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Master Greytalker
Joined: Jul 13, 2002
Posts: 1082
From: Orlane, Gran March
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Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:12 am
Mud Sorcerers
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Hello all,
I recently ran the newest installment of the Mud Sorcerers Tomb, presented in Dungeon Magazine. It was a big hit and I am interested in the history of the Mud Sorcerers and their other apperances. Where was it origianlly set? What is their history?
All info appreciated.
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Adept Greytalker
Joined: Sep 21, 2003
Posts: 538
From: Germany
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Tue Sep 02, 2008 9:33 am
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I believe they were invented by the author and did not appear anywhere else. Baklunish elementalists from long time ago might fit the bill.
Long time ago I bought a bunch of Dungeons on ebay from the author, Mike Shel, and have my copy of the adventure autographed by him :-) So if you want i could dig out the email adress, but i'm sure he won't be able to help you much either. He included a type-written manuscript of another Dungeon adventure submission that was turned down in the end. I wonder if there's a market for this on ebay.
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Apprentice Greytalker
Joined: Dec 30, 2002
Posts: 147
From: 1313 StoneCastle Way, Free City of Dyvers, W0G 13F
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Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:44 am
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 Sounds dirty... 
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CF Admin
Joined: Jun 29, 2001
Posts: 1570
From: Wichita, KS, USA
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Tue Sep 02, 2008 4:16 pm
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| Thanael wrote: |
I believe they were invented by the author and did not appear anywhere else. Baklunish elementalists from long time ago might fit the bill.
Long time ago I bought a bunch of Dungeons on ebay from the author, Mike Shel, and have my copy of the adventure autographed by him :-) So if you want i could dig out the email adress, but i'm sure he won't be able to help you much either. He included a type-written manuscript of another Dungeon adventure submission that was turned down in the end. I wonder if there's a market for this on ebay. |
Hmmm, sounds interesting: please dig his email addy up, Thanael :D
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Allan Grohe<br />https://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html<br />https://grodog.blogspot.com/
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Adept Greytalker
Joined: Sep 21, 2003
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From: Germany
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Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:58 pm
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I'll see what i can do when I have access to my desktop PC again. I don't even know if i still have any mails that old. In the mean time there's a Mike Shel on facebook, perhaps that's him.
BTW there are some maps available for the 3E update here. Judging by the artwork perhaps the Touv fit better for the tomb. Who in the Flanaess would have built a mudship ? (Iirc they were magical ships that can go through ... mud ... normal land? help me out there) Wasn't there a rather large backstory in that adventure about the mud sorcerers? Anyone care to summarize it here?
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Journeyman Greytalker
Joined: Jun 13, 2008
Posts: 184
From: Houston Texas
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Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:15 pm
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Wow!
The Mud Sorcerers Tomb was one of my favorite Dungeon issues ever but I never had a subscription so I never realized that this was turned into a series. Could you guys list the other known issues of Dungeon these tombs are in?
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Adept Greytalker
Joined: Sep 21, 2003
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From: Germany
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Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:08 am
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Not a series. It was just updated to 3E in Dungeon 138.
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Journeyman Greytalker
Joined: Mar 05, 2007
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From: The Pomarj
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Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:03 pm
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I've wanted to run the Mud Sorcerer's Tomb for several years. I just haven't gotten any PCs up to the levels needed for it.
As far as I know, there is no specific place it was set, other than maybe the writer's personal game. I haven't looked at that issue of Dungeon in quite a while but I do remember there was a backstory about the mud sorcerers in the original adventure.
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Journeyman Greytalker
Joined: Jun 13, 2008
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From: Houston Texas
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Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:53 am
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It was set in a homebrew campaign but it was sufficiently detailed and anachronistically removed from the current time period that it was easily implemented into any world setting. The neat thing about it was that it alluded to a much larger conspiracy and provided details on it that would sufficiently provide a jumping off point for an entire campaign.
I've never ran the Mud Sorcerers Tomb but have used the fluff in several D&D games I've run in the past as well as using it in the game I am currently running.
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Apprentice Greytalker
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Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:06 am
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I ran it in a DnD day style tournament my school hosted for the community. We had about five tables with pre generated characters all trying to finish the mod with as many characters intact and as much loot as possible. The parties had to balance treasure hunting against rapid movement through the dungeon. Anyway, if you want any info on how we ran the mod and modified the mod to work--some of the problems we ran into--let me know.
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Master Greytalker
Joined: Jul 13, 2002
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From: Orlane, Gran March
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Fri Sep 05, 2008 12:13 pm
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I have used teh mud sorcerers as a group of Flan predating Vecna. They intentionally entombed themselves at his coming, hoping to conquer afterwards. It has worked well, though it has not become a central component of the campaign. I located the tombs in the Rushmoors.
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Adept Greytalker
Joined: Sep 21, 2003
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From: Germany
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Sun Nov 23, 2008 5:39 am
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| grodog wrote: |
| Hmmm, sounds interesting: please dig his email addy up, Thanael :D |
Allan, i checked my PC and didn't find any of the correspondence anymore. So no luck there, sorry.
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GreySage
Joined: Aug 03, 2001
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From: Michigan
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Sun Nov 23, 2008 3:25 pm
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| Thanael wrote: |
| Wasn't there a rather large backstory in that adventure about the mud sorcerers? Anyone care to summarize it here? |
The story is that 700 years ago the continent fell into turmoil, with many established religious institutions becoming weakened. In this time, many scholars embraced the teachings of the ancient heretic Jezule the Nebbarite, a wizard-priest of unsavory reputation. Jezule's mad writings had been suppressed by the great religions, but now they thrived. So the Jezulein cult, known derisively as the "mud sorcerers" for their reverence of evil archomentals of earth and water, was born. The Jezulein cultists embraced the description and made it their own.
The Jezulein diviners saw that the political chaos wouldn't last forever, so their leaders, the Iron Circle, put themselves in temporal stasis in underground labyrinths so that they could be reawakened after the great purge of heretics to come. Unfortunately for them, when the nations stabilized the ensuing inquisitions were worse than they thought, and no one was left with the knowledge needed to reawaken the sleeping members of the Iron Circle. So the mud sorcerers slept in their tombs for the long centuries to come.
The first thing that came to mind was that the turmoil in question could be the Age of Great Sorrow, when the influence of Aerdy and the Holy Censor of Medegia was greatly weakened. As nations like Nyrond and Ferrond (and the Free City of Greyhawk) grew into their own, they were able to put down the evil elemental cultists that had sprung up like vermin in the cities and wilderness.
Jezule the Nebbarite could have been one of the wizard-priests of the Isles of Woe long before. "Taalese," the holy tongue of the mud sorcerers, could be the language of the Isles of Woe. There are plenty of other possibilities, of course - Jezule could have easily have been Baklunish or Oeridian - but the Isles of Woe have wizard-priests and in the Living Greyhawk campaign they worshipped princes of elemental evil, so they fit. Presenting him as a wizard-priest of the ancient Baklunish Imperium would fit too, in which case "Taalese" might be a specialized Old Baklunish cant with words from the elemental tongues.
The archomentals named in the adventure, Uzrith of Earth and Alyolvoy of Water, should probably be replaced with Ogrémoch and Olhydra for simplicity. There could be and probably are other princes of elemental evil, but it seems better to develop those we have than bother with new ones. They probably go by multiple names.
I don't think the mud sorcerers fit very well with what we know about the Touv, and the monstrous faces in the artwork in the original adventure look to me like they belong to a variety of races. It's possible that one or more members of the Iron Circle were Touv in origin, however; others could have been Baklunish, Suloise, Olman, or anything else.
Another possibility is associating the mud sorcerers with the "Lords of the Elder Elements" mentioned in Living Greyhawk Journal #4 as being enemies of Keoland's Silent Ones. Keoland, too, has had its eras of political chaos, and it's possible that it was the Silent Ones who exterminated the Jezulein cult rather than a religious inquisition. In that case, the mud sorcerers must have sprung up during some period when the Silent Ones were distracted or weakened. Perhaps the mage-killing plague in 496 CY? Or maybe the war between the Silent Ones and the Malhel way back in -340, before the Silent Ones had fully consolidated their power. Maybe the Jezulein cultists were all Malhel. Or the following House Wars, or the Insurrection of the Yaheetes centuries later, or one of several other periods.
They wouldn't have to be the Lords of the Elder Elements to fit into Keoland, of course. The Silent Ones are opposed to the plain old Princes of Elemental Evil too.
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