GARY GYGAX Q&A PART IV

[Are the stats on Bigby, Erac's Cousin, Mordenkainen, Riggby, Robilar, Serten, and Tenser in THE
ROGUES GALLERY accurate? I think I remember reading that EGG wouldn't give out his characters'
actual stats..? What levels have they attained? (Robilar is 19? Mordenkainen is 23?)]

I guess EGG changed his for some reason; but mine were straight up. Robilar is listed as 18th level, but I'd
have to look.

[This is the one I was really curious about: was god did Riggby serve? What god did Serten serve?]

I believe that both worshipped St. Cuthbert, though Serten may have been worshipping Pholtus of the
Blinding Light (which of course has a humorous starting point in real life as a god/religion)

[What class was Terik? Is he fully detailed in WG6?]

Terik was a fighter; he is detailed in Rogues Gallery (I thought) as well as mentioned in WG6. [RJK]
http://piedpiperpublishing.yuku.com/topic/1985

I looked too late in WG5 where Zagyg and Boccob are the ones of choice, though Pholtus or St Cuthbert
may have been skipped as well, just for sake of ease.

Terik is not in the Rogue's Gallery, as that was for current employees and he was no longer with TSR by
then; some that were not employees (maybe Tim Jiardini, (though he may have been working at the
Dungeon Hobby shop then, I dunno) were part of the Lake Geneva regulars, though Tim adventured more
in Kalibruhn than Greyhawk, as well as in Skip Williams campaign. There are a lot of "imports" in Rogues
Gallery, what with the folks like the Cooks, Moldavay, Schick, Wells and Hammeck who had moved to LG
and really hadn't played in GH, but none-the-less had their favorite PCs form their own D&D campaigns.
It's too bad a book of Greyhawk PCs and NPC’s was never completed. I haven't seen WG6 in years (don't
even own a copy, so if anyone knows of a bargain somewhere, let me know) so I'm not even sure what
EGG wrote about Terik in there, other than he was supposedly my brother (in the game, which was untrue)
which is a literary contrivance based on the truth in real life.

Perhaps I need to do a write-up on Terik. He did contribute some good adventures alongside me and on his
own or with the unholy three (Rb, Tk and Tenser). He also came up with the phrase: "I look up and down
and all around," after one two many things (like 'lurkers above') had been dropped onto him by EGG. He
thereafter said this before entering any room or open space in the dungeons. [RJK]
http://piedpiperpublishing.yuku.com/topic/1985

[Origin of Pholtus] That would be the "Church of the Presumptuous Assumption of the Blinding Light of
Faith," whose
ditty was:

Key of C:

"Oh Blinding Light,

I feel a recounting of the 18 hp Balrog which Terry's 6th level underling fighter slew with two hits while the
Balrog rolled a 1 and a 2 to hit, respectively(remember us co-DM’ing that day in your basement Gary?)

Terry had led a party of newbies (out-of-town fans who had never played in Castle Greyhawk) to the 4th
level of the dungeon and pulled a MAJOR wandering encountering. Later we joked about the thing
chopping itself with one swing and entangling its whip with another, for it had first made a stupendous
appearance (Gary rolled 12 on 2d6) by roaring loudly with its immolation. Terry shook his head (he was the
only person with a magical weapon, a +2 sword) as he went forward to what he thought was certain death
as the newbie players cowered in the back of the corridor. Two rounds later he had dealt it two smashing
hits for 18 hp, and I've noted above the Balrog's responses to these (chop/whip).

Gary and I looked at each other, impressed, and we decided to roll the hp for the thing, as it was now
turning into a real fight. EGG rolled the dice--nothing but one's and two's. We laughed upon noting the
total: 18 hp. The Balrog fell over, dead. We shrugged and explained it away: No wonder the thing had been
encountered on the 4th level; it had been chased from the lower levels by creatures more potent! So much
for the reject Balrog. I'll probably write that one up for UoaSB. [RJK]
http://piedpiperpublishing.yuku.com/topic/1985?page=2

Tom Champeny's PC, an 8th level cleric, who was originally neutral, turned evil by slaying Ernie Gygax's
secondary NPC (a hireling of Tenser's), Serten the cleric.

James Goodfellow always played an evil mage, with his best known PC, "Ezekiel the Necromancer" having
the longest run
of them all. He backstabbed Bob Burman's PC after they together killed off an outdoor (cavern) encounter.

Burman's last words petitioned Odin (of all patrons) and I proceeded to roll like 3 100's in a row to verify
and analyze the extent to which Odin might react. This was followed by several high 90's rolls.

James knew something was up when I rolled the first 100 in front of them both, but then I took Bob to a
secluded spot (out of sight, but not hearing range of James) where I continued rolling the great rolls, which
sent Burman into spasms, while laughing and pounding his head against the wall (I kid you not!) while
James reacted to Burman (he called it "Burmania") by screaming from the kitchen as I witnessed the head-
banging: "Fudge! Fudgin' Judgin'!!

That's the strangest PC killing PC event I've witnessed, and let me tell you, it was enough! [RJK]
http://piedpiperpublishing.yuku.com/topic/1988

Odin made him his servant and Burman's PC was removed from play to the Gods. I actually gave him some
godly things to do now and then, like run messages for Odin when Hermod was busy, or kill a grouping of
fire giants here or there, but Burman's PC was removed from the game and he had to start one anew.

And for the second story, this really happens outside of my game, as we traded adventures most often on
the weekends, and while waiting to play I witnessed Bob do this. I may have related this elsewhere, too, but
we were all saddled with high level PCs for a campaign game which James Goodfellow was running (the
guy who played Ezekiel). Burman played the dwarf king, but he insisted on adventuring with many of his
knights and he would always get these killed (Bob charged into things naturally). One time he charged into
a cave with 3 blue dragons, which proceeded to wipe him out, but life and death in total for either side
came down to this: Bob (Dwarf King) standing there with 4 hp left, everything else dead, except for the
baby blue dragon, which had cowered from fear as the battle had raged.

A victorious smirk (if he was standing at the end of a battle, now matter the cost, he always felt he was the
winner) on his face, he raised his axe and advanced on the small wyrm. Scared and backed into the cave,
the dragon responded by breathing on the DK. It was an 8 hp dragon (Burman had 4 hp). Even if he made
his save for half, he died. And so he did, with Goodfellow (always affected by Burmania) shaking his head
in wonder and (almost) laughing out loud. IOW: Typical Bob Burman adventure, because the king was
missed and his advisors petitioned the Elf Wizard to raise him from the dead and, of course, James rolled a
99% for this eventuality and Burman was sluiced back into the game. He had lost so many knights that not
too many were championing his causes though, so he had to raise rewards to a ridiculous level to retain
hirelings, even those who would have normally been loyal to begin with, as he was a King. [RJK]
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[Rob, a zillion years ago, I [Gronan] got a few spare dungeon levels from you. One of them had some areas
in colored pencil, and the notes "Blue Fire" "Red Fire" "Yellow Fire". At the time you said something about
cults. Do you have ANY idea what you were up to with this?]

Yes, but that was the level that Gary also adventured on most repeatedly (there was also an arena there,
which I trapped him in, snicker). I have it in my myriad of maps and the keys for it which I kept when
loaning the map to you for your castle start (Rams Horn, --heh, the memory I can still dredge up). [RJK]
http://piedpiperpublishing.yuku.com/topic/1992

"Otto is My Name, Magic is My Game."--famous ditty from the Green Dragon Inn. [RJK]
http://piedpiperpublishing.yuku.com/topic/1993?page=5