Lost City of the Suloise

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

mortellan

Dec 19, 2006 23:26:15
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/lgmp/20061219a

Another Mysterious place from our friends at Living Greyhawk.
#2

extempus

Dec 19, 2006 23:47:58
Nice... and perfect timing! We're in the Bright Lands now, but an expedition to the Pomarj is percolating in the back of my mind right now... I've been wondering a lot about the Lost City of the Suloise and how to work it into the adventure, and this definitely helps!!!
#3

Mortepierre

Dec 20, 2006 7:10:38
Not bad. Seems to mesh with the description found in the old Gord novel Artifact of Evil. Even the green dragon was there again.
#4

grodog

Dec 20, 2006 9:13:42
Thanks the the pointers, I'll have to check this out.
#5

extempus

Dec 20, 2006 20:35:11
I was having a look at my old 1e and 2e maps (from The World of Greyhawk and From the Ashes boxed sets), and the one location that seems to fit the following directions

Several days travel northwest of Badwall, they happened upon a number of tumbled stone buildings on a wooded ridge set amid a swamp bordering the Jewel River.

would appear to be hex K4-102. This would place the Lost City within the Orcish Wild Coast, and that's a little farther north than I'd expected. I figured it was south of the confluence of the Handmaiden and the Jewel, somewhere between Nol-Daer and Fenrill and much closer to the Pomarj. But then, a location on the Wild Coast might explain why the Lost City has remained undiscovered by Turrosh Mak's expeditions until now...
#6

ripvanwormer

Dec 20, 2006 23:55:05
would appear to be hex K4-102.

More like K4-92, I think, by the Darlene map.
#7

extempus

Dec 21, 2006 2:34:32
On my maps, those coordinates put it at the northern edge of the Gnarley not far from Dyvers...
#8

ripvanwormer

Dec 21, 2006 13:14:48
That's odd; I rechecked several times. Anyone else want to hazard a guess?
#9

extempus

Dec 21, 2006 19:21:40
Yes, please! I'm curious too... maybe we're both off? lol
#10

zombiegleemax

Dec 22, 2006 14:02:31
Well, it is a Lost City after all...

Much of the detail about the city was gleaned from the AoE description of the site - which (AFAIK) is the only real Canon account beyond vague references here and there.

The relevant quote about the location of the city is:

Artifact of Evil, p78: "Going through the forest on a northwesterly axis, the party managed to reach the banks of the Jewel eight days after entering the gloom of the Suss" [west of Badwall]…the drawing showed that there was a city just a few miles…north of their present position."

By my best reckoning and assuming that the Suss is really hard terrain to traverse, this comes out at about K4-102 or K4-101 (Darlene), as Extempus said.
#11

grodog

Dec 22, 2006 16:45:36
Oh, I figured you were using slightly different maps, perhaps (WoG vs. FtA)? I was going to pull them out to see if the hex letter/number guides were moved slightly or something like that. Didn't get around to it yet, though....
#12

extempus

Dec 23, 2006 2:08:07
By my best reckoning and assuming that the Suss is really hard terrain to traverse, this comes out at about K4-102 or K4-101 (Darlene), as Extempus said.

I figured going had to be slow through the Suss, and that everyone was lugging lots of equipment, food etc as well, therefore "several days travel" can't really cover that much ground.

I just doublechecked and it's K4-102 on both of my maps, but one hex off ain't bad though, lol... regardless, it has to be adjacent to the Jewel, so the Lost City is in a hex it flows through (unless it's in a really, really extensive swamp, like the Mistmarsh)...
#13

Ishorn

Dec 25, 2006 3:16:04
I think this is the lost city that was described as an adventure location in the first Greyhawk box set but it was never attached to the Suloise. I believe it is also suppose to be below ground. I created an adventure for this based on the information given. My group had fun. They had to sneak into the area because of all the humanoids and sneak back out but they took out enough wealth and exps to make it worth the trip.
#14

extempus

Dec 25, 2006 3:34:51
I found this in A Guide to the World of Greyhawk (p. 58) from the World of Greyhawk boxed set:

A lost, ruined city of the Old Suloise is said to be hidden somewhere in the Suss forest, but few dare to venture on such a quest, particularly today.

By "today," they mean 576 CY. Regardless, it looks like the Lost City's been written about since at least 1983...
#15

zombiegleemax

Jan 01, 2007 14:51:34
That'd be one of those vague here and there references I mentioned.
Carl Sargent rejigged the Suss entry in FtA, but didn't add much more than what you have there. Ditto the Suss entry in the LGG.
#16

extempus

Jan 01, 2007 19:06:33
Other than the Pomarj entry in the LGG (p. 88), where we're told:

Mak has sent expeditions into the Suss Forest to investigate reports of a lost city of the Suel, where he hopes great magic remains for his use.

every other reference I've seen is pretty vague too, oh well, lol. But we have this interesting paragraph from the article:

Setting up a fortified camp on the wooded ridge, the explorers set about attempting to discover what they could about the Lost City and its fate. Though examples of Suloise artifice were found within the ruins, most of the buildings, including a massive three-tiered ziggurat, seemed to be much older. These elder ruins did not match any known architectural style of the Suel. Similarly, inscriptions in convoluted script of unknown provenance, but ancient date, were inscribed upon the walls of the ziggurat. The scroll’s author apparently viewed it as almost blasphemous that the city might not in fact have been founded by the Suloise, as the legends had related.

So, the question is: is the Lost City truly Suloise, did they conquer a preexisting city, or is it from another completely unknown civilization?
#17

zombiegleemax

Jan 02, 2007 11:40:24
AoE (Artifact of Evil, E. Garry Gygax, TSR 1986) is pretty clear that the ziggurat (at least) predates the Suloise and very probably the Flan too.

p83 has the relevant clues. Gord and co. find a partially collapsed structure that’s bears bas relief and convoluted text that is not of Suloise origin:

"'This is not Suel workmanship," Gellor [a high level bard] remarked as he studied the bas relief carvings on the walls revealed by the ruddy firelight. "Come here, Curley, and take a look...this convoluted script is like none I've ever seen!"

“Legend said a city of the Suloise had been here, but the place was certainly of origination predating the migration of the Invoked Devastation by centuries.”

“It bore no resemblance to any Flan work he [Incosee, a Tenha] had ever seen, and he said he had seen some of the sacred writings and idols in Tenh.”

Now - the Tenha in question wasn't a sage and there may be more diversity in ancient Flan iconography that we might think. However, given that neither Gellor, nor Curley Greenleaf, nor Oscar Longland (who together must have over 60 levels combined) have no idea of the script's provenance, I think that EGG is getting at the idea that the city (or at least the ziggurat) was founded by a non-human race. I'd (idly) speculate that this race may have had some sort of connection to one or other of the Cairn Builder civilisations of the Cairn Hills (either the same as, or, perhaps, foes of).
#18

extempus

Jan 02, 2007 20:39:27
I'd guess the Suel migrants discovered the ziggurat and other ruins and built a new city on the site. That would seem to make the most sense.
#19

zombiegleemax

Jan 08, 2007 10:12:07
I'd guess the Suel migrants discovered the ziggurat and other ruins and built a new city on the site. That would seem to make the most sense.

That's not implausible. I'd add though, that the Suel might not have happened upon the ruins by accident...
#20

extempus

Jan 08, 2007 20:45:02
Hmm... maybe they ruined the city first! That way, no pesky former inhabitants to worry about, lol... seriously, maybe it was a Flan city, or even ruins much more ancient, perhaps from the civilization that built the Doomgrinder...
#21

zombiegleemax

Jan 09, 2007 16:11:56
Or all of the above. It may have been serially settled, as Exag was.
#22

zombiegleemax

Jan 16, 2007 0:48:33
It was an long abandoned Imaskari structure, the Imaskari visited this planet and set up a temporary stronghold at the place when they where gathering slaves in this sphere to help them build empires on other worlds
#23

extempus

May 25, 2007 19:28:07
I came across this reference to the Lost City the other day (The Adventure Begins, p. 55):

A ruined city of the Suloise is said to lie under the roots and boughs of the Suss; it is thought to have been a river port along the Jewel, southwest of Elredd, and was a center of wickedness for centuries before it fell. Descendants of its folk are said to have founded the city of Badwall.

This would place the Lost City much farther south than the current article states, and also suggests that it thrived for quite some time ("centuries") before the Earth Dragon destroyed it, possibly to as recently as 500-600 years ago (ca. 1-100 CY).

In rereading Slavers (pp. 35-36), I came across a reference to a Scarlet Brotherhood agent named Diran Conoriel, aka "Ratter," presumably the same person the author of the scroll was seeking in Hardby... curiouser and curiouser...
#24

qstor

May 31, 2007 7:39:10
There's an LG Sheldomar Metaregional plot involving the Suss but I don't think it will touch on the Lost City.

Mike
#25

extempus

May 31, 2007 18:51:05
Too bad... either way, there is enough information (ie, next to nothing) for me to accurately place it on the map and design it myself (most of which is sunk beneath a swamp, so there isn't much). Now, just to decide what can be found there (besides a green dragon)...
#26

max_writer

Jun 01, 2007 10:58:53
Suel liches.
#27

extempus

Jun 01, 2007 20:05:32
Aren't they found only in the Sea of Dust?
#28

ripvanwormer

Jun 01, 2007 20:17:21
Aren't they found only in the Sea of Dust?

They waited around there for a while, but when it became clear that the empire wasn't going to grow itself back and that the conversation of other Suel liches wasn't very entertaining, they traveled east to see the sights.
#29

extempus

Nov 27, 2007 19:52:02
I was able to work the information in the article into our latest adventure, but as I explained in my post in The Twisted Forest thread, the Crystal of the Ebon Flame is hidden within the ziggurat. I've decided that the Suloise immigrants took over an old, ruined city in the Suss shortly after the Rain of Colorless Fire, discovered the Crystal, and all fell under it's influence, rebuilt the city, and formed an evil cult that worshipped it (based on its description in Book of Artifacts, p. 29). The city had been destroyed centuries before the Suloise claimed it, having been attacked by enemies of the cult, and it was almost totally destroyed by the Earth Dragon some 500-600 years ago, as described in the original article. Ever since, the Crystal has awaited new worshippers to find it and revive it's evil cult...