W.o.G

And there you have it! The door closes on one epic story and possibly opens up on a new one in the future. Let's get to my point by point commentary:
1. I got emailed many good and valid guesses at the cultists' identities. Early on before new clues unfolded, the most popular choices were Rary and Robilar (A classic fighter-wizard combo), and Prince Thrommel seemed a logical choice to some before Tang came in and ruined that theory at the end. While not a Prince by European titling, Tang is the son of a king-equivalent Khakhan in the Dry Steppes. He is even bylined as the "Prince of the Clan" for his entry in the hardback Greyhawk Adventures. So there.
2. Only one person got my overt clue to Philidor's identity early on. Kudos to Denis Tetreault for knowing his chess openings. Evidently Philidor the Blue Wizard has some tie to a real world Philidor. As a consolation prize, Denis won the Codex of the Infinite Planes but he graciously turned around and gave it to Greyhawk City's Guild of Wizardry. I'm sure he got his name added to the book before that though.
3. While Denis thought he was clever, he couldn't pin down Tang the Horrific. Only one person managed to put together all my clues and rationalize it for me in an email in time for this comic:

"Philidor had his villa in Greyhawk, knows Pelor and Corellon, immigrated from another plane, hates Iuz, and had his destiny taken away. And no one misses him. Tang was an expert with a bow, hates Iuz, immigrated from the Dry Steppes, comes from a nomadic people, didn't get to bring down Iuz like he wanted, and I guess no one respects a barbarian named after an orange-flavored powdered drink, even if astronauts endorse it."

Well put. Congrats go out to the mentat of D&D canon, my rival of esoterica, Rasgon! Your prize is any piece of mortellan art within my power to produce. Take your time deciding Rasgon, really.
4. By the by, there were covert clues that I dropped in there, in the off chance someone would come across them. No one did sadly, but to taunt you all, here they are: The Philidor secret message is in the first four panels of this comic. Each word ballon starts with a slightly capitalized letter that spells out the name of the blue wizard himself. In this issue, the smart cultist (Philidor) calls his ally (Tang) a "NIMrod". Yeah it's a veiled pun on the fact Tang is a nomadic Paynim. Then there is another insult he hurled at poor Tang after putting up with a barrage of puns in the lair of Kelanen. Here, Philidor says his compatriot has the intellect of a GNAT. Yeah I know, bad.
5. Philidor was not a well liked character. The intentions were good I think. He was to be some sort of enigmatic Gandalfian benefactor for the PCs in the struggle against evil. The trouble was in my opinion, that Greyhawk already had plenty of his type floating around for years. So being redundant, Philidor was seemingly rode out on a rail when Carl Sargent left Greyhawk development. Philidor just vanished. Tang the Horrific had it worse. He was set up by James Ward(in Greyhawk Adventures) to be a wild card in the war against Iuz, a character that detail oriented Sargent left out as the Greyhawk Wars did indeed break out in print form. Tang was later "rectified" in 3rd edition's Living Greyhawk Gazetteer where he spent his waning years harrassing not Iuz, but instead far-flung Stonehold until his swift canonical demise as illustrated in this comic. Poor Tang.
6. I believe, as others do, that the Codex of the Infinite Planes is a sentient artifact. Anyone who has read Stormbringer can further appreciate the endgame I wanted to achieve with the cultist saga. I'm also sure most readers will notice the classic movie I parodied at the end. I couldn't think of a more fitting way to send off the Codex.
7. The shadowy wizard with the Leomund's Secret Chest was last seen many many episodes ago. He is certainly another mystery but I'm gonna hang onto that one for later.
8. You'll notice in the city shot, a pyramid(Temple of Zilchus) and a ziggurat (Guild of Wizardry). Further south in Clerkburg is another pyramid, the University of Magical Arts. Talk about varied architecture. Oh yes, Philidor's house was in the Garden Quarter (Northwest corner G21 on the linked map). Not sure who lives there now. Oh and one more- Maldin and Elenderi's magic shop is A15, south of the University of Magic Arts.
9. I can't forget about Tharizdun. More of his dialogue was cribbed from Gygax's classic module, The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun. That Old English speak Gygax used was tricky. Let's not do that again. Odds are Tharizdun will be back someday. Philidor and Tang? Only Nerull and Istus knows for sure.
10. I've stated it before and will again, now that I've reached 300 my comic will no longer be weekly. My new blog, Greyhawkery will be handling the duties of both comic and Greyhawk commentary at a clip so far of 3 posts/week. Any comics I put out from here on will still be hosted on this site and linked back. I may still get out a Needfest Special this year, no promises, and I still have a few good storylines to pursue (Gods in Space for one). So keep checking in on Greyhawk Comic and jump over to the blog for regular stuff by me. Thanks for reading and I'll see you all on the forums.

-mortellan

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