My World of Greyhawk campaign has now reached the quest for the fifth segment of the Rod of Seven Parts. The characters recovered the fourth from the lost treasure vault of the Great Kingdom. For the fifth part, I decided to set it in the most northern City of the Gods, which lay somewhere within the land known as Blackmoor.
For those unaware of the history of Dungeons & Dragons, there were two primary creators of the game. David Arneson set his campaign in Blackmoor, and Gary Gygax placed his in Greyhawk. The two were never in the same world, but when designing the map for the World of Greyhawk, Gygax included the northern Barony of Blackmoor so that Arneson’s campaign would have a place on the larger campaign map. I don’t know what Arneson made of this, as the two were not on the best of terms when the World of Greyhawk folio and map were published.
What is true is that the Blackmoor of Greyhawk doesn’t map that well to the Blackmoor of Arneson. And the Blackmoor of my Greyhawk campaign? Less and less! A couple of proper names and a few concepts, but otherwise quite different.
I chose to put the rod’s next part in the City of the Gods.That is a storied location that Arneson created and ran many an expedition through.
However, upon surveying the two published adventures featuring the setting, I determined that they were too similar to Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. That is where they found the third segment of the Rod.
(You can find the published versions of the City in TSR’s DA 3 City of the Gods and Zeitgeist Games’ City of the Gods).
So, instead, I needed another solution as to what the players found there.
Welcome to Melbourne
I did want to keep the strange science-fantasy feel of the city, but instead of using the crashed spaceship idea, I settled on using a contemporary city. And what better city than Melbourne?
Well, there are probably many better cities, but not better known by my players and me.
The basic layout is Melbourne close to the Convention Centre. And in one of those buildings is the segment.
Of course, the characters are not alone – other creatures make the city their home.
Goblins and Trolls
On their way to the city, trolls in space armour attacked the characters. These were terrifying opponents – as the armour reflected most magic spells back on the caster. Fireballing your own party is something to be experienced!
The characters avoided fighting the trolls with a second encounter – as the players discovered the railway leading into the city. The trolls had hitched a ride on the train leading out, and – not being foolish – the players chose to hide and then destroy the tracks before heading towards the city.
Somewhere, there are a war party of very angry trolls tracking them.
Within the city proper – of which they have explored very little – they have noticed several goblins with blue skin. At least, I have described them as goblins. Are these strange inhabitants really goblins? I guess they will find out next session.
The Ghosts of Alternate Realities
The players discovered one other unusual aspect of the city: It is filled with spectral images of its normal inhabitants.
Meanwhile, all the items and buildings are fully corporeal.
What is going on? Why is part of the city fully on Oerth and other parts still in whatever plane it originates from?
This will likely not be explained for a bit – if ever – but I could see one of the characters devoting time to it in the future.
Or perhaps not at all. We don’t need to explain all strange things to the characters. Although, it could later become relevant in a new quest.