#Castle Greyhawk

[vintagerpg]

OK, this is Expedition to the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk (2007), a late-in-3.5E campaign book. It is a return of sorts — in 1990, TSR released WGR1: Greyhawk Ruins, which was an earnest attempt at creating a published version that matched the vibe Gygax’s ur-dungeon. That remains a somewhat obscure supplement, but forms the basic foundation of this campaign.

There is a fair amount of material on the city of Greyhawk and some important world lore before getting to the ruins themselves. The upper works are the remains of three towers — Zagig’s, Magic and War — each with voluminous, interconnected subterranean regions. These are vast, and not fully detailed. Rather, the book employs a system of encounter spaces and connections that creates an illusion of endless detail without the slog (or the page count). It feels super usable, with all the information for a given encounter (attributes, maps, tactics) all laid out on one or two pages.

I don’t know how I feel about it, though. It feels very very 3.5, for better and worse. Even allowing for that, this all feels somewhat disappointing, if only because it is trying to reconstruct a thing that never truly existed. The original, likely lost or unpublishable Greyhawk dungeon wasn’t a sensible place to explore, with a cohesive plot or anything like that. It was irrational, built on the fly literally to test new mechanics during the development of the game. It had a bowling alley for giants, and a portal to King Kong’s Skull Island. This book is, weird to say, too cool to be Castle Greyhawk. Or, at least, the Castle Greyhawk I am interested in reading about.

I don’t find the art direction very helpful. Michael Komarck’s cover has baldy Mordenkainen pondering his orb, in which a not-nearly-ruined-enough castle appears. Its the most distinct piece of art in the book, the rest of which is done by a gang of artists whose names I don’t recognize; it’s all workmanlike and adheres closely to the 3E art direction.

I dunno, this is fine, probably.

[smbhax]

Cover art by Keith Parkinson

[thecreaturecodex]

Demon, Kerzit

Image by Andrew Hou, © Paizo Publishing

[Commissioned by @tar-baphon​. Kerzit the Guardian of the Black Tome first appeared in Mordenkainen’s Fantastic Adventure in 1984, was converted to 3.5 in Dungeon Magazine’s conversion of that adventure in 2004, and that’s about it. My third paragraph of flavor text refers to the events of the adventure, but feel free to ignore it if you want Kerzit somewhere else or working for a different cult. As written, he’s designed to be basically a decoy demon lord, and it is said in text that “several demon lords” conspired to make him. This is left vague in the text, but the presence of gnolls in MFA would suggest Yeenoghu in the Greyhawk cosmology, or Lamashtu in the Pathfinder version, would be a major player. Based on the commissioner’s request, I elevated the CR from 18 to 20, but didn’t have to do much in terms of increasing the power; the biggest changes to ability scores involved toning down a very high Strength.]

Demon, Kerzit CR 20 CE Outsider (extraplanar) This creature is a biped, with a wolfish head and silver eyes. Its coat is a shaggy mix of fur and feathers, matted and stained with blood and viler fluids. It has four arms, two of which are annulated tentacles, and two of which are insect-like and end with serrated blades.

Kerzit the Guardian is a powerful unique demon incorporating features of multiple scavenging animals—wolves, ravens, beetles and earthworms. Likewise, Kerzit scavenges bits and pieces of veneration from other demon lords. Kerzit was created long ago in a rare show of cooperation among the lords of the Abyss. The goal was to create a powerful servitor strong enough to fulfill mortal ambitions and act as a figurehead and sacrificial focus for cults venerating another, more distant demon lord. Kerzit has an ambivalent relationship towards these cultists; he views them as deluded and readily accepts them as sacrifices, but also hopes that their worship kindles a divine spark, transforming him into a nascent demon lord.

Kerzit enjoys fighting in melee, but is smart and subtle enough to try and learn about his foes first. Kerzit’s summoning abilities are more powerful than most other fiends, and he usually sends out a wave of lesser demons to scout for him and report back on enemy tactics. He targets divine spellcasters above other targets, and is immune to many of their weaker spells. One of his favorite strategies is to center a quickened, empowered unholy blight on himself while simultaneously shredding opponents with his teeth, talons and tentacles. Kerzit sees no shame in fleeing a losing fight through teleportation, but stays close, heals himself, and returns for a second bout after enemy spells have elapsed durations.

Kerzit is currently bound to the Material Plane via the Tome of the Black Heart, a demonology manual and ritual guide of great age and great power. The Tome contains information on constructing golems, contacting fiends and elemental spirits, and opening portals to esoteric and obscure demiplanes. This book was written by worshippers of Kabriri, whose scavenging through the memories of the dead unearthed a ritual to summon and bind Kerzit. The Tome of the Black Heart’s current owner is a mortal spellcaster obsessed with seeking out power through arcane knowledge. Kerzit keeps the book in his possession as a “matter of security”, and demands sacrifices of black opals and humanoid souls for the privilege of reading its pages, a price the amoral wizard is more than willing to pay. After a decade or so of service in this manner, Kerzit is growing bored, and relishes the opportunity to murder any intruders he comes across.

Kerzit                     CR 20 XP 307,200 CE Large outsider (chaos, demon, evil, extraplanar) Init +6; Senses darkvision 120 ft., detect magic, Perception +33, see invisibility, scent Defense AC 36, touch 15, flat-footed 30 (-1 size, +6 Dex, +21 natural) hp 372 (24d10+240) Fort +17, Ref +20, Will +22 DR 15/cold iron and good; Immune electricity, fire, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10; SR 31 Defensive Abilities reject divinity Offense Speed 30 ft. Melee bite +34 (4d8+11/19-20 plus poison), 2 talons +34 (2d10+11 plus abyssal wound), 2 tentacles +32 (2d6+5) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks rend (2 tentacles, 2d6+16) Spell-like Abilities CL 20th, concentration +26 Constant—detect magic, see invisibility At will—darkness, greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. objects only), telekinesis (DC 21) 3/day—fly, greater dispel magic, summon (7th level, 4 hezrous or 2 glabrezu, 60%), quickened empowered unholy blight (DC 20) 1/day—heal (DC 22), unholy aura (DC 24), weird (DC 25) Statistics Str 32, Dex 22, Con 29, Int 21, Wis 22, Cha 23 Base Atk +24; CMB +36 (+38 bull rush); CMD 52 (54 vs. bull rush) Feats Awesome Blow, Blind-fight, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Empower SLA (unholy blight), Great Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (bite), Iron Will, Multiattack, Power Attack, Quicken SLA (unholy blight), Toughness Skills Acrobatics +30, Climb +35, Intimidate +30, Knowledge (arcana, geography, history, planes) +32, Perception +33, Sense Motive +33, Spellcraft +29, Stealth +29 Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Draconic, telepathy 100 ft. Ecology Environment any land or underground (Abyss) Organization unique Treasure double standard Special Abilities Abyssal Wound (Su) Wounds dealt by Kerzit’s talons deal 1d10 points of bleed damage. This bleed can be stopped with a healing spell or a DC 25 Heal check. However, any spell that heals hit point damage that affects a creature suffering from an abyssal wound must succeed a DC 31 caster level check or fail. Poison (Ex) Bite—injury; save Fort DC 31; frequency 1/round; duration 6 rounds; effect 1d6 Con drain; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution based. Reject Divinity (Su) Kerzit is immune to any divine spell of 3rd level or lower that allows for spell resistance.

[noisycroissant]

The Ascendant's Bride

Part 1

Summary: A vampire wedding to consolidate power. The companions see just how wretched an ascendant can be.

Here's part 2

*******

The invitations had reached them just a week ago. It had landed in letterboxes in Waterdeep, a Selúnite post near Candlekeep, it even reached Karlach and Wyll in Avernus via an imp.

The wedding of Astarion Ancunín, Vampire Ascendant...

....with Lady Eirene Maximilian of the esteemed Vampire Court of the city of Greyhawk...

*******

"Tav, what do you make of this?" Gale asked. He'd been the first one to gather his wits and use a sending stone to try and contact the others.

"Always knew he was power hungry. Didn't think he'd go this far," Shadowheart said, rolling her eyes.

Tav was quiet. She knew all eyes would always be on her when it came to talk about Astarion.

He had been so sweet to her. So eager to find freedom and happiness. Till she'd refused to help him finish the Ritual of Profane Ascension. He'd turned his back on them all that night.

"I hope you die screaming."

That was the last thing any of them had heard from him. Of course they knew where he was and what he was upto. His gathering of power was an open secret. Everyone in Baldur's Gate knew that the new lord of Szarr's Palace was three things:

Handsome. Charming. Ruthless.

People who crossed him were few and far. There were never any witnesses or evidence to nail him to the stocks but people knew as they always have.

The lord in the high castle was not of the realm of men.

"Say what you will about Astarion, I know in my bones that this wedding will be something people will talk about for centuries," Karlach adds with a grin, "We should go and add to the story."

And so it was decided.

*******

To the party's surprise, they were the only mortals at the wedding. The grand hall was filled with people adorning the richest fabrics and plushest furs. Rubies and diamonds winked and twinkled off ears and throats. And the hall itself? Polished and decorated with the finest crystal and teakwood furniture this side of Faerûn.

A thousand crimson eyes watch the party as they walk in and make their way to the hall.

And they see Astarion for the first time in ten years.

He looks absolutely the same, down to the curl in his hair. But the aura of power and strength radiating from him was hard to miss. There was a glint in his eye, but it wasn't mischievous anymore. It looked dangerous. Cruel. Unforgiving.

"There you are, my dearest comrades!" He gestures to the rest of the guests, "Everyone to me!! Meet the saviours of Baldur's Gate. In the flesh!"

The same haughty tone in his voice but laced with something evil now.

Tav felt something drop in her belly. She feels Shadowheart grab her hand, lacing their fingers together. "I feel it too. The...evil emanating off him. I think I might shed a tear after all."

"Fan-Astarion! Good to see you too, buddy," says Karlach good-naturedly, "Seems the years have been uh..kind to you."

"Wish I could say the same for you, dear Karlach. The reek of brimstone was evident before you stepped inside the gate. And Wyll Ravengard! How goes your life as a monster hunter in Avernus?" Astarion simpers.

"I'm on the clock, if that matters to you. So watch yourself," Wyll replies meeting Astarion's eye.

"Oh my! Threatening the groom on his big day? Plan to make off with my bride too, Baby Duke?" Astarion mocks.

"Your bride...who is she? Why do this, Astarion?" Tav asks, finally finding her voice.

"Oh my sweet Tav," he says, tone honeyed just like Tav remembers, but this time it scratches her spine with dread, "For power of course. Eirene is a dhampir, born of a fullblood father and an elven mother. Marrying her makes my reach grow. Maybe I'll even be blessed enough to hear the flutter of little bat wings of my own."

"A lamb to a slaughter. For shame, Astarion, I'd assumed you less cowardly than this," Lae'zel spits.

In less than a blink of an eye, Lae'zel had a dagger at her throat. "Spilling blood at a vampire wedding is not unheard of, Lae'zel. I'd advise you to ensure its not yours," he whispers in her ear.

"To your seats, my friends. The ceremony is about to begin."

*******

[oldschoolfrp]

Now taking preorders: Troll Lord Games is bringing Gary Gygax's Castle Zagyg Yggsburgh Campaign Setting book back into print, in cooperation with the Gygax Estate. This book details the region around Castle Zagyg, with a map by the original Greyhawk map artist Dᴀʀʟᴇɴᴇ. Designed for Castles & Crusades, it should be easily compatible with AD&D and similar systems.

The Zagyg campaign was based as closely as possible to Gary's Greyhawk, with the original names changed after he lost the legal rights to that property.

[vaingloury]

Disparate Thoughts on Dungeon Meshi

I'm an anime-only watcher, so no spoilers beyond what's currently aired (eps 1-3) + mild map spoilers for a random 3.5e D&D module (Sunless Citadel).

- I'm not the first nor will I be the last to harp on the English localised title but Delicious in Dungeon sucks. I do, however, think going with the "DnD" naming scheme was a nugget of a good idea (let's face it, "Dungeon Food" sucks too). Maybe "Diners in Dungeon"/"Dungeons & Diners" instead (as in those who dine, not a place where one dines). Or "Dungeon Dine" (like "dungeon dive"). Regardless, I'll just be calling it Dungeon Meshi going forward.

- I don't know if this is coloured by me going into this series with the knowledge that Ryoko Kui loves Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 or a wider ripple effect of eastern dungeon-fantasy conventions being shaped by there not being an official Japanese translation of D&D between Basic and 5e, but the world-building's vibe is old-school D&D as hell. It feels like it was written by someone who maybe never got the chance to play the tabletop game much but spent hours poring over the 1e Monster Manual in hopes of getting a campaign off the ground (and ended up penning a manga instead, game scheduling be damned). There's the disarming of traps, feeling for secret doors, and even the iconic red dragon as seen on the covers of the Basic Dungeon Master's Handbook and 1e Monster Manual being the dungeon boss. Design-wise, the dungeon's layout it reminds me a bit of the map from Ruins of Castle Greyhawk or The Sunless Citadel (pictured below, right).

- The main cast is very tropey at the moment. Quite literally all the Basic classes are covered; the generic white man Fighter (Lv 1, no multi-attack yet :P) as the party face, the halfling/thief, the elf/wizard, the missing cleric, the dwarf... This works for this point in the narrative but doesn't make me particularly attached to any of them. They need another overarching obstacle.

- I generally don't like Studio Trigger's output (not the Imaishi-involved stuff anyway; Gridman fucks) but I respect how bouncy their animation usually is. So, I was excited to watch something animated by Trigger but not (originally) written by them. Dungeon Meshi, however, looks static and resorts too often to Dutch angles to maintain visual interest. There's a bit of an art shift in episode 3 where this improves; more fun "off-model" moments, the movements get a little bouncier, more color harmony. Hopefully, this stays and isn't just a guest director fluke. Form the snippets I've seen on the manga, Kui suffers a bit from "draw background killed my grandma", thus her ability to make her simple character designs emote well has to carry the page. The anime does the opposite; super detailed backgrounds but flat shading/lack of texture on the characters creates a need for them to over-emote with a "screen-shake" effect in order to stand out from their surroundings, which I could see getting old fast. The main event, the food, looks better in the anime than in the manga due to colour and animation bringing it to life.

- I don't usually laugh at Japanese comedies because they're either too slapstick for my tastes or too pun heavy for my JP comprehension level. Dungeon Meshi gets a point for making me "lol" more than once.

- Finally, a good panty shot:

- I watched episode 3 dubbed. EN Marcille > JP Marcille (I say this as a stickler for subs). The rest of the dub cast is fine but I'm probably sticking with JP because JP Laios' ability to scream > EN Laios (EN is a great generic white man, though). I'm not familiar with most of the JP voice cast. I think Chilchuck is my fave in JP.

Both languages have little breathing room between lines of dialog and I was hoping the EN dub would play around with the fact that the character speaking isn't necessarily the one on screen (thus less lip-flap matching, especially for Senshi, who has few indicators that he's actually speaking even when he's onscreen) but alas. I'll do another one of these if I have more to say later in the season 🥂

[dndhistory]

305. Various Authors - Dragon #86 (June 1984)

A bit light on content this month, but with some interesting and original offerings, particularly the fact that it comes with a whole cardboard castle for crafty readers to build and use in their game, called Great Stoney (It's big and made of stone, you see), this is another fun issue of Dragon.

In terms of D&D content we get the Ecology of the Slithering Tracker by Ed Greenwood, a large article on familiars for magic users, some new enchanted objects, which are always welcome and as Kim Mohan states in the editorial, something that together with new creatures is a constant request from readers. 

Lastly we have two articles about gods, one adds the Suel pantheon to the Greyhawk setting, and the other covers Dragon religion beyond the "Tiamat vs. Bahamut" that we all know about and kind of invents the "Dragon cleric"... a concept that really isn't frequently used. Beyond this we have all the usual columns and comics. 

[goodluckclove]

I think the best challenge I have for Migration Patterns is that a majority of Katy's arc is DMing a take on a vintage Dungeons and Dragons campaign (Castle Greyhawke) that she cobbled together when she was 15, only now for a group of witches.

It's called Arnaldo's Birthday Party, and in it the Kind Wizard Greyhawke (Because Katy couldn't figure out how to pronounce his character's actual name) invites the party members to Castle Greyhawke (because he lives there that's why it's called that) to celebrate his beloved Owlbear companion reaching full maturity. But Arnaldo the Owlbear can't find out the surprise, so you have to be stealthy!

No violent combat. Each person gets a magical item at the start but they can't use it because that's the gift you're giving Arnaldo. At the end you roll initiative to see in which order you get to hit the pinata.

She's going to run through this with grown adults and they are not prepared for it.

[wearykatie]

Journey Into the Wild Beyond Chapter 5: The Palace of Heart's Desire (Part 1)

If I drank alcohol, this is where I would insert a gif of me setting The Wild Beyond the Witchlight book down, picking up a bottle, flicking the cap off, taking a swig, and then picking up my dice. 

Also, this is endgame spoiler territory, and I’ll be talking about one of the campaign’s big deal surprises as well as its ending in these final parts. If you want the bail out now to run the campaign or play it yourself, feel free. I understand. Have a great rest of your day and enjoy what is a really fun and interesting campaign.

For the rest of you, here we go.

Nice Job Breaking it, Hero

Despite the worries of some party members, killing Endelyn didn’t cause the arcane anchors holding Prismeer together to deteriorate. They had begun failing the moment Zybilna was frozen in time, it was just really convenient narrative timing that they started to demonstrably fail right after the last hag died. The hags were never powerful enough to maintain the domain. After all, it took all three of them working together and using Zybilna’s own magic against her just to cast the spell that froze her. 

The party had heard most of this already, but learned additional information from Charmay who was getting ready to GTFO. She saw the writing on the wall and she didn’t want to be around when Zybilna woke up. Why? Charmay, or rather Skylla as she’s actually known, is a warlock whose patron is Baba Yaga, the mother of the hags, and she knows some things. 

Zybilna is Iggwilv, aka Natasha, aka Tasha, adopted daughter of Baba Yaga. And if she wakes up, she’s not going to be happy.

So all of that stuff about the arcane anchors? I made it the fuck up. There are floating stones surrounding Prismeer, seen on many of the outdoor maps, and those are where I took the inspiration. The book credits the cartography to Stacey Allan and Will Doyle, and I don’t know their intentions behind some of the unmarked things on the maps, but I like that they included little unexplained things. It got my imagination going, and I imagined those giant stones as a sort of summoning circle for the domain and currently serving as the anchors maintaining its presence in the chaotic untempered raw magic of the Feywild. 

Why add the bit about Prismeer falling apart without Zybilna? Well, because honestly, the book doesn’t really give a very convincing argument for freeing her. The hags suck and Prismeer is better off without them, but once they’re gone you go into Chapter 5 and learn that Zybilna is potentially just as bad if not worse.

Tasha’s Cauldron of Bullshit

So who is Zybilnda/Iggwilv/Natasha? Well, if you’ve played a spellcaster and you’ve used Tasha’s Caustic Brew, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise, or any other spell with her name in it, that’s her. She reached demigod levels of power, studied demonology in the Abyss, she had a love-hate relationship with a demon prince, had a few kids, made more than a few enemies. 

Now, a bit of research on the Forgotten Realms Wiki tells me that Tasha and Iggwilv weren’t originally intended to be the same character, but Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk retconned that, and her entire history as Zybilna seems to have just come up in The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. The final chapter of Witchlight brings back a lot of characters from D&D lore, so that’s not surprising, and retcons are fine if you can make them work. 

I just feel like this is trying to turn the Wicked WItch of the West into Glinda the Good Witch. Or maybe they were going for a White Witch thing. Either way, Chapter 5 really presents Yassified Witch Queen in a pretty dim light. I feel like maybe they were going for a more morally ambiguous character, but the lady has a prison in her castle where she slow dips prisoners into a sludge that turns them into mindless demons and the hallways outside has a 40 foot long Rug of Smothering that attacks you if you don’t take a flower from a nearby vase. 

Threading the hell out of that “Chaotic Neutral” needle, Z. 

What I’m saying is, there isn’t a lot of reason to free Zybilna and fewer reasons to trust her. Yes, a few NPCs speak favorably of her, and there’s the enemy of my enemy thing with the hags, but there’s no reason to free Zybilna after the hags are dead. And finding out her history may deter the party from doing just that. Sure, she can send them home or offer them a wish with the Wish spell, but that’s a gamble, and if the players have been exploring, they might have found one to four ways home already. 

And so, I made it so they had to free Zybilna. Figure out if she’s worth a damn after she fixes Prismeer. 

Shamelessly Ripping Off Everything

The party borrowed a couple of flying machines from Motherhorn and headed for the Palace of Heart’s Desire, Zybilna’s home. Outside, they found a massive army of arcane constructs led by Warduke.

They mocked Warduke for just being called Warduke. I made a point of telling them that it wasn't on me. Someone else made and named that character. Not my circus, not my monkeys…okay, I’m kind of borrowing the circus and the monkeys, and I’d feel bad about changing a character like that.

“But Katie, didn’t you just say you changed a lot of this chap–?”

ANYWAY, BIG ARMY. This is something else I added because for the entire campaign, the party had been making friends and helping people. People they didn’t even need to help. Even those they gained nothing from helping. So there four young people stand face to face with an army they can’t possibly defeat…

And then they get a telepathic message from a pixie they befriended in Thither. Portals start opening all around them and friends they’ve made from all over Prismeer step through: Jingle Jangle, the harengon brigands, the bullywugs of the soggy court, Tsu the innkeeper, Lamorna and Elidon, Will of the Feywild, Juniper the owlbear, the korreds, the brigganocks, Amidor the Dandelion, Gleam and Glister, the theater crew from Motherhorn, and the carnival hands of the Witchlight Carnival, including Mr. Witch, Mr. Light, and a now-human Diana the carousel operator, riding atop her warhorse. 

With the Army of Prismeer at their command, ready to attack at any moment, what did the party do? 

They talked. They convinced Warduke to stand down through intimidation. Have I mentioned how proud I am of my players? 

The scene was a cheeky nod to Avengers: Endgame, but I had players who would get a kick out of the reference, and I wanted to reward how all of them had played the game so far with a grand display that showed off just how many allies they had in their corner. Also, I use Spotify for background music, and for that scene, I played “The Shepherd’s Boy” by Murray Gold, one of my favorite bits of music from Doctor Who, and amazingly, my narration of the scene lasted exactly as long as the song. I don’t know if any of the players noticed, but that was icing on the cake for that moment. 

I Hope Your Desire is to Have No Idea Where You’re Going

Did I just spend this entire part talking about setting up Chapter 5, just to get the party through the front gate? Well, I have mentioned before how difficult this chapter was. Everything from the characterization of Zybilna through her backstory to the environmental storytelling of the Palace of Heart’s Desire complicates the narrative, but the layout of the palace is downright baffling in a lot of places. Navigating it is difficult, there’s little logical structure to suggest it’s a functioning home for anyone, and the DM might have to retcon things to bail out the players if certain choices are made. 

I like this campaign overall, and even Chapter 5 has some high points, I just find this chapter lacking half the time and frustrating the other half. I don’t know if maybe they ran out of time and had to rush the chapter or if there was a mandate to include certain lore characters that never got fleshed out. When the chapter is good, there’s a grand hall full of glass statues that dance about, each depicting a mortal Zybilna aided as a fairy godmother. 

When the chapter is bad, you get a 3000 square foot room with only a small table and three jars. 

Creative liberties were taken, and I will talk about them more next time.

[sam-seer]

“THE DUNGEON: A good dungeon will have no less than a dozen levels down, with offshoot levels in addition, and new levels under construction so that players will never grow tired of it. There is no real limit to the number of levels, nor is there any restriction on their size (other than the size of graph paper available). “Greyhawk Castle,” for example... contains such things as a museum from another age, an underground lake, a series of caverns filled with giant fungi, a bowling alley for 20’ high Giants, an arena of evil, crypts, and so on.”

Sample dungeon level from Original D&D (1974)

[sstabhmontown]

What is a Hit Die? What is a Damage Die?

They are a unit of a character's ability to avoid death by whatever measure. Starting characters with 1 HD might have one fundamental chance to avoid it—a tumble or parry to take less of a blow, the grace of the lord. When you gain a new HD by going up level, consider naming the technique, practice, or gift that aids you, and call it by name when you need to spend the Hit Points.

When a character goes up level, we already ask them if they want to reroll all their dice, or to keep their current total and roll the new dice on top of it only when needed. That's the perfect time to introduce your new practice.

When a monster attacks, then, its damage is also measured in dice. If in doubt for how much damage the monster does, ask—how many things would someone in its grip have to do to avoid death? From my Bestiary:

Against monsters with great gnashing teeth, or massive strength and long arms, or a rolling boulder or great fall, no single movement will save you: such foes deal two or more dice of damage. For each die, the victim must make a separate excuse to avoid death: against a giant, parrying the blow is only half the play, and the character must roll aside as well. Only rare specific monsters may make multiple independently rolled attacks.

No pluses here for measuring small differences: if the attack is nastier, simply move it up a die, or declare it not damage but some other tactical result: swallow whole, paralysis, level drain. And of course, monsters get to attack again when they strike down a character, once for each hit die beyond the first.

Rejigging Giants

In OD&D there's essentially no notes about monsters damage, but a lot of confusion from the two combat systems. Greyhawk proposes some changes and in doing so creates even more confusion—with three possible systems presented: Chainmail Combat, Variable Weapon Damage, and the older Alternate Combat system with some modifications. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the Giants:

STORM GIANTS: These creatures are found only in out-of-the-way places. Typically their abode will be a castle built underwater or on a mountain or upon a cloud. They are intelligent, about 24' tall, and do 3 + 3 dice damage (unless the alternate damage system is used). These giants are able to employ a Control Weather spell in order to cause a storm—their favorite kind of weather—when angry or in battle.

If the alternate damage system is used, Storm Giants are quoted at 7–42 damage, falling back to the old unclear notation to boot. And that's listed separately from the older giants, of course. Our Bestiary used a lot of numbers from Swords & Wizardry Whitebox which imported these tables in all their glory, despite not by default using the alternate damage system, directly against the advice given—but only for the giants' stones, with other numbers for their blows. Woof.

So this is a problem to solve, and a perfect case study:

Hill Giants simply deal you a blow at an enormous scale. 2d6, and the same for Stone Giants.

Frost Giants' stones shatter and their frigid natures might slow your movements. Add a die to 3d6.

Fire Giants deal the same elemental splash, but you'll have to avoid the flames catching upon your own apparel. Add another die, 4d6.

Cloud Giants are simply enormous, even sprinting you'll be hard-pressed to escape their blow: 3d6.

Storm Giants, the same, but they throw actual Lightning Bolts like a wand.

Other examples:

Hatchling dragons have a simple bite for one die. Adult dragons wide mouths could sever a limb, and might come at you with great slashing claws too, two dice. Old dragons great jaws could swallow you whole, plus their tails and wings, ok, three dice.

Bears, Lions, and the like set the standard for mid-tier monsters at 2d6 for their size, demeanor, and multiple techniques. We can upgrade Ogres from an awkward plus in OD&D to two dice and bring trolls with all their varying appendages along.

Generally by mid-tier, monsters always deal two dice unless they have some other terrifying way to attack, like undead.

Multi-limbed monsters at high level can be treated in two ways: those defined by independent action like the Hydra or Kraken can make multiple attacks. Demons, made from numerous parts of other creatures and with plenty of other actions to take, can easily have dice added as appropriate for their limbs.

Masters of Fencing

Of course Player Characters are not monsters. They have their own systems for dealing more damage: Fighters get to roll a d8 at level 2, d10 at level 4, and d12 at level 7, as well as adding bonuses from Magic Swords and Strength. But other bonuses can be treated the same: Giants Strength and Flaming Swords already add another die.

When the players face off against other men and women, you then have a choice: it's fun to play by their rules sometimes, to roll the funny shaped dice in sword fights. But it's fussy too, so be quick to decide that a corrupt and cruel leader of men is in fact an Ogre and fall back to your 2d6.

The results of this place the game on a curve: at low level, combat is unpredictable as characters and their foes both miss often, but deal damage comparable to their own hit points with each blow. At mid levels, combat is specifically weighted against the players because most monsters deal more damage than them. Only at high level, when they have magic swords and mighty spells of Haste do the Fighters catch up, and indeed can stand toe-to-toe against giants.

[vintagerpg]

We’ve had some good luck with the WG-series modules so far, but with WG7: Castle Greyhawk (1988), the level of quality takes a steep dip and never really recovers.

Taken on its own merits, Castle Greyhawk is…fine? I don’t know what compelled the powers that be at TSR to produce a deluxe softcover adventure named after one of Dungeons & Dragons most mysterious and never-seen locales, and turn it into a farcical parody, but that’s exactly what it is. The humor is on par with the Dragon Magazine April Fool’s issues, which, I never liked those.

The parody mirrors the real thing: Ruined upper works above thirteen dungeon levels (though this treatment isn’t very sprawling and doesn’t have much in the way of sub-levels or pocket dimensions). I get why folks who waited years for the real thing were so annoyed when this came out (even setting the history aside, for what is maybe the first true megadungeon produced by TSR to be a farce is a bit eyerolly). I don’t buy conspiracy theories that this was some parting shot at Gygax or an intentional sullying of his TSR legacy, though. It’s just a stupid idea that got into print. There are a lot of those in TSR’s history.

The Keith Parkinson cover painting is nice, at least.

[rppr-podcast]

After Hours: AD&D WG7 Castle Greyhawk - Part 2

After Hours: AD&D WG7 Castle Greyhawk – Part 2

We descend deeper into the depths of Castle Greyhawk and find a…party? The monsters are setting up a party in level 2. On level 3, a buffet of food-based monsters await the adventurers. Baz, Max, and I try to decipher what’s going on in this dungeon. Check out Baz on Twitch – New Game Never Played (With Caleb and me!) and Future Wolfington. Check out Good Brews, Bad Views, a podcast about bad…

[vetgamerdad]

I'm adding a bit of 3rd Edition era Greyhawk to my Four Against Darkness adventure. Tonight, Jozan the Cleric, Nuall the Wizard, Kerwyn the Rogue, and Regdar the Fighter discover a puzzle room beneath Castle Greyhawk. The yellow chip denotes that Nuall the Wizard is holding the torch.

[silkdrita]

March of the phantom brigade

There are hints that the Nentir Vale's Castle Inverness is the exact same locale as the previous one, even though the castle had originally been set in Greyhawk. The town and its " ghost tower" had previously been seen in C2: "The Ghost Tower of Inverness" (1980). In "March of the Phantom Brigade," the players join an expedition to settle a new town in the ruins of Castle Inverness. Some of the critters related to this Encounters season would also return in a later Points of Light supplement: Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale (2011) includes six types of Abyssal Plague Demons and five members of the Phantom Brigade. In "March of the Phantom Brigade," the players encounter the Plague in chapter 5 and search for its origins. All told, it touched upon three worlds: the Points of Light World, the Forgotten Realms, and Dark Sun. The adventure's plot is also connected to Wizards' big crossover event at the time, " The Abyssal Plague." This event spun out of The Gates of Madness (2011) ebook and The Mark of Nerath (2011) novel it then ran through six additional novels. Essentials characters are required unless the organizers say otherwise, and the pregens are all Essentials. It was released for play between the Winter 2010 and Spring 2011 seasons.Īs with the earlier Encounters season " Keep on the Borderlands: A Season of Serpents," "March of the Phantom Brigade" focuses on D&D Essentials. " March of the Phantom Brigade" by Rodney Thompson, is the adventure for Season 4 of D&D Encounters. It includes the information the Dungeon Master needs to run the adventure, thirteen ready-to-play encounters (each intended for one session of play), and full-color foldout battle maps depicting the various encounter locations. "March of the Phantom Brigade" is an adventure designed for season 4 of the Dungeons & Dragons Encounters official play program. Not everyone in the Nentir Vale is happy to see civilization brought to Inverness, particularly the ghost of Salazar Vladistone, who commands the spectral legion called the Phantom Brigade. What begins as a simple expedition to settle a new village in the ruins of the mysterious Castle Inverness sets off a chain of events that could threaten every living being from Winterhaven to Hammerfast.

[ang-the-referee]

Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary #1

DOIP Spoilers within

Ultimately, instead of my original plan, I've gone with a third option for running DOIP based on this edit suggested by u/bashamguy, which changes the white dragon to a storm dragon (blue dragon), and the majority of the Talos-worshipping orcs are the dragon's servants. I've renamed the dragon Rhitthinnar instead of keeping the more white-dragon-sounding name of Cryovain.

We were missing our Paladin for the first session, so I gave the party (Sorcerer, Barbarian, and Rogue) one of the sidekicks (Kwan, who I made into a celestial warlock) for their first quest to round out the party in case they went to the Dwarven Excavation. They chose to go to Umbrage Hill instead, where they were able to talk down the manticore attacking the midwife's house.

I feel pretty strongly about making clear that the Talos cult is a specific orc group, so I changed the midwife to an elderly orc woman named Adabraza, who worships a generic earth-mother type goddess. (I'm using a mis-mash of deities, and she worships something closest Greyhawk's Beory.)

Interestingly, I rolled for Rhitthinnar's location during this time, and he was in the region of where the paladin would have been, so at the start of the second session, when everyone ran into each other in the tavern back in Embree, the Paladin and a few of the other sidekicks (Gallandro and Talon) he'd been traveling with escorting a caravan from New Perlicam to Embree, were telling stories about the dragon they ran into on the road here.

The now assembled Level 2 party of Sorcerer, Barbarian, Rogue, and Paladin opted to check out the Dwarven excavation.

I seeded a couple of other dungeons here, by having the reason they needed to see the dwarves being that Harbin Wester wanted information on where the orcs may be based out of, and where the town could evacuate to in case of emergency. The orcs seeded both the Holyrood (The Shrine of Savras in the DOIP book as written) and the ruins of Castle Corvallis (Castle Cragmaw from LMOP, but completely rekeyed), so the party will probably be checking those out next instead of Gnomengarde.

The party made pretty short work of the ochre jellies, and the combats felt pretty good for the level they were at (although I staggered the two jellies in the temple room), but I think the Investigation/Perception DCs to find the secret rooms was a bit high for a low level party. If I were running it again and really thinking about it, I'd have the dwarves come in after the main temple jellies were taken care of and help the party case the place -- they've canonically already found one secret door, so if the party couldn't find them, I'd have the dwarves find them instead so they could explore more of the dungeon. (As is, I just let the party take 10 to eventually find the doors, since there's no real time crunch in this dungeon.)

Instead of having the dwarves have run from the jellies, I had an orc scout wander into the excavation, and the dwarves hide (down the hidden corridor they found), and the orc died to the jellies, as a bit of foreshadowing.

We stopped before the party completed the dungeon, so we're finishing it up next session.

Probably need to work on keying Castle Corvallis for Levels 2-3 before the next session in case the party finishes up early in the Excavation and heads back early before setting out for the Castle ruins. I've got a rough draft of a Level 3 key for it, but I may need to adjust things.

Anyway, things are a bit awkward but I think going mostly well so far.

I like the layout and vibe of the Dwarven Excavation, but really dislike how much of it is hidden behind DC 15 checks and would definitely alter it in the future.