| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Thauramarth |
Posted - 22 Sep 2007 : 00:27:50
The following is a write-up of the background of the Thaydeye, a Realms-related artifact, which I thought I'd put out here.
The Thaydeye was supposed to be part of the solution to one of the overall plots for a campign. The players never got around to it, but I adapted the background to tie in with some NPC actions. The write-up is divided into four posts; the first three contain a "transcript" of a conversation with the great blue wyrm Maeldraedior (aka "The Millenium Wyrm"), who was supposed to provide the player characters with this information. The text contains some footnotes, which are written up in the fourth post.
EDIT: Very appropriate - Post #100, first topic I ever started. |
| 4 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Thauramarth |
Posted - 22 Sep 2007 : 00:33:21
4. Background and (some) Gaming Information
[1] Maeldraedior was drawn from the 2nd Edition adventure "The Millenium Wyrm", featured in the supplement FOR1 – Draconomicon. The background was used as part of a long-term adventure hook that was supposed to lead the PCs to raid the tomb of Ythazz Buvaar, recover the Thaydeye, to use it to counter a plot by extraplanar forces to attack Faerűn.
[2] At this time, Set was considered a protector deity of Mulhorand, shielding the realm from the horrors of the night.
[3] The idea for the great and sinister machinery (inventively named "the Machine") comes from a variety of sources. The Forgotten Realms Adventures hardcover mentions that the Red Wizards drew their exceptional magical powers from an artifact located below Amruthar, which was destroyed, deactivated or stolen during the Time of Troubles. I envisaged the artifact as having been created by a race that had preceded the illithid empire, and may have played a role in the success of the Gith uprising. The race was supposed to be similar to H.P. Lovecraft's Great Old Ones, originating in the Far Realm.
[4] Thayd's minions could not wield spells of their own, because they had been part of a Circle spell, which had transformed all their magic power to Thayd, who needed it to control the Machine.
[5] In this version of history, Thayd was not a villain per se; I envisaged him more like a ruthless but not necessarily evil and brilliant archmage (an antihero in the mold of Elric of Melniboné or Raistlin Majere). He used the Machine to counter an undefined menace, which threated to open planar rifts and invade the Realms. The Machine would have been connected to that menace, and could be used to facilitate or hinder their plans. Thayd (for reasons of his own) was using the Machine to block the invasion, but was rudely interrupted by the Mulhorandi. As such, he could not turn away the invaders completely, leaving some rifts unsealed. Later, orc shamans stumbled on one of these rifts, and used them to invade Mulhorand, resulting in the Orcgate Wars.
[6] For the purposes of history, Thayd was a master of the school of Incantation, using anti-magic fields to deny his magic-wielding adversaries the use and the benefit of magic, and then moving in to kill them in hand-to-hand combat.
[7] This conveniently removed Maeldraedior from the scene, leaving even him to speculate exactly how Set overcame Thayd. I had not decided on this myself, but I wanted to keep a couple of options open – Set was already on the path of evil, and simply claimed victory. Or, Set was an OK kind of deity, but was corrupted by the backlash from the Machine spinning out of control.
[ 8] In this version of history, the Orc gods needed the rift to be able to sent manifestations that were of equal or superior power than the Mulhorandi and Untheric God-Kings. Maeldraedior is insinuating that Set held off closing the rift until Gruumsh overcame Re. I also made a note that some Mulhorandi may have associated Thayd at the time of his execution (missing one eye, remember?) and the appearance of Gruumsh One-Eye (also missing one eye, see?).
[9] I got the idea for Nezram from FR4 – The Magister and FR10 – Old Empires. I had not decided if this Nezram was "the" Nezram mentioned in the supplements (which would require an explanation of how the man managed to survive until 643 DR, when the wizard left Toril; or would require me to change the dates of the Nezram-related events, including the destruction of his tower, and the scattering of his descendants, the Nezramites).
[10] Set had sent many servants out into the Raurin desert and into the Planes to recover as many Imaskari artifacts as he possibly could gather.
[11] I never detailed the powers of the Thaydeye – the item was never supposed to be used as an artifact in play. Its main powert would have been the memories and knowledge of Thayd, enhanced by the knowledge the artifact acquired over its centuries of use. Ythazz Buvaar used the knowledge of Thayd to activate the artifact that gave the Red Wizards their additional powers. The successive wielders (Set, Thoth and his servants, the Narfelli, Eltab, and Ythazz Buvaar) imbued the artifact with many powers. However, the Players were not supposed to keep the Artifact – they were supposed to use a modified version of the clone spell to bring Thayd back from the dead, and counter the alien invasion. In addition, unbeknownst to Ythazz Buvaar, the Thaydeye was a requirement for the Red Wizard's artifact to work properly. The return of Thayd took place before the Time of Troubles; in this version of history, the Red Wizards' loss of the artifact-granted powers dated from before the Time of Troubles, but the Reds managed to cover up the disappearance of certain of their powers (which, in this version of history, drove some of them into alliances with the lords of the Elemental Plane of Fire, leading to the Salamander Wars). The Time of Troubles would be a very convenient excuse for the disappearance of their powers.
[12] As far as my version of history was concerned, Set and the Elves had obtained the secret of creating the memory stones from the same mysterious source. Probably the illithid's predecessors.
[13] According to Spellbound, Ythazz Buvaar survives as a demilich in the catacombs of Bezantur. And that's where the Thaydeye was. |
| Thauramarth |
Posted - 22 Sep 2007 : 00:31:34
3. Transformation, Loss, and Recovery
The God-King Thoth understood the value of such an item, especially since Set had also gathered stores of the Imaskari magic that the Thaydeye was created to detect and protect against. Thoth decided that such an item could turn out to be useful against all those that would ever use Imaskari magic again, especially Set.Even though the Thaydeye was infused with Set's magic, the priests of Thoth modified it to allow them to better detect and counteract the magic of Set, who made heavy use of the Imaskari magic he had concealed in his secret strongholds in the Raurin desert. It helped them to counter the magic used by Set's followers, but they used it only sparingly. The Mulhorandi did not know exactly what they were holding, but they knew the origin of its powers well – the heretic magic of the renegade Thayd. The Mulhorandi also used the Thaydeye to resist the Narfelli, who also used fiendish magic akin to Thayd's when they made war upon Mulhorand and Unther. During the war, the Thaydeye was captured by the Narfelli, who, in turn, modified it, and started using it against the Raumathar. It was still held by the Narfelli when Narfell and Raumathar destroyed each other in a great conflagration, in which both camps had summoned tanar'ri to fight for them. The fate of the Thaydeye remained unknown for several decades, until it is revealed that it had been captured by the tanar'ri prince Eltab, who ruled the lands east of Lake Mulsantir for several decades, until his defeat at the hands of the warrior Yvengi and the Raumviran Witches known as the Hathran. Eltab was banished from the Realms, and probably took the Thaydeye with him to his realm in the Abyss.
The Thaydeye then disappeared from Realmslore, until Eltab returned to the Realms, summoned by the rebellious Mulhorandi wizards, who later called themselves the Red Wizards of Thay, after Thayd, whose magic they had rediscovered and employed. Ironically, they were unaware that the demon prince Eltab, whom they had summoned to assist them in the struggle against the God-Kings, wore the Thaydeye, the last mortal remains of Thayd. The Red Wizards defeated the God-Kings' army in the Battle of Thazalhar, where Eltab used the enhanced powers of the Thaydeye to slaughter Mulhorandi by the thousands. Few knew the origin of Eltab's extraordinary might, but minions of mine were present during the battle (on both sides, I should add), and their recollections allowed me to determine with certainty that the Thaydeye had returned to the Realms.
After the defeat of the Mulhorandi, Eltab was beset by the Red Wizards, who had no intention of letting the tanar'ri roam unchecked. Eltab was defeated by the joined might of the Red Wizards. The Red Wizards suffered considerable casualties in the battle to contain the demon lord, however, and the survivors went to extensive lengths to keep the fate of Eltab a secret. And Eltab's fate will remain a secret – for the time being, at least. Eltab did not return to his realm in the Abyss, and he had not been seen since the Battle of Thazalhar. However, the Thaydeye was recovered from Eltab before he was imprisoned, however, and it was Ythazz Buvaar, the leader of the Red Wizards, who took the amulet for himself. I know this, because the appearance and some of the powers of the amulet were recorded by an apprentice of Ythazz Buvaar's. The notebook does not mention the Thaydeye by name. The apprentice did not know what he was lusting after. In any event, the name was forgotten by reason of it centuries' long absence from the Realms while it was worn by Eltab, but Ythazz Buvaar's apprentice described the Thaydeye and its powers in considerable detail. The apprentice coveted the Thaydeye, and tried to appropriate it, but was caught. He barely managed to escape Thay to Telflamm, but it did not avail him: his master's wrath caught up with him in Telflamm, and he was destroyed. Some of his possessions were recovered by scavengers, and the notebook containing the description of the Thaydeye was among them. The notebook passed from hand to hand, and it came to rest in my hoard. Ythazz Buvaar was the last bearer of the Thaydeye. In the centuries since his disappearance, I have not come across any records of its use.
You seek the Thaydeye? Find Ythazz Buvaar [13], and you will find the Thaydeye. |
| Thauramarth |
Posted - 22 Sep 2007 : 00:30:46
2. The Birth of the Thaydeye
A few years after Thayd's execution, the northern provinces of Mulhorand, were overrun by hundreds of thousands of orcs, who streamed through a portal known today as the Orcgate. The orcs spread in every direction, but most headed south, towards the Old Empires. This led to a war, in which the God-Kings themselves had to become involved, which provoked the intervention of the Orcs' gods. Gruumsh One-Eye managed to kill several God-Kings, including Re, the Pharaoh of the Gods, before the Orcgate was closed. Set, who had played such an essential role in saving Mulhorand from Thayd's rebellion, again saved Mulhorand by leading a band of heroes to close the Orcgate. As luck would have it, two among those heroes were minions of mine, although they were not even aware ot it. Only one survived, but his mind yielded excellent insight into Set's exploits. First of all, the energies surrounding the Orcgate were familiar – I had felt them before, in the dark vaults deep below the Thaymount. While the heroes were protecting Set from the dark servants of the orc shamans, Set wielded impressive magic, which brought down the Orcgate. It did not close in time to prevent Gruumsh One-Eye from slaying Re, however. Now, mind you, I was not there, and in the heat of battle, the best laid plans go awry. One can only imagine that the Orcgate had ways of protecting itself, that Set had to overcome these, and that Set could not have closed the Orcgate more quickly. Which is a pity, because if the Orcgate had been closed more quickly, Re would have survived – without the Orcgate allowing him to channel power directly from his extraplanar domains, Gruumsh would not have been able to overcome Re. Yes, it is a pity that Set was unable to act faster... [ 8]
It took the God-Kings two more years to drive the orcs out of their provinces. With Re dead, and no successor appointed, a struggle among the remaining God-Kings erupted, which resulted, at first, in Osiris taking the throne. Set was jealous of his brother's newfound power. He had wanted the Supremacy for himself, but had been ousted because of certain dubious actions during the Orcgate War. Nothing specific, mind you – just a run of bad luck. Bad luck that caused the Orcgate remained open just long enough for Re to die at the hands of Gruumsh. Bad luck that delayed Set's forces as they rushed to the help of threatened armies, resulting in Mulhorand carrying the day, albeit with horrible losses to the Mulhorandi Legions (though Set's did not suffer the same losses). Like one says, a run of bad luck. It does not do for an unlucky God-King to sit on the throne of Skuld, you see.
Set did not abide, and murdered Osiris. The God-Queen Isis resurrected Osiris, however, and Set was driven out of Mulhorand, his cult suppressed, and his temples and his Tower in Skuld razed. It is well-known from more ancient records that, before razing Set's Tower, the God-Kings investigated Set's Tower in Skuld. Apparently, whatever they found there was sufficient for the God-Kings to condemn their brother. A scroll from that era, penned by Nezram [9], the prime archmage of Thoth, relates how great stores of magic artifacts, many dug up from Imaskari ruins, were found in the Tower. It would seem that since before the fall of the Imaskari empire, Set has been hoarding magic in secret, hiding all from his fellow God-Kings [10]. The Nezram Papyrus does not speculate on Set's reasons. It would not be too hazardous a guess that Set resented Re's supremacy, and was gathering means to prepare for a future confrontation with the supreme God-King. Nezram drew up detailed inventories, detailing the artifacts located in Set's tower. These inventories were consigned to scrolls, which were locked away in the Tower of Thoth, and have not been seen by mortal eyes since, I think. I have no need for these scrolls, of course. One does not need the scrolls when the author is a subject of one's. Yes, Nezram the archmage was hatched from egg, with scales of the most magnificent blue, and a mind that came close to rivalling my own. Among the artifacts found and inventored was an amulet, round in form, milky white, but filled with swirling colours or deepest black at other times, and called the Thaydeye by the renegade Set. Through cross-referencing and use of arcane research methods, we have been able to ascertain that this Thaydeye was indeed Thayd's eye, cut from his head the day before his trial by the servants of Set, and then enchanted by that God-King to serve his purposes. It is the living eye of Thayd, preserved through Set's magic. The Thaydeye has displayed considerable powers [11], above and beyond the purpose that Set had originally imbued it with, namely detecting and counteracting the magic used by Thayd and his followers. It would seem that the Eye of Thayd also carried some of his secrets, secrets that Set had been able to preserve and use for himsel by creating a respository using the eye of Thayd. Not even I know the process used by Set to achieve this result. Whatever the means used, the result was not unsimilar to those Tel'Quessir artifacts known as kiira, memory stones. It would not be unreasonable to assume that Set had learned the secrets of creating such artifacts from the Tel'Qeussir. However, there are no records of Set ever having contacts with the elves. Consider, however, that the Tel'Quessir consider the kiira sacred, and the mere notion of allowing the secrets of creating them to fall into the hands of N'Tel'Quess is abhorrent to them. And yet... What if Set had not learned the secrets of creating memory stones from the Tel'Quessir, but perhaps from the same source that they had obtained it from [12]? |
| Thauramarth |
Posted - 22 Sep 2007 : 00:29:11
From Conversations with the blue wyrm Maeldraedior [1]
The Thaydeye
1. The Fall of Thayd
I assisted in the capture of Thayd. I had adopted the guise of a mage, and maintained an estate in Skuld. My loyal subjects visited me often, posing as my pupils. I fought alongside the Mulhorandi in their struggle against Thayd. I was the Suzerain of The scent of Imasakar was about him. That made him the enemy of all dragonkind. So I played out my role, and fought along the humans. My loyal subjects followed my commands, and brought their might to bear against the Imaskari demon. He had many followers, many adepts. He was served by foreigners, Netherese among them. It was not a regular war. No armies clashed. There were battles between Thayd's followers and the Mulhorandi humans. Thayd was systematically raiding the treasure houses and the libraries of the God-Kings. He and his followers were seen to enter Raurin, hunting for the ruins of the Imaskari empire. The humans tried hard to capture Thayd's adepts. It was almost impossible. When they managed to best them, and this was not often the case, Thayd's henchmen died rather than be captured alive. Their corpses resisted all attempts to draw their secrets from them. Fortunately, my own resources, and those of my loyal subjects, proved more efficient. One of my loyal subjects took the place of one of Thayd's adepts. He was discovered and slain, but his sacrifice was not in vain. We had discovered that Thayd was gathering his ill-gotten loot below the Thaymount.
The wise and the learned know of the ruins on and below the Thaymount. I have been there, and I have seen just a little the deep ways below the Thaymount. The ruins are ancient, more ancient than any I know. They are older than the elves, older than the giants. Today, the Thaymount is inaccessible. The Red Wizards do not let anyone not of their order approach it. Common wisdom holds that the Red Wizards keep their armies there, to protect the treasures and the secrets of Thay from those who would steal them. The Thaymount holds the treasures and the gold mines of that make Thay rich. Only the gods know what artifacts and magic the Red Wizards keep there.
All of this is true, but there is more. I have walked the passages, down from the Citadel, to the deep chambers. Thayd's lair was well defended – many of his adepts and servants were stationed in the Citadel, but few can stand against the might of the Suzerain of Unther and Mulhorand and his loyal subjects. The humans never counted their luck, of course. I was there with their mightiest warriors, wizards and priests. They were led by their God-Kings: Set the Night Watchman of Mulhorand [2], Thoth the Mage, Horus the Avenger. I pretended to work dragon magic, and my loyal subjects came at my bidding, their breath and claws paved the way for the God-Kings and the priests to pass into the depths of the Citadel. I was with them, along with those of my loyal subjects that had taken a human guise. Thayd must have spent many years exploring and taming the passages of the Thaymount. There were things that should have been extinct since the dawn of time. Since then, I have learned what I could of them. I founds little. Hints and couched references in the texts of the illithids and the aboleths and the cloakers. The things I found below Thaymount were to the illithids as the illithids are to us. Interminable corridors connecting deep chambers. And on our way down, I could sense it – magic. Mystra, what magic – raw power the likes of which I had not seen then, and have never seen since. We passed through chambers filled with machinery and apparatus exuding raw power [3]. We were met by golems, forged of metal and sculpted from massive gemstones. We fought out way past them, and killed their masters. I knew some of them, having confronted them in the past. They were mighty wielders of magic, but they hurled no spells. They fought us with items of power, and they directed their constructs against us, but they had no magic of their own to throw against us [4]. Probably for the better, or none of the humans would have survived. As it was, the humans losses were grievous.
My loyal subjects were stronger than any of the humans, but they also fell. In the end, we breached the final cohort. We found Thayd, where the magic was strongest. When we found him, he was manipulating machines. Mortal languages do not have the words to describe them. There were shapes that could not be, impossible shapes, incomprehensible to even my mind. I was there, with the God-Kings. Horus, Set, Thoth, and the remaining archmages and high priests of Mulhorand. Thayd was alone. He was brimming with power. Never, neither before nor since, have I seen one mortal hold that much power. And yet, he cast no spell. He tried to plead, to argue. He attempted to convince us that we should leave him alone, that our coming would bring doom to Mulhorand, to Faerűn, to Toril [5]. The God-Kings were not swayed. And there was battle. It was a battle without magic. We tried, of course, but our magic failed us. The Imaskari had been masters of the manipulation of the Weave, itself, enhancing it or dimming it. The battle would be fought with steel, or so it seemed. I'll admit to being surprised by Thayd's skill in combat. I have known humans and elves who could master both magic and the blade. But to achieve Thayd's mastery at Art, he should have dedicated himself completely to the Weave. It turns out that he did not. His style was quite distinctive. He did not merely wield a sword. His entire body was a weapon, he lashed out with blade, hands, and feet. Thoth, and the human priests and archmages were denied their magic, and were incapacitated [6]. Thayd brought down Horus. It was down to Set and myself. Thayd had been injured. I was loath to reveal myself to the Mulhorandi, but I had no choice. I dropped my disguise. My change surprised my enemy. I acted. He staggered as my breath hit him. Set was stunned for a moment. He had not expected my change. He must have believed that I was a human who had discovered the secret of assuming dragonshape. The notion that a dragon had hidden his real shape from the likes of the God-Kings was apparently too monstrous for him to contemplate. The hesitation almost got him killed, by the way. Thayd proved to be resilient. The touch of my breath would have killed most humans, but Thayd did not only survive, he was still fighting. I rushed and took tooth and claw to him. Set recovered his composure, and lunged. I withdrew, and breathed again. The lightning struck Thayd, and Set also. Thayd was hurled head over heels. There was an unusual effect. The lightning seemed to fork out from Thayd and struck the machines in the chamber. I can only speculate as to how this came about. In his manipulations, Thayd must have formed connections to the machines. My breath must have ridden those connections to the machines. The consequences were most surprising. Each of the machines started to buckle and seep radiance, and more lightning rode back to strike Thayd. He was hurled back and forth, and bolts of azure energy appeared out of nowhere and filled the entire room, as they struck the walls and were reflected back. I, too, was struck, and I was overcome. I lost consciousness, and my contingency spells took me back to my lair [7]. It took me several days to recover, ME, Maeldraedior the great. As soon as I could, I contacted my agents and my pawns. I learned that Set had returned in triumph, and Horus and Thoth having survived, barely. Many archmages and high priests had fallen, but the traitor Thayd had been brought back to Skuld, and had been tried by the council of God-Kings. There could have been only one sentence – death. Several of my pawns were attending the execution, of course. Combining all information that I could rip from their minds, I gained as full a picture of the execution as anyone could. I had seen Thayd fall. He had been struck down by the wild energies, but his body had not seemed affected. I was surprised to learn that he was not whole when he was dragged to the balcony, to be slain by Re himself, in plain view of all of Skuld. He was missing his right eye, you see. Re slew the Archadept, and the priests of Osiris took great care to annihilate the body. |
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