The Esoteric Order of Eldritch and Superlative Sorceries

Introduction

This is an AD&D1E game run by The Wyzard, as part of the We Belong to the Night project. Sessions are conducted via google chat on evenings and weekends. The PCs are powerful and influential magicians in a polyapocalyptic world currently having a phase of decadent civilization. There are strong science fantasy elements, and hypertech coexists alongside magic without a clear dividing line. The campaign is set on the same planetary sphere as my previous play-by-post campaign, but in a different region and historical era.

Character Creation & Other House Rules

• Characters begin as Magic Users of the Fifth level of experience. They start out with substantial assets and benefits befitting their elevated station in the world, and are assumed to have several notable accomplishments in their biography.

• This is a human-only campaign. The normal demihuman races of dwarf, elf, halfling, orc, etc. do not exist. Antagonists will be either human or monstrous.

• Names should include a suitably impressive sobriquet. Manos becomes Manos the Masterful, Delilah becomes Delilah of the Seven Secrets. It is very important that your name portend great advantages for your allies and ignominious defeat for your enemies! All must know that they deal with persons of pride and puissance upon hearing of you.

• Each new PCs rolls three sets of six attributes, attributes being determined by rolling four six-sided dice and totaling the highest three. The player then selects one of the three sets, and arranges them to taste. Intelligence is the prime requisite for magic users. The highly social nature of this campaign makes Charisma more important than it might usually be.

• Weapon and non-weapon proficiencies are not used. The PCs are presumed to have studied all scholarly and technical fields extensively, or to have manuals of such available in their libraries. They are not omniscient, but obscure lore is their meat and drink. NPCs use whatever weapons are appropriate to their wealth and profession; PCs are proficient with dagger, staff, dart, and any general class of weapon they may have studied the use of, if they have elected to do so. If you have learned swordplay or the use of bows or similar, note it under Specialties on your character sheet.

• Alignment will not be used in this campaign. The powers of law and chaos are weak in this era, and good and evil are arbitrary human inventions, more often used to rationalize behavior than as its original impetus. If you have any spell that would normally detect a given alignment, it may instead be used to detect any general class of living creature, subject to the same range, duration, etc. as a spell detecting evil or good or what-have-you.

• All hit dice are re-rolled at each level, the player character keeping the previous total or taking the new one, whichever is better.

• Each PC will receive the following spells, randomly rolled: six first level, four second level, two third level. They may also pick one spell of each level, which should be a spell possessed by no other player character.

• The Cleric class does not exist in this setting, and so no clerical henchmen should be created. To make up for this lack, all clerical spells are converted to magic-user spells. Each PC may select one clerical spell of levels 1-3, and any found on scrolls or in spellbooks may be learned normally. Any clerical spells which already exist in identical form on the Magic User list will be considered the level that they appear at for Magic Users.

• Each PC begins the game with two henchmen of apparent loyalty. They should generally be of the fighter or thief class, although those with exceptional attributes might be members of other classes. Paladins, Druids and Clerics do not exist in the setting. Their attributes are generated by rolling 3d6 in order (For purposes of this game we will be listing attributes in the order: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma.) The player may select one attribute of the six to reroll, taking the better result. Their hit points will begin at the maximum at first level, with each level thereafter being rolled and added to the total.

• The player should select any mundane equipment they like for themselves and their henchmen. Such matters as non-magical weaponry and traveling supplies are beneath their notice, and even such extravagances as a pair of warhorses, good plate armor for their bodyguards, and a well-appointed carriage will not bankrupt them.

• The characters are persons of wealth and substance. They enter the game with a large estate, consisting of a townhouse or country manor, probably several other holdings, and investments or active schemes of extortion enabling them to survive in comfort with no visible means of support. They have many material comforts and luxuries, in addition to full larders and extensive wine cellars, gardens, solariums, etc. etc. You may assume their house has approximately ten thousand square feet of space, and contains a library and laboratory appropriate for the work of a magician.

• Because objects of nearly-forgotten science are within the characters purview as well as magic, they likely have many mundane conveniences such as artificial lighting, an electrified fence, hot and cold running water, and wireless communications devices enabling them to send each other video and audio messages without the need to leave the bathtub. These items, of a non-adventuring character, should be listed in the description of your estate if they are likely to ever matter.

• The estates also support up to a handful of servants if you like, generally being butlers, maids, cooks, dogsbodies, or automatons of a single hit die and no combat ability.

• Each character also begins the game with two potions rolled randomly, and a pair of likewise random wondrous items.

• Each character has [1d4+6] x 1000 GP in ready cash, which may be constituted by whatever denominations of coin and gem they feel appropriate. This should probably be kept in some kind of well-secured chest or small vault in their home. Typical expenses such as staying at an inn or purchasing arrows or lockpicks or what-have-you will not be tracked, although PCs are encouraged to grumble at the expense of treating their fellows to feasting and drinking at their own table.

Preliminary Spell Selection

This section catalogs the spells known by the PCs.

Level One
Index	Spell Name	Players
1	Affect Normal Fires	Feste
2	Alarm	Banshee, Dreamsing
3	Armor	Celeste, Banshee
4	Burning Hands
5	Charm Person
6	Comprehend Languages
7	Dancing Lights
8	Detect Magic	Feste, Banshee, JFR
9	Enlarge	JFR
10	Erase
11	Feather Fall
12	Find Familiar
13	Firewater	Dreamsing
14	Friends
15	Grease
16	Hold Portal	Celeste
17	Identify	Celeste
18	Jump	JFR
19	Light	Celeste, Banshee, JFR
20	Magic Missile	Banshee
21	Melt
22	Mending	Feste
23	Message	Banshee
24	Mount
25	Nystul's Magic Aura	Dreamsing
26	Precipitation	Feste
27	Protection from Evil
28	Push	Celeste, Dreamsing
29	Read Magic
30	Run
31	Shield
32	Shocking Grasp
33	Sleep	Dreamsing, JFR
34	Spider Climb	Feste
35	Taunt
36	Tenser's Floating Disc	Feste
37	Unseen Servant	Celeste
38	Ventriloquism
39	Wizard Mark
40	Write	JFR
Level Two
Index	Spell Name	Players
1	Audible Glamer
2	Bind	JFR
3	Continual Light	JFR
4	Darkness 15' Radius
5	Deeppockets	Banshee
6	Detect Evil	Banshee
7	Detect Invisibility
8	ESP	Celeste
9	Flaming Sphere
10	Fools Gold
11	Forget	JFR
12	Invisibility
13	Irritation	Feste, Celeste, JFR
14	Knock
15	Know Alignment	Feste
16	Leomund's Trap	Dreamsing
17	Levitate
18	Locate Object
19	Magic Mouth
20	Melf's Acid Arrow	Banshee
21	Mirror Image	Celeste
22	Preserve
23	Protection from Cantrips	Dreamsing
24	Pyrotechnics
25	Ray of Enfeeblement
26	Rope Trick
27	Scare
28	Shatter	Dreamsing
29	Stinking Cloud	Celeste, Dreamsing
30	Strength
31	Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter	Feste
32	Vocalize	Feste
33	Web
34	Whip	Banshee
35	Wizard Lock
36	Zephyr
Level Three
Index	Spell Name	Players
1	Blink	Dreamsing, Banshee
2	Clairaudience
3	Clairvoyance	Feste, Celeste
4	Cloudburst	JFR
5	Detect Illusion
6	Dispel Magic
7	Explosive Runes
8	Feign Death
9	Fireball
10	Flame Arrow
11	Fly
12	Gust of Wind
13	Haste
14	Hold Person	Dreamsing, Banshee
15	Infravision
16	Invisibility 10' Radius	Celeste
17	Item
18	Leomund's Tiny Hut
19	Lightning Bolt
20	Material
21	Melf's Minute Meteor	Banshee
22	Monster Summoning I
23	Phantasmal Force
24	Protection from Evil 10' Radius
25	Protection from Normal Missiles
26	Secret Page	Banshee
27	Sepia Snake Sigil
28	Slow	Feste
29	Suggestion	JFR
30	Tongues
31	Water Breathing
32	Wind Wall