December 3rd, 2009: The Cultist Saga continues outside the city of Dorakaa, capital of the Land of Iuz. But first let's cut away real quick and see what is going on inside the walls of the city...
Much more trivial info on this strip at the end.
1. Althea and Halga are both High Priestesses of Iuz the Evil. Althea is the nominal ruler of Molag, Iuz's other main city. She is arrogant, controlling and armed to the teeth. Halga is the nominal ruler of Izlen and the NE Vesve Forest. She is high strung, neurotic and has sudden violent streaks. She is also highly knowledgable in the politics of the Abyss. Not surprisingly these two don't get along at all since they constantly vie for the favor of Iuz. This of course means they spend more time in Dorakaa watching each other than in the places they are in charge of. Both appear in the novel Artifact of Evil by Gary Gygax and in the sourcebook, Iuz the Evil by Carl Sargent.
2. The Legion of Black Death houses at the Iron Barracks near the Iron Gate of Dorakaa. The Legion consists of about 1000 elite orc and orog warriors plus contingents of human soldiers, a phalanx of Babau demons and much more.
4. The Iron Gate of Dorakaa is 25' tall and has leering skulls carved into it. The gate leads out to the Road of Skulls. The Road of Skulls stretches 300 miles to Kendragund in the north. It is 60 yards wide and is composed of barren earth. At intervals along its length is skulls impaled on poles, many of which are enchanted with dangerous magic.
5. Iuz's male High Priest, Patch was once one of the Greater Boneheart but was slain during the Greyhawk Wars. He has not since been replaced.
6. General Sindol is the leader of the Legion of Black Death. He is a Baron Cambion with a mysterious lineage that even his master Iuz is not aware of. He carries a blue-steeled long sword with many magical properties. He also possesses a horn carved from the leg of a Balor which can bless his evil troops when blown.
7. Plague Monks are not even from Greyhawk canon but are in fact from Warhammer Fantasy. They are part of the rat-like Skaven.
8. Sindol really didn't need to rename his army as a Legion is normally a unit of just about any size and composition. Roman legions for instance numbered up to 10,000 as opposed to Sindol's paltry 1000 orcs. Modern unit designations don't include Legions. A battalion as such is 300-1000 infantry. Smaller than that would be Companies, Platoons and Squads.
This one was a longtime coming. My longest special comic to date at 20 pages. It was a labor of love and putting the info together was fun in that I got to pour over all my old books and google for iconic D&D pics to use. Some of my photoshopped alterations are downright funnier than the text. Now I need to rest!
www.greyhawkonline.com/wogcomic/title/wo
This project was alot of fun putting together. Now that I have cultist minis I can do ANYTHING!
This project was alot of fun putting together. Now that I have cultist minis I can do ANYTHING!
I haven't done a good CC in over 150 weeks! This should tide things over until my Gencon Special. I also need to get working on my extra special Tharizdun cultists mini conversions. It's gonna be so evil!
Link to Comic Warning: Reading ahead!
This one was fun to produce. I must've researched those words for two nights and took four hours just to type out the glossary. The comic itself was easy! I love and hate these type of comics equally. Effort pays off though to see people remember those old D&D phrases or learn them for the first time. Also a couple people have told me that this is how their S.O. must feel when around GH fans. Too funny!
Good ol Delleb and Fharlanghn humor. I love writing the alliterative dialogue. I get out a thesaurus and write down all the words with the same root then start playing with them. It's like a game to see how many I can use.
Ah the hilarity of Gods in Space. I only wish one of the Cultists had used that pun instead.
Crazy fun stuff. Already got a bunch of people who scored only 27/28 D&D references in this comic. And then notable Greyfan, Sam Weiss then countered me by finding a 29th reference that even I didn't spot. Mayaheine's 'Sword' on her tabard and her 'Fist'. Sometimes I'm too clever for even myself!
More comics from my Oerth Journal days. I was running behind on this week's comic. Got some big ones in store, always doing things at the last minute. I thrive under pressure of a deadline though. The rest of the time I guess all I do is sleep. Hm. The Llerg one is one of my faves since it utilizes module and novel titles in the dialogue. I am currently working on another in this vein. The Hungering was a bit of serendipity as I was struggling to come up with a comic to fit that OJ's theme. It is hard to do a weekly strip and then come up with a homerun for OJ at the same time. It's okay to have a lame comic once in a while for the regular run but the OJ has to always be top notch in my opinion.
"Welcome back Greyfans. Many of you may be familiar with the supermodule Queen of the Spiders which compiles seven classic 1st edition modules into one grand quest to save Oerth from the machinations of Lolth and the Drow. Well the cultists have skipped over modules G1-G3 and teleported past modules D1 and D2, then used the power of the Codex to beat D3- The Vault of the Drow easily. Now they go for the record as they try to tackle Q1- Queen of the Demonweb Pits. Lolth is in trouble!
On another topic, AD&D's g.p. weight encumberance system was never one of my favorite things when I was young(must've been the math thing), but now looking back as an adult I see the usefulness of it especially in a game whose primary goal is tracking loot. The 1e DMG says the maximum weight a normal strength person can carry and still move is 1500 g.p. It defines encumberance for items as a combination of weight and bulkiness. Some items thus have no encumbering effect like a helm, material components, thieves tools and one set of clothing. Typical adventuring gear like a backpack however weighs 20 gp. Factoring in other stuff like armor, weapons and whatnot it is easy to see how absurd carrying gold actually becomes. Now anyyone who has ever played D&D or a video game like it knows this, but I bet half of us myself included handwave past these rules and let scrawny wizards carry many many times their body weight in gold around. This is a shame you see because it makes things like blackmailing someone for your "weight in gold" not such a big deal anymore. Speaking of which, the cultists should be at the Fane of Lolth by now...."
Ah finally, a new storyline on G.i.S. Well for now at any rate. I did some heavy research on Giant Space Hamsters, not knowing much about them. Man I was missing out on the fun back in 2e! Another oddity I learned, gnomes have their own language but use dwarven alphabet. Well that's cheating!
The Raven Queen sounds like a cool idea for a new D&D deity, but the more I read on her in Wizards material the more I wish they had just stuck with Wee Jas. Heh heh.
Good ol Gra'zt. I like doing the Graz'zt Show now, because since I got the general format down all I really do is change the text. Lazy yes, but at this point in my 4th year of the comic, any corner cutting I do extends the life of the comic greatly.
I love everything Paizo does but they are starting to pull away from me in a deluge of published material for their new setting. It's almost like Forgotten Realms in ambition but without the extra deluge of novels. Still, top noth stuff and I love to pick on some new deities for a change, even if indirectly.
Finally got my secret Cyndor Project off the ground. It was fun to produce and fun to taunt people with. I have more twisted Greyhawk history to deal with in the future but this was the main one I wanted to do. To quote Hannibal (A-Team not the Elephant rider) "I love it when a plan comes together."
Deuces wild. Man, I've been prolific. Here's a few of my best comics, lovingly drawn and scripted for the Oerth Journal fanzine.
One more issue to go on this story arc, but there will be very little lay over time as the crew will soon have to account for the disappearance of their enemy Phaulkhan as I lined up many many issues ago. It's been a long way to get there, but the Spelljammer fun continues for 'Episode 2'. I am still unsure how i'll bridge Episode 5 and 2 but I'll think of something...???
Link to the comic: www.greyhawkonline.com/wogcomic/title/wo
This unassuming comic was a pleasant surprise for me. I could not find any reference to where Gygax got the word Kanteel from, and many people stepped up to provide me info on the origin. Apparently its a Finnish instrument called a Kantele and is from their mythology.
Rasgon as usual best explains it to me: www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules.php
Thanks to everyone for their assistance. I love gettign feedback.
...the powerful wizard said so.
That's right. So often in Greyhawk or any campaign the plot is driven by an archmage sending the PCs on a quest, and so often players will stop in the middle of a session and think to themselves why is my character doing this quest again? The answer is always: Because the powerful wizard said so. Don't question his motives...just go into that death-trap dungeon already!
Looking back on my body of Ull-work I'm quite proud of all I've managed to develop with scant canon references. Since I started I've written enough to make my own setting-book by now I wager. Let's investigate:
Postfest II: The Altar of Dhawar (Mysterious Place set in Ulsprue Mountains) @1200 words
Ull Gazetteer: Trade Town of Kester, Part 1 (Geography, People, and Trade in Kester) @1300 words
Ull Gazetteer: Trade Town of Kester, Part 2 (Black Market, Pit Fighting and Denizens of Kester) @1700 words
Ull Gazetteer: Ulakand the City of Horses, Part 1 (Geography, People, and Trade in Ulakand) @1400 words
Ull Gazetteer: Ulakand the City of Horses, Part 2 (Rulers, Worship and Customs in Ulakand) @1200 words
Postfest III: Abi Dalzim (High-level evil wizard living near Kester) @1200 words
Postfest III: Bruzharag the Misbegotten (High-level evil ruler of Ull) @1400 words
Postfest IV: Minotaur Mask of the Ulsprues (Magic item of Ull) @800 words
Magic Items of Ull, Part 1 (3 items with Ull lore) @1000 words
Postfest V: The Yellow Cartel (Evil drug trading organization in Ull) @1100 words
Magic Items of Ull, Part 2 (3 more unique items in Ull) @1100 words
Postfest V, Part III: Blink Camprat (Variation of the well known GH critter in Ull) @700 words
Random Encounters in Ull (AD&D style charts for regions within Ull) @400 words
See Ull...and Die! Part 1 (Khanates and Warbands of northern Ull) @1100 words
See Ull...and Die! Part 2 (Kahantes and Warbands of central-southern Ull) @1300 words
Postfest VII: The Dagger of Misfortune (Cursed dagger of Ralishaz found in Ull area) @600 words
Postfest X: The Blind Billy Goat Inn (New article. Only true inn to be found in Kester) @2200 words
The sum of my Canonfire work so far is about 19,700 words
Add to this the articles I've done for Oerth Journal. They are largely repackaged and reedited material from my CF articles but alot new has been added as well:
Oerth Journal 19: Gazetteer of the Flanaess - Ull (New material includes a lengthy history of Ull, the roll of Orakhans, races of Ull, smaller settlements and new NPCs of Ull) @12,000 words
Unpublished Gazetteer of the Flanaess - Ulakand the City of Horses (New material includes brief history of Ulakand, information on the town and the surrounding mesa and a random caravan generator) @8600 words
This brings my finished works to 40,300 words. The 83 Guide had exactly 200 words on Ull and 55 words on the Ulsprues for a total of 255 words. That gives me 158 times as much information. Not bad eh?
p.s. my Ull map is from OJ #19 and was made by Anna Bernemalm and Rick Miller. Gotta love them.
Postfest II: The Altar of Dhawar (Mysterious Place set in Ulsprue Mountains) @1200 words
Ull Gazetteer: Trade Town of Kester, Part 1 (Geography, People, and Trade in Kester) @1300 words
Ull Gazetteer: Trade Town of Kester, Part 2 (Black Market, Pit Fighting and Denizens of Kester) @1700 words
Ull Gazetteer: Ulakand the City of Horses, Part 1 (Geography, People, and Trade in Ulakand) @1400 words
Ull Gazetteer: Ulakand the City of Horses, Part 2 (Rulers, Worship and Customs in Ulakand) @1200 words
Postfest III: Abi Dalzim (High-level evil wizard living near Kester) @1200 words
Postfest III: Bruzharag the Misbegotten (High-level evil ruler of Ull) @1400 words
Postfest IV: Minotaur Mask of the Ulsprues (Magic item of Ull) @800 words
Magic Items of Ull, Part 1 (3 items with Ull lore) @1000 words
Postfest V: The Yellow Cartel (Evil drug trading organization in Ull) @1100 words
Magic Items of Ull, Part 2 (3 more unique items in Ull) @1100 words
Postfest V, Part III: Blink Camprat (Variation of the well known GH critter in Ull) @700 words
Random Encounters in Ull (AD&D style charts for regions within Ull) @400 words
See Ull...and Die! Part 1 (Khanates and Warbands of northern Ull) @1100 words
See Ull...and Die! Part 2 (Kahantes and Warbands of central-southern Ull) @1300 words
Postfest VII: The Dagger of Misfortune (Cursed dagger of Ralishaz found in Ull area) @600 words
Postfest X: The Blind Billy Goat Inn (New article. Only true inn to be found in Kester) @2200 words
The sum of my Canonfire work so far is about 19,700 words
Add to this the articles I've done for Oerth Journal. They are largely repackaged and reedited material from my CF articles but alot new has been added as well:
Oerth Journal 19: Gazetteer of the Flanaess - Ull (New material includes a lengthy history of Ull, the roll of Orakhans, races of Ull, smaller settlements and new NPCs of Ull) @12,000 words
Unpublished Gazetteer of the Flanaess - Ulakand the City of Horses (New material includes brief history of Ulakand, information on the town and the surrounding mesa and a random caravan generator) @8600 words
This brings my finished works to 40,300 words. The 83 Guide had exactly 200 words on Ull and 55 words on the Ulsprues for a total of 255 words. That gives me 158 times as much information. Not bad eh?
p.s. my Ull map is from OJ #19 and was made by Anna Bernemalm and Rick Miller. Gotta love them.
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