From Hyperborea I Can See Oerth - Sword & Sorcery Greyhawk Being Run With The Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers Of Hyperborea Rpg System - Thoughts on The Free City Of Greyhawk Box Set

"Greyhawk -- City of High Culture and Low Life! From the high towers of its grand universities to the rancid alleys of its darkest slums, the City of Greyhawk awaits you. Center of magic and learning in the Flanaess, Greyhawk is also the home of powerful thieves, mighty warriors, traitorous ambassadors, and honest craftsmen."

1989 ... Douglas Niles & Carl Sargent ... TSR 1043 ... ISBN 0880387319"



So what are the ramifications of the Free City of Greyhawk in a solar system where Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea floats near Saturn & Greyhawk sits next to the star Jupiter? I began to think about this far future solar system of mine millions of years in the future  where Jupiter is a small star. Greyhawk orbits around it & Hyperborea is near one of the sixty two (sixty three?) moons of Saturn. Greyhawk's golden age might have been in fact much more marked by the passage of Ragnarok. Humanity was led to the safety of Greyhawk because of the sacrifice of the deities of Old Earth. This has been a part of an irregular series of blog posts that started here.



Passage between the two worlds is highly parlous & extremely dangerous fraught with all kinds of soul draining horror.  Maybe the occasional party in the capital city but not likely. It would be extremely rare. I'm talking 'The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad' film rare. The Free City of Greyhawk is the focus of a place of incredible Sword & Sorcery ancient learning like the Library of Alexandria. 
This is the setting where the  Xian wizards would sell their black hearted souls to go. The Free City of Greyhawk still boasts pieces of learning from before the Great Rain of Colorless fire & the Green Death.



The Scarlet Brotherhood is focused much more along the lines of  "the Dreaming Isle of Melnibone, its Suloise monks and wizards the modern descendants of the twisted demon-sworn conquerors of a dead age" but they have their tendrils throughout the Free City. Few release the horrors that the Elemental Evil cult brought to Greyhawk but its not dead only dreaming at the moment;

"The Wizards of the Coast provided the following introduction to Elemental Evil:

“

Four apocalyptic cults of Elemental Evil are building secret sanctuaries and outposts throughout the North, bringing terror and destruction to the Forgotten Realms. Each cult is devoted to one of the Princes of Elemental Evil (godlike entities embodying air, earth, fire, and water) and is led by a nihilistic prophet, corrupted by power. The cruel elf princess Aerisi Kalinoth speaks for the air Cult of the Howling Hatred, while Marlos Urnrayle, a fierce male medusa, leads the Cult of the Black Earth. The Cult of the Eternal Flame scars its followers at the behest of the beautiful and deadly tiefling Vanifer, and the mutilated sailor Gar Shatterkeel plots to drown the world with his Cult of the Crushing Wave. The cults use devastation orbs, forged of raw elemental power, to ravage Faerûn with horrifying earthquakes, typhoons, tornados, and other disasters. Independently, the cults are terrible adversaries, but now they have secretly begun transforming a long-lost dungeon into a huge subterranean temple dedicated to an alien entity known as the Elder Elemental Eye. To prevent this union of the Elemental Evils into one catastrophic force, heroes must expose the prophets' true agenda. The cults' agents are everywhere and their power is immense. When you don’t know whom to trust, knowledge is your only weapon. Unearth the Deception." There are mages & wizards on the wizard's council in the Free City of Greyhawk who know the danger & connection of the T1 -4 Temple of Elemental Evil with the Ashen Worm. Here's where a Greyhawk or Hyperborean party of adventurers comes in. The occult horrors presented by the Elemental Evil cult comes into focus on both Hyperborea & Greyhawk through the Free City of Greyhawk rulers & councils. These are not going to sit idly by as these cults begin rising across Greyhawk. These events are gonna start with S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth by Gary Gygax ;" In the Yatil Mountains south of Perrenland there is rumored to be a magical hoard of unsurpassed value, a treasure of such fame that scores f adventurers have perished in search of it. Find the perilous Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and you may gain the hidden wealth of the long-dead arch-mage -- if you live! " Why?! Because of the fact that  Bodaks, derros, marlgoyles, xag-ya/xeg-yi, and more. Also various demons, minor, major, and demon princes like Graz'zt are also tied right into the events surrounding T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil. The village of Homlet becomes the home base for the PC's and then everything rolves around the Free City of Greyhawk. Think of this as almost a film like campaign where the PC's are the heroes if they survive the experience.