Vervodkin Pax

"There is one great truth in the world that you must know: There are no absolutes. All laws, all rules, and all people are negotiable."
--- Vervodkin Pax

The Wizard Vervodkin Pax did not actually appear in the Xok Campaign. He was the character of the Dungeon Master, and he acted in the background of the adventure.

The surname of Pax was taken from the Latin "pax," translated as Peace. (Anto Zahos prefers to use the Latin: "Explodibus Nukem" for Pax, because things tend to blow up when Pax gets mad.) There is a humorous tale about how the name Vervodkin was found. One winter night, on my way to a D&D game, the weather was terrible. The snow was being driven by strong winds and the car shook violently at times. It was really a harrowing experience! As I drove to Bronzewolf Khan's apartment, I passed a liquor store. Some poor bastard was outside trying to put letters on a large sign for the liquor store. He was desperately trying to get the letters on before they blew away. The wind kicked up as he was trying to spell something about Vodka, and many letters flew off the sign and landed in Bumfuck Egypt. The word that remained on the sign was:

I never got a chance to thank that poor, frozen bastard for his help in making the name of my Wizard. He probably died that night anyway!

Vervodkin Pax was created out of necessity. I know that you've heard all the wonderful stories about how Pax fought and scraped for every experience point he ever earned. The truth is that Pax was created as child prodigy, and never saw the first sixteen levels of his gaming career. Bronzewolf Khan and Elkar Tool were about to go into a very dangerous and threatening game, and they wanted a cumo-awesome wizard to go with them. I agreed to take one of my "legally" created magic-users, but they didn't want one of my panty-waisted wuss-wizards. They wanted a godling that could make dragons hide under rocks and shiver with fear. I didn't have one of those wizards, and so they sat down and made me one.

It took about twenty minutes and two beers to create Pax, and no one rolled a single set of dice to do it. In order to save time, Bronzewolf and Elkar each took an AD&D spell book and started writing spells for Pax. They were supposed to write the spells that they thought I'd need for the game. When they were done, Pax had every spell in the book...twice. Elkar "gave" Pax a Walking Staff to contain the spells that the rules wouldn't let Pax have otherwise.

When they were done, they asked me to name the character and the staff. The character was Pax, and the staff was named Osirus. Then they asked if there was anything I wanted for the new Wizard. I thought for a moment and asked for a Cobra head on my Staff. They granted that wish easily enough, but then they asked why. I replied: "Because I want the mouth to open and a dragon's breath weapon to fire from it." Bronzewolf's eyes grew wide and Elkar clapped his hands and that was the birth of the first Xok Weapon. Although several changes have occurred to Osirus over the years, it still blows three fire weapons per day exactly like a Gold Dragon. Beginning to see where some of the ideas for the Xok game came from?

In the younger days that Pax never really had, he was always involved with dragons. He studied every aspect of dragons, and concocted a plan to capture and breed different types of dragons. His idea was to cross a Red and a White, and create a drake that blew warm water for a weapon. After that, he would try to cross a Red and a Green and create a drake with a ultra-destructive weapon of immense power and range. None of this happened, because Pax finally met a dragon face to face. He spent several days talking with a friendly Gold, and dropped all of his plans to meddle with dragonkind. Instead, he turned his attention to research and development of magic and thaumatology. He met several metallic dragons in the years that followed, and he also met a few chromatics too. Because of his affliliations with dragonkind, he was introduced to other forms of life as well. The drakes took Pax to strange places where the Wizard met new and facinating lifeforms. The dragons took him to different realms and Existences, and increased his knowledge of the Macroverse.

Some of those travels took him to Asgard where he met several of the Norse. Other travels took him to lateral planes and the lower Existences. Pax met Loki, Orcus, Thor, Balder, Crom, Cthulhu, Asmodius, Demi-Gorgon, Gandalf, Merlin and Odin. During one of his excursions, he met a young Valkyerie named Aurelius, and married her. (These scenarios were really played out!)

In later years, Pax met Bronzewolf Khan, Elkar Tool and Adventar Dracue, the albino. They were going into a very dangerous place and needed a wizard. Pax agreed to go. During the adventure, Pax saved each of their lives several times. When the adventure was over, Khan offered Pax the Regency of his Citystate. Pax would watch over the realm and handle the day-to-day politics of the Empire while Khan was out extending the boundries of the Kingdom. Pax would also be allowed to construct a building for his home and laboratory. Pax took the job, and moved all of his equipment to Vendeneer Castle in the city of Thor Venda. While Khan was out adventuring, Pax was building the TriTowers, three connected towers separate from the main Castle structure. One tower for his home, one for the laboratory, and one for his magic academy. Later, he constructed the Paladaxium to train aspiring Paladins in the ways of his friend, the Paladin Cutter Hun. Today those schools are training the best and brightest students to become wizards and warriors of righteousness. Pax also spends much of his time creating new spells and researching ancient religions.

Several years ago, Pax established a network of communications using small crystal orbs that can be carried in a pouch. He also developed a mass-port system to transport large groups of people or items of equipment through teleportation and dimensional gates. Additionally, he established safe houses and fortified Keeps in many different planes of Existence, to be used in the event of emergency or disaster.

Because of Vervodkin's affiliations with the many godlings, he was forbidden to be a direct participant in the Xok adventure, although he contributed from behind the scenes. There were certain clues and pieces of parchment that the Xok Lords found along the way. Those writings helped the Xok Lords unravel many secrets and defeat the enemy. Pax did the research, located the information, wrote it down, and ported the messages into places where the Xok Lords would find them.

As soon as the adventure ended, Pax opened trade relations with Amathast, and has enjoyed a very friendly and cooperative relationship with the Emperor Anto Zahos ever since. Amathast has contracted with Vendeneer to train certain specialists in the ways of magic and paladinhood. Vendeneer is not only the home of Khan's Kalahein army, but a small contingent of the Kurganians are stationed there as well. These Kurganians are part of an exchange program. Pax sends some of Khan's more "unruly" troops to Kurgan for proper discipline training, and Kurgan sends some of his more "inflexible" troops to Pax to train to train with magic users in combat.

Pax is currently in possession of the Amethyst Xok Sword and its matching suit of Armor. He has no idea where the others might be hidden. It was brought to Vendeneer for safe keeping by a wise old cleric named Shigar.

Vervodkin officially "retired" several years ago, but the old man has been seen on the occasional errand throughout Vendeneer and Amathast. His elder son, Vertharifin, is currently studying ancient magics in the libraries of the Amathast capital. Pax's younger son, Jhodka, is the acting Regent on Khan's throne at Vendeneer in the city of Thor Venda.