Karameikos - Vaults of Pandius

Return to the Ice Wallsame chance of being affected by intelligenceand memory loss as described above forpowerful non-humanoid creatures.TALFRISThree hundred years ago the Traladaranmagic-user Talfris found the Wall while hewas flying through the area. He was intriguedby the palpable magical aura which emanatedfrom the Wall and, having an obsessiontowards cold-related magics, he was alsoattracted to the Wall itself. Talfris noticed thispull, which he correctly surmised as anunnatural attraction coming from somethingrelated to the Wall. Talfris was a magic-user ofsome power and as a result had gained ahealthy cautious attitude towards powerfulunknown objects. So, over the followingmonths he travelled to the area regularly forhours, and then a day, and then a couple ofdays, conducting research and experiments.Talfris realised that an item of great powerwas associated with the Wall, but with time hegrew increasingly annoyed by his lack ofprogress in discovering how it came about.He had also noticed the unusual propensityof particularly dim-witted young frost giantsand white dragons to congregate in thevicinity of the Wall, as well as otherwiseregular creatures with peculiar abilities.Correctly surmising that this was somehowrelated to the Wall itself, Talfris tested histheories by introducing and penning innormal creatures in the vicinity of the Wall. Bythis means, Talfris deduced thepolymorphing effects of the Wall, and soobtained magical items for protection.Properly equipped, he decided to build atower and relocate himself to the area so thathe could continue his research andexperimentation.Talfris built a tower out of a spike of icewhich he conjured about a mile away fromthe Wall; he infused the ice with protectivespells and wards, particularly to keep himsafe from the polymorphing and stupefyingeffects of the Wall. From his new base heworked with a particular obsession,continuing his research into cold-relatedmagics and learning what he could about theWall, and ultimately he gleaned someknowledge about the device containedinside. Through these studies Talfris learneda little about immortality and ultimatelystarted his own journey.Unfortunately for Talfris, while on thisjourney he encountered a powerful firemage, Barimoor, who lived under the desertof Ylaruam to the northeast. He becameunnaturally paranoid of Barimoor and sawhim as a direct threat which needed to bedealt with. Despite his researches on the IceBox, Talfris never appreciated that hisobsession and paranoia were being causedby the Ice Box itself. On the day on whichTalfris directly confronted Barimoor he alsonever appreciated that he was under theeffect of the magic error, forgetfulness andweak magic effects from the Ice Box. As aresult, Barimoor was a little bit morepowerful than Talfris expected. In theensuing battle Barimoor drew Talfris awayfrom his mountainous home and away fromthe Wall; Barimoor had also noticed themagical aura coming from the Wall,although he was wholly uninterested in it -he just wanted to draw Talfris away from apossible source of personal power.Barimoor lured Talfris to Thirst Hollow nearthe ruins of Iunyt and there slew hischallenger.162THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1