MOB

Back in 2013 I joined @Andrew Bean on one of his "international man of mystery" trips to Lebanon, and we travelled high up into the Mount Lebanon Range to see the last remaining cedars at the Cedars of God Reserve, a World Heritage site. These trees have been harvested by everyone from the Phoenicians through to the Ottoman Turks. The stone wall surrounding the reserve was paid for by Queen Victoria, and is designed to keep goats out. Although this thread is in danger of turning into MOB's Middle Eastern travelogue, I am going to share another pic: From a trip to Jordan in 2012, this is the family at Umm Qays, checking out the ruins of ancient Gadara (of "My name is Legion" Gadarene swine fame, c.f. Matthew 8:28). Someone was eating bacon at the time, given Jesus apparently drove out evil spirits into a herd of two thousand of them, which handily happened to be on a nearby hillside. The pigs then went and drowned in the Sea Galilee, which you can see in the distance.

Miskatonic Repository Con is a two-day virtual convention, organised by fans, celebrating the Miskatonic Repository, Chaosium's community content platform for Call of Cthulhu on DriveThruRPG. With Miskatonic Repository creators hailing from all parts of the world, the Convention is scheduled to run around the clock throughout the weekend of October 17-18. Chaosium’s global community of players have a chance to see the best that Chaosium’s community creators have to offer. Keepers from the Cult of Chaos will be running gaming sessions, and Repository creators themselves can playtest their own scenarios.The Convention will also feature panels discussing writing and publishing on the Miskatonic Repository. Featured panels include Publishing on the Miskatonic Repository and Writing for the Miskatonic Repository, with Chaosium's Mike Mason and Michael O'Brien, and Miskatonic Repository authors Jon Hook and Marek Golonka. Submissions to run events at the convention are being accepted now (closes September 27). Player sign-ups open at the end of September. For more information about the event, check out the Miskatonic Repository Con Facebook page, or contact the organisers by email: MiskatonicRepositoryCon@gmail.com.

Yep, that's exactly what Tin Compasses point to, as described in Plunder. (Edit: Checking my copy of Plunder, tin compasses actually point away from the centre of the world, but the effect is the same. Mytho-metallurgy is a real science in Glorantha.)

Check out "The Oceans" chapter of the Guide, especially the Ships of Glorantha section (p.466-67, Vol 2). The Holy Country's navy is famed for its triremes, but since the Opening their most common merchant ship is a flat-bottomed tub with square sails. With those sailors from Nochet go everywhere, even as far as Garguna.

Behind this door - labelled "Non Muslims" - at my local supermarket in Abu Dhabi was a veritable pork wonderland! That's my mate (and fellow pork/Glorantha enthusiast) Peter Tracy. Sorry the camera lens was fogged up - it was the middle of the Arabian Gulf summer, and a very humid day, and we had just been to see... ...the Sun Dome Temple, which I could see across the water from my house. That's Pete giving the traditional Yelmalio greeting "YO".

Here's Rick, showing off the printer's proofs of the new MALLEUS MONSTRORUM on video:

Like the Ingareens, the neighboring Esvularing tribe were once sorcerous atheists too, actively supporting the construction of the Machine God Zistor. But for them, the spectacular fall of the Clanking City led to a henotheistic revelation. Rather than take on the Brithini way, the Esvularings embraced the Aeolian variation of Malkionism, which holds that the Orlanthi gods are but emanations of the Invisible God.

As stated earlier in the thread: The Mirrorsea, also known as Choralinthor Sea, has been renowned since legendary times for its tranquility. It is broad, relatively shallow (10-30 meters), well-lit and warm, abundant with marine life. The boats that ply the Mirrorsea are generally flat-bottomed and powered by oars, for the air above the Mirrorsea is remarkably stable too, quite unsuitable for sail. Though the barge captains may bemoan the necessity and expense of oarsmen, they are also grateful that only in the Storm season, when the Orlanth winds whip down from the Stormwalk mountains and churn the waves, is the Mirrorsea Bay hazardous to boat travel. For the rest of the year they may ply it in safety.

Rick got the printer's proofs for the Malleus Monstrorum slipcase set today. They look **so good**, we're going to share a closer look in a video soon... [And remember, if you get the Malleus Monstrorum in PDF now you get the full cost of the PDF off the physical slipcase set in October...]

Yes. - printed in the USA.

The Mirrorsea was open, yes.

As I said over on a thread about the Port of Nochet: The Holy Country is a collection of littoral cultures (per Colin McEvedy*) co-existing around a vast, calm, and easily-traversed bay. Despite the Closing, which effectively cut off open ocean travel further afield, Belintar's peace turned the Choralinthor Sea into a thriving eco-sphere built around the ease of moving things by water. * he has a fascinating discussion about this concept in his Penguin Atlas of Ancient History

You may have caught Becca Scott in the Keeper's chair earlier this month, playing a scenario from 'Doors to Darkness' with the Good Time Society [https://bit.ly/34Fgkix]. Here she is giving an overview of how the Call of Cthulhu rules work - over to you Becca....

Our gaming event listings for PAX Online are live! From Thursday Sept 17th to Sunday Sept 20th, Chaosium is offering over 100 gaming events, plus another nine gaming events by our friends by our friends TYPE 40. All free! Our games include Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, King Arthur Pendragon, Aquelarre, Questworlds, and 13th Age Glorantha. These sessions are available around the clock, with Keepers and GMs in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. We also have sessions in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, making this a truly international event! Browse the gaming sessions on offer and register here: https://warhorn.net/events/chaosium-online-gaming-at-pax-online

The Shadow Over Providence is now available in softcover, only $9.99 (inc PDF)! August 25th, 1928: Providence, Rhode Island. The Milton Hotel cordially invites you to view the fantastical traveling exhibition “The Kingdom of Fire—Egypt’s 18th Dynasty.” All the way from the British Museum, London, England, come see these wonders of ancient Egypt, rare and priceless items from a time long ago. Learn about their history from Dr. Caitlin Bronson, the exhibition’s curator, who will be on hand to answer all of your questions. Marvel at the treasures of Tutankhamun and Hatshepsut, along with the star of the exhibition, the mysterious canopic jar of Ibnhotep the Mad! Tickets are limited and going fast—and you don’t want to miss out on what promises to be the most talked about exhibition of the year! With an invitation like that, how could your investigators possibly refuse? Be they historians and scholars, or even those who ply the blackmarket trade in illicit antiquities, this is a rare opportunity to learn the secrets of the distant past outside of a museum. And what possible danger could there be in going to see the mortal remains of someone called “Ibnhotep the Mad”? The Shadow Over Providence is a new Call of Cthulhu scenario set in a venue that may seem strangely familiar to anyone who has visited Providence’s iconic Biltmore Hotel. The adventure was written by Jon Hook of the Miskatonic University Podcast, and developed and published by Chaosium, to celebrate NecronomiCon 2019. "A well-crafted story that is both interesting and exciting… It’s a fast-playing, easily approachable scenario for new and experienced Keepers alike."—Rolling Boxcars. Price includes PDF. Available from Chaosium's US, UK, EU, and AUS warehouses.

Here's the endlessly talented Noura Ibrahim as Margarot Ernaldestdaughter, initiate of Maran Gor! Noura, Becca Scott, Panda T. Voce, and Brian Holland will be playing through a RuneQuest intro adventure for PAXOnline next month – stay tuned here for the details!

Its location is no accident. From the top of the NCC's glittering spires it possible to see afar, deep deep into the Shadow Plateau's nooks and crannies.

BTW, there is a key difference between the RuneQuest Companion map of the Holy Country, and the map of the same region in the Guide to Glorantha and Argan Argar Atlas: Can you see it? New Crystal City is now shown to be on the "far" side of the Building Wall. As we consider the AAA maps to be definitive, the earlier Holy Country map in the RQC is misleading; obviously influenced by the New Crystal City tourist guild as they know Esrolians no longer like travelling into the badlands on the "wrong" side of the Building wall. (The people of Nochet also probably still harbour resentment because Belintar in 1605 promised he'd build a wall and make the Lunars pay for it, and of course the Esrolians ended up paying for it, quite literally with their blood and souls.)

I wrote the above close to 30 years ago, pretty much just going on what little we knew about the region from the write-up and map in the RQ Companion. Happy to adjust accordingly!

nb this is a slighted updated version of a piece that long ago I wrote for Tales of the Reaching Moon magazine. A couple of months ago I posted this as a comment in the RuneQuest Facebook group. But as Facebook is a black hole for ever finding stuff again, I'm adding it here for posterity (and so I can reference it again.) The Holy Country is a collection of littoral cultures (per Colin McEvedy) co-existing around a vast, calm, and easily-traversed bay. Belintar's peace turned the Choralinthor Sea into a thriving eco-sphere built around the ease of moving things by water. The political situation it describes is around 1620, after the Lunar invasion of Heortland. The Port of Nochet The unique geography of the Holy Country is well suited to water transport. A succession of wide, sedate rivers empty into the Mirrorsea Bay, a broad expanse of calm water which laps the shores of five of the six provinces. The Mirrorsea, also known as Choralinthor Sea, has been renowned since legendary times for its tranquility. It is broad, relatively shallow (10-30 meters), well-lit and warm, abundant with marine life. The boats that ply the Mirrorsea are generally flat-bottomed and powered by oars, for the air above the Mirrorsea is remarkably stable too, quite unsuitable for sail. Though the barge captains may bemoan the necessity and expense of oarsmen, they are also grateful that only in the Storm season, when the Orlanth winds whip down from the Stormwalk mountains and churn the waves, is the Mirrorsea Bay hazardous to boat travel. For the rest of the year they may ply it in safety. The city of Nochet is the greatest city of the many that ring the Mirrorsea, and its port, the busiest and most prosperous. "Port" is perhaps an inaccurate term, for, though there are docks and wharves for the larger, sea-going vessels, most of the river barges and flatboats find it convenient to pull up along a broad stretch of sandy beach, formed at the wide mouth of the Lysos River. This area teems with activity, in and around the beached watercraft. Fishermen dry and mend their nets, or haggle to reach a fair price for their catch with the mongers from the city markets. Shipwrights order their work teams about, effecting repairs or perhaps constructing a new vessel from Longsi Land pine, recently landed here by barge (since the Lunar invasion, the famous Heortland oak is in short supply). Carters and porters load their wagons with fish or trade goods for the city, or else transfer their cargoes onto the flatboats, ready to be taken for sale in a foreign market. Sailors from ports distant and near stroll through the crowds, pursued by vendors, beggars, whores, and touts. Oarsmen offer to take crewmen or travellers out to their ships anchored in the harbour. Children run in and out of the bustle, making mischief. Trios of guardsmen - Heortlander mercenaries this season, judging by their bristling beards and contemptuous looks - wander about keeping the peace. One may even occasionally espy one of the Matriarch's Axe Maidens, here on some mission, her countenance even more contemptuous than the barbarian guardsmen as she makes her way through this small world of boisterous foreigners. Above the throng stands the stern yet benevolent gaze of the departed God-King, carved in sandstone; the gravity of his appearance made strangely comical by the marked tilt of his statue, which has slipped and shifted in the sand. Behind the statue stands a small sea-wall; above it stretch the warehouses, some filled with the goods of a dozen lands, but most crammed with the fruits of Esrolia's bounteous climate and rich soil: golden grain, and fine (and coarse) spirits, stoppered in the famous green-ware jars that identifies Esrolian vintages across the world. Beyond this, and straggling all the way up to the first tier of Nochet City's mighty walls, sits Portside (or Poorside to some), a shanty town of foreigners, outcastes, and (lately) refugees from Heortland. Off to one side lie the mighty biremes and triremes of Belintar's war-fleet. Many more were to be constructed on these sands by his order; since his disappearance, the Matriarch herself has taken over command of the navy, and yet more vessels are hurriedly being built to replace those that gallantly sailed off to the vain defense of Heortland. Those deep-water and sea-going ships that are unable to beach on the sands have two options, both costly. First, they may chose land at the wharves, but there are controlled by Merchant Prince families, and only their vessels may dock there unless a very hefty fee is paid. The Caprati family of Pasos controls a section of wharves on the city side of the river, and rule a small community of their own people, behind their docks, and bounded by walls from Portside. This enclave of western, Malkioni culture is presided over by the patriarch of the Caprati family, called the Democrat. Further down the river, the Du Tumerine family of Seshnela have their wharves. They have been trading in Nochet longer than the Caprati, and are also Malkioni, though of a different persuasion. Their enclave is ruled a council of Du Tumerine elders, and the traditional leader is called the Don. At this time however, the leader is the Donna, young widow of the old Don. Ships unable to berth at the Du Tumerines or the Capratis will find themselves in the hands of the Guild of Oarsmen, who will row their cargoes ashore to the beach for a fee. While the Port of Nochet may still call itself the richest in the Holy County, that distinction is being hotly contested by Rhigos, the paramount city of Porthomeka and second only to Nochet in size and prestige. For Rhigos is undertaking a program to expand its deep-water docks, which will be able to berth the sea-going vessels of the West. What is more, Rhigos promises that this new harbour will be a "free port", where all vessels may berth regardless of commercial affiliation. Despite the promise of the new harbour, Rhigos's future expansion into Nochet's market is blocked by political factors, though with the increasing disorder in the Holy Country, these too are being diminished. Rhigos is unlucky in that it lies on the Porthomekan side of the Malthin River; ergo, all produce from the Esrolian side must pay customs duty before it crosses over. Also, the boatmen who ply the Malthin-Whitefall and Gorphing rivers, which terminate at Rhigos, have for centuries by-passed this city, and made their way along the coast to the Port of Nochet. Their reason for doing so is simple: they can get a better price for their cargoes at Nochet, where merchants come from all over the world to trade. Excerpt of Holy Country Map from The RuneQuest Companion.

"Sandheart is an example of how it is getting harder to tell the Compendium and the Chaosium books apart" writes Andrew Logan Montgomery in his review of the newly-expanded Tales of the Sun County Militia: Sandheart Vol 1, available from the Jonstown Compendium, Chaosium's community content platform for RuneQuest on DriveThruRPG. Sandheart is a campaign framework and introductory scenario "No Country for Cold Men" for RuneQuest games set in Sun County, Prax. It was inspired by the RuneQuest 3rd edition sourcebook Sun County, published in 1991. The original Sandheart was an inaugural release for the Jonstown Compendium by Jon Webb. In this remastered version its 39 pages have been expanded to 103 pages. It includes new art by Mark Baldwin and Ludovic Chabant, and a new section on Sun County Backgrounds by Nick Brooke (A Rough Guide to Glamour, The Duel at Dangerford). This uses the Family Background format from RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha to create a rich and entertaining family history for player characters from Sun County. Chaosium vice president Michael O'Brien, author of Sun County, has written a foreword for the new edition of Sandheart, noting "it's a pleasure for me to see that almost thirty years since Sun County was published, there is still much to be written about, discovered, argued over, and gamed in, in this small and distant, yet special part of Glorantha." Andrew Logan Montgomery writes, "Sandheart marks another step forward not only in the development of the Jonstown Compendium but in the entire Gloranthan Renaissance... What we have now is an embarrassment of riches, with better and better Gloranthan material coming at us every day. Sandheart is a worthy successor to Sun County, and it looks to be just the beginning." Further adventures in the Sandheart series are available at the Jonstown Compendium in Sandheart Vol 2: The Corn Dolls and Sandheart Vol 3: Tradition. Chaosium news blog: Journey to Jonstown #12 - Sandheart "marks another step forward not only in the development of the Jonstown Compendium but in the entire Gloranthan Renaissance"

Chaosium congratulates the creative teams behind our 2020 UK Games Expo Award winners, announced at UK Games Expo's #virtuallyexpo online event yesterday. BERLIN THE WICKED CITY BEST ROLE-PLAYING EXPANSION - Judge's Award BEST ROLE-PLAYING EXPANSION - People's Choice Award Congratulations to David Larkins, Mike Mason, Lynne Hardy, Loïc Muzy and everyone else involved in Berlin the Wicked City: PALADIN: WARRIORS OF CHARLEMAGNE BEST ROLE-PLAYING GAME - Judge's Award Congratulations to Ruben in ’t Groen, David Larkins, Jennifer Wieck, and everyone else involved in Paladin - Warriors of Charlemagne: We also remember and cherish the contributions of Stewart Wieck and Greg Stafford, who both worked on Paladin, but passed before it was released. Chaosium congratulates all the winners, and thanks the UK Games Expo judges and voters!

This is something we have in planning. Unlikely to be before next year though.

Or, as one commenter put it, Chaosium is 'The Velvet Underground of RPGs".

It's odd, when Sun County youngsters ask what their now very conventional, strait-laced Sun Domer parents did in Count Varthanis II's 'Summer of Love', many of their mums and dads blush or quickly change the subject... Over in the RuneQuest forum @Nick Brooke explains why...