Give us some details about the one you're referring to Ian, that may help to spark our memories

Hi All (especially the secret lurking hoards of private collectors),

Ongoing research continued.....

I am researching a manuscript/tournament published by Greg Flay prior to 1985 (Probably in 1985). I am looking for a title. Here is the plotline.

Many years ago an evil order, the Legion of Death, sets its sights on controlling the diamond mines of the city-state of Gilthem. To this end they recruit Anastasia, daughter of the royal court wizard. Twin sons are born to the king and queen, following which Anastasia arranges the king and queen's untimely deaths. The second born son is secretly marked so as to tell the twins apart later in life. There being no eligeble heir to the throne, Gilthem is thrown into political turmoin pending the twin son's 16th birthdays.

Add to this a champion for good, the Dark destroyer, the fact that no-one knows which son is the first born, although the queen did record the fact in her diary prior to her death, and the only one who knows this is the nursery nurse, and the slaying of the Legion of Death's leader, passing power to the court wizard's daughter, and you have a whole mess of politics and backstabbing.

Unfortunately, Greg Flay only recorded the title and printing date on the front cover sheet of his manuscripts, and I'm trying to put a title to this one. The Legion of Death, The Dark Destroyer, Nystul's Permanency or The Diamond Mines of Gilthem would seem apropriate.

If anyone has any idea, or if anyone can provide any information about Greg Flay, his present whereabouts (US northern states?), where he was when he published in 1985, or anything else he may have published, I would be most grateful.

PM me or e-mail me in confidence if you want.

Faithfully,
Ian

grodog wrote:I don't know anything about this, Ian, but I'm curious about Nystul: how does he fit into this adventure?

The queen has twin sons. The second born is marked at birth with a secret mark (Nystul's Permanency) to allow the protagonists to differentiate between them when they are 16. They forsee the need to be able to tell them apart, and they already plan the death of the king and queen.

The phrase 'Nystul's Permanency' is used, as oppossed to Nystul's Magic Aura, or Nystul's Undetectable Aura, which makes the phrase stand out.

* BUMP *

I'm still at a loss to title this Greg Flay MS.

stratochamp wrote:it is titled "legion of death".

Maybe. I have no title page, so I don't know. But if you have an adventure that begins with the Story For The DM...

A little more than 15 years ago the Legion of Death set its sights on control of the diamond mines of the city-state of Giltham. To that end, they recruited the daughter of Dahl-Enger, the court wizard, to be their agent. Upon the birth of twin sons Anastasia acted. She poisoned Queen Leesa and tricked King Fawn with a beserking sword into killing her father. The regency of the kingdom passed to faithful Fellman who was to rule the kingdom until the rightful heir was determined or until the prince's 16th birthdays when the matter was to be decided by trial by combat. Dahl-Enger had divined that dark forces were operating in the kingdom and had placed a secret mark on the second born so that he might tell them apart in later years(Nystul's,Permanency). Anastasia later detected the mark, but interpreted incorrectly that the mark indicated the first born.

... then maybe we have a match. And if that's the case, I'd sure like to do a page chack and find out exactly what I am missing.
Either way, Legion Of Death is a good working title until I close this one out.

not that i have it in front of me mind you, but that is what i have the title written down as, so maybe i took the title from those opening words as well. i'll have to check later....

well i checked and what i have are pages 2-20 plus 6 pages of npc & monster rosters plus 2 pages of maps and then at the back 4 more pages of maps for a total of 31 pages. i think i might have gotten this from the burntwire brothers, and while my memory is a little hazy i think i remember them saying they got this from his daughter(?). they might remember more....

yes, that's exactly how it appears, that a title page was removed. my copy has the (daughter's ?) name on the top right of numbered page two (i.e. the top page that i have), which would be a strange place to put it if there was a title page.