quote:

---

Inevitably, it was, and as a result Volo (for his own protection, the Old Mage insists) spent some time as an ornamental frog sculpture in Elminster’s pond. He’s free again now, and I fear we’ve all not heard the last from Volo. :}

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dargoth

Forget Volo I want to know what happaned to Zeboaster of Ordulin (The Salman Rushdie of the Forgotten Realms)

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Smyther

Two Q's:
Q2: Where is the city of Volothamp, and any details about it?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by tauster


my questions:
- where do i find informations about volo? i know he was featured in several articles in the dragon. i have quite many magazines, but no time to search every one of them.
- are there any other accessories apart from the 2e campaign setting where volo is described? i don´t need stats but some sort of characterisation...

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dargoth

Zeboaster is Sage from Ordulin (he appears in The FR Adventures source book)

Hes known to have made several sarcastic and offensive remarks about various power groups in the realms

Off the top of my head I can remember 2

"Those stupid red wizards of Thay"

and when discussing why Mykruls followers where so quick to convert to Cyric Zoboaster remarked that it was because all the Mykruls followers had to do was "Merely changing the name on the letterhead and putting a purple sunburst around the skull outside the Temple"

Mykruls former followers refer to the sage as "Zoboaster the still alive---For Now"

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
Volo is most well-known for his many Volo's Guide to books. He wrote a whole bunch of them; some were published, some were not. The ones listed as "released" are the ones published by TSR/WotC, the others were mentioned in the Candlekeep Collection but never actually (real-world) written.
[snip]

---

quote:

---

Of the released guides, my faves are Volo's Guide to Waterdeep (that book made the city come alive for me, and is why I love Waterdeep) and Volo's Guide to All Things Magical (there is a lot of nifty lore in there that can still be used in 3.x).

---

quote:

---

There were also three 2E modules, the Marco Volo trilogy. I don't know about the first two, but I know for a fact he is statted out in the third one. These are also available for free on the downloads page of the Wizards website.

---

quote:

---

I do have some 3.x stats for him (3.0, I think) that were unofficially done by a gent on the Wizards boards, back when I was still allowed to post there. I can share these, too, if you'd like.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by tauster

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
Volo is most well-known for his many Volo's Guide to books. He wrote a whole bunch of them; some were published, some were not. The ones listed as "released" are the ones published by TSR/WotC, the others were mentioned in the Candlekeep Collection but never actually (real-world) written.
[snip]

---

i already have the released ones, but didn´t know about the unreleased guides. thx! i know he made some appearances in dragon magazines, but i don´t have my dragon archive (those five cdrom´s that are one of the most important things in my collection) at hand and can´t start searching there.

---

quote:

---

Adventures of Volo
Author: Ed Greenwood
Location: Dragon #267-282
Notes: A series of articles detailing locations and miscellaneous lore of the Realms. This series eventually morphed into "Elminster's Guide to the Realms."

Installments:

#267 - "Onward!"
#268 - "Lost Princess Road"
#269 - "The Hin Nobody Knows"
#270 - "The Ardeep"
#271 - "The Great Goblet"
#272 - "Quotations of the Realms"
#273 - "The House of Stone"
#274 - "The Stag Lass"
#275 - "The Crumbling Stair"
#276 - "Cormyrian Contacts"
#277 - "Dragonwing Stew"
#278 - "Lost Treasures of Cormyr, Part 1"
#279 - "Lost Treasures of Cormyr, Part 2"
#280 - "Lost Treasures of Cormyr, Part 3"
#281 - "Lost Treasures of Cormyr, Part 4"
#282 - "The Urge to Hunt"

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by tauster

thx wooly!
your are a most helpful hamster indeed!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Smyther

Well, this IS useful information.
@Wooly Rupert: Do you know when the Hooded One's information is accurate as of? For all I know, Volo could have been running around for years now.

---

quote:

---

As for Volo: I once heard Volo called the “Geraldo Rivera of the Realms,” but I think that’s a trifle unfair to the real Mr. Rivera. Volo is a young, amoral rogue itching with the need to learn secrets and trumpet them to the world. A minor mage and major rogue, he wanders Faerun penning acidic travel guides (the Volo’s Guides, which are available as downloads and are ESSENTIAL to making a Realms campaign seem colourful and ‘real’). There’s even a Volo’s Guide to Baldur’s Gate II, which was meant to go with the computer game. Volo went so far as to write a book entitled Volo’s Guide To All Things Magical, and was threatened (by various wizards) with dire consequences if it was ever published.
Inevitably, it was, and as a result Volo (for his own protection, the Old Mage insists) spent some time as an ornamental frog sculpture in Elminster’s pond. He’s free again now, and I fear we’ve all not heard the last from Volo. :}

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Smyther

Too bad I don't have the Dragon CDRom, or any others of those resources. Or Empires of the Shining Sea. *Sigh* My collection is so incomplete.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Smyther

I assume that the unreleased guides are fictional, not really books by WotC as yet unreleased.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Smyther

Actually, Wooly, I was thinking more in terms of Dalereckoning. He might have got out of Elminster's Garden (new book, anyone?), but he could have got into a lot of trouble by now.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by DDH_101

Hmm... what I really want to know, is how does Volo keep escaping from all these people that want to kill him? I think he has made at least a dozen enemies in every major port and city in Faerun. Lol.

Is Volo capable of defending himself from assassins or angry mages and what kind of magical items does he carry?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Steven Schend

Another note from Khelben....

"No matter how kindly we ask her to stay her hand, Our Lady of Mysteries is one to forgive Master Geddarm his mortal trespasses and release him from many of his `inconveniences.' Whilst I realize she prefers to have such a rogue `to foment and froth new magics to both conceal and reveal secrets in his wake,' I must confess to enjoy Volo's presence much more as a red-jacketed statue holding a lantern in Elminster's garden a number of summers back..."

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Steven Schend

And Wooly, those lists of Volo's prospective manuscripts (published, suppressed, or conjectured) came from my listing of what manuscripts were in Candlekeep.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Steven Schend

No, there's no plans to write any of them, nor were they ever in the planning in real-world ways. They were simply in-world expectations as to what the old boy would be up to and what might've occurred as a result...

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Hooded One

P.S. There are several unpublished New Adventures of Volo DRAGON columns floating around in the WotC vaults, and some HORRIBLE poetry penned by Volo, too. To say nothing of a fragmentary ‘heaving bosoms’ broadsheet serial he started, ere one of his imprisonments . . .
love to all,
THO

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Hooded One

P.S. Dargoth: I do believer Zeboaster’s fate is Ed’s next upcoming answer in his Questions thread.

---

quote:

---

Re. the list commentary on Volo's Guides:
What you the gamer buy is an our-world compilation (that's where Elminster's comments come in...I, Ed of the Greenwood, make them into footnotes) of "chapbooks" published by Volo, and sold in the streets of Waterdeep and in shops of cities and trade-route settlements (Bargewright Inn, for example) throughout the Heartlands.
The chapbooks are several sheets of paper folded in half, and held together with two knots of waxed thread sewn through the folds...making them like very thin, poor-paper versions of the old D&D booklets. One would have to buy about forty of these (in numbered sets, published one a tenday like Dickens, when he was sold outside the pages of Strand Magazine) to assemble a single "Volo's Guide." The maps would be extra, and never in color. Us modern types get such perks.
Price of a single chapbook? Depends on scarcity, demand, location, and condition. For new but fairly scarce, say 1 sp, and go up or down from there....

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Sage

Thanks Wooly . That's going in my archive as well.

Where did you find it?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by kuje31

There's also Volo's Guides in the Realms that never got printed as sourcebooks. Steven's Candlekeep Collection lists them. :)

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
Man, I should love to see some of those... Any way we could get WotC to shake those loose, perhaps as a series of Web articles?

---