Barbarian Warlords of Greyhawk Part 14 -WGS1 Five Shall Be One By Carl Sargent OSR Commentary On The Lands of Greyhawk

 Let's pick right back up from yesterday on the blog here.  The forces of Law are trying to rouse themselves as blow after blow has been rained by Chaos in the Borderlands. And here's where we pick up on Carl Sargent's 'The Five Shall Be One'. According to the Greyhawk wiki entry; "Five Shall Be One is an adventure module for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting. The module bears the code WGS1 and was published by TSR, Inc. in 1991 for the second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules"

Now I realize that this is a second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons module but it's the first of three Greyhawk modules in the WGS series; "The adventure was written by Carl Sargent with cover art by Jeff Starlind and interior art by Ken Frank. It was originally intended as the first of three modules in the "World of Greyhawk Swords" (WGS) trilogy. It therefore precedes the second "Swords" module, WGS2 - Howl from the North. The third module in the series (which would have been coded WGS3) was never produced. Instead, the material originally intended for WGS3 was reworked and incorporated into the board game Greyhawk Wars."

"The title of the module refers to the Five Blades of Corusk, ancient magical swords which, according to the legends of Greyhawk's Suloise barbarians, can be brought together to be made even more powerful."  These are the blades that can literally turn the tide of the war with Chaos if A. They don't destroy it first & B. if they don't destroy the PC's in the long run. And this is no idle boast! Why!? Beccause according to the Canonfire website; "Blades such as Blackrazor, the Pillars of Heaven and Druniazth the Claw of Tharizdun could fill sheets of vellum in the halls of loremasters." 
Yes, yes, these were the blades that kicked off the Greyhawk Wars. We're not talking about that. We're talking about the fact that these legends bring together  Greyhawk's Suloise barbarians! Greyhawk's Suloise barbarians are key to saving the Borderlands themselves. 

The myths & legends that surround,' blades such as Blackrazor, the Pillars of Heaven and Druniazth the Claw of Tharizdun' are the glue that will unite the Flanaess. More over it's this united front that will in theory destroy the backbone of Chaos. And here's where the PC's are going to be on point to help with this by gaining their own tribe of barbarians. 

And yes I'm playing very fast & loose with the chronolgy of Greyhawk. Bare with me there's a reason for this. Part of this is  Garel Enkdal, an underground city of orcs in the Griff Mountains of the northeastern Flanaess.Originally Garel Enkdal belonged to the Chaos worshipping Elves we been seeing within Secrets of the Nethercity. 

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Garel Enkdal has many of the same traits as the mini dungeons of Secrets & it's going to require a massive effort on the part of the PC's to clear it out later on! But the PC's are first going to need to complete WGS1 Five Shall Be One By Carl Sargent too start the process of uniting the barbarian tribes!  This is going to happen after the events of GDQ0 House of the Brothers.
 But what there's more to come!