GrandMage's page

Hmm, i assume you are playing more in a canon-style greyhawk ...
remember, in greyhawk, magic is slowly fading away. Kinda like energy dissipating at an accelerating rate.

In some places, its frowned upon or banned (early keoland), for some people, its is seen as troublesome (barbarians), for the suel, it mostly ties in to their fate (wee jas being both magic and death). Non-suel mages would probably prefer the scholarly study neutrality of Boccob. It also means its easier to associate with other gods ... i can imagine a temple of heironious sharing locales with boccobians, if they serve "war-mages" ...

We know Zagig is a devout follower (not really boring is he ?), mordenkainen would be also, tenser probably was, then shifted to wee jas (his clone rejecting neutrality ...)
Some of his followers are oracles ... most are just interested in the "magic item creation" aspect. Clearly, he s not a wandering adventurers god .

He might encourage other gods to counter wee jas, though... ("restore the balance")
for example, im adapting B4 lost city to the sea of dust (sea of death-like). There s 3 insurgent ancient-suel deities opposing a monter cult :
Gorm, an early kord-like king-god,with aspects of thor (storms).
Madarua, a mayaheine-like maiden,with combat-oriented magic.
And Usamigaras, a halfling-like(child?) related to Norebo.
All are in conflict with wee jas because of the death aspect.
I made it so boccob helped Usamigaras attain godhood (yes, outside suel pantheon). something about creating magic (thief) items of great value.
Their powers all dissipated with the cataclysm, there was no point in wee jas dealing against this anymore. But in my set-up, its boccob clerics who lead parties to the city to fetch magic items off all 3.
Maybe that is kinda boring though,I guess it all depends on the scenario you apply it to. Boccob is the Beory of magic, i suppose.

Azure prince ? could this be the return of Raxivort ? you know, that blue skinned half-pint, lord of rats, were-rats ...
and xvarts (those wiped off the face of oerth by the new-edition virus).
who better to rally humanoids ?

Hmm, remember, this is from the perception of worker Dwarves, who ,obviously, piece together the frail stories that reach them , in the depths of the earth they toil in ...

Anyway, I think Slerotin might actually have turned himself into a vessel for Tharizduns aspect/avatar.
Soon to be overun & encased by a certain Tsojcanth ( ! ) using a certain Daoud artefact ... aided by a certain mad mage (is that possible ???)

thus creating a new secret order (of tsojconth ...?) to guard this foul being , forever in shadow ...

Maybe even accepting the help of a certain Witch to move this entity from that mountainous cave (hellfurnaces ?) to a dedicated shrine & underground complex , in an area no bakluni nor enemy suel would ever think to look ...

The witch merely wanting to study the phenomenon, of course. She would not have the adepts of this sect eliminated, ...

or would she ???

Hmmm

Ive recently thought of writing a GH based novel & figured I should kinda spice it up a bit. Just to tie things tighter together in what is now canon ...
One anecdote goes as follows: Captured by Wastri followers, two copper dwarves from perrenland reveal to their co-prisonners their view of the twin cataclysms.
Out of despair, Slerotin would have turned to Tharizdun (Dark Arcanum...) somehow summoned the Tarasque (the unique COAL Dragon in dwur lore) & conjured it to dig the tunnel, survive that and lead the suel to safety !!!
Captured by bakluni mages, HE would have been encased in some magical seal-stone & brought back north.
This is my view of who is buried in WG4.
Is this too much of a Twist ???

Hell no! it took me all i had to make it into this world FROM there. Let em live in their own little world!

I really miss magic though ...

& dragons ...

& all the rest ...

I guess i cant use my real name in this world,
but thats ok...

ZAGIG

Hmm,

I suppose the "canon" of the past will always be there to haunt this game. To me Greyhawk was an enigma, and being DM ment having to answer player queries ...

all these years later, that imaginary history help to consolidate what little we knew( or where curious about) and has at last progressed into "common knowledge amunst players".
Now, IUZ is more than just some unappealling spot on a map...

I still have plenty of modules that never made it to gameplay - both my Hidden shrine of Tamoachen & Ghost tower of inverness will be reshaped into major parts of my AoW campaign. (that Olman Coualt has soo much to say, after all these years of no one to talk to ...)

As it stands, im 35 - Dming for my son,nephews & cousins.
Im the one who has to fit it into my schedule, but knowing what i do of GH alows me to start from scratch with near zero prep & pull off something fresh .
(they all an idea who was jaroo , otis & the others from ToEE - but the role play of them is what drives it home)

Plus, most classics have become simple paperback novels (closer to my kind of DMing anyway...)

In my view, you still get more xp from NOT rolling the dice.

Its not that bad though, they've tried to bring it to the 3e players, who dont know (care ?) about what came before ...

At least, its NOT old farts like me, "kicking it OLD school" with strict 1e rules & modules .

I started in 83 & grew out of it all by 89 (2e really sucks) .

I fondly remember weekly All-nighter with ToEE,Slavers & queen of spiders super-modules. Aah, those where the days...

But that was the eighties, when i was carefree, had spare time to ponder on whatever i wanted & didnt mind spending all the coin i could assemble on this stuff.

The very concept of Fantasy IS nostalgia. I.E. revising mid-evil life, from its realistic, day-to-day hardship to dreamy impossibilities like magic, "monsters",other worldly travels, etc ...

All the time suspending your disbelief...

(thats why Murlynd didnt have pistols in our campaigns, nor did we go to the barrier peaks - OUR choice)

This Age of Worms has brought me back though. This time around, prep work for DMing is something i would look forward to ...(not dread, as in my younger years)

the whole background of GH is rock solid now - it was a shaky, hardly defined, mish-mash back then.

Nostalgia of those who "filled in the gaps" now floods the web. hence the whole idea of even continuing D&D ...

- Zombie Ninja Cowboy Pirates - oh my ....

Are these Rhenee by any chance ? or how bout Lendorian exiles ?

anyway

Is it just Me or are APs getting bigger and bigger ?( in scope & in size )

I like this aspect of the adventure, don't get me wrong. I also realize that the party SHOULD be able to prevent this. But, uh, what are we, as DMs, to do if they fail (provided they make it out of the arena alive)? This could not only end the AoW (since trying to stop all the wights and still dealing with the impending return of Kyuss would be very difficult), it could majorly derail the campaign world, when one of its largest cities is over run by many thousands of undead. Just an observation. Thoughts?

Consider this ; its THE city for the top (best ?) CLERICS, PALADINS, and even necromancers...

Ultimately, Control over Undead is still possible... surely some Artifact would come up quite usefull (crook of rao from mitrik, with visiting Riggby ???)

Beyond surprise, the population there is the better equiped to deal with the situation of all the realm ....

As stated elsewhere, it would only bring higher authorities into play, seeking out WHO whould let this happen (or fail to stop, as the case may be ...)

How would the players manage to go on & evade that Lynch mob ?

Well,
how bout a wandering priest of Nerull ? I consider them to be necromancers-at-large, willing to do the deed for free (obviously getting the raised corpse to eventually turn on his party)

of course, this implies the party is willing to deal with a death-master, they will encounter his "work" either guarding their creator or terrorizing their surroundings.
(think more ghosts & ghasts than zombies & skeletons)

... Just a thought ...

Whoa - so many memories

I cant recall offhand my first - back in 83 with the basic set.
I do remember slashing troglodytes & think ing …yuck!>

I also made a mage, Morrenveil, to kinda compete with Gygax s supreme pc. Id think up new spells & even designed my own castle too !

Then I became the DM
& had fun till the 2nd ed. just turned me off altogether-

So im back 15 years latter ...