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)!

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.