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Backford Aeolian Campaign


Erol of Backford

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7 minutes ago, David Scott said:

We are talking about Heortland, not Peloria.

We know about salt gardens in the Backford area, which means that there is some taming of the (very much active) Syphon river going on here. Elsewhere, there might be water mills, there are bridges, and there may be protective edifices for river port sites.

Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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On 12/26/2021 at 1:29 AM, Erol of Backford said:

Back to Black Arkat, is the "The Brown Book of Zzabur" still accurate?

http://zzabursbrownbook.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-house-of-black-arkat.html

Also I have Tradetalk 12 and ToRM 13 with some detail on Black Arkat is any of that still relative? Is Jansholm still the HQ as stated in Tradetalk 12?

What is the Kobakuruum?!

Yes, as Richard S. notes that write up's by me. It's based on official sources, but with its own expansion. So unlikely to be accurate to an official write up, but if it's of interest or use, then I'm glad.

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What is the Kobakuruum? Funny, I was looking for it and found Karakorum. Karakorum – The Mongol Capital. What Glorantian city would it possibly be used for? The sculpture of the silver tree in Karakorum, after a mechanical aïrag fountain tree built by Parisian silversmith Guillaume Bouchier... I suppose water elementals could enliven cities easily enough.

I imagine water elementals could move water for it, are used to push water, purify it and even "net ~ herd" fish. Thoughts on this?

I'd still like to know what was thought of when Erekanst was written up (p. 37 TotRM13) as being a member of the Kobakuruum?

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So Arkat's Gate leads to the Hero World. Are there more gates noted besides Arkat's Hold and Urvantan's Tower, may we assume a few more exist, some lost or forgotten and others hidden or secret? What others are known? Is there a spell "Hero World Portal" or something known to sorcerers, how is a gate/portal made? Are they like adamantium weapons/truestone?

Are Hero Questers not able to enter one and exit another that is known to them? How is it done, do you need a Hero Quest Super Bowl Ring to do so?

Also the "hole" that the Syphon drops into in the Footprint falls into the Underworld. Does the Underworld become tainted with Chaos similar to the River of the Damned downstream from Festering Island and if so do the Underworld Beings become tainted as well?

Assuming anyone dropping through the hole survives the drop is there a quest/adventure outlined somewhere to come back to the surface world? Maybe they go pay a visit to Ethilrist and see how he did it?

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10 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

I'd still like to know what was thought of when Erekanst was written up (p. 37 TotRM13) as being a member of the Kobakuruum?

You'd have to see if @MOB can remember back to 1995.

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11 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

What is the Kobakuruum? 

I'd still like to know what was thought of when Erekanst was written up (p. 37 TotRM13) as being a member of the Kobakuruum?

If it was ever mentioned outside of MOB's Wyrm's Hold scenario, I missed the reference.

The word sounds trollish to me.

 

11 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

Funny, I was looking for it and found Karakorum. Karakorum – The Mongol Capital. What Glorantian city would it possibly be used for? The sculpture of the silver tree in Karakorum, after a mechanical aïrag fountain tree built by Parisian silversmith Guillaume Bouchier... I suppose water elementals could enliven cities easily enough.

I imagine water elementals could move water for it, are used to push water, purify it and even "net ~ herd" fish. Thoughts on this?

 

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I am seeing Old Pavis during the Arrowsmith Dynasty here.

Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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11 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

So Arkat's Gate leads to the Hero World. Are there more gates noted besides Arkat's Hold and Urvantan's Tower, may we assume a few more exist, some lost or forgotten and others hidden or secret? What others are known? Is there a spell "Hero World Portal" or something known to sorcerers, how is a gate/portal made? Are they like adamantium weapons/truestone?

That's an Arkati secret. If you find out without being a member of their secret cult, they regrettably will have to kill you. If your status in the cult isn't sufficient, they might have to kill you - but being pragmatic, that might mean they'll let you volunteer for jobs with high probabilities of lethal consequences. If you survive anyway, you may have proven your worth sufficiently that you might be cleared for that level of secret.

Rereading the description of Urvantan's Tower, what makes you think there is a gate like this in Arkat's Hold?

There is one other such gate that comes to mind - Kyrmon's Gate, in distant Fronela. The source or prison for a couple of unpleasant and potentially chaotic entities banished from the Surface World.

The tower itself is said to date back to the Golden Age, when there wasn't really any Hero Plane to connect to (although there were other Cycles that may have been adjacent to this station). There were the God World and the Spirit World, and a fairly abstract Essence world, if you haven't cancelled the Three Different Otherworlds subscription completely, so maybe this is a short cut into something resembling the Essence World, a place where sorcery may manifest.

Another possibility would be a tie-in to the non-space used by the Dragonewt Roads. The Smoking Ruins are pretty far away from the road connecting Ghosts Around to Dragon's Eye and Contemplative Rest, but the entire pass region is full of draconic energies, and the Green Dragon resting place in the Skyreach Mountains lies further that way. But then, that dragon took to that place only around the time Sartar entered Dragon Pass. But then, a dragon would know where to look for draconic energy.

The description suggests that the gate was added by the Bright Empire or the Arkati. Illumination appears to play a role in this tinkering with the Other Side.

 

11 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

Are Hero Questers not able to enter one and exit another that is known to them? How is it done, do you need a Hero Quest Super Bowl Ring to do so?

If you want a Stargate system or an equivalent of the Ways in Wheel of Time for your Glorantha, you may need to lift quite heavily to make it fit.

There are magical roads - the dragonewt plinths for instance. There are heroquest roads or vehicles, like Ronance's chariot (for a practical application, read Nick Brooke's Black Spear) or the Skybull Quest used by Redbird and his companions, starting at Cliffhome and emerging at Stormwalk Mountain. These are rare, and not commonly used.

 

11 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

Also the "hole" that the Syphon drops into in the Footprint falls into the Underworld. Does the Underworld become tainted with Chaos similar to the River of the Damned downstream from Festering Island and if so do the Underworld Beings become tainted as well?

The Underworld has chaos-infested regions. The Chaosium is located deep down in the Underworld, in a timeless place or state, a source of Raw Creation, and even though much of that gets turned into tangible reality, there is always some element defying the rules imposed by Creation.

IMG this is the source for the PreDark mentioned in the Umath myth, the source of Jokbazi, the Chaos antagonist overcome by Yelm Brightface on his ascension as Emperor of the World, and of Krarsht in the role of the squirming thing stamped on by Larnste or wrestled by Lodril.

The rift in the center of the world reached down all the way into the Underworld, too. The "basement" of the Cosmic Mountain was extensive, and while the Waters of the World now swirl around that rift, keeping it contained in perpetual movement.

As a rule, water is an environment hostile to Chaos. The hellspawn of Varchulanga and Drospoli might be the frontline fighters against Chaos deep down in the Underworld. But a single body of water may not be strong enough to sear away all the Chaos it has to deal with. Sounder's River, redirected by the Good Canal to the Block, does a hell of a job, but Chaos still seeps through, and Gorp and Dragonsnails and Bullsitch inhabit the Devil's Marsh. Stagnant water as in marshes has lost a lot of its chaos-fighting abilities. That explains other chaos-ridden wetlands, such as the Dilis Swamp or the Krjalki Bog.

For running water to carry a chaotic pollution downstream we have the Erinflarth in Dorastor, which does get a near miraculous decontamination before entering Talastar, and the River of the Damned.

 

11 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

Assuming anyone dropping through the hole survives the drop is there a quest/adventure outlined somewhere to come back to the surface world? Maybe they go pay a visit to Ethilrist and see how he did it?

The Fish Road continues there from the Backford temple, and probably goes all the way into the Underworld. Probably a less secure road than the one continuing from Deeper down Magasta's Pool.

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Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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7 hours ago, Joerg said:

Rereading the description of Urvantan's Tower, what makes you think there is a gate like this in Arkat's Hold?

Wouldn't there have to be one? They would protect/guard it, utilize it to monitor the other gates that might be out of there control, "spy" if you will and use it to travel to assist with attaining their secret goals? How could there not be one? Were they not able to hold of an indefinate siege? I assume they used the portal to resupply, why not?

Oh, I didn't think it would be like the WoT Ways at all, more like an "ethereal space" or real "Space" but not like the Ways.

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On 12/25/2021 at 4:01 PM, Erol of Backford said:

I was thinking more along the lines of the depth being 2000' deep. I understand the mile width at the bottom of the valley. The blue of the Syphon is still quite wide at the valley bottom via the maps. Gunnison is much too narrow, see that now. Thanks for clarification...

I looked for a scale in the AA but didn't find one. Is each hex set at 5 miles? That's about what I get from superimposing a scale from another old Holy Country map I have.

Jaja, I agreed with Jeff, its much wider, a few miles in width anyway. Thanks.

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14 minutes ago, Erol of Backford said:

Wouldn't there have to be one?

If there was such a device in all Arkati strongholds, the God Learners would have taken over at least a few of these when they conquered the Stygian Autarchy, and then copied and ruthlessly applied them. It doesn't look to me like anything like that happened.

 

14 minutes ago, Erol of Backford said:

They would protect/guard it, utilize it to monitor the other gates that might be out of there control, "spy" if you will and use it to travel to assist with attaining their secret goals? How could there not be one? Were they not able to hold of an indefinate siege? I assume they used the portal to resupply, why not?

The Big Rubble survivors were in a similar situation, with swarming trolls having overcome the city's defenses, and then sealing off the world outside for anybody but trolls. They managed to survive for centuries in a postapocalyptic permanent state of siege.

I can see an argument for some Dorastan Feldichi technology having been used to create the portal.

Middle Sea Empire talks about a book that showed images of otherworlds, with some potential to reach across, as one of the ways the Jrusteli learned to copy Arkati heroquesting, and to expand on that. I suppose it might be possible to have similar magic in a wall painting.

But on the whole I am very sceptical of making such a device a fairly standard Arkati magic.

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Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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1 hour ago, Joerg said:

I suppose it might be possible to have similar magic in a wall painting.

Its not standard at all and of course cannot be duplicated (like making adamantium weapons) but rather left over, forgotten in some cases? Maybe there are only 5~10 in all of Glorantha. Some have been destroyed in the past and others, the Arkati are hunting so they may eliminate them if they cannot control them. Say there is one in the West, one in the East, another Arkat's Hold and in Urvantan's Tower, one in the depths of the Devil's Playground (for fun), Pamaltela... some might only be one-way, others may be broken but leave clues as to how or by who they were made and or operate? Of course any of these could be only useable by Hero Quester Super Bowl Ring Bearers powered by the likes of the Great Crystal in the Dyskund Caverns? What I am suggesting is if there is one hanging around in a forgotten Arkati tower there could be more that were forgotten about hundreds of years in the past. Did you ever hear of some buried treasure discovered while digging for a new septic field somewhere in someone's backyard? Why not is all I am suggesting. There should be one up North in the ice and snow as well no? Food for thought, would/could make great game fun in some cases.

Maybe with the correct incantations and power the said "wall painting" becomes a portal and those who dwell in the same structure are none the wiser!?

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On 12/20/2021 at 8:02 AM, scott-martin said:

Consensus in Mother Market remains fractious but enough hyenagrams have been delivered that the mood in Nochet shifts.

Hyenagrams...  A nice name for it, but of course they don't have telegrams in Glorantha (or is that another thing those Godlearners pioneered?).  Certainly, the idea of using scraps of hyena skin and time honored geases to send Garzeen and Etyries merchants into the wastes is amusing, and who knows?  Maybe they will find the Growing Place and rebuild Genert eventually if this keeps up?

Edited by Darius West
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3 minutes ago, Darius West said:

Hyenagrams

It's a loan word from the Tradetalk γράμμα, literally "bill of sale." I'm told the practice originated as a way to teach junior merchants to make sure to check off every single line on the manifest or else you discover you've accepted the nasty road trip into inventory. But as the world got more complicated it became a tool of intermarket politics and the occasional prank.

You don't dare touch it yourself because you're busy so you work through intermediaries to deliver the package . . . I could go into detail on the machinations but the Desert Trackers would not appreciate the attention. Let's just say that if you have a board meeting coming up and really need to force an absence, it's a pretty good system. And if it helps build a new Genert, hard to be too critical.

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Isn't guided teleportation available? Wouldn't you be able to make a portal with the destination set? I mean there is the spell and if someone has the gold why not send a package via teleportation? For 20MP its a range of ~10,500km and so where could you not go in Glorantha. Why schlep across a desert when you have IPS (Instant Parcel Service). For another 20MP a 300# armed and armored warrior could be sent to a distant place by walking through a doorway. Why not place a portal of sorts in a wagon or a tent, anything, maybe it folds up and the change in distance to be teleported is calculated and automatically charges the required MP total to get you/it there, you are able to add use conditions, etc. to enchantments are you not? Again you'd need the Great Crystal in the Dyskund Caverns or something like that to send a company of horsemen/knights but wouldn't it be smashing if it happened behind Lunar lines at a critical point during a battle? That old movie Time Bandits comes to mind. Just thinking/brain storming via the keyboard... Maybe the Hyenagrams (not really sure what they are) are like the map in Time Bandits? Now that my train of thought has been tainted by Monty Python I better stop....

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Guided Teleport is a 3 point rone spell. It is usually connected to a hilltop shrine or temple of Orlanth or Mastakos or one of the sites where Orlanth performed one of his feats, one that the caster has visited before and had the leisure to do the week-long rite.

(The Luathan shore or the Gates of Dusk would count as memorable sites in Orlanth's myths, but getting a week long ritual done there might be tricky.)

The Cult Compendium restricts the use of Guided Teleport to priests. Priests who need to maintain a POW of 18, so they would have to have learned this 3 point spell (twice, under those rules) while having a POW of 21 as it isn't taught to non-priests.

Under RQ3, I assumed that you would have to sacrifice for the spell at the target temple, which happens to be a week long ritual, but one that costs 3 POW under those rules. Under RQG rules, you would only need two pre-existing rune points and invest one POW on Guided teleport.

The Red Book of Magic is a bit unclear whether you can have more than one such site - this is very much an emergency spell, and you don't really want to call up the context menu when activating your escape hatch.

But let's assume that your courier teleporter has a few such sites, with easily electable identifiers (say, tattoos) so he can offer a good selection of destinations.

Let's be generous and give the character six or more rune points. This would enable him to do a return trip once per season, taking along all the equipment he carries. Let's be generous and overload him slightly.

He could carry a sizable amount of coins, or some other high value cargo like refined hazia or a bale of quality silk. He cannot carry a passengerr beyond a small animal holding his allied spirit. An alynx might be able to hold on on its own if he wears suitable armor like linothorax.

Our teleporter may carry messages - written, embroidered in his clothing or that bale of silk, small meaningful tokens, or memorized text, ideally in mnenonics like skaldic staves or a catchy tune. 

Zipping around the world might be temple business. Our traveler might be just a God Talker, with fewer duties to his community, and retaining 50% of any profits from that journey for himself with only half of the proceeds going to the temple. And he conveniently arrives at a place where he could hold a worship rite to regain those rune points,provided he can assemble enough of a congregation and acquire the sacrifices.

But then, if you want distant target locations, your God Talker would have to have traveled there on temple business and time, or forfeit one or two seasons of income. The journey back only takes an instant, but stlll...

And this is a major investment by the community supporting the God-Talker. Those are six rune points unavailable for the community's well-being.

Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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But what if the PC's are Aeolians and they use sorcery and have homing circles... has anyone messed around with configuring a teleportation spell with a duration so it could be cast maybe as a ritual on a portal?

Joerg, I am obviously playing devil's advocate here for the entertainment value... Thank you again Sir.

Oh, since Hero Quests go back in time so to speak are you not sort of "time traveling" while they are in progress? Could sorcery not have another skill, Time? This may not be available to PC's but imagine the fun an Aeolian Eurmali might have with time travel? You go to swing your sword and it becomes a banana!?

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5 minutes ago, Erol of Backford said:

But what if the PC's are Aeolians and they use sorcery and have homing circles... has anyone messed around with configuring a teleportation spell with a duration so it could be cast maybe as a ritual on a portal?

Joerg, I am obviously playing devil's advocate here for the entertainment value... Thank you again Sir.

Oh, since Hero Quests go back in time so to speak are you not sort of "time traveling" while they are in progress? Could sorcery not have another skill, Time? This may not be available to PC's but imagine the fun an Aeolian Eurmali might have with time travel? You go to swing your sword and it becomes a banana!?

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Homing circles? Wrong game system.

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11 minutes ago, Richard S. said:

Heroquesting isn't time travel. The myths that are repeated in quests did technically happen in the past, but Heroquests are just reenactments, drawing on the patterns set down in the hero plane back when time had no meaning.

How do magics/powers, weapons or items come to physically exist in the "now" if they were not somehow if only in essence transported through time? Can someone explain how a physical item might appear or be generated so a Hero or PC might physically use it in the "now". I didn't play Hero Quest so I am not sure how it works, possibly I'll need to get the system and read up...

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2 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

How do magics/powers, weapons or items come to physically exist in the "now" if they were not somehow if only in essence transported through time? Can someone explain how a physical item might appear or be generated so a Hero or PC might physically use it in the "now". I didn't play Hero Quest so I am not sure how it works, possibly I'll need to get the system and read up...

It's difficult to make a generalized statement about heroquesting given how extensive it is, but usually if you get a physical reward out of a quest it will be a transformation/enchantment/etc of something you brought into the quest with you. Like if you're doing a heroquest where Orlanth got his scarf of mist, your cloak or scarf or similar might be turned into a rune spell matrix for the Cloak of Mist spell, or something like that. Occasionally, though, the reward might be something entirely new that you've physically brought out of the hero plane, a copy of the original, though that's usually reserved for the more dangerous and powerful heroquests. If I recall correctly, the God Learners actually succeeded at taking the originals of godtime artifacts out of quests, not just copies, though that's one of the big things that led to them collapsing so spectacularly.

2 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

Been using this system since the 80's?

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The most recent version of RQ doesn't have anything like Magic Circle yet, and while the sorcery rules in the core book aren't quite complete, I'll take Jeff's answer to mean they aren't planning on bringing Magic Circle back as a commonly known spell.

I wouldn't put it past some clique of sorcerers to try and replicate the greater movement powers of Mastakos and Orlanth, but they'll almost certainly keep it a secret among themselves. Gloranthan sorcerers aren't exactly the sharing type when it comes to magical knowledge.

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Kind of expanding on my heroquesting answer, as I understand it most heroquests are like putting on a play, but when you're done parts of the story you were telling remain as real things. Like say I heroquest King Arthur getting Excalibur - I wouldn't actually go back in time to some mythical England and pull Excalibur out of the lake, I'd go to a nearby lake that represents the one from the story and get a normal sword out of it. When the quest is over, the sword I got has been changed into something like Excalibur, I haven't gotten Excalibur itself.

Of course, that's really just a this-world quest, where all the magic is just overlayed on top of the mortal world. If I was feeling particularly brave or foolish I could do an otherworld quest, and actually enter the story as it endlessly recurs on the other side, but I'd still probably just get an enchanted version of a sword I brought with me, since the otherworld version isn't the original either, it's just an echo, a looping record ever degrading and warping. You have to go very deep to find a version of the story that's close enough to the original that it can retain substance when brought into our world, and that risks you losing yourself, your soul, your mind, or all of the above.

I hope that makes some sense, someone else please correct me if I made any major goofs.

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