Tomorrow at 8pm EST Jay Scott and Me will have a discussion about Spells with Ed Greenwood on the https://www.twitch.tv/lordgosumba channel.
I'm sure this will be a good discussion, that is a guarantee with Ed Greenwood on the show. I will try and add my bit to the topic well with a few custom spells from my campaign.
First is a low level spell used by Iuzian priests to torment their subjects:
Level: 1
School: Necromancy
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: Touch
Target: One creature
Components: S
Duration: Concentration (1 minute)
Saving Throw: Charisma halves (special)
Your patron is giving you fell energies that torment the target. You need to succeed on a melee spell attack that deals 1d10 psychic damage per round. And it turns the targets eyes red and bloody.
The target can make a saving throw each round and only suffer half damage when successful. The bloody eyes persists until the spell ends or the target takes a life. On a round the target kills someone (or something) no save needed and the pain goes away.
The spell can be ended using a Remove Curse.
Cast at Higher Levels
Increase the duration by 1 minute per level above 1.
Conduit: Divine Strain: Fiendish Taint: Evil
I converted some of the spells from the AD&D2E Complete Book of Necromancers:
Level: 1
School: Necromancy
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 1 mile
Target: Self
Components: V, S, M (sensory organ of a creature)
Duration: Concentration (10 minutes)
The caster can sense deaths within a mile. Creatures or areas that are protected from scrying are also shielded from this spell. The information gained from this spell are whether the dying creature had a soul or spirit and the power of it (CR or level), and only creatures with a CR or level are powerful enough to register
This spell can be used to target a Corpse Link spell, but as that spell is cast the concentration is shifted to the Corpse Link and the Detect Death spell ends.
Conduit: Arcane, Divine Strain: Necrotic Taint: Evil
Level: 1
School: Necromancy
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 1 mile
Target: Self
Components: V, S, M (sensory organ of a creature)
Duration: Concentration (10 minutes)
With this versatile spell, a wizard establishes a sensory link between him- or herself and a corpse, or a mindless undead like Skeleton or Zombie within a mile. This link allows the caster to gather sensory information from the vicinity of the cadaver or undead being.
Conduit: Arcane, Divine Strain: Necrotic Taint: Evil
An offensive favorite among the Iuzians are the Wall of Pain. This is an old D&D3.5 spell that I have converted to fit my campaign.
Level: 5
School: Necromancy
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: Long (120 feet)
Area: 60 feet Sphere
Components: V, S, F, M (drop of blood)
Duration: Concentration (1 minute)
Saving Throw: Charisma and Wisdom (special)
You fill an area with horrid energy that inflicts severe pain upon any who pass through it. The area can be up to 30 feet in any direction from the spells origins, creating a 60 foot sphere. The Wall of Pain can be detected as Evil or by using Truesight, or by a Perception DC 18 check.
Affected creatures takes 9 (1d8+4) points of psychic damage per round to anyone caught in it. Creatures affected makes a Charisma Saving Throw and are Frightened on a failed save, forced to either retreat, or trying to push through.
Creatures who failed their Charisma Save can try pushing through on a successful Wisdom Save, but suffers 12 (2d8+4) psychic damage. Failing the Wisdom Save the creature suffers 20 (4d8+4) psychic damage and are Paralyzed for 1 round.
Cast at Higher Levels
The damage increase 1d8 for each slot level above 5th.
Conduit: Divine Strain: Fiendish Taint: Evil
Next is a very powerful spell in the Iuzian arsenal that only the most powerful of his clerics can cast:
Level: 9
School: Necromancy
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: self
Area: One square mile
Components: V, S, F, M (an intelligent being killed within an hour of casting the spell)
Duration: Concentration (1 hour)
Saving Throw: Wisdom (special)
You fill a square mile sphere with horrid energy that inflicts gradual pain upon any who are caught in it. The Dome of Despair can be detected as Evil using Truesight, or by a Perception DC 18 check.
Affected creatures takes 1 point of psychic damage per round in the first minute. This damage increase by 1 per two minutes up to 5 points of psychic damage per round after 10 minutes of the duration.
Victims who accept the damage can continue to function as normal. Victims who become obsessed with getting away can make a Wisdom Save of become Frightened and on a fail they are forced to move and take the Dash action in whatever direction they think will get them to safety.
There are a few possible ways to avoid the effects of this spell. An obvious way is to somehow force the caster to loose Concentration. Iuz demands pain and suffering and there is a risk the spell might affect the caster, if there are no other creatures taking damage the caster will suffer the wrath of the Old One with no save.
One is to do Iuz bidding and kill a creature, which will give you immunity for a number of minutes equal to its CR, and Good creatures gives you double length immunity. This spell is also cast by Iuz priests to make sure their own troops are motivated and effective on the battlefield.
Radiant Shield will reduce the damage by half.
Beacon of Hope will provide advantage on Saving Throws and maximize effect of healing.
Holy Aura will give complete protection from the effect of Dome of Despair
Miracle will dispel a Dome of Despair
Conduit: Divine Strain: Fiendish Taint: Evil
Another Iuzian specialty is:
Level: 9
School: Necromancy
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 300 feet (special)
Target: Any number of creatures within range
Components: V
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Constitution halves (special)
You send out a wave of smoky black necrotic energy in all directions that travel 100 feet per round inflicting 30 points of necrotic damage.
Creatures within 100 feet save at disadvantage, within 100 - 200 feet save normally, and beyond 200 save with advantage.
This spell damages all living creatures not immune to necrotic damage, it heals undead.
Conduit: Arcane, Divine Strain: Necrotic Taint: Evil
I hope these spells will inspire your villains to some more foul deeds in future adventures!
See you on Twitch tomorrow!
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
I hope you will find some to game a bit among all the celebrations. After a couple of weeks with a terrible cold, flue or something (not covid) I'm now back feeling well again and will celebrate with wrapping up the last projects of 2022.
I'll be back in a few days with a major update and more.
Thank you so much!!
So sorry for the lack updates, its been two crazy weeks here. First the best part - I have a new computer!
My five years old loyal workhorse is now in semi-retirement as my secondary computer and I have a new intel 13th gen 24-core machine decked out with as much RAM, NVMe and HDD's I could afford, 128GB, 8TB and 40TB respectively. Paired with my "old" RTX 3080ti it is an significant upgrade and after a couple of days tweaking memory settings to make it stable it is now running stable and test renders have come out without a glitch.
My 16K Shield Lands 1 area that took 14 hours and 12 minutes on my old rig was done by my new one in 1 hour and 22 minutes! Love that improvement. Now I can up mu game and have done a couple of tiled renders that have went well and given me good results. Next up is to try and do a 64K test, that is 60 x 60 miles at 5 ft per pixel.
If 64K tiled works it will probably take me about 12 hours or so, which is OK for overnight renders, and it will save me a ton of post work stitching together small parts. Regional scale maps at 50 feet per pixel will be covering 600 x 600 miles, enough to make a dent even on a continental scale.
Tonight its time to have an inaugural Mapping Live Stream for a first proper work session on it!
Linda Buth will join me, and tonight I will work on Altamira fleshing out the terrain making sure it covers enough of an area for a 64K tiled render test.
Handout Maps Uploaded
The Handout Maps I did back in 2018 are now on my webserver so you can get them from the 598CY download page: https://www.annabmeyer.com/598cy-maps/
Thank you so much for making my computer upgrade possible!!!! 🙂
See you guys soon!
Here are a first look at the 598 CY Atlas, all the 98 maps in JPG version.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1yy9qqh5w39h5gw/598CY%20Atlas%202022-%20JPG-Maps.zip?dl=0
I will go over them once again as I move on to the Index, but to have your sharp eyes helping me will be a huge help finding errors like labels cut in half and overlapping for example. This happens easily since I have to adjust both size and placement of a lot of things to make them fit on the page.
This is a major part of the the 598 CY atlas update, the other big thing sis the index which I will start work on on Monday. Now I will enjoy a weekend of more creative work since splicing up the big map into small pieces is very tedious and repetitive.
Tonight's FMS will be a very special one, Forgotten Realms geography, cartography and more with Ed Greenwood!
Join Alyssa Faden, Jay Scott and me for Episode 17 of the Fantasy Mapping Show: Cartography of The Realms, with Ed Greenwood! Ed has been kind enough to share some of his mapping works that go back to the early 70s (one to 1969!); over a decade before Forgotten Realms was even published! These are so awesome and rare, that I am not even teasing them in the post! Frog God Games Sponsor Giveaways for 2 - $25 Gift Certificates! Join us Friday, November 18th, 8:00 PM EST for this truly memorable show and discussion! twitch.tv/lordgosumba
New Computer
I've bought a new computer that will be delivered this weekend. It is a fully decked out Intel 13th Gen I9 with 24 cores, 128GB RAM, 8TB NVMe SSD's, 32TB HDD. I'll install my RTX3080Ti in it for while, until the issues with the latest gen GPU's have been solved.
It was an expensive investment, and only possible thanks to your support. With this hardware I will be much better equipped for big renders and touch GIS tasks ahead. It will take a few days of reorganizing my office, untangle all the wires, rearrange my computers and set it all up again. So no Shield Lands Game this weekend, that is when I will be at Micro Center in Tustin picking up my new rig.
Thank you again for making this possible!! 🙂
Here are links to the source files for this map, so you can make your own version of it!
Updated to version 2, fixed Olenak.
Thank you for the help pointing out the faults.
Finished Map:
https://annabmeyer.com/Downloads/Shield%20Lands%20576CY%20Province%20Map%20-%202.jpg
Terrain file (6.58MB): https://www.dropbox.com/s/ssyhp8dwrpvn1cq/Shield%20Lands%20576CY%20terrain%20-2.jpg?dl=0
Illustrator AI file with labels (114MB):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8xf29z3znxghwno/Shield%20Lands%20576CY%20Map%20-5.ai?dl=0
Final PSD file with heraldry (1.53GB): https://www.dropbox.com/s/nqj1pl7znufvdy0/Shield%20Lands%20576CY%20Province%20Map%20-%202.psd?dl=0
I hope you like this first in my series of the fauna of my campaign. Animals are often overlooked in fantasy role play, which is understandable when you have so many more interesting options to use. Still I think there are room for using the natural world and its animals (and plants) in your campaigns.
Focus is also often on predators so this article is an attempt to show that a herbivore and "prey animal" can be interesting. A herd of these impressive beasts are enough to make even a party of midlevel adventurers make a detour. Animals that can take a stand against even worgs need to be powerful enough, and a herd of these beasts pack a serious punch!
The aurochs are grand oxen creatures. This large, horned animal has a brown to black thick fur and an aggressive temper. Its horns are wide and sharp and both males and females have them.
Origins
Aurochs ancestors roamed the northern plains and forests of central Oerik west of the Bakluni Basin. They spread west and east, and even north during the ages of warmer climate. It was probably during one of these warm periods when they first arrived in the Flanaess via the Thornward gap and the Dramidj coast. Well adapted to both cold climate and covering long distances to find good grazing these first Aurochs quickly made themselves at home.
Soon the worgs that were one of the few predators powerful enough to successfully hunt them followed and both species are now part of the fauna of the Northern Flanaess.
Description
It is the largest bovine in the Flanaess at around 7 feet tall and often weighs more than a ton, bulls are slightly larger than cows. They live in herds ranging from around 20 - 30 in areas where they are rare and used to being hunted by intelligent hunters (like humans), to many hundreds in the few areas where they are still common.
The fur of bulls range from pure black to medium brown. Cows are only rarely black, usually having a dark brown to light brown or even grey fur. In winter they are covered by a much thicker dense fur giving them the ability to survive in near arctic climates if necessary.
They are highly aggressive and are ready to charge and kill anything that seems threating. Cows are only mildly less aggressive, and all adults cooperate in defending the herd.
Size: Large Type: Animal
AC: 13
Speed: 40 feet
HP: 78 Bloodied: 39
Hit Dice: 12d8+24
STR: 20 (+5), DEX: 10 (+0), CON: 16 (+3), INT: 2 (-4), WIS: 10 (+0), CHA: 6 (-2)
Maneuver DC: 13
Damage Resistance: Cold
Damage Immunities:
Damage Vulnerabilities:
Condition Immunities:
Senses passive Perception 10
Languages: none
CR: 4
Proficiency Bonus: 2
Powerful Build. The aurochs counts as one size larger when determining the aurochs' carrying capacity and the weight it can push drag or lift.
Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage.
Charge. If the aurochs moves at least 20 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with a Gore, Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 20 (4d8 + 4) piercing damage, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength or fall prone.
Trample (bonus). The Auroch uses its weight and hooves to deal extra damage, a creature takes 6 (2d6) bludgeoning damage and is knocked prone.
After having been hunted extensively for many millennia only a small number are still living in the northern wilderness of the Flanaess. Summer grazing ranging from the Burneal Forest in the west to the Hraak forest in the east, and in winter they move down to range from the Vesve to the Fellreev.
The wars of late was first devastating to the Auroch population being hunted in their southern grounds. As the war intensified meant that a large part of the humanoids in the north was needed to fight in the south which meant that much less hunting of them in their main areas in the north, so the population have slowly started to increase again.
Aurochs have played a major role in the lives of various cultures throughout their presence in the Flanaess. Early on they quickly became a symbol for strength, courage and aggressiveness, and most likely plays a large role in stories of the Horned Ones of old Flan.
The Suel of the Thillonrian also saw them as a symbol for strength, but more so as a main target for their hunting prowess. The Stonefists who are a mix of the Suel and Old Flan settled on the narrow stretch of land between the Griff and White Fanged Bay, to be well placed to cash in on the Auroch migration to and from the Kelten and Amaran Atamanships each spring and fall.
In the west both the Tiger and Wolf Nomads revered the Aurochs as their most prized prey, and many are the horns decorating the helmets of their best warriors. The Wolf Nomads are also currently the most successful in their attempts to domesticate Aurochs. They occasionally manage to capture male calves, castrate them and use them as draft animals. Using males means they impact the numbers of wild Auroch the least, but the main reason for only using male calves are that females seemed determined to retain their aggressiveness no matter what.
The Ur-Flan successfully bred Aurochs with a southern bovine that are now extinct to create the first domesticated cattle breed in the Flanaess. Later Suel and Oeridian immigrants brought with them other domesticated cattle breeds, but there are still a significant amount of Auroch in a lot of the cattle breeds today.
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Time for a heraldic historic deep-dive. Together with Gary Holian I'm proud to present a look at the heraldry some of the best and worst of the Great Kingdom, the Saints and the Death Knights.
Saint Benedor
A flaming trident forged from the strength of Pelor himself used by the patron saint of the Knight Protectors Sir Benedor Monlath of Chathold.
Saint Ceril "The Relentless"
The patron of the Pale and a legendary Pholtian.
Saint Eleador the Survivor
Andromansis
Monduiz Dephaar
This is an old shield that might need updating, but I include it now to make the list complete.
Kargoth
Lady Kath
Also an old design included for completion.
Luren the Boar
Oslan Knarren
Sir Maeril of Naelax
St Carmichael
Urkar Grasz
Myrhal
Minar Syrric
Rezinar of Haxx
and last but not least Thyrian of Naelax
a HUGE thanks to Gary Holian for helping me on this!
You can find more about the characters behind these crests here:
- Bennie, Scott. "Setting Saintly Standards." Dragon #79. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1983.
- Bonny, Ed, Jeff Grubb, Rich Redman, Skip Williams, and Steve Winter. Monster Manual II. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2002.
- Cordell, Bruce R. Bastion of Faith. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1999.
- Holian, Gary. "The Death Knights of Oerth." Dragon' #290. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2001.
- "Demogorgon's Champions: The Death Knights of Oerth, part 2." Dragon #291. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2002.
- Holian, Gary, Erik Mona, Sean K. Reynolds, and Frederick Weining. Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2000.
- Reynolds, Sean K. "The Lost Temple of Demogorgon." Dungeon #120. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2005.
- Sennert, Matthew. "Ecology of the Death Knight." Dragon #360. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2007.
and more in various issues of Oerth Journal.
Her comes a look at the provinces of the Shield Lands before the Horned Society and later Iuzian invasion and the Greyhawk Wars.
There have been serval takes on how many provinces Shield Lands used to have, 21 or 23. Now in hindsight of both Living Greyhawk and the PaizoHawk development of Alhaster I have come down on 25, including the Principality of Alhaster.
Lets first look at the titles used and what that can tell us, they are with one exception Counties or Earldoms whish are for I take it seen as equal, but one step lower that a Principality in status. I can see that most of the Shield Lands was settled by adventurous people and nobles of lesser rank from the Great Kingdom in its early days and even a bit before. The Walworth's settled the strategic island in the Nyr Dyv and therefore laid the foundation for the future nation and a strong claim to its leadership held to this day.
Alhaster I imagine being settled by a Aerdian princeling looking for opportunity and better prospects away from the rigors and stale power structures back east. He, because I assume it was a male ancestor to the current Prince Zeech, settled the strategic coastline connecting the old lands of Urnst with the new lands of Ferrond in the west.
I' don't know if the early details are available, I might have missed something in my theories here. I marked this as version one so I can go back and update it as it gets scrutinized by all you knowledgeable Greyhawk nerds! 🙂
I've added the heraldry I've done so far to the map as well. I will try and fill in more and more of it as my campaign goes on and we get deeper into the Shields Lands.
Thank you again for all the support!!
I'll be on BlueBox's Loremaster's Arcanum and as usual we have a Legends & Lore Show on Lordgosumba .
Loremaster's Arcaneum starts at 5:30pm CDT and I will talk Goats and More with John and the others on the BlueBox team, always fun to be on their channel!
Tomorrow's L&L will be a bout Scaly and Slime folk in Greyhawk which can be interesting, and it starts right after BlueBox at 8pm EDT. So it will be a busy day tomorrow.
