Darius West

Okay, but are Sakkar and Hsa children of Basmol or Yinkin? You only get one choice as they are the only children of Fralar the primal predator they can choose from. I would suggest that Basmol comes from Pamaltela, so it must be Yinkin. Neither tigers nor sabertooths have manes.

In my opinion Multimissile is the strangest Spirit Magic spell. No other spirit magic spell effectively creates matter out of magic. Sure, they conjure fire, light, and darkness, even glue, but not an actual corporeal manufactured artifact. How does it work? Do spirits have access to a room full of arrows on the Spirit Plane? Do they perhaps summon the arrows? Or do they simply duplicate the arrow they see? Or do they duplicate the force with which the arrow hits? Is multimissile actually an illusion perhaps? Do the magical arrows lie around until the spell duration runs out? Do questions like this keep other RQG GMs up at night?

You're right, Stone was killed by "hiking Elf" smh. As for animated mountains, we call them giants and dragons I think. 🤔

According to the rules, Shamanic Spirit Sight works like the spirit magic spell of the same name, which only allows the recipient to see the POW of nearby entities (does that mean the Undead, who have no POW, are invisible?). I can sympathize with your wanting to house-rule that the shaman can see into the Spirit World. The Spirit World is divided into at least 3 parts (RQG p374), the Inner, the Frontier, and the Outer regions. These require the Spirit Travel skill to negotiate. I personally house-rule a local "permeable veil" state where Spirit Sight sees the local world, but slightly distorted and full of nature spirits, like dew babies asleep in the soil or floating asleep (and somewhat invisible) in the air. Objects with spiritual power are larger, as are powerful living things, as in keeping with tribal (and even medieval) art. This is called the "Local" Spirit World, and is completely accessible to Spirit Sight at a Shaman's whim, but some spirits can impinge on Spirit Sight regardless such as Hearth Monkeys (part of my collection of nature spirits): Hearth Monkeys are the spirits of small translucent baboons, about 1 foot high, who are drawn to hearth fires, and simply sit there mesmerized by the fire. If the fire begins to die down, the hearth monkeys will begin a low hooting cry (that a Shaman can hear, whether they want to or not), as they are disappointed by the interruption. Should something outside the fire pit catch fire, the hearth monkeys will begin to screech in excitement and dance about. This is not seen by most people in the camp, but often allows shamans to prevent catastrophe, and so while hearth monkeys are a noisy nuisance who hoot every time a campfire dies down, they are tolerated by shamans. Some shamans find the incessant spirit hooting as the fires die down to be intolerable, and will actively drive the Hearth Monkeys away from their camp. Hearth Monkeys have a subordinate relationship with the Dancing Spark spirits, and are often controlled by the Dancing Sparks as they seek to spread themselves to new fires. Hearth Monkeys that are wandering under the control of Dancing Sparks are the best ones for shamans to harvest if they wish to obtain access to Oakfed shamanhood. This comprises a minor heroquest from the early life of Oakfed when he first left Mahome, his mother, and travelled Prax with Grandfather Baboon before Oakfed realized that he wasn’t an elemental but a minor god. Characteristics Average Pow 1d6 3-4 Int 1d4+2 4-5 Cha 1d4+2 4-5 Move: Equal to Pow Magic Points: 1-6 Skills: Hoot Loudly 50%, Mesmerized by hearth fire 95%, Screech 75%, Spirit Combat 25%. Magic: none Special Ability: Search (Fire State). Hearth Monkeys don’t know much, but they can tell if a fire is going out, and they can tell if a fire is catching onto something it shouldn’t. If the fire is going out, they hoot, and if something is catching alight, they screech. If you want to pacify them, simply build the fire up again, or put out the conflagration before it spreads further. Carry Away Dancing Spark. It is a little known fact, but Hearth Monkeys are able to keep Dancing Sparks alive outside the usual limiting range of their fire of origin. At the command of the Dancing Spark, the Hearth Monkey will feed the spark with tinder, and is utterly immune to any pain from burning they may experience from gently holding the little spark.

Mostal, god of rocks and stone, is a dead god. This is why rocks are dead. Rocks are thus normally relegated to being scenery and only get up and walk around then they are Jolanti and so-forth.

The problem is that Leika has no Sartar blood and can't light the Flame. She knows this and is likely sweating about it. She could try to cast a thunderbolt spell to light it, but people know the difference between a spell and actual Divine Intervention. One does 3d6 damage, the other is a blinding and deafening cosmic affirmation that knocks the audience off their feet.

I am a fan of Fritz Lieber's Nehwon and Greg Stafford's Glorantha, and I don't think they are a good fit with each other at all. Nehwon magic is always physically and mentally warping, and intrinsically "bad". Nehwon gods, may exist, but they aren't much like Gloranthan gods imo. Now if you want to run stories of roguery and derring do then either is fine in its own way, and the stories can serve as inspirations for scenarios in the other world, but they don't "nest" nicely with each other, again imo. If you want players from one environment to wind up in the other, i.e. "isekai", then just create a fantastic context for portaling them in, and portaling them out again imo. If you wanted to get humorous, you could have it that Ningauble of the Seven Eyes actually keeps the lozenge of Glorantha (a lozenge with an upper and a lower dome, somewhat the worse for wear, with domes above and below) surrounded in a void in a jar labelled "Dragon Egg" on a shelf in his dwelling. He sends people there to retrieve things or when he is annoyed with them.

Yes, absolutely, single player single GM games are doable in RQ. You see, GMs play all the other characters and tell the story, just like happens normally, it's just that only one person is acting as a player.

Honestly I think the EWF was the best Eurmal betrayal since he stole Death and gave it to Orlanth. ^^^Yeah, this!

I thought that singular act of brilliant terrorism was the work of Minaryth Purple and Orlaront Dragonfriend (and friends)?

I absolutely agree with this assessment of the obstacle. But suppose some enterprising Diros worshipper built a very sturdy type of boat for shooting the rapids reliably, and once a certain amount of cargo was stashed and tied down securely, there was room for passengers left over? Would people consider white water boating a terrible threat or a tourist attraction?

You raise a very fair question. The answer is probably that Basmol was a different beast, and is now dead. Large cats like sabretooth tigers, tigers etc are likely descended from Yinkin not Basmol therefore.

Noice!

Solar worship has not vanished from Dara Happa, which is its heartland. The hinterlands are still farmed primarily by Lodrili peasantry who owe their loyalty to Yelm, not the RMG. While Yelm might not presently be trendy, it will inevitably re-assert itself. Look at the Gods Wall; the RMG has risen before time and died and gone away before, and Yelm has risen again as before. The day/night cycle is more frequent than the lunar cycle.

Then a special Kivitti spirit of this kind is all the more important and fitting imo. It is more in keeping with the Tower of the Elephant idea Elcid321 was proposing. The 'elephant' of the story was an alien, but the spirit of an extinct Hsunchen people is just as good.

You make a fair point about the road. I think that under the circumstances, with warlords potentially waiting to ambush merchants, they may well start seeking "paths less travelled". I mean, if they're (figuratively) cutting throats at the crossroads, avoid the crossroads.

I was drawing a distinction as you say, between Solar and Lunar marriage and divorce. Yes, 350 years is a long time, but Solar traditionalists will disown and disinherit their daughters if they disobey. Some will break with tradition, but most won't if extreme religions in our own society are anything to go by.

I have to disagree. The impression I got from Griffin Mountain is that Gonn Orta collects magical items for pleasure. I have since changed my opinion to one that he is collecting magic itself, and repurposing it for his daughter's crib by means lost since Time began.

In Yelmic communities obviously only the Pater Familias can initiate a divorce, and it will be conducted against his wife's father. The Father will be required to retrieve the daughter at his own expense, and the issue of how much of the dowry is forfeit will be measured by her level of transgression or unsatisfactory performance of her duties, by a third party in a court. Failure to do so may result in penalties up to and including the sale of the wife into slavery, as an otherwise non-productive asset. There will be occasions where a wife escapes, and he will be required to send out a party to capture his wayward livestock wife, while making a case against her father for her misbehavior. Any children of course belong to the Pater Familias. A permanently escaped wife becomes a blot on the character of the Pater Familias and he may need to seek an assassin to remove her with an 'honor' killing. As to what happens in the new Lunar society, let's just assume it is a lot more egalitarian and reasonable. While I doubt they have no-fault divorce, they likely have measured grounds for complaint and recompense, with both parties recovering the assets they brought to the marriage, and splitting joint assets according to a legal formula. Obviously infidelity will be grounds for divorce, but the penalties are not likely to be all that high, given the favor given to the Red Goddess' famous promiscuity. Amicable divorces will be favored, and the legal costs involved will be far lower than for adversarial ones. It may be that noble marriages are arranged as contracts to begin with with all the clauses and codicils pre-determined by family consent. As to children, there will be no alimony required by either party as the state will not be bothered with enforcing such claims, and it is likely that children under the age of 10 will automatically go with their mothers, but those at or above that age will be allowed to choose. Hopefully the matter will not be allowed to degenerate into a dart competition.

When I hear "elephant" in Glorantha, I immediately think of Teshnos. On the other hand, when I think about the Tower of the Elephant, I generally think about how the mysterious dead alien from the original 1979 Alien movie looked like an elephant (due to what I assume was a breathing apparatus it died wearing, but with everything so biomechanical in appearance, who can tell?). I think I would put the Tower of the Elephant in the ruins of Feroda or the ruins of Sog City in Prax. Why? Because lore-wise in 1220, the Teshnans had conducted expeditions along the Genertelan coastline. The creature in question could be some sort of Elephant hsunchen spirit (like Harrek's white bear) trapped by a scumbag sorceror (possibly a Malkioni from the Western invasion of the Holy Country, or from God Forgot, etc.) who has figured out how to milk it for magic somehow.

Market forces will balance this out however... If a leader offers reduced tolls and a safe passage, then more and more of the merchant traffic will favor their territory. Those leaders who don't react will find they miss out, and will likely have to try their luck at banditry, which is a dangerous short term answer to a long term problem. I like this idea (any political excuse for a hero quest is a good one, amirite?). On the other hand, I see this as the means of speeding up the natural process of what would happen naturally. The Issaries "pope" is the trader with the most money. While the richest person might not be an Issaries high priest, this is how merchants keep score. Mr Goldgotti might be a good choice. This will certainly happen regardless imo. In fact, most clans will have an inter-tribal trade agreement that potentially even supersedes even clan feuds. Each clan in every region affected will have at least one trader who negotiates on their behalf, and while trade might not be the highest priority in a time of universal catastrophe, it will serve as a way to help solve many of the worst problems of any catastrophe by bringing in goods from less affected or unaffected areas. I don't think many areas will opt for monopolies however, and likely don't have the authority to seriously grant one for more than a very limited time. Historically only Kings could grant monopolies and would normally only grant them for a limited period, as ultimately they require enforcement, which is expensive and annoying, and really only serves to make a rich person (who may challenge your authority in the longer term) richer. Kings will be far more likely to offer 'rewards' that are actually punishments, such as "I shall grant you ownership of these extensive orchards", which turn out to be grossly underproducing because nobody has figured out what the problem is, or "I shall grant you a monopoly of tolls on the Newhaven to Oxley road, which is badly maintained and underused because of its passage over a ridge where bandits hang out. I would assume that there is also a lot of re-melting and re-casting of surplus bronze goods as well. Plenty of re-casting of ploughshares into swords going on imo.

"It were always raining in Far Point, except on days when it were fine; and there weren’t many of those - not if you include drizzle as rain. And even if it weren’t drizzling, it were overcast and there were a lot of moisture in the air. You’d come home as though it had been raining, even though there had been no evidence of precipitation in the rain gauge outside Heler Shrine in Tula.” The Testing of Eric Olthwaite

Are we really sure? What about Harshax? Isn't he Belintar? Not that I am a massive Belintar fan, but I thought that was a "thing" for the 4th Age?

This is quite fair, but it would be a lot more likely if you find a rando hunting band where the dumb-dumbs don't understand the value of things, not somewhere like Tink. It certainly isn't the sort of deal that you can expect to duplicate time after time, more of a 1-off "crit" imo.