svensson

Mods, delete please

Mods, delete please

Mods, delete please.

And they were WELL rewarded for the effort. The haul for killing Yerezum Storn [the antagonist in 'The Dragon of the Thunder Hills'] is as significant a reward as I've ever seen in an RQ game. Let me show you: - +2d6 REP [3d6 if the party keeps the head and betrays the dragonewts] - +1 CHA [+2 if they keep the head as above] - An open-ended favor from a Tailed Priest stage dragonewt. +1d6 REP when it's used [assuming the party doesn't betray him] - Founding a cult of their own, +1d6 REP +1 CHA [total CHA reward limit of +3] - An enchanted tempered iron helm, breastplate, and shield, each of which is already famous as a dragon-killer's panoply - An enchanted tempered iron spear and javelin, each of which is already famous as dragon-slaying weapons. - 4 additional hides of land - a herd of 20 cattle from the royal stud So let me ask the question again, what do the players need as a reward?

Well there's a couple things. As @Squaredeal Sten points out, there are NO 'typical' dream dragons. Each one is a unique creature, a unique fragment of a True Dragon's dreams. A 'living' dream dragon's skin with 12 AP isn't unreasonable [reduced to 9 or 10 after tanning]. And it's not just about the statistics. There is the fame and notoriety of owning such a prestigious piece of gear. Tempered and Enchanted Iron is utterly common in comparison to being 'The Guy That Owns Dragon Scale Armor'. And how the Hell else is one going to claim the title 'Dragonslayer' without proof of this magnitude. The dragon skin could be just augmented cuirboulli, say 4 or 5 AP, and it would STILL be worth the fame and glory attached to the gear. Here in 21st Century Earth, we've had the notions of 'proving your worth' and 'glory' knocked out of us. Two World Wars and a neverending series of brushfire wars will do that. But in Glorantha, fame and glory are the bread and butter of every professional warrior. Defaming a man's reputation is a killing matter and many a boy has lost his life in pursuit of glory, fame, reputation, and notoriety. Owning the ONLY verified suit of Dragon Skin Armor would be a huge cachet to a warrior name and fame.

A dream dragon's physical form fades if it is 'slain'... you don't actually kill a dream dragon, you just change it's dreams. It fades as quickly as the referee says it does, but there are RQG books that quote a 1 AP per year rate. Those same citations caution referees in flippantly handing out dragon-skin armor. This isn't the Forgotten Realms where dragons are color-coded, classified by threat levels, and are so common as to have dragon skin armor as a common reward. Anyone wearing a dragon's skin will have a unique item. So IF the referee even allows such an over-powered item in their game, the cost of getting the hide made into armor should be a full year's income AT MINIMUM. And even then the Chief Priest of your temple and/or you clan chief or tribal king will wonder out loud why you didn't gift the armor to temple, clan, or tribe for the betterment of all. And if the player does somehow get a set of dragon skin armor, every other knucklehead with blade longer than a butter knife will be challenging the famous dragon killer to claim the armor. Humans are, after all, a Hell of a lot easier to kill than dream dragons! Even Heroes-with-a-capital-H like Jar-Eel or Harrek might take the time to 'visit' the steading of the PC to get such a prize. Lastly, given the rewards of the scenario, I really do think that handing out the materials for dragon skin armor is too much. The players get 3 pieces of enchanted iron armor, two iron weapons, a bunch of Fame, more land, possibly a raise in social status, the opportunity to found their own freaking cult AND an open ended 'favor' from a dragonewt priest. What the Hell ELSE do they need, fer cryin' out loud?

Huh. I would possibly let a few scales survive for, say, a breastplate, shield or helm, enough for one or two players. But a full suit? Um, NOPE. I'm gonna presume that the OP did the dragon hunt in the GM Pack. If so, even with returning the Obsidian Blade to the Dragonewts, the rewards for that quest are significant.. up to and including founding a cult!... and the material rewards especially so. If that's the scenario the GM ran, then there isn't any need for dragon skin armor at all. A full panoply of Orlanthi dragon hunter gear is plenty and then some. My opinions are taken from Greg's article in The Runequest Companion and Different Worlds about Dragonewt armor.

Ask yourself.... Do you really want a pissed off beaked dragonewt on your trail forever? You see, the violated dragonewt can infallibly track his skin. And if you kill him, he'll come back again. Oftentimes, he comes back with friends. They may not know who you are, they just know you have what they want. If you're looking for ransom, they really don't understand concept very well. They do, however, possess a very special sets of skills, skills learned in multiple lifetimes. Skills that make them a nightmare for thin-skins like you. If you give the armor back right now, the will [probably] not look for you, but if you don't, they will look for you. And they will find you and they will kill you. [with a respectful nod to Bryan Mills 😁] Keeping a set of dragonewt armor is tantamount to signing your own death warrant. But if that's your thing, well, party on, Wayne.

There's a balance to be struck, I think. I want to support BOTH my favorite games companies and the brick and mortar FLGS. Both of these venues are vital for the growth of gaming as a hobby and both are necessary for sales of the products we love and support. Personally, I try and trade off, one product from the company store and one product from the FLGS. And no products from Amazon. 😁

You wanna see somebody get spooled up? Tell an evangelical fundamentalist that you believe that The Christ and Mary Magdalena had, um, 'conjugal relations'. It's like winding up the Energizer Bunny....

That's the cult, not the man. I'm pretty sure that every single Christian denomination does something The Christ would find objectionable. Humans are fallible. Prophets get misheard, apostles misunderstand the lesson, scripture gets mistranslated. And all of that sometimes happens on purpose. Now I grant you that Gloranthan gods have far more direct contact with their worshipers than here on Terra, but published sources show that worshipers get stuff about Orlanth and Ernalda wrong all the time.

As I understand it, the answer in canon is that there is no proof as to whether or not Arkat did stoop to using Chaotic magic. There is general agreement that if the right circumstances presented themselves or if there was a pressing tactical need, Arkat would most likely [but not definitely] use any tool he could get his hands on. Everything else was grist for the mill in his quest to defeat Gbadji [he even became a troll!] so most scholars of the First Age don't think he'd many compunctions about using Chaos. Note: Arkat underwent the full Uz Adoption Rite. That means that he was ritually vivisected while still living until he died and was reborn in Darkness. The process adds various Trollish features to a human's body and adds the Darkness Rune to their spirit. A person who undergoes this rite would appear to be a deformed and ugly human with troll fangs protruding from their mouth and the ability to eat anything... however they're never satiated, they will ALWAYS be hungry. Arkat wasn't just initiated into a cult of the Uz, like joining Argan Argar or Zorak Zoran. Arkat literally changed races and BECAME a troll. And not just 'a troll', he became a Mistress Race Ancestral Troll. Insofar as I know, other than becoming a broo via the Blessing of Thed there is no other way to voluntarily change your species in RQ.

If this is the case, then I'm kinda glad I didn't sink money into the current edition. I very much like the QuickStart, but I'd rather not spend $65 twice.

Answering the OP: The law and custom of primogeniture seeks to keep property in the hands of the named family and, failing that, specifically describing the lineage necessary to inherit that property if the direct male descendant line dies out. Strictly adhering to that basis, Sir Celyn would inherit the family's tenured fief. Lady Bronwyn has married. English, French and German law in the Crusades era all clearly state that she takes on her husband's prospects [titles, lineages, properties, etc.] and that her son has no claim to Sir Alain's lands while a direct male heir of her father still lives. But yes, the noble senior to the 'MacAlain' family [be it baron, count, earl or duke] will certainly have an opinion of who ought to inherit the property if any bar exists to Sir Celyn.... if Sir Celyn were a felon, or had a disease that might impact his heirs [leprosy, for example], or was a bastard [acknowledged or not]. And the two points that the liege lord will look at are: a] How will this effect my feudal muster and b] How do I think any heir will do in paying their taxes and stewarding the fief.

Funny stuff aside, the Grail Quest's entire intent is for knights to embrace the character traits that are hardest for them to reach... Knights by their nature are a proud and willful lot. They risk their lives for Lord, Lady, and Land often and do so by choice. They have an entirely justified pride on very masculine skills... skill at arms, skill at hunting, skill with horses, etc. And the whole point of the Cult of Courtly Love [and for that matter the Cult of the Virgin Mary] is to soften and humanize these meatheads in metal shirts. The Grail Quest emphasizes the antithesis of these traits: humility over pride, innocence over worldliness, submission over dominance. And while most Christian knights have had some exposure to this [though most usually pay it lip service at most], pagan knights will have a **significantly** harder time embracing the goals of the Grail. If the Grail in KAP has a 'personality' or some kind of will of it's own [instead of being symbolic object], I'd venture to say that your pagan knights would stand no chance whatsoever of even finding the Grail until they converted. It might be better story-wise for you to use the Grail quest as a guide to develop a pagan quest of similar mythic significance.

Of Daka Fal? No. Of Thed and Mallia, yes.

It doesn't matter what the staple foods are when we are discussing the organization of the food supply at the city level. The issue at hand here is the method by which food is distributed to a high concentration of those who cannot grow their own and at what medium of exchange and price point of exchange. Now, I'm not getting all 'MBA' here and substituting 'widget' for something as vital as the food supply. It's of obvious importance on a local level what can be grown, how often it can be harvested, and how it can be preserved. This is Glorantha not the Forgotten Realms and while the Earth Goddess are a necessity to the production of food, there isn't a friendly priestess bopping around the neighborhood casting Create Food and Water in times of famine. And for all the magic in Glorantha, famine and devastation of the land is just as important a tactic of warfare here as it was in Peloponnesian Wars on Earth. There are those in Tunis that strongly believe, for all their Muslim sterness, that Romans poured a curse in addition to salt on the land that was Carthage. [Brief note, the Romans did not sow tons of sand into the soil of Carthage. They used a couple of tons and cast it on the ground in ritual condemnation. But curses, be they true or false, often take on lives of their own.] As @Qizilbashwoman pointed out, we have Cruciform tablets and earlier evidence that food, cooking, and taxes were communal and related [meaning that paid taxes bought access to the food supply on an annual basis] in early Mesopotamia before improvements in agriculture and husbandry drew in enough of a surplus that it could be done 'for profit'. This is partly because there was enough of a surplus of some foodstuff that the supply outstripped the food's 'shelf life' allowed by preservation techniques. Even grain kept in sealed granaries can develop ergot if the temperatures changes develop a damp/dry cycle and the sources like the Aramaic translations of the Bible and Gilgamesh speak of 'old grain' in terms that it was rancid and not fit for consumption.

DAMN IT! I took the field and the spread on that one! 😁

So, as a reenactor I'm always on the lookout for interesting tidbits that might be of use to the RQ gaming audience. This one is for you Lunar fans out there, a letter from Roman legionary on the Pannonian frontier to his family back home. Enjoy!

For reference, Ötzi the Iceman's equipment included a flint shaper. [link to museum list of Ötzi's equipment below] https://www.iceman.it/en/equipment/

Replying to the OP here. There are surgeons who insist on doing neurological surgery with knapped obsidian scalpels because they're the only blades both thin and sharp enough to split nerve tissue lengthwise. So yeah, against bare flesh, clothing or soft leather [including hides and fur] knapped igneous stone is a pretty good bet. However, you'll probably be replacing the spearhead when you retrieve the spear out of the beast. Paleontologists and primitive bushcraft experts theorize that an average hunter likely carried several pre-made replacement blades for his weapons and probably raw nodes and a knapping kit as well. And I am purposely not quoting fiction here. 'Clan of the Cave Bear' is an entertaining read [and probably mandatory reading for Hsunchen players] but I'm getting my statements about the efficacy of primitive weaponry from the Universities of Colorado and Arizona.

Just as any living being 'knows' that being set on fire, or falling from a great height, or being submerged in water will kill it, any spirit [which are specifically defined in Glorantha as being alive and can be killed] will fear those substances or situations that are deadly to it. Call it what you want, 'instinctual fear' or whatever, but that knowledge will determine how that spirit /elemental will cope with that situation. Yes, yes, I know there are some creatures that will ignore obvious danger and kill themselves [lemmings, etc.], but these are overwhelmingly the exceptions rather than the rule.

Okay, then building on @Darius West's comment, Vishi could have the vision he described but find the pregnant cow [I have no idea what the word for 'adult female llama' is] giving birth to a 'super-llama'... the lamb is the get of Storm Bull and Grandmother Llama. It's much tougher and larger [say another 2-3 SIZ points], smarter, but also willful and prone to the occasional angry fit over nothing [they don't call him 'Storm Bull' for nothing...]. Vishi regains his mount, but he has to raise it from a lamb and train it as well. And, hopefully, keep it from biting Molon, Vasana's bison! 😉 This way Vishi's player learns a lesson [Praxian, BUFF YOUR MOUNT TOO!], gain honor that he has to live up to in his tribe, and doesn't lose the cash value equivalent.

A question, if I may. Is this a solo campaign or are you playing Vishi in a regular game? If it's the former, I have an interesting suggestion. If it's the latter, that suggestion really should go to your referee 🙂 The llama spirit is a great idea and I like @Darius West's suggestion as well. Vishi's alticamelus represents better than 75% of his wealth [the equivalent of taking all of a warrior's armor] and unless there is a definite plot hook [the scripted capture of the whole party, for example] where everyone suffers a huge loss, it ought to be replaced.

What do you give the Gaul that has everything? More gall.... 🙂