Count von Durzig (TNC3-1)
- Part of Season: Shards of Eternity (TNC3)
- Part of Saga: The Nightmare Crisis
Episode presumably took place in September or October of 2002.
Brief
The party is invited to a gala event to celebrate the creation of Count von Durzig, recently ennobled by the Council of Zulkirs as a noble of Thaymount. Things turn interesting when it seems he has, among his many prized possessions, a Nightmare Shard. Hilarity ensues.
Story
Dorian and Hyacinth returned from their foray into Tethyr after failing to locate Shoonac, the lost capital of the Shoon Empire. Upon arrival, they are reunited with Den and Kage, who’ve just returned from Bytopia with another shard, “persuaded” from a planar mage. Dorian and Hyacinth retreated to get some much-needed rest.
The next day, Hyacinth commissioned several powerful scrolls from the Red Wizards in Calimport’s enclave; three of Fabricate, two of Antimagic Field, and two of Mordenkainen’s Disjunction. She paid well, and up front, and the wizards promised her the goods within a week.
Back at the villa, Kage divined the location of the nearest nightmare shard not in his or Blackstaff’s possession. The spell pointed him to a location in Thaymount, but the magic was unable to specify exactly where. Dorian sent a message to a friend in Bezantur, and ended up teleporting there and having tea. They discussed the anomalous information, and his friend (name? he was a diviner) identified the location as the manor of one Count von Durzig. He gave an invitation that he had received to Dorian. Dorian returned home and informed the group. Thus, the night before the event, they journeyed to Bezantur.
On arrival, they headed for the temple of Shar for a place to stay. Sherry happened upon them and stalked them from the shadows.
Since they arrived at sunset, they bedded down for the night. Dorian and Kage shadow walked out, and just as they exited the building, Dorian felt a presence behind him. He resisted the urge to turn and look, as behind him, inside the temple, was a magical device that channeled Shar’s power, and not only was its magic terrifyingly powerful, but in Shadow it gave off an indescribably bright light.
He deactivated his arcane sight and turn. Behind him, hovering in Shadow and leveling a finger at him, was a hideous, awesome being: a skeletal figure draped in ragged cloths that glittered with magic, and in its eyes was a piercing flame. He stumbled backward and Kage dismissed the spell. Dorian tumbled down the stairs, and the lich was gone. Sherry made herself known to Kage at that point, and they got reacquainted. Shaken by his encounter, Dorian walked off, in search of the local office of the school of necromancy. As he departed, Kage noticed a scry sensor behind him and cast Mordenkainen’s Disjunction on it. Dorian didn’t ask questions, he just teleported home. Suryn immediately teleported out to calm the situation. She got an explanation from Kage, then sent it and an apology to Dorian. He responded sharply. Suryn went back inside to rest, while Kage continued to talk to Sherry.
Meanwhile, Lucia invited Hyacinth to meditate with her at the altar to Shar. They were alone in the chamber, but for the massive spherical ball of darkness, from which bolts of black lightning crackled toward them. They knelt, closed their eyes, and meditated. Somehow, Hyacinth fell into a deep trance, and when she awoke, she was in an infinite void. A hand was on her shoulder, paralyzing her. A soft, powerful, feminine voice cooed into her ear.
“I am the darkness. I am the night. I am she who is loss and emptiness. I am the darkness from which all is birthed; yet you are not mine. From where have you come? Why are you here? All shall return to me, and I’ll see that you do as well. Tell me who you are. Tell me why you are. Succumb to me, and let me bathe you in shadow. I will take away your pain and soothe your fear. In me, you shall know true peace. Tell me. Tell me. Tell me.”
Terrified and angry, Hyacinth screamed and forced herself back into reality. She awoke with a start, sweating and panting. Lucia was kneeling over her prone from with a look of great concern on her face. She asked what happened, and explained that hours had passed. She embraced Hyacinth and apologized deeply. Upset and shaken, Hyacinth left the building in search of an inn.
Meanwhile, Dorian arrived at the college of necromancy. He had communicated ahead of time his intent, and had gained an audience with High Magus Radduk. He was escorted from the entrance by a vampire servitor, and was met at the door by Winter, apprentice and servant of Radduk. All this time, he had been scried upon, despite his protections spells. He introduced himself and took a seat, then, with Radduk’s permission, raised a field of antimagic to negate the sensor.
He explained to Radduk of his idea: a spell that can create clones; not as fully grown men, but rather children. Children with their own mind, who grow up independently, and, when their creator dies, his soul enters their body, replacing whatever mind they had and reshaping their body into his. Radduk found the idea brilliant. Dorian discussed his theories on how the magic might work, and since he’d already mastered Manshoon’s Stasis Clone spell, it seemed probably he could create this one. Radduk agreed to help him in the research. He gave him several scrolls, and agreed to look into procuring a meeting with Szass Tam. They eventually concluded their business, and Dorian returned to his villa to rest.
The next day, Den went to scout the location out beforehand. Covering hundreds of miles in just a few minutes, he arrived at the mansion. It stood within a 20-mile radius of wild land, unusual for Thaymount, and bordered by a sphere of shifting dead magic zones. The mansion itself was enormous and impressive, a forty-foot tall structure topped with twin towers, each over a hundred feet tall. The lands surrounding the mansion were attractive and well-kept. Den heard voices of young wizards arguing magical theory through an open second-story window. He jumped the rooftop and shifted ethereally down the chimney. He passed through in an active kitchen, where food was being prepared. He emerged in a hallway lined with wooden paneled walls, with a red carpet running its length, and grand chandeliers hanging every ten feet from the twenty-foot ceiling. On both walls, evenly spaced, beautiful wooden doors stood open, looking into a grand banquet hall that was being readied by servants. Tapestries, displays of antiques, and silver statues lined the hallway. As he peered into the banquet hall, a silver statue crept up silently behind him and tried to grapple him. He teleported out of the building and ran, but the statue teleported out to meet him. Nine feet tall and made of pure silver, the statue of a regal, armored elf approached him with a great, bladed spear, meaning to do battle. Den fended off its blows, but was unable to fell it easily. He retreated, his speed vastly exceeding the statue’s, and thus it returned to the mansion. Den returned to report his findings.
That evening, they dressed up and went to von Durzig’s grand housewarming ceremony. They teleported, as instructed, to a marble-tiled outdoor park, centered with a grand fountain, and with a wide path leading to the mansion. For half an hour, they mingled and chatted with the other guests, many of which were red wizards. When the time came, Count von Durzig showed himself; by way of a grand entrance in a hot-air balloon, flanked by a great display of fireworks. He landed and welcomed his guests. The servants then led them to the mansion and into the great foyer, where they again mingled and passed time.
The mansion was impressive to virtually all who attended: bronze-tinted marble floors, rich, dark Aglarondan redwood-paneled walls, beautiful works of human and elven artistry hanging from the walls, flanked by exquisite tapestries and sculptures. More impressive than all of that were the nine-foot tall silver statues of regal, armored, spear-weilding elves. Eclipsing them all was the enormous platinum dragon sculpture that sat over the doorway into the rest of the house, leering from fifteen feet up at the guests as they chatted.
Fashionably late, the zulkir of enchantment, Lauzoril, showed up. He politely ignored tharchioness Dmitra Flass, and instead chatted with tharchion of Surthay Homen Odesseiron about northern concerns. Shortly afterward, the doors beneath the dragon opened wide, and all were invited to sit and dine.
Dorian and party were seated close to the head of the second table, with Lauzoril at the head and the two tharchions between him and they. Well-dressed and implacably mannered servants took individual requests for wines and delivered. Suryn received a glass of feywine, and Kage a glass of arborea’s finest (at least this year). The dinner was exquisite; lasting almost three hours, the courses took the diners on a fabulous tour of Toril’s cuisine, from Calishite spiced meats to Kara-turan fried vegetable dishes.
When dinner concluded, the guests were escorted into the concert hall, where the Red Star Symphonic Orchestra performed a Thayan opera; Il Kuptu Sazulli, “The Lady Grace”, which was a poignantly beautiful piece about a matron who raised nine fine boys to manhood, and one by one they went off to do glorious deeds, and all met tragic ends. Central to the opera was the her grace in accepting fate.
With the concert concluded, the guests were invited to attend a presentation by von Durzig in his lecture hall. Designed like a greek stage, with boxes in the corners for private group viewing, the room was full to capacity as von Durzig demonstrated various interesting and profound discoveries in the study of necromancy. Favored of his presentations was the demonstration of artificially animating a corpse to appear and act human; in all effects, an undead servitor with the appearance and capabilities of a living man.
When the lecture was over, the guests were shown to the arcane exhibition on the second floor. A large, circular room, guarded by two twelve-foot tall golden elf statues, even more exquisite than the silvers below, the arcane exhibition displayed dozens of interesting and rare magical items and accoutrements, from iron golems to intelligent swords, that von Durzig had gathered in his many travels. Nigh an hour into the browsing, a magical anomaly occurred; a wave of dead magic coursed through the house, suppressing magical light in its wake. Seconds after hitting, the effect was over, but it was long enough for several wizards to immediately teleport out. Von Durzig tried desperately to calm the situation, and just as things seemed better, another dead magic wave hit. Lauzoril decided it would be best to leave this place of magic and head downstairs. The guests concurred.
At this point, more than half of the guests had departed. Dorian still didn’t have what he came for. As Dorian chatted with Lauzoril, Hyacinth offered a dance to von Durzig, to try to put him off his guard. A small chamber orchestra played sweet tunes for them as she led the count in a dance. When she finally went for the shard around his neck, he was ready; just as she slipped it off, the count and the shard disappeared. But a second later, another surge of dead magic passed through the house.
Deeply disturbed, the guests began fleeing in a less-than controlled manner. Lauzoril headed for the door and left, but before anyone else could reach it, it slammed shut. A dimensional lock suffused the house, and the exterior walls lined themselves with walls of force. At this point, the only ones left were Dorian’s group, the tharchions, and their entourages. Dmitra attempted to disintegrate the wall of force covering the door, but it regenerated almost instantly. Dorian took command, orderering all the wizards to cooperate. On the count of three, they would cast a disjunction or disintegration spell on the doorway. Just as they all went to cast their spells, the nightmare shard appeared out of thin air, just in front of the door, in the center of the disjunction blasts. The spells hit, and the shard exploded. As reality folded in on itself, Den, Dorian and Hyacinth, with their incredible reflexes, affixed themselves in a chain to a pillar. In seconds, the reality crash sucked the hapless servants and tharchions out of existence. Statues, tapestries, and paintings flew toward the dimensional rift and out of existence. Kage, unaffected by the rift, cast a spell to wish the rift out of existence. His powerful magic ended the effect, but only after the front of the house had been devastated. The party recovered themselves and took stock of the situation. Dorian recovered some spellbooks from the ruined library, and the group went to proceed further into the house.
Just as they approached the doorway, the platinum dragon lifted off its haunches and crashed down onto the floor, approaching them. Just as it went to strike, a prismatic wall appeared, sucking it out of the prime material plane. Suryn dismissed the wall, and, after cleaning out their pants, the group went into the house.
They encountered 6 silver statues, which they disabled easily. They encountered 6 more, which were ended by a storm of vengeance or something. They went to the arcane exhibition, whereupon they were ambushed by 2 gold golems. Tough fight. One was imprisoned in a prismatic sphere, which he later escaped. Another teleported to safety.
They went up the tower and saw the mythallar. They tried to use midnight to carve a hole in the wall of force, but the mythallar regenerated it too damn fast. Von Durzig showed up, and kage annihilated him with nightmare’s hilt. Then, Dorian picked up nightmare; and all hell broke loose. He struck down Suryn, rending her magic apart, then deaded Hyacinth or something. Kage undid him with coma, then Hyacinth confiscated the blade.
Then the friggin platinum dragon showed up, and dominated them. Dorian admitted defeat. The mythallar spirit manifested itself and explained the story: he was once an arcanist; he escaped before the fall, and lived out his life. He found he couldn’t die, due to the mythallar he’d constructed. He was bound to it, and it to him. He’d lived a fucking long time, and he was sick of it. But there was release; not too long in the future, maybe a couple hundred years, magic was doomed to die forever. That suxors.
So he imbues the platinum dragon with a will, then fades away; he’ll bide his last few hundred years in pieces. They teleported away as he lifted the dimensional lock, then the place done blowed up. It blowed up good.