A Fifth of Greyhawk Part 6 – Dungeon Master’s Notes on “Housecleaning.”
A Fifth of Greyhawk Part 6 - Dungeon Master's Notes on "Housecleaning." As you read this, Oerth Journal #33 is out, and along with it, my Fifth Edition Greyhawk Adventure, “Housecleaning.” If you plan to play it, please stop reading. SPOILERS BELOW. If you plan to run the adventure, here are some notes. The idea behind Housecleaning was that often there is a Boss Bad Guy at the end of an adventure that the players don’t have any connection to because they only encounter them when it’s time to roll for initiative. He’s really just a pile of Hit Points at that point. I thought of this adventure as a way for the PCs to gradually learn the backstory of the victim (Faedra) and the evil Mahone throughout the adventure so when they finally met them both, they were motivated to fight because the adventure dribbles out the story while the PCs plow through Moonglade Spire. The main Greyhawk element I wanted to get across was the concept of the Great Kingdom once ruling over most of the continent. So all the heraldry and the talking Pearl of Power (who works great if played like C-3PO) and the abundance of mundane magic items were all meant to sell the idea of this past golden age. I hate reading texts to PCs for lore purposes so I tried to think of as many ways to make it come alive as I could. The Harry Potter-esque Magic Paintings, the talking ancient Pearl full of concern, the books on the shelves, all of it is there to avoid ever having to tell the players “Hundreds of years ... read more!
