Is this supposed to be a 'create plot device to explain situation' situation or a 'authors screwed up, forgot man is cleric and can cast things like regenerate?' situation?
If the former, what exactly could inflict unhealing wounds that could happen when fighting the Tenha?
In this case, so far as I remember, there was not a "definitive" answer. Many of the plot hooks at the end of each nation description were meant to pose provocative questions that led to adventures of the DM's design. Some of these, such as mysteries posed by the Sterich hooks, were latter picked up by Dungeon magazine or various other projects with which the authors have been involved, but I don't think this one ever was.
It would be compelling, however, to tie it into another classic Greyhawk mystery. The 2000-ish free RPGA member module "The Fright at Tristor" was set in the Theocracy of the Pale, and referenced an off-screen big bad called "The Watcher" (I believe). We always intended to do a follow-up module, but for various reasons it never happened.
Perhaps the Watcher is involved in these mysterious wounds? Two birds killed with one stone.
--Erik Mona
As one of the book's authors, I can say with authority (heh) that the question you ask is exactly what we had intended. Indeed, what could cause such wounds, and what could it have to do with Tenh?
In this case, so far as I remember, there was not a "definitive" answer. Many of the plot hooks at the end of each nation description were meant to pose provocative questions that led to adventures of the DM's design. Some of these, such as mysteries posed by the Sterich hooks, were latter picked up by Dungeon magazine or various other projects with which the authors have been involved, but I don't think this one ever was.
It would be compelling, however, to tie it into another classic Greyhawk mystery. The 2000-ish free RPGA member module "The Fright at Tristor" was set in the Theocracy of the Pale, and referenced an off-screen big bad called "The Watcher" (I believe). We always intended to do a follow-up module, but for various reasons it never happened.
Perhaps the Watcher is involved in these mysterious wounds? Two birds killed with one stone.
--Erik Mona
Woo, woo, a reply from the author. Doesn't get better than that.
Thank you. I just happened to notice that while doing a history entry for the Pale on Wikipedia, leaving me to wonder if this was left to the DM or a reference to something or another from some supplement I didn't have.
... Many of the plot hooks at the end of each nation description were meant to pose provocative questions that led to adventures of the DM's design.
Many of the Living Greyhawk triads have picked up on and used a lot of those handy Conflicts and Intrigues provided in the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. Some of them are so good that we've gone back and cross referenced them with Moore's DM's Notes in Greyhawk: the Adventure Begins. You have an almost endless amount of adventure seeds from those two sources alone.
The point is that is was a terrific idea for the authors to provide those vague, nebulous bits of fluff and flavor. It was such a Greyhawk approach to adventure seeding.
Don (Greyson)
Nyrond Triad
--Erik
Which is pretty scary, if you think about it, since it implies another powerful god sticking their oar in.
Thought of this as a possible explanation just tonight. Now I am thinking of this in terms of Epic levels, Lords of Madness, and the Far Realms. What if what he suffers from is not a disease per se, but more like a symbiot - a Far Realms creature bonded to him, slowly consuming him and taking over - changing him into something unrecognizable. Since Far Realms creatures are highly magic resistant - at epic levels even going so far as 5xCR in SR (see pseudonatural template in the ELH) a CR9 Far Realms symbiot would be invulnerable to healing by anyone on Oerth.
Of course I would tie this in in my campaign to Tharizdun - I see a connection between him and the Far Realms, and a Cthuluu-like setting. There must have been another "Forgotten Temple" in Tenh, found during the liberation. Now the Pale are trying to hide what is happening to the Grand Theocrat.
ROB