How a Real Archmage Fights: Threshold of Evil and D&D’s Most Underrated Wizard

Greetings gamers from all systems, places and timelines.

Gaming allows us to play a part in an exciting story filled with drama, action, and even comedy. However, the life of an adventurer isn’t always about saving the kingdom and sitting around afterward having ales and shawarma with your friends. Sometimes, the heroes are faced with failure, and nothing is a greater example of this than a TPK. You know, the kind that is really the end of the line for the entire group – and not where they all wake up and find out it was a terrible dream and/or are imprisoned by the villain and somehow miraculously escape. 

For my group, one particular disaster took place in the Threshold of Evil, which provided some hard lessons that came at the cost of a party of 17th level characters. The person teaching the school of hard knocks was Azurax Silverhawk, who you are not familiar with and is easily one of the most powerful and well-prepared mages of all time. 

So, allow me to pay my respects to an old rival of mine as I begrudgingly explain why he deserves to be counted among the ranks of the greatest D&D wizards such as Elminster and Mordenkainen. 

Setting the Stage 

Threshold of Evil was printed in Dungeon magazine #10 back in 1988. The adventure is set up for 5-8 players of levels 14-18, and the premise is that the village of Tharakill has been experiencing unnatural storms, crop blights and wicked omens. This caused its villagers to seek the party’s aid as they concluded that it must be the work of the Archmage Azurax, who lives on top of mount Thalask. If the party were to inquire more about this fabled wizard, a local scholar casually tells them a tale about how Azurax once killed a giant with meteors. To which my response was, “Yeah, we’re going to need to be paid up front for this.” 

Break Into an Arch Mage’s Lair, Win Stupid Prizes 

We climbed the mountain, broke into the 80’ tall, run-down tower on top of it and found Azurax right there waiting for us. One thing led to any other, a battle ensued, and it ended with him exploding in a 21d6 +21 damage fireball. So, after walking off our second- and third-degree burns, we determined that wasn’t the real Azurax. That and the horrible realization that this was only the first room of his lair. 

What we had actually just faced was a simulacrum, which is a wizard’s equivalent to a stunt double, and it wouldn’t be the last one of those we came across. 

His Minions Were Downright Terrifying  

The building, just like the creature inside, was just a decoy. After discovering the true entrance to the wizard’s lair, it seemed like real progress was being made. That was until the mage called on SEAL Team 6 to take us down, except in this case, the SEALS were Slaads. You know, those deadly giant frog people from the dimension of Limbo? Specifically four grey ones and an infamous death Slaad. At the end of the encounter, we had taken a hell of a beating, but this is just where the difficulty was about to move from the “hard” to “go F yourself.” 

Not a Conjurer of Cheap Tricks! 

So what do you do when your minions aren’t getting it done? Well, if you’re Azurax Silverhawk, you start using wish spells to take your opponents apart like a clock. The wizard had been spying on the party from the moment they began climbing the mountain, so if one of them had an extremely powerful magical weapon or item, he would just wish it to be drained of all of its power. I dare not repeat the words that came out of my mouth when my priceless staff of the magi turned into a useless hunk of driftwood. 

As we continued exploring the wizard’s lair, Azurax would continue demonstrating why he deserved a doctorate in wish spells. He would wait for us to get into a heated battle and use a wish to heal one of his strongest minions back to full health. Or, even more rotten, he would use a wish for all of the intruders to become wounded, which, in game terms, meant the entire party would be affected by a cause critical wounds spell. Granted, each one of those spells drained his power, but he was definitely hurting us worse than himself. 

The Traps Were Twisted and Extra 

Behind two doors, which were sealed by one of Azurax’s powerful wizard lock spells, is a beautiful and colorful portal. A voice then speaks out to the party and says: “At last, those who have been foretold have arrived! Touch me, and I shall be purged, my colors freed and your desires granted.”

If the party mentions the name Azurax near the portal, they hear, “Azurax! That vile slaad spawn must be stopped! Free me, and I will aid in his destruction!” 

So, the punchline is if any were to touch the portal, they would need to make a save vs death magic or be drained of all of their life force and then be forever dead. If they were lucky enough to make their saving throw, they would walk away only being permanently drained of 2-4 levels of experience. In reality, there were several magic mouth spells in this room with pre-programmed statements, while the portal was disguised and led directly to the negative material plane.  

His Second in Command Was a Total Badass 

Azurax had an extremely formidable accomplice named Lord Fell. This not-so-ordinary gentleman was an 18th-level fighter who was saturated with magical gear and protection spells. This was so much the case that Emeril Lagasse would have actually asked him to kick it down a notch.

Lord Fell’s main weapon, “Steel Storm,” was a +5 bastard sword that had a host of neat powers, such as providing its user with fire resistance when drawn from the scabbard. The party monk almost fought him to a standstill until Lord Fell revealed that his sword also had the power to fully heal all of his wounds once per day. 

Deception in the Final Confrontation 

We found Azurax in a throne room joined by his most powerful allies and doppelgangers. Except, the wizard sitting on the throne proved to be a fake after everyone’s best attacks were wasted. The real Azurax had prepared layers of magical defenses, such as:

• If anyone successfully struck him. they would become cursed with a cumulative -1 to both attack rolls and saving throws.
• If someone were to disrupt one of his spells, the offender would take electrical damage.
• If Azurax was slain, the person who delivered the killing strike lost 2 levels of experience all courtesy of wish spells.
• Oh, and if anyone were to take his personal belongings after his death, they would have their intelligence score reduced to 3 by a powerful curse. 

Death Is for Suckers 

Azurax was indeed behind all of the happenings at Tharakill. However, this was because of magical experiments that were intended to increase his lifespan. Ultimately, he created something known as a portrait of longevity. This unique magical item, inspired by the tale of Dorian Grey, extended his shelf life far beyond normal human limits. However, much like a Horcrux, if destroyed then it’s game over. To protect his portrait, he created a realistic false copy for the party to find that even screamed “NO!” like Darth Vader when destroyed. 

I can’t blame him for not wanting to die, but the problem is the portrait is inherently evil and was slowly taking the wizard for a trip down the dark side. So, at the start of the module, Azurax wasn’t actually evil like the module’s title implies, he was just on the threshold of it. And while his motive was to achieve immortality, it was possible for the party to reason with him by offering other magical means to extend his life. 

Final Thoughts 

When asked how Threshold of Evil didn’t make it into my article of the Top 3 Must-Play Adventures From Dungeon Magazine, my short answer is because everyone died before we could finish it. My group, however, eventually did make new characters, built them back up and succeeded on a second attempt much, much later. 

I tip my wizard’s hat to the author Scott Bennie who created such a well-written and thought-provoking masterpiece. Although Azurax only made a single appearance, his tactics, traps and methods were far ahead of their time. If you never ran through this module, I highly recommend grabbing the PDF and checking it out, as trying to fit everything in under 1500 words hardly does it justice.