Temple of the Wooden Sword

[HreshtIronBorne]

Does anyone have more information on the Temple of the Wooden Sword? My Google-Fu is apparently lacking severely when it comes to finding anything other than, it is a thing.

I know there was some writeup in a fanzine but, I wouldn't know where to even start looking for an old magazine.

[Joerg]

The most complete collection of Wooden Sword activities I am aware of was in Wyrm's Footprints.

All of the action happened a decade before the arrival of the Internet, which means all of this material is dead trees stuff rather than digital.

[Bill the barbarian]

21 minutes ago, HreshtIronBorne said:

Does anyone have more information on the Temple of the Wooden Sword? My Google-Fu is apparently lacking severely when it comes to finding anything other than, it is a thing.

 

Do not know a ton about it, read an article on them back in the 90s in a zine with MOB and Rick Meintz writing and running it called Tales of the Reaching Moon, I wonder if it was the only 2 (3?) continent zine in existence (Oz and N.A. I think).

So Londra of Londros, Alebard, Asborn Thriceborn, Naimless, Bagtrap, Errol Silksword were some of the members. They accompanied Leika Orlkensorsdotter into Snake Pipe Hollow. The Temple was a Humakti wooden sword making it a mobile temple.(an idea Greag Stafford said he regretted). They were affiliated with my fave trollball team. the Sazdorf Whackers and Tacklers. 

That is all I have in my notes. I know a few of the names mentioned as you might, the only tale I can think of outside of this is a Humakti by the name of Naimless fought a gent in Tourney Alter called Allain in CoP. and an intriguing note that says..."appears and disappears though time, space and legend [Wyrm’s Footprint p. 12]" I believe there was troll warrior and a gorilla warrior with one or both havng colourful names.

Yeah, that's all my notes...

Cheers

Edited June 27, 2019 by Bill the barbarian

[M Helsdon]

The Wooden Sword

Oofmartha, an Aldryami god of combat, said to be an avatar of Humakt, manifests as a portable shrine in the form of a wooden sword, known as the Death That Will Not Die.

The Wooden Sword reappeared early in the Hero Wars, and its cult was led by a member of the Colymar Tribe for several years. The sword was later reclaimed by the elves in 1615 and now resides in the depths of Arstola Forest.

[Oracle]

Sources about the Temple of the Wooden Sword I know of:

• Wyrms Footprints - a whole 7 page article telling the story of the Temple of the Wooden Sword from its beginning until the end in 1615.
• Sartar Companion - several bits of information in the context of Clearwine Fort description, the Old Wind Temple description and the "Gifts of Stone" adventure, which is located in the Sazdorf troll clan area.

[metcalph]

It also features in the Sazdorf Clan material of RQ2's Trollpak (soon to be reprinted).

[David Scott]

8 hours ago, HreshtIronBorne said:

I know there was some writeup in a fanzine

The Temple of the Wooden Sword was part of Greg's own campaign.The 11 Lights says:

Quote

Since the early days of the Gloranthan gaming magazine Wyrms Footnotes, in whose pages we learned of Greg Stafford’s Colymar campaign, and his PCs adventures with the Temple of the Wooden Sword, fighting in Starbrow’s Rebellion, and performing a Crown Test to try and win rule of that tribe, the campaign based around a Sartarite clan struggling for liberation has been one of the classic settings for Gloranthan gaming.

The campaign set around 1613 was originally documented in a series of fanzines called Dragon's Past (10 issues) and Son of Sartar (4 issues) between 1979 and 1980. They were included in the APA zine The Wild Hunt. Parts of the campaign were further documented in a feature in Wyrms Foonotes called Dragons Past:

issue 9: The Great Raid on the Temple of the Wooden Sword

issue 11: The Founding of the Wooden Sword:

Quote

The Sazdorf Troll Tribe is intimately tied up with the famous Temple of the Wooden Sword, a legendary Humakti 'wandering regiment' which has appeared and dissappeared through time, space and legend. It is sometimes known as "The Death that Will Not Die."

& The Temple of the Wooden Sword & Londra of Londros, a member of the group.

issue12 continued the story withe Skirmish at Wind Temple.

issue 14 finished with the Crown Test of Leika Balista

Quote

Leika, granddaughter grand daughter of Londros and heir to the Colymar had earned the surname of Ballista when she Tribe of Sartar, had earned the surname of Ballista when she the Wooden Sword Humakti into the caves of Snakepipe Hollow

Wyrm's footprints collected all of these together

issue 15 has Assault on the Isle of the Dead, where the Wooden Sword suffers its first defeat.

https://www.chaosium.com/wyrms-footnotes-pdf/

8 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

back in the 90s in a zine with MOB and Rick Meintz writing and running it called Tales of the Reaching Moon, I wonder if it was the only 2 (3?) continent zine in existence (Oz and N.A. I think).

Tales of the Reaching Moon was a fanzine run by David in the UK. Later contributors and members included MOB, with Rick doing the layout for later editions. It was distributed widely, as far as Japan, Australia, North America and of course Europe,

Tales republished many parts of Dragons Past and the Wooden Sword, issue 5 being the main one.

Edited June 27, 2019 by David Scott

[Stormwalker]

The Temple got a "full" write-up in the HQ1 Masters Of Luck and Death book, but I don't know how canonical that is these days (I suspect it's not - The "heroband" concept was all the rage back then and it seemed a good fit I guess)

Edited June 27, 2019 by Stormwalker

[jajagappa]

Besides Snakepipe Hollow, the Wooden Sword was carried into the depths of the Sazdorf caves. There was a humiliating defeat at the hands of Zorak Zoran at first for which Humakt "chastised" the temple members. They returned to greater success and established a Humakt temple for awhile in the heart of the troll stronghold. 

As was noted above, the temple disbanded, and the Wooden Sword was returned to Arstola, presumably to await some other events within the Hero Wars.

[Bill the barbarian]

15 hours ago, HreshtIronBorne said:

Does anyone have more information on the Temple of the Wooden Sword? My Google-Fu is apparently lacking severely when it comes to finding anything other than, it is a thing.

Neat topic, HreshtIronBorne!

[Erol of Backford]

I have spent a good bit of “trolling” everything Wooden Sword and have come up with the following list. Does anyone have further info as to dates or might be able to correct them?

1613 - the campaign in question was noted to begin

Naimless fights Humakti duel with Taksag (near Sazdorf I assume)

Taksag convinces Sigron that Humakt should be the troll war god at Sazdorf

Humakt's Hall of Shame - the Huakkti shame themselves and feel Sazdorf

Taksag becomes a Humakti initiate at Jonstown

This same band of warriors was shortly afterwards haunted by bad dreams and clear visions

Taksag noted an old man with the wooden sword which was given to Tamara Three-chop to carry, with instructions to drive it into the heart of the enemy

The Founding of the Wooden Sword with Londra, Naimless, Taksag and others

The clearing of the Zorak Zorani from Sazdorf

The Great Raid on the Temple of the Wooden Sword - nine years after the fall of Boldhome

Skirmish at Wind Temple – seems they went to Sazdorf the day after and were welcomed

The Wooden Sword in Dorastor

Snakepipe Hollow

Quest to the Wounding of Arroin

1615 - Isle of the Dead, where the Wooden Sword suffers its first defeat

1615 - the sword was reclaimed by the elf Eltang Swiftfoot and now resides in the depths of Arstola Forest

1617 - Londra of Londros is at Old Wind Temple after the dissolution of the Temple of the Wooden Sword, from what I have read she is 19 at this time and would have been 17 when she lead the Humakti against the Zorak Zoran of Sazdorf, there was a note she was born in maybe 1598 but not many agree to this so I’d add 8 years so she was born 1590? Naimless would have been about 24 when the Sadorf Temple was founded?

[AndreJarosch]

49 minutes ago, Erol of Backford said:

1617 - Londra of Londros is at Old Wind Temple after the dissolution of the Temple of the Wooden Sword, from what I have read she is 19 at this time and would have been 17 when she lead the Humakti against the Zorak Zoran of Sazdorf, there was a note she was born in maybe 1598 but not many agree to this so I’d add 8 years so she was born 1590?

Londra of Londros was born in 1598 (her RQ2 write up in Wyrms Footnotes said 1603, but that corrected in a later issue to 1598)

[AndreJarosch]

54 minutes ago, Erol of Backford said:

I have spent a good bit of “trollNaimless would have been about 24 when the Sadorf Temple was founded?

Nameless (aka Naimless) is 34 years old in 1625 (GM Adventure Book of the RQ GM Screen Pack), so she was born 1591. 

[Erol of Backford]

So Londra was 17 when she lead the Temple of the Wooden Sword against the Zorak Zoran at Sazdorf, impressive.

Does anyone have dates or an order of events for the following?

Skirmish at Wind Temple – seems they went to Sazdorf the day after and were welcomed so it would be after the Great Raid?

The Wooden Sword in Dorastor

Snakepipe Hollow

Quest to the Wounding of Arroin

I have all the old Wyrms Footnotes but not the Dragon's Past items...

[svensson]

On 6/26/2019 at 8:58 PM, Bill the barbarian said:

an idea Greag Stafford said he regretted).

Yeah, I've done that....😆

[David Scott]

This may help: https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/catalogue/publishers/greg-stafford/greg-stafford-personal-works/dragons-past-1979-1980/

likewise this may help later when available:

 

"Chaosium Classics: Volume I - The Stafford House Campaign" collects Greg Stafford's essays about his RuneQuest campaign from 1978-81 into an 84-page softcover volume. Basic layout (Courier monospaced text, in honour of the original).

Contents: Dragons Past #1-10, Son of Sartar #1-4, and three issues of the Pharaoh's Gazette from early 1620.

[Erol of Backford]

That looks like some fun reading.

How do I pre-order!

[AndreJarosch]

6 hours ago, David Scott said:

This may help: https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/catalogue/publishers/greg-stafford/greg-stafford-personal-works/dragons-past-1979-1980/

likewise this may help later when available:

 

"Chaosium Classics: Volume I - The Stafford House Campaign" collects Greg Stafford's essays about his RuneQuest campaign from 1978-81 into an 84-page softcover volume. Basic layout (Courier monospaced text, in honour of the original).

Contents: Dragons Past #1-10, Son of Sartar #1-4, and three issues of the Pharaoh's Gazette from early 1620.

I have MOST of this stuff alreay in my collection, but can´t wait to get my hands on this book, because every little details of Gregs house campaign is a delight (as fragmentary as it might be). 

My current Gloranth campaign is based upon this: 
My PCs have encountered a fragile Eltang Swiftfoot in the Garden of the Big Rubble (one PC is an Aldryami from the Elder Wilds) and are now tasked to find all still living senior members of the old Temple of the Wooden Sword, to get their blessing to the idea of retireing the Wooden Sword, by burying it in the soil of the former Rist forest (where this burial will be a puzzle piece to the reforestation of that area). 
So my PCs have found Bagtrap in Pavis, and are now on their way to Sartar in search for Londra, Naimless, Alebard, Tamara Tree-chop, Jonathon Trollsbane, Jondar Blackmane, Contand Adolain, and Aeling (and some more, but they are red herings). 
 

[Lordabdul]

1 hour ago, AndreJarosch said:

I have MOST of this stuff alreay in my collection, but can´t wait to get my hands on this book, because every little details of Gregs house campaign is a delight (as fragmentary as it might be).

Rick showed us this book during our interview (see the God Learners podcast episode 10). It contains the Dragons Past articles, Son of Sartar articles, and the never-seen-before Pharaoh's Gazette, which Rick found in some random folder one day (so there's at least half a dozen pages of exclusive content for those who have read the hard-to-find articles, plus a few extras like character sheets).

The book was for sale at ChaosiumCon. @Eff did a tiny bit of live reading at the time. I'm very slowly working on a review for the God Learners blog.

Edited May 2, 2022 by lordabdul

[Erol of Backford]

Thank you both!

As my campaign is set to start at 1600 and PC's will likely be interacting with the Temple of the Wooden Sword my quest is for all things Londra. 

I really really wanted to be at the Con but if I didn't take my family for spring break I'd have been sleeping in the car or worse.

Does the book have info on the following Temple of the Wooden Sword events (down below) and or is anyone able to direct me to other sources?

One of the PC's will probably be a relative or childhood friend of Sora Goodseller (from Jansholm) as Backford is close I will have a connection to her to the PC's somehow when she is not yet a teenager, her parent(s) come to Backford or something for some reason, I have to figure this out somehow... (I will transfer this to the Backford Aeolian Campaign in case anyone has good ideas on this.)

• Skirmish at Wind Temple – seems they went to Sazdorf the day after this and were welcomed
• The Wooden Sword in Dorastor
• Snakepipe Hollow
• Quest to the Wounding of Arroin

[jajagappa]

22 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

Does anyone have dates or an order of events for the following?

Skirmish at Wind Temple – seems they went to Sazdorf the day after and were welcomed so it would be after the Great Raid?

See WF#12, page 12: it's the response to the Lunar plan to sack the Altar to Orlanth Victorious and occurs in Seaseason, 1613.  

This is actually a core lead-in event to Starbrow's Rebellion (see p.13 same issue).

22 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

Snakepipe Hollow

Since the battalion was disbanded in 1615 (per Sartar Companion, p.77, the other events have to occur during 1613-14, most likely after Starbrow's Rebellion is suppressed.

Per Trollpak p.53, the discovery of the Wooden Sword occurs in Fireseason 1611, so possibly some events occur before the Skirmish in 1613.

 

Edited May 2, 2022 by jajagappa

[PhilHibbs]

It is mentioned in the GM Pack adventures book, that Leika and Naimless don't want to go talk to Tarndisi because of their history with the TotWS. What is the particular beef with the Aldryami over it? Is it just that the Aldryami felt that it is sacred to them and it should be theirs?

[David Scott]

31 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

It is mentioned in the GM Pack adventures book, that Leika and Naimless don't want to go talk to Tarndisi because of their history with the TotWS. What is the particular beef with the Aldryami over it? Is it just that the Aldryami felt that it is sacred to them and it should be theirs?

see:

[Joerg]

On 5/1/2022 at 11:01 PM, Erol of Backford said:

I have spent a good bit of “trolling” everything Wooden Sword and have come up with the following list. Does anyone have further info as to dates or might be able to correct them?

1613 - the campaign in question was noted to begin

Naimless fights Humakti duel with Taksag (near Sazdorf I assume)

Taksag convinces Sigron that Humakt should be the troll war god at Sazdorf

Humakt's Hall of Shame - the Huakkti shame themselves and feel Sazdorf

Taksag becomes a Humakti initiate at Jonstown

This same band of warriors was shortly afterwards haunted by bad dreams and clear visions

Taksag noted an old man with the wooden sword which was given to Tamara Three-chop to carry, with instructions to drive it into the heart of the enemy

The Founding of the Wooden Sword with Londra, Naimless, Taksag and others

The clearing of the Zorak Zorani from Sazdorf

The Great Raid on the Temple of the Wooden Sword - nine years after the fall of Boldhome

Skirmish at Wind Temple – seems they went to Sazdorf the day after and were welcomed

The Wooden Sword in Dorastor

Snakepipe Hollow

Quest to the Wounding of Arroin

1615 - Isle of the Dead, where the Wooden Sword suffers its first defeat

1615 - the sword was reclaimed by the elf Eltang Swiftfoot and now resides in the depths of Arstola Forest

1617 - Londra of Londros is at Old Wind Temple after the dissolution of the Temple of the Wooden Sword, from what I have read she is 19 at this time and would have been 17 when she lead the Humakti against the Zorak Zoran of Sazdorf, there was a note she was born in maybe 1598 but not many agree to this so I’d add 8 years so she was born 1590? Naimless would have been about 24 when the Sadorf Temple was founded?

Naimless dueling Alain at Tourney Altar for the right to recruit fighters for their Sazdorf expedition in Biturian Varosh's travels in Cults of Prax is missing from your list. We have a date: Clayday / Stasis Week / Dark Season /1614

[Erol of Backford]

From the Sartar Companion p.234, related to the Temple of the Wooden Sword:

Lagor the Sword-Troll Lagor is a very strange troll, who once was a member of the Cult of the Wooden Sword. Lagor is initiated into the cult of Humakt as well as being a follower of Kyger Litor, the Troll Mother. Lagor is an extremely good swordfighter, and his troll strength adds a terrible punch to his blows. Lagor is escorted by a band of sword wielding trollkin who march with military precision. Lagor has traveled far and seen much. For a troll he is surprisingly friendly towards humans. If the heroes are friendly towards him then he may show them the way to the Back Door. However, Lagor knows nothing of the Silver Dancer. He makes any humans he aids swear not to return to the Sazdorf Halls. If they break his oath, Lagor will kill them.

A little more from Sartar Hero Quest Companion: Finally she says that there is a troll called Lagor in the Sazdorf Tribe who is an old friend of hers. She says that if the players meet him that they should invoke her name. Lagor should treat them as friends, and not eat them if they remind him of his outstanding debt to Londra.

Edited March 20, 2023 by Erol of Backford