Re: Re: Greytalk Cooperative Project

Re: [greytalk] Re: Greytalk Cooperative Project
Wednesday, November 29, 2006 9:38 PM
From: "Marc-Tizoc González"
To: greytalk@canonfire.com

Hey folks,

Thanks to Scott's public response and two other posters' private responses. With four interested people, we can form a good working group and should make some decisions, such as:

1. Whether to use GreyTalk for our development, or instead to request a dedicated message board folder on Canonfire!, such as the one used for the Gran March Project; and

2. Whether to discuss the project more via the GreyChat, either at its regularly scheduled Thursday evening meeting, or at another time.

I'd like some more public discussion and in particular, specific comments on ideas I suggested.

For example, Scott suggested that we shift the first adventure's start site from Bissel to Veluna. I'm fine with that change although I proposed Bissel to account for a poster's (Basiliv?) preference to include ancient Baklunish culture and also because placement in Bissel lends itself better to shifting toward the Quag Lake region that at least two posters indicated interest in.

However, I have some old material on Devarnish, a walled town that the FtA era Flanaess map introduced. Devarnish is relatively near the Kron Hills and has been mentioned as part of the area the Keoland occupied in several old documents. I forget if this was in Joe Katzman's old histories or one of its permutations, e.g., Kirt Wackman's OJ article (and its earlier versions), or Samwise's histories, or Gary Holian's writings.

Regarding Scott's other ideas about stopping an ancient goblin / kuo-toa alliance, I'm intrigued but have little to comment, except that it comes across as featuring higher level magics, e.g., a gate.

Thinking about it more, I think it unlikely that goblins and kuo-toa would ally, especially with their respective devotion to Gruumsh and Blibdoolpoolp, two gods not known for their alliance (although I like the idea that another Power might be at work).

Regarding the Horned Society connection, I'd suggest that this agent knew of the historical alliance and then visited the Lorridges to seek its remnants after receiving such orders from the coalescing Hierarchs in Greyhawk City.

Overall, however, I suggest that Scott proposed a new adventure idea. I think the real trick of starting a collaborative project will be to agree to a basic outline for the adventure. Right now, we're probably still in the brain-storming phase.

MTG
PS - Please comment publicly so as to encourage further participation. If you really prefer private emails, please explicitly instruct me to respond privately.

Scott wrote:

Hi all,

Marc-Tizoc wrote:
>As I count ‘em, six ideas have been contributed:[snipped]

Can this guy organize or what?

I agree we should keep to, at most, three linked adventures. If we can actually pull that off as a group, THEN we could get more ambitious. I also think we will have more participation if, instead of splitting writing chores up evenly, we simply repost what we have so far with something(s) new added each time, so that everyone has the chance to flesh out any part of the adventure, and more and more levels of detail are slowly added.

>Adventure 1: The PCs are raided by worg-riding goblins while traveling on a road in Bissel. The PCs best the goblins, but some NPC traveling companions are taken captive as the goblins flee. Following their trail, the PCs enter the nearby hills and find the goblins’ lair, which is based in old (Oeridian or Flan) ruins. The dungeon beneath the ruins is controlled by lamia(s) (noble?), which dominate the goblins.

>If successful, the PCs recover their traveling companions, learn that one of them is a nobles’ scion, and return her/him to her/his ancestral keep, thus gaining a noble patron. The PCs may also find signs that indicate the involvement of the Horned Society <

My thoughts: Can we jog this adventure across the Lorridges to Veluna? My thinking is that Bissel is more of a frontier area than Veluna and old forts are less likely to be left abandoned on the frontier. Now, in nice, safe Veluna, I could see a lot of old forts from the Hateful Wars being left abandoned. Who needs them now?

In the final days of the Hateful Wars, a tribe of goblins found unexpected allies in a hidden enclave of kuo-toa. Still not expecting their coalition to turn the tide of war, they instead pooled their shamans and priests and prayed for help to Gruumsh and Blibdoolpoolp. They, or something else, answered those prayers and whisked a large group of goblins and some kuo-toa through a temporary gate to somewhere else.
Now the goblins and kuo-toa that disappeared all those years ago have come back, and returned changed. The goblins are shorter, more gargoyle-like in appearance, and have innate cantrips/glamours. The kuo-toa have become fire-based creatures, capable of generating fireballs between two or more of them. They only lacked a leader, having known whisked away with them. That was before a will-o-the-wisp found them, and remembered them. A hundred years ago, this will-o-the-wisp had been a young boggart aiding the goblins and witnessed the departure. It cannot communicate with them, but it can literally lead them as a guide. It led them to an old fort, abandoned some 60 years now, near the Lorridges and they began using it as their base. Now they are abducting people to sacrifice, hoping it will open the gate to somewhere else so more of their kind can come back.

The transmorgrified goblins and kuo-toa are becoming so successful that an agent of the Horned Society has already sought them out and found them. And the goblins could have worgs too. Thoughts?