This one has been nagging at me for sometime since the epic level handbook came out.
What is the story with Rary? Years ago I had a friend tell me he was part of Mordenkians Circle of Eight(?) and then betrays them and killed a few or something, etc.
I did a board search but didn't find anything, the Rary the Traitor module I flipped through a few years ago didn't tell me much either if I understand. How powerful is he and what is his story? Thanks alot for any help!
Long story short on his treachery:
At the crucial signing in Greyhawk City that ended the Greyhawk Wars(Look for 'From the Ashes'), Rary slew Tenser and Otiluke(and severely injured Bigby) as they averted his attempt to slay the delegations. While this occured Robilar his co-conspirator went out and destroyed Tenser and Otiluke's other assets including clones. Lastly through likely Epic magic, Rary moved his ENTIRE tower from Ket to the Bright Desert where him and Robilar have now carved out their own nation(Rary the Traitor is good reference I also suggest you find Dungeon98/Polyhedron157 which details the Bright Desert well).
On a side bar:
The true motive behind this mess is unknown, but logically if he wanted to incur the wrath of the Circle and Greyhawk City why move CLOSER to them? In the almost 10 years since the incident he has made no ill moves toward Greyhawk or the Co8 instead concentrating on digging up the Bright Deserts' lost artifacts. If all he desired was the riches of Ancient Sulm and to lord over some desert tribes, I am sure he could've pursued that without all the treachery. Now I have read he has wider aspirations of dominion but the Bright Desert while strategically secure itself, is not a good place to start a campaign militarily. He would have no hope of conquering past Greyhawk City, Wild Coast or parts of the Duchy of Urnst. While he has the knowledge and magical will, he just doesn't have the manpower to pull off an empire.
Rary in every canon source I've seen is higher level (currently 24th) than any Circle wizard, even perhaps Mordenkainen. This would explain his introduction to the Circle by Mordenkainen, better to have him on your side than against you. I think on a side note that Rary was probably concealing his true alignment tendencies from the circle all along(ala Palpatine from Star Wars).
Hopefully someone can clean up my random notes, wish it could be more but it is alot to digest. Rary in my opinion is the best villain potentially in all of WoG right now. He has an exotic land to explore that is in each reach of Greyhawk City, plenty of ingrained history with the core storylines and while Rary and Robilar are both Epic level they aren't bent on destroying the world(well okay, maybe not Rary, Robilar has done some crazy stuff).
He also has interest towards Onnwal.
Core module 'Traitor's road' has his envoy mentioning that Scarlet Brotherhood is looking for Jan Destrons (leader of Onnwal) son and that Jan should hand over his son to Rary so he could teach him and keep him safe.
I don't think Destrons going to accept that offer in a while....
Rary was originally a magic-user played by Brian Blume. He made it to the mid-levels (never made it past 7th or 8th level), and was thus known as Medium Rary.
Scott
Rary's stats (as described in LGJ 22 (Dungeon #103)) include two unique Epic spells named after their owner. Does anyone know where I can get a full description of those two spells? (given they aren't in the Epic Handbook)
We know from this article and Rary the Traitor that he keeps a tower full of automatons including his nearly finished silver dragon automaton. I think the names of the epic spells obviously point towards those.
Now to make an -iron golem- you need to be 16th level and have the feats Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Wondrous Item and a slew of spells including limited wish. Now Rary has all that I'm sure but he also has a feat called Craft Construct which probably means that his constructs are:
A) Totally incompatible with normal item creation methods (i.e. psuedo-technology) so he needs an epic feat AND spell to produce them.
and/or
B) His constructs are indeed Epic level creatures themselves making them stronger than iron golems, which is likely in the case of his silver dragon project. Now if his other tinker-toys are epic strength also, that would make lootign his castle quite hazardous.
Rary's meritorious animation From the sound of this one, this is the lower DC of the two spells that he probably makes his golems from.
Rary'superlative draconic animator And the higher of the two that obviously will 'turn on' his silver dragon construct. Since he seems to be putting alot of effort into this one, I'd think its fair to say its a Mithril golem of extraordinary size and abilities.
lastly,
c) His epic spells I also would assume give him full control over the constructs, even mentally over a distance, given his prior spells like Rary's Telepathic Bond.
Yes, I also supposed that his two epic spells were related to the strange constructs described in the Rary the Traitor accessory.
Now that I read Rary's stats more carefully, I notice they're not the only spells without proper description. There is also Overland Flight . So, I'll cross my fingers and keep hoping for a third article about the Bright Desert...
From Rary's epic spells:
Originally posted by Erik Mona
>>>
more likely they were cut out for space and the references to them were mistakenly left in.
>>>
That's the answer, I'm afraid. We cut the spells because they did things similar to other spells, but forgot to drop them from Rary's spell list.
Oops. Sorry about the confusion.
--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dungeon Magazine