The Memoirs of Dote Mal Payne (abridged)
Dec 4, 2021 4:04:59 GMT
Attilius, Niachi, and 1 more like this
Post by DM Bob on Dec 4, 2021 4:04:59 GMT
The Memoirs of Dote Mal Payne (abridged)
This tome contains the diaries, thoughts & ambitions of one Dote Mal Payne, the once head templar of Tyr, Necromancer of the night workers of the ziggurat, and once trusted right hand to the most sinister of Sorcerer Kings.
This trust was Kalak’s undoing.
Reading through this diary, you can see that Payne’s drive was to achieve immortality. After helping the Iron King set contingencies upon his own nearly immortal form, it dawned on the necromancer that Kalak was indeed killable. He began to understand snippets of his ruler’s true form. He had seen Kalak swallow obsidian stones during foul rites...
And a plan was set. Records once showed Kalak’s extreme distaste of Nibenay’s food, recorded in the annals of a visit he made to the court of the Stone City. The spice caused him much immediate and violent distress. The visit resulted in the deaths of many in both courts, the deed removed from most texts as the embarrassment to the King of Tyr was great.
So Dote made contacts and plans within the deviant camp within House Shom. He let hints slip to a caravan master by the name of Zaethus and commissioned a set of obsidian orbs for his King to use, claiming to his King that their supply from Urik was compromised. And with those orbs? Chiles of heat from the gardens of Nibenay’s templars.
The rest is history. The spice of the peppers interrupted the Dragon King’s ritual. Our necromancer escaped with the corpse of a crystal arena spider, a wagon and the animated corpse of the dead King himself. Along with the odd heads that Kalak kept as pets, Sacha & Wyan. The two had been Champions of Genocide and powerful mindbenders in their own time. Their lack of bodies limited their strength… they plotted to fuse their forms with that of the Iron King’s frame. Dote believed that the terms of contingency on Kalak's corpse could be kept unfulfilled as long as he kept the dead King's frame animate.
So there was but one destination. The buried city to the far north, where the heads believed ancient, unliving allies still wrought their dark magics. Dote wanted their knowledge for his own and formed a train, hiring mercenaries, raising the dead and eradicating any that dared interrupt his travels or his sleep. If there was one thing he could not stand? It was being awakened before he’d fully rested.
Along the way to the buried ruins, Dote encountered a crater with a chunk of raw star ore. This was scavenged and held in his wagon. His intent was to try and use this rare material to further future rituals or relics. He never got that far.
After wiping out a small tribe of mul ex-slaves (via a spectacular swarm of meteors), Dote & Company encountered raiders from Spoil. The necromancer used powers of domination and quickly allied with the settlement. He then affixed the same mental control upon Densis, their defiler leader. Then he ventured north once more. He had a trusted hand at last. The heads were starting to worry him with their foul demands. He would need to keep them from his tomes if they ever did recoup their powers… and took measures to do so.
Within the buried city, Dote managed to meet with a former Champion, Myron, who was bound to his tomb. The creature, once human, was now twisted to something much more foul and corrupt. He wore a mask to hide his features. Dote had no desire to gaze beneath it. There Dote and the heads learned the rituals needed to revivify Kalak’s corpse and give Sacha & Wyan what they desired. In return? Dote would have the magics needed to further his own ascension.
This meant tapping into the power of the ruins of the Troll Grave Chasm.
But before he left the buried city? A group of graverobbers descended upon the crypt of Myron. The being cast a ritual, wishing them to be gone to where they called home. Dote believed that these individuals had been following him for some time. But no matter any more. They were gone now.
Here the details are less. You figure that he had less time to write in his last days.
Also earlier in the tome? Instructions on how to construct a totem to raise the weaker undead from fresh corpses. The main component? The skull of a wizard capable of casting spells to animate the dead - that knew the maker personally and was killed by the maker himself. Then spells of animate dead & permanency are cast upon the flensed head… then set upon a rod baptised in the blood of the murdered mage.
9th --- meteor swarm 8th—clone, permanency, horrid wilting 7th— spell turning, sequester 6th— chain lightning, disintegrate, 5th— cone of cold, teleport, sending, animate dead 4th— stone skin, improved invisibility, ice storm, lesser globe of invulnerability 3rd—touch the black, dispel magic, fireball, lightning bolt, nondetection, haste, invisibility 10’ radius, hold undead 2nd—blur, wizard lock, rope trick, detect invisibility, levitate 1st—detect undead, identify, mage armor, magic missile, protection from good, shield, detect magic, read magic, cantrip
This tome contains the diaries, thoughts & ambitions of one Dote Mal Payne, the once head templar of Tyr, Necromancer of the night workers of the ziggurat, and once trusted right hand to the most sinister of Sorcerer Kings.
This trust was Kalak’s undoing.
Reading through this diary, you can see that Payne’s drive was to achieve immortality. After helping the Iron King set contingencies upon his own nearly immortal form, it dawned on the necromancer that Kalak was indeed killable. He began to understand snippets of his ruler’s true form. He had seen Kalak swallow obsidian stones during foul rites...
And a plan was set. Records once showed Kalak’s extreme distaste of Nibenay’s food, recorded in the annals of a visit he made to the court of the Stone City. The spice caused him much immediate and violent distress. The visit resulted in the deaths of many in both courts, the deed removed from most texts as the embarrassment to the King of Tyr was great.
So Dote made contacts and plans within the deviant camp within House Shom. He let hints slip to a caravan master by the name of Zaethus and commissioned a set of obsidian orbs for his King to use, claiming to his King that their supply from Urik was compromised. And with those orbs? Chiles of heat from the gardens of Nibenay’s templars.
The rest is history. The spice of the peppers interrupted the Dragon King’s ritual. Our necromancer escaped with the corpse of a crystal arena spider, a wagon and the animated corpse of the dead King himself. Along with the odd heads that Kalak kept as pets, Sacha & Wyan. The two had been Champions of Genocide and powerful mindbenders in their own time. Their lack of bodies limited their strength… they plotted to fuse their forms with that of the Iron King’s frame. Dote believed that the terms of contingency on Kalak's corpse could be kept unfulfilled as long as he kept the dead King's frame animate.
So there was but one destination. The buried city to the far north, where the heads believed ancient, unliving allies still wrought their dark magics. Dote wanted their knowledge for his own and formed a train, hiring mercenaries, raising the dead and eradicating any that dared interrupt his travels or his sleep. If there was one thing he could not stand? It was being awakened before he’d fully rested.
Along the way to the buried ruins, Dote encountered a crater with a chunk of raw star ore. This was scavenged and held in his wagon. His intent was to try and use this rare material to further future rituals or relics. He never got that far.
After wiping out a small tribe of mul ex-slaves (via a spectacular swarm of meteors), Dote & Company encountered raiders from Spoil. The necromancer used powers of domination and quickly allied with the settlement. He then affixed the same mental control upon Densis, their defiler leader. Then he ventured north once more. He had a trusted hand at last. The heads were starting to worry him with their foul demands. He would need to keep them from his tomes if they ever did recoup their powers… and took measures to do so.
Within the buried city, Dote managed to meet with a former Champion, Myron, who was bound to his tomb. The creature, once human, was now twisted to something much more foul and corrupt. He wore a mask to hide his features. Dote had no desire to gaze beneath it. There Dote and the heads learned the rituals needed to revivify Kalak’s corpse and give Sacha & Wyan what they desired. In return? Dote would have the magics needed to further his own ascension.
This meant tapping into the power of the ruins of the Troll Grave Chasm.
But before he left the buried city? A group of graverobbers descended upon the crypt of Myron. The being cast a ritual, wishing them to be gone to where they called home. Dote believed that these individuals had been following him for some time. But no matter any more. They were gone now.
Here the details are less. You figure that he had less time to write in his last days.
Also earlier in the tome? Instructions on how to construct a totem to raise the weaker undead from fresh corpses. The main component? The skull of a wizard capable of casting spells to animate the dead - that knew the maker personally and was killed by the maker himself. Then spells of animate dead & permanency are cast upon the flensed head… then set upon a rod baptised in the blood of the murdered mage.
9th --- meteor swarm 8th—clone, permanency, horrid wilting 7th— spell turning, sequester 6th— chain lightning, disintegrate, 5th— cone of cold, teleport, sending, animate dead 4th— stone skin, improved invisibility, ice storm, lesser globe of invulnerability 3rd—touch the black, dispel magic, fireball, lightning bolt, nondetection, haste, invisibility 10’ radius, hold undead 2nd—blur, wizard lock, rope trick, detect invisibility, levitate 1st—detect undead, identify, mage armor, magic missile, protection from good, shield, detect magic, read magic, cantrip