Thursday, December 4, 2008

Re: Circle of Darkness

Subject: Re: [GREYTALK] Circle of Darkness
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 15:09:16 -0800
From: Sky Kruse
Reply-To: The GREYtalk Discussion List

>What if Rary was about to be discovered, so he "switches" to evil and
>starts working that side of the equation?

I never went as far as creating a "Circle of Darkness" in my (currently on-hold) Greyhawk campaign, but IMC the Rary the Traitor scenario was a ruse, staged by the Circle in order to appear weak and fractious near the end of the Wars. All the other major power blocs had been battered by the Wars, but the Circle was relatively untouched, at the literal center of the map, and far more "open to public scrutiny" than they had been previously. Instead of being the clandestine workers-behind-the-scenes, they were suddenly prominent and in the proverbial gunsights of everyone else who sought different ends from their own.

So, Tenser and Otiluke "played dead" and went underground, becoming free to operate (in magical disguise, of course) elsewhere, and Rary openly "split", eliciting Robilar's help in this conspiracy, while secretly still working with the Circle and just at a (barely-removed) distance. From the outside, the heavy hitters of the Circle were gone or divided against each other... and most of their foes bought it, since most of those who would fear and seek to destroy the Circle had been a part of similar power grabs in their own rise to glory.

>What if the whole Tenser and Otiluke situation was one where they were
>having their qualms about the situation. Or maybe just Tenser did and
>Otiluke got caught in the crossfire. Maybe when he is brought back by
>the characters in Rot8, he realizes that he can't "out" the Circle, so
>he makes an uneasy truce and goes off to promote lawful good causes.

Well, this is one reason I probably won't run Rot8... =)

>Also, in terms of divinations, it seems that many of the wizards or
>clerics who could do them might be "in the pockets" of the Circle.

Entirely possible... IMC, the Scarlet Brotherhood was widely feared and there was a lot of secrecy kept even where it didn't necessarily seem appropriate, because one could never be sure who the spies were. This played nicely into the hands of the Circle... but even some of the Circle apprentices weren't let in on the overall scheme.

>So who would smoking man be?

Zagyg =) he's obviously smoking something...

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