The Sage's Curse

Sages have played a big role in the Dwimmermount campaign, since the PCs are always consulting them to find out obscure bits of knowledge to aid them in their explorations. For the most part, I've just been winging these consultations, since the LBBs have little to say on the subject of sages. Recently, though, I was reminded that Supplement II includes a couple of pages of guidelines for using sages in OD&D and I took a look at them to see if I could glean anything useful. As it turns out, the rules in Blackmoor are basically a more primitive version of the sage rules that later appear in the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide and, while potentially useful, don't really add enough that I feel compelled to use them as written.

There is, however, a weird little rule in Supplement II that I don't recall ever seeing in AD&D (Maybe it is in there, but, if it is, my quick scan of the DMG just now didn't turn it up, though I'm sure someone will be quick to correct me if I'm mistaken). The rule states:

Anyone who attacks or kills a sage is automatically changed to Chaotic alignment unless the sage himself was Chaotic. Sages are able to cast curses when close to death or dying because of assault or mayhem or murder. The power of the curse depends upon the knowledgability of the Sage. A very low-level one might curse a person so that all of his teeth fell out, while a very high-level one could curse you so as to never be able to make a saving throw again! A normal curse removal would not work to remove a sage's curse, but some form of Cleric-assigned quest might.

It's a very fascinating rule and it implies a lot of things about the setting of any campaign that adopts it. I'm not certain that I'd ever adopt it myself, particularly since the PCs in Dwimmermount aren't the types who are likely to start killing sages, but it's intriguing nonetheless. I have to wonder about the genesis of this rule and why it came about.