Wow... THAT'S a visual...

[svensson]

So I bought the RuneMasters entries of Monsters of the Month off drivethru.

One of them is Renharth Blackveins, a Sword of Humakt at the Boldhome Temple.

Renharth isn't an Undead killer, Renharth is a bounty hunter... someone who hunts and kills those who violate the Truth rune.

In one of the adventure ideas regarding Renharth, the author [Austin Conrad, aka 'Akhelas'] painted an absolutely stunning visual picture that really captured my imagination.

A young widow shows up at the Boldhome Humakt temple clad only in her husband's ashes and grave-soil begging for Justice.

That's just SUCH an image... for one thing it perfectly hits the visual bell for Sartar: part Old Testament Biblical Bronze Age, part '13th Warrior' Viking sensibilities. For another, after the de rigeur casting of Detect Truth, that's an image that NO Humakti is gonna ignore.

I won't give away the plot hook complications, but they obviously involve Renharth.

Reading the character sheet very carefully, I can only see one mechanical glitch... Unless I missed something in the RQG core rules, no being in Glorantha [whether mortal or spirit] can have 100% of a Rune AND 100% in it's opposition Rune. Renharth's Allied Spirit has 100% in both Truth and Illusion, which appears to me to be an error. If I'm wrong about that, someone let me know please.

[Bill the barbarian]

3 hours ago, svensson said:

Reading the character sheet very carefully, I can only see one mechanical glitch... Unless I missed something in the RQG core rules, no being in Glorantha [whether mortal or spirit] can have 100% of a Rune AND 100% in it's opposition Rune. Renharth's Allied Spirit has 100% in both Truth and Illusion, which appears to me to be an error. If I'm wrong about that, someone let me know please.

Close, no mortal can usually have more than 99% in a power or form rune. There usually has to be at least 1% in the opposing rune. Hmm, I work on those as well, and I wonder if that is one I missed. I do recall bringing that or a similar case to Austin and having it explained as being either a spirit thing (different rules and limitations for spirits) or that the spirit was illuminated in which case, all bets are off. Austin, do you remember the context. I mean, I recall us discussing a form/power percentage problem. Can’t see a humakti allied spirit being illuminated, so that’s probably out.  @Crel? How’s your memory.

3 hours ago, svensson said:

A young widow shows up at the Boldhome Humakt temple clad only in her husband's ashes and grave-soil begging for Justice.

 

That was Austin all the way, he has some very good imagery.

Edited March 12, 2022 by Bill the barbarian

[Austin]

11 hours ago, svensson said:

That's just SUCH an image... for one thing it perfectly hits the visual bell for Sartar: part Old Testament Biblical Bronze Age, part '13th Warrior' Viking sensibilities. For another, after the de rigeur casting of Detect Truth, that's an image that NO Humakti is gonna ignore.

Thanks so much for the kind words! I have fun with words sometimes. 😄

11 hours ago, svensson said:

Renharth's Allied Spirit has 100% in both Truth and Illusion, which appears to me to be an error. If I'm wrong about that, someone let me know please.

Thanks for summoning me, Bill! 🙂 This idiosyncracy is due to Liberator's Illuminate ability, Freedom from Truth and Lies.

Since you asked, I'll let y'all in on a secret which I couldn't figure out how to make publishable quickly enough to fit into the issue's deadline:

Spoiler

Liberator is a teeny tiny piece of the Unbreakable Sword, which was once wielded by Arkat. It has forgotten that, but still knows a few things anyway. My literary inspiration for the sword is Nightblood, from Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere novels (in particular, Warbreaker, Words of Radiance, and especially Rhythm of War). Nightblood is a magic sword animated with the command "Slay Evil." However, it's a sword—it doesn't know how to recognize evil. This, naturally, leads to problems.

As Renharth (or an adventurer wielding Liberator) grows in power, I planned for them to be able to achieve Illumination and reclaim part of Arkat's magic, in a similar way to the magic item Fallen Star, in my Treasures of Glorantha. I struggled to figure out exactly how to frame this, and so if I remember correctly, I cut the Liberator-as-magic-item writeup before sending the MS Bill's way.

However, I did discover one major secret about the Unbreakable Sword: it isn't a sword. The Unbreakable Sword is actually the entire cult of Humakt. No clue if that's true in anyone else's Glorantha, but it's true in mine.

 

[svensson]

34 minutes ago, Crel said:

Thanks so much for the kind words! I have fun with words sometimes. 😄

Thanks for summoning me, Bill! 🙂 This idiosyncracy is due to Liberator's Illuminate ability, Freedom from Truth and Lies.

Since you asked, I'll let y'all in on a secret which I couldn't figure out how to make publishable quickly enough to fit into the issue's deadline:

  Hide contents

Liberator is a teeny tiny piece of the Unbreakable Sword, which was once wielded by Arkat. It has forgotten that, but still knows a few things anyway. My literary inspiration for the sword is Nightblood, from Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere novels (in particular, Warbreaker, Words of Radiance, and especially Rhythm of War). Nightblood is a magic sword animated with the command "Slay Evil." However, it's a sword—it doesn't know how to recognize evil. This, naturally, leads to problems.

As Renharth (or an adventurer wielding Liberator) grows in power, I planned for them to be able to achieve Illumination and reclaim part of Arkat's magic, in a similar way to the magic item Fallen Star, in my Treasures of Glorantha. I struggled to figure out exactly how to frame this, and so if I remember correctly, I cut the Liberator-as-magic-item writeup before sending the MS Bill's way.

However, I did discover one major secret about the Unbreakable Sword: it isn't a sword. The Unbreakable Sword is actually the entire cult of Humakt. No clue if that's true in anyone else's Glorantha, but it's true in mine.

 

Several things here....

- JJK, but every time there's some weird rule question about Glorantha, "What is 'Illumination'?, Alex..." 😉

- Interesting to see you linking your various contributions in a YGMV sort of way

- The Unbreakable Sword can be both a subcult and a real sword, with the sword acting as a focus of worship /wyter. The cult has access to Repair spirit magic and perhaps a Gustbran spell that can fully and wholly repair enchanted Rune Metals... 'Reforge' or something... in addition to the unbreakable spirit of subcult itself.

- I'm gonna have to introduce you to my own Humakti, Berger 'Blackblade' of the Narri Clan.

[Austin]

8 minutes ago, svensson said:

JJK, but every time there's some weird rule question about Glorantha, "What is 'Illumination'?, Alex..." 😉

😄

Very accurate. It's useful for justifying "this weird thing breaks the rules," hah.

[Bill the barbarian]

2 hours ago, svensson said:

JJK

svensson, not up on the terms you kids are using these days... JJK? WTF?

 

2 hours ago, Crel said:

Thanks for summoning me, Bill!

Are you kidding me, yer one of my favourite daimons to summon! I had thought I had it right, but memory and all, ya know? Thanks for letting me go one more day thinking the dementia has not gone too far, yet.

 

14 hours ago, svensson said:

Reading the character sheet very carefully, I can only see one mechanical glitch... Unless I missed something in the RQG core rules, no being in Glorantha [whether mortal or spirit] can have 100% of a Rune AND 100% in it's opposition Rune. Renharth's Allied Spirit has 100% in both Truth and Illusion, which appears to me to be an error. If I'm wrong about that, someone let me know please.

Yep, as editor, I go out of my way to check what I am given and I catch as much as I can and to get to use as much red highlighter as I can. What with, "Hey Austin, what’s up with theses stats... how, why, oh, quit messing with what little mind I have left... oh, illumination... got it.”

I get to use a bit of red marker, but damn it, Austin catches me and says well, “YGWV!"

Edited March 13, 2022 by Bill the barbarian

[svensson]

JJK is 'just joking'.

As for 'kids', I got the STRONG feeling you and I are fellow geezers. I just have nieces I'm trying to be the cool uncle for....

 

[svensson]

BTW, in my mind's eye I have this conversation between Renharth and the PCs...

"Sure, I'll duel ya over it, but you may wanna go around the corner to the Lankhor Mhy temple and get your will in writing first...."