The Greyhawk Campaigns were an epic trilogy split into 3 segments. The common thread in all the campaigns was the resurgence of the lich-risen members of the Consortium of Sorcery. The first campaign had the PCs struggling against all these fiends in turn. The second dealt with dealing finally with Acerak. Finally the third campaign dealt with the culmination and final showdown with the master Vecna. Presented here is a cohesive summary of all three campaigns with an effort to display the overall story. Though summarized here each campaign has its own web page complete with module summaries and character bios.
The Greyhawk Campaign (Heroes of Greyhawk)
Which
chronicled the party members being brought together by a mysterious masked old
man named Luvien. The parties first mission was to stop the resurrection of the
ancient Necromancer Sith Theigis. They failed and as a result their fates
became entwined with that of the ancient Necromancer. Through their adventures
they would come to encounter such prolific and evil figures as Keraptis,
Lyzandred, Acerak, Vecna, Iggwilv, Iuz, and Kas. The Campaign was filled out
with classic adventures such as White Plume Mountain, Mordenkainens Fantastic
Adventure, The Lost Caverns of Tsjocanth, Return of the Eight, The Falcon
Trilogy, The Tomb of Horrors, and culminating with Vecna Lives. Toward the end
of the campaign the party learned that Sith Thiegis had been apprentice to
Acerak, lord of the Tomb of horrors, as Acerak had been apprentice to Vecna.
During the events of Vecna lives, the archlich killed the circle of eight and
then attempted to become supreme god of Oerth. The party thwarted him by
casting him through a gate into a void of time and space. The final adventure
in the campaign dealt with an invading army of demons serving Iuz. Iuz and his
mother Iggwilv had made a pact with a Baatezian fiend known as the Garkin
(Rygar). Together they had imprisoned the Demon Lord Pazrael and were now
controlling the Demon lord’s army to conquer Oerth. While Mordenkainen and
Lukas Arcanum were uncovering this plot on the outer plains, the ancient wizard
Leomind was securing Greyhawk city with a massive prismatic shield covering
Greyhawk city. The party entered Doraka, defeated the Garkin while Tenser battled
Iggwilv. Beyond this they successfully held off Iuz while they banished Pazrael
thus banishing the demon legions in turn. Greyhawk city was saved and the party
was hailed as great heroes.
Greyhawk Legacy Campaign (The Pentagon of Power)
The
curse of Acerak returned. The Tomb of Horrors had only been the beginning. Some
of the heroes from the first campaign returned and were joined by new heroes to
quest against this force. The five core members would come to be known as the
Pentagon of Power. This was a high level campaign dealing with world shattering
events. The party encountered such vile forces as The True Acerak, Geryon, Noth
Dreadrin, Ashardalon, and worst of all Amon. The Campaign was a tour of epic high-level
modules featuring Return to the Tomb of Horrors, A Paladin in Hell, Axe of the
Dwavish lords, and Bastion of Broken Souls. By this point Sith Theigis had
killed Luvien and the party was driven by their own Paladin Einhonder. Now
empowered with the extravagant spell casting duo of Caldwell the Conjurer and
Drayo the Dark, the party was well prepared to face the challenges ahead. The
crisis that called them together was the evil force consuming the area
surrounding the Tomb of Horrors. The party found that Acerak had not been
destroyed on their previous mission there. In fact the Tomb they had conquer
was one of dozens of such Tombs littered across the prime material worlds in an
effort for Acerak to attract powerful souls. The true mantle of the
demon-lich’s power was in an abandoned plane known as Moil. Orcus had stolen a
crystal sphere thousands of years prior. After the demon lords death the place
remained as a dead realm. That was until Acerak came to rule. The party
traveled to Moil and took Acerak head on. After permanently slaying the lich
the party released all the thousands of soils the fiend had ever imprisoned.
Upon examining Acerak’s remains the party found his skull bore the same imprint
that Vecna’s did. Which match also the scar on Sith Theigis’s temple. Research
into the matter revealed this was the symbol for some ancient organization
known as the Consortium of Sorcery. The parties next adventure had them
entering into hell to save the soul of the Legendary Paladin Strongheart. They
defeated Geryon, Lord of the 5th and his viceroy Amon. Strongheart’s
soul was saved and things were set right. However in Amon, the party had made a
life long enemy. Upon returning from hell the party brought back the Demonwing,
an abyssal ship forged by Demogorgon which was actually a compressed level of
the Abyss. The parties next mission faced them with their worst adversary yet.
The great dragon Ashardalon. This fiend had developed a vampiric like hunger
for souls. This thirst had lead the creature to the Bastion of Unborn Souls.
The source of a life on the Prime Material Plane. While the creature feasted on
the new souls there were no new lives being created. The party confronted the
creature and laid him to rest. The
climax of the Campaign had the party tracking their arch nemesis Amon
through hell and the outer planes. The party had been summoned by Sith Theigis
who had been keeping a low profile. Theigis was acting as a go between for the
Pit Fiend Scratch. Scratch spoke on behalf if his Master Asmodeus. Apparently
Amon had gone against Asmodeus’s will and betrayed Geryon, but since that time
Amon had been granted sanctuary in Baalzebul’s castle on the 7th
layer of Hell. The party infiltrated the castle and began breaking soul gems.
It was at this time that the Mortal Soul of Maalastation was freed (See
Invincible Campaign). One of the Soul Gems freed Rygar, the great Prime
Material Warlord. Rygar had been previously killed, his body brought into
service of Baalzebul as the Abyssal Garkin. With his power fragmented Rygar
sought a conflict with the Garkin who was now aiding Amon. The party joined
forces with Rygar. After catching up with Amon Rygar entered into combat with
the Garkin whilst the party tracked Amon back to his secret fortress in Hades.
Amon lured the party into a trap but in the end the party succeeded in
destroying the fiend. As the party exited the citadel Asmodeus’s armies led by
the Dark Eight had just finished wiping out Amon’s forces. They descended on
the weakened party only to be halted by Celestial paragon the great heavens. It
was the being who had once been Strongheart reborn as a planar guardian. The
Legendary Paladin repaid the party by escorting to safety. With all threats
pacified the party retired. Popaxe embarked on solo quest to recover the long
lost Axe of the Dwarvish Lords ascending him to be King of Kings of Dwarves.
The
final part of the trilogy dealt with one super module Die Vecna Die. The most
ambitious and large scale adventure ever written. The adventure was the last 2nd
edition material released and its effects are what Cano logically brings about
3rd edition.
The
Multiverse was ending and any all powers who could stand against this
dismemberment were called to rise. Factions of both the previous campaigns came
together in this quest to thwart ultimate doom. The Multiverse was unraveling
and the Gods seemed powerless to stop it. The event that would cause this was
yet to occur but its effects in the future could already been seen in the presence.
The Mad God Zagig broke a covenant to relay this information to Mordenkainen.
In response Mordenkainen summoned all the worlds greatest powers, even those of
evil. Among the icons gathered were the Circle of Eight, The party of Regdar,
Warduke, Drax the Invulnerable, and countless others. Apparently the source of
the Multiverse’s end would originate on Oerth. Zagig had apparently broken the
covenant because many of the Gods were now aiming to obliterate the entire
crystal sphere. The great mortal powers of Oerth gathered and determined the
most likely proponents of this endeavor of doom. The party was sent to assigned
to track down their old friend Sith Theigis. This quest led them back to Tovag
Baragu where they found Sith Theigis had slid into the distant past. The party
learned they would need an item created in that time as a gate key to activate
the portal. Their divinations revealed that Luvien’s mask could serve as such a
key. The party performed the regrettable action of exhuming the body of their
former mentor and removing the mask. Beneath the mask the party found Luvien’s
corpse was enscared with the same magical symbol as Sith, Acerak, and Vecna.
Once there the party found themselves in the Suelese empire on the verge of the
Twin Catyclisms. It was here in the past the party would put many pieces
together. In this time the Suelese empire was embroiled in a war with the
Baakluni. A war which the party knew had ended with an exchange of extreme
magical holocausts known as the twin cataclysms. Here the past they would find
out how this came to be. In Sulese desperation they were offered aid by the
Ancient Lich Vecna and his apprentice, the Demon Acerak. They gathered all the
most powerful wizards of the empire and formed the Consortium of Sorcery. Among
the consortium members were Keraptis, Lyzandred, and Luvien. Sith was just a
child at the time serving as a young apprentice to Acerak. Together Vecna would
lead this group in unleashing the Invoked Devastation which would destroy the
Baakluni empire. On this night of this occurrence the adult Sith Theigis sought
to kill his childhood self. Theigis’s power had revealed to one fact. That
death was inevitable and that his actions in life would deliver him eternal
suffering in what followed. He sought to undo all he had done by committing
temporal suicide. Dying as an innocent boy his soul would finds it way to Mount
Celestia. The party could not allow this and as the Consortium called upon the
cataclysm the party brought an end to Sith Thiegis. The party was present for
the Invoked Devastation and weather it be will of the gods or residual effect
of the incantation, every being within the area of the spells casting was
marked for eternity for what they’d done. The party now knew why all their
enemies shared the same symbol They now shared it also. The party returned to
the present to find nothing changed. Sith Theigis had nothing to do with the
end of all things. They were next sent after IUZ who Tenser had been tracking.
The party tracked the Demon god to the ruins of Tovag Baragu. There they
followed through a portal which brought them to the dreadful realm of
Ravenloft. It was here where Vecna had been imprisoned since the party cast him
through the gate. The party caught up to IUZ as IUZ caught up to Vecna. Vecna
killed IUZ and consumed his divinity. He then shifted out of Ravenloft and into
Sigil. Vecna’s presence in Sigil was in direct violation to the core laws of
the Multiverse. His very presence was ripping the Multiverse apart. Now Gods
were permitted to enter Sigil and now Vecna stood in defiance of this. The
other Gods were powerless to stand against him. Using the artifacts of Vecna to
shield them from his power the party accompanied by Mordenkainen and a
resurrected Sith Theigis stood against Vecna. The archlich was seeking to end
the Multiverse and then to reorder it to his pleasure. The party instead
reordered Vecna. The lich was defeated and the party had saved the Multiverse.
The Greyhawk saga had concluded with the most awe-inspiring finale of all
time.
