Greyhawk 2000 Tharizdun

 From: Michael Sears [armitage@MHCABLE.COM]

Sent: Monday, November 12, 2001 10:22 PM

To: GREYTALK@MITVMA.MIT.EDU

Subject: [GREYTALK] Greyhawk 2000 Tharizdun

I just joined the list, so I don't know if this has been mentioned. I didn't see it in the archive ...

I was just rereading the Greyhawk 2000 adventure "Alterations" in Dungeon #83 and noticed  something disturbing. The adventure mentions Millexium, a magical mineral that only exists in the nuked portions of Iuz's former kingdom. It has the power to enhance spacial manipulation spells and it is described as: " ... a small chip of crystal-embedded rock with a characteristic purple and black swirling pattern."

Purple and black magical rock. .. bad feeling in the pit of my stomach about that, but then I just finished going through a 3e conversion of Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun. I suspect that widespread use of Millexium in DIM Rifles would be a bad thing.

Millexium for a standard campaign:

Millexium is a magical mineral that is only created when powerful (8th-level or higher) destructive Evocation magic interacts catastrophically with equally powerful Summoning magic. As a result, most samples have been recovered from the Suloise ruins in the Sea of Dust. All known samples have been no larger than a typical coin and ld6 chips are found in a normal deposit.

Millexium has the ability to enhance any magical effect dealing with the manipulation of space, e.g. Teleport, Dimension Door, Leomund's Secret Chest, Bag of Holding. If a chip is used as a Focus when casting a spell or incorporated into a magic item, the spell's range or area of effect is increased by a factor of 4. (Dimension Door Range 1600 ft.+ 160 ft/level, L's SC 4 cubic feet/level, etc). If a spell has no range, its general effectiveness is quadrupled or its drawbacks are quartered, judged by the DM. e.g. Teleport to a casually seen area has a 12% chance of being off target. With Milexium, it becomes 3%. If such a spel causes damage, Millexium automatically Empowers it, as the Feat.

Unfortunately, the true source of Millexium's power is the imprisoned god Tharizdun. Cultists refer to the material as Tharizdun's Blood and it is integral to the sanity-twisting effects often found in his temples. If a character uses Millexium a number of times greater than their Wisdom bonus (or 1, whichever is higher) in a single week the power of Tharizdun begins to warp their mind. The character gains an Insanity Score (see Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil) of 0.5, increasing by 0.5 for each additional week that they overuse Millexium. If a cleric gains an Insanity Score equal to half their level, they immediately convert to worship of Tharizdun and gain all benefits as appropriate. A non-cleric with a comparable Score becomes an insane follower of Tharizdun but gains no advantages, only the penalties, although they may begin taking levels as a cleric. Until conversion occurs, the character suffers the Insanity Score penalties to Saves and Skill Checks as appropriate.

A Heal spell removes 1 point of Insanity Score and Greater restoration removes 2. Neither has any effect on a fully convereted character.

Michael Sears armitage@mhcable.com

"No turning back where the end is in sight.

There's a job to be done, a fight to be won."