Rufus Ryze

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About

Rufus Ryze was a necromancer who was banished to an abandoned chapel on the outskirts of Traversal City following his terrorist attack on the surrounding towns. He was stopped by a paladin wielding a maul by the name of Alden Lumis, used for its strength against Ryze's hoards of undead minions. Books in the town's library tell tales of this paladin cleansing the whole area of all undead, but this fact was disputed by Rufus himself following conversations with Iadoros, A. Buckrai, and Dirsh in his final fight, stating that he had reason to believe that there he still had minions scattered across the entire continent of Lorendria.

Final Fight

The necromancer met his demise following a battle with Iadoros, A. Buckrai, and Dirsh, who were looking to turn his powerful staff over for a profit after finding out about the mission from a mission board.

The trio entered the dungeon after discovering the secret entrance hidden under a loose tile in the chapel above, leading down to a booby trapped room scattered with undead. Cocky as ever, Iadoros charged forward into the room, activating a ballista trap which pierced his torso, seriously injuring him and leaving him almost incapable of fighting. This didn't stop him though as he discovered the control panel for the traps and used them to help A. Buckrai and Dirsh clean the room out of the undead.

Following this gruelling fight, the party decided to rest in this seemingly dead end dungeon with no further doors, but when they awoke the entry staircase had inverted on itself, revealing a great hall filled with treasures, undead, and most notably, a rotting corpse of a man wielding an ornately decorated staff, adorned with a large black (yet somehow glowing white) gemstone, this man was Rufus Ryze. Another fight was initiated almost immediately as the room filled with the sounds of battle, Buckrai, Dirsh, and their accompanying minion Kobolds fought off the undead whilst Iadoros targeted the man at the centre of it all. Using all of his might, Iadoros struck the necromancer with his maul (he read the book in the nearby town and learnt from the legendary paladin), weakening him significantly and causing him to try and flee the building.

The party did not give up here though, determined to retrieve the staff at any cost. Battling against a strong wind spell cast by Ryze, Iadoros caught the necromancer just as he was beginning to flip the magic infused staircase back to its upright position, grappling him to the floor in the last moments of the flip. Rufus, unwilling to give up his staff fought the Tiefling Paladin to the death, ending with Rufus Ryze's demise and Iadoros bringing the staff into his possession.

Lair

Rufus Ryze spent most of his "life" inside of an abandoned chapel on the outskirts of Traversal City, it was here where he grew his power and where he was banished to following his campaign to take over the district. As can be seen from the maps below, the lair/dungeon is made up of three major layers, each getting closer to where Ryze resides.

Rufus Ryze's Lair Floor 0.png
Rufus Ryze's Lair Floor -1.png
Rufus Ryze's Lair Floor -2.png

The ground floor of the chapel is unassuming to the naked eye, leaving Ryze himself undetected by most for many hundreds of years. The room is set out like a standard chapel, with pews lined up along the sides of the room facing a stage at the front with a lectern, other than this the room appears empty of anything valuable. But to the keen eyes of some, there are a few tiles on the stage behind the lecturn which can be lifted to reveal a staircase that leads to the next layer down. This is only accessible however if the staircase is flipped to allow this access (appearing to just be a normal stone under-flooring if not), which can only be achieved using Rufus Ryze's Gemstone, by Ryze himself as the creator of the spell, or using the control panel in the following room.

Floor -1 is guarded by undead and a plethora of traps, summoned by Ryze initially using the bodies from the surrounding graveyard, but once he obtained the gemstone he was able to pull them from the Shadowfell realm directly. The traps in this room are foolishly controlled by a panel inside the room, which allows intruders to use the panel to their advantage to defeat the undead. After this is done, the same trap panel can be used to flip the staircase and reveal the route down to the next and final floor.