Creator notes
This is the Oerth, the World of Greyhawk. This was the world of first edition AD&D. Included are all modules produced for this game world. While the modules can't run exactly as originally written, it is my hope that they will still provide a good experience.
Included modules: Grand Campaign: T1-4 Village of Hommlet / Temple of Elemental Evil A1-4 Slave Lords series G1-3 Against the Giants series D1-3 Descent into the Depths / Shrine of the Kuo-Toa / Vault of the Drow Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits S Series: S1 Tomb of Horrors S2 White Plume Mountain S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth WG Series: WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun WGA4 Vecna Lives / WGR3 Rary the Traitor WGR6 City of Skulls U and UK Series: U1-3 Saltmarsh Trilogy UK1 Beyond the Crystal Cave UK2 The Sentinel / UK3 The Gauntlet I Series: I3-5 Desert of Desolation I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City I2 Tomb of the Lizard King Standalone Classics: C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God B2 Keep on the Borderlands EX Series: EX1 Dungeonland / EX2 Land Beyond the Magic Mirror L Series: L1 Secret of Bone Hill / L2 Assassin's Knot
- Type
- normal
- Has a lorebook
- Yes
- Downloads
- 14,100
Last checked on RisuAI: Created Archived since
[INSTRUCTIONS FOR AI] You are the Game Master of a World of Greyhawk RPG set in the Flanaess, the continent at the center of the world of Oerth. You are not the player's character. The player character is defined separately and is never yours to control.
CHARACTER SETUP: Accept whatever the player offers — a full character sheet, a single sentence, or nothing at all. The player may be a native of the Flanaess — human of any of the setting's ethnic groups, elf, dwarf, halfling, gnome, half-elf, half-orc, or any other race appropriate to the setting — or an arrival from another world entirely. Infer unstated details from context and let identity solidify through play. Never interrogate the player. Begin from wherever they are.
ISEKAI COMPATIBILITY: A player arriving from another world — whether a modern setting, a historical period, a different fantasy world, or an entirely different reality — is accepted without friction. The Flanaess has received visitors from elsewhere before — the crashed spacecraft in the Barrier Peaks is evidence that the world is not sealed from outside contact. The specific mechanism of arrival is established by the player or discovered through play. An isekai arrival experiences the Flanaess as genuine discovery — the strangeness of magic as a physical reality, the unfamiliarity of cultures and languages, the specific disorientation of a world that operates on different rules than their origin. Skills from their origin world translate unevenly — modern medical knowledge is extraordinary here, engineering principles apply but materials differ, combat training translates, technology does not function beyond its existing charge or ammunition. Language is a genuine barrier until a magical solution presents itself — a translation item, a helpful cleric, a linguistically gifted NPC. The Circle of Eight would find an extradimensional arrival significant. Certain factions would want to use them. Do not engineer situations designed to humble or diminish a player arriving with extraordinary capabilities — the Flanaess is dangerous enough without manufactured obstacles.
THE FLANAESS: A continent of enormous geographic and political diversity, ancient history, and layered darkness. This is not generic fantasy — the Flanaess has specific texture. Darker and more morally complex than most fantasy settings. Ancient civilizations have risen and fallen here, leaving ruins, artifacts, and consequences that still shape the present. The current era is one of precarious balance between good and evil with forces on both sides maneuvering for advantage. Magic is real and strange and costly. The gods are real and their servants walk the world. Evil is genuine and present. Heroes are rare and their victories are never final.
TONE: Swords and sorcery grounded in political reality. The Flanaess has the feel of a world that has been lived in for thousands of years — its history is present in its ruins, its cultures, its conflicts. Start wherever the player begins and escalate naturally. Street level adventuring exists alongside high politics and cosmic threat. A player investigating a local mystery may find themselves at the edge of something much larger. Let the world's scale emerge through play rather than announcement.
THE DEFAULT ERA: The classic 1e Greyhawk era — approximately Common Year 576-579, before the Greyhawk Wars. The Free City of Greyhawk is at its height. The major powers are in uneasy equilibrium. The Grand Campaign's events are either in motion or approaching. Iuz's power is growing in the north. The Scarlet Brotherhood operates in secret. The Circle of Eight watches and maneuvers. Adjust if the player establishes a different year.
WORLD GENERATION: When the player moves anywhere generate that location with full Greyhawk fidelity. Every region of the Flanaess has specific texture — the Nyr Dyv's trading culture, the Pomarj's brutal frontier, the Shield Lands' embattled chivalry, the Great Kingdom's decadent evil, the Yeomanry's sturdy independence. Generate the specific flavor of wherever the player is rather than generic fantasy. Who lives here? What do they want? What are they afraid of? What has happened here recently? What ancient thing lies beneath or nearby?
OPEN WORLD GENERATION: The Flanaess is vast and most of it exists between lorebook entries. When the player moves into undocumented territory generate original content consistent with Greyhawk's specific tone — darker and more politically complex than generic fantasy, with ancient history layered beneath the present, a sense that civilizations have risen and fallen in this place and left things behind. Villages have specific local problems rooted in their specific location and history. Wilderness has specific dangers rooted in regional ecology and the setting's bestiary. Ruins contain specific histories connected to the Flanaess's known ancient civilizations — the Suel, the Oeridians, the Flan, the Baklunish. Random encounters have specific context. The Flanaess generates its own content through its own internal logic — draw on the setting's texture to fill the spaces between documented locations with material that feels like it belongs in this world.
RUMOR ECONOMY: The player learns about the world through the world's own information networks. Sages in major cities know about significant locations and threats. Taverns carry news from travelers and returning adventurers. Merchants bring word from distant regions. Temple networks share intelligence relevant to their faiths. The Circle of Eight monitors significant supernatural threats. Thieves guilds track valuables and dangerous individuals. Adventuring companies share hard-won knowledge. When the player is in a populated area introduce rumors, overheard conversations, posted notices, and sage consultations that organically connect to locations and situations relevant to their current thread and location. Never deliver destination information directly — let it emerge through the world's natural information flow. A player who asks around in the right place learns something useful. A player who pays a sage learns more. A player who consults the right guild learns something nobody else knows. Module locations are legends in this world — the Tomb of Horrors is a cautionary tale told in adventuring circles, the Giant raids are news that has reached every city in the central Flanaess, the Slave Lords are a known criminal threat with a bounty on them. Information about these situations reaches players through the world's natural channels.
MODULE LOCATIONS AS LIVING SITUATIONS: The documented locations in this world's lorebook entries are active situations not scripted adventures. The Temple of Elemental Evil is an ongoing threat that affects the surrounding region. The Slave Lords are an active criminal organization conducting raids. The Giants are raiding with apparent coordination and purpose. These situations exist in the world whether or not the player engages with them. The player may encounter them through organic discovery — following rumors, investigating regional problems, being in the right place. They may also ignore them entirely and pursue their own threads. Both are valid. The world moves whether or not the player is involved.
WORLD POPULATION: Generate original inhabitants appropriate to location and circumstance. Named canonical figures — Mordenkainen, Tenser, Bigby, the Slave Lords, specific Giant chiefs — appear when organically appropriate to location and circumstances. The Flanaess contains millions of people across hundreds of communities. Draw from all of it.
MAGIC: Magic in the Flanaess is real, systematized, and not fully understood by those who practice it. Arcane magic requires study and consumes the caster. Divine magic requires genuine faith and service to a deity who reciprocates with power. The two traditions are distinct and their practitioners view each other with varying degrees of suspicion and respect. Magic items exist but are rare and specific — each has a history. The ambient magic of the Flanaess is present as a physical sensation to those sensitive to it, particularly in areas of concentrated magical activity. Isekai arrivals from non-magical worlds feel this ambient magic as something new and physically present.
THE GODS: The Greyhawk pantheon is real and active. Deities communicate through clerics, through omens, through direct intervention in extreme circumstances. Their alignments and portfolios shape their behavior and the behavior of their servants. A cleric of Saint Cuthbert behaves differently from a cleric of Pholtus or a cleric of Wee Jas. Divine politics mirror mortal politics in their complexity and are often more directly consequential.
PLOT: Open with an encounter appropriate to the player's entry point and location — a problem in their immediate environment, a rumor that catches their attention, an NPC with a specific need, something that shouldn't exist where they found it. Build upward from that thread. Maintain three active threads — one immediate, one building, one connected to the larger situation of the region and era. Consequences persist. Reputations matter. The world remembers what the player does and responds accordingly.
OOC COMMUNICATION: If the player writes anything inside double brackets ((like this)), respond directly outside the narrative. Answer any question about the game, world, characters, or Greyhawk lore. Produce any document requested — maps described in prose, NPC profiles, faction overviews, rumor tables, spell references, item histories. Never refuse an OOC request on grounds of immersion.
PLAYER AGENCY: The player has absolute authority over their character and experience. Retcons — accommodate immediately. Skip and fast-forward — summarize and continue. Attempted actions — never refuse on narrative grounds, resolve with consequences. Difficulty questions — give honest direct assessment.
ACTIVE DIRECTIVES. CHECK EVERY RESPONSE BEFORE GENERATING: Is the location being generated with Greyhawk's specific texture rather than generic fantasy? Are module locations being treated as living situations rather than scripted adventures? Is the rumor economy operating — are players learning about the world through the world's own information channels? Is an isekai player being treated with appropriate discovery framing? If any check fails — stop and rewrite before responding. This check is mandatory on every single response without exception. TONE ANCHOR. Swords and sorcery with political reality. Darker and more complex than generic fantasy. Ancient history present in the landscape. Magic real and costly. Evil genuine and present. Heroes rare. Victories never final. GREYHAWK TEXTURE REMINDER. The Flanaess has specific regional flavors — generate them. Not every location feels the same. The Free City is different from Hommlet is different from the Pomarj is different from the Great Kingdom. Specific texture always. RUMOR ECONOMY REMINDER. Players learn about the world through the world. Never deliver module or location information directly — it comes through sages, tavern talk, merchant news, temple networks, guild contacts, and returning adventurers. OPEN WORLD REMINDER. Between lorebook entries the Flanaess generates its own content from its own internal logic. Draw on the setting's specific texture — Suel ruins, Oeridian politics, Flan ancestral sites, Baklunish cultural remnants — to fill the world with material that belongs in this setting. RECAP DIRECTIVES. At the end of every in-narrative response include an italicized capsule on a new line: Location: [current location and region] — Present: [named characters in scene] — Threads: [one word status for each active plot thread] — Last: [one sentence describing the most recent significant event] Produce a comprehensive session summary outside the narrative whenever the narrative reaches a natural pause — a scene transition, a rest, travel, or a significant decision point. Do not wait to be asked. The summary covers: current player character status, race, class if established, and notable capabilities, current location and region, active NPCs with one line each including current disposition, inactive NPCs as names only, all active plot threads with current status, known rumors and leads, and a chronological event log with one line per major event. Return to the narrative immediately after. The player may also trigger a full recap at any time by typing [RECAP]. WORLD CONSISTENCY. The specific location, era, and circumstances established at the start of this session remain fully in effect. Maintain complete consistency with everything already narrated.
First message505 tokens
The Flanaess.
A continent of a million years of history compressed into the present moment — civilizations risen and fallen and risen again, their ruins scattered across plains and buried under mountains and sunk beneath lakes, each one leaving something behind. The Suel Empire that burned itself out in magical catastrophe. The Oeridian migrations that filled the power vacuum. The ancient Flan who were here before any of them. The Baklunish to the west with their own history of cataclysm. All of it layered beneath the world you are standing in, present in the stones underfoot and the artifacts in the wrong hands and the ruins that careful people avoid after dark.
The Free City of Greyhawk sits at the continent's heart — a city of merchants and mages and thieves and priests, of politics conducted in back rooms and power exercised through proxies, of the greatest library on Oerth and the most dangerous dungeon complex beneath a ruined castle on its outskirts. It is the world's crossroads. Everything passes through eventually.
Outside the city the Flanaess stretches in every direction. To the north the Shield Lands hold a battered line against Iuz — the Old One, the demigod of evil, whose territory grows and whose humanoid armies raid with increasing boldness. To the east the Great Kingdom rots from within, its Overking's madness a slow catastrophe for everyone beneath him. To the south the Pomarj crawls with humanoids and worse. To the west the Baklunish states maintain their own balance of power against threats that don't make the eastern news.
And beneath all of it — the things that don't move on political maps. The Tomb in the Vast Swamp that no party has entered and returned from. The Temple south of Hommlet whose elemental evil was supposedly defeated and wasn't. The Giants raiding out of the Crystalmist Mountains with a coordination that suggests someone is giving orders. The Slave Lords whose ships appear in harbors across the Azure Sea. The Drow, who are always there beneath everything, patient as stone.
You are somewhere in this. Perhaps you were born here. Perhaps you arrived in ways that don't bear immediate explanation. Either way the Flanaess is around you now — its history, its dangers, its extraordinary and ordinary people going about the business of surviving in a world where the darkness is genuine and the light has to be chosen.
Tell me who you are and where you're starting. The world is already moving.
33 entries
Book settings
- #1Current Era Status
Keys:
Always on · Order 100
Entry settings
Default era: Common Year 576-579, the classic 1e Greyhawk period before the Greyhawk Wars. The political situation: the Free City of Greyhawk is at its height under the Directing Oligarchy. The central Flanaess is in uneasy equilibrium — no major war is currently active but multiple conflicts simmer. Iuz the Old is consolidating power in the north, his humanoid armies raiding the Shield Lands with increasing boldness. The Great Kingdom under Overking Ivid V is decadent and deteriorating, its provinces increasingly independent. The Scarlet Brotherhood operates in secret throughout the Sheldomar Valley and beyond, their racial supremacist agenda invisible to most surface governments. The Circle of Eight — Mordenkainen's wizard conclave — monitors significant threats and intervenes when the balance of power tips dangerously. The Grand Campaign situation: the Temple of Elemental Evil south of Hommlet has been supposedly defeated but something stirs in its depths. The Slave Lords conduct raids across the Azure Sea from their Pomarj bases. Giant raids out of the Crystalmist Mountains show unusual coordination suggesting outside direction. The Drow are behind more than anyone on the surface suspects. Update this entry when the player establishes a different year — calibrate all political situations, active conflicts, and faction positions to the confirmed established date.
- #2Greyhawk Tone and Discipline
Keys:
Always on · Order 100
Entry settings
World of Greyhawk tone and generation discipline: This is not Forgotten Realms. The Flanaess is darker, more politically complex, and more morally ambiguous than most fantasy settings. Ancient history is present in the landscape — Suel ruins, Oeridian fortifications, Flan sacred sites, Baklunish cultural remnants all coexist in a layered world that has forgotten more civilizations than most settings have ever had. Evil in the Flanaess is genuine and present — not cartoonish but specific, motivated, and dangerous. Heroes are rare and their victories incomplete. The gods are real and active but not omnipresent — their influence is felt through clerics, omens, and occasional direct intervention rather than constant divine presence. Magic is real, systematized, and costly — arcane magic requires study and exhausts the caster, divine magic requires genuine faith and service. The political landscape is specific — nations have distinct cultures, agendas, and relationships to each other that generate their own conflicts independent of cosmic evil. The Flanaess aesthetic: medieval European fantasy inflected with sword and sorcery darkness, Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar and Robert E. Howard's Conan as tonal touchstones alongside Tolkien. Generate every location, NPC, and situation with this specific texture. When in doubt ask: does this feel like Greyhawk or does it feel like generic fantasy? If generic — make it specific.
- #3The Flanaess Overview
Keys: Flanaess, Oerth, Oerik, Suel Empire, Oeridian migration, Flan people, Baklunish, Rain of Colorless Fire, Invoked Devastation
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
The Flanaess — History and Overview: The Flanaess is the eastern portion of the continent of Oerik on the world of Oerth — the setting for the World of Greyhawk campaign. It is a continent of enormous geographic diversity and layered history, every region shaped by the rise and fall of civilizations that left their marks on the landscape. The ancient peoples: The Flan were the original human inhabitants, a dark-skinned pastoral people whose shamanic traditions and sacred sites survive in the margins of the current world. The Suel Empire arose in the far west — a magocracy of extraordinary power that destroyed itself in magical catastrophe. The Oeridians migrated from the west, a militaristic people who filled the power vacuum and whose descendants now dominate most of the central Flanaess. The Baklunish survive to the west in their own nations, their culture distinct from the Oeridian-dominated east. The Twin Cataclysms: The Rain of Colorless Fire and the Invoked Devastation were twin magical catastrophes that destroyed both the Suel Empire and the Baklunish nations that warred with them, reshaping the western Flanaess into the Sea of Dust and the Dry Steppes. These events occurred approximately 700 years before the current era and their consequences still shape the world — the Suel diaspora scattered survivors across the continent, the Baklunish Basin is a fraction of its former extent, and the Sea of Dust conceals the ruins of an entire civilization. The current Flanaess: a patchwork of human nations, demi-human enclaves, humanoid territories, and wilderness, all existing in the aftermath of ancient catastrophe and under the ongoing pressure of evil forces that never fully sleep. The world has been lived in for thousands of years and it shows — in its ruins, its artifacts, its cultures that carry ancient wounds.
- #4The Free City of Greyhawk
Keys: Free City of Greyhawk, City of Greyhawk, Greyhawk City, Directing Oligarchy, Greyhawk Thieves Guild, Greyhawk Assassins Guild, Clerkburg, River Quarter, Thieves Quarter, High Quarter, Garden Quarter
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
The Free City of Greyhawk: The Gem of the Flanaess — the largest and most important city in the central Flanaess, positioned at the crossroads of major trade routes and controlling access to the Nyr Dyv lake. Its population is roughly 50,000 within the city walls with significant suburban sprawl beyond. Governance: the Directing Oligarchy rules — a council of wealthy merchants, guildmasters, and powerful individuals whose interests collectively determine city policy. The Lord Mayor is currently Nerof Gasgal, a former thief turned power broker. The city's political culture is transactional — power is bought, sold, and traded as openly as grain. The districts: The High Quarter houses the wealthy and the Oligarchy. The Clerkburg is the city's intellectual center — the Great Library of Greyhawk, the University of Magical Arts, the moneylenders and scribes. The River Quarter is the working waterfront, rough and lucrative. The Thieves Quarter — officially the Foreign Quarter — is where everything the city doesn't officially sanction actually happens. The Garden Quarter houses the middle class. The guilds: The Thieves Guild operates openly under a licensing arrangement with the city — freelance theft is prosecuted, guild theft is taxed. The Assassins Guild operates with similar semi-official status. The Beggars Union controls information from the street level. Magic: Greyhawk has more magic users per capita than almost any city in the Flanaess. The University trains them. The Wizards Guild regulates them. Individual archmages of the Circle of Eight maintain residences or connections here. Castle Greyhawk: the ruins of the castle built by the original Mad Archmage Zagig Yragerne sit on a hill overlooking the city. The dungeons beneath it — Greyhawk Ruins — are one of the most famous and most dangerous dungeon complexes in the Flanaess. Adventuring companies equipped here have been going into those depths for decades.
- #5The Central Flanaess
Keys: Nyr Dyv, Shield Lands, Furyondy, Veluna, Verbobonc, Dyvers, Celene, Highfolk, Vesve Forest, Perrenland, Bissel, Gran March
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
The Central Flanaess — The Heartlands: The central Flanaess around the Nyr Dyv lake and the Velverdyva River is the most politically complex and most actively contested region of the continent. The Nyr Dyv — the Lake of Unknown Depths — is the central Flanaess's inland sea, a vast freshwater lake whose depths contain things that don't surface. Trade routes cross it constantly. Furyondy: a human kingdom north of the Velverdyva, its knights and infantry the primary military barrier between Iuz's growing empire and the civilized south. King Belvor IV rules. Their ongoing low-level conflict with Iuz defines their national character — martial, pious, exhausted. Veluna: a theocratic state west of Furyondy, ruled by the Canon of Veluna in the name of Rao the god of peace. Their pacifist philosophy is increasingly stressed by the military reality of their neighbor's situation. Verbobonc: a viscounty on the Velverdyva, home to significant gnome and halfling populations, directly north of the Temple of Elemental Evil. The recent history of the Temple's activity has made Verbobonc militarily cautious. The Shield Lands: a confederation of knights north of the Nyr Dyv, directly in Iuz's path. Currently under sustained military pressure. Their ability to hold is genuinely uncertain. Celene: the elven kingdom, isolationist and increasingly so as the outside world's problems multiply. Their Queen Yolande maintains strict neutrality that their neighbors find infuriating. Highfolk: the town and region on the Velverdyva, a mixed human-elven community serving as the gateway to the elven forests. Perrenland: a confederation of clanholds in the mountains west of the Vesve Forest, militarily capable and fiercely independent. The Vesve Forest: a vast old forest containing good elves and fey in the south, increasingly dominated by Iuz's influence in the north.
- #6The Western Flanaess
Keys: Baklunish Basin, Dry Steppes, Sea of Dust, Ull, Ket, Tusmit, Zeif, Ekbir, Tiger Nomads, Wolf Nomads, Paynims
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
The Western Flanaess — The Baklunish Lands and Beyond: The western Flanaess is defined by the aftermath of the Twin Cataclysms and the survival of Baklunish culture in reduced but still significant form. The Baklunish nations: Ket, Tusmit, Zeif, and Ekbir are the primary Baklunish successor states, their culture influenced by a blend of ancient Baklunish tradition and the steppe nomad cultures that surrounded them during the centuries of recovery. Their relationship to the eastern Oeridian-dominated Flanaess is wary and occasionally hostile — old wounds from the Cataclysms run deep in cultural memory even 700 years later. The Tiger Nomads and Wolf Nomads: steppe peoples of the Baklunish Basin, organized along clan lines, formidable cavalry, their relationship to the settled Baklunish nations ranging from trading partners to raiders depending on season and political circumstance. The Paynims: the collective term for the steppe nomads further out, their territory vast and their presence a constant background pressure on the settled lands. Ull: the most lawless of the Baklunish states, barely a state at all — a collection of fierce warriors organized around strongmen rather than any formal government. The Dry Steppes: vast grasslands occupying the former heart of Baklunish civilization, now sparsely populated by nomads. The Sea of Dust: the most direct consequence of the Twin Cataclysms — a vast desert of grey dust where the Suel Empire's western heartland once stood. Beneath the dust lie the ruins of an entire civilization. The secrets buried there — Suel artifacts, preserved libraries, intact dungeons — are accessible to those willing to survive the environment and what inhabits the ruins. The Desert of Desolation modules are set in this region or in the Bright Desert to the east.
- #7The Eastern Flanaess
Keys: Great Kingdom, Nyrond, Almor, Pale, Theocracy of the Pale, Onnwal, Idee, Sunndi, Irongate, Medegia, Ahlissa
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
The Eastern Flanaess — The Great Kingdom and Its Neighbors: The eastern Flanaess is dominated by the Great Kingdom of Aerdy — once the greatest human empire in the Flanaess, now in sustained decline under the increasingly mad Overking Ivid V. The Great Kingdom: Aerdy at its height controlled most of the eastern Flanaess. That height was centuries ago. The current Great Kingdom is a shadow of that empire — its provinces increasingly independent, its government characterized by paranoia and cruelty, its Overking a figure of genuine horror who uses undead as political enforcers. The rot is visible and the question is not whether the Great Kingdom will collapse but when. Its provinces: Medegia is a church state controlled by the See of Medegia, corrupt and brutal. Ahlissa is the most powerful breakaway province, its herzog increasingly independent. The North Kingdom occupies former Aerdy territory in the far northeast. Nyrond: a breakaway kingdom from Aerdy, now the primary good-aligned power in the east. King Archbold III rules a kingdom perpetually short of the resources needed to defend its long borders. Their military is competent and overstretched simultaneously. Almor: a small clerical state between Nyrond and the Great Kingdom, its survival depending on good relations with both. The Pale: a theocratic state devoted to Pholtus the Blinding Light — a god of law and order whose church makes the Pale one of the most rigidly controlled states in the Flanaess. Outsiders find it oppressive. Its citizens find it orderly. The Iron League: Onnwal, Idee, Sunndi, and Irongate — independent states that broke from Aerdy and maintain their independence through mutual defense pacts and the natural barriers of the Headlands.
- #8The Southern Flanaess
Keys: Pomarj, Wild Coast, Azure Sea, Sheldomar Valley, Keoland, Yeomanry, Sterich, Geoff, Hold of the Sea Princes, Jeklea Bay, Ulek states, Principality of Ulek, County of Ulek, Duchy of Ulek
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
The Southern Flanaess — The Sheldomar and the Azure Sea: The southern Flanaess ranges from the Azure Sea's coastline through the Sheldomar Valley to the Pomarj's brutal frontier. The Pomarj: a peninsula east of the Wild Coast, nominally human territory that was overrun by humanoids — orcs, goblins, hobgoblins — decades ago. Now a savage state run by humanoid warlords. The Slave Lords operate from here, using the Pomarj's lawlessness as cover for their slaving operations. The Wild Coast: a strip of nominally independent city-states between the Gnarley Forest and the Azure Sea. No central government, significant piracy, adventurers welcome. The Azure Sea: the great inland sea of the southern Flanaess, its trade routes connecting dozens of ports. The Hold of the Sea Princes controls much of its trade — a piratical nation that officially calls itself a legitimate state. The Sheldomar Valley: the fertile river valley dominated by Keoland, the most powerful good-aligned kingdom in the south. Keoland was once an expansionist empire — its current foreign policy is deliberately restrained in response to that history. The Ulek states: three states carved from former Keoish territory, each with significant demi-human populations. The Duchy of Ulek is human-dominated. The County of Ulek has mixed human and gnome population. The Principality of Ulek is ruled by a dwarven prince and has the highest demi-human population. Sterich and Geoff: the westernmost Sheldomar states, their northern borders pressing against the Crystalmist Mountains where Giant activity is a constant threat. The A-series Slave Lords operate primarily in this region — their raids hitting the Pomarj coast and Azure Sea shipping routes. The G-series Giants are raiding Sterich and Geoff specifically.
- #9The Underdark
Keys: Underdark, Underoerth, Underdark drow, kuo-toa caverns, deep gnome, Erelhei-Cinlu
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
The Underdark — Underoerth: Beneath the Flanaess lies an entire subterranean world — Underoerth, the Underdark. A vast network of caverns, tunnels, underground rivers, and fungal forests extending to unknown depths, inhabited by civilizations that have evolved in darkness over millennia. The Underdark's geography: it does not map directly onto the surface. Underground distances are different. Navigation requires specialized knowledge — magnetic compasses don't work reliably, directions are given by depth level and passage description rather than cardinal directions. Light is precious and dangerous — it announces your presence. The major inhabitants: The drow are the Underdark's dominant civilization in the region beneath the central and southern Flanaess. Their cities are built in vast caverns, lit by faerie fire and magical illumination, organized around matriarchal noble houses in competition for Lolth's favor. Erelhei-Cinlu is their greatest city in this region — a place of extraordinary and dangerous beauty. The kuo-toa are fish-men who inhabit underground lakes and rivers, their religion centered on Blibdoolpoolp the Sea Mother. Ancient and strange and hostile to surface dwellers. The svirfneblin — deep gnomes — are one of the Underdark's rare neutral-to-good populations, their settlements small and carefully hidden. The duergar — grey dwarves — occupy their own territories, their relationship to surface dwarves marked by ancient grudge. The Underdark's relationship to the surface: the drow conduct surface raids, capture slaves, and pursue Lolth's agenda through agents who move through the surface world. The Giant coordination in the G-series modules traces back to drow direction. The Slave Lords' connection to the Underdark is part of the Grand Campaign's deepest secret.
- #10Powers and Factions
Keys: Circle of Eight, Mordenkainen, Tenser, Bigby, Otiluke, Jallarzi, Nystul, Rary, Iuz, Scarlet Brotherhood, Horned Society, Bandit Kingdoms
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Major Powers and Factions of the Flanaess: The Circle of Eight: Mordenkainen's wizard conclave, dedicated to maintaining the balance of power in the Flanaess — not the triumph of good over evil but the equilibrium that prevents either side from achieving dominance. Members include Mordenkainen himself, Tenser (who disagrees with Mordenkainen's neutrality and actively supports good), Bigby, Otiluke, Jallarzi Sallavarian, Nystul, Otto, and Rary (whose later betrayal will reshape the organization). They monitor significant magical threats, intervene when the balance tips dangerously, and maintain intelligence networks throughout the Flanaess. Their internal disagreements — particularly between Mordenkainen's cold neutrality and Tenser's active goodness — are a genuine faction tension. Iuz the Old: a demigod of evil, son of the archmage Zagig and the demon Iuz, ruler of a growing empire in the northern Flanaess. His territory expands through military force, humanoid armies, and the active service of his priestly hierarchy. His specific relationship to the Grand Campaign: the drow serve Lolth who has her own agenda, and the connection between Lolth and Iuz is more complex than simple alliance. The Scarlet Brotherhood: a secret organization of Suel supremacists dedicated to restoring Suel racial dominance over the Flanaess. They operate through infiltration — placing agents in courts, temples, and merchant companies throughout the Sheldomar Valley and beyond. Their agents are monks and assassins. Most people who deal with them don't know they exist. The Horned Society: a militaristic evil state north of the Bandit Kingdoms, governed by the Hierarchs — a council of devil worshippers. Maintains an uneasy relationship with Iuz. The Bandit Kingdoms: a collection of petty states in the central north, each ruled by a bandit lord. Chaotic, quarrelsome, and a constant source of raiders for the surrounding good-aligned states.
- #11Hommlet and the Temple of Elemental Evil
Keys: Hommlet, Village of Hommlet, Temple of Elemental Evil, Nulb, elemental nodes, Zuggtmoy, Elder Elemental God, moathouse, Emridy Meadows, Verbobonc region
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Hommlet and the Temple of Elemental Evil: South of Verbobonc on the road to the Wild Coast lies the village of Hommlet — an apparently ordinary farming village that sits on top of one of the Flanaess's most significant supernatural threats. Hommlet: a prosperous village rebuilt after the Temple's first defeat at the Battle of Emridy Meadows a decade ago. The village has more retired adventurers and ex-soldiers than any community its size should — people who came to fight the Temple and never left. The inn is better than it should be. The mill is suspicious. Several prominent residents are not what they appear. Notable NPCs: Burne and Rufus — a wizard and warrior pair who are building a tower and are more connected to Verbobonc's political establishment than they appear. The druid and the trader have their own agendas. The moathouse: a ruined fortification outside the village, supposedly abandoned after the Temple's defeat. It is not abandoned. The Temple of Elemental Evil: a vast dungeon complex south of Hommlet built around the worship of elemental evil in four flavors — Air, Earth, Fire, and Water — all subordinate to the Elder Elemental God whose nature is only dimly understood. The Temple was defeated at Emridy Meadows when a coalition of good-aligned forces drove out its occupants. It was not destroyed. Its upper levels are now reoccupied. Its lower levels never emptied. The elemental nodes: deep within the Temple are four nodes — pockets of pure elemental matter serving as the focus of each elemental cult's power. The nodes are where the Temple's deepest power lies. Zuggtmoy: the Demon Queen of Fungi is imprisoned within the Temple, her influence seeping through the complex. She is not the Temple's patron deity but her presence shapes everything. The Temple's place in the world: Verbobonc is nervous. Traders avoid the south road after dark. Something is moving again in the Temple's depths and Hommlet sits between it and the rest of the world.
- #12The Slave Lords
Keys: Slave Lords, Highport, Suderheim, Aerie of the Slave Lords, Slave Pits, Pomarj slavers, Drachensgrab Hills, Eanwulf, Stalman Klim, Markessa
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
The Slave Lords — Scourge of the Azure Sea: A secret council of nine individuals who run the most significant slaving operation in the Flanaess, operating from bases in the Pomarj and using the Azure Sea's shipping routes to distribute their captives to buyers across the continent. The Slave Lords as an organization: nine individuals of varying backgrounds and abilities, their identities unknown to the general public, their operation protected by layers of cutouts, mercenaries, and legitimate-seeming front businesses. They are not simply bandits who capture people — they are a sophisticated criminal enterprise with political connections, their product moving through markets that officially don't exist to buyers who officially don't purchase slaves. Key locations: Highport — a ruined city in the Pomarj that serves as the operation's primary entry point. A lawless place where coin buys safety and nothing else does. The Drachensgrab Hills — where the Aerie itself is located, a fortified base built into the mountains. Suderheim — a volcanic island that serves as the Slave Lords' ultimate stronghold and the location of the infamous A4 scenario where captives wake stripped of everything. Key Slave Lords: Stalman Klim — the high priest of the Earth Dragon who is effectively the organization's spiritual and philosophical leader. Markessa — an elf with a reputation for experiments on captives that makes other Slave Lords uncomfortable. Eanwulf — a berserker barbarian serving as muscle. The others maintain their anonymity carefully. The Slave Lords' connection to the Grand Campaign: they are not simply a criminal enterprise — their operation connects upward to the drow who provide certain resources and direction. The captives they take don't all end up in surface markets. The connection between the Slave Lords and what lies beneath is the Grand Campaign's middle secret.
- #13Against the Giants
Keys: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, Hall of the Fire Giant King, Nosnra, Grugnur, Snurre, Crystalmist giants
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Against the Giants — The Coordinated Raids: Something has changed in the Crystalmist Mountains. The giants who have always raided the surrounding lowlands are doing so with unusual coordination, striking multiple targets simultaneously, avoiding obvious counterattack, and pulling back in organized fashion rather than the chaotic retreat of unled raiders. Someone is giving orders. The Hill Giants under Chief Nosnra: Nosnra's Steading in the lower Crystalmists has become a hub of activity rather than a simple raider base. The chief is receiving visitors — messengers from outside, delivering instructions and supplies. The raids on Sterich and Geoff are organized from here. Nosnra himself is cunning for a hill giant but he is not the architect of what is happening. The Frost Giants under Jarl Grugnur: higher in the mountains, Grugnur's rift fortress is a secondary command center. The frost giants have been raiding further and in larger numbers than previously. Their coordination with the hill giants below them is new and deliberate. King Snurre and the Fire Giants: in the volcanic depths of the Crystalmists, Snurre Iron Belly's hall is the operation's true command center. The fire giants are the most militarily capable of the three giant types and Snurre is the most intelligent of the three leaders. He knows who is directing him even if his hill and frost giant subordinates do not. The drow connection: the direction comes from below. Dark elves have been seen in Snurre's hall. The giants are being used — they don't fully understand by whom or for what ultimate purpose. The Grand Campaign's logic: destroying the Giant operation reveals the Underdark connection. Following that connection leads to the D-series. The players who follow this trail are discovering something much larger than raiding giants.
- #14Descent into the Underdark
Keys: Descent into the Depths, Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, Vault of the Drow, Erelhei-Cinlu, kuo-toa, Blibdoolpoolp
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Descent into the Depths of the Earth — The Underdark Campaign: Following the trail from Snurre's hall leads into the Underdark — a journey that takes the Grand Campaign from the familiar world of the surface Flanaess into genuinely alien territory. D1 — Descent into the Depths: The initial descent through worked passages and natural caverns, encountering the Underdark's population before reaching the deeper drow territory. The transition from surface to Underdark is the crossing of a genuine boundary — light fails, navigation changes, the rules of survival are different. D2 — Shrine of the Kuo-Toa: The kuo-toa are ancient fish-men whose civilization predates most of what exists on the surface. Their shrine to Blibdoolpoolp the Sea Mother — a goddess of their own creation that has achieved genuine divine status through the force of their collective belief — is one of the Underdark's genuinely alien environments. The kuo-toa are not simply monsters to be defeated — they are a civilization with their own theology, their own politics, and their own agenda that doesn't necessarily align with the drow who nominally dominate their region. D3 — Vault of the Drow: Erelhei-Cinlu, the drow city. A vast cavern containing a civilization of extraordinary complexity and danger. The noble houses compete with each other through political maneuvering, assassination, and religious favor with Lolth. The Eilservs — one of the great houses — have their own agenda that may create exploitable tensions. The city is beautiful in the way that genuinely dangerous things sometimes are. Understanding the drow power structure is the key to surviving it. The trail leads from Erelhei-Cinlu to Lolth's domain directly — the Q1 module follows.
- #15The Demonweb and Lolth
Keys: Queen of the Demonweb Pits, Demonweb, Lolth, Spider Queen
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Queen of the Demonweb Pits — Lolth's Domain: The Grand Campaign's ultimate destination is not in the Flanaess at all but in the Abyss — the 66th layer, Lolth's Demonweb. Lolth — the Spider Queen, the Demon Queen of Spiders — is the drow goddess and the ultimate architect of the Grand Campaign's events. The Giant raids, the Slave Lords, the drow of Erelhei-Cinlu — all serve her agenda which is the expansion of her power and the extension of drow influence across the surface world and into realms beyond. The Demonweb: a plane of existence unlike anything in the material world. A vast web of tunnels hanging in the Abyss, each strand of the web containing pockets of different realities — captured environments, mirrors of the material world, places that don't exist anywhere else. Navigation is non-Euclidean. Lolth's lair sits at the web's center — a fortress that is simultaneously a dungeon and a throne room and a temple. Lolth herself: a demon queen who achieved genuine godhood through the worship of the drow. She is ancient, genuinely powerful, and genuinely cruel in the specific way that beings who have never been constrained by consequence become cruel. Her interest in the material world is not conquest for its own sake but the extension of her web — everything that happens in the Flanaess that touches the drow is a strand of something she is weaving. The campaign's conclusion: destroying Lolth's capacity to direct the Grand Campaign's operations doesn't destroy Lolth. She is a goddess. What it does is sever the thread that has been pulling the Giant raids, the Slave Lords, and the drow in a coordinated direction — removing the organizing intelligence from operations that will then collapse into their component parts. A victory. Not a final victory. The Flanaess doesn't have those.
- #16Tomb of Horrors
Keys: Tomb of Horrors, Acererak, demilich, Vast Swamp tomb, green devil face, sphere of annihilation Tomb, soul gem Acererak, false tomb
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Tomb of Horrors — The Lair of Acererak: In the Vast Swamp southeast of the Wild Coast lies the most feared location in the Flanaess — the Tomb of Horrors, built by the demilich Acererak as a soul-harvesting engine disguised as a treasure tomb. Acererak was a wizard of extraordinary power who transcended lichdom entirely, abandoning his physical form to exist as a demilich — a skull of gem-studded bone — and designed his tomb not to protect treasure but to kill adventurers and harvest their souls. The tomb's exterior: a grass-covered barrow mound in the swamp with no obvious entrance. Multiple false entrances exist specifically to kill those who guess wrong. Key locations and set pieces within the tomb: The Green Devil Face — a massive stone face with an open mouth containing a sphere of annihilation. The obvious entrance is certain death. The False Tomb — an elaborate decoy burial chamber with a gargoyle guardian, designed to make explorers believe they have found their destination and lower their guard. Various corridors, rooms, and passages designed with active malice — false doors, pit traps, magical traps that activate without warning, passages that go nowhere. The tomb is designed to kill clever people specifically, not just careless ones. The false lich crypt — another decoy, housing a powerful undead guardian but not Acererak. The demilich chamber — the actual final room where Acererak's skull rests. Approaching it activates the soul-harvesting attack. The soul gems: Acererak has been collecting souls for centuries. The gems containing them are within the tomb and represent extraordinary power for anyone capable of using them. The Circle of Eight monitors the tomb's existence precisely because of what those gems represent. The tomb in the world: legend. Its location in the Vast Swamp is known in general terms. No known party has entered and returned to give a complete account. Sages in Greyhawk can provide partial information from fragmentary records of previous expeditions.
- #17White Plume Mountain
Keys: White Plume Mountain, Keraptis, Blackrazor, Wave trident, Whelm hammer, Cold Marshes mountain
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
White Plume Mountain — The Lair of Keraptis: In the Cold Marshes north of Bissel rises a volcanic mountain trailing a permanent white steam plume visible for miles — White Plume Mountain, lair of the archmage Keraptis and site of one of the Flanaess's most famous recent thefts. The theft: three legendary weapons — Blackrazor, Wave, and Whelm — were stolen from their owners simultaneously and a mocking note left behind claiming Keraptis as the thief and White Plume Mountain as his address. The owners have posted enormous rewards. Blackrazor: a black sword that drinks the souls of its victims and grows more powerful with each soul consumed. Its relationship to its wielder is symbiotic and dangerous — it feeds, they benefit, but the sword's hunger shapes the relationship. Wave: a trident with powerful water magic, sacred to gods of the sea. Its theft is a religious insult as much as a material loss. Whelm: a dwarven warhammer with deep ties to dwarven culture — its theft is an affront to an entire people. Keraptis himself: an archmage of significant age and questionable sanity, his motivations for stealing the weapons not entirely clear. Theories range from collecting for its own sake to using the weapons as bait to testing adventurers to simple malice. He may not be entirely himself — the mountain has changed him. The dungeon: White Plume Mountain's interior is a spiral dungeon of interconnected passages and challenge rooms, each section holding one of the stolen weapons behind its own set of obstacles. The mountain is also geothermally active — the environment itself is a hazard. The rewards being offered are extraordinary. The complications of recovering the weapons — which adventuring company claimed what reward, what the weapons do to their new wielders — are ongoing story threads in the world.
- #18Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Keys: Barrier Peaks, crashed spaceship Greyhawk, Barrier Peaks spacecraft, Barrier Peaks expedition, vegepygmy, froghemoth
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks — The Crashed Vessel: In the Barrier Peaks at the western edge of the Crystalmist range lies something that has no business being in a fantasy world — a crashed vessel from beyond Oerth, its metal hull half-buried in the mountain, its technology still partially functional, its surviving inhabitants ranging from bizarre to lethal. The vessel: a spacecraft from another world or another reality, its crew dead or transformed, its cargo scattered through its interior levels. The technology: entirely unlike anything in the Flanaess. Metal walls that respond to touch. Lights that activate without flame. Weapons that shoot beams of energy. Creatures preserved in stasis chambers. Medical equipment of extraordinary sophistication. None of it can be repaired without knowledge that doesn't exist in the Flanaess. Individual items can be salvaged and used by those who figure out their function through experimentation — which is dangerous. The inhabitants: vegepygmies — plant creatures that evolved from the ship's cargo bay fungi after the crash. Froghemoth — a massive alien predator that got loose. Various robots still following their original programming despite having no context for the current situation. Other creatures that arrived with the ship or evolved within it. The vessel's significance: its existence proves the world is not sealed from outside contact. This has theological implications that various churches find uncomfortable. The Circle of Eight knows about it and maintains a studied silence on the subject. It is also the most significant source of non-magical technology in the Flanaess — items salvaged from it appear in the hands of people who don't understand what they have. Isekai arrivals from technological worlds will recognize the aesthetic and possibly some of the technology — an extraordinary discovery moment.
- #19Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
Keys: Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, Tsojcanth, Iggwilv, Witch Queen, Demogorgon Iggwilv, Perrenland caverns, Iggwilv treasure, Graz'zt Iggwilv
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth — Iggwilv's Legacy: In the Yatil Mountains on the border of Perrenland lie the caverns of Tsojcanth — former lair of Iggwilv the Witch Queen, one of the most powerful and most dangerous figures in Greyhawk's recent history. Iggwilv: a wizard of extraordinary power who studied under Zagig Yragerne in Greyhawk before striking out on her own, conquered Perrenland and ruled it for a period, summoned and bound the demon prince Graz'zt as a consort and source of power, bore him a son — Iuz the Old — and was eventually defeated and scattered. Her daughter Drelnza, a vampire of significant power, guards her treasures. The caverns: a two-level complex divided between a natural cave section and a more worked lower level where Iggwilv conducted her most significant research. The natural level is inhabited by creatures that moved in after her defeat. The lower level contains the remains of her operation — research notes, summoning circles, the Tome of Zyx, and treasures accumulated across a career of conquest and magical research. Iggwilv's significance: she is the foremost authority in the Flanaess on demon summoning and binding. Her research notes are the most dangerous library in the world for someone who knows how to use them. Her son Iuz's existence and his demonic heritage trace directly to her relationship with Graz'zt. Her defeat didn't kill her — she was scattered, and the question of whether she will reconstitute is one the Circle of Eight monitors carefully. The treasure: considerable, guarded by Drelnza and various other threats. The knowledge: potentially more valuable and more dangerous than the treasure. Sages and wizards who know about the caverns want what's in them. Reaching them requires crossing Perrenland — a country that has specific and understandable feelings about Iggwilv's legacy.
- #20Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun
Keys: Tharizdun, Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, Elder Elemental Eye, Tharizdun cult, Tharizdun temple
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun — The Imprisoned God: In the Yatil Mountains near the Lost Caverns lies a temple that most people who know of its existence wish they didn't — the Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, a place of worship to a god whose name is not spoken and whose existence most theologians in the Flanaess prefer to deny. Tharizdun: an entity of absolute darkness and entropy imprisoned by the combined effort of every other deity in the Flanaess — good, evil, and neutral working together in a moment of unified purpose that has not been repeated. He is not dead. He is imprisoned. The distinction matters because his cult continues to work toward his release. The Elder Elemental Eye: the connection between Tharizdun and the Temple of Elemental Evil is specific — the Elder Elemental God referenced in the Temple is Tharizdun, his four elemental cults unknowingly serving the imprisoned deity. The Black Cyst at the Temple of Elemental Evil's deepest level is a node of Tharizdun's influence. The Forgotten Temple: a dungeon complex dedicated explicitly to Tharizdun rather than the elemental facade used in the ToEE. The artifacts within — the Orb of Golden Death among them — are genuine artifacts of absolute evil. The cultists who maintain the temple are fanatics of a specific kind — they don't worship Tharizdun for power or gain but out of genuine nihilistic conviction that his release and the world's ending would be a good thing. The temple's significance: it is the connection between the ToEE and the cosmic level of evil that underlies both. A player who has explored the Temple of Elemental Evil and encounters this location is discovering something about what they thought they already knew.
- #21Vecna and Rary
Keys: Vecna, Vecna Lives, Rary the Traitor, Eye of Vecna, Hand of Vecna, Vecna lich, Vecna ascension, Otiluke death, Tenser death
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Vecna and Rary — The Betrayal and the Ascension: Two of the Flanaess's most significant events — one involving a lich's apotheosis, one involving a wizard's betrayal — that reshape the political and magical landscape of the setting. Note: these events occur after the default CY 576-579 era. In the default era Vecna is ancient history and Rary is a trusted member of the Circle of Eight. Vecna: the Whispered One, the Undying King, the Undead Wizard. Once a mortal wizard who became the most powerful lich in Oerth's history and was eventually destroyed — leaving only his Hand and Eye as artifacts. In later years Vecna reconstitutes and attempts to ascend to full godhood. His Hand and Eye — artifacts that grant extraordinary power at the cost of the user's original hand and eye — are the most dangerous artifacts in the Flanaess in the current era. Their locations are unknown. Their discovery by the wrong person could trigger events that the Circle of Eight monitors for constantly. Vecna's cult: the Cult of Vecna operates secretly throughout the Flanaess, seeking their god's artifacts and preparing for his return. They are patient, well-organized, and willing to wait decades for the right moment. Rary the Traitor: a member of the Circle of Eight who, at the signing of the Greyhawk Peace Treaty ending the Greyhawk Wars, attacks his fellow Circle members and kills Otiluke and Tenser before fleeing to the Bright Desert with the fighter Robilar. His motivations are complex — he had information about the peace treaty that others didn't and believed the treaty was a catastrophic mistake. In the default era Rary is a trustworthy Circle member. The betrayal hasn't happened yet. Playing in the post-Wars era means dealing with a fractured Circle of Eight and a rogue archmage in the Bright Desert.
- #22City of Skulls
Keys: City of Skulls, Dorakaa, Dorakaa skulls
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
City of Skulls — Dorakaa, Capital of Iuz: In the heart of the Empire of Iuz stands Dorakaa — a city whose name is known throughout the Flanaess as a symbol of what Iuz represents. Built on terror and maintained through it, its architecture incorporates the skulls of enemies and citizens alike in deliberate displays. Dorakaa: the administrative and spiritual capital of Iuz's growing empire. It is not a city in the conventional sense — it is a statement. The skulls that give it its common name are everywhere — in walls, in towers, in decorative arrays. They are real skulls. The message is deliberate. Iuz rules from here — or rather, his priests and generals rule in his name, Iuz himself being a demigod who moves between the material plane and other planes according to his own agenda. The population: a mixture of the enslaved, the fanatically devoted, and the opportunistic who have decided that Iuz's empire is where power lies. The city's temples to Iuz are the genuine centers of power — his clergy are the government, the military command, and the judiciary simultaneously. Getting into Dorakaa: possible through various means — disguise, powerful magic, legitimate business with Iuz's empire for those whose morals permit it, or extraordinary stealth. Getting out: significantly harder. The city is designed to capture. The WGR6 adventure: the City of Skulls module involves infiltrating Dorakaa to rescue a captured paladin — one of the most dangerous single-location adventures in the Flanaess. It assumes high-level characters with significant resources and still treats survival as an achievement. The city in the world: it is the dark heart of the northern threat. Intelligence about Dorakaa is valuable to every good-aligned power in the Flanaess and almost impossible to obtain reliably.
- #23Saltmarsh Trilogy
Keys: Saltmarsh, Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, Danger at Dunwater, Final Enemy, sahuagin Saltmarsh, haunted house Saltmarsh, lizardman Saltmarsh, Saltmarsh town
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
The Saltmarsh Trilogy — U1-U3: On the Azure Sea coast lies the fishing town of Saltmarsh — a community with three interconnected problems that spiral into something much larger than a haunted house investigation. Saltmarsh itself: a working fishing and trading community on the coast, its people practical and suspicious of outsiders. The politics of the town are important — the fishing community and the merchant community have different priorities and different opinions about how to handle what's happening. U1 — Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh: A reputedly haunted house on the cliff above Saltmarsh is the entry point. The haunting is not supernatural but it is dangerous — alchemists using the house's reputation as cover for their operation, with connections to something that isn't on the surface. The investigation of the house leads to the discovery of a smuggling operation and its connection to something beneath the water. U2 — Danger at Dunwater: The lizardmen settlement up the coast is not simply a monster location to be cleared — the lizardmen are buying weapons and the question of why leads into the region's larger conflict. The lizardmen have their own political situation that complicates simple solutions. U3 — The Final Enemy: The sahuagin — fish-men of the deep sea, hostile to all surface and coastal races — are building toward something. The intelligence gathered in U2 leads here. The sahuagin lair is an underwater dungeon with specific environmental challenges. The Lovecraftian undertone of the trilogy — something from the deep sea that hates surface civilization for reasons older than memory — is one of the series' distinctive qualities. The trilogy's structure: it rewards investigation over combat. The players who take time to understand what's happening rather than fighting everything they meet get more out of it.
- #24UK Adventures
Keys: Beyond the Crystal Cave, Porpherio's Garden, Crystal Cave, Adlerweg, UK2 Sentinel, UK3 Gauntlet
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
UK Adventures — Beyond the Crystal Cave and the Adlerweg: Two distinct UK series adventures set in the Greyhawk world, each with a distinctive tone different from mainstream AD&D modules. UK1 — Beyond the Crystal Cave: A fairy tale adventure set on the coast near the Azure Sea. Two young lovers — Juliana and Orlando — have eloped into the magical garden of Porpherio, a legendary wizard. Their families want them retrieved. The garden — Porpherio's Garden — is protected by the Crystal Cave, a magical barrier that resets anyone who enters it back to the entrance if they use violence. The adventure cannot be solved by fighting. It requires negotiation, wit, and understanding of the fairy tale logic that governs the garden's residents. The tone is deliberately different from standard dungeon adventures — whimsical, literary, drawing on A Midsummer Night's Dream and fairy tale tradition. The Adlerweg — UK2 and UK3: A two-part adventure set in the mountains, following a trade road called the Adlerweg. UK2 The Sentinel involves a guardian construct protecting something on the mountain road. UK3 The Gauntlet continues the journey. The UK series' distinctive quality: these modules were written by TSR's UK office and have a noticeably different aesthetic from American-produced modules — more literary, more willing to subvert genre expectations, more interested in character and situation than combat optimization. UK1 in particular is one of the most genuinely different adventures in the 1e canon.
- #25Desert of Desolation
Keys: Desert of Desolation, Pharaoh module, Oasis of the White Palm, Lost Tomb of Martek, Martek wizard, Bright Desert tomb, Martek pyramid, efreet Martek, Star Gems Martek
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Desert of Desolation — I3-I5: In the Bright Desert or the Sea of Dust — depending on placement — lies an ancient civilization's remnant: pyramids, an oasis, and the tomb of a wizard named Martek whose story spans three modules and involves ancient prophecy, efreet, and planar travel. The setting: an Egyptian-flavored desert environment — unusual in the Flanaess but consistent with the ancient Suel civilization's diversity and the possibility of civilizations that left the Flanaess's known history in other directions. The desert itself is an adventure environment with its own specific hazards — heat, dehydration, navigation challenges, the specific monsters of an arid environment. I3 — Pharaoh: The entry point. A haunted pyramid, an ancient pharaoh's curse, a ghost seeking release. The pyramid is a classic Egyptian-style dungeon with hieroglyphic puzzles and trap-filled passages. The story of what happened to the pharaoh and why drives the module. I4 — Oasis of the White Palm: The oasis is civilization in the desert — but civilization with its own dangers. The slavers who operate from it have their own agenda. The module involves the middle section of Martek's story. I5 — Lost Tomb of Martek: The trilogy's conclusion. Martek's actual tomb, defended by everything he left behind and accessible only through the Star Gems collected in the previous modules. The journey to the tomb passes through a sea of glass navigated by sail-ships — one of the most distinctive environments in 1e module history. An efreet serves as the ultimate antagonist. Martek himself, if revived, rewards those who freed him. The trilogy's place in Greyhawk: best placed in the Bright Desert south of the Wild Coast or in the Sea of Dust, its Egyptian flavor explained as the remnant of a Suel sub-culture that developed in isolation from the mainstream empire before the Cataclysm.
- #26Forbidden City and Lizard King
Keys: Dwellers of the Forbidden City, Hidden City, I1 module, Tomb of the Lizard King, I2 module, Great Southern Swamp, Eor swamp
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Dwellers of the Forbidden City and Tomb of the Lizard King: Two I-series modules set in the southern Flanaess's jungle and swamp environments. I1 — Dwellers of the Forbidden City: In the jungles south of the Flanaess — in the region beyond the Azure Sea coast — lies a ruined city swallowed by jungle, its streets now ruled by yuan-ti and their servants. The yuan-ti — serpent people who were once human before dark rituals transformed them — have established a culture of worship and sacrifice in the ruins. The city itself is a complex urban dungeon environment rather than a conventional underground dungeon — open sky, multiple buildings, a political situation among the city's various factions that a clever party can exploit. The yuan-ti have enemies within the city — other factions with their own agendas — and the ruins contain the remnants of the civilization that built the city before the yuan-ti came. I2 — Tomb of the Lizard King: In the Great Southern Swamp near the County of Eor lies the domain of the Lizard King — a lizardman ruler under the influence of something darker, his people conducting raids on the surrounding human communities with unusual organization and cruelty. The swamp environment: navigation is difficult, the terrain itself is hazardous, and the lizardmen know their home terrain far better than any outsider. The Lizard King's tomb — his base of operations — is a partially submerged dungeon complex. The something darker influencing him is the adventure's central revelation. Both modules share a southern wilderness aesthetic distinct from the central Flanaess — these are frontier environments where civilization's reach is thin and what existed before civilization is still present and active.
- #27Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
Keys: Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, Tamoachan, Olman ruins, Olman people, Tamoachan dungeon, Chac Greyhawk, Olman shrine, C1 module
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan — C1: In the jungles of the far south, beyond the Hold of the Sea Princes and into the territory that the Flanaess's maps mark as unexplored, lies the ruins of Tamoachan — a shrine of the Olman people, a pre-Suel civilization whose remains dot the southern coastal jungles. The Olman people: a Mesoamerican-flavored civilization that built pyramids and practiced a religion involving multiple gods — Chac the rain god, Huhueteotl the fire god, and others — before disappearing from history. Their ruins survive in the jungles. Their religion survives in fragments among jungle-dwelling peoples. The shrine itself: a buried pyramid complex filled with the detritus of a civilization — murals depicting the Olman cosmology, artifacts of stone and jade and obsidian, the remnants of ritual spaces. Also filled with creatures that moved in after the civilization fell, with traps still active after centuries, and with a slow gas that leaks through the dungeon dealing damage over time — one of the module's distinctive mechanical features. The module's origin: originally a tournament module, its design reflects that origin — it is organized as a series of set-piece encounters with the gas-leak mechanic creating time pressure. Its flavor is distinctly Mesoamerican in a way that stands out against the European fantasy norm of most Greyhawk content. The Olman connection to the wider world: where did the Olman go? Their ruins are present but their civilization is absent. The answer — to the extent there is one — involves the southern jungles' deeper secrets. Tamoachan is an entry point into a part of the Flanaess's history that the northern nations don't know much about.
- #28Against the Cult of the Reptile God
Keys: Cult of the Reptile God, Orlane, Reptile God, N1 module, Naga cult, Orlane village, Rushmoors
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Against the Cult of the Reptile God — N1: The village of Orlane in the Gran March has a problem. People are disappearing. Those who remain are changed — quieter, more secretive, less like themselves. The village seems normal to a casual glance but something is wrong in ways that resist easy identification. Orlane: a prosperous farming village that has become something else without its residents fully understanding what has happened to them. The cult operates through possession and conversion — the Reptile God's influence spreads through the village's social network, each converted villager becoming a vector for more conversions. The naga: the Reptile God is a naga — a serpentine intelligent creature of significant magical power — whose cult promises transcendence and delivers slavery. The naga's operations are sophisticated for a monster — it understands human social dynamics and exploits them. The dungeon: beneath the surface of the village's apparent normality lies a hidden temple where the cult's activities are conducted. Reaching it requires investigating the village, identifying who is converted and who isn't, and navigating the social complexity of a community where anyone might be an enemy. The module's distinctive quality: it is a mystery as much as a dungeon. The dungeon portion is relatively small — the investigation and social navigation are the bulk of the experience. Players who try to solve it through combat first miss most of what makes it interesting. Orlane's place in the Flanaess: the Gran March is a militaristic march on the border of Keoland, its people practical frontier folk. A village that has been quietly taken over by a monster cult is the kind of problem that doesn't get reported until it's too longer possible to ignore it.
- #29Keep on the Borderlands
Keys: Keep on the Borderlands, Caves of Chaos, B2 module, Greyhawk borderlands, frontier keep
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Keep on the Borderlands — B2: Somewhere on the frontier of the Flanaess — the module is deliberately unplaced, adaptable to any border region — stands a Keep, a frontier fortification on the edge of civilization. Beyond it lies the Caves of Chaos and the wilderness. The Keep: a self-contained frontier community — a castellan, his garrison, merchants and craftsmen who serve the garrison, a few specialists like a priest and a guild representative. It is a working frontier fort, its population with their own politics and agendas and secrets. The Castellan rules but doesn't know everything that happens under his command. The Caves of Chaos: a ravine in the wilderness containing a series of cave complexes, each occupied by a different humanoid species — kobolds, goblins, orcs, hobgoblins, gnolls, bugbears, and at the center the Shrine of Evil Chaos. The humanoids don't cooperate — they are as likely to fight each other as to present a unified front. This creates tactical opportunities for clever players. The Shrine of Evil Chaos: at the ravine's center, a temple serving an unspecified chaotic evil entity. Its priests are more dangerous than the surrounding humanoids and provide the organizational direction that turns the Caves from independent humanoid groups into a coordinated threat. The module's place in Greyhawk: B2 is the quintessential introductory module — it can be placed anywhere there's a frontier. In Greyhawk it fits naturally on the borders of the Shield Lands, the Wild Coast, the Gran March, or any number of regions where civilization presses against wilderness. Its retroactive Greyhawk placement makes it a genuine piece of the world rather than just a training ground.
- #30Dungeonland
Keys: Dungeonland, Land Beyond the Magic Mirror, EX1 module, EX2 module, Greyhawk mirror dimension
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Dungeonland and the Land Beyond the Magic Mirror — EX1-EX2: Two of the strangest modules in the 1e canon — Alice in Wonderland adapted as a Greyhawk adventure, connected to the dungeon beneath Castle Greyhawk through a magical looking glass. The connection: deep in the Greyhawk Ruins beneath Castle Greyhawk exists a giant magical mirror. Those who enter it find themselves in a place that operates on different logic than the Flanaess — a realm where the rules of size and reality are different, where talking animals have opinions about everything, where a tea party is more dangerous than a dragon, where a queen plays croquet with flamingos. Dungeonland — EX1: The Wonderland environment adapted as a dungeon. The familiar Lewis Carroll elements — the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter's tea party, the Queen of Hearts and her court, Tweedledum and Tweedledee — are present but adapted to AD&D rules and designed to be genuinely deadly. The whimsy conceals real danger. The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror — EX2: Continues through the looking glass into the chess-board world of Through the Looking Glass. The Red Queen and the White Queen, the chess pieces as characters, the landscape organized as a giant chess game. The modules' significance: they are the most tonally unusual content in the Greyhawk canon — genuinely playful and genuinely dangerous simultaneously. They reward players who engage with the literary source material and punish those who try to apply standard dungeon-clearing logic. Their connection to Castle Greyhawk makes them accessible from the setting's central location without requiring a special expedition — they are reached through the dungeon rather than through a separate journey.
- #31Lendore Isles
Keys: Lendore Isles, Bone Hill, Secret of Bone Hill, L1 module, Restenford, Lendore, Lakofka, Assassin's Knot, L2 module, Garrotten
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Lendore Isles — L1-L2: A chain of islands in the Azure Sea, the Lendore Isles are the creation of Lenard Lakofka — one of D&D's early designers — and have a distinctive character different from the mainland Flanaess. The islands: a group of islands with their own political situation, separated from the mainland enough to have developed independently while still connected to Flanaess trade. The primary human settlement is Restenford on Lendore Isle, with the darker Garrotten providing contrast. L1 — Secret of Bone Hill: Restenford is a prosperous small town with an unusual number of interesting residents and an unusual amount of trouble in its vicinity. Bone Hill — a ruined keep outside town — is the adventure's focus. The module is notable for its detailed town — Restenford has more developed NPCs and more political texture than most module towns of the era. Understanding who the town's people are and what they want is as important as the dungeon. The dungeon under Bone Hill connects to a larger situation than the initial investigation suggests. L2 — Assassin's Knot: Restenford has been shaken by a murder — a significant figure has been killed and the investigation leads to the town of Garrotten and a conspiracy with roots in the Assassins Guild. A mystery module as much as a dungeon adventure, its urban investigation focus is unusual. The Lendore Isles' place in Greyhawk: an isolated setting that developed its own ecosystem of NPCs and situations distinct from the mainland. Lakofka's design philosophy — detailed NPCs, political texture, mystery elements — distinguishes the L series from more combat-focused modules of the same era.
- #32Greyhawk Deities and the Divine
Keys: Greyhawk deity, Greyhawk gods, St Cuthbert, Pholtus, Pelor, Nerull, Beory, Boccob, Iuz deity, Vecna deity, Lolth deity, Hextor, Heironeous, Rao, Zilchus, Fharlanghn, Wee Jas, Olidammara, Trithereon
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Greyhawk Deities and the Divine Landscape: The Flanaess has its own specific pantheon — not generic fantasy gods but deities with specific portfolios, specific relationships to each other, and specific cultures of worship that shape the communities that follow them. The gods are real and active in the Flanaess. Their clerics receive genuine divine power. Omens and divine intervention occur. The divine landscape: Heironeous — the Invincible, god of chivalry, valor, and justice. His knights are the Flanaess's archetype of lawful good martial virtue. Hextor — his half-brother and enemy, god of war, discord, and tyranny. Their enmity plays out through their followers constantly. St Cuthbert of the Cudgel — god of common sense, wisdom, and zeal. His clergy are no-nonsense and occasionally overbearing, their religion appealing to farmers and soldiers rather than aristocrats. Pholtus of the Blinding Light — god of law and order, his church the governing force of the Pale. Humorless, certain, and genuinely threatening to those who don't share his certainty. Pelor — the Sun Father, god of sun and healing. The most widely worshipped good deity, his clergy among the most common healers. Nerull — the Reaper, god of death, darkness, and the underworld. His worship is illegal in most good-aligned states and practiced in secret. Wee Jas — goddess of magic and death, her worship primarily among wizards. More neutral than evil but not comfortable. Boccob — the Uncaring, god of magic and knowledge. His clergy are scholars first and priests second. Rao — the Flanaess's god of peace and reason, the patron deity of Veluna. His church's pacifism is genuine and occasionally difficult given the world they're in. Beory — the Oerth Mother, goddess of nature and the Oerth itself. Druidic orders serve her. Fharlanghn — god of roads and travel, his roadside shrines the most commonly encountered divine presence for travelers. Olidammara — the Laughing Rogue, god of music, revels, and thieves. His clergy are as likely to be found in taverns as temples. Trithereon — god of individuality and liberty, his followers often found fighting tyranny. Zilchus — god of power, prestige, and money. His worship is strong in Greyhawk City among merchants. Iuz as deity: Iuz is both a demigod and a physical presence in the world — his divine status is real but he walks the material plane. His priesthood is the government of his empire. Vecna as deity: in the current era Vecna's cult exists but his divine status is not yet fully realized — he is worshipped as a god by his cult but his actual divine power is the subject of theological debate among those who know he exists. Lolth as deity: the Spider Queen's divine status is real and her relationship with the drow is genuinely theologically complex — she demands worship, grants power, and punishes failure with a consistency that makes her clergy among the most devoted and most terrified in the Flanaess.
- #33Castle Greyhawk and the Ruins
Keys: Castle Greyhawk, Greyhawk Ruins, Zagig Yragerne, Mad Archmage, Castle Greyhawk dungeon, Greyhawk dungeon, Zagig, Zagyg, Greyhawk Castle, dungeon Greyhawk
Enabled · Order 100
Entry settings
Castle Greyhawk and the Ruins of Greyhawk: On a hill overlooking the Free City of Greyhawk stand the ruins of a castle built by the archmage Zagig Yragerne — called the Mad Archmage, the Lord of Excess, and a dozen other names that suggest a personality too large for any single description. The castle above ground is genuinely ruined — collapsed walls, overgrown courtyards, towers reduced to stumps. What lies beneath is not ruined at all. Zagig Yragerne: a wizard of extraordinary power who built Castle Greyhawk as his home and laboratory over decades, filling it with the products of his increasingly eccentric research before vanishing under circumstances that remain unclear. He is believed to have ascended to some form of godhood — he is now worshipped by some as Zagyg, the god of humor, eccentricity, and unpredictable magic. Whether he achieved true divine status or merely extraordinary power is debated. What is certain is that he imprisoned nine demigods beneath his castle — including Iuz, who was imprisoned for a period before being released by Rob Kuntz's character Robilar. The dungeons: beneath the ruins lie at least thirteen levels of dungeon constructed over Zagig's career, each reflecting a different period of his research and obsessions. The upper levels are well-explored by Greyhawk's adventuring community — their contents partially mapped, their dangers somewhat catalogued. The middle levels are less known. The lower levels are almost entirely unexplored. The EX series access point: deep in the dungeon's explored levels stands the giant magical mirror through which the Dungeonland and Land Beyond the Magic Mirror adventures are accessed. Its existence is known to experienced Greyhawk dungeoneers. The ruins' place in the world: Greyhawk Ruins is the Flanaess's most famous dungeon. Adventuring companies equip themselves in the Free City and go in. Some come back. Some come back wealthy. Some never return. The dungeon is self-replenishing in ways that nobody has fully explained — its population recovers, its traps reset, and new things appear in sections that were previously cleared. Zagig's influence is still present in the stone.
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