Westmarks Campaign Sagas

Player’s Recent History Primer

The Grand Duchy of Geoff was recently liberated (in early CY 591) from the giant, ogre, and evil humanoid tribes who had in earlier years swept down from the surrounding mountain ranges to conquer it in CY 583, during the height of the Greyhawk Wars. With the help of several factions, including foreign adventuring guilds (especially the Blackrazor Guild), the Knights of the Watch or Dispatch, and military forces sent by neighboring countries such as Gran March and Keoland, almost the entirety of the country has been freed.

The few larger towns and cities of Geoff suffered greatly under the giant occupation being severely damaged, and their populations enslaved. These faired better than the smaller villages, however, which were often completely destroyed and depopulated, leaving ghost towns behind. The few who survived the attacks and escaped enslavement either fled to the east, or retreated within the various expansive forests of the duchy to seek refuge with the elves. The Hornwood, Oytwood, and Dim Forest became staging areas for guerilla attacks and rescue missions for many years, led by skilled human and elven rangers.

The former Grand Duke of Geoff, Owen II, barely escaped both an assassination attempt and the giantish siege of his capitol city of Gorna, and fled the country for the city of Shiboleth in Gran March where he established a court in exile. There, the beleaguered Duke began slowly rebuilding his devastated army, and called upon his allies for aid, as well as sending agents to various other countries to seek out willing adventurers and ex-patriots. Unfortunately, the armies of his allies were committed elsewhere until the close of the Greyhawk Wars in CY 584, and thus little progress was made until after the Pact of Greyhawk was signed.

Eventually, by CY 586 the eastern city of Hochoch in Geoff was retaken with considerable help from the Knights of the Watch and the army of Gran March. Grand Duke Owen then moved his court there to continue the reclamation efforts, and begin making assessments of the condition of his devastated country through scouting and occasional raids. It was in CY 590 when real progress began to be made, through the efforts of the Steelstorm and Blackrazor adventuring guilds. Grand Duke Owen began focusing his efforts more and more towards promoting these guild’s activities, as their success was just the morale booster his army needed, plus, his political arrangements with both Gran March and the Knights of the Watch were becoming more than he bargained for, as Gran March had all but annexed Hochoch, and the Knights of the Watch enforced martial law, and both groups had designs on the newly liberated lands of Geoff.

Over the course of several months, the towns of Geoff began to be liberated. Many threats other than giants placated the adventurers of the Blackrazor Guild as they made progress, then had setbacks. Whether it was derro, white dragons, the vampiric minions of Zaund, or the rogue archmage Valeron, their exploits are well chronicled and are better told elsewhere [1]. However, the most important events to come out of this time was the so-called “Night of Storms”, where Grand Duke Owen and almost his entire family were slain by Zaund and his minions, and the assault on the cloud giant fortress of Durengard, where the leadership of the giant forces was eliminated. The Grand Duke’s oldest son and heir became Grand Duke Owen III, and he made many of the Blackrazors into his vassals by creating them as new Barons of his now-liberated Duchy.

For the last ten months, a great rebuilding and resettlement effort has been taking place since the liberation, as well as several smaller offenses to oust the last remaining giant forces. Most of the country’s nobility were lost in the initial giant invasion, or during the various offenses to reclaim the land over the years. This has left a large power vacuum for which many are now clamoring to fill, and many are jealous of the high titles given to foreigners from the adventuring guilds. It is now Needfest of CY 592, and Grand Duke Owen III has summoned his vassals and the other powers that be to a conclave in Hochoch to pay fealty and to discuss the agenda for the coming year.

Common Year 591

The Search for Darlon Lea, Part I - (Real World Date: Jan. 27, 2006)

The Search for Darlon Lea, Part II - (Real World Date: June 16, 2006)

(Real World Date: June 23, 2006)

(Real World Date: June 30, 2006)

(Real World Date: July 7, 2006)

(Real World Date: July 21, 2006)

(Real World Date: July 28, 2006)

In the Hall of the Frost Giant Overlord - (Real World Date: Sep. 15, 2006)

(Real World Date: Oct. 20, 2006)

Madman and the Dungeon - (Real World Date: Nov. 3, 2006)

Shadows and Demons - (Real World Date: Nov. 10, 2006)

The Mad Marquis and Shadows - (Real World Date: Nov. 24, 2006)

The Kaorti and the Giantess - (Real World Date: Dec. 1, 2006)

Disaster Again! - (Real World Date: Jan. 26, 2007)