The Doomgrinder, a mysterious stone windmill many leagues east of the City of Greyhawk, has for centuries been the source of rumors, frustration and fear. The rumors say that vast treasures are stored inside—all cursed. The frustration belongs to hundreds of adventures who over the years have attempted to enter the windmill and failed. The fear is felt by those who believe the world will end when the stone sails of the Doomgrinder turn again. In the City of Greyhawk, powerful spellcasters read bad omens for the future, and the Doomgrinder is part of them. Some see no future at all good or bad.
In this Greyhawk adventure, a group of brave heroes may finally learn the truth about the Doomgrinder.
Designed for characters of level 4 through 8 but adaptable to any level, the adventure can be played on its own or as the climax of the Lost Tombs adventure series. It also offers countless opportunities for spin-off adventures, potentially providing the foundation for entirely new campaign directions, and months of exciting game sessions.
Product History
"The Doomgrinder" (1998), by Steve Miller, is the third adventure in the Lost Tombs trilogy. It was published in November 1998.
About the Cover. Missing the Doomgrinder on the cover? Fortunately it appears inside on page 3 and then (unearthed) on pages 25 and 27. You might also find it in other Greyhawk publications. For example look at the painting behind Tenser ("Manzorian") on page 64 of Dungeon #130 (January 2006).
Origins (I): The Third Tomb. "The Doomgrinder" is the third of the Lost Tombs, following "The Star Cairns" (1998) and "Crypt of Lyzandred the Mad" (1998). This is the least connected of the three: the players could have been sent here by Lyzandred, and the Doomgrinder isn't that far from the Star Cairns, but that's it. Overall, "The Doomgrinder" is quite different from its predecessors in tropes, style, and focus — probably because the previous two both shared a different author, Sean K. Reynolds.
Origins (II): The Revised Ashes. Like the previous Lost Tombs, this one expands an adventure seed from From the Ashes (1992). There, the Doomginder was detailed in about a quarter page in the Cairn Hills section. It was described as "a massive windmill … made entirely of stone". Its sails were said to "move one degree at a time at unpredictable intervals (once every 10-50 years)". These sails are also said to mark the coming of Greyhawk's next cataclysm!
It's a very evocative backstory, but Miller decided to go a different direction. His changes were even more dramatic than the changes that were made in the backstory of "The Star Cairns". Explaining his reasoning, Miller said, "The hard left was rather the point.... Yes, there were grandious prophesies. Do they all have to accurate, though?"
Genre Tropes: Science Fantasy. It turns out the Doomgrinder is just the visible portion of a "moving fortress, a war machine" that was buried beneath the surface. Basically, it's a tank, described using science-fantasy elements such as trapped dao and efreet powering its magical engine. This plotline, of an ancient war machine now trundling across the landscape, is reminiscent of a classic science-fantasy D&D module, CM4: "Earthshaker!" (1985).
Adventure Tropes: A Sandbox. Unlike the previous Lost Tombs, "The Doomgrinder" isn't exactly a dungeon crawl. It's more of a wide-open sandbox. The scenario cleverly mixes together details on the Doomgrinder itself (which players can crawl through) with the problems that it causes as it moves toward the City of Greyhawk. This creates a very open environment that the players can interact with as they see fit.
Adventure Tropes: Variable Levels. When Wizards relaunched the Greyhawk line, Miller kept pushing for the adventures to be adaptable to various character levels. He says that it's "something most modules should have, as it widens their usability and potential replayability". This probably explains the limited adaptibility found in "The Star Cairns". It's repeated here: the adventure is intended for characters levels 4-7, but various notes talk about adapting it to different levels of play.
Map Tropes: Geomorphs. How do you describe an enormous Doomgrinder tank? Miller treats it as if it were a city, using six geomorphs to lay out the whole tank, supplemented by specific maps for special areas like the control room and the engine room.
Exploring Greyhawk. "The Doomgrinder" begins in The Cairn Hills. There's extensive detail on the valley containing the Doomgrinder and of course the Doomgrinder itself. There are also numerous encounters as the Doomgrinder travels west, revealing more information on the area.
Exploring Greyhawk: Building a Campaign. Together, "The Star Cairns", "The Doomgrinder" and (to a lesser extent) "Crypt of Lyzandred the Mad" define a coherent adventure area southeast of the city of Greyhawk, encompassing the Cairn Hills and the Abbor-Alz.
There are also numerous other nearby adventures:
- The entire "WGA" adventure series (1990) occurs in the City of Greyhawk itself, while WGA2: "Falconmaster" (1990) is mostly set in the Cairn Hills that lie north of Greyhawk.
- Castle Greyhawk, as described in WGR1: Greyhawk Ruins (1990), also lies just north of the City.
- Straight south, the nearest major city is Hardby, which is described in Oerth Journal #10 (July 1999).
- Diamond Lake and other nearby areas in the Cairn Hills get even more attention in the "Age of Worms" Adventure Path that ran from Dungeon #124 (July 2005) to Dungeon #135 (June 2006).
- Between the Cairn Hills and the Abbor-Alz is Maure Castle, a famous dungeon crawl revealed in Dungeon #112 (July 2004), Dungeon #124 (July 2005), Dungeon #139 (October 2006), and Oerth Journal #23 (March 2008).
- Finally, down in Abbor-Alz dwells C2: "The Ghost Tower of Inverness" (1980).
Blowing Up the Canon. The description of the Doomgrinder in the Lost Tombs is so far from expectations that a lot of Greyhawk fans would like to see it done away with. Many point toward a "Mysterious Places: Doomgrinder" article that Creighton Broadhurst wrote for Living Greyhawk in October 2007, which returns to the topic of the slow, but inexorable advance of the Doomgrinder's sails — which was probably meta-commentary for the impending end of the Living Greyhawk campaign.
It certainly could have been a retcon back to the original ideas about the Doomgrinder. In fact, the article also claims that theories of the Doomgrinder being a war machine are "widely derided as the fanciful mutterings of old and senile men." However, it doesn't directly retcon the module itself. So the best we can say is that in the official Greyhawk campaign, the Doomgrinder never revealed itself as a war machine in a march toward Greyhawk city.
Monsters of Note. As it turns out, the Doomgrinder is full of derro. There's some nice background on these critters. They debuted in a Greyhawk adventure, S4: "The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth" (1982) and became a constant annoyance for Greyhawk in adventures like WGR1: "Greyhawk Ruins" (1990) and WGA3: "Flames of the Falcon" (1990), so their use here was keeping with a Greyhawk tradition.
About the Creators. Miller started working for TSR in 1996 to support their Ravenloft and Fifth Age lines. After a brief stint at Mayfair, he was back at Wizards of the Coast. "The Doomgrinder" would be his only Greyhawk release.
About the Product Historian
The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.
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