November Online: Realms by Night, NPC Closeup

Okay, so there are a couple of things to get to in the online department before we call it for November. I received my December package today, so that will be fun to go through here. Before I go on, though, I want to thank everyone who has been reading this blog; some people are going all the way to the back, and I'm surprised that the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is so popular. Again, thank you; it's nice to know that this project is being seen.

Alright, enough of that sentimentality stuff. Let's get to it. There are two more things that were posted in November on the WotC website, so let's go over them.

Up first is a series of posts called Realms by Night. I really should have started going over this in August when the first 3e post on the topic went up on the site. But it predates 3rd edition anyway, being started in January as part of the 2nd edition wind-down. The entire series is available on the Forgotten Realms Helps website; the Internet Archive of the series appears to have disappeared.

Now, it says 'Realms by Night', but it really means 'Waterdeep by Night' since the stories all take place in Waterdeep. The November entry is in fact the last of the series, which all cover various ghost stories set in Waterdeep and the surrounding region. The series isn't by Ed Greenwood; the author is Steven Schend, who does his best Greenwood impression by delivering a whole lot of fluff and virtually no game-related information in either edition. The first six episodes are from the 2nd edition era; 7, 8 and 9 are for 3rd edition. The last two episodes both include details on Realms-specific magical items: The Jorudan Clasp in episode 8 (The Thann Guardian), and Ahghairon's Great Cloak in episode 9 (The Spirit of Ahghairon). The first is a cloak clasp that is tied to the ghost of the episode and in fact summons the ghost to defend the wearer when attacked (not by his own admission). The second item is an intelligent white robe of the magi as a cloak. And it's got additional powers as well. Again, not from Ed Greenwood.

The next online thing is an entry in the NPC Closeup archive: Taerhannon the Seeker (1st appearance) who is a 'wizard of great repute and a member of the College of Arcanobiology Studies. This doesn't give any character details, but it does give several possible summons for the various summon monster spells, at least one for each level from summon monster I to summon monster VIII. So, you can summon a celestial badger (summon monster I) or, if you're feeling lucky and want to go big, you can summon a celestial androsphinx with summon monster VIII. Anyway, this is just a list of templated celestial monsters, not much of a big deal.

So, that will formally cover the remaining things from November 2000. If I have a chance before the end of the month, I'll get to some of that campaign stuff I was promising. If not, I'll see you in December.

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