RPG A Day 21−24

Day 21 — Classic Campaign

Shadows on the Borderland is my favourite product from the ‘RuneQuest Renaissance’ of the early 1990s, one of the few original Avalon Hill RuneQuest supplements that was not a re-issued or a re-packaged product from the RQ2 range.

Shadows on the Borderland was not officially presented as a campaign, but as a series of adventures set in the same area (Prax) and with a common theme: the ever-present threat of Chaos in this uncivilised part of central Genertela— which of course enabled resourceful GMs to build a campaign out of these adventures (which is exactly what our GM did).

Day 22 — Notable Non-Player Character

What is a ‘notable’ NPC? One that is central to the ‘lore’ of a role-playing game? In this case, Arkat, Argrath, Harrek, Ralzakark and many others are notable NPCs, especially Argrath, who is supposed to play a major role in the RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha line.

Or is it an NPC that the player characters are bound to meet over and over again over the course of their adventures, and who acts as a useful deus ex machina tool for the [lazy] GM? In this case, le Club Pythagore from the French role-playing game Maléfices ticks all the boxes.

Or is it an NPC that you and your fellow gamers will remember from a great role-playing session or from a memorable campaign? In this case, everyone will have a different reference as to who is a notable NPC, irrespective of how well the NPC was presented in a given gaming supplement. From my recent sessions as a player, I have fond memories of Zaleena Silver-Tongue, a Lunar schemer from The Eleven Lights campaign written for HeroQuest/QuestWorlds.

And, last but not least, me and my friends have notable NPCs from our house campaigns. These NPCs won’t mean a thing to you, but we of course love reminiscing about them. One such NPC is Sturm Martex, a dream magician from Orathorn who kept thwarting my players’ plans during our Chern Durel campaign. I think his appearance is what made him so memorable... he had no body, just a head that was carried around on a silken cushion resting on a precious palanquin supported by his slaves. He had tinkered too much with dream magic, and his body got stuck in the Dream World. 

Day 23 — Peerless Player

Anyone who has ever attended a role-playing convention and enthusiastically played in a one-shot with total strangers is a peerless player 🙂

Day 24 — Acclaimed Advice

As someone of the show, don’t tell persuasion, I enjoy learning from experienced GMs at cons during the course of a game or at a panel.

For inexperienced GMs I will recommend the book Mener des parties de jeu de rôle (in French), which is a collection of articles written by French TTRPG professionals with loads of useful tips.

5-Year RuneQuest Campaign Podcast

I have played an online RuneQuest campaign game set in Sartar for five years (I reckon it must be the second-longest I’ve ever played). We played approximately every fortnight; you can imagine the sheer number of episodes the campaign entailed!

The game started with RQ2 on Roll20, then moved on to the RQG rules (and Foundry) as soon as they were made available, and ended up with a hybrid RQG-OpenQuest ruleset, with the occasional “Runes in the Dark” homebrew for our (many) heists. 

Despite the many dangers, our party of five remained the same during the duration of the campaign... I was the only one to transition from a first character, killed in a single blow, er sting, by a Chaos wasp who rolled a crit in his head, to a second one, so we all ended up with Rune-level characters. The whole zero-to-hero shebang.

Our GM extraordinaire, Steve, has devoted an episode of his Orlanth Rex’s Gaming Vexes podcast to reminiscing about salient events, favourite rules changes, character arc vs story arc, and whatnot, from these five glorious years of gaming. Oh, and did I mention Chaos wasps?

Play

Culbrea after the Dragonrise

The following piece of news is from the latest episode of the God Learners podcast.

A new official supplement, Culbrea after the Dragonrise, is in the works! The tribe and its territory will be presented in Starter Set-style simplicity as a setting for a Sartarite campaign The authors have described it as a kind of sandbox with a few scenarios that open up to wider adventures.

Monsters! Monsters! – New Setting & New Adventure(s)

Monsters! Monsters! is a delightful role-playing game running on the Tunnels & Trolls engine that lets you play the role of the bloodthirsty, flesh-eating, mayhem-bringing monsters instead of the usual puny and boring humans, dwarves or elves.

Thessaly Chance Tracy, GM and T&T advocate extraordinaire, has been working on a grand Monsters! Monsters! setting and campaign for years (you can read about it in issues 1 and 2 of The Hanging Garden), and her work is at last going to be published. I believe Thessaly’s setting is to vanilla fantasy what Sergio Leone’s films were to the western genre: a sonorous wake-up call accompanied by a huge kick in the arse.

After the good news, more good news: there’s so much stuff that the setting and the campaign will be published in several volumes. The first one is titled Uprising at Buzzard’s Gulch and it will contain the setting, the maps, the NPCs, and countless adventure seeds and hooks. The cover is just amazing:

cover by Simon Lee Tranter

The second book will be an adventure, titled Beatdown At Big Battle Ridge, and it should be released very shortly after Uprising.
Then a second adventure (and third book) shall follow, titled Desperately Seeking Plumb Gorgeous, in which the monsters seek to kidnap the most beautiful girl in all the land [Monsters! Monsters! notoriously rewards monsters with adventure points for kidnapping beautiful girls].

Final Excerpt from our RQ:G Campaign

This session ended 'Season One' (as I've called it) of the Chern Durel campaign. I will now referee something else before getting back to a Season Two, hopefully with the next RQ:G books that will deal with heroquesting and stuff.

If you are interested, the previous game reports (all by Hervé, like this one) are available here.

Chern Durel Campaign - Session 16
GM: Gianni. 6 players:

Hervé / Kro Tal the Invincible, Ignorant Champion of the Arena,
Valentina / Belia the (former) God Learner soldier,
Patrick / Xu the Ignorant Darkness mystic,
Teva / Skull-Sucker the uzko berserker,
Jean-Paul / Furfur the enlo bush alchemist,
Cédric / Kim Tyi the Ignorant scout.

9-hour game (14:30 to 23:30)

“I am Kro Tal the Invincible, foe to all dragons and their Kralori masters, champion of the Blood Sun, leader and protector of my Ignorant brothers. Or so I thought. What happened these last days, I’m not sure of all of this anymore. I have Seen so much, in this world and the others, I am not sure of much. Best try to remember what happened; maybe you’ll put some sense in it.

It began simply enough. Can Ta [GM’s note: Can Shu’s rebellious daughter] had told us to go to Karaköse and put Blackstone’s Eyes back on his statue. He’d then wake up and start killing dragons and Kralori, a mighty ally to our eternal battle against them dragon-lickers. So we sailed down the Black Dragon River, past Jangi-Shar and Hali, until the fogs got so thick the rivermen wouldn’t go further. We walked south, up to some village close to Karaköse, where we had to meet Old Kim, a story-teller and agent of Can Ta. He was supposed to tell us all about the eyes and statue of Blackstone.

The village had an inn and we noticed its keeper was counting a lot of silver coins. Kralori silver coins. By the time we understood what it meant, some runt kid of his had run away to warn the Kralori garrison of Karaköse, so we had little time before they came: the ruined city was a half-day away. Yet we had to wait for the old man to show up and give his show. His daughter (Kim Tyi) took us all in a ruined shrine when we found out Old Kim didn’t know much, except many Kralori soldiers were digging up in Karaköse looking for something. He had no idea where the statue or the eyes were… some help. Then a flying dragon-thing (1) began circling above our shrine. It was huge but I drew it away while the others opened fire with bow and sling. Kim Tyi shot it through the heart with a poisoned arrow, slowing it down. It fell to the ground and we slaughtered it. It had two paws and a long tail ending in a huge sting dripping with poison.

As we celebrated our victory, a SECOND wyvern (I learned later how they’re called) appeared from nowhere and stabbed Old Kim through, lifting his corpse impaled on its sting. Later, someone said them wyverns are intelligent and this one had used Invisibility sorcery. It began to fly away but again Kim Tyi shot it through the heart (2), killing it with one arrow, but only after I had roused her from her grief at losing her father. He was a good man and we buried him; I killed the innkeeper traitor and burned down his inn as sacrifices to help the old man’s spirit along.

Kim Tyi led us to the cliffs above Karaköse. We could see the ruined city along the Black Dragon River and a very old mighty temple with five towers, one for each element. Kralori soldiers did camp around it. I called upon Blackstone and asked him where his eyes could be found (3); he said “under his tower, but beware of imitations.”
At night, we scaled down the cliff; Kim Tyi ran ahead and killed two strange lizard-frog men (4) standing guard, but one of them had time to blow its conch. We all ran and got into the Darkness tower as planned. We explored its galleries and did find strange things, such as a magic chariot locked away in a vault, but were running from the Kralori rushing from everywhere. Tired of hiding, I lashed at three small dragon men (5), killing one while my allies dispatched the others. Then we ran again to Sekever’s cave, because Sekever is the Kralori’s name for “devil” and we figured their enemy would perhaps help us.

Inside, more tunnels, galleries, empty temples – at least the Kralori didn’t follow us – until we found a black magic door. I cast my power at it and passed through. And was once again in Perfect Darkness. Bliss. Succour. Well, not for Belia, her being much a Fire-type, but all the others liked it. Then I “felt” our way to the eyes. I could see them in a vault, as if I were one of the characters sculpted on its inner wall – in fact, I was stuck to the wall. I tried to free myself calling on Disorder and Revolt, but was blasted back after glimpsing a HUGE Spider Web and a Great White Spider weaving… everything together. I stayed out for a while (6).

When I came to, we were still floating in Darkness and it cleared my mind. We decided to go in the Dream World where the Eyes were instead of having to fight our way through the Kralori. It worked, but not as planned: we were back at the time of the Six Suns in the Sky, in the temple as it was new, filled with hundreds of monks. We asked our way around and were led to the statue of Blackstone. Except they called him “Sekever” here, and it was a Black Dragon. A cursed dragon and not a titan as we thought!!
Yet we had come too far to back down and I talked to this dragon-god (7), telling him we came from the future [GM’s note: Not really, there’s no time-travel in Glorantha] and needed its Eyes to help our brethren. It hissed that I had moved it, and it gave me two of its tears, which shaped up as Eyes. I begged him to tell me why he was a dragon and it said there were many kinds of dragons, that we were ALL dragons!!! Yet the job still had to be done.

So we went back to our world and stood where Sekever’s statue had been (after killing some huge spider lurking there). Xu also called on Sekever (8) and it told him to “dive deep, without fear, holding your breath” to find its statue. So he waded into the pool nearby and got his arm half eaten away by some green slime growing in the room. I excised the skin but it didn’t seem to help.
Then we waded into the underground river close and found a submerged temple with the statue in it. We had to pull it out, it took many hours of hard work but we did it, brought it back on its pedestal, put the Tears/Eyes on it and recited the chant we had learned.

Then hell broke out.
The whole cliffs began to shake and the temple near-collapsed on our heads, while we heard a gigantic laughter, the kind I never want to hear again. We ran like hell and climbed back the cliffs; up there we watched. We watched as the river swelled immensely and a tidal wave swallowed the whole city, drowning all Kralori and dragon men. It was fun to watch their corpses bobble around, but we then realised the giant wave surged up north, towards the sea. It would then destroy all cities in its paths, killing many Kralori, which is fine, but also many Ignorants. It would eventually drown Tzu Ling and its huge Ignorant district. What had we done???(9)

So now, we need to find a way to warn off our brothers. The Giant Wave Black Dragon will need a few days to reach Tzu Ling. Maybe at the Blood Sun shrine…”

1.    A SIZ 31 wyvern, riderless, sent by the garrison in Karaköse when the kid reached them. No idea how it found us hidden away in the ruined shrine. [GM’s note: Well, the wyverns were stationed much closer than Karaköse]
2.    This character rolled awesomely, always hitting the chest/abdomen, impaling the second wyvern in its belly and killing it in one shot! All the characters had prepared Speedart spells and put poison (supplied by the enlo alchemist) on their arrowheads before I ran out to bait the first wyvern.
3.    One-point Divination, using a Rune Point from Blackstone acquired earlier.
4.    Newtlings
5.    Crested dragonewts. There were traces of their bigger, meaner brethren around but we never met them.
6.    As always, we use our Runes actively. I tried to used Disorder augmented by Movement to break inside the vault, to cross through the “dark wall”. I fumbled and Saw the All, the Spider weaving everything together, the full force of the Compromise, rejecting me from this impossible act. Yet it did free me from the dark wall. I demanded Illumination but only got 2% for my character [GM’s note: That was generous enough].
7.    Using Worship Blackstone / Sekever at base 9%, augmented by massive gift of magic points and sacrifice of a few drops of Hell Water.
8.    Again, Divination. He also had one Rune Point from Blackstone from the same earlier adventure as me.
9.    Gianni told us that this event coincided with the Dragonrise in faraway Dragon Pass…

This is supposed to be the end of the Chern Durel campaign. We begged Gianni for more but he now wants to play the other side: Kralori officials bent on stopping / hindering the Great Wave, using the Kralori rules and background written by David Millians. And why not?

Yet Another Excerpt from our Ongoing RQ:G Campaign

This is several sessions after Hervé’s session report from 15 June. Again, he liked the session so much he produced a write-up. Enjoy!

Chern Durel Campaign - Session 15
GM: Gianni. 6 players:

Hervé / Kro Tal the wallball champion,

Valentina / Belia the (former) God Learner warrior,

Patrick / Xu the black mystic,

Eric / Janar the Spolite sorcerer,

Teva / Skull-Sucker the uzko berserker,

Jean-Paul / Furfur the enlo bush alchemist 

“I am Kro Tal the Invincible, champion of the Tulufan arena, who crushed one hundred foes on the black sands. I bathed in the Red Light of Zerel Fan, glory to the Blood Sun. I served Can Shu the wise, true incarnation of Basko Black Sun, who would lead all Ignorants to freedom from the hated Kralori. Well, that is what I believed until my last caper.

As soon as we landed in Zhi Ti, I ran to Can Shu’s palace to tell him – or, in this case, of one his servants – of our plan to wake Black Stone up in Karaköse, to make him strong enough to kill the dragons. I and my comrades were immediately thrown into the palace dungeons by too many guards to resist. We were left to rot there for several days and my comrades were pissed off at me.

Yet I believed this was some clever ploy by glorious Can Shu, and when guards came to lock us up in rolling cages and we set northwest, away from the city, I thought we would be brought to proper authorities. It happened, but not as I expected. The caravan guards were attacked in the night, half of them killed and the other half taken away. Someone opened our cages and left our gear next to them. We decided to follow our liberators and ran across the land, for the dark holds no terror for the Black Sun.

The chase led us high in the Zeedian Hills, all the way to the ruins of Zakarath, whose king insulted Zerel Fan. We had to fight off some hopping zombies, strength-draining vampires and blue ghosts, one of which possessed Xu. The Spolite cast some sorcery spell at it* and it drained the blue ghost out of him. We hacked and bashed away at the monsters, though the vampires did weaken the Spolite and the enlo much.

After regrouping, we met several very surprising people: a circle of six six-breasted priestesses, maybe demigoddesses, all human [GM’s note: well, not really], invoking the powers of the six directions to destroy Can Shu! My comrades kept me from attacking on the spot, for they looked powerful and had many supporters gathered here.

The first was Can Ta, daughter of Can Shu and his eternal enemy; she wore black. With her was the Guardian of Treasures (earth woman), Daughter of the Storm (a wind child), River Mother (with a fish tail), Moon Daughter and Western Sun. They all cast powerful curses at Can Shu, calling him “enemy of our friends”, “betrayer” and “vile”, while sacrificing the captured guards. Each wore a mask with six glowing gems, except Guardian of Treasures who had only five. Her curse failed and stopped the whole ritual.

Can Ta then turned to us and explained that Can Shu’s ambition was to become… the new dragon emperor, master of all Kralori! He was using the Ignorants as mere cannon fodder to reach his goal and would gladly wipe out Chern Durel without a second thought. She spoke words of Power and made me See. As she had freed us from slavery, I offered her my services** on the spot, hanging to her every word. My comrades followed suit, more or less enthusiastically.

Can Ta had a task for us: find the missing green gem, lost to Guardian of Treasures, on the Other Side, immediately, while the stars were still right. We were each empowered by one of the six women. I became Zerel Fan (Fire/Sky Rune); Xu was Moon, the Spolite was Air, Belia was water, the enlo was Earth and Skull-Sucker, naturally, darkness**. Our mission was to ‘bring free the Potter but NOT THE GOLDSMITH and finish the task to be done’. We walked through the veil and came to the Other Side, in some immense green plain. There were SIX SUNS on the same path in the sky: red, blue, black, gold, green and orange! We knew we were back in the time of Heroes, before Ignorance struck our people.

We crossed a mighty river over a bridge of Light I created and reached the village on the other side. The locals told us both their potter and goldsmith had been taken away by “evil snake-men”, in a city to the east. We checked their workshops and found a nearly-finished woman’s mask with five green stones in the potter’s so this was the right path. We set towards the snake men city.

It’s hard to keep track of time on the Other Side. We walked long but made it to the city. Full with Zerel Fan’s power, projecting a blinding and burning corona around me, I scattered a snake-man patrol who tried to interrogate us and we descended into the crater that held the city. There were no defences and the snake-men (upper bodies and heads of men but legs like snakes) fled. We could read the petroglyphs and went to the Prince’s palace, using our Runic Powers to fly over / burrow under / slip through its wall, leaving the guards powerless.

We went straight to the throne room and the enlo earth-sensed that the Prince and Princess sitting there were of the Dark Earth, hungry for our blood. Their glances turned the flying Spolite to stone and he crashed to the floor. So I shot them with a Bolt of SkyFire****, blasting the princess to ashes and seriously burning the prince. He began spouting threats, so Belia / River Mistress filled him with her waters until he blew up. She kept his head as a trophy. Yet we still had no information about where the Potter could be.

After much searching*****, we found the palace’s library, where all information is recorded on snakes as the patterns of their scales. I had seen such sorcery before: snakes are put inside a glass tube and the information becomes clear to who can read. Xu could. The enlo cast Command Snake and both the Potter’s and Goldsmith’s snakes came to us. I wanted to keep the Goldsmith for myself but my comrades deterred me. We brought the Potter’s snake to his village, but he did not change back.

Moon Woman asked her mother what could be done. She found out that the potter was inside the snake’s belly! We had to go back to the snake-men’s city, inside their Dark Earth temple, and to use a ritual I forgot to make the snake big enough we could open it so the Potter could be pulled out. We did but it turned out the Potter was in fact copulating with a snake woman; both were so entangled it seemed impossible to tear them apart. Then Skull Sucker cast a cold cloud of darkness at them and managed to tear the potter away from the snake girl’s embrace.

The enlo darksensed the snake’s belly and found out it held a gem, which Xu delicately pulled out, even Healing the snake after his surgery. He said “no use in making more enemy that needed of the dark earth” and we all agreed. Then we walked back to the village, set the potter back to work, collected the six-gemmed mask for Guardian of Treasures, and walked back to Our World without difficulties.

This time the ritual was fully successful and all of Can Shu’s guards died from the different elements. Can Ta explained she is now ready for the “Hero War” with her father and that she would lead Ignorance to Glory again. She and her followers fed us and sent us away to Karaköse, to finish what we had started. She said there were no Huan To there, it was Kralori propaganda, but there would probably be Kralori sorcerers waiting to ambush us.

Best of all, this time spent as Zerel Fan on the Other Side unblocked my soul and let me worship again Blood Sun, not the Basko Black Sun weakling I had been forced in following. I can’t wait to rip the Kra Lor sorcerers to bits ! Hail Blood Sun. Death to Kralori. Death to Can Shu the Dragon.”

*Spolite sorcery at its best: a 12-point Drain Soul spell, with full augments applying to the POW vs POW roll against the blue spirit. It worked and it lost 13 magic points, driving it out of Xu and attacking the sorcerer instead. Now this was effective exorcism!

**immediately gaining a “Loyalty (Can Ta)” at 70%

***each of us had a Runic rating between 65 and 95% (depending on their success during the ceremony), and 6 Rune points

****my first Sunspear in 30 years of Glorantha gaming! It did 13 points damage (4d6) to both of them

***** using Darksense, Rune points for Find Gold, etc.

NOTE: all participating characters got +6% to their Reputation, a POW check, +15% to a single skill used in the Quest and normal skill checks.

An Excerpt from our Ongoing RQ:G Campaign

I have a RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha campaign set in Chern Durel and northern Kralorela that has been going on for about a year (since the time we received the RQ:G playtest pack).

Last Wednesday's session was so good one of the players (Hervé) wrote it down to share it with anyone curious about our RQ:G game. Warning: this is a GONZO game, YGWV.

in Tzu Ling

Chern Durel Campaign - Session 12GM: Gianni. 3 players: Patrick (Xu), Teva (Skull Sucker), Hervé (Kro Tal). 4-hour game

After escaping from the Slug-Men’s prison, Xu and Kro Tal go to the Black Sun Temple in the Ignorant Quarter of Tzu Ling. It is still Sacred Time and they pray to regain all used Rune Points (success). They also convince some of the younger priests to send them to the Other Side again, to establish contact with Blackstone, the God [GM: more like a Demi-God] who killed a Dragon long ago; they want to learn its secrets to help Ignorance fight against the Kralori dragon-lovers.
They are led into the Temple’s inner sanctum and wreathed in Basko’s black flames. The roof disappears, and a black sky appears, with the Black Sun in its full glory. It opens its maw and swallows both characters. Inside its mouth, they see its teeth change into stalagmites. They realise they are back to the entrance of Blackstone’s Temple of Bones, which they visited in their dreams a short while ago.

Inside the Temple of Bones, they invoke Blackstone with the sacrifice of a Kralori portrait of their Dragon Emperor Godunya, which they tear and spit upon. (Worship Blackstone 5% + sacred time /major temple / sacrifice bonuses). It is a success and “somewhere, a dragon whines” because of the outrage we commit upon Godunya’s effigy. Yet Blackstone is not to be found. It is Not Here. By focusing deeper and further, Kro Tal feels a great pain in the chest (loss of 1 HP) and realises Blackstone’s Heart is gone.
Using Spirit Travel (despite not being shamans, with the huge lingering bonuses), they set after the Heart, following its cold trail. On the way, they stumble upon the prone form of Skull Sucker, an Uzko warrior of Zorak Zoran with whom they have already co-operated in the Dream World (he has been dispatched there to fight the returning God Learners). He says Blackstone called him for help in his dreams; he came and fought off Kurix the God Learner lich, the eponymous master of the city of Kurix in the Dream World. It seems that the sorcerer’s magics got the better of him.

Further along the way, to their distress, they find a pool of the dark godling’s Blood and drink from it, also filling their water-skins with it. The Blood aids them to track the Heart and even gives some energy (Magic Points) back to Skull Sucker. They are then attacked by an earth demon rushing under the ground and trying to trap them in a pit it opens under their feet, but they jump or climb their way to safety. Upon entering a large cave, they must fight off a pack of Kralori zombies which they pulp. But the earth demon returns and swallows Xu, crushing the life out of him (12 point damage to ALL hit locations, enough to kill him outright despite 5-point armour and a 4-point Protection spell). It immediately rushes away.

Both Kro Tal and Skull Sucker rush to his aid and call upon their Gods with Heal Wound rune magic spells, barely bringing Xu back to life at the cost of their whole psychic energy (2 or 3 Magic Points left at this stage). By limping around to find a safe spot to recover, they realise the earth demon always follows the same “track” and pass its end.

After having somewhat recovered in the Darkness (both Xu and Skull Sucker have Darksense, and by now Kro Tal is developing something like it too), they notice the cave tapering at its end, with a chasm in the wall leading further ahead. Skull Sucker goes to investigate by Sneaking and Hiding and fails. He is speared by two light crossbow bolts and dies (one crit and one impale, both legs crippled). The mad race against death starts again but this time Kro Tal uses his False Healing spell, allowing Skull Sucker to limp back to safety and to call again on Zorak Zoran to heal his wounds. Some First Aid is also applied, but by then all characters are down to 1 MP each†.

They retreat in a side tunnel and after a long exhausting march (roll of CON×5 to press ahead), find themselves back among the Green Dragon’s bones, the one which Blackstone smothered and petrified! They decide it is a safe place to sleep or Meditate (Xu recovers about 10 extra MPs in 8 hours’ Meditation), but the place’s magics begin altering their Runes after a few hours, augmenting Disorder and Life. Both Skull Sucker and Kro Tal are Death worshippers and they leave the place, yet noting they now know a way out: the Dragon’s resting place leads to the ziggurat connected to the bottom of Tzu Ling’s cesspit, a way they went through before.

This time they call on Subere’s and on the Black Sun’s powers and use Dark Walk to approach the chasm and kill the crossbowmen, which turn out to be trollkin wearing the same colours as the servants of their Slug-Man captor! Pressing ahead, they find Blackstone’s Heart, levitating above ground, wrapped in many ropes and pulled by fifteen trollkin led by a Slug-Man. While Skull Sucker mows down the trollkin, Xu casts Attack Soul on the Slug-Man and keeps him too busy to notice Kro Tal jumping on the Heart, then close to him, then punching his skull off. The remaining trollkin scatter. Victory belongs to the characters, who immediately try to commune with Blackstone.
What they learn is… surprising.
Blackstone, whom we thought was bound by the Slug-Men and eager to break free and ravage the Kralori city, is actually happy with the current state of things, growing fat on the sacrifices his servants and clergy, the Slug-Men, siphon off the Kralori! He says this is in continuity with his battle against the Dragon and does not want the status quo to change. He also says the trollkin were pulling back his Heart to its rightful place, among the dragon bones where the characters slept! He explains a sorcerer called Kurix and his warriors had surprised him and beaten off his guards before he could chase him off, rescued by his Slug-Men worshippers.

After much doubt from Kro Tal, all three characters initiate to Blackstone, learning his special spell‡. The God marks them for recognition and acceptance from his Slug-Men servants. The dark godling reveals that his power over dragonkind could be given to them if they re-open his old and forgotten temple in Karaköse, the City of the Dead, many “li” to the west of Tzu Ling. For this, they would need his sacred book, which is now held by the sorcerer Kurix. Kurix seems stranded here, in this Dark Place, and most of his soldiers have been killed or wounded. They have taken refuge in a nearby Ziggurat.
The characters set off to hunt the Sacred Book, unsure whether they will kill Kurix or try to ally with him against their mutual enemy, Sturm Martex the talking head, dread sorcerer from Orathorn.

†upon reflection, this save should not have worked. A character at 0 general HP or below dies at the end of the melee round in which he was hit. But we did not remove the impaling bolts from Skull-Sucker’s legs, which should have been necessary BEFORE healing him. Yet this rule was forgotten by everybody, GM included; too many years of HeroQuest have made us less regarding of rules. 

‡it was decided on the spot that Blackstone’s Runes were Darkness and Stasis, and that a special, stackable spell would be designed, something like Coils (from the Book of Drastic Resolutions volume  Darkness) or Suppress Lodril, but working against Dragons and dragon-kin, including anyone with at least 1% in Draconic Mysticism, i.e. any Kralori.

My Sandbox

So if you're saying "Old School" you're saying "Sandbox". If you're saying "Sandbox" you're saying "Hex-map". Here's mine. Second Age Umathela, right smack in the centre of Enkloso, with the river Riogache slowly flowing through it in a southeast-to-northwest direction.

click to enlarge

Most of the area is ruled, or rather claimed, by Duke Roderick of Varanswal. The central area around the Mere (a large, cool lake) is ruled by his archrival, Count William of Arstranwal. The actual extent of both rulers' authority is along the major paved roads (black on the map), and along the minor dirt roads (light brown on the map). The rest is controlled by uncivilised Umathings— or worse!

I have already ran four adventures; three in the Harlan/Rampart area, one in Greenmound.

Note: 1 hex is 10km.

Twenty Quick Q&A for my Campaign

The following is a list of answers to Jeff Rients' twenty quick questions for your campaign setting. Well, kind of.

1. What is the deal with my cleric's religion?

You don't want to ask your "cleric" what his religion is. You don't want to get involved in hair-splitting theological disputes. Especially not in the kind of disputes between the Malkioneranist Wisdom Church and the Atroxic Church, which may end in bloodshed.

2. Where can we go to buy standard equipment?

To buy equipment, go to the nearest city. If you're OK to barter, you may try the closest fair or village.

3. Where can we go to get platemail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended?

Plate mail? I don't think your character will ever get that rich!

4. Who is the mightiest wizard in the land?

You don't want to start a pissing contest between a God Learner and a demonologist.

5. Who is the greatest warrior in the land?

One of the bad-ass Horali from one of the Malki cities on the coast. If asked, most Malki would say the greatest warrior in Umathela is Hergo II, Grand Master of the Rightness Templars. Some, however, would probably mention Nicephorus the Apostate, pirate ruler of the free city of Clission.

6. Who is the richest person in the land?

That's a good question. Some of the Malki merchants are really rich, but they're usually not bragging about their riches. Then most of the old lineage Malki families have managed to retain much of their wealth despite the recent catastrophes.

7. Where can we go to get some magical healing?

Alchemists may have healing potions to sell. They would be expensive.
Some wizards are able to heal, but they would only heal people within the same wizardly order as theirs.
Some heathen priests are able to heal, but they would only heal people of the same religion. Only the priestesses of Neiropha the Healer heal indiscriminately.
Herbalists prepare healing poultices. Not sure those would be considered as "magical" healing though.

8. Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath?

a/ poison
An alchemist's.

b/ disease
A shaman.

c/ curse
Depends on the curse. But usually that would be the wizard or the priest who inflicted the curse upon you in the first place.

d/ level drain
This is called Tapping in Glorantha, and is universally acknowledged to be the evillest form of sorcery. Unfortunately, there is no cure for Tapping.

e/ lycanthropy
Heroquesting.

f/ polymorph
The person who polymorphed you in the first place.

g/ alignment change
There is no such thing as 'alignment change' in Glorantha. The closest equivalent would be switching your cult loyalty, but that is something you do intentionally. Whenever you do switch your cult loyalty, you may be hunted down by your former cult's spirits of reprisal. Unless you find some magic or spirit protection, this can hurt.

h/ death
Priestesses of Neiropha the Healer may resurrect dead people. They would only do so for very important people, however, and certainly not for lowly adventurers. Also, this must be done quickly: once the soul has departed the dead body, there is no resurrection possible.

i/ undeath
The person who turned you into an undead in the first place.

9. Is there a magic guild my MU belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells?

Your wizard obviously belongs to a wizardly order. Rogue wizards don't last long.

10. Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC?

You can find them in the nearest city, at the court of the local ruler, in his exclusive employ. Only very large cities would have experts for hire.

11. Where can I hire mercenaries?

Depends on the kind of mercenaries you're looking for. If you're looking for soldiers able to fight as a unit, and to follow your orders, go to one of the cities on the coast. If you're looking for mere ne'er-do-wells who will fight for you in exchange for some money; well... you can find that sort of good-for-nothings pretty much anywhere in Umathela.

12. Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law?

It is usually forbidden to walk with bare weapons in the Malki cities. In the small towns and villages of the hinterland, people will give you a wide berth if you're armed and look dangerous.

Magic is legal if you are a wizard— who is to stop a wizard? If you are practising heathen magic, you better be inconspicuous in Malki-ruled areas.

Murder, theft, unruly behaviour, etc. are forbidden everywhere, even in the tiniest settlements. Of course, the law enforcers may be weaker than the player characters, but they will be reported to the other urban centres of the area.

13. Which way to the nearest tavern?

Just round the corner.

14. What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous?

Elves. Especially in this age and time when they're supposedly extinct.

15. Are there any wars brewing I could go fight?

Not yet...

16. How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes?

How uncivilised.

17. Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight?

The Malki cities of the coast teem with secret societies with sinister agendas.

In the hinterland, where people live simpler lives, the only sinister secret society is the cult of Nontraya.

18. What is there to eat around here?

Wheat, barley, oat, buckwheat, silverbeet, parsnip, cabbage, legumes, olives, nuts, cheeses, fresh fish, smoked fish, poultry, dog, pork.

Wealthy Malki may have food imported from distant lands.

19. Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for?

Oh, yes! That's actually why there are adventurers in the first place: to loot and plunder the legendary lost treasures of the God Learners!

20. Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with Type H treasure?

The Malki says— Dragons live up north in the heathen lands of the Empire of the Wyrms Friends. Believe me, you don't want to fight one.
The Umathing says— Dragons don't exist. Go and try to scare somebody else's children, stanger!
The Doraddi says— The Dragon sleeps deep down in the heart of the mountains. Do not awaken the Dragon! The world will come to an end if you do!

My Umathelan Campaign

My tabletop campaign is set in central Umathela, around the year 950 ST — I haven't decided the exact year yet, but since the players are barbarous Umathings who reckon the years in terms of "three years after the passing of the Rune Priest of Ropotes", it isn't really important.

Varanswal

The campaign is centred around the landlocked cities of Arstranwal and Varanswal. Both are but a shadow of their former glory; both, however, are ruled by a strong-willed ruler who does not accept Malki decadence, and who is doing his best to have his city live up to its past grandeur. Both are also extremely jealous of their neighbour, and the Count of Arstranwal and the Duke of Varanswal are always competing in everything; lately in trying to revive the ruined cities that dot central Umathela, like e.g. Rampart.

Count William of Arstranwal, a direct descendant of Loftusus the Ragged, has managed to keep the small community of Iqari in the city, even though the Soul Net Observatory is but a shadow of its former self, and is now home to a single astrologer.
The city has recently been attacked by three gigantic Cold Daimones. The monsters have wrought much destruction upon Arstranwal, especially in those parts of the city inhabited by lower caste Malki and civilised Umathings. Most of these people have either died or fled to the suburbs of Varanswal. The Cold Daimones were killed by an alliance of heroes from neighbouring Varanswal and distant Tarien. The fact that his city has been saved from destruction by adventurers from its rival has mightily angered the Count. It has also been a source of considerable mirth for the Duke of Varanswal.

Duke Roderick of Varanswal rules a large city that has been relatively spared by the vicissitudes of 10th century Umathela. The relationship with the surrounding barbarian Umathings is good, and what little trade still goes through central Umathela stops in Varanswal.
After the False Gods Revolt in 901 ST caused by the experiments of the God Learners from the University of Varanswal, the Hwarosian Mystics and the Jogram Witnesses were expelled from Varanswal, and the College of Immediate Expansion was forced to stop meddling in other peoples' myths. Now heavily reduced in membership, the University focuses its curriculum on orthodox Malkioni theology, and on more mundane subjects such as history and geography. A single God Learner remains amongst the academic staff; a well-known Emanationalist, he is known for his opposition to the School of Hwarosian Mysteries.

Time-Line of the Campaign

Now leaning towards ca.950ST. The Umathelan Coalition has driven off the Middle Sea Empire but hasn't experienced the utter destruction it will undergo in the 11th century yet.
Rumours of the Closing are reaching Umathela. It's going to be several terrifying years of incoming doom for coastal people who rely on the sea, not helped by the dragonship attacks.

Eastern Umathela is more or less reunited under the leadership of the local God Learners, centred in Cerngorth. Is their leader in the 10th century already called the 'Lord of the World's Knowledge'?

Western Umathela is much more of a very loose coalition of city-states, which don't have any control whatsoever on the interior. And altough a noted Jrusteli scholar has written a book in 950 proving that the elves of Enkloso are extinct, the latter are in reality quietly plotting the Reconquista of Western Umathela.

Introduction to the Umathing Campaign Game

As written in the previous post, I intend to portray the Umathings as a conservative, isolated lot. I have also decided that, since they have been magically transferred to Umathela from a far-away place, and since they have little interaction with foreigners, their language has kept many archaisms from Slontos. As a consequence, I have decided to use Anglish as a source of inspiration for the Umathings' dialect. Here's a first sampler.

They call it the Imperial Age, but we call it the Forlorn Tide.

It did start well, though. The Empire was good at the time. Imperial ships† took us from the barren lands of our forefathers and brought us to our new home. Imperial settlers helped us clear the woods and drain the marshes. This also drove out the wort-men who lived here before we did.

We grew and we throve on this new land of ours with rolling hills and open fields. The Imperials lived in their great towns on the shore, we lived in our steads and townlets and kept to ourselves. But soon the Empire grew wicked and slanderous. Our elders had to bow down to their aldermen; our warriors were taken far away to fight wars which weren’t our wars. Many did not return. Worse of all, however, was the weightiness that the Imperial wizards took. They built their lore halls were they would grow in uncouth spellcraft-lore and dwimmer-lore, and whence fearsome gear-beings stepped out. They brought in bug-men from their home island. This was too much. We got together, swore oaths of help and brotherhood, and set upon the evil that the Empire had become. The strout was long and harsh but in the end we won.

Life is tough, though. Trade hasn’t borne well our newfound asideness. The great towns on the shore yold to us but kept many of their wizards who may still plot against us. Leftovers of their eerie checkouts are still there; fearsome fiends dwell in forsaken wrecks. Yet young daredevils set out to delve into those stows. This game is about their undertakings.

†Note: The magical transfer from Slontos to Umathela was such a shock that the Umathings have collectively suppressed it from memory and now sincerely believe that they have come by ship.