Canonfire!

Fri Sep 16, 2011 2:15 pm Wonders of Ull Oldskool Edition

http://greyhawkery.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-wonders-of-ull-oldskool-edition.html

This one deserves its own thread. Well done Braggi, I can't say enough good things about your work.

Fri Sep 16, 2011 3:47 pm

You may be biased? Surely you jest! Evil Grin

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Mystic's web page: http://melkot.com/mysticscholar/index.html
Mystic's blog page: http://mysticscholar.blogspot.com/

Fri Sep 16, 2011 11:44 pm

WOW. That's an undertaking! Congrats and looking forward to looking through it.
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For the last time... I'm not a vampire! I was bleached a bewitching shade of white by The Gem of Souls!

Sat Sep 17, 2011 11:26 am

Hey gang.

Just wanted to let you know I had a lot of fun working on Mort's Ull material. I hope folks find it useful and enjoyable. It's also my way of saying thanks to Mortellan for a lot of years of creativity, dedication and hard work.

And Mortellan - keep up the great work with the Ull articles - an adaptation is only as good as the source material. Thanks for giving me permission to do the adapting in the first place and then offering to post it on your blog.

I'm looking forward to anything else you create (Uli or otherwise) in the future.

Smile

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<div>Braggi, Swain and Varlet at Large<br /></div>

Sat Sep 17, 2011 9:24 pm

Braggi . . . you rock! Take that bow, my friend. Cool

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Mystic's web page: http://melkot.com/mysticscholar/index.html
Mystic's blog page: http://mysticscholar.blogspot.com/

Sun Sep 18, 2011 7:09 am

Very good! One thing jumped out at me, though, and it may just be an artifact of changing the timeline back to 576 CY. As written, Draske and his nephew Bruzharag seem too close in age. It reads to me that Draske sold his sister (Bruzharag's mother) into slavery after becoming Orakhan in 565 CY. Bruzharag was born sometime thereafter, so he couldn't be more than 9 or 10 years old in 576 CY. Confused

Sun Sep 18, 2011 10:14 am

@ Mystic-Scholar: Thank you for the compliment. As I said above, I had a lot of fun cooking up the adaptation. I really enjoy that sort of thing.

Happy

@DMPrata: Yup, you are right - that's an artifact from the timeline changeover. However - and this might be a good question to pose in all seriousness - how long does it take an ogre to reach maturity? It's one of those questions I was never fully certain on (can anyone recommend an "Ecology of" article from Dragon I could look over?)

Also, did you find any other holes in the information? I'm gratified to discover my adapting work had so few.

Good constructive criticism. I appreciate it - thank you.

Cool

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<div>Braggi, Swain and Varlet at Large<br /></div>

Sun Sep 18, 2011 10:42 am

Sun Sep 18, 2011 11:25 am

According to The Complete Book of Humanoids, ogres and half-ogres both age at exactly the same rate as humans.

Human
Base Age: 15+1d4
Maximum Age Range: 90+2d20
Average Maximum Age: 110
Middle Age: 45 Years
Old Age: 60 Years
Venerable: 90 Years

Ogre
Base Age: 15+1d4
Maximum Age Range: 90+2d20
Average Maximum Age: 110
Middle Age: 45 Years
Old Age: 60 Years
Venerable: 90 Years

Ogre, half-
Base Age: 15+1d4
Maximum Age Range: 90+2d20
Average Maximum Age: 110
Middle Age: 45 Years
Old Age: 60 Years
Venerable: 90 Years

Sun Sep 18, 2011 11:30 am

Thanks guys. Next time I run into something like this I know exactly the two Grey-sages to ask... and I will.

One of the things I proposed to Mortellan was that if art (say for NPC's or monsters, as examples) could be found to enhance the work, I'd happily add it in and re-release. I'll keep track of items like these ones too, so I can address them and get the piece as polished as possible. Your information here will help me fix that timeline hole.

Smile

Another place I invite you both to look over - how did I do on my statistics? I'd welcome comments and constructive criticism there too (and on just about anything else you can find, for that matter). This way, I know that what is being released does justice to Mort's work and gives maximum accuracy and usefulness to players and DMs.
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<div>Braggi, Swain and Varlet at Large<br /></div>

Sun Sep 18, 2011 12:08 pm

Page 23: "Jadrun Khan is regarded as the most powerful single khan in Ull besides the Orakhan. He is the ancestor of Drashan the Elder who defeated the Brazen Horde at the Battle of Ulakand and this lineage gives him the respect of foe and friend alike."

This should probably read "descendant."

Page 10, "Religion in Ull": One canonical addition to this is that Dungeon #104, page 107, mentions that neither sect of Al'Akbar's worshipers "is very welcome in Ull, where a sadistic form of elementalism is still practiced by strange and wicked cults." I presume this means veneration of the Elemental Princes of Evil. Demon-worship is mentioned several times in this document (for example, page 15), and the "sadistic elementalism" is probably much the same. I suppose Incabulos-worship qualifies as "sadistic elementalism" to some extent, and this could also refer to worship of demons with elemental portfolios (for example, Pazuzu, Alzrius, Aseroth, Lissa'aere, and Zuggtmoy), but I would expect the Elemental Princes of Evil to be popular among humans and humanoids alike in this realm.

Page 30: "The Elder Maze." Oh, neat. Someone used a concept I made up. And I see I got credited on page 44.

Sun Sep 18, 2011 12:38 pm

Sun Sep 18, 2011 1:33 pm

A canon addition - very nice! That definitely needs to go in too. Thank you once more.

Credit where it is due, absolutely. That is something very important to Mortellan and myself. The credits and acknowledgement section for Wonders of Ull is taken directly from Mort's original MS and he was very thorough in making sure everyone's contributions got recognized.

Just the way it should be - we 'Hawkers are a creative bunch!

Wink

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<div>Braggi, Swain and Varlet at Large<br /></div>

Wed Oct 26, 2011 3:05 pm

@ DM Prata & Rasgon:

Just wanted to let the two of you know that I did use your constructive criticism to improve the adaptation.

- I fixed the date issue on Bruzharag's age by backdating Draske's betrayal of his sister to 554 C.Y. (well before he became Orakhan) and adjusting the text that followed the initial occurrence of the event to match.

- Changed "ancestor" to "descendant". That NPC description was an original entry written by Mort which I didn't mess with, since I wanted to alter only what was necessary.

- Regarding the elemental cults, again the religious section was only slightly adapted as well. I'd be happy to insert the information Rasgon presented if Mortellan is willing. (It certainly seems like an excellent fit to me.)

Once again to both of you - thanks very much for the constructive criticism.

Wink

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<div>Braggi, Swain and Varlet at Large<br /></div>

Wed Oct 26, 2011 8:50 pm

normally if this was Rasgonian editorialism of my comic I'd dodge any ancestor/descendant matters by use of time travel, but as this is my serious Ull writings I'll have to give him kudos.

As to the Elemental Princes of Evil. Hell yeah. Abi Dalzim who once practiced with the enigmatic Sand Sha'ir and also spent time trapped in the Great Dismal Delve for abusing genie favors surely has trafficked with Ogremoch before. Yan C Bin would be a feared Prince out on the open steppe and Imix is a must have.