jajagappa

I think many of these great events are. The deaths of Orlanth/Ernalda and the Great Winter should trigger many efforts by many different folk to get their plans in order for the Hero Wars. The rise of the Boat Planet just a year before is a good example. Whether or not events during the ship's passage along the Sky River contribute to the Dragonrise should probably be up to the individual GM, but a lot of convergent events (and claims) could aid the Dragon's awakening.

As long as they pay their share of the Shadow Tribute, I'd expect that such a relationship would be tolerated. And the great Houses of Esrolia would make use of such to keep their rivals in check. I think you'll also find other, perhaps rival, thieves who worship Argan Argar's mother, Xentha, goddess of Night.

Or perhaps he was expecting the magical energy source under the new temple to be the Sun Dragon... There were three well known: Red (moon), Black (darkness), and Green (earth). Their locations strongly suggest another dragon was needed to complete the square. The Blue dragon would be assumed to be within the Oslir. So a natural assumption might be that the Sun Dragon was the missing one, not the Storm Dragon.

There is no "wrong" here. Proceed as before. 🙂 But it's useful to realize/remember that a heroquest is always a "dance for two" (or possibly more). Every hero has a villain that they are attempting to stop, and those villains always have long-term plots coming to fruition (perhaps think of James Bond stopping the plots of Goldfinger, or others?). Tatius is very, very ambitious and does have a grand plan. Perhaps just the creation of the most powerful Reaching Moon temple, perhaps a stepping stone (aka a Footstool!) to something far grander.... Clearly the whole choreography of the Perfect Sky is of celestial-changing significance. And Tatius is at the center of that. Do you need to care about that in your campaign? No. But Tatius thwarted many efforts to stop his plans, including disposing of the Vingkotling king Broyan and defeating Argrath's nomad horde earlier in the same year. He probably had a trap for Kallyr... something for PC allies of Kallyr to fall into (or perhaps foil).

Two reasons I can think of: 1) From the meta-game viewpoint: It's the location where the Brown Dragon was placed on the WBRM map. 2) From the in-world viewpoint: It was identified as a source point of powerful magical energy by the Lunar geomancers.

My feeling is that they are consumed or taken by the demon and returned to the God's World. Anyone seeking to become King of the Vingkotlings must quest back to the Godtime, prove their lineage to Vingkot, and regain them. As for the other regalia of the King of Heortland, it's unclear whether Broyan ever had them. The Governor of Heortland under the God-king probably had them. Rikard may have gained some of them, but what happened after that is unknown (and of course an opportunity for valiant adventurers). The Lunars may have found or taken those that Rikard had (perhaps even taking them north out of Heortland), or maybe lost what they found at the Battle of Milran (and now in the hands of a Wolf Pirate). Or they may be hidden in the Temple of Belintar in Durengard - and no one really wants to enter that place... Or perhaps pieces found their way to Mount Passant or Refuge (or even Casino Town!).

I might also call out the White Bull Campaign sessions so that we can see how the Chaosium house campaign is developing.

Tatius could even be the Gold Proxy - particularly tasked by the Red Emperor to perform the rituals of the Sun. And what might be more galling than to know that the Emperor is a decadent, hedonist like a new Ovosto. With the Perfect Sky above, and the Temple of the Reaching Moon below, Tatius could rise between while drawing upon the great magical energies beneath as if it were a new Footstool. Meanwhile the Emperor smiles, knowing that his proxy has stepped into a wonderful trap.

I think there was a particularly strong selection in the Jonstown Compendium along with Pegasus Plateau and RBOM. Since the Lozenge has four sides, I'll go with four nominations: A Rough Guide to Glamour - a fine "illumination" of that most Lunar of cities Six Seasons in Sartar - that wonderfully detailed work of Usuphus of Jonstown Valley of Plenty - wherein we get to see the exploits of the Wildlings, children of the Dundealos Sandheart v.3: Tradition - who can pass up a VW camper rhino!

I enjoyed that one. I also recommend the TTC course Foundations of Eastern Civilization by Craig Benjamin. Another good one is Grant Voth's Myth in Human History.

It's not explicit, but you can see pieces of it. "Argrath and his companions set off over the broken realm of myth." - i.e. they had to cross the Threshold to enter the Gods War. "All went well after that until they saw the Blue‑Like‑A‑Corpse Woman, who sent decayed vilgars at him, armed with Argrath’s own weakness. He was wounded to death" - i.e. he experienced a Death. "When Orlanth and the Lightbringers reached the edge of the world, they had to enter into the Underworld to continue their travel. At that place, where Sky, Earth and Sea meet, Orlanth gave up his possession and attachment to Death, and he named Humakt to be the honorable wielder of it. In this way Orlanth gained entry into the Land of the Dead, and with that judgment Humakt gained control of Death once again." - i.e. he had to pass Humakt, and gave up "Death" to gain entry (and since Humakt "gained control of Death", I think we can see who won) At the Gates of Dusk, Rausa "collected the fee for going to the Underworld" - i.e. someone had to die. "The guardians, who all wear purple masks, question the visitor. There might be a fight." - i.e. a symbolic death to pass the Gates of Dusk.

The courses by Elizabeth Vandiver on the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeniad, and the Greek plays are great - and provide a lot of ideas for RQG games. Kenneth Harl's courses on Rome and the Barbarians, the Empires of the Steppes, and the Vikings all provide interesting thoughts. The course on the Etruscans by Steven Tuck is useful as one model about the Esrolians and Nochet. The courses on ancient Mesopotamia are also very good.

It rises into the Sky and heads towards Peloria. It is turned back by the magical powers of the Red Emperor. Then it circles around Kero Fin a few times before returning to the great crack in the Earth it came out of. So, it's there and waiting for whoever wants to visit it. (In KoS, it doesn't do anything further until the end when it's one of the two dragons that help to tear apart the Red Moon.)

Well, you do have to go to the Underworld, so at least ritually someone has to die. Whether or not you'd always face Humakt is another question. Arcane Lore outlines a few different variations of the quest, particularly the Westfaring. As it says in one version: "Humakt will appear after the mists clear. To pass him there must be a death: Humakt's or one of the questers'." In another version it notes: "The particular death is not important. In the Lightbringers' Quest it is either one of the party, at the hands of Humakt, or the Humakti guardian. Whatever the case, only one person can engage the guardian. One of the two must die." And, of course, to leave the Underworld you will have to defeat Humakt again because you have become part of the Dead and the Dead are supposed to stay dead.

Get an ostrich!

Do you have Arcane Lore? There's more references to Humakti myths there including the Combats in Kargan Tor's Court of Conflict (you could play as a series of duels/fights to become Champion of the Court). There are also the tests to gain the Berserk Rage or the Mighty Blows. Humakt is ALWAYS a Threshold Guardian too. Someone who you MUST fight if you want to reach the Underworld. You can figure that for any given ceremony there is someone (considered "evil") who is trying to cross the Threshold to rob the Underworld of some treasure without paying the price to do so (i.e. Death). This can be formalized into a relevant duel. Of course, as a former Storm God, Humakt fought all of his brothers at one point or another.

For this Rune spell, you could reasonably take the Inspire Love spell in RBOM and swap references to the Love Passion with the Lust Passion.

I seem to recall another thread (perhaps on Fonrit) asking about Seseine and GoG where Jeff indicated that Seseine would not be included. That the spells are not in the Red Book of Magic also suggests that it has not been fully written out, but that may have changed. IIRC there are at least 100+ deities, so there will be many that have not had full writeups previously (Sea and Lunar pantheons particularly). But you cannot have a Darkness pantheon without Kyger Litor, so of course she will be there.

Why? It's not like great colonies of seaweed are common to lakes and seas. You can certainly get algae blooms, stagnant duckweed, etc. but not sure those are typical of blue elves. Most likely you'll get patches of marsh grasses, reeds, etc. along the margins. These could be home to naiads (or voughs and their spawn), but they may have few sentient followers. In my Amber Fort campaign (Imtherian/Lunar colonists along the mouth of the West, aka the Gap, River at the western edge of the Elf Sea) which I ran back in the mid-90s, the colonists were busy trying to propitiate the river nymph to get her aid against the sea monsters. One of the PC's fell into the river, but succeeded in befriending the nymph - a teal-colored baby was subsequently left beside the fort.

There's also the aspect of a Chaos horde coming through and melting away the Gap of Tork. The Chaos might equally have melted, dissolved, mutated, or obliterated some amount of the Earth there, so quite possible to have a deep pit beneath (no indication of a Hole to Hell though). One possibility is that Chaos dissolved enough to either reveal or summon a dragon, which turned the Chaos westward through Tork, and subsequently took up residence. The waters then flowed over the dragon. Subsequently, the dreams of said dragon have given rise to all manner of monstrous sea creatures.

The Telmori are cursed to always transform on Wildday. No RP's needed - it always happens on that day. If they want to transform on other days, then they would use their magic.

Generally I've assumed it to be quite deep.

My pet theory is that underneath the Elf Sea is where the Blue Dragon is resting/sleeping.

Perhaps similar to Lunar-controlled Talastar or Holay (or Tarsh)? Lunars become more prominent/dominant in the cities, Orlanthi remain stronger amidst the clans. Trade becomes increasingly dominated by Etyries cult.

This was, of course, the approach Nysalor took in Ralios in the First Age, though in that case it was providing healing from spirits of disease. The challenge with this is that if not done carefully, you'll win over some clans, but immediately get their enemies as your enemies.