Falling Ruins

[Squaredeal Sten]

This past week i had reason to GM my players into the Falling Ruins (N. Sartar map, about 25 km SE of Bagnot). 

The Guide to  Glorantha has a brief description: 

Spoiler

“cursed and dangerous”' Fragments of a mystical ladder fall from the skies; ELEMENORA the Great Temptress who grants wishes for a terrible price.

I wonder whether any of you has more information on this place, or a better way of running it than I do.  Is there an original write-up of this location in some obscure fanzine?

This was in the lead-up to the Battle of Heroes, so  they are doing recon for Argrath's army.

I played it pretty straight as described: it's the ruins of a city, about 30 hectares, very beat up - most buildings open to the sky, big gaps in what remains of the walls,  and the players periodically hear and observe things fall with a great crash producing a small crater..  Farsee revealed that the falling things look like parts of a ladder.   Observation of the crater will show fragments of charred wood still burning.  Flight over the ruins will reveal a cloaked, hooded figure that disappears in to a ruined building, one of the few with a semi-intact room not open to the sky. 

Investigation of the building shows Elemenora, the hooded, cloaked figure speaking from the shadows.   (No other details visible in the shadows.) 

She asks "What is your wish?"

The first Adventurers' replies are requests for information: Why are ladders falling from the sky?  Reply:  The price for that information s sacrificing a horse.  use that stone as an altar.  (One Adventurer's horse is sacrificed.)   Answer;  It's Polaris's curse on the city.

One adventurer casts Truespeak, which succeeds (vs. my arbitrary assignment of POW 26) and doesn't bother Elemenora..

Another request for information: Where is the Lunar army? - Produced a higher price:  "Sacrifice a man."  The Adventurers discuss this a little :  Does Argrath have a prisoner to spare?  They would have to go back to camp to get an answer.

Elemenora then prompts the Adventurers into expressing real wishes:  We want the Red Emperor dead.  Answer: "The price for that is the destruction of a city."

That is too much for the adventurers -

Who leave, mostly with the opinion that Elemenora is a spirit of some type.

 

[Joerg]

 

9 minutes ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

I wonder whether any of you has more information on this place, or a better way of running it than I do.  Is there an original write-up of this location in some obscure fanzine?

There is slightly more text in the now semi-canonical and out-of-print HeroQuest publication "Dragon Pass: Land of Doom - A Gazetteer of Kerofinela".

Spoiler

Falling Ruins
Ruins of an ancient city and fortress (B2)
Source: History of the Heortling Peoples.
This notorious ruin overlooks Dendrogi Pass. Stravuli tribesmen settled here in the Dawn Age and called the site Intan. Every power trying to control Dragon Pass since has aimed to occupy this strategic site. Dinkat raised his Ladder here, and it might have been a breeding place for human/dragon hybrids, or a monastery for non-humans, or a laboratory where metal animals were forged. Ruined during the EWF, it remains cursed and dangerous.
The ruins have a nearly irresistible allure even from the pass far below. It casts promises upon everyone that travels the three roads that approach it. Within the ruins lives Elemenoria, the Great Temptress who can grant any wish, for a price.

And there was some online discussion about that, possibly already somewhere in the mailing list archives at http://glorantha.steff.in , or possibly in the Google+ archives that ended up on Tapatalk IIRC.

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

slightly more text in the now semi-canonical and out-of-print HeroQuest publication "Dragon Pass: Land of Doom - A Gazetteer of Kerofinela".

That's the only other reference that I am aware of.

1 hour ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

or a better way of running it than I do. 

Your approach seems reasonable. I might have Elemenora testing and challenging the adventurer's Hates and Fears - "don't you wish they were dead?", etc.

I'm not sure I'd necessarily tell the adventurers the price she requires (at least until after they've made their wish). I'm not quite sure how I'd apply the price but perhaps something they Love or are Loyal or Devoted to get cursed or killed in return?  (I do like the idea of unexpected/unintended consequences for wish fulfillment, though.)

[David Scott]

In Wintertop's shadow has in its gazetteer:

Spoiler

Falling Ruins: Also called Intan, this ruin was first settled by the Stravuli in the Dawn Age. During the EWF Dinkat raised hisladder here toclimb to the Sky World, but when he stared Dayzatar in the eye Dinkat stumbled and fell taking his ladder with him and crashing into the city below. Pans of Dinkat and his ladder still tumble from the sky onto the city from time 10 time. Elemenoria, the Great Temptress lives here now, able to grant any wish - for a price.

In Greg's 1980 HeroQuest notes, it was one of the three places where you could begin a heroquest into the EWF period...

Edited February 20, 2023 by David Scott

[Shiningbrow]

"...for a price."

How's 2 clacks sound?? 🙃

[Darius West]

24 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

"...for a price."

How's 2 clacks sound?? 🙃

Clack clack?

[Squaredeal Sten]

How does destroying your clan wyter sound?   i believe I used that one in the session.