Enter Stage Left - Agutha, the Glimmering Sister of Pholtus

I am pleased to report that Tony "Wheggi" Rosten has rejoined our Castle Greyhawk campaign, as he's a good friend.  A well-known name among old-school gaming communities, Tony's also my publishing partner in The Twisting Stair, our mega-dungeon design zine, and is the author of the award-winning "Blocks of Quox" puzzle-dungeon adventure published in Fight On Magazine #6 (Summer 2009).  He has several other excellent adventures that I hope to see published one day, too!

Sister Agutha

Since Tony wasn't able to find the character sheet for his old PC cleric, Moraine (a level 2 Cleric of St. Cuthbert), he created a new one---The Glimmering Sister, Agutha.  A redoubtable 4th level cleric of Pholtus, Agutha joined the campaign the the deus ex machina of divine intervention (a slightly-classier replacement of our now-standard "chump gate" option that we learned about from friends at GaryCon many years ago):

Agutha, the Glimmering Sister of Pholtus --
artwork by Tony Rosten for his PC

Last night, Haj and Sister Agutha encountered a greater shedu via the agency of the WM charts!---a roll of 31 on the 1e DMG's Temperate Forest/Wilderness tables results in an airborne ki-rin, lammasu, or shedu, which I then selected via a die roll extrapolated to allow the possibility that the encounter might add other powerhouse do-gooders to the mix---a greater lammasu or greater shedu, along with creatures like the foo dog/lion, hollyphant, or phoenix.  In the end, the dice indicated they met a greater shedu:

Shedu, by David C. Sutherland III, from 
the 1e Monster Manual (TSR, 1977)

The greater shedu looked like that picture, just bigger.  Standing 12' tall at the shoulder, the size of a minivan with a 30-40' wingspan.  

On a Mission from God

Named Zabbukhani, Herald of the Sun Resplendent, the greater shedu was specifically searching for Sister Agutha, in order to deliver to her (and as it turns out, Haj too, since he was in her company) a divine message from Pholtus:

Greetings!  Fear not, sister in Law!
Attend:  absorb Revelation.
Accept:  reflect Illumination.

Gaze sunward, above:
Protect the rays. 

Trees open, spread wide gates—eclipse looms.
Will and power words dispel the dark.
Searing light can stem Woe’s flood tide.

This new message (and the PC accompanying it!) represents an escalation, perhaps, in the activity in the campaign after the rescue and revelation of The Prophecy of the Six and the Twelve from a couple of years ago (in real-life; in-game, only XX months have passed).  The PCs discovered some additional information about it while seeking divine guidance from Wee Jas in Hardby, but with Agutha's introduction, this is (in my view, at least) stepping up the divine engagement.   We'll see what the party thinks soon, since Agutha hasn't yet met the rest of the PCs yet, just Haj. 

And of course it's curious and interesting and that it's Haj that Agutha met first, since he's one of the two assassins in the party, actively worships Nerull, the Reaper (but don't fear him ;) ), and serves the Horned Socitety....  Helps keep things interesting! :D

Pholtus - Some Ponderings from grodog

Tony's creation of Agutha introduces the second PC associated with Pholtus into our campaign---the first was a female paladin played back at the dawn of the game by Anthony Huso and named Vivien Asquith.  She was a hard-drinking paladin of The Blinding Light. 

Now Pholtus is not a god who I've played with a lot, so he's remained a bit of a caricatured blank slate to date.  I always liked Jim Holloway's depiction of Pholtus from Dragon Magazine #68 (December 1982), but the god itself---for better or for worse---hadn't particularly engaged my attention or creativity over the years*:

Pholtus, from Dragon Magazine #68
(December 1982) by Jim Holloway

Tony's decision to place Agutha's faith in Pholtus offered an opportunity to ratchet up some of the focus in the campaign, and for me to explore a bit into Pholtus.  We had some recent discussions at Canonfire! that in turn inspired my design noodlings.  

The Illumine, A Divine Envoy Sacred to Pholtus

Through her doctrinal training, Agutha recognized the form of the message as divinely-inspired, an illumine (sometimes called an octillum or an octiveal):

• its eight lines represent a number sacred to Pholtus; eight is the number of syllables in the first and third stanza's lines, as well the number of syllables in their lines
• the first line is a traditional greeting, to set the worshipper at ease with the divine messenger and attention being visited upon them
• the second and third lines offer guidance and/or imperatives from Pholtus, that tie to the message's purpose and focus, and will help its recipient to understand how to unravel its meaning
• the central two-line envoy represents the heart of the divine message, which receives special emphasis through more-direct communication:  
• its lines are four syllables each; together they total eight 
• they divide the message into two halves:  the fourth line applies with emphasis to the first stanza, while the fifth line applies to the second
• together both lines embody the divine heart and command of the message, and provide the key that unlocks the meaning of the whole
• the third stanza warns of complications, threats, and dangers that the envoy and first stanza are intended to address; they are the obstacles that must be discerned through reflection and revelation, revealed by exposure to the light, and overcome through the application of faith, light, obedience, and hewing to the straight and inflexible rigor of order and goodness

The numerology of the message will gain additional significance based on its form:  here the message is divided into three stanzas of 3, 2, and 3 lines each.  So the numbers 2 and 3 are part of Pholtus' mysteries, along with 8.   (And note that 2^3 = 8 too!).   There are five known "wandering stars" in Oerth's cosmology, so 5 will likely be a component in this celestial schema too.  

Other messages may be delivered as a single eight-line stanza, and some may feature rhyme regular schemes or repetitions of words---perhaps to be modelled on the troilet form; we'll see.... 

Noodling on the Faiths and Mechanics for Pholtine Clerics

Prior to writing Agutha's message, I began brainstorming some developmental ideas for Pholtine clerics, thinking through options inspired from the Canonfire! discussions as well as the areas of focus for the campaign around twins, light/darkness/shadow, prophecy/divination/revelation, etc.:

The Tenets of Pholtine Faiths

Holloway's Pholtus illustration always appeared somewhat androgynous to my eye, so I like the idea of the god being more nebulous in gender, or both genders perhaps

• this then paired with the idea of splitting the god's roles up between sun vs. moon among the faithful, and perhaps flipping their traditional genderings, like Tolkien did with the Maiar who guide them in The Silmarillion:  sun = female, moon = male
• perhaps many Pholtine sects emphasize the larger, monthly moon Luna vs. the smaller quarterly moon, Celene; while later editions changed his focus to moons in plural, as originally published he was the god of the sun and the moon (which also makes me wonder if adding a second moon in the mix was a late-stage addition to the setting, perhaps)

I've also begun to toy with the idea that Pholtus absorbed/merged the sun goddess and moon god when one of them was all-but slain in the past, which accounts in part for there being no dedicated moon god among Greyhawk’s core pantheons. Perhaps they were in love/lovers, perhaps they were brother and sister, or even twins.  That may also account for the androgyny vibe in Holloway’s illustration. 

Other noodlings on spheres of influence for Pholtus include:  

• the concept of Light in general vs. the heavenly bodies as the source of light; this would be Holloway‘s traditional androgynously male illustration of Pholtus from Dragon #68; options include the Blinding Light, the Resolute Light, the Light of Revelation, or whatever 
• the concept of cosmic law and order in particular as it applies to the movements of the heavenly bodies and the inner planes (as well as the Astral, as the bridging plane between inner and outer, also tied to the moons and silver), emphasizing the Positive Martial Plane as the ultimate source of light for the multiverse; think akin to Moorcock’s Law vs. Chaos; 
• this would likely put such sects into conflict with Celestian's clergy
• this would also espouse a heliocentric view of Oerth’s solar system, which is deemed a radical concept among all good-thinking peoples of the world ;)
  
  

Greyhawk's Pholtus Clerics and AD&D Mechanics

Pholtine 4th level clerics gain access to an additional spell usable 1/day, which per the boxed set is dispel darkness.  I might tweak that spell based on faith/deital flavor selections above, but it fits well with the general themes for Pholtus (and the campaign).  

At 8th level, they gain glow, and I can see other spells like starshine, moonbeam, sunray, and perhaps faerie fire, infravision, and ultravision being added to their spell lists (or the class  gaining these at higher levels as permanent abilities).  

At 12th level, high priests and priestesses access reflect.  As part of the "blinding light" idea, I like the focus of this spell but I've also considered stripping the 11th level power from clerics of Heironeous---their energy bolt drawn from the Positive Material Plane---and providing it to Pholtine clerics instead, which seems apt, and perhaps combining it with the reflect power (or making it a fourth power).  We'll see....

Allan.

* For a particularly interesting look at a higher-level Pholtite** high priest, I recommend reading about Henri, from Jason Zavoda's "Nosnra's Saga" serial novella set in Greyhawk, and more specifically in Gary Gygax's G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief.  The link takes you to his 2020 revisions to that story, and leads with the most-recent post which is its ending, but it's a fun read, particularly if you're familiar with the original adventure.  

** While I generally prefer Pholtine as the adjectival form of Pholtus, I'm sure there are sects of Pholtus that use Pholtite (and perhaps Pholtusian, too)!

Campaign Journal Update - From Hardby to Dyvers and a Few Points In-Between

Kron Hills, Gnarley Forest, and Dyvers environs -
map by grodog

Since my last Haruspications in Hardby campaign update in July, the PCs have wrapped up their business in Dyvers (selling some poison-smeared gems liberated from a hidden temple to Nerull in Castle Greyhawk to the Executor of the temple of Nerull in Dyvers---and this turned out far better than I expected!), and are working their way back toward Greyhawk.  The characters left Dyvers in the midst of Brewfest, on Waterday, the 5th day of that festival, in the year 576 CY.  

Night Arrant by Gary Gygax

On the Road

On their way to Dyvers from Hardby, they passed through the bucolic Gnarlvergia region, detailed by Gary Gygax in "The House in the Tree" in his Night Arrant collection.   (For those interested, you can listen to Jason Zavoda's readings of much of Night Arrant over on Canonfire! at http://www.canonfire.com/cf/ghnovels.php but unfortunately he did not make it through to record "The House in the Tree" prior to his untimely death in December 2021.  This reminds me that someone in one of the Greyhawk-related discord channels suggested that I might carry on with those recordings, perhaps; I will chase that idea down again!).  There's not an entry for Gnarlvergia in the Greyhawk Wiki, but that's probably less of an oversight since the region is only mentioned three times by name in Night Arrant. But I digress....

On their way to Dyvers from Hardby, the PCs encountered two groups that turned into useful informational meetings.  The first was with the Urûl-Kotár, a group of Flan tribal woodsfolk led by the druidess Cíaran-ap-Tulvea.  After some initial tensions, the two groups broke bread together under the auspices of hospitality, and the PCs warned the Flan of two groups of marauding dragons (one brass, and four blue) rumored to be attacking merchant caravans in and around the Hardby region, and the woodsfolk were very grateful:  Reaction Roll of 100, before adding 40 for the bard's 18 Charisma to make it a 140% total reaction!  This is not nearly as uncommon in this campaign as you might think....

The second encounter of note was with a group of olvenfolk patrolling/hunting for brigands, and they surprised the PCs.  They also noticed that one of the PCs (Henry's character Nohr, a half-olven fighter/magic-user from a future alternate timeline of Oerth) was wielding a drowic tentacle rod as a weapon:  this was "sloat gaacor" (sloat like moat, gaacor like gay soar)--an elvish taboo cognate meaning "forbidden darkness."  The PCs discussed how they acquired the weapon (in their Astral adventure in Zjelwyin Fall), and learned little about the strange nature of the ojbect, save that it gravely concerned the olven captain Sillirifran, of the Moonsilver Pool clan (Ilmkelisil in olven).  Still in  pursuit of the brigands, the elves departed relatively quickly, but urged the PCs to rejoin them later at their home, Silverwell (Celebthiltin Eithimbar:  the "silver shining sparkles homewell"), the source and spring for the Silvern Stream that runs from within the Gnarley to the Nyr Dyv.  

The PCs encountered various other animals---wild horses (some of which they captured and sold/traded to the Silvern-Selintan Ranch, with the well-recognized brand $$) and giant weasels (which they killed and skinned)---and NPCs (a merchant caravan on the eastern side of Selintan, including the Womtham magic-user Eriena Nabestiana, who sold some acid and potions to Nersiv), some en route to and within the city, but the woodsfolk and olves may prove to be the most interesting from the lot.  Time will tell!

In the City

Negotiations with the Temple of Nerull took awhile, but were successfully concluded after the services on Godsday during Brewfest.  The result includes a proposal of alliance with the Greyhawk Assassin's Guild.  While Haj worked the Reaper's clergy, some of the other PCs worked opportunity jobs that arose during the festivities:  

• Cyn performed with two other bards---Zyfor the Black, hailing from Blackmoor, and Cyndalia Tureine from Rel Astra) at the Inn of the Golden Locks; all three performed well, and earned about 100 gp each over the course of Cyn's stay
• Nohr and Cyn also acted as translators at Shadows in the Drink (another inn in the western portion of Dyvers) in urgent need of Hobbit and Olven speaking assistance; Cyn made the acquaintance of Lord Gwyndariol from the Vale of Highfolk, as a result of the translations work
• Nersiv departed from the rest of the party and from Dyvers on the first day of Brewfest in order to speculate on some wares/commodities offered in the markets:  he purchased some essence of will-o-wisp and violet fungi spores at low prices and then chartered an olven hippogriff messenger service carrier to return him to Hardby where he plans to sell them at a substantial profit, in order to then return to Dyvers and purchase an elixir of life available from one of the other merchants before the close of Brewfest

Once the Nerullite business concluded, the PCs left on the 5th day of Brewfest to return to Greyhawk, planning to stop at Silverwell on the way and to take the olves up on their invitation.

Movin' Right Along (the Road, into an Ambush?)

Kermit and Fozzy, on the road again....

At midnight that evening, a large group of goblins passed by the PCs' camp (neither group was surprised), and the goblins split into multiple groups, one of which moved toward the camp.  Through a lengthy battle (11 rounds!), the PCs slew approximately 30 goblins in battle.

The session ended with various questions still unanswered:

• Where were the goblins heading to, and where were they coming from?
• Will the goblins regroup on the other side of the Silvern Stream and reengage, or flee?
• Are the PCs in range of the goblins' slingers?  (That answer is almost certainly Yes!).
• Will the PCs stop to loot fallen goblins, or carry the fight to the remainder of the force, or pursue some other course of action?

As usual, I am looking forward to tomorrow night's game! :D

Allan.

A Quick Campaign Update - Haruspications in Hardby

Today marks Gary Gygax Day,  and what better way to honor Gary and the game he and Dave Arneson, Rob Kuntz, Lenard Lakofka, and so many others created and shaped, than to play AD&D. 

Without further ado, here are events from one of the current Greyhawk campaigns I DM:

The PCs in our online, twice-per-month Castle Greyhawk campaign (AD&D 1e, currently set in the summer of 576 CY) have been delving a bit into the meaning of the Prophecy of the Six and the Twelve, which they recovered last summer (in real life) from the Astral fastness of The Zjelwyin Fall.  

In order to try to mitigate the infernal (divine?) attentions of Nerull and to mitigate a perhaps-baleful curse that might be afflicting one or more of the PCs after they inadvertently invoked divine (infernal?) intervention while looting a hidden temple to The Reaper in Castle Greyhawk, at the recommendations of the local clergy of Celestian, the PCs journeyed south to Hardby, to seek the guidance of Wee Jas.  (After all, she too is a god of death).  

The PCs communed with the Ruby Queen with one of her Hardby cathedral-complex high priestesses acting as medium.  (Yet again, they invoked divine intervention through their fiendishly lucky---and occasionally unlucky---dice rollings:  I regularly roll a 100 on 1d100 reaction rolls every session that we play in this game!---and yes, DI rolls are roll low not high, but I digress....).  

The questions  they posed to Wee Jas were perhaps answered directly by the goddesss herself, the female voice speaking in different tone than those of her high priestess.  The PCs asked four questions:

1. Q:  Are any of us cursed by the Reaper?  A:  Not exactly.
2. Q:  Will placating the Reaper appease his anger?  A:  Yes.
3. Q:  Can the priestesses here provide direction on how to placate the Reaper's anger?  Perhaps.
4. Q:  Will you give us a sign on how to placate the Reaper?  Yes.
   

Part of the significance in Wee Jas' responses is based on how the commune spell works in AD&D:  "By use of a commune spell the cleric is able to contact his or her divinity---or agents thereof---and request information in the form of questions which can be answered by a simple "yes" or "no". The cleric is allowed one such question for every level of experience he or she has attained." (Players Handbook, page 49).  The fact that Wee Jas spoke directly and broke the "rules" of the divinatory exchange speaks as much as or more than the answers themselves, perhaps.

After the high priestess recovered a day or two from channelling the goddess directly, she wrote the PCs a letter, which contained the additional sign they sought, along with guidance on how to recognize further signs from the goddess, and some additional advice: 

 

Starday, 22 Harvester, in the year 576 Common Year

Esteemed Querants---

Enclosed please find the wisdom of Wee Jas, to aid you in your efforts to achieve atonement with The Reaper:

1.    I awoke on this morn having scribed in the night a strange and unsettling verse, which I believe is in response to your queries to the goddess.  Her riddling rede means not much to me as yet, but I shall pray for the guidance and wisdom to understand its depths.  I have enclosed a copy of her words for you.  Do not share them lightly with others, they are for your eyes and ears alone.

2.    The rede mentions “ruby roses” which reminds me of a gift that Zagig is purported to have given the goddess prior to his ascendancy.  Perhaps it is true, perhaps not, but this gift if it existed is one that his priests may be able to provide more detail about, if you can ever find one of them at temple.

3.    Your band’s explorations seem intertwined more-closely with Zagig’s schemes and follies than I would deem wise.  If you wish to pursue further learnings about the man Zagig, he was raised in Hardby, and lived here prior to his move northward to Greyhawk.  What is not as well-known is that prior to the erection of his grand castle, that Zagig crafted a manse for himself, which he later abandoned once the great edifice stood.  Perhaps it may yield some further guidance, although I would assess carefully the relevance of any such rede that you may receive from The Mad Archmage.

4.    Lastly, with respect to additional guidance that the goddess may share with you in the form of omens, portents, and other signs of her divine guidance, know that she is wont to communicate through dreams and visions; to employ as messengers and visitations the familiars of magi, and the lawful dragons and undead, cardinals and the phoenix; that she favors the hues of red, ruby, crimson, cardinal, carmine, vermillion, scarlet, and cerise; seek her in the wisdom of the dead and  the grave, and in the runes and power words that shape the motion of the world’s living magics. 

Go in the light the of the goddess, and may she guide you in this world and the next with clarity and purpose.  

Your obedient servant---

Eora Nulnivik,
High Priestess in Sable
Cathedral of Wee Jas
Hardby
 

(The letter is scribed as a handout in the font Blackadder ITC at 13.5 font size, and fits nicely on a single sheet of paper.  I'll post a PDF of the letter in that format once I'm able, preferably using Carlos Lising's very nice parchment background, if I remember to ask him about that at the game this weekend).  

Enclosed with the letter was the "riddling rede"---however the handwriting for the poem did not match Eora Nulnivik's hand from her letter.  Its text follows, but the formatting won't reproduce well in HTML without more work than I have time to put in at the moment, so I'll post it in PDF later as well.  (For reference, the letter's hand was in Edwardian Script ITC 15.5 font size). 

 

Sword of Roses

There lies a scythe in Quariol
bound by ruby roses whose petals unfold---
	and bleed---
	when traitor Winter stalks the skies

	staining the hard, frozen ground
	and exhaling the souls of the soft dead

	into bottomless night

Unnamed thing of demons---
forged and sheathed in bitter alchemies
	of time and flesh
	     woe and bone
	     fang and shadow---

	It whispers shrill, cruel secrets
	     in tongues that echo
		           and mock the brood stillness
		           of the woods
			      the worlds

	     Secrets rising as breaths---
	     upon the silence stealing
	     steeling the worlds for woe

There in Quariol---
	  beyond the black lodge of Fenris
	  beyond the roses-shrouded gate

	  in the vale of madness
		        of pain
		        of despair unending---

There lies a scythe in Quariol



(by Allan Grohe, after Eric Kimball and Robert Gould – Two Man Horse).  

A day or two later, one of the other PCs invoked Zagyg's direct attention while at a much-smaller chapel dedicated in his name---but that is for another tale....  

Meanwhile the PCs are leaving Hardby to hear north to Dyvers, where they can consult at one of The Reaper's primary temples in the Flanaess.  

What could possibly go wrong?

==

I based the automatic writing "riddling rede" on a poem written by Eric Kimball and illustrated by Robert Gould that I first encountered in the art and prints shop of Norm Hood off of exit 7A in the mid-1980s, and adapting it to Greyhawk was a pleasure---and I hope a respectful tribute to their original work:

 

Sword of Roses
by Eric Kimball and Robert Gould
(Two Man Horse, 1976)

Allan.

The Prophecy of the Six and the Twelve

As retrieved at the behest of the Seventh Order of the Darkly Luminous from its Astral fastness in Zjelwyin Fall, the highest priests and priestesses of Celestian invoke the Mandate of Far Seering, and herald into Oerth and its sister-worlds, on this Godsday, the 11th of Goodmonth, in the 576th year of the reign of Celestial Aerdy, the nineteeth prophecy of the twins:  the Prophecy of the Six and the Twelve.

==



The Prophecy of the Six and the Twelve




Bleak communions: eldritch gardens, fallen shadows
encircle and conjure, name and bind our chorded woe.
All-Father lost amongst Fimbûl winters’ whispers—
wastelands of wishes, long-sought in mast’ries’ umbrage.
Twin daughters stand—resolute, against opening gates
as the sands’ tides rise in unchronicled secrets

found, lost, found again—the march of moments, secrets
seeking, seeking dusts drift and swallow all shadows.
Vain hope to halt the keying of myriad gates
without the Twins’ sacrosanct blessings—untold woe
will flow, filling seas, valleys, and skies with umbrage—
unbound cacophonies, loves’ unspoken whispers,

bloodlines unborn beyond Time’s unyielding whispers—
forever barred from unlocking tomorrows’ secrets.
The Twins times twice—each brightening in awed umbrage,
adroitly chime, ringed with wisdoms—chase the shadows,
unwind the Strands of Fate to reweave the worlds’ woe—
newly-spun, reborn in storms—scale the final gates.

A web of motes illumines planes, ley lines, and gates,
divines clear roots of quiet through the silences, whispers,
Susurrations, and branching forks—all paths of Woe.
To fight the future—decrypt its resounding secrets,
speak their wisdoms to the chiaroscuro shadows,
unveil the Prince of Raptors, find allies in Umbrage.

Beware!—winterlorn seekers, replete with umbrage,
assay to disjoin the Twins’ names, to fissure the gates,
rechime time, and wreath all worlds in ashen shadows.
Breach their unravelling wiles’ twisting whispers
lest—lured into Eclipse with chromatic secrets—
they unleash once more the long-sought, lost Isles of Woe!

Hearken!—black-iron wyrds weave arcs of worlds against Woe.
The Twins in issue must overcome the Twins’ umbrage—
undisputed their bedimmed, festering secrets
will spill across the spheres’ conjunctions, key the gates,
blind the Father in silence’s sibilant whispers
while the Stern Mother’s wisdoms fall into shadows.

Tides of Woe conjure and bind worlds in shadows.
Resplendent Umbrage sheathes tangs and tongues in whispers.
Gardens of secrets increase beyond the dim gates.

==

And so it begins.

Allan.

Astral Adventures in Greyhawk

The players in my Castle Greyhawk campaign have spent most of the past 11 months (since 23 October 2021) romping about in the Astral Plane, and, at long last, they're likely to return home to Oerth soon, I think.  Our next session (last night, on 24 September 2022) will tell!

We have been playing through my (somewhat modified) version of Anthony Huso's excellent scenario, Zjelwyin Fall (also available in PDF if you prefer):

 

Zjelwyin Fall cover art
by Daniele Valeriani

As part of my work to deploy Anthony's adventure into my Greyhawk campaign, I also used this as an opportunity to define some more of the planar architecture for the setting.  Some of that design work went into adjusting the framework and background for the scenario to suit my current campaign situation, and some of it was general work expanding upon the options for how the Astral Planet works in my games.  

I'll delve into the campaign context after we wrap up the adventure in our next session, so for now, I'll share some of the rules and design work that I used to augment Anthony's scenario. 

The Astral Plane in AD&D

The rules governing astral travel, astral encounters, and astral monsters are (perhaps unsurprisingly) scattered across a variety of sources in 1st edition AD&D.  They appear in chronological order in:

• Monster Manual (1977) - mostly in passing, not a lot of real planar substance
• Players Handbook (1978) - Astral Spell, Great Wheel planar appendix, etc.
  
• Dungeon Masters Guide (1979) - various notes, Appendix C p. 180 for one page of Astral and Ethereal wandering encounters, which notably include both the Ether Cyclone (ethereal) and the Psychic Wind (astral)
  
• Deities & Demigods (1980) - introduced some new monsters and additional rules codifications, but still not a lot of real planar substance in here either (which was a bummer to me in 1980, since this was the first AD&D hardcover I waited for publication with bated breath!)
• Fiend Folio (1981) - added some new monsters (most notably astral searcher, berbalang, and githyanki), and also updated the DMG's Appendix C's Astral & Ethereal Encounters on page 119
  
• Dragon Magazine #67 (November 1982, just a few short months into my first subscription!) - featured both Gygax's first "Deities & Demigods of the World of Greyhawk" article, as well as Roger E. Moore's "The Astral Plane" (with additions from Gary); this is the first real treatment of worth for the Astral Plane, and the issue also included an astral adventure, "Fedifensor" by Allen Rogers
  
• Dragon Magazine #71 (March 1983) - included Moore's follow-up Sage-Advice-like piece, "Solid Answers To Astral Questions"
• Monster Manual II (1983) - added some new monsters, and also compiled the relevant Astral monsters spanning the MM, FF, and MM2 (but not D&DG, alas!) on page 155
  
• Manual of the Planes (1987) - codified the Astral rules based on the Dragon #67 article, didn't add much original material save some expansion to random encounter options
  

To these, I add various sundry house rules and variants from:

• Dragon Magazine, generally via early articles about the planes (see the bibliography in my first Gates article from Knockspell for more specifics), and the new monsters introduced from the "Creature Features" columns (inaugurated with Gygax's Mind Flayer in Strategic Review #1), published adventures in Dragon, and the "Creature Catalog" inserts, for which installments began to appear with issue #89
  
• Spelljammer (1989) - I've been fond of the idea of plane-travelling ships via Roger Dean's artwork for the band Yes (Fragile through Drama, in particular), Michael Moorcock's Ship Which Sails over Land and Sea as well as the more-apt misty-plane-and-time travelling Dark Ship helmed by the blind captain from Sailor on the Seas of Fate; Spelljammer never quite lived up to this potential, but I still use have a soft spot in my heart for it and leverage some of its rules in my planar architecture and mechanics (and the Neogi are reminiscent of Babylon 5's shadows, too, which is not a bad thing....)
  
• I was rather more fond of the 3e Manual of the Planes (2001) than the 1e version (although you can't go wrong with Stephen Fabian interior artwork from the 1e book!), and have probably lifted some ideas from there as well
• Pagan Publishing's astral rules in The Golden Dawn (1996; for use in Call of Cthulhu), for which I was an early playtester
• Sepulchrave II's "Tales of Wyre" stories from EnWorld (2002-2014; we can still hope for more!):  lots of inspiration here, but moreso for the Plane of Shadow (and the Abyss!) than the Astral
• While Anthony Huso's Zjelwyin Fall (2019) is grounded in the 1987 Manual of the Planes, Huso departs from MotP in various ways as well 
• Trent Smith's Heroic Legendarium (May 2021) offers some very cool guidance on leveraging psychopomps guiding dead spirits en route to the Outer Planes, too
  

The Astral Plane, and AD&D's planar architecture as a whole, is a far-from-codified system, and remains one of the largest gaps to fill for an enterprising Dungeon Master.

Astral Encounters in AD&D

The DMG, D&DG, Dragon #67, MotP, Zjelwyin Fall, and Heroic Legendarium all offer a variety of interesting Astral encounter options, and to some extent I leveraged them all for our Astral sessions, as follows:

Encounter Checks Frequency

I checked for random encounters on two different schedules for the PCs' Astral excursion: 

1. Three fixed checks, at the adventure start, midpoint, and end @ 1 in 10 chance for an encounter for each check.  If an encounter is indicated, the type of encounter is checked in the Astral Encounter Table 1 (see below), with the following modifiers:
   
   
   • Beginning:  standard chances
   • Midpoint:  +05% 
   • End:  +10% 
    
2. Three daily checks (every eight hours of Astral travel), with a 2 in 20 chance for an encounter:  a roll of 1 indicates an standard encounter, whereas a roll of 2 indicates an encounter observed in passing (this will not resolve into an actual encounter if the PCs do not interact, and showcases the grandeur and spectacle of the Astral Plane as the metaphysical superhighway of AD&D's multiverse). 
   

Astral Encounter Table 1

I baselined this table using the Dragon #67 article and MotP, blending the two.  Roll d100, adjusting if necessary (for fixed checks):

• 01 - 75:  Creature Encounter, roll d100 again below:
  
• 01 - 60:  Outer planar creature (see Astral Monsters List)
  
• 61 - 75:  Astral native creature (see Astral Monsters List)
• 76 - 90:  Prime planar creature, roll d100 again below:
• 01 - 60:  Prime characters
• 61 - 90:  Prime creature with Astral sensory perception
• 91 - 99:  Insane/catatonic Prime characters (sensory deprivation to catatonia)
  
• 100:  Insane/catatonic Prime creature with Astral sensory perception
  (sensory deprivation to catatonia)
• 91 - 100:  Deity creature, roll d100 again below:
  
• 01 - 60:  Working psychopomp deity on the job with entourage
• 61 - 75:  Travelling deity with 0-4 servants (roll 1d6-2)
• 76 - 85:  Meeting between 2-5 divine envoys (roll 1d10:  1-4 = 2, 5-7 = 3, 8-9 = 4, 10 = 5)
  
• 86 - 95:  Battle between 2 divine, infernal, etc. forces
• 96 - 99:  Strangetiude gods (Yog-Sothoth, et al)
• 100:  Super Special:  Conjunction of the Million Spheres, etc.
• 76 - 85:  Color Pool
• I have my own hues associated with the various gates and color pools that access the Outer Planes, but this otherwise functions the same as detailed in your source of choice
• 86 - 95:  Astral Object, roll d100 again below:
• 01 - 60:  Conduit/wormhole
• 61 - 65:  Fixed Portal
• 66 - 80:  Astral Permanent Planar Feature/Zone
• 81 - 84:  Flying Missile (on its infinite course, surprises PCs 4 in 6!)
• 85 - 88:  Elemental Pocket
• 89 - 92:  Isle of Matter (roll 1d10:  1-4 = Prime Planar, 5-7 = Outer Planar, 8-9 = Alternate Prime, demi-planar, etc., 10 = Ethereal)
• 93 - 96:  Lair of Astral native creature
• 97 - 98:  Corpse
• 99 - 100:  Artifact (some object, not necessarily Baba Yaga's Hut!)
• 96 - 100:  Psychic Wind
  

 

Astral Monsters List

Anthony included a table of 20 wandering Astral encounters in Zjelwyin Fall, but I wanted to build out some tables to be a bit more comprehensive, and to allow for a variety of additional encounter types to make the Astral Plane come alive as the super-highway of AD&D's Great Wheel cosmology.  

To that end, I worked from the MM2 p 155 listing of Astral creatures (which breaks them down by Frequency), then combed various additional sources for monsters to broaden and deepen the list.  For those unfamiliar, AD&D 1e frequencies break down monsters as follows:  Common at 65%, Uncommon at 20%, Rare at 11%, and Very Rare at 4%.  

The frequencies listed below do not necessarily match the standard frequency rating for each creature, since they reflect my sense of how frequently they are encountered in the Astral Plane vs. the Prime.  * indicates that the creature's sensory perception extends into the Astral plane. 

Common Astral Monsters (65%; roll 1d12)

1. Cerebral Parasite
2. Daemon, Minor
3. Demon, Lesser
4. Deva, Astral
5. Devil, Minor
6. Githyanki
7. Human Traveller
8. Invisible Stalker
9. Night Hag
10. Nightmare
11. Slaad: red, blue, or green

 

Uncommon Astral Monsters (20%; roll 1d24)

1. Aerial Servant
2. Astral Wolf (D&DG, Nehwon Mythos, p. 97)
3. Agathion
4. Baku
5. Basilisk*
6. Cockatrice*
7. Couatl
8. Devourer (D&DG, Nehwon Mythos, p. 98)
9. Diakk
10. Dracolisk*
11. Githyanki (appears in both lists, not an error)
12. Gorgon*
13. Lich
14. Medusa (roll 1d8:  1-5 = AD&D, 6-7 = Greek, 8 = Arimoi)*
15. Mi-Go (D&DG, Cthulhu Mythos, p. 46; Zjelwyin Fall details a variant as well)
16. Pyrolisk*
17. Rakshasa (roll 1d8:  1-5 = MM, 6-7 = Knight, 8 = Noble; see Scott Bennie's article in Dragon #84)
18. Shedu
19. Star Leviathan (see Creature Catalog in Dragon #89)
20. Titan (roll 1d12:  1-5 = Lesser, 6-9 = Major, 10-11 = Elder , 12 = Greek)
21. Void Shark (Monsters of Myth, Steve Marsh section; also in my Canonfire! Postfest 18 article)

 

Rare Astral Monsters (11%; roll 1d30)

1. Basilisk, Greater*
2. Berbalang
3. Byakhee (D&DG, Cthulhu Mythos, p. 44)
4. Daemon, Greater
5. Demon, Major
6. Devil, Major
7. Dragon, Astral (see Dragon #134)
8. Foo Dog
9. Gigante
10. Githzerai (70% hunting githyanki, or 30% in-transit to Limbo)
11. Gorgimera*
12. Great Race of Yith (D&DG, Cthulhu Mythos, p. 45)
13. Ihagnim (see Creature Collection in Dragon #89)
14. Hollyphant
15. Intellect Devourer
16. Ki-rin
17. Lillend (see Creature Catalog II in Dragon #94)
18. Modron, Hierarch
19. Moon Dog
20. Mynakh (Monsters of Myth)
21. Nightgaunt (Call of Cthulhu)
22. Phoenix
23. Planetar
24. Slaad:  grey or death
25. Thelndari (see Creature Catalog III in Dragon #101 and my updates)
26. Wind Steed (see Creature Collection in Dragon #89)

 

Very Rare Astral Monsters (4%, roll 1d30)

1. Astral Searcher
2. Avari (see Creature Catalog III in Dragon #101)
3. Catlord (or, alternately, other animal masters from Melnibonéan Mythos)
4. Daemon, Master
5. Demon, Prince or Lord
6. Demi-lich*
7. Devil, Duke or Arch-
8. Dragon, Unique:  Tiamat (my version), Bahamut, Sariador, or other
9. Dragonhorse
10. Foo Lion
11. Hound of the Underworld (Monsters of Myth)
12. Kelmain (D&DG, Melnibonéan Mythos, p. 90)
13. Kheph (Monsters of Myth)
14. Magnesium Spirit
15.Night Vapour (Monsters of Myth)
16. Oonai (D&DG, Melnibonéan Mythos, p. 93)
17. Opinicus
18. Primordial One (D&DG, Cthulhu Mythos, p. 46)
19. Pudding, Alien (Monsters of Myth)
20. Retriever
21. Shedu, Greater
22. Sheelba of the Eyeless Face or Ningauble of the Seven Eyes (D&DG, Nehwon Mythos, p. 101, 102)
23. Slaad:  Lord
24. Solar
25. Tsung Pathet (Monsters of Myth, Steve Marsh section)
26. Ulyuleng (Monsters of Myth)
27. Utukku (see Creature Collection in Dragon #89)
28. Vampire

Sample Astral Encounters

While travelling through Astral space, my players' PCs encountered the following:

• Day 6:  Astral wolves, which the PCs outdistanced (although the wolves trailed them for several days, they eventually sought slower prey)
  
• Day 9:  a huge Kelmain host of 6,628 slain warriors en route to Limbo; the PCs watched it pass by for a few hours, and it faded into the distance
  
• Day 13:  102 high elven spirits being guided to Valinor by Eärendil, bearing a silmaril upon his brow and sailing the Astral upon The Vingilot; after a very positive reaction roll (it really helps to travel with bards and paladins!), he provided the Blessings of the Valar to the PCs, and also gave them a lift, shortening their journey by 1/3
• Day 25:  Intelligent, psionic yellow mold (that's no mold, it's an asteroid....), which the PCs battled, but ultimately fled
• Day 27 had two encounters!; the first could have been avoided, but the PCs engaged with the titan:
  
• a major Greek titan en route to Tarterus, whom the PCs also received a friendly reaction roll from due to a potion of growth having been consumed during the mold battle (making their MU 24' tall)
• an astral deva, who provided the PCs with a potion of extra-healing (3 doses), and warned them of getting involved in the affairs of Shodreth Drachod, calling him "the gringling lich" (which unsettled the PCs mightily!)
• Day 28:  the PCs saw what seemed to be a raven in passing (but was in fact a shape-changed imp), but they did not engage it
• Day 32:  their phylacteries brought the PCs to Zjelwyin Fall, and the adventure began in earnest!
  

House Rulings in the Astral

During the course of play, various rulings were made that addressed gaps in how the Astral Plane works in AD&D:

• Time does not pass in the Astral, therefore spells with durations and potions are permanent so long as the PCs remain in the Astral Plane
• Because time does not pass, PCs do not bleed out if brought to 0 or fewer hit points; similarly, they neither enter a coma nor lose memorized spells while below 0 hit points, since no time passes
• Clerics of Celestian are able to recover spells once per day, as if the PCs were still in Greyhawk, because Celestian's home plane is the Astral
  
• Unseen Servant is a bit more versatile than I'd originally thought (and I already think it's the best first level spell in the books):  because Gary states that an unseen servant can "clean and mend" (mending being a pretty complex task), I allowed it to bind the wounds of an unconcious PC
  

There may be some other that I'm forgetting, but if so I'm sure my players will remind me and I'll update further.

New Magic-User Spell

I created this spell as a help for the PCs and placed it within Zjelwyin Fall, but they didn't find it---c'est la vie!  

Oshon Yanthû's Temporal and Material Encapsulation (Evocation—Conjuration, Alteration)

Level: 3 Magic-User (Savant 2?), (Cleric of Celestian 4)
Range: 0 or touch
Duration: Special
Area of Effect: Up to 1” radius/3 levels of caster OR 1 person + 1 per 4 levels of caster
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 6 Segments Magic-User or Savant, 8 segments Cleric
Save: None

Description:  Oshon Yanthû's Temporal and Material Encapsulation creates a bubble of native space-time normality within the Astral Plane, which allows designated spell casters within the area of effect to reset and regain spells via prayer and/or memorization.  Given that the passage of time is essentially meaningless in Astral space, the duration of the spell completes when all designated casters have completed their memorization activities.  

Oshon Yanthû's Temporal and Material Encapsulation will affect creatures travelling in the Astral Plane via silver cord (c.f., Astral Spell), or creatures travelling with their physical bodies (via gate, psionic Probability Travel, etc.), but not both.  The caster’s own Astral travel method determines which other casters may benefit from the spell.  In neither case does the spell enable contact with or access to deities or their agents, or to other planes otherwise normally inaccessible from the Astral. 

Notes:

1. Oshon Yanthû's Temporal and Material Encapsulation carries some risk for all Astral spell casters: 
• For silver-corded casters, the spell risks snapping their silver cord, calculated at 1% x the highest-level spell memorized (no risk/effect upon any non-spell-casters designated within the area of effect).
• For physical Astral travelers, the spell subjects them to the passage of time at normal memorization rates (see DMG page 40), including both time for sleep/rest, and prayer/memorization time.  So, they get hungry, tired, etc. as time passes.
  
2. If cast while upon the Prime Material Plane instead of the Astral Plane, then Oshon Yanthû's Temporal and Material Encapsulation suppresses the effects of time-related spells and effects within its area of effect, including haste, slow, aging (by spell-casting or ghost touch, etc.), staff of withering, potion of speed, etc.

The material component is a ribbon of the finest, stiffened black silk, inscribed with mercurial or platinum ink; it must be one foot long per level of the caster, at a cost of 50gp per foot.  Twisted into a Möbius strip, it is consumed during the casting.  For clerics of Celestian, their holy symbol (a black circle with seven stars) is also required, but neither the holy symbol nor the ribbon is consumed in the casting.

Modifications to Zjelwyin Fall for grodog's Greyhawk

Here's a distillation of my discussion on Anthony Huso's boards about my Greyhawk modifications to his adventure.

12 September 2021:  My Castle Greyhawk PCs were overdue, in one or two cases, to hit level four, so it's now or never, and I seeded the entry into Zjelwyin Fall in last night's session.  I have to figure out exactly how my background changes require me to rework the module (if at all), since the PCs will be acting as agents of the local clergy of Celestian and not looting the tomb, but instead retrieving an item stored there previously by mutual arrangement.

I haven't decided if they'll be charged to either 

• snag the item (a scroll or book of prophecy or something related) directly, or 
• wake the lich to donate two objects to him in order to remove their desired object, or  
• both (with #1 being the plan, and #2 the backup in case they awaken him or he is already awake)
  

They may also be protecting a pair of nubile twin acolytes (modelled off of the classic Virgin Records logos at https://rarerecordcollector.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/v-2012-kevin-coyne.png), but I haven't decided if keeping them alive may be too challenging or not....

I think that Shodreth Drachod (I added the "r" to the surname) has this working relationship with Celestian and his clergy, where Celestian helped to fashion and sustain Zjelwyin Fall and in return the lich helps to guard and secure items that he and his clergy wish to remain highly-secure.  

23 October 2021:  I'm doing 3 checks per day (every 8 hours = 3/day vs. every 4 = 6/day), with the total duration of the trip being [(2d20+4)x4 days] / 2 (due to the phylacteries, which they're wearing on their heads like diadem headbands, and which shoot out hot pink/ruby searchlight lasers to track and home in on ZF)

1 September 2022:  I'm thinking that Drachod (I added the extra 'r' in my version of his name) may offer help to the PCs out of desire for self-preservation (aka, the goodness of his heart ;) )---if their reaction rolls are good.  He acts as a custodian for prophetic lore from the clergy of Celestian, and in return Celestian helped to build ZF and still maintains it on Drachod's behalf.  So he has a vested self-interest to ensure that Celestian continues to invest that daily Primal flux into ZF. 

So the PCs will retrieve the prophecy previously-deposited* in ages past.  That they're pulling this particular prophecy (the sestina I emailed you) will pique his concern and curiosity, in particular if he notices one of the PCs carrying the lesser tentacle rod.  (In fact, he'll be far-more concerned about evidence that the drow attempted to infiltrate ZF and will immediately connect them to the prophecy, although he won't share that detail with the PCs, or Celestian).  Hence the help.  If he notices that, he may also geas the PCs to deliver a message to the Master at the NWI (which would be a handy way to introduce that into the game), or perhaps to Tenser, Iggwilv, or someone comparable (I haven't decided yet---he may just keep the info to himself, for the moment, too).  

* The PCs don't know this yet, but they're not just bringing back a scroll with the prophecy on it.  To retrieve the prophecy requires a virgin twin acolyte, and Drachod will kiss her to transfer it (sort of a cross between the Quickening from Highlander and the kiss of the angel Simon from The Prophecy).  Drachod himself is the storage device.  To deposit the prophecy into him (which the PCs are not doing) is a bit more intimate....  The twins are critical to the process:  the prophecy, while it is deposited into one of them, infects both:  so the twin who remains on the Prime also acts as a receiver for the prophecy, and gains access to it at the same time that the other twin in the Astral receives it from Drachod.  This ensures data availability for the priesthood in case the first twin doesn't successfully return home.  (The NPC twins naturally know nothing of this either). 

I also rewrote Drachod's poem at the pull-ring, recast with seven lines, each with one through seven syllables:

No mercy exists
before me
Open this door
to vanish forever
from Shodreth Drachod:  Gringling
King
am I

I hope that these will prove useful in your games.  Enjoy!

Allan.

Virtual GreyhawkCon - Day 1

 

 

 

I had a wonderful time at Virtual Greyhawk Con today!:

1. Friday afternoon I ran the first of four playtest sessions for the Iounic Vaults (two at vGHC, two at the upcoming TsunamiCon 2020 Virtual Con), and had a very fun time with a crew of eight players. They managed to almost recover The Ring of Gaxx, but didn't quite pull it out in the closing minutes of the session. Settling for the One Ring isn't a bad alternative, right?
   
   
2. After a quick pizza dinner, Carlos Lising of casl Entertainment ran his new Greyhawk scenario "Reflections from a Smoking Mirror" for five of us---a diplomatic rescue suicide mission from the beleaguered Free Onnwal to the Tuov in Hepmonaland, both mutual victims of the Scarlet Brotherhood.

Carlos' games are always fun, and he wove together the mythologies of Greyhawk and the Central American Aztecs into a seamless whole.

It's not often I get to nearly not-die while fighting the god of death, which is a great way to conclude a Friday night of gaming :D

 

Allan.

grodog's Castle Greyhawk - Campaign Journal 25 September 2020

We had an excellent Castle Greyhawk session last night, with some really fun roleplaying among the PCs and goblins in particular, which setup the rest of the session's action very nicely!  

 

 

After exploring into some waterway areas in Castle Greyhawk's level 1 dungeon, The PCs headed back to investigate a door under the entry stairs, discovering what may be a one-way door (the hard way).  Afterward, they explored a bit off of a Y intersection, and then met some local goblins in the other Y, and got in good with them through some judicious role-playing (and a charismatic half-orc and MU able to speak goblin).  It helped a lot that the PCs mentioned that they were a) a part of the Horned Society, and b) that they had recently routed a bunch of kobolds (back in March at the start of the game), which the goblins had been following up on.  

The goblin captain (Captain Nieder, pronounced like Needa ;) ) asked them to bring him the head of the Kobold King (who is now likely be be anagrammed from Yuri Gagarin, since "Bring me the head of Yuri Gagarin" is the title of an old Hawkwind bootleg from the Space Ritual era), which they agreed to do, at which point Captain Nieder will take them to meet the Goblin King ("down below").  

Now allied with Captain Nieder and his goblins (of the Moon Flayers tribe), he still wouldn't allow them into their "Echo Base" goblin territory, but did agree to take them through blindfolded to the eiger toll keepers (eiger = ogre in Greyhawk alternate races parlance), which would then allow them back south to go back after the Kobold King.

After blindfolding, the PCs were spun around, etc., and the long trek through the dungeon halls to the toll keepers was 250-400 feet or more.  The PCs were hands-free, and had a goblin hand-holder with each, and two additional goblins (including Nieder still). When they got to the eiger toll keepers, Nieder advised the PCs to be respectful.  And this is where things got very interesting:  the first WM check on the way passed uneventfully, but the 2nd came up positive (I had the PCs rolling the checks, including the actual monster and # appearing), as a 17 kobold war party coming into this section of the dungeon to (obviously) raid upon the goblins!!

A chaotic three-way battled ensued:  kobolds attacking everyone, ogres attacking kobolds (and perhaps goblins/PCs?), goblins and PCs attacking mostly-together vs. the kobolds.  And these were not your run of the mill kobolds either:  several leaders were garbed in strange carapace armor (from giant crabs slain near their lair earlier in the year by the PCs!).  

Round 1:  PCs have initiative but mostly hold actions, unsure what's going to happen; kobolds act 2nd, and charge everyone:  five of them significantly wound the first ogre, nearly kill the second one outright! (I rolled some very high damage rolls for them vs. the L-sized ogres), and nearly kill the PC MU (who's AC 10 and is now at 2 hp!).  The goblins and ogre kill a kobold or two.

Round 2:   Kobolds have initiative, coup de grâce the severely wounded ogre, hit the other one again, but miss the PC MU, wound another PC or two lightly, and fail to hit any of the goblins.  The surviving ogre acts next, kills a goblin and bellows for help---at the end of the round, 3 more ogres are coming to join the fray!  The goblins and PCs simultaneously act last, and battle kobolds while shifting position (goblins in response to a command from Captain Nieder) into a more defensive formation, but the PC MU misses with his shocking grasp attack on his kobold, too!

Round 3:  PCs act first, and drop some more kobolds (but none of the giant crab armored ones); the ogres kill 2 more kobolds---however the biggest ogre, while it hits one of the carapace-armored kobolds, it fails to kill it (!); the goblins kill some kobolds; the kobolds act last in the round, and with ~12 dead, their morale breaks and they flee (with only one fleeing-from-melee kobold being hit, and that not killing it).  

Round 4:  the goblins and kobolds act first (kobolds are now completely out of sight and retreating toward greener pastures!); at a command from Captain Nieder, the goblins shift into Sardaukar-like triads, with 2 set spears defensive and 1 ready to throw; the ogres are pissed of still, smash some dead and/or wounded kobolds, but do not attack the goblins or PCs (after some quick reaction response checks to Captain Nieder's speech); the PCs sheathe weapons and stand down.

After calming down a bit, and negotiating new toll rates with the "hoch eiger," the PCs exit the same way that the kobolds entered/fled, and the ogres close the portcullis, effectively cutting the PCs off in a completely new section of the dungeon, with no idea where/how to connects to what they've known to date.  

And that's where we left off :D

Allan.

grodog's Greyhawk Campaigns Updates

Life in the real world has been full of strife, chaos, madness, and the bat plague of late (to quote Gabor Lux!), so our escapism has been into the World of Greyhawk. 

 

Castle Greyhawk - The Boys over 4th of July Weekend

Fathers Day AD&D gaming coupons redeemed from the boys meant a return to the dreaded halls of grodog's Castle Greyhawk! =)

Unfortunately for the dungeon's inhabitants, the PCs plowed through most of them, then retreated back to the City of Greyhawk for healing.

The boys discovered a new entrance to lower levels via a trapdoor, but upon banging around on nearby barred doors, the PCs stir up more orcs, who sounded the alarm gongs, and began pursuit!

Spooked, the PCs bugged out via a secret door (seemingly unknown to the orcs), only to encounter a pair of shriekers in the main entry/exit hall, who in turn attracted a swarm of 20 kobolds. That engagement delayed their departure sufficiently long for the orcs to catch up, which is where we left things off for lunch....
 

The dragon mini (one of my favorite sculpts!) is a stand-in since I don’t have a black dragon that currently has attached wings, but you can never go wrong with Tom Meier’s work 🙂

The boys met this same dragon IRL several years ago, and fled from it quickly (they were particularly awed by it yelling at them, and the ranks of lizard men in front of it and charging in the PCs' direction!). 

This time they were prospecting the dungeon level with a wand of metal and mineral detection looking for more loot, when they happened upon it by chance 😉

 

Henry's Underground Mansion - 5 July 2020

Nominally set on an uncharted island in the Nyr Dyv, Henry's Underground Mansion mega-dungeon got reopened for business over the extended July 4th holiday weekend as well.  

His older brother Ethan and I delved into new portions of the second level that we'd not previously explored, and after running into some trouble there, encountered a red dragon while on our way back to the surface for some R&R!  

Thankfully, we managed to extract ourselves from the red dragon and high-tail it out of the dungeon.  The orcs that we'd recruited to assist in the battle with the dragon, however, didn't fare quite so well....

 

 

Castle Greyhawk - The Virtual GaryCon crew - 18 July 2020

I ran my Saturday night Castle Greyhawk crew last month and will return to it again this coming weekend (I cancelled the in-between session due to work insanities; this game began as a spur-of-the-moment virtual GaryCon 2020 event, and has continued since, although we missed the past few sessions). Only 3 players were able to attend, so they decided to seek out some mercs to beef up their numbers. Unfortunately their regular MaAs weren’t available, having taken on some caravan guard duty between Greyhawk and Dyvers when the PCs didn’t employ them for the past month of game time (we hadn’t played since 23 May!). 

So, they picked up a down-on-his-luck half-elf F/MU named Melkor who had been robbed by bandits when returning from Castle Greyhawk, and decided to see if they could help him recover his missing gear, including his spellbook.

They ran around in the city checking in with the Thieves Guild (possible lead/info, for 50gp that they didn’t pay), picked up an Amazonian Priestess of Heironeous at the local temple (Carlos is playing a Keeper of Daern), and checked in with the City Watch for news and possible bounties on bandits (30sp a head for a captured bandit).

They then returned to the scene of the crime to investigate around a bit, and then killed some time hanging around in the first outer ward of the Castle, figuring that the bandits were hitting adventurers on their way back to the City from the Castle. While there, they encountered a group of NPCs exiting the castle, and favorable reaction rolls and some diplomacy assured an easy “nothing to see here, move along” response. The players and the PCs seemed both to have been impressed by the NPCs’ use of an ogre as a porter, and noted the Bakluni holy symbols/raiment of two of their number; they were lead by a female mage named Kelurrin and her brother, another mage; a priestess of Zuoken, and a figure sporting robes of Istus wielding a spetum also stood out to the eye*.

After some further escapades, they tracked the bandits to a lair at the foot of the Castle’s tor, and attacked, capturing 5 and slaying 6 of the group of 12-15-ish foes. The session ended with them preparing to descend into the bandits’ cave to plumb its depths, where they hope to find Melkor’s missing spell book and some more loot. 

* Appearing in one of my contributions to the Saving Throw fundraiser zine for Jim Kramer.  Guy Fullerton and I were recently emailing about fixing some errata and getting the print version of it finalized.
 
This was the session summary written by James Hochmuth, who plays Eric the Thief in the game:

All,

Saturday night's game was fantastic!  We went into overtime and Allan's ability to keep the game focused with imagery, details and characters meant that the time just flew by without actually noticing how late it was!  Thank you for the extra time Allan!

Thank you for hosting the game Carlos on your Zoom account!

A short recap:

Josh is roleplaying Haj, Half-Orc Fighter
Carlos is roleplaying Corin, Human Paladin
I am roleplaying Eric, Half-Elf Thief

The three of us met up to head out to Castle Greyhawk, as it had been a month since our last visit with the giant crabs.  We discovered that our reliable Men-At-Arms were not available, out with other work.  But their Sergeant recommended someone else we could ask to accompany us.  We met at the inn Melchior, a Half-Elf Fighter Mage, who had been waylaid a week past by bandits on a return visit from Castle Greyhawk.  He had lost most everything to the Bandits, including his spellbook.  We decided that we would help him get his spellbook and belongings back from the bandits and he would offer his services to us in return.   After doing due diligence in the City, Eric asking the thieve's guild if the book had been pawned, Haj asking the town guards about bandit activity and rewards, and Corin seeking the help of a Cleric to accompany us.  We, as a group of five characters head out to hunt for the bandits and make our way to Castle Greyhawk.

We scout the terrain looking for possible ambush spots, look over the area that Melchior was ambushed and eventually head into the outer walls of the Castle, to have "Lunch".  It is what adventurers do right?  Have lunch inside Castle greyhawk!  It was in hopes that we would then either find the Bandits moving about the area, or lure them out to attack us when we leave injured after several hours within the walls.  However a mighty group of adventurers were exiting the castle as we were leaving.  When I say mighty...  They had an Ogre as a porter.  We parlayed with the group, ensuring our safety as they left the castle and headed back to the city.  We watched them travel into the woods and lost sight of them with no obvious signs of bandits pursuing them.

When we decided it was time to head out and see if we could convince the bandits, should they be watching, that we were easier prey and ambush us we made our way back towards the city.  Later on the road we ran into the fallen bodies of bandits, having been foolish enough to attack the previous party with the Ogre.  This gave us an opportunity to track their movements as wounded individuals had fled.  With some time we discovered their hideout in some woods and prepared our own ambush.  In the end two bandits fled and we took prisoner five individuals and learned that they have a cave not far away where they keep their loot, guarded by others.

As we make our way to the cave, we see that the entrance has been disturbed, presumably by the two bandits that fled the fight.   We enter hoping that what we seek, the spellbook, is still deeper in the cave.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  I enjoyed this session and look forward to others!

Respectfully,

James Hochmuth

Wichita Greyhawk - The Now-Virtual Crew 

Our other "regular" local game also got skipped the previous weekend due to work insanities on my party, but I hope to get us back on track the following weekend, too.

In the meanwhile, I started working up a detailed drill-down hex map for the central Flanaess surrounding the Nyr Dyv, which should keep me occupied for another two or three decades or so.

Bill Silvey's Monday Night Greyhawk Campaign - 20 July and 10 August

Our characters, after one beating too many, have decided to take a break from Bill's version of Castle Greyhawk (I suppose I should post some updated maps from our explorations there sometime, too!), and are pursuing a vision quest in the Abbor Alz, where a sage informed us that a legendary magical ring of invisibility might lie.

Here's a summary of that session, from Steve Smith, another player in the group:

Played in DungeonDelver's game on Monday, and it's heating up. In the previous session the party went to a sage looking for hints/legends of lost treasures that might contain a ring of invisibility, to add to our capabilities. We got a lead on a ransacked dwarven stronghold in the Abbor-Alz, and agreed to map and info gather for the sage while we were there. In that previous session we inflicted some blunt force trauma on the goblins and looted the chief's rooms before retiring with our encumbering gainz back to the men-at-arms and base camp.
So this session we were heading back to finish of the goblins and map the place, but of course in the day lost the remaining tribe had pepared some hasty defenses. Looking to find a way around them rather than waste hp on the strong point, we took another path and encountered a subterranean pond that we crossed on small boats. The next chamber was filled with mushrooms to the right, and ahead to the left there was another path that looked like it might circle around to a backdoor into the goblin area...but it seemed like there might be a crevice beyond the mushroom stand.

Checking that out we found some stairs heading down. That seemed more interesting, so we took that route. Halfway down we found a heavy bound door with dwarven runes conveying a warning to let what is beyond rest, lest unleashing a terrible force. The paladin of Wee-Jas detected for chaos and received a strong ping back from beyond the door.

We left it alone, at least for the moment, and continued down the stairs.
The stairs finally terminated in a deep underground cavern paved in cobblestones. It was far larger than our light sources would outline, and as we prepared to find the boundaries the group was ambushed by a group of displacer beasts! The heavy infantry out in front traded blows with the beasts, while the two illusionists in the group plumbed into their bags of tricks. My illusionist took out a viper carcass preserved in a bottle of strong brandy and, using an improved phantasmal force, began "stretching" it into a Conan-class serpent, throwning it among the cats in the following round - hoping (sort of) that these beasts would be familiar with/wary of gigantic snakes. The other illusionist cast a phantasmal killer spell at the cats.

The spells successfully wrecked havoc with the cats and broke up their attacks, causing them to break and run the next round. One died to the faux-bite of the viper, the phantasmal killer spell was likewise deadly, and the infantry scored more kills with their back attack bonuses.

With that resolved, we found some ruins farther up the cavern and investigated one, finding some inscriptions in the walls in old suloise, telling us they'd succumbed to some horror unleashed by themselves. That was the end of the night.

Looking forward to next week.

This is what I wrote after we played last night (10 August 2020, and I missed the 3 August session due to continuing work insanities):  Two weeks ago we discovered a lost city of ancient Suloise deep under the Abbor-Alz. It dates from the time of the Great Migrations, and our PCs were chased from it by a shoggoth! My paladin of Wee Jas will attempt to commune with the Ruby Queen to discover how to restore this site to her people....


I'm enjoying the many games, even if it's a bit hectic to juggle at times, along with the work insanities (which seem to be increasing in frequency rather than abating, as I reflect on this past month of gaming).

Allan.