Darius West

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?  

18 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Isn’t that Stone, Mostal’s brother? And surely boulders and mountains can have spirits regardless?

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

On 3/27/2019 at 6:51 AM, EpicureanDM said:

It's name is so misleading. I've had to explain to three different players that it doesn't let them see spirits or the Spirit World.

I'm probably going to houserule it to allow it to see into the Spirit World at the cost of making the caster a little more interesting or noticeable to spirits in the area. It doesn't move the caster into the Spirit World, so antagonistic spirits would still need to materialize before getting frisky. 

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.

On 3/27/2019 at 4:59 PM, Pentallion said:

A rock isn't dead.  Nor was it ever alive.  It is neither, nor is it undead.  It simply is a rock.  Like a spirit.

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. 

15 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

So I said, "sure, roll Orate". 02. Critical success on a "we need to choose a leader now" rant, when there is only one candidate for leader.

Ok, so Leika reluctantly calls a moot then and there to choose a leader. I roll on her Orate setting forth her claim and get a special success. So Leika is now acclaimed the logical choice for leader of Sartar. She sets off for Boldhome with Kallyr's body.

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.

On 8/25/2022 at 11:43 AM, Scuggs said:

Are one player, one gamemaster games doable like they are in call of Cthulhu? Looking for modules and advice from someone with experience with this.

Thank you.

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.

2 minutes ago, Joerg said:

King of Sartar offers the answer "all of them".

^^^Yeah, this!

On 8/26/2022 at 7:41 PM, svensson said:

@Joerg

Argrath appears to have summoned the Brown Dragon by himself [this is probably not the case, but the optics are good for him].

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

11 hours ago, M Helsdon said:

The elephant in the room is that the New River feeds into the Runnel and the Lyksos, and these waterways have only been carrying the waters of the Engizi for barely two centuries. The Engizi drains almost the entire Dragon Pass basin, which is almost surrounded by mountain ranges, including the massive Rockwoods. Throughout the year, and especially after the thaw enormous quantities of water run into the Upland Marsh and then on into the Dammed Marsh, through the canyon Belintar dug for the New River, and then into the cascades and rapids of the Runnel. The name of the Runnel suggests that it was once a fairly small river, descending towards the lowlands, and now it carries most of the waters of one of the major rivers of southern Genertela. The massive quantities of water are going to make what was a white water stream into a raging torrent, even when the thaw is over. Add to this the erosion of the banks, there are not going to be stable towpaths or side canals This is a rough energetic waterway, constrained by the canyon walls of the New River. Most of the descent looks to be in the short length of the cataracts of the Runnel.

There's going to be limited Duck river traffic, but even Ducks will struggle in places. With trolls to the south and Beasts to the north east, this is not the place for massive engineering works.

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?

3 minutes ago, Agentorange said:

Seriously,
A while back Jeff posted on the Runequest facebook page a geneology of Gloranthan animals ( probably here somewhere ) and very interesting it was too. One of the things that struck was the various children of Fralor ( carnivore ) are shown as Basmol ( lions ), Telmor ( wolves ), rathor (bears) and Yinkin (cats )

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.

17 hours ago, Brian Duguid said:

I've done the cover.

Noice!

14 hours ago, Jeff said:

Solar traditionalists who disown their daughters because they joined the ruling cult in the Lunar Empire - which is headed up by Yelm's Supreme Priest who happens to be  Yelm's grandson!!!! - are not going to be a very significant factor in 8th Wane Heartlands.

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.

19 hours ago, Brian Duguid said:

Well, the elephant Hsunchen (the Kivitti) are long-extinct.

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. 

19 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

That faith in "the market" doesn't fit the situation because we have been told there is only one road route into Heortland.  The alternative is by water via The Creek Stream river route to Nochet and then by sea across Choralinthor Bay.  That's very circuitous if you start out in Boldhome.  Maybe not too bad if you start in Clearwine.  But the sea crossing is now subject to piracy by the Wolf Pirates, see Jajagappa's description in this thread.

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.

14 hours ago, Jeff said:

As an aside, there is nothing "new" to the Lunar Empire. Lunar Society has been around for almost four centuries, and Dara Happan aristocratic resistance was broken three and a half century ago. For more than a century, that Dara Happan aristocracy is almost entirely Lunarized. So although there are no doubt many families that insist that they are Old Traditionalists and proudly insist that their women refuse to initiate a divorce, legally all a woman needs to do is join the dominant cult in the Lunar Empire, that just happens to be the main pillar of the empire, and is headed by the Red Emperor himself. 

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.

On 7/12/2021 at 2:10 AM, David Scott said:

He's got no need for them. What ever he has already is likely good enough for his Hero Wars activities.

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.

On 8/23/2022 at 2:33 AM, Beoferret said:

So, I'm operating from an assumption that divorce among Orlanthi (whether in Sartar or the Holy Country) is pretty straightforward and easy, if the marriage bond has been honored during its duration. BUT, what are the divorce strictures/procedures for worshippers of Yelm and/or Yelmalio (and others generally seen as more patriarchal cults)? How does one get divorced in the Lunar lands, especially among the nobility and upper echelons of society? Asking for a friend .... (ha ha)

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.

On 8/24/2022 at 5:27 AM, Elcid321 said:

But what about the "elephant"? Would it be a deity, trapped by a group of godlearners? What would be it's runes? And besides killing it like in the book, what else could be done? Would it be resurrected?

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.

6 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

 It's a multi-player game and the first who reduces his tolls (or his banditry) on a major road  will reduce his own take substantially.

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.

6 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

To get everyone to do it would require an overall ruler or a confederation that might act as a group or perhaps an Issaries heroquest. 

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.

6 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

 By diplomacy assisted by magic and maybe violence or threats?  Problem is there is no Issaries pope. So one major temple might take the lead - or not.  Looks to me like an opportunity for heroic leadership.

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.

6 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

On the other hand an Individual Issaries who acquired some leverage over a clan might negotiate lower tolls for himself only, to acquire a monopoly over the route.  Looks to me like an opportunity for heroic feats but with a different goal than benefitting everyone with free trade.

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.

2 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

"The Bronze Workers Guild of Boldhome smelts bronze out of copper by alloying it with tin (both of which are mainly brought to Boldhome by caravans from Esrolia or Tarsh   "

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.

On 8/23/2022 at 8:34 AM, Squaredeal Sten said:

Do you habitually give a weather report for each game day? 

"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

10 hours ago, Jeff said:

Greg and I both were pretty emphatic that Belintar does not return. He's gone.

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?

6 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

Just adding to that - Dragonewts concept of 'value' will be completely different to those of other races. Probably slightly exaggerated, but I could see a dragonewt trading away 20kg of raw iron for a handful of pretty feathers.

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.

44 minutes ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Hey, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!

I bet you say that to all the cannibals 😉