"Go to the sign of Marvel's Axe, a dubious inn on the edge of the Thieves Quarter, in the City of Greyhawk, and look to your own wrist. If you perceive a bracelet and dangling dice, watch for the next throw in the war between Law and Chaos and be prepared to follow the compelling geas." -Signal

Thursday, September 1, 2011

C5 Bane of Llywelyn, Mystic Eyes

The Bane of Llywelyn is the fifth in the 'C' Competition series  that was released by TSR for first edition AD&D. These were all  at one time used as tournament models at various conventions.  This was used at GenCon XVI in 1983. This was the the followup to  C4 "To Find a King" and the two combined make up the "Prophecy of  Brie" series.

The module after being used as a tournament module at the  convention was released in a series of modules in Polyhedron  magazine. This was the flagship magazine of the RPGA and the  modules there were RPGA5 to RPGA8. They were published in issues  16 to 19 of Polyhedron. They were titled in order of appearance as  follows below.

RPGA5    The Riddle of Dolmen Moor
RPGA6    The Incants of Ischcabeble
RPGA7    Llywellyn's Tomb
RPGA8    And the Gods Will Have Their Way

The actual C5 Bane of Llywellyn, as pictured above, was released  in 1985. The cover art is bt Kieth Parkinson. It to me has always  been a striking piece of art. I recall seeing it for the first  time and more so than many other modules I wanted to know exactly  what was going on in the module to cause that image to be used.  The module was, as have all the other previous versions, written  by Bob Blake and was made for six to ten characters of fourth to  seventh level.

A summary of the module taken from Wikipedia follows:

Two hundred years ago, the royal line of kings of Pellham was  deposed and replaced by a High Council. The current council is  well-meaning but hopelessly incompetent. Excitement and unrest  grip the land of Pellham, and the people agree that a drastic  change is needed for the kingdom to survive. An ancient Prophecy  of Brie foretells that a king from the past will return to  restore the kingdom. The symbols of the ancient kings have been  recovered, the keys to the royal tomb are in hand, powerful  magics to revive the long-dead king have been secured at great  cost. The king's burial location remains unknown, and the player  characters must discover it.

Below is the module summary from the back of the retail copy of  the module.

Excitement and unrest grip the land of Pellham. Two hundred years  ago, the royal line of kings was deposed and replaced by a High  Council. The current council is well-meaning but hopelessly  incompetent.

The ancient Prophecy of Brie foretells that in Pellham's darkest  hour, a king from the past will return to restore the realm. The  time of the prophecy is now.

All is in readiness: the symbols of the ancient kings have been  recovered, the keys to the royal tomb are in hand, powerful  magics to revive the long-dead king have been secured at great  cost. Only one problem remains - no one knows where the king is  buried.

The Bane of Llywelyn concludes the epic adventure of the Prophecy  of Brie - can YOU insure that the quest will be a success?

The adventure can be played as a separate adventure or as the  second part of the Prophecy of Brie series.







Spell:

Mystic Eyes


Level: Fourth
Range: Special
Duration: Special
Ares of Effect: 2" Square Area
Components: V,S
Casting Time: One Round
Saving Throw: None

When this spell is cast the magic user causes a pair of magical  eyes to be created in the location they specify. After being  created these eyes will become inert and invisible until such  time as they are triggered.

The caster can specify what will be the triggering event for the  eyes to appear but it must be something that they are able to  clearly speak in a period of thirty seconds or less. A caster can  have no more pairs of eyes created than they have levels of  experience. If new ones are needed beyond that number the caster  must return to the site where a pair was created and command them  to trigger and disperse. The eyes can remain in waiting long  after the casters death.

Once activated the caster will immediately be able to see what  they eyes see regardless of location or distance from the eyes.  The eyes will function just as if they were the casters with the  same limitations. Once they have been activated the eyes will  remain active for a period of time equal to one turn per level of  the caster (at the initial time of casting).

They eyes will then at the will of the caster or if they are dead  then randomly pick one living creature in range. The eyes will  then become a pair of visible disembodied eyes and follow the  selected character or being for the remaining duration of the  spell all the while allowing the caster to see what they are  doing.

No other sensory input is granted so the DM can only describe  what would be visible to the eyes. Spells that would affect the  eyes will affect casters vision as well but only for the duration  of the spell. They eyes will remain affixed to the selected  creature regardless of effect though.

Disclaimer: The spells that you will see, for how ever long the  write ups last, were all written up or conceived of back in the  80's so the terminology may not appropriate for anything other  than 1e and depending on how well I did back then it may be  slightly off for that as well. If there is any duplication of  spells that exist now it is most likely I wrote mine first :)  Please feel free to comment on them but try not to be too hard on  me. If anyone wishes to use these in anything they print please  let me know in advance and all I ask is proper credit.

1 comment:

Mike Bridges said...

Excellent post. I came across many of those mods at Gencon one year. Though I doubt i'll ever run them, just owning them to see the art is worth the price. Today's D&D art just doesn't have the same fantastic feel.

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