It has come to my attention that some folk believe this to be the front page for this site. In fact, the front page for Gord's Greyhawk is located at http://home.comcast.net/~chris.s/gordmain.html
This walled town was the area trade center and seat of feudal power, then began to decline when the overlordship transferred from a suzerain to the city itself, but is now undergoing a boom due to the ac- tivities of adventurers and the particular world system events (a new struggle between lawful good and chaotic evil, with the latter on the up- swing). The oligarchs of the city are neutral in outlook, if not in align- ment, viewing anything which benefits their city as desirable. There- fore, all sorts of creatures inhabit the city, commerce is free, persons of lawful alignment rub elbows with chaotics, evil and good co-exist on equitable terms. Any preeminence of alignment is carefully thwarted by the rulers of the place, for it would tend to be detrimental to the city trade. There are movements and plots aplenty, but they are merely a part of the mosaic of city intrigue, and player characters can seldom find personal advantage in them, let alone assume a commanding posi- tion in municipal affairs. (Gary Gygax, "Varied Player Character and Non-Player Character Alignment in the Dungeons and Dragons Campaign" The Dragon #9 (Vol II No. 3) 1977.)
Note: Someone has redrawn the Greyhawk City map from City of Hawks and included the key. There's some degree of inconsistancey between this map and the text as well as between different portions of the Gord series.
The building next door has a room with a table, under the table is a concealed trap door, which leads to a passage that runs between the two cities ending in a pawn shop.
The Union consisted of several levels, each a maze of wall cubicles, Gord's was on the top floor, the cellar has a kitchen, an unused back stairwell. The Beggarmaster's private quarters has a secret shaft down to the sewers, it is disguised as a cistern. 100' down there is a small ledge and an old door.
During the Beggar/Thief war, the Beggars controlled the North Thieves Quarter - bordered by Cleaver. This union supplemented the Beggar's guild with aid from actors, peddlers, tinkerers, and renegade thieves.
This final trap had three ways of ensnarement: first, by despair and withdrawal, enhanced by spells, second, persuasion and subversion, which has a 40% chance of success, finally, physical combat based on mental conviction - the vision of Tharizdun. This has a 50% chance of success. Gord leaps on the Tharizdun image to arrive at Gravestone. Gravestone runs this dream from a trance-like state. He lies entranced, sweating, on a flat pad on a circular dais, that is carved with sigils of warding. Three black candles burn. Gellor, Curley, and Chert are bound nearby. They are all near death and are bound both physically and magically. There is a central disk on this level.
At the top is the chamber of Rigello. He has a trapped flagstone before the entrance to his chambers that releases a grill of iron spikes from the ceiling. The tiger statuette is on a pedestal trapped with a symbol of death and a magic mouth that shouts "Thief!" 40 times. Four continual light spells erupt from behind the masks that are on the walls of the chamber. There is a large bronzewood table in here. A voice from above will start shouting for the thief's surrender so that he would be granted a swift death. A huge blue demon comes out from the bottom of the stairwell. A pair of lesser mages, one of whom can cast flesh to stone and has a wand of magic missiles, await on the landing below the top floor. There are archers on the roof.
He is more intelligent than a Demon Lord and is prone to staring while plotting in deep thought. He wants to be a lord of the lower planes and Infestix's successor. He posseses excellent navigational skills and is an unrelenting taskmaster.
He wears a baggy-sleeved robe and has a wavy-bladed dagger. His staff is a constrictor snakestaff that also is poisonous and has many other powers. He has a scarab that generates a sphere of Protection from Good made of three bands, dull blood red of the Hells, ebon of the Abyss, and putrid purple of Hades. He owns the infamous Codex of the Infinite Planes and The Everlasting Damnations of Dilwomez in his library in his secret room.
He is responsible for the death of Karal
Quadrapus and Ataleena,
Gord's
parents. He takes the alias of Graves and poses as a pilot up the
Selintan for Barrel.
He attacked the Silver Seeker in Hook Harbor. He
obtained Gord's
sword. His tactics in his tower, begin with offering obviously
powerful enemies an alliance while summoning Pazuzeus
and Shabriri.
He isn't stupid enough to fight people to the death, unless he has to. He
will retreat if pressed and will destroy his chambers to destroy pursuers.
see also Gravestone's Tower.
Spells:
In the center of the first floor is a spiral staircase down. Next to the first step is a secret door, beyond which is a spiral stair. It is a web strewn shaft with many narrow open ledges. 200 feet down the shaft, or 300 feet below the top floor, runes and symbols are on the walls, a shallow pool is in the center of the chamber. Rusted iron doors are at the end.
The sigil on the floor is matched to one on the wall. When these are pressed the pool area sinks into a circular chamber with 9 exits. The fifth arch is 15' high. It leads to a smooth sloping passage that goes 1' down for every 10' forward. Phosphorescent fungi illuminate the passage.
After a quarter mile journey, a cavern is reached. In here the elements are combined and alternate, forming mixes and pure forms of the four elemental planes. They can be commanded to form a prime plane. This realm is ruled by The Element Master. He will allow those who pass his trials to pass. The trials are of fire, water, air, earth, or nature. The trial by nature is the easiest and consists of each party member fighting a giant class animal or monster. Warriors fight a giant bull; Rogues fight a giant snake; Wizards fight a roc. Each must destroy their assigned monster before they can aid the others, or all will be killed. If they survive, they are offered the choice between passage to the next chamber, or a prize.
The next cavern is that of the Lord of balance. Behind, the Element Master's cavern is one of alternating colors and conditions. There is a sloping passage leading to a cavern with the sign of balance - a huge metal scale. The cavern is half light, half dark, half of the pool is aflame, one half is ice. Plants are thriving on rocks and rotting in rich soil. There are colorless trees with multicolored blossoms. All of the contents are contrasts, everywhere and nowhen. Yangyin and Yinyang are here. They journey with those who enter for one hour to the cavern center. They choose contestants who must be of contrasting natures in order to preserve balance. They test either Undead vs life, or go forth to return. This last test can be beaten by going to the end of the chamber and sending the pair of balance back.
The next tunnel, cavern is The Realm of Thought. Any thoughts here can materialize. Beyond lies the Ebon Wall and Bocheirs, the fish-bodied demon.
When Tharizdun invades, this castle is the last place of magical resistance. When Tharizdun and Entropy invade, Yin and Yang are pygmy sized and flee from Gord, Gellor and Leda. The power in the castle from alternate planes is now diminished. The Sea of Thought has lizard-like monsters in it and is now a small mucky lake in an extensive cavern.
See also Dragon Annual #2 pp. 96-99 and Tales from the Green Dragon in The Council of Greyhawk's Oerth Journal 7 for a description of the early castle campaigns involving Robilar, Tenser, and Teric. Three modules have been published detailing portions of EGG's version of Greyhawk Castle: EX1 Dungeonland, EX2 The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror, and WG6 Isle of the Ape.
"'Greyhawk Castle', for example, has over a dozen levels in succession downwards, more than that number branching from these, and not less than two new levels under construction at any given time. These levels contain such things as a museum from another age, an underground lake, a series of caverns filled with giant fungi, a bowling alley for 20' high Giants, an arena of evil, crypts, and so on. - Gygax & Arneson, Dungeons & Dragons Vol. 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures p. 4
It is a tiered structure. On the first tier above the ground floor, there is a doorway from the outer balcony leading inside. It is often left ajar either from trust in the sentries or in hopes of gathering victims. A nearby stairwell leads down to the ground floor and main level, which is primarily living space for the lesser clerics and the guards. A well worn path leads to a secret door and a stairwell going down. When a ceremony is going on, a loud discordant clamor can be heard here. Drums, harps, chanting and other noises contribute to the cacophony.
Somewhere on this level, lies a small, circular chamber at the end of a corridor. It is bare save for four, high set, equally spaced, candle holders. When the one immediately to the right of the tunnel entrance is pushed up while its pricket is pushed upon, the entire chamber spins, giving access to the high priest's inner sanctum. An ogreish, son of Kyuss like creature guards the chamber. It is a rotting, barrel-chested, bow-legged, foul-smelling creature that has worms crawling around in the orifices of its skull. These worms are spat out as an attack form. It also fights with a pair of sickles. This room is merely the entry chamber to the High Priest's suite. It is all lavishly furnished and also contains a hidden treasure stash, guarded with glyphs of warding and poison needles. Multiple gems are kept here including a large dark opal with green flecks. See also Nerull.
The keep itself lies on Midbay, on a cliff lined shore, on a spire of an ancient mountain, standing in a valley. A creek runs down the southern slope of the ridge at the lower part of the U-shaped vale. It then passes along the western side of the fortress and into the lake, cutting a deep channel. The whole structure is protected from magic. A wall surrounds the place. It has a barbarican, drawbridge, gate house, portcullis. Turrets and bartizans are at the angles, machicolated battlements. There is a grassy strip between the wall and the rest. There is a bailey from the gate to the entry. A paved road with squat stone buildings forms a parallel set of walls to confine those who enter in the gate to a narrow way.
From the spire a great hall, several lesser constraints, tied by walks, bridges of stone blocks, crenelated pierced merlons. 75 foot high roofs and shutters of metal. In the tower center there are great slabs of polished gneiss that turn transparent and become an elevator. The next level down is lab/workroom/library. The next level down it comes to rest on a thick rug. There are many rich carpets. There are blue rugs, arras, bricabrac etc. Everything is in shades of blue.
It is built on a nexus of magic, therefore, he can chart major energies.
There is a labyrinthine route down to a large cavern filled with water, where Tenser keeps a young water dragon. He uses a bronze diadem with aquamarine insets to allow respiration (not breathing) in water. He will occasionally loan these out to trusted friends who would ride the dragon, but he will want them back. A silent man will ride the dragon back from a cave shore at the other end. Gilled folk - not nixies or aquatic elves - who are Tenser's allies use sign language to guide passengers to teleporting pool. They will arrive in a cave with more gilled folk, when they go outside, they will have arrived across a boggy meadow on the road to Crockport. (B4-82) See also WG6 Isle of the Ape or for the more recent official version, see Return of the Eight.
The monument itself lies in Y3-87 or Y3-88, consists of 7 rings of stones, each ring made of progressively larger stones, from 4" in the farthest ring, to 10+' in the innermost ring. Previously, robbers, fleeing the Despotrix of Hardby, had happened upon the place. They found no way in and had horrible night visions. One went insane, and committed suicide. The next day, another went mad and killed yet another one.
Towards the blocked off entrance to the place, the survivors found a treasure, but were hit by a darkness 10' radius spell by the cataboligne demon who dwells within. It chased them out, has fear effect. The block pivots - sigils of binding are on the inside, along with half a skeleton in chainmail. Another skeleton has a sword and a hand under the stone.
Beyond the entrance is an antechamber - 20' wide, 15' deep and 6'tall, in the rear is a zombie of a cleric. It is more powerful than normal. When the zombie is killed, the demon laughs.
A door in the back of the room leads to a narrow landing with stairs down to a natural cave with stalactites and rounded stalagmites. Against the wall are five rotting torches. There are three exit passages: one ahead, one left, one right.
In the forward passage, there are arched ceilings, and the smell of decay. 100' down it intersects left and right curves. To the left the passage joins the left passage from before, then curves left/Right -from the right path intersects with a straight, then a curved L/R intersection. To left they hear a giggle, curve left/Right, right lies blue-violet glow.
Chamber with the cataboligne demon. They hear feminine laughter- the demon is disguised as a naked woman lying on an isle in a lagoon. One tunnel off the curves is the demon's lair, another is a pool of water; illusion masks a blocked off passage to a cave that is 6'8" in height. 12 adders and a giant 60' long serpent guard the treasure. It is a chest with a poison needle trap. It contains a gold coffer with runes and sigils written in an ancient tongue masking alignment. Inside is a jeweled orrery: an artifact with a large yellow corundum sun, an emerald for Oerth, an Opal for Luna, a star sapphire for Celene, a jacinth for Rao, Greyspace's largest planet, and diamonds for stars.
