Destroyed Lunar colony in southern Zola Fel valley circa 1625?

[Nick Brooke]

2 minutes ago, scott-martin said:

Love it. While we've mostly encountered pragmatic lunar perspectives on the Wastes, the early and uh seminal Red Moon in Prax hints at a more visionary and even apocalyptic response to the region's unique challenges and strategic resources. This probably becomes a more dominant chord with the pragmatists eaten or otherwise out of power. There's some spooky Old Moon stuff out there calling to people.

It was a state secret, and I probably shouldn't tell you this, but what the hell: the Oracle at Moonbroth Oasis is still whispering prophecies about "The Moon To Come."

Back in the day, if you weren't careful who you talked to, letting that out of the bag would be a one-way ticket to a Corflu Job.

Of course, we have other things to concern us nowadays...

[scott-martin]

Just now, Nick Brooke said:

Back in the day, if you weren't careful who you talked to, letting that out of the bag would be a one-way ticket to a Corflu Job.

Love it. After all, they can only send you to Corflu once. After that, technically they have to send you somewhere else before they can send you back.

[Minlister]

I guess one crucial factor for the long term Lunar presence in Prax would be the success or failure of the Empire's hierogamic endeavour, the wedding of Pavis and the Red Goddess. From my point of view, this point is crucial for any campaign in the area, even if the PC are not directly involved (which would be a pity!!). Even Argrath's conquest of Pavis would be very difficult if Pavis had joined the Lunar pantheon. And if he fails to conquer Pavis, would the Nomads follow him westward? From my point of view, the wedding is a game changer.

[Nick Brooke]

You don't want to know how close they got to pulling off a hieros gamos in Sun County...

[Minlister]

I don't understand... And it is even more cruel that it is obviously funny!! You are a tease Mister! Red shame on you! Please enlighten illuminate me!

[Nick Brooke]

(During conversations like these, Mike Dawson's "New Moon Spears" spring readily to mind. Has anybody else been wondering what the LCM's  combat-archaeology heroquester team was looking for, up on Yelmalio Hill?) 

[David Scott]

@MOB tell us about what happened in the Zola Fel Valley after the Windstop, possibly foreshadowing the end of the Grantlands...

[Minlister]

Maybe they went to chant the famous hierogamic hymn  "don't blame it on the Moonlight, don't blame it on the Sunshine"?

 

[Nick Brooke]

Just now, Minlister said:

I don't understand... And it is even more cruel that it is obviously funny!! You are a tease Mister! Red shame on you! Please enlighten illuminate me!

Oh, the full story will be in my Sun County Backgrounds, an appendix to the remastered version of Sandheart Volume One: Tales of the Sun County Militia, which should be coming out later this month via the Jonstown Compendium. (Check out the 1610 event, option 5). To cut a long story to shreds, the last Count before Solanthos Ironpike was rather too open to foreign influences, which is why he's an ex-Count. You can find some related details in the Secret History of Sun County, of course.  

[Minlister]

Maybe you should consider to rename it Sun County Backrooms? Sounds cool for hierogamy

Edited August 14, 2020 by Minlister

[Lordabdul]

2 hours ago, scott-martin said:

Love it. After all, they can only send you to Corflu once. After that, technically they have to send you somewhere else before they can send you back.

Careful. In my Glorantha, being sent to do some policing around Alone is also considered quite a shit job. You could get bounced between the two.

[Nick Brooke]

Here's one, @Ian Absentia. It's not from a particularly reliable source, mind you:

On 8/12/2020 at 12:28 AM, Ian Absentia said:

Upriver and inland, ethnic cleansing will have gotten ugly, as tribal nomads mercilessly persecute a generation of cultural Lunars who've known no home but the Zola Fel and the Grantlands.

One other unfortunate idea that used to get an occasional airing from Chaosium folks was that Duke Raus died at the Sack of Pavis and his Fort didn't survive the coming of the White Bull's army. I understand there has been back-pedalling, and that's a good thing: lots of old-time RuneQuest players worked for Duke Raus taming his Borderlands, it seems silly to alienate them by having him die like a punk and seeing all their work swept away by the new timeline's fiat. (See my earlier post for positivity)

[Leingod]

7 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

I wasn't aware that the Lunars had much interest in the Praxians beyond simply negating them as a thread. The sojourn into Prax always seemed like a plan-B to get to Kethaela to me. But there are hundreds of pages published on this that I haven't read, so I'm really just wondering out loud.

I'm drawing mostly from Pavis: Gateway to Adventure, which might well have been superceded by later statements or people might prefer older stuff, but that was my introduction and pg. 46 makes pretty clear the colonial intentions of the Lunars:

Quote

Lunar Settlements in the Grantlands

The reasons for the Lunar expansion into Prax were twofold. First, the Lunars desired a seaport in the Zola Fel delta for trade and military reasons (the Empire has no port on the Homeward Ocean). Second, the River of Cradles was to be settled by old Lunar soldiers turned farmers. These cultivated lands might then serve as the base for the eventual destruction of the animal riding nomads’ way of life, which had periodically cursed Pelorian civilization since time began.

Which probably sounds pretty familiar to someone versed in American history and the succession of Indian Wars.

Edited August 14, 2020 by Leingod

[Ian Absentia]

2 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

Here's one, @Ian Absentia. It's not from a particularly reliable source, mind you...

Well, since we're wagging our dicks about, my references to "ethnic cleansing" remain on the nose.  Universal annihilation, without exception?  That sort of absolutist language was yours, but thank you for attributing it to me by insinuation elsewhere.  The upheaval will turn ugly for the Lunars, though, and being merely driven off the Grantlands is an optimistic outcome on par with native relocation in the US westward expansion.  There will be a spectrum of persecution and outcomes in the ethnic cleansing to come, largely dependent on the means of the victims and the fortune of their timing...just like it does in the real world.  It's a hot-button term -- I can understand your reaction.  You should read up on the subject.

As I stated elsewhere, there's an apocalyptic shorthand used to describe the outcomes of the Hero Wars, and they elicit reasonably emotional responses in their readers, clearly not limited to my own.  Sometimes it takes time and effort, and the occasional forum thread, to break through a 25-word synopsis, whether it's the liberation of Prax, the Reforestation, the coming Flood, or whatever.  We appreciate your indulgence.

!i!

Edited August 14, 2020 by Ian Absentia

[Leingod]

3 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

Well, since we're wagging our dicks about, my references to "ethnic cleansing" remain on the nose.  Universal annihilation, without exception?  That sort of absolutist language was yours, but thank you for attributing it to me by insinuation elsewhere.  The upheaval will turn ugly for the Lunars, though, and being merely driven off the Grantlands is an optimistic outcome on par with native relocation in the US westward expansion.  There will be a spectrum of persecution and outcomes in the ethnic cleansing to come, largely dependent on the means of the victims and the fortune of their timing...just like it does in the real world.  It's a hot-button term -- I can understand your reaction.  You should read up on the subject.

As I stated elsewhere, there's an apocalyptic shorthand used to describe the outcomes of the Hero Wars, and they elicit reasonably emotional responses in their readers, clearly not limited to my own.  Sometimes it takes time and effort, and the occasional forum thread, to break through a 25-word synopsis, whether it's the liberation of Prax, the Reforestation, the coming Flood, or whatever.  We appreciate your indulgence.

!i!

Except the Grantlanders are not the Native Americans in this equation as you've implicitly made them by that comparison, they're the colonial settlers who moved onto the natives' traditional stomping grounds and put down roots in some of their best pastures. The only difference is that this colonial pursuit is largely penal rather than something most of them chose to embark on (which didn't stop the Australians from committing their share of atrocities when the opportunity arose, incidentally). Obviously, it's a really shitty situation for the ~10,000 Grantlands settlers and in general for Lunar settlers in Prax, but a.) 10,000 exiles of various different cultural groupings who happen to have been ruled over and exiled by the same massive empire do not comprise an ethnicity, nor would even their utter destruction be an "ethnic cleansing" by any but a very loose interpretation of that term, and b.) the Praxians are not just some ravening horde of bloodthirsty invaders, they're the native inhabitants of this land who were kicked out of some of their best grazing by an expansionist empire that is even now plotting to use these colonies as a source of soldiers and supplies to wage a long-term campaign of cultural genocide on the Animal Nomads because their way of life is inconvenient and annoying to the Lunars.

That the Grantlanders are mostly being used as tools and pawns in this plan, and that they're nevertheless going to face the brunt of the consequences rather than the people who planned it, is obviously a tragedy, but painting the destruction of the Grantlands, even in the worst-case scenario, as the ethnic cleansing of some vibrant and established culture is both overstating the actual extent and degree to which any kind of unified "Praxian Lunar" identity has been established and exists (especially given many are still recognizable individually as Talastarings, Carmanians, or Pelorians), and also implicitly paints the Praxians themselves as some savage horde come to destroy civilization for no good reason rather than the native inhabitants who are rightly pissed that some of their traditional grazing lands were taken from them violently at spear-point by invading imperials and then given away to a bunch of strangers who then (whether the Praxians know it or not, though they're clearly ready to believe it even without proof) planned to use it as a base from which to make further attacks on their way of life and identities. This is a messy situation that isn't easily reducible to "victim" and "aggressor" unless you gravely oversimplify it, IMO.

[Ian Absentia]

3 hours ago, Leingod said:

Except the Grantlanders are not the Native Americans in this equation as you've implicitly made them by that comparison...

I didn't intend a 1-for-1 comparison, but was instead looking for a handy example of what happens when Party B wishes to have Party A out of the way.  You're right -- I mixed cultural metaphors. (Damn, son, two for two!)  There are better real world comparisons for the Grantlanders from Central Africa, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the fundamental situation being:

• Imperial Power X creates an arbitrary border.
• Within that border is Party A, either displaced by Party B or forced to live alongside Party B.
• Everything more or less works as long as Imperial Power X is there to keep the peace.
• Imperial Power X withdraws, and in the ensuing power vacuum Party A and/or Party B attempts to remove the other from the territory.

How polite or horrific the endgame may be is a matter of conjecture.  I invoked the term "ethnic cleansing" -- a very contemporary term that I promise to avoid in the future -- to cast the pending situation in an imaginary world in bitter irony.  This isn't a heroic rout of an invading army, but the displacement of thousands of farmers, tradesmen, families.  In short form, Argrath and the White Bull Society "liberate" Corflu and "destroy" the Grantlands, which sounds great in the 25-word narrative about a victorious military campaign, but the unintended consequence of that same narrative is the implied fate of the civilians left in their wake.

The term I used was incendiary, yes, and mostly intended as irony, but interestingly I never included specific statements like "there's nothing left, Argrath's nomads committed genocide, so all the people you know are dead and the places you built and fought for were destroyed" or described "ethnic cleansing of some vibrant and established culture" -- those statements were inferred and apparently attributed to me.  Nope, just Party A, Party B, a power vacuum, and the realistic opinion that things are going to get ugly as grudges real or imagined go unchecked.  You know, the kind of situation in which heroes will do extraordinary things to save the things they care about.

!i!

Edited August 15, 2020 by Ian Absentia
Incessant fine-tuning

[Stephen L]

11 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

Chaosium folks was that Duke Raus died at the Sack of Pavis

Not in my Glorantha!

The adventurer’s in my campaign have passions and backstory (and now means) to play the Vasana role of going to Argrath to petition him to relight the flame of Sartar post Battle of Queens.

Argrath has his eye on the wider turmoil, Tarsh civil war, Lunar nomad troubles, Holy Land disintegration, and the Grantlands problem on his doorstep.

The Grantlanders (possibly) represent an opportunity for him.

They’re more or less exiles from the Lunar way to start with.  They represent manpower, with a lot of regions recently depopulated and they’ve useful knowledge of Lunar ways, so if he can gain their loyalty, they could be very useful.  Also, a reputation of mercy to conquered Lunars would be very useful if he’s an eye on involvement in the Tarsh civil war.  And mercy to conquered enemies is hardly going to dent his credentials for the Anti-Lunar parties in Prax and Sartar…

So I'm thinking of Argrath sending the adventurers to rescue Duke Raus and his family.  Which will be excellent roleplaying, because they’re all a bunch of fully paid up lunar haters.

However, if my ideas are wide of the mark, I’d be grateful to hear, before I invest too much thought.

But this thread has given me lots of ideas for what might have happened, grantlands, Corfu and Duke Raus…

Thanks muchly to you all!

[MOB]

On 8/15/2020 at 1:24 AM, David Scott said:

@MOB tell us about what happened in the Zola Fel Valley after the Windstop, possibly foreshadowing the end of the Grantlands...

Unending Winter

When the Lunar Governor Sor Eel was recalled to Dragon Pass most of the hungry army went with him, having requisitioned all the food they could lay their hands on. Count Solanthos rebuffed Sor Eel’s attempts at a levy in Sun County, but most of Pavis County and virtually all of the Grantlands were picked clean, causing great suffering.

Refugees from the countryside fled to the towns, compounding the problems for the authorities. The Sun Dome Temple was inundated with hungry Grantlanders seeking sanctuary, who by custom could not be turned away. In Pavis, whereas before the Teelo Norri kitchen welcomed all comers, the new Lunar governor Halcyon Var Enkorth insisted those seeking food relief must prove their names were recorded in the Paper Lists. Even then they only received a tiny millet cake that seemed to be mostly sawdust and ash, though it was said the governor had brought tremendous quantities of food with him from the Heartlands. Certainly Halcyon and his entourage never stopped looking sleek and satisfied. Those refugees who made it to Corflu were bluntly informed by the Lunar garrison that they had no food to spare, forcing many in desperation to take passage with the Vadeli, the only seafarers to visit the port during the Windstop.

Fortunately, by now the nomad allies of Pavis and the Sun Dome were bringing in some provisions from the Wastes, though they refused to bring their herds back within reach of the dead air. But this was still not enough food to stave off impending mass starvation.

[Quick Summary: Here in Prax, the Great Winter is broken by the Last Light HeroQuest in the Devil's Playground, and Count Solanthos's brave sacrifice atop Temple Hill in the Rubble. Later that same day (Clay/Disorder/Earth 1622), in far distant Sartar the Battle of Iceland reached its triumphant conclusion. Locally, Orlanthi heroquesters at the Pairing Stones also returned victorious. The first wisps of wind were felt since the crisis began...]

The Great Corvée

[More Summary...the end of the Windstop causes a great flood. Lhankor Mhy scholars later concurred with Hector the Wise that the ice and snow in the Rockwoods never had a chance to melt in the Great Winter, and the Zola Fel and its mountain streams and tributaries must have frozen over. This all changed when the Windstop suddenly ended, sending the entire spring melt downstream in a vast flood, wreaking destruction from Boathouse Ruins as far as the Great Bog.]

For several weeks, a great sheet of water spread far over the flatlands of Pavis County and the breadbasket of Sun County, causing further misery for the people. But when the floodwaters finally receded, they saw that Zola Fel had left them with a gift: the fields were now covered in a thick layer of fertile silt. It was too late in the year for planting, so the hungry times continued, though the farmers all agreed that the next planting season offered incredible promise. 

When the waters abated, there was much to be done to take advantage of the precious soil deposited by the flood. Vega Goldbreath as Guardian led the efforts to repair the damage in the Lands of the Sun. Using an ancient tattered scroll from the temple archives depicting the fabled Gods Wall in distant Dara Happa, Vega evoked the story of the Ten Sons and Servants. The entire population was mobilized into a Great Corvée, with even Light Sons and priests putting their hands to mattock and spade. Although initially scandalized to see the Light Lady taking on the role of Morkatos the Foreman, clad only in a kilt, in a remarkably short time the people cleared away tremendous quantities of debris, dug out irrigation channels and repaired the riverbanks.

In the meantime, famine was kept at bay by the grateful elves, who shared the miraculous bounty from the Garden with the people of Pavis and the Sun Dome. Only in the distant Grantlands was there true starvation in the River of Cradles valley after that.

Simmering Tensions in Lunar Prax

While momentous events wracked Dragon Pass and the Holy County throughout 1623-4, tensions continued to simmer in Lunar Prax. The farmers of the Cradle Valley once again enjoyed a bumper harvest, but Governor Halcyon’s insatiable appetite to enrich himself was continually vexed by his superiors’ relentless demands for men, beasts, equipment and slaves, all needed for the Reaching Moon Temple project in Dragon Pass.

The nomad incursions grew ever more bold. Late in Sea season 1624, Duke Raus sought an audience with the Count of the Sun Dome on his way back from Pavis. He bitterly recounted that when he told the Governor that nomads were now riding with impunity through his lands, Halcyon var Enkorth said he no longer had any troops to spare for such an unimportant, far-flung outpost, suggesting if Raus was unhappy he should go hire mercenaries of his own!

In frustration, the Duke dispatched a delegation of landholders led by his daughter Lady Jezra to Furthest to beg for relief from Tatius the Bright. His family fortune all but gone, in the meantime Raus had no choice but to offer the deeds to Ronegarth as collateral for Yelmalio Templar mercenaries, and place several treasured items in the Sun Dome vaults as further surety.

By this time, frictions among the nomads were at a boiling point. Governor Halcyon resolved to march out in support of Inire the Red and the Sables. A tribune was dispatched to the Sun Dome Temple, requiring the Templars to join the Lunar forces assembling at the Oasis at Moonbroth.

The Fate of the Grantlands

Although Nomad outriders swept through the Grantlands on their way to Moonbroth in 1624, Raus of Rone, Duke of Weis Domain, prayed the Lunar forces would be able to defeat them as soundly as they had done fourteen years earlier. These hopes were soundly shattered on news of the Lunar rout. Many of his settlers began fleeing – either upriver to Sun County or downriver to the port of Corflu – even before they had heard that Pavis too had fallen.

With the Armistice of Prax now broken, the Duke was realistic enough to know that without the Lunar army the Grantlands were completely defenseless. Raus gathered as many of his remaining people together as he could to make their escape before the nomad onslaught. He quickly assembled together a large flotilla, comprising riverboats, barges, newtling rafts (and just about anything else that could float) and set off for Corflu and safety. Behind them, his proud little capital of Ronegarth and the settlements around it burned.

Many times the nomads sorely harassed the convoy, but mercifully the river was high and fast at that time of the year. The adroit water skills of their newtling river guides also aided the passage; Raus’ patient fostering of cordial relations with the formerly-hostile Five Eyes Temple proved worthwhile in the end.

With better hope of plunder back upriver, the nomad pursuit gradually tapered off. After a final failed assault near Bilos Gap, the flotilla was unmolested for the remainder of the journey. From Corflu, most of the refugees quickly dispersed. Raus presumably also took ship for parts unknown (he was certainly not there when the port was sacked by the Wolf Pirates later that year).

In mid-1626, Count-in-Exile Belvani sent his Light Captain Dignan Yellowscale to occupy and hold Duke Raus’ former domain. He planned to use the stronghold of Ronegarth as a staging post for retaking Sun County from the south. This scheme went awry when Dignan found the fortifications there had been razed by powerful magic. Any settlers had already either fled with Raus, been carried off by the nomads, or were dead.

Soon afterwards, Belvani was obliged to recall most of this force back for Argrath’s new march into Dragon Pass, under the command of Rurik. Dignan and his remaining comrades have instead occupied the old Stone Tower above Five Eyes Rise, and are now little better than the marauding nomads themselves.

Present Whereabouts (1627)

Raus of Rone, Duke of Weis Domain – made his escape downriver to Corflu as the Grantlands were being overrun after the Lunar defeat. Current whereabouts unknown*, but the terms of his exile preclude him from ever returning to the Lunar Heartlands.

Lady Jezra, daughter of Duke Raus – not present when Ronegarth was evacuated; believed to have taken refuge with the White Healers at the Horngate Oasis. (Jezra was en route from Furthest, having gone there leading a delegation of Grantlanders to complain about Governor Halcyon.)

Grantlands Settlers – Fled with Raus to Corflu (and then dispersed: the Vadeli were only too happy to welcome refugees on board their ships🤨 ); sought refuge in Sun County; carried off by the nomads, or dead.

Abridged from The Great Winter and Time of Two Counts document.

* but see Casino Town Rumour #35!

Edited August 18, 2020 by MOB

[soltakss]

20 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

I wasn't aware that the Lunars had much interest in the Praxians beyond simply negating them as a thread.

Moonbroth is important to the Lunars.

The sable riders have a Lunar connection.

Lunars probably wanted to renew the connection between the Praxians and Dara Happa when they drove out the Horse Nomads in the First Age.

Lunars would have loved to get their hands on old cradle artefacts and a Giant Cradle.

Storm Bull's Storm in the Wastes would have been an important thing to control or suppress, especially when trying to suppress Orlanth, so being in Prax might have made that easier.

The Book of Dale was mentioned as an add-on counter in Nomad Gods, with some Lunar connection.

20 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

The sojourn into Prax always seemed like a plan-B to get to Kethaela to me.

That was the normal rationale for the invasion, sure. Along the Pavis Road and down the Zola Fel to Corflu.

But, there are other reasons as well.

[soltakss]

6 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

I didn't intend a 1-for-1 comparison, but was instead looking for a handy example of what happens when Party B wishes to have Party A out of the way.  You're right -- I mixed cultural metaphors. (Damn, son, two for two!)  There are better real world comparisons for the Grantlanders from Central Africa, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the fundamental situation being:

• Imperial Power X creates an arbitrary border.
• Within that border is Party A, either displaced by Party B or forced to live alongside Party B.
• Everything more or less works as long as Imperial Power X is there to keep the peace.
• Imperial Power X withdraws, and in the ensuing power vacuum Party A and/or Party B attempts to remove the other from the territory.

The Lunars have a history of this kind of thing.

• The Red Emperor gave Erigia to the Char-Un, even though it was not part of the Empire. The Char-Un did the Skyburn to clear it of forests and moved in.
• The Red Emperor gave Black Horse County to sir Ethilrist, although it wasn;t called that then, even though it was outside the Empire. He moved in and settled his Black Horse Troop there.
• The Red Emperor gave the Grantlands to a rebel Duke and his kin, to allow Lunar settlers to move there, although it is not part of the Empire. In this case, the Praxians are strong enough to take it back after a generation.

 

[MOB]

On 8/15/2020 at 7:40 PM, MOB said:

Raus of Rone, Duke of Weis Domain – made his escape downriver to Corflu as the Grantlands were being overrun after the Lunar defeat. Current whereabouts unknown*, but the terms of his exile preclude him from ever returning to the Lunar Heartlands.

* but see Casino Town Rumour #35!

So this is the rumour:

34. Don Duras is actually Duke Raus of Rone, an exiled Lunar nobleman. (R)

Here's some more about "Don Duras" from my as-yet-to-be-released (or even finished) Casino Town document:

From the "Interesting inhabitants" section

Don Duras – said to be a displaced nobleman (exactly where from is unclear), Don Duras arrived on a du Tumerine transport several seasons ago with little more than an aristocratic bearing, an aged retainer, and some portable wealth. After a run of luck on the Faro Wheel, the Don is seeking to hire mercenaries to help him retake his lost lands, which many people assume to be somewhere along the New Coast.

And this is the scenario hook:

THE DON

The nobleman “Don Duras” is indeed Duke Raus of Rone, latterly of the Lunar Grantlands on the River of Cradles in Prax. After the Second Battle of Moonbroth, Raus narrowly escaped Argrath’s nomad onslaught by fleeing downriver. In Corflu he took ship with a Seshnelan trader, ending up in distant Nolos. Since then his return to this part of the world has been in stages. Along the way he learned that Lunar fortunes are currently on the wane, that Argrath White Bull is now King of Pavis, that the Sun Folk who lived upriver from him in Prax somehow managed to change sides, and that he is still forbidden to return to the Heartlands.

With the Holy Country at war with the Empire, Raus has elected to remain incognito in Casino Town. His aged retainer is his actually his god-talker Daryli, the last and most faithful of his followers. The Duke’s daughter, the Lady Jezra, was not with him in Ronegarth the day it fell, but from his ancestor spirits he knows that she is at least still alive.

First and foremost, the Duke is desperate to find his daughter. He also dreams of returning to the River of Cradles and taking back the Weis Domain, which was hard-won in the first place.

To these ends, Raus seeks to recruit a force of small band of mercenaries. He is tightlipped about their real destination, lest Lunar spies learn of his intentions. For Raus believes he can come to some sort of accommodation with Argrath White Bull. The Sun Domers there were once allies of the Lunars and did so, so why can’t he? Although he is from the Lunar Empire, Duke Raus and his family do not belong to the Lunar religion (they are ancestor worshippers). While this was certainly a factor in his original downfall and banishment, he believes such status will help him in his dealings with King Argrath.

This scenario hook presents an opportunity to take the heroes away from their adventures in the Holy County. “Don Duras” is deliberately vague about where his lost lands are, implying they lie somewhere back along the New Coast towards Seshnela. He is reasonably familiar with this area, having recently travelled some distance overland along the Manirian Road, but his story would not hold up to scrutiny from anyone native to that region.

Raus offers the heroes his standard mercenary contract (see Moon Design’s Borderlands & Beyond), plus the promise of generous land grants if and when his cause is successful. Furthermore, he is prepared to advance sums of cash to anyone who needs to repay gambling debts, if necessary. He is keen to leave soon, but would like to get his hands on several of the local put-put barges: he thinks such craft would be incredibly useful on the journey against the current upriver to his lands. Unfortunately, no Ingareen can be convinced to sell him one, let alone take on employment themselves as a boatman beyond God Forgot… perhaps the newly-hired heroes could demonstrate their resourcefulness here?

Now they are drawing ever closer to Prax, Daryli will be able to learn more about Jezra’s fate. The heroes should be present when, with aid of the shaman Silvermane (see Rumour #20), he makes contact with the spirit of Raus’s dear departed wife Varna during a game of betting sticks. She tells him she knows her daughter still dwells near to where she was buried (Ronegarth), though Jezra has not visited her mother’s grave since the time the barbarians came. This news troubles Raus greatly – is Jezra a slave of the nomads, or worse?

Raus’s plan is sail with his force from Casino Town, and only reveal his true purpose once well on the way to Corflu. From there, he intends to travel upriver to Ronegarth, scoping out the lie of the land. If possible, he wants to leave a small force occupying Ronegarth while he travels on to Sun County. The deeds to Weis Domain are deposited at the Sun Dome Temple, along with his most valuable remaining family treasures, including the fabled Wand of the Seven Phases. He hopes to use this wealth as leverage to gain the support of the Yelmalio Count for his rights, hire more of the famous Sun Dome Templars as mercenaries, and then press his claims with Argrath White Bull or his representatives in Pavis from a position of strength.

Edited July 23, 2021 by MOB

[Qizilbashwoman]

4 hours ago, soltakss said:

The sable riders have a Lunar connection.

It's a shame they decided to turn on the Empire, hahaha

One thing that confused me about the Grantland farmers and the Windstop: why did they not use the Bless Maize rite taught by Hon Eel? There's no way there's a colony of farmers and no Hon Eel priests.

[Minlister]

@Qizilbashwomanisn't maize requiring a very moist soil? Maybe the Zola Fel valley is ever too swampy at the Bogs or to dry? 

[jajagappa]

16 minutes ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

One thing that confused me about the Grantland farmers and the Windstop: why did they not use the Bless Maize rite taught by Hon Eel?

Depends on what priests arrived - Hon-eel is primarily found in Oraya and Tarsh.

The Grantland farmers were a mix.  The Talastari would have worshipped Ernalda and Pelora, most likely, and not Hon-eel.  The Carmanians may have followed more Malkioni practices, or followed Oria (aka Pelora).  Only the Redlands farmers might have included worship of Hon-eel.  But maybe those arriving didn't even have Earth priestesses.  Maybe they had to get a priestess from Pavis County instead, so then they would have worshipped Ernalda.

[Leingod]

4 hours ago, Minlister said:

@Qizilbashwomanisn't maize requiring a very moist soil? Maybe the Zola Fel valley is ever too swampy at the Bogs or to dry? 

Might be. Maize is very drought-intolerant, and the dry season/wet season cycle of the Zola Fel might not line up well enough with growing maize for it to be a good idea.