[GH] Sormod's Parchment

[Havard]

Response:

1. Sormond is a "merchant and adventurer from Perrenland" who mounted an expedition to Rigodruok in 453 CY (123 years before Greyhawk Adventures was set). After escaping the valley, he was killed by a poisoned arrow in the Burneal Forest. There isn't anything more known.

2. We don't know who recovered the document from Blackmoor Castle, or how it ended up there. Sormond found it for sale in the city of Eru-Tovar to the south. In 453 CY, Blackmoor Town was still a relatively thriving place, the infamous dungeons of Castle Blackmoor open to adventurers, who had only to pay a Dungeoneer's Tax to the archbaron (the town was occupied by the Egg of Coot and its minions in the 540s CY). I think it must have been one of those adventuring parties who recovered the document from the dungeons beneath the castle. Probably an earlier adventuring party had made it to Rigodruok and back and then died in the dungeons of Castle Blackmoor, leaving their notes behind for later adventurers to discover.

3. And to answer Rafael's comment, everything in that article is canonical. The Dragon article doesn't contribute much to the story, other than suggesting that Zagig Yragerne might have created Rigodruok and secreted one of the Orbs of Dragonkind there. The name "Rigodruok" isn't used in that Dragon article explicitly. Most of it is from Greyhawk Adventures, with The Adventure Begins supplying information on the vale's precise dimensions and geographic location.

Source: http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopi ... 767#p89767

-Havard