Publication:The Rod of Seven Parts

[  The Rod of Seven Parts]

System: Dungeons and Dragons 2e Levels: 10 – 12  Author: Skip Williams  Publisher: TSR  Item Code: 1145  Publication Date: 1996  Format: Paperback  Page Count: 300

Product Blurb Stirrings of an ageless war between Law and Chaos are drawing you into an epic adventure! A Struggle More Savage than Good vs. Evil Imagine a time before the words Good and Evil had meaning, a day when the world was young. Discover an ancient conflict that predates the stars. It was in these days that Law and Chaos forged worlds out of nothingness; their war began while the cosmos was yet unfinished. The Rod of Seven Parts defines epic role-playing. The reappearance of the Rod has awakened the powers of Chaos, and their queen seeks to turn the whole world into a battleground. Bold heroes must undertake the enormous task of seeking out and assembling the pieces of the Rod, but even its power cannot stand alone. Ages ago, primal forces of Law stood fast against Chaos; now their champions must once more confront the Queen of Chaos and her foul spyder-fiends, lest the flame of civilization be extinguished. This text is quoted from promotion material. Text and images are copyrighted by the original publisher.

Plot Summary

At the Dawn of Time the forces of Law warred with the forces of Chaos for control of the Cosmos. The Battle of Pesh was the climax of this campaign where the armies of Chaos were led by the Wolf-Spider Miska, while the forces of Law were championed by the Vaati or Wind Dukes. Desperately outnumbered, the Wind Dukes fashioned the Rod of Seven Parts - a weapon powerful enough to kill Miska in a single strike. Yet the Battle of Pesh was a draw, as neither Law nor Chaos won the day. The Wind Dukes were decimated, but in the final moments their leader struck Miska with the Rod, but rather than being slain the Wolf-Spider was mortally wounded and imprisoned for eternity within the Abyss. The resulting balance created the multiverse as it now exists, with a tense stand-off between order and anarchy. The fate of the multiverse is in the hands of the wielder of the Rod of Seven Parts, for it can still both slay Miska and free him.

Because the Rod is so potent, it cannot be conventionally protected. Therefore, to keep it safe the Wind Dukes designed the separate sections of the Rod to scatter around the globe whenever its full powers were employed by striking Miska. Each piece of the Rod both leads and urges its bearer in the direction of the next sequential section. Once the first section of the Rod has fallen into the hands of the player characters they are committed to a quest which will take them the length and breadth of their homeworld, and eventually into the heart of the Abyss.

The third segment is held by a Cloud Giant Clan who is currently at war with a local family of dragons. The party can side with the giants against the dragons and hope to earn the segment as a reward, or else side with the dragons against the giants and infiltrate the giant's lair under cover of polymorph.

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