The Festival

The first day of the year is Freezeday of Disorder week, Sea season. This day is holy to Voria the Spring Virgin, the goddess of new beginnings, youth and innocence. In Nochet, this is traditionally celebrated by a mass run. Horns call children, and the young-at-heart, into the streets. There, they simply run until exhaustion. There is no start or finish line, no winning or losing, just run until you drop. Wherever you fall, when you recover you look around for a sign of Voria's blessing. Most participants are happy to go home with just a symbolic token, a pretty stone or early flower. But every year, there are stories of some children who find a treasure.

The year is 1617. This is the first such festival since Belintar, the God King, was slain by a mysterious assassin. The Sacred Time omens have been bad, and all the adults are worried. But he has been killed before; virtually no-one suspects he is not coming back this time. That this will be the last year his magics blesses the land, earning it the name Holy Country. Never again will the spring day shine so bright, the race be run so swiftly, exhaustion be so complete, or prospect of a prize so exciting.

In the hard times to come, all hope of the restoration of what was lost will be placed in the hands of the Last Holy Generation. This is the beginning of their story.

The Cult of Voria

In most Lightbringer lands, Voria is celebrated but rarely worshiped. Nochet and other great cities of Esrolia are an exception. There, the cult of Voria is a formal organisation with permanent temples and Rune Priestesses. Those priestess are vital to the agricultural rituals that allow those cities to grow to an unprecedented size. Nochet, with over 100,000 residents, is commonly held to be the largest city in all Glorantha.

Note that Earth Goddesses book says that only women may be a Rune Priestess of Voria. However, Nochet follows the  Heortling Six Paths gender system, so this is more a matter of definition than restriction.  

Like the ancient Roman Vestal Virgins, the adult Priestesses of Voria lead luxurious but secluded lives, rarely leaving their temples other than to perform rituals, and never marrying.  Becoming a Priestess is an honored and prestigious vocation that few qualify for. Unlike Roman Vestals, those of Nochet are not harshly punished if they break their vows. But they do lose their magic, and their Grandmother will be disappointed. 

PCs will be old enough to be able to decide whether becoming a Priestess is a fate that they aspire to, or would kill to avoid. 

Rules

The Festival of Voria's Run is run as an ongoing contest. As the race has no winner, and always ends in collapse, what matters is the number of successes each participant scores before then. As with Scenario 1, characters have not been created yet, and so have no characteristics or abilities other than those established during that scenario. 

This time new abilities should be on a scale of 10 to 65. Those repeated from last time may be increased to 75. The total of all abilities taken, across both scenarios, cannot exceed 350.

As before, abilities taken now will have to be paid for in later stages of character generation. So taking many high abilities will restrict the available options for occupation and cult to those that fit.

For each stage in the run, the GM describes the situation. The PC describes what they are doing in response, and picks an ability rating. The GM assigns that to a RQ:G skill, characteristic, skill passion or rune, and then sets the difficulty based on how appropriate the response is. 

While the contest is ongoing, the tie break rule is not used. If a PC picks an action that indicates they are withdrawing from the race, that roll is counted as decisive, uses the tiebreak rule and ends the contest. If at any time a PC has 3 successes scored against them, the next stage is automatically decisive. Once all contestants have withdrawn or collapsed, the contest is over; proceed to handing out rewards.

All oppositions represent environmental factors, and so have status inactive. So the opposition does not roll a bonus D20.

Stage 1: Before the start

Horns call the Runners onto the street, where they await the touch of the Priestess that forms the signal to start running.

Normally children are not initiated, and so have no magic. But in the special circumstances of a Holy festival on the last year of existence of the Holy Country, this rule is suspended. So Runes or Passions may be taken as abilities, and may be used to roll for inspiration. Inspiration lasts for the whole contest. A failed inspiration roll means an additional rune or passion would have to be taken to try again.

Highly suitable options include Love Family, Loyalty Nochet, Devotion [any God], , or ; these are opposed by a rating of 20. will be opposed by 40. Less suitable options will face a higher opposition still.

Stage 2: The Crush

As the run starts, the street is packed densely with runners, many of them larger and older than the PCs. There is a risk of being jostled and falling, or being stuck in a group and unable to run freely.

This might be avoid by being too strong or large to be jostled, too nimble or lucky to fall over, too popular to be crowded, or tough enough to get back up after falling down.

The festival is a situation of low danger, so the base difficulty rating for a highly appropriate ability is 20.  As always, this will be increased for less appropriate choices.

Stage 3: The Run

The crowd thins, and there is nothing to do but keep on running. 

Base difficulty is 40, highly suitable abilities include dexterity and constitution. This stage can be repeated several times, at a higher base difficulty each time. 

Stage 4: Lost in the City

Running beyond the streets they know, each PC finds themselves in a strange district, where foreigners live who do not necessarily respect the sanctity of the Run. These may be trolls, Malkioni, Kralorelans or Teshnans. They loom in front of the runner.

A runner might place their trust in their good nature, or common respect for the Goddess. They might try to intimidate them, trick them, bargain with them, or just outrun them.

Base difficulty is 30, highly suitable abilities are homeland or other relevant lore skills. In reality, no permanent resident of Nochet would harm a child during this sacred festival, but the participants don't necessarily know that.

Stage 5: The Accident

A drastic incident interrupts the run. A cart may be turned over, a horse bolt, or a brawl break out. Someone may be hurt and in need of healing; can the runner find someone to help them without ending their run?

Base difficulty is 40, highly suitable abilities depend on the details of the situation.

Stage 6: The Blessing

Nearly passing out from exhaustion, the PC starts to feel the presence of Voria herself running beside them. Such things can happen in the capital of the Holy Country, where Goddesses walk the streets.

If they ask, they may receive Her blessing.

This is a simple opposed roll with tie break, against difficulty 50. Highly suitable abilities include  , , or Devotion or Worship to any Earth Goddess.  If they pass, they receive Voria's blessing. A failure has no effect; it does not affect the state of the ongoing contest.

The blessing is a free single-use of the Invigorate Rune spell. During this ongoing contest, it may be cast at any time to cancel out all contest successes scored so far by the environment. Once cast, the spell is gone, as is usual for one-use magic.

Stage 7: The Dawn Gate

The Sacred City at the heart of Nochet is guarded by three gates. Runners who approach the Virtue or Petitioners gate will be politely turned away. But on this festival day, the Dawn Gate is open. But not to anyone.

The runner must convince the Dawn Gate guards that they are a legitimate and serious participant in the ritual. And not a street urchin trying something on.

Base difficulty is 50, highly suitable abilities are Loyalty to a high status house, or any abilities restricted to high status professions such as Priest or Noble. Having, and using, the Invigorate spell will be an automatic success. If they have the spell but choose not to use it, they may try to persuade the guards to go fetch a priest or shaman who can confirm its existence using their own magic.

Stage 8: The Garden of Heavenly Delights

The Garden is filled with many wondrous sights, smells and tastes. Some of which are immensely valuable. It will be a temptation to lie down next to some small desirable object, and so wake claiming it. For anyone permitted entry to the garden, such a claim will naturally be honored.

Doing so counts as withdrawing from the contest; use some skill such as bargain or streetwise to pick the most valuable object.

Continuing on requires a success against a difficulty of 60; only a relevant passion (e.g. Honor or Devotion) is likely to be appropriate.

If any PC makes it past here, repeat Stage 3 with steadily increasing difficulty until they pass out.

The Prize
Contestants who continued on until collapse subtract 3 from the number of successes scored against them, and then count the remaining net successes.

• 5+ : +1 to any two or more characteristics, added after completion of character generation.
• 4 : +1 to any characteristic, added after completion of character generation.
• 3 : a magical item rolled on the Family Heirloom table of N:AG. This may be planted by their parents, a gift from the Goddess herself, or something in between.
• 2: a contact, mentor or ally (see N:AG, Common Character Table).
• 1: a small gift or discovery, worth 10L
• 0 or less: a small item of no intrinsic value

Contestants who successfully withdraw at a certain stage get rewards appropriate to that stage. The value uses the table above, but restricted to a maximum of

• 1 if they withdrew before stage 3
• 2 if they withdrew before stage 6
• 3 if the withdrew at stage 8

Contestants who attempted to withdraw, but failed, get nothing.

What Comes After

If any contestant received Voria's blessing, but did not use it, they are identified as a potential candidate for becoming a Priestess of Voria. They receive a contact of a senior family member who wants that to happen. Depending on how they feel about that, that character will be either a Current Mentor or Worst Foe.

If they do end up fully initiating to Voria, they keep the spell without having to spend a POW; personally meeting a Goddess overrides the usual rules.

Anyone who failed to get a reward may try again next year. However, they will not meet the Goddess, and so step 6. The era when Goddesses freely walked the streets of Nochet has gone, and none knows if or when it will return.