Joerg

Heortland is not the regional name for the Storm Sixth. It was named such when the Dragonkill apparently left only this little corner as the land of the Heortlings. Originally, Heortland would have been the land of the Heortling Dawn Survior tribes. Shadow Plateau, which used to be Veskarthan's mountain (and subsequently stump, with Akez Loradak on top) and the lands northeast of it (now Lead Hills, Dammed Marsh) aren't really a place for a land goddess. It seems to me that Belintar created six wyters for his administrative units, not for the lands involved (which would have had their local minor earth goddesses since practically forever). We know that the mundane Holy Country is only one aspect of his realm - the magical place in the hero planes where the Tournament of the Masters of Luck and Death is the other aspect. Is it possible that these goddesses were the entities of that magical place somehow manifested visible to the mundane world?

Grammar, Bill - that should be "smarting". Don't overheat the space between the horns!

Tolat and Annilla have been said to be twins in early sources on the gods known in the West, the expression of the Twins (named among the Elder Gods in the first installment of Gods and Goddesses). Weirdly, the myth of the Three Sky-Witches from Pamaltela (which should know Tolat) has Veldara/Annilla's "brother" born in Hell as Chermata/Lokarnos, born to Enjata-Mo (Black Dendara/KataMoripi in Entekosiad) and Bijiif (no local name of dead Kendamalar given in Revealed Mythologies). There is more anachronism surrounding Shargash/Tolat (clearly predating the death of Yelm, as Tolat fought and chained Umath in Pamaltelan myth, too) and Artmal, son of Annilla born on the Blue Moon (who aided his uncle Tolat in that endeavor, gaining the Red Sword in thanks). The Red Sword which may have been involved (wielded by Tolat/Shargash) in the demise of Yelm, according to the imagery in Prince of Sartar. Godtime cycles aren't a perfect linear sequence. I'll have to create some graphics to illustrate how I attempt to maintain my sanity in keeping causality independent from apparent time flow. (Producing those graphics might be called up as counter-evidence to me succeeding maintaining my sanity, though....) Verithurus(a) and Shargash are Planetary "Sons" of Yelm and (only presumably) Dendara/Entekos, and Verithurusa and Shargash have bad sibling rivalry after her descent into the Underworld following Umath's invasion of the sky (and possibly mating with him there). Whether Xentha (known as Netta) is a possible mother of those earlier incarnations of the Red Planet and the Moon is another question. The Glorious ReAscent of Yelm names Netta's arrival in the Glorious Realm on p.14, and gives her position on the Gods Wall (IV-5) in the footnote. An event clearly predating the Death of Yelm - even predating the rise of Entekos (the first rebel god insisting she had a name of her own). All the writings of Plentonius are revisionist history, though, and I have a suspicion that the Copper Tablets aren't that much better.

I'd make that "Ruling Talar of ..." rather than just "Talar of ...", as you can also be the "Talar of road maintenance" (with Talar more or less being synonymous to the Dara Happan "Overseer") or "Talar of silk commerce" (a silk merchant, probably of the Garzeen variety, and likely an initiate of Issaries, as the Talar and Worker castes of the Esvulari doesn't use sorcery). The Esvulari are shielded from the Scorpionman outbreak for the time being. While there may be a certain number in Durengard (which becomes a frontier city after Backford falls) and Vizel (similar), Duchamp and Mt Passant are rear echelon postings, and the lands of rural Esvulari start only south of that line. The really bad news is that the capture of Backford means that all the Storm Bull defenders at the mouth of the Footprint will have fallen valiantly and futilely. Without those specialists, it would take a strong leader with a bunch of magician units under his banner to deal with the threat. King of Sartar has an entry in Minaryth Blue's memoirs for 1628 (the year Argrath fought Harrek to a stand-still in a duel beneath the Guardian Cranes of the Rightarm Islands) (p.182): Hendrikiland would be all the way down to the Heortland Plateau, at least Jansholm, probably further south. No combat means that the scorpionman threat appears to have been dealt with by someone else already. Would Harrek have hired out his services to whoever had an interest and the financial means to make going to Backford worth his while? There isn't that much that would attract the Wolf Pirates to Backford even if they get to plunder it dry - the scorpionmen will not have cared much about portable wealth, and way more for food and victims (to increase their standing with their queen(s). The queens may have collected some obvious treasure, though, and possibly spent some, too, but with the Lunars gone, there wouldn't be many people willing to trade with them. (Except maybe the odd wolf pirate, finding the scorpion queens ready buyers for captives from the coasts.) KoS p.18 has this encounter in Argrath's Saga: The rectangular brackets indicate additional material from Harrek's Saga, used by the southern version of the Saga. Esvular has a sufficient amount of marsh strands, but the Guardian Cranes are described only for the Rightarm Isles. There may be some east of the Troll Strait, but if so, hitherto not really documented there. (The cranes in the RQG Bestiary p.145 appear to be smaller specimen - while a 1.3 meter tall crane weighs about 3 to 6 kg, a specimen about 8 times that tall would weigh about 500 times as much (8 by the power of 3 is 512). 1.5 to 3 metric tons is heavier than even the larger sky bulls.) Anyway, it looks like Backford wasn't yet taken over by the scorpionfolk in early 1628. The sourcebook doesn't really give a date, only has it after the Dragonrise (and outside of Tatius' responsibility). Argrath Saga has it as part of the Battle of Heroes, parallel to the chaos outbreak from Snake Pipe Hollow (KoS p.19), naming them "half shapeless things". There is another species of dangerous stelting birds of those beaches are the bloodbirds, possibly a reason why there is only limited grazing on the tidal flats even where these could feed on the common glasswort (a main vegetable gathering crop for the Pelaskites, Ducks and Newtlings of Choralinthor Bay).

I think that talar is the collective name for people of the talar caste rather than a specific office. A bit like "thane" is in the old-fashioned naming of Heortlings (nowadays we are going to see the blander and IMO with misleadingly medieval or even absolutism era overtones) "noble". An Aeolian priest is most likely called a priest if he serves a deity in a priestly role. If they are rolled up using ordinary RQG rules, more than a quarter of the zzabur caste among the Aeolians have no chance at all to learn sorcery. Half again that many will have at best a rudimentary selection of magic available. It isn't clear what spells or rituals would be used by a sorcerer holding a Malkioni service, but it is likely that part of those marginally able sorcerers may be recruited to do so in remote villages where Aeolians have no access to one of their greater temples. Judging from the population numbers, about half the people in Esvular are regular Heortlings, outside of the marriage market of the endogamous three castes of the Aeolians, and there will be Pelaskites as well. It isn't clear whether they share villages or even clans with Aeolians, but at least in larger towns there will be people from both origins co-existing and mingling at least in day-to-day life. Endogamous groups aren't that rare in Heortling society - triaties basically are an endogamous group with well-described pools of husbands and brides, and (in case of population imbalances) with hard times for the excess sex in some of the clans when it comes to monogamous marriages. It isn't quite clear whether Aeolian endogamy is about marriages or about sex in general. The neighboring Ingareen sorcerers come in hues of blue, with at least the powerful sorcerers among them enjoying superhuman life spans. The Aeolians with endogamous breeding for their sorcerer caste would have as good a chance to preserve the blue tint as the Ingareens (whose specific marriage rites aren't known to me), provided their colony started out with a blue-skinned zzabur caste at (or before) the Dawn.

Probably was on a solo quest. Going through so many hands (and possibly naughtier parts)...

That was through training. Research (with a 1D4-2 reward, or something like that) would take you further. Experience checks work as normal. As I played RQ3, that was 75% in the skill without skill category modifier - just your "formal" knowledge in the skill, with aptitude the cream on top that could land you in the higher territory if your stats were appropriate. RQ2 had a hard skill cap at 90% for everyone not being a Rune Level, or at least that was how this was presented to me. I found that one of the less endearing features of RQ2 (as presented to me), but then I never had the chance to join a group as a player, and my GMing was grown on RQ3 (or entirely different rules systems). I used to be able to improvise a fairly close to rules-as-written game in RQ3, with minimal preparation other than knowing where in my material to look for a stat block that might fit the criteria for this non-crucial opponent. Agenda and circumstances of the main antagonist were always more important than stat blocks. The RQ games system turns highly skilled characters into glass cannons with limited insurance. There are opponents which may require use of DI to be able to come into range somewhat reliably. And there are entities so outside of normal conventions that they don't even have stat blocks in a war game like Dragon Pass. It is possible to play a heroquest mainly based on moral choices with largely unskilled characters, and to come out with a world-moving result. RQ - not even RQG with its percentiles for runes and passions - probably is not the vehicle of choice for such quests, though.

Eurmal has spells for severing body parts, with Extension applicable. Removing his penis and having to look for it is a classic for Eurmal. No idea whether the scrotum would normally be retained or removed as well (in order to pass the test it had better be missing). But then, the Eurmali might possibly still detect as functionally male, only displaced. But that's what Lie is for. Sure. Maran isn't quite as eager for self-mutilation as is Gerra in her descending step pyramid (with aztec parallels intended, from talks with Greg), but getting rid of the nasty bits and feeding them to the Dark Earth is rather implicit in the name "Gor". (Unless used by John Norman where it stands for the opposite...)

I guess it depends on your geology. If you are on the edge of Greater Darkness glaciation, you'll have access to marl and high quality clays in the morraines left by Valind's minions, and I would expect Skyreach Mountain to have had a few "productive" glaciers of its own during that time. As well as that great loess soil downwind from the edge of the glacier. Riverine deposits of clay will form only in slow stretches of the rivers, or in the seasonal flood plains. When rivers get dammed or where they enter lakes you have a good chance at getting some riverine clay deposits. Like with loess, the presence of plants to slow the fluid will help in sedimentation. In Nochet, the clay pits surround Meldektown, the Aeolian exclave south of the walled city and southeast of the (encroaching) Antones estates. These are likely such estuary clays. I struggled a long time with the fact that Godtime rivers flowed uphill - if they did so, where would the sedimentation occur? Fortunately, there is an easy answer to that - the outward movement of the river tentacles was upriver, but there would have been an internal counter-stream feeding the booty from the conquest of the dry place back to the parent body of water, and excreting those parts that were of less value. Hence the riverine sediments from Godtime are hardly different from our world's geology. Unlike masonry, chemical fingerprinting of ceramics doesn't appear to be that good for determining the origin of the material. The iron (ochre) content may exclude certain (types of) sediment near a place producing pottery, but that's probably as far as it goes. Volcanic ash is rather unlikely to form clays, but it may still be an ingredient for earthwares of a more porous character. Add some glazing, and you have suitable containers.

My source for this old and ancient pyrotechnology actually claims that charcoal useful for stacking in smelting furnaces or in a kiln is best from well-sized pieces of wood. The charcoal you get for barbecue is ok for the actual smithing (at least ironsmithing) and possibly melting and casting metals, but if you have longer term closed fires, well-ordered stacking of the fuel assures good aeration and hence good continuous high temperature. I suppose that means that the lumber for charcoal would be logs from wood with five to eight inch diameter, possibly heat-treated in three meter pieces or so. Once charred, these logs are a lot easier to break into segments of maybe a meter or half that. Unused charcoal doesn't weather much, although it may be compressed in humid soil. Judging from the earthware funnel caps for hearthfires fairly recently unearthed in Hedeby. (designed to let a fire burn down to the embers without having to keep a fire watch all night, the hearth fire would have had a diameter of maybe two feet, which limits the length of logs fed into it considerably. Adzes produce all manner of splinters that will burn just a little slower than kindling, but which will doubtlessly have been used either in the fire or otherwise to spread over muddy or sandy surfaces for better footing. If you burn them when wet, they are useful for smoke-curing meat or fish, but you'll want an earthware chimney to contain that smoke. Wicker with a strong coating of clay will do, too, as temperatures are just below boiling water.

It would be quite well suited for sheep and goats, providing salt licks where tidal waters meet salt-tolerant weeds. Cattle would probably be kept close to the major settlements deeper in the estuaries, as coastal raiders might carry them off easily. No idea whether anyone in Heortland actually keeps goats - the God Forgotten in the south might. (The Wolf Pirates on Three Step Isles definitely do.) In my game, the coastal flats are mainly inhabited by Pelaskite fisherfolk sworn to the Hendriki kings, who entered the region in the first and second century after the Dawn and never left. They share many cults with their Heortling neighbors but retain a lot of their ancestral identity and ways. There are occasional intermarriages with the riverine clans. While they may own some cattle and even have a little bit of land under the plow, most of their primary production comes from the sea and the sea shore.

You would want an infrastructure that keeps the best craftspeople away from the fields and inside their workshops, except for the holy days. But then you also want skilled craftspeople to oversee the harvesting of the raw materials used in your trade, e.g. a master ship-builder to oversee the logging for new ships. Sorting the clay into brickmakers' quality and potters' quality, possibly even superior ceramics like china. Transporting charcoal actually was a bit of a problem as it is a high volume, low weight cargo, at least according to the sword metallurgy course material I read. Human porters might have a better efficiency than ox carts or beasts of burden. Even river transport of charcoal is a wasteful use of a barge. Setting up near a source of clay may be more efficient than moving into town, although that may depend on the size of the pieces you are going to bake, and possibly the number of times you put a piece into the kiln. Do you apply glazing or other painted ornamentation to the unburnt dried object, or do you apply the glazing after the first burn? Huge storage vessels are probably produced near their destination, as transporting barrel-sized pithos jars or the even larger buried clay vessels used in wine-making in Georgia (in the Caucasus). Amphorae were designed as transport containers, transporting them empty would be less or a problem. As long as they keep to the few standardized sizes, there should be carts or river vessels designed to transport them. Firewood and other lumber may be easier to transport as long as you have a downriver waterway towards your destination. Even marginally navigable rivers can be used to float lumber. In case of doubt, dams (also those built by beavers) can aid in regulating the transport of the lumber. RQ2 has a quite long section on guilds which is reflected in Apple Lane and to a lesser degree in Pavis, but which hasn't been brought up again in RQ3 or later. Horsemasters, weapon masters, alchemists...

You are playing a Trickster, aren't you? Entirely in character.

There is a difference between the rather anonymous cult spirits serving Orlanth (the storm souls or breaths of the former Orlanth initiates, actually) and the individual spirits you call up in a Daka Fal rite, spirits (without their storm souls) retaining most of their former identity and memories. And I tend to think that it is possible to summon both at the same time (though through different means). (Ernaldans would summon the Earth soul, etc.) I wonder about the re-sheathed Humakti. While manifesting outside the realm of the dead probably is a great no-no, communicating with them while in the halls of Humakt's Einheriar might be possible.

Running the Dark Eye for minors? You monster! 😎 But seriously: Unless you use it for reading lessons, there are other games with as easy-to-learn rules that work better.

The Heortlings aren't really that averse to shamans - I think that the King of Dragon Pass game way overstated the weirdness of shamans to an established clan. For starters, King Heort was a shaman - their entire society was founded by one. It isn't clear what kind of shamanic tradition he followed - could have been the white deer people's shamanism, Kolating shamanism, or something unrelated. There isn't much known about Heort. And even on the height of his "three separate worlds" dogma, Greg said that the Heortlings were about two third theist, one third animist in their outlook. All that individual (theist) initiation creating an individual bond to a deity may be part of that, but there are Heortlings who remain primarily animist in their worship, even though they contribute to the communal worship as (theist) lay members. I am not sure whether the Daka Fal cult counts as somewhat theist in nature. Getting access to all those common Rune spells does suggest that it has a significant theist component. Hermit individuals who get overwhelmed by the force of prophecy make people uneasy, true. The Oracle of Delphi was kept in seclusion... But does all ancestor worship go the Daka Fal / Axis Mundi way, or is there a more theist way of worship with the host of the ancestors as its object? (Like presented in King of Dragon Pass, really.) Kralori afterlife is complicated anyway, as there is the waiting place where the faithful dead go to wait for the ascension of the Emperor. Does Kralori ancestor worship reach back to ancstors that departed before the utuma of Yanoor? That lineage plant system is unclear to me, anyway. Assuming you have a mother from lineage A and a father from lineage B, what will your lineage plant be? A? B? something else?

A trickster that behaves is planning something. The longer he behaves, the worse his trick will be. (It takes an illuminated Trickster to recognize that being lazy and good will drive his bond master crazy.)

Then, for those of you who think one can target Shield directly without accounting for the Coutnermagic effect, how do you use Dismiss Magic to Dismiss a Shield 3 that has been stacked with Countermagic 3? And is it possible to Dismiss both Shield and CM in one go?

No, an 11 point spell will suffice. Shield doesn't have the +1/-1 fuzzy border that Countermagic has. Complicated as hell, but RAW.

At 15 percent, they have a 3% chance for a special. The odds suck, but after a dozen dead mooks lying about, slippery ground rules are in order. Make a DEXx3 roll or halve your attack and parry because of the lack of footing. The T-Rex has to do an attack that can result in a knockback. A bite cannot result in a knockback, but possibly in a successful grapple. Any stuff with a sufficiently large limb (or the head butt) will do.

We won't agree on this, I fear. I hold that the magic would not manifest because of the CM effect, whether it is a Dispel or even an additional point of shield. No magic can manifest that doesn't exceed the CM effect. Exceed, not equal. The contest between whichever spell that is to be dispelled or dismissed only comes afterwards. You hold that the magic will appear to take away whichever effect there is. So basically, one of your players (e.g. me if you ruled against me with that interpretation) could argue that a 1 point Dismiss Magic will take away the Sword Trance regardless of the Shield as it takes apart magic, which in your argumentation takes precedence to the CM effect. No additional magic is heaped on, but magic is taken away. That should make the CM field happy, right?

That would make Dismiss and Dispel more powerful than Shield and Countermagic. The Countermagic effect doesn't protect anything, it simply prevents magic from manifesting. Including Dispel or Dismiss, or another Shield spell or a Countermagic without sufficient backing to stack with the existing Shield. At least this strict logic makes discussion with rules lawyers a lot easier. (The doubled efficiency of the Berserk CM effect against magic from chaotic sources remains weird in any connection.) It is impossible parry a tree log swinging towards you, whether held up by ropes or by a giant, unless you are big enough to wield a similar one one-handed, or you can cut it into two in a single attack. No percentile deduction for such attacks, regardless of their sword or axe skill. Likewise with nets And some of them will roll a special or crit. Anything that does a knockback damage greater than the size of the parrying person should not be reduced by the full parry skill. Yes, that is hard on Humakti ducks. They deserve that, though. Thus, a T-Rex bite attack might be parried (deflected), a headbutt, body-check or tail-whip not. It is dodge or suffer. Any player complaining about that is free to look for a different GM. Invulnerable characters like Clark Kent, Achilles or Siegfried won't get any experience checks from combats they get through without a scratch, unless risking their social standing when everybody watches them (not the case in a general melee, but somewhat applicable in a champion's battle, and incurring some notoriety that will be used against them). The same for successes under the influence of the weapon trance or Sureshot. Reading a book bears a greater risk than that.

There was a moment in the Gods War when Heler fell afoul of a Storm God (likely Umath) and lost his connection to the Seas - possibly as the result of wrestling or similar. Possibly the same greater mythic event like the time when that Keet sage "blessed" the dancing sea god "may your steps be lighter" after having been trod on, initiating the Keet epic. I think that the birth of Umath pushed down the body of the Earth (even though it had healed up the hole left by the Spike), ramming it down enough that the inner parts of Sramak's River had a chance to ascend to land. (As a side effect, this left higher and creased foothills around the Spike, creating the high valley of Dini.) This pushing the Earth cube downward would have lured in all manner of rapacious Sea forces, and Heler always in the vanguard. Well, Umath showed him that the Lower and Middle Air was no place for someone with a direct connection to the Seas. When Annilla and Lorion rose up the (inner) Sky Dome, Heler was always in place to lend them aid. Heortling Mythology suggests another foe of Heler responsible for separating him from the rivers - Jagrekriand the Sky Defender who knocked Heler out of the celestial river. That enmity might explain why Helerings and Artmali weren't that friendly, despite their mutual reverence for Lorion.

No - the shield's CM 10 effect will prevent the Dismiss 5 from taking effect, you need that extra point for the magic to manifest at all. Any 10 MP spell will fail against Shield 5. Any 11 MP spell will succeed. @Rodney Dangerduck Yes, +110% to parrry is great, but an 75% advanced mook with fanaticism still has a chance greater than 5% to hit. Add a bit of bladesharp, and your mook attrition will be better. Wolves etc. will lose a few attackers, then draw back, and play the waiting game with occasional harrassment. And there are attacks where a parry is meaningless, hence I would simply deduce the weapon's armor points without any roll, and inflict the rest. The Ewok traps cannot be parried, only evaded through dodge - which I would allow to a trancee, but which will be significantly lower. And every subsequent parry is 20 points less than that dodge. Good luck to your swordsperson. What are the rules for nets? Can they be parried without entangling the parrying object, or do they have to be dodged?

I haven't seen or experienced this in Gloranthan RQ, but in our old University group RQ3 games we brought a selection of our characters to the table, pulling them out of our golf bag, so to say. I'm a guest player in a long term campaign (30+ years) on a different world with a different system which basically has this troope approach without ever having seen Ars Magica. Rewriting the setting to some degree is natural in such a case. If your slicing the dice behind the shield inspired some of the poetry, do take some credit for it...