Rod of Seven Parts

[Anonymous]

I came up with a plot line I want to use with the fabled Rod of
Seven Parts, but I can't recall where (if?) they've published 3.x
stats for it.

Anyone recall what book it was in?

[Anonymous]

Ophidian wrote:
I came up with a plot line I want to use with the fabled Rod of
Seven Parts, but I can't recall where (if?) they've published 3.x
stats for it.

Anyone recall what book it was in?

I don't think they've done Rod of Seven Parts, but enworld.org have a
section on there for 3.x updates to old adventures.

[Anonymous]

"Ophidian" <ophidian23> wrote in message
news:q4V_f.2961$8q.921@dukeread08...
I came up with a plot line I want to use with the fabled Rod of
Seven Parts, but I can't recall where (if?) they've published 3.x
stats for it.

Anyone recall what book it was in?

The current stats for one piece are in Dungeon, as part of the Age of
Worms...

--
^v^v^Malachias Invictus^v^v^

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the Master of my fate:
I am the Captain of my soul.

from _Invictus_, by William Ernest Henley

[Anonymous]

Ophidian wrote:

I came up with a plot line I want to use with the fabled Rod of
Seven Parts, but I can't recall where (if?) they've published 3.x
stats for it.

Anyone recall what book it was in?

Whoops, stumpled across it accidently the next day. ;(

Arms and Equipment Guide for 3.0.
Looks like it won't need any conversion for 3.5...

[Anonymous]

Ophidian wrote:
Arms and Equipment Guide for 3.0.
Looks like it won't need any conversion for 3.5...

If you're still interested: I recently converted the 2nd Ed. Rod of
Seven Parts Campaign to 3rd and this greatly expands on the stats of
the rod. So here we go:

Command Words:
4-inch-piece: Ruat
5-inch-piece: Coleum
6-inch-piece: Fiat
8-inch-piece: Justitia
10-inch-piece: Ecce
12-inch-piece: Lex
15-inch-piece: Rex

For the other command words, just combine the single words of each
contributing segment.

Beyond the minor and major powers found also in the Arms and Equipment
Guide there are also "Resonant" Powers for having all the pieces from
start:
1+2: Fly Speed 24
1-3: Air influence: Protection from Air Elementals, Wind Wall 1/d
1-4: Charm Air Elementals, Air Walk 1/d
1-5: Chain Lightning 1/d
1-6: Create whirlwind 1/d, MV: 9-18, 6 persons can ride the whirlwind
1-7: Can do True Ressurection which shatters the Rod.

Sinc it's an artifact, it also has some _Side Effects_ for the bearer:
1 Piece: bearer becomes orderly and clean. (+1 Cha) becomes lawful
(Will DC 17).
2 Pieces: no more ramdom decisions.
3 Pieces: Never break any known law. Refuses to give up his segments of
the Rod. (+2 to s.thr vs. Charm)
4 Pieces: Never tells a lie. Always saying the literal truth. (Every
lawful creature instinctively knows this) Law becomes more important
than good or evil.
5 Pieces: Cannot tolerate emotions (immune to fear (incl. Phantasmal
killer, taunt and emotion spells) becomes lawful neutral.
6 Pieces: Takes everything literally. No deeper meaning is understood.
(follows charm commands to the letter without saving throws)
7 Pieces: Champion of Law. Radiates fearsome, icy law in 20' radius.
Anyone not sharing his view is an enemy.

To assemble the rod, some glyphs are needed to be inscribed on the
pieces, otherwise the larger one teleports away:
Brush: made of hair from a lawful good and a lawful evil creature (6
HD+), that gives the hair freely.
Pigments: diamond, iron, lead, several others.
Scribing: as 6th level spell scroll (Base price: 25*6*CLV => Cost to
create: 75*CLV gp, 6*CLV XP = ~900gp, 72 XP); takes 1 day per glyph
Success chance: 70% +1% per caster level, +5% if brush self made, +5%
for calligraphy, forgery or painting related skill. Failure results in
the larger piece teleporting away.
Time to fit pieces: 1d20 Minutes

I really recommend the campaign, if you can get a hand on it. It was
one of the most memorable campaigns of all time for me and the players.

Regards,
Oliver

[Anonymous]

Alantar wrote:

Ophidian wrote:
Arms and Equipment Guide for 3.0.
Looks like it won't need any conversion for 3.5...


If you're still interested: I recently converted the 2nd Ed. Rod of
Seven Parts Campaign to 3rd and this greatly expands on the stats of
the rod. So here we go:

Command Words:
4-inch-piece: Ruat
5-inch-piece: Coleum
6-inch-piece: Fiat
8-inch-piece: Justitia
10-inch-piece: Ecce
12-inch-piece: Lex
15-inch-piece: Rex

For the other command words, just combine the single words of each
contributing segment.

They gave the command words in 2nd???
KEWL!
I was having a hellatime coming up with ones.

Beyond the minor and major powers found also in the Arms and Equipment
Guide there are also "Resonant" Powers for having all the pieces from
start:
1+2: Fly Speed 24
1-3: Air influence: Protection from Air Elementals, Wind Wall 1/d
1-4: Charm Air Elementals, Air Walk 1/d
1-5: Chain Lightning 1/d
1-6: Create whirlwind 1/d, MV: 9-18, 6 persons can ride the whirlwind
1-7: Can do True Ressurection which shatters the Rod.

The A&E powers are very similar, and I think I prefer them.
Thanks for the list though!

Sinc it's an artifact, it also has some _Side Effects_ for the bearer:
1 Piece: bearer becomes orderly and clean. (+1 Cha) becomes lawful
(Will DC 17).

Still has a version of that.
Looks to have dropped the rest. ;(
For my purposes most of the extra limitations would detract from
the story I'm planning.

To assemble the rod, some glyphs are needed to be inscribed on the
pieces, otherwise the larger one teleports away:
Brush: made of hair from a lawful good and a lawful evil creature (6
HD+), that gives the hair freely.
Pigments: diamond, iron, lead, several others.
Scribing: as 6th level spell scroll (Base price: 25*6*CLV => Cost to
create: 75*CLV gp, 6*CLV XP = ~900gp, 72 XP); takes 1 day per glyph
Success chance: 70% +1% per caster level, +5% if brush self made, +5%
for calligraphy, forgery or painting related skill. Failure results in
the larger piece teleporting away.
Time to fit pieces: 1d20 Minutes

Hm, too complex.
The A&E version has them fitting naturally together as implements
of Law.

I really recommend the campaign, if you can get a hand on it. It was
one of the most memorable campaigns of all time for me and the players.

Any details on it?
I think I know where I can get a used copy, and maybe some of its
plot points will work with what I'm planning...

[Anonymous]

The big story revolves around what's already in the A&E. The Rod is a
relict from an ageless war between law, personified in the campaign by
the Wind Dukes of Aaqua, and chaos, represented by the Queen of Chaos
and her Spyder Fiend minions (all of them tanar'ri). The party aquires
the first segment of the rod by chance and becomes interested because
of it's strange magical properties, although radiating no magic.

A series of adventures leads them to most of the pieces. The adventures
themselves are NOT linked, except by the quest for the rod. This makes
it almost ideal to replace some of them with your own or grab single
ones to fit into your campaign.

Sometimes the party will get approached by the Wind Dukes and other
factions that are all interested in the rod. It's up to the party to
decide who's who and not getting tricked into losing the rod.

Other interesting side effects are the Queen being able to detect the
use of the rod and sending her minions to get it whenever she can. This
gets the PCs to think before using the rod's powers.

You get 3 different starting adventures to get the PCs involved in the
story. They range from a one-nighter where they just stumble across the
first piece owned by a mad wizard. The one I took involves a more
elaborate tavern setup with more background and a first encounter with
the Spyder Fiends.

The second one involves a classic dungeon run with the last level
completely underwater and facing all-time-favorites like umber hulks to
giant crustaceans and two aboleths as the masterminds. They can get
though with force but there's also the option of getting the help from
one of the aboleths, if they're clever.

Next one is set in a Cloud Giant Castle where a wedding takes place and
the party hast to sneak/trick their way in to get to the segment. Very
interesting 'cause starting a fight in a castle full of could giants is
a VERY bad idea.

The fourth involves a caravanserai that's led by an efreet. Again there
are multiple ways to get the segment.

The final part involves the party travelling to a chaos plane and
confronting the Queens general, Miska the Wolf-Spider. A truly
formidable opponent that can only be finally beaten by using the rod.
After running though a well organized dungeon, of course. :)

In short, the campaign takes the party around the world, or wherever
you set the adventures. All of the adventures can be solved by force or
brains, the latter being usually much easier because the CR of the
opponents is fairly high. I'd recommend about 40 party levels to start
the campaign. Still, the final battle with Miska is a bit
unpredicatable as there are few and special ways to damage him and
meeting him unprepared WILL result in character death. I DMed it two
times now and we lost one character each time. But it's nothing a Raise
Dead cannot fix.

The Box itself features 6 Poster maps, which can be used with
miniatures for some of the more interesting battles. There are also
some cards with info on the rod and some adenture related images. The
artwork inside the four books is also quite good and has especially
well done (frightening) pictures of the recurring Spyder Fiend enemies.

Hope this helps your decision :)

Oliver