Recaps & Roundups part 8: Early D&D Articles by Gary Gygax

In addition to recapping the various D&D products that I've covered so far, I wanted to use this series to slot in some other products and related articles in their proper chronological place. Well, I was bound to miss something. Early D&D is nothing if not disparate, and Gary Gygax's writings about it were printed in a lot of different sources. I'll try here to cover all of the articles that would have seen publication before Supplement I: Greyhawk.

"Battle for the Brown Hills", from Wargamer's Newsletter (March 1971, just as Chainmail was being first published)

This article is a play report from an early Chainmail scenario that Gary moderated. The forces of Chaos have invaded the Meadowlands of the Great Kingdom, and the forces of Law have rode out from Great Keep to meet them in the field. The battle was won by the forces of Chaos, but not decisively enough for them to take the field; the end result was that both forces retreated to lick their wounds and gather reinforcements, with another battle soon to come. The whole account can be read here.

This article is perhaps one of the most detailed descriptions we have of Gygax's original campaign setting. I'm just going to reproduce the opening here in full:

"East of the Desert of Sorrow stretches the nearly unbroken barrier of forbidding mountains. Furthest south, dipping into the place where the Gnyxyg Sea meets The Ocean, they are called Mountains of Bitter Cold. At the place where the Broken Land joins them they become known as the Home of Dragons, and it is somewhere within their vast area that is hidden the Cave of Shifting Runes. Furthest north they are known as the Giant Mountains, due not to the stature of their peaks - albeit this is undiminished, but rather for the creatures who inhabit the labyrinthine caverns therein. A spur of the chain first turns eastward, then circles north again, to enclose the hidden and unwholesome valley of Lake Iuz. The lesser peaks of the spur are the Dwarfrealm.

On the coast north of the Giant Mountains are the lands called Drearshore, and the peninsula of Lands End. It was from here that Chaos armed its host, swarmed into the Valley of Iuz, and began to harry the Dwarves, causing them to flee southwards into the Brown Hills and bringing news of the massing evil to the men of the Old Kingdom. From the town of Yon to the city of Hither the news travelled, and the paladins at Great Keep were called forth by the Count of Aerll. All of Law was to meet in solemn council at the hamlet of Lea. In a short time the men of the Meadowlands were joined by a band of the warlike elves from the wood near the Cairnstones, as well as a large band of horsemen from beyond the Silent Forest, the eastern border of all the land.

The encampment of the Count was made in the Cloverfields, between Lea and the Brown Hills. It was here that intelligence reached them that the Horde of Chaos had debouched from the pass at the headwaters of the Darkling River, skirted the Marshes of Oozing Slime, and now were only a few days from him. Despite the fact that only three-quarters of his forces had been marshalled, the Count marched at once due west across the narrow waist of hills, and took up strong position to await the enemy."

That is a lot to take in, and as with much of Gygax's writing it's not the most straightforward. Looking ahead somewhat, I can see that it doesn't match up with the published World of Greyhawk maps, although there are some familiar names in there. Dave Megarry, inventor of the boardgame Dungeon!, has made available a map of Gary's original world from circa 1971. It's hard to say if it matches that either, because we don't have a lot of geographical detail to go on.

For the moment, I'm content to say that the above map represents the World of Greyhawk as it was, and that some cataclysm or event will reshape the land into its configuration as seen in official TSR products. As such, it looks like the Battle of the Brown Hills will be one that was fought in the ancient past. The article mentions the forces of Chaos invading the "remains of the Old Kingdom", so it's possible this might be set after the fall of the Great Kingdom.

The forces of Chaos were led by the Warlock Huldor ap Kree, and the Giant King Verdurmir. They were also comprised of Ogres of Iuz, human troops from Lands End and Drearshore, and a number of Orc tribes. The tribes given are the Orcs of the Mountain, Orcs of the Vile Rune, and Orcs of the Longspear. The first was one of the example tribes given in Chainmail,

The forces of Law were led by Count Aerll (a super-hero), and the Magician of the Cairn. In addition there were knights and other men from the Meadowlands, horsemen from the lands to the east, and elves. Both Count Aerll and the Magician of the Cairn were slain in battle, the latter by a randomly passing dragon. The count's magic sword was lost on the field of battle, and it's fate is unrevealed.

A map of the battlefield is below:

"The Giant's Bag", from Great Plains Game Players Newsletter #7 (April 1974, a few months after D&D is first published)

This article relates a wilderness adventure that was being DMed by Rob Kuntz, with Ernie and Gary Gygax as players. In this adventure, the sorcerer Nestre (played by Ernie, I assume, given the anagrammatical name) and some fighter henchmen were following a map to some treasure hidden in the wilderness southeast of the walled city of Greyhawk. They encountered a giant, who accompanied them through the greenwood and along a turgid river, to a bank infested with giant crabs. The giant helped them smash the crabs, and retrieve a treasure chest from the river bed.

Following that there are some hi-jinks where the giant inadvertently tricks the players into diving into the river to retrieve some "round things" (actually worthless rocks), and claims most of the treasure himself. The greedy Nestre tries to get a look inside the giant's bag, and in doing so loses a crystal ball and two valuable gems, only to find that the bag is full of worthless junk.

It's a mildly amusing tale, with perhaps a few anachronisms too many for my taste. It's greatest value is the insight that it gives into the tone of the original Greyhawk campaign. I'll keep this giant around as an NPC perhaps, and have Nestre as one of the previous generation of adventurers in and around Greyhawk, with these events as just one of the tales about him.

Addendum: I see that Gary asked Jeff Talanian to include a Hill Giant of similar temperament to this in Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works. I might make it the same giant.

"Swords & Sorcery in Wargaming" from Wargamer's Digest #7 (May 1974, a few months after D&D is first published)

This article begins (which can be read here) with a very brief over-view of fantasy wargaming, before launching into an account of a D&D session played by Gygax (and presumably run by Rob Kuntz). It follows Mordenkainen (said to be a 13th level wizard) and his one-time apprentice Bigby (11th level), as they explore the 4th level of a dungeon. In a previous adventure they had descended some dozen levels, and found a key and some lines of verse; after some research and divination, they were now searching level 4 for the door that the key would unlock.

Somewhere north and east of the entrance to the level, past a portcullis that crashed behind them, they found a room with four chests and a disembodied voice telling them to "choose from the four chests before you". One chest held a hydra (which they polymorphed into a slug), and the other granted them a wish of limited power. They used the wish to get directions to the door, which was past some iron portals to the east, and then north to the gates to the Great Hall.

There they found three granite thrones, upon which were seated three iron statues. One held a dagger, and one held a broadsword, but the central one was an iron golem wielding a poisonous sword and a whip of cockatrice feathers, and possessed of a fiery breath. It defeated an efreeti that the wizards summoned, and turned Mordenkainen to stone with its whip, forcing Bigby to retreat to Mordenkainen's stronghold.

Bigby quickly returned with Lords Yrag and Felnorith, as well as the Bishop Raunalf. After restoring Mordenkainen to flesh, they looted the weapons from the two statues and used them to destroy the golem. Unfortunately, Bigby was now turned to stone, and Yrag was killed by its poisoned sword, but the others were able to loot the statues, which were hollow and full of gems, and also to find a tiny coral miniature of the surrounding dungeon. Presumably the two felled characters were later restored.

This golem was mentioned in D&D Vol. 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, and the adventure recounted above was from Kuntz's El Raja Key dungeon. It appears in altered form in dungeon WG5 Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure, in what is now Castle Maure. In order to make both adventures viable, I might have it that Castle Maure is one of those dungeon that periodically changes its layout, much like Castle Greyhawk.

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That brings me up to date with roughly March of 1975, which sees the approximate publication dates of Supplement I: Greyhawk and Chainmail 3rd edition. I have a number of other early D&D articles by Gygax, and I'll intersperse them with the regular posts in the series