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Cards77
Senior Scribe
USA
748 Posts |
 Posted - 11 Jul 2025 : 03:15:23
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In a few of the oldest sourcebooks Ed (or others) mentioned strange weather that the locals referred to in game as "wizard weather".
I have been unable to find anything about it: no definition, no mention of what exactly it is, if it was confined to specific areas (for some reason the Evermoors comes to mind).
Was anything else said about this?
Any "wizard weather" tables?
Probably a question for Ed but I'm betting some of you can answer it.
Thank you
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36916 Posts |
Posted - 11 Jul 2025 : 22:12:04
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| I would think that it was any kind of weather the locals might consider unnatural, even if it was nothing more than an overly warm day or an exceptionally rainy one. And if it's unnatural, well then, clearly a wizard did it. |
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paintphob
Acolyte
USA
14 Posts |
Posted - 11 Jul 2025 : 23:22:06
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| It was mentioned on page 50 of FR5 "The Savage Frontier" It is mostly centered around the High Forest. There was no table given for the weather or its effects, only some examples of what might happen, and the chance that it would (1% change each day while within the High Forest). |
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Delnyn
Master of Realmslore
USA
1052 Posts |
Posted - 12 Jul 2025 : 08:34:53
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| Were the High Forest effects largely caused by Wulgreth's fateful casting that made the Dire Wood? (Wulgreth of Ascalhorn not Wulgreth of Netheril) |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
12105 Posts |
Posted - 12 Jul 2025 : 16:37:46
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Some notes from FR5 Savage Frontier
The idea is that Karsus is the source of a lot of this stuff. He stole Mystryl's power and became a god. He then DIED and as all gods do, he turned to "godstone"... only he didn't end up in the astral like other dead gods do... and his body AND CITY fell to the earth to become the fallen city of Karse in the Dire Wood.
Then along came Wulgreth of Ascalhorn/Hellgate Keep who further meddled with things, and tried to use the immortal heart of a dead god (i.e. the karsestone) as his phylactery or somesuch after working to sow mistrust amongst those who had worshipped Karsus.
BTW, I find the dire wood, with Jhingleshod the Iron Axeman, to remind me of Oz and its "Dark Forest". It should be inhabited by night and green hags, with curse servants, etc... and they should be brewing things in great cauldrons filled with blood from the heartblood river that they then feed to captured future servitors that warp them in body and mind. It's also noted as "may actually be an access point to an alternate Prime Material Plane" back in 1e.... and with a 5e perspective, I'd actually put it that the Dire Wood actually lies in the shadowfell. This could fit with the concept that the shadovar of Thultanthar escaped to the "plane of shadow" whenever Karsus fell, and that it returned FROM the "plane of shadow" as a part of recovering the karsestone.
Wizard Weather
The High Forest and the surrounding countryside experience (or suffer from) occasional exotic weather patterns that can only be of magical origin (and are presumed to be caused by the Dire Wood). This weather appears suddenly, ends suddenly and is often destructive and deadly. Recorded types of wizard weather have included red snow (it "tasted like blood"), hot rain ("it boiled the flesh"), blizzards in summer, exotic (invisible, multi-colored, huge, explosive, glowing and black) hailstones, dense fog (with evil creatures lurking within), razor-sharp sleet ("it drew blood and scored metal"), black, acidic rain, and desert-like blazing heat.
There is a 1% chance each day of encountering wizard weather while within the High Forest.
The Dire Wood
Deep within the eastern wood, somewhere along the Heartblood river lies the Dire Wood, a small grove of unkillable, black trees, apparently no greater than a mile across. Also known as the Enchanted Wood, this intensely magical area may actually be an access point to an alternate Prime Material Plane. Whatever the truth may be, the Dire Wood is much larger inside than out. The intense arcane effect of the wood has created a strange land of magic and mystery. Weather here bears no resemblance to the outer world and is itself highly magical. Creatures
long extinct elsewhere are found here in abundance (but die upon leaving). Magical sites appear at random, then disappear without a trace. Somewhere within the Dire Wood are the lost ruins of Karse, an outpost of the latter days of the ancient Netheril.
GAME INFORMATION: As of this writing, the Dire Wood is 150 miles across (its inside dimension). Each year it broadens by about 80 feet as another ring of black trees surrounds the forest. The terrain over which the forest grows is hilly and entirely forested. There are no mountains within the Wood, only a single towering red stone butte, and few normal creatures "even the usual forest animals are gigantic or
otherwise magically modified. Tianna Skyflower, Jhingleshod, 'The Iron Axeman,' and Wulgreth (see pp. 56-64) call the Dire Wood home.
Heartblood River
This tributary of the Delimbiyr, which flows through the Dire Wood, has its source on the north side of the Star Mounts. Where the Heartblood leaves the Dire Wood, the water has a reddish cast which quickly disappears.
GAME INFORMATION: If the water of the Heartblood is consumed while still reddish, the imbiber is temporarily magically enhanced. For 1d4 hours, spells cast by magic-users and clerics (not by devices) have a +1 chance to succeed, and all imbibers gain a 20% Magic Resistance.
SIDENOTE: With a hindsight view of later lore, rereading the entry on Tianna Skyflower ... worships Malar ... mixed drow, elf, and human bloodlines leading similar halfbreeds. Part of me thinks she's make a great link to the Crinti, perhaps someone who didn't want to worship Loviatar. I had never noted her before, but she's of interest to me now, especially if I pervert her worship to a similar but different cat goddess of the hunt. She'd fit in quite well with a Crinti princess I was using in some stuff. According to FR5 savage frontier, it says that these elves trace their heritage back to Earlann, but it doesn't state where they trace their drow heritage from.
Tianna Skyflower
High Forest (Dire Wood)
8th level thief/magic-user
CE, Malar
Elf female, IN 15, DEX 18, CN 16
Tianna is of mixed elven, drow and human bloodlines. She is duskyskinned and dark-haired with the crown a blaze of purest white through the crown. She is able to disguise her distinctive appearance by using a magical item called the ring of five visages, which produces an illusion of another appearance. Her followers are dusky half-drows, drow-human half breeds. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 13 Jul 2025 00:52:45 |
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TBeholder
Great Reader
2486 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jul 2025 : 11:58:16
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quote:
Originally posted by paintphob
It was mentioned on page 50 of FR5 "The Savage Frontier" It is mostly centered around the High Forest. There was no table given for the weather or its effects, only some examples of what might happen, and the chance that it would (1% change each day while within the High Forest).
In other words, most likely an effect of broken mythals and other spell-fields of Miyeritar. |
People never wonder How the world goes round -Helloween
And even I make no pretense Of having more than common sense -R.W.Wood
It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo. -Ed Whitchurch |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
12105 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jul 2025 : 17:15:50
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quote:
Originally posted by TBeholder
quote:
Originally posted by paintphob
It was mentioned on page 50 of FR5 "The Savage Frontier" It is mostly centered around the High Forest. There was no table given for the weather or its effects, only some examples of what might happen, and the chance that it would (1% change each day while within the High Forest).
In other words, most likely an effect of broken mythals and other spell-fields of Miyeritar.
Nah, most of it centered around the city of Karse being in the Dire Wood, the heartblood river, etc... it was all a focus around the idea that some powerful magic was related to the city of Karse, which eventually became Karsus.
I do half wonder if the story of Karsus wasn't a part of Ed's original realms. Not necessarily flying cities, or even a mage killing Mystryl, etc... mind you... but just being some mage named Karsus who causes some great evil in the High Forest (planar incursion from another world, etc... that began corrupting a portion of the forest into a great dark forest, etc...) |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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TBeholder
Great Reader
2486 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jul 2025 : 22:43:49
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quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Nah, most of it centered around the city of Karse being in the Dire Wood, the heartblood river, etc... it was all a focus around the idea that some powerful magic was related to the city of Karse, which eventually became Karsus.
I really was not clear here... I mean, it must be both. As in, "bad combo".
My point is that general nature of such environmental effects suggests decayed elven spell fields. It's what happens in broken mythals, Cormanthor, High Moor/Undermoors, etc. But of course, even Myth Glaurach does not throw around major damaging effects unless fed a spell.
Conversely, Karsestone/Heartblood area can produce strong effects, but does not show distinct affinity for environmental or other sudden dramatic effects. Even the Dire Wood itself is weird, but small and generally inert.
Thus, it would make sense that unstable magic bubbling out of the elven ruins on its own should be on par with similar phenomena in Cormanthor or Undermoors, which tend to be much weaker, subtler effects, mostly on "somewhat unsettling" level. The Weave anomalies of this area, however, boost such disturbances to the observed large-scale and often dangerous effects, hence explosive hailstones, razorblade sleet and so on. |
People never wonder How the world goes round -Helloween
And even I make no pretense Of having more than common sense -R.W.Wood
It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo. -Ed Whitchurch |
Edited by - TBeholder on 13 Jul 2025 22:46:28 |
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"Wizard Weather" resources
