Jaran Krimeeah

The Mage of the Vale, the Exalted Mage, the Black One-Valley of the Mage

The Laird of the Valley of the Mage is a mysterious figure to the outside world. Few have spoken with him, and of those, fewer still have lived to tell of it. The tales of alleged eyewitnesses do not even agree about such things as the Mage’s appearance or manner of speaking, so it is obvious that either people are lying or the Mage uses spells to disguise his appearance at least some of the time.

The Laird of the Valley of the Mage was born far from the Valley he has made his own, in the capital of the Great Kingdom. Jaran Krimeeah, as he was known then, was a relative of the Great King, and was given the best magical training the Kingdom could afford.

As he rapidly gained magical skill, and felt his powers increase, he became dissatisfied with his life. He asked himself why his cousin, who could not even cast one first level spell, should be King of the Great Kingdom. Jaran viewed mages as the elite of humanity, with wonderful powers, which should predestine them to rule everywhere.

Accordingly, the young mage gathered his forces and attempted a coup d’etat. Unfortunately for Jaran Krimeeah, his skill with magic far exceeded his skill at palace politics. The commanders he suborned had, it turned out, little real authority, and when they tried ordering the troops they supposedly commanded, the soldiers queried the orders to higher authority, and were told not to obey them. The whole misbegotten enterprise died almost as soon as it began.

The royal family did not execute Jaran Krimeeah. Instead, they exiled Jaran, forcing him to submit to an oath never to reveal his relationship with the royal family, and never to return or involve himself in the Great Kingdom again.

Forced out into a hard world, Jaran Krimeeah (or the Black One, as he then called himself) easily found employment in the Bandit Kingdoms, casting spells for the uncouth rulers of that region. He began to believe that agents of the Great Kingdom pursued him, became obsessed with magical defenses against unseen enemies, and left his position to devote himself exclusively to magical research.

He traveled through the Shield Lands, the lands of the Horned Society, Furyondy, Veluna, Keoland, the Yeomanry, and Sterich, always searching for more spells and magical knowledge. Finally, in the Grand Duchy of Geoff, he found the hidden valley that he now rules. “Here,’ he said to himself, “is what I’ve been looking for. A safe, secure, hidden base, easily defended and not claimed by anybody who cares about it. If I take this place over, I’ll finally be able to pursue my research in peace!”

He quickly ingratiated himself with the valley elves and with the local gnomes. When he finally suggested, as delicately as he could, that perhaps he would be a better overlord than the distant, uncaring Grand Duke of Geoff, they proclaimed him their Laird unanimously.

With the enthusiastic help of the elves and gnomes, the Mage of the Valley fortified the entrance to the valley heavily, both physically and magically. Secure at last, he devoted himself almost completely to his magical research, letting the elves and gnomes run their own affairs. He only handled problems that they could not.

The Mage of the Valley is a tall, thin man with kinky brown hair, pale olive skin, and slate-colored eyes. He is only interested in his magical research and in new spells, and tends to treat non-spellcasters as mentally deficient. He is so convinced of the superiority of spellcasters (particularly mages, of course) that he will not even use a weapon. He scorns daggers, darts, and non-magical staves as unworthy of mages.

His obsession with magic has led him into some very dangerous situations. Whenever he hears of a spellbook with a spell he does not yet know, he will go to almost any length for it, even if it means teleporting into a ruined city to fight a lich.

He is so completely consumed with desire to use magic that he is even preparing to foil death, though not as a lich. He considers any sort of undead status as unworthy of a mage. Instead, he plans to work until he feels his physical body begin to seriously deteriorate, and then become a shade by infusing his body with shadowstuff from the Plane of Shadow. As a shade, he knows that he would never rise in level, but the ability to stay alive for centuries and do more magical research makes that a small price to pay, particularly since he intends to be 24th level by that time.

The Mage owns dozens of spellbooks, and a great load of magical items. Among others, he has rings of feather falling, spell turning, spell storing, and wizardry. He has a staff of the magi, a wand of fire, a wand of frost, a book of infinite spells, a cloak of displacement, a special deck of many things with no good cards at all (“Pick a card-any card!”), a gem of seeing, a mirror of life trapping, and a hat of disguise. These are only the items he is known to have, and there are probably many more he hasn’t revealed.

The Mage of the Valley is obsessed with agents of the Great Kingdom. In fact, he considers any outsiders in his Valley to be potential agents of the Great Kingdom, on a mission to harm him. Hence, his fixation on defenses and his desire to be a shade. He maintains a large network of assassins, mostly valley elves passing as humans, in the countries outside his valley. They carry out various tasks, such as searching for old enemies, but their main task is the endless search for agents of the Great Kingdom. If the Mage were convinced that no such agents existed, he would be devastated.

AC 2 (bracers of defense, AC2 MV 12”; MU 19; hp 55; #AT 1; Dmg by weapon or spell type; Str 8, Int 19, Wis 9, Dex 17, Con 15, Cha 13; THACO 13; AL NE; SA spells; SD spells, high Intelligence;

Spells: 5-lst, 5-2nd, 5-3rd, 5-4th, 5-5th, 3-6th, 3- 7th, 3-8th, 1-9th