| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Any who can help:
Ran across a reference to Runelord Sorshen becoming immortal. The only reference I can find is that she was the Runelord of Lust. I recall her having been done in by the succubi that she summoned to her section of the Runewell. Can anyone add anything extra?
Thanks in advance for your time and effort.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Runelord Sorshen was never in Runeforge. Part of the point of that place was that none of the Runelords were supposed to set foot inside. It was a neutral ground for mutual research. At least in theory. The succubus there did overcome Sorshen's agents in the Runeforge and take over there for herself, though.
Sorshen was immortal and eternally young. The exact mechanics behind this are as yet unknown, but appear to have to do with a ritual conducted using a powerful major artifact and the blood of countless thousands. What details we have are hinted at in the final adventure of Curse of the Crimson Throne.
|
The Lust Runelord appeared to have developed some form of eternal youth. Many Lust-built complexes (such as the Lust section of Runeforge) have an enchantment that keeps anything living there eternally young and sustained. Often, if they ever step outside of the area, time "catches up," and they rapidly age into dust like the bad guy in The Last Crusade when he picks the wrong cup.
Which might seem odd, since those magics have nothing to do with Charm Monster, but it needs to be remembered that the Runelords weren't super-focused in their use of magic, and many of their most awesome inventions were outside their specialized school (like how Karzoug was all about summoning Things from beyond time, like Denizens of Leng and Hounds of Tindalos), or how the Wrath (evocation) runelord apparently also went in for fleshcrafting (sinspawn and reefclaws).
I assume that someone in thassilon first invented Festrogs too; it seems like the kind of thing they'd do.
|
|
Sorshen is currently five (four of which are unexplored) levels of dungeon under castle Korvosa in stasis. There's a small army of vampires down there with her, as will as a menagerie of of monsters and various demons and constructs. She has a huge machine set up to drain the blood from select creatures down there to begin her awakening at an unspecified point. She is one of two Runelords confirmed as being epic level (the other being Xanderghul, who is even higher level than she is).
...She is one of two Runelords confirmed as being epic level (the other being Xanderghul, who is even higher level than she is).Actually... Alaznist is in that category too, although only just barely.
On that topic...is there an official ranking of any kind of the relative power of the various Runelords, in terms of level/CR?
Creative Director
|
| 13 people marked this as a favorite. |
On that topic...is there an official ranking of any kind of the relative power of the various Runelords, in terms of level/CR?...She is one of two Runelords confirmed as being epic level (the other being Xanderghul, who is even higher level than she is).Actually... Alaznist is in that category too, although only just barely.
Not in print, but I've got a list in my head that looks something like this, starting with the most powerful runelord at position #1 and counting down to the least powerful one at position #7, with position #4 being the only runelord we have nailed down with a CR score (CR 20).
1: Xhanderghul (pride)
2: Sorshen (lust)
3: Alaznist (wrath)
4: Karzoug (greed)
5: Zutha (gluttony)
6: Belimarius (envy)
7: Krune (sloth)
|
|
Oh, also? Fans of the Runelords will be interested to know that we've got illustrations of Sorshen and Xanderghul for the first time in the upcoming "Inner Sea Magic."
Sexy ! I think we saw an art preview of that in the blog.
And while I've seen James numbering of th Runelords before on the message boards, I very much like (and find it appropriate) that the Runelords of Sloth and Envy are "at the bottom" and the Runelord of Pride is looking down from on high. I vaguely remember seeing the numbering of Alaznist and Zutha were somewhat interchangeable, is this the version you have decided to use James ?
|
Creative Director
|
Oh, also? Fans of the Runelords will be interested to know that we've got illustrations of Sorshen and Xanderghul for the first time in the upcoming "Inner Sea Magic."Sexy ! I think we saw an art preview of that in the blog.
And while I've seen James numbering of th Runelords before on the message boards, I very much like (and find it appropriate) that the Runelords of Sloth and Envy are "at the bottom" and the Runelord of Pride is looking down from on high. I vaguely remember seeing the numbering of Alaznist and Zutha were somewhat interchangeable, is this the version you have decided to use James ?
Yup; after a few years of settling, we've had a LOT more going on with Alaznist than we have with Zutha, and as such it made more sense to make her the tough one and Zutha the underachiever.
Oh, also? Fans of the Runelords will be interested to know that we've got illustrations of Sorshen and Xanderghul for the first time in the upcoming "Inner Sea Magic."
Would you perchance be able to divulge the artist(s) who created these illustrations at this time?
|
Creative Director
|
Oh, also? Fans of the Runelords will be interested to know that we've got illustrations of Sorshen and Xanderghul for the first time in the upcoming "Inner Sea Magic."Would you perchance be able to divulge the artist(s) who created these illustrations at this time?
I would not, alas.
Go Team Krune! We may be #7, but we don't have to try as hard!
|
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Oh, also? Fans of the Runelords will be interested to know that we've got illustrations of Sorshen and Xanderghul for the first time in the upcoming "Inner Sea Magic."
Nice, I love the runelords and sin magic.... yeah yeah i know... anyways. I keep hoping for a revisit to them or even a 64 page book about their old empire. That would be wicked cool... just saying.
Oh, also? Fans of the Runelords will be interested to know that we've got illustrations of Sorshen and Xanderghul for the first time in the upcoming "Inner Sea Magic."Nice, I love the runelords and sin magic.... yeah yeah i know... anyways. I keep hoping for a revisit to them or even a 64 page book about their old empire. That would be wicked cool... just saying.
I know. I'm having to re-invent the Sin Magic stuff with just a few spells to go on. Oddly, clerics (who get Detect Alignment at first level) do great at detecting sin, and if you presume you can plug 'sin' into most of the alignment spells, they really do become almost essential to the process. Which begs the question: did Xin the Original dabble in Mystic Theurgism? No offense intended - I know most see Xin as 20th level universalist wizard plus prestige class(es).
Anyway, I just love the dichotomy of sin values - gathering power in one sin makes you vulnerable to attacks from two others. And yes, the creatures and permutations are great. Consider Wrath-Thrall collars: the master, a barbarian, rages. The thrall collars make all the thralls rage whether they have that class feature or not. Is this a good way to kill off a bunch of thralls? You betcha, but watch as the people mowing them down take their lumps, too. And if you do this for, say, trolls instead of commoner slaves, you get something that resembles "bang for your baubles".
|
Creative Director
|
I know. I'm having to re-invent the Sin Magic stuff with just a few spells to go on. Oddly, clerics (who get Detect Alignment at first level) do great at detecting sin, and if you presume you can plug 'sin' into most of the alignment spells, they really do become almost essential to the process. Which begs the question: did Xin the Original dabble in Mystic Theurgism? No offense intended - I know most see Xin as 20th level universalist wizard plus prestige class(es).
All seven of the runelords, and Xin as well, were single classed wizards. (In the 3.5 days, we gave Karzoug a few archmage levels, but that was because high level wizards had nothing to do; if we were to stat him up today, he'd be a 20th level specialist wizard.)
|
|
I know. I'm having to re-invent the Sin Magic stuff with just a few spells to go on. Oddly, clerics (who get Detect Alignment at first level) do great at detecting sin, and if you presume you can plug 'sin' into most of the alignment spells, they really do become almost essential to the process. Which begs the question: did Xin the Original dabble in Mystic Theurgism? No offense intended - I know most see Xin as 20th level universalist wizard plus prestige class(es).All seven of the runelords, and Xin as well, were single classed wizards. (In the 3.5 days, we gave Karzoug a few archmage levels, but that was because high level wizards had nothing to do; if we were to stat him up today, he'd be a 20th level specialist wizard.)
So does that mena there are possibly plans in the near future to restat him as well as stat up other Runelords?
I would have thought Alaznist had a full progression of Eldritch Knight.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yeah, my players are trying to figure out how the Runelords all sought refuge from the fall of their empire. I'm having a devil of a time using each school to figure out how a specialist of each school might do so.
Random thoughts;
Pride shifting into the Shadow Plane might fit the Illusion focus. He might still rule a shadow-version of his original realm, and, in his madness, refuse to acknowledge that this twisted reflection is not his actual realm. The big secret is that he's just a Simulacrum of his true self, too blinded by pride to recognize his own false nature...
For Lust, perhaps she cast some ridonkulous enchantment spell that scattered her essence out across thousands of subjects, who would later be drawn back (or their ancestors would) so that the fragments of her mind could be restored to her body, perhaps released in some moment of intense emotion (such as a riot in the city, or when exposed to a drug that she's left behind, to weaken those who reside in the area of her tomb, so that the fragments of her psyche seeded among them are 'loosened' and begin to drift free while they lay in drugged stupor, to rejoin their mistress). Not only is her 'self' out there, it's anchored in thousands of individuals who have travelled all over the world, unaware of the tiny scrap of the Runelord that lurks within them. When they are drawn back to her body, not only will she recollect the fragment of herself left within them, but, her ultimate goal is to steal the rest of their minds as well, allowing her to awaken with the life-experiences and memories of thousands of these unwitting hosts, gaining full knowledge of the ages she spent slumbering). She's not entirely sure her psyche will be able to survive (or remain sane) being reconstituted from the thousands of minds and life-experiences she'll absorb into herself in this orgy of destruction that will leave entire populations drooling and mindless, lobotomized by her awakening, but she expects that it will be *intense.*
Wrath draws power from evocation, and might have transcended physical form to become pure energy, perhaps even pure force. Different forces might represent different parts of the runelords being or psyche, and someone overcoming the various creatures or challenges in their 'tomb' might be unwittingly releasing those evocation forces to return to the body of the runelord. On the other hand, if there's a runelord that *didn't* hang around, and elected to 'go out in a blaze of glory' shouting words like 'pyroclaustic fury!' as volcanoes erupted in the background, it would have been Wrath...
Sloth is the posterchild for 'create demiplane.' It's a nice place. Very restful and populated by obedient servitor creatures.
Gluttony devised a new form of lichdom, that allows it to be half-lich, half-ghoul. Not because ghouls are powerful or sexy, but because gluttony wasn't about to live forever as something that could no longer enjoy the visceral pleasure of *eating.* Alternately, gluttony didn't just become *an* undead, it became *all* hungry dead. Anytime any undead creature feeds, a tiny fraction of the stolen life-force is shunted away, to maintain the existence of the runelord of gluttony, lying in stasis on the border of the negative energy plane. Sometimes it stirs in its sleep, when vampires go on a feeding frenzy, or a plague of shadows descends upon a sleepy community, and leaves only death and darkness in its wake, the sudden rush of life-energy enough to make the runelord shift in his sleep and mumble blasphemous words. Someday, someone who knows the secret will engineer a dozen such events on a single moonless night, causing thousands to die to the touch of the hungry dead, and sending such a rush of stolen life-energy to the sleeping runelord that he will finally awaken, recognizing tha the world is once again a welcoming environment to his kind.
Envy is behind a series of permanant abjurations including Dimensional Lock, Mind Blank, Sequester and Prismatic Sphere, and, yeah, allso under Imprisonment. There's probably some custom abjuration there as well...
|
|
Gluttony is so obvious (though there are hints of multiple phylacteries)
Yes. There's an official write-up of of Zutha's phylactery in the web supplement about Thassilonian items (Magic of Thassilon). It's a three-part artifact book called The Gluttonous Tome that takes over its wielder and turns him/her into a copy of Zutha.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'll bet he gets sick of those jokes.
What joke? Krune's too lazy to die. Dying is, like, work. He's shunted his deaths off onto the people of Haruka (and Varisia, lately) for thousands of years now. He really does intend to get around to fixing the problems caused by the Starstone, eventually.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I am trying to run Runeplague and I need stats for the simulacrum of Runelord Sorshen. I can't find them in the module but you need them for the battle with the phoenix. Anyone know where they are?
pp. 66-67 of Runeplague.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Who's there?