The Crypt of Dalnir and the Kly

A vain man’s tomb

Dalnir had "no aspirations for immortality" but was "extremely vain and untrusting." His tomb held "all of the nobleman’s wealth and vast library of arcane knowledge." Source [1] Source [2]

When it was finished, "Dalnir ordered all servants inside and personally saw to their deaths – all but one, his most trusted servant who was to be encased within the tomb for the rest of his short life." "A curse was set upon the true crypt that would hold Dalnir’s body and then the tomb was sealed. Shortly thereafter, Dalnir himself was laid to final rest." Source [2]

The Haggle Baron

The 2002 Game Master’s Guide calls him "a Haggle Baron of the City of Cabilis", and names the relic buried with him: "the dreaded staff of persuasion that was laid to rest with Dalnir an age ago." Source [4]

Lost and found

The atlas says the tomb’s location "had been lost over time", until Iksar criminals hiding from patrols stumbled on it. "Ignorant of the legend of Dalnir, the criminals went in to plunder the tomb. They never were found again." Source [2]

The atlas’s Warslik’s Woods chapter puts it in the far north of the forest, where "a cliff overlooks an immense lake perpetually concealed in a gray veil of mist." Caverns hidden by foliage line the cliff, and "It is rumored that among these caves resides the crypt of the famed nobleman, Dalnir." Source [3]

Kly takes the crypt

"A powerful Sarnak wizard by the name of Kly discovered the lost tomb. It was Kly who was able to dispel Dalnir’s ancient curse and locate the true resting place of Dalnir." "Kly would rob his corpse of the Staff of Persuasion, an ancient relic of the first Iksar Empire that holds the power to brainwash any humanoid being." Source [2]

Kly "persuades" nearly everyone who enters "not to ever leave", making them "eternal servants and guardians." Those servants have expanded the complex, and Kly "will either slay or enslave any who dare to enter the Crypt of Dalnir." Source [2]

Gifts for the Overking

Much of Dalnir’s wealth went as "gifts that Kly had given to Overking Bathezid in attempt to reestablish himself among his people." The Overking of Chardok granted "a mild pardon", letting Kly take "willing pupils and some of the weaker soldiers of Chardok." Source [1]

Kly "placed an enchantment upon the whole of the crypt in hopes to speed the training and strength of his guardians", because the soldiers were meek. It touched everything inside, adventurers included, giving "an unnatural, though not harmful, exponential increase in the power" they gained there. Source [1]

Dalnir’s own curse, "the most fearsome" danger, "is no longer in effect." Kly’s sarnak wizards and arcane masters guard "Kly’s library and personal chambers" in the crypt’s depths. Source [1]

Inside the crypt

The approach runs through dark, dirty caves home to "the voracious brutes who have roamed Warslik’s Woods for centuries." Past "the illusion of water that guards the crypt’s entrance", the caves are guarded by "Kly’s coerced slaves and strange beings of slime and ooze." Source [2]

The tomb itself is "Fine marble carved with depictions of ancient battles and victories of the Old Empire." Beyond it lies "a mess of new construction, likely the work of Kly and his mindless minions": brick-and-mortar rooms and bare mine shafts. Source [2]

The atlas lists monster levels 20-30: sarnaks, gyrating goo, ravenous devours and coerced humanoids. Source [1]

The Thralls of Kly

The Game Master’s Guide says the forest’s goblins and giants "fear the kly far more than one another." The kly raid neighbors "to enthrall more slaves with their mind-control abilities", and the size of the thrall army "begins to concern the iksar in Cabilis." Source [4]

Monsters of Norrath calls them "the Thralls of Kly", "The largest faction of sarnak on Kunark apart from the Collective", and gives their own account of their leader: "a sarnak who was a slave to the iksar outcast wizard Dag, who created the Forge of Dalnir during the time of the iksar emperor Atrebe." Source [5]

The book doubts that a sarnak "could have survived the years since Atrebe", but the Thralls believe their master "is close to discovering a great magic within the Crypt". Their captives become "fodder for their experiments in creating crossbred life forms." In battle the Kly lead with their mind-slaves and turn one opponent against the others, "and then the Kly will rain down destructive magic upon the remaining foes." Their favored classes are enchanter, necromancer and wizard. Source [5]