Ring of Five Questions: Round 5

Greeting Greyhawk faithful. If you've been following, this is the fifth round of my ongoing Return of the Ring of Five Questions column! If you're coming into this column for the first time this is a community participation feature of Greyhawkery. Go back and read the previous installments then email me at mortellan@gmail.com with your five responses. Remember, you can be as short or wordy as you like in these responses. Also, I will keep taking entries until the end of 2020 so hang in there, I will get to your answers eventually! 

Now, let's jump into the Ring, this round I am putting two of my very best Greyhawk friends up for your entertainment; Carlos Lising of Casl Entertainment is among many community contributions, a producer of amazing adventure modules and a Greyhawk streamer on Twitch. Then there is Jayson King who has been my best friend and brother since well, forever and he is my longest running player having been involved in every one of my Greyhawk campaigns. Jayson has contributed to Canonfire before, we were both on the podcast Gamerstable and he is best known on Greyhawkery as the player of the famous barbarian hero Valkaun Dain. All three of us have hung out, ate, drank and gamed together, and despite Carlos being a Blackhawks fan, Jayson and me still like him! But enough pleasantries, let's see how these two really match up! Enjoy.

Q1. What is your favorite realm or region in the World of Greyhawk setting?

Carlos: Fireland, outside of the Flanaess. Perrenland, within it.

Jayson: Rhizia, the whole Thillonrian Peninsula. I’ve sailed it’s fjords and climbed its mountains so many times in my imagination that I know it well. My DM, my good friend Mike Bridges aka Mortellan, let me put my stamp on it in our campaign. It was my own corner of the map.

Good ol Carlos and Fireland, his vision of that place far exceeds anything I've done with Ull. Someday you'll see what I mean! Now Perrenland I can get behind, knowing him like I do, he really likes the modules set in/around the Yatils. Speaking of Suel barbarian culture, Jayson and I have indeed used the peninsula, mainly through his PCs Vorlag and Valkaun, waging wars often, and he had creative license for that corner of the map. For example, check out Jayson's power group the Night Shadows.

Q2. If you could actually be one Greyhawk deity which one would it be?

Carlos: It's hard to relate to the gods from a mortal perspective. So I would probably pick a Demigod or Hero-God. Maybe Rudd?  I like her portfolio. Otherwise...Tharizdun. As bleak as it is, all things eventually bow to entropy.

Jayson: Kelanen, the Prince of Swords. Only a “Hero-God” but he’s so cool. Hangs with Zagig, Heward, Murlynd, Keoghtom, to capture Iuz? Sign me up!

Tharizdun How poetic. I'll pretend I didn't see that lol. I do find it fun that Carlos wants to be Rudd and Jayson picked Kelanen. I suddenly want to run a one-shot team-up with those two playing the hero-deities. It would have to be an epic level scenario of course. But who would be the villain, hmmm.

Q3. You have one wish. Which Greyhawk module or accessory would you do over or fix?

Carlos: Heh. Essentially, I AM doing them over!  ;) Gimme a crack at Q1. That's such a bad ending to a legendary series.

Jayson: I hated the intended ending of the Five Shall be One, but good ol Mike made it better. I’d love to play the Greyhawk Ruins (WGR1) again. We had a blast with it back in the day.

Ah yes WGR1, we played that cover to cover (minus a spelljammer). Jayson is definitely right that FSBO had a terrible payoff (nevermind the Greyhawk Wars). When I rebooted it for the Sea Princes I think that gave the Blades of Corusk a new purpose. If you're curious, find the links in my Best of Greyhawkery at the top. Carlos of course would know something about taking old material and making it his own. His take on Markessa is the stuff of legend. You can find her module series and more on his Casl Entertainment link at the top of the post. I never ran Q1 for Jayson so he probably doesn't relate to Carlos' disappointment. However, maybe a re-write by Carlos into a stand-alone module could make it palatable. 

Q4: You're putting together an all-star Greyhawk NPC group. Who is your number one pick?

Carlos: It's attractive to say Mordenkainen, but that's a sucker pick.  Far too unreliable.  Instead, give me Gwydiesin of the Cranes.  A 30th level Bard with a staggering array of magical items, aligned with the cause of good?  I can live with that.

Jayson: Knight Stalker - Mike’s nPC creation that was a badass. He used uzi’s and MAC-10’s, had a tri-bladed sword and, for a little while anyway, Excalibur. He was not a good guy, as the name implies, but he got the job done. He’d destroy Robilar, Quij and all of these other poseurs you other guys keep mentioning. I said what I said.

Carlos does appreciate the Sargent era and I'm sure he will be the only person to pick Gwydiesin a member of the obscure Johydee's Children. I wonder if Carlos' extended team would be the other Children? At any rate that's definitely an inspired choice for a #1 pick. 30th level Bard, not bad, but looks like Jayson's calling out my old PC/NPC Stalker, a fighter 35/ thief 5, you can read about this monty haul character from our youth here. Yeah our campaigns tended to get high level from 1E era all the way through 3rd edition. I'm guessing Jayson picked my guy because Valkaun would want KS on his side instead of against him! And yes, the tri-blade sword Jayson mentioned IS that sword.

Q5. If you could possess one artifact or relic from Greyhawk lore, which would it be?

Carlos: First: Let me go on record as saying I want NONE of them. Artifacts are far too dangerous and their side effects too onerous for my tastes. That said, if I had to choose...give me the Helm and Wand of Lynerden the Spinner (from Ivid the Undying). They came from a mage of goodly demeanor..so I'm hoping they won't wreck me TOO badly (plus, that Limited/Full Wish ability is awfully nice...).

Jayson: The Invulnerable Coat of Arnd. It would go well with Blackrazor, which a character of mine, Zholtan Bedlam, currently possesses. Can’t wait to get back to that campaign.  

True facts, Jayson's character has been unstoppable with Blackrazor. Now he wants an Invulnerable Coat too? Bahahaha. Zholtan Bedlam eh? I think I found a villain for my Rudd-Kelanen game! A lot of people however do seem to want Arnd's Coat IRL. Count me in. Finishing off this enjoyable round of the Ring, Carlos goes to Ivid once again for an obscure set of artifacts I'm sure few have used (including me). He would be aghast if Jayson was an unkillable machine with a soul-sucking sword, so I hope he could put his Good artifacts to use and wish the Invulnerable Coat and Blackrazor away! ;)  

Well folks, I'm exhausted and embarrassed. Carlos has seen how over the top I run my games, and Jayson now has some new ideas. Greaaaat. Stop in again folks, as two more people will enter the Ring!