Wave

Greyhawk Item

Wave
Wave, as portrayed in Dragon #267. Art by Aaron Williams.
Type:	Weapon
Price:	166,115 gp
Body Slot:	N/A
Caster Level:	10th
First Appearance:	White Plume Mountain (1979).

Wave is a magical trident wrested from the dungeons beneath White Plume Mountain.

Description

Wave's head is made of blue-green steel, while its wooden shaft is carved with images of seaweed, sea creatures, and other aquatic designs.

Wave is a sentient magical item originally created to help spread the worship of a god of the ocean, but now it primarily seeks merely to avoid capture by Keraptis or anyone claiming to be Keraptis.

Powers

Wave is said to bequeath upon its wielder the ability to control fish, breathe water, and dehydrate their opponents. It also warns of danger and creates cubes of force.

History

According to one legend, Wave was forged by cyclops giants imprisoned on the distant island of Thunderforge by agents of a god of the ocean. The exact name of the deity varies from legend to legend: some say it was Procan, others say Blibdoolpoolp, Eadro, Poseidon, or Sekolah. Wave was one of a pair of tridents forged by the same master. Its companion, Surge, was a lawful neutral trident dedicated to another deity, an eel-like demigod called Anguileusis.

It is said that the deity for which Wave was forged bore or sired a daughter with one of the cyclopes, a half-cyclops called Dravenda. Dravenda sided with her giant kin in a rebellion against the sea-god, wielding Wave against her own half-brother, another spawn of the deity who took the form of a giant crab. Though she defeated the half-divine crustacean, she fell in battle the next day.

Shortly thereafter, the wizard Keraptis came to the island. In exchange for a promise of aid that would help the cyclopes escape their prison, he was given Wave, which he eventually took with him to White Plume Mountain, his volcano stronghold. There he used it, along with three other implements of power (Blackrazor, Frostrazor, and Whelm), in a ritual to attempt to transcend the bounds of mortality.

Around 491 CY, a band of adventurers called the Brotherhood of the Tome raided White Plume Mountain and stole the four weapons, among other treasures. Wave was taken by a ranger called Elthan. Long after his retirement from adventuring, Elthan took the trident with him on his honeymoon; disaster struck in the form of a storm, which destroyed his boat and killed his bride, although the powers of Wave allowed Elthan himself to survive. Swearing an oath of vengeance against the deity for whom Wave was created, Elthan traveled to Thunderforge Island. There he is said to have confronted an avatar of his divine nemesis before disappearing from history.

Decades later, Wave appeared again in the hands of a wealthy collector in the Free City of Greyhawk. The collector was much upset when a band of gnomes stole it from him and carried it back to White Plume Mountain; the outraged collector went so far as violating the sanctity of the Greyhawk Thieves Guild in an attempt to find it. Finally the collector deciphered the enigmatic clues left at the scene of the crime and hired a group of sell-swords to steal it back. This they did, although in time a group of White Plume gnomes retrieved it once again. This time, the gnomes were waylaid by the witch Thingizzard, who killed them and took the trident for herself.

Publication history

Wave first appeared in Lawrence Schick's adventure White Plume Mountain in 1979, where it was presented as a neutral trident whose purpose was "death or disfigurement to all who won't convert to the worship of Poseidon (or any similar sea-god you choose)."

It was next mentioned in Evil Tide by Bruce R. Cordell, which introduced its "companion," Surge, a lawful neutral trident whose purpose was death or disfigurement to all who won't convert to the worship of Anguileusis.

It was given formal game statistics once again in Bruce R. Cordell's Return to White Plume Mountain, which changed its alignment to neutral evil. The trident appeared as a "weapon of legacy" (a magic item whose powers unlock one at a time, after special rituals) in White Plume Mountain (Revised) in 2005, which said its wielder must be any alignment with a neutral component, and provided a broader list of possibilities as to Wave's patron deity.

In fourth edition, Wave makes an appearance in The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos (2009).

References

Bibliography

• Cagle, Eric, Jesse Decker, Jeff Quick, and James Wyatt. Arms and Equipment Guide. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2003.
• Cordell, Bruce R. Evil Tide. Renton, WA: TSR, 1997.

———. Return to White Plume Mountain. Renton, WA: TSR, 1999.

• Marmell, Ari, Bruce R. Cordell, and Luke Johnson. The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2009.
• Shick, Lawrence. White Plume Mountain. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1979.
• Shick, Lawrence, Andy Collins, Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, and James Wyatt. White Plume Mountain (Revised). Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2005. Available online: [1]
• Williams, Aaron. "Climb Every (White Plume) Mountain." Dragon #267. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2000.

Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index

The Index is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, and his work as continued and updated by Eric Johnson, Richard DiIoia, Jason "PupickDad" Jacobson, a French fan group, and numerous other fans over the years. The wiki page for the EGI has a list of sources, full product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.

Topic	Type	Description	Product	Page/Card/Image
Wave (Trident)	Item	Artifact,	Into White Plume (RPGA) (Low Level Version), D&D 3.5e	3
Wave (Trident)	Item	Artifact,	Dragon magazine #299	103
Wave (Trident)	Item	Artifact,	Into The Unknown: The Dungeon Survival Handbook, D&D 4e	106, 107
Wave (Trident)	Item	Artifact,	Monstrous Arcana: Evil Tide, AD&D 2e	32
Wave (Trident)	Item	Artifact,	Return to White Plume Mountain	2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 14, 15, 16, 23, 26, 27
Wave (Trident)	Item	Artifact,	S1-4 Realms of Horror, Adventure Booklet	22, 23, 31
Wave (Trident)	Item	Artifact,	S1-4 Realms of Horror, Inscription and Map Booklet	2
Wave (Trident)	Item	Artifact,	S2 White Plume Mountain (1st-3rd printing), AD&D 1e	2, 6, 7, 12
Wave (Trident)	Item	Artifact,	White Plume Mountain (Revised), D&D 3.5e	2, 3, 4, 15, 18, 20, 21, 32, 33, 34, 36
Wave (Trident)	Item	Artifact,	S2 White Plume Mountain {Expanded} (4th+ printing), AD&D 1e	2, 9, 16