Elf Bow Hero Quest

[Erol of Backford]

Does anyone have suggestions for a hero quest linked to enhancing an elfbow? Maybe they gain a special seed that will grow into something other than the standard elf bow or something that would enhance an existing one with some special power?

If not, is there is a hero quest that could be adoted to be along these lines and if so what book would it be in?

Thank you in advance.

[GMKen]

If you want to have some fun, you could send them into the Elder Wilds of the Griffin Mountain supplement, there to search for the “Treetop Mountains” where is found the “peak where Shanassee was first planted, before he walked down slope and resettled himself and began his forest uncounted ages before.

So the Treetop Mountains could be considered the place of Shanassee’s youth, where he, uhm, discovered himself before venturing into the wide world.  A considerable amount of...pollen was left behind, something that the Aldryami consider to be of great power in their magicks.

Part of the fun is that the Treetop Mountains are not actually named on any map of the Gloranthaverse AFAIK, nor are the Treetop Mountains mentioned anywhere besides in Griffin Mountain.  Details on Shanassee are hard to come by as well.  So the GM has a lot of flexibility in where exactly to place their location (I’m thinking back behind Vivamort’s Castle in the Er’oring Wilds), as well as in what kind of things you could do with potent plant god pollen (like maybe grow or craft a self-healing, POW-dealing, matrix-weaving superbow).  Perhaps the Treetop Mountains are beyond the veil of time, so have to be heroquested to once their mundane world equivalent location is found.  Though frankly the journey there would itself have been a heroic quest.

Not sure how that might fit in with the Hero Wars, but could be a fun adventure

[French Desperate WindChild]

I would imagine some quest back to the green age.

Where / When genert, aldrya or any elfic deity is fighting ennemy / plague / what you want. The god send the heroes to a dangerous mission

After some exploration, in a cave, or any dark part where green life is in danger, the bow is ill, but the group succeed to fine a solution

back to camp, the deity welcomes the heroes, happy for their success, but sad for the bow (after all there is a spirit inside it is not only wood)

The bow dies, and then is burried with the blessing of the divinity and its minions

But the power of growth is big in green age and a new little sprout appears.

Some dances around and hey here your new bow more powerful !

[Erol of Backford]

7 hours ago, GMKen said:

Treetop Mountains

Maybe the Treetop Mountains (possibly the red arrow in clip below) are only visible from the top of Griffin Mountain far to the south somehow? The Eston Forest Great Tree is visible as well but (if its not really there in say 1605) its a specter, visible when looking from the top of Griffin Mountain?

Will look for any info on Shanassee as well. Not sure where Vivamort’s Castle is but I like the ideas!

Hero Quest for the pollen up a trail given by the elves of the Eston Forest which may be found and then utilized to fertilize the growth/rebirth of the elf bow...

7 hours ago, GMKen said:

beyond the veil of time

The journey up beyond the tree line and into the mist on the Treetop Mountains (maybe a trail up the mountain where the red arrow is) takes one to the other side and is where the pollen is found? The Bilini River runs through the High Woods which would have been Eston Forest? Does it pass the Eston Great Tree?

Eston: This forest was part of the Council of All Races of the Elder Wilds.

 

Thank you both!

Edited September 19, 2022 by Erol of Backford

[Shiningbrow]

High King Elf.

Or, the Aldryami Yelmalio.

Both are archers, and so you could go that way.

Personally, I might suggest you ask what you want to happen to the bow before you decide on the HQ. Because you want something appropriate. "Bow special powers"...??? Extra range? Auto Multimissile or Speedart on command? Recharging Sureshot? Or Arrow Trance? Or Chameleon? Or a bound allied spirit that has those spells? (these are apart from the obvious extra damage... Or a Legolas quiver that never runs out? Or a power to make all arrows fired from it hit spirits or other creatures with particular in/vulnerabilities (eg, acts like iron on trolls))

 

From those, you could decide which way you want your HQ to go.

[soltakss]

On 9/18/2022 at 6:04 PM, Erol of Backford said:

Does anyone have suggestions for a hero quest linked to enhancing an elfbow? Maybe they gain a special seed that will grow into something other than the standard elf bow or something that would enhance an existing one with some special power?

Aldryami almost certainly have HeroQuests for this.

They might be of several types:

• HeroQuest for a power that you put on your current Elf Bow, but this is lost when you lose the Elf Bow, i.e. It is specific to your Elf Bow.
• HeroQuest for a power that you store in something that you put on your current Elf Bow, but this can be moved to another Elf Bow when you change bows
• HeroQuest for a power that you store in the seed from which your Elf Bow grows, so your current Elf Bow doesn't get it but new ones do
• HeroQuest for a power that you store in the seed from which your Elf Bow grows, but your current Elf Bow also gets it, as it grew from that seed, and new bows also keep the power
• HeroQuest for a power that affects you and your Elf Bow, so it affects whichever Elf Bow you have

There are, potentially, lots of ways to do this:

• HeroQuest to Yelmalio to get a really powerful Sunripen effect that gives your bow some light magic
• HeroQuest to Flamal to bump the power of your Elf Bow Seed
• HeroQuest to High King Elf to make your Elf Bow better
• Steal abilities from archer deities on a HeroQuest, so you might steal Multimissile from Golden Bow, Sureshot from Hunter, or whatever

Abilities gained could be varied and could stack with other abilities

• Elf Bow can store more Magic Points (Maybe an extra 2D6)
• Elf Bow becomes a Spirit Magic Matrix (Speedart, Multimissile, Light, Heal)
• Elf Bow becomes awakened (3D6 INT, 3D6 CHA, Magic Points become POW)
• Elf Bow regenerates any damage taken, at 1 HP per round
• Elf Bow gains more Hit Points
• Elf Bow puts Speedart, or Multimissile 1 on each arrow fired (Extra points gets you Multimissile 2, 3 and so on)
• Elf Bow allows you to add your Missile Damage Bonus to the damage done, through a longer pull, stronger bow, or something
• Elf Bow fires arrows that ignore vegetation cover Penalties
• Elf Bow fires arrows that ignore Range penalties
• Elf Bow fires arrows that do double penetrative damage against a certain kind of foe
• Elf Bow fires arrows that do double penetrative damage to a particular Hit Location
• Elf Bow fires arrows that never miss, impale, critical or fumble, they only do a Normal Success.
• Elf Bow fires arrows that increase their Damage Rating by one level, so from Normal Success to Special Success, from Special Success to Critical Success and so on

If you gained the same ability more than once it becomes more powerful. So, Multimissile Matrix increases by a point per time, regeneration increases the amount healed, and so on.

How would the HeroQuest work? You go to a God Time event and replicate a Hero getting special bow magic or powers. You steal an ability from a Hero. You ask Aldrya/Flamal/Whoever for a boon for your bow, they only agree if you defeat their sworn enemy, or do something spectacularly heroic.

 

 

[Erol of Backford]

When you list it out like that the possibilities do seem almost limitless, thanks much!

Always liked this early RQ elf sketch.

[Shiningbrow]

16 hours ago, soltakss said:

Elf Bow becomes awakened (3D6 INT, 3D6 CHA, Magic Points become POW)

Bestiary p25 - the Elf Bow already has POW... they're not a "POW" storage crystal (which really needs a name change!) which only has MPs.

But, an awakened plant bow (with spells) makes a lot of sense.

[Erol of Backford]

12 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

awakened plant bow (with spells)

This sounds nice but adding that doesn't die by someone touching it? Maybe it only takes some damage? I always felt that was pretty harsh for any elf/part elf character.

Thinking on what Mr. Svensson said "We have two examples of Heroquesters who were successful in their quests and are described by RQG statistics: Queen Leika of the Colymar and Sarostip of Jonstown. Both of these worthies have legendary items in their possession, but both have inherent abilities granted by their questing." I like the inherent abilities as they cannot normally be stolen, used up or destroyed.

Thanks once again!

[French Desperate WindChild]

Seems to me easier to get an allied spirit (aka a spirit existing in the god plan) bound into the bow than go on heroquest to awake the bow (aka a spirit from scratch born into the bow) *

When I say easier…. Well will you go in dangerous heroquest (as it is about weapon there should be  some fight or other dangerous situation) before you are rune master (and if you are rune master you probably get the allied spirit)

but that could be  an unexpected  benefit to hear your bow after the quest : 

you go to get some seed to save / renew the forest and you are so successful that your bow is blessed by the mother goddess. 

 

* i say that but I m not sure if, in glorantha spirits can be created or if there are here since the beginning

awaking an object = binding a spirit with a « past » ?

 

[Erol of Backford]

2 hours ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

you are so successful that your bow is blessed by the mother goddess

I like this, very positive!

[EricW]

You could add some interesting twists to this quest.

For example, the Hellwood elves would be able to provide some pretty interesting elf bow seeds, through their secret connection to chaos - maybe your character earns the gratitude of a Hellwood elf (rare!) and receives a rather special gift, or simply finds the bow by the body of a dead elf.

Another possibility, the Elves had a special connection to Nysalor in the First Age. Maybe somewhere out there in a distant part of the hero plane is the secret of building a bow which is associated with a special kind of light which does terrible harm to foes, especially trolls, as Nysalor used light to injure Kyger Litor at the Battle of Night and Day.

Both scenarios would lead to a bow which was terribly powerful, but metaphysically harmful, and could put all sorts of people on the trail of your PC - Hellwood elves who are furious at the leaking of their secret, and want to tie up a loose end, Lunars who want to learn the secret of creating a uniquely powerful bow, Storm bulls who sensed something bad in the woods, Trolls who want to find out who is using horrible magic to scorch and kill their friends, and make the corpses smell so bad they don't feel like eating them.

The solution of course is to destroy the bow, and get as far as possible from the pile of ash - but your PC would need to figure this out.

 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2022 by EricW

[Erol of Backford]

6 hours ago, EricW said:

and make the corpses smell so bad they don't feel like eating them.

I love the ideas but trolls not wanting to eat due to the "smell of Yelm" is a really good one.

[Manunancy]

An ability that sounds quite aldryami to me woudl be coating the arrows with a poison - probably wiht an MP cost to fuel it. The aldryamis are quite fonds of poisons - the Poisonwood aldryamis in Dorastor are probably the most experts at that game, but I'd expect any forest worth it's leaves to be able to concoct unpleasant surprises for their ennemies.

Edited September 25, 2022 by Manunancy

[GMKen]

On 9/18/2022 at 9:39 PM, Erol of Backford said:

 

Not sure where Vivamort’s Castle is but I like the ideas!

If you have the big hex map from the original edition of Griffin Mountain, you can find Vivamort’s Castle at hex 4502 on the Elder Wilds side of the map.  If you only have the PoD edition, look at the map on page 89.  In the upper right corner is the label Er’oring Wilds.  If you look north from the first “i”, you’ll see a zig zag in the river.  That’s where it is.  Supposed to be a big and old treasure there from Vivamort’s salad days as a young vampire, or perhaps even the time before he made his deal with the Devil.  Maybe there are more details in the “Tower of Night” campaign supplement promised in RQ3’s Lords of Terror?

Details on Vivamort’s history are a bit tough to come by.  Not as bad as Shanassee, but still less than one might hope.  Why is the castle there in the depths of hardcore Aldryami territory?  Is it still guarded by one of Vivamort’s undying lieutenants?  Does he ever stop by from Dorastor to visit?  Is it the source of the vampires plaguing Gork’s Hills to the west?  
 

So few details; so much license for GMs to go nuts.  Why Griffin Mountain remains one of the definitive game supplements in the hobby.

[Erol of Backford]

 

4 hours ago, GMKen said:

“Tower of Night” campaign supplement promised in RQ3’s Lords of Terror

Was part of this published in a zine at sometime?

5 hours ago, GMKen said:

Is it the source of the vampires plaguing Gork’s Hills to the west?  

I saw in the rumor's table there was no physical sighting for like 80 years, recalling from memory?

Are there any Elf Hero Quests related to vampires or Vivamort in general?

[metcalph]

7 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

I saw in the rumor's table there was no physical sighting for like 80 years, recalling from memory?

That turns out to be based on a series of Vampire killings in Trilus

 

Quote

Vampire of Gork Hills Price - 500 L
No one has anything current to say about the vampire but they do
tell the story that 90 years ago the vampire was responsible for
a series of disappearances from Trilus. After taking one person a
night for two weeks, the vampire announced that it would only
cease if victims were freely provided. The vampire promised that
any victims who came willingly would not be seriously harmed
but that if victims were not provided freely, the citadel would be
depopulated one by one. The citadel did not give in. After several
more disappearances, a house-to-house search found the coffin
of a vampire, which was destroyed. This was not “the vampire,”
of course, but, after reappearing to vow eventual revenge, “the
vampire” left and Trilus has not been bothered since.

Griffin Mountain p98

 

[jajagappa]

18 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

Was part of this published in a zine at sometime?

Not to my knowledge.

[Oracle]

On 10/21/2022 at 7:27 PM, GMKen said:

If you have the big hex map from the original edition of Griffin Mountain, you can find Vivamort’s Castle at hex 4502 on the Elder Wilds side of the map.  If you only have the PoD edition, look at the map on page 89.  In the upper right corner is the label Er’oring Wilds.  If you look north from the first “i”, you’ll see a zig zag in the river.  That’s where it is.  Supposed to be a big and old treasure there from Vivamort’s salad days as a young vampire, or perhaps even the time before he made his deal with the Devil.  Maybe there are more details in the “Tower of Night” campaign supplement promised in RQ3’s Lords of Terror?

Details on Vivamort’s history are a bit tough to come by.  Not as bad as Shanassee, but still less than one might hope.  Why is the castle there in the depths of hardcore Aldryami territory?  Is it still guarded by one of Vivamort’s undying lieutenants?  Does he ever stop by from Dorastor to visit?  Is it the source of the vampires plaguing Gork’s Hills to the west?  
 

So few details; so much license for GMs to go nuts.  Why Griffin Mountain remains one of the definitive game supplements in the hobby.

[Oracle]

Oops. Just saw, that @Erol of Backford provided a similar map excerpt already ...

Edited October 22, 2022 by Oracle

[EricW]

Eurmal gave death to high king elf under dubious circumstances. If you find a trickster who just stole the humakt cult sword back after his Orlanthi pal used the stolen sword to kill a yelm priest, you could probably create a bow which is a heroic manifestation of death. Perhaps a sever spirit with every hit, damage vs power.

 

Of course setting all this up could be a challenge, like finding a trickster willing to walk into a Humakt temple and steal their most treasured relic.

Edited October 23, 2022 by EricW

[mfbrandi]

5 hours ago, EricW said:

like finding a trickster willing to walk into a Humakt temple and steal their most treasured relic

Trickster: “But they’ll kill me.”
Patron: “If I withdraw my protection, your own village will kill you. You remember all the things you did, right?”

Life as a bonded trickster is a looped “one last job and we’ll let you go” heist movie. In French, probably. One must imagine Sisyphus Eurmal happy.

[Erol of Backford]

Does anyone have Elven or Half-elven Tricksters in there campaigns?

[Darius West]

On 9/20/2022 at 3:40 AM, soltakss said:

Aldryami almost certainly have HeroQuests for this.

I'd settle for an Elf Bow that didn't die when a non-Aldryami touched it.

[Erol of Backford]

Curious as to if Rortow the Hound Master was like great troll size and if their bow would be like d10+1 and allow strength bonus to be applied if you were large enough and strong enough to use it and if the hounds were like the Growler or worse, like hellhounds or Ethilrist's horses but metal armored and similar to werewolves only being damaged by silver/rune metals or magic? How an elf or half elf could use such a bow is beyond me but of course it came across while I was reading The Stafford House Campaign and as it might be that they have a bow? Sorry to always be looking for links for obscure items, but they bring out interesting ideas most of the time.

(Its a Heroquest and there may/may not be a bow involved...)

Thanks again everyone for your thoughts.