OSR Campaign Commentary Notes On S3 'Expediation To The Barrier Peaks' by Gary Gygax, DA3 'City of the Gods' By Dave L Arneson & David J Ritchie, Set On Greyhawk

"The Grand Duchy of Geoff has recently been plagued by a rash of unusually weird and terrible monsters of an unknown sort. This western area, particularly the mountain fastness which separates the Grand Duchy from the Dry Steppes, has long been renowned for the generation of the most fearsome beasts, and it has been shunned accordingly -- save a handful of hardy souls with exceptional abilities. Within the last few months, however, a walled town not far distant from the area, and four small fortresses as well, have been destroyed by mysterious attacks!"


 Today was the sort of a day that takes me back to the beginning of the OSR, DM  Steve & I started talking about S3Expedition to the Barrier Peaks the  infamous 1980 adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game written by Gary Gygax. Its infamous because we've been talking about using the module in both Mystara, & Greyhawk. We've got experiences playing with it in both campaign settings. Now we've writing about using DA1 Temple of the Frog By David Ritchie & DA3 'City of the Gods' in Greyhawk using Adventurer,Conqeuror, King's Rpg rules to run this classic module. But S3 'Expediation to the Barrier Peaks' by Gary Gygax is a perfect fit in this in this science fantasy  adventure path. 

"New Magic?

That's what the flying egg has. New magic unlike any ever encountered in Blackmoor. New magic of a type that could give the fledgling kingdom an important edge in the wars that are brewing on its borders.

There are only a few minor problems. Like the fact that the magician who piloted the metal egg to one of Blackmoor's sworn enemies, the monks of evil and eccentric Order of the Frog, are also interested in the magic represented by the egg. And, most important, the fact that the egg came from the distant and dangerous City of the Gods.

Set amist the blistered salt flats of the Valley or the Ancients, the City of the Gods is a strange and deadly metal metropolis whose powerful guardians do not welcome intruders. Yet it is to this place of deadly menace that Blackmoor's leaders now send a daring expedition? to bargain for aid in the coming wars? or to steal the magic of the gods."


But let's talk about the real threat that happening to Greyhawk, 'Why are there spacecraft crashing into Oerth?'. Besides the fact that Gygax & Arnseson love a good science fantasy dungeon crawl. So let's say that Saint Stephen The Rock is already deeply entrenched within Greyhawk by the time Gary Gygax's S3 'Expedition To the Barrier Peaks' happens. 
Captain Bork Riesling or one of his cybernetically altered clones may have been aware of the impending alien threat due on Oerth. If we read through S3 then there's a real sense of doom that seems to hang over the star ship of classic module. While the shp featured in  S3 'Expedition To the Barrier Peaks' is not the 

'Warden' of Metamorphis Alpha rpg fame. This 'Warden' might be connected with an mission to recover the crew of the FSS Beagle. A science survey vessel that's deverted to recover the crew of the FSS Beagle . This isn't going to happen not only because the horror aboard the 'Warden' but because of Captain Riesling.

 Why?! Captain Riesling himself  & his command decisions for the FTS Beagle; 

"Captain Riesling has never been a man to go strictly by the book unless there was some

advantage in doing so. Had there been a pressing reason to break the regulation

against contact with non-starfaring alien cultures, he would have done so without a second thought. But, at the time,it seemed like a good idea to avoid the denizens of this planet

except for gathering a very few specimens who wouldn' t be missed. The place was unbelievably primitive and terribly dangerous, even to robots. So Riesling decided to refrain

from formal contact. Instead, the distress beacon was activated, most of the crew went

into stasis, and the robots were programmed to go into a standard routine designed to

make the locals shun the Beagle's landing place. " 
The about comes straight out DA3 'City of the Gods'. Its Captain Riesling's paranoia about "Stephen the Rock" & his Froggies that causes the downfall of the "city" later on. There's a lot of a similiarities between the two modules for use: 

1. Two crashed space craft introducing invasive species to a primitive culture in either 'Greyhawk' or Mystara. I'm leaning towards Greyhawk here. 
2. Long receaching consquences & enviromental effects of the appearance of these space craft. 
3. The modules offered the introduction of a number of classic D&D  or AD&D monsters into the classic cannon of the 'Grand Games'. 
4. The long reaching affects of these events on a Greyhawk campaign are well known.  And any use of the City of the Gods as an adventure location would be set well before 'The Rain of Colorless Fire'. Unless this is campaign is set within 'The City of the Gods' on modern Greyhawk ala Dungeon issue #115 Raiders of the Black Ice by Wolfgang Baur. That's a whole cloth other blog entry. 

Now talking with DM Steve he pointed me to the Great Libarary of Greyhawk site & their take on the 'City of the Gods' module;"Ages ago (certainly before the Twin Cataclysms), the City of the Gods was the heart of a technocracy in what is now Blackmoor. The lords and ladies of the City used a combination of elemental magic and clockwork science to create automatons to perform all menial labor for them. Meanwhile, they devoted their time to art, philosophy, and war.

The original technology and magic of the City of the Gods seems to have been Baklunish in origin, based on secrets given to humans by the efreet.

The end of the age came when the city's automatons were struck down by a plague called "gear madness," or when the city's humanoid inhabitants transformed themselves into constructs themselves. Over the centuries, most of what remained of their civilization was covered by the encroaching Black Ice.

The City of the Gods was originally a fiefdom of some other land. The accessory College of Wizardry suggests that at some point before the City of the Gods was swallowed by the Ice, Blackmoor was claimed by the Baklunish Empire. By the early days of the Baklunish-Suloise Wars, the region now called Blackmoor was independent of the Baklunish and considered an ally of the Suel Imperium. During this period, the Suel emperor sent the people of Blackmoor an artifact known as the Unquenchable Scepter as a gift.

Occasionally, gears and other relics of this lost civilization will turn up in antiquities markets in various modern cities. These are eagerly sought by clockwork mages, gnomes, and dwarves, as well as groups like the Society of the Serpent." 

So what other secrets are hiding out in the lands of black ice?! Whose been behind the whole cloth mental illness  of  Captain Riesling's paranoia? Well that leads to one entity & that entity is 'The Egg of Coot' or at least Havard's version of the Egg. 

Could the Egg be behind the crashing of the science survey ship 'the Warden' into Greyhawk & other classic settings?! You bet it could! There's this great little article 
"Then finally came Oerth Journal #6. In it is a short story by Robert Kuntz called "Tales from the Green Dragon, Robilar Remembers: Journey to the City of the Gods." After I read the exploits of Mordenkainen (Gary Gygax)and Robilar (Kuntz) in the City (DM'ed by Dave Arneson, no surprise) I was more the wiser. However, Mordy and Robilar only scratched the surface. Here is the TRUTH about the City of the Gods."


Both DM Steve & myself are fine with this because it forshadows possible events done by the great Larry Elmore artwork mock up cover that Harvard made and while this is set in Blackmoor it could easily take place in Greyhawk right before the Rain of Colorless Fire. That's Larry Elmore's son by the way on the cover. Larry was kind enough to point that out when I posted this piece of mock cover artwork on Facebook. 


Its from here on where I'd grab my copy of ACK's Domains of War & Colonial Troopers  by Night Owl Worshop.  The events between Stephen The Rock & Captain Riesling have been heating over possible over ten or twenty years. With their mysterious technologies aging isn't a problem for these two. 


The forces of Temple of the Frog & Captain Riesling meet on the battle field set up by the Egg while it waits from the shadows for the weakened 'victor'? Possibly but there's far more going on here. Let's get back to 'The Warden' science survey ship for a moment from S3'Expedition to the Barrier Peaks' By Gary Gygax. That's gonna be a prize that both Saint Stephen 'The Rock' & Captain Riesling are going to want. They've possibly got survey parties scouting out the ship but communication was lost because of the dangerous conditions & invasive alien monsters around the 'Warden'.  But the Egg is really the one that gonna want that technology badly. If only there was a class of PC's who might be able to give the players an edge? 
 Too bad there wasn't a group of Dwarves who might have an advantage in this? Oh wait there is. There's The dwarven dynamo PC class from 'ACKS and Crafts' From Harpoon Cannon Gaming which is a perfect addition to just this sort of a campaign. But we'll cover that coming book coming up soon. 


For the moment the 'Warden' science ship is in the middle of Greyhawk's Grand Duchy of Geoff pumping out monsters & horrors into the countryside. The PC's in such a campaign are going to have to navigate the royals of  Geoff, 'The Gods', and even more! More Greyhawk ACK's madness coming up! 

OSR Commenary- DA3 City of the Gods By Dave Arneson & David J. Ritchie & ACK rpg Greyhawk

 "New Magic?

That's what the flying egg has. New magic unlike any ever encountered in Blackmoor. New magic of a type that could give the fledgling kingdom an important edge in the wars that are brewing on its borders.

There are only a few minor problems. Like the fact that the magician who piloted the metal egg to one of Blackmoor's sworn enemies, the monks of evil and eccentric Order of the Frog, are also interested in the magic represented by the egg. And, most important, the fact that the egg came from the distant and dangerous City of the Gods.

Set amist the blistered salt flats of the Valley or the Ancients, the City of the Gods is a strange and deadly metal metropolis whose powerful guardians do not welcome intruders. Yet it is to this place of deadly menace that Blackmoor's leaders now send a daring expedition? to bargain for aid in the coming wars? or to steal the magic of the gods."


There are times when starting to look into the past means that the future holds its own! Such is the case with DA3 City of The Gods by Guy J Ritchie &  David Lance Arneson. My big problem with the OSR is how fickle it is. City of the Gods is an old favorite module of mine & last night DM Steve pinned my ears back about it. My comments here go all of the way back to 2018 & my comments still stand;
"DA3 City of The Gods has been available as a pdf from Wizards of The Coast going all the way back to 2016. 'DA3: "City of the Gods" (1987), by Dave Arneson & David J. Ritchie, is the third of the four Blackmoor adventure. It was published in March 1987.' , this one the best science fantasy resources available to bridge gap Greyhawk & Blackmoor together."
The discussion came down like this in last night's post game, 'You've got all this f@#^ ing chaos roaming through your campaigns especially your Adventurer,Conqueror, King rpg campaign but none of the goodness or order?!'.  Never let it be said that there isn't consistency & coherence in my campaigns. Going back over my campaign notes I remember that there was a notes about using several knightly orders of the City of the Gods. What if those knights were actually Star Knights ala White Star's Galaxy edition or Between Star & Void by DYS Games. 



This puts this faction squarely in the time before the Twin Cataclysms We can see further evidence of this right in the Mechanics of Destruction: Origins of the Twin Cataclysms. There's a lot more to the land of black ice there there first appears in Greyhawk. 


All of this ties neatly back into Adventurer,Conqeuror, King's Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu so its easy to translate & transport the whole cloth of inhabitants of the City of the Gods as having ties to these OSR resources. Go here to read one of this blog's original City of the Gods entries with Greyhawk ties. 



Is the head of the Froggies looking for not only nests of machines but also a copy of  the Codex of the Infinite Planes?!  This is the same artifact that more then a few of the Jedi erm Star Knights have been looking for! 

And what of the Egg of Coot?! Has the egg suddenly vanished from its higher dimensional prison plane?! The egg was recently seen in my Cha'alt/Godbound campaign but its impact was only briefly felt. Was its attention diverted to something far more grand? The answer goes into Greyhawk's Land of Black Ice. 

"The only humans living near the area are the Baklunish Guryik folk on the Drawmidj coast, and the Suloise Zeai, or Sea Barbarians, who dwell on a section of Icy Sea coastline known as the Tusking Strand. Within the Land of Black Ice proper are said to dwell all manner of horrid arctic monsters, so few humans enter the region. Tales are told of wights, frost men, evil spirits, black-skinned trolls, and blue-furred bugbears inhabiting the wasteland" this ties directly into the fact that the Egg has been for centuries trying to escape its fate on Greyhawk. The 'Land of Black Ice' is a testament to its future but perhaps there's an escape through the city of the gods. 
All of this science fantasy  ties back into ACK's version of Dwimmermount. The grand megadungeon has some very definitive science fantasy  Greyhawk ties coming up. 

The Dark Roads To DA 3 City of the Gods Dave L. Arneson & David J Richie - Cha'alt/Godbound Campaign Commentary

"Set amidst the blistered salt flats of the Valley of the Ancients, the City of the Gods is a strange and deadly metal metropolis whose powerful guardians do not welcome intruders. Yet it is to this place of deadly menace that Blackmoor's leaders now send a daring expedition - to bargain for aid in the coming wars - or to steal the magic of the gods."


I finally rolled in about five A.M. this morning after last night's game after watching a ton of anime & discussing the Cha'alt/Godbound campaign systems  with my friends. One of the things that came up was DA3 City of the Gods. Just in case your not familiar with DA3 the low down goes something like this; "DA3: "City of the Gods" (1987), by Dave Arneson & David J. Ritchie, is the third of the four Blackmoor adventure. It was published in March 1987."  DA3 sets up another of my favorite mixes science fantasy, super science technology, & high level B/X Dungeons & Dragons. This is a module for PC's levels 10 to 14 or beyond. This isn't a light weight module at all but with the level 10 - 14 it makes it perfectly suited for the Godbound rpg system. Module wise the plot is one of those David J Richie  twists on the Arneson D series  Blackmoor stuff;
"In this scenario, the player characters (PCs) are sent to the City of the Gods by the leaders of Blackmoor to acquire divine magic, either by bargaining or by stealing.^[3] The PCs journey 4,000 years into the past to the land of Blackmoor. There, they are hired by The Fetch, previously seen in the adventure Temple of the Frog, because the Froggies, a cult introduced in the same adventure, have become active once more.^[1] The cult is using the futuristic technology of the City of the Gods to achieve their ends, and the player characters must attempt to contact the inhabitants of the city to turn them against the Froggies, and possibly form an alliance with the Kingdom of Blackmoor."

But what if things had gone really wrong in the lands of Blackmoor?  Blackmoor always seemed like a lived in universe where adventure was  always in the offering. But what would happen if the Froggies got the upper hand & the Egg of Coot took over?! What happens if the DA series happened?! But events went very wrong for the world setting of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor adventure modules & to twist it further let's look into the wiki entry on the TSR publication history of the DA series of modules ; "Adventures in Blackmoor (module DA1) is a 64-page^[1] adventure with cover art by Jeff Easley and interior artwork by Jim Holloway.^[2] It features some locations and characters from Dave Arneson's original Blackmoor campaign.

Temple of the Frog (module DA2, ISBN 0-88038-317-8) is a 48-page adventure published in 1986 with TSR product code "TSR 9175".^[3][4] This was a reworking of the original version, released in 1975 as part of the Blackmoor supplement.^[5][6] It features cover art by Dennis Beauvais and interior art by Mark Nelson.^[3]

City of the Gods (module DA3, ISBN 0-88038-389-5) is a 1987 adventure with TSR product code "TSR 9191".^[7] It was edited by Deborah Campbell Ritchie, with cover art by Doug Chaffee, interior art by Jim Holloway, cartography by Dennis Kauth and David C. Sutherland III, and typesetting by Kim N. Lindau.

The Duchy of Ten (module DA4) was written by David J. Ritchie, with cover art by Clyde Caldwell and interior art by David Dorman. It was published in 1987." 

If your looking for the more 'authentic' version of City of the Gods then try to find  City of the Gods (2008), by Harold Stroh from Zeitgeist Games which are based not only on Dave Arneson campaign notes but also Robert Kuntz  campaign notes from Mr .Arneson original Dungeons & Dragons city of the Gods adventure. Good luck finding any of Zeitgeist Games 3.5 titles but its a really expanded upon version of TSR D3 City of the Gods based on the original material. Here's a real project worth of Goodman Games guys. 


The Egg of Coot has access to dark reflects of Blackmoor & beyond in alternative negative planar versions or simply sinks of evil or chaos planes in Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg system terms. These reflections of Chaos realms  are part of the Night Road from the Godbound rpg system. 



This is the also the case in Gary Gygax's Greyhawk as well where a reflection of the Egg's power can be seen in the Arch Barony of Greyhawk which is tied to Greyhawk's version of the City of the Gods according to the Great Libarary of Greyhawk site; "Ages ago (certainly before the Twin Cataclysms), the City of the Gods was the heart of a technocracy in what is now Blackmoor. The lords and ladies of the City used a combination of elemental magic and clockwork science to create automatons to perform all menial labor for them. Meanwhile, they devoted their time to art, philosophy, and war.The end of the age came when the city's automatons were struck down by a plague called "gear madness," or when the city's humanoid inhabitants transformed themselves into constructs themselves. Over the centuries, most of what remained of their civilization was covered by the encroaching Black Ice."

All of this makes sense given Harvard Blackmoor's thoughts in his Vault of Pandius article "The Egg of Coot as a Relic"; "The Origins of the Egg of Coot are a mystery. Some scholars believe that it is one of the remaining servitors of the Outer Beings. In the Age of Blackmoor, these servitors are referred to as Elder Demons, and once dominated the entire continent. The Egg appears as a huge globe of mossy grey flesh and eyeballs and mouths randomly scattered across the slimy surface. The Egg is buried deep under ground and almost never moves. There are however tunnels leading to it which are used by its Keepers to contact and preserve the Egg. Its Spawn is of similar appearance. The Spawn of Coot has a relationship to the Egg as between Trees of Life and their Mother Trees. The Egg is the definition of Evil. It is highly intelligent and communicates with its fanatical followers through Telepathy"

In other words we're only seeing a small cross section of the Egg which extends into higher dimensional realities across a multiplicity of planes & even time streams. The Egg is, was, & will be. Each branch or part of the hideous thing has a certain amount of independence from the other 'eggs' as it were.

There are also a multiplicity of City of the Gods stretched across multiple planes Prime. The reason for this is simply that the hyper spacal drive systems of the FSS Beagle cracked the planes. The reality of the FSS Beagle's time presence & events has been leaking all over the planes for thousands of years.
But what does this have to do with my version Cha'alt?! Everything! The Cha'alt wave activated the presence of the night road doorways & locations within my campaign's Earth! The Black Pyramid of Cha'alt bothers the Egg of Coot & horrifies it!



This comes back to ideas that I saw laid down by Wolfgang Baur in Dungeon #126 (September 2005) which had Greyhawk's City of the Gods Turned into 'the Clock Work Fortress' but I think that there's another version or reflection of it. Each & every time the Egg of Coot is aware of the City of the Gods & can pull a little bit of power & occult influence it grows stronger in another world or setting. The Black Pryamid causes the mad god thing to ripple across time space because of its otherworldly Lovecraftian entities. The Cha'alt wave has awakened feelings of fear that it hasn't felt in centuries! 

The take away is that The City of the Gods while eternal is caught possibly within an Eisensteinian  time loop of causality of its own birth, life, & destruction across a mulplitity of time & space in different locations. Different outcomes, different dark or light events, & even different incarnations! 

The Story of the Adventurers & the Achaierai For Dave Arneson Game Day 2019

Blackmoor is beset!"
On every side the storm clouds gather. To south and east, the Great Empire of Thonia plots to end Blackmoor's independence and reclaim its lost province. To the west, the implacable Afridhi are on the move. To the north, the evil Egg of Coot prepares to cross the thundering sea and once again bring fire and sword into the heart of the small kingdom. Beyond the realm of the Egg, the hated Skandaharian Raiders are building longships and preparing to fall upon Blackmoor's unprotected coast while its tiny army turns to meet these other threats.
Into this time of black despair, there steps a band of adventurers who clutch strange swords and wear most curious armor - and who claim that Blackmoor sank beneath the ice 3,000 years ago!

Today's Dave Arneson's birthday & as usual Havard Blackmoor is doing his utmost to celebrate it. Now me being the huge fan of Dave Arneson I was going to run a bit of DA1 Adventures in Blackmoor with DM Raj & some of his players. But I came down with Autumn cold or smut the usual disease that seems to run through the local schools. The new free  sourcebook by Original Blackmoor Player Greg Svenson is out. This is the fourth book in the series and is titled GS4 - The Noble House of Zvenzen.




So long ago about two years ago I was running a post apocalytic Mars game using Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. And the adventurers had run across a wrecked space craft & I didn't really fill in a lot of details it was supposed to be a one off write off encounter. It was not at all. The PC' side quested up to the wreckage & began poking around. They came across a huge strange technological box then  proceeded to activate & open it! That's when a huge  achaierai came out! A huge nightmarish demonic four footed chicken with the mind of a serial killer & desposition of a honey badger! The box in question came from the FSS Beagle under the heading 'alien xeno specimen' with the words 'Very dangerous' senciled on the side in Ancient. The achaierai  came straight outta of the AD&D Fiend Folio
Here's a run down from the wiki entry on them; "The achaierai (/əˈtʃaɪ.əraɪ/ ə-CHY-ə-rye)^[10] is a large birdlike outsider that comes from the plane of Acheron.

The achaierai is described as an enormous 15-foot-tall (4.6 m) flightless bird with four stilt-like legs, a plump, hulking body, blunt, shaggy stubs for wings, and a parrot-like head. Its plumage is mostly red with orange and yellow highlights, though its sides and stumpy wings are blue and green.

An achaierai is always lawful evil and they hunt together in small flocks. They are evil, clever, and predatory, with a distinct taste for torture. They can release a choking, toxic black cloud that causes temporary insanity. Their forelegs are also powerful weapons, being able to deliver an extremely powerful kick, and to grab and grasp prey. It can also attack with its beak."
Needless to say that the achaierai proceeded to mop the floor with the adventurers!



I'd later run the same players through Dave Arneson, &  David J. Ritchie's DA3 City of the Gods. Once they recognized that same style of xeno specimen cryopod they were not happy at all with me. The City of The Gods module had lots of twists & turns for the players of that adventure. It took months to solve all of the problems that seemed to plague the adventurers in that adventure. It was almost a mini campaign unto itself. 



I've got to get back to Dave Arneson, &  David J. Ritchie's DA3 City of the Gods sooner rather then later coming up. But to this day I get the no fking giant demonic chickens! Happy Dave Arneson day 2019 folks. 

OSR Commenary- DA3 City of the Gods By Dave Arneson & David J. Ritchie & The Reflections of Blackmoor

"New Magic?

That's what the flying egg has. New magic unlike any ever encountered in Blackmoor. New magic of a type that could give the fledgling kingdom an important edge in the wars that are brewing on its borders.

There are only a few minor problems. Like the fact that the magician who piloted the metal egg to one of Blackmoor's sworn enemies, the monks of evil and eccentric Order of the Frog, are also interested in the magic represented by the egg. And, most important, the fact that the egg came from the distant and dangerous City of the Gods.

Set amist the blistered salt flats of the Valley or the Ancients, the City of the Gods is a strange and deadly metal metropolis whose powerful guardians do not welcome intruders. Yet it is to this place of deadly menace that Blackmoor's leaders now send a daring expedition? to bargain for aid in the coming wars? or to steal the magic of the gods."

DA3 City of The Gods has been available as a pdf from Wizards of The Coast going all the way back to 2016. 'DA3: "City of the Gods" (1987), by Dave Arneson & David J. Ritchie, is the third of the four Blackmoor adventure. It was published in March 1987.' , this one the best science fantasy resources available to bridge gap Greyhawk & Blackmoor together. While dodging snow flakes & snow shoves last night I did a bit of research into the origins of TSR version of Blackmoor. I came across the following on the Canonfire forum by poster rasgon; "I was collecting quotes about the history of ancient Blackmoor, to see if I could piece together its history. From the following, it seems that it was a Flan land that became claimed by the Baklunish Empire to the south. Taking Baklunish magic and technology to previously undreamt-of heights, the nobles there founded the City of the Gods and declared independence, becoming an ally of the rival Suel Imperium in order to help maintain its sovereignty. Eventually the constructs of the city were brought down by a plague of chaos introduced by the slaadi, then swallowed by the encroaching Land of Black Ice (cause unknown) at about the time of the Twin Cataclysms. The expansion of the Land of Black Ice was ultimately stopped by native Flan sorcerers using the power of the oerthmagic native to the region, but by that time the City of the Gods culture was ruined and forgotten.

The Egg of Coot also uses construct servants, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a connection.

'After they dug down to the shape, they found it to be a strange construct from an ancient realm that predated the Black Ice. They freed the creature's head and were amazed to see that it still lived. The creature is known as a nimblewright, and it told tales of the wealth of southern lands, of magical constructs, and of the secrets of its ancient empire.' - Dungeon #115, page 32.

'Long ago, a small fiefdom in the northlands reached the heights of civilization--its craftsmanship and knowledge of artifice were unmatched. Constructs served the lords and ladies of the land, performing menial labor and freeing the city's aristocracy to devote more time to art, philosophy, and war. The heart of these lands was called the City of the Gods, and it was unlike any city before or since. Some say the City's automatons were struck down by a plague... Over the ages, the advancing ice drove out what few denizens remained...' - Dungeon #126, page 43.

'Mathghamhna was somewhere in the Baklunish Empire (for example, the northwesternmost spur of the Yatmil [sic] Mountains or the "City of the Gods" in Blackmoor).' - College of Wizardry, page 9.

'The secret of creating brass men is said to have been given to humans by the efreet, who hoped that in time the brass men could take control of the humans and help the efreet rule the human lands from their City of Brass.' - Dungeon #126, page 60.

'...oddities such as "memory gears," "animating spirit-gems," "everwound springs..."' - Dungeon #126, page 45.

'Clockwork eunuchs balance the skills of clockwork artisans, clerics, and genie-binding sorcerers. They depend on carefully set everwound springs, memory gears, and magical rune-powered animating gemstones that pulse with elemental power.' - Dragon #334, page 39. "

That's right the Egg of Coot has been very busy across the planes, while its been trapped in its higher dimensional prison. The Egg has been expanding its black ice clad kingdom across time & space especially in Greyhawk's Blackmoor Barony  & the world of  Blackmoor itself. Don't think that this hasn't been noticed at the City of the Gods but the question is which one?! There are a multitude of these locations scattered across space time from the Wilderlands of High Fantasy to Greyhawk herself as well as Mystara.


The Egg is responsible for far more then it seems;
"'In the earliest days of the conflict between the Suel and Baklunish empires, Suloise magi sought to turn the legendary Baklunish affection for the elements against them. To do this, they created four artifacts of surpassing power and infused these symbols of elemental magic with a portion of the spirits of powerful elemental princes.. After detecting the flaws in the elemental items, the Suel dispatched them to foreign lands as gifts of the emperor's gratitude... The Unquenchable Scepter traveled north, to what would become Blackmoor (and rested in that land's fabled castle for centuries).' - Dragon #294, page 94.

'Through a series of improbable accidents, the green slaad and its sword (a source of raw chaos) entered the orderly waters of the Gearspring Well... the Well could no longer create clockwork creatures; instead it infected all the clockwork creatures near it with gear madness.' - Dungeon #126, page 58.

'Legend says that the numerous mounds and standing stones throughout the archbarony were created by the Northern Adepts of Old Blackmoor (presumedly a cabal of Ur-Flan sorcerers) to constrain the encroaching Black Ice.' - Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, page 34. " The Archbarony of Blackmoor in Gary Gygax  World of Greyhawk setting may have been a homage for Dave Arneson but fact it might be more of an idealized reflection of what the Egg of Coot intents for other universes. Dave Arneson's Blackmoor, Mystara's Blackmoor, & Greyhawk's Archbarony of Blackmoor may be higher mathematic reflections of different interdimensional locations in space time which exist or co exist across a number of well established published product settings including Mystara. "The Mystaran cataclysm could have caused a split in spacetime and sent some Blackmoorian people (and also the Egg of Coot) to Oerth"

According to the thread called Blackmoor,does it belong to Greyhawk or Mystara?? poster GVDammerung ;"Blackmoor comes in a number of flavors. It ties in to Greyhawk, Mystara, the Wilderlands and its own, seperate "reality."

While no two versions are identical, it is obvious that each version is related to the others. To use a Greyhawk example, Oerth appears in published Greyhawk but in an altered form in the Sagard novels by EGG as Yarth. If each Blackmoor had a slightly different name (Blackmeor, Blakmoor etc.) the Oerth/Yarth parallel would be nearly exact. Blackmoor is to Greyhawk as Yarth is to Oerth or near enough.

While the differences between the Blackmoors are stronger than the similarities, the similarities are strong enough to suggest some sort of connection. The nature of the connection is then left to each DM. Can you get any mileage out of playing up the common elements?

At the least, I think it fair and safe to say that each Blackmoor appears to have influenced the other Blackmoors within the game (just as each Blackmoor influenced the others in real life). But, again, the nature and extent of the influence, is left up to each DM.

On this note, it may be useful to recall that, while we speak of "Blackmoor" what we are really talking about are a series of peoples, places, items and events, any one of which may have parallels beyond a single published setting. So, for example, there is a Duchy of Tenh incorporated into more than one Blackmoor setting. So, one need not port over to Greyhawk or any other setting it touchs, all that we summarize when we say "Blackmoor." We can take the whole (whichever version) or choose from among the pieces parts.

Why would one do this? Well, the Arch Barony of Blackmoor is by geography and the history of the Flanaess something of a remote backwater. It fills up some space on the map and provides some civilization near the Land of Black Ice. If that's all one wants, that's okay. If, however, one wants to bring some unique and interesting features to this area, tapping Blackmoor's varied incarnations is easy and natural to do.

As Rasgon sagely noted, Fred Weining in the LGG, and the late lamented print Dragon, strengthened the ties between Greyhawk and the various Blackmoors. And he did it very well. Others, like Wolfgang Bauer, have added more.

There is no right, correct or canon definition of the relationship between Greyhawk and the Blackmoors beyond being able to say there is some sort of connection. In the best Greyhawk fashion, there are suggestions or possibilities that each DM can choose to develop for themselves or not.

Personally, I like Blackmoor for all its possibilities.

I am running a converged campaign there right now, where Blackmoor is an Atlantis-like lost civilization destroyed in the same cataclysm that saw the birth of the Land of Black Ice. Think LoBI and ancient Blackmoor as their eras Baklunish and Suel empires. Blackmoor largely sank beneath the waves of Blackmoor Bay and ice covered its rival. Reactivating the Stornawane road as a dirwane (sp?) road (dating from the early period of Ferrond) allows easier access to the area from civilization - ie Furyondy, which IMC is recolonizing the lands of the Horned Society and Iuz after Iuz' defeat and apparent banishment in the Second Northern Crusade.

IMO, Blackmoor is an underdeveloped but high potential place to play."

One of the one constants that seems to be across the various Blackmoor settings is the dangers of the Black Ice which claims the ruins of the City of the Gods & surrounds parts of Greyhawk. Could this stuff be concentrated debris from entropy & chaos coming into the reality of the normal space time?!
I think so, Canonfire poster Dr_Asworth brings up this lovely little gem from the Mystara Wraith of the Immortals set; "On page 25 of Codex of the Immortals from the Wrath of the Immortals box set there is an interesting reference. It talks about the immortal Khoronus who, as a mortal, discovered a time travel device, and saw what was to become of his beloved Blackmoor. His reponse was to set up a colony based on Blackmoor's culture on a "world which was far, far away in the Prime Plane." You could easily make the case that is far away world is Oerth. It also gives a bit of an out when trying to place the events of the DA adventures in Oerth's timeline, since any event from those books could have happened in "old" Blackmoor, but their cultural impacts felt in "new" Blackmoor."
The dangers that the Egg of Coot & its forces represent is far greater the sum then the parts & this is one of the huge secrets between the Gods of Greyhawk & the Immortals of Mystara. The problem is the rivalry between the gods & the immortals because there is a significantly different approach to the mortals on both sides. This creates friction between the two camps from time to time.

The events of Wraith of the Immortals put the fear of God into a great deal of the fear of the gods into a great many planar entities. Especially given the destiny of Khoronus. Khoronus has a solid Greyhawk connection & its tied into both the religious destiny of this immortal & his worship on Greyhawk. Poster rasgon goes deeply into it;
"One issue with the Khoronus connection is that Khoronus was supposed to have become an Immortal - the "gods" of the Mystara setting - while on the other world he'd colonized. The question becomes why the modern people of Oerth don't worship Khoronus as they do in Mystara.

But maybe they do. In Mystara, Khoronus is the patron of time. Perhaps Khoronus became known as Cyndor, mythic guardian of the timestreams. Oerth Journal #5 places an abbey of Cyndor in Blackmoor, calling it a highly respected pilgrimage site. This Broomsage Abbey appeared on the map of Blackmoor in Dungeon #126.

The story in Wrath of the Immortals has the mortal Khoronus traveling to three different future time periods (as part of what is known as the Path of the Dynast) to defend his colony against great threats to its existence. If Khoronus' colony was the City of the Gods in Oerth's Blackmoor, what three threats did the colony face?

My guesses are:

1. The Baklunish-Suloise Wars. Khoronus helps his descendants avoid being annihilated during the strife between the two great empires, and avoid being destroyed by the Invoked Devastation.

2. The Black Ice. Perhaps the most critical of the three threats, Khoronus has to figure out a way to maintain the dynasty he founded even as the City of the Gods that he created is overwhelmed by the encroaching ice. I'm not certain if he can be reasonably said to have succeeded in this, considering how much was lost, but if descendants of Khoronus continued to rule the area even after they're driven to the south, then he can be said to have succeeded.

3. Aerdy conquest. During this stage of the Path of the Dynast, Khoronus has to ensure that his descendants continue to rule the region even after the Great Kingdom conquers his land. Presumedly they intermarry with the Aerdi, and Khoronus ensures that his half-Oeridian descendants rule Blackmoor in the way he prefers, and that the land remains recognizably Blackmoorian.

Blackmoor continues to face other trials afterward (the collapse of Aerdy power, the conquest of the Egg of Coot), but through it all, his descendants still rule. And in any case, Khoronus's quest is complete."

Yeah its complete alright,the very act of these quests is one of the set ups for the Egg to continue to spread across the planes Prime. The Egg of Coot is the second most dangerous foe in Dungeons & Dragons. The real title goes to the head of the Froggies, Saint Stephen the Rock. Each & every time that a machine nest appears across the planes he & his cultists are gazing into the deep to find it. The City of the Gods is of prime interest because each one on each world is different. Some are ruined, some have been ransacked, some are still in full operation. The constant for the city  is there is power there & he as well as the Egg are driven for it, the fight for it, & they are locked in an eternal struggle across the ages. But why?! We'll tackle that coming up!

OSR Action With Merry Old School Campaign Commentary & DA3 City Of the Gods By Dave Arneson & Guy Richie

Today is Dave Arneson Day! So I wanted to take some time in this installment of my on going OSR commentary to describe the campaign mash up that we did back in '87 when our party of adventurers entered 'D3 The City of the Gods' in a mash up version of  Blackmoor & Greyhawk. Which was way more Blackmoor then Greyhawk.We had already gone through the 'S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks'.

But now a different & far more dangerous adversary was threatening our world, the cult of the Sleeper of N'kai, also known as Zhothaqquah's cult had reared its head from the swamps! We had encountered its priests, the mutant frog horrors, & its machinations. The party had barely survived! My wizard was fried along with a good number of hirelings, bearers, & our cleric of Zeus was gone. Mr. Anseson has a lot to answer for let me you!


"Green Death... That's what old hands call the Great Dismal Swamp. For centuries, this tangled maze of sluggish watercourses, stagnant ponds, and festering marshes has defended Blackmoor's southwestern frontier. Large armies and smaller parties have disappeared altogether inside its vast, dripping, claustrophobic corridors.
Among those who have dropped from sigh in this arboreal hell is young Rissa Aleford, one of Blackmoor's most important leaders. Carried off to the sinister City of the Fron, she is now being held by the eccentric Monks of the Swamp. By making the baroness captive, the deranged monks have seriously weakened Blackmoor at a time when enemies already threaten it from all sides." We had survived all of the horrors & gathered the experience points but now there were new challenges awaiting our little party of heroes.  And then my uncle got his hands on D3 City of the Gods! Sweet old ones were we in deep trouble! Sure I've talked about D3 City Of The Gods before but what I haven't told you was that I was the cause of all of this.



"New Magic?
That's what the flying egg has. New magic unlike any ever encountered in Blackmoor. New magic of a type that could give the fledgling kingdom an important edge in the wars that are brewing on its borders.

There are only a few minor problems. Like the fact that the magician who piloted the metal egg to one of Blackmoor's sworn enemies, the monks of evil and eccentric Order of the Frog, are also interested in the magic represented by the egg. And, most important, the fact that the egg came from the distant and dangerous City of the Gods.

Set amist the blistered salt flats of the Valley or the Ancients, the City of the Gods is a strange and deadly metal metropolis whose powerful guardians do not welcome intruders. Yet it is to this place of deadly menace that Blackmoor's leaders now send a daring expedition? to bargain for aid in the coming wars? or to steal the magic of the gods" That's the back of the module blurb and it sort of still haunts me. I had gotten my uncle three things for his birthday a collection of Clark Ashton Smith stories, a copy of D3 City of the Gods, and a full run of   Creatures on the Loose #16–21 (March 1972 – January 1973).
Creatures on the Loose was a Marvel adaptation of  Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation by by writer Roy Thomas and the art team of Gil Kane and Bill Everett, and later written by Gerry Conway. Now your going to have to see if you can follow this chain my uncle had the Warden of S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks as part of a deep space mission that went very wrong. This fleet was a part of the same space fleet that created the crash landing of the ships from the DA1 Blackmoor & events from DA2 Temple of The Frog. We did these events as real time campaign events. The shadowy Egg's credo was in full effect. It goes something like;"the Egg of Coot's 'philosophy' or credo which goes something along these lines;" Might is Right. Might is Right. Don't Give a Sucker an even break. Winning _is_ everything. Get what you want by Hook or by Crook, but get it. The Ends always justify the means used to achieve it. The meek may inherit the Earth but that means the strongest will rule everything."You can find more secrets on the Comeback Inn's entry on the Egg of Coot.

So what happened aboard those ships that created the events of Blackmoor? Well as near as the party could piece together the corruption of Tsathoggua had infected various members of the crew & officers. Things went from bad to worse as the insanity spread. We had encountered some of the horror of this during our short run through Robert Kuntz's machine level .

But this twist of the campaign was very different. There was always crossover between Greyhawk's Blackmoor, Mystara, & the original Blackmoor. The FTL drives of the ships had turned the dimensional barriers to Swiss Cheese. Our parties were always between the machinations of Tsathoggua & The Egg of Coot.  We found ourselves rescuing red & yellow savage Martian princes &  princesses who were hypersleep aboard the remains of one of the remaining wrecks of this fleet. For years there was fall out from this space fleet. Martian monsters would occasionally wake up & ravage the countryside. But where did they come from? They were more invasive monsters from the pages of   Creatures on the Loose #16–21 (March 1972 – January 1973). Creatures on the Loose was a Marvel adaptation of  Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation by by writer Roy Thomas and the art team of Gil Kane and Bill Everett, and later written by Gerry Conway. 

The crew had collected specimens & now they'd awaken very grumpy, pissed off and itching for a meal. Eventually we had several species of invasive Martian monster running around our campaign via the Marvel series. If you want the real story of Marvel's Gulliver of Mars check out this article of ERBzine.


More old school comic book & campaign commentary coming up! Keep em rolling folks.

This blog post is not an attempt to violate the trade marks or copyrights of Wizards of the Coast or Marvel comics. All commentary and opinions are here in are copyrighted to Dark Corner Productions@2017.

OSR Commentary On - DA3 City Of The Gods By Dave L. Arneson and David J. Ritchie For Your Old School Campaigns

"Set amidst the blistered salt flats of the Valley of the Ancients, the City of the Gods is a strange and deadly metal metropolis whose powerful guardians do not welcome intruders. Yet it is to this place of deadly menace that Blackmoor's leaders now send a daring expedition - to bargain for aid in the coming wars - or to steal the magic of the gods."

So the eclipse came down today & I've seen picture after picture of the event on social media. I kept thinking about some of the odd ball stuff that I've run in the past. The second event that ended this past weekend was Gencon 50. I haven't seen the plethora of mega table top gaming announcements that seem to pour out of the tap when it comes with such an event.
I was quietly thinking about the infection that is the Egg of Coot today & the old school Blackmoor DA3 City of The Gods adventure. DA3 sets up another of my favorite mixes science fantasy, super science technology, & high level B/X Dungeons & Dragons. This is a module for PC's levels 10 to 14 or beyond. This isn't a light weight module, the plot is one of those twists on the usual Blackmoor stuff;
"In this scenario, the player characters (PCs) are sent to the City of the Gods by the leaders of Blackmoor to acquire divine magic, either by bargaining or by stealing.^[3] The PCs journey 4,000 years into the past to the land of Blackmoor. There, they are hired by The Fetch, previously seen in the adventure Temple of the Frog, because the Froggies, a cult introduced in the same adventure, have become active once more.^[1] The cult is using the futuristic technology of the City of the Gods to achieve their ends, and the player characters must attempt to contact the inhabitants of the city to turn them against the Froggies, and possibly form an alliance with the Kingdom of Blackmoor."

This isn't light weight stuff this is high level your PC's might not survive the experience adventure stuff. I ran this in 'Eighty Seven' because of the connections with the Blackmoor setting. Mystara has always been one of my special setting points because it wasn't as well known as the Forgotten Realms. Forgotten Realms is so well known that there are guides to its Underdark. Blackmoor always seemed like a lived in universe where adventure was  always in the offering. The Froggies were a nasty bunch of cultists who had more then a few tricks up their twisted sleeves. Anyhow this module fit the bill for dealing with the events after the events in Temple of the Frog.

I ran this one with my uncle John and his crew after our Ragnarok B/X event. Things were heating up in Mystara. I ran Temple of the Frog & then the events of the module introduced me to the Egg of Coot. Recently I was watching Alien Covenant & the black goo reminded me of the Egg & its power. The Egg of Coot is one nasty customer capable of being encountered almost anywhere. After the events of Temple of the Frog it began to stir! Make no mistake the Egg of Coot is a deadly thing. You can find some of its back story on this Dragon Foot thread.

This campaign arch claimed a lot of PC's from my uncle's family. There wasn't a player that at one time or another didn't lose a PC. I had access to a copy of Judge's Guild's First Fantasy campaign so I had some pretty good insights into the Egg of Coot's 'philosophy' or credo which goes something along these lines;" Might is Right. Might is Right. Don't Give a Sucker an even break. Winning _is_ everything. Get what you want by Hook or by Crook, but get it. The Ends always justify the means used to achieve it. The meek may inherit the Earth but that means the strongest will rule everything." You can find more secrets on the Comeback Inn's entry on the Egg of Coot. 

Once the Froggies showed up things got very complicated for the PC's. I played this module like a mix of Jack Kirby's Marvel Eternals series & bits of pulp weirdness that my uncle had by that time introduced me too. The PC's acquired a few alien devices off of the higher echelon Frog cultists whose stats for B/X or OD&D are still available
This was our Fall campaign & it lead to some very interesting crossover points. DA3 City of the Gods is not an easy module to play through unless your familiar with Blackmoor & you love the old school weirdness  of  it. My uncle had introduced me to Robert Kuntz's machine level 

Today to run this module I'd take at the Blackmoor Archives & save some of the maps for Blackmoor then get them printed and laminated. Did the players survive? Well that gets into some very interesting weirdness for another blog entry.