explore, and then journey across and finish up. She has to do this quest on her own. Alzar loans her items to succeed, and she heads out.



Year 12, Month 5


Alzar has finished making the Blanket of Night, and uses it to wrap about the Beacon of Light. They destroy each other, and Alzar has completed the ask to destroy an Ixion Artifact.


Alzar collects around 100,000 books from Thorasia and has finished tapping the plane everywhere.

Another pirate raid happens on his forces, and he heads out and captures 5 more pirate vessels, brings them under his control, and then uses his powers to determine guilt, and then holds public trials for those responsible for piracy against his nation. Meanwhile, some of them will be used for various effects like taking a permanency spells -1 constitution and such with Alzar’s spells.


Vix has not returned.

[Abe Sargent]

Begin Terrible Trouble at Tragidore




This adventure is a little odd. Like the Master’s screen that included the Spindle of Heaven. This is the adventure that comes with the first DM Screen for 2nd Edition. It was expected to be the first, intro-level module for 2nd Edition, to pair with the DM Handbook, Player Guide, and Monstrous Compendium, with the idea that you could run this canned adventure, and then have something to use to springboard. It has tips for DMs, such as how to change canned adventures around to suit the audience and such. But it’s a higher level adventure that pits someone against Dark Elves and powerful dorks, while also being pretty short and by the numbers. It was a failed attempt to duplicate the success of Keep on the Borderlands.

So what are we using it for?

I am just using it to break up my campaign, and flash out more of the central and western part of Alzar’s realm, while upping the power level of the module considerably. Are you ready?

[Abe Sargent]

As mentioned before, Alzar’s nation has a lot of lumber supplying elsewhere:



These are two main cities capitals of two adjacent hexes. To the east is the farming stronghold of Hanuman, one of the larger cities in the region, and has a few thousand people here. Hanuman’s growth and farming requires extensive timber, but that’s not really immediately available, and that’s where Tragidore comes in to the west. About 50% of the population of Hanuman, as you can see on the map, Tragidore doesn’t have the food-making capacity for its population, with the small farmlands to its east not being near enough to feed the town. Instead it has a huge timbering industry, and trades extra wood for food from Hanuman, and both towns have grown up around each other and each depends on the other.

Which is why Alzar has three envoys in his court today from Hanuman, and two more from Tragidore about the lumber supplies drying and communication was cut off from Tragidore. These two people from Tragidore proper have been outside of the town.

Normally, Vix would head out for a smaller issue like this, but Alzar decides to teleport over with the envoys to check things out. His Mass Teleport arrives at Hanuman with the envoys, and then they are let to head off while Alzar begins to investigate what has been happening at Tragidore. Tragidore used to have a mining interest in the southern hills here, but that dried up, and now wood is now its only main resource.

Alzar talks with some locals and summons his Griffin via his Mount spell. They tell him that trade had been slowly dwindling for a while, and ultimately, about 2 weeks ago it ended, and a group of six people from the town headed out to see what was happening and were never heard from again. Then a few women and a child arrived at Hanuman a few days ago with a story that most of the strong men, and a few of the strong woman, have disappeared, leaving very little left to defend the town or work, and some are fleeing the area.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar begins to fly over.

He spies a wagon on the road from Tragidore, and lands, and speaks with the three mothers and their children fleeing Tragidore and heading to Hanuman to start a new life after their husbands have been gone for months. He finds a few more fleeing Tragidore, and then secures their passage by landing in two places and dealing with bandits.

One place, in particular, was interesting. Not know who he was, a few vampire bandits arrived on the road with a group of 8 zombies and more than 20 bandits aiming weapons at him trying to get him to give up his money. The “vampires” where men with fake teeth, eyeblack around the eyes, and some flour dusted on the face to resemble a vampire at a distance, but, of course, Alzar wouldn’t have been fooled. Similarly, the “zombies” are normal bandits and the folks on the road they have been raiding aren’t asking questions. They have been feeding on his people, and their possessions while fleeing, and that does not sit well with Alzar. Not because Alzar is good, but because these are his people, and you aren’t messing with anything Alzar has, money, magical items, books, or one of his servants.

Alzar has captured every bandit in the three groups preying on the area, and he will later add 150 troops to this region of his area to help prevent further issues. Tragidore and Hanuman aren’t on the border, but are internal provinces in the vast section he gained, in the rough west-central part of his area. He will sentence those guilty and not magically forced or coerced, and then will have them be subjects of a spell or two before dying publicly and quickly.

Justice in Alzar’s area is fast, transparent, and certain, with divinatory magic used to confirm guilt.


Alzar arrives at Tragidore about 2 hours later of (mostly) flying as well as talking with people and battling.

[Abe Sargent]

On the outskirts of the town is a modest residential area, unremarkable save for the lack of activity. Very few people are coming and going, and all Alzar can see are children, older men, one younger man who is quite chubby, and women. It seems the fit have been mostly gone.

Alzar heads into town and arrives at a business district that isn’t doing much business, and there are no people at a local inn, and another tavern is closed. A third barely has any patronage. The level of activity here isn’t much greater than outside in the residential area.


Alzar heads deeper into Tragidore, and this theme continues. He finds a mage’s tower and in here is a woman mage named Marta who acts as a sort of hedge wizard for the area, doing small tasks like casting Locate Object to find missing things, offering some minor divinatory use, checking the alignment of a prospective couple looking to marry, offering minor potions for sale, and more. She is relatively low level in ability and intelligence (she’s an INT of just 11, and level 6).

Alzar speaks with Marta about the various issues here at the town, and she lets him know about the history of what she knows. A few months ago, some people began disappearing, and no one knew what was happening. In about 5 weeks or so, more than 150 people had gone missing, all stronger adults in their prime, mostly men, but not exclusively so. Now too many are gone to keep the trades going, and many have fled in the economic wake of the tragedy.

Alzar checks the rest of the town, but cannot find anymore, so he heads out on Griffin Wing to explore.

The first place he checks are the massed grasslands about a mile and a half north of the town before the large forest begins. There is a wide path here for multiple wagons to head down and the area is clearly one that is heavily lumbered.

[Abe Sargent]

While out here, Alzar finds a few things of note. He lands and slays a few plants like Mantraps (a version of a man-eating Venus Flytrap) and some Grab Grass here, and then a pack of worgs tries to make him dinner, and only three flee and escape after a few rounds of Selnyr killing them.

None of these dangers would cause the loss mentioned before.

The lumbering interests are not currently operating, and no one is out here. He comes across a few abandoned cottages, and it seems like weeks since anyone was here. Whatever is happening, it doesn’t seem to be here, but a few more flyovers occur, just to make sure.

Alzar heads south to the hills.

Alzar had begun with the woods, as many of the people disappeared while out working or up there, so it only made sense to check there first, but finding nothing, south seems the last logical area to check.

(This is where I am changing, not what is happening, but the details and the threat level).

As Alzar explores, he sees a newly constructed tower, one too new to be anything that is worn. It’s construction and deployment seem pretty similar to a magical item he has, the Instant Fortress:




This cube can be turned into an instant tower and used for defense, and then recalled back and moved again by the owner. Alzar has one too, and the tower is detecting as magical with his Star of Mo’Pilar used to verify it.

Alzar flies down to inspect the Instant Fortress.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar sees a large amount of local and recent activity here, about 13 miles south of the town. Alzar’s landing is protested by a family of lamia and their minions



(random.org)


Lamias are users of charms, suggestions, and such. Alzar’s arrival is initially deemed to prove very useful. They know who he is, and if they can charm the ruler of this land…? Well, they will be set up well indeed.

Missiles fly in and slay the griffin as they try to charm Alzar. It fails due to his Magic Resistance, or saves (in one case), with Alzar’s level so high, his saves are very low, and his magic items give his bonuses to saves, so only a 1 would fail with most magic.

Alzar’s axe is out.

One Lamia with 52 HP dies.

4 vs 2

They win init, and Alzar is missed a few times, and then clocked for 11. Then he slays another Lamia dealing 51 damage to it (Bracers that double his melee damage are nasty, although I am ruling they double the base die-rolled damage, not the bonuses, but dealing 2d8+ his bonuses over 1d8 is still a big change in tank-i-ness).


80/91

7 vs 3

Their minions hit for another 12, and the two remaining Lamias move off, galloping away. There were not melee’ing him, so he casts Power Word Kill as they flee, and one drops, the other slips into the Tower, and it’s doors close.

68/91

5 vs 8

Alzar casts a dispel magic and frees the charmed folks, and then they stop fighting and back off. These are 11 people from Tragidore, and they tell him that they were all loggers from the main town who were charmed months ago by the lamias to down below. Apparently, someone found a new vein of a rich ore here, and they needed quick labor to mine it, so the locals that were strong enough were magically coerced and brought down to work, with magic concealing their path to this tower.

Alzar healed himself with lighter Cure Light Wounds spells to keep more powerful magic ready.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar orders them to retreat back to their town and let the others know.

Alzar Conjures a Greater Earth Elemental and another Earth, and then the Elementals pound and after 11 minutes, they smash the gate in, and they head in to the Instant Fortress.

The defenders knew that Alzar was at their gates, and they have formed defenses. They have flipped over tables, armed four ballista with magical quarrels, have a number of murder holes, prepared some boiling oil magically, have around 100 defenders including Lamia, orcs, charmed or dominated local humans, and a group of elven mages and clerics here as well.

Alzar uses his Ring of Quick Action to go first, and then casts Time Stop. Mass Domination, Mass Charm and Mass Suggestion follow, and when it releases, he has retaken the locals, and orders them to drop their weapons and head back home, and then uses the orcs he controlled to turn on the lamias, and the Elementals smash in.


5 vs 7

Alzar’s forces kill 5 lamias, leaving 12, and the rest flee this level. Alzar leaps in front of 8 and casts Wail of the Banshee and kills 5 of them.

The others surrender, and he uses divinatory magic (ESP) to find out what is happening fully. A high level lamia noble teamed with a high level magic user after the wizard uncovered a powerful vein of one of the most rare elements on the plane, Valorite, which makes a bright royal blue metal that is very distinctive and strong. She and the Lamia noble agreed to work together to secure the resources needed to mine this rich vein of Valorite.


All of the elves, orcs, and humans locally, as well as a few halflings and dwarves she could find, were charmed and brought in. The mage used her magic to create this tower overnight, and use it as a base of operations directly over the mine, so that it wouldn’t appear that a new mine was in operation and to hide what was happening.

Alzar uses his Iron Bands of Bilarro to secure the surrendered lamias, and then frees the orcs, and elves and humans here and lets them go. About 10 want to join up and help, and he sets about them guarding the front door and getting defenses ready in case they need it. Alzar casts the Mind Defense on a female cleric of one to bring with him.

They finish this level, and find kitchen, dining area, living quarters, and defensive structures here, and Alzar heads up, not wanting to let them flank him when he heads down. He has the elementals guard as well, as they can’t fit up the tight spiral to the next level.

[Abe Sargent]

He heads up, and this level is less traversed. This is the home of the leader, and he finds a few traps, and then a rich bedroom, library, and such. He does use his clerical magic in a few places to dispel protective magics like Glyphs of Warding and Symbols, and a Fire Trap and Explosive Runes.

After clearing out the magical wards and entering the bedroom, a few golems here animate and attack!

Alzar vs 5 Iron Golems

2 vs 4

Alzar casts Hold Golem and one is paralyzed. They are immune to illusions and his cloak, he would take 14 from a punch, but it misses (he makes his avoidance roll from his thief skill list). His axe slaps one for 33 and then 36 damage but the shield misses.

IG - 51/120


5 vs 3

Alzar takes 22. He kills the wounded IG.


69/91
7 vs 9

Alzar misses, and then deals 44. The IGs miss back.


6 vs 3

Alzar takes 15. He slays the wounded IG, just two left


54/91

9 vs 2

Alzar takes 25 from two punches, and was hit twice. He casts HEAL and is fully healed.


6 vs 5

Alzar dodges a hit for 11. He wounds an IG for 65 after hitting a lot.

7 vs 8

Alzar finish the wounded golem, one left. It misses.

It does not context again, and Alzar wins.

[Abe Sargent]

Alzar finds:

Two rows of 450 books on arcane lore
51 books on golem crafting
20 books on mining and Valorite usage
Book on making a Valorite Golem

Zara’s Spellbooks

150000 gp worth of gold, jewels, and gems

But not as much as he expected with magical items. Huh.

He heads back to the first floor, and then down to the mines!

On the mining level, will be the sorceress Zara, a 30th level magic user, as well as her consort, a 29th level warrior, more than 200 charmed slaves, a Lamia Noble, and more than 20 other lamias. They know of Alzar’s arrival.

They are prepared. The mines aren’t as easily defensed as the large central room above, but they have used the hour or so to prepare traps, rockfalls, defenses, and more, using charmed people as bait and distractions for Alzar. It’s not common knowledge, of course, that Alzar is evil, so they assume that he would prioritize helping rescue a slave or two over bringing them all to justice. They assumed poorly.


Alzar heads down by himself, and sees the assembled group. Zara is not here, but everyone and everything else here. This central chamber is the storage area for the mine, and has a number of carts, mined ore, ingots made by a nearby forge, and more. Meanwhile, this area is trapped and defended quite nicely.


Alzar sees it, and that the one he wants, Zara isn’t here. He casts Time Stop from his stored spells, and then casts some dispels to break charms and then a final Disjunction to remove them all from the area, and then the spell lifts, and he orders the slaves to break and flee further, and they do. Suddenly, the battlefield is just a handful of lamia and a noble and a fighter. Angry at Alzar they are marching at him quickly to end him.

Battle begins

5 vs 3

Alzar is missed (cloak). He casts Chaos. Most are effected.

9 vs 6

Alzar is hit for 21 from various weapons, but they hit each other too, and Alzar finishes a wounded Lamia and then another. 2 down.

70/91

5 vs 7

Alzar’s axe takes out two more lamias, and then they hit each other. The fighter is using a bow very well from behind lines and he is peppered twice for 14, but that is the only damage he takes.

56/91

6 vs 4

Alzar takes 20, and one Lamia dies. Alzar carves two more dead.


36/91

5 vs 1

Alzar takes another 18. He casts heal.


9 vs 4

Alzar takes 16. One lamia dies from Chaos damage as some attacked each other. Alzar leaps next to the fighter and slices him for 44.

75/91

6 vs 2

The fighter quaffs a potion of Gaseous Form and slips away. Alzar could bring him back, but needs to finish this room and his axe and shield move to the adjacent lamias. One more dies.

4 vs 7

Alzar slays two more lamias, and takes 9.


66/91

1 vs 9

Two more die, and then a third with chaos. Alzar takes nothing.

Alzar finishes the group off and took 21 more damage doing so, and then casts some more minor magic. The Lamia Noble, the fighter, and two lamias fled this room. He casts Animate Dead and animates 20 lamia skeletons.

19 slaves died from various traps and tricks as Alzar went for the slavers first, and ignored any flesh shields they had erected.


Alzar’s undead pack will lead.

[Abe Sargent]

He finds a smelting room, some mining stations, mass sleeping chambers for slaves and guards, and more lamia bedcaves here. He kills another 10 lamia. He finds the last room here, a smith that pounds the ingots into needed forms for use in various magical devices.

Alzar finds Zara, her consort, and the Lamia Noble here.


Zara casts Time Stop. She uses Strip Resistance, the Cleaving, and then casts Spell Immunity: Abjuration, which works against most attempts to drop shields, as that magic is abjurative in nature. She has stoneskin up as well.

Battle begins…


6 vs 7

Alzar casts Evard’s Black Tentacles before he is based by the fighter or targeted by the Lamia Noble. They reach up and grab the fighter at missile range, and he takes 31 damage, but is high enough level to free himself. The LN takes 28, and again, spends the round freeing herself. Zara casts Power Word Kill at Alzar. Can it crack his reduced MR? Yes. Will it work against his Ring of Spell Turning? Yes, he makes the forced save, and it rebounds, and she makes hers.


4 vs 3

Alzar takes 22 from missile damage and The Lamia Noble casts Greater Magic Missile and 10 darts fly out for 42 damage. Zara adds a normal MM of 5 darts for 19. Alzar casts Heal. He wishes he had gotten his Gem of Magic Missile Reflection prepared for this battle. His undead (now just 9 skeletons) miss.


5 vs 8

Alzar retakes initiative. He flings a skulltrap with a taken lamia skull at them and hits for 38, save for half, both do. The skeletons add 10 to the fighter, and miss the Lamia Noble. Zara dispels the skeletons with a spell, and the noble casts a normal MM for 22 and Alzar takes 15 missile damage


54/91

6 vs 7

Alzar casts Maze on the fighter and he disappears for 5 rounds. Zara casts dispel and brings him back Alzar makes the save on the nobles PW kill.


8 vs 5

They take init from Alzar, and then he takes 19 damage from the fighter, and then two Finger of Deaths. He uses his final Heal spell.

3 vs 2

They keep init. Alzar takes 43 from a lightning bolt, arrows, and makes another save vs an auto-kill spell. Alzar needs assistance and brings in his deus ex machina. A Worldwake spell to his hold with the Death Tyrants brings them out and 7 undead beholders enter the smithy.

48/91

6 vs 3

The lamia noble, seeing the shift in battle, uses a teleport spell to get away before the beholders can place her in their anti-magic zones. The fighter’s sword cleaves deeply into one for 33 damage, and Zara physically runs out of the room to escape, but not before her protections are dropped. Alzar leaps after Zara and can’t melee her, but can fire arrows at her. She takes 31 from the six fired arrows. Alzar beholders petrify the fighter.

2 vs 8


Alzar wins init. Him and cause damage spells finish Zara.

Alzar casts his new shiny teleport track spell, and then follows the wounded Lamia Noble after drinking a healing potion.

Battle continues

9 vs 8

Alzar takes 18 damage from a Flame Arrow spell at him. He hits for 55 damage.

She falls.

Alzar grabs her corpse and heads back to the smithy.

[Abe Sargent]

He’ll later flesh to stone back the fighter and kill him, and use the Death Mask of Ptah to keep them from bringing some heat against him.

Down here, Alzar finds:

100 +2 ballista bolts of piercing

+4 longbow, 20 +4 arrows
+3 bastard sword

Ring of Spell Storing – Teleport (used)

Scroll of Wish

1 potion of Gaseous Form

50000 gp worth of jewelry

+4 Ring of Protection

Alzar frees the slaves and will return to resurrect the dead slaves.

All told, around 135 people died, but hundreds were freed, around 20 of those death will be brought back, and the town will recover. Meanwhile, Alzar will invest 50k gp in expanding the mines here, making a road, and such, and will open a valorite mine, and the value of this province will increase considerably. He will leave behind the ballista and such to protect the mines and build a defensive structure to accompany the additional 150 troops he is bringing here.


In about a year, Alzar will have an extremely valuable Valorite Golem.

The trouble has ended, but it will take some time for it to fully recover. He takes the Instant Fortress.


End Terrible Trouble at Tragidore


Meh. I find that module to be pretty minor. It’s also very gender-ish. I changed some of the details, as all the people taken are men to work the mines, and all of the women are panicking and fleeing. Why aren’t wives going up and heading out and leading an exploration? Why aren’t strong women being selected to work the mines too? Wouldn’t you rather have a younger women with a STR of 17 than n a middle-aged man with a STR of 7? It’s very poorly conceived, so I modified it. I’m actually surprised this module was cowritten by a woman, but Jean Rabe has been one of the least pro-woman female writers I’ve ever encountered, and this seemed no different.

I also added in the lamia nobles, fortress, defenses, and such. In the module, it’s a single lamia, but I wanted an entire clan as I felt that was more interesting and believable.

So, I used the basic idea of the module, but I probably rewrote around 50% of it to run it today.

Enjoy!

[Abe Sargent]

Where is Alzar’s immortality quest right now?

Here’s an update for Alzar’s Immortality paths


Ssu-Ma’s Path of the Epic Hero

Win the Demonwars for Law without using the Crook of Infaust. DONE
Create a legendary weapon. DONE
Have the best library in Pandius. (Ssu-Ma currently ranks it 2nd best). Ongoing
Open up his library to more knowledge seekers. Ongoing.
Turn over some of the control of his library to Ssu-Ma. Ongoing.
Increase the literacy rate of his nation by at least 50% (Currently 49%) Ongoing.



Nyx’s Fifth Path to Entropy

Create a new race of undead, introduce them to the world, and have them grow and flourish for 2 years. Mighty Wight created, Ongoing
Find an artifact of Ixion, and destroy it. DONE
Defile a temple of Ixion’s. DONE
Create a new school of shadow magic here on Pandius, and support it’s creation. Mostly Done
Add darkness to Pandius in some major way (literally, not figuratively). DONE
Create a magical item dedicated to the cause of Nyx. Not Yet

[Abe Sargent]

Year 12, Month 6

Alzar purchases another 50k books from Hamedh. That plane is mostly tapped out, so in a half year, Alzar has basically purchased books from most private dealers, stores, and owners across three planes.

Some of Alzar’s books will remain in his personal library, although most won’t.

He arrives at Jaspa’a and purchases another 100k books.


A meteor crashes from the sky out in the central plains of his holding, about 150 miles north of Tragidore and Hanuman.

Vix still has not returned.

The order for 150 more soldiers by Tragidore and Hanuman is beginning.

The Grand Duchy population growth has ebbed from the core areas, save for Evenarrow and south on the Great Bay shores, it’s mostly plateaued in places like Bergholm, Raider’s Point, Riverton and more.

Alzar spends this month building a ten-building teleport maze in Evenarrow that can be used for fun. Each building cannot be entered from outside, save for the starting building. There are four portals in each building, and a riddle on the side of the wall that, if answered, will tell someone the right portal to take to get to the next one, and then eventually out. You can randomly get out, get out by order, or just quit and exit with a portal out of each room.

He got the idea from “Dungeon.”

[Abe Sargent]

There are three adventures left.

But, there is around 122 pages of Word left. To be fair I quote and slow roll the next adventure M5 and take my time with it. But still, three adventures left!


Begin M4. Five Coins for a Kingdom







Before her daughter leaves and joins her in the immortal realm, Nyx has one last task for Alzar and Vix, although she won’t tell them that. Behind the scenes, Nyx is connecting Evenarrow with another city in order to set into motion Alzar and Vix hitting and taking out a big bad. There is an immortal-seeker of the immortal Orcus. Orcus and Nyx are heavy rivals. This seeker has almost finished his quest, but even Orcus has disowned him, he’s that power-mad.


Orcus has a powerful artifact called the Shadow Belt that is nasty powerful he ensures that his immortal questers find. If they can handle the power of the Shadow Belt, then they can handle the power of immortality, but if not then it’s good to know now. Nyx wants her two immortality entrants to take out the immortal quester, hurt Orcus, and then recover this powerful artifact and use it and rededicate it in the name of Nyx.

But she is manipulating behind the scenes.


Alzar and Vix are out touring a local city. And then they teleport back home to Evenarrow….


The city has disappeared!

[ntndeacon]

Vix is BACK!!!!! woohoo!

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by ntndeacon

Vix is BACK!!!!! woohoo!

Yeah she is! But not for too much longer...

[Abe Sargent]

Where has Evenarrow gone?

The area is still here. The land is here and the structures just gone. Alzar investigates, and after using magic to track it, he sees the city far away up in space and moving towards Pandius’s sun.

A massive bright light is shining down and something is streaking down from the heavens above, and looks to hit the ground just in front of Alzar and Vix. Like a comet or a meteor that is about to strike. However, the thing hits the ground and leaves behind an odd shaped coin. A copper-ish piece.

Alzar bends down to look at the coin and it’s written in a bizarre language that makes no sense and is clearly glowing as magic.

As the piece arrives, a ghostly image of a wizard shoots up from the coin. Standing before Alzar and Vix is an old man in copper-colored robes, outlined in transparent flames, the image shimmers and comes in and out of focus.

The image speaks.

“I hope this token has found brave adventures that are willing for fight for law. I bring greetings from another prime material plane. We, the ruling Wizards of the kingdom of Trann are in great danger, and you may be in the same danger.

Our capital city, Solius, the jewel and essence of our land of Trann has vanished. The ruler of a rival nation, Durhan the Conqueror, cast this powerful enchantment that leaves our land helpless before his invading armies, but we sense his magic has spread to nearby planes as well, and will continue to do so, finding it’s way to all prime planes.

We were betrayed by an ally of Durhans’s, and are now held captive in the treasury of our old kingdom, beneath the site of or city, now heading towards the sun. Our magic has been mostly forced from us, but together, we have sent five coins to your nation that can be collected and used to bring you to our land, survive in it, and set us free, so we can restore the city. Our welfare depends on your strength and courage”

The image flickers and vanishes.

Alzar picks up the Copper Coin.

[Abe Sargent]

Each coin has been imprinted with a number of runes and words from their plane, but they give off a strong magical aura.

This coin is designed to be a compass to the other four coins, and as Alzar holds it, they can make out a pulse coming from the west. They head out.

About an hour later of flying in the Chariot of Vix, they arrive in the Ljallenvals Mountains near a cliff.

This section of cliffside is littered with rubble and boulders. It looks like there has been a great battle with a huge stone giant, bigger than their normal kind here suffering the after effect and badly hurt. The giant is almost unconscious, with each breath seemingly painful.

Alzar steps over and casts Heal, fully healing the giant.

The giant rises, and then smiles a wide and stony grin at them. It introduces himself as Granite, a mercenary in the employ currently of the Jarl of Ostwald to the south, and he is on a mission to recover a great treasure taken by an ancient blue wyrm here in the mountains. Alzar mentions his need for a silver coin here in the caves where the dragon is supposed to be as well.

Granite asks to fight with Alzar and Vix, and three of them will take on the dragon. The dragon took his magical sword, so Alzar lets him borrow Wyrmcleaver, a sword that acts as vorpal sword again dragons. Before they head in, Alzar conjures some allies to help, a Greater Earth Elemental and a normal Earth.

They move in to the cave. Alzar sees and dispels an illusion that gives the dragon coverage.

They arrive in the cavern, with the illusion dispelled, and in place in a pile of bones, and the entrance to the dragon’s lair is behind it. This is the home of Dominagon the Ancient Blue Wyrm, the most powerful level a dragon can hit. Alzar and Vix prepared some anti-blue magic, such as lightning protection.

[Abe Sargent]

Vix is going to head in first, to take the front, and then they will head behind, with the elementals both flanking and preventing it from easily escaping. They head in a great sword is cracking energy in front of them. This is Granite’s sword, and the dragon has breathed on it, electrifying the sword. The dragon shouts out, “what have you done with my treasure!?! I will kill you!” and then breathes at Vix, and she is immune with her Protection from Electricity cast on her by Alzar’s clerical magic. She is zarked by the sword as she nears, and then closes to melee range, and then Alzar is shocked by the sword for nothing, Granite takes 11, and the elementals each 10, and then the charge leaves the sword.

4 vs 8

Granite bases the dragon. Vix hits for 22. Alzar casts Temporary Youth to weaken it. The elementals hold. The dragon attacks and hits for 19 and 33 on Vix biting her.

99/151


8 vs 6

They take another 45 on Vix. Alzar casts Cure Critical Wounds and heals 35. Then they hit for another 19 on the dragon. It’s hard to hit with it’s seriously low AC, even after weakening with Alzar’s spell.

89/151


2 vs 5

Alzar casts another Cure Crit, and then his team adds 22. The dragon hits with every attack for 56.

68/151

5 vs 6

Alzar casts Heal on Vix. They hit for 27 more with an Elemental punch finally connecting. Granite hit with a 18, almost a vorpal auto-kill. Vix adds 33 more damage

118/151

8 vs 6

Vix takes another 40. They smash for 23, and then Alzar adds 33 more.


78/151

1 vs 2

They hit for another 46 total, and the Wyrm dies. Alzar will carve it up later, but Granite takes his sword back and swaps it with Alzar’s Wyrmcleaver. Granite begins to cut off the head. Other than a silver coin on the ground, there is no more treasure here! No wonder the blue was annoyed and attacked immediately, when they don’t always do that.

The Silver Coin:



This coin allows the wielder to cast the spell Polymorph Self once/day if held by the same person as the Copper Coin. Alzar hands them to Vix so she can amp her skills a bit. Alzar heals Vix with Cure Lights, and offers for Granite to join them, but he declines, he has to return the head to the Jarl for his contract. Alzar offers to teleport them over now, so the giant can finish the arrangement, get his reward now, and then they can go. Granite agrees and will join them


Granite, Stone Giant, Mercenary, Neutral

AC -1, HD 16, HP – 86, THACO – 5, has +3 two-handed sword, +5 vs dragons, with that, Thaco drops to 2, and for skill to -1. Specialist with giant sized two-handed swords, can attack 2/round, gets +3 to hit, and +3 to damage. Deals 2d10+14 for each hit. Granite was assisted by Alzar in his quest to slay an ancient blue wyrm, and was healed by Alzar. Now he has joined as an ally of Alzar. Note that Granite is more powerful than his kind typically are.

[Abe Sargent]

Vix is led by the copper piece to a place and they teleport to the Jotunheimr Hills. Vix is led by the coin to a low cliff with scrub trees at the base. About 20’ up its is the a carcass of a deer, and a patches of fur hang from tree branches, along with some very large feathers. Inside the cave can be made out the singing of a nursery rhyme.

Alzar makes a skill check roll. The feathers and location suggest sphinxes to him. He heads up, leaving the others behind, and moves to the front of the cave, calling out to the sphinxes within. The male moves to the front of the cave, and the mother slips two sphinx cubs to the back and moves to protect them. Alzar and the male talk a bit, and he can see a coin in the shelter. The male sphinx is willing to trade it for food, but Alzar doesn’t have any food on him. The sphinx gives Alzar a riddle instead, and Alzar makes his INT score guess and knows the answer.

They move and give him the odd black-metal coin, and then they move off.




When Vix holds the Black Coin, she can cast Programmed Illusion 2/day if she has the other coins in her possession.

[Abe Sargent]

Vix’s copper coin pulls her north, and after identifying the area with a crystal ball, they teleport to a great pond in the area. Almost the size of a lake really. The group finds themselves before a large stagnant lake. A few plants poke up here and there through the lake, and a slight shimmering can be seen.

The shimmering form, clearly undead, forms into the image of a pale man with pale blue clothes, and dripping wet, and wrapped in plants, bleeding from many wounds. The man carries a small casket in his hands, and then sees Alzar and says, “all of my wealth for a breath of air.”

It’s common for spirit based undead to require something they had undone or to reverse their death so they can flee this realm. Alzar agrees to give it a breath of air. It walks onto land, and Alzar, Vix, and Granite dig a small grave, and then the ghost lays down. Alzar casts water breathing on the ghost, but it didn’t work, the ghost is still here. Alzar then casts Speak with Distant Dead, and it just wants to be buried here, Alzar doesn’t need to do anything special. They bury the ghost, the spirit disappears, and the chest remains.

Alzar picks the lock, and inside is a gold coin.





The gold coin lets Vix create three potions per day of any standard type by touching a vessel with pure water in it, as long as she has the other coins in her possession.

[Abe Sargent]

The copper coin is pointing behind them for the final coin, and it pointing into the lake they are already beside! Alzar and Vix have Necklaces of Adaptation, so they can enter water fine without needed to breathe. Vix creates a water breathing potion for Granite, and he drinks it, and then they head into the lake, which is more than a normal lake…


The water is foul and muddy, and a few stunted plants and rocks can be made out and covered with scum. Following the coin takes them deeper and deeper and the light from above dwindles. They see some shapes that appear to be, not freshwater, but saltwater plants and items, like coral and seaweed, which is odd. There are flat-disk creatures that move towards their party!



There are 75 of these monsters here!


Alzar casts Time Stop, then Wail of the Banshee, then Death Spell and then the spell sends


(random.org)

They finish the remaining devilfish in around seven rounds. They took minor damage, which Alzar healed.

In the coral reefs here is a glinting platinum piece, and they grab it.

Platinum Piece

Vix may control one creature up to 40 hp, 4/day, and at will move to the plane of Eloysia or Pandius, if the owner has all five coins.

Alzar and his party return, rest to reload their spells, and then activate the five coins, and head to Eloysia

[Abe Sargent]

The prime material plane of Eloysia is in some ways a reverse image of Pandius. Whereas on Pandius the world floats through the vast emptiness of space, here on Eloysia, the realm is filled with these teeming bits of material and there are great islands that orbit the sun itself. They are on one of those great islands, the island of Trann, the island kingdom of the Ruling Wizards. Nearby is another island, and that’s like Volde. There are two great tethering cables that connect the two islands.

Alzar can’t see the former capital here, but scrying magic shows that I’s overhead, and about 2/3rds of the way to the sun!

The party is standing in an empty field, much like the one left behind in Evenarrow. The coins fall to the ground after activating. They can be picked up again. Long grass is here waving and a pond nearby with an island in its center lingers. The sun hangs in the middle of the globe, with great islands crossing overhead in the filament.

On a hill overlooking the former capital of Trann, the are a few buildings standing that were outside of the radius of the capital city. They are a mausoleum and graveyard, a wishing well, and a few other buildings. Alzar and party head over to the hill and on it there are a few structures. There’s also a moat around the castle and other things in the ground that show this was once the capital, but no longer.

They arrive first at a wishing well. Now that they are back home, the runes and lettering can be deciphered by Alzar’s axe, which can allow him to read languages at will. The copper coin is the coin of Warrick, and the rune of Warrick is on the coin. It’s also the rune on this well. It’s a great fountain that serves as a wishing well. And it’s on.

Alzar tosses the copper coin of Warrick into the well, making a wish. A small fragile globe filled with green vapor rises from the well. Alzar gets information on it as well. When broken in battle, this will work to help destroy the Conqueror’s guards.

One of the buildings here is an oddly shaped building that is constructed in the form of a dragon sitting on all fours. The stonework is very well done, and the dragon’s head appears to rear back fiercely, with its mouth open. The mouth is bricked over and the eyes missing, and in the belly of the stone dragon are two large blue-steel doors.

Alzar knows petrification, and this building was once a great blue dragon that was petrified and then turned into this building. Alzar finds and dispels some magical defenses, like symbols. They open the doors and head in.

[Abe Sargent]

This large, oval-shaped room has a rounded ceiling and walls with vertical bulges like ribs. There is a beam overhead like a spine, and other similarities to an actual dragon. There are silk-covered divans, big pillows, billowing tapestries, and thick carpet. The room is plush and exotic. This is the living quarters of a wizard, and Alzar can make out a few mage accoutrements.

The staircase leads up, and they head into the head, which is a study. This room has a rounded stone ceiling, long wooden tables, shelves of books, and more, with some lab equipment to the left. This is a wizard’s story. In this room is a small blue dragon, flitting around.

Alzar communicates with her. She is Popiel, a baby dragon who is the familiar of the wizard who lives here, Saybrook. She tells about what is happening, and implores Alzar to help her master be freed. He agrees. She flies up and Alzar sees a slot for a coin under her, and her places the silver coin of Saybrook into the slot, and out comes a Round Marble Key.


They head back out, with Popiel leading the way. They reach a giant granite statue of a sphinx resting, and outstretched paws concealing an entrance to a downward tunnel. Over it is a rune telling of a person who lives here, Kendell, it’s the same rune as the Black Coin.

They head into the tunnel and move down. Inside the sphinx is a big, well-lit room about 60 by 30 that resembles a museum, with numerous animal sculptures here. There are lions in bronze, swans of glass, wild horses in iron, deer in brass, and such. Each of the room’s four walls are colored with a bright fresco, and over the doorway is a scene of a royal court.

Alzar can detect something off, and the Star reveals that much of this room is an illusion, including the animal sculptures. On the endtable, one statue is not an illusion, one of a Black Metal akin to the one the coin is made of. As Alzar moves there, the frescos on the wall disappear and instead maps of the kingdom, appear, and they include the treasury, which is where the Wizards are held. Like a bank, there is a slot in here. Alzar slips in the Black Coin, and gets full knowledge of how to get to the treasury.

Within a few minutes of leaving the sphinx, they begin sweating heavily. Without the city here, the heat from the sun is hot. And the sun is far away, but bigger than Pandius’s sun.

Next Alzar and company arrive at the Mausoleum and graveyard. As the area is approached, a cold breeze beckons from in front of them. Low, ivy-colored walls with thick pillars in front hold a great golden door with the likeness of a face it in, and this is the hold of Jacaine, one of the five Ruling Wizards, and the one with the golden coin.

They head in.

[Abe Sargent]

This place is gloomy, theatrical, and haunted. Alzar finds and dispels some symbols and other magic traps, and then finds and removes some mundane traps as well, including an acid bath trap.

As they head in, a dark scratching voice intones” Think upon thy life, mortal, and resolve to live it better!”

These gloomy sentiments are repeated, and carved into the entrance walls of the tunnel. As they finish, a ghost comes to Alzar, and asks, “Is there any way we may be of assistance, sir?” almost like a butler. They head into a room with the ghost butler. There are poster beds, a large coffin, open with nothing in it, and a number of other accoutrements of the wizard who lives here.

Alzar inquires of the ghost, named Dreeval, and he tells Alzar of the various rooms here, and there is a golden tray carried by Dreeval. Alzar puts his gold coin on the tray, and then it disappears, and on the tray appear a number of magical potions which should, according to the info Alzar has gotten, wake the Wizards and fully restore/refresh their powers.

They head out to the final building here, a temple made to a local immortal. Platinum pillars are here and more than 15’ tall to support the roof, and a narrow band of elaborately carved marble extends to the roof above the platinum supports. The stairs here heading up surround the temple, and a platform is in the middle. They arrive, and a shrine is here, with no protective elements here, no traps, no magical wards, not even walls or doors.

A roof frieze above shows the wizard who lives here, Dyan, fighting off various monsters and elementals. A great platinum altar is here to an unknown immortal. Alzar places his coin into a platinum dish on the altar.

Suddenly there is a burning odor, and the immortal venerated here (Nyx) had decided to bequeath Alzar 20 Bronze Golems as aid in taking out the forces of the Conqueror. A voice intones, “Yours to command.” And fades.

They leave the temple, and head back down the hill.

[Abe Sargent]

Now that Alzar knows where everything is, and has the items and knowledge needed, he should be able to free the five Ruling Wizards.

The treasury vault entrance is hidden and concealed, Alzar finds and opens it with the Marble Key.

Inside is a great staircase leading down and it is too small for Granite and the golems, so Alzar leaves them here. Only Vix and the small dragon Popiel join him.

There is a steep incline down, and Alzar casts Mass Flight and Vix and him descend down, to the bottom. There are a number of traps here that showed on the map, so Alzar finds and disarms them quickly. In one door there was an obvious trap that guarded the door, and then a subtle trap as well, and if you opened the door after disarming the obvious trap without searching again, this nastier one would hit you, but Alzar knows everything from the maps he saw in the sphinx, and the knowledge gained there by the coin.

Then they arrive at a giant lead vault, that protects the vault from outside teleportation and detection magics, and a great anti-magic shell made permanent is here as well.

Popiel tells them of the layout in here, and moves to cover a few traps and secret doors that need counter mechanisms to stop.

They arrive at the vault, and the moment they do, seven nasty, three-armed giants step forward, and they are powerful indeed.

These are powerful Athaches!

Athatch



Alzar flings the sphere and the glass breaks, and the mist inside moves up and devours the great giants, and all seven guards die.

[Abe Sargent]

The small dragon familiar flies to it’s master

There is a mummified beholder eye here hitting the area with an anti-magic, and Alzar takes it out, and the five ruling wizards are here, tied up. Alzar breaks their chains, and then gives them the potions, and they are fully healed and repowered.

They leave the vault behind and get away from it’s anti-magic shell.

The five wizards head outside and begin to work together to bring their city back down from the sun. The sky is filled with fire but they are not able to fully reverse it’s effects on their own, and Alzar is asked to join them. He does so, and uses his life to help them….


Round 1 –

Alzar loses 10 hp. The city begins to halt it’s progress

81/91

Round 2 –

Alzar loses 15 hp. The city has been stopped, but it remains hanging in the air, not moving anymore.

66/91

Round 3 –

Alzar loses 20 hp. The city has just barely started moving back down. It will take years to return at this rate.

46/91

Round 4 –

Alzar loses 25 hp. The city has reached a speed to bring it back down safely, but not so fast that things or people would be damaged. It should return in about 12 days


21/91


Alzar casts some lighter healing magic to heal himself.