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<blockquote data-quote="Templetroll" data-source="post: 1264492" data-attributes="member: 2201"><p>When I started my homebrew in '79 I had in the history the "Decline of Magic", a worldwide mystic calamity to explain why there were so many lost artifacts and such from the old Empire. Back then they had magic of 10th level and higher and now it is maxed out at 9th. They had armies fully outfitted in magic gear and when the magic declined most of gear went inert and the Empire collapsed. No one knew what had caused magic to decline but it was known to have been a specific event.</p><p></p><p>I had a phrase, "Where the Boney Horseman rides, is Death." He was supposed to be a harbinger of war. He had been a general of the old Empire.</p><p></p><p>The first gaming group in my world had found a deserted castle that was the stronghold of a barony of the fallen Empire. The leader of that group was granted the land as the second Baron of Crossfell. The first had disappeared around the time of the "Decline of Magic".</p><p></p><p>About five years later my second group in the world finally got into an adventure to make use of it.</p><p></p><p>They were travelling home and saw an undead knight on a nightmare. One of the players recalled the phrase and they knew he was on the road to their home town. He was ignoring them until the LG Ranger decided to challange him. During the battle the heroic fellow stood against the knight and the rest of the party battled the nightmare. </p><p></p><p>the party finally finished off the steed and looked towards the ongoing duel. The ranger fought well and then hubris got the better of him, since the evil one had taken grievous wounds. He sneered and said, "You'll serve me in hell." as he swung and struck a mighty blow! The dark one staggered beneath his blade, whispered, "Truer words have never been spoken." thrust his blade through the ranger's torso and crumbled into dust!</p><p></p><p>The shocked expressions on the players's faces mirrored their characters' reactions. They gathered around the ranger to look at the glowing green blade stuck through his body and wondered why he wasn't dead yet. An OOC observation was death was not nasty enough for me. This led to in-character ideas that the sword would slowly poison or kill the soul of the ranger. The wizard decided to teleport the ranger to the castle to get him help as quickly as possible.</p><p></p><p>The wizard was very familiar with the great hall of the castle and that it was lightly used during the day so it was safe to teleport there. When they came in from the teleport the room was opulently furnished, torches lit and minstrels playing. Many finely dressed folk were dancing and eating. No one noticed them... except the fellow sitting on a throne at the end of the hall. He looked at them, they looked at him and his eyes widened as he spied the sword and paled. The scene shimmered and the wizard and ranger found themselves in the Great Hall they expected - nearly empty and not so opulent anymore. The one thing they did recall from the "vision" was the standard and throne of the first Baron, that was he that they saw.</p><p></p><p>They got the sword out of the ranger, put it in a chest boound with chains and placed in the vault of the castle. Everyone healed up except for the one wound on the ranger; although he regained all his hit points. They checked the sword and the chest had a coating of wet blood on the bottom of the chest. They sought help from bards and were directed to a Ki-Rin. </p><p></p><p>The Ki-Rin was willing to help them by giving them the first portion of the Staff of Life which had been shattered into seven pieces at some time in the past. The only restriction was that the party had to accept a geas to not kill anyone while on the quest! They could defend themselves but not slay anyone. The party agreed.</p><p></p><p>The journey took them on a trans-planar adventure through the worlds I liked that TSR had material on. Greyhawk, FR, Lankhmar etc and time travel in my own world. Finally, I get on the topic of the thread! During their travels the ranger began to feel weak, but did not lose strength or hit points. One rogue also found that his sleep poison had been altered during a planar jump into a deadly poison and he was sickened and dieing because it had killed a foe. The party was working to save two lives now.</p><p></p><p>The party knew the Emperor was a lich and still active; he would summon PCs of the players who were absent just to chat wihtthem; no one knew why. While the players believed this Emperor to be a lich he looked quite the normal and urbane wizardly ruler to those who met him. There were a couple of PCs, however, who reported encounters with an ultimate undead fiend who was skeletal, wore tattered robes similar to those seen on the Emperor and was missing an arm. Those encounters always took place near where a battle was occuring.</p><p></p><p>the group appeared at the ruined city of the Emperor and saw the location of the battle nearby. The staff led them to a hallway where time ran riot. The area of the hall seemed to slip through time, the party spied debris on the floor that would changed from time to time along with creatures appearing and disappearing. They moved down the hall, fought some creatures, including a dragon, and found a piece of the staff. this led them to a blue teleportation cabinet..... The next stop was off tot he side of a huge mystic construction chamber; the magic users felt the tingle of magic on their skin as they stepped from the cabinet.</p><p></p><p>Before them they saw this huge contraption and the Emperor they recognized with a familiar but complete staff in hand. The Emperor was chanting and as he stuck the slender tip, the only missing piece, into the device it hummed with mystic power. The bearer of the staff rushed forward and touched the tip of his staff to the staff in the device causing a massive explosion!</p><p></p><p>When they recovered from the stunning effects they noticed that there was no longer a tingle on their skin, the very structure was badly damaged and they could hear all sorts of uproar outside the chamber; explosions and the roaring of monsters predominated. The Emperor seemed to be getting up in a bad mood so they ran for the blue box and departed. Their travel was bumpy and they arrived back in their own time and place and agreed that the time box had used up all its charges.</p><p></p><p>Finally, someone did also realize that <em>THEY</em> had just caused the "Decline of Magic"!!!! They were smiling about that for a while.</p><p></p><p>I never did get to use the "vision" of the first Baron, but the wizard is my wife's character so it is still a possibility even now, fifteen+ years later. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Templetroll, post: 1264492, member: 2201"] When I started my homebrew in '79 I had in the history the "Decline of Magic", a worldwide mystic calamity to explain why there were so many lost artifacts and such from the old Empire. Back then they had magic of 10th level and higher and now it is maxed out at 9th. They had armies fully outfitted in magic gear and when the magic declined most of gear went inert and the Empire collapsed. No one knew what had caused magic to decline but it was known to have been a specific event. I had a phrase, "Where the Boney Horseman rides, is Death." He was supposed to be a harbinger of war. He had been a general of the old Empire. The first gaming group in my world had found a deserted castle that was the stronghold of a barony of the fallen Empire. The leader of that group was granted the land as the second Baron of Crossfell. The first had disappeared around the time of the "Decline of Magic". About five years later my second group in the world finally got into an adventure to make use of it. They were travelling home and saw an undead knight on a nightmare. One of the players recalled the phrase and they knew he was on the road to their home town. He was ignoring them until the LG Ranger decided to challange him. During the battle the heroic fellow stood against the knight and the rest of the party battled the nightmare. the party finally finished off the steed and looked towards the ongoing duel. The ranger fought well and then hubris got the better of him, since the evil one had taken grievous wounds. He sneered and said, "You'll serve me in hell." as he swung and struck a mighty blow! The dark one staggered beneath his blade, whispered, "Truer words have never been spoken." thrust his blade through the ranger's torso and crumbled into dust! The shocked expressions on the players's faces mirrored their characters' reactions. They gathered around the ranger to look at the glowing green blade stuck through his body and wondered why he wasn't dead yet. An OOC observation was death was not nasty enough for me. This led to in-character ideas that the sword would slowly poison or kill the soul of the ranger. The wizard decided to teleport the ranger to the castle to get him help as quickly as possible. The wizard was very familiar with the great hall of the castle and that it was lightly used during the day so it was safe to teleport there. When they came in from the teleport the room was opulently furnished, torches lit and minstrels playing. Many finely dressed folk were dancing and eating. No one noticed them... except the fellow sitting on a throne at the end of the hall. He looked at them, they looked at him and his eyes widened as he spied the sword and paled. The scene shimmered and the wizard and ranger found themselves in the Great Hall they expected - nearly empty and not so opulent anymore. The one thing they did recall from the "vision" was the standard and throne of the first Baron, that was he that they saw. They got the sword out of the ranger, put it in a chest boound with chains and placed in the vault of the castle. Everyone healed up except for the one wound on the ranger; although he regained all his hit points. They checked the sword and the chest had a coating of wet blood on the bottom of the chest. They sought help from bards and were directed to a Ki-Rin. The Ki-Rin was willing to help them by giving them the first portion of the Staff of Life which had been shattered into seven pieces at some time in the past. The only restriction was that the party had to accept a geas to not kill anyone while on the quest! They could defend themselves but not slay anyone. The party agreed. The journey took them on a trans-planar adventure through the worlds I liked that TSR had material on. Greyhawk, FR, Lankhmar etc and time travel in my own world. Finally, I get on the topic of the thread! During their travels the ranger began to feel weak, but did not lose strength or hit points. One rogue also found that his sleep poison had been altered during a planar jump into a deadly poison and he was sickened and dieing because it had killed a foe. The party was working to save two lives now. The party knew the Emperor was a lich and still active; he would summon PCs of the players who were absent just to chat wihtthem; no one knew why. While the players believed this Emperor to be a lich he looked quite the normal and urbane wizardly ruler to those who met him. There were a couple of PCs, however, who reported encounters with an ultimate undead fiend who was skeletal, wore tattered robes similar to those seen on the Emperor and was missing an arm. Those encounters always took place near where a battle was occuring. the group appeared at the ruined city of the Emperor and saw the location of the battle nearby. The staff led them to a hallway where time ran riot. The area of the hall seemed to slip through time, the party spied debris on the floor that would changed from time to time along with creatures appearing and disappearing. They moved down the hall, fought some creatures, including a dragon, and found a piece of the staff. this led them to a blue teleportation cabinet..... The next stop was off tot he side of a huge mystic construction chamber; the magic users felt the tingle of magic on their skin as they stepped from the cabinet. Before them they saw this huge contraption and the Emperor they recognized with a familiar but complete staff in hand. The Emperor was chanting and as he stuck the slender tip, the only missing piece, into the device it hummed with mystic power. The bearer of the staff rushed forward and touched the tip of his staff to the staff in the device causing a massive explosion! When they recovered from the stunning effects they noticed that there was no longer a tingle on their skin, the very structure was badly damaged and they could hear all sorts of uproar outside the chamber; explosions and the roaring of monsters predominated. The Emperor seemed to be getting up in a bad mood so they ran for the blue box and departed. Their travel was bumpy and they arrived back in their own time and place and agreed that the time box had used up all its charges. Finally, someone did also realize that [I]THEY[/I] had just caused the "Decline of Magic"!!!! They were smiling about that for a while. I never did get to use the "vision" of the first Baron, but the wizard is my wife's character so it is still a possibility even now, fifteen+ years later. :). [/QUOTE]
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