In my D&D 3.5 Planescape campaign, the heroes have clashed with a chaotic organization called the Tacharim and its leader, Doctor Valran Stonefist, for more levels than I can remember. The Tacharim kidnapped modrons from the Great Modron March, and Valran used them in experiments to try and “improve” on the mortal form. Because modrons are immortal, they vanish when killed, returning to Primus’ energy pools on the plane of Mechanus, where they are reborn, keeping the number of modrons constant at all times. For that reason the Doctor had to keep the modrons alive even after transplanting their limbs onto human subjects – otherwise, the transplanted body parts would disappear.
Since the heroes were tasked with protecting the modrons, they pursued the kidnappers, liberating what modrons they could and putting the rest out of their misery. The heroes were horrified by what they found and vowed to take revenge for the Doctor’s atrocities. Events took a more personal turn after that.
The next encounter with Valran and the Tacharim was when he kidnapped Pasha, the party’s druid, and removed her legs, replacing them with a duodrone’s limbs. Lucius, Pasha’s husband, led the search for her, and she was found on the operating table just as the Doctor completed the operation. The sight of his wife in that bloody laboratory with her legs casually tossed into a wicker basket was enough to break his mind. After defeating the other Tacharim members – the Doctor escaped – the paladin went into shock, never to recover. Nexx, another druid party member, used the last remaining charge of a ring of wishes to reverse all of Valran’s experiments, restoring Pasha’s legs and all the modrons and patients throughout the Tacharim organization. The group confiscated the Doctor’s notes, burned the laboratory to the ground, and thought the group crippled beyond repair. They were wrong.
With all his experiments undone, Doctor Valran saw the error of his ways. The original path he pursued was flawed, too vulnerable to the forces of magic, as evidenced by how easily his work had been erased. He decided to pursue more mundane forms of modification, concentrating on other creatures instead of the modrons. For that reason, he remained under the party’s radar for many levels.
That’s not to say the heroes didn’t cross paths with him – they just didn’t realize it. When they journeyed to Bedlam to obtain an artifact called Faarlung’s Algorithm, they encountered some horrific murders and traced the activities back to a group called the Sarex, a sadistic organization whose teachings focused around torture and mutilation. The bulk of the organization was made up of a race of creatures called scabmettlers (stolen from China Mieville’s Bas Lag setting), with a handful of depraved humans thrown in for good measure. The heroes battled the Sarex, but didn’t spend any time digging into its leadership to discover Valran’s involvement.
The Sarex membership made good fodder for the Doctor’s new experiments, as they enjoyed pain and mutilation and reveled in the freakish modifications he made. When he felt he had perfected the process, Valran started operating on himself, grafting the best parts of creatures onto his own body in an effort to make himself “perfect.” When everything was said and done, he was unrecognizable as his former self.
Fast forward to now. The heroes have battled their way through the Flower Infernal, a monstrous plant that serves as the multiplanar base of the Tacharim, straddling layers on Pandemonium, Carceri, and Gehenna. An army of plant creatures called the adu’ja assaulted the fortress from the outside, and the Tacharim looked to be losing. Room by room, the heroes searched for Doctor Valran, hoping to destroy him and the Tacharim once and for all…and they found him during last night’s session.
The heroes reached the upper level of the fortress and ran into the Tacharim’s master-at-arms, Jergil the Mage Slayer. The spellblade had just retreated to the Flower Infernal with his pet howling dragons, which now ran loose on the lower level. He sounded the alarm and moved to attack, but lost initiative and was promptly slaughtered (one against seven is never fair). As claxons rang, portcullises cut off the stairs between the upper and lower level, and the Tacharim guards responded to the ruckus.
Although the dragons could not reach the heroes physically, they used their breath weapons to good effect. The Tacharim hung back, letting the dragons do all the hard work. One of the beasts was slain and the other severely wounded before Doctor Valran emerged from his laboratory to see what was happening. He knew it was only a matter of time before the fortress fell, and he expected to see an adu’ja raiding party. He was surprised to see his old nemeses.
Valran hadn’t responded immediately to the intruder alert because a curious event occurred in his laboratory – a portal opened and then closed, disgorging a mangled mind flayer clutching a strange black cylinder. While he didn’t have time to make a thorough examination, with rapidly dwindling options, Valran decided to take a gamble and activated the device in the dead illithid’s grasp. He taunted the heroes and then passed through the portal. The session ended on that cliffhanger.
I’ve take enormous liberties with the 3.5E rules over the last few years, as a compromise between my desire to play 4E and my online group’s stubborn refusal to convert. Below are Doctor Valran Stonefist’s current 3.5 statistics (in 4E format) available for your perusal.
Doctor Valran Stonefist (Cleric 1/Wizard 7/Fleshwarper 10) CR 18
Medium Aberration (human)
HP 77 (18 HD) Initiative +4
AC 23/16/17 (+4 armor, +3 natural) Senses Listen +4, Spot +4
Fortitude +17, Reflex +12, Will +18
Speed 30 ft, fly 60 ft (average)
Fast Healing 2
Resist 10 cold, 10 fire
Traits
BAB
Valran’s Base Attack Bonus is +8.
Membranous Wings
Valran has grafted succubus wings onto his body, granting the power of flight and fiendish resistances.
Scaly Skin
Valran has grafted patches of yuan-ti scales to his body, improving his natural Armor Class.
Secret of the Beholder
Valran’s eyes bulge from his face and move independently on stalks, preventing him from being flanked.
Secret of the Gibbering Mouther
Valran’s body is amorphous and distributes kinetic energy evenly over its surface, so he has a 25% chance to ignore extra damage dealt by critical hits and sneak attacks.
Secret of the Mind Flayer
Valran’s brain has had illithid tissue granted onto it, granting a +4 racial bonus on saves against mind-affecting effects.
Spike Stones
Valran has grafted maug spikes inserted under his skin, which he can lengthen as a standard action. In a grapple, the spikes deal 2d4 piercing damage in addition to any normal grappling damage.
Full-Round Actions
m Whip Tail * At-Will
Attack: Reach 15 ft (one creature); +10 vs. AC
Hit: 1d6+3 slashing damage, and the target is dazed for 1 round (DC 11 Fortitude negates).
Standard Actions
m Spike Stones * At-Will
Requirement: The spikes must be extended (standard action).
Attack: Melee (one creature); +8 vs. AC
Hit: 1d4 piercing damage.
Swift Actions
Belt of Battle * Variable (see below)
Effect: Valran can expend 1, 2, or 3 charges from the belt, gaining an extra action based on the number of charges expended:
1 Charge: Move action.
2 Charges: Standard action.
3 Charges: Full-round action.
Triggered Actions
Feedback (evocation) * At-Will
Trigger: An adjacent creature hits Valran with a melee attack.
Effect (Free Action): The attacking creature takes 1d4 force damage.
Seek Out Healing (conjuration) * At-Will
Trigger: A healing spell is cast within 30 feet of Valran.
Effect (Free Action): Valran knows what the spell is. If he desires, he can use a swift action to gain the benefits of the spell instead of the intended recipient.
Skills Heal +22, Knowledge (arcana) +22, Knowledge (the planes) +22
Str 10 (+0) Int 22 (+6) Wis 16 (+3)
Con 15 (+2) Dex 15 (+2) Cha 14 (+2)
Alignment Neutral Languages Common, Draconic, Elven, Fiendish, Terran
Equipment belt of battle, cloak of resistance +5, fiendhelm, rings of force armor, shirt of the leech
Cleric Spells
0 – (3) create water x2, invoke the word
1 – (3) faith of arms, resist touch, sanctuary
Wizard Spells
0 – (4) detect disease x4
1 – (6) Anavar’s anticipated attack, arrow deflection, blissful sleep, blood spikes, harassing weapon, identify scryer
2 – (6) icebolt, invisibility, pierce, scorching ray, spectral hand, touch of idiocy
3 – (6) Alikaba’s theft, brutal seething surge, hold person x2, induce vulnerability, scry retaliation
4 – (5) Apolioth’s condemnation, chains of vengeance, coldscream, gird the warrior, warding globes
5 – (5) animate necrosis, cross of lightning, Mordenkainen’s private sanctum, prying eyes, teleport block
6 – (5) coma, electrical deluge, freezing claw, greater dispel magic, Mordenkainen’s lucubration
7 – (4) finger of death x2, forcecage, spell turning
8 – (2) chains of antimagic, disintegration field
9 – (1) duplicate
Since the heroes were tasked with protecting the modrons, they pursued the kidnappers, liberating what modrons they could and putting the rest out of their misery. The heroes were horrified by what they found and vowed to take revenge for the Doctor’s atrocities. Events took a more personal turn after that.
The next encounter with Valran and the Tacharim was when he kidnapped Pasha, the party’s druid, and removed her legs, replacing them with a duodrone’s limbs. Lucius, Pasha’s husband, led the search for her, and she was found on the operating table just as the Doctor completed the operation. The sight of his wife in that bloody laboratory with her legs casually tossed into a wicker basket was enough to break his mind. After defeating the other Tacharim members – the Doctor escaped – the paladin went into shock, never to recover. Nexx, another druid party member, used the last remaining charge of a ring of wishes to reverse all of Valran’s experiments, restoring Pasha’s legs and all the modrons and patients throughout the Tacharim organization. The group confiscated the Doctor’s notes, burned the laboratory to the ground, and thought the group crippled beyond repair. They were wrong.
With all his experiments undone, Doctor Valran saw the error of his ways. The original path he pursued was flawed, too vulnerable to the forces of magic, as evidenced by how easily his work had been erased. He decided to pursue more mundane forms of modification, concentrating on other creatures instead of the modrons. For that reason, he remained under the party’s radar for many levels.
That’s not to say the heroes didn’t cross paths with him – they just didn’t realize it. When they journeyed to Bedlam to obtain an artifact called Faarlung’s Algorithm, they encountered some horrific murders and traced the activities back to a group called the Sarex, a sadistic organization whose teachings focused around torture and mutilation. The bulk of the organization was made up of a race of creatures called scabmettlers (stolen from China Mieville’s Bas Lag setting), with a handful of depraved humans thrown in for good measure. The heroes battled the Sarex, but didn’t spend any time digging into its leadership to discover Valran’s involvement.
The Sarex membership made good fodder for the Doctor’s new experiments, as they enjoyed pain and mutilation and reveled in the freakish modifications he made. When he felt he had perfected the process, Valran started operating on himself, grafting the best parts of creatures onto his own body in an effort to make himself “perfect.” When everything was said and done, he was unrecognizable as his former self.
Fast forward to now. The heroes have battled their way through the Flower Infernal, a monstrous plant that serves as the multiplanar base of the Tacharim, straddling layers on Pandemonium, Carceri, and Gehenna. An army of plant creatures called the adu’ja assaulted the fortress from the outside, and the Tacharim looked to be losing. Room by room, the heroes searched for Doctor Valran, hoping to destroy him and the Tacharim once and for all…and they found him during last night’s session.
The heroes reached the upper level of the fortress and ran into the Tacharim’s master-at-arms, Jergil the Mage Slayer. The spellblade had just retreated to the Flower Infernal with his pet howling dragons, which now ran loose on the lower level. He sounded the alarm and moved to attack, but lost initiative and was promptly slaughtered (one against seven is never fair). As claxons rang, portcullises cut off the stairs between the upper and lower level, and the Tacharim guards responded to the ruckus.
Although the dragons could not reach the heroes physically, they used their breath weapons to good effect. The Tacharim hung back, letting the dragons do all the hard work. One of the beasts was slain and the other severely wounded before Doctor Valran emerged from his laboratory to see what was happening. He knew it was only a matter of time before the fortress fell, and he expected to see an adu’ja raiding party. He was surprised to see his old nemeses.
Valran hadn’t responded immediately to the intruder alert because a curious event occurred in his laboratory – a portal opened and then closed, disgorging a mangled mind flayer clutching a strange black cylinder. While he didn’t have time to make a thorough examination, with rapidly dwindling options, Valran decided to take a gamble and activated the device in the dead illithid’s grasp. He taunted the heroes and then passed through the portal. The session ended on that cliffhanger.
I’ve take enormous liberties with the 3.5E rules over the last few years, as a compromise between my desire to play 4E and my online group’s stubborn refusal to convert. Below are Doctor Valran Stonefist’s current 3.5 statistics (in 4E format) available for your perusal.
Doctor Valran Stonefist (Cleric 1/Wizard 7/Fleshwarper 10) CR 18
Medium Aberration (human)
HP 77 (18 HD) Initiative +4
AC 23/16/17 (+4 armor, +3 natural) Senses Listen +4, Spot +4
Fortitude +17, Reflex +12, Will +18
Speed 30 ft, fly 60 ft (average)
Fast Healing 2
Resist 10 cold, 10 fire
Traits
BAB
Valran’s Base Attack Bonus is +8.
Membranous Wings
Valran has grafted succubus wings onto his body, granting the power of flight and fiendish resistances.
Scaly Skin
Valran has grafted patches of yuan-ti scales to his body, improving his natural Armor Class.
Secret of the Beholder
Valran’s eyes bulge from his face and move independently on stalks, preventing him from being flanked.
Secret of the Gibbering Mouther
Valran’s body is amorphous and distributes kinetic energy evenly over its surface, so he has a 25% chance to ignore extra damage dealt by critical hits and sneak attacks.
Secret of the Mind Flayer
Valran’s brain has had illithid tissue granted onto it, granting a +4 racial bonus on saves against mind-affecting effects.
Spike Stones
Valran has grafted maug spikes inserted under his skin, which he can lengthen as a standard action. In a grapple, the spikes deal 2d4 piercing damage in addition to any normal grappling damage.
Full-Round Actions
m Whip Tail * At-Will
Attack: Reach 15 ft (one creature); +10 vs. AC
Hit: 1d6+3 slashing damage, and the target is dazed for 1 round (DC 11 Fortitude negates).
Standard Actions
m Spike Stones * At-Will
Requirement: The spikes must be extended (standard action).
Attack: Melee (one creature); +8 vs. AC
Hit: 1d4 piercing damage.
Swift Actions
Belt of Battle * Variable (see below)
Effect: Valran can expend 1, 2, or 3 charges from the belt, gaining an extra action based on the number of charges expended:
1 Charge: Move action.
2 Charges: Standard action.
3 Charges: Full-round action.
Triggered Actions
Feedback (evocation) * At-Will
Trigger: An adjacent creature hits Valran with a melee attack.
Effect (Free Action): The attacking creature takes 1d4 force damage.
Seek Out Healing (conjuration) * At-Will
Trigger: A healing spell is cast within 30 feet of Valran.
Effect (Free Action): Valran knows what the spell is. If he desires, he can use a swift action to gain the benefits of the spell instead of the intended recipient.
Skills Heal +22, Knowledge (arcana) +22, Knowledge (the planes) +22
Str 10 (+0) Int 22 (+6) Wis 16 (+3)
Con 15 (+2) Dex 15 (+2) Cha 14 (+2)
Alignment Neutral Languages Common, Draconic, Elven, Fiendish, Terran
Equipment belt of battle, cloak of resistance +5, fiendhelm, rings of force armor, shirt of the leech
Cleric Spells
0 – (3) create water x2, invoke the word
1 – (3) faith of arms, resist touch, sanctuary
Wizard Spells
0 – (4) detect disease x4
1 – (6) Anavar’s anticipated attack, arrow deflection, blissful sleep, blood spikes, harassing weapon, identify scryer
2 – (6) icebolt, invisibility, pierce, scorching ray, spectral hand, touch of idiocy
3 – (6) Alikaba’s theft, brutal seething surge, hold person x2, induce vulnerability, scry retaliation
4 – (5) Apolioth’s condemnation, chains of vengeance, coldscream, gird the warrior, warding globes
5 – (5) animate necrosis, cross of lightning, Mordenkainen’s private sanctum, prying eyes, teleport block
6 – (5) coma, electrical deluge, freezing claw, greater dispel magic, Mordenkainen’s lucubration
7 – (4) finger of death x2, forcecage, spell turning
8 – (2) chains of antimagic, disintegration field
9 – (1) duplicate
