Living Greyhawk Journal #1

Okay, so this is the first 'official' issue of the Living Greyhawk Journal. This one is a 32-page magazine that covers quite a few more things than issue #0 did. We start with an announcement about the start of the Living Greyhawk Campaign, which lots of people attended at Gen Con and thoroughly enjoyed. I mentioned my feelings about the campaign and its regional restrictions in the entry on issue #0, so I won't go into that again. Instead, I'm going to look at the Living Greyhawk stuff in terms of its actual Greyhawk content, and seeing how it matches up with what I remember from back in the day.

So, first up is Places of Mystery, which discusses a few interesting places that can be found around the Flanaess. The first is the Belching Vortex of Leuk-O (he of the Mighty Servant of older D&D lore), which is located in the Hestmark Highlands. It's a black membrane set against a sheer cliff face on one of the mountains in the area, surrounded by a barren wasteland that used to have lots of plant and animal life. The DM's notes indicate that it's a portal to an ancient outpost of extradimensional explorers that makes people sick.

The Fabled City of Dark-Kesh Anam is a miniature city found in the Dross Shop, which is a combination of a pawn shop and a museum. There are rumors and debates on whether or not this is an actual city that was miniaturized, or if it is just a model. And the curator of the Dross Shop can apparently send the characters to the city (either the real one, or the miniaturized one, which he claims is the real one). Getting there is the easy part...getting out, however, is not.

The Kingdom of Keoland gets some love here, and is identified as the oldest surviving nation in the Flanaess. We're promised more information in the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, which isn't available at the time this was printed, and this is an expansion of that material. So, we get a brief description of the major players in the kingdom, as well as the priesthoods of the kingdom and how magic is regulated. The merchant class has a lot of power as well in Keoland. The provinces are also fleshed out somewhat over several pages, giving plenty of description and not a few adventure hooks as well. All in all, this provides enough information to start a solid campaign in Keoland. I like it.

Next up is the 'Enchiridion of the Fiend-Sage', which sounds really cool. Basically, though, it's just a few new monsters. The Greyhawk dragon, which is much smaller than even a white dragon, is a dragon that spends a lot of its time looking like something else, that something else typically being a human. They are shapeshifters, and like how humans live. So, they tend to live as humans in mansions, castles, and the like, where they can keep their treasure hoard. They're quite intelligent as they get older, allowing them to be top-notch sages and historians thanks to their vast stores of knowledge. Their CR range is very low for dragons, topping out at CR18.

The nauskiree is...well, it's an ugly beast. They are cold-dwellers, so they live in the northern reaches of the Flanaess. They're huge, strong, and tough, with a CR of 7. They like to trample their opponents, and can also use an ability called torpor, which works as a combination of a confusion spell, a slow spell, and also does 4d4 damage. Nasty. I'm not 100% certain, but this looks like an original creature.

And...oh, dear. The sons of Kyuss make their reappearance in Greyhawk. They are sort-of zombies that are created by being infected by these green glowing worms. And they are much nastier than zombies. They actually throw their worms at opponents to infect them with a disease that will turn the victim into a son of Kyuss when they die. And it doesn't take long for them to die. They have a CR of 5, regenerate damage quickly, and are tough for clerics to turn. These are truly bad beasties to run into.

Finally, we have xvarts, which are basically blue-skinned kobold equivalents. They're small, with a CR of 1/4, butt hey can have character levels which make them much tougher. Their favored class is fighters, and they tend to be fighters or fighter/clerics. They, like most smaller humanoids, prefer to use ambushes and numbers to their advantage. They live in the forests of the Flanaess in places such as the Horned Society, the Bone March, and the Pomarj.

Next we learn about the town of Hardby, a town to the south of Greyhawk City. The subtitle of the article is 'The Despotrix of Hardby', so I'm inclined to think the leadership isn't exactly friendly. This is a matriarchy run by a 13th-level human wizard. She's popular in the town, but she's in her 60s and is becoming rather frail, and there's talk that she won't be around much longer, at least not in a position of power. The other character described is Javka Gerneskir, who is the Despotrix's right-hand woman. Both of them are neutral good, so my initial thought was apparently incorrect. Nice to be surprised once in a while.

Dispatches, or News from Around the Flanaess, is more adventure hooks for different regions. Once again, Ket doesn't get mentioned...

Oh, it does, on the second page. It's not much of a hook, but it's something. A war hero has just left after being the sole survivor of his squadron after an expedition into the Bramblewood. Refusing to talk about it, he has been labeled as a possible traitor who got his men killed on purpose. And...that's it.

At the back of the magazine is a map of Keoland with the provinces numbered, matching the numbering in the article earlier in the magazine. And that's the end of the magazine.

Some very nice stuff related to Greyhawk in this magazine; Keoland is the big winner, although there's lots of additional stuff, such as the new monsters and the adventure hooks. All in all, a good issue. I look forward to the next one.