Austin

2 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

Sure, but you're paying for the POW that goes into the enchantment, not the RP that the caster will get back. So it's 20L for the Rune Point, plus 200L for each point of POW that the caster puts in. The buyer or other contributors can also put in POW.

Ah, but "points of POW" don't have a cost in the "casting spells" section of that chapter!

(I'm not trying to sincerely, genuinely argue that's how anyone should play the game - just point out an amusing weirdness in the text since enchantments aren't actually one-use spells.)

8 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

You can say these things are not bought and sold often, because making one requires a piece of your soul (sacrifice of POW points)  but that's just sidestepping the issue.

Agreed. I'm hoping the GM's Guide or the Equipment book will have guidance, but TBH I'm not holding my breath.

3 hours ago, tnli said:

magic items at 200 lunars per point of POW spent making it.

This is the starting point I use when pricing magic items, too. The 200 L per POW point comes about because casting Rune spells costs 20 L (RQG 406) and a one-use spell - in effect, costing permanent points of POW in the shape of RP - costs ten times that.

Fun fact, technically most Rune enchantments only cost 20 L per RP to cast by Rules As Written, because the spells aren't one-use - you sacrifice POW to create them, but don't lose the Rune points used to cast the spell.

Yes, yes, RQG doesn't have "rules," it has "guidelines," that doesn't actually happen in Glorantha, yadda yadda - I know. I just thought it was amusing.

The (hopefully!) final version of Wenkarleos is now uploaded - additions include printable versions of each NPC, general polishing, and a simple sketch of a Philigos Medallion by yours truly.

9 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Yet you still managed to finish this month's issue in time! Yay, congrats! 😄 

Yeah, the last week has been... interesting. I'm not done-done, but I'm glad it's out there and I'm not flailing at the deadline.

12 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Can I have one, can I, can I?

Well, since you asked so nicely...

For those who don't know, Bill's the editor on MOTM, and does amazing work polishing these up for your eyeballs. Y'all owe him gratitude beers if we can ever do conventions again.

A NOTE - I've been doing a writing marathon this month, and getting Wenkarleos together in addition has almost driven me to apoplexy. All of the content is there, but the printer-friendly versions of each NPC in the issue will be coming along in a day or two.

In lieu of compensation, I present my not-so-great rendition of Wenkarleos's cuirass. The pretty one up above is courtesy of Alexandre Gauthier, who does a lovely job figuring out what the hell I'm going on about.

April's issue of #MOTM is now available on the Jonstown Compendium!

The fourth installment in MOTM's mini-series of Rune Masters is Wenkarleos, a Lunar Tarshite noble and Rune Lord of the Seven Mothers. A confidante of King Pharandros of Tarsh, Wenkarleos provides the gamemaster with opportunities supporting adventures about the Tarsh Civil War between the patriotic heroes of King Pharandros, and the traitorous sons of General Fazzur Wideread.

In addition to describing Wenkarleos, this issue includes:

• The Philigos Medallions, made by good King Phargentes to commemorate his brother's death at the swords of Orlanthi assassins—an excellent Family Heirloom for adventurers from Lunar Tarsh!
• Several supporting characters, including Wenkarleos's lover Beautiful Orland, and the Pelorian sorcerer Darveya the Far-Seeing. Darveya is accompanied with notes and advice for playing a sorcerer in RuneQuest, applicable to gamemasters and players of sorcerer adventurers alike.

This supplement is designed to be useful for RuneQuest players who only have the core rulebook. However, you may also need The Red Book of Magic, from Chaosium. In addition, A Rough Guide to Glamour, also available on the Jonstown Compendium, provides additional background for Lunar cultures, and is thoroughly recommended.

About this Series: Monster of the Month is a series of bestiary entries for Chaosium's RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. In addition to statblocks and behavior, most issues include supplemental detail and advice for gamemasters and/or new adventurer options for players.

As the chap who spawned @Bill the barbarian's question, thanks to everyone for the discussion! 😉 I don't have the time to parse the thread thoroughly, but lots of good idea nuggets throughout. Very helpful.

19 hours ago, Joerg said:

Unless there are tenacity passion spirits a shaman can send to possess a victim of a poisoning, or poison-eating spirit leeches, or something like that (for @Crel to add to a future Monster of the Month).

Off the top of my head, suggest a minor spirit with the Covert Possession ability. When it possesses someone who's poisoned or diseased, they gain the effect of the Vigor spirit magic spell until healthy. Has no power on a healthy person. Sees that they're doing alright, waves its hands, and wanders off. But maybe instinctively initiates spirit combat against entities which are poisoned/diseased?

That could lead to sites which attract these spirits being known as healing places, or healing places naturally attracting these sorts of spirits, etc. Hrm. Food for thought.

Another option to Cure Poison as a new shamanic ability could be using Spell Extension to maintain a Vigor spell to help the person become healthy. +8 CON is a hefty boost when it comes to CON×5 rolls or resistance table rolls.

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

You could however have a bound spirit auto-cast with a Control Spirit spirit magic trigger. The spirit would then roll to cast.

Ooh, that's an interesting idea...

On 4/10/2021 at 4:24 PM, HreshtIronBorne said:

One of my favorites is a box with either a Fireblade matrix and linked Attack Condition to cast fireblades on whatever sword gets thrust into the container, or it is powered by some spirit.

A similar item I like is Ring of Speedart. 1 POW for the spell, 1 POW to link it to a POW Storing crystal (or burn another POW creating a Magic Point Enchantment), and 1 POW for the attack condition "when the enchantment touches an arrow." Wear the ring, make sure it touches your arrows as you fire, and free speedart for your first few arrows. Helps fire multiple times per round if your initial DEX SR is low enough, since you're not taking the time to cast the spell. Also good with Multimissile and Firearrow, but Speedart's cheaper, making it something you don't need to plan a long time to create.

Shores of Korantia for Mythras might have some ideas for you. I really liked it, but I'm a Greece geek and for me it riffed in fun ways on classical Athens with its setup of city-states, etc. I'm not sure how approachable it would be for your table since it's more HISTORICAL fantasy than historical FANTASY. More Thucydides, less Homer.

RQG with an Atlantean/Mycenaean veneer sounds fun, to me. I think you'll really want to make sure you've got a copy of The Red Book of Magic. My suggestion is basically assign a few Runes to different Greek Gods, and use those Runes to draw together a thematic mix of skills, spirit magic, and Rune magic spells. For example, Water, Disorder for Poseidon, and spells like Seastrength, summoning elementals, etc. You'll probably have to make up some spells (or let your players do it, then tweak them) too.

Depending on how high-magic/low-magic you want, you've got a lot of options. If they like Percy Jackson, do they want to play demi-gods? Maybe a way to handle it is that most folks don't have magic (or have spirit magic), but those descended from the gods can train their "demi-god powers" (AKA, build up Rune Points, or maybe something blending in the shaman fetch rules?) to invoke their parent's abilities, identified with the Runes.

I like your idea with Chaos and the titans. One way to handle it could be just redefining "Chaos" and continuing to use the symbol and name. Another idea could be associating the titans with Disorder. Either way, I think a Disorder/Stasis or a Chaos/Order dichotomy would work well to express the Greek ideals of "civilized life" versus "barbaric life" in a dramatic way.

As I'm reflecting, another book which may be interesting for you is Mythic Odysseys of Theros for D&D 5E. It's based on a Magic: the Gathering setting. While the rules probably won't be very helpful for you because you're playing RQG, it presents another take on fantasy Greece. Overall, I thought it was pretty interesting and liked how it riffs using not-Spartans, not-Athenians, and it's approach to the nature of gods within the setting.

This month's MOTM is now available on the Jonstown Compendium!

Continuing our series of Rune Masters, this month's issue of Monster of the Month presents a shaman of the Golden Bow. Vajra is a grief-stricken elder of the Pure Horse People who wanders the skies of Dragon Pass on the back of the great vrok hawk Sunfriend. He is designed to allow the gamemaster to use him as a tragic antagonist, a flawed mentor, or with a blending of themes.

In addition to describing Vajra, this issue includes:

• A sidebar discussing Drugs in Glorantha, including optional Addiction rules, and four new intoxicants

• The Sun Horse's Mane, a magic item woven by worshipers of Yu-Kargzant the Sun Horse

• Two minor spirits associated with Light—Whisperstars and Illumes

This supplement is designed to be useful for RuneQuest players who have only the core rulebook. However, some content will be enriched by Chaosium's official publications The Red Book of Magic and/or The Smoking Ruin & Other Stories.

Content Warning: This product contains themes of addiction and drug abuse. Please consult with your whole group before introducing those elements into your game.

About this Series: Monster of the Month is a series of bestiary entries for Chaosium's RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. In addition to statblocks and behavior, most issues include supplemental detail and advice for gamemasters and/or new adventurer options for players.

I've posted another playtest writeup over on my blog. It's kind of obnoxiously long, but I hope a few people will find it interesting. During the session, we heroquested the myth I shared previously, "Asrelia Retires," while trying to improvise the heroquesting rules.

2 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Maybe you lose 2D6% every year if you haven't interacted with the Passion's target or something. Just make it up. On the other hand, if you have a Loyalty to Kallyr but suddenly she betrays you, or sacrifices you because she think you're expandable, you might lose 30% or 40% in that Passion in an instant.

I agree with your sentiment/suggestions here - I do think that's how they're intended to work. I just wish similar advice was included within the rulebook. 😄 A good example of what I'd want is the Reputation section. It's not meant to be all-inclusive, and various published adventures use alternate Reputation increases, for a variety of reasons. It does a good job providing guidelines, without necessarily saying "This is the rule, this is the only way Reputation changes."

I understand 0% to be the default, "I don't have an opinion" point. However, 50% does make some sense, because in terms of mechanical adjustments it'd take forever to drop a starting Passion of 60% to zero.

I know Passions can and probably should fluctuate more freely based upon GM advice and the roleplay of the players. However, there's no rules or advice for this at the moment published.

Relevant:

8 hours ago, Brootse said:

Yeah, I hadn't realized before this thread that the rule wasn't the "one-roll only, modifier on the scale of +50/+30/+20/-20/-50. Fire and forget.", but that there were differencies in normal failures.

Honestly, I'd suggest just sticking with this throughout. From my experience GMing it's fairly quick & simple to remember. I generally applied both penalties and bonuses pretty broadly, like Ludo notes he does.

In my last campaign, I chose not to use skill augments because I wanted Rune/Passion augments to feel more "special." Ideally, my goal was that it would help RPing because being able to augment would provide the players with a mechanical payoff for non-cult Rune affinities (my group tends to focus on "roll" over "role" instinctively). This also had the side effect that augments didn't consume lots of extra dice rolls or time at the table. Just "cool, I'm going to roll to augment my combat with the Movement Rune" or "I'm going to call on my Earth Rune for this bargain" etc.

I think I made a mistake in excluding skill augments, because there are many skills which might not get used without augmenting rules. For example, the magical languages are quite situational, until you use them to augment casting cult spirit magic - likewise with skills such as Dance and Sing.

12 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

We seldom try to "Inspire" with any Passion or Rune that's less than 70%.

This has been the behavior I notice from my players, too. They rarely use Passion augments, but grub for Rune augments as often as they can, if the percentage is 60/70%+. I mostly follow the same pattern when I play, although I haven't had a lot of opportunities to play.

Augment rules are something I need to review, though. I thought they all worked basically the same, but I've been informed each type of augment actually has slightly different rules, not +20%/-20%.

Wrote a myth. It's up over on my site. Moving forward, I'll probably just share a link like this for longer stuff, unless someone suggests otherwise. I'll still share pretty pictures here. 🙂 I've also set up a page with which I intend to collect links to myths, session writeups, etc.

The myth is about how Ernalda became the Queen of the Universe after Asrelia. It was inspired by a few bits in The Book of Heortling Mythology from the Stafford Library, as well as some of my own opinions about how Glorantha's mythology has, in the past, been written. The title is "Asrelia Retires." 

We're in the last few days of DriveThruRPG's annual GM's Day Sale. Lots of great stuff on the Jonstown Compendium has been marked down, including Treasures of Glorantha! If you've been waiting, now is a great time to check it out.

If you use this link, you can get the softcover on sale too! However, this discount will only be active until the end of the sale.

For those of you who already have Treasures, I'd be ever-so-grateful if you'd take thirty seconds to leave a rating, or five minutes to write a short review. Ratings and reviews really those of us creating content know what we're doing right, what we're doing wrong, and learn how to improve our craft. It really is very much appreciated.

6 hours ago, resurrected duck said:

I am wondering, how does it affect gameplay?

We played a combat-heavy RQ3 game, and then a combat-heavy-ish RQG game. It's pretty impactful. At the old 5min duration, you could stack a bunch of spells, and then jump into the fight. With 2min - ten melee rounds - you can't really cast more than two buffs before initiating a fight. If you try casting, for example, Strength, Protection, and Bladesharp, you may already be down to half duration remaining by the time you take your first sword-swing.

I don't know if I'd assign a value-judgement to this change. But it does cause a difference in how my players tactically approach combat.

This month's #MOTM is now available on the #Jonstown Compendium!

RENHARTH BLACKVEINS

This month's issue of Monster of the Month continues the series of Rune Masters begun last month. Inside, you'll find a terrifying Sword of Humakt, Renharth Blackveins. Raised under the rule of the Lunar invaders, Renharth embodies patriotism without hatred, antagonism with respect. In addition to describing Renharth, this issue includes:

• Gamemaster advice for using this new Rune Master, including adventure seeds to inspire immediate play
• Several cult spirits Renharth has bound, including the Nightmare of the Inevitable Path, which threatens all who see it with visions of their death
• A new subcult, Humakt Indomitable, suitable for adventurers and antagonists alike
• Two additional non-player characters, and directions for Renharth's retinue in war and peace

Although most of this supplement is usable with the core rulebook alone, you’ll need a copy of The Red Book of Magic from Chaosium in order to use the new subcult included herein.

About this Series: Monster of the Month is a series of bestiary entries for Chaosium's RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. In addition to statblocks and behavior, most issues include supplemental detail and advice for gamemasters and/or new adventurer options for players.

On 2/19/2021 at 10:12 AM, Sumath said:

What do people feel about the location of RQ stats? Chaosium's policy is to place these wherever a character appears in the text. But again, I don't see how this assists in running the scenario.

This is something I'm still a bit torn on, myself. I've put the stats mostly at the back of the two scenarios I published for the JC (The Throat of Winter and Clash with the Quacken, in MOTM #12), and that felt mostly right. I think that it'd be worth developing a limited statblock of some sort for use in-line. This is fairly easy with spirits since it's basically just Spirit Combat skill & damage, but it's more difficult with basically anything else. Maybe just HP, spell list, and important abilities?

Various JC authors have been tinkering with ways to handle abridged/improvised stats (for example, Six Seasons in Sartar), and I think that's something worth continuing to explore as a community.

Here's some stuff I've also shared over on FB. So as not to glut the forum with a lot of different threads, I'm just going to collate anytime I'm talking about Sylthi/Esrolia from now on into this thread.

Did adventurer creation for a new RQG campaign last night! Finally get to playtest/chaotically explore the Esrolia material I've been messing around with. We currently have:

• A Yinkini herder, the neglected son of the prodigal daughter of House Lorel. Despite humble origins, he's made a small name for himself as a warrior in the Esrolian Civil Wars over the last few years.
• A shapeshifting river-thief who may or may not have stolen those shiny family heirlooms from her grandfather.
• An Ernaldan noblewoman who was recognized for her quick wit and plucked out of poverty in Dickensian style. (Nasty rumors say her family sold her to pay off debts. These are vicious lies and should be disregarded.)

Next session is finishing touches, and then digging into an adventure. Not sure yet, but I'm thinking a prequel set during the civil strife telling what role the adventurers played in driving the Lunars out of their city, and establishing the present-day social order.

Session One: A Croc in the Kitchen

We had our first session of my Sylthi RQG game in Esrolia this past Friday. Starting with adventurer wrapup, we talked a little more about the cultural context and the adventurer context within society. Our game's starting point is basically "You aren't powerful/important, but you're related to powerful/important people." With, of course, the caveat that the adventurers certainly can become powerful/important people over the course of the game.

THE CHARACTERS

We have three adventurers currently in this campaign:

• Gandas, a Yinkini herder. He's the neglected son of a prodigal daughter of the noble House Lorel. We didn't add new context for him, but agreed that the local Yinkin minor temple is in the Arstola Woods to the north.
• Agnis, a shapeshifting river-thief. She's from Brol downriver, where her family is associated with the priesthood of the Twin Rivers cult. They... don't get along.
• Avalon, an Ernaldan adopted into the noble House Netha. She was adopted by the eldest member of the house, Hanalda, who for reasons-undetermined never had children (her younger sister, Hazulda, is the Netha Grandmother and head-of-house). So Avalon is technically the cousin and aunt of members of the city leadership! However, she'll be demoted to a branch bloodline once her adoptive mother dies. Currently, I've summarized Avalon's family relationship as "Hanalda's a crazy old cat lady, and you're her cat."

THE SESSION

I decided to begin the campaign with a prequel exploring how the Lunars were expelled from Sylthi in c. 1623 ST. Afterward, we're going to jump forward to 1625 ST after the Dragonrise. The goal here is to define "how did your adventurers shape the anti-Lunar revolution?" Some events of the history are predetermined (like who becomes the new city queen) but not everything.

The context is after the Siege of Nochet, as conflicts spread throughout Esrolia between the Old Earth Alliance and the Red Earth Alliance. The adventurers joined the Old Earth Alliance in the Siege of Nochet, and distinguished themselves while protecting Samastina (in the Family History). This helped define that they know and trust one another as local allies.

After a short time back in Sylthi, Avalon receives a family courier asking her to come with trusted companions to Netha Manor shortly after dusk.

The manor's audience hall is filled with persons from a variety of the city's factions. Priests, adventurers, nobles, a shaman - it's an atypical gathering. In particular members of House Doraest - a client of the noble House Pareninna, who leads the Red Earth Alliance in the city - are here, at a secretive meeting, for unknown reasons.

After briefly milling about, Grandmother Hazulda and the Netha elders emerge on the balcony above. Yurivest, the city's Storm Voice, throws a blood-covered dagger onto the floor below, and announces that the Lunars attempted to assassinate him. (Gandas immediately posited that this was a Netha ploy.) Dorinela (of Doraest) agrees, and immediately throws in her support, along with the support of her house's Light Son of Elmal, Gandari, in an obviously pre-arranged show.

A long discussion ensues (which we skipped much of) about what to do, ranging from 'an eye for an eye' to a full bloody coup and execution of Moon-worshiping foreigners (locals wouldn't be killed). The council settles on seizing the granaries the Lunars established in the city, and seizing the city granaries as well if they can do so without shedding blood in the Earth Temple.

Various tasks are distributed and argued over, due to the prestige 'on auction' for those who participate in this overthrow. Avalon clashes with an Elmali of the Doraest faction named Murhan. They're competing over who will conduct a nighttime kidnapping. A Fertility augment and an Orate special later, and Murhan is convinced not just to let Avalon and her friends claim the glory of this task, but to follow her leadership as well!

The goal is to kidnap a Lunar noble named Farnalie (Far-NAH-lee-ay). She's a priestess of the Seven Mothers. This kidnapping will help the Netha-Doraest seize the temple granaries.

Here's the cultural custom this adventure engages with: the cult of Asrelia in my Esrolia is in charge of - among other things - the city granaries. Usually, these are contained within the underground portion of the local Earth temple. In Sylthi, control of access to the granaries and distribution of grain is held by three women, reflecting the noble triarchy which administrates the city. Each Grandmother (ranking female elder queen) of the noble houses is a God-Talker of Asrelia, in addition to her other duties. Frequently, the Sylthi Grandmothers delegate this religious/administrative role to a trusted relative. For example, Grandmother Hazulda is a God-Talker of Asrelia, but Hanalda (her elder sister, and Avalon's adoptive mother) works at the temple making the requisite sacrifices to Asrelia, distributing grain as wages/rations, working with scribes to determine inventory, and so on. This custom allows the religious and political powers of an Esrolian Grandmother to be consolidated and wielded by one figure if necessary, but otherwise managed by "committee." The recipient of the Asrelia Privilege must be (or become) an initiate of Asrelia, but has no other actual restrictions, and the position has been held by an unusual variety of individuals in Sylthi's 400-year history.

So.

Farnalie holds the Asrelia Privilege for House Pareninna, despite being a foreign noble from Peloria. This is how the Lunars got a foothold in the city's rulership - they provided grain during the Great Winter in exchange for political power. By feeding the city, the Pareninna claimed the queenship, and the Lunars used their relationships to press for construction of a Seven Mothers temple. The adventurers are to kidnap Farnalie so that she will turn over Pareninna's Asrelia status to Grandmother Dorinela. This will allow Dorinela to usurp queenship of the Pareninna as the descendant of a branch bloodline.

The adventurers and Murhan - the Elmali warrior Avalon is seducing - head out to the Foreigner's District, where they know Farnalie has her private residence. When they arrive, there are lights and music inside. She's holding some sort of feast. Two guards stand lazily outdoors, clearly unaware that someone among their faction has instigated violence. So, the adventurers hang around, attempting to be inconspicuous.

Gandas pretends to be a vagrant, and gets run off by an irritated kitchen servant.

Agnis scopes out local buildings for "later reference," and eventually settles in on a roof until things quiet down.

Murhan and Avalon, meanwhile, pretend to be lovers having a wonderful time outside one of the nearby alehouses. This results in them actually having a wonderful time, not realizing when Farnalie's party winds down, and the adjective "himbo" getting stuck to the Elmali. I call for a Charm roll, including Avalon's earlier Fertility augment, and note the success down, planning to later look up how the Six Seasons in Sartar romance minigame works again.

As they're flirting, Gandas sneaks into the alley behind Farnalie's house, and casts Claws (+50% to Climb!) and Catseye. Then, Mobility and Silence, and he scurries up the wall like, well, a cat. Gandas - whose player is the most experienced and cautious out of our group - then begins a careful exploration of the second floor.

While this is going on successfully, Agnis interrupts Avalon and Murhan, and presents her suggestion. They also go hide in the alley (while Gandas is upstairs), where Agnis transforms into a baby crocodile.

An Explanation: Agnis is a member of the Twin Rivers cult, which worships Hrell and Hrenal, half-brother sons of Heler and the gods of the Whitefall and Eagle Rivers in Esrolia, respectively. The transformation uses the Meld Form/Proteus spells from the RBM, on the Water Rune. Each god's subcult provides three forms, based on the god's most famous transformations in the God Time. Hrell provides bulls, rams, and crocodiles. However, per Meld Form you have to actually have the creature you want to transform into, and no one is gonna waste their time wrangling a full-grown crocodile for some initiate! But the cult does keep clutches of sacred baby crocodiles, which can be provided to initiates. (This was meant to be a nerf when I designed the cult, but as a thief, Agnis has definitely turned it into a boon. I'm loving it.)

With a careful Devise roll, Avalon slips baby-croc-Agnis in under the wooden shutters of the kitchen window. Agnis's plan is to search the house for Farnalie and either do the kidnapping herself, or to create a distraction which will let Avalon and Murhan sneak into the house themselves.

However, none of them know Gandas is already upstairs.

Agnis discovers her baby-croc legs can't get up the steep stairs. The kitchen servant is finishing his baking for the morning bread, and hasn't noticed her. So, while hiding under the table, she starts hissing at him. He, of course, freaks out, and calls in Farnalie's bodyguards from where they're sleeping in the building's main room (a sort of mini-megaron). Grabbing a broom, he starts trying to shoo the croc out of the house. So Agnis bolts into the main room, chased by the NPCs.

Gandas hears the commotion, and ignores it, while lurking outside what he presumes (correctly) is Farnalie's bedroom.

Shortly after entering the main hall, the fire goes out! Agnis, as a river-worshiper, knows Extinguish. The question comes up if she can cast other spells while under the effect of Proteus, and I allow it because Rune magic is cool. One of the guards immediately shouts "Trickster!" because that's the immediate response to this type of bullshit and the servant runs into the kitchen to grab a makeshift torch from kindling.

Gandas hears that, wincing, and knows for sure that something's going on. But thankfully no one comes upstairs. Farnalie stirs, and when she leaves her bedroom, he rests his Claws'd hand on her neck. One quiet threat later, Farnalie agrees to come with him (she's Pelorian after all, and understands how skullduggery works).

Outside, Murhan asks Avalon what's next in the plan. The answer, of course, is "What plan?" which starts an argument. Gandas attempts to get their attention from the upstairs window, but neither of the unhappy "lovers" hears while distracted by the argument and the ruckus inside. He ends up just climbing back down with Farnalie disgracefully over his shoulder (with all his magic, I just call for a resistance roll against her SIZ to succeed). The three adventurers look around, and prepare to run off into the night with their prize once Agnis comes back.

Then they hear a BANG!

Inside the house, the servant's torch gets Extinguish'd immediately, and the guards start swearing violently. Agnis isn't sure how to get out of this situation, so decides to continue making a distraction. She uses another point of Proteus to transform into her bull shape, and charges through the house's closed double doors! This makes a terrific crash, and the guards begin running down the street after the magical hooligan. (Now suspecting this is a Twin Rivers cultist, not a trickster - but if this has consequences hasn't yet been decided.) I check the chase rules, and feel they don't really match this situation since a Dexterity Check doesn't feel right for chasing down a rampaging bull (and Agnis as a bull doesn't really have a placeholder skill like Ride or Drive Chariot), so I have her make a Movement Rune roll to abstract the situation. She succeeds, and escapes the guards after about five minutes of pursuit. Of course, this is long enough for Avalon, Gandas, and Murhan to make off with Farnalie.

Despite the lack of actual leadership and planning, the heist was basically a success. The biggest impact this has had is on Murhan's opinion of Avalon, moving from both infatuated and impressed, to merely infatuated. He also sort-of-accidentally became friendly with Gandas, by praising the Yinkini's efforts as a cat-burglar (intended as an indirect snub to Avalon since Gandas did all that on his own).

While they're making their way back through the city with the victim, the adventurers hear shouting and scuffling starting. The other conspirators are beginning their own parts in the scheme. A large fire is raging in the Pareninna quarter. I have the adventurers make Battle rolls to navigate the skirmishes and rioting, with the note that in addition to the effects in the core rulebook, if two out of three fail they'll be drawn into a full melee fight. Gandas takes a wound to the knee, but they manage to flee through the city successfully.

We ended the session with their return to Netha Manor, with Farnalie in hand. If the adventurers got into a melee she would have begun fighting against them, but I judged they never gave her a realistic chance to escape. Next session will be the aftermath and establishment of the New Sylthi Order.

2 hours ago, Agentorange said:

I'd certainly pay more for RQ stuff because  it's of more interest to me if that makes sense. Mmm....a reasonable price, I guess it's whatever I'm prepared to pay

RQ Classic Apple Lane is available for $10 as a POD. https://www.chaosium.com/apple-lane-softcover-pod/

21 hours ago, Joerg said:

So, will a Pavisite alchemist be a member of the Pavisite Alchemist guild (in all likelihood way too small to form a wyter), or will that more be the Pavis chapter of the Kethaelan Guild of Alchemists, and associated to the local omnibus guild of tanners, dyers, perfumers and other businesses dealing with unpleasant substances?

Here's what the core rulebook has to say on guilds, FWIW.