Needfest 1, 585
On
the first day of Needfest, which is also the first day of the new year
585, Occa returns from Earth with Badd, Nason, Kelene and Tharn.
All are well. Lornard and Amberle are trained to their new levels as of several days ago. Robert continues to train Stump.
It is the first day of winter in
this hemisphere of Oerth. Winters are mild here, though, compared to
Earth. The travellers appear in the middle of the afternoon, and the
weather is overcast but not too cold (42F).
Needfest is one of the four
festivals that are held during the Greyhawk year. It celebrates the
start of winter. The celebrations seem to consist mostly of getting
drunk and eating lots of heavy, filling food.
You enjoy the festival while Stump continues his training.
Good news has come to Castle
Greyhawk from the outside world, though. The Greyhawk Wars, which for
two long years have consumed all but the area around the City of
Greyhawk in flames, has ended in a truce. The nations of the Flanaess
had schemed, murdered, and warred against each other until nearly all
sides lay bloodied and beaten: war had exhausted the land and the
people. Furyondy and Iuz ground to a stalemate; Nyrond's vast coffers
were drained dry and its overtaxed peasants were rebellious; the Great
Kingdom was shattered into a swarm of petty landholdings vying for
power; Keoland fought invasion on all sides; countless men, dwarves,
elves, and orcs marched off to war, never to return; farms stood empty;
fields lay fallow... The Flanaess could make war no longer.
Proposals for a peace conference
met with greater and greater acceptance. The puppets of the Scarlet
Brotherhood, taking orders from the Father of Obedience, issued a call
for a grand truce: every nation would cease hostilities and put its own
house in order.
In the end, through negotiation,
intimidation, and even assassination, the Brotherhood's proposal found
acceptance. The City of Greyhawk, untouched by the war, became the site
of the conference. In the month of Harvester, the Great Council (as it
came to be known) convened.
Even now, the negotiations continue.
These happenings are of little
concern to you, however. Your goal lies deep within the warrens of the
Greyhawk Ruins, where Robin, one of the Fabled Swords of Disco Dancing,
awaits your discovery.