Articles in early magazines about Greyhawk Castle - quotes listed - Alternate entrances: old dry cistern, under a pool

of quicksand, simple hole i n the ground - Countryside between castle ruins and city... A number fo stange tunnels and we lls about - Castle ruin lies on the hill not a league from the city... (the tors) -"fiendish maze of dungeons, pits, labyrinths, crypts, catacombs, and caverns ho neycomb" the rocky hill References to other Works (need to be added): -Scarlet Brotherhood -Boccob -Sublevel Black Reservoir -Sublevel Murrough's Mars -The Bandit Kingdoms (veiled allusion) -mysterious Jewelled Man -Eneever Zig's challenges from Gord the Rogue short story "The Heart of Darkness " in Night Arrant *** Black Reservoir was rediscovered in 2003 on Greytalk list "Something that spoke to how the CZ:UW levels and denizens relate to the other l evels would have been very useful to provide the context for the Upper Works and The Storerooms in their relation to the whole. Ideally such a summary would inc lude an elevation or plan map to depict the ruins and dungeon levels relative to one another, calling out stairs, elevators, deep pits, underground lakes nad ri vers, and such..." The Deep Cellars The Dungeons sublevel The Black Reservoir Sublevel Eneever Zig's Way sublevel Mars Level 3A The Arena of Death "A number of ways to delve deeper into the dungeons exist, but they provide acce ss only as level three thus far (except perhaps the access to Eneever Zig's Way, which will proceed down several hundred feet if it follows the Gord story; exac tly where it leads is not mentioned in CZ:UW." Exits/Entrances "The currently-known/currently-written entrances and exits into The Store Rooms and lower dungeon levels are summarized in the first pages of Book 5." Not an exhaustive list, some missed include: - chutes from the Castle Precincts - chutes from the Castle Fortress - Water Caverns from Kuntz's Dark Chateau - only alluded to in WD#3, Y, Z "Are the Old Guard Kobolds or other dungeon dwellers reinforced by brethren pres ent on dungeon levels 2 and 3?" "How the castle fell to ruin, the when, why, and how, is mostly left to speculat ion." Ruins of Castle Precincts p.2 -module quoted Dungeon Ecology: "...the whole [castle and dungeons] is the work of a very, very potent wizards w ho enjoys the zany. However it bows at least a bit to those who demand more veri similitude in their dungeons in that a sort of ecology is provided for. Thus the explorers will frequently discover such things as strange fungi... and pools of

water in which vegetation and fish flourish thanks to chemosynthesis of a sort connected to magical radiation and light emissoin from some vegetable growths of like nature. These food sources are augmented by scavengers such as giant rats and the subterranean array of reptiles and giant insects." - Mouths of Madness p.2 Difficulty Level: The castle looks more difficult than a new player game would normally allow. How ever several encounters appear staged more forgivingly than first expected. 1. Teleporters not seperating party members. 2. Monsters do not pursue out of room (wights, hill giants, wraith, high level M -U w/ GEAS) 3. Weakened monsters (giant centipede poison, no poison stinger on imps, cobra p oison takes 1-2 days) 4. Unusual behaviors in comic sense (ogre has captured human children, but never would eat them) 5. Stern warnings when TPKs possible (giant wolverine "the glutton") "Encounters in CZ:UW are both more populous and more treasure-rish than I would have expected. In addition, there's a decent chunk of unguarded treasure lurking about." "There does seem to be an abundance of coins, gems, and jewelry in particular in The Upper Works. Magic Itmes seem about par for the course, while various traps , tricks, and other special encounters seem about on-target, save in the Castle Fortress, which is more trap-laden than usual." *** Coin Conversions are needed for C&C to D&D *** Encounter Proportions: - Empty / Non-monster / Non-treasure / Stores without adventuring equipment / et c. 40% (~200/500) - Monsters only 12% (~60/500 - Monsters with Treasure 26% (~130/500) - Treasure only 10% (~50/500) - Trap 8% (~40/500) - Trick / Special / Other 4% (~20/500) "The dungeon design guidelines published by Gygax align around empty rooms at 60 %, monsters 25%, (of those only 60% have treasure), special/trap/trick 10%, trea sure 5% (these figures are based on Appendix A of the Dungeon Master's Guidewhic h is in turn based on Gygax's article in Strategic Review #1 (Spring 1975)." A. Ruins of the Castle Precincts #15 - a blank line for DMs to fill in for worke r cottages B. Mouths of Madness #37a3 - mentions Joss Effect (lejendary adventures) C. The Store Rooms #110 & #148 place signs to lure unwary adventurers into traps . D. Encounters in Storerooms & Mouths of Madness as a whole are too similar and r epetitive - humanoids in Mouths, kobolds & goblins in Store Rooms, only chief/sub-chief/e lite guard/shaman/witch doctors [Make this a showcase of differences in humanoids as variety of cultu res.] - "Perhaps some use of helper animals, more differentiated trap types, a few st ronger alliances among the enclaves, or adding additional non-humanoid encounter

s (either as prisoners perhaps, or within one or more lairs.)" Grodog's Favorite Encounters in CZ:UW 1. The Ogre's Cottage (mouths of madness #WD4) 2. the statue of Zagyg (castle precincts #10) 3. the cobbler goblin (castle precincts #22d) 4. The moon well/fane to Celestian (east wall towers #T1-h.roof) 5. The great hall (castle fortress #7) 6. The spriggans on castle fortress 1st floor 7. The Chess Room (castle fortress #53) 8. The minstrel (castle fortress #56) 9. The dungeon-entrance guardian dwarves (the store rooms #123) and Elves (the s tore rooms #136) 10. "The Seven Geases" (the store rooms #137) "More extended entrances of this kind (the ogre's cottage and specifically its r elationship to the larger dungeon environment) would have brought alive the spir it of the original honeycombed hill of the castle." A. Original castle had elves and dwarves controlling access to the greyhawk cast le dungeons B. Cobbler goblin is a tribute to Gary (a once shoe salesman and shoe builder) c. Fane to Celestian is very original and reveals Celestian accepts human sacrif ices (or once did). D. Whimsy and fun of Spriggans, Great Hall, Zagyg statue, and Minstrel (Jethro T ull allusion) E. Chess Room and The Seven Geases are unique and interesting compared to any in the history of modules *** Some future events are pre-staged for the DM *** [What?] - alliances and betrayals amongst the inhabitants - bugbears with designs of conquest scouting for a larger force due to arrive so on - hobgoblins digging from their MoM caves deeper toward the dungeons "There is little to no advice that addresses scaling CZ:UW to accommodate large numbers of players, or multiple simultaneous groups of players: six players with six men-at-arms could make short work of many of the tougher encounters." Various "Mega-dungeon" or "Campaign dungeon" design threads on Dragonsfoot, Knig hts & Knaves, and other old school sites and blogs. Editing: *** Trap's Damage is Missing -- The Store Rooms #114 *** Cartography Issues 1. map icons are not used consistently throughout. - At least 3 different standard door icons appear on maps; MOM#35, SR #138, CF #CT-3d - some stairs-up show arrows and some don't; MOM/SR map ket to MOM caves O & K to SR#101 to CP #36a to CF #CT-4d (or the other corner towers on the 3rd floor) to CP #37-a1 or to the landings to the right of #A4-a or CP #29, etc. etc. - Spiral stairs differ; SR #101 to CF #CC-1 to CF #CT-3d again 2. Some key numbers and map icons seem to be missing - SR #118a doesn't appear on the map - SR #115 is missing arches,

- SR #132a secret door to #132b - SR #145 spear trap is missing - SR #123 the 3 northern alcoves are very shallow compared to module text (draw n incorrectly) 3. The placement of elevation figures on the East Mark Gazetter folio map and Th e Ruins of the Castle Precincts map are not consistent. - The elevations for the edge of the plateau & elevations for cave mouths are e asy to confuse when the maps are side by side 4. Castle Fortress Map not printed on larger paper or printed size in booklet. - 2nd and 3rd floors are missing direction compasses *** - Walls of Iron in #85 are missing (as well as the Caster Level needed to Di smiss them) *** - the corner tower walls are drawn too thickly (text implies walls are 4' thick , rooms 12' diameter - #CC-4 isn't drawn on the maps at all or included in the module as an encounte r-specific map 5. The layout of The East Wall Towers maps could be been improved by staggering larger-sized maps instead of stacking the smaller-sized maps atop one another... *** - Copy large the East Tower Maps 6. The thickness of the walls on the maps contradicts the text in the adventure Etc.'s - using color in the cartography for MoM & SR. Calling out: - teleporters - traps - poison gasses - Secret doors - other dungeon features with different colors Cheat Sheet There is a lot of redundant information collected about - the details on how loopholes improve Ac - the capacities of kegs and hogsheads - map symbol explanations: G = guards, T = Traps - Open Door roll variants - Secret DOor discovery variants The large scale wilderness map is basically wasted There is a need for more art overall