Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Hawk Maiden - 'Wasted Years' & Greyhawk's ' Doom Grinder' Chaos & Law?! - An OSR Campaign Purposel

"Wasted Years"

From the coast of gold, across the seven seas

I'm travellin' on, far and wide

But now it seems, I'm just a stranger to myself

And all the things I sometimes do, it isn't me but

Someone else

I close my eyes, and think of home

Another city goes by in the night

Ain't it funny how it is, you never miss it 'til it's

Gone away

And my heart is lying there and will be 'til my

Dying day

So understand

Don't waste your time always searching for

Those wasted years

Face up... make your stand

And realise you're living in the golden years

Too much time on my hands, I got you on my mind

Can't ease this pain, so easily

When you can't find the words to say it's hard to

Make it through another day

And it makes me wanna cry and throw my

Hands up to the sky

So understand

Don't waste your time always searching for

Those wasted years

Face up... make your stand

And realise you're living in the golden years

So understand

Don't waste your time always searching for

Those wasted years

Face up... make your stand

And realise you're living in the golden years

So understand

Don't waste your time always searching for

Those wasted years

Face up... make your stand

And realise you're living in the golden years

Iron Maiden 'Somewhere In Time' Album 1986

Somewhere out on the plane of time, an Eddie unit cruises to Oerth with the mission of making sure that it doesn't happen this time. The problem it can't remember what 'it' is?! Is it trying to kill or help the PC's!?

The infamous Derek Riggs artwork for Wasted Years gives some clues along with the wiki entry;

"According to artist Derek Riggs, this is because the band did not want to reveal the mascot in his new cyborg guise until the album was released a few weeks later.^[4] As with the Somewhere in Time album sleeve,^[5] the single cover also features the TARDIS from the BBC series Doctor Who.^[4] Riggs describes the illustration as "a duffer. It's a technical illustration of a keyboard of a time machine, with Eddie reflected in the window, because it was the only thing we could think of that wouldn't give Eddie away""

This Eddie crashes near the Doomgrinder & the 'The Eighties Greyhawk neon is slashed through with the high core sound of hair metal. There is strange howling & whaling of guitars but the stone wind mill does not turn. But it does creak a bit. The Eddie unit begins to search for the PC's. The slaughter through the underworld of Greyhawk is alarming to some of the major powers especially Luz.

The PC's have been on the track of Gord now for a few months but the evil powers of Greyhawk have hampered their efforts. The Eddie Unit is here to prevent something dire but what?! Several of Luz's gangs of heavy metal & evil grind core bands of adventurers are dispatched along his 'concert circuits while avoiding the Eddie Unit. If the PC's haven't reached Zel The Wise (now the Foolish) yet then their in real danger here.
If Tharizdun or his followers get a hold of the PC's then they'll be brought one of his 'concerts' for sacrifice to the elder evil. This comes as no surprise as the elder evil's followers have come much more active after the landing of the Eddie Unit. Should one of the PC's die then things begin to swing into high action as the Doom Grinder begins to move a little bit. If a TPK happens then the wings of the doomgrinder begin to move more!

What the doomgrinder represents & where it could take Oerth is a bit of an enemga wrapped in a mystery. But its the fact that the PC's might end up lost somewhere in time at the end of this.
But let's pick up with our Eddie Unit in Hawk Maiden & where its forgotten marching orders might take it.