Draft:Archmage

Omega 0.90.4

The Archmage leads the Collegium Magii and appears as a physical NPC in the magical court beneath the Archmage's Castle. The supplied initial incumbent is Oz; earlier characters can change the name and attributes recorded for the office.

Initial name	Initial recorded character level	Initial HP	Initial fighting style
Oz	10	220	Spellcasting outside the court; court-wide retaliation in the throne room

Encounters

The college's welcome and promotion dialogue uses the incumbent's name, but its Rampart service is not a room containing the attackable Archmage. To meet the court NPC, reach the portal at the bottom of the Archmage's Castle, a countryside dungeon distinct from Rampart's ducal castle.

The Archmage starts peaceful and stationary on the Throne of High Magic. The same office-holder can also be selected as a mansion inhabitant in Rampart. Mansion generation makes its resident hostile regardless of the Archmage's normally peaceful disposition, and leaves the resident asleep if it is night.

Combat capabilities vary with the incumbent's recorded career; the character level used for college succession is not the NPC's combat level. The initial Oz has combat level 9, despite the recorded character level of 10.

Conversation and possessions

A hostile Archmage refuses a useful conversation. A peaceful one met outside the court directs you to the court. There, the Archmage congratulates you, warns about using the throne without the Sceptre of High Magic, and vanishes if still standing on the throne.

The Sceptre is placed on the throne's square when the court is populated, unless it has already been taken. It is not a reward that requires you to become the College's Archmage. Once the NPC leaves, you can reach that square and collect it. Decline the throne's invitation to sit until you have obtained the Sceptre. Despite the spoken instruction to wield it, the throne actually accepts possession in inventory or the pack. Sitting without it erases known spells, reduces current Power to 3, empties mana, leaves 1 HP and dispels effects.

The Archmage also carries Kolwynia, the Key That Was Lost while that artifact remains available. This is separate from the Sceptre. The departure after conversation does not drop the Key, so anyone seeking it should resolve that before dismissing the Archmage.

Strategy

Peaceful conversation clears the throne without a fight. Attacking the court is a very different choice: an angered court member can provoke a coordinated storm of spells and turn the other occupants hostile. Killing the Archmage can trigger that same court response.

Pickpocketing can take Kolwynia through the ordinary theft check, which depends on Dexterity, thief rank, the target's combat level and random rolls. Success makes you slightly more Chaotic; another attempt against an empty inventory makes the NPC hostile. Obtaining the Key is not guaranteed, and the court consequences make repeated empty-handed attempts especially unwise.

For the office itself, follow College advancement and deliver the Eater of Magic's heart. Killing the NPC does not award the player the College rank. The office's history can change after either a player promotion or a leader's death, so a familiar name does not guarantee the same later encounter.

Trivia

The initial name Oz suggests the Wizard in L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Omega also has a whirlwind message mentioning Kansas and Toto. The original story's Wizard is a self-confessed humbug; Omega's initial Archmage is an actual spellcaster. This literary connection is an inference from the game's names and text, not a documented statement of authorial intent. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at Project Gutenberg