Help me out with holy days! (Pretty please?) 🥺

[icebrand]

So, this is the deal: after the next session the group should finish "scouting the land" from borderlands & beyond, and both the Humakti and Yerlornan will have 6 days until their holy day (fire season/death week/fire day).

So I'll have to split the party (fml) and they will have to head to tourney altar and the big rubble respectively.

I plan on rolling random encounters for their journey (maybe i finally get to kill someone for butchering my deinonychii); after that i need to actually do the festivities. Any ideas are welcomed.

For the Humakti I'm thinking ritual duel (I'll let him pick a 50, 75 or a 90% opponent with some trinket if he wins -im open to suggestions).

For the yerlornan I'm clueless; I'll read the raid on yelornans scenario again (it's been a while) to see if there's something there, but I'd appreciate the help!

After that Ill give them 2 weeks of R&R before Outlaw Hunt so they can roll their xp checks and stuff. Anyway that's it for now, thanks in advance! 🙏

 

[Joerg]

Does your Yelornan ride a unicorn? In that case, something unicorn-related might be part of the rite. If she would be eligible but doesn't have one yet, some preparatory instruction for that quest might be part of the festivities, if not the actual quest.

Yelorna has a number of Darkness Age martial myths. Given the troll and Chaos neighbors, things could get interesting.

 

Tourney Altar as a mundane version of Kargan Tor's gym is one way to go about a Humakt holy day. Some regimental training might be a way to celebrate a holy day, too - shieldwall training, possibly Battle.

Dealing with restless dead, reclaiming Death from those who abused it, those are the main Godtime pursuits of Humakt other than getting the True Sword from the Underworld and testing it.

Humakti might experience having their (gift-carrying) personal sword (ritually) stolen by a Trickster, and then having to reclaim it wielding a replica. Chasing that Trickster might include some slapstick they have to endure before getting to recovering their belonging, from an opponent wielding it against them.

[Shiningbrow]

Ummm, this might seem to be a silly question - but why do they need to travel all that way just for one Holy Day?

[Lordabdul]

15 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

Ummm, this might seem to be a silly question - but why do they need to travel all that way just for one Holy Day?

Yeah I'm wondering that too. I could be wrong but this is not even their High Holy Day so there's not so much incentive to go to a truly sacred/important place. I think they could both go to New Pavis and find some shrines or temples for both their cults there.

[Brootse]

3 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

Ummm, this might seem to be a silly question - but why do they need to travel all that way just for one Holy Day?

Because initiates need to worship on every holy day if they want to keep on being initiated. Eg. Ernaldans have to spend a day every week on worship ceremonies in their temple.

[icebrand]

4 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

Ummm, this might seem to be a silly question - but why do they need to travel all that way just for one Holy Day?

It's the seasonal holy day and initiates need to do initiate stuff, like recover rune magic and actually interact with other cultists.

Both places are quite close afaik, why wouldn't they go?

 

[David Scott]

Your adventurers don't have to specifically go to a holy place to worship unless it specifically says so (Yelorna & Humakt don't). Just cast Sanctify on an appropriate place. Replenishing Rune Points (page 315) says:

Quote

Rune points can be replenished up to the total the adventurer has with their deity by participating in worship of the deity at a temple, sanctified area, or other holy place to the deity on a holy day and succeeding with a Worship skill roll and an expenditure of at least 2 magic points.

This is a very helpful in games as adventurers are then not tied to returning to a fixed point in the middle of an adventure. My players always plan to keep a rune point back for this if there is a seasonal holy day going to occur in the adventure.

59 minutes ago, Brootse said:

Eg. Ernaldans have to spend a day every week on worship ceremonies in their temple.

These are minor holy days. I view these as optional, otherwise the average Sartarite will get into the situation of attending an Orlanth and Ernalda minor holy day every week (as initiate or lay members).

[David Scott]

6 minutes ago, icebrand said:

why wouldn't they go

Quote

To be strong with the Death Rune is to separate oneself from the material world and seek to deny or even destroy the world of the senses. Such adventurers are relentless, ruthless, and ascetic, willing to deny others and themselves. Death rune, page 50.

Quote

Ascetic: an ascetic life of prayer, fasting, and manual labour: austere, self-denying, abstinent, abstemious, non-indulgent, self-disciplined, frugal, simple, rigorous, strict, severe, hair-shirt, spartan, monastic, monkish, monklike, nunlike; reclusive, solitary, cloistered, eremitic, anchoritic, hermitic; celibate, continent, chaste, puritanical, self-abnegating, other-worldly, mortified. A Thesaurus...

 

[icebrand]

23 minutes ago, David Scott said:

 

The humakti is going to tourney altar because daine (who is a full runelord not former) is going and it's taking the groups Humakti with him.  In the future ceremonies may me narrated/abstracted but this is the first one and gods/ceremonies/cult and community stuff is more important than killing some random ducks noone mentioned before. Also the duke is an (evil) orlanthi petty king that totally gave up his god for a piece of worthless land in nowhere, prax and allying the ducks in some way is totally something i see happening.

And the yerlornan needs to attend the seasonal worship ceremony to remain initiated. Also gives me the chance to show her unicorn again (she saw an unicorn drinking water at the easy ford but 🦄 ran away when she tried to approach.

She'll see Ricardo 🦄 (working name, but i think I'm keeping it) wandering in the long dry or something)

 

 

Edited March 27, 2021 by icebrand

[Brootse]

33 minutes ago, David Scott said:

Your adventurers don't have to specifically go to a holy place to worship unless it specifically says so (Yelorna & Humakt don't). Just cast Sanctify on an appropriate place. Replenishing Rune Points (page 315) says:

This is a very helpful in games as adventurers are then not tied to returning to a fixed point in the middle of an adventure. My players always plan to keep a rune point back for this if there is a seasonal holy day going to occur in the adventure.

These are minor holy days. I view these as optional, otherwise the average Sartarite will get into the situation of attending an Orlanth and Ernalda minor holy day every week (as initiate or lay members).

Thanks, this is a nice clarification. I didn't know that initiates could hold their own worship ceremonies.

[icebrand]

11 minutes ago, Brootse said:

Thanks, this is a nice clarification. I didn't know that initiates could hold their own worship ceremonies.

We used that rules back in the 90s (for rune levels only) but i must admit it was a totally murder hobo campaign and we glossed over cult time requirements. Heck the group didnt even have a community until the campaign was like 10 years on. Cult stuff happened offscreen and maybe there was a ceremony roll or something.

Still had the fun of my life btw.

Anyway, you just changed the way i play Runequest!! 💕 Thank thee *so friggin much* i guess I'll scrap the travels and just let them train and do social stuff at the fort while i come up with some duck stuff and foreshadow the kidnapping and maybe the broos

[Brootse]

3 minutes ago, icebrand said:

We used that rules back in the 90s (for rune levels only) but i must admit it was a totally murder hobo campaign and we glossed over cult time requirements. Heck the group didnt even have a community until the campaign was like 10 years on. Cult stuff happened offscreen and maybe there was a ceremony roll or something.

Still had the fun of my life btw.

Anyway, you just changed the way i play Runequest!! 💕 Thank thee *so friggin much* i guess I'll scrap the travels and just let them train and do social stuff at the fort while i come up with some duck stuff and foreshadow the kidnapping and maybe the broos

When I ran that campaign in RQ3 my group had similar problems wrt. attending seasonal worship ceremonies. This is a big change for many campaigns.

[Darius West]

On 3/27/2021 at 5:31 AM, icebrand said:

So I'll have to split the party (fml) and they will have to head to tourney altar and the big rubble respectively.

Split the party ? Really?  There IS a Humakt Temple in New Pavis ffs.  If your Humakti is not a "Sword Man" Praxian he may even feel more at home in New Pavis.  Also it is much safer travelling Prax in a group.

On 3/27/2021 at 5:31 AM, icebrand said:

For the yerlornan I'm clueless; I'll read the raid on yelornans scenario again (it's been a while) to see if there's something there, but I'd appreciate the help!

Suggestions:

(1) There is a new clan of the Unicorn Riders being formed, and they are coming in to the Big Rubble to collect a Ceremonial Labrys, but they get attacked by Zorak Zorani.

(2) Rubble Aldryami from the Garden petition the Yelornans for aid after trolls steal a precious bag of Bow Seeds that need to be recovered before some troll eats them.

(3) A unicorn returns to the Yelorna Temple without his rider after he barely manages to escape from Morokanth ambushers but she is captured.  What is worse, the rider is not being offered for ransom, which means that the Morokanth may have some darkness ritual in mind.  A rescue is requested.

(4) The Pavis Cult have uncovered interesting Yelornan information about the presence of the cult in Pre-Rubble Pavis.  This is of immense interest to the Yelornans, but some unscrupulous scholars also want to get their hands on the document, and have hired thieves to steal them, or perhaps even Black Fang assassins to ambush the escort taking the document to the Yelorna Temple.

(5) A Hero Questing document relating to Yelmalio and red blankets turns up in the Yelorna Temple attic, and someone needs to take it to the Sun Dome Temple.

(6) The Zola Fel river seems to be spewing micro-gorps, and they seem to be a large problem in Manside.  The Yelorna temple wall is not what it used to be, and this could be a problem during a solemn star ritual.

(7) Am Argan Argar Merchant is apparently selling a priceless Yelornan cult treasure lost the the trolls 150 years ago. The price is unreasonably high, some 20,000L but it is worth twice that to the Yelornans, if only they had the money. The Lunars seem to want to buy it, as does some Esrolian noble for some reason.  This cannot stand.

(8) The Yelornans need escorts for a ransom/hostage exchange.  There is a lot more going on, including the fact that the hostage is an illuminate in league with the very trickster who is ransoming her.