T2 - Death Fungi Doom!

Inspiration: With thanks to Scottsz, James Raggi and Michael Curtis

I was reading scottsz' continued analysis of T1-4, in the comments of this post.

Something scottsz said in his latest, along with several other passages of his insightful commentary, set off a spark.

I had already decided that I didn't want "T2" to be a megadungeon. I wanted it to be T2, not T2-4 and suitable as a follow-up to T1. Also, T1 is taking place before the Giants/Drow modules, as those events are going to be in play, whether or not the players decide to investigate.

The Temple of Elemental Evil? It really was devoted to the Elder Elemental Eye. And Zuggtmoy? She aided Eclavdra and the EEE, in an attempt to weaken Lolth.

So, is Zuggtmoy trapped inside the ToEE? Yes. A smaller ToEE.

And, I know how she's trapped. I just need to come up with a plausible excuse, for the Druids to be banned from Nulb and the ToEE area, but still be able to operate in Hommlet. I've got a lot more studying to do and need to go back over scottsz' work, very closely. But, I know where I'm headed.

Earlier, I speculated:

Going further, Zuggtmoy might have allied herself with the EEE. How well known where the doings of the EEE cult, to Lolth Worshipping Drow? At the battle of E. Meadows, might those latter have fought a pitched battle, in the depths of the ToE, managing to imprison Zuggtmoy?

Could the whole of the surface world forces, been fighting a proxy battle, for allies unknown to any but those at the highest level of command?

I think the Druids are going to be responsible for setting Zuggtmoy's prison. I gotta work out, all those wheels-within-wheels.

Death Fungi Doom!

No, that's not quite right! All those undead wouldn't fit very well. I'd need something like...

Michael Curtis' Wrecking Crew. The Fungal Dead!

The fungal dead are human corpses whose bodies have been overtaken by a virulent strain of unwholesome fungus. These alien spores animate their non-living hosts into a nightmarish semblance of life and seek to spread the colony into new, recently-deceased corpses.

And of course, instead of a Vampire, down there, we have Zuggtmoy, needing the PC's as much as they're going to need her! And a certain bizarre, keening/humming plant creature, which puts fungi into a stasis, instead of undead. Crypts? Or, maybe thousands of dead combatants, strewn about the dungeon. Put into stasis right before the demonic fungi, was ready to activate their corpses.

Maybe old Zeke has been making forays into the place, taking out bodies one by one and burying them. Unawares, of the quiescent evil, of all that sickening growth. I might need to tweak the timeline, a bit. Maybe decide that St. Cuthbert's followers believe all bodies must be buried. An anti-cremation doctrine might fit well, with old Cugel-dudes historical inspiration.

Now, as an added bonus, I can throw a few scary undead encounters into the dungeon. :)

And a secret area, where one of Matt Finch's Shrooms, also lies in stasis, awaiting a foolhardy party of adventurers. If I get lucky, the players will never even know he exists. Until long after they've left the dungeon, that is!

Can I get a Mwahaha!? :)

Zagyg and the Cheap DM – A Guide to Free Resources for Running a Greyhawk Campaign

So, continuing with our series, can we garner enough free resources from the web, to allow us to run a more or less canonical Greyhawk campaign? Without resorting to piracy or ebay? Hell yes! Thanks to the many dedicated Greyhawk scholars active on the web, we’re set!

Let’s start with some maps!

The Maps Compilation Index at Greyhawk Online is the only link we need. Go there and be prepared to spend a couple of hours, scarfing everything  up! There are certainly other pages with other maps, floating about. But this site has you covered.

Ok, that was easy! Now, what about a Gazetter/Encyclopedia?

This will be easy, too! The Great Library of Greyhawk, a Greyhawk Wiki, will be our main resource, here. The Locations Index page, is a good place to start. The Realms sub-page is here. Here’s the url  for the Greyhawk Deities page.  From there, just follow the links or type something into the search box. The statistics page, estimates that there are 1,254 pages with content on the wiki. Many of the pages I looked at were illustrated as well. Very pleasing! This comprehensive site, has fulfilled our needs, very well!

So, it’s quite early in our quest and we’ve already pretty much accomplished our mission! But, let’s not stop yet. There’s a whole bunch, of really useful resources available. Let’s look at a few!

More Greyhawk!

The Oerth Journal. 25 issues and counting. History, timelines, locations, gods and more.

Grodog’s Greyhawk site. Greyhawk scholarship, for your reading and gaming pleasure!

Canonfire! has some things for you to check out. Be sure to visit their forums.

Maladin’s Greyhawk is another good site. Be sure to check out this page, for the Encyclopedia Subterranica.

Gord’s Greyhawk, contains material derived from the Gord novels by Gary Gygax.

Help from the Blogosphere.

Joe Bloch of Greyhawk Grognard fame, has some great material for us! Including his Castle of the Mad Archmage megadungeon and maps of the City of Greyhawk!

Grendelwulf from Axe & Hammer has some more Greyhawk Goodness, including work on his herculean task, of bringing us a certain Grey City!

Lord of the Green Dragons, has plenty of material of interest, including the Cold Text File WG4 Series by Scottsz.

All right, that one was too easy!

A hearty thanks to all the awesome gamers, who’ve went the extra mile to give us everything we need to run Greyhawk! If you’ll look to the left, my Greyhawk links section will lead you to a even more, awesome Greyhawk material.

Zuggtmoy On My Mind

The first Sunday in June, is the tentative date for my Campaign Kick-off and I’ve been spending a lot of time doing everything, but working on my game. I decided to dial my other idea back and go with my original conception of the events forming the recent history of The Demesne of the Iron Lich and surrounding lands. I will need to make a few tweaks, though.

The milieu survived an attack by demonic forces, sometime in the not too distant past. A Demon Lord tried to ensnare several Prime worlds and draw them into the Abyss. I’m thinking a certain Demon Queen of Fungi was involved, somehow. Civilization is getting back on its feet, but things are still rather chaotic and there are areas of Abyssal Radiation, which are quite hostile to the native life. As Abyssal Radiation (post forthcoming) is mutagenic, there’ll by some oddities, as well. Like Spider-Goats! I expect Myconid’s and Fungi to also factor into the equation.

I’ll be doing most of my own design work, but I’m using some of the OSR stuff I’ve been buying, as well. Time constraints are an issue. Also, I want to use some of the stuff I’ve been buying and reading. :) You guys are producing some fantastic material!!!

Then, there’s bringing in some outside ideas and influences, something I turned my nose up at, in the past. One of many, youthful follies. The upside is, there are several classic modules, which I never ran. As a matter of fact, back in the day, I ran Hommlet, The G series and Queen of the Demonweb Pits. And these were in the form of one-shots, when I first started gaming. I also remember running The Assassin’s Knot and that one may have actually been in Campaign play. I’m not entirely sure, but I think so. But that’s it!  Save for those few instances, I always designed my own stuff and half the time, I was DMing on the fly anyway. So, there’s a lot of TSR material which I would enjoy getting to use.

I just remembered a one-shot evening of running the first TSR Conan module. It took a while, but we finished it in one sitting. That one was fun!

My goal this week is to write up the key for the Iron Lich hexmap.

But, I’m also still thinking of putting the whole thing on the back burner and running Greyhawk. I’ve never really ran a published world before. I started a Forgotten Realms campaign, a couple of times. The first one went one session and didn’t get off the ground. The second was a temporary game, that ran about three sessions, before we went back to our regular campaign. So, I kinda want to do it, just because I haven’t. Running Greyhawk seems like the sort of thing I should have on my Old School DM’s Resume. If I do it, I’ll use the Boxed Set, the classic modules, some stuff from early issues of Dragon and that’s it, as far as “Official” sources go. I’ll also utilize some of the wonderful Greyhawk Scholarship, out there. Joseph Bloch’s work. Then, there’s this series. 

In case you haven’t noticed, if there’s two paths I really want to take, I’ll screw around with making a decision, until the last moment. Or, until I get really, really tired of screwing around.

Either way, Zuggtmoy is up to something. Not sure entirely what, yet.

Bloody Vikings!

I did a quick check of my blog this morning, only to discover that my Comments had been Spammed! Some poor, broken hearted soul, with a Shoe Fetish, had left what must have been either an enigmatic, yet, obviously desperate cry for help, or, a supreme example of Dadaism, in the comments section of seven or so, of my posts. Alas, I was ill this afternoon and in a horrible mood, thus, I deleted all the comments, without saving an example. I later did a quick search and Zazzle is offering a “Dadaism Keds Shoe,” for sale, so, maybe someone was inspired.

Just in case you missed it, Joseph has the January update of Castle of the Mad Archmage, up. On the off chance you’re new to the OSR, this is a version of the Castle Greyhawk Mega-Dungeon, written by a Gentleman and Greyhawk Scholar. If you love Greyhawk, you can easily spend a few hours, going through his blog and wondering if it’s time to pull the old World of Greyhawk Boxed Set or Folio, off of the shelf and run the Quintessential D&D Campaign.  I’ve never ran Greyhawk. It’s something that’s been on my “to do” list, for a while. I just enjoy creating my own campaigns so much, that that’s how I always choose to proceed. But, my sensibilities have changed, over the years. Now that I’m no longer concerned with creating the “Next, Great Fantasy World” and am merely looking to create the best D&D Campaign I’m capable of, I might soon break out that Boxed Set and let my players wreak havoc in Mr. Gygax’s sandbox. Soon, but, not yet.

There’s something else I never ran. This’ll surely call my Old School cred into question, but, I’ve never ran The Keep on the Borderlands. Never. What the Hell’s up with that? I’m throwing the Keep, somewhere, in the Sandbox for my upcoming game. If the players find their way there, I’ll be interested to see if any of them recognize where they are. After my initial D&D apprenticeship, I never ran modules. So, there’s a lot of the classic TSR stuff, that I never used. Then, there’s all the new OSR stuff, I’ve picked up of late.

I’m doing things differently, this go around and I’ve decided to place several adventures, purchased and free download items, in my game. I’ll still be writing some stuff myself, but, this will save me time and since I’m letting the players have free reign, also let me put out a lot of interesting options and adventure hooks. I’ll DM on the fly, anytime, but, I kinda like the idea of having this large, library of material, ready to whip out, when the players decide to head to the appropriate hex. Besides, I’ve been buying quite a bit of OSR stuff, these past few months and I want to actually use some of it! At one time, I was far, far, to Superior of a DM to use a Published Module, but, as I continue to make progress in removing the Giant Stick that’s been up my ass, for years, I’m changing a lot of my attitudes. I’m looking forward to my new campaign!

Just in case you’re not following the Greyhawk Grognard blog.

The Castle of the Mad Archmage December Release is available! 

Thanks Joseph!