It's 1627, do you know where your Gringle and Piku are?

[Scorus]

My players are wanting to find Gringle and/or Piku (or Piku's son Wakapo) as they continue to put Apple Lane back together post-Dragonrise. I'm interested in theories as to where each ended up.

By my reckoning, they all left together in 1621 headed to Clearwine through Black Spear and then South from there. Gringle was on record as heading for Nochet while it was unclear where Piku's final destination would be (even to him). As Whitewall was still under siege and Gringle needed to avoid Lunar troops to the extent possible, it seems most likely that they would have traveled by river instead of the main road. The Lunars had also infiltrated Esrolia and Red Earth was in control of Nochet until the Civil War the following year. So they could have ended up altering their course along the way and, as far as I'm concerned, could have ended up anywhere from Wintertop to Karse to Esrolia to the Grazelands (voluntarily or as captives)!

Interesting theories as to where they are and what they have been doing are most welcome, whether they are thriving, struggling, dead, captive, or whatever!

[Sir_Godspeed]

Apologies, but the title made me think of this: 
 

 

 

Please be responsible and keep your Gringle and Piku safe.

[Scorus]

1 hour ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

Apologies, but the title made me think of this:

Working as intended...

[Sir_Godspeed]

Ah, then I'm just easily manipulated! 😄

[David Scott]

If you read through the adventure in the Sartar Companion, it tells where Gringle went after Apple Lane - Nochet.

Remember, Gringle is old, he was a was a companion of King Tarkalor and lived in Apple Lane for 50 years, having founded it and Tarkalor had the temple built. Tarkalor was crowned in 1568, so with Gringle aged 20-30ish, Gringle would be 80-90ish in 1627. He's likely moved on, and as he's has been on many HeroQuests, he can likely be found in the Underworld as an Issaries hero, acting as a psychopomp, dealing with hero wars victims and dealing their magic items out of them.

If you can find him, I'd have him teach Evaluate Magical item (0%). Or perhaps the shrine in Apple Lane suddenly starts having Evaluate Magic item as a 1pt rune spell (Same as Analyze Magic, but Harmony rune, non-stackable)

 

[AndreJarosch]

13 minutes ago, David Scott said:

If you read through the adventure in the Sartar Companion, it tells where Gringle went after Apple Lane - Nochet.

Remember, Gringle is old, he was a was a companion of King Tarkalor and lived in Apple Lane for 50 years, having founded it and Tarkalor had the temple built. Tarkalor was crowned in 1568, so with Gringle aged 20-30ish, Gringle would be 80-90ish in 1627. He's likely moved on, and as he's has been on many HeroQuests, he can likely be found in the Underworld as an Issaries hero, acting as a psychopomp, dealing with hero wars victims and dealing their magic items out of them.

If you can find him, I'd have him teach Evaluate Magical item (0%). Or perhaps the shrine in Apple Lane suddenly starts having Evaluate Magic item as a 1pt rune spell (Same as Analyze Magic, but Harmony rune, non-stackable)

 

I hope to find him (and Quackjohn?) as NPCs (or at least mentioned) in the upcoming Nochet book. 

[Scorus]

4 hours ago, David Scott said:

If you read through the adventure in the Sartar Companion, it tells where Gringle went after Apple Lane - Nochet.

As far as I can see, it only says that he left bound for Nochet. That is a very difficult route in 1621 for someone that is wanted by high level lunars and I'm putting forward the possibility that things went other than planned.

But the players are actually more interested in finding Piku or Wakapo as they would like to have the attraction of a blacksmith (not just a redsmith) and they correctly figure that someone with ties to the village are their only hope of bringing in someone with that rare skill set. I have a couple of ideas but greatly appreciate the creative juices of this forum!

[davecake]

And in the same adventure, the most common outcome is that Piku and family leave with the player characters, to live in their community - most often the Old Man village, the home of the Orlmarth clan of the Colymar. 

[David Scott]

46 minutes ago, davecake said:

And in the same adventure, the most common outcome is that Piku and family leave with the player characters, to live in their community - most often the Old Man village, the home of the Orlmarth clan of the Colymar. 

That's certainly one of the outcomes mentioned in the scenario:

Quote

Much is now up to the heroes. Will they escort Gringle and his assistants to Quackford? Will they accept the services of Piku and the responsibility of supporting him and his family? Their decisions have ramifications on the hamlet of Apple Lane and on future scenarios in the campaign.

Within a day, Piku and his family can gather their worldly possession into a large cart drawn by a herd of goats. Goats are considered unclean animals by the Sartarites and are often seen as distant relatives of the Chaotic broo.

My players did neither. No one wanted broo in their village.

Edited February 3, 2021 by David Scott

[Darius West]

I had Gringle end up in Dizbos in Esrolia,  slotting in with a contingent of Sartarite refugees who had been sent to the Esrolian hinterland by a sympathetic Esrolian noble house with interests in the area to bump up regional production and increase local population.

As to Piku, I had him go to Refuge, as there was a rumor of a fellow Third Eye Blue cultist made good in the area.  The rumor proves false, and they move to Mt Passant where their iron working skills are valued by the local authorities who fast track Piku's guild papers in return for guaranteed training of apprentices.  Ultimately Yaku and Wakapo get rolled into the Sartarite War effort after the Dragonrise.

Edited February 4, 2021 by Darius West

[davecake]

18 hours ago, David Scott said:

My players did neither. No one wanted broo in their village.

Mine got all excited by an Iron worker for the clan, and talked the village around. 

It is absolutely the case that any other outcome is possible, but if you want an answer to the question 'where is Piku?', the scenario basically says that Piku finds it untenable to remain in Apple Lane without Gringle, so there are two outcomes:

- he goes with the group who helped Gringle escape, and returns with them to their village

or

- he eventually goes literally anywhere else

and only one of these two options helps you answer the question 'where is Piku?'. I think he is going to end up with a local clan myself, his iron skills are attractive enough that someone will want him, and he is unlikely to head for an urban centre, but for somewhere he can be mostly left to his own devices - I doubt he is going to want to follow Gringle to Nochet. 

An outside possibility is that Piku ends at Asborn's stead, but I can't see that being long term sustainable. 

If the players clan rejected hosting Piku, the fun GM option is obviously for him to end with an enemy clan, and supplying them with iron weapons (and goat patties)

[Goldennose]

RQG Adventure Book has an Adventure Seed ... The Baboon Crystal. Might interest you, if you haven´t noticed.

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by Caras

[Whizbang]

On 1/29/2021 at 9:36 PM, Scorus said:

Interesting theories as to where they are and what they have been doing are most welcome, whether they are thriving, struggling, dead, captive, or whatever!

Gringle and Quackjohn were going to Nochet, but we don't know where they are.

Everyone knows that Piku is now in Old Man Village on the Orlmarth tula. Only we know that his son is going to finish his apprenticeship soon and if we can restore the smithy at Apple Lane, Piku will encourage him set up shop there, since we returned Piku's blue gem.