One of the bloodiest times of Blackmoor's history is known as the Mage Wars. As more and more mages learned to make use of the strong magical energies of the North, the rivalry between them gradually grew into  open hostilities. Among the Wizard Warlords, the most ruthless at this time was probably the Half-Elf known as Raddan Goss. It was only with his defeat at the hands of the Skelfer the Arch Mage that the Mage Wars came to an end. I have previously speculated that the energies released in battling Raddan Goss was what eventually awakened an ancient evil, sleeping in the deep waters near Blackmoor.

The legacy of Raddan Goss lives on even in later day Blackmoor, as revealed in Night of Goss, a recently released episode of Blackmoor the MMRPG over at the Comeback Inn.

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-Havard

The Wizards Cabal is somewhat problematic in Blackmoor canon, because it appeared in one form in the DA modules and was completely rewamped in the D20 line. The question then becomes, which version should I use for my campaign?



The DA Modules
The first appearance of the Wizards Cabal is in the module DA1 Adventures in Blackmoor. In this version, the Wizards Cabal is a secret society for Magic Users, lead by Tamis Azkanikin. They have set in motion a plot to kidnap King Uther, which is the main plot of the module.

The D20 Line
In the D20 line, the Wizards Cabal is not a secret society. Rather, they are an official organization of Wizards founded by Skelfer Ard. It is responsible of administering and training arcane spellcasters in Blackmoor and also in charge of persecuting Sorcerers and other unauthorized spellcasters.

One the one hand, it is not unlikely that the Wizards Cabal was changed with the new edition to better integrate the concept of Wizards and Sorcerers being two different types of arcane spellcasters. On the other hand it is worth examining the adventure potential this concept has. Sorcerers are a 3E concept, but earlier editons also had the concept of Wild Magic, which is pretty much how 3E Sorcerers are presented in Blackmoor.

Arneson Purists will scoff at this and say that one should ignore the D20 products, but I have never been one to reject ideas because of where they came from. To be honest I rather like the idea of an official organization for mages in Blackmoor. Although I no longer play 3E, I think viewing what those books refer to as Sorcerers, as Practitioners of Wild Magic, works for any edition. Interestingly, the D20 Blackmoor books also have a secret underground organization for such mages, called the Eldrich Underground. It seems to me, that the Eldritch Underground can easily fill the function that the original Wizards Cabal. This has already for the most part been done with the Underground being responsible for the Vestfold Revolt. This way we can still have the old Wizards Cabal, and have an official club for Magic Users as well?

What is the Wizards Cabal like in your Blackmoor?



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-Havard

In the Last Fantasy Campaign, the game Rafael is running for us over at the Comeback Inn, a frightening revelation has just dawned on the heroes: Legendary wizard Skelfer Ard and Ran the Lich-King are one and the same!





Who are these guys again? Let's backtrack a little. Centuries ago, the magic users of the north were fighting over the Wild Magic that is so potent in the lands surrounding Blackmoor. Noone knows its true source, but many suspect it is tied to the very magical rock that Blackmoor Castle is built on. As these so-called mage wars raged on, Skelfer worked in his laboratory and came up with a way to control the wild magic, through the use of crystals. With his newly gained powers, he brought an end to the mage wars and set up an organization to keep magic under control in the future. This organization was called the Wizards Cabal. Once his work was done, Skelfer simply disappeared. Noone knows where he went off to, though the speculations have seemed without limit.

Lord Ran, or the Ran of Ah' Foo is another equally mysterious entity. He was believed to have started out as the puppet of the Egg of Coot, who then turned upon his master, seeking refuge in the west. For a while, he ran the Duchy of Ten, but this must have ended before the Afridhi invaded those lands.How could a good mage like Skelfer have been turned into a creature like Ran? Did he witness such dark things during the mage wars, that he could never go back to being truly good? Or did he fall under the spell of the Egg of Coot, just like Moorkok the Slayer?




-Havard