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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1803 Posts |
 Posted - 30 Dec 2025 : 08:47:42
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On gods appearing in their true form without any negative things happening to mortals
Yukonau — 25/6/2025 6:49 PM
Can gods appear in their true form to Mortals without any negative things happening to the mortal?
Ed Greenwood — 19/12/2025 1:59 PM
Yes, if they want not to do harm to the mortal (not terrify or awe them). If, however, they tell others about meeting the god, or there were witnesses who talk, other mortals may do negative things to that mortal. |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1803 Posts |
Posted - 30 Dec 2025 : 08:54:50
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On Zelraun Roaringhorn in the Dessarin and what he is up to nowadays
Reedhalloran Duskfellow — 25/6/2025 2:03 PM
Dear Saer @Ed Greenwood I've noted that the Waterdhavian noble Zelraun Roaringhorn has shown up in a few adventures including OotA, CoS and curiously on the cover of Princes of the Apocalypse. But the Harper is not mentioned at all the book except by name on the title credit. Since you were a designer on that adventure I was wondering if you had any insight into his presence in the Dessarin and/or what he might be up to nowadays.
Ed Greenwood — 19/12/2025 2:19 PM
Zelraun is a handsome man and a very successful diplomat (so, superb actor) as well as an accomplished spy; he has a knack for noticing and precisely remembering all sorts of details without ever seeming to look, let alone pry. Although he’s had a lifelong love of travel and adventure, he’s “now” (that is, in 1501 DR) retired to raising a family: three very independent-minded, bold “handfuls” of daughters and a younger son.
He’s doing this in the remote castle of Spellgard, where he settled down with his bride Rueahkla Telressen (a remarkably tall, black-haired, thoughtful-looking woman of silent grace and huge dark blue eyes, who is a superb singer and mimic, and a hf CG Bard16; a sometime adventurer and the granddaughter of the Harper Sharanralee Crownstar) with the full permission of Lady Saharel (who appears to them from time to time, usually to one of the three daughters when they are alone and want to talk something over or decide something).
The daughters are Qelqotha Nune (born 1487 DR); Kahadralee Tashahl (born 1488 DR); and Zeeamvea Irindra (born 1490 DR).
Qelqotha hates her name, and prefers to be known as “Shamra,” her mother’s childhood nickname (when her siblings want to goad or rebuke her, they call her “Kel”). She’s a quiet, inquisitive “deep thinker” who’s becoming increasingly restless to find out more about Toril (ideally by travel and seeing it all for herself, but she’ll settle for access to good sages and a superb library—for now). Beneath her quiet manner is a stubborn will of iron and a surprising amount of determination, but she’s practical, never a “hurl herself at a stone wall” sort. She looks like a thinner, shorter, less buxom version of her mother, and is currently a hf CG Ftr1.
Kahadralee is an agile, endlessly energetic “tomboy” who likes to climb, sword-fence with her father, dance (formal court dances) with her mother, and ride (horses and ponies; she’s skilled at leaping up into their saddles, and leaping safely and accurately from their saddles). She likes weapons and armor, climbing cliffs, and (when parental backs are turned) exploring caves and ruins. She’s currently a hf CG Rogue1.
Zeeamvea is a tiny, beautiful “elegant doll” girly girl, and has the Gift. She has a fierce determination underneath an “see my big, big eyes? I’m such a needy, sad child; won’t you let me do what I want to, so I can be happy?” act that no longer fools her family in the slightest. She’s currently a hf CG Sor1 who’s managed a handful of wild magical effects, but no controlled, precise spells yet.
The son is Raunavel (an old family name among the Roaringhorns), born 1492 DR, and is a handsome, almost beautiful brown-haired boy who’s a very accomplished actor and a fair mimic. He still devotes his waking hours to play, but is increasingly curious about the natural world around him, and exploring it. He’s currently a hm NG Ftr1, but that’s very much a “placeholder” class; he hasn’t chosen his approach to the world yet.
As to what Zelraun was doing in the Dessarin at the time of Princes Of The Apocalypse: he was spying on the four elemental cults to see if they had tangible connections to the Zhentarim, any Szass Tam-loyal or maverick Red Wizards of Thay, the Arcane Brotherhood, or the Cult of the Dragon. That is: were weapons, mercenaries, money, or anything else flowing between the cults and any of these sinister organizations in any substantive way, meaning they might swiftly become a big problem? (The answer, so far as he could ascertain at the time, was no.) |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1803 Posts |
Posted - 30 Dec 2025 : 09:09:14
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On Implitur's climate in the Ed's Realms
Marco Volo — 21/12/2025 4:13 PM
Hi @Ed Greenwood ! Just a quick question: in your original Realms, how is it climate wise to live in Impiltur with the Sea of Fallen Stars south and east, mountains west and the Great Glacier north? What is Impiltur climate in your Realms? Any help appreciated.
Ed Greenwood — 22/12/2025 12:52 AM
I have always seen Impiltur as temperate climate of about the same weather and temperature ranges as real-world Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario, and upstate (northern) New York (note: over my 60-odd years, things have gotten markedly milder, with shorter winters and lighter snowfalls; I'm aiming "in the middle" of this, in my mind). The local microclimate is damp (and the land itself well-watered, with many creeks, streams, ponds, and small lakes) but not oppressive because breezes blow constantly; night rains and morning fogs are frequent. |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1803 Posts |
Posted - 30 Dec 2025 : 10:20:03
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On Spellfire card with Carrie Bebris
Juniper Churlgo — 22/12/2025 12:05 AM
Ed, in this Spellfire card image, who is the character played by Carrie Bebris and what is the book she is casting read languages on?
<https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1072136642162343986/1452331173781966898/589.png?ex=6953f84e&is=6952a6ce&hm=d6b60085a138508bb97e4bd4408dc84c7c025c926b56ac91e119678c63eb9532&>
Ed Greenwood — 22/12/2025 1:10 AM
A fun little game played by TSR staffers at bestowing joke names, identities, and activities to each other’s Spellfire card portraits resulted in many answers to your question. The one of mine I like best for Realmslore purposes is: Carrie is portraying Ardranatha Sheiltalah, a young lady of Zazesspur who relocated to Candlekeep to become an Avowed. At the time of this image, she’s a novice, and is learning the proper careful and respectful handling of tomes by means of a “practice” book, a traveling spell workbook (containing notes on the results of experimentations to craft new spells, and various versions of those spells) penned by Reltar Yannatranter, a minor mage of Rauthil (in Mulhorand) who assumed various new names and identities as he fled repeated assassination attempts (Red Wizards were sent out to “prune” Thay’s traditional rivals of wizards, early in Szass Tam’s reign).
Yannatranter headed west, ending up in Athkatla in Amn until Red Wizards struck at him there, whereupon he disappeared in rural Tethyr and hasn’t been identified since. He was last known to be using the name Albaerus Phondryn, to be working as a scroll and book maker (blank surfaces for purchasers to write upon), and to have mastered many shapeshifting spells.
For her part, Ardranatha Sheiltalah is now a quiet, learned and respected Avowed, not a senior monk but well on the way to becoming one. Her specialties are dragontaming magics and the history of trade flows in the Vilhon Reach. |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1803 Posts |
Posted - 30 Dec 2025 : 10:24:15
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On magic from a devil pact
mAc Chaos — 18/12/2025 5:19 PM
Hi @Ed Greenwood A question about Hell. When a devil makes a pact with a supplicant and grants it power, like say magic, is that magic like a cleric, where the god is providing it like a pipeline, or is it more like the devil gave them a gift and now it's in control of the receiver?
Ed Greenwood — 24/12/2025 2:18 AM
In almost all cases, it’s like clerical situations: the devil as patron provides it like a pipeline, and may fall silent (provide nothing), bestow something other than what’s asked for, or “twist” what the supplicant thinks they’re getting into a variant or even something else.
For example, they think they’re getting a Flame Strike they can precisely control the “ground zero” of (center of the cylindrical column of flame), but what they unleash is instead a circular or oval “net” of flame, 10 feet high and of 40 radius rather than vice versa. Or, they think they’re hurling a Flame Strike but instead get a 40-foot-square area effect Evard’s Black Tentacles.
Such “twists” are almost always the result of the devil’s annoyance or anger at the supplicant’s behaviour or competence, but sometimes are sheer mischief or an attempt to aid a supplicant with something more effective in the situation.
mAc Chaos — 24/12/2025 2:20 AM
Thank you! So there isn't a case where a former pactee could take their devil bestowed power and fight their patron? The patron can just turn it off?
Ed Greenwood — 24/12/2025 2:28 AM
That's right: they can just sever the bestowal connection (any not-yet-used spells/powers will be retained by the supplicant, and could be used against the former patron). However, just as with gods slyly sidling in to bestow spells in answer to prayers to other deities, ANOTHER rival devil might step in to power the supplicant temporarily, to harm or irk the rival devil, or just out of mischief (despite the lawful nature of devils, there's a strong streak of "shake up authority" mischief in all devils). |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1803 Posts |
Posted - 30 Dec 2025 : 10:28:06
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On spear bows in the Realms
returnip — 12/12/2025 11:18 PM
Hello Ed. Hope you are well. Today I learned that spear bows (in effect a bow with a spear tip fitted to one end) were a thing historically in both Scandinavia, Japan and North America. Are spear bows used in the realms, and if so by whom?
Ed Greenwood — 24/12/2025 2:30 AM
In the Realms, spear bows are weapons used by many non-military archers (for example, wilderland hunters), so the archer has a means of defense if they miss, or if their arrow doesn’t bring down a target that is now angrily charging at the archer. Wild boar, for instance, charge and gore whether hit or not, and having a spear without having to fumble for it, or carry and plant it (ruining stealth) whenever one wants to loose an arrow, can be crucial to survival. (Organized military forces—not including mercenaries—avoid spear bows because of the increased likelihood of “injuring a friendly” when operating in groups, when an outfitted/“uniformed” archer will be carrying multiple weapons.) |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1803 Posts |
Posted - 30 Dec 2025 : 10:54:49
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On communal sleeping in the Realms
mAc Chaos — 11/12/2025 6:31 PM
Hi @Ed Greenwood! Do people in the Realms use communal sleeping, or are they more modern in their sleeping habits and all have their own private beds and bedoroms? Or is that more of a rich person thing?
Ed Greenwood — 24/12/2025 2:42 AM
Sleeping habits in the Realms vary widely depending on culture, locale, climate, and current situation (camping out, traveling, or at home).
In general, inns provide communal bedrooms (often the attic of the building) to the lowest-paying/overflow=latecomers (with the hayloft of the stables being the overflow for the attic, though the likelihood of fires makes innkeepers reluctant to use these lofts for this purpose), and if taverns offer overnight sleeping at all, beyond drunks in the taproom who can’t be moved, it’s communal.
For everyone else traveling, one pays for the security of a room with a door that can be locked, bolted, and/or barred; such rooms may be small, but it’s expected that two people (plus, perhaps, children ) can share them, and they will be fitted with two beds, likely rope-and-straw mattress raised platforms of about what we would call “queen-sized”). The custom is to charge a base room rate for two people, plus so much more “per head” for anyone else crammed in.
Household sleeping habits vary widely.
The wealthy and nobility always have a private bedchamber for the head of the house that’s reached through a servants’ “ready room” that has a servants’ bedchamber opening off of it. Similar arrangements will exist for dowagers and other important family members. A step down (lesser family members and senior servants such as chatelaines, stewards, and castellans) will be private bedchambers with adjoining jakes and robing rooms. The next step down will be shared-by-two-servants bedchambers (with communal, shared with several such rooms jakes and robing rooms), and the step below that is shared sleeping dormitories for the lowliest servants, and for visiting servants who won’t be sleeping handy to those they serve.
A farmer may have the entire family sleeping in the same room, but with curtained-off areas for couples.
And just about anything in between can be found. |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1803 Posts |
Posted - 30 Dec 2025 : 11:35:32
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On merchants using bags of holding
BlissfulSavant — 3/12/2025 4:49 AM
Hello Ed. Hope you are doing well
Per base 5e, the cost of a bag of holding tends to be around 500 gp. What stops merchants from using as many bags of holding as they can to maximize returns on long voyages, esp. considering that the bags would greatly reduce the weight of the cargo, this freeing up room for security and crew. Or, say, hiring a decently competent caster to teleport between two teleportation circles, carrying multiple bags of holding on their person laden with jewels and spices
I also wonder if specialized bags of holding exist for various purposes, e.g. "password protected" / user-imprinted bags that only open for the right person
Ed Greenwood — 24/12/2025 2:53 AM
There’s a well-known peril to concentrating multiple bags of holding in a small area: there’s a surprisingly strong chance of opening a tiny, temporary planar rift that can suck the bags, and anyone holding them or very nearby, through the rift.
There’s also the possibility of attracting a Bagman (a notorious danger of Ravenloft) to inhabit one of the bags, and devour or teleport to unknown other locations, anything inside that bag.
An even stronger possibility is: attracting the attention of an Astral Dreadnaught if in the Astral Plane, and attracting the attention of hags seeking to modify the bags of holding for their own soul-storage uses, who come to seize the bags in coven strength.
Zonesylvania — 24/12/2025 4:27 AM
around how many bags in a small area would be enough to cause this?
Ed Greenwood — 24/12/2025 10:28 AM
Three, if ambient conditions are bad. Four or five, if they're good.
Moon On The Horizon Etherdell — 24/12/2025 1:34 PM
Does that also include similar but different items such as a Heward's Handy Haversacks? For example, if conditions were bad but a party only had two bags of holding, but one member also has a Heward's Handy Haversack or a portable hole, would that be enough to attract danger?
Ed Greenwood — 25/12/2025 2:53 AM
Oh, yes. Handy Haversacks are themselves SLIGHTLY more secure than Bags of Holding, one of each compared, but for purposes of rifts and general shenanigans, portable holes, Heward's, and Bags of Holding are all "perils if clustered."
Zonesylvania — 25/12/2025 4:56 AM
Are there or were there ways to ward extradimensional containers that allowed use of them en masse? Did any of the older magical empires and civilizations have such means?
Ed Greenwood — 25/12/2025 5:31 AM
No. Like battery technology in our real world, such things were much talked about and experimented towards, but not achieved. What the Netherese and the olden-times elves and Imaskari managed were various (hazardous) ways of "chaining" a "wild" rift into a gate/portal that they had some measure of control over. |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1803 Posts |
Posted - 30 Dec 2025 : 12:08:22
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On cheese that blends with herbs
Zonesylvania — 23/10/2025 4:22 AM
Good saer @Ed Greenwood , are there any cheeses in the Realms that use blends of herbs in their manufacture? Or any cheese with spices other than Calishite Green? thankee!
Ed Greenwood — 24/12/2025 10:33 AM
There are many, of both sorts. In fact, most Faerûnian cheeses use particular herbs, or two to three herbs in combination, in their making. Stronger-flavoured spiced cheeses are rarer, but they exist, from Runny Luiren to Stronkh (from Ashanath) to Ualacontur (“Oo-AL-ah-kaun-turr” from Murghôm). |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1803 Posts |
Posted - 30 Dec 2025 : 12:47:33
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On Runny Luiren cheese
Juniper Churlgo — 4/12/2025 7:33 AM
Ed, what’s “delightful Runny Luiren” cheese? Is it related to cheeeeese? Churlgo cheeses? Brie? Blue?
Ed Greenwood — 24/12/2025 10:34 AM
Runny Luiren cheese is a soft-rind, brine-ripened cheese that looks very like Brie (and is usually made and sold in “handwheels,” flat circular discs ranging in size from about ten inches across to “three human hands” across, and in thickness from about two adult human fingers (the biggest two on a hand) to the width of an entire hand.
In consistency and colour, Runny Luiren also resembles Brie, but imagine Brie that’s spiced with cumin, pepper, and ginger, and already had a subtle “mushroom” taste before spices were added to the mix.
The result tastes almost like a very mild curry. It has a strong smell, but it’s not “stinky cheese” like Limburger. Most halflings love it when they can get it (which isn’t easy, the farther one gets from Luiren, with the exception of the ports of Waterdeep, Baldur’s Gate, Athkatla, Zazesspur, and along the Tashalar), and although it’s an acquired taste, it’s a taste that many humans and elves have acquired, down the years. To almost all drow, it’s a mouth delight that they rave about, nigh-foodgasm over, and will do almost anything to taste more of. (Can’t afford certain drow professionals in Baldur’s Gate? Offer them a palm-sized piece of Runny Luiren, and that will be more than payment enough.)
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Ed Greenwood from Greenwood's Grotto
