Thursday, September 1, 2022

WATERSHIP DOWN, P.S.

I forgot: I meant to mention that Sustare has a second claim to fame, having given his name to one of the druid spells in the classic 1st edition AD&D PLAYERS HANDBOOK:

    Chariot of Sustarre

cf DRUID SPELLS (7th Level), PH.63. *

  I never had a druid character who made it to 12th level --that is, high enough level to be able to cast 7th-level spells  --in fact the character I'm playing in the campaign I'm currently in, Arrow-Odd, is 7th level and I'm hoping will reach 8th before the adventure ends.

--John R. 


*another example from among many in AD&D's early days is Nystul's magic aura, a 1st level magic-user spell that took its name from Mike Nystul, who worked at TSR briefly during the mid-90s; cf. PH.67  

1 comment:

  1. That's fascinating! That was a spell I always wanted to be able to cast but in my 30 years of gaming I have yet top see it used in play.
    I was convinced it muct have some mythological inspiration, like the Sumerian cloud chariots in the Deities & Demigods book,but I've never found the source of inspiration.

    It was used in fiction, I believe, in Gygax's second Gord novel, Artifact of Evil. The druid Curly casts it, and the cover depicts Gord and a female paladin standing in the Chariot of Sustarre while a warrior on a green dragon attacks them. :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artifact_of_Evil

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