Thursday, January 19, 2017

Notes from the Nystul campaign

In pursuit of further knowledge of the Restenford realm, I was wandering around over at the Dragonsfoot Archives the other day and found this old issue of Footprints magazine from 2005 lying around in one of the stalls in the lavatory. What's intriguing about this issue to you and me is that it's got an article written up by the original Lord of Lendore, Mr. Lakofka himself. The article is a description of the "Nystul Campaign," during which he took several members of the Nystul family on a guided tour of Lendore Isle back in the late 70s-mid 80s. The bulk of the text is dedicated to house rules and meta-y stuff written with that tone of braggadocio you often hear when old timers talk about how things were back in the day. But around page 16 he starts to get into some of the historical details of the campaign. Here are the highlights:
  1. After clearing out the castle at Bone Hill, the Nystuls refurbished it, renamed it Voxbonder Abby, and dedicated it to the god Phaulkon.
  2. The Duke of Kroten was indeed evil, as one might have surmised by the existence of his malevolent spy occupying the bait shop in Restenford.
  3. The Nystuls deposed said duke and his henchmen at some point in the campaign.
  4. To the north of the city of Kroten was an evil town called Grellton which was named after the deity Grell.
  5. Grell had his name changed to "Llerg" when the Suel deities went public because there was already a monster called Grell in the Fiend Folio
  6. Presumably this Grell character is also the namesake of the dearly departed Grellus, Baron of Restenford.
  7. It's too bad that TSR didn't change Grellus's name to Llergus.
  8. Grellton was renamed as Dwarfhaven after the Nystuls were done with it.
  9. No mention is made in this history of Garrottenford or the assassination of Baron Grellus. 
  10. That's too bad because I would like to know what the Nystuls would have called Garrottenville after they were done with it.
  11. In a room under Voxbonder Abby There was a "teleporter" that transported you to Asmogorgon, a fortress occupied by devils, demons, and at least one stone golem.
  12. Lakofka promised to provide a history of Asmogorgon at a later date; it's not clear if that history ever came to be.
  13. It's not clear if the teleporter existed there when the place was part of the original Bone Hill Campaign or if it came into being only after the transformation to Voxbonder.
  14. There was a similar teleporter under temples or castles in each of the following locales: Kroten, Lo Reltarma (capital of Lendore Isles), the aforementioned Grellton/Dwarfhjaven, and a place called Manville--which is named for Manticores, so careful there.
  15. Though in dire need of a change, there is no indication that Manville was renamed by either the Nystul crew or TSR.