- "Begone! Begone or face the wrath of the Eyebiter!"
- — Gleep Wurp
Gleep Wurp the Eyebiter is a male human 12th-level Magic-user who appears in G1-3 Against the Giants (1981)'s list of original tournament characters.[1]
Appearance and personality
Gleep Wurp is highly intelligent and tough for a wizard. He speaks many languages, including that of the elves and several monsters, and carries a wand of fire.
Gleep is rail-thin and stands 5'8" tall. He typically wears flashy red and gold wizard's robes with an elaborate hat. He is enthusiastic, but manipulative. He is unwilling to risk his life to adventurers, and would much rather leave the dangers of fighting to his underlings.[2][3][3]
Gleep was originally Neutral Good in alignment,[1] but an encounter with a cursed item changed it to Neutral Evil.[2]
History
Against the Giants
Gleep Wurp the Eyebiter was one of a number of now-legendary adventurers who volunteered to assault a team against the giants who had been raiding human lands.
One of Gleep Wurp's assignments was as the leader of a party of five against the frost giants of the Glacial Rift. His party included the cleric Flerd Trantle, the half-elf ranger Beek Gwenders of Croodle, the thief Cloyer Bulse the Magsman, and elf fighter/wizard Fonkin Hoddypeak.
Treachery
Unknown to the party, Gleep was leading them into a trap. A cursed item had changed his alignment,[2] and Gleep had already betrayed his previous adventuring party to save his own skin.[3] His group suspected nothing when they encountered the bodies of a previous missing party frozen in blocks of ice: the dwarves Gorik and Krystal, the human Dergle, and the halflings Veliax and Della.[4]
Beek was slain. The cleric Flerd, who typically reserved his most powerful spells for the ability to commune with his deity, was unable to raise his fallen ally from the dead.[5] Gleep Wurp instead cast animate dead to raise Beek as a zombie. After a few days, Beek started to smell, so the party covered him in oil and set him on fire.[6][7]
After the cleric Flerd was also killed in battle, Gleep and his remaining two allies Fonkin and Cloyer surrendered to the giants, who froze the corpses of Beek and Flerd in blocks of ice and added them to the others as a warning. Cloyer was subsequently tortured and eaten by giants, and Gleep sharded all of Fonkin's priceless magic items for residuum.[8]
The fire giant lord Snurre subsequently appointed Gleep Wurp as his emissary to the drow city of Erelhei-Cinlu, among the noble House Eilservs. He was soon chosen as the consort of the drow matron Eclavdra, who planned to use him to manipulate Lord Snurre.[3]
After the defeat of Lord Snurre's plans, Gleep Wurp left to join the Hierarchs of the Horned Society. Gleep was traveling with Hierarch Nezmajen when the rest of the Horned Society was wiped out by the demigod-emperor Iuz the Old. He eventually fell out of favor with Nejmajen, and was cast out of the Hierarch's company.[2]
Second giant invasion
Years later, during the giant occupation of the Duchy of Geoff, Gleep Wurp occupied a Leomund's secure shelter on the Cloud Islands of the Sakhut, a settlement established in the sky by cloud giants. Gleep sought to convince the cloud giants to attack the Empire of Iuz, but only succeeded in trying their patience.[2]
Gleep took to traveling with Margeet, a medusa who he charmed using magic. Margeet is the wife of a maedar who has searched for her since she went missing.[2]
Publication history
AD&D 1st edition
Gleep Wurp the Eyebiter and his four comrades originally appeared as a pre-made character for use in the adventure module G1-3 Against the Giants (1981). Despite the character's nickname, the spell eyebite does not appear on his default spell list.
AD&D 2nd edition
Gleep the Eyebiter is given more detail in the Silver Anniversary adventure module Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff (1999).
D&D 3rd edition
"Gleep Wurp the Eyebiter" is given in Hero Builder's Guidebook (2000) as an example of a silly name. It recommends against using joke names for D&D characters, as it may become tiresome by the end of the character's adventuring career.
D&D 4th edition
The story of Gleep Wurp the Eyebiter continues in two Dungeon magazine adventures in 2012, which formed sequels to G1-3 Against the Giants (1981): Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, Dungeon #199 (Feb 2012), and Hall of the Fire Giant King, Dungeon #200 (Mar 2012).
A statblock for Gleep Wurp appears in Dungeon #200 (Mar 2012), p.57, where he is a level 19 elite artillery. He makes use of the spell eyebite.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 G1-3 Against the Giants (1981).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff (1999), p.89.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Hall of the Fire Giant King, Dungeon #200 (Mar 2012), p.55. Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "dungeon200-55" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid<ref>tag; name "dungeon200-55" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid<ref>tag; name "dungeon200-55" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, Dungeon #199 (Feb 2012), p.8.
- ↑ G1-3 Against the Giants (1981), p.31.
- ↑ Monster Manual (5e) (2014), p.316.
- ↑ Only Gleep can have cast animate dead. Of the five party members, only Gleep Wurp and Flerd Trantle have the correct class and level to cast animate dead, and Flerd is a Lawful Good cleric of Pholtus.
- ↑ Hall of the Fire Giant King, Dungeon #200 (Mar 2012), p.35.