Archive:Greenwood's Grotto/2023-03/Ruins of Moontassel

{{SC The wild magic zone is a relic of a huge spell-battle that befell in Moontassel, and that spell-battle (in which two mages were transformed into beasts forever and nine more died horribly) marked the end of The Glowing Hand, the school of wizardry established there, when warring groups of mages fought each other to mutual destruction. One side, the tutors and apprentices of the school, had passed under the mental influence of the lich, Aumun Veltraunt, who acted as librarian and castellan (caretaker) of the school, and as “a hobby” created worker automatons (think necroton-like giant metal spiders or mechanical crabs). Veltraunt was really building his own army of guardians and beasts of burden, and he was influencing the thirty-some-strong school populace to be his own strike force of wizards that he was soon going to direct against such targets as Cormyr and select Sembian cities, to covertly conquer through strategic assassinations and spell-mind-control to “take over at the top.” The force that attacked the school were Sembians who’d foiled one of Veltraunt’s planned assassinations: the killing of Mrorel Tranzhon, a Sembian investigator who’d been tasked with investigating The Glowing Hand to make sure it wasn’t a front for foes of Sembia. These Sembian wizards were very concerned with what the found in the minds of the assassons Veltraunt had sent, and were determined to hit the school hard before it had time to grow stronger. They misjudged the strength Veltraunt had already instilled. For his part, the lich wanted to see what his created force could do on its own (how strong it truly was, without him directing it and hurling spells as reinforcements). So when the attack came, he threw up his wards (his auntomatons were foci for them, among other secrets) and just sat and watched, from his underground lair (the cellars of the school). Where he remains today, guarded by his automatons and continuing his crafting of magic items and new, more powerful automatons. His school was destroyed above his head in the battle, but the wild magic zone that still rages there provides a good shield against the wider world—and Veltraunt has perfected “snatch-teleport” spells that can grab arriving wizards or individuals loaded down with magic items, and whisk them into a “run” of trap-rooms and prison chambers in his lair, yet leave his wards up to prevent other intruders from following them. Veltraunt is powerful enough to have prevented the Thultanthans from noticing him, behind the wild magic zone’s swirling chaos. He can also separate his body into head, torso with legs, and his arms, and each of them can fly about and act on its own (emitting spells he casts, and his voice, and serving as hosts for him to see and hear out of). }}
 * query     = Can you tell us some info about the Ruins of Moontassel? It only mentions a wild magic zone, an old school of magic, a lich and automatons...One thing already picks my interest on knowing more about it... all of three I couldn't help myself to ask for more ^^
 * questioner = Lucio#3569
 * answer    = It certainly seems as if something of interest happened there, doesn’t it? ;}