Artifact of Evil

Greyhawk Adventures #2

by E. Gary Gygax

OERTH...

to some, a cherished homeland.

to others, a target of domination.

When the Artifact of Evil is unearthed from its ancient hiding place, it becomes the object of a battle between the forces of good and evil. At stake is the fate of the entire world of Oerth--and the lives of those who would preserve and protect the forces of Good.

During a quest that spans the breadth of a continent, the young thief Gord and his comrades must confront and conquer the warriors and wizards who stand in their way, in an attempt to keep the Artifact from falling into the hands of those who would use it to gain world domination. Gord is forced to use all of his skills and powers--and even as considerable as they are, will they be enough to keep the unthinkable from occurring?

ARTIFACT OF EVIL is the sequ3l to SAGA OF OLD CITY, the first of the GREYHAWK ADVENTURE novels. Its author, Gary Gygax, is the designer of the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game system and the creator of the WORLD OF GREYHAWK Fantasy Game.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Dungeons and Dragons, Gaming, Science Fiction Fantasy, Forgotten Realms, Science Fiction

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1986

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

While you can't exactly "hear the dice falling," this is definitely a gamer's book about a game. Drawing, perhaps too heavily, on the famous "non-player characters" of the Greyhawk world of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the book seems almost gratuitously explicative of the mechanics of the world, frequently adding in detail none of the characters could possibly know simply to explain to the reader (and presumed player) details of the game world.

All that said, for anyone who is a fan or veteran of the venerable Greyhawk milieu, this book does provide a wealth of flavor and detail absent from the official game materials, in a format far more fun to read than, say, World of Greyhawk Advanced Dungeons Dragons, which makes The Silmarillion look like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone . If, however, one is unfamiliar with or uninterested in the world or the game, the story is almost certainly not quite good enough to make up for tired lists of "barbicans and machicolations" and lengthy explications of the habitat and breeding differences between losels and orcs.
[2021-02-21: lightly edited for orthography]

[Derek · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gygax's writing hits me where it hurts most: bad and tedious. There came a point where I gave up on the blow-by-blow of the pursuit after the titular Artifact of Evil, Part Two of Three (?). It attempts to capture the entire adventuring experience, from supply to competitors to nuisance encounters to drawn-out chase, leaving the reader wondering what reward sits at the end of all this. Skipping ahead found no interesting set piece, no remarkable plot twist, just a series of encounters that shuttle the heroes to the next stage. Finally, an ending that might as well be flashing the words "we're not done yet".

And it introduces the demonic/dimensional politicking and whatnot that so poisoned the New Infinities sequels.

The writing itself tries so hard to not be stodgy and cluttered, and it fails. Consider the start of Chapter 5:

"The silken noose dropped so suddenly that Gord was unaware of it until he was strangling. Only his instinctive grab for the slender cord encircling his neck saved him from a broken neck as he was jerked from his horse."

These are sentences that compel the reader to locate a red pen and start excising redundancy. As a whole it is needlessly technical when not weirdly structured, and excessively dense when not stilted.

[Francisco · Rating 2 out of 5]

The second Gord the Rogue novel and the last to be published through TSR as Gygax would be leaving the company soon, this is, like the first book, not the most successful of AD&D tie-in novels, it does however fix some of the criticisms I had of the first volume (while unfortunately creating other problems in the interim).

If the first book, Saga of Old City, didn't feel like it was particularly a uniquely D&D story, with a setting that felt as much like Leiber's Lankhmar as anything else, this volume is very definitely set in the world of Greyhawk. Unfortunately Gygax does this mainly by stuffing the novel full of references to in-universe characters that players would know from modules and other materials. You get Iuz, Zuggtmoy, Iggwilv (later Tasha), Eclavdra, Mordenkainen, Melf, Bigby, Baphomet, Graz'zt and a bunch of other demons and even such obscure characters as Obmi the Dwarf, who was originally in Snurre Ironbelly's keep in Against the Giants as a slave. This to say nothing of our regular cast of similarly named characters like Gord, Chert, Gelor and Curley, a bunch of names which kind of meld into each other on the page. Unless you are an obsessive (like yours truly) many of these names will be meaningless and even if you are sometimes they feel like unearned fan service.

The plot is also not much to write home about, in order to compensate for the mainly city set first book, Gygax takes us on a tour of Oerth, but it's such a wide ranging tour that you never really develop a sense of attachment for any place. There's an artifact of evil which demonic forces want and "good" forces which include Gord as mates as well as Mordenkainen, Melf, Bigby and other Gygaxian home game characters, need to get it first to avoid disaster. Much too much happens in this novel while also very little substance happening. It would have really benefited from a good editor and/or a flowchart. Still, good cover by Caldwell and interior illustrations by Easley!

[Lorewarden]

This was a unique read, definitely an artifact of its time and author. Unlike the previous volume, where Gord is the center of his adventures, this second volume places Gord in the middle of a giant planes-spanning struggle over an evil magic item. The alignment system of D&D takes a center role, with lawful and chaotic evil groups fighting each other for the item, just as much as good and even neutral groups seek it.

One thing that stood out was the author's seeming issue with women, generally. The idea of women as sexual objects, or as weaker or simpler than men, is not a new idea in any era of fantasy. However, Gygax seems to take it even further, with a disdain for the entire gender. One might argue this was an attempt to add some depth to the main character, Gord, but the fact that every other aspect of Gord is lionized by the author makes me think this dim view of women is the author's.

[Rich · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was painful but I pressed on with this series.

[Charles Lupo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I read this book when I was a teen, but I don't recall any of it. I saved it for 30 years for some reason, but I have no idea why. This book was a real mess.

It starts out somewhat interesting, with Gord and friends raiding a bad guy hideout. They get some leads that say this really bad thing was taken before they got there, and they need to track it down or really bad stuff will happen. Then Gord more or less disappears for 3/4's of the book. Then he becomes cool again just in time to save the day, kind of, but not really.

I think I can safely donate/sell these two books now. Zero nostalgic value.

[Brian Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't want the 3 star rating to make you think it's _good_ in the traditional sense. It's a distinct step down from book 1 in the series, and yards better than book 3. But the reason to read this isn't so much the storyline or the prose, but as an artifact of how Gary thought the high level game should be played. Gord is situated as someone who is skilled enough that he should have started his own guild by now, but since he hasn't he's perfectly situated to be an agent for the various powers of the Flanness. Those powers are engaging in a cosmic struggle well past Gord's conception.

You see, there's a Glenn Cook/Black Company style sleeping god of the Evil that when it wakes up will unite all three strands of evil - Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic - into a single force that will likely extinguish Good in Oerth. But the demons and devils who represent Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic evil hate the idea of bending knee to anyone. So most of them are struggling to get the 3parts of the Artifact of Evil to make sure the Unified Evil fanatics don't get the other two parts (they already have one). Gord and his buddies represent the forces of Neutrality and Good trying to make sure they get the parts so that they can keep them apart as well. Everybody is busy fighting everybody and chasing the one agent of a Demon-On-Earth ruler of a Chaotic Evil realm who has the second part.

In the course of this various high level people and their agents move on their own designs, with their own plans; the party Gord travels with splits and reconfigures several times, following their own agendas. We cut from our heroes to the demons to other temporal powers. Vast armies are deployed against one another with magic and bow and spear under the command of political figures of all stripes. At several points Gord admits he has no idea what's really going on, just that it would be better for his allies if he got the MacGuffin rather than anyone else. It absolutely feels like Gary is running a campaign event across several player groups who are all striving for their own goals - sometimes allying, sometimes working at cross purposes - until the final moves are made.

Taken in that sense the book is fascinating.

Taken as a novel, it's a mess. The goal is classic pulp fantasy but the prose lacks the kinetic energy Howard or Lieber or Moorcock could impart. The interactions with women are painfully cringeworthy in the misogyny, the boys own adventure vibe is heavy indeed. If you're looking for a great fantasy novel this ain't it. If you're looking for an Artifact of D&D, its worth the read.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Artifact of Evil is the second book in the Greyhawk Adventures/Gord the Rogue series written by D&D creator Gary Gygax. This book tells how Gord and his friends are searching for the second of three artifacts needed to free a demon that would attack and destroy all of Oerth (their world). The story, to its detriment, follows the various parties trying to obtain the artifact, which culminates in betrayal and an eventual battle between the parties.

This book is at the extremes of quality. On the negative it has too many character's to keep track of and bounces from one story idea to another. On the positive the combat is written incredibly well and the parts focused on Gord are engaging and entertaining. There are parts of the book that seem to take forever to get through, while others I wished we'd spent more time exploring. The book also introduces the various wizards and heroes reference in the D&D manuals such as Melf, Bigby and others. Its interesting to see the heroes of legend in action.

In a way I feel like I'm reading the first writing of an accomplished writer....elements of the story hold great promise of what is to come, but the other elements offset that.

[Ian Minielly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compared to Greyhawk Adventures #1, this book is excellent. This book rapidly moves from event to event as the adventure/mission unfolds. You can see the background ruleset unfold with monsters and spells, although it sure seems like these guys level quicker than anyone playing the actual game levels.

I remember when I bought this book. I was chomping at the bit for it to be published as I had enjoyed the first one so much back in the mid 1980's. When this was published I devoured it. I loved how Gygax weaved AD&D into the story and did it in the world of Greyhawk that my friends and I played in. I think this book shows great improvement in writing from the first novel to this one. Perhaps because there was no background information. The first half of the first book was all background and supporting information and it is a painful read. This book hops right into action and never stops through the final page.

I found it interesting that I remembered nothing from this book. Every page was like I had never read it before and now I will have to read the continuing books of Gygax after he was ousted from TSR. Thankfully I still have them all.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book to anyone who plays or has enjoyed playing 1E AD&D in the past, even if, like me, you haven’t read the World of Greyhawk source material. Have you heard of the Village of Hommlet? The main characters pass through it! Do you remember arcane spells named after the archmages who invented them, like Melf and Bigby? You get to meet a few of them! Are you looking for intense reflection, grappling with important, relatable life issues, and deep, complex moral quandaries involving multilevel interpersonal relationships? Well, you’re not going to find them here, but there is plenty of action driving along the sprawling storyline (by sprawling I mean there is lots of travel around Gygax’s favorite campaign world, and that not every chapter follows Gord the Thief). Another plus is that there is FINALLY a female adventurer (a paladin no less), the one portrayed on the cover, who serves more of a purpose than just a lover who gets killed/married off quickly. Gygax also makes fun of the gatekeepers who seem to think D&D is just for the boys.

[Kevin Knapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a fantasy novel it's marginal, bordering on not-very-good. The morality of the characters are very black and white, the drama is overblown ('the Fate of the World depends on you!'), too much use of archaic lexicon

However, note the author. Gary Gygax was the game designer who co-created the world-famous 'Dungeons & Dragons' role-playing game and founded its companion magazine 'Dragon' in the 1970s.

As the setting/basis for a D&D campaign, this book is fantastic. Lots and lots of characters, monsters, conflict, magic/enchanted items, settings, etc to potentially incorporate into a long-running game.

[Alessandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slightly better than the first one. Really more a fantasy novel than the first book of the Gord series. Mad demigods and demigoddeses, mages and archmages, clerics, druids, bards, barbarians, some mean evil adversaries and all manners of evil humanoids. Oh, and some awful monsters, too... and dragons! The whole array of a master storyteller in RPGs comes alive in this second installment of the Gord series. An epic D&D adventures almost par with a Dragonlance novel, albeit written not so masterfully. A must read, however, for any fan of Gygax, D&D and Greyhawk.

[Jonathon Gallaher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love old-school D&D, and have read other books by Gary, but this particular novel was just a slog, through and through. It reads as a series of loosely connected vignettes, and a rotating cast of supporting characters, all of whom are largely interchangeable with one another and wholly forgettable.
The ending is a complete disappointment, while overall the book just reads like a narrative retelling of one of Gary's campaigns. Which would sound interesting on basis alone, but fails horribly in execution.

[Filbi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A big step up from Saga of Old City, entirely lacking the first book's rampant misogyny and casual homophobia. The characters are fun and colorful. Unfortunately, Gary Gygax's second novel suffers badly from the same unfocused narrative, lack of detail, and jumbled, confusing action scenes. It also ends on a massive anticlimax with the heroes having accomplished less than nothing on their adventure. Entertaining enough, but mostly a letdown.

[Brian Grover · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second in a classic old-school fantasy trilogy I'm re-reading. As good as I remembered, though more compact - the first book spanned a dozen years or more, this is a few months of study churning. The equivalent of several gaming sessions.

[Makmorg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite being written by one of the co creators of Dungeons and Dragons, the book was poorly plotted. silly at times, and overall just not well written.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dated, but still enjoyable. I remember thinking this series was unreadable as a kid. Now it has some nostalgic value and I enjoyed it. Fun to spot the actual mechanics of D&D in the book.

[Thom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good worldbuilding, decent plot, but just utterly failed to grab me. I think I just don’t like Gygax’s writing style, honestly.

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the first book, Gord becomes more of an epic hero rather than a sword & sorcery rogue.

[David Sarkies · Rating 2 out of 5]

These books are just a little too serious
20 September 2012

The one thing that I seem to find missing from these books that are obviously a novelisation of gaming sessions that the writers had played in is the moments when the entire gaming table simply bursts into laughter when one of the characters either behaves in such a way that we literally need to put the game on hold as we all compose ourselves, or the dungeon master describes the results of a failed action in such a way that not only beggars belief but also is somehow surprisingly real. In many ways these books, as I seem to always repeat whenever I am commenting on one of them, is to simply add detail to a game world to help the players who may be playing games set in that world to experience the richness and the depth that is possible in a roleplaying game.

While escapist fantasy and adventure (especially the adventure) is all fun and good, and the fact that one can experience multiple near death experiences without actually running the risk of actually dying (though there are always players that throw tantrums whenever something bad happens to their characters) is a thrill in itself, the one thing that I love about roleplaying is the fun and the laughter that we as a group of friends have in the afternoon or evening when we get together to roleplay. Obviously, now that I am 700 kms away from my fortnightly roleplaying group that is something that I am going to miss, but I guess that is the price you have to pay for levelling up (not that I really have the time to dedicate to a fortnightly roleplaying game anymore, though I do play Euro-games once a month).

As I mentioned, there are always going to be those people that take roleplaying just that little too seriously, and I guess that is one of the things that I really don't like about these books, and that is that they tend to be serious and simply lack the light hearted comedy that can come out of a really well run game. To those people, I would suggest that they lighten up and accept the game for what it is, a game. Yes, this world may be harsh, but one thing that I have learnt from years of roleplaying is that if your ambition in life is to create the most powerful character that you can create, then I am afraid that you are focussing all of your energy in the wrong direction. You seem to know what it takes and what is required to get to the next level, as is dictated by the rules, but why not take that energy out of the game and put it into the real world. Yes, granted, there are no rules about what constitutes leveling up, but guess what, the wonderful thing about the real world is that you can set your own goals, and not big ones, but small ones, and when you achieve that goal, you can jump up in joy, claim that you have reached the next level, and then aim for that next step to level up again.

Hey, for all you know, by the day you die, you might actually become that level 300 street bum that you have always dreamed about (but I suggest that you try not to become a fighter and base your success on the number of people you have killed).

[Dungeon Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

tl;dr: rather dull, typical D&D adventures. Still misogynist. Spoilers may follow.

As dry as the combination travelogue/training montage was in the previous book, the shift to traditional D&D party-based adventures in this book made the whole thing very uninteresting.

It was more interesting (relatively speaking) to see what the evil forces were up to. Unfortunately those evil forces were very silly, and it was difficult to take them seriously, despite their evil acts.

As usual, women are a bad thing. One minor character does some unimportant things, and then claims a heroes welcome on her return home. The big bad guy has his girlfriend and mother returned to him, and they immediately start nagging and ordering him around.

At points when describing events, Gygax takes on a weird, Tolkienesque tone. I suspect these events are those from D&D modules, such as Temple of Elemental Evil.

While Saga was somewhat enjoyable, Artifact was much less so. Hopefully later Gord books will pick up the level of quality again.

[Ross Kitson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had this in an old box in the garage from my teens, and decided to read it as was playing DnD with the kids and had begun a module set in Greyhawk.
Like the first book it's a good fun introduction to the world, via the mostly likeable Gord. It reads pretty much like a DnD adventure, and if you like well detailed adventure fantasy this will do for you- full of monsters, humanoids, Demons and devils galore with spells sizzling around like no-ones business.
It suffers, however, on the plot front. It lacks a real sense of direction, getting as lost as Gord and his companions do on the search for the Second Key. Certainly the ending felt cobbled together with daft plot devices designed to get the heroes out of stranger and stranger scrapes.
Still, it was a lot of fun- and if you are a current or former RPGer then read it because Gary Gygax wrote it!!

[Dru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, GoodReads has deleted my previous review…

A re-read in 2021/2 with the intent of enjoying a familiar old story but also keeping an eye on all of the various story arcs which EGG introduced as in-TSR and exo-TSR. I see a ton of inconsistencies as I pay attention, and it now is clear why all of the 1st edition AD&D books are so full of inconsistencies. He just writes something cool but then forgets about it and counters himself later. Took a star off for that. Otherwise a great return to a fun story inside the world of D&D.

[Max Lybbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good part of the Gord the Rogue series. As always, the book has lots of ideas that I want to try in a role playing session. Additionally, Melf, Bigby, Tenser and Mordenkainen all make appearances.

There are enough illustrations scattered through the book that I was embarrassed more than once while reading in public.

[Bryan457 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gord the Rogue helps keep the artifact of evil from falling into the hands of a demon bent on world domination. based on a D&D game we continue to develop Gord's abilities and explore the multidimensional world of Greyhawk.

I enjoyed seeing things from the bad guys POV in this one.

[Troy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was better than the first Gord the Rogue book. It was focused on one plotline, and introduced some classic characters, like Melf. The pace was good, and having multiple points-of-view was nice. This is still not deep literature, so read it if you want something fun and nostalgic to read.

[Opskar01 · Rating 3 out of 5]

not as good as book 1

[Fatbaldguy60 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as the first one. Too many characters to try to keep track of.

[MJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very much a "D&D game written as a book" kind of narrative.

[A.j. Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely give me ideas for my DnD campaign. Gygax sure was a fan of making his own PC's the big badasses, though.