“Wizards of a high enough level tend to be solitary creatures, who like to try and conduct their research in peace somewhere isolated. Even in the Universities, they lurk in their towers unless necessary/desirable to address a problem or cooperate on a shared project. They are detached from the world. A certain resemblance to the powerful, self-sufficient, self-satisfied creatures, of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth would not be amiss.” https://worldbuildingandwoolgathering.blogspot.com/2016/10/your-wizard-is-journeyman.html

Tizun Thane is an archmage who is known to be the top expert on Gate magic, and cosmology, on Terramar.

He is on good terms with the high priests of Goldar, Aoskar, and Celestian.

He seeks apprentices and adventurers, to help him with his research, defend Terramar against extradimensional threats, and explore ruins in order to find knowledge, magic items, and other power.

He lives in an unknown location apparently on Terramar, not in a separate dimension. “The Halls of Tizun Thane” are about 100m (300 feet) square, about 20 or 30 feet high, plus a low dome about 60 feet across, and a tower over 100 feet high.

The Halls of Tizun Thane are normal mana, but high mana for Gate spells.
Some of the Halls are high mana, and very high mana for Gate spells.

The Hall of Mirrors is a large room completely paneled with mirrors, with more mirrors set up in various spots in the middle of the floor — actually it’s hard to tell the exact size (but it seems to be about 100 feet across) and shape (because the number of walls/corners seems to change as you move).

Tizun Thane uses the mirrors as foci for his scrying and gate spells, and the room is Very High Mana for such spells.

The alchemical laboratory and the wizardly workshop are High Mana for enchantment spells, and the wizardly workshop is also High Mana for meta spells.

His retainers, followers, servants, guards, hirelings, henchmen, apprentices, etc., are thought to include:

Guards:
20 cavalry (10 humans, 10 pig-humanoids) (mounted on slizzards)
30 infantry (15 humans, 15 pig-humanoids) (with cuirasses, helmets, shields, swords, pikes, and crossbows or arquebuses)
12 gargoyles led by a nabassu demon.
1 “man-ape” bodyguard
1 iron golem

50 servants (not specialists), mostly human but many kobolds.

Specialists:
Alchemist + 2 apprentices
Apothecary (i.e. healer, not a cleric, primarily uses potions) + 2 apprentices
Cleric + 2 acolytes
Dwarf blacksmith
Dwarf craftsman

Practicals (i.e. adventurers)
Tiefling
Aasimar
Earthman from
Githyanki
Soulless Elf

Pet: carbuncle
Familiar: Imp or Quasit

Tizun Thane’s armory contains a large amount of weapons and armor, much of which is “masterwork” (i.e. Fine or Very Fine) quality.

His wizard’s workroom has all supplies and equipment necessary for casting any Gate or Teleportation spell; for any Conjuration spell equivalent to fifth level (in D&D) or lower; or for any other spell equivalent to third level (in D&D) or lower.

His treasure room probably has any magical items which can be manufactured using only those spells.

THE VAULTS OF TIZUN THANE

THE LIBRARY OF TIZUN THANE \

Tizun Thane’s library includes all the information in the Planescape Campaign Setting from AD&D 2E; the Manual of the Planes for D&D 2E, 3E and 4E; and The Great Beyond and Planar Adventures for Pathfinder. Of course, the OOC information is translated into in-story terms; for example, armor class (from natural armor, not dexterity) is described as “a hide as tough as leather” or “armored plate”, and hit dice (not from class levels) are described as “as tough as an ogre” or “tough as a horse” or whatever.

TIZUN THANE’S DEFENSES:

The entire fortress is built of very thick stone. (The outer walls are at least 10 feet thick.) Many parts are reinforced with iron.

-Stone Walls are backed up with permanent Walls of Force to prevent infiltration from the Ethereal Plane.

The entire fortress is covered by a guards and wards spell which is normally deactivated but can be activated instantly for each particular area.

The fortress also is covered by a variant of the 9th-level Sor/Wiz spell Halaster’s teleport cage [abjur] (City of Splendors: Waterdeep p. 155) which normally permanently prevents teleportation into an area and sends the would-be teleporter somewhere random on the plane, while allowing teleportation within the area but sending the would-be teleporter somewhere random within the spell’s area. This can be bypassed by saying a password before teleporting.

-Alarm and Magic Mouth spells at every entrance and also regularly spaced around the interior of the fortress. The appropriate spell(s) will be triggered whenever an intruder passes through an entrance or a corridor, or breaches a wall. The magic mouth will shout “Enemies in the seventh hall!” or whatever its location is.

-Walls of Dispel Magic (Spellcaster’s Compendium p. 233) or dispelling screens (Spellcaster’s Compendium p. 67) at all outermost entrances, which can be deactivated for a few seconds by saying a password.

-All interior walls are painted with lead (prevents X-Ray Vision and other scrying) except special points where characters can “peek” in and out as if via an X-Ray peephole.

-Interior areas under the effect of the Hallow spell, courtesy of high priests of Goldar, Aoskar, and Celestian who take turns renewing them every year.

-Courtyards and roofs protected by concertina wire anchored in the air above the courtyard, the wire rendered permanently invisible to shred incoming fliers.

-A series of rooms (forbidden to servants!) that are are uber-trapped (every square foot of wall, floor and ceiling contains Glyphs of Warding and Fire Traps). The variant of Halaster’s teleport cage on the fortress causes anyone who teleports into, out of, or within the fortress to end up in one of those rooms.

Several stairs with “Lets do that again” traps: As you go up the stairs you feel a change in the air. This room has a barrel in the middle and a stair case leading up one more floor. As you go up the stairs you feel a change in the air. You can see the back end of your party, and they are probably panicked since you just disappeared in front of their eyes. You are in a repeating space. Now, the nice mage has a series of major images programmed in to the room, so each “floor” looks different. meanwhile the party is never really progressing up the tower.

-All valuables in the fortress are marked with Tizun Thane’s personal rune to make them easier to scry if they are ultimately lost.

In D&D terms, Tizun Thane is a level 28 wizard (or wizard/archmage) who specializes in Conjuration magic.

Tizun Thane explains to all of you that

(1) travel to different planes is hazardous, both the journey itself and also often the destination;

(2) it is also necessary to deal with the planes, or at least creatures therefrom, because they pose a danger to the multiverse;

(3) one of these dangers is the Blood War, the eternal conflict between demons (who are Chaotic Evil) and devils (who are Lawful Evil);

(4) another one of these dangers is the existence of the Far Realm and its inhabitants, who are inherently inimical to us;

(5) a third danger is races like the “planar freebooters” and Khen-Zai;

(6) a fourth danger is Reich-5.