Taxes

The Swords & Wizardry Campaign I run on Roll20 is definitely Old School in the amount of treasure. The Swords & Wizardry rules use the 1 gold coin = 1 experience point level advancement method so a large amount of gold is in the campaign.  I also ran a lot of old TSR modules early in the campaign so there are a lot of magic items in the possession of the players. The upkeep on a flying ship and a Manor House cuts into some of the gold but I really have not brought in taxes as a method. They have rescued their hometown from peril more than once so they can come and go as they please without having their bags searched. However, now that I have them in a foreign land I made some notes on what the hawking tax might be on their entering the city. Then left it up to the players to find a way around it.

The Vengence of the Efreet

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Aldus (human cavalier), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Domago (human cleric, NPC).

The adventurers have just left the Tower of Mikda-Err in the Great Desert near the City of Veil. Brovin rushes ahead after seeing the Dragon Zasien for the first time.

The adventurers have to jog to catch up to Brovin. Elken grows weary of this and tells Lakima he will speak with him later. Then Elken teleports away. After a few hours, the group arrives at the gates of the City of Veil. Lakima recalls that it is very likely all of their possession will be impounded while the town guard works out the duty on their loot. He also recalls that the town guards are cautious towards magic users and are very corrupt.

“We are going to have to pay a tax to enter,” Lakima says. Alrix says that he thinks it is right to pay their fair share but he does not want his possessions impounded.

A group of guards approaches the heroes and the leader of the guards looks at the bulging sacks of loot they are carrying. The guard says he will have to examine their goods. Lakima takes out a sack of coins.

“Certainly, 440 copper in this bag for the city treasury,” he says, then takes out another sack of coins, “and 300 silver as a gift to the guards of the city who keep us safe.”

The guard takes the two sacks of coins and looks over the large sacks the rest of the company is carrying. Then he demands 200 gold coins. Lakima hands over the gold coins and they are allowed to enter.

“That wasn’t too bad,” Alrix says.

At Elken’s tower, they are reunited with Alayna, Ian, and August.

“Darling, I ordered the most beautiful bedsheets this morning at a shop, I was not expecting you back for a few days,” Alayna says to Lakima.

Lakima tells Alayna that the foray went well and was fairly easy. He tells Alayna that they want to leave right away but Alayna says that it will be at least 2 days before she can collect the bed sheets.

“I don’t think we want to wait around,” Lakima says.

Alayna tells Lakima she will talk to the cloth merchant tomorrow about speeding up the process. They do not see Elken but assume he must have teleported to the top of the tower. As the guest rooms in the tower are very sparse, Alayna suggests they move to a Guest House.

The company spends the night at a comfortable Guest House. The next day Alayna arranges to pick up the sheets the next morning. Lakima spends time studying spells. Alrix tries to open the iron coffer they found in Mikda-Err’s coffin. They are unable to open it so Lakima decides to release the thief Warin from the Book of Monsters. The terrified thief who tried to burgle the Manor back in Edgerton appears in the room. Lakima tells Warrin that he will be released as soon as he does one task. He hands the cursed helm of free action to Warin and tells him to put it on. Then he commands Warin to cast a knock spell on the spell book he found in Hellfort in the abyss. The spell book refuses to open. Then he tells Warin to open the coffer. The coffer is opened and is found to be full of diamonds of various sizes. True to his word, Lakima tells Warin he is free to leave. The confused thief runs out into the Market of the City of Veil.

That evening they hear explosions, see a tower on fire, and a glow on the horizon. There is some panic in the streets and some town guards trying to keep people calm. Lakima assumes it is a wizard duel. The owner also thinks it was a wizard duel when they ask at breakfast. But once getting out in the streets they hear talk of a war of gods outside the city walls.

Lakima suggests that they go and speak to Elken. Elken ushers them into his tower and up to the roof to look through his looking glass. They see a wall of fire, 100 feet high circling the city. Just outside the wall of fire, they see a 200-foot-tall creature that looks like an enormous efreet.

“A monstrous Efreet!” Elken says as he looks through the glass.

“No, Efreet are not that large,” Alrix assures him.

“Some of the more powerful ones can increase their size,” Elken says.

Lakima says it is none of his concern and they should be leaving. As a resident of the city, Elken tries to dissuade him. Lakima finally agrees if Elken tells them the location of a powerful magic weapon.

“I know a place where there is more than one powerful weapon,” Elken agrees.

“And I want a spell from the Black Book of Mikda-Err!” Lakima ads.

Elken refuses at first but eventually agrees to the terms.

“Well, I guess we should go see what it wants,” Lakima says.

The group heads to the town wall to confront the efreet. Lakima tries shouting at the efreet but the roar of the wall of flames drowns him out. Alrix has to use his Control Winds ability to get the attention of the Efreet.

The efreet at first threatens to kill Lakima as it hates all of the magic-users of Veil. But Lakima manages to get some information from it. It is the efreet pasha Azarok and until recently it was imprisoned in a vault by a magic-user named Valandor.

“What do you want, I think Valandor is long dead,” Lakima asks. The efreet demands the Flameheart Ruby and Valandor or proof of his death. He gives them 2 days to do this before he will burn the city to the ground. The group leaves the city wall and heads down to the ground level. They are accosted by guards who saw them speaking to the efreet and who have concluded that the heroes are in league with the giant efreet. The adventurers manage to explain the situation to the guards. The guards ask them to speak to the guard commander.

Commander Silas asks them to save the city. He suggests they speak to the archivists at the library as they hold all of the historical documents. The group heads to the library and finds the archivists in a flurry of activity. The head archivist is directing his apprentices to research the efreet. Eventually, the guard who accompanied them forces the archivist to speak with the group. They learn that Valandor and some other magic-users imprisoned the efreet about 66 years ago to siphon off its power. Valandor has not been seen in 50 years. They do get the directions to Valandor’s tower but when they investigate, they find it was destroyed earlier in the day by the Efreet.

The group goes to speak with Elken and explain what they learned. They decide they should travel to the Moaning Flats where Valandor was said to keep the efreet trapped in a vault. Elken teleports four of them there (Lakima, Eathwund, Aldus, Domago). As that is all he can teleport Alrix tells them he will transform and fly to the Vault and catch up to them.

The four members of the group who were teleported arrive in the Moaning flats but they do not see any clue of where the Vault might be. They use the arrow of direction to point the direction to the Vault. On the way, they have to make their way around dangerous quicksand. The vault is a simple rectangular doorway on the side of a low cliff. It looks like a mine entrance. Inside they see stairs headed down.

Since the trap finder, Brovin is not with the group, Domago casts Find Traps. He immediately discovers two traps on the stairs that they can avoid. At the bottom, they see a flickering light. As they get to the bottom, they enter a large chamber lit by torches. In the center of the chamber, resting on blankets and pillows is a 20-foot-long Guardian Naga. An enormous snake with the head of a reptilian woman.

“Welcome travelers, there is nothing for you here, I suggest you leave now,” the Naga says.

Lakima tries reasoning with the Naga who says her name is Nasinthe. She is cordial but firm in denying their request to search the vault. Lakima casts charm monster on the Naga and she relents. They pass the naga and enter a hallway. Here a dozen skeletons rise up out of holes beneath the flagstones in the floor and attack the group. Aldus blows the Silver Horn of Valhalla and summons six berserkers who keep the skeletons at bay while Eathwund and Aldus destroy them. One skeleton manages to break through the berserkers and attacks Lakima who is forced to defend himself with his staff. Soon all of the skeletons have been destroyed.

The group finds they are confronted with a number of doors. They open one and find a chamber with a whirlwind of air in it. They are almost flung off their feet. The whirlwind then forms into an air elemental which attacks them. The elemental is powerful and it lands several strikes on Aldus before it is destroyed by Eathwund, Aldus, and magic missiles cast by Lakima. Lakim uses the arrow of direction and asks it to point to the Flameheart Ruby. It points through a wall but they do not find any passages leading that direction or any secret doors. They do find a passage protected by a reverse gravity enchantment. Lakima discovers how the trap works by animating some of the skeletons and sending one into the hallway. Lakima tries dispelling the enchantment but he fails. Domago then tries and succeeds in temporarily blocking the enchantment. In the room at the end of the hallway, they find a stone blocking the corridor. Lakima casts Strength on Aldus and Aldus is then able to lift the block. In the chamber, they find a red ruby lying on a plinth with a protection circle inscribed on the floor around it. Lakima sends a skeleton to get the ruby but when it crosses the circle it spins about and walks away from the ruby. He tries this for a few minutes without success. Lakima uses the staff of power and telekinesis to lift the ruby out of the circle.

With the ruby in his hand, Lakima does not feel any different. So he again asks the arrow of direction for the location of the flameheart ruby and it points south away from the ruby in his hand.

The group explores more chambers. They open a door and spot an earth elemental. Aldus quickly closes the door but the elemental smashes through the wall and purses them. They end up having to fight the powerful elemental and destroy it. They also open a door and see a fire elemental but they are able to close the door in time. Finally, they find a magic users’ workshop. On a table, Lakima collects some notes. Several of the notes are threatening messages from a magic user named Erifsus. In the messages, Erifsus claims to have provided the Flameheart Ruby and accuses Valandor of not sharing the efreet’s knowledge.

In the chamber, they find a black mirror. Lakima sends a skeleton through the mirror. It vanishes and then comes back a few moments later. Armed with this knowledge Lakima, Eathwund, and Aldus step through the mirror and arrive in a small chamber. In the room is a bed, a dresser, a rug, and a mirror. In the bed is a long-dead magic-user. Lakima finds a red ruby clutched in the corpse's hand. On the floor, they see an empty bottle of wine.

“It’s Valandor,” Lakima says, “I think he was poisoned by a rival!”

Lakima asks Domago to cast the speak with dead spell. A spirit rises and answers three questions. He confirms that it was Valandor, that the ruby is Flameheart, and that the ruby will weaken the Efreet.

A search of the room reveals a few treasures and Aldus stumbles over a spell book with an invisibility enchantment on it.

“We need proof,” Lakima says and points at Elken.

They decide to stuff the entire magic user's corpse into the bag of holding. With the ruby found the group returns through the mirror and collects Domago as they head for the exit. Lakima tries to convince the Guardian Naga to come with them but Nasinthe politely refuses. Once they make their way outside, they see Alrix just walking up to the entrance.

“It is more than 20 miles to the city and we only have a day before the efreet burns it down,” Lakima says. Lakima decides to teleport alone to the city. Alrix will carry Eathwund through the air to the city. Lakima then summons the horse in a bottle and tells Aldus to ride to the city.

“You are just going to have to walk,” Lakima says to Domago.

Lakima teleports to Elken’s tower and explains to Elken what they have learned. Several hours later, Alrix arrives with Eathwund. They wait a few hours but decide to head to the wall to confront the efreet. On their way there they meet Aldus just arriving on the magical steed.

At the wall, Lakima has to cast wall of ice, which quickly melts, to get Azarok’s attention. Lakima tells Azarok that he has the Flameheart Ruby. He shows it to the Efreet and the Efreet shrinks down to be only 20-feet-tall. It demands that the ruby be destroyed and Lakima agrees and destroys it. They also show the efreet the corpse of Valandor. The efreet grows again to 200 feet tall snatches the corpse up and burns it to ash.

“This magic user’ kept me confined in a vault for 60 years, I now have my revenge,” the efreet says in a booming voice, “I will grant you one wish but you must use it now for I grow weary of this plane.”

“What is the password for this book,” Lakima immediately demands, holding up the demonic spell book of Zalgronath. The efreet tells Lakima and then leaves in a burst of flame. The Wall of flame around the city dissipates and disappears.

As the party descends from the wall, they hear the guards' cheering, and the trumpets blowing. As they make their way through the city people cheer and shower them with gifts and offers. The guard commander declares them heroes of the city.

Back at Elken’s tower, the magic user reluctantly hands Lakima a scroll containing a spell from the Black book of Mikda-Err.

“There are at least two magic swords of great renown in the Tomb of Malkin the Mighty just outside the city. Makin’s sword and the sword of the hundred killer whom Malkin slew," he tells Aldus.