Squaredeal Sten

Jason said it can have rune points, plural, and at GM discretion a "reasonable number" of rune spells, which indicates a matching rune pool. And it will need more than one rune point to cast its Adventurer's better rune spells. Giving an allied spirit with just one rune point would be a pretty frustrating gift. I suppose if the GM wants to jerk the player around a little and make him or her sacrifice POW soon, that would be one way.

I am not sure that wyters in general have no INT. IMG this one does. The one in Six Seasons does too. And the one in Citizen's of the Lunar Empire. The Bestiary says some spirits have INT, and specifically a ghost does.

Little chance right now. Because (1) it is long, and (2) right now, subject to the actual role playing and of course further development of the whole adventure, I think it might make a piece of a Jonstown Compendium publication. But I will give you a summary: Using mostly numbers from Chaosium material, a caravanserai in a well chosen location with occupancy in good seasons similar to that of a successful modern hotel can make a lot of money. "Well chosen " is the critical thing though.

Not al. that much like an issaries priest - he never made priest in life - but he will certainly insist on his due, a contract is a contract. Let's not open ourselves to a Spirit of Raw Greed here. We are both Issaries together, after all. (Oratory roll - oh that's only for use on NPCs). He was glad to get the wyter role because the inn is what he DI'd for, you'd say he already achieved his bargaining goal there. I think he might be consulted on running the inn. Certainly on staff recruitment as several prospects used to work for him and others will be members of his clan.

Issaries rune spells, yes. So the wyter can Lock a door. But note, POW is expended casting them, and for spirit magic, wyters regenerate no MPs. And has Issaries specialty spirit spells. But the MPs must be those sacrificed to him, so this wyter is not going to power through situations. I appreciate your observation on GMing style. I can have the wyter complain in a dream that people are not sac"ing MPs. Maybe since you suggest it I will have him complain even before the end of construction, that he expected to get some MPs from this gig, and no one is communicating with him. That should be a decent in game reminder of the group membership mechanics issue. The hiring decisions and offers are going to be role played. Though not drawn out Since two of the group have more RQ GMing time than I do, I don't feel that I have to nurse them through the implications of the background. On the other hand maybe other folks don't make our Issaries role play as much business in his business as I do. On the third hand after the session (Like Orlanth you can portray me with lots of hands😄) I gave him my pro forma income statements for generic caravanserais, rather than making him work it out. ( I am the one with the MBA, so it was not my first rodeo. ) But that does not include a wyter on the staff. I think the wyter priest issues may be new to both of us. They certainly are to me, which is why I raised the topic here.

I have a new wyter to GM. Who / which I had only thought through in outline. As always the adventure grows more detail the closer I get to running it. I do see the reference to special magical rules. I am grateful to David Scott for his wyter of Apple Lane as an example. In this case the wyter is not the prize of a heroquest, but instead is the result of a Divine Intervention. So it doesn't have a legendary source. The wyter is essentially a volunteer cult spirit. This wyter is the spirit of an innkeeper whose inn was burned by the Lunars in their 1625 retreat. The adventurers have become the god's answer to his DI, which was primarily for the inn to be saved (or rebuilt.) After appearances as a ghost, and after Divinations, the ghost is becoming a wyter resident in the old hearthstone: Wyter of the caravanserai which is being (re)built. After the discussion so far I believe I will make the wyter aware of events in the caravanserai so long as members of the MP sacrificing inn staff are aware of them, plus events in the co- located spirit world. He is not a water Elemental nor an insect exterminator, and has no Extinguish spell so will not douse fires. He has a modest POW, that is what remains after the DI plus one POW sac'd to him so far. Most of his cult spirit and rune magic will have only rare application to events in or around the caravanserai, because I am only giving him magic suitable for a live non-adventuring NPC. It strikes me that a shaman might be persuaded to educate the wyter with more magic. But that would be a major cost to the business. A player decision if they think about it. As Bill pointed out, the wyter's main support of the community is via the Loyalty which will be taken, IF the Adventurers make that MP sac a requirement when hiring staff. We will see whether they think to do that. It will be a test of how much the players' minds are in Glorantha. I have got to think about how much the wyter will communicate with the staff other than the priest / primary owner. Seems to me he will have to materialize, probably at a cost in MPs. Or he will appear in dreams on site.

I disagree with the proposition that Chaos and Illumination are equivalent in Glorantha. (And have no reason to believe in either iof them in the Real World, except for small-c chaos as a mathematical concept.) I am pretty sure that the broos and scorpion men are not generally illuminated. If that is so then the proposition is disproved as a general rule. There is an intersection between the two, but there is also an intersection between illuminates and characters with affiliation with many or all of the other runes. To me illumination means the character has realized it's only a game. Which most of the players already know, though many of us can think of individuals who seem to have lost track of that.

A wyter is the spirit that binds a group together (Group can be a clan, tribe, temple, regiment, guild, ship's crew, etc.) Per RQiG pages 286-287 , the wyter “does not know everything going on” in its area (which can be large if its POW is large), but must be directed to search for things by the priest. It is linked to, and its magic can be directed by, the priest. Those who sacrifice MPs to it/him, must take a Passion for the group, and can communicate prayers to the wyter which can pass them on to the priest. So how much awareness and agency would YOU give a wyter in your game? Would you say that it doesn't know what is going on unless one of its group members prays to it? Or would you say that it does know what is going on in the line of sight of whatever item it is bound into? (This does raise the question of whether it has senses in the Middle World.) Or would you say that it only becomes aware of anything its priest directs it to pay attention to in its area, even if that is out of sight of its binding object? So the priest must essentially make a set of standing orders, or program the wyter? Would you say it would take independent action against a threat it was aware of (say a fire starting in its temple or guild building), or does it have to wait for the priest's direction? The only written example I recall is from Chris Gidlow's Citizens of the Lunar Empire, in which a wyter of an insula in Glamour (a water elemental) will put out fires in its building. What actions would it take to hold the group together? Is the simple fact of having sacrificed MPs to the wyter (and therefore taken a Passion for the group), all the wyter does to bind the group? Or does it somehow suppress disagreements and arguments? If so, how? Will the wyter take action on its own, or will it only take action as directed by its priest?

In a similar vein. I think time spent in a foreign land should give an opportunity lo learn a little of the language. It is not specified in the RQG rules. But when I had a Sartarite party in Balazar I gave them a seasonal check to learn a little Balazaring. Even without an instructor. Just a little, like 1D6 or 1D3. And I would do that first before they get to learn any local lore. Unless they are told the lore by a speaker of a language they understand. In the case of characters adventuring as Jo Mith's employees. It should be understood that the boss will tell them what he thinks they need to know to accomplish tasks, to not irritate the locals, etc.. so this is instruction, even though not formal study.

Or over the behavior of a rude relative on one side. All this can certainly he used to put in adventure hooks.

Seems reasonable, that is the terms of the marriage are agreed in advance by the clan rings. And it's not just financial haggling, but also includes other terms: which variety of marriage, year or life or... Nevertheless the ceremony is when the deal is closed. And also when it is officially announced to and witnessed by both the wider families and the general public. For role playing purposes I am interested in the details.

But how do the scorpion men get a demon horse to eat? They could eat scorpion men for all we know. There would have to be one impressive back story. So what is your back story?

So when are the marriage vows spoken? With the bride in this pose?

I am definitely not attempting to argue with your Christianity, and ask you to excuse me if any of my previous remarks make you feel uncomfortable. But I do want to point out that Christianity is not relevant to our shared fiction of Glorantha, except that our (player and GM) reactions to fictional situations will be heavily influenced by Christianity as well as other present day cultural things which post date Christianity. Glorantha is a fiction (as I beleve all of us will agree) and was conceived with a set of pre Christian and very pre modern concepts as its operating principles: As I understand it, these include what if-the commonly held beliefs of about 4 000 years ago are true in our fictional world? The earth is flat, the sky is a dome. The stars appear to be on that dome, and none of this is very far away. There are not 92 natural elements, but instead air, earth, and fire "runes"... with a couple of amendments. And most important, various magical and religious beliefs and paradigms of the bronze age are as real and effective in Glorantha as electric lights are for us in the real world. And myths are true, even though on the typical day they are (just?) stories told by the village elders, and even though there are different versions which are simultaneously true. Among those bronze age paradigms are multitheism and transactional religion mediated by priests. A personal relationship with any god is rare, that is a 16th century paradigm, and in the bronze age it was for prophets and heroes.. And I think you have at least as good a grasp of that shared fiction as I do. Probably better.

I know broo will resemble the creature they are born from. But do scorpionmen resemble the creature their queen ate alive? Or does its chaotic-tainted spirit just reside in a generic scorpion man body? The scorpion duck certainly triggers the imagination. Perhaps a new chaotic feature: triggers uncontrollable laughter, victim will roll on the floor. 😄

It has been decades since I skimmed the Golden Bough. But it made an impression on me, and in that light much of this can be explained by one observation and one pre-historical hypothesis: (1) that the human mind is very good at seeing patterns, and easily sees coincidences as patterns. There is an evolutionary explanation for this: It is a pattern that an unexplained movement in the leaves may be a big cat intending to ambush a hominid. Those who avoid that, live and reproduce. If it is occasionally not really a big cat, they still live and reproduce. Thus to see patterns that are not real in addition to those that are, was still an evolutionary advantage. Even though in the present day it tends to make one a conspiracy theorist. (2) that some time very early in prehistory, one of our ancestors developed a hypothesis: That things that move have spirits in them. This appeared to have great explanatory power: If you kill an animal it stops moving, and you have already decided that killing it let its spirit out. This hypothesis was extended to trees moved by wind and streams moved by gravity, thus we get belief in dryads and naiads. Even to the wind, can't you feel it moving? Shortly thereafter some humans grew attached to the idea that they could manipulate spirits, and shamanism developed. Near the beginning of history other people developed a belief in really big and powerful spirits, for instance a storm god, since you can see the clouds move and the hurricane arrive. It was a short jump to say that these are too powerful to control in the manner of a shaman. But they can be bribed by sacrifice, ceremony, and prayer, and a priest claims to do that. And often enough, as you observed above, the ceremony and sacrifice seem to work. This makes the priest a big man. Sometimes the ceremony is to ensure that the Nile flood arrives, and sure enough tbe flood does arrive after the sacrifice, for a thousand years. The priest is a god-king. When they don't work the priest spins a story. Who is some farmer to dispute that story, which was told by a learned man higher ranking in the community, even a god-king? Doubters had better keep their doubts to themselves.

My own experience does not support that. We did do the Six Seasons in Sartar campaign and the resultes were satisfactory. Now, after the adulthood initiation I declared that the PCs would get cult and occupational training each quarter for free because their clan is raising adult family, not doing for-profit education. I consider that reasonable GMing, estimating what has to happen in the social background. In their 2nd year of course they were not yet comparable to 21 year old starting characters, yet they were released into the wider world. (Company of the Dragon had not been released but for a game year plus, I ran a good substitute.) Employed at generous terms (that included spell teaching but not much money) they continued to develop. And by age 21 they were definitely more skilled and more powerful than 21 year old starting characters. Anyway. having played through it, it works. It might not if I were a GM who likes to kill Adventurers, but I am not. Though we have had a Resurrection or two between 1619 and 1627 ST.

So are pneumatic and hydraulic mechanical effects visible in Glorantha? As examples, Can you blow up a bladder as a balloon, as used to be done in the RW? Does a hand held fan work to cool your face? Can you suck up water or beer in a straw? Can you squirt water from a bladder, bag, or a piston-and- tube arrangement? Does a blacksmith's bellows work to propel a jet of air, which causes a fire to blaze up? If I fan a fire with my hat, will it blaze up? If not, do Gloranthans have a harder time lighting fires than we did in the RW? If you invert a cup and lower it into a basin of water, then turn it upright. Will you observe an air bubble? Will a piston type pump work. for either air or water? Or are all ships' pumps chain and bucket pumps, or are there simply none?

I am pretty sure the Kitori are not dead. But note, their tribal land, the Troll Woods, is not really near the Heortland highway. So is not adjacent to Whitewall.

So let your player start with a 16 year old, just into adulthood, a lay member of some god's cult. Let the PC initiate in game when the player feels like it. Which will probably be soon because that is one of the major paths to advancement, but maybe the character wants to be a shaman and is not a Praxian with access to Waha. And Daka Fal seems to me to be only notionally a god. That is essentially the Six Seasons in Sartar plan. And it works for a campaign. Now, realize all of my players decided to initiate to a cult, though one of them waited for a cult not available in the home village. Staying a lay member doesn't seem to work for the aspiring adventurer. For reasons others discussed above. By the way, we are told that Sartar and maybe Prax are exceptional places in having the majority of the population initiate to some cult. Elsewhere on Genertela the median adult is a lay member. see https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/13494-how-many-lay-member-initiates-in-glorantha/#comment-210493 https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/14042-determining-cultic-rank/#comment-220545 https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/11046-what-is-the-proportion-of-initiates-among-a-population/page/3/#comment-165898 If you really want to play with the concept then locate your campaign in a different place. How about the West, or maybe Kralorela or even Pamaltela? Yes you will have to write more of your own adventures. But Guide to Glorantha offers many other regions. If you stick with it you might have something to publish.

And by the way though the similarity of Trollball to American football is unmistakable, the enthusiasm of the fans spans games and cultures. As someone else said in another thread, the Uz are the most human of the elder races. https://www.npr.org/2022/10/01/1126439213/indonesia-soccer-riot-fans-dead?sc=18&f=1001

Here is one way to approach it: What are the functions of a priest? Intermediary between man and god, to run and teach worship. To lead people to be better Orlanthi. To teach cult lore and cult magic to cult members, and occasionally to members of associated cults. Anything else is a function of your priest's personality and experience, his backstory, and should be a part of the story you want to tell and the adventure you want to push the PCs into. So first of all, what is that? Now as for the secondary issue, the priestly functions: as far as I can see what matters in this case is to be better Orlanthi. So my thoughts on your cases: (A) The hazia smoker and possible shamanist: Hazia is a bad habit and shamanism is a different path (though also useful) so helpfully steer him to divine magic. As I understand it a shaman is not going to make Wind Lord, so not a path for a priest to encourage. (B) The Lunar influence is counter to the cult compatibility table. Steer him away from this dangerous cult. Maybe divination to investigate whether it is a real threat. Or depending on the date, if the Lunars have banned Orlanth then your priest is late, and this Lunar sorcerer should have met a bad end yesterday, why hasn't the priest arranged that? This Lunar feeding someone is just a Lunar snare, and it cannot redeem him. (C) The Praxians may be a little rough but so is Orlanth, cult compatibility is OK, Orlanth pursued and gained by a wide circle of friends, so no cult problem here. We are not monotheistic, no problem associating. Rowdyism may be a clan problem but is not a cult problem. Let the clan chief worry about it.

According to Griffin Mountain, which is the source so far, the giants at Gonn Orta's castle don't live in or have much of a cave. Gonn Orta is too big for any cave I have seen, and I have seen Carlsbad Caverns. Boshbisil's stuff is not guarded by monsters - he is, essentially, a "monster" himself, though a civil one. And has friends, the biggest one being Gonn Orta himself. But if you want him to have a cave in your Glorantha, go for it. This one might be your model: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/worlds-largest-cave

But normal doesn't make heroes. We are, most of us, pursuing heroic fantasy. Each cult"s god is an archetype of a hero that the adventurer wants to emulate. And emulation is rewarded with divine magic which makes it more likely to be a successful hero. This includes the heroic pacifist, the heroic scholar, the heroic merchant, as well as the heroic death dealer. The heroic farmer or sailor or (earth) mother as well as the adventurer lord. There are plenty of ideals to follow. Why sign up for the death dealing cult if you want to be the heroic farmer?

The CA adventurer I referred to earlier was started in a Six Seasons based campaign, as a pre- initiation Orlanthi. The player wanted a CA and I said there is no CA here in the Vale to teach him. You can go talk to the Ernalda priestess about learning healing. This is like you're born in some little Kansas farm town and you want to learn to be a physician. You can't do that at home, you need to go to a university. Your character will have to go to a city like Jonstown where there is a famous hospital / CA temple if you want to join CA. Basically I made him work for it. Under the old RQ2 requirements to initiate into CA, not the new RQiG 'sincerity only' test. The Ernalda priestess interviewed him, went on about how cute he had been as a baby, and agreed to teach him First Aid and eventually gave him a letter to the Jonstown hospital. So the Adventurer did just that: We played through Six Seasons while he worked on learning First Aid and a couple of points of Healing. During Six Seasons, When Six Seasons wrapped up I segued to Griffin Mountain. At this point the campaign lost a couple of players who had just been curious about Six Seasons, but didn't like playing via Zoom. The Adventurers went through Jonstown as Kallyr's folks had arranged the party's escape from Sartar, since they were wanted - "You need to get out of Sartar for a while or you'll end up crucified on the edge of the road." They made an Underground Railroad style journey to Jonstown by a circuitous route. The wannabe CA hired on with Jo Mith as a muleteer, and the rest of the party mostly passed the skill test to be guards (at a higher rate of pay). In Jonstown the campaign picked up two locals, an Issaries and a Lhankor Mhy, both going to Balazar, who also made the group better balanced and got my PC count back up to six. The trip to Balazar grazed Brangbane's ghouls, did not enter Snakepipe Hollow (but passing by is dangerous enough) took a dip into Trollpack on the way, et cetera. Then we actually did a year of Griffin Mountain, with plenty of opportunities for character and skill development. In Balazar the character joined CA as a lay member since there is a CA priestess in Trilus. During this year the party picked up a very interesting item on a minor Issaries heroquest, which they entrusted to the would be healer. (No, that heroquest is not in Griffin Mountain. It's a sandbox campaign and I played in the sandbox.) On the return from Balazar, they quit Mith's caravan upon arrival in Jonstown. That was the Adventurer's chance and place to actually initiate into CA. At this point, as a fairly well developed character. I segued through the Heroquest version of Apple Lane, to Company of the Dragon, and we played through all that. but the rest of the PCs were the Ring, so it was still not a non-violent campaign. But a lot of Company of the Dragon does not encourage excessive violence, it's not a murder hobo campaign, and our Healer was perfectly good at getting though various adventures vs. opponents against whom violence is maybe not the smartest option. Plenty of work for a healer, but also some disease spirits that the now-Powerful healer beat and milked for POW. So he was the party's most POWerful, though non lethal, magic user. By the end of COD of course all these folks are pretty powerful. Sartar freed, more or less.... the battle of Dangerford, Rebuilding the Vale, a segue into The Smoking Ruin, (which definitely gets them noticed by Leika), and more rebuilding the Vale. The Battle of Queens, in which our CA had occasion to heal and our more violent Adventurers had combat. Burning Kallyr's body. And we are up to more or less current campaign events, about which I will write little as I am alternating between Seven Tailed Wolf and a project of my own, which stretches the calendar a little. Anyway, I have presented to you a campaign without any murder hobo activity. Persecuted peasants, refugees, merchants, freedom fighters, heroquesters , being sent on missions by Temples and in the interest of their clan, yes - but never murder hoboes.