Joerg

I picked up RuneQuest because I loathe having to manage XP. If a player can give a good reason why the character worked up an occupational tick for a skill with a checkbox, I'll allow that as one of the checks. If more than one such skill outside of the normal income activity is asked for, the Sacred Season income roll will take a slight penalty. Cult skills are treated as occupational skills.

If those pyramids use equilateral triangles (which some dice might not), the octahedron is a platonic polyhedron - the triangle-sided inner and outer body to the cube, similar to the relationship between dodecahedron and icosahedron. But yes - I prefer icosahedral D10, too.

Do unicorns ever get raided from the unicorn riders?

What are the hit locations for a mouse or a terrestrial scorpion in RQ? These critters can still be zapped with Disrupt, and might even have a POW to resist. If you over-extended your Divine Intervention, zapping one of these may even be a real challenge.

I would allow hallucinatory armor to absorb any adequate amount of damage, and any weapon striking the hallucinant turned into a bladder on a stick will only create the effects of that. So your Eurmali hit by Troll Mauls might be pushed gently side to side while giggling madly as he receives mild concussion damage and is drowned in illusionary fart noises. And no, that damage taken doesn't increase when the hallucination ends. Hallucinatory armor might consist of ablative kittens or other toony stuff. Hallucinate also can serve as an alternative to Lie, or both spells might be one and the same - the Hallucinant's perceptions (even if created by the Hallucinant) are real. "I have had a vision of tomorrow, and the sun never rose." True, if that was the content of the Hallucinate experience.

In my game, the recipient of Hallucinate would hallucinate the good outcome of such an action. That person would be free of poisoning to the Hallucinant while the spell lasts. And then, the Hallucinant would be surprised how the dull world has not saved their object of desire.

So taking Ash-Liege and leading him out of the scorched remains of Wonderhome does not make Hellmother's domain dark again at least half the daily cycle? One might almost suspect that a Sunstop with Yelm bound in the sky of the Surface World would make Wonderhome inhabitable again. Or Yelm bound pretty much anywhere but Wonderhome. From a troll perspective, Orlanth was the Lightbringer when he applied Death to the Evil Emperor. The rest of the Lightbringers managed to remove part of that light from Hell. Unfortunately, they brought it to the surface refuge of the mistress trolls and their mewling dark troll servants.

Moved over from Let's examine that reasoning, trusting that that term which turns up in the Abiding Book still is part of the Malkioni canon. I'll examine what it means below, after tackling what is known about Gerlant popping up in the history of Seshnela. I suppose he gave prove for that. But how reliable is that proof? Or is this just a favor to all his grandsons and their families ruling quite a few of the cities in Jrustela? The I suppose trustworthy Seshnelan Kings List has this to say about Gerlant Other, much lesser kings get their lineages recounted through hardly noteworthy ancestors, like e.g. Gothimus. Gerlant makes a great entry into the Gbaji Wars during the reign of Healwelf, brother of his predecessor Gerlant led an army of riders ("knights" ) into that battle. I think that a lot points towards a Fornoari or maybe Utoni origin of Gerlant, or at the very least of the mysterious army of horsemen he brings into this battle. There was an exodus of Seshnelan nobles resisting King Iwerlos after he overthrew his brother (or more likely half-brother, born before his father Ahmosing was crowned), and those were sent into foreign lands. Or Gerlant could be the descendant of a sub-wife of a Silver Age noble in upper Tanisor, before those lands were returned to the Dari Alliance. Let's have a look at the possibility of descent from Arkat, then. Arkat arrived in Seshnela before King Blastring attracted the Plague in 398, possibly in 395. If he had fathered Gerlant upon arrival, he would have been no older than 19 at the time of the battle. Not completely impossible, but very unlikely. And it looks like Arkat was banished from Seshnela already by King Hermalor, shortly before his death in Ralios in 417 and Harmast's Lighbringer's Quest 420. It does look like Gerlant returned to the side of Arkat when the subsequent kings of Seshnela, sons of Hermalor and former brothers in arms of Arkat, allowed their knights to volunteer to keep following Arkat. We know that the younger son of Hermalor fought at Gerlant's side all the way to the defeat of Gbaji in 450, as he brought back Gerlant to the kingdom he had inherited. Not in the least because the description of Gerlant's reign has to say: So Gerlant was considered to have doubled his life-span when he died in 500 or 501 (the year his even more long-lived son Nralar was crowned to his more than 100-year reign (he died in 603). Nothing is known about any great deeds prior to Gerlant charging down chaotic followers of Nieby in 415, but if he rode at the head of that army of horsemen, he must have distinguished himself enough as a fighter and leader beforehand. Let's say he is in his late twenties or early thirties, that makes him die at age 115, give or take half a decade. Ok, that's close enough to two life-times (if I may say so as someone pretty exactly half that age.). Hupala appears to be a daughter of Hermalos, and Middle Sea Empire tells us about her losing sons in battle. (p.11) Gerlant and Hupala could have met in Seshnela after "the church" had convinced King Hermalor to take Arkat's title as Grand Marshal away. But a marriage some time between 417 and 432 (when King Hermalor died and his successor allowed his men-of-all including his own brother to follow Arkat individually).432 is four years after Arkat had been defeated at Kartolin Pass, having pushed out all forces of the Bright Empire (though not necessarily all followers of Nysalor) out of Ralios. Re-inforced by the Seshnelan knights, and taking along the Orlanthi survivors of his Kartolin campaign Arkat set off to liberate Slontos that year. It is remotely possible that Gerlant could have taken his teenage sons from Hupala along, as squires trainee men-of-all, or that he was joined by them after they had come of age (which appears to be around 18, judging from King Iwerlos claiming his throne and ending the regency at that age, a century earlier). .I would assume that Nralar was born shortly after Gerlant's coronation, carrying the full legitimacy of a purple-born heir. That wpuld place his dying age beyond 140. Little wonder that the older brothers of his son Bertalor were judged unfit to rule, they must have been over 80, and may not have been as blessed with longevity as their father.. Long and relatively peaceful reign doesn't sound like losing sons (not one, but several) in battle. Not impossible,either, but relations with the Autarchy had not yet deteriorated - that only happened early on in Nralar's reign when an embassy to Arkat (still embodied) demanded and was denied tribute. As far as I can tell, Gerlant's and later Nralar's kingdom covered Old Seshnela and maybe reached the Tanier estuary in the south. Arkhome further up the Tanier Valley sounds like it was in Autarchy territory. It was founded by Arkat while he still was Marshal of Seshnela, but may have been founded to secure the barbarian lands liberated from the Vampire Kings of Tanisor. So, if not Arkat, who could Gerlant's father have been? If Gerlant did have a legitimate rather than complementary descent from Seshnela as one of the Keepers of Secrets lineages (and I am very far from convinced about that), then his father and ancestors before him had not lived in Seshnela for quite a while. As exiles from Iwerlos' cleansings, they would have had to leave Old Seshnela by 330, and make a living in the diaspora, among foreigners. Not in Arolanit, which had no patience for such mayflies, so in Dari lands, or further east towards Slontos or further north in Akem. I guess the Fronelan Malkioni were sufficiently foreign to count as untraceable ancestors, but that battle in 415 took place in a much smaller Kingdom of Seshnela than the preceding Silver Empire. At least I don't see any reason for recently conquered natives of previous Dari territories to feel attracted to follow the less legitimate son of Healwelf's father against the new and vengeful king. A great number of Seshnelans in Old Seshnela still were grateful to the folloers of Gaalth for healing them from the terrible plague and willing to hide and support those Pure Ones (to borrow from the Katharian crusade). The Secret Keepers are supposed to be those Malkioni who witnessed Malkion's martyrdom (?) and ascension. Now Hrestol's male lineage is extremely short - a father who was Duke of his colony founded well before the Double Belligerent Assault on the Logician realm of Zerendel, which killed his father and (only?) brother Hoalar. Talar himself probably did not leave Zerendel when Malkion did, and Froalar is unlikely to have left his colony. So how can Hrestol be a Secret Keeper? Was he there himself? Did he inherit the secret from his mother? If so, how could she attend, and how did she make it to Froalar's colony? (If it was Xemela's lineage that counts for being a Keeper of Secrets, then the pagan demigod Damol and his children should qualify. Damol was the grandson of Hrestol's sister Fenela, and of Duke Yadmov of Neleoswal. But then, plenty of the powerful families in Jrustela claimed descent from the Keepers of Secrets. If New Malkonwal - the site of Malkion's Fifth Action - was founded somewhere on the shores of Faralinthor, then any survivors would have been far from the next extant Brithini colony - not counting descendants of the Kachasti having gone native with the local Hykimi after the Vadeli kept them from staying true to their caste laws, possibly like the Kachasti had done to their Vadeli prisoners before. ("No transgressions against Zzabur's Laws in this camp!") Gerlant was the first king of Seshnela not born in that country since Mimtak, the last Serpent king. There are several examples of people from a man-of-all background rising to nobility and theri descendants rising from that ancestry to the throne of Seshnela, including some of the more important and successful ones. To be the founder of a Keeper bloodline, caste doesn't have to play a role, but I wonder how closely the Brithini worker caste and their Malkioni descendants followed their genealogy. Horali caste families will recount the notable deeds of their forefathers, like that Bormandy "talari" of Horali descent in the Tanisoran "What My Father Says". Zzaburi lineages (those were a thing in Dawn Age Seshnela, thus presumably in Brithos, too) and talari lineages have better records, because of literacy - something likely counter to caste rules for dronari and horali. Or did these Keeper families not make it all the way back to Brithini colonies, but only into Pendali lands, populating the ket city-states of that pre-Dawn loose confederation of Basmoli warbands, led by demigod children of Basmol and Ifttala, and lesser sons of Basmol from other wives or lays? Those citizens could include descendants of Kachasti enslaved by the Vadeli, condemned to a much shorter life-span than the tsill-very-much-Brithini inhabitants of the coastal colonies on the Neliomi eastern shores. Malkion's Expulsion Walk predates the Breaking of the World. His ascension may fall onto that event, but might also have been an event on Orlanth's Lightbringer's Quest. Flesh Man, a grandson of Grandfather Mortal, recognizes the fool being tortured by the evil (Brithini or Vadeli) sorcerers in the Sorcerers' Town (a description that might apply for New Malkonwal). Orlanh intercedes and recruits the Friend of Men (or grandfather of men) to his cause, and leads him and Flesh Man to their (ambuatory, but still death) deaths at the Gates of Dusk. I think that the Fifth Action happened exactly at the first application of Death, (and we know Eurmal was there) the Breaking of the World by Zzabur during Orlanth's Westfaring, as the trail led him to Sorcerer's town to recruit Eurmal. Anybody with a need for Godtime to have been linear will shake their head at this superimposition, but I don't think that the Fifth Action can be anything less than this. Linearity is this messed up: So, Humakt and Eurmal return from Hell (Late Golden Age, end of early Storm Age), Humakt applies the new power on Grandfather Mortal, and then passes the sword on into the hands of Orlanth, who slays the Emperor (end of Golden Age, start of Lesser Darkness) causing Yelm to disintegrate and his ashes to burn out Hell, which liberates the Flood (Midde Storm Age, Flood Age), which Orlanth fights back to enable a sunny Summer kingdom of the Vingkotlings before he needs to go into permanent exile (start of Vingkolting Age), before Vingkot dies at Stormfall, before the Vingkotssons plunder Dara Happa, then one of them raiding alone and losing the Iron Ram which helps part the Gacier during the Winter Kingdom of the VIngkotlings and the Dara Happan sun Antirius trapped in the dome(Lesser Dakness starts for real), which is before the Glacier is broken by Wakboth's horde leading to Sormfall (where Vingkkot dies, see above), before the World Breaks (start of Greateer Darkness, age of recovery for Choralinthor, the Pelaskites, and arrival of his Ludoch tribe), followed by Orlanth defeating Chaos in the Sky alongside his Star Captain heroes still up there, before noticing that Ernalda has been asleep since shortly after Grandfather Mortal was slain and Vivamort Nontraya had left the Underworld a mite ahead of the trolls, accompanied by all the dead that resulted form the later events, and goes to the Underworld to get his wife and kingdom back. Definitely before the Ritual of the Net / I Fought We Won, allthough the rivers running to Magasta's Pool starts re-knitting the world with Arachne Solara's web. The Flood myths and those of River Sshorg's invasion are difficult to tell apart. The arrival of Sshorg starts the career of The Emperor aka Murharzarm, and the arrival of the flood starts the voyage and then reign of his successor Anaxial a few generations and the Death of the Sun later, but both are the same place on the cycle of myths. The narrative runs in circles, sometimes hitting those story nodes, sometimes missing them for a few cycles. Ok, back to Gerlant: Agreed. Not by descent, either, at least in the male line. There is a limited number of kings available to precede him. of likewise uncertain ancestry, "a warrior of Seshnela" (indicating Horali/Pendali ancestry) crowned in the very year Gerlant makes his big entry, lasting only two generations Talar by coronation of a man-of-all, yes. My theory is that he is the son or even just adopted son of a man-of-all in exile, possibly several generations or adoptive generations in exile, a leader of an established mercenary band, with a bulk of Fornoari Enerali riders and a small corps of officers from their ranks trained in a most basic and possibly just superficial Man-of-All manner. I don't. There have been kings of Seshnela not of talar birth. Take Gothimus (#10). His Horali lineage has a brief encounter with talardom at Woswal through marriage, but Gothimus is descended from that individual's third son, still a man-of-all but without any title or office or other hint of talarhood other than his maternal descent. That man's son dies a man-of all, his son dies as a squire, and his grandson (the father of Gothimus) fights as a common soldier again, true to his paternal Horali lineage. At least a Brithini Horali lineage, unlike many others by this time, with several Pendali kets having been under Serpent King rule for more than 150 years, and the last integration of Pendali kets about 40 years ago under Sonmalos, whose remaining Basmoli/Pendali foes started a campaign of burnt earth as they slowly and unwillingly withdrew. Mimtak completed the genocide, displacing the last steadfast defenders of kets in Jorilland but failing to coquer and convert any. None of his three successors had any better ancestry (or if they did, nobody cares any more), before the heir (#14) of the second of these ((12) contnues a royal lineage for exactly his own year of rulership and death. Somehow his mother, wife of #12, had a child from a Brithini talar and attempted to make that child the next king, but the Seshnegi wanted nothing of that zzaburist nonsense (they weren't too happy about #11's role in riling up the Waertagi and destroying Hrelar Amali with Vadeli allies, and #12 probably had to build the temple to Magasta there in reparation to the Waertagi and the descendants of Dan) Then we finally get a dynasty founded by #15, another son of nobody special, Lofting, the founder of the Silver Empire. which collapsed along with his lineage in the third generation (#18) after him. #19 is another son of nobody who starts a lineage of sons of kings for four generations (!), ending with #27. and only one interregnum not of that lineage (#21). #28 is the king crowned after Gerlant's arrival, and he is succeeded by two of his sons, and then Gerlant as his son-in-law. Possibly not even posthumous son-in-law, but then his daughter or his sons weren't born as sons (or daughter) of a king, either. There aren't terribly many talar lineages in Froalar's colony before Hrestol's exile. The Second Age map shows the orovince of Seshneg around Frowal, a total of four lesser cities founded by talar followers of Froalar after he received the (uninhabited, but still claimed) land from the Pendali king Avalal. The ruler of Dontahal and the king of Jorilland had a wrestling match for the daughter of the founder of Caulsket (also in Jorilland). This led to the batte of Dontahal where Hrestol leading the combined army of the rest of Froalar's Seshneg broke the siege but was ambushed by Ifttala's dreadful magics when pursuing the fleeing Pendali. That's when and why he and his wizards decided that Ifttala had to die, and how the entire Man-of-All business came to be.. The Brithini colony of Neleoswal had other problems with the Pendali of Rolfasland and conquered the Rolfasland kets of Tolsket and Neolket before Ylream's death at Kingsgrave, at the Battle of Ailor's River. While Tolsket went to Yadmov's brother (giving him a city to rule), Neolket given to Yadmov's nephew. This means that by Ylream's death, Faralz was the only non-talar-born Man-of-All who had been promoted to a talar position. The son of a Horali friend married the daughter of the baron of Woswal and became the second named Horali-born Man-of-All to take a talar's position. Faralz's slaying of the ruling talar of Brithos brought his and Hrestol's in-laws - the talars of Horalwal on eastern Brithos - into Froalar's realm. More less-than-talar born men-of-all were named as talars of conquered Pendali kets - a term which can mean fortress as much as city, it seems. Let's think of them as chiefs' seats, perhaps comparable to the mickey-mouse-capped Celtic ruler of Glauberg in Hesse. Only Basmoli-descended, with full Basmoli companions bringing along their lions (male ones, I assume, who may have lived in something resembling a young bachelor's pride, very similar to the Koryos groups). The royal kets probably deserved the term "cities", even if just barely. So does Humakt, prior to finding Death - he excels at Kargan Tor's gym of all weapons.

TLDR: A terrible Joerg rant, calling forth obscure sources correlating to the map of Old Seshnela, and the Seshnelan King List. Enter at your own peril. Let's examine that reasoning, trusting that that term which turns up in the Abiding Book still is part of the Malkioni canon. I'll examine what it means below, after tackling what is known about Gerlant popping up in the history of Seshnela. And moved over into a new topic:

Sorcery is your friend for this: Accelerate Healing. Dreadfully overpriced spell, but a wound like that probably takes your head location down 1D4+1, which with a good constitution will take you a week to recuperate from. Possibly a strip of fresh willow bast to separate the two halves. This probably should be done to you while you are in deep meditation anyway, and possibly for days.

The RAW also say Emphasis mine, which clearly doesn't apply to Fireblade: So no concentration rolls for attacking. There is nothing about parrying with Fireblade held active, and even less about parrying with the firebladed weapon. Which looks to me like an excellent tactic against natural weapon attacks, especially failed ones, provided the fireblade falters only after damage is taken and the concentration roll failed. There are a few things you cannot do while maintaining a Fireblade, one of these is control your mount in battle. Given the restriction for Fireblade use in mounted combat comes up twice before, I wonder why that wasn't repeated here. My reasoning is that the added stress between concentrating and being in a melee may up the distraction level for things that nearly affect you. But yes, this is a variant reading of the rules. A very pedestrian spell, although the Black Horse Troop might manage mounted charges with Fireblade on for most of a unit. Hippogriff riders are fine, too, as they can use the autopilot mode of their sapient mount. The few dominant riders might have their mount cast it while moving normally, but letting someone else maintain your Fireblade might be as dangerous to yourself as to your opponents.. One other thing I miss from the Fireblade description is the equivalent of the dropped oil lamp table when fighting among potentially incendiary material. And any wound caused by Fireblade should count as cauterized. No bleeding...

That hide of land doesn't necessarily cease to be pasture or hay-making area, although an active quarry or mine may reduce its worth as such even more. But the way I see it, you generate a new economic hide as long as you produce. Having a quarry nearby will greatly reduce maintenance cost for Sartar-style roads or buildings as the material is provided with much shorter carting time. I guess expanding a quarry or a mining operation will come with less initial cost, too, so it may be more than one hide of economic activity you might open up. The way I read it the maintenance cost are for when you don't have any income from the investment, e.g. in years without functional work-force like the Windstop. And if a mine high up in the mountains cannot be operated in Dark and Storm Season, it had better be an excellent product you get from there, like bronze or a more valuable metal. Same with a quarry for artist-quality marble.

That's because a fireblade has substance that can impale or slash (the price for that being that it is an active spell). In RQ, all missiles use the impale special damage (ok, thrown boulders or furniture don't, but they aren't susceptible to this spell). A fire-arrow disappears after inflicting its normal damage because all of its mass has been transformed into fire on releasing the missile.

If your improvement supports more than one of your hides (or those of your clan), yes, it is. You might have to convince your clan (or guild, or whatever) to chip in on the maintenance, or you need a sufficient number of hides benefitting to make it pay. In other words - a single tenant farmer won't be able to carry the maintenance cost of a mine. A few of them might easily do so. And a productive improvement will become a new economical hide to take income from, rather than just an ornament.

Sounds like you want something like Questworlds, where every roll is an opposed roll between the player and the GM rolling for whichever agency or natural force may impede the task. Both sides count successes, with high abilities able to give an auto-success, and an option for players to buy a few extra successes in the course of a session. How you roll for success or crits doesn't matter much, it is more important to compare success levels - a crit counts as an extra success. (It is the one roll outcome that an extra point cannot buy up.) The side with more successes wins, the other side takes a loss - not necessarily in the story arc, but e.g. a wound that will impair future rolls unless resources are expended (such as time in the game setting). On the not so unlikely result of a draw, you have a "Yes, But" situation for the planned outcome of your roll.

I would consider purity a lot less important than Kyger Litor being an Underworld Goddess, a place where such human boundaries between different magics are a lot less meaningful. Also, the Hellmother is numbered among the Great Gods with a stake in the Hero Wars. Malkioni caste ancestors aren't anywhere as relevant (= powerful). Throwaway lines have a history of unfolding into something a lot bigger in the writing of Glorantha.

And Rokarism has joined the non-hereditary Man-of-All quasi-caste to the talar caste. But then, so did old time hrestolism for a number of its king, starting with the first King of Seshnela not from the line of Froalar, Gothimus. Gerlant is the first King of Seshnela without obvious ancestry from Brithos.

Can be cast on any edged weapon and turns it into a fireblade, using the same attack skill (and probably also parry skill), but changing the nature of the weapon. And the sword blade now is a fire blade. Handles like a sword, but has exchanged its sword-ness (the edge) for being fiery. Special success refers to the weapon, as a general term. Truesoword refers to the weapon being a sword, which means a weapon doing its damage with an edge. See above. The special magic of the True Sword is severing, not burning. Unless Bon manages his INTx3 roll (regardless whether his POW was overcome or not, having that POW vs POW struggle already is the distraction, as would be spirit combat). Does Fireblade add to the gift Humakt gave to a specific sword? Is that gift transferred from the bladed weapon to its temporary form as tangible fire?

No, the curse was consumed by the transformation. At least that's how I understood what I was told. It isn't quite clear to me where Hon-eel did this - whether in Doblian or in Tarsh. Other than that, her vita in the Redline History doesn't mention her being active in a region with potential Telmori presence.

Furthest is a Lunar city, which will mean that the nobles there engage in Dart competitions. The one between Pharandros' and Fazzur's households and their respective followers is well known. There may have been other such before, and a political marriage to a bush range clan may be the only reason this individual from the family survived the Dart competition that wiped out his (branch of the) family. The result would be offspring with both a "Hate Rival Tarsh Lunar Family" and the typical Bush Range passions. If players come up with such additional character background concepts, I am more than willing to work them into the grandparent's or parent's timeline and to give some small benefit like acquisition of another passion and maybe a skill or a heirloom. Those are story hooks, after all. The education as a sorcerer will most likely take place in a library. There might be the occasional padawan who learned from a Sage with is own personal library away from the major temples, but those would be rather exceptional. (Different cult loyalties than temple-taught sorcerers, to begin with, and possibly access to different additional runes or techniques from the Philosopher occupation while being met with some mutual distrust by the library temples. LM or IO initiates don't necessarily have to take Sage or Philosopher as their occupation. Quite a few crafts are associated with the knowledge temples, and even soldiers can worship the Sword Sage subcult for its miltary doctrines etc.)

Arkat is indirectly accepted through the fiction that he is the father of Gerlant. Gerlant is an interesting figure. He is very unlikely to have any Seshnegi Talar ancestry. His "adoption by Arkat" may be the only ancestral tie to the Malkioni ancestry from Brithos. Is there a chance that Arkat was the biological father of Gerlant? Rather slim, IMO. Arkat was born in 375 during the Sunstop. (There is a chance that he was conceived during the Sunstop, too, and that his childhood with the elves of Brithos all happened during the Sunstop as well. Growing up to teenage age in that timeless realm may be the source of his Illumination, rather than any specific mystical teachings from the elves.) After the Sunstop, Arkat is assigned to the caste of his Horali grandfather and starts training with the new batch of Horali that had been bred on Brithos, possibly in reaction to the attempt of the Silver Empire to conquer the ancestral lands of the Malkioni. I wonder whether Humakt can be separated from Horal Sword-wielder. The ancestral cult could be to "Horal and the sacred sword", with a selection of Humakti rune magic available. Probably no gifts or geases in this Spirit Cult set-up. Unless the talar asks them to go against the rules of their caste. As long as the talar's demands are within his right to demand from the horali caste, the horali have to obey. Whether enthusiastically or with some hesitation may be valuable feed-back to the talar in charge, feed-back which may have been ignored before. But then, the Rokari talar is a martial caste, too, with its many inheritances from the Man-of-All status of Hrestolism - all except sorcery. Literacy might even be encouraged with Rokari talars, at least to some point. Probably a lot less so with horali. Horali who join mercenary bands to serve in Safelster or Maniria might come into that situation.

There are always year marriages. Political marriages with the goal of peace-making often land the marriage partners in enemy territory, although protected by the contract nature of those marriages. The name use to be Intan, high up in the pass. IIRC it had a tall tower hovering upside down above it, one that keeps crumbling away, pouring down detritus at unpredictable times. That info is remembered from the Dragon Pass: Land of Thunder gazetteer of Kerofinela for HeroQuest..

I think that apart from giving the Telmori a new king with Ostling Four-wolves, the promise was that a future Prince of the lineage of Sartar would end the curse. The Wolf Runners in the skinned wolf pelt version might be that relief. Hon-eels solution in the Pelorian lowland was to turn the local Telmori there into four-legged wolves all the time. Curse solved. Problem, not quite.

You could offer to ransom it back to the gift givers at a chieftain's weregeld. Evidently, they sent their leader into captivity

It is hard to fight a troll, so : If an iron sword with true-sword on hits a special on a troll, what multiplyer do we use? 4 times - weapon damage doubled, plus weapon damage from truesword, plus weapon damage again from the iron? 5 times - doubled weapon damage doubled for iron for a total of 4 times, plus once for Truesword? 6 times, as in non-iron special damage doubled? 8 times, as in doubled for special doubled for iron doubled for Truesword? And now add Fireblade into the mix, sit back, and have some popcorn.