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T O P I C    R E V I E W
Charles Rampant Posted - 02 Nov 2015 : 10:20:44
Hey there,

I'm a DM from Scotland, currently running a pair of 5e games, one of which is the Princes of the Apocalypse. Thanks to this, I find myself having to know more about Faerun, a setting that I've never previously played or run in, outside of computer games. I'm also contemplating using Faerun for my (non AP) games in the future, since I find that there are parts of the setting - the Dalelands, the Sword Coast, Red Wizards, the history of the Elves and Dwarves - that I really like. Other bits - like Maztica, say - I'm not nearly as fond of, but then I just don't need to let my players go there so that shouldn't be a problem. Anyway, I'm hoping to use this forum to get a bit more of an understanding of the Realms, at least enough to make the setting easier to use on the fly.
9   L A T E S T    R E P L I E S    (Newest First)
Steve-s332 Posted - 12 Jan 2017 : 19:24:13
Thanks Wooly Rupert. Excellent background there, and an excellent reason to divert my players. I think I have just the thing in mind!
Wooly Rupert Posted - 11 Jan 2017 : 19:34:28
quote:
Originally posted by Steve-s332

Hi everyone. Another new guy to the forum like Charles, and like Charles, I am also running Princes of the Apocalypse for my group.

My first question is there any good detail available on Warlock's Crypt anywhere? I have SCAG, but there isn't a lot in there. I'm forming the opinion that I ought to divert my players away Warlock's Crypt, even if it does have a cool name!



Pretty sure it's not really been detailed...

The main thing you need to know about Warlock's Crypt is that it's crawling with liches. Larloch dwells there, with 60+ liches under his control.

It's a good place to avoid unless you want to be dead or a lich's plaything. And those two things are not mutually exclusive.

If you're not familiar with Larloch, he's an old Netherese lich, and is pretty much a force of nature. Here's a quote from Ed:

quote:
Larloch is a onetime Netherese sorcerer (still possessed of a lot of Netherese scepters, which he knows how to make) who is now a quite insane "ultra-lich" (in this case, the term means he has many unknown powers which are up to you the DM, among them the fact that he can still learn and develop new spells, increase in levels, etc.). He's probably a 46th level evil-aligned wizard right now, and he crafted many of his own undead abilities prior to undeath, which argues that he found his own 'process' for achieving lichdom.

Larloch is served by many (60+ ?) liches, formerly archwizards, whom he guides in concert, as the leader of a telepathic-web 'Overmind.' Thus far, neither psionics nor mind-influencing magics have ever been effective against him or any of his servitor mages, because the others in the link can withstand and overcome such influences, causing them to fail.

In theory, an attack could reach all of them through the link, but some quite powerful Red Wizards have tried and failed (Szass Tam didn't try such an attack, which may be why he survived...he remains fearful of approaching Larloch and his mages, but fascinated by the details of their lichdom, hoping it might yield him some powers.)

One of Larloch's given-to-himself powers (which - in a long, involved, and secret, personally-developed process - cost him 10 years of life and some vitality, irrelevant of course given his goal of lichdom) is automatic spell reflection (of all magic cast upon him). He can by act of will override this ability, for example when he wants to work a spell on himself; otherwise, it always operates.

Mystra (Midnight's predecessor as the goddess) is said to have allowed Larloch to acquire powers approaching those of "old Netheril" in return for 'leaking' spells to persistent adventurers he or his minions might come into contact with, but this may be no more than rumour spread by the Zhents or Red Wizards or Dragon Cultists, designed to lure adventurers into Larloch-weakening forays...

As for Larloch knowing the identities and locations of other liches/Netherese survivors...no, only the one's he's destroyed. Larloch is too self-centered to hunt down folks who don't come within his easy reach. He controls plenty of archwizards/liches already, but may decide to try to either control or destroy a new one when they come into contact. He seems to be pursuing other goals, however. Which ones? That's up to each DM....."

Larloch and his lich minions have no interest in attracting attention that would waste their time and magical resources (and perhaps, if word got around how dangerous they were, even threaten their existence in the face of a concerted attack from various magical power groups working together). Larloch is not interested in ruling Faerun...but he IS interested in creating and controlling a series of magical gates linking many worlds (parallel Prime Material Planes) and Outer Planes...and so rigging their enchantments that anyone using them comes under his control/faces his forceful removal of their magic items, information from their mind, and so forth. The gates are easy for him to create (he licked all of those problems long ago). The control enchantments have been giving him troubles for thousands of years now, and as an obsessive perfectionist, he isn't going to let this rest until he gets everything just so...nor is he going to create the gates until he's ready to put the controls on them.

In short, he's a munchkin only if played that way. All Player Characters have to learn sometime that there are folks in the Realms just too powerful to tangle with.

I'm reminded of the original Realms campaign, and the Company of Crazed Venturers attacking Shaan the Serpent-Queen (who briefly appeared in a Wizards Three DRAGON article). She was busy working magic on a small island off Mintarn. They attacked, broke her concentration, and she looked up with an irritated frown. They bid her stop, or they'd destroy what she was working on; to demonstrate, one of the Company mages touched (and disintegrated) a stone he was standing beside.

She shook her head in derision, and touched the island beneath them, disintegrating IT, and dumping the Company into the chilly sea waves for a long swim...whilst she turned back to her spellcasting, floating on nothing and ignoring them once more.

A heavy-handed lesson, but...well, Larloch's in the same league, and more. Just consider him a power of the Realms and Don't Go There.
Steve-s332 Posted - 11 Jan 2017 : 18:09:04
Hi everyone. Another new guy to the forum like Charles, and like Charles, I am also running Princes of the Apocalypse for my group.

My first question is there any good detail available on Warlock's Crypt anywhere? I have SCAG, but there isn't a lot in there. I'm forming the opinion that I ought to divert my players away Warlock's Crypt, even if it does have a cool name!
saintdic Posted - 30 Jun 2016 : 11:24:27
Welcome Charles.
Charles Rampant Posted - 05 Nov 2015 : 12:22:13
Thanks for the kind messages, all!
xaeyruudh Posted - 02 Nov 2015 : 22:02:51
Welcome! Make yourself at home.
Delwa Posted - 02 Nov 2015 : 15:28:19
Well met and welcome! Hope you enjoy your stay!
JohnLynch Posted - 02 Nov 2015 : 12:07:40
Welcome Charles. Two great sub forums to check out (IMO) are Running the Realms where lots of people give advice about adapting the realms to their own games. The other one is Sages of Realmslore where people answer questions as to what canon says about certain subjects. I've stolen more than a few ideas from both forums myself.
Wooly Rupert Posted - 02 Nov 2015 : 11:48:16
Welcome to Candlekeep!

Feel free to ask any questions you may have... A lot of us have been Realms fans for years, and we know a thing or three about the setting. Plus, we've got some of the authors and creators here!

As for the rest of us, we are friendly, mostly harmless, and occasionally strange... Enjoy your stay!

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