So I recently finished watching Episode 83 of Campaign 2. Needless to say, there may be spoilers, so if you haven't seen the episode already, stop reading now. Also, I'm putting this here because it seems the best place to do so as it has to do with the possible story/lore of Halas Lutagran. If there's a better spot for it, I apologize.
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After watching the episode, I have been thinking a lot about is how exactly Halas has so many clones of himself, and how his Folding Halls work. I know that Matt homebrews a lot of things in his campaign, but I've noticed he also stays true to the core rules of D&D a lot of times too. So since we don't know for sure what spells are at Halas' disposal, I'll be working simply on the assumption of spells from officially released 5th Edition material.
After giving some thought to what spells Halas would need access to, it's safe to assume he is at least a 17th level Wizard. The reason for this is because he had a trap that had the Power Word Kill spell on it. Power Word Kill is a 9th level spell. So we know he is working with a full repertoire of spell slots. Next, it's a pretty safe assumption that he has the Demiplane and Clone spells. Now, this is where I started to get stuck. Wizards can only cast a single 8th level spell and a single 9th level spell per day. From the map that was provided, 22 "rooms" have been mapped out so far, and it was stated that's only about 25% of what is actually there. Meaning there are closer to 88 total rooms within the Folding Halls of Halas.
With this information, it would take 88 castings of the Demiplane spell to create those rooms, meaning 88 days total. Okay, not too bad. He'd still need a portal to link the various chambers, but that can easily be done with the 7th level Plane Shift spell. But then there are the clones. Each one of those would also require an 8th level spell slot, and they also take 120 days to mature. The other issue with the clone spell is that it costs 1 cubic inch of flesh of the creature that is being cloned. This raises two questions. One: with an incubation time of 120 days per clone, how does he have so many? And two: seeing as how Halas is cloning himself, and the Mighty Nein didn't see any scars on his body, where is the flesh coming from?
We also know that he was somehow able to create quite a few clones because of the notes that were found stating that Halas had jettisoned failed experiments into the astral sea to make room for another batch. While we don't know the specific number of clones he had used, we can see there were at least 10 of the incubation tubes during the fight with the three-headed creature in Episode 82. This would suggest that Halas had the means of creating batches of up to 10 clones at a time. While it is possible he cast the clone spell each day for 10 days, and this would allow the clones to be fully mature within a few days of each other.
However, while it seems like this would cause a lot of downtime between incubation periods, I think I know how Halas had gotten so many. Since the casting time for a clone is only 1 hour, he could spend that hour each day for 10 days to fill up the incubation tubes. He then probably set the Folding Halls to move at a faster time than on Exandria (opposite of how it currently worked with the Mighty Nein inside of it, where 1 hour inside the Folding Halls was equal to 1 day on Exandria). He could then leave the demiplane, and spend his time collecting the various creatures he brought back, along with Thelashas (the Blue Dragon), and the vast amounts of gems, gold, and other material components he needed for his very expensive spells.
This is the most plausible thing I could come up with in the time I have been thinking about it. But I am still curious how he got enough of his own flesh for all of the clones. I suppose he could just slice off bits of his flesh, and then quaff a healing potion. Though, I know there is an optional rule for scars on page 272 of the DMG. It states that healing of 6th level or higher can remove scars, but as I'm unsure if Matt is using this rule or not, I can't say if a regular potion of healing would be sufficient.
A few other ideas I've had for how Halas has amassed so much flesh for the clones he's created. I'm unsure of the specifics of how these spells would work together, or if Matt even used them at all in this manner, but it's just speculation. Halas could have possibly used the 7th level spell Simulacrum. Then had the Simulacrum use True Polymorph on itself, turning itself into a true Halas. He could have then used this "true" other version of himself to get as much flesh as possible in his "Carving Farm". He could have then done this periodically whenever he needed more flesh. Or, if it is possible, he could simply use the flesh of one of his inert clones to create more clones. Again, I don't know if either of these would even work, based on the wording of the spells, and the materials they require, but it's a possibility.
Anyway, that's what I've come up with so far for trying to understand the Folding Halls of Halas, and Halas' clones. If you guys have any theories of your own, please let me know. I really like the concept of Halas, and trying to figure out this powerful bad guy is always fun for me.
He could also be using a Ring of Regeneration to get around that problem.
There's also the concept that Halas might have bound a powerful Outsider or two to help him with some of the grunt-work, or may be sitting on a Mac'Guffinite that allows him to 'meld' spell-slots together to make his total amount of daily spells lower, but increases his ability to cast multiple higher-level spells as a result.
A Demi-Plane where time flows faster than normal, a Relic that makes you immune to aging, and Halas has a theoretical mass-production facility on his hands, and a dangerous one if the relic and the demi-plane are interacting badly with one another.
Maybe this is my poor math skills speaking, but if 22 rooms is only 25% of the Folding Halls, wouldn't the potential total number of rooms be closer to 80?
Helper of Create a World thread/Sedge is Chaotic Neutral/ Mega Yahtzee High: 34, Low: 14/I speak English, je me parle le Francais, agus Labhraim beagan Gaeilge
Maybe this is my poor math skills speaking, but if 22 rooms is only 25% of the Folding Halls, wouldn't the potential total number of rooms be closer to 80?
Thank you both for pointing this out. As my initial post was made over a year and a half ago, I have absolutely no clue how I managed to get 22 was 25% of 40... But I have updated the post with more accurate math. If I've missed anything else, please let me know.
So I recently finished watching Episode 83 of Campaign 2. Needless to say, there may be spoilers, so if you haven't seen the episode already, stop reading now. Also, I'm putting this here because it seems the best place to do so as it has to do with the possible story/lore of Halas Lutagran. If there's a better spot for it, I apologize.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
After watching the episode, I have been thinking a lot about is how exactly Halas has so many clones of himself, and how his Folding Halls work. I know that Matt homebrews a lot of things in his campaign, but I've noticed he also stays true to the core rules of D&D a lot of times too. So since we don't know for sure what spells are at Halas' disposal, I'll be working simply on the assumption of spells from officially released 5th Edition material.
After giving some thought to what spells Halas would need access to, it's safe to assume he is at least a 17th level Wizard. The reason for this is because he had a trap that had the Power Word Kill spell on it. Power Word Kill is a 9th level spell. So we know he is working with a full repertoire of spell slots. Next, it's a pretty safe assumption that he has the Demiplane and Clone spells. Now, this is where I started to get stuck. Wizards can only cast a single 8th level spell and a single 9th level spell per day. From the map that was provided, 22 "rooms" have been mapped out so far, and it was stated that's only about 25% of what is actually there. Meaning there are closer to 88 total rooms within the Folding Halls of Halas.
With this information, it would take 88 castings of the Demiplane spell to create those rooms, meaning 88 days total. Okay, not too bad. He'd still need a portal to link the various chambers, but that can easily be done with the 7th level Plane Shift spell. But then there are the clones. Each one of those would also require an 8th level spell slot, and they also take 120 days to mature. The other issue with the clone spell is that it costs 1 cubic inch of flesh of the creature that is being cloned. This raises two questions. One: with an incubation time of 120 days per clone, how does he have so many? And two: seeing as how Halas is cloning himself, and the Mighty Nein didn't see any scars on his body, where is the flesh coming from?
We also know that he was somehow able to create quite a few clones because of the notes that were found stating that Halas had jettisoned failed experiments into the astral sea to make room for another batch. While we don't know the specific number of clones he had used, we can see there were at least 10 of the incubation tubes during the fight with the three-headed creature in Episode 82. This would suggest that Halas had the means of creating batches of up to 10 clones at a time. While it is possible he cast the clone spell each day for 10 days, and this would allow the clones to be fully mature within a few days of each other.
However, while it seems like this would cause a lot of downtime between incubation periods, I think I know how Halas had gotten so many. Since the casting time for a clone is only 1 hour, he could spend that hour each day for 10 days to fill up the incubation tubes. He then probably set the Folding Halls to move at a faster time than on Exandria (opposite of how it currently worked with the Mighty Nein inside of it, where 1 hour inside the Folding Halls was equal to 1 day on Exandria). He could then leave the demiplane, and spend his time collecting the various creatures he brought back, along with Thelashas (the Blue Dragon), and the vast amounts of gems, gold, and other material components he needed for his very expensive spells.
This is the most plausible thing I could come up with in the time I have been thinking about it. But I am still curious how he got enough of his own flesh for all of the clones. I suppose he could just slice off bits of his flesh, and then quaff a healing potion. Though, I know there is an optional rule for scars on page 272 of the DMG. It states that healing of 6th level or higher can remove scars, but as I'm unsure if Matt is using this rule or not, I can't say if a regular potion of healing would be sufficient.
A few other ideas I've had for how Halas has amassed so much flesh for the clones he's created. I'm unsure of the specifics of how these spells would work together, or if Matt even used them at all in this manner, but it's just speculation. Halas could have possibly used the 7th level spell Simulacrum. Then had the Simulacrum use True Polymorph on itself, turning itself into a true Halas. He could have then used this "true" other version of himself to get as much flesh as possible in his "Carving Farm". He could have then done this periodically whenever he needed more flesh. Or, if it is possible, he could simply use the flesh of one of his inert clones to create more clones. Again, I don't know if either of these would even work, based on the wording of the spells, and the materials they require, but it's a possibility.
Anyway, that's what I've come up with so far for trying to understand the Folding Halls of Halas, and Halas' clones. If you guys have any theories of your own, please let me know. I really like the concept of Halas, and trying to figure out this powerful bad guy is always fun for me.
He could also be using a Ring of Regeneration to get around that problem.
There's also the concept that Halas might have bound a powerful Outsider or two to help him with some of the grunt-work, or may be sitting on a Mac'Guffinite that allows him to 'meld' spell-slots together to make his total amount of daily spells lower, but increases his ability to cast multiple higher-level spells as a result.
A Demi-Plane where time flows faster than normal, a Relic that makes you immune to aging, and Halas has a theoretical mass-production facility on his hands, and a dangerous one if the relic and the demi-plane are interacting badly with one another.
Wish by passes all spell components and time for that spell. I'm guessing he just used Wish to cast clone several times.
Maybe this is my poor math skills speaking, but if 22 rooms is only 25% of the Folding Halls, wouldn't the potential total number of rooms be closer to 80?
88
Helper of Create a World thread/Sedge is Chaotic Neutral/ Mega Yahtzee High: 34, Low: 14/I speak English, je me parle le Francais, agus Labhraim beagan Gaeilge
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Ex Sig
ah yes that's it 😆 thank you
Thank you both for pointing this out. As my initial post was made over a year and a half ago, I have absolutely no clue how I managed to get 22 was 25% of 40... But I have updated the post with more accurate math. If I've missed anything else, please let me know.
cool beans! 😁