Joerg

Enemy rune levels get Divine Intervention. Problem solved (or saved for the next attempt)...

This seems to be a fantasy staple - in Robin Hobb's Farseer series the drug is called "Elfbark" and comes in varying intensities. A covert possession might do the trick - e.g. spirits of madness, or pain. Possibly cult spirits for the Danfive Charon cult. Reach for your magic, and your watchdog will activate. Ideally you want your slaves to worship your wyter, to sustain their enslavement magic with their innate magic. The Fonritians have mastered this Vadeli technique, and I suspect the magic of slave collars and bracelets as described by Biturian to be such magic, possibly sorcerous creations using the Tap technique and the Magic rune. Possibly distributed more or less freely as DIY scrolls.

There is a thread on the Glorantha forum: And there are usually people discussing any future project gossip from convention panels. One thing Chaosium doesn't say any more is "Next Year!" unless they have most of the product already in their hands.

I accidentally posted this reply in Jeff's lore questions, thinking that Martin's question was asked here. As far as I am concerned, Gonn Orta only altered the pass, and it existed already before his visit. If he went there rather than to the main entrance at the Brass Citadel, he may have destroyed earlier surface structures of the Nidan decamony there, possibly opening new accesses to the pass, possibly destroying old ones. Gonn Orta and his army of giants passed through Dara Happa in 561, according to the Fortunate Succession p.26: His successor Helemshal ascended to the Dara Happan throne in 562, which suggests that Gonn Orta arrived at the gates of Nida in 561.

Oops, wrong thread. Building on @M Helsdon's question, wouldn't there have been a pre-existing pass across the Nidan Mountains in this place, based on the Ralios godtime myths and the mention of the Llama Hsunchen (who would probably have been converted under the Bright Empire), which would make naming the pass after them two centuries later a bit weird?

That may be a shallow stretch, with a lake-like river-bed. Judging from the map of Isle Dangerous, two arms with a total width of 150 feet / 50m, and no more than 1 m depth are sufficient to transport the water onward. That said, swimming in a narrower river will mean quite a bit of downstream (downcreek?) drift unless you are a champion swimmer.

The only problem with this is that the deity is bound by the compromise not to interact with the mundane world in any premeditated ways. It is fine if a follower of the deity invites the deity for a ride. It isn't quite clear whether that follower could be an elemental entity (a wind) or whether this has to be a physical, alive person doing the invitation. (The body could still be something else - a doll, a wind, whatever) Many a ruling deity has trickster feats. There are of course places and/or times when or where the border is weak or even non-existent. The arrival of the Eternal Battle that roams Prax and the Wastes is such a case. An extreme and extremely flashy one. (Has it ever visited Pavis, the Paps, or the Block?) Magical weather - usually combined with reduced visibility - is a typical effect of such a transition. Fog, mist, rainfall, smoke, a dust storm, flirring hot air, a fata morgana, a rainbow, a shadow, or a tidal wave can sweep people and places along into the hero planes. Effects like a lightwall or darkwall (as per the spirit spells) can mark (and mask) such transitions, too. There may be an effect similar to triggering a Warding 1 spell. If Orlanth himself appears, it won't be a short world (i.e. one cut off the Ultimate) as Orlanth is a conduit to the same.

And it lived in a warmer climate. Compare the woolly mammoth vs. the Columbian Mammoth (that roamed the southern USA). Scaling up the musk ox isn't that much of a problem. One slight problem with the Gloranthan north vs the Arctic Circle is the difference in available sunlight. All of Glorantha enjoys the long days of summer, but you still get eight hours of night, and that means six hours of real darkness. The sub-arctic regions have light 24/7, and the growth explosion has half more light than the Gloranthan north. There are bound to be lemmings if you have foxes. I wonder whether the Musk Ox people catch and eat them, too. Depending on how flat the terrain is, you may have remaining snowdrifts well into midsummer even on the tree border. I would expect much of the Musk Ox range to be north of the tree border. And that former elf forest may have extended across that border.

At times it is hard to tell Vadrus and Ragnaglar apart. The original Yggite Wolf Pirates brought shaggy goats to Threestep Isles...

Dreams and the spirit world do interact on occasions, and one ability of shamans can be to send dreams. Otherworld entities like deities or greater spirits definitely can send dreams. Sometimes prophetic ones. Illusion magic comes in two varieties - one that alters reality temporarily, and another one that only alters your perceptions. Both can induce dream-like experiences while awake. In a dream-environment, illusion magic is extremely powerful, as the less solid dream reality responds way more readily than the munndane reality. There is no Gloranthan dream realm like in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, but the layered mythic realities of the hero planes are a form of dream-like state too. Gloranthan dreams will touch on Godtine, and myths will intrude into people's dreams. Including the nightmare reality of the Greater Darkness. Can you dream your way into a heroquest? Currently, no such method is known. Can your heroquesting impact other people's dreams? Definitely yes. Can you meditate your way into dream-like states? IMO yes. Can you physically cross over into the dream world, or can you develop a constant dream realm presence similar to a fetch? Would that be different from having a fetch? What Gloranthan myths are there about sleeping? The Aldryami that do sleep spend their sleep resting in s peaceful Underworld, among the spirits of the departed. Humans and uz don't appear to have that access, at least not guaranteed. There used to be the model of "short worlds", otherworldly realms created only from the energies of the middle world, and those were said to include dream realms. The concept hasn't been pursued a lot recently.

In Gods War, you can deal these rolls out to your opponents' rolls - reduce their dice pool by one and dictate the number. Taking the fumble on an attempt at inspiration of a Power rune opposed to the one you want to raise would be an abuse of this magic. And first rolling the critical hit, then following up with a 00 on the critical hit effects is another blatant abuse. Sorry, but this rules proposal needs work.

LMs need access to books that teach such lore. Happily they are likely to enter an environment where such books may be found. Getting the authorization to copy such a book may be a little of a struggle, but usually the library will allow access if it earns a new copy of that book. And if the copyist adds an index or cross references, the book may become better than the original. Jeff posted a preview which I would expect to go into the Glorantha starter set which focuses on Jonstown, a city famous for a library full of books and scrolls. From personal experience, I can attest that a week slaving over a book on thermodynamics increased my performance on the admission test for the physical chemistry lab course from "failed by just a little" to "top of the class" when I needed the success (before I participated on the basis of "would be nice to have, but not yet necessary", with hardly any preparation other than regular attendance to the lectures). A double digit increase after reading a concise treatise of a skill level above your own will give you that. (That, and the experience that Thermodynamics would provide about 60% of the points you can make, with 50% being the pass/fail mark.) Not multiple choice, BTW.

I don't see why there shouldn't be a different deity or slightly great spirit somewhere in Glorantha whose domain is sleep and dreams that could have this spell. Or at least a similar spell - possibly an active one, which would mitigate it a lot. All the information we have about CA being the sole regular source of this spell is Cults of Prax, really, which means that in Prax and probably Dragon Pass CA is the only source for this spirit spell. As she is the only source for the re-usable Resurrection rune spell. At least if we don't think about Deezola. Or Brithini and Vadeli sorcerers having something different from her rune magic but similar in outcome.

Vadrudi are likely to have goat associations, though. Possibly big goats, e.g. musk oxen. But then the sheep association of the eastern Orlanthi may be as out of place. But then, both Rathor and Tawar are Hykimi equivalents of Storm deities (or vice versa(, and I think that the Hykimi of the west are mostly neo-Hsunchen who had accepted Kachisti and chthonic influences in the Golden Age, but unlike their eastern Genertelan kin, slipped back to their shape-changing beast animism as their survival mechanism. The Enjoreli dominion will have included non-Bull people, much like that of the Bisosae or the Lendarshi. Not sure how much this applies to Safelster, but I suspect that you cannot have a river system like the Tanier/Doskior without powerful river gods and river folk worshiping them. The Janube, Sweet Sea, Poralistor and Oronin are different as they are (riverine) Waertagi projects. Their tributaries may be yet another thing, like the Esel river in Brolia or the Janube tributaries. High Llama pass has an origin myth from before the raising of the Nidan Mountains, creating a mythic precedence that even the Mostali orogeny magic could not override. I wonder whether the mention in the Dwarf Constructs boxed text is overstating the influence of Gonn Orta opening that pass. The majority of the action is likely to have occurred at the Brass Citadel. The Guide is not exactly clear in its treatment of the pass. The Fronelan section says that the Llama people control the southern side of the pass, whereas the Ralian side calls them an extinct Hsunchen tribe. A compromise might see Ralian Orlanthi herding llamas on the southern flanks of the Nidan range. Judging the extent of Mostali underground complexes on a map is difficult. Mount Nida is the original Mostali fortress, in one of the more ancient solo mountains as are most others - compare p.681 in the Guide, the Golden Age God Learner map showing several dwarf strongholds as solitary mountains. And yes, the seat of the Decamony in Slon is absent from this map, but then it may have been established only in the Somelz project shown on the map on p.691. The first map to show mountains at High Llama Pass is the Vingkotling Age map of p.688, the Flood Age map still has Mt. Nida and Top of the World as separate entities. There is no doubt that there is a dwarf trading post at Bad Deal, and that that is connected to the rest of the Nidan colony by a tunnel system. All I am saying is that for there to be a surface installation of the Mostali for Gonn Orta to attack, there would have had to be a reason this far from the main gate at the Brass Citadel (about twice the distance between Dwarf Mine and Greatway's Dwarf Hat). And for there to have been a significant number of Jolanti this far east of the main entrance to Nida, those would have had to be rather huge tunnels and gates, which in all fairness would have been reduced to a hill-slide by Gonn Orta. So, if there was a major terminus of the tunnels under the Nidan mountains anywhere near Bad Deal, it would have been oriented northwards (as Gonn Orta led the Hecolanti through Dara Happa, and wouldn't have been able to advance from the south). The Llama people of the pass would have ceased to be Hsunchen in the Bright Empire conflicts. Unless they still exist as non-Hsunchen, why name the pass after them if it didn't exist while they did? The statement that Gonn Orta created the pass is at the very least an exaggeration. He may well have altered it significantly, and Bad Deal may have been built after his destructions.

They are basically an item that you can give to a heroquester to boost that quest's chance at succeeding without having to go yourself. See the Horngate episode of Biturian Varosh's travels. Pass this stone around to the community supporting your quest. A rune point here, a spirit spell there, and the onus on the individuals is not that bad. The potential can of worms is of course if I put in Bladesharp 3, and relearn that spell, and then the Bladesharp 3 from the stone has been used, do I know Bladesharp 3 twice (which doesn't make much sense, unless I keep donating that to the Truestone), or do I know Bladesharp 6? For a band of murder-hobos, this donation as a form of extortion of the villagers might be worth the trouble. For a community-based quester, a Truestone can be a force multiplier. And for the community, it can be a feedback about the questers' progress and well-being...

If you are coming from D&D, you and your players are in for a culture shock. A herd of stampeding cattle is pretty much a non-event in D&D after the first few levels. In RQ, a single irate bison can easily kill half your party if the dice aren't merciful and the terrain is bad. Start with a couple of training combats to get a feel for the system. The human adversaries in the Quickstart module can come in handy as random human adversaries. So does the loot table. Post-it notes as a readily available index to the NPC or monster data in the books are highly recommended if you use paper resources, pdf bookmarks if you are fine using electronic material at the gaming table. Even if you really want a somewhat different enemy, having some basic stats at your hand will be helpful. A collection of encounters like in Borderlands or Griffin Mountain are worth their weight in bits or printouts. You don't need printouts of all of these, but having some at your convenience surely helps.

When Harmast comes among the Enjoreli, he manages to recruit them as fellow Orlanthi. Harmast appears with Talor in Hrelar Amali on Voria's Day 450. They travel to Ulros, where Harmast recruits the Enjoreli Orlanthi to join Talor (rather than oppose him) for the Battle of Giants against the forces of the Bright Empire (from Talsardia?). Talor and Harmast end a war between the Orlanthi (who aren't on that map) and Akem. Ulros in the Nidan Mountains lies in lands shown as Enjoreli, from which I assume that the Enjoreli had taken on the Theyalan missionaries, but grew to loathe the means employed by the Bright Empire, as did the Hykimi who also had embraced Theyalan cults (Jonatela). Talor led his new alliance into Ralios - it isn''t clear whether via Bad Deal or whether through Erontree Forest and Fornoar. Either way, they clashed with the Telmori before reaching Kartolin Pass, and entering Dorastor from the south.

I read that as "you expend the rune points without reaping any of the benefits", not "you (permanently) lower your rune point pool by the number of rune points invested in the fumbled spell".

Ok, it's arctic willow, and up to 1.5 foot tall on Banks Island. The polar projection habitat map in Wikipedia probably gives a quite good idea about the area inhabited by the species. The leaves are likely as diminutive as are blueberry leaves, but then the muskoxen and caribous are likely to graze the wooden parts, too. Banks Island itself is 240 miles long and 180 miles across, and home to 47k head of muskoxen, sharing the plant life with caribou. Your areas are both about that size. Even if the climate in North Pent is even worse than on Banks Island, that should be enough habitat for your much smaller population. North Pent is about 4 pages of the AAA wide, with each page about 86 five-mile hexes across west to east. That's plenty habitat for your woolly horn bearers. The humans accompanying the herds will likely hunt migratory birds or gather their eggs in summer, and may prey on caribous in winter. I don't see them as riders, but they might use their herds as draught beasts for skis or sleds.

POW has nothing to do with Rune Magic casting chance any more, now it is the rune score that you roll. The Magic Skill modifier doesn't seem to apply.

Assigning a few percent to the other elemental runes is possible at character creation. Enough for a desperation roll.

The chase rules (p.151ff) might be seen as an extended contest.

That map is troublesome as it has a lot of projectional shortening in the southern part of the USA. If you placed the USA on top (north) of Genertela, the distances calculate differently. My working assumption was that the south coast of Genertela is about the latitude of the Caribbean coastline of the USA, rather than the distances of the Canadian latitude (which would reduce the length of the south Genertelan coast to that of the US Caribbean coast without the Florida handle). The extent of musk ox habitat in the real world is again subject to projectional abnormalities you get at high latitudes. Norway's easternmost city Kirkenes lies on a more easterly longitude than Istanbul, but the distances in Northern Norway are a lot less than on the latitude of the Mediterranean north coasts. The Dovre-Fjell (artificial, isolated) habitat of the musk ox population there is probably comparable to the Hungry Plateau. Svalbard has birch "forests" which are less than three inch tall. Bank Island (home to over half of the current population of musk oxen) has three foot tall willows.

Revisiting this thread, I may have to contradict myself here - the Tusk Riders do have an adoption rite, and they may have adopted trolls to the Cult of the Bloody Tusk, perhaps including Karastrand or a parent of his.

A shaman should have (or acquire) the ability to self-resurrect. Repairing the body may be troublesome, but that's what possession of other beings is good for. This is an interesting quandary. Can your core self continue to act independently while your fetch is in the process of being destroyed? Is there a separateness of experience? Discorporation is pretty much shutting down the bodily experiences, possibly including pain, hunger etc. The Fetch only prevents spirits from taking over the prone body, it doesn't have any control over bodily functions. The split brain of draconism sort of reduces the apartness of the self from the All, IMO. It takes the experience to an outside perception, an outside ultimately beyond the borders of Creation. But that's just my personal opinion, not necessarily a cosmic insight.