Gallowglass

This is partly why I find Vorthan interesting. In every other Theyalan culture, Shargash/Tolat is clearly an enemy god. But in Jonatela, and maybe elsewhere in Fronela, he seems to be accepted and play some cultural role, although what that role is I'm still puzzling out, other than "scary war god." That's interesting, never knew that!

I'd like to start a discussion on a fairly obscure topic. The god Vorthan is mentioned a few times in the Jonatela section in the GtG. On pg. 228 under "Vorthan's Hill" he is described as "an Underworld God of War and the Red Planet." He is also mentioned as one of the war gods worshiped by the nobles in Jonatela, along with Humakt, Orlanth, and Urox. So, it seems pretty clear that Vorthan is same god as Shargash/Tolat, right? There is only one god I know of that is associated with the Red Planet, and that's everyone's favorite Destroyer. I'm wondering about how a group of superficially Westernized Orlanthi started worshiping Vorthan alongside their other traditional war gods. What connection does Vorthan have with Fronela and its people? There are a few possibilities I'm considering. BTW these theories assume that the Enjoreli of Dawn Age Fronela basically became the Orlanthi people of the Third Age who now inhabit Jonatela. There seem to be a lot of entrances to the Underworld in Jonatela, at Jonat's Hill (p. 225) and Tamalior (p. 228). Also there is the Red Door in nearby Oranor (p. 216). Vorthan is a god of the Underworld, so perhaps his worship in Fronela goes back to the earliest times during the Enjoreli period. I could see his worship being propitiatory, with people seeking protection from Underworld demons or other monsters. During the Great Darkness, it also would have been useful to have such a fearsome god on your side with Chaos running amok (although Storm Bull was also probably worshiped by the Enjoreli for this purpose). Fronelan peoples have also had repeated contact with Pelorians and their religion, so maybe Vorthan is an imported cult. In the Dawn Age, the Bright Empire was very active here in their war against Talor the Laughing Warrior. The Enjoreli living here at the time were open to accepting many different foreign gods, so maybe Shargash worked his way in there and became Vorthan over time. Curious what other people think, especially the Shargash fans!

Your topic probably deserves its own thread. But yes, I agree that sounds like a player's worst nightmare. And a GM's actually, because running combat with more than 12 combatants makes my head explode. I would say that over the course of the campaign, the battles that really made my players sweat had some combination of the following- Lots of ranged combat. Ambushes in which they faced enemies that had already cast protective spells Enemies that could clearly sever or crush body parts in a single blow, like Humakti or great trolls. All of our so called "boss fights" were kind of a let-down (for me anyway) because the PC's usually came prepared and tried to set up their own ambushes, and then really focused their attacks on the big bad before he could do any serious harm. The Bagog Rune Lord only got to fire off a few protective spells before he went down in the 2nd round.

Yeah honestly I had trouble keeping up with them, combat in Runequest is hard on the GM too. This was the end of our campaign, but when I return to Glorantha next, I’ll hopefully be ready for their hijinks.

There was egregious use of aimed blows.

Update: I ran the big battle last night. It was definitely one of the tougher encounters I have run for my players, but they still pretty much mopped the floor with the Scorpion Men. Turns out a shaman with access to 30+ MP, and a Storm Bull berserker who can regularly deal 20 damage in a single blow are VERY EFFECTIVE at killing things. Still, I think the sheer number of enemies (10 against 4), and the presence of powerful enemy magic was enough to scare them a little.

If the spirit had no RP of its own, couldn’t it draw on the Rune Lord’s pool?

They know roughly what they’re up against.

My players are about to go up against a Rune Lord of Bagog (tomorrow night). I'm now realizing that there are some things about allied spirits I don't get, and I want to make sure I'm solid on the rules so I don't make the fight too unbalanced. An allied spirit has access to all the Rune Lord's spells, and vice versa. Does this mean that the Rune Lord and spirit could cast Rune spells together on strike rank 1? So, for example, on the first strike rank, the Rune Lord and allied spirit could both cast Carapace on themselves? The allied spirit I designed inhabits the body of a large (dog-sized) scorpion. If the scorpion body is destroyed, can the spirit then act as a normal, disembodied spirit? Could it then cast spells or initiate spirit combat? Sorry if these questions have been asked before, I couldn't find any specific answers in my searching.

Hello All, So, I'm way behind on my recap blog. Things got really crazy back around the holidays, and I lost my motivation to keep writing. Our campaign is still ongoing, although it is scheduled to end after Sacred Time 1626. Right now we are in Storm Season. At this point I have some more free time on my hands due to being shut in from the virus, so I figured I would catch up on my chronicle. These will be more brief because I've forgotten some of the details. Earth Season 1626 Finale - How my players became terrified of Sakkars The party had successfully tracked down Angtyr of the Horn to a hidden cave in the southern Yellow Hills. Instead of charging right in, they returned to Darrold's Hold and rounded up the posse. King Orkarl himself decided to accompany them, along with 20-ish warriors. This session was one big string of battles, most of which were very one-sided. Garkar was nearly killed after getting stabbed in the neck by a sentry, but recovered with some quick healing. After that, the posse split up to cut off all escape routes for the bandits. The party and King Orkarl continued with 10 men. Sneaking up on the cave proved impossible, and the alarm was soon raised. Angtyr appeared, naked and wielding a very large spear. After some banter and mockery, he commanded his bandits to attack while he slipped away. I was hoping this final battle would prove to more challenging for the crew, but I had given them one particular toy that threw things way out of balance: the Sakkar spirit. Since they had spent most of the last session trying to find and ally with it, I wanted to make it worth the trouble. They had already used it to help find Angtyr, but it had another useful ability. If it was allowed to possess a human host, it would transform that person into a flesh-and-blood saber-toothed cat. I figured Egajia would do this, but it was decided her spirit magic would be more useful. Erindros, who is somewhat lacking in combative skills, volunteered for possession. Angtyr, who was a priest of Gerendetho, had the power to summon rockfalls from his god. He started the fight by doing this, bringing down Orkarl and a few other warriors in a large rockslide. He then ran for it. As soon as Erindros saw this, he invited the Sakkar spirit in, and transformed. Egajia cast some damage-boosting spells, and Erindros/Sakkar managed to leap right over the defensive shield wall that was guarding Angtyr. The bandit king had a hefty Shield spell up, and as soon as Egajia realized this she called on an ancestor spirit (pre-summoned) to tear it down with a big Dispel Magic. Angtyr had lasted only 3 rounds before Erindros caught up with him. In tiger form, he managed to tear open Angtyr's chest with a claw swipe, which was nearly enough to kill him. Then he rolled a Special for the bite attack on his HEAD! Typical. He rolled high enough damage to decapitate poor Angtyr, so that was it. Before his untimely demise, Angtyr had pulled on a rope nearby, opening up a pit in the ground. Out of the pit climbed a massive broo, vile and pustule-ridden. As Erindros engaged with the beast, the other bandits were quickly falling to Garkar, HWSAD and Egajia's signature Sleep spells. The giant broo lasted another two rounds, but was quickly eviscerated by saber-tooth fangs, and a finishing blow to the chest by HWSAD's maul. King Orkarl was healed, and everyone witnessed the Sakkar bound up a cliff and back into the woods. This was done to make the Balkoth men think that the tribe was avenged by a local spirit, rather than by a group of Dundealos adventurers. Egajia took Angtyr's enchanted horn as a gift to the Wozer clan, and the rest of the party split up the spoils with King Orkarl. They returned to the Wozer clan in triumph, presenting the chieftain with the horn, and sealing their friendship. Next time I will recap Dark Season, which will also likely be short. Thanks for reading!

I don’t know, I’m just trying to see if I can get an official update since I haven’t heard anything about it in a long time. Unless Jeff mentioned it in these announcements and I missed it.

Does anyone know if the GM book is still happening? I thought this was going to contain the heroquest rules.

Where does Jakaboom fit into all these different practices? I thought she was the original troll shaman. Maybe her cult is like a “graduate level” spirit society for those already initiated into other cults?

This is a solid ruling and makes sense. However I also like this solution, and will probably adopt it as a house rule. Thanks for the replies!

An arrow fired after casting Sureshot will always hit unless a fumble is rolled. But can the person firing do a called shot (the rules call them “aimed blows”)? Like, does Sureshot practically guarantee a headshot?

Just curious, have you read the Unspoken Word fanzine? Issues #1 and #3 have tons of great info on Lunar Tarsh and the Exiles. I don’t think it’s 100% canon anymore and it’s mostly written for Heroquest, but that shouldn’t stop you mining it for ideas.

I thought it was an “evil” river? Joerg I recall this being a point of contention for you, but the Guide says that the Syphon refused Magasta’s call, and that’s why it flows backwards.

Just how “cursed” is the Syphon River anyway? Like, don’t step in it? Also, wouldn’t it be a salt water river?

Does anyone know any details about the city of Backford being conquered by the Queendom of Jab? I found a reference to this on p. 43 of the Sourcebook, but I can’t find any other details. My campaign is near the end of 1626, and I’m thinking that retaking the city from Chaos could be a fun (if deadly) series of adventures.

If all goes according to plan, the party will be near Alda-Chur when Argrath recaptures it for Sartar, so that should be interesting.

I covered it on my recap blog, which is hosted on this site. I ran the battle as a simple series of skill rolls, no actual combat. I only do these battles to involve the players in the larger historical events, they’re sort of incidental to the main story, which tends to be low-powered clan stuff.

One thing I noticed in my Oranor research is that Greystone Fort seems to have had a connection with the God of Silver Feet. Why else would it be swamped with “angry ghosts?” There’s also the question of where the fort came from. It’s described as a massive stone “fortress-city.” Not something the local Oranor hill folk would bother to construct. So mayhaps its a ruin dating back to Kachisti times. Or King Drona’s time, which may be the same thing.

Are you saying the God of the Silver Feet was a Kachisti? If so, where are you getting that from? Also, in terms of ancestry, I thought the Kachisti were either wiped out by the Vadeli, or absorbed by the Orlanthi who rescued them as slaves. I don’t see the ancestral connection, although there probably was trade and exchange of ideas in the Storm Age, at least with the Enjoreli. Edit: looking at at the God Learner maps again, and I’m noticing that the Basmoli are described as having “enslaved many descendants of the Kachisti.” (GtG p. 690). Maybe that could happened with the Enjoreli and Enerali too.

Partly why I’m excited for more material on Esrolia is that the whole setting is “Ernaldan politics.”

I used a demon in our game that my players ended up fighting (and defeating). I decided it could not use spirit combat as long as it had a corporeal form, but it could also discorporate and re-form its body at will. My reasoning was mainly that there’s a Rune spell for using spirit combat in the physical world (Attack Soul). Giving demons that ability for free without the book saying so seemed unfair.