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There’s also what I call the Forgotten Folio forest on the Crystal River, at https://grodog.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-strange-case-of-the-forgotten-folio-forest.html

Just now seeing this. Fascin ...

Post 339: Dwarfcart Ambush
11 May - rough lands north of the sulfur mining camp
(low 82, high 100; very dry)
Raid on Fort Southwatch

continued]

Surprise Round
Mathias emerges from around t ...

My perspective (see my old Oerth Journal article if you want details) is that at the time Niole Dra was being made the capital, Power was in the form of heroic cavalry, and the open plains of northern ...

I've always assumed that H & H were twins, with Heironeous being slightly older.

Heironeous is LG because he rules by right of primogeniture. Order, Honor, and Justice are reflections of the i ...

Record of the Troubles
21 March: Party's first day in Istivin
23 March: Raid on Fort Saddle (humanoids)
25 March: Sack of Fort Taelvu (frost giants)
27 March: Raid on Ebenenberg (humanoids and ogr ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G3: The Hall of the Fire Giant King

Snurre's dominion over the dwarven clans of the Hellfurnaces is an invention of my own, set up to bet ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G3: The Hall of the Fire Giant King

Locations keyed in the module are indicated in .

Post 336: First Foray
10 May - (continued) ravi ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G3: The Hall of the Fire Giant King

Post 335: Go time
10 May - Secret Cave near Snurre’s Hall
(low 83, high 106; very dry. Volcanic r ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G3: The Hall of the Fire Giant King

DM's Note on Logistics: Under normal conditions, a character will need one gallon of water per day by ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G3: The Hall of the Fire Giant King

Post 333: The Hall of the Fire Giant King
The party is now at 10th level - at least nearly all of th ...

"Vin Weasel" I just got that. rolleyes

Let's see if I can remember everyone in the B cast:

Aurora's familiar, summoned as a Weasel: Vin Weasel
Aurora's familiar, summoned as a Spider: Cha ...

Record of the Troubles
21 March: Party's first day in Istivin
23 March: Raid on Fort Saddle (humanoids)
25 March: Sack of Fort Taelvu (frost giants)
27 March: Raid on Ebenenberg (humanoids and ogr ...

Record of the Troubles
21 March: Party's first day in Istivin
23 March: Raid on Fort Saddle (humanoids)
25 March: Sack of Fort Taelvu (frost giants)
27 March: Raid on Ebenenberg (humanoids and ogr ...

Tina Fey.

;)

: For my description of Istivin and the buildings within I used "Istivin: City of Shadows" in Dungeon 117. The maps from this are freely and legally available at .

The backstory about Snurre's his ...

DM's note on Sources: Much of the information on the Feywild is taken from the description in the 5e DMG.

Record of the Troubles
21 March: Party's first day in Istivin
23 March: Humanoid Raid on ...

Post 328: Reunion
3 May continued - Headwater, the Oerth Temple

The party (without Mathias), arrives at the Oerth Temple of Headwater, and is immediately surrounded by a squad of town guards. Ma ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to the modules G2:The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl and G3:The Hall of the Fire Giant King

Locations keyed in the module are indicated in . ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2:The The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Locations keyed in the module are indicated in .

Post 326: The Jarl's Private Chamber ...

“Nevertheless, I would take my late husband’s henchman, honor-bound to defend him and his household, as well.”

I smell a coup attempt in the next installment of this blog. Wink

SirXaris

I ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Post 325: The Jarl is dead, Long Live the Jarl!
3 May continued - Glacial Rift, guest cave ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Post 324: Carl Måneskinn and the Second Carls' Challenge
3 May continued - Glacial Rift, g ...

My paternal grandmother was full-blooded Norwegian, so I have a smattering of knowledge of the language.

How fortunate! My father's mother's father was, according to family oral history, a Swede ...

I appreciate the addition of the magical chains binding the storm giantess

In 1e, a storm giant could hurl lightning once a day. In 5e, it is every third round (on average; it has a 'recharge'). ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

The special 'drow magic metal manacles', and Lyn's name, were my own inventions / additions ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Gygax's original module includes precious little information on the personalities of the Ja ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Locations keyed in the module are indicated in .

Post 321: Fishing

2 May (continued) ...

Long-time readers may have noticed that I post once a week, typically Tuesday morning (UTC - 7) - and that I didn't post last week. Nothing major, just a confluence of RL factors with a head cold left ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Post 319: No rest from the wicked

2 May (continued) - Glacial Rift

While Willa cont ...

I have never had a party complete this module via diplomacy. I've DM'd it three times. Twice ended in a party TPK. This was a very entertaining story, though it leaves an awful lot of potential tre ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Record of the Troubles
21 March: Party's first day in Istivin
23 March: Humanoid Raid on ...

The magical items that were in Jarl Grugnir's chambers (and available for his personal use) that I remember from the original AD&D module, G2, were the magical hammer (which I determined he could ...

How did you guys interpret the description of Grugnur's sword in G2? It says "Two-handed +4", which I took to mean a +4 two-handed sword that a player could potentially wield. Given his size, he could ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2:The The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

DM's Note: Jarl Grugner has made overtures to a great Oni Lord to join the Giant Allianc ...

I always have the Jarl equip himself with all the magical arms and armor listed as treasure in his lair. It seems silly that he wouldn't.
SirXaris

He didn't get to be Jarl, defeating all challe ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2:The The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Post 316: Nosy Neighbors I
30 April (continued) - Glacial Rift, guest caves

“Uh...h ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2:The The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Locations keyed in the module are indicated in .

DM's Note on Plot: I don't consider ...

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Nice!

My players did not pick up on that. You are hereby awarded an Inspiration Point.

I liked the names 'Bud' and 'Lou' better for the hill giants, but for the dy ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2:The The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Locations keyed in the module are indicated in .

Enough swords and sorcery. Let's pl ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2:The The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Locations keyed in the module are indicated in .

Post 313: Take me to your leader!
3 ...

I'm pretty sure G2, which was published before the Monster Manual II, described the white puddings as simply being a palette swap (video game term for monsters that have the same design but different ...

Arrgghh, I hate puddings!
IKR? I have heard that one way to avoid them is not eating your meat.

Looking them up in the classic AD&D Monster Manual II, I saw that white puddings don't affect ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2:The The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Locations keyed in the module are indicated in .

Post Post 312: Sweeping the Floor of ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2:The The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Locations keyed in the module are indicated in .

Post Post 311: Blue Eyes / White Out ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2:The The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Locations keyed in the module are indicated in .

Post 310: Snow Demon Bears
30 April ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G2: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Record of the Troubles
21 March: Party's first day in Istivin
23 March: Humanoid Raid on ...

Record of the Troubles
21 March: Party's first day in Istivin
23 March: Humanoid Raid on Fort Saddle
25 March: Sack of Fort Taelvu.
27 March: Raid on Ebenenberg.
28 March: Sack of Fort Iron Axe. ...

New abilities in bold.

Special Agent Willhemina Stoutly (Willa)
Ninth Level Fighter (Martial Archetype: Champion) / Human (mixed race, predominantly Flan) (Sailor)
Str 20 (+5), Dex 17 (+3), Con ...

DM's note: What spell effects can and cannot target the occupants of a tiny hut are a source of much contention among 5e rules theorists.

Post 306 - The Dream of a Mid-Spring Night
25 April conti ...

Wow, that was the most epic fight our intrepid band of heroes have gone through to date!

Yeah, that was a big one - it took three gaming sessions to play out! Nice environmental set piece, too, wi ...

DM's Note: A 'typical' 5e combat is assumed to take three rounds, with 6-8 combats in a day (the most-used formula is: combat, combat, short rest, combat, combat, short rest, combat, combat, long rest ...

I think it works best if, as Vulcan says, there is someone behind it. I would add, also some overarching plot reason. The PCs should be able to look around, see that they are getting specially unfav ...

Facing no immediate opposition in the main chamber, Mathias and Doro move deosil along the left-hand wall.

Awesome! I learned a couple of new words. Smile

Deosil (and widershins) are high ...

Picture a great subterranean chamber, roughly circular but hundreds of feet deep. At a half dozen locations along the walls are platforms with ballista crews, each at a different height above the flo ...

DM's Note on sources: The original source of the Oestral Abyss is Dungeon 119, which explains that it is the result of a sinkhole that swallowed a Sterish noble manor, but is now an entrance to the Un ...

Record of the Troubles
21 March: Party's first day in Istivin
23 March: Humanoid Raid on Fort Saddle
25 March: Sack of Fort Taelvu.
27 March: Raid on Ebenenberg.
28 March: Sack of Fort Iron Axe. ...

Boy, Thokk's Army wasn't much help, was it? Is he going to go back to the Steading to get some new recruits?

If you won't play out what happened to the orcs back at the Steading, what would you ev ...

Record of the Troubles
21 March: Party's first day in Istivin
23 March: Humanoid Raid on Fort Saddle
25 March: Sack of Fort Taelvu.
27 March: Raid on Ebenenberg.
28 March: Sack of Fort Iron Axe. ...

DM's Note on sources: The original source of Num-Theraz appears to be the Living Greyhawk Journals 2 and 3 (pp.30 in each). The description of the interior of Num-Theraz is my own invention. I used ...

I remember that thread.

I started writing a piece for it, but it grew too large and eventually became its own article...

http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=News&file=article&si ...

DM's Note on sources: By far the best source for maps of Greyhawk comes from the work of Anna B Meyer. Num-Theraz appears on her maps at message. However, just as the figure resolves for those behind ...

Record of the Troubles
21 March: Party's first day in Istivin
23 March: Humanoid Raid on Fort Saddle
25 March: Sack of Fort Taelvu.
27 March: Raid on Ebenenberg.
28 March: Sack of Fort Iron Axe. ...

Post 297: Oh Captain! My Captain!

18 April
(low 68, high 90 - Drizzle 10am - 3pm)

The captain’s face betrays only momentary shock at hearing his own language coming from his captor. Then his ...

DM's Note: Along with the Funerary Games, the party's adventures in this Tunnel have a dual purpose - to get them the xp needed for another level before they attempt G2 (the Frost Giants), and to exp ...

Post 295: The Trial of Spirit and a meeting with the Thane

18 April
(low 68, high 90 - Drizzle 10am - 3pm)

At sunrise, Babshapka and Willa walk Dandy out to the stream they passed the day befo ...

After Babshapka feels that he has a good grasp of the game, he goes berry-picking...

Literally, or is that a euphemism? Smile

SirXaris

Either way, not nearly as much fun when you go by y ...

Post 294: The Trial of Throwing Stones
17 April
(low 64, high 87)

The day dawns fair and clear - not a breath of wind in the canyon, and the clouds in the sky puffy and white. At dawn, the pr ...

Record of the Troubles
21 March: Party's first day in Istivin
23 March: Humanoid Raid on Fort Saddle
25 March: Sack of Fort Taelvu.
27 March: Raid on Ebenenberg.
28 March: Sack of Fort Iron Axe. ...

DM's Note on Sources 5e has lots of support for skill challenges and contested skill rolls, but the specific rules for the Stone Giant Rock Catching are my own invention.

Post 292: The Trial of Ca ...

Post 291: The Trial of Struggle

14 April
(low 68, high 83; gale force winds all day, second full day of storm)
wall of fire (Luck roll +1). If the priestess thinks the air of the hole smells a ...

The post about Garuumk's tragic past was a real gut punch, especially the absolutely brutal deconstruction you set up of D&D and the murderhobo tendencies some players have.
I try not to have l ...

Post 290: The Trial of Endurance

13 April - continued - The Fjell
(low 61, high 79; gale force winds all day, first full day of storm)

“The first Trial,” the Thane booms over the wind, “is the ...

That is an excellent example of stone giant culture. Thank you for that, Kirt.

You are welcome! I actually hadn't originally planned anything for Garuuumk beyond, "I need someone to lead the assa ...

Record of the Troubles
21 March: Party's first day in Istivin
23 March: Humanoid Raid on Fort Saddle
25 March: Sack of Fort Taelvu.
27 March: Raid on Ebenenberg.
28 March: Sack of Fort Iron Axe. ...

DM's Note: By far the best source for maps of Greyhawk comes from the work of Anna B Meyer. I used Dungeon 117 map supplement (Post 288: Headwater to Fort Iron Axe
10 April
(low 79, high 100)
Sk ...

DM's note on sources: As I noted in a postscript to Post 284, I had Plot Reasons for wanting the party to return the body of Garuuuuumk to the Fjell. The 'elven version' of the Reduce spell was my ho ...

It's a good thing you rolled so badly for the ogre guards...
Despite the 'ease' of the extraction, there were so many close rolls there it could have gone very bad very quickly.

You talk about ...

Kirt, so glad to see you are still around!

One of the eldest of the Greytalkers, still walking the earth, when so many have crossed the veil of Realinor.

Working on any projects? ::hint:: ::hin ...

DM's note on sources:
For the interior map of the Oerth Temple, I used Post 286 - Slugfest
9 April - Headwater
(low 74, high 99)

(2pm)
Doro has the best day-vision of the three of them, and sh ...

<color=#ffe4c4>spoiler text goes here</color>
to get (mouse highlight the text below to read it; should appear white on blue):

Yes, the color change should work, thanks!

DM's note on sources:
For the interior map of the Oerth Temple, I used Post 285 - Battle Plans
9 April continued - Headwater
(low 74, high 99)

(7am)
Babshapka wakes from his trance, having com ...

Other sites I frequent use
[spoiler] text [/spoiler]
or
>! text
but those don't seem supported here.

What commands enable spoiler text here?

Post 284 - The Dream of a Palace Garden
9 April - Headwater
(low 74, high 99)

(6am)
As the first light of dawn falls on the row house, most of the soldiers rouse and move out to take their turn ...

Post 283 - A dark new night
9 April
(low 74, high 99)

After the party has left the Steading, the orcs huddle in their tribal groups.

If they are to defend the Steading, there really is no ne ...

Record of the Troubles
21 March: Party's first day in Istivin
23 March: Humanoid Raid on Fort Saddle
25 March: Sack of Fort Taelvu.
27 March: Raid on Ebenenberg.
28 March: Sack of Fort Iron Axe. ...

As far as I know, the rules never had a separate category for the abilities one got as a 'three-quarters elf'. Yet PCs have existed at least from 1st edition and perhaps longer who had one parent a ...

Thanks Kirt. I have a hard time understanding WotC's will regarding half-orcs and half-elves. Sorry !
No need to apologize! It was a question asked in good faith and different people here are able t ...

One thing I forgot to ask in my previous post-how did the orcs' defending of the Steading against the returning giants turn out? Will we see that in a future post?
Very unlikely. In the one private ...

I read that WotC wants to delete these two species (racism problem?). They must not have seen the movie Warcraft where the half-orc is an important intermediary for peace between humans and orcs. Ther ...

I imagine Grazz't is pleased with everything Leezar has been doing so far? I'm assuming that would be a way to incentivize the party into taking the fight to the drow, if it comes to that...
Indeed, ...

Our heroes have returned just in time to join in the defense of the city...assuming they're not too gassed to do so.
They will definitely need a long rest, but in the morning...

How did you play ...

Post 281: Attack on Headwater!
8 April continued - River ford above Headwater
(low 61, high 81, light rain 5pm to midnight)

The party planners talk rapidly as they urge the dwarves forward alon ...

However, Aurora had actually planned to leave the dwarves in the trick while the party slipped away if need be, and having their leader out complicates that.
I don't understand this.
Is Aurora unint ...

Post 280: Not Quite Sterling Bridge
8 April
(low 61, high 81, light rain 5pm to midnight)

Round One
Thokk calls softly to the two orcs in view that when they can see the warg-riders, they need ...

Lol! Tricksy goblins.
For some reason it was easier to spot the goblins mounted on wargs the size of horses (Stealth +1) then it was the individual goblins moving through the trees (Stealth +6).

Prologue:
Back in Post 272 I gave some of Leezar's / Mathias' updates for gaining eighth level. But when he asked for a change of Pact in Post 275, many of his details changed. Here is his new and ...

:applause:

It is highly entertaining, Kirt!
Glad you are enjoying it; lots more to come!

I especially appreciate Thokk's antics and the pop culture comments, like Donkey Kong. Whenever Doro says, "Bad dog ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module G1:The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief

Post 278: Leaving the Steading
7 April continued - Steading of the Hill Giant Chief
(low 59, ...

DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module series G1-3:Against the Giants.

Post 277: Loyalty Tests
7 April continued - Steading of the Hill Giant Chief
(low 59, high 73, clou ...