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Originally posted by Hoondatha

<major snippage> ...but is there anything in the area that the dwarves would find worth settling down for? Any good nearby mines? Is the stone quarry-able? (and if so, where would they sell it?)

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Originally posted by Markustay

Ed, what did you conceive being down in Veldorn? Was that yours? or did TSR come up with that? Is the 'modern take' (either 3e or 4e) anything like how YOU pictured it?

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Originally posted by Hoondatha

<major snippage> ...but is there anything in the area that the dwarves would find worth settling down for? Any good nearby mines? Is the stone quarry-able? (and if so, where would they sell it?)

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Mines of Tethyamar.

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Originally posted by Dalor Darden

(nudge to MT...I think he meant under the Twisted Tower; the Mines of Tethyamar might be a good place for them...though not very far away from Shadowdale at all is a particular underground Dwarven Settlement in Daggerdale)

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Originally posted by Dalor Darden

Personally, I have been curious about the mineral riches beneath Shadowdale myself...if Ed or THO could expound on what is to be found there I would be very happy to hear it as well!

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Originally posted by The Hooded One

Hi again, all.
Dalor, re. this: "I'd be interested to hear from Ed/THO about whether there have historically been many clans of dwarves who lived in what seemed to be mineral poor areas...but in truth they hid riches from others while seeming to eke out a meager living."
I know from Realmsplay years back with Ed, that this happens. Quite often.
One instance: In elder days on the southeastern edge of Anauria, a small dwarf clan dwelt in a small peak known as "the Hollow Mountain." They told humans they lived there because it was sacred to the founding of their clan (mortal dwarves meeting dwarven deities in a cavern at its heart). That may or may not have been true, but MOST of the clan had moved there less than sixty years before, to begin hollowing out the mountain in earnest, because it was a working mine with rich veins of ore (nickel and iron, I seem to recall, but my the second sheet of my notes seems to have wandered, so I can't be certain).
Ed will, of course, provide more in the fullness of time . . .
love,
THO

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Originally posted by Alystra Illianniis

Azuth, the Wild Mage was detailed in the 3.5 Complete Arcane. It's not FR specific, but can easily be placed there. I would imagine they simply chose not to give it a separate write-up in the FR sourcebooks. IIRC, the PrC had some slight problems (I have heard some say it was underpowered, or just did not feel right) but would work fine with a few minor adjustments.

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Dearest Woolpert, Ed makes reply to your wild magic queries:

Please bear in mind that what follows is what *I’d* do as a DM, not an official WotC D&D rules ‘ruling’ (there’s something called the Rules Council for that).

The Chosen of Mystra are hampered by dead and wild magic just like everyone else, with three exceptions:

1. Spending Silver Fire.

For ‘brute force’ magics (energy blasts, the creation of magical barriers, healing, and so on) Chosen of Mystra can expend silver fire to manage almost normal effects (and probabilities of effects, though there’s almost always echoing wild-effect ‘leakage’ around their operating spells). Translocation spells (teleportation) are still chancy (though in a wild magic area, silver fire can be burned to create a line intersecting with a nearby ‘strand of the Weave,’ and the Weave then ‘ridden’ out of the wild magic area, in a strange ‘slow teleport’ that third parties see beginning as a fading and shifting of the teleporter, so that, say, Elminster briefly has three heads blended and blurred into one another before he ‘snaps out of sight’), and detection and divination spells nigh-impossible.

2. Feeding Magic With Magic.

Chosen of Mystra have the inherent ability to ‘feed’ one magic into another, draining part of the stored energy of a held or worn item or the entire energy of a memorized spell into another spell, to ‘power it up.’ Because this tends to make magic ‘go wild,’ it’s never done in normal circumstances, but often succeeds in causing a spell to have pretty much normal effect in a wild magic or dead magic area, if a more powerful spell is fed into a lesser one.

For example, Elminster casts a lightning bolt and feels it start to ‘tug wild,’ so he uses his ability as a Chosen to make it ‘hang fire’ until the next round, and during that next round feeds a flesh to stone spell he’s memorized into the lightning bolt. Because of the difference in levels, the lightning bolt is highly likely to ‘go off’ as a lightning bolt, at the end of that second round, though its aim and discharged energy (damage done) may still vary wildly. If El instead burns a ninth-level memorized spell to feed the lightning bolt, it will probably function almost normally. Note that this does NOT appreciably alter the surroundings from being a wild or dead magic area, though doing this thirty times or more would weaken a dead magic area into something much smaller.

3. Feeling Flows, and Familiarity

Chosen of Mystra can sense movements, build-ups, and changes in nature (for example, from a build-up into a discharge) of magical force. This can give them small tactical advantages in a wild magic zone that other beings lack. Also, in a locale VERY familiar to the particular Chosen (such as their usual abode, or a spot where they’ve previously spent a lot of time or cast many magics), their own magical efforts will be at least slightly better than any attempts by mortal spellcasters to battle dead or wild magic because of their familiarity with the presence, precise location, and nature of existing magics, usual local flows of magic, and so on.

Of course, Chosen can call on the Weave to destroy wild and dead magic areas (and planar rifts, too), though this is a long and exhausting process involving the casting of many spells, and ideally the cooperation of several Chosen or powerful spellcasters working together (something akin to several people trying to gather, bunch up, and carry away a gigantic collapsed hot air balloon or fallen field tent or huge parachute, it’s something best accomplished by people who aim their efforts accurately, know what to do, and work together well). It’s not something they can expect to accomplish if lacking many memorized (or otherwise stored) magics, if under attack, or in a hurry.

So most Chosen who find themselves in a wild or dead magic zone will first attempt to get out of the zone, unless there’s some compelling reason for remaining there.

Your next question was: “How do you feel about wild mages, and how would Mystra feel about such casters, who deliberately play fast and loose with the Weave?”

Wild mages have indeed returned in the new Complete Arcane. I make no apologies for introducing wild and dead magic into the Realms in the first place, but when they became a 2nd Ed character class, Jeff Grubb and I both responded with “Uh-oh.”

Why? Well, in short, like spellfire, wild mages can be a campaign-wrecker. Great fun for an encounter or two, but the implications of their presence are far-reaching, so “wild mages” are usually best confined to a rare handful of NPCs - - unless the campaign is a lone wandering PC wild mage adventuring one-on-one with a DM. Consider the presence of wild mages with ‘regular’ arcane spellcasters or priests of any sort in the same party of adventurers. Many accidents waiting to happen. I’m not saying “don’t go there,” I’m saying ‘consider carefully what the character of your D&D play may change into, before you embark on this.’

As for Mystra: The ‘old’ Mystra (LN) was less than pleased with this road of dweomercraeft because of the damage wild mages can do to fellow spellcasters, the Weave, and most importantly to the reputation of arcane spellcasters with others (and therefore, the general attitude [fear] of most intelligent beings of Faerun towards magic and its use).

The ‘new’ Mystra, however, was more than a bit of a rebel as a young mortal woman. Like the keeper of a china shop glumly observing an approaching bull, she’s against wantonly destructive uses of magic, and her alignment gives her a distaste not just for destructive magic but also for deliberately cruel uses of magic. However, Mystra has seen much reckless use of magic by divine spellcasters serving other deities and by selfish mages of various stripes, noted that many of these uses have been both effective and have garnered much respect among the wider populace, and more or less shrugged.

She may be ‘waiting and seeing,’ and she (or Azuth) may well send some of their powerful servants (including Chosen) to curb individual wild mages who seem to turn wholly insane or who “throw their weight around too much.” For now, however, the rare wild mages in the Realms seem free to follow the path they’ve chosen.

So saith Ed. Who seems to never be anything else but busybusybusy, these days.
love to all,
THO

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Originally posted by _Jarlaxle_

After not getting any response at all to my question about Ioulaum, I made a search in the older threads and noticed that Ed never seemed to have answered a question about him.
I'm woundering why? Is he so NDA'ed that its even NDA'ed to say that the answer would fall under an NDA? *scratches his head*

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Originally posted by The Hooded One

I can confirm that there are overlapping NDAs pertaining to Ioulaum (among other things). So, yes, he's deeply NDA'd at this time.
love,
THO

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Originally posted by The Hooded One

Hi again, all.
Dalor, re. this: "I'd be interested to hear from Ed/THO about whether there have historically been many clans of dwarves who lived in what seemed to be mineral poor areas...but in truth they hid riches from others while seeming to eke out a meager living."
I know from Realmsplay years back with Ed, that this happens. Quite often.
One instance: In elder days on the southeastern edge of Anauria, a small dwarf clan dwelt in a small peak known as "the Hollow Mountain." They told humans they lived there because it was sacred to the founding of their clan (mortal dwarves meeting dwarven deities in a cavern at its heart). That may or may not have been true, but MOST of the clan had moved there less than sixty years before, to begin hollowing out the mountain in earnest, because it was a working mine with rich veins of ore (nickel and iron, I seem to recall, but my the second sheet of my notes seems to have wandered, so I can't be certain).
Ed will, of course, provide more in the fullness of time . . .
love,
THO

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Originally posted by Alisttair

That either sucks big time (if its an old NDA) or splendid news meaning we can expect some netherese goodness (I hope).

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Originally posted by Blueblade

Red Walker,
I had the pleasure of sitting with Ed at a convention some years back (The Great Canadian Baycon, in Hamilton, Ontario) and talking about his cottage, in Muskoka, Ontario. Both it and his house east of Cobourg, Ontario have lots of trees around them.
Ed bought both of them, has expanded the house for his books, but (at the time we talked, anyway) has only had enough money to do maintenance on the cottage (new roof, etc.), not really change it.
However, Ed did mention a library book to me that he LOVED. He described it as a "hippie book" and its title was something like:
HANDMADE HOUSES/A Guide To the Woodbutcher's Art
or perhaps:
HANDMADE HOUSES/A Woodbutcher's Almanac (though I think I was closer to right the first time).
A slender white covered hardback crammed with photos, prolly published in the early 1970s.
I'm posting this because Ed said it was chock-full of what, to him, were photos of "dream" handbuilt homes, almost all of them in forests in North America.
(Caution: I have never seen this book. Ed did tell me all about the library interloan, or "interlibrary loan" system at the same time, as a way to temporarily examine the book.)
I'm guessing Ed does have drawings of his own, but I won't be surprised at all if he can't find them.
BB

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