New Article: Artifacts of the Ages

Over at Wizards, D&D historian Shannon Appelcline has a new article posted for your perusal that looks into one of my favorite subjects, the long publishing legacy of many notable artifacts and relics. Most of these of course are near and dear to the Greyhawk setting. Whether you're an old school Greyhawk fan or new to D&D and want to know the origins of these popular named magic items, then go and check out this well written article by Mr. Appelcline.

Week of Vengeance: Cultists

Welcome back readers! Today at Greyhawkery, I present a special treat, it's a new project I joined along with some fellow gaming bloggers:

To better explain what this project is all about see what Jens D. has to say:

"Some of you might remember the Dungeons & Drunkards Weekend initiated by Charles Akins back when (if you've never heard of it, feel free to check out that first link leading you to a pdf leading you to enlightenment ...). Well, we had so much fun, we started another project and took some more people on board to write about another topic: Vengeance! And since we are a bunch of creative bastards with too much time on our hands, we made a whole week out of it. The fun starts at Monday and it's two post a day until Thursday and one brutal coup de grace on Friday. We'll have it all, tables, short stories, advice for your games, you name it! I'll update this post as soon as the posts start hitting the ground ..."

Participating this time are (in order of initiative):
+Travis Milam with his blog The Rambling Roleplayer
+Alasdair Cunningham with his blog Iron Rations
+Mike Bridges with his blog Greyhawkery
+Mark Van Vlack with his blog Dust Pan Games
+Jens D with his blog The Disoriented Ranger
+Stelios V. Perdios with his blog The Word of Stelios
+Charles Akins with his blog Dyvers
and last (but not least) +Sean Bircher with his blog Wine and Savages

Anyone who reads my work will know I'm a Greyhawk fan first and second a comic artist. To that end I present the return of my favorite Greyhawk comic duo, the Cultists of Tharizdun! What sort of murder and mayhem will they get into? Check it out and be sure to check the blogs of those writers who are ahead and after me in initiative order!

Update 06/09/2021: Removed all Google+ links. A couple of the bloggers are no longer active. Also, bonus long-form Cultists comic that you will find nowhere else!

Click to enlarge

Greyhawkery Update

Howdy folks, it's been a slow, hot, lazy week so I got nothing new or important to talk about, technically. I will have more posts in the week to come, about my new campaigns and maybe even a comic strip! Also I need to start gearing up for GenCon, namely my idea for a short Greyhawk questionnaire I'd like to conduct while I'm there meeting other fans. Stay tuned!

Underrated Greyhawk in Dungeon Magazine

I've been going back through some old Dungeon mags from my favorite era, which I affectionately call Paizohawk. Paizo Publishing ran Dungeon from around 2002 to 2007 and in that amazing span of only 5 years they made some incredible strides in adventure design and their Adventure Paths have led directly to their ongoing success with Pathfinder to this day. Greyhawk saw alot of play during this period and APs like Age of Worms, Savage Tide and ongoing mega-dungeon Maure Castle are among the best adventures I've played and I still go to them to mine for stuff in my own campaigns.

Even with all the epic modules they put out there was even more Paizohawk created during this time that maybe didn't get all the attention back then. Here is a look back on some (but certainly not all) lesser known Greyhawk adventures:

Touch of the Abyss was published in Dungeon #117 and had a companion setting article about Istivin the capital of Sterich. The adventure investigates a shadowy evil plaguing the city that eventually leads the heroes into the Underdark. This was actually part of a three part mini arc followed in subsequent issues by Shadows of the Abyss (#118) and Wrath of the Abyss (#119) all by author Greg A. Vaughan.

Dungeon #118 also included a charming adventure by John Simcoe titled Throne of Iuz. The blurb on this one is amusing enough to peruse:

"A complex backstory elevates a simple toad into an intelligent, malign monstrosity in the service of Iuz, who is creating a powerful magic item to subjugate the Vesve."

Lost Temple of Demogorgon in issue #120 followed on the Abyss series. This blurb is worth mentioning too:

"Ogres in demon armor have been spotted in the hills near Irongate. When the PCs investigate they discover a ancient temple, and a death knight facing a dilemma."

They had me at ogres in demon armor. This high-level stand-alone adventure is by veteran author Sean K. Reynolds and is set in the Iron Hills. Is it possible that this mod inspired the Demogorgon angle in Savage Tide a year later?

Seeds of Sehan by array of authors including B. Matthew Conklin III and Tom Ganz is another highly unlikely three-part Greyhawk series that begins in and around the city of Exag in the Yatil Mountains. When I say they were unlikely it's because the adventures ran co-currently with the ongoing major AP Savage Tide also set in Greyhawk. The modules were in issues #145 (Vile Addiction), #146 (Spawn of Sehan) and concluded in #147 (Dread Pagoda of the Inscrutable Ones). Part 1 also included a companion piece that details the mysterious town of Exag.

In the Shadows of Spinecastle is another underrated stand-alone adventure by Gary Holian and Stephen Greer. Set in Bone March, this mid-level module was featured in issue #148 and was important because it was published just in time since Paizo lost their license to the magazines and ended their run just two issues later.

The one thing all of these modules have in common is I never ran them. The length of time devoted to the various APs and Maure Castle made it impossible, but I do mean to say I enjoyed each and every issue mentioned above; and I certainly always looked forward to the next because Paizo was an integral part of the Greyhawk community. Paizohawk was an era that we will probably not see the likes of again.

Annual GenCon Greyhawk Meet Up

Hey fellow members of the Greyhawk community I have an open invitation for you! If you are an avid Greyhawk fan and you are going to be at GenCon in Indianapolis this year, a handful of us who are regular attendees are trying to expand our annual meet-up. This year we have the added benefit of the Greyhawk Reborn crowd hosting a ton of games at GenCon and I'm quite sure mapping goddess Anna Meyer will be there as well. Who wouldn't like to share their stories of Greyhawk past, present and future?

The get together is Friday evening, 6 o'clock at the JW Marriott's restaurant (I believe it's called High Velocity). There is also a discussion thread at the Canonfire forums if you'd like to say hi beforehand and let us know who you are. As GenCon is a busy place and scheduling things can go awry, you can contact me a couple other ways if you are interested.

My email is: mortellan@gmail.com
I'm also on Twitter: @GreyhawkMike

Check it out, or if you aren't big on drinks and dining look for the Greyhwk Reborn crowd (also at the JW Marriott I think) all convention-long to see what the spiritual successor of Living Greyhawk looks like.

Update 06/09/2021: Removed G+ link, updated my Twitter handle and Anna's website URL.

Castle Greyhawk: Group Search

Welcome back Greyhawk maniacs! After last week I'm quick to promote a new page in the third chapter of our ongoing Castle Greyhawk graphic novel. Check out page twenty-one and follow some witty banter by fiction fabricator Scott Casper. On our site you can also check the archives and follow the entire Castle Greyhawk story from the very beginning.

Artist's Commentary: This page was a nice study on lighting from multiple angles. There is Tenser's light spell on the ceiling and Serten's Light coin in his hand. Terik is coming in from another angle in the pit where there may still be light from above. I love the way the light from the wand-room plays off his armor. (I wonder who is guarding the way back out now?) Then there is the final panel which is a rather interesting POV for the story; Scott is always thinking of new composition tricks.

In case anyone missed it in page 20, Murlynd's metal wand is a flat-head screwdriver. I figured, given his anachronistic history in Greyhawk he would have a magic wand like that. 

That's all for now, stay tuned to see if they solve the magic guarding this new wand.

Castle Greyhawk: Wands and Wards

Well met Greyhawk fans! I'm about a week behind in promoting the new page in the third chapter of our ongoing Castle Greyhawk graphic novel. Check out page twenty and follow some lead-in words by tall tale teller Scott Casper. On our site you can also check the archives and follow the entire Castle Greyhawk story from the very beginning.

Artist's Commentary: This page like many before it was a pleasure to create. I don't think I've ever focused much on wands as treasure before in my art or in D&D for that matter. For me they're tools (more along the lines of Murlynd's wand) rather than objects of importance to be put on pedestals. Of course in the last decade I've seen this wand attitude change since the Harry Potter saga. The wand in this story must be important then if a magic effect of some sort is protecting it, right? Stay tuned and find out!

p.s. I like the sound effect FASSSH! Very comic booky. ;)