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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Parmandur" data-source="post: 9176038" data-attributes="member: 6780330">Fron Shannon Applecline's history of WG4, a bit about Gygax's original intended series:What About WG1-3!? Though "Tharizdun" was labeled as WG4, there were no previous "WG" adventures (and never would be). In the Glossography for the World of Greyhawk boxed set (1983), TSR indicated that T1: "The Village of Hommlet" (1979) was meant to be WG1 and that S4: "The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth" was meant to be WG3. Meanwhile, in Dragon #71 (March 1983), Gygax revealed that the adventure formerly known as T2: "The Temple of Elemental Evil" was to be WG2 - but he now said it was to be published in two parts.As it happens, Temple of Elemental Evilwould be delayed a few years more and eventually published as the T1-4 supermodule (1985).In the forward to Dungeons of Dread (2013), Lawrence Schick further underlined the continuity between the modules intended to be WG1-3, writing, "there's evidence that Gary considered Tsojcanth part of a longer Greyhawk campaign, placing the adventure between T1-T4: The Temple of Elemental Evil and WG4: 'The Forgotten Temple oF Tharizdun'." When seen in that light, the four modules do form a nice adventuring continuity: T1 is "introductory to novice level"; T1-4 carries that up as high as level 8 (and possiblly higher); S4 runs levels 6-8; and WG4 goes from levels 8-10.In his "Greyhawk Grognard" blog, Joseph Bloch suggests that Iuz might have been the lynchpin holding the arc together, since he's involved with the Temple of Elemental Evil and is also the son of Iggwilv from "Caverns."However, when TSR organized their own Greyhawk "adventure path" in 1985-86, starting from T1-4, they didn't use the arc that Schick suggested. Instead, they continued from T1-4 into A1-4, then the GDQ series. The result has even looser connections, as well as some chronological problems related to Lolth.A Sort of Sequel. "Tharizdun" is connected at least geographically to S4: "The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth"; Gnome Valley, a location that players encounter in "Caverns," is raided by norkers in WG4. This raid gets the PCs on the road to Tharizdun's Temple, where the norkers lair.This connection puts the two adventures in extremely close proximity, both set in the Yatil Mountains near Perrenland. Unfortunately, the spatial proximity of the two adventures isn't supported that well by the adventures' production styles, which include wilderness maps in dramatically different scales.In a much later interview, Gygax indicated that the mage Tsojocanth (who originally created the caverns from S4) defeated the cult of Tharizdun and acted as a conduit of power for the good deities to imprison Tharizdun itself. That's exactly the sort of detail that could have really tied the two adventures together -- but it's unfortunately absent from the adventures themselves (but now you know and can run the adventures yourself accordingly!).Adventure Origins. When writing of the origins of "Tharizdun," Gygax said, "The [original] adventurers discovered Gnome Vale in the course of seeking the 'Caverns'. Later, they returned for rest and recuperation after suffering severe damage exploring the latter place. Only three or four of the original party actually journeyed to the 'Temple', because, as is usual with any group, some of its number were not on hand when it was time to adventure."Based on the playtester lists, the players in common were Luke Gygax, David Kuntz, Richard Kuntz, and Sonny Savage. Because "Caverns" was originally playtested prior to the WinterCon V (1976) tournament, we can guess that "Tharizdun" has a similar pedigree, and thus might have been six years old by the time it was actually published as WG4.[URL unfurl="true"]https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/17080/wg4-the-forgotten-temple-of-tharizdun-1e[/URL]</blockquote>

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