Castle Greyhawk: Day's End

Page eight of the Castle Greyhawk graphic novel adaptation is now available at our official blog where you can read it from the beginning.

You can also download the latest episode here, courtesy of Maldin's Greyhawk.

Commentary: This page was fun to put together. A) It had less dialogue, not that I mind wordy pages, but it just leaves more room for art. B) The city scenes while alot of work are starting to grow on me. Of course the comic is "Castle" Greyhawk not Greyhawk City, so I'm pretty sure we'll be leaving that soon. C) Scott Casper's direction doesn't need alot of dialogue sometimes. He always has good ideas for visuals that speak for themselves be it through a bit of humor, homage or mood. This page has it all!

Happy Mother's Day...

 


...to witch-queen IGGWILV, mother of Iuz, demigod of evil and his half-sister the vampiric vixen Drelzna. Whether going by the name Hura, Louhi, Ichbilch or Wilva - no woman in Greyhawk canon has done more to build up and support her family. From conquering Perrenland to exacting revenge on her children's deadbeat fathers to penning a best-selling series of Demonomicons, Iggwilv is always in the background scheming for the future. Not even death or imprisonment in the abyss can keep this ambitious mother down.

Iggwilv's legendary rise to Greyhawk infamy is especially remarkable when you consider she was once just plain Natasha, a simple village girl. That is until the day she was "adopted" by her new mother, the Mother of All Witches, Baba Yaga. Raised in the Dancing Hut, along with her goody-two-shoes sister Elena the Fair, the girl became Natasha the Dark. Now trained in the arts of magic, demonology, and womanly wiles, Natasha was unleashed upon Oerth by her foster mother. It is not recorded what happened afterward to Elena or any of the young witches who surely came before and after them, but it's safe to say Iggwilv is Baba Yaga's greatest legacy.

Iggwilv has always been a major interest in both my Greyhawk campaigns and my old Greyhawk comic. Here is a few highlights from her comedic misadventures:

Debut in the comic
Iggwilv cameo in Dungeon #149
Iggwilv's Legacy
Greyhawk Grumbler tie in
Twelve Days of Needfest

Sea Princes #31: Enemies and Allegiances

Welcome back to the high seas adventures of the Sea Princes. Last we saw, the crew of the Bird of Prey, (now captained by Victor Hammond) and Osprem's Kiss were headed back to Narisban for supplies before their long-awaited journey to find the Well of All Heals. An ill-fated storm had separated them however. Meanwhile Henri and Brother Pickles were rescued from a raft by the very privateers that had marooned them weeks ago. Things were about to get much worse. Here are our protagonists:

Victor Emmitt Hammond (rogue, dashing and debonair.)
Araxo Tydan (rogue, daunting and daring.)
Cuahtehmoc aka "Cuahto" (ranger, dutiful and durable.)
Brother Pickles (cleric, dumb yet dependable.)
and Henri Morgan (rogue, dodgy and death-defying.)

A mere day before the Keoish privateer Lydia's Light arrived back at the marooning isle, Osprem's Kiss had stopped by at Rennaud's request. He was worried about the offensive, marooned noble Lord Ronaldo Key and convinced Captain Cassidy to check on him before making port in Narisban. A search party consisting of Skullbreaker, Sasha Dirk, Half-Pint Moira and couple of Ospremites guarding the sage Olfon Trebus found the sea cave containing the body of Lord Key. After slaying an ambushing four-armed girallon with relative ease (Olfon shot it in the eye with a crossbow), they investigated Key's cave. All of Lord Key's possessions were gone including his shoes and Sir Aris' silver owl necklace which had led to his marooning in the first place. Marked on the wall of the cave, they discovered a cryptic message left by Key (which had incidentally been overlooked by Henri and Pickles):

"Whosoever finds my last request - Tell Margot in Baymouth to look behind her."

Key was properly buried by the Ospremites and with this grim information in hand they returned to their ship and continued on to Narisban to wait for Cpt. Hammond and the Bird. In Narisban the crew met a certain drunkard named Ellis Blackwood who claimed to have recently escaped a tiny island by raft and had some harrowing tales of pirates, four armed apes and an addled sea barbarian. Cpt. Cassidy was troubled by this especially since her crew had not found any other life on that island. She promised to return with the Bird and check again for their comrades.

As Osprem's Kiss sat in port, two other ships arrived at Key's Isle for the same reason. The Bird of Prey led by Captain Hammond and Lt. Tydan chose to pickup Key, figuring his punishment was enough. Unfortunately as insurance, Araxo had given recently freed Crimson Fleet pirate, Ironclaw McGrath coordinates for the same isle and told him of the wealthy noble marooned there. No one thought that McGrath would come there so swiftly. Sailing on portly Captain Yelloweye Stern's ship the Laughing Rake, the pirate crew came upon the Bird of Prey from the south. Not knowing Captain Rennaud had relinquished command, and Cpt. Hammond not knowing the Laughing Rake was only there to find Key, the two sides reacted hastily, raising their flags for battle! The Rake closed the distance while the Bird's dwarven gunner Jon Jamison targeted and tore up the pirate vessel with a few rounds of blackpowder cannon fire. As the Rake slowed and tried to return fire in hopes of boarding, they had not noticed the pair of launches sent from the Bird, coming in to counter-board their caravel! Amid a smoking, listing ship, Cpt. Stern rallied his men to repel boarders while a grim McGrath waited with still sore claw marks suffered from a vengeful harpy loosed on him days ago...

The daring melee was soon engaged on the deck of the Laughing Rake. A tattooed, maca wielding Cuahto and the fierce marine, Snorri Snorrison were among the first to climb over onboard to face down the harried crimson sashed pirates. Araxo Tydan, growing braver with each encounter, managed to pair off with the wig wearing, foppish Yelloweye Stern, while the daring Cpt. Hammond soon came face to face with Ironclaw; both were surprised to be sure. Tydan ran through and slew Cpt. Stern, his wig and tricorn hat falling away. The pirates looked to Ironclaw for leadership then and just as his cutlass and Vic's met, all around paused in their swordplay to see a third ship rounding the isle to join the fray: their common enemy, the pirate hunting privateer Lydia's Light. Hammond and Ironclaw quickly assessed the situation, the Rake was burning and holed beyond repair, and the pirates were bound to lose, but the privateers were mainly after the Bird as McGrath knew during his captivity. The two captains swiftly shook on an accord to become temporary allies against the Keoish vessel. Swords were sheathed and cheers rang out as both crews raced to their launches and rowed frantically toward the Keoish carrack while the Bird of Prey thundered cannons to cover their assault.

From the deck of Lydia's Light, confident Captain Rynn bellowed orders to his officers and flags were raised to engage with who he assumed was the notorious "Blackguard" and his Bird of Prey. Rynn would not let them escape this time. Standing out of the way of scrambling sailors, a shocked Henri Morgan and Brother Pickles gazed across the water at their old ship for the first time in many weeks suddenly aware that their comrades had no idea the two of them were aboard this ship too. They had to help somehow.

(to be continued)

Game notes: This was the culmination of two sessions actually. One day between battles we were short a player so I had the guys play an out of chronological order scene as members of Osprem's Kiss on the island. For me, the way the various ships and crews' paths have intertwined has been the best part of this campaign so far. Who says splitting the party is bad?

Greyhawk: Thillonria Ho!

As I reported last week, mapping guru Anna Meyer has been burning her way along the icy north east of the Flanaess, sweeping around the Thillonria Peninsula to cover the lands of the Ice and Snow Barbarians for her Atlas of the Flanaess. Download map sections 24, 25, 38 and 39 for a better look at her most recently finished pieces. Also, here is a pic she posted to Canonfire of an overview of the entire peninsula before extras touches are added:

Keeping on the topic of Thillonria, it's only fitting I help spread around the latest work Greyhawk Grognard has been doing on Greyhawk heraldry. Among his reproductions posted today are the heraldic shields of the Frost, Ice and Snow Barbarians.

While I'm at it, here is some assorted resources on Thillonria. All these fan authored articles can be found at Canonfire:

Naval Cultures of the Flanaess: Northern Raiders (by Crag)

The Fall of Shakark: Thillonrian Myth (by cwslyclgh)

Rhizia: A History of the Northeastern Flanaess (by Hunter103)

Living Greyhawk Gazetteer Addendum: The Bitter North, Part I (by Cruel Summer Lord) 

Living Greyhawk Gazetteer Addendum: The Bitter North, Part III (by Cruel Summer Lord)

The Suel Kingdoms of the North: Class and Society on the Thillonrian Peninsula (by raphael) 

Update 05/07/2021: Had to remove broken links to Anna's individual maps. Trust me, her newer run is much better.

Ring of Five Questions: Stuart Kerrigan

Guess what Greyhawk fans, it is time for another installment of the Ring of Five Questions! This episode I finally complete my trifecta of Living Greyhawk Onnwal authors including Creighton Broadhurst, Paul Looby. Our third author in the Onnwal triumvirate has published several notable works such as A Splintered Sun (Dragon #293),  Playing Pieces: Heroes of Onnwal (Dragon #299), and Beasts of the Scarlet Brotherhood (Dungeon #106). He is also the keeper of the Onnwal Project and in his spare time even maintains his own gaming blog. Please welcome our next victim to the Ring: Stuart Kerrigan.

Q1. As a tried and true Greyhawk fan, you should know the Darlene map without looking. What is your personal land of choice in the World of Greyhawk?

Stuart: Obviously duty requires me to say Onnwal!

I have mooched around the Furyondy/Nyrond regions in short home campaigns. However I’ve often been fascinated with the Theocracy of the Pale as a nation (and as a foil for my PCs). I would love to have seen a Marklands style gazetteer of that nation (perhaps coupled with Veluna for contrast) from Carl Sargent. He clearly had some definitive ideas of what its people and Theocrat were like and it shows in adventures like the Sin-Eater and in the Marklands gazetteer itself.

Here’s where I ruffle some feathers - I often felt the Pale should have been a Core region in Living Greyhawk. For the poor North Californians it was a region that offended their liberal views! It was about as appropriate a player-region as the Empire of Iuz or Rauxes. The Palish (at least IMHO) were antagonists, albeit ones who were not entirely evil and thus could in theory work alongside the characters. We imported some Palish missionaries in Onnwal and they can be seen in a module called the Scarlet Straits (available at http://skerrigan.co.uk/Onnwal/ *shameless plug*) along this line.

In Living Greyhawk however the region’s feel became diluted in favour of making a playable region for all types of characters. For example there seemed to be reams of material on the Pale’s Arcanist Guild. Ogon Tillit was slain and replaced by a suddenly-lawful good Theocrat. You were allowed to go around with a holy symbol of any god, but not preach. If you did, you went to prison for a short period of time. There were no burnings at the stake.

Paul Looby wrote a trilogy of adventures dealing with the fallout from Tenh and his module was decried by the Pale Triad as it portrayed the Faithful Flan in a way they did not approve of. They later wrote their own sequel which set things “right”. The excellent Fright at Tristor was similarly declared heretical, with the Triad writing a special module to sanitize its plot and effectively have the village removed off the map.

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

Stuart: Tough one as there are so many to choose! I think I’m probably more Olidamarra, but Heironeous is my favourite Greyhawk deity. Virtually indestructible, free electricity on call, off-fighting evil and generally being Mr. Terrific.

Q3. You're known for your work on Living Greyhawk especially the Onnwal Project. What part of LG Onnwal are you most proud of?

Stuart: In terms of the setting I am most proud of being the first UK author published in the Living Greyhawk Journal with the Knights of Azharadian article. This led to us UKers dominating the Journal for several issues with Erik Mona begging us for non-Onnwal content! Creighton (Broadhurst) and Paul wrote some excellent material in response to this request that eventually ended up in the Oerth Journal.

It is worth noting the rest of the team deserve equal credit on the Glaives article, especially Paul Looby who invented them. I just hashed out a prestige class on a Yahoo Group for about 4 months with Paul and our Irish Point of Contact, Max Kraft.

This leads to my next point - one of my personal missions on the team was to take LG:Onnwal to the masses. The RPGA in the UK at that time had a massive convention-only model primarily in the south coast regions. However in Scotland the RPGA offered 4 games a year, and Ireland was left completely by the wayside. We managed to have a massive running at Gaelcon and even saw a healthy crop of Scottish gamesdays.

Q4. What monster or fantasy race reminds you most of Greyhawk?

Stuart: It’s a tie between either the Animus or the Norker. I’m a sucker for a monster that looks like Nodwick.

It’s a shame nothing interesting was done with Animuses in published Greyhawk canon as they were screaming out for an adventure around them (though Creighton did an excellent adventure for LG with a 1^st level noble animus – perhaps I’ll have to dig that out for our next set of games to terrorise the unsuspecting populace).

Q5. If you could redo the Greyhawk Wars, what would you do differently with the Scarlet Brotherhood?

Stuart: Ultimately there’s nothing that happened during the Greyhawk Wars I have a problem with, though I’d preferred they’d use a proxy-power to landgrab. It’s more the reversals they suffered in the Adventure Begins period (586-591 CY) and the Living Greyhawk campaign that trivialise them as an enemy. That and of course an interesting sourcebook that destroyed their mystique somewhat.

I’d like to have seen them go back to the Gygaxian/Sargent model of scary Tharizdun worshippers. They can still be kung-fu fighting monks (indeed in my home campaigns the Scarlet Brotherhood is the only order of such monks outside of the Baklunish lands) but there’s something apocalyptic about their plans for the Flanaess.

Sea Princes #30: Change of Fate

Welcome back to the ongoing swashbuckling adventures of the Hold of Sea Princes. Last time, the crew of the Bird of Prey, split in two directions pulled off a daring hostage exchange for the sage Lockard Meek in the pirate town of Scuttlecove, while another group made a no less impressive escape from marooning on an island. Both groups however are to find out fate has more in store for them before their quest for the Well of All Heals can be completed. Here are our protagonists:

Victor Emmitt Hammond (rogue, promotion!)
Araxo Tydan (rogue, still first mate)
Cuahtehmoc aka "Cuahto" (ranger, promotion!)
Brother Pickles (cleric, saved!)
and Henri Morgan (rogue, saved, for now)

Adrift on a raft for many days, Henri, Pickles and two other marooned sailors were plucked out of the sea by the crew of the privateer Lydia's Light, the same ship that had set them upon the island in the first place. Henri who carried the silver owl charm he found on Lord Key's body, had contemplated posing as the noble but the presence of Brother Pickles was too much of a give away. Ensign Whitecliff and Harrowmire, though haggard in appearance still wore their tattered uniforms and immediately begged Captain Rynn to re-enlist them after telling their survival story to a gathering of amused shipmates. The captain reluctantly gave them a "third chance" as the gods seemed to deliver the touched cleric of the sea god back from seas where he had vanished overboard weeks ago. Sister Aurora of Lydia was overjoyed that Pickles had been rescued and Henri was given a chance to work his way back to a safe port by presenting Lord Key's bag of 100 gold pieces to the captain for passage. Rynn agreed to their offer, but only after he had caught their former ship the Bird of Prey, and he hoped their final destination would be his home port of Gradsul where he boasted there would be a huge gallows to follow. Henri and Pickles did not like the sound of that.

Captain Rynn had been circling the Olman Isles and Lof Bosok hopelessly in search of the Bird of Prey. Since Key had been marooned by his own countrymen after discovering the owl necklace, that meant the Bird had been in that area and might double back to Narisban. They obviously would have to use more difficult means to divine this time, by homing in on Sir Aris Westford. Sister Aurora's divinations cryptically pointed them back to the same isle that Key, Henri and the others had been marooned on. Their arrival at this ill-fated islet would prove to be critical, as not one but three ships already arrived there before them...

Several days earlier, the Bird of Prey and Osprem's Kiss had successfully set out of the Pirate Isles at full sail, with Lockard Meek onboard at last. There was no sign of pursuit from the Crimson Fleet. As the old sage got updated by his colleague the botanist Olfon Trebus, the quartermaster Skullbreaker aided an ailing Captain Rennaud to his chambers to lay down. The captain had not been touched during the tense hostage exchange hours before. The curse of weakness had worsened the closer to Rennaud got to his goal. That night, under cover of darkness the two ships met to discuss their next destination of Narisban for resupply, while the sage was appraised of their quest. Lockard gazed at his old map for the first time in two decades and fretted that it would take him a while to decipher his own code and calculate the next occurance of the Well of All Heals. He explained the Well is what scholars call a Fading Land, a demiplane that sometimes overlaps Oerth and in this case often in different places. He postulated that at least they were in the right latitudes for the Well's current millennial cycle.

Rennaud and his close friend Captain Jet Cassidy conferred about his weakened state and need of healing care. That is when Rennaud announced he was turning over the captaincy of the Bird so that he could move over to Osprem's Kiss to finish his quest. In a stirring show of confidence, instead of gaining promotion-first mate Araxo Tydan, threw his vote for captain behind the bosun Victor Hammond. Victor had more experience at sea and had proven his mettle time and again. The rest of the ship agreed with Araxo and cheers went up as Captain Hammond was promoted by Rennaud. The surly but battle hardened marine Snorri Snorrson replaced Vic as bosun. There was more moves to be made however. Rennaud's loyal friend, Skullbreaker vowed to stay alongside him on Osprem's Kiss and both sages had to come along to study the map. With Skullbreaker's departure, Cuahto was named new quartermaster in charge of discipline and the armory. Furthermore, the captive yet complicit knight Sir Aris Westford was to be left on the Bird for the crews still didn't trust him to be near Rennaud. For the rest of the Bird of Prey and their new officers, Rennaud lastly offered to let the men out of their oaths to serve him on his quest for the Well. He did point out however that the healing waters he sought was not just for him, that if true, the Well could even regrow young Charlie Duffle's arm, Captain Cassidy's ring finger or Sasha Dirk's pierced heart. The Well might also cure Billy Palsy's shakes, Vic's sickly body and perhaps even mental ailments like Brother Pickles' addled brain. There was no need to convince any further as Captain Hammond vowed they would all stay the course.

The next day as they raised sails north for Narisban, fate again intervened as a strong storm separated the two ships. The larger carrack Osprem's Kiss fought through the gale and remained on course while the smaller caravel Bird of Prey was helplessly tossed westward toward the Amedio coast. After minor repairs to the rigging, Captain Hammond recharted their course for Narisban with the goal to stop by the small islet and check on Araxo's poor cousin, Lord Ronaldo Key...

 

More Greyhawk Maps and Articles

Hey greyfanatics, I can't believe it's May already! It's been a busy month in the community and once again I need to post on more than one subject to keep up. Can't complain about that! First up is Anna Meyer's Atlas of the Flanaess project. After completing Blackmoor, the Land of Black Ice and a bit of a delay she is back on the horse, now venturing into the cold mountains of the Thillonrian Peninsula to map out the desolate western end of the Ice Barbarian realm of Cruski. 

Don't forget to join Anna's facebook group The Flanaess Geographical Society now hovering at 225 members!

Next up is an item of interest to greybeards in the Greyhawk community who may have been online "back in the day", it's two new compilations of the Best of Greyhawk-AOL.  These files are a collection of discussions amongst fans and authors about the Greyhawk setting on AOL back in the twilight of TSR. Best of Greyhawk-AOL #13 and #14  is edited by France's own Armenfrast who for years has maintained the fan site Le Monde de Greyhawk. Dig around, you might find some other good information there including stuff on the Ekbir and Zeif Living Greyhawk Campaigns.

Here's a minor item. Over at Wizards of the Coast, Bart Carroll has written an excerpt article on Infamous Dungeons to coincide with the release of the 4th Edition accessory The Dungeon Survival Handbook. You'll be happy to hear it's free to download and read. At two pages in length the article is not much to scream about but it covers the history of the Tomb of Horrors and White Plume Mountain fairly well.

Next up is a debut article at Canonfire by author Chevalier titled An Alternative Linguistic History of the Flanaess. Chevalier's essay breaks down the major subraces and regions of the Flanaess and discusses the evolution of their languages as presented in Gygax's original canonical work.

Chevalier writes: "Navigate treacherous linguistic waters!  Ponder alternate origins of Greyhawk's languages!  Consider new histories and whether they might lead to new adventures!"

This article is well written, insightful and is definitely an alternate take on a quite popular Greyhawk subject. You can read the entire article HERE. Enjoy!

I've got one last Greyhawk matter to cover. Coming soon, I'll be posting some information on Canonfire's first Postfest event of 2012. All I can announce right now is, after taking a poll, the topic of this Postfest will indeed be Inns and Taverns of the Flanaess. That's all for today, check in for more Greyhawkery in the coming week!

Update 05/07/2021: Removed dead links to Anna's old maps. Go to the new link to her site where she has even BETTER Greyhawk maps. Removed deadlink to Mr. Carroll's article. I don't think it was part of a published 4E Dragon.