Come Endless Darkness (Gord the Rogue, No 4)

Rating:
Summary: As a Wolf, Not as a Rabbit!
Review: This is one of the most memorable of the books in the Gord saga which began with Greyhawk Adventures and continued in the New Infinities line. When it was first planned for release, the advance writeup made it look like it was going to be the last book in the saga: "...and if he does survive, what will life afterward be like?" The book's cover and the front-page text sample also give this impression. It's not till well into the book that you realize they're not going to be able to wrap things up so quickly, that there's at least one more book to go ( and we call that book Dance of Demons ).
Most of the book involves a mission into Greyhawk to deal with the character Gravestone, who was introduced at the very end of City of Hawks, and who is
( retcon alert ) supposed to be the killer of Gord's parents. A lot of one-shot bad guys here, and the usual detailed action sequences. There's a "dungeon" which is really an ordered sequence of demiplanes connected to a point inside a building in Greyhawk.
At this point in the story, things start to really get moving. At long last Gord finds out who, and what, he is; also, Tharizdun's awakening is made to seem more and more imminent.
The endgame definitely seems to be approaching. Also, if you've read Sea of Death, the whole thing with Gord's sword turning black from Obmi's crystal turns out to be important and is expanded upon in this book. "Your sword, cap'n...I found it lying in the grass and figured you'd be needin' it soon."
A surprising aspect of this book is the fact that certain characters we've grown to like from earlier books in the saga are killed off here - including one of Gygax's own characters from actual campaigning! But the ending is a great setup for Dance of Demons; when this book was new I couldn't wait for the followup.