Joerg

That goes to Chris Klug... And to Ian Cooper's work in Dragon Pass: Land of Thunder which has an interesting synthesis of the old materials for the Smoking Ruins, too. (Should have looked that up when I made that first post in this thread...) Is it possible for a Zorak Zorani to cross any moral lines? Arkat became a Chaos monster and still is in good standing. The Uz Lore text doesn't mention any renewed hostilities after the two dark troll swarms had joined forces to deal with all the other powers in the pass. But then, this may be a secret not yet learned, or a secret suppressed. Whatever it may have been the trolls had done prior to the Korolstead decisive battle. The location strikes me as highly disadvantageous for the Tusk Riders, unless they managed to secure a nearby fort as their sally port. Rather than intoxicating drinks, I would look for intoxicating food. Unfortunately, no dwarves were mentioned in either force. Aldryami are nice health food for the troll metabolism, but don't induce euphoria. But consuming the flesh of a Mistress Race troll might be the ultimate meal for any descendant of Kyger Litor. And it would have been the proper burial rite, which means that Kajak-ab's spirit should be available for contacting as there was no significant amount of body left for burning. Unless Vamargic did a different form of feeding... I have walked in Varmargic's shoes, so I might come across as defensive here, but from a troll perspective, the bad thing Vamargic did was what? Betraying a former ally after a battle had been fought? Sure, that's not the gentlemanly way, but well within the expected behavior of a Zorak Zorani. The Eye-Necklace magic? For this to be Vamargic's signature move and item, this must have gone on for ages - he wouldn't have been known by this name if the artifact had only been constructed at the ruins of Korolstead. Whether one regards this as a variant of a belt-full of Thanatari heads or the more powerful equivalent of a Ball of Tails. Eating your deceased rival will deprive her from having its kin feed on the corpse, but overall this is a gesture of respect in troll society. Binding Kajak-ab's spirit into the Necklace was an act of pure retaliatory malice that would make any Zorak Zorani proud. I think that it is possible that Vamargic decided to re-create his signature item around the spirit of his great rival Kajak-ab, and therefore started building it up anew. The bit about "Vamargic still is missing a human eye" strikes me as extremely unlikely. Grazers, Vendref, Lunars and even Sartar and his followers have been active in the region. Plus the fact that Korolstead is one of the places in the Dragon Pass game where one would go looking for the Puppeteer Troupe as allies (the Dragon Pass rules refer to the place as "the ruin in the Grazelands (hex 1325)". Being eaten by Darkness is the most natural thing that could happen to the dead bodies of a dragonewt. Preserving a piece of dragonewt for magical benefits on the other hand is a serious crime - against that individual. But can a single eye really have angered the newts enough to pile up thousands of trolls and set them alight? Nobody normally breeds great trolls. The first ones appeared around 800 ST, and once the method had been established, I am not astonished that an enterprising clan mother set up some of her cave troll females to breed these useful speciment rather than having her precious daughters and nieces undergo the procedure. Dagori Inkarth has a sporewood area... With their Kitori allies, the southern trolls would have been able to cultivate ergot. Suchara is the name of the rye goddess in Thunder Rebels. Dragon Pass - Land of Thunder places Suchara Valley (the lower portion of the Marzeel and formerly the Creek-Stream River - just east of Shadow Plateau. A coincidence, or are the southern trolls on acid? Cross-species breeding: That's something nymphs do on a regular basis. Including hags... but I don't really see anything that would suggest a desire by either trolls or dark elves to create crossbreeds. Calling a dehori for propagation: sure. That's how Great Trolls are made, or great shamans like Pikat Yaraboom (another troll I got to play in a freeform). The Troll Woods are on the Crossline, and some sacred places for the Hendriki tribe may have ended up north of the line, too. Vanntar aka Sun Dome County may have remained agricultural land for the Kitori, and north of them the ducks continued their horticulture, too. The giants of Red Cow Village continued their own agriculture, too. The Coming Storm has Willandring the smith as the last survivor of that giant population that seems to have been overcome early on in the Resettlement. Both Kitori and Beastfolk claimed lands north and south of the Crossline. Beast Valley extends south almost to the walls of Helerdon (New Crystal City), although the southern portion may have been ceded to Belintar at the treaty of Stone Cross and only used as temporary pasture - but that is a century in the future of the events at the Smoking Ruins. What happened to Varankol the Mangler (possibly the first Aramite to become a "half troll")? Great Living Hero of the Machine Wars, and a champion of the EWF. This entire half-troll spiel for the Tusk Riders has been a huge irritation to me. I doubt very much that there are Tusk Riders who have a valid claim to be descended from Kyger Litor. The Only Old One had sent 40,000 troops to aid the dragonewts against the advance of the True Golden Horde. This may have included the Hendriki king and his priests and bodyguard, but a lot of that force would have been spearkin and Esrolians. To no avail, except perhaps to give the dragons some more time to arrive in the Pass. It was quite the logical development. The Aramites are the biggest group of survivors of the Dragonkill this far northwest. The annual Tusker boar migrations that led to Oslir crossings being named Boar Ford and Sow Ford may have returned in the absence of human farmers on the way. There was nobody left to hire them as mercenaries, so they had to turn to raiding their neighbors in order to maintain their standard of living. At least after looting the EWF era ruins was no longer productive. But then, the EWF cities had already been ransacked in 1042, and again in 1120. Korolstead would have been no exception. By 1222, its main use would be as a shelter to enter. But neither Kajak-ab nor Vamargic appear to have shown any such leanings, unless Vamargic's assault on Kajak-ab was using Blue Moon assassination magics. The OOO never had border controls on any of Esrolia's borders, and a troop of dragonewts could have passed through without too much excitement - even less if they made the trip as mercenary guards or similar. Rist, Arstola and Poisonthorn are the closest well-documented elf colonies. Balazar had Eston at the Dawn, without any mention of a Great Tree, and Redwood had lost its Great Tree, too (but at least retained its stump). Neither the Valley of Flowers nor the Stinking Forest have any center. The historical maps in the Guide placed the Tallseed forest in the north of Pent, where there is a huge region full of treestumps now.

Any. The only material subject to this are Hero Wars and HQ1 publications. Storm Tribe (a HW publication applicable to HQ1), or the Stafford Library Book of Heortling Mythology. The latter has no game data at all, the HW publication has some for a very different system that is no longer supported. MGF - whatever works best in your games. As long as your fellow players share your Glorantha experience (or learn it from you), you have a wide array of choices. Only when people with different pre-conceptions play the same game there may be weird disconnects. Practicality tells me that the GM is usually right in the current game situation, although people who feel a disconnect can approach the GM after the game and discuss that. (Me being a difficult player, I might hog a bit of the spotlight and try to narrate my version into the game...) Yes. Every cult position that doesn't require certain biological prerequisites can be filled by any gender. While there are magics that allow males to experience the pains of giving birth (Xiola Umbar's Couvade), that is probably not enough to become a priest of Ernalda. It is possible to play a character who is hermaphrodite (functional male and female procreative and sex organs) or asexual (missing either). Right. They should be able to become God-talkers. Some Vingans are Ernalda worshipers taking a war sabbatical. Other Vingans have undergone the boys' adulthood rites and a subsequent Orlanth initiation, usually after their adulthood rites as women. There may be other female, peace-oriented cults that allow a war sabbatical as Vingan, e.g. Eiritha. Taking the Vinga route may be preferable to doing the permanent switch to the Dark Earth (Babeester, Maran etc.) But then, it doesn't have to be the Orlanth cult. Redalda is the daughter of Ernalda who married Elmal, and she is the goddess of female riders. A fighting woman. Redaylde, the youngest daughter of Vingkot, marrying Beren was her avatar - apparently a quite spirited woman, too. But then, Vestan(t)e may have been the most domestic of Vingkot's daughters, choosing Goralf Brown for her husband.

Harmonize should be Harmony, as per RQG rules p.435. Only the spell effect available to Chalana Arroy is completely different from the pumpkin-head ability expressed as Donandar RQ3 rune spell or the RQ2 Battle Magic spell... Harmonize is a Donandar spell, which makes sense as the Smoking Ruins are a magical spot for the Puppeteers, but how could a deceased ghost of a trollkin have learned this? I sense a lost story here, with the trollkin being a member of the Puppeteer Troupe who chanced upon her grandmother's spirit, returning to save her and falling into the claws of the undead and burning Vamargic. There is also p.94 . One-Eye fails a Loyalty (Vamargic) roll and alerts him to the adventurers’ presence. If she has Loyalty Vamargic due to the loss of her eye, then her ghost should rightfully hover somewhere near the Eye Necklace. But then she isn't the only Eye-Necklace victim that has a curious double afterlife. Makes Scratches curiously escaped to deliver the map to a trader while remaining as a centaur skeleton and the donor of an eye (when our friend Vamargic had ample opportunity to harvest centaur eyes in his victory over the joint forces of dragonewts, aldryami and beast men). A puppeteer initiate of Donandar would make sense with the old RQ3 spell Harmonize. XU is a valid candidate for the RQG Harmony spell.

P.42 Daravala Chan, Niece of Erannina Chan That would make 35 year-old Darvala also a niece of 29 year-old Ereneva Chan. Eraninna is 35 years old, too... Should this have been "Niece of Beneva Chan"? P.45 The illustration shows Eraninna Chan (mirrored from her appearance in the Adventure Book - with the axe in her right hand here) rather than Ereneva Chan (whose portrait I would have expected here).

On either side of the war, at least initiatlly - as the City States grew more and more desperate, the rates for mercenary forces may have risen, and as a cavalry force the White Horse Troop may have evaded the worst of defeats, fulfilling their contracts for advance payments. Their train may have become a lot more mobile during this time, too - a good feature for Ethilrist's subsequent march to Hell and Back. (Cue Jim Steinman operatic rock...) His troop may have been in a tactical situation similar to that of the Loper People after the defeat of Paslac. Do we know the direction of Ethilrist's crossing of the Mislari Mountains? While this gives a hint at the timeline, keep in mind that the canonical timeline for the histories of Ralios, Kethaela and probably Third Age Fronela and Peloria changed between the publication of Troll Pak (in 1982) and the canonical timeline RuneQuest Companion (1984, alters the date of Belintar's arrival from the 1220ies to 1313) and in Genertela Box (1987). The Redline History of the Lunar Empire was published rather late in the Wyrm's Footnotes, and chapter 5 (Hon-eel's Wane, including the Ban) appeared in an issue (1.6 or 2.1) of the Avalon Hill house magazine Heroes a good deal after the publication of RQ3. The timeline discrepancies in Troll Pak were not removed in the RQ3 release. Now the publication dates are usually about a year after the manuscript was finished. Sandy Petersen (lead author of Troll Pak) was also the Lorekeeper for Greg's notes on Glorantha, tasked with keeping some consistency between Greg's spurts of creative output. (Source: various panels, interviews and private chats with Sandy, e.g. last Kraken.) IIRC the Arrolian territories were mentioned as a possible source of Lunar reinforcements in the same early Wyrm's Footnotes that also saw the first (non-APA-zine) publication of Ethilrist's memories, the ones reprinted in RuneQuest Companion. Details like the Fronelan Kingdom of Valmark might be older than the entire concept of the Lunar Empire, building on Jonat's and Syranthir's stories. The Syndics Ban story is of course one of the oldest Gloranthan stories that created canon, but that makes its dating the least reliable (if it can be brought into line with any of the known dating systems at all, whether years ST or turnings of the red sands of time (? - Zzabur's dating). And we are speaking of Mr Immensurable Ego here. Ethilrist may well have believed that the Ban was something that bothered only lesser people. (And Harrek would prove him correct in that assumption...) I regard the information in the Guide as the significantly more canonical data. The first Lunar contact with "Sartar rebels" can only have been the 1555 Battle of Karnge Farm, in which Philigos was slain and Phargentes barely escaped alive. Two years later (unless you believe the Sartar chapter of CHDP which says 10 years later) Jarolar was killed interceding for the Far Point tribes striving to maintain independence from Lunar Tarsh. His son Jarosar also falls to Phargentes, although we don't get details about his death from CHDP. His burial site is Sacred Top (overlooking Boldhome?), which means that his mortal remains could be retrieved after his death in battle against Phargentes' forces (him being the other king of Sartar killed by Phargentes Kingslayer). His two children Jarnandar and Aransanda are mentioned only for being born - what became of them? Anyway - Ethilrist was absent from Karnge farm, but involved in battles against Sartar forces afterwards - probably at Dwarf Ford, and possibly at whatever battle caused the death of Jarosar. Other opportunities to fight Sartarites may have been Tarkalor's personal warband when he supported the FHQ Mother of Lands against the Tarshites, in between his campaigns against the Kitori. We have two dates for Saraskos in the Sourcebook genealogies, the FHQ dynasty one giving the dates 1575-1597 wheras the Sartar dynasty say "born in 1542" (when Tarkalor was 19, and his cousin Verala Tor was not even born according to the FHQ genealogy (which gives her dates as 1544-1582, with FHQ since 1565). Personally, I trust the Sartar data more, as we have to take into account that Saraskos son Sarasarin was sufficiently adult to attempt to avenge the assassination of his sister Saronna in 1596. I toyed briefly with the idea that the dates in the FHQ genealogy might be initiation dates rather than birth dates, at least for some of the queens, but the Saraskos problem remains. Not just Lunar chroniclers - Sartarite chroniclers (or at least Densesros' sources) fail to mention Ethilrist, too. Ethilrist's early appearance in King of Dragon Pass (well before the founding of the Kingdom of Quiviniland) cannot be canonical if the bit of his history that mentions him fighting Sartar rebels is meaningful. While there is a raid of Quivini against Bagnot in the same year King Yarandros of Tarsh dies, the Lunars are far away, harrassed by Sheng, and nowhere near the Pass region. Probably blissfully unaware of the existence of the Grazelanders until Hon-eel takes over Tarsh in 1491, or slightly earlier. Sartar himself never led an army into a battle (although he brought a sufficiently significant honor guard on his visit to Thieves Town in the position that would become Badside of New Pavis). The Sourcebook (p.26) says Phargentes reign - as what? His reign as Provincial Governor started in 1545 (as per Guide p.331), yielding 1575 as the earliest time for Ethel's sacking of Dunstop - if his service to the empire starts with the land grant, which I actually doubt. Let's assume that Ethlrist received the deed to Muse Roost after 10, 15 or even 20 years of loyal mercenary service in Moonson's auxilia. That still makes him be about 20 years late for the Nights of Horror (aka last chance to meet Magnificus). Unless he spent those two decades outside the service of the Red Emperor - but who would have been able to hire him? Local satraps or provincial kings have no business The Companion story has him and his Black Horse troop emerge somewhere near Dorastor, without any clue where exactly that was. Keener Than is still on speaking terms with Ethilrist, who makes pumpkin jam out of Hungry Jack (whose WBRM counter is presented in the same issue of Wyrm's Footnotes as the first publication of that Ethilrist story - #2, IIRC). Magnificus doesn't return from the Nights of Horror in 1506. His successor is Artifex, who lasts into 1522. Philigos inherits Tarsh in 1535, and gets evicted in 1538. Thatt's in the reign of Venerabilis, the fifth mask (if Takenegi is counted as the first mask). The White Horses (a Sun Horse variety, IMO) are exchanged for the Diokos demon nightmares in Hell. Most of the time, Ethilrist appears to ride the Hound rather than a Black Horse. This means that you suggest Ethilrist appears in Peloria before going to Hell, or before returning to Hell.

While camels have been used for plowing (I remember seeing an image of a plow drawn by a team consisting of an ass and a camel, the ass walking the hard, unplowed soil while the camel softly padded on the already plowed land), I do think that Barntar would know the difference. Hardy redmane is a god enough description for the majority of the Highland cattle I have see - there are some color variations outside of ginger red, but those might not be bred for. There is of course the dappling that occurs in the course of domestication, and that is iconic about the Holstein cattle. I have even seen galloway cross breeds with a white stripe covering the rib cage area while the front and rear were nicely black, and a color variation like this with most of the body but the head being a darker brown and only the head retaining the ginger of highland cattle might be Barntar's special breed. Now where do I have the file on cattle breeds that I started preparing when writing this in the Gloranthan Miniatures thread:

I think it may really be "You are in the presence of a Deity", making all these considerations moot. Which leaves the very weird effect of pre-healing a wound that the recipient of the Heal Wound suffers on Strike Rank 7 with the supporting healer having chosen the action to wait and heal whoever needs it. Coming from the RQ3 SRs as tact model, I have been a proponent of application of the meta-rule, but from a setting perspective, the priority rule might be defensible.

42 points of Dispel, which is not impossible for a shaman who has taken the extra Charisma gift a couple of times. Plus an additional MP to overcome its CM effect. But I disagree with your doubling of the MP cost when it comes to applying the resistance table. 33 points of intensity gives a Neutralize a 5% chance on the resistance table, 51 points a 95% chance.

p.87 protect a hand-sized shard of silvered glass On the same page, the boxed text describes the item nicely Bronze-Agey as No glass involved, silver optional. That description of the depiction on the rear is of course a temporal paradox - the item is exchanged at the Wedding of the deities, whereas the transmogrification of Ginna Jar into the recipient of the item is the reward for the LBQ on the cusp of Time. This means that this item might be a heroquest reward of a re-enactment of the original wedding, with the physical component provided by the (undoubtedly royal) quester rather than the God Time original. That's fine as far as holy relics go, but it is B-grade, a very powerful copy. The boxed text also has "Violence is always an alternative" in the second repetition, rather than "Violence is always an option". Please amend this to option, as this is a catch-phrase, and the point of it is that Orlanth doesn't even consider alternatives until getting repeat demonstrations.

Antirius facing Shargash as the Cruel God. The Dara Happan Spike could be the Footstool or the celestial tower in Yuthubars which hovers above Raibanth. The Bat/Artia is another Southpath planet, red and small, and has been called a moon in one of the early stories in Fronela (Jonat, I think --I only got to see a list of Jonat's deities, including Resat the Storm God and Artia as a moon goddess) The story of the Rebellion against the Emperor as told by Jar-eel in Prince of Sartar has four rebels - Orlanth Deathwielder, Shargash/Tolat wielding the Red Sword, Sedenya/Verithurusa in her red glory, and the Bat (death goddess of Rinliddi). But then the Hill of Gold has only three opponents for the Solar quester before the final stage where he gets to face Chaos. Either Sedenya or the Bat might qualify as the Chaos opponent, though.

You were the one looking for other uses of boosted MP. And yes, there is such a thing as a 1 point Protection boosted with 4 MP - it is what is required to stack a single point of Protection on top of a Shield spell. Admittedly, adding 5 points of Protection would be better, but in order to do that you would need to know Protection 5 rather than Protection 1. I wondered whether the rule "a stronger spell replaces a weaker one, in case of two spells with equal strength, the existing one remains" could refer to penetration strength rather than intensity. A beneficial use by a supporter could be to replace the Protection 4 that is in its last melee round by a fresh one without any short period of a gap without that benefit. Since the supporter only knows 4 points of protection, she cannot cast a 5 point spell to replace it - unless a point for boosting makes the newer spell stronger than the exisiting one. I was thinking of a destructive/malign casting of a helpful spell on an opponent, here, especially if you lack any Dispel options. I think we have agreed that the intensity of a spell plus the magic points put into Boosting make up the penetration strength of a spell. It makes a difference if the enemy has three points less armor to protect against incoming damage. Four points less would have been preferable, but lacking Dispel options, three points less is good enough. I wouldn't go that far - I think the rules interpretations that count boosting into resident strength are a stretch, something a Eurmali-infected rules-lawyer would inflict on a GM, but I agree that clarification or a clear example or two would be helpful. There is the statement "All rune spells take effect on Strike Rank 1." This statement might have priority over the rule that you quote below: We have two rules statements, where one overrides the other. I like my meta-rules like everybody, but I am not even sure that this rule for spirit spells applies to sorcery spells that receive Boosting, because "each MP in a sorcery spell adds 2 SR to the casting time". If MP for Boosting also are subject to this doubling of additional SR, treating the Boosting MP of rune spells as prepaid (but subsequently blocking any other actions until all the SR have been accounted for). "All rune spells take effect on Strike Rank 1." also ignores the caster's DEX SR that is used to off-set both spirit and sorcery spells. My suggestion is that the caster still has to spend that time after the spell has been initiated - it is possible that being the deity freezes the caster in time, or at least prevents him from any active action. Parrying or dodging might still be an option. Or not while the "I identified with my deity" cools off. I seem to recall that rune magic Extension may work on spirit spells, too. Right - the Quickstart description of the spell doesn't specify what kind of spell can be extended. And this phrasing on p.315: My left shoulder munchkin devil jumps up and down suggesting that this allows the Extension rune spell to affect spirit magic and even sorcery, too, while the right shoulder rules-lawyer GM-angel facepalms, shaking its head and halo. That same devil gleefully suggests that in the description of Extension there is no caveat that the extended spell must be stackable, and the angel shrugs its shoulders and nods. Ever so slightly, without risking the halo slipping off. p.328: A few spells mention the interaction with Extension - Affix Darkness forbids it (that stackable spell has special duration), Discorporate explicitely allows it, Hide Wealth (another stackable spell with special duration) allows it only doubling the duration.

Speaking of the Shadow Tribute, what is the relationship between Vamargic Eye-Necklace and the Kitori? Were there Kitori in his force? Was his force significantly composed of Kitori? (But then, the TSR version changes his followers from Wood Trolls to Dark Trolls, indicating that there may have been trolls from the Shadow Plateau involved in his army.) Also, did the Only Old One have any investment or say in these conflicts?

I had a number of double-takes when reading the backstory and the research suggestions for The Smoking Ruins, so I went and had a look at the sources that I remembered. Beware of background spoilers! The most canonical source of all is the Guide, but while it gives the names Kajak-ab Braineater and Vamargic Eye-Necklace as examples for troll names, it doesn't tell their story during the Inhuman Occupation. It does offer a very short local history of the setting (p.188): Smoking Ruins: These ruins within an ancient Vingkotling hill fort are permanently thick with smoke. The smoke comes from a smoldering heap of troll corpses that has been burning for the last four centuries. The best source for researching troll history is Uz Lore from RuneQuest Troll Pak. The text of this booklet doesn't change significantly between the second and third edition version, and some dating which doesn't quite agree with other sources (like a premature arrival of Belintar or an apparent confusion about the date of the arrival of the Closing), Uz Lore is the single most consistent telling of the history of Glorantha outside of the text in the Guide. The Smoking Ruins inherits the relevant section from Uz Lore quite verbatim to begin with. Uz Lore has two paragraphs omitted from the text in TSR, above and below the (slightly expanded and mildly rephrased) description of the two leaders of the southern (wood, i.e. Kethaelan) and eastern (mountain, i.e. Dagori Inkarth) troll factions. Before presenting the two uz leaders, Uz Lore tells us When the dragons slew all humans in the land of the trolls, other non-humans quickly moved in, fighting each other as usual. Many expeditions went out from there to raid human holdings. However, the unity of trolldom was an illusion which was dispelled by their strength. The Dragon Pass region became a battleground for trolls fighting trolls. Uz Lore remains silent about the conflicts between the eastern and the southern trolls, but mentions the third Darkness faction in the pass, essentially the Tusk Riders and their "half-troll" nobility: Troll unity returned when the despised half-trolls of the Ivory Plinth attempted to seize all power with the help of non-troll allies. He was killed, and the trolls then began a campaign against all others. This paragraph appears to be a bit jumbled, and fails to mention Karastand Half-Troll, the leader of the Ivory Plinth darkness tribe of whichever species they may have been. In 1222, trolls met the enemy forces in battle and slaughtered them. Their victory seemed so complete that a great revel began, gorging on the foes and drinking intoxicating drinks This continued in a great victory debauch which was so intense that no one seemed to notice the small enemy force of beastmen who assembled and launched a surprise attack. The trolls were unable to respond, and thousands of them were killed. The corpses were heaped up in nearby ruins and set afire as an insult to their beliefs. Ever since that time the ruins have kept smoking, and are called the Smoking Ruins. Also, no troll has been able to contact their ancestors who were burnt there. The Smoking Ruins as a land mark in southeastern Dragon Pass have been with us since the publication of Dragon Pass with the Wilms Church-based gameboard. (Not sure about the earlier WBRM map.) My other main source for these events is an in-world document written by a Vendref living close to the place and probably fairly well informed about the Beastman version of events there. I am talking about Densesros the Scribe's collection of sources on the Third Age history of the region, aka the Composite History of Dragon Pass, in King of Sartar. (p.89 hardcover edition pdf:) Troll Wars During the peace enforced by the dragonewts the Uz streamed in from Dagori Inkarth. The two biggest swarms were led by Kajakab the Brain-eater, an Uz who came from the Castle of Lead in Shadows Dance; and Karastand Halftroll, who claimed human ancestry and imperial rights over Dragon Pass as heir to the Wyrms Minds Collective. Halftroll was also commander of the giant boar-trolls of the Ivory Plinth, who formed the nobility of the Uz in the Stinking Forest, and whose persistent war with the Newbloom Aldryami gave the pleasant woods their unpleasant name. Probably about 1180 the two Uz races began their fighting, and at first the dragonewts were content to let them raze the ruins of the Wyrms Minds Collective. But when the Uz began raiding outside of Dragon Pass, threatening possible human intervention into the closed sacred grounds, the dragonewts were forced to react. The two Uz armies united to fight the dragonewts, who were joined by the Aldryami and the Beastfolk. The battle is called “Uz Eat Dragonewts,” and was a great Uz victory followed by a typically grotesque and prodigious feast in troll style devouring the many dragonewt corpses. The dragonewts who had been killed, however, were only the Ralian dragonewts allies who had been sent ahead. The real Dragon Pass dragonewts fell upon the gorged and disgusting creatures and slew them all. This was probably around 1220 or so. After that, the trolls remained in the shadows and hidden places, only rarely coming out in force again, but always remaining a menace. Now this sounds pretty straightforward. A joint force of uz and tusk riders battles against the joint forces of dragonewts, aldryami and beastfolk. Triumphant win for the army of Darkness, debauchery, followed by torpor and being slaughtered themselves. But somehow the third troll force from the south and its commander is absent from this story. But let's take these texts apart, and rearrange them. The Greylands region of Dragon Pass was the greatest troll stronghold. It lay between the Argan Argar Shadowlands and the Queendom of Dagori Inkarth. When the dragons slew all humans in the land of the trolls, other non-humans quickly moved in, fighting each other as usual. Many expeditions went out from there to raid human holdings. During the peace enforced by the dragonewts the Uz streamed in from Dagori Inkarth. The two biggest swarms were led by Kajakab the Brain-eater, an Uz who came from the Castle of Lead in Shadows Dance; and Karastand Halftroll, who claimed human ancestry and imperial rights over Dragon Pass as heir to the Wyrms Minds Collective. Halftroll was also commander of the giant boar-trolls of the Ivory Plinth, who formed the nobility of the Uz in the Stinking Forest, and whose persistent war with the Newbloom Aldryami gave the pleasant woods their unpleasant name. Kajak-ab Braineater was a Mistress Race troll who worshipped Kyger Litor and led the trolls from Dagori Inkarth. The other inhabitants of the pass often call her tribe the Mountain trolls. Her major opponent was Vamargic Eye-necklace who led the wood trolls from the south. He was most unusual, first because he was a great troll (who are almost always of low intelligence) and second, because his parents were both cave trolls. He worshipped Zorak Zoran. Probably about 1180 the two Uz races began their fighting, and at first the dragonewts were content to let them raze the ruins of the Wyrms Minds Collective. But when the Uz began raiding outside of Dragon Pass, threatening possible human intervention into the closed sacred grounds, the dragonewts were forced to react. Troll unity returned when the despised half-trolls of the Ivory Plinth attempted to seize all power with the help of non-troll allies. He [Karastand Half-troll] was killed, and the trolls then began a campaign against all others. The two Uz armies united to fight the dragonewts, who were joined by the Aldryami and the Beastfolk. In 1222, trolls met the enemy forces in battle and slaughtered them. The battle is called “Uz Eat Dragonewts,” and was a great Uz victory followed by a typically grotesque and prodigious feast in troll style devouring the many dragonewt corpses. The dragonewts who had been killed, however, were only the Ralian dragonewts allies who had been sent ahead. Their victory seemed so complete that a great revel began, gorging on the foes and drinking intoxicating drinks This continued in a great victory debauch which was so intense that no one seemed to notice the small enemy force of beastmen who assembled and launched a surprise attack. The trolls were unable to respond, and thousands of them were killed. The corpses were heaped up in nearby ruins and set afire as an insult to their beliefs. Ever since that time the ruins have kept smoking, and are called the Smoking Ruins. Also, no troll has been able to contact their ancestors who were burnt there. The real Dragon Pass dragonewts fell upon the gorged and disgusting creatures and slew them all. This was probably around 1220 or so. Following that, humans from the Shadowlands in the south rose against their leaders. Although the trolls kept most of their political power at first ,they were forced to include more and more humans from nearby regions in their councils, and this ultimately proved their undoing. After that, the trolls remained in the shadows and hidden places, only rarely coming out in force again, but always remaining a menace. [Uz Lore continues with Gerak Kag’s capture of Old Pavis] About 1350, the troll legion was a regular part of the army of the kingdom of Tarsh. This was a mercenary unit, used mainly in guerilla operations but occasionally mustered en masse for battle. This combination of the two texts appears to give a pretty concise picture, right? At least this is where I came from when I read the historical background information in The Smoking Ruins. The history as presented in the scenario makes yet another insertion into the story above. Now entering heavy spoiler territory, discussing GM Info only: Hence a little white space... While the scenario makes use of the Tusk Riders as a rumor and goes with the "small force of beastmen" version of Uz Lore (amending it to "Beastman cavalry", which I can only interprete as centaur forces - and apparently the author of the scenario too), it has a different premise. Braineater’s trolls had been taking refuge inside the abandoned buildings after escaping from marauding Tusk Riders. This doesn't sound like a convincing victory of the real trolls over the Half-troll at all. Rather the opposite. This sentence is the one that makes a synthesis of the TSR version with the previous synthesis quite problematic. Vamargic ambushed Braineater’s forces while they were sleeping, exhausted. Apparently the southern trolls had no trouble with Tusk Riders? I changed the sequence of these two sentences because the statement about Kajak--ab and her trolls changes the synthesized story above. But then, there is a possibility that the surviving Tusk Riders, after losing their leader Karastrand, entered the service of the Dragonewts as mercenaries. I aim to make a synthesis of these three sources. The text in TSR is fine as far as local events are described (and surprisingly re-defined, but that's no worse than a HeroQuest Surprise, really). It only doesn't mesh with the greater picture of this periof of history. Who cares? Every troll who has an ancestor burning away in those ruins. Or possibly a sibling - troll matriarchs can have very long lives. Vamargic killed many of them in their sleep, and his victory was so complete that a huge revel began, gorging on Braineater’s remains and drinking intoxicating drinks. This revel continued in a great victory debauch that was so intense, no one noticed the small enemy cavalry force of Beast Men who, while tracking Vamargic to exact revenge, had assembled upon Orlanth’s Hill and the Valley floor. Beastmen assembling on the Hill - fine. But what would these Beastmen have to exact revenge for from Vamargic? The revenge motivation only makes sense if Vamargic (whether allied with Kajak-ab or not) had destroyed an allied force of dragonewts, aldryami and beastmen earlier on, as described in Uz Lore. Let's conclude the slaughter: From both sides they rode down into the settlement to launch their attack. Vamargic’s trolls were taken by surprise. It was a complete rout and Vamargic’s forces were slaughtered. The Beast Men left the corpses to rot, but before they left, they hired a nearby Grazer clan to help them erect a memorial to those Beast Men who died in the fight. Vamargic died with the rest of his band. Trolls die in their sleep, or rudely awakened from it. Again, this time the other half. The Beastmen don't set the troll bodies on fire, though. Dragonewts do, as per CHDP, but I won't discuss this interesting additional twist in detail. By picking apart these text passages and inserting them into the previous text, I arrive at the following synthesis: The Greylands region of Dragon Pass was the greatest troll stronghold. It lay between the Argan Argar Shadowlands and the Queendom of Dagori Inkarth. When the dragons slew all humans in the land of the trolls, other non-humans quickly moved in, fighting each other as usual. Many expeditions went out from there to raid human holdings. One such target settlement was the abandoned Korolstead, later known as the Smoking Ruin. During the peace enforced by the dragonewts the Uz streamed in from Dagori Inkarth. The two biggest swarms were led by Kajakab the Brain-eater, an Uz who came from the Castle of Lead in Shadows Dance; and Karastand Halftroll, who claimed human ancestry and imperial rights over Dragon Pass as heir to the Wyrms Minds Collective. Halftroll was also commander of the giant boar-trolls of the Ivory Plinth, who formed the nobility of the Uz in the Stinking Forest, and whose persistent war with the Newbloom Aldryami gave the pleasant woods their unpleasant name. Kajak-ab Braineater was a Mistress Race troll who worshipped Kyger Litor and led the trolls from Dagori Inkarth. The other inhabitants of the pass often call her tribe the Mountain trolls. Her major rival was Vamargic Eye-necklace who led the dark trolls from the south. He was most unusual, first because he was a great troll (who are almost always of low intelligence) and second, because his parents were both cave trolls. He worshipped Zorak Zoran, and his eye necklace was a sacred ritual object in his worship of Zorak Zoran. Probably about 1180 the two Uz races began their fighting, and at first the dragonewts were content to let them raze the ruins of the Wyrms Minds Collective. But when the Uz began raiding outside of Dragon Pass, threatening possible human intervention into the closed sacred grounds, the dragonewts were forced to react. Troll unity returned when the despised half-trolls of the Ivory Plinth attempted to seize all power with the help of non-troll allies. He [Karastand Half-troll] was killed, and the trolls then began a campaign against all others. The two Uz armies united to fight the dragonewts, who were joined by the Aldryami and the Beastfolk. In 1222, trolls met the enemy forces in battle and slaughtered them. The battle is called “Uz Eat Dragonewts,” and was a great Uz victory followed by a typically grotesque and prodigious feast in troll style devouring the many dragonewt corpses. The dragonewts who had been killed, however, were only the Ralian dragonewts allies who had been sent ahead. There is a possibility that the surviving Tusk Riders, after losing their leader Karastrand, entered the service of the Dragonewts as mercenaries, and that these mercenaries had somehow escaped destruction in the battle. Braineater’s trolls had been taking refuge inside the abandoned buildings after escaping from marauding Tusk Riders. In an astonishing move of treachery, and against a female Mistress Race troll, Vamargic ambushed Braineater’s forces while they were sleeping, exhausted. Vamargic killed many of them in their sleep, and his victory was so complete that a huge revel began, gorging on Braineater’s remains and drinking intoxicating drinks. Their victory seemed so complete that a great revel began, gorging on the foes and drinking intoxicating drinks Uz Lore's "the foes" doesn't exclude this reading of the events. The version in the scenario doesn't change the Uz Lore text, it only introduces a fact that was somehow omitted from the Uz Lore text (because unknown at the time of writing it, I suppose). This revel continued in a great victory debauch that was so intense, no one noticed the small enemy cavalry force of Beast Men who, while tracking Vamargic to exact revenge, had assembled upon Orlanth’s Hill and the Valley floor. This continued in a great victory debauch which was so intense that no one seemed to notice the small enemy force of beastmen who assembled and launched a surprise attack. Again the modified text in the scenario is nearly identical to the Uz Lore version. The revenge bit and the local detail are additions. The trolls were unable to respond, and thousands of them were killed. From both sides they rode down into the settlement to launch their attack. Vamargic’s trolls were taken by surprise. It was a complete rout and Vamargic’s forces were slaughtered. Vamargic died with the rest of his band. The Beast Men left the corpses to rot, but before they left, they hired a nearby Grazer clan to help them erect a memorial to those Beast Men who died in the fight. Vamargic died with the rest of his band. The text in the scenario adds a lot of detail, including the detail that the Beast Men did not start the fire, or even pile up the corpses. And this was the Inhuman Occupation, no Grazers in Dragon Pass, yet - they entered 28 years after this battle, and Uz Lore gives a causal connection to the outcome of this battle for Gerak Kag's conquest Pavis. Without the Smoking Ruins incident, there would have been no disastrous battle of the Pure Horse Folk against the Uz, and no subsequent Battle of Alavan Argay. Unbeknownst to the Beast Men, a small clutch of full priest dragonewts had been tracking the Beast Men, curious what had brought them out of Beast Valley. They observed Vamargic’s slaughter from Orlanth’s hilltop shrine and had been aware of the violation of Braineater’s forces enacted by Vamargic. Once the Beast Men left, these priests clambered down the hill and gathered most of the troll corpses, built pyres, and set them ablaze, enacting a ritual so the bodies would forever burn, the spirits trapped there The corpses were heaped up in nearby ruins and set afire as an insult to their beliefs. Ever since that time the ruins have kept smoking, and are called the Smoking Ruins. Also, no troll has been able to contact their ancestors who were burnt there. The real Dragon Pass dragonewts fell upon the gorged and disgusting creatures and slew them all. This was probably around 1220 or so. This last sentence from CHDP can even be returned from being struck out as a very vague summary of the TSR and in that light also the Uz Lore text. The big question that remains to be answered is: Why would the dragonewts (or the beastmen) care what Vamargic and his band had done to Kajak-ab and her band? Why would they regard that as evil? Good riddance of the first half of the foes of the dragonewts, so only the second half needed to be eliminated. The favor of setting the corpses aflame doesn't really need to be understood by either troll or human, and other than GMsplaining the stuff after having played the scenario, I see no realistic possibility other than a few years' worth of Lhankor Mhy Reconstruction for the player characters to find out about this. Other than an incredulous "THIS is how dragonewts repay a favor?", I am happy to keep guessing at dragonewt motivations. Having written a scenario with dragonewt agency myself, I can attest that having a logical reason for the dragonewt antagonists to do what they did makes writing the scenario easier, even when the logic only makes sense to the dragonewts. But let's take a look at the claim that the non-humans made expeditions outside of the Inhuman Occupation. Tusk Rider raids north of the Deathline into Holay and beyond must have been a common experience, no different from what they had done prior to the advance of the Invincible Golden Horde in the year of the Dragonkill. We don't have any information at all about the fate of the Orlanthi who lived north of the Crossline before Arim flees from Hwarin Dalthippa's expansion about a century after the Battle(s) of Korolstead. But judging from the description of the rites at the Ivory Plinth, the Tusk Riders would have wanted a steady flow of sacrifices, and trollkin sacrifices just don't signal respect to a deity. Elves and dark trolls would be acceptable, but hunting humans north of the Death Line and massacring them at the Plinth wouldn't have counted as a violation of the Death Line. They died reliably, after all, or possibly became Tusk Riders themselves. South of the Crossline we have a strong resurgence of the Hendriki Kingdom, despite (or possibly because) of the loss of the territory north of the Crossline and a distinct population pressure in their lands. This leads to the Adjustment Wars against the Esrolian Grandmothers, which weakens the troll influence in Esrolia. With the abolishment of Arkat's Command by the Tax Slaughter, the Hendriki and their subject tribes had joined the tribes of Orlanthland in refusing the Shadow Tribute. It isn't clear whether the Dragonkill re-instituted that, or whether only the Volsaxi rebels against Belintar's governor king Andrin agreed to pay it again to gain Kitori support for their independence a century later. With the southern trolls weakened by the loss of Vamargic's army and its reputation, I don't see much incentive for King Finelvanth to bother paying the Shadow Tribute.

P.39 The Beast Men left the corpses to rot, but before they left, they hired a nearby Grazer clan to help them erect a memorial to those Beast Men who died in the fight. Nice try to get the Grazers involved in this, but this battle takes place 28 years before the Battle of Alavan Argay which was the end of the Pure Horse Folk of Prax and started the Grazer history. The Inhuman Occupation was still intact, there were no Grazers nearby, or any other humans except possibly Hiia Swordsman or the Puppeteers, or Isidilian's human slaves crewing the Cannon Cult and the Alchemical Transformer. If there is to be Grazer involvement in this monument, the centaurs may have asked them for their help after the adoption of the Pure Horse Folk, three decades later, when the pyres had long been set on fire. But then I doubt that the nomadic Pure Horse Folk of Prax had any skill in masonry - those who might had switched to striped mounts and were the (not yet quite exiled or trapped) zebra rider nobility in Pavis, beset by the Beast Riders.

The sketchiness has directly to do with the different value of lead coinage in troll communities (where a bolg probably has the same value as a clack, and a wheel is a prisoner). Otherwise, the Argan Argar/Only Old One concept of an equal exchange was essentially what Arkat's Command was about - resumption of the Shadow Tribute that had helped the survivor communities to emerge from the Greater Darkness alive. And the re-interpretations which led to the abuse by a certain shadowlord that caused the Tax Slaughter. The penalties for defaulting on the Shadow Tribute are pretty dark... Sandy Petersen mentioned vast (worthless, except as spice) gold reserves hidden in the depths of the Castle of Lead in Dagori Inkarth which the trolls will release at some time to an unsuspecting market, crashing human economy within hundreds of miles for good. I wouldn't put it past the Lunars to place hidden illuminating hints on the coins, with possession of say 49 pieces of Lunar-coined silver giving you a 1% chance for illumination... Treat this as a rumor, if you wish, but think of it - how better to reach the elites of the neighboring realms? A scheme like this puts the Dara Happan practice to ornament clothing etc. with coins into a different context, too. Metal coinage didn't. Clay tablets bearing a certain seal appear to have served as tokens of exchange in Mesopotamia way before the Lydians used lumps of electrum (roughly 50% each of gold and silver) as standardized payment for their mercenaries. But then other items like salt (as in "salary"), amber, certain types of sea shells (possibly polished or otherwise wrought, possibly arranged on strings) have served as tokens for the imaginary wealth that is money. "Bronze Age" is a very broad shot into the history and prehistory of our world. I would think that both the Copper Age (including the North American one that operated on cold-hammered copper that was mined from way larger deposits) and the Roman Empire are applicable. With some interesting mis-conceptions. Like the first appearance of poured stone and terrazzo floors already about 8k BCE in Anatolia, before they had any smelted metal. But that was the case in our history until maybe 200 years ago, too - when the first places had mandatory public schooling. Athens had a significant quota of illiterates despite practices like the ostracism (which required the voter to write the name of the person they thought would benefit from exile). That's why the stamp die for the mint is important. People do recognize seals, and even cartouches, even if they cannot read them. The Lunar penny has penetrated into the economical sphere of Nochet and Kethaela at large only fairly recently. Belintar's sovereigns or guilders held a similar guarantee as the Athenian owl. Prior to that, there may have been various guarantors for coinage in Kethaela, e.g. Casino Town, Nochet, and possibly the Hendriki kings with their access to silver mines in eastern Heortland.

The oldest published minting office is in the Pavis Rubble, near the Real City. The Guide names the Naverian city of Kerrinth as a source for clacks. (p,317) But then we have that nice collection of Gloranthan coins on p.12 of the Guide. The Sartar Guilder has its name from the fact that it is minted by urban guilds, as a royal privilege and duty. These guilds may be trade or craft guilds. The metalworking and the redsmithing to create the enchanted die pieces probably is linked to Gustbran. Mining the metal can be rural activity or long-distance trade. Assessing the coins will be done by a jury of Lhankor Mhy, Issaries and possibly Humakt cultists (for the Oath magic). The core design of the die is the work of an artisan, usually in royal employ, and a master die negative might be carved out of amorphous rock like a seal, and transferred to the actual die used by the mint, which would then add its own local stamp symbol to the die. The rather fixed exchange rates for the coins feel a lot like a divine decree of sorts, although the troll economy treats bolgs highly different from human economy. But then Argan Argar is the god of shady deals... The divinely coined wheels of the Lokarnos cult have been the master for numerous imitations true to the metal value and size of those coins, or providing a stable conversion rate. Dara Happans use actual coins not just as exchange medium, but also as decoration worn on clothing, accessories and even armor. Silver coins are neither the invention of the Lunars nor the God Learners. There are silver mines in various corners of Glorantha. Silver is associated with celestials, including Star Captains and their companions who fought and died in the Gods War everywhere across the world, but also deities of Power Rune origin. Few intact bones are known, but nuggets are plentiful, and corroded silver can fairly easily be smelted into the metal. Coins have been used since before the settlement of Jrustela, and practically everywhere where urban civilizations existed. Including the heartlands of the Heortlings. The God Learners may have contributed to standardizing coin size and weight, or it may have been the cult of Issaries which did this. But then, both the Issaries and Lhankor Mhy cults were favored by the Middle Sea Empire for their utility. Coins are generally made from alloys that make the metal soft enough that it can be stamped and hard enough to retain the shape it was stamped into. There may be specific recipes shared by the alchemists, who also have methods to assess the composition of coin alloys and metal used in jewelry, such as etching and scratching tests. The mostali claim that all metal-working knowledge originated with them, but they have been known to over-state their "Made in Mostalia" claims on occasion.

p.67 (A Minotaur at Prayer) the minotaur explains in halting Tradetalk that Kero Fin is the mother of Verhala Velhara, the Lady of the Beasts, as well as the mother of Orlanth, p68 Clatterhoof Initiate of Verhala. Velhara p.68 The adventurers have not spoken to Ereneva, breaking their promise to Daravala to keep their mouths shut about their destination.

That should not have been a noteworthy realization. About on par with some people's realization that Kallyr was not a duck. What are your sources that you managed to miss this rather well-established fact? But then, Kallyr may have female plumbing, but it isn't entirely clear how she identifies her gender. She behaves very male, according to her character sheet for the Sartar High Council mini-freeform that was published in Wyrm's Footprints: In Orlanthi society, this is tempestuous male behavior. Females are stereotypically calm and collected. Currently between campaigns, although I plan to do a bit more with RQG on our occasional regional meetings. Exogamous marriages make up a lot of the considerations I ponder for female PCs and NPCs in my Sartar games. This is something definitely under-developed in the RQG material I have seen so far, but really well-done in Ian Cooper's HeroQuest books The Coming Storm and The Eleven Lights. The usually patrilocal marriages in Orlanthi society lead to the brides entering a clan different from their birth clan, and becoming active members there, bound by their desire to create the best possible conditions for their children. The Coming Storm keeps track of the lineage of people in the clan, and of the clans of origin for the wives (and occasional husbands) married into the clan. A young bride will come into a household likely headed by her father or uncle in-law, with her husband one of several sons of the household (though not necessarily the household head). The steadmistress and her mother-in-law (possibly the same person) will usually have undergone a similar trial, which may make her both sympathetic and demanding, and possibly jealous of her privileges. There are likely other young wives with yet little standing in the household or clan, potential allies as much as they are potential rivals. In most cases, the new wife will be among several daughters of her clan who also married into this clan, but political marriage are far from rare and will send young women into clans with less previous intermarriage. But then, this is often balanced by such wives coming from higher status background (and marrying into higher status, too). I am a bit unsure how and by whom marriages for the semi-free tenants are arranged. A tenant household (!) is bound to the land they work on, and a temple, a noble household or occasionally a wealthy free-man's household. The individuals in the tenant household are fairly free to leave that obligation (with little more than the clothes they wear and some provender for their journey) and go into service with someone else or with an organisation like a temple/cult. However, every such loss of manpower will create a loss in income both for the tenant household and for the landlord household the tenant household is supposed to support. Getting a marriage partner for a resident tenant will be in the interest of the landlord household as much as for the tenant household. Becoming a tenant's wife or husband may be less desirable for a person from another clan, but even so there may well be people who would be marrying up in terms of standard of living if not in status. An exchange of semi-free status wives between semi-free households will be fairly normal. But then there may be tenant households whose members aren't (long term) married. There are plenty of acceptable ways for a woman to get pregnant. If this happens as the consequence of temple rites, the child born to a single woman may well be taken in by the temple for a higher status education and career. In this thread of mine I attempted to depict a couple of households in rural Sartar. Never mind the Elmali spin, let's look at the female characters. One thing I tried to build in is the sometimes temporary nature of marriage. Temporary marriages are anything but uncommon, and while their locality defines the clan of any children of this union during that marriage period, the marriage may be mutually agreed to be prolonged (as a contract between the two clans involved) or terminated upon completion of the marriage term (and any pregnancy that may have resulted in that time, regardless whether by the husband or in temple rites). Note that I mentioned the pregnancy status of these NPC women, as another reminder how important this is for the clan and household. Pregnancy comes with a passion that can be invoked on many activities. So is child-care of various kinds. Ernaldans doing such motherly stuff will have a blessing. But even fathers may use this as an occasional augment. In my old Balmyr tribe Hero Wars game, one character was an Ernaldan healer who had three children from previous marriages in three different clans. The player, a single mother of two in real life, found this a quite relatable background.

Taking this reply to the Tribal Edit thread for TSR (who the hell authorized that acronym?) into a separate thread: Silver for a tip? A silver is a five days' spending for a free man's household standard of living, or one and a half days for a noble (RQG p422)! Generosity is a virtue, but collecting this much would make Treya the equivalent of grammy-award superstars charging for entrance fee. The wife won't be amused... Sure, this is possibly Treya's gig of the year, good for a quarter of her annual income. But individual gifts of appreciation in the amount of a silver coin warrant a few (stock) verses of praise by the artist. What good is generosity if you cannot brag about it, building up reputation? Clacks and possibly bolgs should be more likely as anonymous gifts. But then I suppose that most transactions Why not? Now it is trophy money, and while the old dies for sovereign coins may have survived the Lunar occupation, melting in all the Lunar coins and re-stamping them would be a major effort in terms of resources. There are more urgent messes to clean up in the wake of Kangharl's fortunate removal from office. What might realistically happen is that the coins with Lunar stamps get divided up into well-measured fragments - literally halfpennies, farthings, possibly eighths. Defacing the Lunar propaganda on the coins and providing cash for everyday transactions. The silver penny is a quite valuable piece of wealth. Twenty of these will buy you a cow, a hundred an able-bodied slave. What material would the coin dices be made of? Bronze is the hardest normal metal available to the Gloranthans, and enchanted bronze doesn't get much harder. Enchanted copper on the other hand gains quite a bit of armor, so I see a possibility for minting stamps to be made of enchanted copper. This requirement makes minting a well-controlled privilege, too.

Yeah, keeping down the book-keeping is another advantage. I am undecided whether an existing spell can be replace by an equally strong spell boosted with MP. If that was the case, then could a 4 point Protection theoretically be replaced by a 1 point Protection boosted with 4 MP? I am fine with "Boosting" to describe the donation of additional MP to a spell. The additional MP toggle something and then are n longer available for dispelling. Not to me. A Heal Wound's MP should be available to bypass a Shield's CM effect. There is the problem of (or difference in) the casting time, though - boosting a spell other than a rune spell with intrinsic boost will delay the spell by the number of strike ranks equivalent to the MP you put in. Not sure about boosting sorcery spells (usually these should have ridiculously high intensity already), as a sorcery spell takes two strike ranks per MP in the spell. Casting "Safe" on a person sounds quite like a magical chastity belt... quite a bit of wear and tear on the dentist, though.

Bolas are the signature weapon of the Bolo Lizard riders, and a manifestation of their Mobility rune. The lariat is actually a tool associated with Orlanth (or Little Brother) in overcoming the Storm Bull, accompanied by a sharp stick. Sounds like something the Pol-Joni are using. Beast Riders have little need for lassoing herd beasts of their own tribe, although beasts from other tribes on raids are a suitable target for lassoing. I cannot see a reasonable scenario for Impala riders using lassos, though. If the Orlanthi have bull-fighting, their matadors will wear very little (if anything at all but woad) and wield a lariat and a stick, and victory is by taming the bull. Possibly gelding it, possibly preparing it a sacrifice, possibly as the first part of a ritual plowing of heroic proportions with the un-gelded bull under the yoke. (The Frankish Merowing dynasty had a ritual where the king steered a cart or chariot drawn by bulls, in the role of Woden, with unkempt (long) hair and beard. Charlemagne's chronicler Einhard in all likelihood failed to recognize or at least corroborate the pagan motifs of this rite.)

"Sacking Dunstop" reminds me of the WBRM scenario in Wyrm's Footnotes #4 (IIRC) which used the WBRM counters with reduced troop strength for that game. An interesting approach, although I think that the attackers in this scenario are Sartarites or possibly Exiles rather than Ethilrist's Black Horse troop. Ethilrist's sojourn to Hell may have taken an arbitrarily long time. It is not like he emerged anywhere where he or his troopers would have known anybody. Wenelia (the lands beyond Arstola from the Mislari Mountains) isn't exactly horsebreeding territory. Having a White Horse troop sounds suspiciously like some Enerali origin for his original mercenary troop, possibly from the Helby region. The white horses of the Camargue come to mind... Post God-Learner Ralios underwent the trouble of the three heroes, then the Kingdom of Jorstland, and finally the reign of Retter the Stalker in Delela (when Rindland had become the successor of Frowal). Ulianius' conquest of Safelster may have motivated the original mercenary troop to move into Trade Rrince territory before Ethilrist discovered that in case of doubt there is always a free space at the top of any organization. Ethilrist's acquisition of Hell powers feels quite Hrestoli and Adventurist to me. Ulianius' conquest of Ralios in 1455 is contemporary to Illaro founding the Sacred King dynasty of Tarsh. According to the Guide, Dunstop became Lunar only after King Phargentes took it by force - which dates the acquisition by Lunar Tarsh to past 1555. Tarkalor and his FHQ cousin had been lovers since about 1560, possibly earlier, interrupted by the Trollkiller's Kitori campaigns, but possibly only after Tarkalor's role in the Nochet assassinations. Since Fazzur's father had lands near Dunstop, this conquest must have been shortly after Palashee's death - probably as soon as Phargentes had recovered from losing his hand against the Longaxe. Both Jarolar and Jarosar fell to Phargentes' aggression, clearing the way for Tarkalor to become Prince of Sartar and little later King of Dragon Pass. The Feathered Horse Queen who allied with Ethilrist to sack Dunstop must have been Mother of Lands (#3) , and the Grazer king either Jardanroste Redhair or Jardanreal the Traveler, with the latter more likely (possibly taking over from Dastalpolti Peaceful through this action). The Sack of Dunstop may have been significant for Phargentes' subsequent wooing of Mother of Lands, and his failure to win against Tarkalor. In that case, it must have taken place some time between 1565 and 1575, dating Ethilrist's arrival to some time between 1535 and 1545, possibly to the start of Palashee's reign. (But then, Ethilrist doesn't seem to have participated in Karnge Farm, where the auxiliary cavalry faced by Jardanroste were Char-un "False Sunhorses".)

North of the Colymar, south of the Creek, with Two Ridge Fort their tribal seat, and seat of a major Humakti temple/legion. Both the Malani and their splinter tribe, the Lismelder, have a history of Humakti as chiefs or kings. There is a freeform about the split of the Lismelder off the Malani - "The Fall of the House of Malan". Great fun, and very instructive... one of the few Glorantha Freeforms I never managed to get the referee's collection in an auction.

Not right away. There are other spells than just the Countermagic effect which take penetration strength into account, such as Absorption, Reflection/Castback, or the sorcery spells Neutralize <Rune> or Neutralize Spirit Magic - especially when cast on a Protective Circle rather than on an item that might already carry spirit magic. There is a number of rune magic spells with the intensity of their rune points (doubled as usual) for dispelling purposes with the potential of unlimited magic points poured into them. Safe is one of these, with the MP in the spell determining the POW vs. POW attack of the spell against a trespasser that causes 1D6 points general hit point damage. While the spell is nonstackable, there is nothing to keep a vindictive Issaries initiate from staggering Safe spells on successive door frames or even door frame edges... You wouldn't. While the Countermagic effect of successive Shield spells might accumulate or not (it looks like they do - after all, combining Protection and Shield usually happens in different melee rounds, too, if cast by one and the same person), there is a practical upper limit which is the number of magic points you have to expend to overcome the Countermagic effect of the points of Shield already in place. There is another good reason not to do so: casting time. Sure. YRQMV... just as MRWMV... Yes. But my example of using Countermagic to shrug off the Disruption effects of a Create Market/Neutral Ground effect or (staggered) Wardings show a rather cheap application with strong consequences. Stacking CM on top of a Shield stack makes the combined effect uncomfortably strong without wasting many (if any) magic points on Boosting yourself. It has the disadvantage that the Shield's CM also blocks any beneficial magic cast on you unless sufficiently powerful in penetration strength. Not a problem for Heal Wound, but probably a disincentive for your supporter to renew your Bladesharp after it expired.

Transform Self might be seen as a special version of Extension 1 available to Beast shapechangers. There are a lot of verbatim inheritances from RQ2, unfortunately also in areas where the RQ2 wording (e.g. the POW vs. POW rolls on the Resistance Table) would have been MP vs. MP rolls under RQ3 terminology (which has only partially survived in RQG). Two spells without either the Stackable or the Nonstackable attribute are Summon Specific Ancestor and Summon Spirit Teacher, both of which must be stacked with Summon Ancestor and may be stacked with one another in addition. Neither can be stacked with itself, though. Not mentioning the stackability attribute appears to be the easiest way to deal with this. Extension would be applicable only to Summon Ancestor. To repeat an earlier statement, I regard the "non-stackable" attribute in the line under the rune point cost as an indication that no additional rune points may be expended on this spell to increase its effect. This is essentially what the paragraph on p.315 says, For a weird example of a stackable spell with the attribute "Nonstackable", take a look at Teleportation (p.346): Suppress Lodril (on the same page, also a 3 point spell) has the attribute "Stackable" with a ruling very similarly phrased: Some spells have their own rules for extending the duration, for instance Spirit Guardian which extends by stacking another rune point of this spell, rather than using Extension. (I wonder why?) Duration of rune spells is a fairly jumbled mess. Issaries has several spells with 8 weeks (one full season) duration (Create Market, Safe, Lock, Passage. Lhankor Mhy's Knowledge (Temporal, Nonstackable) has the caveat which doesn't really make sense to me. Anybody care to explain? Hide Wealth has a basic duration of one day and doubles the duration of the spell for each point of the Extension stacked with it. For 3 points of Extension, the spell has a duration similar to a normal rune spell with Extension 3. To match a normal rune spell with Extension 5, you'd need to cast Hide Wealth with 9 points or Extension, but unlike other Extended spells Hide Wealth has no upper limit for its Extension (other than the lifetime of the caster and the fact that all of her rune points are blocked by this). If Accelerate Growth is stackable with Extension, Extension 1 will quadruple the permanent effect, Extension 2 will hundred-fold the permanent effect. Extension 3 would result in a legendary tree as if from the Gods or even Green Age.