Tomb of Yurmonis

[StephenMcG]

I am working my party through this dungeon.  I have been leaning on the mythic links to Old Pavis and that the tomb is a place where the veil between reality and the Hero Plane is thin.

The details of the dungeon are quite firmly fixed in reality and less reliant on ancient myth and lore.

Anyone have any ideas?  I am thinking that the three ghosts in the first false chamber be the door to a minor Heroquest rather than a mundane fight with three ghosts.

Would appreciate any input on what the Heroquest should be or how later elements might lean into the Pavis/Ernalda relationship.  After all, Pavis is quite heavily linked to Green Age magic and politics.

[StephenMcG]

My working plan for the Heroquest is to outline the Flintnail project.  The creation of the first man/dwarf hybrids; the place of a new Green Age in the World machine; the creation of the Ancient Measure. 

Each ghost represents an element of that and tests those who enter the tomb. If the heroes fail, they find themselves back outside the tomb. Worse failures may damage their links with relevant runes and magic.  It might add passions.  Obviously worse failures will result in worse outcomes. If they try to enter, the magical defences are enhanced against them and the defenders more dangerous.

At the end, the heroes will be in the tomb with the sarcophogi open. Each fresco would have a stasis, harmony or earth rune cleverly stitched into it. One of them will now see a fresco that has a man rune which hides the secret door.

Just need to detail the stations now.

Thank you for being my sounding board, even just knowing I am trying to explain it to others means I need to think it through in more detail (and finish the thinking).

[StephenMcG]

Ha! The scenes in the frescoes will be scenes in the HeroQuest, some clues for the players if they look at them closely enough.

[StephenMcG]

I think I have my stations.  To make sense, you need to know the players have Heroquest versions of their RQG characters for heroquesting.  On a heroquest, abilities work once UNLESS something there restores "spent" powers. I give HQ numbers by converting an RQG skill to a HQ skill (10+(RQG skill/5)).  So 50% skills equate to 20, 100% skills to 30 (10W).

What comes next is the bare bones, I am hoping things won't be as obvious when I layer on the narrative but my players are Glorantha neophyte, this kind of stuff is as much about revealing mythos and lore as anything else.

STATION 1: The PCs find themselves in a strange place, they have to first identify the location as a dwrf's view of the world machine, and mosrali working to repair it. Success moves on, failure moves on with a -3 penalty to all future contests. This is easy (13) if a Pavis or Flintnail cultists is on the quest, more difficult if not (18) and difficult if enemy cultists are in charge (5W).

the next part is taking part in a conversation with Mostali about fixing the machine.  Open-handist, individualist, orthodox and Flintnail perspectives are offered and the players need to choose who to support. Each choice has different impacts in later contests.

A stranger arrives with his daughters, asking for Mostali that were interested in a new way to repair the World Machine that makes Growth part of the solution but requires sacrifice by some Mostali. There are then a number of rolls where the greater the number of successes versus 5W gains bonuses to Flintnail lore rolls. Pavis cultists work against 1W rather than 5W.

STATION 2: the PCs find themselves in woods rather than the innards of the World Machine. They can see fields in the distance where mostali/human hybrids are tending crops that seem to be failing.  The dwarves are actually building the crops rather than growing them. The PCs need to help by getting the crops to grow, using fertility magic, showing the dwarves how to make the crops succeed.

The dwarves tell them of a woman who grows crops nearby.  The players find a walled garden where the plants grow so much they are getting choked. The woman lives with 4 ancient uncles who give her varying advice break the walls (elf uncle), eat the plants (troll uncle),trade her plants with the dwarves (pavis), burn the plants and allow new ones to grow (dragon uncle).

The plants the players bring to the dwarves do not grow, they need the woman or her fertility magic.  The players broker a marriage between the head dwarf and the woman. The dwarf promises to build a better farm for the woman's uncles and she promises to use her magic to grow the plants.

STATION 3: is very sketchy.  It has one bit to do with the faceless statue, I think how both the statue and Jolanti are the working bits of the city of Pavis.

One bit that shows that the building is simply a gate to somewhere better, possibly risking letting something in rather than providing access to a destination. Chaos?

The final bit has got to be about combining stasis and movement, so that the movement of the World machine finally delivers eternal motion where nothing ever actually changes. It also ties the questers into keeping the secret.

This provides a glimpse into Ian Thompson's Flintnail future.  which I have bought into.

 

I want the players to come out knowing a bit more about dwarves, and the differences in the Flintnail ones, and the PCs to have proven their Flintnail-friendly credentials and gain access to the next part of the tomb.

 

SO much reading....

 

 

[StephenMcG]

I realise I have my narrative wrong.  the first station needs to be about Flintnail going to Pavis to see the faceless statue and stay to oversee its use in the building of the ancient city.  I reckon that I need to use that station to give some insight into dwarves and the fundamentals of their existence, as well as their involvement in the city as an engine to drive a new Green Age rather than a place to live.

So that becomes the first station, the next is the buy-in of the dwarves to the Pavis project and the third station is the path to the generations of Flintnail dwarves which have become dwarves grow and die rather than the potentially immortal Mostali...

[jajagappa]

5 hours ago, StephenMcG said:

the first station needs to be about Flintnail going to Pavis to see the faceless statue and stay to oversee its use in the building of the ancient city.

If you follow a mythic pattern where Flintnail goes to see Pavis, then there really should be a station preceding that - some disaster or failure in the World Machine that necessitates seeking out a solution. (As Pavis exists in Time, the mythic framework should be more generic, e.g. the dwarf has heard of some old place in the World Machine that used to hold the plans of Mostal. He arrives and discovers the place is entangled by the minions of Grower... )

[StephenMcG]

I guess that does provide them with the context of Mostal, the World Machine and the problem with growth for orthodox Mostali.

Thanks.

[StephenMcG]

2 hours ago, jajagappa said:

the dwarf has heard of some old place in the World Machine that used to hold the plans of Mostal. He arrives and discovers the place is entangled by the minions of Grower... )

I have tossed this about in my head but am coming up blank about what choice or task I should put into the station.

[jajagappa]

2 hours ago, StephenMcG said:

I have tossed this about in my head but am coming up blank about what choice or task I should put into the station.

We're talking Rock Dwarfs when thinking about Flintnail, so the #1 God Time failure is the Destruction of the Spike. That's the lynch pin that holds all the worlds (Runes) together. Given the requirements for symmetry and needs for attunement of the outer regions with the Spike, let's assume that in each standard radial direction (i.e. primary, secondary, and tertiary compass points) there existed a series of towers and stations that ran from the Spike to the edges of the world (likely along roadways - this is basically how the Daughter's Roads in Saird work). Those roads/networks have been broken and those towers and stations not destroyed in the immediate blast are in various states of destruction. Further, because the center of the world is now a Void, parts of the world continue to crumble and fall into the Void (i.e. the hole is expanding).

Here's a possible flow of such a myth.

Station 1: Flintnail arrives at a node in the network to conduct his standard inspection or investigate a power failure. The tower exists, but is close to the void edge and the dwarfs there are paralyzed (not in the instructions). Flintnail's investigation discovers that the road is broken and the land is falling away. He attempts to muster the local dwarfs to shore up the earth/roadway in the Spikeward direction with great stones and perhaps even summoning an Earth goddess to help. This fails - perhaps great tentacles reach out of the Void to pull the Earth goddess into oblivion, and more dwarfs die. Flintnail must escape the Tower's imminent collapse.

Station 2: Flintnail fled. He has options at this point. He might seek out the Rock Master Council or the Quicksilver Specialist (Isidilian) or choice 3.

• Option 1 he ends up confronting a Council that does not see the Void before their face - if he presents his story or rationale for change, he is declared a heretic and locked away in the Inner Earth Chamber. He must escape from this prison to continue (maybe things continue to fall apart, or maybe there's a Trickster locked up here, or something else). If he does escape, perhaps he can still connect with Isidilian and Option 2.
• Option 2 he consults Isidilian and Isidilian knows a secret - that there was an ancient Special Repair Manual, but it was hidden in Greatway or some other secret Dwarf facility (think Area 51). Isidilian is busy trying to get the aid of the Waters, but encourages Flintnail to go.
• Option 3 perhaps leads to Vadel or some other corrupt deity that tries to get Flintnail's aid in some task (retrieve the Eye of Wakboth?) and in return they will "aid" him (i.e. betray him - if you subsequently take this option the myth goes in disastrous directions).

Station 3: Flintnail needs aid to reach the Secret Dwarf facility quickly before more of the world collapses and cuts off access to the facility. Perhaps he has the opportunity to save the Three-bean Circus or the Redwood or some other Earth/Plant figure (and this gives him some token to subsequently gain friends), or his rescued from Gagarth by Yelmalio, or similar. The result is he gains a steed or some method to travel faster.

Station 4: Flintnail reaches the Secret Dwarf facility but it is encased in chaos-mutated growth. He meets High King Elf here (this might be Pavis as heroquester?) and reveals the token of friendship. High King Elf will aid his entry, if Flintnail helps overcome the chaos mutation....

And on from there.

 

[Revilo Divad Of Dyoll]

...Rock Dwarfs when thinking about Flintnail

Completely off topic, but it never occurred to me before -- if Flintnail is rock, then he can't be the Dwarf of Dragon Pass (who is a Quicksilver mostali IIRC).

[jajagappa]

9 hours ago, Revilo Divad Of Dyoll said:

if Flintnail is rock, then he can't be the Dwarf of Dragon Pass

Correct, he is a different Mostali/dwarf.