Monday, June 03, 2019

Recaps & Roundups part 15: El Conquistador #12


Around Summer of 1975, after the publication of Greyhawk, Gary Gygax had several articles published in an issue of the fanzine El Conquistador. Apparently these articles were promised in exchange for a full-page D&D ad, at least according to Gary's hazy memory. One of these articles was about play-by-mail games, and not really of interest to this blog, but the other detailed a game session from Gary's Greyhawk campaign. It can be read here if you're so inclined.

Expedition to the Black Reservoir by Gary Gygax
In this story, four adventurers venture deep into the Castle Greyhawk dungeons, where they find a huge subterranean lake. There they inadvertently free a sea serpent, which they manage to kill, as well as fighting off some pterodactyls. Later, while unsuccessfully trying to locate the sea serpent's treasure, they spy a tower on an island. Inside the tower they find and capture a sorcerer, claiming his treasure chest. They try to take their captive with them but he escapes, and vows vengeance as the adventurers return to the surface.

There are lots of tidbits about the Greyhawk dungeons and campaign here, which I'll go through point by point below.

  • The description of the lands around Greyhawk Castle is vivid, and I'm just going to reproduce it in its entirety: "To the east of the busy walled city of Greyhawk the land is forsaken, overgrown with thorns and thistles. Oozing marsh creeps slowly down. The copses are huddles of weird, bloated trees. The wiry grass seems to grasp at the feet of any who dare to tread upon it. In the center of this unwholesome place, on a rock-boned prominence, hulks the ruin of the grim Greyhawk Castle."
  • Four adventurers and potential NPCs on this quest: Erac the Enchanter (a 7th-level magic-user); Londlar the Lama (a 7th-level cleric); Nulfyke (a 3rd-level dwarf fighter); and Ugubb the Acolyte of the Lake of Crystals (a 1st-level cleric). It's mentioned that Erac is a "paladin of law", but him being an actual paladin doesn't square with anything else in this story, so I'm just going to chalk it up as Gary using some flowery language to specify the character's alignment. Erac was able to cast knock, fireball and haste, and was in possession of a ray-firing device taken from a "quasi-human in another dimension". Londlar possessed a "great mace of holy power".
  • The party entered the Greyhawk ruins through its fallen west gate (described as moldering), and then into the great central keep. From there they heaved open an inner door and proceeded down some winding stone steps to enter the dungeons proper.
  • A door at the bottom of the stairs opened into an east-west corridor. The party turned east, then south at an intersection, then followed a branching passage heading southeast. This opened into a large cavern with glowing foxfire on the walls, floor and ceiling. This cavern was home to a score of elves, the "guardians of the eastern stairs". These elves bargain with the adventurers for a share of treasure and magic items should they pass this way on the way out. (Who gave these elves this task is left here as a mystery.) I'm happy to say that there are some similar elves in Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works, although the map details don't match up at all.
  • A short passage at the back of the cavern led to a long descent of uneven steps cut into living rock. At the bottom, the party tried heading north, but most of the tunnels were heading laterally. They made their way with much criss-crossing, until they found a narrow southerly passage with more stairs heading down. (At this point the adventurers debated the wisdom of going down, but a monster in the corridor persuaded them. A legitimate wandering monster, or Gary giving the PCs a deliberate nudge?)
  • The bottom of the stairs opened into an area that was "seemingly boundless and cloaked with a murk of ebon vapors which allowed but feeble penetration by lanthorn or torch". Northward was a sudden drop of a few feet into a huge lake, with inky water of unknown depth. A few yards to the west was a raft moored to an iron ring.
  • About 200 feet further west they found a flight of stairs wending upward, but the sudden emergence of a giant crab sent them scurrying back to the raft, which they poled out into the reservoir.
  • The roof of the cavern was high enough to be lost in the murk. Hexagonal granite posts several yards in diameter rose from the lake to support the cavern ceiling.
  • Some way north they came to some posts arranged in an oval pattern, too closely spaced to raft between. One of the pillars on the far side had a rusty lever, which took three PCs to move. Pulling the lever caused the pillar to descend, which released a hostile sea monster.
  • The party fled to the western boundary of the lake, and then north, where they eventually found a raised stone ledge. Here they killed the sea monster and fought off some pterodactyls. On the northernmost extremity of this ledge they found a punt to replace their smashed raft (which I suspect via Gary's commentary that the kind DM put there for them at the spur of the moment).
  • While searching for the sea monster's lair, the party spotted a slender tower on a stone island. The door of the tower was wizard locked. The inner chamber contained little furniture, but a stairway led up to a trapdoor. Beyond was a laboratory, where a black-robed, pointy-hatted wizard sat in a stupor, lost in the vapors arising from some "hellish censer". The wizard was easily bound and captured, and the party found a chest full of gold coins and gems. They also found his boat moored to the island.
  • The party relocated the sea monster's lair, but upon diving into the water Ugubb found that the water was deeper than the length of the rope he was attached to.
  • The wizard then escaped and fled, declaring himself to be the Sorcerer of the Black Reservoir (so, 9th level?). While the wizard vowed revenge, the PCs made their way back up to the surface.

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