Immortal Players
Over the years I've played, I never made it to immortality with any character. Our gaming group played through the immortal modules basically using the pregenerated characters therein, but adapting them slightly to suit our preferred campaign heroes. But we didn't succeeded in getting our own heroes promoted that far. The longest campaign I played in died out with the heroes being around levels 30-34.Now I'm wondering if anybody else at The Piazza ever got so far as to get a personal immortal character. If they did, I would love to learn of it and of the campaign that got them there.
Because, since (I guess) it is such a rare accomplishment, this community should honor it by officially including player immortals in the pantheon of Mystara.
My suggestion comes with the following inclusion criteria: The character must have started out at not more than 2nd level. There must be enough documentation to make it credible that the character did progress through the ranks to 36th level. The path to immortality should be detailed enough to give an insight into the thoughts and objects of the immortal to be and how this immortal will fit into the pantheon of Mystara. And last but not least, complete stats on the immortal character must be supplied, preferably along the same lines as Marco Dalmontes Codex Immortalis.
by Yaztromo
The first is a Glantrian mage of Ethengar descent called Thorok of Braeyr.
He studied at the School of Magic in Glanrtry City in a group of players until they all graduated (9th level) and went adventuring together abroad. Under the social point of view, I wasn't the most popular guy of the School, possibly due also to my Ethengar origins, but I was a fine Glantrian magic student.
During these adventures east of Corunglain, my guy was cursed and turned into a Troll during a disastrous adventure that turned out into a total party killer (apart from me turned into a Troll and oblivious of my past and another one that was sent in another dimension).
I had a small interlude as a wandering monster until I joined a clan of Trolls in the mountain area north east of Alfheim. There I "remembered" again how to cast spells and I soon turned out a Troll warleader.
I then led a war against King Thar and I caused a lot of mayhem in the Broken Lands. This was the funniest part of the adventures.
After few years as a Troll, Prince Von Drachensfelds removed my curse, including restoring in full my memory (as he wanted to protect King Thar, that was actually his pawn and my inhuman wars were releasing Orcish pressure from Ethengar and Rockhome), however, I never really put behind my shoulders my years as a Troll (again, not great, under the social point of view).
A new estate was established in south east Glantri, but repeated peasants revolts made it unstable and caused the death of two or three young rulers, so the Principalities put the dominion up for grab for whoever brought stability there. A couple of rulers tried, but, besides more peasants revolts, they were also attacked by "suspicious" Trolls warbands (I went back with my old Troll appearance and led them...
Eventually, the dominion fell in my hands as a ripe fruit. The subsequent peasant revolt was crushed by my friendly Trolls. However, some of the revolts veterans were bought out by hiring them as mercenaries in the human part of my army.
The Princes recognized my title, but Belcadiz Elves hated the fact that an Ethengarian with strong non-human connections was ruling in south east Glantri.
After I saw them starting a war of attrition I had a chat with them and I proposed to surrender my dominion in exchange of any other Belcadiz dominion of a higher title. They asked also that I send my non-human army back across the border, which I accepted (but I kept connections with them).
I found myself as the master of a fairly forested dominion, mostly inhabited by Elves. I tried at first clearing the (mostly wooden) keep in the forest that was inhabited by the previous Belcadiz master: after three tries that were every time almost a disaster, despite some loss of credibility, I got cut down quite a fair part of the forest and built a stone tower for my dwelling! I never managed to clear completely that damn elvish keep (yes, I tried burning it down quite few times as well, unsuccessfully...)!
Besides upsetting the Elves by cutting down lots of trees, I also bought with me the veterans of the revolts in the previous dominion, after hiring them as mercenaries: they weren't nice people and I kept the tether quite loose, so they misbehaved a lot, upsetting the Elves even more.
After a lot of anti-social behaviour on my side (and managing to escape a few attempted murders, one of which I never managed to find the culprits), Belcadiz Elves found a compromise with the Ethengarian Prince in east Glantri and got back their dominion (with quite a few less trees and one more stone tower full of tricks and traps...), while I got another one with a higher title in exchange.
The Ethengarians of Glantri, despite being of my same stock and supposed to be my new allies, were never very friendly with me (I never really got to the bottom of the reason why, but I suspect there was something behind) and were always invading and plundering my dominion, or putting some "special taxation". My war veterans were not a match for them, as all Glantrian-Ethengar nobles were walking around in my lands at the same time, so I went back to my friendly Trolls and, during a lovely ambush, I made them understand that I preferred standing my ground.
I had lots of political attacks, but I sent a clear message.
The answer were new assassination attempts and I escaped a couple of them by a whisker: I had to change again, and this time I went to Prince Von Drachensfeld (that originally removed my curse).
Von Drachensfeld took *some* responsibility and asked me for quite a few extra favours to guarantee me a higher title dominion.
First of all he asked for a mountain of gold , so I forged an alliance with a few Merchant Princes of Darokin in order to raise some money, I borrowed heavily from banks, I handed him over a few magic objects, I went back adventuring to find some other objects for him (at the time I didn't know Blackmoor, but some of them were L-shaped magic wands) and I led a war (fairly painful) between my Trolls and Rockhome. I also brought back from another dimension my original school-time companion that was exiled when I was cursed into a Troll.
I moved in my new dominion with my war veterans and I tried hard running it nicely, until it became almost ideal. I was pretty short on cash...
At this time I entered the Brotherhood of Radiance as part of one of the adventures to get one of his damn magic objects.
Then, disaster struck: in less than a year, magic wasn't working anymore!
Goblins and Orcs attacked and sacked Glantri!
I went again to my trusted Trolls and this time I had to use make up and prosthetic stuff to increase my body size and convince them that I was always me!
I managed to do that and I went back to my dominion. I cleared it and then I realized I could claim even more! so I went to the Arch Duchy (I actually tried a Principality first, but it proved a bit too much for me to bite...) and the previous master of that dominion quite swiftly relinquished his crown to me!
I was strengthening my position, turning my dominion in a breeding pit of humanoids and ruthless humans happy to fight along humanoids, in order to make a big try at the full power, when magic was back again! The Shadowelves fixed it.
My title as Arch Duke (just one level below Prince) was acknowledged, but under the social and political point of view I was quite isolated, with no real chance to progress further.
I made a trial and found that the Radiance was still active, so I threw myself at the Radiance, hoping to find the way to become a Prince (but finding some misery, as some of my limbs withered a bit...)
Eventually, I had a funny roll while launching one too many Radiance-related spell and I turned immediately in a true Immortal: a Screaming Demon (that by textbook should be under DM control) that ravaged the dominion and teleported to his new home in a demonic plan of existence!
After that, I used the Screaming Demon as not much more than a NPC: I never really played at Immortal level, but sometimes we restarted a new world and each player with an Immortal (generated in whatever game and in whatever campaign) helped its initial shaping (doing one session of "gods' game, with various rules completely independent fro D&D).
Yep. In the gods games that we played, he was a Troll / regenerating monsters deity, but had also a (somehow conflicting) motive around deception and use of technology for destruction (as he cut Elven forests and shunned living in buildings made with natural materials, preferring stone and steel buildings).
When I'll have some time to gather my ideas, I'll post something around my longest standing character (that eventually became the immortal Janus), but I started playing it at secondary school, so there are plenty of gaps in my memory (and the story building is more random/confused as well), while Thorok was a character that I played at late high school...
As I mentioned previously, the story of this elf that will become the Immortal Janus is a bit more confused (and much longer!). Sorry!
You will also see that, while previous character was heavily influenced by Glantri and Thar gazzetters, this one started much earlier, with just the red box and some published adventure, then moved on to the blue box and some more published adventure and gazetteers appeared much later. This will be quite obvious, I think.
This elf was born in the forest west of Riffllian (Karameikos), from a tiny clan with a Sacred Tree that kept pushing telepathically all clansmen to go out adventuring, causing almost the extinction of the clan. Of course I followed the suggestions as well!
First adventure, driven by dreams and telepathy, took me to Haven, the dominion of Pricess Argenta (my very first D&D session!).
The group was a bit ill assembled, with the Dwarves always trying to make fool of the Elf and the humans constantly trying to steal more than their share of the treasure. Very Muchkin style!
Follow up was *ta-da!!!* the Keep on the Borderlands and some parts of In Search of Adventure.
Then the group broke up and we played in other groups for some time. I ended up playing alongside a much more experienced Elf from Alfheim and we had a few sylvan style adventures pre-Alfheim gazetteer, then we found ourselves with most of the people of the previous group in the Temple of Death!
We broke the group again in two parts and we had quite a few adventures around Selenica, where we had the first contacts with the merchants' guilds.
I helped the thief of the group setting up his own guild along one of the roads leading to Selenica, becoming a nuisance of the merchants of the merchants' guilds that were unfriendly to us.
Again, the wider group was pulled together and we ended up from the Curse of Xanathon to Castle Amber (and we did quite well, by the way, as far as I remember...).
We split again in smaller groups and I became a merchant prince of the house of Hallonica, travelling a lot and raising plenty of money. Every now and then I went to visit my old mentor in Alfheim and we went through a bit all adventure hooks in the gazetteers of Alfheim and Darokin.
I also joined the quest for the Tree of Life.
We then got involved in a cross-campaign against Drews, that decimated several related gaming groups that were playing at the local club in the same continuity. That was a nightmare.
In the meanwhile I learned that my original Tree of Life (near Riffllian) was actually an Immortal trap: if you become Immortal following the guidance of the Tree of Life, then you free previous trapped Immortal and get trapped in the Tree in his place for centuries and millennia until some other fool follows the same path and frees you in your turn.
Of course I run away from my clan and my duties, never to come back!
Then the old group was back together to face the Talon of Night, we did an underwater adventure and we went into another world, where we had our bit of time travel (always in that world) helping each time to face a renewed evil invasion, at centuries and centuries of distance from each new attempt. This was one of the best parts!
Back on Mystara and in smaller groups, I decided that the best way to pursue immortality was via magic, so I went to Glantri, where I traded my good-old two-handed sword (lightning bolt at command thrice a day) with a fabulous magic wand, I become head of the Merchants' Consortium and I started playing with Glantrian politics, getting a modest dominion in the Erawan-controlled area. I also joined one of the Secret Sects.
In the meanwhile the Drew cross-campaign was back and biting again, causing lovely total party kills all across the club. Several ex-companions and mentors (sometimes on the verge of Immortality) were wiped out. Alfheim was wiped out as well and Shadowelves took their place just to be wiped out on their turn.
Dwarves were becoming the regional power away from the coast (also due to some very weird wondrous inventions...) and they got badly beaten by stealthy and secretive Drews as well...
Then a wide group of sacred Paladins of Master level was created to co-ordinate the efforts of the Known World against the mysterious Drews (that used a lot of golems as armies)... and, despite my (half-hearted) support, they were wiped out mercilessly.
I don't remember what was done to stop the Drews (by other playing groups in the same continuity, as the ones where I was playing didn't make much progress)... but it must have been pretty drastic!
During these struggles I realized that all I wanted was an Immortal I could trust, as the Immortal of my native clan just wanted to screw me to get his freedom back and the immortals of Alfheim failed the Elves of the Known World.
It was time for me to seek an Immortal Patron and I choose the sphere of Time as I felt it closer to me:
Time: This sphere manifests in water, as the running of rivers and tides of the seas are seen as the clocks of the multiverse, eternally ticking off life's fleeting moments. Time encourages change, but change with planning and set goals, as opposed to the chaotic whims of Energy or the destructive forces of entropy. Time is tied to the Neutral Alignment, and favors Halflings. The sphere is opposed to matter, energy and entropy.
Of course this meant that I had to leave behind me Immortals-less Glantri.
I changed to a more cleric-type, nature loving Elf, after trying the gold of Merchant Princes and the magic of Glantrian Principalities.
More than one Immortal answered my call (Proteus, Khoronus and Ordana), but they were too kind to each other: "please, Ordana, you go first!" "oh no, Proteus, I'd never do that..." "my dear Khoronus, after you...". This damn leit-motiv followed me for ages: I tried to follow what one of them asked from me, then he/she stated that I actually had to follow what another of them wanted from me (that was of course completely different and I had to start from scratch), and so on and so on until madness is achieved.
Following one or the other of them I went to a (sterile, of course...) waterword (not Mystara anymore) where I was ordered to grow a new civilization with tiny resources (but I could cheat and put the clock forward to allow for evolution to proceed). This part of my life was a bit similar to SimEarth!
When I finally had some sea turtles I went to Gargantua (another super-powerful wizard controlling a whole world of giant creatures) to kill him and get the magic to make them grow. The first attempt was easily rebuffed, but I learned what new weapons I needed to trump him, so I build the "hollow golems" (later on you would call them "mecha-suites") and finally got it. By the way, after killing Gargantua I had to take some "responsibility" for his world with no leader anymore...
My sea turtles became huge and *reasonably* intelligent!
However, due to a mistake in setting a time machine, I ended up in the far future where there was a single continent-sized sea turtle that ate up all the other tortoises!!! It was now a kind of semi-sentient and semi-divine mineralized creature...
This time I was allowed to get some mangrovia tree seed (and other suitable vegetable stuff), some elven colonist and I turned it into a floating island that needed to be colonized bit by bit against an unforgiving nature and internal divisions / rebellions / heresies (this was more like Civilization...).
Eventually, I was powerful enough to tame five demons in pentacles and putting on their heads a huge disc where new civilizations could be born under my mentorship and guidance (yes, you are guessing right: the DM at the time just started reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels...). However, the new civilization over the Discworld worshipped a numer of gods / semi-gods in a fashion similar to Populous...
Unsurprisingly (if you read that Discworld novels), eventually I supercharged so much the continent-sized tortoise that it lifted off the water planet (which was the subsequent scene for a new, fully waterborn civilization of philosophers, still under my responsibility...) and it became an interstellar travelling, living continent of cleric-types Elves worshipping the sphere of Time with trapped demons holding up a continent-sized discworld with the continents made up by a few Gargantua-Tarrasques (that have slumber cycles that last millennia) with a number of civilizations on them reflecting the various spheres. Again, everything as usual under my responsibility.
Part of my "responsibility" was that, when a civilization wasn't behaving anymore as my patrons expected it, I had to wipe it out and restart from scratch ... that's why I got the motives of Janus, Roman god of the start AND the end of all things...
I'm sure that you understand that at this point I was already more or less a de-facto Immortal and that there were a few campaign worlds that were generated by me, so they worshipped me, in practice, as an Immortal (or Demiurge).
Therefore, the final ascension was VERY overdue, although I don remember which of the three Immortals actually was my "official" Patron.
In this occasion, having three patrons wasn't a triple support, but a triple burden...
by Håvard
Khorlayn of Threshold
Patron of Courage and Strength
Initiate of Thought, 1st level Immortal.
Alignment: Lawful.
Khorlayn of Threshold was one of the first characters I made for D&D. He was a Lawful Fighter of Mixed Traladaran and Antalian heritage. This is the only character I have played from first level who managed to reach 36th level and then achieve Immortality. D&D was still new to us, and we were all obsessed with it, playing it every afternoon. In addition to Khorlayn, the party included one other fighter, two mages, two elves and one cleric.
The campaign started out fairly traditionally, with exploring the area around Threshold. Gradually, the campaign expanded beyond Karameikos, exploring Darokin, Ierendi, Glantri, Ethengar, Ylaruam, Thyatis and Alphatia. Khorlayn gained a fiefdom in Darokin. The group raised armies that ravaged the Brokenlands and humiliated the Princes of Glantri. From there, they explored the planes and embarked on their quests for Immortality. One of the most dangerous battles in Khorlayn's life was a fight with a Nightwalker. Finally, Khorlayn was accepted into the ranks of the Immortals. He is now (AC1036) a patron of strength and courage. Most of his companions were also able to reach immortality and the group try to work together to achieve their goals in Immortal Society.