Morphail's Magic Items
by Ohad ShahamOver the centuries, Morphail has accumulated many magical items. Some are so powerful they would make the bravest paladin shake in his polished armour, while others are merely magical trinkets kept as souvenirs from all over Mystara.
This chapter describes only some of those items. Mostly the items which Morphail's carries on his person or that have special importance.
This ring crafted by Morphail when he was still human, is a small golden ring with no decorations or engravings. The ring is enchanted with a strengthened form of shield spell. It gives the wearer an AC bonus of 5 (making Morphail's AC -3), and allows saving throws for magic missile spells. The ring also The ring also gives its wearer the ability to always win a save for half damage against spells that allow such a save (Fire Ball, Ice Storm, Lightning bolt etc').
This innocent looking black silk band is another one of Morphail's instruments of death. Morphail keeps the Band around his neck tied as a bow tie. If the Band is placed around a living being's neck, the band will immediately start to tighten around the neck with magical force. The victim suffers 1d4 point of damage per round. It takes a successful strength check on 4d6 to be able to detach the band.
This is Morphail's favourite combat item. This wand is an extremely thin and white stick, which looks a lot like a conductor's baton. The wand is made from the root of the legendry "snowtree" known to be found on the highest peeks of the Colossus Mounts. This substance is extremely hard and is a very good receptacle of magic. Morphail's wand has all the powers of a Wand of Cold, Wand of Lightning, Wand of Paralysis and Wand of Fire, each costing one charge. In addition this wand can create the spell effects of Disintegrate and Hold Monster for two charges. The wand currently has 26 charges and can be recharged up to 30 charges.
This is a small piece of black coal given to Morphail by Alphaks himself. Morphail has four of these as there are probably more held by priests of Alphaks around the world. Morphail has one coal on his person, one hidden in a secret compartment of his coffin (just in case someone casts Bless on it). The other two are given to his minions for special tasks.
The coals are part of a larger coal- an artifact located in Alphaks home plane. The stone causes all clerical spells of 3ed level or lower in a range of 20' from the coal to be automatically dispelled. Only spells of non-entropic immortals are affected. Another power of the coal is that in the hands of an undead it receives a saving throw to negate any turning attempts.
This golden helmet styled in ancient Ethengari and orcish fashions, may or may not have belonged to the great Akkila Khan. The name stuck for some reason though. The Helmet allows a military leader to send mental commands to 10 different officers simultaneously. The helmet is only worn by Morphail in times of war when he is leading his division.
Morphail's Gri-Gri collection
Morphail used to explore humanoid tribes in order to find out more about their demonic masters. In his travels he had killed a lot of humanoid shamans and Wiccas, and took their Gri-Gris (magic sticks) for later study. Morphail keeps these Gri-Gris in one of the halls in his tower, called "the savage hall". Some of these Gri-Gris still work! He has more than a couple of dozens.
This is one of the most amazing and powerful artifacts in Glantri. It origin lies in the mind of the evil genius Farchenshplardris the Modrigswerg dwarf. Morphail has contacted this dwarf in 893 AC. Morphail gave the Dwarf an amulet that can contact the demonic world in exchange for the design of a complex magical instrument that had the power to control human souls. After the design plan was in Morphail's hand, Morphail attacked the dwarf in order to turn him into a vampire. The dwarf quickly parried Morphail's attack and vanished laughing hysterically.
Back in Boldavia, Morphail has begun construction of the massive artifact. With the help of his skeletons and mortal experts (who were later killed and fed to the wolfs), the work was finished in 902 AC.
The Organ is a huge contraption looking like a normal pipe organ. The pipes are made from various materials like bone, wood, ivory, steel, crystal and others. The organ's pipes take the space of the entire second and third floors of the tower of Igorov. The organ's keys are made from polished bones of several creatures including several unicorn horns. The organ has four set of keys and a set of pedals. The sound of this instrument is dark and deep, with each note played activating a whole set of gigantic pipes of various lengths. The organ can be played for normal music, but it also has great magical powers activated by complicated dark melodies. The organ has the following powers: (Thanks for Markus Olavi Montola for creating most of the spells this powers copy).
1. The organ is a permanent "Soulcage" for use with
other soul powers as a container.
2. Once per day the organ can produce one of the following spells,
if the correct musical piece is played for 10 minutes (one turn):
"Bind soul", "Steal Soul" , "Soul Surge" and "Fetter of Soul
Power".
3. If the player plays the current piece for an entire night the
organ can create the effect of "Embody Soul". (all these spells by
Markus are given below for convenience)
4. The Organ has hidden Keys that activate or deactivate all kinds
of traps around Morphail's tower, open secret doors and the
like.
5. The Organ can actually be used by anyone (even non spell
casters) but the complex magical are almost impossible to
learn.