A few sessions ago, in our bi-weekly Pathfinder campaign, the group happened to discover an artifact by the name of the Anathema Archive. A powerful source of magic, this ancient scroll contains the total Arcane knowledge of the setting. By concentrating and opening the scroll, any Arcane spell can be revealed and cast by the user, but no more than once per 24 hours. However, that ultimate knowledge brings along a risk of brain melting damage, as soon as it is opened, whether the spell is used or not. Since then, the group’s necromancer has held onto the device, waiting for the “right time” to use it.
During the last session, the group encountered and were surprised by an ancient white dragon, while exploring the far north of Varisia. Without preparations, and scattered, the group rapidly lost ground to the creature, who’s arsenal of spells and abilities made the battle go from bad to worse. At the last moment however, the sorcerer stepped in, opened the Archive, and quickly read out the spell. Although his skill and concentration was not high enough to select the spell he wanted (Power Word: Kill), the scroll randomly selected one of the hundreds of spells, and landed upon the 9th level Wish spell. Pondering the dangers of messing with time only briefly, the sorcerer called out “I wish the statues had never made the sound which had alerted the dragon”. Instantly, the dragon combat was gone, and the group had the keys (though still damaged and exhausted from the fight that had not happened).
Prepared now with their glimpse of the future, the group approached the challenge far better prepared, and cautiously rested to recover. Unfortunately, the keys that they had retried faded with the morning’s light, a challenge which they overcame with several Silence spells (now that they were aware of the sound alarm). Climbing the mountain to the next stage, aware of the presence of the dragon, they used Arcane Eye to scout out the interior, and found the still slumbering lizard among his horde of treasure. From there, a bit of short preparation with spells, and a pair of Dimension Door spells later, and the group ambushed the dragon.
In the first encounter, the dragon had all but defeated the group in only a couple of rounds, and would have finished them off likely by round 7 or 8. In the second encounter, after maximizing their abilities and tactics, they defeated the same ancient beast in only one single round, without taking a single point of damage, and without the dragon even being able to react to the surprise attack. The group was rather impressed with themselves, as I sadly removed the creature from play.
The Anathema Archive, now that its power has truly tempted the group, continues to bide its time to absorb the essence of its users.
