Narl's Apple Lane Campaign Report

[Narl]

Hello Adventurers!

I thought I would start a thread to report on the progress of my RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha campaign. I figure that some of what I share may prove useful to others starting campaigns. I'll also mention what resources I've found helpful to prepare and run the game. I welcome any comments, suggestions, or criticisms.

First some background on my experience. I have been gamemastering for nearly forty years now. I started, like many, with D&D, but I quickly became interested in checking out every RPG I could get my hands on, and Chaosium games and the BRP system proved to be my favorites, then and now. I ran lots of Stormbringer in particular. I did run some of the early RuneQuest 2nd adventures, but I never quite got Glorantha, probably due to the limited funds and access I had to what I realize now were essential supplements like Cults of Prax. I did get into RuneQuest 3rd, but that was in Mythic Europe. So, long story short, Glorantha is still new to to me and this campaign is a journey of discovery!

After moving a few years ago I worked on putting together a new gaming group. By fate, what came together was a large group of interested adults and their kids, including my own three kids. At the high water mark I had twelve players! For more than two years, we had a great time playing through many classic D&D adventures. D&D was really the only system I felt could handle that many players, it worked well and we had loads of fun, but I was always looking forward to getting back to some BRP gaming and deeper roleplaying.

Over time, some of the kids in the group went off to college, other players had schedule changes, and I found myself down to a weekly game with a much more manageable table of six players, consisting of two fathers, their three kids, and my youngest son. The kids range in age from 13-16. It was a great time to switch to something new! I returned from Gen Con with my copy of new RuneQuest and lots of enthusiasm after playing and running half a dozen games of the new RuneQuest at the convention.

Preparing for the campaign was not too strenuous. Aside from covering the rules, the new rulebook gives enough information on Glorantha that I felt I knew enough to feel good about running games in the setting. I've played through King of Dragon Pass a few times, which I think really helps get a feel for the setting. The Prince of Sartar web comic was also a great fun source to learn more.

I was really pleased when I saw that the Gamemaster Screen Pack would have adventures. Though I do prefer to do homebrew adventures, when starting off with a new game and a new setting having something ready to go takes a lot of burden off. Plus I was really excited to revisit Apple Lane, as I had run and enjoyed the classic Apple Lane and Rainbow Mounds adventures a number  of times in the distant past. I settled on running the adventures in the Gamemaster Screen Pack first and see where it goes from there.

The real boon from the Gamemaster Screen Pack is the screen itself. I have been through the rulebook a couple of times but I still didn't feel great about remembering all the details. The GM screen solves this. It has virtually every single rule and table on it you need to run the game. It is worth spending some time poring over the four pages of the screen to get familiar with the full contents of it. Knowing what is on there and where it is made my first session go incredibly smoothly -- aside from looking up spells, I didn't have to reference the rulebook once.

Set to go, I scheduled a character creation session, which actually turned into two sessions. More on that next time!

[g33k]

Following!

TYVM for this.  Looks very useful & very interesting...

[Narl]

Around the middle of September we scheduled our first session for character generation. I was a little apprehensive about how things would go down due to complexity, but optimistic that everyone would enjoy the history creation aspects. Character generation is significantly more involved than D&D of course, and I have a couple of players who have never played anything but D&D.

For character sheets I went with the standard one. Though the artistic character sheet that came with the screen is beautiful, without any white space on it doesn't leave room for extra little notations and such. I also provided a folder that had the character sheet, a printed Colymar Tribes map, the one page calendar, and a journal booklet for notes and such. I had a printed Dragon Pass map on the table as well. Having the maps on the table helped get everyone excited for the potential adventures ahead. The Colymar Tribes map especially has tons of interesting sounding locations on it.

We did have one challenge and that is that we had only one copy of the rulebook since it was not available in print except for the copy I got at Gen Con. I did print the occupation and cult pages as references. I was still concerned about the background portion, but it actually worked out really well. Having only one copy forced everyone to go through each year together with me, so shared points in their histories became immediately apparent.

Character generation actually ended up taking two sessions. We play on weeknights for so we don't generally go very late, but with a new group I think you can plan on taking four or five hours to generate characters. That is assuming there is some discussion going on, questions about Glorantha, and such. Alone I can make a character in an hour or so, but with a group I feel there is no reason to rush this important part of the game.

For rolling statistics, I had everyone reroll all 1's and let them roll three sets, in order, and choose one of the sets. We also used the add 3 if you are under 93. It worked out well. We ended up with an interesting group:

Mardor, initiate of Orlanth Adventurous and heavy infantryman of the Ernaldori Clan

Stron, initiate of Storm Bull, heavy cavalryman of the Bison Tribe

Iverne, initiate of Chalana Arroy and healer of the Ernaldori Clan

Kyros, initiate of Yelmalio, heavy infantryman of the Sun Dome Temple

Kirasa, initiate of Lhankor Why, scribe and sorceress from Nochet

Endar, initiate of Yelm, apprentice shaman of the Pure Horse People

I did consider not offering sorcery or shamanism as options to keep thinks simpler, but in the end I figure why not explore all the different options and we will learn as we go. I did emphasize to the player playing Kirasa the Sorceress that it would be up to him to learn and understand the sorcery rules so I wouldn't have to be looking things up.

If the group is lacking in anything it is stealth and subterfuge, but I didn't want to push anyone into a role they didn't want to play.

For the Sun Dome Templar, we did have to come up with appropriate starting Cultural Skills on the fly, which really wasn't a problem. Here is what we came up with:

Cultural Skills
Bargain +5%
Dance +5%
Intrigue +5%
Sing +10%
Speak Own Language (Old Pavic) (50)
Speak Other Language (Tradetalk) +20%
Customs (Sun County) (25)
Farm +25%
First Aid +5%
Spirit Combat +15%

Cultural Weapons
2H Spear +15%
1H Spear +15%
Self Bow +10%
Javelin +10%
Short Sword +10%
Small Shield +10%
Large Shield +15%

I'm not actually sure Old Pavic is the correct own language for Sun County, but I went with it because I do want to take the campaign to Pavis at some point.

Next session, the adventurers meet at the Tin Inn!

[Balakatun]

This folder looks awesome, great stuff. Looking forward to hear more about your campaign.

[Narl]

* Spoilers for the adventures in the GM Screen Pack to follow in this post and all further posts! If you plan on playing those adventures, stop reading now. *

We started out the next session at the Tin Inn. After some description, I asked everyone to take a look at their backgrounds, make some connections, and figure out how they ended up in Apple Lane. Some had fought in battles or witnessed the Dragonrise together, so knew each other already. The two Ernaldori were acquainted. The Storm Bull came here seeking an enchanted lance point his father had lost in battle many years ago, and heard that things like that often ended up at a place called Gringle's Pawnshop. The sorceress came here on rumors of dragon activity in the area and to learn all she could of the Dragonrise. The Grazelander was drawn to Apple Lane by visions, just as his cousin Hendroste (a Grazelander described in the adventure) was a couple of years ago.

The adventurers met Aleena and Brightflower, and learned of the Tusk Rider threat. Much of the session was spent touring Apple Lane with Hendroste, meeting the other residents, and planning the defense against the Tusk Riders. The adventurers decided to wait for the attack at the Tin Inn, with the gate open, to hopefully lure in the Tusk Riders, with the Sun Domer ready with set pike and the others ready to ambush. A bit before dawn the next day, the Tusk Riders made their feint, which the group did not fall for (the Sun Domer invoking his Stasis Rune to stick to the plan), and we ended with Tusk Riders just outside the gate of the Tin Inn.

This session was not entirely how I like to start things off generally. I would have preferred to just go right into combat and start with action. It was a lot of description and NPC introduction, which was needed anyway at some point, but it did make for a sort of tame first session. Everyone described their adventurers and there was some good roleplaying, but it was lacking in conflict.

I did introduce Gooseberry Sprig (if you didn't know, I checked and this name is a reference to an early duck cartoon strip) and was curious to see the reaction to the idea of anthropomorphic ducks. I had Gooseberry armored up, crossbow ready to help defend the Inn! Only one of my players is familiar with Glorantha, and that is through King of Dragon Pass. Interestingly, no one really was terribly surprised by the duck. I did explain they were just another of the many other types of Beastmen. Anyway, I was glad to get over the duck hurdle with no walkouts. 😀

By next session, everyone had the rulebooks they ordered, and I think a much better picture of what they were getting into. More soon.

[Narl]

We resumed the next session with the attack from the Tusk Riders on the Tin Inn. This of course had to start with a brief explanation of Strike Ranks, during which I emphasized that everyone would want to learn to track their own. I provided a copy of the SR modifier table to everyone. Strike Ranks actually worked out really well. After a couple of years of D&D with this group, it was a refreshing change due to all the differences. Everyone liked the ability to do more than one thing in a round, and the Statements of Intent actually keep everyone from dithering, since everyone is anxious to get to the action.

I used the Q-Workshop SR die, which I learned has the numbers in a "spindown" arrangement. Nice touch! My method is I just start at 1 and call out each rank and anyone who goes on that rank shouts out. The only thing I had to track was when my Tusk Riders went.

In the combat, things got interesting fast. Kyros, the Sun Dome Templar with the set pike couldn't wait to impale one of those Tusk Rider and use their own Damage Bonus against them. That is until he got hit with a Demoralize and began to question the whole enterprise. To overcome it, he called on his Fire Rune to guide his spearpoint true. Making the augment roll, the first light of the rising sun reflected off his spear point, and he struck home! Rolling an Impale to the head of the Tusker put a quick end to the Tusker, but the rider still did a number on Kyros with his lance charge.

From there, all hell broke loose as the Storm Bull went Berserk and charged out of the stables on his bison. The Orlanthi got his sword broken in two by the Tusk Rider leader, only to pay him back with a 3-point Lightning from that same broken sword that turned the leader's arm to ash. Though there were many wounds on both sides, once the Tusk Rider leader Xiobalg, and one other, were dead, the Tusk Riders decided this wasn't worth it, and fled. The six remaining Tusk Riders will have to sort out who their new leader will be.

Though I dropped a hint that they might have treasure wherever their home base might be, the adventurers opted not to pursue, knowing that there would still be a tough and deadly fight ahead.

Overall, running the combat went quite well. I did do some cut and paste work to get all the stat blocks on one page for each Tusk Rider and Tusker pair. I wish that the adventure didn't have every one of the tusk rider stat blocks spanning more than one page when with a little more careful layout, they could have been much easier to use. I would have also liked to have a nice premade "squad sheet" to track wounds/HP/MP etc. This was something even the earliest RuneQuest adventures have, and it is desperately needed.

Since position was so important in this battle, I decided to use paper miniatures and a battlemat. It took some digging, but I actually even found color tusk riders!

After the battle, we role-played through the rewards, celebration, and the making of the Orlanthi Mardor into the Thane of Apple Lane! Next time, it is off to Clearwine Fort so the new thane can be recognized by Queen Leika.

[Narl]

Between sessions, I did some reading and thinking about where to go next. I had planned to move on to the Cattle Raid scenario in the GM Screen Adventure book. I like how it tied in the clan interactions, but it is pretty short, and it the next session could have easily been a big battle like the one with the Tusk Riders. Instead, I decided to slot in The Broken Tower. It also highlights clan interactions, but has a lot more going on and some more "fantastic" events. At some point, I do want to run the Cattle Raid, but for now I though the Broken Tower would be better received.

[drablak]

Really interesting to read. Useful to me as I'm planning on starting a campaign soon, so please continue as yours evolves!

Thanks!

[Marc]

Really enjoying reading this. I'm about to run that scenario myself, and reading this is very helpful. One question, where did you get the paper miniatures?

[Narl]

21 minutes ago, Marc said:

Really enjoying reading this. I'm about to run that scenario myself, and reading this is very helpful. One question, where did you get the paper miniatures?

All of the adventurers are from the two Alephtar Games Warlocks & Wolfriders files available here:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/2555/Alephtar-Games/subcategory/4693_4799/Warlocks--Wolfriders

The tusk riders are in files I found here:

http://www.lloydianaspects.co.uk/rolePlayGaming/runeQuest.html

Edited October 30, 2018 by Narl

[Narl]

Our next session started off with some important bookkeeping, the first "end of season" leveling up. So that I was really well prepared for this, I created a summary:

Experience Rolls
If you did not train or research this season, check four additional occupation or cult skills. Roll D100 for each. For skills add the category bonus. Must roll higher than skill, but 100 is always a success. Choose to gain 1D6 or 3%.
Training
Skills or runes below 75% can be trained. This takes an entire season. No experience roll is required. Gain is 1D6-1 or 2%.
Research
Skills or runes below 75% can be trained. This takes an entire season. An experience roll is required. Gain is 1D6-2 or 1%.
Characteristics
Humans can raise characteristics to a maximum of 21. POW gain rolls can be obtained by:
Overcoming POW vs. POW resistance rolls less than 95%, spirit combat success, Rune Masters leading worship at temple, holy place, or sancitified ground,  Initiates during High Holy Day or Sacred Time at temple, holy place, or sancitified ground, through training with priests for one day for 500 L.
The chance to gain POW is (21 - current POW) x 5 = % chance of gain. Gain is 1 or 1D3-1.
STR, CON, DEX, CHA can also be raised. Not INT or SIZ. Takes two full seasons of training and 500 L. With training, automatic gain of 1 or 1D3-1. With research, must make roll as with POW. CHA may be raised by possession of magic items, events, and leadership.
Additional Events
May sacrifice POW for Rune Magic from cult or associated cults. Sprit magic may be learned from cult or associated cults at the rate of one week per spell. Note prohibited spirit magic.
See page 353 for assistant shaman.
See page 384 for sorcerers.
Choose training and research options for next season.
 

For this first season, I had everyone just get the four extra checks. In future seasons, they will choose ahead if they are going to either work on cult/occupation skills (and get the four extra checks), train, or research. Everyone enjoyed the experience process. It highlighted how RuneQuest/BRP is different from D&D in nearly every way. It also showed that you can't just be along for the ride as a player -- you need to actively do things to gain: use skills, call on passions, augment with runes, use spells, etc. Without proactively exercising everything your character can do, you will not advance. Having seen how the experience system works, it resulted in characters using more of the options they had in the next session, which makes for a more interesting game!

One area of concern is that at this point -- some of them have looked up their Rune Master requirements. This is not something I had them look up at character creation, so none of the characters are "optimized" to become Rune Masters. This means that some of them have skills at 35 or so that will need to get to 90. I'm not going to do the exact math, but even at a 2% per season average, that could mean around five years in game to get there. In campaign time, that seems reasonable, but if I were to run an adventure every season except Sacred Time, that would mean around 25 adventures. If each takes two sessions, that is a year of real-world time. I guess that seems reasonable.

In one case, the Chalana Arroy healer, she will be able to make Rune Priest very quickly. With no combat skills, all her points went into cult and occupational skills. She could be there after a few more adventures. Somehow, I don't think anyone will have a problem with this. 😀

We also reviewed how recovering Rune points works. Everyone has a copy of the one page calendar, and they marked their seasonal holy days. I left it up to them to let me know when they will worship. We will see how this goes. I am tempted just to say "you get all your Rune points back between adventures" but tracking actual worship days may add to the immersion a bit, plus it will make things more interesting if the adventurers go on an extended adventure.

Following the end of season stuff, we started The Broken Tower. Being that they were in Clearwine to recognize the new Thane of Apple Lane, it was easy to move right into the story of the cattle raid gone bad. After following the tracks easily, they met with Carthalo, and interacted with the dead Greydog's spirit. For my assistant shaman player, this served as a good model for him to see what shamans can do. They spent the night with Carthalo as a wet snow fell over the Badlands. Following the cattle trail north, they reached a rise, where they saw rock lizards ripping at the hide of one of their bulls. And we stopped there for the evening.

[Narl]

Next session we jumped right into dealing with the rock lizards attacking the bull. Some criticals and specials were rolled with missiles by the adventurers right at the outset, resulting in a couple of quickly dispatched lizards. The adventurers charged into melee and finished off a few more, and just in time as the bull was not doing well. The bull, on the edge of panic, was cleverly put to Sleep, and then healed. After a rest, they led it along with them. Only 59 more cattle to go! 😂

Traveling in the wet snow and muck, they reached the Broken Tower. Use of Farsee, some knowledge rolls, and some scouting garnered information (including briefly spotting Danakos). Most importantly, they noted intact menhirs, which Carthalo had warned them about, and they were greatly afraid of. The adventurers advanced to the ramp and a dream-weft of the Stone Woman promptly manifested. She urged them to bring the bull to her. They refused and decided instead to disturb some of the animal skulls. Four sprul-pa formed up and attacked.

So this is where the dice went where I think every GM fears they will go. The sprul-pa started rolling lots of criticals with their multiple attacks. The adventurers struggled, but still managed to parry to some degree. But still, it was lots of points of damage, though at least they still benefitted from armor. Also, it seems my new "now with less left leg and more abdomen" Q-workshop hit location die really wanted to make up for the previous lack of abdomen hits. I had three adventurers and one horse down, all with wounds to the soft white underbelly.

By this time, the adventurers had figured out they needed to be making called shots to the head to deal with the sprul-pa. They dropped them and all were healed. The Storm Bull, Berserked of course, smashed every animal skull up and down the entire ramp until he collapsed from exhaustion.

Recovered, the adventurers recollected themselves and advanced towards the tower. Various plans were discussed and we ended there. At this point, I am at last caught up to our current session, which was last night. Next week we will conclude The Broken Tower!

Edited October 31, 2018 by Narl

[drablak]

On 10/30/2018 at 8:57 PM, Narl said:

Next week we will conclude The Broken Tower!

Nudge nudge  How did it go @Narl ?

[Narl]

Having become aware of the cattle penned near the tower, the adventurers decided to bypass the tower and head right for their goal, the Ernaldori cattle. The adventurers spy the mad Greydog Varanik lurking nearby. They manage to capture him using Sleep. Iverne heals and awakens him, and they learn a bit more of what has transpired. They bind Varanik and make him their prisoner.

The adventurers pass the open entrance to the tower and note the scene of carnage within and the "statue" of the Stone Woman. Eyes on the prize, they start herding the cattle out. This of course angers the Stone Woman, who awakens and lumbers out stop them. At the same time, Danakos attacks from hiding. The cattle panic and stampede! Endar follows trying to bring them under control. A swirling melee ensues!

Stron and his bison attack the Stone Woman. Veshee, the bison, manages to roll a critical head butt against her. She manages a regular parry. Veshee normally does 2D10 + 3D6. With a critical, I figured this means 20 + 3D6 + 18 points of damage, which resulted in 45 points of damage to the abdomen, killing Idrima outright. This was impressive, but perhaps a bit anti-climactic, but such is the nature of RuneQuest combat.

Danakos is dealt with quickly and without mercy. Varanik escapes during the melee. Varanik will definitely return in some fashion. Will he return to the Greydogs and tell a different story than what actually happened? Or go into hiding? The truth would certainly get him outlawed.

The adventurers drop the stone to summon the spirit of the dead Greydog woman and now her spirit can rest.

On the return, the adventurers decide to go to Carthalo's hut to tell them of what transpired. They question whether the Stone Woman is really dead or not. Carthalo says that he knows of an intact menhir that meddling with would normally cause her spirit to manifest. The adventurers smash it, and she does not manifest, so Carthalo declares that she is at last defeated. The adventurers celebrate with Carthalo that evening.

A few weeks after returning to Apple Lane, the adventurers get a report of something strange in the snowy orchards. They find an immense baked cinnamon and nutmeg roll rolling about the orchards, singing a song they do not understand. They eventually capture the Earth Loaf and some of them partake of its warm, gooey center, gaining +1 CON. A few days later, a pair of triceratops show up, snuffling about for the Earth Loaf and causing damage to the orchard. The adventurers delay them with other food while they have Gooseberry bake up the closest thing he can come up with to the Earth Loaf. They lead the dinosaurs away with the cinnamon rolls and there is peace in Apple Lane again.

Running this little Earth Loaf episode was a big deal for me, as I don't generally introduce silly stuff like that into my games. Ever. We certainly laugh a lot in my games, but the content of the setting and adventures is generally kept pretty serious. So, it was a big step I took, but I wanted to display some of the whimsical side of Glorantha. They did consider the connection that it was perhaps some gift from Ernalda for defeating the demon earth creature Idrima. Everyone enjoyed this little side episode so I will have to think up another.

That ends Dark Season 1625. There are a number of loose ends that have accumulated at this point. What about the remaining Tusk Riders? Will they keep up their raids? Where did Percippus go and does he have Stron's father's lance point? I have ideas for this one. Will Varanik stir up more trouble?

For published adventures, I am considering either Darkness at Runegate or The Dragon of Thunder Hills. Or we may move to some homebrew involving Percippus. Kirasa has just learned the spell Geomancy, and I know she is going to use it to help Stron find that lance point. Is Percippus holed up with some Lunar buddies in a ruined manor? Or maybe in the Rainbow Mounds? Maybe he is tainted by Chaos? Lots to consider.

For now, we are taking a brief RuneQuest hiatus as two of the six players are traveling for the next couple of weeks. I'll be running some Call of Cthulhu instead for the remaining four. None have ever played before so it should be great fun.

Thanks for reading and any comments or ideas are appreciated!

Edited November 18, 2018 by Narl

[g33k]

4 hours ago, Narl said:

... loose ends that have accumulated...

For published adventures, I am considering ... Or we may move to some homebrew involving Percippus.

...

Thanks for reading and any comments or ideas are appreciated!

I will recommend that you consider how you might more-tightly tie PC backstories and PC-linked NPCs into some of the published scenarios, both already-run (with some foreshadowing / reveal yet to come) and yet to run.

Tweak them a bit as needed (get player buy-in for "minor tweaks as-needed to eeveal-in-play, of youg-PC's misunderstandings, adults protecting need-to-know info & other+people's-secrets, etc"), to get a good fit; don't shoehorn!  If you can't get a nice smooth mesh, just abandon it; but if some tweaks can bring new player-driven synergy with the setting, jump ALLLL over that!

[Crel]

11 hours ago, Narl said:

The cattle panic and stampede! Endar follows trying to bring them under control. A swirling melee ensues!

How did you end up running this encounter? It sounds fun and exciting, but also complex, with cows and warriors and a Stone Woman all over the place. About how long did the combat take?

[drablak]

6 hours ago, Crel said:

How did you end up running this encounter? It sounds fun and exciting, but also complex, with cows and warriors and a Stone Woman all over the place. About how long did the combat take?

Yes I'm a bit worried about running this encounter myself.

[Narl]

8 hours ago, Crel said:

How did you end up running this encounter? It sounds fun and exciting, but also complex, with cows and warriors and a Stone Woman all over the place. About how long did the combat take?

I didn't mention it above, but the Stone Woman did speak to them first, demanding that they leave the cattle for her. The adventurers could have negotiated but attacked instead. When I was a player in this adventure previously, we negotiated with the Stone Woman and left peacefully, giving up some cattle. My group was having none of that.

I was concerned for the adventurers as the Stone Woman can be pretty brutal, and Danakos can be dangerous as well. With the critical from the bison, the Stone Woman was out in the second round, and Danakos was overwhelmed in the third. So it was a quick combat, probably no more than twenty minutes.

My experience so far with this version of RQ is that combat moves fast. Between Rune magic, Spirit magic, augments, and high starting skills, significant enough damage to knock enemies out of the fight happens quickly. It isn't like lower-magic/no-augment BRP where two warriors might face off with 75% skill and you get into some attack/parry repetitiveness. The warriors in the group are nearly always attacking at above 100% and have enhancements to damage.

This combat isn't too bad to run because there are only two foes, the Stone Woman and Danakos (plus the possibility of a Sprul-Pa or two). The combats that I do feel are complex are ones with many foes with them all having both Spirit magic and Rune magic. Both of the first two adventures in the GM Screen Pack have encounters like this. Tracking all that magic and its effects, strike ranks, etc. is unpleasant to say the least.

I did make up a sheet with all the stats for Danakos and the Stone Woman on it, so I wouldn't have to be flipping pages. I find that sort of thing to be really helpful from a combat management perspective. I also make sure the players know how to calculate their own strike ranks. I don't list who goes on what SR before the start of round, I just start calling out Strike Ranks starting at 1. I found listing out everything that happens each round ahead of the round to really slow down the pace and cause the urgent feel of combat to be lost.

[Narl]

15 hours ago, g33k said:

I will recommend that you consider how you might more-tightly tie PC backstories and PC-linked NPCs into some of the published scenarios, both already-run (with some foreshadowing / reveal yet to come) and yet to run.

I agree! That is something I have been working on. I didn't mandate full backgrounds but I wish I had. I really have maybe 2-3 backgrounds that I can incorporate into the story. 

I did have the Pure Horse assistant shaman be a cousin to Hendroste in Apple Lane, so there is some connection there. I've also got the Storm Bull wondering if it was Percippus, the Lunar in charge of Apple Lane up until the Dragonrise, who has his father's magical lance head. Percippus supposedly looted Gringle's when he took over a few years back. I leave most of the roleplaying out of the narrative, but there has been enough that the adventurers are growing fond of Brightflower, Gooseberry, and other NPCs.

There is one background aspect I need to work on. Iverne, the Chalana Arroy healer has a talking shadowcat (who can cast Sleep) named Slythin. Slythin is small, like a kitten, and does not seem to age. Both Iverne and Slythin have Passions associated with each other. Slythin also seems to encourage Iverne to make certain decisions at times. What is Slythin? I need to work that out, and I am open to suggestions. Some sort of Yinkin association seems appropriate. I'd like to keep Slythin sort of enigmatic but I want to reveal some secrets about the cat, I just don't know what those secrets are yet!

[womble]

How did you 'model' the impact of the stampede on the combat, @Narl? Or was it sufficiently spatially separated that it was just some herding rolls for the character tasked with getting them corralled? 

 

[Crel]

14 minutes ago, womble said:

How did you 'model' the impact of the stampede on the combat

That was the thrust of my thought too, on the complexity of the encounter. I imagined a bison, Stone Woman, adventurers, and then like twenty cows all crowded onto the board at once  

[jeffjerwin]

3 hours ago, Narl said:

There is one background aspect I need to work on. Iverne, the Chalana Arroy healer has a talking shadowcat (who can cast Sleep) named Slythin. Slythin is small, like a kitten, and does not seem to age. Both Iverne and Slythin have Passions associated with each other. Slythin also seems to encourage Iverne to make certain decisions at times. What is Slythin? I need to work that out, and I am open to suggestions. Some sort of Yinkin association seems appropriate. I'd like to keep Slythin sort of enigmatic but I want to reveal some secrets about the cat, I just don't know what those secrets are yet!

Alusar is the child of Yinkin who is demigod of sneaky black cats. The simplest explanation is that Slythin is a lesser godling, perhaps a child of Alusar, like the sorts of minor gods and spirits one meets in the wilds. Alusar likes to keep secrets and move about by night, doing sekrit cat biznes.

[g33k]

1 hour ago, jeffjerwin said:

Alusar is the child of Yinkin who is demigod of sneaky black cats. The simplest explanation is that Slythin is a lesser godling, perhaps a child of Alusar, like the sorts of minor gods and spirits one meets in the wilds. Alusar likes to keep secrets and move about by night, doing sekrit cat biznes.

Alusar haz Darkniss rune???

 

(seriously:  sees in the dark, and secrets, sounds like a pretty fundamental Darkness affiliation)

[Joerg]

7 hours ago, g33k said:

Alusar haz Darkniss rune???

 

(seriously:  sees in the dark, and secrets, sounds like a pretty fundamental Darkness affiliation)

except that seeing is fundamentally the sense of fire/light. Cats and owls simply make do with much less light than daytime "seers". Yelmalio has the ability as a spell, too.

[g33k]

Yeah; it's the conjunction of darkness and secrets that make me think Primal Dark.  I guess it depends on whether Alusar is more attuned to keeping secrets or uncovering/sharing them.  Keeping secrets sounds solidly Darkness to me; sharing what is uncovered is pretty Fire/Sky.

YGMV