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antishurtugal_reborn2025-01-24 08:10 am
masterghandalf) wrote in antishurtugal_reborn2025-01-24 08:10 am
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Cloak of Shadows Chapter Fourteen: Visitors to the Castle
Warning: This chapter contains violence, deaths and body horror.
MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to continue our journey through Ed Greenwood’s Cloak of Shadows! Last time, three Malaugrym infiltrated Blackstaff Tower using their lesser copies of Milhvar’s cloak, and all three of them – including Taernil – got themselves killed accomplishing little of note other than killing one apprentice (who Greenwood assures us was an idiot anyway). Today, we catch back up with our actual protagonists, as Elminster finds out why Ao sent him to Thay, and three rangers and a ghost begin their assault on the Castle of Shadows. Joining us once again will be Errezha and Calassara!
Chapter Fourteen: Visitors to the Castle
Errezha: An entirely mundane and innocuous title… which no doubt means that horrors shall await us within, to balance it out. Sigh. We open in Thay, Kythorn 18 picking up right where we left off with Elminster, after Ao dropped him in Thay the last time we saw him, as a shadowy giant looms over him. Elminster glides out of its reach using a spell stored in his magical undergarments - of course the old lech has magical undergarments - wondering just who created the giant and why, thinking that for once, it would be nice to know (I think that it would be nice, for once, if Ed Greenwood wrote a coherent story… sadly, I have resigned myself to the knowledge that this will never happen). We then cut to Thay, Kythorn 19 as someone bemoans his fate.
It is hard to become a Zulkir of Thay. Someone always holds such a title already and must be willing to give it up voluntarily – or made to die. A final death, that is, admitting of no resurrections, clones or death-cheating contingencies. As most of the present Zulkirs enjoy the power their titles bring (if not always the responsibilities) and have honed their magical powers – and accumulated allies and magical safeguards, traps, and useful items – for centuries, bringing final doom to one is no easy task. It is quite possible to become a very powerful Red Wizard without ever seeking the mantle of Zulkir, and indeed many “Bloodcowls” (as certain mages of other lands derisively call Red Wizards) have no interest in the exposure – not to say danger – of the position. It is not easily possible, however, to reshape the teachings, habits and directions of an entire school of magic without either being its Zulkir or having his full support.
MG: For a brief refresher, since we haven’t really dealt with Thay or the Red Wizards much in these sporkings since Hand of Fire (and if you’d rather forget Hand of Fire in its entirety… I don’t blame you) – the magocratic nation of Thay is ruled by a council of eight archmages, or Zulkirs to use the Thayan term, each corresponding to one of the eight core schools of magic. Notionally, the Zulkirs are equals; in practice, the lich Szass Tam, Zulkir of Necromancy and the eldest and most powerful of the council, tends to dominate it and has little difficulty getting his way, and is generally regarded as the unofficial but effective emperor of Thay. Not all the other Zulkirs are happy about this arrangement, mind, and during the lead-in to the Spellplague and the transition from 3e to 4e there was a civil war in Thay; Tam’s faction won, cementing the school of necromancy as the dominant school among the Red Wizards and giving Tam himself the power to declare himself High Regent and pack the rest of the council of Zulkirs with sycophants, while his rivals were killed or driven out of the country. The Haunted Lands novel trilogy covers these events; a flashback in the Honor Among Thieves movie also deals with them in brief. But at this point we’re still decades off from the civil war starting, and so while Tam is dominant in Thay, his power is not yet absolute. Which brings us to current events.
Calassara: Thank you for the rundown… I think. I study the history of the Runelords of Thassilon from my own world, and I’m now rather powerfully reminded of it. This worries me. Corrupt magocracies, it seems, are much the same everywhere… Regardless, our nameless point of view character is an ambitious Red Wizard of the necromancer’s school, who wishes to become Zulkir but knows he stands no chance of unseating Szass Tam or convincing him to abdicate. Tam is too powerful to fight, unlike many liches he has not succumbed to ennui and still pays attention to the affairs of the living world and can’t be outmaneuvered there, and the nameless wizard is too unpopular with the rest of the school to provoke a general revolt on his behalf. And so, he has withdrawn from politics and dedicated himself to increasing his magical power to such an extent that he can finally best Szass Tam and claim the power and position he thinks he deserves. The wizard has therefore taken to hiding his features behind a mask, spread rumors he’s suffered a disfiguring accident, and then when other Red Wizards come to investigate or take advantage of his apparent weakness, he kills them and uses a spell of his devising to steal their powers to add to his own. Eventually, however, his fellow Red Wizards caught on and stopped trying to attack him, so for his next move he had to wait for a crisis to give him an opening… which the Time of Troubles conveniently provided.
Errezha: *sniffs* You don’t need to go as far back Thassilon, Calassara – such banal intrigues remind me far, far too much of home! Regardless, after the Time of Troubles began the Masked One summoned his power-stealing spell – which apparently takes the form of the shadow giant Elminster ran into – and sent it out looking for fallen gods to drain. Eventually, he spotted the avatar of Hoar the Doombringer, Hurler of Thunders as he entered Thay, much diminished but still with powers well beyond those of almost all mortal wizards and sent the giant to feed on him. Which, it seems, brought him to the attention of Ao, who decided letting the wizard drain a god would lead to some unspecified terrible fate and that he needed to send something to handle the problem, something that always seems to drop into the middle of troubles in Faerun… something called Elminster. *rolls her eyes* And of course, Elminster is the very best option the literal god of gods has to deal with this issue. Of course he is.
MG: Hoar, by the way, is the minor god of revenge (not justice – that’s Tyr’s province – but revenge). He’s not very powerful, as gods go… but still probably not someone whose hit list you want to be on, given his portfolio, so the Masked One must be very confident of his success to even be attempting this. What Hoar’s doing in Thay, I’m less sure on, unless there’s someone here he wants revenge on. The Red Wizards aren’t very religious, as a whole, but Thay’s national god is Kossuth, the embodiment of fire and lord of the fire elementals (as for where Kossuth is… who knows. Per the wiki, Kossuth’s activities during the Time of Troubles aren’t recorded and considering how he’s usually characterized as a primordial force of nature more than a person, I’m not even 100% sure he fully understands he has mortal worshippers – or that he’d care if he did).
Calassara: Personally, I’m not sure which is worse to have… a god who doesn’t care about their worshippers at all, or one who meddles far, far too much. Perhaps I could create a scale, with Mystra on one end and Kossuth on the other? And so, we cut back to Elminster, as he sarcastically thanks Ao for dropping him into the middle of this mess. He spots the shadow giant reaching for him, so he sends his pipe flying off on its own as a distraction and then summons a bunch of silver spheres to intercept the fire bolts the giant starts shooting at him. Apparently Elminster needs the spheres because the days when he could serenely survive the fiery blasts of two meteor swarms at once were long gone. *confused* Why? Elminster certainly doesn’t seem any weaker now than he has been before. Perhaps it’s a reference to the Time of Troubles going on… but that doesn’t actually seem to be hampering him at all so far? *shrugs*. Elminster then summons another spell but holds off on triggering it for now; he watches the giant as it finishes destroying his spheres and then disperses the smoke with rays of cold, thinking that it’s been reduced to weaker spells already (that, or… it just doesn’t want to use anything more powerful to get rid of smoke?). He’s left wondering if some Red Wizard is casting spells through the giant, and triggers his spell, sending a red ray that shoots through the giant, but leaves it unharmed.
Errezha: On the one hand, I am pleased that the giant is powerful enough Elminster can’t just blast it aside and actually has to think… on the other hand, the giant hasn’t actually hurt Elminster yet either. Unfortunately. The giant advances towards Elminster and lets loose a bolt of lightning, which Elminster intercepts with more conjured spheres. He then notices the giant making a curious gesture with one hand and moves one of his spheres to intercept what turns out to be a delayed-blast fireball, and then performs a spell of his own in response.
The spell was one he’d always thought unfair, one called “disintegrate” that devoured matter as if it had never been, wiping out struggling creatures and things of beauty alike, visiting such prompt oblivion that El thought it something no mage should habitually use. Ah, high principles. The Old Mage shrugged, and used it now.
Errezha: And this is any worse than, say, spellfire how? The old hypocrite, pretending to care about such things now, after all the collateral damage he has quite happily caused over the course of his life! Anyway, the spell hits, the giant’s arm vanishes, and we cut to the Masked One as he’s rocked back and curses Mystra and Tymora, fickle women, to turn their faces away in the moment of his triumph. He thinks he should already have gained Elminster’s memories and powers, but now it looks like Elminster is going to win, so he prepares to cast another spell he hadn’t planned on using. …and then suddenly and inexplicably we cut to Milhvar, of all people, who is scrying on the battle, as he strokes the true Cloak of Shadows thoughtfully and decides that the time to use it will be soon. No, I don’t know what prompted that reaction. But it does seem to me that Milhvar has done quite a lot of watching and waiting, and making his puppets dance to no discernable end, without actually showing what he means to accomplish with all of this. I hope I don’t end up disappointed… but I fear I will be. It’s Greenwood.
Calassara: And so, we suddenly cut to a Thayan Zulkir who is in the process of being given a scented massage by his slaves – presumably not Szass Tam, then, since I don’t think liches benefit much from such things – when he suddenly senses something amiss. He jumps to his feet, throws off his slaves, and demands his cloak and towels be sent to the Turret of Stars before teleporting there himself. He’s on the edge of panic because someone is tossing around a massive amount of magic in the middle of Thay, which could do massive collateral damage even if it isn’t an attack, and he’s furious he wasn’t alerted sooner. We then cut back to Elminster as the shadow giant prepares to cast a firestorm at him. The Masked One thinks this is a difficult spell and not normally one he’d use in a duel, but with this contest being more tactical and taking place at a distant, he’s willing to give it a try. Elminster, of course, is completely unperturbed as he casts a shield around himself and looked up to enjoy the show. He’d not seen a Rain of Fire light up the darkness since three magefairs ago. *facepalm* Because why exactly should our hero ever been in any actual danger from anything? Suddenly, however, he realizes that the firestorm was just a cover for another spell, curses in Elvish as the scene ends (I could have some choice Elven curses for this trilogy… but I have decorum, so I’ll refrain).
Errezha: We then cut to another unnamed Red Wizard – seemingly a different one from the Zulkir we just saw – as he’s distracted from watching creatures fight for his amusement by a sudden outpouring of magical power. Something’s amiss! *flatly* You are a master of the obvious. He senses greater magic than he’d ever felt on the move before, even in the battles where the massed Red Wizards had together hurled storms at the witches of Rashemen. Greater magic than any mortal should be able to control. Because, of course, we must be reminded of how much more wonderful than any other wizard Elminster is, mustn’t we? *rolls her eyes in disgust* The wizard wonders if a god has come to Thay – considering the Time of Troubles, it’s entirely possible – and decides he has to find out the truth before the country is destroyed as the scene ends.
Calassara: And so, we cut back to Elminster as he uses his underwear – Savored Sting, it sounds weird when you put it like that! – to fly out of range of the giant’s disjunction spell as it starts swallowing his spheres *snickers*. Ahem. He summons his remaining spheres to him – they’ve successfully absorbed the firestorm, but now he doesn’t have any more spells to summon them prepared. He then starts flying back towards the giant, trailing spheres… you have no idea how hard it is to keep a straight face right now… and sends a scrying probe shooting ahead of him. The giant shoots purple beams at him but, of course, he dodges effortlessly, and his probe gets close enough that he can see some sort of metal bar floating inside the giant’s torso, which is apparently how it’s being controlled. Elminster calls up his mage sight to examine the giant more closely, and as he approaches he comments that it’s far beyond him to speculate as to Ao’s origins or nature, but with that being said, Ao, you bastard! *beat* You seem to be handling this very easily, so I’m not sure insulting the parentage of the highest deity in your world is the wisest course of action here? Maybe if I thought Elminster was actually struggling, but… Calistria forbid Greenwood put his favored toy in actual danger.
Errezha: *coldly* And I would kindly remind you all not to use “bastard” as a pejorative in my presence, thank you very much. I heard quite enough of that in Cheliax. Well, Elminster’s spheres start coming apart under the force of a spell meant to turn him to stone; Folk were dying in the Realms while wild magic raged and avatars walked, as he wasted time playing with this ungainly wizard’s nightmare. Oh, please. As if Elminster actually cares about the troubles of ordinary people unless doing so makes him look good. And, as one of the Chosen, isn’t dealing with wizards recklessly practicing dangerous magics part of your job? And where is your girlfriend, by the way? I thought killing Red Wizards was her favorite pastime – perhaps I was mistaken? But Elminster plunges into the giant’s body, draining power from his spheres to keep himself alive; he’s almost reached the rod at its heart, when a globe of multicolored light flashes into being around it. A prismatic sphere. Thanks again, Ao. Can the Overgod just smite him and rid us of his complaining? Any time would be nice.
Calassara: Though that Greenwood has a grudge against Ao – or someone who Ao is standing in for – seems more and more likely. Elminster bombards the prismatic sphere with his spheres – I almost wish Greenwood had just called them all “balls” and made this chapter much more unintentionally hilarious – and at last he weakens it enough that he manages to snatch the control rod. He experiences a moment of immense pain – aha! – and then the giant starts to collapse. Abruptly the night sky was gone, and he was standing in a familiar, cozy room more than a world away. *beat* So. That happened. We then cut to the Masked One as he curses Elminster; suddenly, the door to his sanctum bursts open behind him and he finds himself facing the projected image of Zulkir Lauzoril, who calls him a traitor. Ah; this must be our nameless Zulkir from earlier, then?
MG: Apparently so. For context, at this point in the timeline, Lauzoril is the Zulkir of Enchantment and one of Szass Tam’s most prominent rivals on the council. He’s not the strongest Zulkir magically, but still an epic level archmage, very ambitious and clever, and generally not an enemy you want to make. Interestingly, while IIRC in real life Greenwood created Szass Tam first for his home campaign and then built Thay as a setting and the Red Wizards as a faction around him, Lauzoril was apparently the first Zulkir to get official stats.
Calassara: But before the Masked One can reply, his scrying crystal suddenly explodes; the chamber rocked, and the necromancer’s struggling figure vanished. Lauzoril irritably says that he will deal with events that occur on his lands and tells someone else to stay out of his business; an unseen voice, presumably that of the wizard who killed the Masked One, says that all of Thay eagerly awaits Lauzoril actually taking care of his own business. Lauzoril snarkily comments on the unseen speaker’s perfect knowledge of this fact, and the speaker in turn wonders if it has ever occurred to Lauzoril that the position of Zulkir entails more than simply sitting around making cutting remarks (I must say… Lauzoril was in the process of doing something when you so rudely interrupted…); a second speaker adds that they’re waiting for him. Lauzoril responds by destroying the entire tower, though he’s not sure if the Masked One is actually dead or not or if he teleported away under cover of the first explosion. He wonders what Szass Tam will have to say about all this, then thinks better of asking him, and decides that the business is clearly settled for now and further discussion can wait, as the scene ends.
Errezha: *rolling her eyes* How very underwhelming. We cut to Elminster’s Safehold, Kythorn 19 as Elminster himself appears, only to find Ao himself lounging in his favorite chair and drinking his best wine. *beat* Now, I’m all for annoying Elminster on principle, but for an Overgod… that’s just petty. Elminster steps forward and offers Ao the giant’s control rod, asking if this is what he wanted dealt with. Elminster then seemingly strips naked and places his underwear on the table in front of Ao, showing that it’s clean, as if this proves something – what, does he want Ao to know he didn’t soil himself mid battle? This is just pathetic. He then summons one of his other chairs over and plops himself down in it; no word on if he got dressed first, but I doubt it. *wrinkles her nose* He is begging to be smitten. Ao studies the scepter and makes it vanish, and then instead of doing the same to Elminster he tells him he ought to make him the god of magic in Faerun. *grabs her braid so hard she visibly winces in pain* No. No, don’t you dare. If you make this old fool a god, I swear by the Prince of Law and all the Lords of the Nine I will find you and drag you into the very pits of Nessus and leave you there to rot, Overgod or no! *realizes she’s panting heavily, composes herself* Well. Thankfully, Elminster turns him down, saying it would ruin his life and his usefulness – oh, do you just want all the power and none of the responsibility, is that it? Ao tells Elminster – calling him by his full name, Elminster Aumar – that he’s right… all too often (did you not have to intervene not two chapters ago to prevent this man from ruining your divine plan and Midnight’s life?) and tells him to stay out of trouble. I’d not want to have to return here to destroy you. Do. It. Elminster shakes his hand… and Ao vanishes. Elminster sits back down and complains that all he got for his trouble was a lecture and half his best wine gone. I don’t think I can afford to entertain Overgods! And on that note, the scene comes to an end.
MG: I just want to say… between Elminster’s flagrant disrespect and Ao wanting to reward him for his behavior by making him an outright god, I can’t help but think my “Greenwood is venting his issues with TSR’s editorial staff using Ao as a proxy” theory feels all the more likely. And… yeah. Some of you in the comments were relieved Ao didn’t give Elminster a powerup when they last met. This time, we get to see that Ao did want to make Elminster a god, and Elminster “humbly” refused! Ugh.
Calassara: And so, we cut to The Castle of Shadows, Kythorn 19 as our three rangers appear and we get a description of their surroundings.
Deep green and serpentine were the shadows coiling around them as the three rangers in leather blinked at each other and their surroundings. It was cool and damp and smelled… strange, as if the smells of an old and deep forest were mingled with sharp scents of burning. It was some sort of high-ceilinged chamber or hall, longer than it was wide and built of stone, the massive blocks smooth with age and unadorned.
Calassara: …not the worst evil lair I’ve seen. Not the best. I’ll give it a seven of ten. The rangers look around and find themselves seemingly alone, but shadows coil around Sharantyr’s sword, and she warns the others it may be an attack. Belkram realizes that it’s a spell of Sylune’s, to hide the blade – he knows this how? Since when does he know about this sort of magic? Suddenly, Itharr sees his arm starting to grow fur and barbs, and then flicker between that and its normal shape, while Belkram starts to sprout scales and claws. Sharantyr is fine, and Belkram wonders if she can take them home, while Itharr doesn’t want to face town guards (no doubt something Itharr the murderer is familiar with…) looking like this. Sharantyr, who is taking this remarkably well, asks if it hurts and wonders if this is something Sylune is doing to them as a disguise. Belkram thinks the plane itself is affecting their bodies, and wonders if this is how the Malaugrym became shapeshifters.
MG: …huh. The Plane of Shadows itself is usually depicted as being in a sort of half-real state of continuous flux, but I don’t think it usually has this impact on visitors. And at least from 3e onwards, people exposed to too much of the plane’s power usually become Shades or Shadar-kai, not weird shapeshifters. So… not really sure what Greenwood is going for, here.
Errezha: *looking both curious and disgusted* I do not like the implications of this… Itharr tries to make his body shift deliberately but nothing happens; Belkram jokes that he’s just trying to get Sharantyr naked, which has… nothing whatsoever to do with what you’re talking about. Everyone then seems to decide that the fact that two of their number are randomly mutating isn’t worth further concern *facepalm* and that they should all go look around. Sharantyr doesn’t know if they need to be in this exact spot to return home but thinks her sword will show her the way (no. This isn’t something you should think. You need to know how to get home. Do you know nothing about planar travel?). Sharantyr studies the sword a bit and ends up deciding that the portal they came in by isn’t here anymore; they others decide they need to get moving, or else they’ll no doubt either eventually get attacked, or die of starvation. *applauds sarcastically* What a brilliant deduction. Belkram and Itharr then start arguing about their mutations – apparently, Belkram’s back has sprouted a row of breasts, a moving row of breasts; Belkram begs Sharantyr to tell him Itharr’s lying, but she just shakes her head sadly. Itharr wonders why it hasn’t affected Sharantyr; he wonders if it's because she’s a woman (considering there are female Malaugrym, I’m going to say… no), but Belkram thinks it’s the sword. Which would be entirely obvious to anyone with half a brain. Apparently, the sword is also keeping the little floating shadows in the air away; Itharr realizes they’re alive, but Sharantyr says they are, too (now it’s her turn to state the obvious…) and the three of them march off. At first, they’re disturbed by a slithering sound, but it turns out to just be a tail Itharr has sprouted dragging on the ground; they keep moving on, and the scene ends.
Calassara: And so, we cut to Elminster’s Safehold, and then the Castle of Shadows, Kythorn 19 as Elminster decides he needs to give the Malaugrym something to think about other than attacking Faerun. Well, so far as we’ve seen, the only reason they care about that is to get at you… he suddenly gets an idea and snaps his fingers. Meanwhile, in the Castle of Shadows, the head of Sylune’s “Elminster” body suddenly reconstitutes from where it melted in the middle of the main hall. It winks at some startled passing Malaugrym and then goes flying through the castle. At one point it startless two Malaugrym, says boo! And then blasts them with lightning, leaving one rolling about in agony and the other apparently dead; it then interrupts a ritual being performed by a number of Malaugrym that’s apparently been forbidden by Dhalgrave for centuries (no, we’re not given any indication what this ritual is about, or why it was forbidden…) – one of them declares the appearance of the head to be a sign, and another asks what it means. The head tells them to abandon hope – is that not what is supposedly written above the gates to the Hells? Ominous! – and starts shooting silver lances around the room among Malaugrym blood and screams. By the time the head leaves again, one of the survivors moans that it was Elminster, he’s back to the corpse beside him. Wisely, the corpse chose not to answer. And on that bloody note, the chapter comes to an end.
MG: This chapter, once again, is a mess. The magic duel between Elminster and the Masked One’s giant could have been exciting, but the way it’s written is just dull, not least because Elminster treats it as a rather tedious chore more than a deadly battle, and despite the powerful spells the giant is tossing around, there’s never a real sense that Elminster is in danger or that this is actually hard for him rather than just frustrating and time-consuming. And, for that matter, the Thayan subplot feels wasted. Thay doesn’t get much attention in the Avatar Trilogy (possibly because this event is heavily focused on the gods and the Thayans, as noted, aren’t really very religious, unlike Zhentil Keep which is a major cult center for Bane). We could have had a significant subplot about Thayan intrigues as the various Zulkirs try to take advantage of the crisis, with Elminster and the Simbul trying to stymie them… all while the Malaugrym watch and wait from the shadows. Sadly, Greenwood gets it over and done with in one chapter and clearly can’t wait to get back to other things. And, really, the situation never feels serious enough for Ao to even take notice in the first place; even if the Masked One did kill Hoar and take his powers… gods have died and mortals ascended before, and Hoar’s not all that powerful (only a demigod and not even a full god, even). The Masked One ascending as the new god of vengeance wouldn’t really shake the pantheon up that much. The entry to the Castle of Shadows is fairly banal, and the most notable part is how weirdly blasé everyone is about how Belkram and Itharr are mutating randomly all over the place (I’m honestly reminded of the chronologically last Elric book, Stormbringer, and how as Chaos’s power grows, the Chaos lords’ armies start warping reality as they pass, to the point that enemy soldiers who even approach them without magical protection end up melting into puddles of organic goo long before being able to do any damage – much creepier). And then at the end Elminster just randomly decides to use a copy of his head to fly around the Castle of Shadows and murder a bunch of Malaugrym (all unnamed and none currently involved in anything overtly evil) for the lulz. I’m starting to really understand why they hate this guy so much… But that’s all for today. Next time, the infiltration of the Castle of Shadows continues, and Elminster proves he’s learned exactly nothing from his encounter with Ao. We’ll see you then!
MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to continue our journey through Ed Greenwood’s Cloak of Shadows! Last time, three Malaugrym infiltrated Blackstaff Tower using their lesser copies of Milhvar’s cloak, and all three of them – including Taernil – got themselves killed accomplishing little of note other than killing one apprentice (who Greenwood assures us was an idiot anyway). Today, we catch back up with our actual protagonists, as Elminster finds out why Ao sent him to Thay, and three rangers and a ghost begin their assault on the Castle of Shadows. Joining us once again will be Errezha and Calassara!
Chapter Fourteen: Visitors to the Castle
Errezha: An entirely mundane and innocuous title… which no doubt means that horrors shall await us within, to balance it out. Sigh. We open in Thay, Kythorn 18 picking up right where we left off with Elminster, after Ao dropped him in Thay the last time we saw him, as a shadowy giant looms over him. Elminster glides out of its reach using a spell stored in his magical undergarments - of course the old lech has magical undergarments - wondering just who created the giant and why, thinking that for once, it would be nice to know (I think that it would be nice, for once, if Ed Greenwood wrote a coherent story… sadly, I have resigned myself to the knowledge that this will never happen). We then cut to Thay, Kythorn 19 as someone bemoans his fate.
It is hard to become a Zulkir of Thay. Someone always holds such a title already and must be willing to give it up voluntarily – or made to die. A final death, that is, admitting of no resurrections, clones or death-cheating contingencies. As most of the present Zulkirs enjoy the power their titles bring (if not always the responsibilities) and have honed their magical powers – and accumulated allies and magical safeguards, traps, and useful items – for centuries, bringing final doom to one is no easy task. It is quite possible to become a very powerful Red Wizard without ever seeking the mantle of Zulkir, and indeed many “Bloodcowls” (as certain mages of other lands derisively call Red Wizards) have no interest in the exposure – not to say danger – of the position. It is not easily possible, however, to reshape the teachings, habits and directions of an entire school of magic without either being its Zulkir or having his full support.
MG: For a brief refresher, since we haven’t really dealt with Thay or the Red Wizards much in these sporkings since Hand of Fire (and if you’d rather forget Hand of Fire in its entirety… I don’t blame you) – the magocratic nation of Thay is ruled by a council of eight archmages, or Zulkirs to use the Thayan term, each corresponding to one of the eight core schools of magic. Notionally, the Zulkirs are equals; in practice, the lich Szass Tam, Zulkir of Necromancy and the eldest and most powerful of the council, tends to dominate it and has little difficulty getting his way, and is generally regarded as the unofficial but effective emperor of Thay. Not all the other Zulkirs are happy about this arrangement, mind, and during the lead-in to the Spellplague and the transition from 3e to 4e there was a civil war in Thay; Tam’s faction won, cementing the school of necromancy as the dominant school among the Red Wizards and giving Tam himself the power to declare himself High Regent and pack the rest of the council of Zulkirs with sycophants, while his rivals were killed or driven out of the country. The Haunted Lands novel trilogy covers these events; a flashback in the Honor Among Thieves movie also deals with them in brief. But at this point we’re still decades off from the civil war starting, and so while Tam is dominant in Thay, his power is not yet absolute. Which brings us to current events.
Calassara: Thank you for the rundown… I think. I study the history of the Runelords of Thassilon from my own world, and I’m now rather powerfully reminded of it. This worries me. Corrupt magocracies, it seems, are much the same everywhere… Regardless, our nameless point of view character is an ambitious Red Wizard of the necromancer’s school, who wishes to become Zulkir but knows he stands no chance of unseating Szass Tam or convincing him to abdicate. Tam is too powerful to fight, unlike many liches he has not succumbed to ennui and still pays attention to the affairs of the living world and can’t be outmaneuvered there, and the nameless wizard is too unpopular with the rest of the school to provoke a general revolt on his behalf. And so, he has withdrawn from politics and dedicated himself to increasing his magical power to such an extent that he can finally best Szass Tam and claim the power and position he thinks he deserves. The wizard has therefore taken to hiding his features behind a mask, spread rumors he’s suffered a disfiguring accident, and then when other Red Wizards come to investigate or take advantage of his apparent weakness, he kills them and uses a spell of his devising to steal their powers to add to his own. Eventually, however, his fellow Red Wizards caught on and stopped trying to attack him, so for his next move he had to wait for a crisis to give him an opening… which the Time of Troubles conveniently provided.
Errezha: *sniffs* You don’t need to go as far back Thassilon, Calassara – such banal intrigues remind me far, far too much of home! Regardless, after the Time of Troubles began the Masked One summoned his power-stealing spell – which apparently takes the form of the shadow giant Elminster ran into – and sent it out looking for fallen gods to drain. Eventually, he spotted the avatar of Hoar the Doombringer, Hurler of Thunders as he entered Thay, much diminished but still with powers well beyond those of almost all mortal wizards and sent the giant to feed on him. Which, it seems, brought him to the attention of Ao, who decided letting the wizard drain a god would lead to some unspecified terrible fate and that he needed to send something to handle the problem, something that always seems to drop into the middle of troubles in Faerun… something called Elminster. *rolls her eyes* And of course, Elminster is the very best option the literal god of gods has to deal with this issue. Of course he is.
MG: Hoar, by the way, is the minor god of revenge (not justice – that’s Tyr’s province – but revenge). He’s not very powerful, as gods go… but still probably not someone whose hit list you want to be on, given his portfolio, so the Masked One must be very confident of his success to even be attempting this. What Hoar’s doing in Thay, I’m less sure on, unless there’s someone here he wants revenge on. The Red Wizards aren’t very religious, as a whole, but Thay’s national god is Kossuth, the embodiment of fire and lord of the fire elementals (as for where Kossuth is… who knows. Per the wiki, Kossuth’s activities during the Time of Troubles aren’t recorded and considering how he’s usually characterized as a primordial force of nature more than a person, I’m not even 100% sure he fully understands he has mortal worshippers – or that he’d care if he did).
Calassara: Personally, I’m not sure which is worse to have… a god who doesn’t care about their worshippers at all, or one who meddles far, far too much. Perhaps I could create a scale, with Mystra on one end and Kossuth on the other? And so, we cut back to Elminster, as he sarcastically thanks Ao for dropping him into the middle of this mess. He spots the shadow giant reaching for him, so he sends his pipe flying off on its own as a distraction and then summons a bunch of silver spheres to intercept the fire bolts the giant starts shooting at him. Apparently Elminster needs the spheres because the days when he could serenely survive the fiery blasts of two meteor swarms at once were long gone. *confused* Why? Elminster certainly doesn’t seem any weaker now than he has been before. Perhaps it’s a reference to the Time of Troubles going on… but that doesn’t actually seem to be hampering him at all so far? *shrugs*. Elminster then summons another spell but holds off on triggering it for now; he watches the giant as it finishes destroying his spheres and then disperses the smoke with rays of cold, thinking that it’s been reduced to weaker spells already (that, or… it just doesn’t want to use anything more powerful to get rid of smoke?). He’s left wondering if some Red Wizard is casting spells through the giant, and triggers his spell, sending a red ray that shoots through the giant, but leaves it unharmed.
Errezha: On the one hand, I am pleased that the giant is powerful enough Elminster can’t just blast it aside and actually has to think… on the other hand, the giant hasn’t actually hurt Elminster yet either. Unfortunately. The giant advances towards Elminster and lets loose a bolt of lightning, which Elminster intercepts with more conjured spheres. He then notices the giant making a curious gesture with one hand and moves one of his spheres to intercept what turns out to be a delayed-blast fireball, and then performs a spell of his own in response.
The spell was one he’d always thought unfair, one called “disintegrate” that devoured matter as if it had never been, wiping out struggling creatures and things of beauty alike, visiting such prompt oblivion that El thought it something no mage should habitually use. Ah, high principles. The Old Mage shrugged, and used it now.
Errezha: And this is any worse than, say, spellfire how? The old hypocrite, pretending to care about such things now, after all the collateral damage he has quite happily caused over the course of his life! Anyway, the spell hits, the giant’s arm vanishes, and we cut to the Masked One as he’s rocked back and curses Mystra and Tymora, fickle women, to turn their faces away in the moment of his triumph. He thinks he should already have gained Elminster’s memories and powers, but now it looks like Elminster is going to win, so he prepares to cast another spell he hadn’t planned on using. …and then suddenly and inexplicably we cut to Milhvar, of all people, who is scrying on the battle, as he strokes the true Cloak of Shadows thoughtfully and decides that the time to use it will be soon. No, I don’t know what prompted that reaction. But it does seem to me that Milhvar has done quite a lot of watching and waiting, and making his puppets dance to no discernable end, without actually showing what he means to accomplish with all of this. I hope I don’t end up disappointed… but I fear I will be. It’s Greenwood.
Calassara: And so, we suddenly cut to a Thayan Zulkir who is in the process of being given a scented massage by his slaves – presumably not Szass Tam, then, since I don’t think liches benefit much from such things – when he suddenly senses something amiss. He jumps to his feet, throws off his slaves, and demands his cloak and towels be sent to the Turret of Stars before teleporting there himself. He’s on the edge of panic because someone is tossing around a massive amount of magic in the middle of Thay, which could do massive collateral damage even if it isn’t an attack, and he’s furious he wasn’t alerted sooner. We then cut back to Elminster as the shadow giant prepares to cast a firestorm at him. The Masked One thinks this is a difficult spell and not normally one he’d use in a duel, but with this contest being more tactical and taking place at a distant, he’s willing to give it a try. Elminster, of course, is completely unperturbed as he casts a shield around himself and looked up to enjoy the show. He’d not seen a Rain of Fire light up the darkness since three magefairs ago. *facepalm* Because why exactly should our hero ever been in any actual danger from anything? Suddenly, however, he realizes that the firestorm was just a cover for another spell, curses in Elvish as the scene ends (I could have some choice Elven curses for this trilogy… but I have decorum, so I’ll refrain).
Errezha: We then cut to another unnamed Red Wizard – seemingly a different one from the Zulkir we just saw – as he’s distracted from watching creatures fight for his amusement by a sudden outpouring of magical power. Something’s amiss! *flatly* You are a master of the obvious. He senses greater magic than he’d ever felt on the move before, even in the battles where the massed Red Wizards had together hurled storms at the witches of Rashemen. Greater magic than any mortal should be able to control. Because, of course, we must be reminded of how much more wonderful than any other wizard Elminster is, mustn’t we? *rolls her eyes in disgust* The wizard wonders if a god has come to Thay – considering the Time of Troubles, it’s entirely possible – and decides he has to find out the truth before the country is destroyed as the scene ends.
Calassara: And so, we cut back to Elminster as he uses his underwear – Savored Sting, it sounds weird when you put it like that! – to fly out of range of the giant’s disjunction spell as it starts swallowing his spheres *snickers*. Ahem. He summons his remaining spheres to him – they’ve successfully absorbed the firestorm, but now he doesn’t have any more spells to summon them prepared. He then starts flying back towards the giant, trailing spheres… you have no idea how hard it is to keep a straight face right now… and sends a scrying probe shooting ahead of him. The giant shoots purple beams at him but, of course, he dodges effortlessly, and his probe gets close enough that he can see some sort of metal bar floating inside the giant’s torso, which is apparently how it’s being controlled. Elminster calls up his mage sight to examine the giant more closely, and as he approaches he comments that it’s far beyond him to speculate as to Ao’s origins or nature, but with that being said, Ao, you bastard! *beat* You seem to be handling this very easily, so I’m not sure insulting the parentage of the highest deity in your world is the wisest course of action here? Maybe if I thought Elminster was actually struggling, but… Calistria forbid Greenwood put his favored toy in actual danger.
Errezha: *coldly* And I would kindly remind you all not to use “bastard” as a pejorative in my presence, thank you very much. I heard quite enough of that in Cheliax. Well, Elminster’s spheres start coming apart under the force of a spell meant to turn him to stone; Folk were dying in the Realms while wild magic raged and avatars walked, as he wasted time playing with this ungainly wizard’s nightmare. Oh, please. As if Elminster actually cares about the troubles of ordinary people unless doing so makes him look good. And, as one of the Chosen, isn’t dealing with wizards recklessly practicing dangerous magics part of your job? And where is your girlfriend, by the way? I thought killing Red Wizards was her favorite pastime – perhaps I was mistaken? But Elminster plunges into the giant’s body, draining power from his spheres to keep himself alive; he’s almost reached the rod at its heart, when a globe of multicolored light flashes into being around it. A prismatic sphere. Thanks again, Ao. Can the Overgod just smite him and rid us of his complaining? Any time would be nice.
Calassara: Though that Greenwood has a grudge against Ao – or someone who Ao is standing in for – seems more and more likely. Elminster bombards the prismatic sphere with his spheres – I almost wish Greenwood had just called them all “balls” and made this chapter much more unintentionally hilarious – and at last he weakens it enough that he manages to snatch the control rod. He experiences a moment of immense pain – aha! – and then the giant starts to collapse. Abruptly the night sky was gone, and he was standing in a familiar, cozy room more than a world away. *beat* So. That happened. We then cut to the Masked One as he curses Elminster; suddenly, the door to his sanctum bursts open behind him and he finds himself facing the projected image of Zulkir Lauzoril, who calls him a traitor. Ah; this must be our nameless Zulkir from earlier, then?
MG: Apparently so. For context, at this point in the timeline, Lauzoril is the Zulkir of Enchantment and one of Szass Tam’s most prominent rivals on the council. He’s not the strongest Zulkir magically, but still an epic level archmage, very ambitious and clever, and generally not an enemy you want to make. Interestingly, while IIRC in real life Greenwood created Szass Tam first for his home campaign and then built Thay as a setting and the Red Wizards as a faction around him, Lauzoril was apparently the first Zulkir to get official stats.
Calassara: But before the Masked One can reply, his scrying crystal suddenly explodes; the chamber rocked, and the necromancer’s struggling figure vanished. Lauzoril irritably says that he will deal with events that occur on his lands and tells someone else to stay out of his business; an unseen voice, presumably that of the wizard who killed the Masked One, says that all of Thay eagerly awaits Lauzoril actually taking care of his own business. Lauzoril snarkily comments on the unseen speaker’s perfect knowledge of this fact, and the speaker in turn wonders if it has ever occurred to Lauzoril that the position of Zulkir entails more than simply sitting around making cutting remarks (I must say… Lauzoril was in the process of doing something when you so rudely interrupted…); a second speaker adds that they’re waiting for him. Lauzoril responds by destroying the entire tower, though he’s not sure if the Masked One is actually dead or not or if he teleported away under cover of the first explosion. He wonders what Szass Tam will have to say about all this, then thinks better of asking him, and decides that the business is clearly settled for now and further discussion can wait, as the scene ends.
Errezha: *rolling her eyes* How very underwhelming. We cut to Elminster’s Safehold, Kythorn 19 as Elminster himself appears, only to find Ao himself lounging in his favorite chair and drinking his best wine. *beat* Now, I’m all for annoying Elminster on principle, but for an Overgod… that’s just petty. Elminster steps forward and offers Ao the giant’s control rod, asking if this is what he wanted dealt with. Elminster then seemingly strips naked and places his underwear on the table in front of Ao, showing that it’s clean, as if this proves something – what, does he want Ao to know he didn’t soil himself mid battle? This is just pathetic. He then summons one of his other chairs over and plops himself down in it; no word on if he got dressed first, but I doubt it. *wrinkles her nose* He is begging to be smitten. Ao studies the scepter and makes it vanish, and then instead of doing the same to Elminster he tells him he ought to make him the god of magic in Faerun. *grabs her braid so hard she visibly winces in pain* No. No, don’t you dare. If you make this old fool a god, I swear by the Prince of Law and all the Lords of the Nine I will find you and drag you into the very pits of Nessus and leave you there to rot, Overgod or no! *realizes she’s panting heavily, composes herself* Well. Thankfully, Elminster turns him down, saying it would ruin his life and his usefulness – oh, do you just want all the power and none of the responsibility, is that it? Ao tells Elminster – calling him by his full name, Elminster Aumar – that he’s right… all too often (did you not have to intervene not two chapters ago to prevent this man from ruining your divine plan and Midnight’s life?) and tells him to stay out of trouble. I’d not want to have to return here to destroy you. Do. It. Elminster shakes his hand… and Ao vanishes. Elminster sits back down and complains that all he got for his trouble was a lecture and half his best wine gone. I don’t think I can afford to entertain Overgods! And on that note, the scene comes to an end.
MG: I just want to say… between Elminster’s flagrant disrespect and Ao wanting to reward him for his behavior by making him an outright god, I can’t help but think my “Greenwood is venting his issues with TSR’s editorial staff using Ao as a proxy” theory feels all the more likely. And… yeah. Some of you in the comments were relieved Ao didn’t give Elminster a powerup when they last met. This time, we get to see that Ao did want to make Elminster a god, and Elminster “humbly” refused! Ugh.
Calassara: And so, we cut to The Castle of Shadows, Kythorn 19 as our three rangers appear and we get a description of their surroundings.
Deep green and serpentine were the shadows coiling around them as the three rangers in leather blinked at each other and their surroundings. It was cool and damp and smelled… strange, as if the smells of an old and deep forest were mingled with sharp scents of burning. It was some sort of high-ceilinged chamber or hall, longer than it was wide and built of stone, the massive blocks smooth with age and unadorned.
Calassara: …not the worst evil lair I’ve seen. Not the best. I’ll give it a seven of ten. The rangers look around and find themselves seemingly alone, but shadows coil around Sharantyr’s sword, and she warns the others it may be an attack. Belkram realizes that it’s a spell of Sylune’s, to hide the blade – he knows this how? Since when does he know about this sort of magic? Suddenly, Itharr sees his arm starting to grow fur and barbs, and then flicker between that and its normal shape, while Belkram starts to sprout scales and claws. Sharantyr is fine, and Belkram wonders if she can take them home, while Itharr doesn’t want to face town guards (no doubt something Itharr the murderer is familiar with…) looking like this. Sharantyr, who is taking this remarkably well, asks if it hurts and wonders if this is something Sylune is doing to them as a disguise. Belkram thinks the plane itself is affecting their bodies, and wonders if this is how the Malaugrym became shapeshifters.
MG: …huh. The Plane of Shadows itself is usually depicted as being in a sort of half-real state of continuous flux, but I don’t think it usually has this impact on visitors. And at least from 3e onwards, people exposed to too much of the plane’s power usually become Shades or Shadar-kai, not weird shapeshifters. So… not really sure what Greenwood is going for, here.
Errezha: *looking both curious and disgusted* I do not like the implications of this… Itharr tries to make his body shift deliberately but nothing happens; Belkram jokes that he’s just trying to get Sharantyr naked, which has… nothing whatsoever to do with what you’re talking about. Everyone then seems to decide that the fact that two of their number are randomly mutating isn’t worth further concern *facepalm* and that they should all go look around. Sharantyr doesn’t know if they need to be in this exact spot to return home but thinks her sword will show her the way (no. This isn’t something you should think. You need to know how to get home. Do you know nothing about planar travel?). Sharantyr studies the sword a bit and ends up deciding that the portal they came in by isn’t here anymore; they others decide they need to get moving, or else they’ll no doubt either eventually get attacked, or die of starvation. *applauds sarcastically* What a brilliant deduction. Belkram and Itharr then start arguing about their mutations – apparently, Belkram’s back has sprouted a row of breasts, a moving row of breasts; Belkram begs Sharantyr to tell him Itharr’s lying, but she just shakes her head sadly. Itharr wonders why it hasn’t affected Sharantyr; he wonders if it's because she’s a woman (considering there are female Malaugrym, I’m going to say… no), but Belkram thinks it’s the sword. Which would be entirely obvious to anyone with half a brain. Apparently, the sword is also keeping the little floating shadows in the air away; Itharr realizes they’re alive, but Sharantyr says they are, too (now it’s her turn to state the obvious…) and the three of them march off. At first, they’re disturbed by a slithering sound, but it turns out to just be a tail Itharr has sprouted dragging on the ground; they keep moving on, and the scene ends.
Calassara: And so, we cut to Elminster’s Safehold, and then the Castle of Shadows, Kythorn 19 as Elminster decides he needs to give the Malaugrym something to think about other than attacking Faerun. Well, so far as we’ve seen, the only reason they care about that is to get at you… he suddenly gets an idea and snaps his fingers. Meanwhile, in the Castle of Shadows, the head of Sylune’s “Elminster” body suddenly reconstitutes from where it melted in the middle of the main hall. It winks at some startled passing Malaugrym and then goes flying through the castle. At one point it startless two Malaugrym, says boo! And then blasts them with lightning, leaving one rolling about in agony and the other apparently dead; it then interrupts a ritual being performed by a number of Malaugrym that’s apparently been forbidden by Dhalgrave for centuries (no, we’re not given any indication what this ritual is about, or why it was forbidden…) – one of them declares the appearance of the head to be a sign, and another asks what it means. The head tells them to abandon hope – is that not what is supposedly written above the gates to the Hells? Ominous! – and starts shooting silver lances around the room among Malaugrym blood and screams. By the time the head leaves again, one of the survivors moans that it was Elminster, he’s back to the corpse beside him. Wisely, the corpse chose not to answer. And on that bloody note, the chapter comes to an end.
MG: This chapter, once again, is a mess. The magic duel between Elminster and the Masked One’s giant could have been exciting, but the way it’s written is just dull, not least because Elminster treats it as a rather tedious chore more than a deadly battle, and despite the powerful spells the giant is tossing around, there’s never a real sense that Elminster is in danger or that this is actually hard for him rather than just frustrating and time-consuming. And, for that matter, the Thayan subplot feels wasted. Thay doesn’t get much attention in the Avatar Trilogy (possibly because this event is heavily focused on the gods and the Thayans, as noted, aren’t really very religious, unlike Zhentil Keep which is a major cult center for Bane). We could have had a significant subplot about Thayan intrigues as the various Zulkirs try to take advantage of the crisis, with Elminster and the Simbul trying to stymie them… all while the Malaugrym watch and wait from the shadows. Sadly, Greenwood gets it over and done with in one chapter and clearly can’t wait to get back to other things. And, really, the situation never feels serious enough for Ao to even take notice in the first place; even if the Masked One did kill Hoar and take his powers… gods have died and mortals ascended before, and Hoar’s not all that powerful (only a demigod and not even a full god, even). The Masked One ascending as the new god of vengeance wouldn’t really shake the pantheon up that much. The entry to the Castle of Shadows is fairly banal, and the most notable part is how weirdly blasé everyone is about how Belkram and Itharr are mutating randomly all over the place (I’m honestly reminded of the chronologically last Elric book, Stormbringer, and how as Chaos’s power grows, the Chaos lords’ armies start warping reality as they pass, to the point that enemy soldiers who even approach them without magical protection end up melting into puddles of organic goo long before being able to do any damage – much creepier). And then at the end Elminster just randomly decides to use a copy of his head to fly around the Castle of Shadows and murder a bunch of Malaugrym (all unnamed and none currently involved in anything overtly evil) for the lulz. I’m starting to really understand why they hate this guy so much… But that’s all for today. Next time, the infiltration of the Castle of Shadows continues, and Elminster proves he’s learned exactly nothing from his encounter with Ao. We’ll see you then!