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Celerum#

A more likely helper. Master mage.

Tall, thin 1.9m blond hair blue eyes. Fine black robes, jewel-inlaid golden belt. Ambitious, and calculating, but ultimately intelligent and knew that his position would not let him do anything to further his goals without finesse.

Now has a beard. Robe a bit more torn.

Celerum was ambitious, arrogant, cold, and calculating. He was completely devoid of morals and would do anything to further his goals.

Detected unusually strong conjuration energy at Stormguard Citadel. Sent them there to investigate.

Spell researcher, helped out with Chronomancy, and scried. Ported out to Neverwinter during the attack. Doesn't want to go to Waterdeep.

Saw Yeenoghu smash his way through the cities defenses and smash a huge hole in the center of the tower arcane.

Didn't know Arklem was a lich (glibness...), but saw him steal the star, so is, and saw Irae/Herald raise a whole civilization of intelligent undead and struck a deal with her (she Modify Memory'd him).

Ally of Arklem and Irae (unnamed for him) in the east now. Perhaps he can be convinced otherwise when they meet him in bonecity. He wants some privacy first and foremost while researching the undead reversal/reunification.

Built the city with Mighty Fortress spell and magic in Bone Dome.
Has a clone of himself in Irithyll ready to take over if he dies (only been there a little).
Had an attack on bonecity from a Devil. Large horns and everything. Saw a humanoid outside scurry away on a griffin leaving behind a fragments of a high level spell scroll (Arcana: devils cannot enter realm alone).

Started to prepare the undead for combat. Constructing a few more abominations (despite not wanting to, he has some of the recipes from Irae).

Encounters#

  • 55-brotherhood Initial meeting in Tower Arcane, Questioning Goatweaver's morality
  • 56-drinking-culture Celerom has the book of Chronomancy
  • 57-mirabar Teaching Mordai Chronomancy
  • 70-waterdeep Asked via Sending about Luskan and Egg of Galadaeros. Said Arklem took it.
  • Disappeared - asked not to be messaged
  • 84-chief-bonehead Revealed to be the saviour of New Luskan (aka bone city)
  • Scried on Nekrina and party repeatedly to get insights
  • Preparing for battle, but limited resources.

Stats#

Evocation wizard casting mind blank + mage armor + Crown of Stars (ovechannelled) before any interaction.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/profile/sszynrae/characters/38081223

He will port to irithyll if they attack him.
Protective wards:
- Contingency on ½ hp => Mislead (invis + illusory double at his loc)
- Contingency on ½ hp => Resilient Sphere (dispellable, but draws horde)
- Crown of Stars (7 specks of light orbit head, 4d12 radiant on each)
- Fire Shield/Blur + Mage Armor in morning (18AC disadv with blur)

Goal Bonecity Defense#

Want Boneciety to survive. Will do what is necessary to protect his people, even if that reaches slightly far. Wants party to help him, will offer an audience with Ilharess Alur (Irae) to let them further plead his case (unknowing that party has seen worse with her together). That will happen at dragonlake-pier after instructions (includes him being the neutral arbiter).

Choice: Help Celerom, and he will help you talk to Irae and get to Irithyll.
Choice: Abandon Celerom, and they will have to fight their way through Irithyll.

Lines#

  • on Arklem proof of evil: I don't understand how he could have fooled everyone like that, I guess no one is immune to the magic of deception, huh.
  • on Arklem star: I don't know what he wanted with the star, but it's an incredibly powerful artifact, if he has bad intent, it would be the first thing to steal. The thought of doing this from inside the Brothehood though. I couldn't have even done it I tried, there were way too many enchantments it'd been anchored there in a self-sustaining web of enchantments for centuries. It could only have happened in the event of something seriously disruptive.
  • on Irithyll: An ancient city on the edge of shadowfell. Its only access is a misty mountain pass, and the city itself lies in a valley of eternal moonlight and is wrapped in a layer that prevents any non-residents from entering. I was granted an audience after repeatedly asking for more guidance from my elven savior (Ilharess Alur).
  • on Irithyll rule: strangely regal. A vampire couple runs the city with the help of an old monarch, supposedly brought back from the royal catacombs of Neverwinter. I tried to persuade them onto a more peaceful path, but not sure it was too successful.
  • on product suggestion: Conjured blood. There's an astonishing amount of useful byproduct from Conjure Woodland Beings (holds up vial). Any time they need to feed, they must take it from humanoids. Not sure about you, but that image problem will never let us win over western civilization. Not that it matters much anymore.
  • on coming battle: We know something is coming. We scried on Nekrina. Of course we have taken certain precautions. Most of our populace is armed and united, albeit, not the most mobile. Apart from a few ad-hoc special weapons, I am not sure we stand much chance against a faction of magic wielding adventurers.
  • plea Aid us. We can help you get to Irithyll. We can arrange a meeting with our elven saviour. Maybe she can sort things out, but we don't have that much time. We are doomed without your aid.

Goal Bonecity Intro#

Will want to convince party (right now) that his path is righteous.
Likely, the party will find philosophical holes in his stance, particularly if they think he's become evil.

If they believe him, they can go to irithyll (he can give them the entry token, doll), he'll give an "indication that something is wrong". Felt unwelcome, even though the council seemed mostly supportive (if not a little strange). He can actually explain the council.

Note that he's not fully thought about whether or not undead co-existence with normies is possible (not really easy).

Relations Irithyll#

He has a place to stay there. Vampires are treating him as an ally, but have delayed meetings.
Arklem ultimately does not care for this. He is manipulating the vampires.

Lines BoneCity#

WELCOME: (walking up in a black elaborate cloak, with Mirror Image, and flips hood to reveal); "I thought I told you not to try to contact me again. How did you find me?"
EXPLAIN CITY: "After the attack on Luskan, I was left unconcious on the ground, when I awoke some time later, I saw a ritual being performed outside by an elven cleric."
RITUAL: "Thousands raised form the dead, I braced for the worst and held an evocation spell ready to cast, but to my surprise, these undead were not like what I had seen before. They had intelligence. They had memories."
LEADERSHIP: "Before I knew it, I was their savior, they all saw towards me for answers. What could I do? Raise a city of the dead at the sword coast? That would be silly, we would get raided immediately. Kill them all? That would be horrible. These dead are not inhuman monsters, they respond to their names, they talk about their past lives. They might be a little slower than before, but that can be fixed."
VOICE: "That's when I met her, I remember, the sky had a boreal sheen all around it, like this was a protected realm, and in it, an elven woman; Ilharess Alur she called herself; these undead need your aid, they are afraid, they are stressed, they are damaged. We can help you fix them, make them whole again. Bring them with you to BoneCity, and you will be able to complete your lives work; keep the citizens alive; forever."
(NB: This is a high level Modify Memory and mind control that can be alleviated with Greater Restoration, but that is really the first step towards further communication - currently he cannot be persuaded that his work is evil.)

WARNINGS: "Be careful around the city, many things are warded off to the living. (Symbol Investigation 20)"

ARKLEM: "I saw Arklem make his way out with a star for a brief moment of my knock out"
CONFRONTATION: "Look guys. I am almost 50. No kids, all my life I have served the brotherhood. The quality of life in Luskan barely improved as a consequence despite our magical aid. Suffering seemed embedded within the fabric of the world. (orcs, drow, undead, demonlords). There comes a time when a man realizes it's time to commit to a true destiny, one that can actually make a difference to the world, and end the cycle of suffering."

Lines post-restoration#

If they restore him, he will be heavily conflicted with his work. The creatures are indeed still alive, and it's still morally dubious to kill them. But he can be open to a better plan, should one appear. However, if it happens he will have to betray his post and they will be attacked on the way out.

Lines Pre-Giants#

"You want to get to the source of what's outside the city? Go to the source."

"Sure, you can go outside, fight whatever unsightly demon controls the horde outside, and sure, you can die like the rest of our elite fighter squads we've already sent down unsuccessfully with 20 other men."

"We've detected a large amount of conjuration energy emanating from the top and bottom of the giants castle. Such energy can only mean one thing. Large scale interdimensional travel."

"The inner structure of the castle is built on ancient magic. The towering structure, from the hill giants at the base, to the fire giants trawling the depths, and the cloud and storm giants, is one with the weave, and one with the stone. They might be using the structure as a form to channel the weave to cast spells more powerful than what we normally refer to as "9th level"."

"The giants control the castle, and they don't particularly take kindly to intrusion. You can fight your way in, or perhaps you can go undercover."
"Ever seen 3 kobolds stacked on top of each other in a human suit? The principle is the same."
"Alternatively, polymorph, but that would be boring."

WHY HELP? You want to see Arklem? Learn spells reserved for gods? I can help a bit, but he is the Arch-mage.

Chronomancy#

No one is clearly meant to know this. Some entity with great power must have gone to great lengths to bring such powers to Toril. I could not even date when this was written.

Flip open tome about time. The Dahaka (picture). The guardian of time. Legends say it's there to ensure the flow of time is never broken. (There cannot be more than a flow). If you have access to the spells in this book, you have access to spells that can alter this flow, which in many ways is a great paradox.

Difficulty#

We would need something appropriately themed to imbue with this power. This clock made by a gnome called Solas (flew to close to the sun with the book, went mad).

I will let you funnel some powers from within this place to help you fast learn. Treat it like levelling in a sense. Huge diamond (10k gold). Channel energy through the weave in the brotherhood. Auto-learn two cantrips.

(DM meta: you'll have 5 rolls)

Learn 2 level 1 or 2 with adv. Learn 1 level 3 with adv. Learn 1 level 4 (maybe). Learn 1 level 5 (unlikely).

Maxes out to: no more than one above highest spell slot. At most min(num_slots_at_level, 2) per level otherwise.

Complications#

On failures, Dahaka comes closer. Time encounters.
A complete failure of time encounters is bad for hanir.