Wizard's War: How Sorcerous Parties clash?

[Nyarlathotep]

Alright, we all know how kingdoms fall through force of arms.

We all know that the Hyborian age is a time of mercenary groups, bandits, rogues, and armies clashing.

And we can kinda approximate what happens when to Scholars/Sorcerors decide to throw down the gauntlet.

but what happens when whole sorcerous societies enter outright conflict with one another?

Let's say for the sake of argument: the Black Ring and the Scarlet Circle have decided a push comes to shove situation that requires an amount of force be directed against the other.

Or, if you want to make it more personal, a scenario where The Master of the Black Circle, Yimsha, has accumulated enough power over the surrounding kingdoms he continues to expand and now seeks to prove himself the mightiest of sorcerors - by challenging the one man who currently has that dubious distinction - Thoth-Amon.


In such a situation, when sorcerors literally go to war:

What type of collateral damage occurs? Is it so cloak and dagger that no one even notices it, or is it rather blunt and outright that it can make the population of a small city flee?

 

[argo]

I would first direct you to "People of the Black Circle" and "Scarlet Citadel" as being the closest things to full-scale wizard's war as written by Howard.

Now, IMO a wizard's war would almost always start with assassination attempts; either by hired agents, casting curses and hexes, dispatching demonic servants or by attempting to send a lethal doom on the target wizard such as what happend in "God in the Bowl". Stage two would probably involve a proxy war, where the opposing factions manipulate their "allies", weither by fair means or foul, to attack the opposition's base of power thus underminng the true enemy's strength. Again, consider Conan's alliance with Pelias in "Scarlet Citadel" and with the priest-whats-his-name in "Hour of the Dragon". Stage three would involve some sort of direct confrontation but only when the attacker felt he had manuvered the victim wizard into a position of weaknes. Any point along the line here should be ripe with adventure hooks for the PC's!

Inteligence and counter-intelignece will be key here. Most wizards will probably look to defense before offense and thus finding a way to assault them in the first place will be difficult. A wizard might construct a stronghold in a remote location (Black Circle) or fill his home with cunning traps/poisions/guardians (Rogues in the House) or seek to dominate the local political scene and use human guards for defense (Tower of the Elephant, Scarlet Citadel). They would be wary of spies trying to learn their secrets, poison their supplies, collect bodily scraps for magical links, etc.

The point is that sorcorers are a cowardly bunch and will perfer to use others to do their fighting for them! :wink: Real men fear wizard's war not only because the sorcorers may unleash nasty horrors into the fight but because they are in danger of having their own lives and concerns co-opted into the fight as mere pawns. Damn all wizards and their mummery! 8)

Hope that helps.

 

[bjorntfh]

Never forget the other sorcerer rule for dealing with a losing battle: "If I can't have it, no one will!" Remember: nothing says nasty like tossing off enough mighty spells to get the result "rent earth" and level the area around you.