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Heroquests


Bohemond

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So heroquesting is a fairly important part of Glorantha campaigns, but it seems like there aren't actually very many heroquests that have been written up as playable scenarios. Adapting the KoDP quests for tabletop is fairly easy. There are the Lawstaff quest, the Descent into the Underworld quest from S:KoH, and the 'Hara Orane' quest in Heroquest Glorantha, neither of which has a specific myth attached to it, and Umath and the Emperor from P:GtA. Beyond that, there's Humakt, Raven and Wolf, a couple quests from TotRM, like the Sky Bull quest, the two quests in Dara Happa Stirs and Blood of Orlanth, and the very old Waha quest (which by this point is probably so obsolete in its mechanics as to need a serious overhaul, since it's written as a theistic heroquest). That seems like very small number for something so central to the game. Are there other published quests that I'm missing or forgetting? (I'm guessing there might be one or two others tucked away in old publications that don't really conform to current ideas about Glorantha.) 

It would be nice if there were more quests that GMs might toss at PCs when situations arise.  

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The problem with most heroquestable myths as published is that they are often single-protagonist myths. Including the entire party can be problematic if you limit yourself to those.

Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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One of the core ideas that we've been working with over the years is that coming up with Heroquests is easier than you think. Okay, its nice to have a big one as the climax of an adventure - the one in the Colymar campaign, etc. But there's loads of stuff already published that are the seeds of Heroquests, that are easily fleshed out. This is good otherwise each cult needs a list of quests and few will overlap with other cults. Whilst working on the cult of Waha that appeared in Heroquest Glorantha, I came up against the same problem - to much stuff to write about. So I looked at all the mythic actions of Waha and just put them in a long list - it's not even complete:

Quote

The Old Friends
Waha and Daka Fal
Waha and Foundchild

The Many Friends
Waha and Oakfed
Waha and Dark Eater
Waha commands the River
Waha and the River
Waha and the Star Captains
Waha and The Storm Children
Waha and the Twin Stars
Waha and Zola Fel

The Other Leaders
Waha and Baba Ulodra
Waha and Basmol
Waha and The Monkey King
Waha and Great Rhino
Waha and the Pure horse founder
Waha and Yelorna
Waha and the newt god
Waha and the cannibals
Waha and the Zebra tribe

Family Matters
Waha and Ernalda
Waha does the right thing
Waha and the Priestess
Waha and Death 
Waha and His Brother

The Wastelands
Waha and the garden
The Four Weapons of Waha
Waha and the Wastelands
Waha and the Covenant
Waha the Raider
Waha and Hyena

Enemies

Waha and Gagarth

Waha and Thed

Waha and Mallia

Waha and the Serpents

Others undetailed

Waha learns to ride

Waha and Orlanth

Waha learns to ride

Waha and Orlanth

Next a simple format so you can fill them out:

Quote

Name

Story

Tasks:

Holy or Spirit place: 

Applicable Task(s): 

Boon: 

Associated Charms and Rituals

and an example to get you going

Quote

Waha and The Storm Children

In the distance Waha saw a jagged light arcing between Eirtha’s Great Horns. Beneath was a Chaos herd threatening a group of frightened survivors and the body of Goddesses herself. Waha lept to fight, and alongside him flashing arcs appeared and struck the chaos herd.  Waha had met a new friend - Hosar. Waha saw that his lightning powers had helped people survive. He made Hosar a new home in the Storm Children spirit society. He said that friendly Air spirits were always welcome there. But there were few other Air spirits that he found that could band together to protect each other. There was no one to tend them. Storm Bull was fighting Wakboth at the End of the World and Orlanth was in the Underworld with the Lightbringers. Waha kept the Storm Children at his side until the Dawn, when he passed them to the Orlanth.

Tasks: Fight the Chaos herds with Hosar at the Horn Mountains.

Holy or Spirit place: The Horn Mountains.

Applicable Task(s): Waha and Death.

Benefit(s) of Victory:  dealing with Storm based activity, social, martial, Storm spirits (Air) , the Orlanth society, and the Storm Bull society.

Associated Charms and Rituals (Mastery) Befriend Storm spirits ritual.

Now you just have to do it with the cults you are using.

Edited by David Scott
remove spurious line spacing
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Search the Glorantha Resource Site: https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com. Search the Glorantha mailing list archives: https://glorantha.steff.in/digests/

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1 hour ago, Bohemond said:

Are there other published quests that I'm missing or forgetting? (I'm guessing there might be one or two others tucked away in old publications that don't really conform to current ideas about Glorantha.) 

Yes.

The largest quest source is Arcane Lore, which is available in the Stafford Library section in the Chaosium Store.  It includes: the Hill of Gold; the Courts of Silence; the Quest to Maintain Spirit; Storm over Sea; the Quest of Knowledge; the Wyter HQ; Kargan Tor's Court; Berserkergang Path; Quest for Ten Strikes; Humakt's Hall; The Resurrection Quest; Elovare's Blue Moon HQ; Quest of the 7 Sky Gates; Sun Dome HQ; Path of Lightfore; Tale of the Twelve Brethren; the Crossroads; the Jackal's Path; Alebard's Quest; the Hellmouth; Quest of Renallion, breaker of bricks; Waha's Beast Quest; the Seven Sky Games.

In HW, there was Hedvald's(?) Helm Quest.

In HQ1, there was the quest of Bush Child to defeat Heavy Earth.

Several quests in old TotRM issues including the Blue Boar Quest; the Hare's Riddle; and an Odayla/Yinkin Quest.

Lots of material in Heortling Mythology and Glorious ReAscent of Yelm can form the basis of quests.

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Also missing from the list is the Solar quest Three Blows Of Anger, which is covered from the victim's PoV in Cults Of Prax.  While written there as a Yelmalio quest, I have seen it mentioned, at least, as also being performed by Alkothi with Yelm as the main character angered by His wife's infidelity.

I have also seen a Vadrus version of the Aroka quest (just up the violence, and tone down the respect for the Blue Woman rescued).  And, of course, by my theory that Charge-Parity-Time Reversibility holds for heroquesting as it does for elementary particles, quests can be reversed, so one should be able to CAUSE a drought by a Storm (if not other elements) quester feeding (or somehow otherwise embedding) a water spirit/goddess/priestess (in)to a dragon (or dream dragon).

Besides the quests pointed at by Soltakss' website, there are others that are probably only found using the Wayback Machine (how appropriate, quests that the Heroplane has bypassed, like the path to Arkat's Star :-), like the Delecti's Swamp collection.

Yes, in most of these cases the mechanics will need GM updating, but then that also always holds when using non-RQ/non-HQ game mechanics like Fudge, FATE, GURPS, or 13th Age (or Tunnels And Trolls, if someone wanted).

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We have a couple coming up in The Eleven Lights.

The Stealing of the the Giant's Cows is an 'ensemble' cast heroquest, and one the Red Cow performs every year to birth its famous red cows. it's a great example of localized use of a heroquest.

The Eleven Lights heroquest contains both an experimental heroquest to the underworld and an example of performing How Orlanth Conquered the Sky. An important point to the latter is that whilst the players follow the myth's pattern, there is a lot of substitution of elements caused by the way the quest is performed. Again this is exemplary of what happens - a myth often varies between enactments.

(Perhaps the easiest way to think about this is that there is one myth of Spiderman's originL bitten by a radioactive spider, or Batman's origins, the murder of his parents, but there is a lot of variation in the various tellings of that myth in different comics,  movies etc.)

Edited by Ian Cooper
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6 hours ago, Bohemond said:

the 'Hara Orane' quest in Heroquest Glorantha, neither of which has a specific myth attached to it

In my Orlmarth campaign, the heroes have been tasked with learning the secrets to this myth.

What the clan knows is the following from Morganeth Whiteeye:

Now, listen well. This is what I can tell you so that you may seek the right clues. This is the story of the Hero who rescued Orane: the goddess Hara Orane was offended and afraid of the violence of the world and fled to the Hut of Asrelia. People starved, the land withered. The people called upon a hero to rescue Orane. The hero was Harantar the Ploughman, the spear shaper, who brought the powers of the earth. He carried with him a Seed called Barley Man. He was aided by the Winds and Thunder. He learned the Secrets to pass the Stone Gate, to cross the Bleak Lands, and to reach Asrelia's Hut. There he bargained with the Guardians and convinced Orane to return.

But we do not remember what Secrets he learned, what he bargained, or how he convinced Orane to return. Nor are we sure if he carried other powers or tools with him. Guide Dyrrkind's Good Hand. See what you can learn to aid us!"

 

The heroes then set off for Jonstown to learn more from the sages (and possibly the Earth temple there).  They learned the following:

Scroll #1

From the Resettlement Sagas as collected by Andrin the White

In the Gods War, Hara Orane fled from the violence and destruction of the Lesser Darkness and withdrew into Ty Kora Tek’s House of the Dead. During the Greater Darkness, Hardurev the Mortal sought to save his community by traveling through the Underworld to the House of the Dead and ask Hara Orane to return. In preparation, Hardurev armed himself with the Mask of the Barley King, the Earth Axe, the Vial of Tears, and the Song of Love.

His journey was fraught with danger, and Hardurev had to overcome many guardians and denizens of the Underworld in the process. In his descent, he crossed the Night's Bridge and chose the correct path to the Nightwood. Bagdalch the Crow tried to steal the Mask, and was driven off, but the Hell Hounds found his scent and pursued him to the Cliff of the Black Pox. Hardurev escaped when he opened the Dead Earth, though the Earth Axe shattered and was lost forever. At last he reached the great stone tomb that is the House of the Dead. Babeester Gor challenged his purpose and his right to enter. Hardurev succeeded there and entered the home of Ty Kora Tek. He wagered he could lay the Angry Ghosts to rest and succeeded, gaining a boon for his family. At last, he persuaded Hara Orane to return to the Middle World, ensuring the survival of his community.

 

From the Jonstown Compendium

#24,116

Harernalda traveled deeper into the Underworld until she came to great caverns filled with the moaning dead. There she met the Keeper of the Dead, Ty Kora Tek. During the start of Kinstrife, Orane and Esra had gone to her, seeking protection. Harernalda asked the Keeper to release the goddesses but Ty Kora Tek refused. “Whoever comes into my realm now may not leave. I cannot set a precedent and allow anyone to leave if they have a good reason. Bad times are coming and soon my halls will be bursting with the slain.” Harenalda pointed out that Orane and Esra were still full of life and were bringing vitality and sound to the Caverns of the Silence. “If both of them spend all their time here, soon the cavern will become its opposite and the dead will become confused.” Ty Kora Tek relented, seeking to keep her Gardens silent, but only if Orane and Esra agreed to spend some time with her aunt.

 

#24,125

Barnamakt found her inside the hidden places of Ty Kora Tek's unknown realm. She sat at her loom and wove a new cloth that showed all of nature — plants and animals and people, mountains and valleys and seas. She sewed herself a new cloak from this cloth, and once dressed she went into the world again.

Now they must bring this information back and prepare the pieces needed for their quest.

 

Edited by jajagappa
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When I ran the Orlanth makes the Storm Tribe quest for my PCs, who were doing it as proxies for another clan, the PCs wisely did a bunch of research by tracking down other clans who had performed the quest and then bargaining with them for information about what they might run into. That gave them several options for dealing with the problems of the quest, such as one clan that told them it was possible to circumvent a particular station by asking the god they just helped where they might find another god (allowing them to ask for a god who wasn't the next one in the myth). 

Edited by Bohemond
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9 hours ago, Bohemond said:

When I ran the Orlanth makes the Storm Tribe quest as proxies for another clan, the PCs wisely did a bunch of research by tracking down other clans who had performed the quest and then bargaining with them for information about what they might run into. That gave them several options for dealing with the problems of the quest, such as one clan that told them it was possible to circumvent a particular station by asking the god they just helped where they might find another god (allowing them to ask for a god who wasn't the next one in the myth). 

Sounds dangerous though, trying to circumvent the natural path of the quest - but fun!

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Could someone make this a page on the Glorantha Wiki{a}. A list of Heroquests with references would be really useful.

Perhaps, Name, reference (system), protagonists, antagonists?

 

 

Edited by David Scott

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Search the Glorantha Resource Site: https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com. Search the Glorantha mailing list archives: https://glorantha.steff.in/digests/

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12 hours ago, scott-martin said:

Love it. Dangerous! Any time someone pauses and realizes, this is like that one time god did something similar, the walls around the worlds open out.

Yes. This is very much the right mindset. 

I've been trying to give a few hints as to my thoughts about this in Prince of Sartar recently.

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29 minutes ago, David Scott said:

Could someone make this a page on the Glorantha Wiki{a}. A list of Heroquests with references would be really useful.

Perhaps, Name, reference (system), protagonists, antagonists?

 

 

Isnt this what the God Learners did :P

and we all know what path that leads to :)

 

 I have a mindset whereby in some places and cricumstances ithe barrier to the other side is permeable and wavering so you can get pulled in or wander in by mistakes plus there maybe a face dander or whatever you like to call it that drags you in , and visa versa you could be doing a quest and change your path and then drag in an unexpected foe oir somebody could be doing the same and you get pulled into a myth where you have no idea what is going on.

Edited by Martin
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12 hours ago, Steve said:

Sounds dangerous though, trying to circumvent the natural path of the quest - but fun!

Yeah. I was trying to teach my players that researching myths was a valuable thing to do, instead of just running out and performing the quest. And the quest had a couple of extra complications in it (for complex reasons, both Gagarth and Krarsht were going to interfere in the storyline), so I wanted to give the PCs something that would help make the quest a little easier if they were struggling

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I have to say I was shocked when I read the Eleven Lights pdf and got to the part where the one eyed beggar proclaimed how great the giants stead was and the King rushed off to steal the Auroch that they didn't mention how the beggar was in fact a Trickster who would later that night bed the Queen while the King was away, the actual purpose of the Red Cow HQ being a diversion for the infamous Orgorvale Orgasms Quest. aka The Great O Quest.

But then, I guess the whole point of the quest is a well kept secret so maybe the authors didn't want the Red Cow Clan to catch on.  I'm pretty sure that Argrath learned the truth of the matter from a drunk Elusu and from there figured out how to bring back the Aurochs.

Of course, the whole thing could just be a bunch of bull;) 

Edited by Pentallion
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6 hours ago, Pentallion said:

I have to say I was shocked when I read the Eleven Lights pdf and got to the part where the one eyed beggar proclaimed how great the giants stead was and the King rushed off to steal the Auroch that they didn't mention how the beggar was in fact a Trickster who would later that night bed the Queen while the King was away, the actual purpose of the Red Cow HQ being a diversion for the infamous Orgorvale Orgasms Quest. aka The Great O Quest.

But then, I guess the whole point of the quest is a well kept secret so maybe the authors didn't want the Red Cow Clan to catch on.  I'm pretty sure that Argrath learned the truth of the matter from a drunk Elusu and from there figured out how to bring back the Aurochs.

Of course, the whole thing could just be a bunch of bull;) 

It's the source of the Eurmali ability Cause Spontaneous Orgasms.

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On 7/23/2017 at 10:25 PM, scott-martin said:

Love it. Dangerous! Any time someone pauses and realizes, this is like that one time god did something similar, the walls around the worlds open out.

Exactly. That's why HeroQuesting is so much fun. Think of a myth, lay it on the world and go on a HeroQuest. Easy-peasy.

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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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On 24/07/2017 at 10:48 AM, David Scott said:

Could someone make this a page on the Glorantha Wiki{a}. A list of Heroquests with references would be really useful.

Perhaps, Name, reference (system), protagonists, antagonists?

I've made a start. Still a lot more to be done. See http://glorantha.wikia.com/wiki/Heroquest

Edited by Steve
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3 hours ago, Steve said:

I've made a start. Still a lot more to be done. See http://glorantha.wikia.com/wiki/Heroquest

Thanks, that's a good start.

If I have the time, I'll add the ones I know about from various fanzines.

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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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