Gygax's Yggsburgh (2005) available once again

The front cover of Yggsburgh,
with an illustration by Jeffrey Catherine Jones

If you haven't heard, Gary Gygax's Yggsburgh sandbox campaign setting, originally released in 2005 and withdrawn from sales after he passed away in 2008, is once again available for purchase from Troll Lord Games, following an agreement with the Gygax estate. You can pre-order the hardcover from the TLG site for $65, which also includes an immediate download of the PDF, or you can buy the PDF alone from DrivethruRPG for $19.99:

Yggsburgh Print (pre-order) + PDF 

Yggsburgh PDF only

For those unfamiliar with it, Yggsburgh is a re-casting of Gygax's long-delayed City of Greyhawk project, intended as a setting for exploring the Castle Greyhawk dungeons, here re-christened Castle Zagyg.  

Back in May of 1980, shortly before the initial publication of the World of Greyhawk campaign setting, Gary Gygax discussed future releases for the setting in issue 37 of The Dragon, where in his regular column "From the Sorcerer's Scroll", under the title "Greyhawk: The Shape of the World", he estimated that "The City of Greyhawk might make a 1981 publication date, certainly 1982, and about the same time the series which will eventually represent the whole of the Dungeons of Castle Greyhawk will begin". Sadly, neither title ever appeared under Gygax's byline, and became the most infamous of TSR vaporware. 

Decades later, in the early 2000s, Gygax finally started a new project to publish this material, this time under the aegis of TLG's Castles & Crusades RPG. However, only Yggsburgh and the first portion of the Castle Zagyg, titled the Upper Works (2007), were finished and released before Gygax passed away, and the license to publish them was withdrawn.

Yggsburgh is a sprawling 256-page hardcover book, with cover art by the great Jeffrey Catherine Jones, repurposed from the 1972 Avon paperback edition of Nine Princes of Amber by Roger Zelazny. This was the first novel in the Amber series, which was included by Gygax in Appendix N in the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide in 1979. Originally, the entire series of Castle Zagyg books was slated to feature covers with Jones' classic work from the 1970s.

The book itself is also accompanied by an 8-page hexmap, drafted by Darlene in a style similar to her original maps for the World of Greyhawk, which was tipped into the back cover in the 2005 publication. This depicts an area 50 hexes east-west and 34 hexes north-south, at 1 mile per hex, for a total area of 1,700 square miles:

Players Version of the Yggsburgh Hex Map by Darlene

Rather than just being a high-level gazetteer, Yggsburgh is a big sandbox, which I'd compare to Lenard Lakofka's AD&D module L1 The Secret of Bone Hill. There's a city with 93 described areas, including the famous Green Dragon Inn, and an area map with 48 described locations, and including a number of fully detailed small dungeons, which is often overlooked: 

• Thieves' Underground (13 rooms)
• River King's Tomb (19 rooms)
• The Cursed Mine (14 rooms)
• The Gnome Burrows (25 rooms)
• The Unholy Ringstones (25 encounter areas)

These could easily be extracted and run as one-shots or dropped in other settings. 

Castle Zagyg and Rob Kuntz's Dark Chateau (2005) are also two of the intended locations in the sandbox, so there is the potential for larger dungeons, although this does make the campaign setting incomplete on its own if you intend to use those.

I've had the original hardback for many years, and it's probably my favorite late-era Gygax product. While I haven't run anything from it yet, I will pick it up every now and then and read a bit. It's sort of a glorious sprawling mess like the original AD&D DMG, but in campaign setting form.

The Forgotten Smugglers' Cave #19-20: Pit and Sub-Basement

This is an installment of a new dungeon adventure set in the Portown milieu, which I'm writing for Holmes Basic D&D. You can find the Introduction to the dungeon here: Area 1.

Each entry includes part of a "pointcrawl" map showing the area & any exits, which include links allowing you to navigate the dungeon:

Area 17 ===	19. OPEN PIT	=== Area 20

19. OPEN PIT. A 10-foot wide tunnel runs 70 feet east-west between Areas 18 and 20, but is interrupted by an open pit, 40 feet from Area 18 and 20 feet from Area 20. The pit fills the width of the tunnel and is 10 feet across. This was once a covered pit trap, but the cover long ago collapsed into the water. A thief could climb past using the wall on either side without much difficulty (+5% to Climb Walls).  

The pit is 15 feet deep, but 5 feet of it is filled with water. If observed, two unusual things will be noted about the water:

First, a faint glow emanates from beneath the water in a small spot in the northeast corner. This comes from a magic sword resting on the bottom among other assorted rubbish (rocks, bones, rotten wood, rusted metal). This is a sword +1 (lawful good, Int 7 (empathic), Ego 6, detect poison), and is in excellent condition despite being covered in grime from being underwater for decades.

Second, once every few minutes, the back of an "eel" will be seen breaking the surface. This is actually a well worm, a "One Hit Point Monster" previously described here, and one of a number that infest the water of the pit. The well worms can also jump up to a foot out of the water trying to bite anyone that comes down towards the water.

Well Worms (20) (DX 10, AC 7, HD 1/8, hp 1, #AT 1 bite for 1 point)

Area 19 ===	20. SUB-BASEMENT	U==	Green Dragon

20. SUB-BASEMENT. The center of this small room (20 feet north-south by 40 feet east-west) is dominated by the planks and beams of a collapsed wooden staircase, which once led up to a trap door in the ceiling, 20 feet above.

In the middle of the west wall is a doorway, holding the broken remains of a wooden door, leading to the tunnel to Area 19. If examined, it can be determined that the door was locked from inside the room and broken into from outside in the tunnel. The walls around the door are covered in old graffiti, mostly inscrutable to PCs, but giving the impression that it was made by smugglers decades ago.

Bones, decaying clothing and leather armor, and rusted weapons are strewn about the room. Around the collapsed stairs are scattered gold coins (33 gp total) and a valuable-looking green eye agate, worth 100 gp, which will be easily spotted by its glimmer in torch or lantern light.

Collapsed Stairs. Pulling aside the pieces of the stairs will free an agate-eyed skeleton trapped beneath the wreckage. The agate on the floor is its left eye, and if anyone has picked it up, the skeleton will immediately attack them in order to take it back. If the eye is still on the floor, or is given to the skeleton, it will take it and depart to the west.

Agate-Eyed Skeleton (DX 12, AC 7, HD 2, hp 9, AT 1 bony hands for 1d6, SD when at rest, gazing at eyes causes sleep (save versus magic); when animated, turned as a ghoul.

A full write-up of this new monster can be found here.

The right eye of the skeleton is also a green eye agate also worth 100 gp.

Also among the wreckage are the remains (bones, clothing, leather armor, rusted daggers) of three humans who, fleeing from skeletons, overloaded the stairs, crashed through, and perished when it collapsed on top of them. Among their bones are more gold coins (57 gp).

Ceiling Trap Door. The trap door in the ceiling is about 30 feet east of the door. The bottom side of the trap door contains scratch marks, as if made by someone or something once trapped at the top of the stairs.

The trap door is locked from the top side, but even if the lock is picked, the trap door will not open easily as a heavy wooden wine barrel on a wooden rack is resting on top of it. It takes a combined strength of 36 to lift the trap door enough to cause the barrel to roll off the rack, allowing the door to be opened further.

The Area Above. The trap door opens into the wine and beer cellar of the Green Dragon Inn, which fifty years ago was a hub of smuggler activity in Portown. This basement is stocked with an assortment of wine barrels and beer kegs. The current proprietor will come to investigate any loud noises made during opening the trap door or poking around the basement. No one who now works at the inn now remembers what is below the trap door.

Alternate Start. This adventure could also be begun in the Green Dragon, where a new heir to the establishment has recently uncovered a forgotten trap door in the cellar marked with the smuggler's code for danger, and hires the PCs to investigate.

Chronologically on this blog, the previous installment was Area 18 and the next posted installment will be Area 21.

Maze of Peril Chapter 1, Scene 2: "Rumors of the Fabulous Treasures of the Underworld"

This post is part of the Tales of Peril Book Club, indexed here.

The second short "scene" of the Maze of Peril is a few paragraphs of compact world-building that expands the setting outward from the Green Dragon to the surrounding town and the Underworld beneath it. I quoted most of this section in a 2012 post, The Underworld of Holmes. As I wrote there, the term "The Underworld" is straight out of Vol 3 of the Original Dungeons & Dragons rules, "The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures", being the original term used to refer to the vast multi-layer dungeons of the game.

The narrator tells us that Zereth and "every man in the [Green Dragon] tavern" knows the rumors of the treasure of the Underworld. Holmes uses a favorite turn of phrase, "fabulous treasures", which also appears in the introduction to the Basic rulebook ("The dungeons are filled with fearsome monsters, fabulous treasure and frightful perils") and the Sample Dungeon ("Whispered tales are told of fabulous treasure and unspeakable monsters in the underground passages"). 

The rumors draw all sorts of adventurers and other types to the "tiny town", indicating that it is special in the land in its relation to the Underworld. The name of the town, Caladan, is first given here, and is noteworthy in that it was previously used by Frank Herbert as the name of the homeworld of the Atreides in Dune. Chris Holmes said that his father was a fan of Herbert but didn't know of any other specific reason for its use.

The description of the Underworld, like the name, is very much in line with OD&D: "corridors of wealth, they were also tunnels of deadly peril" and "there must have been many layers of dungeons and underworlds laid down, one atop the other". But Holmes takes this concept further by giving a putative origin for these dungeons: they were built by a mysterious prehistoric race. This echoes the introduction to the Sample Dungeon, where "the reputed dungeons lie in close proximity to the foundations of the older, pre-human city". As I wrote previously, this theme is "reminiscent of the pre-human alien civilization described in Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness (1931), who built vast underground cities in remote locations". Holmes never reveals any more details about the mysterious builders, so on this blog I later took the idea one step further, positioning Lovecraft's creatures in that story as Holmes' architects of the Underworld, to create a "new" monster for Holmes Basic called the Ancient Builder. The write-up for this monster now appears in the recently released Blueholme Journeymanne rules as the "Old Ones" entry in the Monster List.

While the rumors of the Underworld are well known in Caladan, the entrances are not. The narrator indicates that Zereth has been looking for information about an entrance but has not been successful. One reason that the entrances are not well known is that "many of the rash adventurers who set forth for the secret entrances to the fabled Underworld were never heard from again". Again, this fits with the story's origins in actual OD&D games, where many first level parties perish on their first expedition below.

In the next scene, Zereth will finally succeed in learning of an entrance.

Maze of Peril Chapter 1, Scene 1: "The Green Dragon Tavern Was Crowded, Dark, Noisy"

This post is part of the Tales of Peril Book Club, indexed here.

Having gone through the front matter, we move onto the actual stories. As a reminder, if you haven't read the stories yet, this is where the real spoilers will begin. I know, however, that exposure to spoilers will sometimes increase interest...

The first story in the book is the novel the Maze of Peril, which is the lengthiest Boinger and Zereth tale (11 chapters), and also the last published in 1986, at least until this volume which includes a previously unpublished story. As I go through each chapter, I'll refer to the parts of the chapters as "scenes". Essentially wherever Holmes placed a gap in the text, I'll refer to as a separate scene. This post will cover the first scene in Chapter 1. 

The Maze of Peril begins on page 1 of Tales of Peril with a title page, and then re-prints the original dedication from 1986 publication, which is made out to Gary Gygax, for the game; "Chris, Eric, Jeff and others" for creating the characters; and Tolkien, Lovecraft and Sprague de Camp for "literary inspiration". In Holmes' 1981 book, Fantasy Role-Playing Games, he talks further of literary inspiration for fantasy worlds, again mentioned Tolkien and de Camp among others; a quote from which can be read here. And in his 1980 essay, Confession of a Dungeon Master (reprinted further on in Tales of Peril), he mentions Lovecraft as one world-builder (along with Burroughs, Howard, Haggard, Merrit and Smith) that he drew upon for use in creating bits of his D&D campaign.

See also articles I've written about Holmes on Tolkien, Holmes and the Cthulhu mythos, and Holmes and de Camp.

Next there is a newly added two paragraph preface by Chris Holmes introducing the story. He reveals that his father initially hoped to publish more Boinger and Zereth novels, but had trouble finding a publisher for Maze of Peril, and then moved on to other projects. Chris further indicates that the story is a "close recreation of one of our first adventures in my father's dungeon".  

On the next page, the story begins. Chapter 1 is titled "Entrances", which I believe has a dual meaning: the entrance of the characters into the story, as well as the entrance to the Underworld that they discover.

I love the beginning of this story. It's exactly what you'd expect for a novel based on a D&D game, with an archetypical meeting of the characters in a tavern prior to their first adventure. And here we get to watch Boinger (along with his friend Bardan the Dwarf) and Zereth meet for the first time, and in the famous Green Dragon. Their meeting here also echoes the words from the introduction to the Sample Dungeon in the earlier Holmes Basic rulebook: "Humans and non-humans from all over the globe meet [in Portown]. At the Green Dragon Inn, the players of the game gather their characters for an assault on the fabulous passages beneath the ruined Wizard's tower".

The duo of Boinger and Zereth brings to mind other famous adventuring pairs, particularly Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. Boinger and Zereth are interesting in that neither is human. As Holmes wrote in the quote above, human and non-humans gather at the Green Dragon. And with the addition of Bardan, the group includes each of the three original non-human player character races in OD&D: hobbit, elf, dwarf.

Zereth demonstrates his magic with a cantrip-like effect, heating Boinger's wine. The magic creates a "blue glow". Boinger enjoys the heated wine, saying that it improves the flavor. This is the first glimpse into his recurring love of food & drink.

Holmes scatters descriptions for the characters throughout. I'll collect them here as I read.

Boinger: Wears a grey hooded cloak, jacket of chainmail and sandals on his furry feet. From the "Meadow Country to the South". 

Zereth: Black hair, brown eyes, swarthy, high cheekbones, narrow chin, even white teeth. Jagged scar across left cheek. From "Labolinn" (more recently), but originally "of the Old People, the Elidel". This term, Elidel, is perhaps Holmes' version of Tolkien's term for the elves, Eldar. The name is also similar to Eldil, a race of angelic creatures in Lewis' Space Trilogy. Zereth's home is also referred to as "the Elfland". (This phrasing is perhaps a reference to Dunsany's the King of Elfland's Daughter.)

Bardan: Stocky, white beard, wears a "heavy iron helm with long Norman nosepiece", white beard, gruff voice. From the "Cold Mountains".

Green Dragon Tavern: The tavern is lit by a big central fire and a few tapers. A serving table near the entry way. The table they share in the back corner has wooden benches. Stout beer is served in wooden mugs, wine is served in "a horn cup with a metal base to hold it upright".

The first section ends with the first mention of the Underworld. Holmes then cuts to a description of the Underworld of his setting, which I'll get to in the next post.

Green Dragon Miniature

This is a Green Dragon, painted & mounted on wood, from the J. Eric Holmes collection. Billy Galaxy Toys out of Portland, OR has been auctioning hundreds of miniatures from his collection on Ebay. This auction sold, but others are still available.

Of note, Holmes used the name of the Green Dragon Inn from Tolkien as the name of the tavern in Portown in the Holmes Basic Sample Dungeon, and in the Boinger and Zereth stories. This was apparently independent of the same usage in Greyhawk City. 

The figure is from the Minifigs Mythical Earth line, one of the first line of fantasy minis, produced starting in 1972 per the Lost Minis wiki. They were meant to represent Middle-Earth characters, although were named generically. This mini is ME58 Dragon, obviously representing Smaug from the Hobbit.

Another photo from the same auction, showing the dragon with two other unpainted Minifigs minis that it was auctioned with, ME49 Gondor Knight and ME59 Eagle. Unfortunately, the right wing is missing from the dragon: 

Green Dragon Inn, pt II

As a follow up to last week's post on the Green Dragon Inn mentioned in the Blue Book, I spent a little time looking in to the publication history of the Green Dragon in Greyhawk, which I'd read was owned at one point by Robilar, PC of Rob Kuntz.

As it turns out there is far less material on Greyhawk's Green Dragon than I had thought. While it apparently goes back to 1972 in the original Greyhawk campaign, it barely made it into print by TSR. This Dragonsfoot thread indicates that the first print reference to this Green Dragon was in the Official AD&D Coloring Album from 1979. I have a copy of this, so I pulled it out to see what it said:

"Here at the Green Dragon, a busy inn in a town on the shores of the Lake of Unknown Depths, a group of adventurers have met to plan a daring expedition in search of a fabulous treasure. They sit at an outside table, quaffing amber ale and charting their course to wealth beyond belief ... The innkeeper, his wife and the stableboy are all busy caring for the wants of the adventurers, for they known the party will soon set forth on their quest  - possibly to return loaded with bright gold!"

That's about it, other than the accompanying picture (see above) by Greg Irons, who illustrated the entire album in fantastic detail. See more pictures from it here.

I found a "Green Dragon Tavern" in Dragon #37 (May 1980), but it's actually yet another one, found in a town in the module The Pit of the Oracle by Stephen Sullivan. What's ironic is that this same issue has a Sorcerer's Scroll column where Gygax states that "The City of Greyhawk might make a 1981 publication date, certainly 1982, and about the same time  the series which will eventually represent the whole of the Dungeons of Castle Greyhawk will begin" and further provides information on Robilar (and other Greyhawk notables), but without mention of the Green Dragon.

I also have Artifact of Evil (1986, TSR), which is a Gord the Rogue novel by Gygax, where the Green Dragon is the location of a brief meeting between Gord and his druid friend, Curly Greenleaf. The "Green Dragon Inn" is described as "a place frequented by foreigners, mercenaries, tough adventurers, and others of less savory aspect" (pg 35). There's another appearance in Night Arrant, a later Gord novel published after Gygax left TSR that I don't have a copy of.

So it appears that most of what is now known about the original Greyhawk Green Dragon is from much more recent interviews and columns. Holmes' Green Dragon was first mentioned in the Blue Book, which was published in the Fall 1977. While it is possible he heard of the Greyhawk Green Dragon directly from Gygax or others at TSR, it is more likely a separate creation with a name inspired by Tolkien's Green Dragon in the Shire.