Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Mordenkainen's Book is Back?!

For the love of Pelor! As I had reported previously around Gencon last year, Wizards announced one barely Greyhawk-related product for 2011, a magic item book aptly named Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium. Then less than a year later they announced it was canceled. Well it's Gencon time again and looky looky what's back on the release schedule for September 20th, 2011:


 Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium "A wondrous collection of magical treasures for any campaign"

A recent article on Wizards' website details all the upcoming Aug-Sept products. Scroll on down to the entry on Mordy's book and see what they got going:

"Well, we wanted to finish with a bang. As has recently been announced, Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium has returned as a print product, and it's jammed full of items -- magic items, to be sure. You'll find plenty in the book for every character, whether you're looking for the armor of dogged grit, robe of useful items, or even plate mail of etherealness; new superior weapons, flame tongue or frost brand swords; or wondrous items such as a decanter of endless water, crystal ball, or Daern's instant fortress!"

Ah nice, Daern's Instant Fortress. I'm anxious to see how it gets 4e-ified.

"But wait, there's more!
You can add new artifact and story items, mundane adventuring gear, and hirelings and henchman to your game."

Hirelings and Henchmen in a magic item book? Okay...intriguing if only for the fact I can see henchmen as something Mordenkainen would know about.

"But that's not all.
You'll also find cursed items in this book. For fans of items with some extra roleplaying potential, here's how they'll work...
Cursed magic items were a mainstay of older editions of the Dungeons & Dragons game, much to Dungeon Masters' delight and players' occasional frustration. Items that hold curses seem just like normal magic items. They are, in fact, perfectly useful magic items in their own right. Under certain conditions, however, the dark magic of an item's curse causes the item to fail or malfunction in some spectacular way."

So now Mordy's shop is selling cursed items? Say it ain't so! Humor aside, this is another topic Mordenkainen would know about so it fits the theme of the book. I still rankle at the thought of Greyhawk's #1 wizard being reduced to having his name put on a magic item shop. I mean, if Greyhawk was ascendant, we wouldn't be seeing a book called Elminster's Exalted Boutique.

Oh yes, speaking of Elminster, he has another new novel mentioned in the same article:

Bury Elminster Deep
"Elminster's archenemy, the vampiric Lord Manshoon, thinks he has destroyed Elminster at last. But Elminster survives in the form of magical ash, and with the help of his scion and the vestige of the long-dead goddess of magic, he still has a chance to counter Manshoon's insidious plots."

Sentient ash? For the love of Mystra, let the guy rest Ed!

Update 4/18/2021: Again, I've removed 4E article and product links because Wizards moved on. I'm sure PDFs of the products can be bought, and print on demand. 

5 comments:

Lee B said...

All the Greyhawk heroes must now shuck the 4E replacements or be chained to 1000 pounds of unsold Hasbro toys and thrown in the Nyr Dyv.

Mike Bridges said...

Hah, weird. A thousand pounds of Hasbro toys might float actually. Then again, if they are painted in China like most our toys they might be more lethal if they were force fed to GH's heroes.

Anonymous said...

You mean Elminster is going to become a merchant too?

Only fair, I suppose. Can't have Elminster doing nothing while Mordy's making all that money!

Is WotC ever going to get anything right?

Just asking. LOL

Mystic Scholar

Mike Bridges said...

*Light Bulb!*

Gamerstable Eric said...

Mord might as well be selling trinkets, they certainly haven't used him to sell Greyhawk to any new fans.

Until they (or someone else) writes a compelling novel about him, he will always reside in Elminster's shadow.