A Fire in the Darkness - Rune affinities

[Nick Brooke]

Behind the spoiler tags is speculative feedback I provided for A Fire in the Darkness, the second scenario in the RQ Starter Set's Adventures Book. Don't read it if you're going to play that scenario: I'm sharing this in the hope a game master out there might find it useful.

Spoiler

Slightly meta: the root cause of the wyter’s madness is that the Seven Mothers cultists are praying for different, incompatible things, and there’s no High Priestess to tell the wyter which prayers to answer. (I get the feeling it’s like a buffer overflow – too many requests are backing up in a system the High Priestess would usually wipe clean every week at a worship ceremony).

• “Their prayers are being heard by the wyter but are mixed: some are angry at the people of Jonstown and some merely wish to restore things to the way they were. These prayers cannot be passed on to the High Priest, who was killed in the fall of the temple”; “Their conflicted prayers keep confusing the addled spirit.”

Given that, might it make sense to (a) state explicitly what each cultist has been praying for (perhaps in their stat blocks?), and (b) have their assigned Runes both (1) aligned with their desires and (2) in conflict with one another? Right now their Runes are fairly bland and consistent (lots of Moon + Death), but Runes on the character sheet express personality.

• Vargusin prays for the re-establishment of a publicly-accepted Seven Mothers Temple in Jonstown, with Ferene as its priestess. This is the civilised / conservative / “nothing changes, can’t we all get along?” option, hence my suggested additions. (Runes: Death 75%, Harmony 60%, Man 60%, Moon 80%, Stasis 75%)
   
• His priestess Ferene prays for the wyter to stop attacking people, as it will expose them. (Runes: Darkness 50%, Fertility 75%, Harmony 75%, Illusion 60%, Moon 80%). The Illusion rating is because she wants to hide; it works well with her Darkness and both Runes conflict nicely with Fostur’s hypothetical Truth and Fire/Sky Rune ratings.
   
• Andralor prays to be left alone to worship the Seven Mothers in Jonstown in peace. (Runes: change Death 60% to Fertility 60% – he doesn’t want any separation or violence, and this increases the discord in the prayers received by the wyter. His other Rune ratings make sense to me: Earth 70%, Man 75%, Moon 80%, Stasis 60%)
   
• His sister Ivarni prays to leave Jonstown with Andralor, head for Lunar Tarsh, and get revenge. (Runes: Air 60%, Death 75%, Disorder 60%, Moon 80%, Movement 75%). The Air and Disorder Runes are because she’s a violent thug, the Movement Rune is because she wants to hightail it outta town; they clash with other cultists’ desires.
   
• Dorasa prays that anybody who comes after the cultists will get what’s coming to them. (Runes: Beast 40% feels low for the “interesting” number in an opposed pair: are we saying she’s not a very good hunter? I’d bump this up to Beast 60% and that’s why she’s (a) a wilderness type and (b) conflicting with all those Man Rune prayers. Other Runes are fine: Death 65%, Earth 40%, Moon 60%; consider chucking in Disorder 60% as well?).
   
• Her husband Fostur prays to avoid direct conflict and continue worshipping in peace. (Runes: suggest Fire/Sky, Harmony, Man & Truth around 60%, as well as Fertility & Moon around 80% as cult Runes: he currently has no statblock, although everyone else gets one)

This information’s already there, I just wonder if it would make sense to be up front about it? Also, maybe laying it out like this will inspire ways to make it even twistier… and giving new players the idea that Runes unlock Personalities can’t be done early enough.

 Note that quoted text and NPC Rune affinity ratings are from the draft manuscript, and may be different in the final version.