Joerg

What happens to a spell in a set piece of truestone when the caster of that spell dies before the spell is used? The RQ3 version of Truestone was almost more cursed, as it could trap an unlucky handler to empty all his rune magic into the mineral.

Sure. The daily rotation of the Sky Dome offers a different backdrop for the fixed objects and the planets on their paths. Lightfore is the nighttime sun, reliably up when the Sun disk is down. Mastakos/Uleria zooms across the Sunpath thrice a day, and in winter you may see it set up to three times. The constellation in which Theya rises will vary throughout the seasons, and so will the constellation in which Rausa sets. At spring equinox, it will be the same constellation - Lorion, IIRC. At autumn equinox, the far side of the celestial river. Does what happens up there influence the daily life down here? The Seasons are real, and so is the day-night cycle, and both contribute to the daily life and the annual rhythm of activities. Superimposition of local geographic features with stars passing atop or behind them may be potent magical moments to perform rites or to start quests.

Wooden palisades using Stone Wood timber, maybe? Taking the axe to the Stone Wood would be unwise, but I am certain that if the Stone Wood still is alive, then there will be trees falling from natural or chaotic causes, and those could be harvested and used in defensive architecture.

Most Sartarites have an allegiance to one of Sartar's cities, in addition to their tribal and clan and cult allegiances. The Colymar and the Lismelder are the glaring exceptions among the Heortlings, and the Telmori are an exception anyway. The cities in Old Sartar have strong connections with Belintar's Holy Country through trade and influx of specialized craftspeople at the time of their founding. In comparison, the clans in King of Dragon Pass weren't even sure that joining a tribe was a good idea. The city founding occurs only in the end game of the long game and doesn't upset or change their outlook. Sartar ruled the Quivini for 30 years, and his cities had been around for up to 15 years longer. His successors added 82 years of urban-dominated politics. Rather than the clan warband, the most common military experience of the tribesfolk would have been as part of the city militia, alongside tribesmen (and women) from the same confederation. It looks like the "apprenticehood" phase happens on a tribal level rather than on a clan level. No such "outsourcing" was even thinkable among the clans of King of Dragon Pass resettlement era.

Dead crystals pre-destined to hold spirits are those with rather low single digit MP capacity - your POW 12 spirit (or even a POW 36 spirit) will fit into a 2MP crystal, and then can be commanded to fill up the 14 point crystal.

The Henges and the entrance window of Newgrange and similar structures require the axial tilt of our planet and a rather low angle of the sun above the horizon to provide this information. None of these calendar temples work well in Glorantha with its equatorial sunpath more or less directly overhead. Neither north nor south are associated with noon, the seasonal tilt is a lot less than what you need to feel the sun does not go directly overhead. Sunrise and sunset is always due east and due west, regardless of the season. And even worse, there is no solar motion except slightly up when Oslira arrives at the Footstool in the whole of the Golden Age. Or at least that's what the Monomyth claims. The stars and their dance started only after Umath ascended towards Yelm, rather late in the Golden Age, at least according to the Copper Tablets and their story (corroborated in Heortling Mythology).. So what remains is a slight precession in the rotation of the Sky Dome, either 295 or 293 revolutions in a year. (Which is it?) There appears to be some bobbing upward and downward of the Sunpath, and possibly the sky dome as well. There is also the tilt inversion which happens on the solstices. The Buseri tower cupolas have the tent/window frame to trace the rotation, tilt and precession of the Sky Dome and its stars. Structures like the Wild Temple or the Thrice Blessed megaliths appear to be more processional than astronomical

I have no insight into "why", but at least the when appears to be rather clear - some time after the publication of White Bear and Red Moon, Nomad Gods was created as the second game in what was meant to become a trilogy. The Unholy Trio, Broos, the Devil all appear to have originated with this publication, establishing Chaos as the ultimate foe in Glorantha (something that WBRM avoided). Why not another antelope? Possibly to make them sufficiently different to broos. Five great tribes, five ancient elemental associations, with Darkness getting the tribe where the four-legs herd the two-legs. I guess it is kind of hard to find an ungulate that is nocturnal and could survive in a Redwood savannah before it got burned by Oakfed. The other of the five great tribes have two antelopes (impala and sable), one bovid (bison) and one camelid. The other beast riders include unicorn and zebra, more recent additions, rhino, ostrich and bolo lizard, the latter two only adopted by Eiritha, and three extinct ones (long noses, plains elk, nose-horns - all pleistocenic ungulates). Pondering the possible alternatives, I might offer the aardvark, or a warthog, but the pig riders are already in WBRM..

The Second Age map of Slontos on p.351 in the Guide has Lavar Isle, a place There are a few outlying islands remaining southeast of Thamor in the vicinity of where Lavar Isle extended, with a possibility of a population there, but Lavar Isle itself seems to have been drowned completely.

A correct statement - all we have about them are guesses. They are documented for the Inhuman Occupation, and appear next to the Stitched Zoo creatures of Beast Valley. There is a possibility that they were created during the EWF, possibly as a bad joke misunderstanding that somebody wanted drake-men. It is possible that one of the other two origin stories is true - that they were survivors of the keets washed into the region by the Solkathi flood, or that they were a remnant of early Golden Age Always an option, and not the worst one. But then you need something like group consent to avoid the hobbit/kender(choose your other annoying dwarfish species element. The viciously effective death-drake is another trope that GMs or gaming groups might wish to avoid. I don't like them either, but then Greg Stafford did not like the Mostali, yet he created them for his setting. I am not a fan of Donald- or Daffy-esque antics, and other than the horrible eighties movie (on cable TV) I haven't consumed any Howard stuff. Ducks can be used as a tragicomic element in the game, mostly harmless except when cornered in their semi-aquatic home turf. They have survived a genocidal persecution by their neighbors incited by Lunar conquerors (and IMO profiteers), and are quite vengeful about that, both to those of their neighbors who took advantage of the tax break and to those who shipped the bills of their killed family members to the Empire to be turned into magical jewelry. There is potential for a mostly serious mostly duck characters grim-dark revenge game in the Lunar Empire. I even uploaded a file about such a possible campaign, and you might see me writing more details about that, but I am unlikely to GM such a game. I have written a similar amount of notes on a duck exile community on the western shore of the Marzeel estuary as a suburb to Karse. A refugee camp slowly turning into a somewhat normal community.

Looking at p.221, is the driver's skill rating the effective upper limit of the combatant, or is the modified driver's skill (depending on that melee round's ground situation) the limit? I am not at all a fan of adding skills to the already way too numerous skills on the regular character sheet. If anything, I would assign a temporary penalty to the skill cap which can be overcome by experience doing stuff while on a chariot.

I wasn't talking about Heortling initation (evil uncles, strange gods, I Fought We Won) but about what follows afterwards. The nominally adults undergo a period of adapting to adulthood, and gaining their basic cultural education. For the boys, that seems to be a phase of "Vadrudi" existence - a group of like-minded companions going about surviving on their own strengths and wits, raiding for their food or hunting, and likewise for anything beyond their basic equipment. They also engage in sexual activities and (battle) magic, which means they have undergone their adulthood initiation. They may be contacted by the tribe (or whichever entity oversees this phase of becoming an adult) to perform certain quests. Some of those may be real, others may just be training exercises where their activities may trigger some magical response and confront them with Other Side experiences but otherwise they bring back tokens of success. See also Andrew Logan Montgomery's recent blog entry on this subject.

Any boy would be subject to something like the "boys in the wld" (Koryonos) phase, or apprenticeship, like Jeff outlined for Vasana. (Is there an option for nandan-inclined boys to join the girls at the temple?) In the end, Orlanth is the cult of the introspective, nerdy storm, but only after having gone through the Vadrudi phase of being out there with the boys causing trouble by (possibly pointless) raiding and cattle raiding.

I allow the player to alter their characters' occupational rolls to what they actively do in their backstory. If those skills aren't part of their income rolls, that's a good reflection of where they may have slacked.

Ernaldela is the land north of the Spike, possibly limited to the triangle formed by the Spike and the two northern corners of the Lozenge, with the western and eastern lands and Pamaltela having a differently addressed queen of the land. (Pamaltela has Faranar in the queen position and Aleshmara in the grandmother matriarch one.) But then the monomyth goes on to identify all of those as one and the same. The Water deities are pretty much a no-brainer, other than Heler. Darkness tends to aggregate around access paths to the Underworld, like the Castle(s) of Lead or the Obsidian Palace. Some of those places also manifest protective shadows, at least Dagori Inkarth /"Shadows Dance") and the Shadow Plateau. Sky worship possibly radiates from the imperial palaces and/or their sun temples, whether in Dara Happa, Carmania, or the Vithelan successors..

That might be why the Dara Happans claim that Orlanth slew the Emperor, leaving t to Yelm to disintegrate himself. The maternal generation count is the same for Aether and Umath, though. Umath is Aether's brother as much as he is his son. It is almost a miracle that the slaying delayed for a generation in this oedipal conflict.

Golden Bow used to be a major cult among the Grazers, and IIRC a son of Yelm, too. The Dara Happans may know him as Sagittus, or as the god Urengerum. (The Pentan Most Reverend Horse Queen who had the magical contest with Hon-eel chose him as the father for her demigod child.) Once upon a time, in a Glorantha with three strictly separated realms of essences (sorcery), daimons (theism) and spirits (animism), the Golden Bow was a spirit society led by shamans. Nowadays I expect them to be a significant subcult of Yu-Kargzant at least, if not its own thing.

Creating or summoning a substance on the body part of a target will need to overcome the target's POW and any Countermagic effect the target has up. Likewise summoning an elemental or comparable entity. Does the illusion have to specify the material, or are there restrictions to what material can be summoned as temporary reality? Why choose stone when you can have unenchanted iron? Why assume that an illusionary substance behaves like a single permanent substance all the time?

True Mostali are a lot more individualized than most Individualism heretics among the Clay Mostali, while remaining the epitome of their caste. Isidilian, the Dwarf of Dwarf Run, emerges from his tunnels to fight(!) as a hero in the Hero Wars despite being one of the very few Quicksilver caste True Mostali remaining on Glorantha. The Dawn Age conflict between the Only Old One and Martaler of the Blazing Forge (sounds like a Brass Mostali to me) may have been mano a mano (or magic vs. magic) too. Clay Mostali are born with their caste skills, but need to strive for Diamond Dwarf perfection. True Mostali were made with that perfection, and can go beyond that, diversifying somewhat. As at least demigod entities, True Mostali may have several shapes and appearances, including one as a sentient tool of their caste. It doesn't get much more alien than that, I suppose.

By giving them the benefit of their action. Good roleplaying? A tick in a passion, possibly in a rune, if appropriate (but probably used by the player anyway). Possibly building up loyalty or reputation. Good ideas that work are a reward in themselves. They might influence the annual income rolls, or give situational benefits. Not having to fight big bad enemies where they have the advantage is a reward in itself. A party may appreciate its henchmen. That can be done with the after-action boasts and community response. A job well done will create a grand mention by the quest-giver in the community, good reaction by the community, possibly a check in the passion for that community (as in how it is reciprocated). A poet might tell the tale. And your characters might visit someplace else and listen to a re-telling of their adventure which they might not even recognize at first. Special highlights of an adventure might earn the character a special gift or boon, perhaps a future service, or a trainer's fee waived, preferred treatment by the match-makers, or similar. So it is fine to reward cunning, good ideas, or chewing the scene, as community reactions and leader reactions, in the game world rather than in the game system.

Hunted meat is fine, even of aurochs should they return to the Pass, but meat from domestic beasts other than horses might be taboo. No idea how their dietary restrictions deal with donkeys or mules, or zebras. Praxian herd beasts might be acceptable, too, if raided and butchered quickly. Annual assemblies of many clans, bringing their (ritual) yurts to the assembly places, now probably permanently settled by the three trade posts given to the FHQ by Sartar. Yes, like the Dwarf of Dwarf Mine. All of human-settled Dragon Pass used to be Grazer pasture following the Inhuman Occupation, and Dwarf Mine used to be the place where such specialized craft was available. I suppose grain for the horses is the main regular tribute, plus gifts for any privileges that the Vendref merchants might want for themselves. It doesn't look like the Vendref have any higher culture except for a few scribes in Sartar's trading posts. Not normally, not any more. The density of Barntar-farming villages in the Grazelands is lower than in either Sartar or Tarsh, which speaks against these villages having been brought there by the horse warlords. It looks more like the Orlanthi immigrants being too powerful in Quiviniland or Greater Tarsh for the pony breeders to subdue.

River transport on the Creek-Stream River used to run from Karse past the Styx Grotto all the way into Dwarf Valley. There were a few EWF era cities on the river all the way up to the entrance of Snake Pipe Hollow. The Closing reduced the amount of overseas goods shipped upriver from Karse. The Inhuman Occupation removed all humans and turned the portion of the River betwee the Creek confluence and the Stream confluence into Delecti's Upland Marsh, impassable for regular river bargre traffic - even for newtlings or durulz. Of the riverine cities south of the Crossline, only Karse survived into the Third Age. The end of the Inhuman occupation started with the Lead Hills blocking the old course of the River, and Belintar digging the New River bed to connect the dammed-up River to the Lyksos River joining the Choralinthor Bay at Nochet. Elmalvo aka New Crystal City became a river port, and Duck Point founded by Sartar marked the end of the river barge route connecting the River to Nochet. There are river barges operating on the Stream and on the Creek, but the Creek river transport doesn't connect to the River traffic from Duck Point. River traffic on the Stream connects a landing outside of Wilmskirk with Duck Point, across a few portages. If there is any river barge traffic north of the confluence with the Creek, the volume of such transport cannot be significant. There are no significant human settlements on the river. Dwarf Mine may have a well-maintained river wharf Neither the Exiles nor the Dwarf have any influence on the river, and the Aldachuri appear to shun its valley,too. Beast Valley may take an interest in river traffic. So may the Esrolian cities on the Lyksos and its tributary linking to the New River. Sun Dome County doesn't even get a whiff of river in their neighborhood. Only Sartar, Beast Valley, the Grazelands and Esrolia have a modicum of control over the river trade. Smuggling through the Upland Marsh? If you have zombie boatmen, maybe.

I don't think that Lokarnos would have played any role in Murharhzarm's or Anaxial's Dara Happa. Murharzarm had gazzam (earth shakers) as domestic beasts and supposedly as beasts of burden. Possibly as draft beasts for river transport. Anaxial ruled only over cities on the Oslir, with the neighboring regions as more or less reliable allies. His Dara Happa appears to have been a rice-growing agriculture, with little demand for overland transport either. According to Pamaltelan sky lore, the planetary deity Lokarnos is one of the three Sky Witches, brn from Dendara's dip into the Underworld, and rising into the sky alongside the Blue Moon (which accompanied the Sky River). Lokarnos was the time-keeper, one of the first planets to follow the Sunpath on a regular schedule. None of the other planets (former planetary sons) did anything like that. It took the Bridling of Kargzant in 109 or 111 to tie Lightfore to that regular pattern. Wagons only make sense where river barges cannot reach, and they require either passably good roads or flat territory like grasslands - conditions found among the dry farmers of Peloria, mostly west of the Oslir River. Bringing their grain to the temple granaries would have required wagons. It is possible that the cult only really took to that roll under the Jenaron dynasty

It's a bit weird that this applies to trolls, though right? Dwarves aka Clay Mostali were invented after Death was released (and after the Iron Mostali were created by (an assembly of) the surviving original Mostali). The same can be said about Dark Trolls, not to mention Trollkin. The standard mermen are all pretty recent in their origin, too, descended from the Vadrudi that raided across the Surface World only after Umath was chained or dismembered after his invasion of the Sky and the birth of the stars. In all of these cases, there is an older and more magical precursor form from which these later-born subspecies of Mostali, Uz or Triolini descended. Entities which usually are unaging and quite direct descendants of the original founders (niiads only a few generations from the Tritons, Uzuz hell mothers a few generations from Korasting, Mostali from the original crucible of their caste, although not necessarily from the first ever such batch).

Ideal circumstances to confront them with the consequences of that call to adventure.

"Please give me a percentile roll." Player rolls an incognito ability, or possibly an entry on an encounter table. GM jots down if there is a check earned. How do you handle peripheral perception? Full skill, reduced skill? Do you give bonuses for concentration on perception, or do you do that indirectly by allowing the players to augment those perception rolls?