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Q: Who was the unnamed hunter in the Burneal Forest, who aided Rillen and Belphanior (seen in episode 224, mentioned in 300) ?
A: That individual was intended to be sort of a lone, roving mountain man. The model for the hunter was Charles Bronson's character in the 1981 movie Death Hunt. This woodsman was much like Halbarad, roaming his forest and taking care of evildoers.
Q: What happened to Cynder (episode 500) ?
A: Beaten by Orcus offscreen, he is transformed into a dracolich in the demonlord's service.
Q: What was the fate of the Crimson Blades after the Tomb of Panagaea collapsed (episode 740) ?
A: Only two of this party died: the muse (slain offscreen by a giant snake-god) and the halfling (gaseous form inhaled by one of the Tomb's final guardians.) Not only are the rest alive and well, but their ranks will be bolstered by some new ones who are also archetypes: the psionicist and the monk.
Q: What emerged from the fifth, sixth, and seventh caskets (episode 740) ?
A: Although I am not a religious fellow, it should be pretty clear that the occupants of the first four caskets were rough analogues to the Biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. I'm not sure what three new concepts would live up to the first four, but I guarantee you that they were in those other three late-opening caskets. Reread Jutokai's final moments.
Q: Which members of Xusia's band, the Nine, survived the great battle (culminating in episode 783) ?
A: 5 slain: Xusia the lich, Bodok the beholder, Gog the giant, Kael the general, Ulrich the anti-paladin. 3 escaped: Fenris the thief, Cespedes the wizard, Ythuus the daemon. 1 unknown: Selene the drow priestess (it could go either way with her, as she may or may not have been caught in the ambush that slew the other drow; it depends on whether I need another major villain in the future.)
Q: What exactly were the Nine up to, anyway? How did Orcus fit into it? What about Demogorgon?
A: The real agenda is (was) mostly Xusia's doing. His grand scheme involved moving large numbers of demons from the Abyss to the Prime Material Plane, with Orcus' help, and then launching a sudden and brutal invasion. None of the other members of the Nine were aware of this; they were helping build an infrastructure for war, unaware that a different war with different troops was intended. The idea of the Demogorgon angle was that he didn't want Orcus to gain such a foothold on a non-abyss plane; this is why he helped Belphanior become more of a thorn in Orcus' side. A nice side-effect of this was that Orcus was distracted, allowing Demogorgon to win some more local battles at that time, within the Abyss.
Q: How was Xusia going to move his/Orcus' forces all over Oerth?
A: This was the idea behind the gateways, one of which was found in Baron Albert's mansion in episode 626 (and subsequently mentioned in 688) and another of which lies somewhere within the Fortress. Using these powerful magical devices, large quantities of people and equipment could be transported quickly and reliably to any other gateway. Only Xusia knew the complete scope of this project and its progress to date, and this knowledge died with him. There are currently an unknown number of gateways scattered about the Flanaess and perhaps beyond.
Q: What will ever happen with Victoria and/or the "city of vampires" (episode 790) ?
A: Any trip to this place would be a suicide mission. Nevertheless, if I ever feel the need for the mother of all vampire stories (including an underground vampire city with non-vampire slaves) this would be the way. As for Victoria, she's mad at Belphanior and has moved on, presumably to be with her own kind.
Q: What exactly is the proposed "great voyage" discussed by various people (episode 789, 793, 800) ?
A: Look at the Oerth map and just head east. This is the ultimate odyssey: a gigantic ship, a great and varied crew, tons of supplies and equipment, and the urge to explore, to know what lies beyond, to scout and perhaps colonize. This sort of thing is great fun to write.
Q: What is the true nature of Peldor?
A: Peldor is either: 1) a force of nature, 2) a slumming god, 3) a man who was granted supernatural luck in exchange for his stolen past, 4) a former protege of Death Mountain, 5) an Immortal, destined to roam the world taking part in the Game, 6) this dimension's version of a certain other dimension's master spy, 7) a regular guy suffering from a bizarre mix of amnesia and delusion.
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