Geoff R Evil

Hard to answer this, as the myths include so much contradiction. But then they are myths, the truth is so far from reach for mortals and most gods that perhaps even they do not know..Truth is literally in the highest heavens now. This whole issue is something that has fascinated too. So in a game I am playing a Humakt, but instead of following the death path slavishly like most do, I am nudging my gm to explore the Humakt tie to the truth rune. Sure he has it as his mother owned it, but it’s an active rune for Humakt, so what does it mean when it’s so closely aligned to a god that holds the death rune? Feels like a future hero quest to discover and define for our Glorantha, loads of scope to explore. Sometimes answers are not needed, just the fun of seeking them.

jeez, super powered speeddarts….undermining the basic premise that to do serious damage versus tough foes means stepping up close and personal, means changing the nature of foes completely. For the red goddess’s sake don’t tell the Eurmali archer in my game, he is already too much of a group saviour that never stops letting them know. This feels like one way to make lunar seriously difficult enemies…well at least if they train in magic. But in a way I like the moon rune link to add strength to their arm and make them fearsome. Things just got tough for my PCs….not that any GM cannot make any monster tough if they want but this is an interesting twist.

@French Desperate WindChild talks a lot of sense and makes sense of a lot of mythology for the purposes of interpretation into Gloranthan time. But nothing is absolute, no agreement has no holes. So in your game allow some freedom to tweak or have exceptions if well presented by players. I also like the heroforming idea, that is a much simpler way of understanding how to extend what is “known” about a gods abilities within the compromise, by doing them, you are discovering them. If your GM allows of course.

I tend to agree with @svensson but with some slight clarification. A head chest abdomen shot which deals 3x hp is instant death. The head comes off, the back cut in half etc. only DI can save you versus this. However hits that whittle you down to minus- 2x hp in one of those locations may allow some circumstantial last second saves. A heal body, a heal of 2hp or more from a party member within a few SR ( yes into the next round, I like to see flexibility around the hard round by round barriers and see it mostly as a useful game/fight management tool not a stop start thing). With head and arms, I allow even more time flexibility even if total hp loss as they bleed to death. Maybe a round or two if the total hp loss has been really gradual, less if mostly one hit plus multiple minor wounds. In other words plenty of role play opportunity. This leaves plenty of scope for death of a PC, but also last minute heroic saves by other PCs, given they might be in Combat and risk themselves to make such a save (you allow a free shot from that troll as you bend down to heal Fred…maybe with a half dodge etc) also they don’t automatically know you are dying and need to make a save. I might ask for a perception roll, maybe an int roll etc. Lots of roleplay angst when they realise they could have saved a colleague but failed due to inattentiveness etc. In other words, if a fellow goes down, waiting could mean their death. I often put players into mid fight dilemmas that way. So this means real risk if you go off solo, or accept a solo fight. In my campaign one death so far, a player that went off on his own against the main monster. He bled to death after multiple wounds. A last note….if someone needs such a last minute death save, then adding a major scar is appropriate. In extreme circumstances, maybe a location is never fully healed, it loses a hp permenantly, or the person walks with a limp, or cannot parry attacks from above, loses an ear or an eye with perception reductions. I find PCs carry such weaknesses with pride.

I tend to agree, no dogs for Agimori. At least for Praxian ones. It just does not fit the tight family controlled discipline of these people.

Love those maps @Duff

I think the fact that most people just responded with time order rather than specific dates is better for most campaigns. PCs never do what you want when you want, yet the campaign arc needs to progress appropriately. So don’t sweat specific dates, not even exact seasons…YGMV I know in my campaign certain events had more impact if they happened in parallel with other events I ran, or between so PCs can engage at an appropriate level. Just have fun.

Before we go deep into how to use the dead place, back to my original question. Given that any broo met in the dead place would have been there a while, then any disease spirits connected to them would have long since been left behind. So are broo in the dead place devoid of disease? I think so. The only angle I was thinking was that maybe when this first happens to the broo, the disease spirit turns into some form of chaos slime, the broo could then dip their weapons into it. The effect of this might be that those wounded at first notice no ill effects necessarily. But when they leave the dead place the slime turns back into a disease spirit and initiates an attack via the wound. Remember in the dead place no wound can be magically healed. So first aid is your only hope to heal a wound and stop bleeding. Maybe a crit or special cleans the slime out as part of the healing. In my game the players have an NPC shaman they work for, they had brought some blessed mud with them, and the shaman had made it into a non magical salve that could cure a few hp and seal a wound. Otherwise sending in a PC to the dead place who meets an armed foe could be death from a single wound that a first aid fails on and they bleed to death. Maybe this mud cleanses the wound, maybe it seals the slime in? Only time will tell….the point is any wound in the dead place is potentially fatal if serious enough.

Thx @Scotty, although I did mention the dead place in the original post, but generally agree with your follow up answers. The players clan were involved in sending them into the dead place… loosely following the beer with teeth Lifethief scenario but adjusted to fit my own campaign arc. So the PCs were forewarned of dead place dangers, they are well prepared…and entering in storm season, so dust less of an issue, mud a definite issue, and the alkaline effects were warned and they are prepared … but nothing stops all that damage, and one is still wearing his dwarven plate armour….

I would add that, even if a gm allows shamanic contact with a god it would only be if there was strong runic alignments….or if the god wanted something from the shaman….beware Gods with an ask!

Hmmm, well for those that like to have some form of explainable logic so when they do weird stuff like I am and send players into the dead place we can make reasonable judgements on what happens. Certainly my players think diseases are passed by disease spirits much as you say. So I think the answer to my question is that in effect broo cannot pass on a disease in the dead place. Any disease spirit that is created to facilitate this, either cannot exist in the dead place, or if somehow it appears, it immediately turns to some form of gorp sludge….however chaos features do work in the dead place….so I could just play the “it’s chaos” and ignore all logic have disease infection still occur. Now however, if I follow that logic, my players may figure out that the ideal way to rid oneself of any possession spirit including disease spirits, is just enter the dead place. Of course, they would also lose any bound spirits too, unless they had a friendly shamen nearby, which is what happened to be the case in my game, to hold those spirits for them while they enter the place.

I have just been running a fight with Broo and some chars have been exposed to a disease. There is confusion as to what type of attack this is. The rule book focuses a lot on disease spirits, noting a person killed by a disease manifests a disease spirit. However the rule book implies there are many types of disease, including infections. Now Broo don’t carry multiple disease spirits so each wound they inflict passes on another spirit I believe. So in fact they are carrying an infection? I assume this is not a spirit? Reason for my question. My characters have entered the dead place where no spirit can exist (there is in effect no spirit plane here) and is forced to manifest. E.g. an elemental spirit has to manifest as its element. So if Broo carry disease spirits they are forced to lose them and be disease free as they become piles of sludge or similar. But if it’s an infection they pass on when they wound someone then this aspect of their attack is still something to fear. So….the key question is what form is the Broo disease that it carries?

Thanks for these, makes me wonder if there should a map download thread created, maybe in the VTT thread…

Agree. In 6 seasons game I am playing in, our group just had to go into Prax to negotiate release of some clan thralls, and I ended up trading my complete plate armour set to a Bison Khan in exchange for 8 clan Haraborn thralls. No one told me not to and bugger any Sartarite lord that tries to tell me I should not have done so.

Maybe in your Glorantha. But realistically not all tribes are represented on the Pavis Council, in fact only one, and although that one represents the White Bull, he does not speak for all the members of all tribes or clans. In addition almost all White Bull Prax Ian’s went with Argrath to Sartar. So in my Glorantha that weak Praxian leadership has had little effect on control of most Praxians left behind. The Pol Joni were not called upon by Argrath, and arguably (YGMV) cannot join the white bull as they were never in the covenant. So few sacked Paris and even fewer follow Argrath to Sartar, in fact, the fact so many Praxians have done so, gives them a chance to establish control of better grazings. The offer of Pavis County, is different, no tribes claim grazing rights there as a main wander area of the roaming nomads. So I feel it’s a strong offer and at least some Pol Joni will bite on the opportunity.