Ideas for bonding ritual with hatchling dinosaurs

[Stephen L]

In my campaign, there is about to be a significant event (beyond us restarting play that is).

Previously, the party rescued the last Hadrosaur from a tribe that were being eradicated by a pair of Spinosaurii (in a very horror movie inspired scenario - see footnote).  Said Hadrosaur (Anmaganus, I was quite chuffed with the name), had five eggs with him.

Now, the eggs are about to hatch, and I’m planning an opportunity for the party to bond with them.

I wonder if there any other sources for binding rituals?  Pegasus Plateaux, obviously, but are there any others that occur to anyone?

Being of very little imagination, I imagine it will some part of it will be by matching rune affinities.

A hadrosaur’s elemental runes would, I imagine, be Earth and, to a lesser extent, Water?  I wasn’t going to allow any other (although I might allow a low chance that another element could replace Water).

For a power rune, I’d imagine fairly random, with Beast being much the commonest, followed perhaps by Statis?

Orgorvale Summer will attend and bless them (resulting from the interpretation of some very interesting dice rolls when we played the party worshipping in Orgorvale’s very first third-age Sacred Time rites).  I haven’t decided what form that blessing will take yet, only having as yet some quite unimaginative ideas!

I can’t help thinking that there must be some sort of draconic bonding myth between the land (we're in *Dragon* pass after all) and people (especially as Orgovale Summer will be there) that I should be trying to draw out this session.

Anyway, comments and suggestions are always very welcome, and many thanks for your trouble...

Footnote: If you were a betting person, where would you place your money in a fight between a duck and a Spinosaurus?  Funny old world.  The party’s plan was for the duck to make the Spinosaurus mad (playing to the duck’s strengths here), then cast fly on the duck (a feature that is fairly consistent in the party planning process) to lure Spinosaurus off a cliff…

[GMKen]

Not sure how relevant you might find this, but Genndy Tartakovsky’s “Primal” is about a caveman who bonds with an allosaurus.  There’s not really any ritual, but they do have to learn to trust each other.  I see it as a kind of a Votanki and his dinosaur in the Elder Wilds kind of thing.  Quite enjoyable and thoroughly Gloranthan.

[Joerg]

First off a weird idea you gave me:

Depending on the origin of dinosaurs, how do we know they always breed true? A converted dragonewt might give birth to species different from the one it adopted.

 

The Maran Gor origin of dinosaurs is a relative newcomer to Gloranthan lore compared to the warrior dragonewt deviating from the path. The WBRM/Dragon Pass board game has a little bit of lore, including their potential to become Pterosaurs after cocooning up and getting a rebirth. (Much like Delenn did in Babylon 5, years after the lore was published.)

When a scout dragonewt deviates, it becomes a Magisaur, which resembles a Hadrosaur - at least the magical ones from the boardgame which are (descended from?) mutated dragonewts (although warrior ones, as per the article in Wyrm's Footnotes 14).

 

Do we have an idea how bird-like the dinos of Dragon Pass are with regard to forming a maternal bond with the first creature they see after hatching?

(I wonder how the newborn ones manage to differentiate their litter mates from their mothers-to-be....)

 

I thought this bonding ritual has been described for the Griffins of Griffin Mountain, another bird-equivalent in Glorantha, but upon checking it out it only says (p.219 Glorantha Classics)

Quote

The actual procedure by which the griffins are subdued is both complicated and highly variable. For that reason it is best left up to the individual referee. 

 

[Stephen L]

1 hour ago, GMKen said:

Genndy Tartakovsky’s “Primal” is about a caveman who bonds with an allosaurus

Thanks for that, it sounds something very much worth digging out (alas not on DVD as I'm in the UK).

24 minutes ago, Joerg said:

The Maran Gor origin of dinosaurs is a relative newcomer to Gloranthan lore compared to the warrior dragonewt deviating from the path. The WBRM/Dragon Pass board game has a little bit of lore, including their potential to become Pterosaurs after cocooning up and getting a rebirth. (Much like Delenn did in Babylon 5, years after the lore was published.)

When a scout dragonewt deviates, it becomes a Magisaur, which resembles a Hadrosaur - at least the magical ones from the boardgame which are (descended from?) mutated dragonewts (although warrior ones, as per the article in Wyrm's Footnotes 14).

Gosh that's a very good point - I hadn't really thought of it from the Dragonnewt connections.  Definitely worth re-reading my WF14.  (Although worth noting for any following the thread who don't have WF14, a lot of the material was polished and used in the Gloranthan Bestiary...)

25 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Do we have an idea how bird-like the dinos of Dragon Pass are with regard to forming a maternal bond with the first creature they see after hatching?

(I wonder how the newborn ones manage to differentiate their litter mates from their mothers-to-be....)

This really could be quite hilarious...

26 minutes ago, Joerg said:

I thought this bonding ritual has been described for the Griffins of Griffin Mountain, another bird-equivalent in Glorantha, but upon checking it out it only says (p.219 Glorantha Classics)

I'd quite forgotten the Griffin bonding in Griffin mountain.  It's a shame that it doesn't say more.