The Adventurers of my Zanzian campaign started as a party of five. Two half orc fighters, a human magic user, a human cleric and an elven thief began the quest to defeat the greatest threat to the kingdom….Malcon the Firebringer. Malcon has been a plague upon the land for more than one hundred years. He was once the Grand Seer of Zanzia. He was a loyal adviser to the king. And then he betrayed the king and tried to seize the throne for himself. This led Zanzia into a bloody civil war in which undead and unholy armies were unleashed upon the land.
But Malcon was defeated. His nemesis was his best friend. The great Paladin Antoviniuos led the Zanzian army and crushed Malcon’s siege of the then capital city of Zanzia….The City of Onm. But not before Malcon crushed the city and killed the king and queen. Only by the grace of of the gods did an heir survive this siege. Malcon’s army was defeated and he was imprisoned in a volcano in the Dragonteeth mountain range only known as the mountain of fire.
But Malcon has returned. During the hundred years that he was imprisoned he became a powerful Lich. Gnomish explorers near the volcano inadvertently broke the magical seals which kept Malcon imprisoned. Once released he again resumed his campaign of terror. But again he was defeated. This time by a group of adventurers. About ten years ago a powerful group also led by a great paladin defeated Malcon once more. But this group only thought that they had destroyed the Arch Lich. While they destroyed his physical form they failed to destroy his phylactery. He laid low for a while to rebuild his forces. And then he again rose up to threaten the land.
This new group of adventurers has yet again set upon the quest to challenge this fiend and put an end to his terror. These explorers visited the Oracle of Gula to get answers for the king as to who was responsible for the many problems that began plaguing Zanzia. They then stormed the Temple at Domi and defeated an important ally of Malcon. Shortly afterwards they destroyed another important ally of the Lich. An ancient vampire named Aandoran was building another undead army for Malcon with the aid of an ancient evil artifact….a pipe organ that creates undead. And then they traveled to the Mountain of Fire to challenge Malcon the Firebringer himself.
Again the Lich was defeated. And again his life force survived as his phylactery was not destroyed. And so it exists today. Malcon again is biding his time. He waits. He watches. And he rebuilds. And again he will rise up and terrorize the kindgom.
Fortunately for us…..Malcon has agreed to write a column here on my blog while he plots his revenge in order to help dungeon masters with their endless quest to kill, maim and destroy those nasty delvers in their own campaigns.
