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Why would a Golden Bow shaman be adventuring in Sartar? (Alternate question: How old should a shaman be to have an assistant?)


Jex

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So, months ago I made some posts here about an adventure I was writing for the Write Your First Adventure workshop, set in the town of Marshedge in the Lismelder Tribe territory.  Well, I didn't finish by the workshop deadline (in large part because I got way too ambitious and went way over the suggested word count), and then with one thing and another I kind of... set it aside for a while.  But I'm finally picking it back up again; even if I didn't finish it by the end of workshop I still want to get it finished and published, and I hope to have it done within the next month or so.

Anyway, when I say I got way too ambitious, part of it is that I decided there was enough material that it would be better to split it into two products: the adventure itself, and a Marshedge gazetteer.  (The adventure could be run without the gazetteer—there are a few characters fully statted in the gazetteer who appear in the adventure, but they play very minor roles in the adventure and their stats probably won't be needed.)  The adventure itself is fully written (though it could do with some editing and revision, and it hasn't been illustrated or laid out yet), but the gazetteer I just finally got off my duff and seriously started writing yesterday.  But then I decided I may as well add a (much shorter) third product: a set of pregenerated characters mostly from the Lismelder tribe, for use in the adventure.  (This maybe I'll release for free, to possibly pique interest in the other products.  But I digress.)

So I've been planning out a set of pregen characters that (a) fits the area where the adventure is set, (b) isn't too similar to the pregens from the core book/starter set, and (c) covers all the bases players are likely to want covered.  Now, to satisfy (c), I figured one of the pregens ought to be an assistant shaman.  (The party doesn't actually need to include an assistant shaman to complete the adventure—although there are some parts of the adventure where it could be very useful to communicate with spirits, there are other ways to proceed, and anyway there's an NPC shaman whose aid they can enlist if they want to.  Still, I figured I ought to have an assistant shaman character as an option.)  And I've been having a bit of trouble coming up with a good concept for an assistant shaman character that fits criteria (a) and (b).  I don't get the impression that shamans are that common in Sartar, so it would seem unlikely there are two shamans (well, one shaman and one assistant shaman) living in the Marshedge area.  The core pregen assistant shaman is a Waha initiate from Prax, so I wanted to do something as different from that as possible.  So I thought it might be interesting to have a Golden Bow shaman (well, assistant shaman) as one of the pregen characters.  Sure, Marshedge is pretty far from the Grazelands, but the core pregens include some characters from outside Sartar as well (besides the aforementioned Praxian shaman, there's a Lunar Tarshite, an Old Tarshite, and an Esrolian), and all my other pregens are from the Lismelder area; having one foreign pregen didn't seem out of the question.

The problem is, given the Pure Horse People's isolationist and xenophobic nature, I'm not sure what plausible reason a Golden Bow shaman would have for adventuring with the other PCs in Marshedge.  I thought maybe one of the other PCs could previously have traveled to the Grazelands and helped him out somehow, and he's returning the favor, but that seems a little thin.

And as I was typing this entry another solution occurred to me, one that in retrospect seems blatantly obvious and I feel stupid for not having thought of it before.  I said it seemed unlikely there would be two shamans living in the Marshedge area—but that assumes they're there independently.  What if the PC assistant shaman is apprenticed to the NPC shaman that I've already established lives in the area?  The biggest problem I see with that is that, well, the NPC shaman only went through his own ordeal and became a full shaman a few years ago; he wouldn't be much older than the PC.  Would it make sense for a relatively new shaman to take on an assistant only a few years younger than he is?

Okay, I suppose now this post contains two sort of unrelated questions, but I guess they're related in that I'm exploring two alternate solutions to the same problem and trying to figure out which one is more workable...

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Love it. You got farther than I did on that workshop homework . . . other work got in the way.

Pulling a Golden Bow assistant this far east might be as simple as the boss getting a spirit communication that something the Pure People lost on their route to the Grazelands has finally been reawakened and is ready to be picked up and reincorporated into their modern religious repertoire. Could be a medicine bundle or other relic. Could be a dormant shrine in trouble that called out for the shaman to obey an ancestral pact. Could be vague and shadowy omens that someone is needed over there. The great thing about shamans is that they are so open to nudges from the spirit world that all you really need to do is figure out a task (even one that seems trivial or nonsensical from the mundane POV) and tell the assistant that it needs to be done.

Behind the scenes, the spirits might pick the assistant for this because he is in some way unsuited for everyday xenophobic life within the Pure Horse community . . . friendly, curious, outgoing, brash. This might have been a source of anxiety for the character earlier in life but now it might be nice to see the role that life has prepared.

IMG full shamanic authority isn't really limited to physical age like conventional tribal elder status would be. You might even be in communion with ancestral entities far older than your grandparents and when they are on you, age is just a number. Once your fetch is active you're in it to win it . . . and if the spirits tell you to pick an apprentice, you pick an apprentice. If they find you someone and tell you this is your apprentice, that's how it goes. You can fight but rarely win. The apprentice might even be physically older than the master for MGF and a little human comedy.

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Remember, the Grazelanders used to be the only human beings living in Dragon Pass. So you can find ancient Grazelander burial mounds, totems, wardings and other spirit places all across the region - not just in “the yellow bits on the map.” A Grazelander shaman could have ritual obligations bringing him to what are now Lismelder lands. (And a Grazeland scout can be useful in any part of the Dragon Pass wilderness.)

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Or, if you prefer: in David Hall’s Greydog campaign, our neighbours the Hillhaven clan were old-timers led by Bofrost, a Breath Shaman of Umath. (Nowadays we’d most likely call him a kolating - an Orlanthi shaman working mostly with wind spirits - but this was the nineties and that word didn’t exist yet). One of Bofrost’s assistant shamans would be a perfectly acceptable pregen adventurer (or encounter) down Marshedge way.

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Oh, that is interesting.  Hm... in light of the last paragraph of @scott-martin's post, I think I was leaning toward just having the pregen assistant shaman be apprenticed to the established shaman in Marshedge; it kind of helps tie them into the setting; I realized a way I could use it to foreshadow a future development I'm considering; and anyway according to the most recent maps the Hillhaven clan is kind of on the opposite side of the Lismelder territory from the Marshedge.  On the other hand, a shaman of Umath could have some good potential, and after all even if the Hillhaven and Lismelder territories don't directly border each other they're not that far apart... and maybe having the PC not know the local shaman in Marshedge at the beginning leaves more room for discovery.  (Not that the local shaman plays a major role in the adventure anyway, unless the PCs don't have a shaman and turn to him for help, but he may play a larger role in a sequel.)  I'll have to mull this over.  Thanks for the information.

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I was going to make some suggestions but Scott-Martin and Nick have pinched them from me.

You might have a Duck/Durulz Shaman in Marshedge, some Ducks are shamanic and Marshedge sounds like a good place for them.

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Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

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Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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I was actually already planning on having a Duck among the pregens, since the Lismelder have such close ties to the Ducks, but the Duck was going to be a Lhankor Mhy initiate.  (Hm... although now that I look again, the Glorantha Bestiary says "Ducks tend to join certain Air or Death Rune cults (such as Orlanth and Humakt) as other cults tend to treat them with distrust".  But since the Durulz are more accepted among the Lismelder than among other Sartarite tribes, maybe there it wouldn't be as unusual for them to join other cults?  Eh, I was also going to have a Humakti pregen; if a Duck initiate of Lhankor Mhy would be too improbable I can switch things around and make the Humakti a Duck instead, although the image of a Duck Lhankor Mhy initiate having a false beard hanging underneath their beak does appeal to me...)

As for the shaman, I think I'm currently leaning toward @Nick Brooke's suggestion of making them an apprentice of Bofrost.

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Ducks in Lhankor Mhy would work really well. The idea of a Duck sage getting exasperated because people don't listen to their advice because they are a Duck fits if well with Duckness. I would say that any Lightbringer cult or Humakt would be fine for Ducks, as would thief cults and water cults. Other cults should be OK, unless they have specific racial restrictions.

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Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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