Erol of Backford

It was from House Campaign p.77. Maybe Greg-someone decided that the Riders would be a nice antagonist for Yelmians? Generally I like the idea of trollkin flying on flies being hit by fire arrows, catching fire and crashing magnificently. Into The Toll Realms p.38 I'll stick to wasp riders being potential allies and paper suppliers. Was thinking there could be another nest in Sog's Ruins and they'd be highly territorial there but didn't think deeply on that yet... (another thread)

It was based on if you have an INT of say 13-14 your base in read write would be 3-4%. Initiates get x1 so if they are 20 they'd get read write at 5+3~4 so they'd have a read write of say 7 or 8 now if they were 27 and an initiate they'd be at 15%. Speaking does have a correlation to your reading and writing ability based on what I am thinking, maybe at a much lessor degree but how many persons speaking at say 75-80% skill would not have used a good amount of wasp paper used writing their speeches or doing the LM entry dissertations? Was trying to correlate civilized and or barbarian initiate literacy levels with the use of wasp paper... sorry, trying to get back to the topic. Why would the wasp riders attack any light-cultists to kill? Is there a Yelm - Insect hatred for the past? I can see light versus dark but what does light and insect dislike about each other?

From the House Campaign p.79: PHARAOH’S GAZETTE - SEA SEASON/1620 THE HOLY COUNTRY NEWS Late Edition PEASANT REBELLIONS IN HENDREIKI - Everywhere else in the province the peasants have taken up arms and murdered the new knights when they can. Where are these "new knights" from? Who are they, who leads them? King Rickard? I think some of this is where I got the notion that the Aeolians were suppressing the pagan Oranthi and stealing their idols when they discovered them. Backford at blue arrow.

Just noted this from the House Campaign p.77. 2. THE WASP RIDERS - Will attack any light-cultists to kill, otherwise are normal brigands riding huge wasps. (Wilms Church region)

If most people speak at least 30% I am guessing 15% would have you be able to read/write basic things or at least a good bit more than P-U-B but to each his own. Agree totally as to the location of discussions, P-U-B! Pub makes me think of wasp whiskey or something like that but a quote by someone who drank liquor infused with fermented wasps stated: “Let’s be frank. It stinks, it tastes bad, and it looks like crap. I can’t say that I would ever want to drink this stuff again. Sure, the benefits are things that I could get behind, but that’s not the problem here. Maybe if some honey were added to it or if a different kind of liquor were used, then it would be more palatable, but at this point I’ve lost all motivation to give it another try…”

That old movie "Food of the Gods" was based on God Learner Alchemy wasn't it? This is meant to be. So the PC's goes to the Century Tree (RQA 06 p.04) and somehow, Hero Quest possibly, comes back with giant fruit tree seeds? Fading Lands, Ghost Ruins, Women of Seclusion, it all sounds exotic and tempting... giant beautiful Dryads? (off topic but interesting nevertheless...)

Sounds like the paper goes to an Elvish PC who has quested and found a micromillimeter thin coating that is not only waterproof but also accepts charcoal ink very well... (seems like another nice scenario for LM Initiates and or Sages) However there is a large demand for the high quality water proof parchment that comes from Wasps Nest via Backford following the "Paper for Posterity" Hero Quest completed in 1604. (whatever that might develop into) It cannot be replicated though attempts have been made... Barbarians and Civilized Initiates in RQ3 all had a read write languages skill. Seems to me nearly every Orlanthi is literate? But they do as Backford has grown a new grove with poplars, aspen trees, and evergreens, especially appealing to the wasps. 15,432,358 sheets of paper per year... even half that do to waste is a nice amount. Who knows, Backford may actually be the site of a new giant wasps nest and giant bee hive... I suppose that the tree types the wasps like are already near their nest. Another supposition would be that the trolls near there sometime eat the wasps and their riders at the same time in some sort of exotic dish with the wasps honey? I assume there is a sort of ongoing feud between the trolls of Troll Wood, trolls will eat anything... or maybe there is a truce of sorts and they are allies? Question is would the Wasp Riders be more inclined to ally with say Sun Domers or Trolls?

So what you are saying is that Dwarves are actually organic, bioengineered, then grown and finally mechanically enhanced when decomposition sets in? Wouldn't that be the worst sort of dwarven heresy?

It's not 100% on the mark but wouldn't this parallel (what was/still is by many) dirty/unclean earth food be like pork in days of old real world?

I was thinking this as well, why dredge, construct and maintain tow paths on the surface when they exist for you already? So when you come out of the fish road is everything and everyone soaking wet or do you magically become dry... or is there a giant air curtain that dries you as you exist like in a car wash? Could there be a swarm of water elementals that pull all the water off you and your items as you exit? Maybe its like chilled water system with a supply and return? Does the water flow the same speed in both directions or is it sitting still in the fish-road-tube-thingy? Actually the items/vessel regardless would fit and so who cares about dredging if the fish road transports everything no matter the size? The dwarves developed the Trim VX model fishroad pod car which flows with the current and can be customized to look like a fish? Maybe its steam powered? We spoke to this earlier in the thread... I keep going back to the old D&D Module D2, you wade into or guide your craft, wagon, whatever into the shrine water which is like a subway station and somehow become acclimated to the being able to breathe an function under water. Obviously the currents would assist you (like in Finding Nemo) in both directions or you'd be moving very slowly and then what's the point?

The Great Crystal: Only a 10x5 meter face of this great crystal is revealed, but it's bulk is many time greater. Most remarkably, the crystal glows dully as though it has been attuned. The idea that someone of something might be attuned to such a mammoth crystal and draw power and magic from it should trouble the dreams of any Gloranthan...

Spell trading, truestone and matrices... if you are a sea captain on a trading vessel how could you not unless you are a schmuck!?

and the Boom Gang Girls, (They are an elite bunch of female dwarves that use somewhat oversized blunderbusses) never leave that off because a Girl Can't be Killed by a Make-believe Lover.. Cause its Hot. The Boom Gang Girls were developed as a western dwarvish counter to the Black Arkati - Kobakuruun. They were founded at Bad Deal and have spread from there. They developed their own explosive - incendiary devices generally centered of sorcerous animated ceramic golems. There is a famed LM Sage named Damien Love out of Nochet who wrote a thesis about this entitled Monstrous Devices. The dwarvish ladies entertain themselves by disguising the claymation monsters as someone the target trusts so it is able to get close and even kiss them. When a contract is taken out on someone to be assassinated they are basically requesting "a kiss of death" from the Boom Gang. With a 98% kill ratio the Boom Gang Girls are in high demand. Some assassins' cults as far as Lake Felster from Bad Deal in the Nidan Mts. have disbanded, relocated and or were run out of business by the Gang. Rumor has it that some in the Lunar Empire wish to replace Dart War Assassins with these Monstrous Devices. It is said that from ceramic fragments and the spirit that was bound into the Mostrous Device in question, Mr. Love conducted extensive Reconstruction spells (at a large cost paid in unenchanted iron) to actually assist the Gang in perfecting there devices as to force projection/trajectory resulting in controlled blasts that the target embraced can be killed without damaging the sofa, chair or even the clothing the target is wearing. I mean, who'd want expensive magical heirloom jewelry damaged or destroyed when it need not be. Of course earrings are not able to be avoided when the entire head is blow to small bits. Even with this selective death being possible it is more common to have powerful explosive devices obliterate entire clan meeting halls.... why kill just one of the rival clan or house members. In some cases the unenchanted and thus nearly undetectable iron outer shell had been filled with black powder, and miniballs numbering in the thousands... They animate ceramic cast humanoids and animals that house various types of black powder explosive devices.

So it surely doesn't get so rocky a boat could not pass... The big question is did the God-king use the fish road to get into and out of Hell? What type of craft did he deploy? Was it a Gato-class submarine? More likely it was like the old Captain Nemo's submarine. On the other hand, couldn't he just go to the underworld if he willed it? I keep going back to the submerged subway station entry to the fish road especially at Backford where the "real dimension" doesn't actually fit in the river channel. Come to think of it wouldn't boats be able to run in the fish road? I think we spoke to this a long while back, why bother with the tow-path, just take the craft into the fish road...

There is in the works a tow path of course, I think we have it getting engineered in 1603-04 and work starting in 1605 follow the Building Wall Battle. But lets face it, Glorantha is a magical place with Undines. If some small craft on the Zola Fel have undine power for going upstream large vessels with costly time sensitive cargo like fish or fresh produce would surely have magical propulsion. Especially in the new RQ rules where characters get reusable rune magic much more time-cheaply then RQ3 where you at least needed to be an acolyte.

Truly archaic... Let's say for new efforts LM sages wish to use paper and archive via knowledge temple spirits, they are like modern . Lets the Lunars use clay... I think the high quality sages with some amount of sorcery ability have air elementals taking dictation with ink quills while they lounge on their Ottomas begin fed grade by the scantily clad servers? Better yet get the spirit of Ormelius Dragonchide bound into a herd man and have him take dictation for you. (I keep going back to this guy...)

Backford fish and chips are renown throughout Glorantha as the fish is processed at the pub right along the Syphon. (I hear it's as good as that in Manchester?) Some trolls put melted Imtherian cheese on the chips but they are trolls and so that might be expected.

So the Syphn's flow would increase at high tide for sure. It goes without saying that boats going to the Bay would want to return there when at low ide as the current might be less that is assuming there are no low or shallow water water locations. I assume the Heortland CCC would be there dredging and eliminating sand bars, etc. to keep the channel deep enough for trade shipping. I am guessing the pens/fences are adjacent to the river channel and water is "irrigated" to supply them rather than being in the actual channel. (I know nothing about fish farming but I suppose its never to late to learn...) The Eorl will do what they might to increase Backford's status as a trade center of course. Thank you for the input as aways.

Will need to find this, is there a source? Also LM sages would need paper of course, lots of it? Possibly special ingredients are needed for "special" paper which the wasps would make and LM Sages pay for? This generates further scenarios with the libraries across the Holy Country. What would be the equivalent to a Gloranthaian Hallmark store? Most old temples that I've been to have little souvenirs, knickknacks and or pray items, symbols, etc. I assume each larger shiring and or temple in Glorantha would also have a small gift store? Thinking on the paper prayer knots tied to trees at some Buddhist temples I have been to? What amount of paper could the Wasps Nest produce each year and of course what season would the majority be created assuming their paper is desired?

So how old would a dwarf be when they are recycled, say in median number of years?

When dwarves are made is it like an assembly line with parts, are they actually bionic, totally and do they use repair spells? Are dwarves truly alive as far as humans and Elves think on it, do the breathe, grown and get old? Are their cells dying and reproducing, do they have DNA and of course what color is their blood either when oxidized or not? Do they and or other Gloranthians bleed red? There was a note that Lanstarings, IIRC bled blue or purple? If they are actually organic or their are organics in their systems are they not heretical themselves?

Just use a hippogryph and or griffin? (Isn't there an inn in Barbarian Town called the Hippogryphs Rest or maybe its Ye Old Mitre?) I suppose related to Barbarian Town there would be Hippogriffs (part horse due to region, lots of horses near Barbarian Town) rather than a griffin (speculation) but then again griffins visit Sun Dome and maybe, just maybe they come this way to get a meal of stormbull, I hear griffins really enjoy stormbull tartar? One has to think that hippogryphs may also come over from Pegasys Plateau for a meal... Additionally a few wasp ridders may stop in now and again to check out the marigolds growing near there... Would trolls not stop through there on their way to Pavis from Troll Woods or the It would be cool if there were a pub Ye Old Mitre (yes stolen from London) that an oddball LM Sage owns which was basically a Pub/Library that his wife, an Issaries Merchant named Binky Godsell (younger cousin of Gringle) operates.

But a good bit wider in some locations or so it seems on the Prax maps? Sunrise there with 18" of fresh snow was an incredible view. No snow normally in Southern Prax however correct? Was thinking it was based on the Needles in the Black Hills but both work for me. We are planning Spring Break Seattle into Northern Cal this year. Is the pass open late March as we might go that way if the drive makes one think of Sun County?

Right now I am leaning towards the Capratis having ties to Backford and Durengard, partly from old zine articles... Did you have thought's on the fish pens? I am starting to think Backford from 1600 on is greatly expanding its markets, salt, fish, nearby mines, ties to Nochet. Now they just need tow path or something of the sorts to get back out to the bay and they are in business!

Does anyone have a copy of this?