Canonfire!

Thu May 12, 2005 1:06 pm GDQ Series vs. Liberation of Geoff

Howdy all! I've been lurking around Canonfire for a good long while, and finally took the plunge. I'm hoping for some educated opinions here.

I do not own Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff, but, from what I've heard, it seems as if it may be incompatible with the earlier Queen of the Spiders storyline. I know all the Return to . . . modules pre-suppose that their earlier versions were completed 10-20 years before. In this sense they are truly sequels to the originals. Liberation of Geoff, as I understand it, occurs during the early 580's, and includes elements of the GDQ series that were ostensibly completed in the late 570's. How was this addressed in Greyhawk canon?

Fri May 13, 2005 4:02 am

You can leave the original plot in place as part of history but just assume that different giant leaders were defeated first time round.

Biggest problems are Eclavdra and the fate of Istivin. She converted to the worship of Lolth so if you want to use the Eilservs and the Elder Elemantal Eye element of the plot, use the drow npcs from the recent Istivin adventure path in Dungeon or the equivalent.

Istivin cannot be under another Lolth bubble, but the Istivin adventure path can act as a nice lead-in to the GDQ adventures instead.

Fri May 13, 2005 8:21 am

So did the GDQ series become non-canon when Liberation of Geoff was published? Could someone please summarize the backstory of that module for me so I can decide whether or not to invest in it? Thanks.

Sat May 14, 2005 11:04 am

Hiya.

Sat May 14, 2005 7:08 pm

Check out this recent short thread:

http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1248&sid=5823543f3e6e7f3acc7040e6379563f6

Happy

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~basiliv

I didn't design the world,
I merely facilitated its creation

Sat May 14, 2005 8:47 pm

I ran GDQ myself back in 1989, and am pretty familiar with that one. Wink

What I was looking for was an analysis of Liberation of Geoff to see if I could use it without contradicting GDQ (which I hope to run again for my current group). Most of the Sargent-era "canon" that I've read affirms that the giants control Geoff in the early 580's, and I'm trying to make that jive with GDQ. When I ran it the first time -- trust me -- there weren't any giants left to take over Geoff! I guess I'll just have to hunt down a copy of Liberation of Geoff and decide for myself.

Sat May 14, 2005 9:20 pm

The three giant holds in the GDQ series are only a small fraction of the overal giant forces, so even wiping them out completely wouldn't have dented the *military* strength of the invasion. It would have only removed the command structure and motivation.

But the general idea of most such discussions, including those in other canonfire threads, is to say the Drow-Giant assault is only the first wave and it was repulsed. Then the humans figured they'd spanked the giants and ignored them as the Wars started. As a result, they were unprepared for the Sakhut led second invasion that actually conquered Geoff, Sterich, and so on.

Btw, the "Lolth's Bubble" part of the supermodule could (and, imho, should) be dropped. Lolth is not behind the giants and the bubble is way to blatant an intervention for a demoness to get away with.

Sun May 15, 2005 1:28 am

I didn't like the "Lolth Bubble" either, particularly as it doesn't go with the GDQ outline, which states that Lolth's armies invade worlds through gateways within the Demonweb. It would seem more accurate for the forces of Lolth to establish a beachhead of sorts first, create a connective gateway to the Demonweb, and then attack through it. Such is how it is presented in the Demonweb section of GDQ. The "Lolth Bubble" does not function in theis way, and so I do not intend to use it.

For me, the outcome of the GDQ series is to hobble the forces of Lolth, such that they will be unable to establish a beachhead in the Flanaess/Greyhawk (which would enable them to make a connective gate to the Demonweb) for a long, long time.
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Fri May 20, 2005 5:18 am

Check out some of the text in the recent "Shadows of the abyss" module series in Dungeon. The author manages to tie in the G series along with the "bubble" idea.

The mods are set in Sterich in CY 591. So you can tie in the Geoff material from Against the Giants: the liberation of Geoff as well. That's what I'm doing in my campaign.

Mike