Greyhawk: Barbarians Campaigns and Adventures

Greetings Greyhawkers! As I go into another week of Legends & Lore on Twitch, we are about to discuss the topic of Barbarians in the Flanaess. Luckily for me I did a post on this back in 2016. It's not much really, but the barbarian north in particular has always been a favorite of mine. 

One of my best, longest running campaigns during 2E was set in the Thillonrian Peninsula and was built off the 1983 boxed set and the Five Shall Be One story line to some degree. You may have even recently read about some of my war accounts out of the barbarian lands. In-between those huge meta-plots was some good campaign development by me and my players including custom hex maps of the Cruski and parts of Schnai and Fruz lands (will probably feature those another day) and a ton of NPC rules, heroes and henchmen. I bring all this up because I've coincidentally started to run my game group in the Thillonrian Peninsula again for 5E. As such, I'm dusting off my maps, looking at my old notes and even going over fan community resources, like these links to barbarian articles on Canonfire. 

Another amazing resource I rediscovered is a 3.5E adventure from Dungeon #133 titled Ill Made Graves. Written in 2006 by Kevin Carter (art by Steve Ellis and map by Rob Lazzaretti), this work almost slipped by me, I'm assuming because it was in the same issue as the ongoing AP Age of Worms. When not hyping their APs, Paizo used to do a lot of fringe Greyhawk modules during 3.5E like Maure Castle, it's extended levels, the Sehan and Istivin mini-series, and so forth. Ill Made Graves however wasn't afforded a tag saying its Greyhawk, instead it's promoted as a D&D adventure for any setting. True enough, but once you read the opening boxed texts you find its firmly set in the Ice Barbarians with Cruskii NPCs and plot to boot.

The module is adapted from the story of Beowulf as Bowenwar, the shield bearer of deceased King Lolgoff Bearhear tells the tale of the red dragon Oroshar (Dawn-Scorcher in Fruz) who came to lair in a sea cave on the Icy Sea. When the dragon went on a rampage, it is King Lolgoff who slays the beast at the cost of his own life. As the Cruskii prepare for a hero's funeral pyre, they learn the Frost Barbarians are preparing to invade since the Cruskii are weakened and a dragons' unguarded treasure hoard to plunder. There is a complication and Oroshar's lair must be visited again, this time by the PCs in order to save the Ice Barbarians.

One hook listed here mentions "a southern kingdom" that fears the power vacuum left by the kings death will result in the unification of the barbarians which in turn will lead to more raids on them. The PCs are sent to make sure the Cruskii remain independent and to spy on the situation. This is clearly the Great Kingdom, and fun because the events of Five Shall Be One/Howl From the North teased the barbarian unification as well, and of course failed to follow through. Now its uniting the barbarians through regular internal strife. 

The adventure involves an awesome funeral scene set in Lolgoff's "birth-city" of Jotsplat, some cold forest overland travel and a dungeon crawl, leaving an impending war up to the DM which is okay. Now in hindsight of fourteen years, I wonder why Graves was not given Greyhawk recognition? It's clearly well-written and designed. It lacks any Greyhawk map reference, no Thillonria (see below), nor Jotsplat, only a serviceable lair map. This shouldn't be surprising since as I mentioned earlier, the bulk of Paizo's effort was their Age of Worms AP cartography. Having a map would've helped a reader understand where and how the Frost Barbarians will attack the Ice for instance. And the module says the PCs cover 100 miles of forest to the dragons lair. That seems accurate going from Jotsplat the the Icy Sea, though the closest actual forest is the Sable Wood.

At any rate, Ill Made Grave's other curious snub was that it didn't interfere with published Greyhawk continuity. The Living Greyhawk campaign was still alive at that point, but the barbarian lands were not a playable region. Also head-honchos Mona and Jacobs would surely not have overlooked the content of this module when publishing it. Given they did green light this, they must not have had any short term plans for the barbarians since their next AP was Savage Tide set in the south. Now according to the LGG which is set in 591 CY, Lolgoff is still king of the Cruskii, so I must assume Mr. Carter's story of dragons, heroic death and a pending barbarian war, unfolds in the post LGG timeline. I would love to ask Mona or Jacobs why this module wasn't given a Greyhawk stamp of approval. Was killing off a big name ruler and starting a war too much timeline meddling for a simple module? Well at least, the content was left as the author intended. 

That's all for now. I may post more of my own home campaign material set in the Thillonrian Peninsula in the coming months. Until then, let me know if there is any other good sources I missed?