Sacred Earth, Sacred Water review

[Runeblogger]

Hi, I’ve written a review of this campaign pack with 4 scenarios set in Prax by Beer with Teeth: 😊👇

https://elruneblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/sacred-earth-sacred-water-praxian.html

Also, has anyone played or run the scenario Stone and Bone? Careful with spoilers though! 😉

[Diana Probst]

Well, obviously I've run the scenario...

Thank you for the review.  It was a good read.

[smiorgan]

How easy is it to involve Sun County (Sandheart militia) players? I'm running a Sandheart campaign. The player characters are a mixed bunch, including an Impala tribe nomad, a lunar, a Sun County native and a Yelornan who was raised by the priestesses in the Big Rubble and does not know (yet) her ethnicity.

 

[Diana Probst]

There are plenty of plot hooks.  The original design of the games was to bring in our more usual PCs, so there was one Straw Weaver (we built the clan around his existence) and the rest of us.  I'd look at the Impala Tribe, and give the Straw Weavers something that Sun County needs.  That way, the Impala rider's presence can be used as a reason to 'do this little favour' and 'demonstrate you are trustworthy'.  Having outsiders is necessary for much of the plot.

[Diana Probst]

Here's a rundown of the first plot hook box.  You could easily repurpose the last bullet and have it be 'orders from above' and that works.  The Priestesses work in much the same way, persuading the Yelornan woman to go (and take her friends, while on leave).

[Diana Probst]

Oh, now I think of it...

Spoiler

There's a part in the 4th adventure where there's an Impala vs Bison showdown that could potentially happen.  An impala rider could be key to solving that, or could have an angst-filled time chewing the scenery, or could end up at odds with the Bison Tribe (and thus draw an end to their adventures). 

It's up to you how to handle it, of course, and it's written in a way which means that part's left open.

[smiorgan]

5 hours ago, Diana Probst said:

Here's a rundown of the first plot hook box.  You could easily repurpose the last bullet and have it be 'orders from above' and that works.  The Priestesses work in much the same way, persuading the Yelornan woman to go (and take her friends, while on leave).

Beautiful.

[Diana Probst]

1 minute ago, smiorgan said:

Beautiful.

Thank you.  We worked really hard to make it accessible to as many people and character builds as we could.

[Geoff R Evil]

I have been playing this scenario set with my Pol Joni campaign. Stone and Bone is a basic chaos fight but a good way to intro a shaman NPC as a both an ally and possible foe, depending on your campaign.

Gifts of Prax is a good way lay get into Praxian life, lots of great random encounters to integrate too.

The Life Thief is a great way to explore a unique part of Prax, although having an unbeatable “foe” is more than a bit frustrating, so I extended the next scenario, the temple of the twins to become a possible way to defeat the “foe” by extending the hero quest a bit. I won’t say how, my players are still in the midst of this bit. But the Eirithan link to the creation of the dead place was to me an obvious link point missed by Beer with Teeth.

Overall I found these scenarios are a great Praxian addition.

Now for the negatives…. I found that the writing style in terms of structure and flow of information a bit problematic, requiring multiple readings to “get” the full story clear in my own head. I suspect the writers tried to be too flexible in terms of enabling Praxian and non Praxian players. My advice….write it for a specific char type, us GMs are more than used to adaption where needed, like I did to make this Bison tribe focussed scenarios work for the Pol Joni.

Overall, one of the best Praxian scenario sets out there.

 

[Diana Probst]

19 hours ago, Geoff R Evil said:

The Life Thief is a great way to explore a unique part of Prax, although having an unbeatable “foe” is more than a bit frustrating, so I extended the next scenario, the temple of the twins to become a possible way to defeat the “foe” by extending the hero quest a bit. I won’t say how, my players are still in the midst of this bit. But the Eirithan link to the creation of the dead place was to me an obvious link point missed by Beer with Teeth.

 

That's fab.  We wanted to have people have to use their own solutions here, because we felt there should not be a single path to victory over such a thing.  It's campaign-worthy as a fight, if you decide to take it on.  The Eirithan angle's a really good one, and I'll remember it.

[Diana Probst]

19 hours ago, Geoff R Evil said:

Overall, one of the best Praxian scenario sets out there.

 

WOOOOOO!!!!!

[davecake]

I’ve found this chain of scenarios to be excellent, and fits very well with the Sandheart campaign. My players are weirdly fond of Erhehta, no matter how much he abuses them for not being shamans. It doesn’t take much to get the players involved. I think in my game all it took was Alebeer saying “there are some Bison riders camped nearby, go and see if there is some way to make friends with them or something, always good to have nomads who aren’t inclined to raid, will you?” And each adventure led naturally to the next, and by now several have Straw Weaver wives (and they have not yet dealt with the Lifethief, and I haven’t run the Temple of Twins yet). 

I liked enough that I have purchased the hardback of Sacred Earth, Sacred Waters (at Chaosium Con Australia), even though I owned all the scenarios within in PDF already. Am I your favourite person, @Diana Probst? I just wish I’d known more about the Straw Weavers earlier, especially Jalla. 

The only thing about combining the two sets of scenarios is the Mad Prax scenario from Sandheart is set a few years earlier (explicitly it’s about the events of 1621), so if you want to run that ignore a few comments in Sacred Earth Sacred Waters that set it in the standard timeline of 1626, but it’s easy changes to make. I’m planning my Sandheart and Straw Weavers game to probably finish with that scenario, but you could rearrange it a little. 
(If I do continue it after that, I’ll make it no longer about them being militia, and fall back on MOBs post-Cradle material and improvising from the wealth of Prax material, now they have history and connections, maybe change some characters - and maybe have to write some future campaign material involving the Straw Weavers and friends myself). That’s a way off though - they are only at most 2/3rds of the way through, I still have the climax of Tradition, Godskin, and Mad Prax to go. 

Of course, the Straw Weavers material is great and stands on its own as well, and even once you’ve run the adventures makes a great resource for any Prax based campaign, it’s the only material that deals with a Praxian clan in this detail I’m aware of, and the encounters are also excellent. And the Dead Place material in The Lifethief is reusable (and inspiring) for future visits. Maybe something in the Winter Ruins? And/or I may try to create something based on my series of in-jokes about Dead Place bearing a great resemblance to the Black Rock Desert where Burning Man is held. 

My PCs really had their butts kicked by the Lifethief (the broos were a pushover, the Lifethief itself brutal), gave up trying to defeat it themselves, and the game has been very enjoyably derailed by their efforts to work out a solution. They researched in Pavis, which led to revenge efforts by the remnants of the Dolphin gang smugglers from No Country for Cold Men. They tried hard to track down the Unicorn Rider who created it to learn more, which led to them visiting the Yelorna temple in the Rubble, and tangling with agents of the Rat who kidnapped some Yelornans (and hearing about old Yelmalio relics in the old Yelmalio temple in the Rubble, for future investigation). And they are still searching for a solution. I think I will lead them towards having the shamans contact the Father of Indepents, so they can use his magic to lead them and allies into the Dead Place safely and destroy the Lifethief with a big methodical effort (maybe summon Oakfed too and burn it?). The lack of direction on how to defeat it properly was initially a bit frustrating, but has proved to be quite inspiring for a fun game - I’d say it would have been great to get a bit more information, especially about its creation (what was it that meant a Unicorn woman, about whom we have little info except her name and that one deed, accidentally created a major Chaos threat?), but not providing a set solution has proven a lot more interesting.

I’d be interested to hear others solutions to the Lifethief.