Jex

Hrm... I'll have to think about this for my Marshedge NPC. Given her backstory, she actually would be willing to go through all that, but it sounds like at the end she'd be literally turned into an elf, which may be a problem. Yeah, maybe I'll have her be an initiate of Flamal instead. The biggest issue with that, as minor as it may seem, is that I did want her to have the preserve herbs spirit magic spell (not that it's vital to an adventure or anything, but there are reasons I wanted her to have it), which is a special Aldrya cult spell. Oh, wait; I'd already planned on giving her two pixie companions (who stay hidden from everyone else except for a small handful of people she trusts). One of them could have the preserve herbs spell. Problem solved. Edited to add: For the record, yes, I realize in principle she could get the spell from a shaman who finds it in the Spirit World, but if she's supposed to be an ally of the elves, then going behind their backs to get a secret Aldrya cult spell that non-initiates aren't supposed to have doesn't seem like a great idea.

Hm... I think that still works Hm... I think that still works with my Marshedge NPC, as long as she can still pass for fully human, at least to casual observers.

Oh, dear. I was planning on having an NPC in Marshedge be an initiate of Aldrya (I have a backstory for her to explain how that happened), so this is something I'm very interested in knowing more about as well.

Yeah, Greydog has stayed in more or less the same place in all the maps; it's the Marshedge clan—which is the one I'm writing about—that's been moved around the most. But the map on the right of your post is Jeff Richard's map from the Well of Dalioth that I'm assuming is current canon.

Well, there are several species of opossum in South America, but they're still all just opossums. Or so I thought... I was pretty sure that was the case, but I just double-checked to be sure and it turns out there are also shrew opossums, which despite the name are not true opossums, and something called the monito del monte that biologists originally thought was a type of opossum but have since concluded is actually more closely related to Australian marsupials. Well. I just learned something. Still, all the living marsupials of South America are pretty opossumesque. (Well, the shrew opossum might be slightly more shrewlike than opossumlike, but it's still not too far.) There was a much greater diversity of South American marsupials millions of years ago—in fact, it's apparently in South America that marsupials first originated, only spreading to Australia later—, but all but the opossums (and shrew opossums and monitos del monte I guess) died out. I suppose it's possible some of those extinct South American marsupials may still exist on Glorantha—there are certainly a bunch of other prehistoric mammals that are extinct on Earth running around there—but I don't know of any specific examples.

Oh, yes, sorry for not replying there; I was away from the forums for a few days trying to focus on finishing the adventure I was working on. Those maps seem to contradict the other maps even more than the other maps contradict each other, but they're interesting to see. I've decided I'm going to follow the map from the Well of Dalioth; even if it hasn't appeared in print, it's a decade more recent than the last maps of the Lismelder clans that did appear in print, and coming from Jeff Richard it can probably be considered pretty much canon, even if it says it's a work in progress. Still, like I said, the maps you linked to were interesting to see; thanks for posting that.

D'oh! Opossums! Of course! I knew about opossums in Glorantha; I was even just reading another topic that mentioned opossum Hsunchen; but I didn't think about them when I was looking for information on marsupials in Glorantha. I did a search for some specific marsupials like kangaroos and koalas and totally overlooked the opossums. That was stupid. Still, of course, in real-world Earth opossums have the distinction of being the only (surviving) marsupials outside Australia, so I guess the question still remains if there are any Australian marsupials in Glorantha. (I did know about the platypus reference, but as you mentioned they're monotremes, not marsupials.)

Something I was thinking about for a future project... are the cults of Aldrya and Uleria compatible? In particular, could an elf be an initiate of both Aldrya and Uleria? I'm inclined to think so; there doesn't seem to be any reason they shouldn't be friendly, and there's some evidence of association between the two, at least in earlier editions: the Cult Compendium makes Uleria the mother of Shanassee the Great Tree, and Elder Secrets of Glorantha says the Olarians are daughters of Uleria and Aldrya. But I can't find any definitive word on the matter; as far as I can tell in none of the books that included cult compatibility charts did both Aldrya and Uleria appear. I'm inclined to think it's probably reasonable to assume that it's possible to be an initiate in both cults, but is there anything I'm overlooking that would indicate otherwise?

Just something I've been wondering... are there any marsupials in Glorantha? The thought occurred to me because I had been trying to decide on what form to give the fetch of a shaman in Marshedge, and I thought it might be fun to make it a thylacine (Tasmanian tiger)—the shaman in question is fairly well traveled, so even if there are no such animals in Dragon Pass I figured he could have encountered them elsewhere... if there was anywhere in Genertela they could have existed. Ultimately, I decided the matter was moot, since even if he could have encountered a thylacine somewhere, it wouldn't really make sense for his fetch to take that form—the fetch's form is supposed to be tied in some way to the shamanic tradition or the shaman's spirit or ancestors, and given his background there was really one particular animal that made the most sense. Still, even if it's no longer relevant to the projects I'm currently working on, I'm still curious. I know not every Earth animal necessarily has a counterpart in Glorantha, so it's very possible there just are no marsupials there. And I haven't been able to find any references to marsupials in Glorantha materials, except for a joking and very noncanonical reference to a lost Praxian Kangaroo Tribe in Tales of the Reaching Moon #1. But I was just wondering if there's something I missed somewhere, or if anyone else had any thoughts on the matter.

Ah, that makes sense; I didn't know about Hsunchen of the East. Another book to add to my DriveThruRPG wishlist.

I've added this to my DriveThruRPG wish list and plan to get it when my next paycheck comes in. (Or maybe I'll wait till it's available in POD, if that's going to happen soon.) I had been going to ask about the apparent omission of a few types of Hsunchen that I remembered seeing mentioned in the Guide to Glorantha, but then I reread your initial post and realized that you were focusing on the Hsunchen of western or central Genertela, which makes sense because I think the "missing" Hsunchen I was thinking of are only found in eastern Genertela and/or Pamaltela. Did you have any plans to later cover Hsunchen from other parts of the world in another book? (If not, I guess someone else could pick up the torch...)

If you can find a copy, there's a whole bunch on Greydog history in Tales of the Reaching Moon #18. Granted that was a fanzine, but there are things from it that have since been canonized, so it's maybe at least kinda semi-canon.

It's not really mostly described for this specific adventure; it goes into details that aren't really important for the adventure, or don't factor in at all. (Well, it will; since I've been focusing on the adventure I haven't written much of it yet.) Plus once I finish these projects I intend to write other adventures set there, so I think it makes more sense to have the description of Marshedge as a separate product, so if someone wants to run one of the other adventures they don't need to buy the first adventure. I do plan to make them available as a bundle when they're through, though. It's not just because of the deadline that I decided to split the adventure and the village description into two separate products; I really do think they work better that way.

For the record, now that I've finished writing the adventure (though I haven't finished editing and illustrating it and laying it out, so it's not up on the Jonstown Compendium yet), I can say how I ended up handling this issue in it. I didn't want to overcomplicate things by having the murderer have special powers from Hero Quests or take extraordinary means to prevent resurrection. He's motivated to do what he can to make the victims to stay dead, but he's limited in what he can do—this is an adventure for beginning adventurers, and the murderer isn't an extraordinarily powerful character. So he's just been cutting off the murder victims' heads and stashing them somewhere. (Which of course could lead to a fun red herring about suspected Thanatari involvement.) It is possible for the PCs to find the heads and bring them back, though of course that doesn't mean they'll necessarily be resurrected. (One of the murder victims was a Wind Lord of Orlanth, though, so he may be important enough to be worth bringing back if possible.) As for speaking with their spirits, given that the most recent edition seems to imply that the spirits set off immediately on their journey to the Underworld, even if other editions said differently I figured there was enough wiggle room to say that not all spirits stuck by their bodies. So... of the two murder victims who were killed before the adventure begins, one of them is still around as a ghost and is indeed still hanging around near his body, and if the adventurers include a shaman or someone else who can communicate with spirits (or if they enlist the aid of an NPC shaman), they can talk to him. Unfortunately, he was attacked from behind and didn't see his murderer, but he can still give the adventurers some useful clues. The spirit of the other murder victim is already on its way to the Underworld; it's possible to find him in the Spirit World (as long as the adventurers haven't taken too long and seven days haven't passed!), but it won't be easy. If the adventurers do find him, though, he can tell them exactly who killed him. These aren't the only ways to identify the murderer; there are other clues the adventurers can follow up on as well. I want to reiterate, though, that the murder investigation is not the main plot of the adventure. It's a significant subplot and possible initiating event, but there's more to the adventure after the murderer is stopped. So even if the adventurers do solve the murder mystery relatively quickly, it doesn't cause a huge problem for the scenario. Thanks to everyone who posted here for your comments and ideas.

Well, I haven't posted here in a couple of weeks, but that's because I'd been focusing on trying to get my adventure done before the December 8 deadline for it to be included in the WYFA bundle—and then afterward I guess I was taking a few days off. (Well, I was working those days, but I mean I wasn't doing much those days after I got home from work except catching up with sleep.) The good news is, after pulling an all-nighter on the 7th, I did manage to get my adventure written before the midnight deadline on the 8th. The bad news is, while I got it written before midnight on the 8th, I didn't get it edited, laid out, and illustrated, so... I guess it's not going to be in the bundle. (I had considered tossing the raw text up on DriveThruRPG unedited to get it into the bundle and then planning on editing, polishing, and updating it before the bundle came out, but that was a terrible idea, which fortunately I came to my senses and realized before doing it.) I did overshoot the recommended length for the Write Your First Adventure workshop adventures a bit. The recommended goal was 3,500 words. I overshot that by... about 25,000 words. (It includes 32 stat blocks, though about half of them are for animals, monsters, or spirits that don't have stat blocks as complex as those of full NPCs.) I'm going to keep working on the adventure, of course; it just won't get into the bundle. It's all written (well... sort of; admittedly there are one or two bits that I really rushed through the night of the 8th so I could say I'd finished writing it, but they need a lot of revision), but I have to do a lot of editing; I have to make the illustrations (I don't really have the money to pay artists right now, and while I'm not a great artist myself, I'm hopefully good enough); and of course I have to get it laid out and formatted. Since I guess getting the adventure done before the deadline isn't an issue anymore, I guess I may as well try to get the book about the village of Marshedge done too and release them together. (I still think they stand alone enough to work better as separate products, but at least it may be best to release them at the same time.) If anyone would like to look over the adventure as it stands so far and give any comments, I'd appreciate it. Since the plan is to sell it eventually on the Jonstown Compendium, I don't want to post the whole thing here publicly, but I can send a copy to anyone who's interested. Otherwise, well, I guess at this point I'm looking to get the adventure and the Marshedge village book done... hopefully by the end of January. I may make more posts here about my progress as I go.

Oh, I agree; I wasn't going to close it off entirely—I want to give the players a lot of different options for how they can approach the adventure. Even if most spirits do embark on their journey immediately, I was going to have one of the murder victims stick around as a ghost so the adventurers could communicate with him if they had a shaman among them (or if they enlisted the aid of an NPC shaman)—I just was going to have him not have gotten a good look at his attacker, so he'd be able to give them some useful information but not give the whole game away. (I don't think Summon Ancestor would apply, though, since, well, it literally summons the spirit of an ancestor of the caster, which the murder victims aren't.)

Yeah, oops, I didn't initially notice there were other posts between my last post and yours... was about to edit my post to acknowledge that, but since you just replied I'll just make a new reply instead. Yes, I agree Scotty's quote from Heortling Mythology does pretty clearly say the soul lingers near the body. But it seems to me that Roleplaying in Glorantha pretty clearly says it doesn't. Huh. Well, Heortling Mythology was published in 2010 (and was a compilation of material written earlier), and Roleplaying in Glorantha in 2019, so maybe it's a bit of a retcon? Well, yeah, but that was precisely my point... not that ghosts are a fundamentally different type of entity, but that most spirits, unlike the ghost in the QuickStart, do leave when they're supposed to.

One of the Tusk Riders in the adventure "Defending Apple Lane" in the Adventure Book that came with the Gamemaster Screen Pack is female, and is an initiate of the Bloody Tusk. (She's even plotting to usurp the leadership of the band.) So apparently it's not just the males who join the Bloody Tusk. Granted, that only one of the eight Tusk Riders in that band is female might suggest that there are far more males than females in the cult, but then again that's only one band, and may not be representative.

That's not the impression I get from the text. Here's what Roleplaying in Glorantha says about what happens on death: The way that reads to me, the soul sets out on its journey through the Underworld more or less immediately; it just takes seven days for it to reach its final destination (whereupon resurrection is no longer possible). I've read the QuickStart, but the spirit of the slain enemy tribeswoman in that adventure is explicitly referred to as a ghost, which is a special case—not all dead people become ghosts. The fact that that particular character in that adventure becomes a ghost doesn't mean that all spirits of the dead hang around their bodies. In fact, the adventure suggests just the opposite; it specifically describes "the issue that ties her to this world" that must be resolved for her to move on. Besides, the shaman in the adventure "says that the spirit of the dead Greydog woman should be put to rest, because he doesn't want another spirit wandering around lost in the badlands"—why would he be so worried about that if he knew she was just going to leave for the Underworld in seven days anyway?

Wait... can they? Is it that easy for a shaman to locate the spirit of a particular dead person in the Spirit World? For that matter, would most spirits of the dead even be in the spirit world? I thought they set out more or less immediately to head to the Underworld. Sure, some stick around as ghosts, but I thought they were the exception. (Hm... even if that's true, though, it might be interesting to have the spirit of one of the murder victims still around, to give the adventurers another way to solve the murders. Investigating the murders isn't really the main plot of the adventure, so it doesn't matter that much if the players find a clever way around it, but I don't want it to be too easy.) Okay, also I see there's a Summon Dead spell in the Red Book of Magic that could be used to speak to the murder victims, but that's not listed in Roleplaying in Glorantha so I'm not sure which cults have access to it. Anyone know? [EDIT: Never mind; it's in the old Gods of Glorantha boxed set, and it's a Rune spell associated with the cult of Ty Kora Tek. So... not likely a PC will have access to it, though I guess it's not impossible.] (Of course, even if the adventurers can talk to the spirits of the murder victims, that doesn't mean they got a good look at their murderer... but they can still give some useful clues.)

Well, it works best for the adventure if one of the bodies is found more or less immediately, and the victims aren't Humakti. (Humakti can't be resurrected anyway, right?) But ooh, I think the missing heads / Thanatari connection could present an interesting red herring... I think that's what I may go with. (Plus, there's another advantage of the missing heads business: if the PCs are nice and want to get the murder victims resurrected, they can potentially do so if they find the heads in time, and that gives them a reason to want to take the murderer alive so they can get him to tell them where the heads are.)

Thanks for the advice. Yes, I'm pretty confident that the adventure stands on its own; I think I'll go ahead and make the two separate products. As for the sales of sequels, one thing I'm considering when I have both done is putting the adventure and the village sourcebook together in a bundle, which might help. Or maybe if I decide to write more adventures in the village, I'll go ahead and bundle the whole lot. But I've got a while before I have to worry about that.

So, part of a RuneQuest adventure I'm working on involves the adventurers investigating who's behind a string of murders, and it just belatedly occurred to me that the availability of resurrection may be a problem. I know not everyone who dies is resurrected, obviously—Roleplaying in Glorantha does say that "Given the small size of the cult of Chalana Arroy, only a few people are ever resurrected"—but (a) it just happens that there is a priestess of Chalana Arroy in the village where the adventure takes place, and (b) I'd think that maybe if the authorities wanted to find out who's behind a murder spree they might consider it worth it to arrange for one of the victims to be resurrected so they can ask them who killed them. Needless to say, if that happened, that might throw a bit of a monkey wrench in the scenario. I know resurrection requires the spirit of the deceased to be defeated in spirit combat, so it's not a sure thing, but it seems like a bit of a cheat to say that conveniently all the murder victims' spirits win their spirit combats. Plus it doesn't really make sense that the murderer would rely on that happening. There is specifically a Stop Resurrection spell listed in the Red Book of Magic, but it's (a) a one-use spell, which isn't really a problem for the scenario (the murderer actually could be willing to permanently sacrifice his POW to make the victims stay dead), and (b) available only to Swords of Humakt, which is a problem (the murderer is, as it happens, an initiate of Humakt (or maybe sorta an ex-Humakti; it's complicated)—but he's only an initiate, not a Sword of Humakt, and I don't think there's any feasible way he could get his hands on that spell). The Resurrect spell description says the body must be healed to 3 hit points, so I'd guess there's no resurrection if the body is missing, but unfortunately it's kind of necessary for the adventure for the bodies to be found. If the head of the corpse is missing, would that prevent resurrection? The description of the Resurrection spell doesn't say so, but it seems like it might be reasonable. I could have the murderer remove his victim's heads and stash them somewhere. I guess as a last resort, I could say that the poison used in the murders has a special property of preventing resurrection, but eh, that seems like an ugly kludge; I'm hoping for a more elegant way...

I mean, even before I'd thought of splitting it into two products, I'd already written in my introduction that the two halves could be used separately: If they're unequal, it's because they serve different purposes—one is a setting sourcebook, and the other is an adventure. The thing is, I think each half does stand alone. I intend the description of the village to be detailed enough to provide for other adventure seeds (and like I said I may end up writing more adventures set there myself). And while the adventure does take place in the village, all the detailed information about the village isn't necessary for it; what's really needed for the adventure is in the adventure. The few important NPCs from the village description that might show up in the adventure have a minor enough role their stats probably won't really be needed, and the characters who do play an important role in the adventure are fully statted there. Similarly, the only location that's important enough to the adventure to be likely to require a map is going to be fully mapped in the adventure anyway. The information in the village description can be used to supplement or add some depth to the adventure, but isn't really needed for it. So, yes, I can definitely see them as two separate products—in fact, I think they actually work better that way. I'm just not certain if this might be a bad idea from a marketing standpoint or something. (Not that I know anything about marketing anyway.) (By the way, if anyone might have any interest in following my progress on my adventure, I've set up a blog about it at https://www.tumblr.com/petrifact—though I'm a bit behind updating it, because I've been focusing on getting the adventure done. Also, it has some major spoilers for the adventure, in case that matters.)