"I shall take this World, and turn it inside out."
(RAVAR, God of Change)
"The Overworld? Well... it was like... like the World turned inside out."
(Memories of a survivor of the Great Crusade)
"The Great Crusade changed everything. This World will never be the same again."
(WAGREN)
"Press hard at the Bottom of Hell, and Pop! It will explode, and We'll all be flung out into Space! So don't push Me too hard..."
(TERRIK, from a joke - apocryphal)
The memory of orcs is short, except when it comes to grudges.
The Great Crusade will be remembered because so many went out, and so few came back. The missing orcs are not living in the Overworld, where no orc can tolerate the blinding light of day. They feed the crows and rats that grow fat on the carrion heaps of Garflee.
The Gods of Hell impressed orcs from all across the Underworld into the Great Crusade, to destroy the Forces of Good once and for all. The Crusaders journeyed to the Far North West, and descended to the Overworld, where they met a great army of Good on the field of Garflee. The Gods of Good were forced to intervene to save Their followers (as the Good will). This enabled the Gods of Hell to seize Heaven from Them, but the orcs on the ground were cut to bloody pieces by the Angels of Good. Those of the survivors who did not flee had their will to live removed. The rest of the Crusade ravaged the Kingdom of Good in retribution, but it was a terrible price to pay for the conquest of Heaven. As usual the leaders benefited, and the followers suffered.
Then a new menace struck the Great Orcish Empire. From out of the Desert of Torpor came the fanatical bearers of the Seeds of Death, which when planted in the ground or a body sprouted rapidly into deadly Chaotic growths. A terrible jungle spread over a wide area, but the World was saved by a new God, RAVAR, Who changed the Chaosplants into a forest, such as sheltered the orcs of Garflee.
This earned RAVAR many followers for His new Creed of Change: from all that has gone before. He gives His Clerics the power to change anything into anything else: the sort of power they need to survive the efforts of existing Faiths to wipe them out.
Here are such news and views as are currently circulating in your part of the Underworld. Experience updates will follow.
Your orders are now requested for the next Month, to the New Moon, which I shall be running during February and March 1985. Two sessions, face-to-face or postal, will be allowed per player. If more than one players run together it will count as one session for each, but they will be allowed an appropriately longer session.
© P.R. Wild, 20 October 1984 & 7 February 1985
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