LONG – SPOILERS
This post encourages discussion of Living Greyhawk modules and interactives. It is not intended to invite filesharing of the many LG authors’ works.
Depending on reception, this can be first of several topics, or one and done. I’m interested in sharing some details and hoping others can fill in gaps. Also, I welcome any discussion on how gamemasters have used or adapted LG materials involving the Sheldomar Valley. Personally, my campaign centers on lands adjacent to the Dreadwood and Hools, southern Keoland, Salinmoor, and the Hold of Sea Princes. One cadre of NPCS from LGSV materials that I have taken an interest in is the Von Reiklande family. Here’s some of what I know, and don’t know, about them (provided chronologically).
593 CY: The Von Reiklandes apparently first feature in several KEO3 interactives. The Von Reiklandes rivaled the Rhola Duke of Gradsul and had associations with the Scarlet Brotherhood (SB). They were designed to obviously come across to PCs as potentially being vampires. Module KEO4-04 attributes several developments involving the clan to a KEO3 interactive called “The Secrets of the Sea Princes,” a title that Richard Di Ioia’s index lists as a Year Five interactive. (Were there two such interactions with the same name?) Two other KEO3 interactives that presumably involved the Von Reiklandes were “Dark Shadows over Gradsul” and “The Von Reiklande’s Crypt.” Perhaps it was in one of these that Duke Luschan VIII of Gradsul orchestrated a raid on a Von Reiklande mausoleum. The raid yielded no evidence proving the family practiced necromancy, and thus proved an embarrassment for the duke.
594 CY: A Sheldomar regional module, “Red Rendezvous” (SHE4-01) introduces Werner Von Reiklande, a master spy who maintained the family’s impressive information circle. In 594 CY Werner used his mastery of disguise to instigate a feud between members of two Gradsul merchant families. When the plot went awry, one of Werner’s assistants fled the city for a SB ship. That ship was defeated in a battle at sea, thereby implicating the family’s involvement with SB operations in Gradsul. Keoland module “The Rain, the Wind, and the Night” (KEO4-04) picks up on a storyline begun in a module of the previous years, “The Tomb of Tloques-Popolocas” (KEO3-01), wherein explorer Reld Makazian of Gradsul has pillaged artifacts from the ruined Olman city of Tamoachan, including the sarcophagus of vampiric priest Tloques-Popolocas of “Hidden Shrine” fame. Makazian was murdered the day after the sarcophagus was put on display at Gradsul’s Museum of Antiquities. (Di Ioia’s index lists a KEO3 interactive called “Raiders of the Lost Tamoachan”; it is unclear what this contributes to this storyline.) Some adventurers combing an Olman shantytown that arose in Gradsul’s suburbs following the Greyhawk Wars located Xapatl - Olman priest and prime suspect in the explorer’s death. The heroes learned from Xapatl that it was Traago Von Reiklande who masterminded bringing the Olman vampire’s remains to Gradsul and it was he who killed Makazian. Traago’s plan was to join forces with Tloques-Popolocas to convert Gradsul into a vampire capital, from whence the race would overrun Oerth. Within months of this scheme being foiled, another momentous event that happened in Gradsul was an invasion by sea. Apparently a sahuagin raid of the city was thwarted, thanks in part to the aid of a gnome inventor, Doctor Steamopolis, who availed his technology, underwater crossbows. I’m unclear what interactive from Di Ioia’s index, if any, this invasion may have been covered in. In “Knights of Future’s Past” (KEO4-06), one learns how Lothar Von Reiklande, member of the National Academy of Wizards, possessed a minor artifact, the Mirror of Lendor, which served as a gate to and from a parallel Oerth situated fifty years in the future, where Vecna himself ruled most of the Sheldomar. At summer’s end 594 CY Duke Luschan VIII of Rhola hosted a festival that included a ball at the duke’s suburban palace. When thieves stole the mirror, a band of heroes were tasked to recover it. While doing so they were drawn into the mirror. They navigated through the dystopian other-Keoland, where Vecna’s two most prominent lieutenants were a Prince Lothar Von Reiklande and a King Traago Von Reiklande. After the party found their way back to this Oerth, they rushed to the Von Reiklande Theater in Gradsul, arriving there in time to save Duke Luschan from an assassination attempt by evil mirror duplicates of themselves that Lothar Von Reiklande had created.
595 CY: Besides House Rhola, another challenge to the Von Reiklandes’s power in Keoland was Sakatha, the returned vampiric Lizard King of AD&D module I2 fame. “Twisted Chaos” (KEO5-02) explains that Count Traago Von Reiklande believed only Suel should don the mantle of vampirism. Traago – lawful evil – allied with the SB in opposition to Sakatha, who recently allied with a chaotic splinter group of the SB, the Black Brotherhood. It seems that in the Keoland interactive, “The Siege of Westkeep,” (KEO5-IN1), royal forces stopped Sakatha from taking the Keoish-held town located in the Hold of the Sea Princes. At the same time some adventurers frustrated the Von Reiklande family’s efforts to destroy Sakatha’s dens in the Hool Marshes. One wonders why they would have done that! Another interactive for 595 CY, “Stokerfel Manor,” is set in the Von Reiklande’s main residence, located in eastern Keoland (but where, exactly? It’s not on Anna Meyer’s Greyhawk map.) This episode presumably involved another setback for the Von Reiklandes. Meanwhile, back in Gradsul, spymaster Werner Von Reiklande’s latest scheme - trafficing non-Suel “undesirables” to the Slavers - ended abruptly when the latter made a new alliance with a beholder operating a secret island base off the coast of Ulek. The latter kidnaped Dr. Steamopolis and other weapon crafters whom Duke Luschan VIII had assembled to assist the Sheldomar in its many challenges. (“Eye of the Storm” [SHE5-05]). On the opposite end of the Dreadwood, the Von Reiklande-Sakatha conflict continued in the “The Madness of King Jorgos” (KEO5-05). With the Black Brotherhood having failed to recall Tharizdun to Oerth, Sakatha dropped the alliance with them and next plotted to seize Richart Jorgos, Viscount of Nume Eor, and present his soul to Demogorgon. Some adventurers made a mad dash into the Dreadwood to recover Jorgos before Sakatha could sacrifice him. Lost on a trail in the forest, the heroes were assisted by an unlikely ally; Lothar Von Reiklande directed them to his family’s ancient ancestral tomb where the vile ritual was to occur. Lothar also provided the party a charmed heirloom that enabled his entombed Von Reiklande ancestors to assist in defeating Sakatha, thereby saving the Viscount. (Yes, this is the “Von Reiklande Tomb” that Anna Meyer does locate on her Greyhawk map.)
596 to 597 CY: “Things to Do in Bissel When You’re Dead” (SHE6-03) characterizes the Von Reiklandes’ reputation and power as of 596 CY as recently diminished. It indicates how family members were being shunned by fellow aristocrats and mainly sticking to “their decaying home of Stokerfel Manor.” Unlike most of his kin, Lothar Von Reiklande was out and about. At Niole Dra, he feigned assistance to the royal cause by tricking Dr. Steamopolis into helping turn a band of royal agents into undead. Lothar arranged for the transformed heroes to be secreted into Bissel; however, the mage then tried to sabotage the mission by informing an orc war band where they would arrive. The heroes prevailed, however, and learned how Vecna loyalists were seeking to recover the lich’s Hand and Eye in anticipation of a prophecy that Vecna would return to the Sheldomar. In “A Topaz Is Forever” (SHE7-06) Lothar attended a meeting of various villains, whom a duergar war lord gathered to show off his mercenary-enhancing machine. The Spider Queen was slated to use the device in her upcoming planned invasion of the Sheldomar. One reads that Lothar was at this meeting not to participate in Keoland’s possible demise, but rather simply to learn what he could of the duergar’s magical undertaking so he could apply it towards his own research. Finally, the Keoland module “The Herald of Woe” (KEO7-01) claims that the Von Reiklandes alongside the Nehelis and Secondforths of Salinmoor were intent on seeing that Keoland retain its control of Westkeep, which involved maintaining Keep’s End, a nearby supply town. In the late 590s Keoland was supplying Westkeep by sailing supplies down the Javan River from Cryllor. I assume the Von Reiklandes were benefiting financially from this operation, but perhaps they had other motives.
The Von Reiklandes provide much flavor to the regions that surround the Dreadwood and the Hools. If anyone can fill in any details on the plots, NPC motivations, and events from the modules and (especially) interactives involving this intriguing family, however brief, it will be much appreciated. I also welcome any discussion about how gamemasters might use, or have already used, this content in their own campaign. One of my favored GM pastimes of late has been developing backstories for some of these scenarios and the Von Reiklande NPCs for use in my own 570s/580s CY era campaign.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Canonfire! is a production of the Thursday Group in assocation with GREYtalk and Canonfire! Enterprises
