Paizo Top Nav Branding
Welcome, guest! | Sign In | My Account | My Subscriptions | My Downloads | Shopping Cart   Shopping Cart | Help/FAQ
  Messageboards     News     Products     Resources  




Pathfinder Society
SEARCH


BROWSE
Shop

Messageboards

Journey to the Sea (a RIFTS campaign), 4 minutes ago by Valegrim

Things in Life That Suck, 14 minutes ago by Aberzombie

untitled, II, 8 minutes ago by Aberzombie

Happy Fourth of July, 14 minutes ago by Woodraven

Russia experiencing Depopulation, 11 minutes ago by Aberzombie

Higher Than Hope [a star wars saga by samerandomhero], 15 minutes ago by Hunter Var

First Pathfinder Licensee Pre-Order! TOME OF SECRETS, 16 minutes ago by Disciple of Sakura

J-Rod's Hollow's Last Hope, 17 minutes ago by The Keeper of the Tomes

Forums are Way Too Long!!!, 23 minutes ago by Lord Secretary War-Bucks

Barakus begins (Black Tom's Necro campaign), 27 minutes ago by Ka'kara Furyheart

PaizoCon UK, 28 minutes ago by Wellard

Nethys & Lesser Planar Ally, 28 minutes ago by tbug

Kerrigan's Keep Playtest-by-Post Discussion, 39 minutes ago by Ovirid Thorvirson

Reciprocity - A Dark Sun PbP, 40 minutes ago by James Keegan

SPOILERS - Players about to enter Spire in Alhaster - Problem, 48 minutes ago by DoveArrow

Dungeon / Messageboards / Age of Worms Adventure Path / Archives / Adventures mentioned in 130--where in Greyhawk?     Recent Posts
Adventures mentioned in 130--where in Greyhawk?
Rob Bastard,

Wild Watcher Finish avatar

In Dungeon #130, a number of artifacts from other Dungeon adventures are mentioned by Tenser (Manzorian). Three of these adventures, The Tomb of Aknar Ratalla (119), The Obsidian Eye (120), & The Quicksilver Hourglass (123), were considered "generic" at the time of publication, while the other adventures are set in Greyhawk. Where in Greyhawk do these adventures take place?

James Jacobs (Editor-in-Chief, Pathfinder),

Go L 68 Fiendish Tyrannosauru avatar

Rob Bastard wrote:
In Dungeon #130, a number of artifacts from other Dungeon adventures are mentioned by Tenser (Manzorian). Three of these adventures, The Tomb of Aknar Ratalla (119), The Obsidian Eye (120), & The Quicksilver Hourglass (123), were considered "generic" at the time of publication, while the other adventures are set in Greyhawk. Where in Greyhawk do these adventures take place?

They take place anywhere in Greyhawk you want, since their setting is left intentionally vague. They could even take place in different parts of the world, or even on other planes (such as the case with Quicksilver Hourglass).

Rob Bastard,

Wild Watcher Finish avatar

James Jacobs wrote:
Rob Bastard wrote:
In Dungeon #130, a number of artifacts from other Dungeon adventures are mentioned by Tenser (Manzorian). Three of these adventures, The Tomb of Aknar Ratalla (119), The Obsidian Eye (120), & The Quicksilver Hourglass (123), were considered "generic" at the time of publication, while the other adventures are set in Greyhawk. Where in Greyhawk do these adventures take place?

They take place anywhere in Greyhawk you want, since their setting is left intentionally vague. They could even take place in different parts of the world, or even on other planes (such as the case with Quicksilver Hourglass).

Imagine that. Well, what do you think is a good spot?

Erik Mona (Publisher),

Rel avatar

Rob Bastard wrote:
In Dungeon #130, a number of artifacts from other Dungeon adventures are mentioned by Tenser (Manzorian). Three of these adventures, The Tomb of Aknar Ratalla (119), The Obsidian Eye (120), & The Quicksilver Hourglass (123), were considered "generic" at the time of publication, while the other adventures are set in Greyhawk. Where in Greyhawk do these adventures take place?

"The Obsidian Eye" has a strong Ancient Egyptian character, so the best place to put it in a "canonical" Greyhawk campaign would probably be in the "Erypt" area from the map printed in Dragon Annual #1. This is a great distance from the Flanaess, of course, so some justification would have to be made for how Tenser came upon this information. Clearly, an archmage with business on outer planes would have much wider knowledge of his own world than the common adventurer, so it is not beyond reason that Tenser might track affairs in such a distant land. In fact, in the only first edition illustration of the archmage (in "Isle of the Ape") he is depicted as wearing a traditional Egyptian headdress, so perhaps there is some precedent for this idea!

"Erypt" is not assumed to be the name of this place, of course, and is meant as a cultural "place holder" for what is essentially a completely blank slate. You'll have to do a great deal of footwork to incorporate this realm into a Greyhawk campaign, but at the same time perhaps you have a great deal less work to do, since it is so distant that it need not fit into the established continuity of the setting. You can do what you want with it.

"Tomb of Aknar Ratalla" references an extremely ancient culture that is lost to history. The setting is a woodland, which removes candidates like the ancient Suel, and there is nothing in the adventure to suggest an Olman origin. I might consider the ancient Oeridians, who (like Aknar Ratalla's people) organized themselves into tribes and who set up lots of little kingdoms (like those of Lum the Mad, Tuerney, and the Aerdi themselves). That would place it somewhere in the realm once commanded by the Great Kingdom of Aerdy, at a suitably distant amount of time in the past to account for the somewhat more "mythic" element in the adventure's backstory. Putting it in the northern reaches of the Bone March might be fun, and would account for the presence of powerful savage humanoids in the adventure.

The Quicksilver Hourglass exists in the timevoid, a self-contained dimension with an unspecified relationship to the Great Wheel (but able to target it and thus presumably part of it). The gods associated with the adventure are not implied to be historical Greyhawk gods, or the pantheon of any cosmology familiar to the (epic) player characters. Its geographical placement within the context of the Flanaess is therefore moot.

--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dragon & Dungeon

Dungeon / Messageboards / Age of Worms Adventure Path / Archives / Adventures mentioned in 130--where in Greyhawk? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in, or create a new account.



©2002–2009 Paizo Publishing, LLC®. Need help? Email customer.service@paizo.com or call 425-289-0060 Monday–Friday, 10 AM–5 PM Pacific Time. View our privacy policy. Paizo Publishing, LLC, the Paizo golem logo, GameMastery, Pathfinder, Planet Stories, and Undefeated are registered trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC, and Pathfinder Chronicles, Pathfinder Companion, Pathfinder Modules, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Pathfinder Society, PAIZOCON, RPG Superstar, Titanic Games, the Titanic logo, and the Planet Stories planet logo are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC. Amazing Stories is a trademark of, and Dungeons & Dragons, Dragon, Dungeon, and Polyhedron are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used by Paizo Publishing under license. Most product names are trademarks owned or used under license by the companies that publish those products; use of such names without mention of trademark status should not be construed as a challenge to such status.