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If you are the kind of person who avoids spoilers, read any part marked 'spoilers' with your eyes closed.

Beer With Teeth writes things in the hope of eventual publication, and the playtests are written up in public for the sake of interest, our egos, and our record keeping. They are interesting to those who want to know how we work, but they are also going to give away secrets.

Purple Gold - 05 Oct 2019 13:28

Tags:

Well?

A playtest of something called Purple Gold. The Beer With Teeth crew seem to have established colours as a titling method, so here we are.

Availability?

Not yet. We'll be throwing this out to try publication, but we haven't yet sent it anywhere, and it still needs further writing up.

Finished Playtest?

Yep. It took a session

Follow-up. Always a session?

This is two short, linked items. The second part, the real adventure, could be expanded. The first part is an introduction to the Heroquest for new characters, so it's probably not part of the main adventure, but it is a sub-plot. With enough padding it could be two separate adventures. That would be easier for the second part in the mad village than in the earlier quest, which is more a teaching moment.

Characters

Gastara, a Babeester Gor guesting with Ernakt
Laika Pigwife
Rastar the Glib

IC Action?

Massive spoilers. Players who have not played this should not click the link.

Show IC Events

Ernakt, the plot hook, is the chief of the Greyrock Tribe. He had invited people to a festival (the entertainer got to do sing and dance rolls, and entirely forgot he could play instruments. Everyone else had a good time. The Babeester Gor Initiate had an axe throwing competition. Then Ernakt declared there was going to be a Heroquest. Everyone failed their Insight (Human) so they did not know what the people thought of it. The story of the Heroquest was declaimed by his Bard. The adventurers were either invited to be in the Storm or Night tribes. For some this was obvious, others were given the choice.

The Heroquest was performed at the Greyrock Wyter Stone. I decided not to give too much detail about the stone itself, so 'magic circle' in a nearby dedicated field is probably what I'll do next time. I played this during Dark Season, but I can imagine a sacred place that is delimited by a ploughed furrow around it. There was about a foot of snow on the ground which needed clearing away, and then the ceremony started. Worship rolls let the characters know whether they were really in the scenes or not. Gastara got into it, and Rastar got VERY into it, but as a Lightbringer Eurmalite his sense of belonging to Sartar made him not try to step in and ruin things for Orlanth.

The fighting went well, with no fatalities, and Orlanth triumphed. Gastara was killed by a huge troll… but fortunately in the Middle World he pulled his blow very competently, and went on to be killed by Orlanth-Ernakt. Laika the Mother Troll pulled back her children rather than have them killed, and Rastar fought competently, but was spotted by Ernakt's trickster, who marked him mentally for later.

Afterwards, Yand, Ernakt's wife, came to talk to Laika quietly. Her husband wanted to find out what had happened to the Stone Bowl village, who should have been there, and had not arrived. Given the season, some Initiates of Orlanth Thunderous were pressed into keeping the skies clear, so there would not be snow and the adventurers would be able to travel. They set off, and good Scan rolls from everyone let them know there was trouble ahead. Smoke was rising like a house had burned, the gate was open, the cattle and pigs had escaped, and there was an apparent ambush there. Rather than spend hours going around, they decided to set off the ambush.

The attackers had cloaks instead of shields and were wielding brambles. After finding out they outmatched the people they were cutting down, the adventurers used non-lethal methods instead. A successful first aid from Gastara not only helped patch up one of the people but noticed she was shivering despite her hypothermia. One of the ambushers seemed to have decided he was an alynx, and attacked the group. Badly. With them tied up and covered in cloaks to keep them warm, the group moved to the village, finding tracks that indicated some had run off into the snow, and of those, some were barefoot.

Investigations in the village found that everyone there was mad or badly ill. Three warriors were armoured and armed, but one ran away, one collapsed screaming about the sky, and one told the others earnestly how all was one and one thing was all things. They rebuilt the fire in the chief's house and gathered everyone from the outside in there. Having failed to find any tracks that indicated there had been a failed Heroquest elsewhere, and not believing that Lunar Magic could do this much damage easily, the group decided whatever had done it was probably still present. Detect Enemies from Gastara indicated that there were many entities within the village that meant them harm, but most were villagers who could not manage to move. However, three were not accounted for; one in the chief's house, one in the courtyard outside, and one in the granary. One of those was in the chief's house, so she did a quick skirt around and then went that way. Meanwhile, Rastar and Laika had found the chief's body, and a spirit was rising from it.

Rastar thought it was a ghost, and paused rather than attacking. However, it was a disease spirit and attacked Laika. They fought it together, and Rastar destroyed it, while Laika was rendered unconscious. Gastara arrived too late to influence the outcome much, but did get a spirit block Rune Spell up. Both of them heard a baby's crying after that. Rastar turned out to be a surprisingly good carer, having looked after many of his own family while travelling. While Gastara searched the rest of the village for survivors and found nobody sane save for two more hungry children, Rastar milked a sheep¹ and fed them.

Rather than waiting for Rastar to be finished (and her Runic protection to have run out) Gastara went to look for the next spirit, and it found her rather harder than she found it, infecting her with the Trembles as well as rendering her unconscious.

After feeding the children, Rastar tucked them next to Laika like little piglets, and went out to look for Gastara and any spirit, as she had not come back. After a long consideration about Eurmal the Coward vs Eurmal the Lightbringer rescuing the others when all was lost, Rastar approached Gastara, was attacked by the spirit, and managed to end it.

He dragged Gastara inside as well, and they hunkered down to recover. Once Laika woke they decided to feed the children beer, but as soon as the oldest of them had managed to get a good bellyful, she began to scream in terror, and just would not stop. They realised that the beer was bad, the the grain was probably infectious. However, with Gastara still out, and Laika weak, and Rastar halfway drained, they waited until they were at full spiritual health before going to deal with the creatures. This took a day, during which the screaming girl ran out of energy to scream and slipped into death.

At the granary they prepared, and then Gastara opened it, and immediately a spirit formed. Laika recognised it as a disease spirit that usually struck fields, recognising the purplish sheen on the grain. It attacked, and they inspired themselves with appropriate runes of Death, Fertility, and Earth, and did battle. Rastar and Laika eventually trapped it between their own manifestations of Ernalda's power, which destroyed it.

Gastara then rode for help, meeting a cavalcade a couple of hours away, under someone she knew from the axe throwing competition. He sent back riders to fetch women and healers, and asked sensible questions so the right people would arrive. The village stopped getting worse, although some individuals could not be saved, and about one in three had died, including just about everyone who had drunk the strongest beer at the high table during their festival.

Of course, there were no rewards, but later things happened to fall into the hands of those who might have deserved them if the chief HAD sent them away. Gastara was promised the price of her healing from the tremors that the Trembles left in her body, but she would have to go to Clearwine for that, and the Dark Season weather was settling in.

OOC?

Massive spoilers. Players who have not played this should not click the link.

Show OOC thoughts

I could have had more preparation and detail at the festival. Craft (cooking), the axe throwing could have been expanded or had prizes awarded, the best bards could have had Lunars given to them. This was a time to give the characters a happy moment using their skills. Ernakt's work to make his Clan eager to do a Heroquest was lost because nobody worked out he had done it, so a chance to intrigue and chatter beforehand would be good. Village rumour table, here we come!

There's no NEED to warn people, but it's a thing that people who are experienced should probably be able to find out. Newer players probably need to not know that, because this part of the scenario is about teaching people what a Heroquest is. Probably best, given that, to describe what Ernakt's preparations have been, and let adventurers find out if it will not confuse the players. The Stone Bowl village had been invited and like several others were going to arrive for the ceremony after their own festival.

I needed to underscore earlier that the Stone Bowl villagers were missing, through Intrigue rolls, or possible Battle as the night vs storm tribe troops were rearranged. The Heroquest had a lot of narration to it, but a lot of that was the GM explaining what characters would know, so it was not a problem in the grand structure. It does need to be a set-aside text box in the presented document, with something else to fill in for people who already know what a Heroquest is, like a chance to find out for themselves that the Stone Bowl people were absent from within the quest.

Ernakt did his job. I was particularly pleased that Ernalda's part as a patient woman who thought was important to plot hooking. His wife was the one who instigated the second half.

Generally speaking, the players needed prompting to remember about the inspiration rules, and I want them to start taking that on for themselves, but new players do require reminders, so as this is for people who have not Heroquested before, when they fight the grain spirits, there should be a reminder to the GM that they can explain this rule if the characters are not likely to remember it, and especially if they are likely to be overmatched by the spirits.

The POW/CHA table is very important for spirits. When one is damaged, is it fully damaged and pow reduced so it is no longer so much of a threat? The crunchy-on-the-outside-meaty-in-the-middle build didn't do it for me. I kept the spirits at the same level of attack threat throughout, because they were malevolent and I wanted them to be hurting the adventurers. They were nasty.

One of the adventurers didn't get the difference between spirits and ghosts; we paused to explain that this was a very bad form of spirit, and not the ghost of the chief, and went on.

It is important to keep track of what provisions the adventurers bring. They talked about eating, in the village, but did not commit to what before they found out about the beer. Asking what they were eating would have given the game away, so I was struggling for a form of words, and would probably have mentioned they brought provisions with them. If I were really evil I'd offer an INT roll to see if they knew where provisions would be in this place. However, there would not have been much grain, so they would only have had a mild attack of madness…

The complexity of the world is my main enemy here. I wanted to explain the Heroquest in case the adventurers decided to do a quest to try to keep people sane, but in the end there was not time, and they did not really have the OOC preparation. Having some people able to worship within the village and beg them for their help, or having a Priest conscious enough to cast them into one might have helped - but that feels a bit forced. So it was two adventures, linked only by a plot hook. I'll probably expand the later part of it, and add on the front part of it if I think anyone needs Heroquesting explained to them, in later games. That layout feels like what the adventure IS. If I did do it so a Heroquest was expected, I'd divide it up timewise into the start of the season and the end of the season. Dark/storm season is perfect for that, and so is having the adventurers be part of the Clan, so they have a reason to be hanging around for that long without coincidences breeding.

The number of spirits and their power was just right for the group. They had a choice to make of whether to risk themselves to try to save the terrified child, and they took the wiser option. About one spirit per person was good because they never took on the spirits as a group, but if three of them had been present, at least two spirits would have been required as enemies.

I need to remember to add the description on the purple grain, as a reason for the title.

- Comments: 0

Dark Waters 2 - 29 Sep 2019 09:22

Tags:

Well?

A playtest of something called, at least in theory, Dark Waters. Re-written somewhat between the last session and this one.

Availability?

Not yet. We'll be throwing this out to try publication, and an any-time guess is a good guess.

Finished Playtest?

Yes. It took two sessions.

Follow-up. Always two sessions?

It could have been done in one. It felt a little like I was padding towards the end, but the players seemed happy enough.

IC Action?

SPOILERS!!!!

Show IC Events

Hengrast and Annelifk went up towards the Lunar mansion, and after about half an hour they tasted the water and found it was still slightly sour. Hengrast and Laika went to try to fetch the fisherfolk, and found that Ernakt had departed, but they could follow the fisher folk down to the river, where they discussed the naiad, the shrine, and the river. After some talk, Hengrast was unable to persuade anyone to return with him, but Laika took the oldest fisher aside and talked to her, and she sent back a young man, Mistyr, as a guide. However, it was too late to go back overnight, so they stayed in the bothy.

Meanwhile, Rastar was going off to the Lunar Mansion after having failed to find any useful information. He spotted a couple of heavily armed people getting off the road and into the undergrowth, far in front of him, and decided not to go on. He returned to the village, where most people were gathered in the brewer's house, drinking. Jon had been looking for rumours, and found them, including being informed Zelpha the Thrall would know what her brother did, and that up to the North-west there were bandits. Fortunately Rastar came back fine. Annelifk, who had armour and the Dark Walk spell, went scouting, and came across a group of four bandits. He tried and failed to summon an elemental, and left instead, and went back to report. The group decided to send to Chief Ernakt to tell him where the bandits were, and Sian sweet-talked and intrigued the youngest of Hohfng's sons, Silg, into volunteering.

On the way back to New Stead in the morning, Laika and Hengrast (and Mistyr the Fisher) met Silg going the other way, and saw a couple of bandits in the forest, but they did not stop, and nobody attacked them. Back at the water quern, Mastyr was able to tell the group, including Rastar, how to show respect properly². The combination of the gold panners 'helping' to empty the storeroom, and people moving slowly, meant that the samples and records would take until the end of the day to move out.

One of the thralls managed to attract Annelifk's attention, and asked him to bring someone in charge to see Zelpha. This time, Hengrast came, with Annelifk behind him. They did not get on well but Zelpha offered to contact and attempt to appease the spirit of the river if her ransom was paid. After some negotiation, her master Hohfng agreed to take 50% immediately and 50% within a week to hand over ownership of Zelpha, who was freed and performed the ritual. As she walked away to go pack, the Naiad rose up and talked, taking a shine to Jon.³ She touched him on the cheek leaving a Water Rune there, and later he went along to the river to worship privately.

With the river clearing, it only remained to deal with the bandits. Ernakt arrived that night, and Annelifk went out to act suspiciously as a scout and make sure that the group would be likely ambushed the next day, as Jon had suggested the use of his Pathwatch spell. The battle was not long, although it was dangerous, and the unarmoured Rastar was badly hurt.

They moved on towards the Lunar manor, which was deserted but had evidence the bandits had been living there. Carved into an expensive fresco in an office was a message to Minstar of Greyrock Rise, from his father, the Lunar Commander. Some of the group had rescued him from a troll, so they elected to tell him about the message, taking his aunt Zelpha too. He insisted that his entire Clan were his fathers, he knew them already, and he loved them, and refused to go with his aunt to the Lunar heartlands.

Later there was a moot at which rewards were given. Ernakt bought back the ransom debt from the group, who had had to scrabble together to make it. Laika was gifted a magical pig call, Rastar the sword that Ernakt himself carried, because he had gone bravely into battle despite the lack of armour, and helf off two spearmen alone until wounded. Sian was given various goodies and the right to hand a record of her deeds in Ernakt's hall. The chief fitted Annelifk out with better armour, and gave Hengrast an arm ring with a Water Rune made of aluminium on it. Jon was asked to take extra goods with him on his next travel, as a factor for Ernakt, and to collect and bring back Zelpha's ransom, all at a 10% fee.

OOC?

Massive spoilers. Players currently playing should not click the link.

Show OOC thoughts

I had expected the group to try to explore and deal with the bandits without Ernakt, but I was prepared for the group fight as well. The important part was Ernakt's battle score. Zelpha's ritual should have been more important and taken magic points from participants. This would have given a reason for the nymph to talk to someone with a high POW instead of me waiting until Zelpha was out of the way, as she was the obvious person to talk to Iyarala. An alternative is that Iyarala talks to the man with the highest CHA or POW in the party.

Combat is my weakest point. I didn't take advantage of the spells that the bandits had, but then again, those who were not in a fight with the adventurers were less important, and Ernakt's battle roll and the counter-ambush situation were dealing with the problem. Laika did use her Absorption spell, and I should have valued that more by attacking people with magic, but… well, it was over quickly, and combat's the part I'm still learning. That's a GM thing not a scenario thing.

I am particularly proud of the oinkarina, the pig call that Laika was given, and of the change to Jon PolJoni, who had the Water Rune tattooed onto his cheek, where it now shimmers, and took Water as one of his own Runes. The Praxian was stunned by the naiad.

Beyond the combat, which rolled through pretty well but I felt I could have practised more, I'm very pleased with this session. I'd drawn up the main village map, so people had a better idea of where they were, and all the plot threads fitted and came together, and the players had remembered what happened from the week before, which meant it was not too muddling.

The only thing that the group did that really surprised me was sending for the fisher folk, so I made a judgement call that they were going to stay where they had been left, and that's going into the notes. Sending for Ernakt was good - dealing with the bandits was really he only way to get his authority into the area, because they were the thing he was after.

Ortasis never really got 'justice', but that was another GM thing. I just forgot to have Ernakt rule on the matter. I should have had Hengrast roll on Honour to decide whether Ortasis had had a fair moot-trial the first time around (nope, but it WAS a trial, still) and given him the chance to match Orate vs Orate with the farmer.

- Comments: 0

Dark Waters 1 - 17 Sep 2019 21:10

Tags: annelifk dark-waters greyrock hengrast jon laika new-stead rastar sian

Well?

A playtest of something called, at least in theory, Dark Waters. At time of writing not yet sent to Chaosium

Availability?

Not yet.

Finished Playtest?

No, another session to go, as I write this.

Follow-up. Always two sessions?

No, I'd have have expected it to take one, but I did do some of this backwards. See OOC notes later.

IC Action?

SPOILERS!!!!

Show IC Events

There was an inn in Wilmskirk. Hengrast Silorson and his friends Sian Quillsharp and Jon Pol Joni were meeting there, possibly because Jon had been passing through the area and sent word to come for a drink or two, or maybe they just felt like it.

Rastar the Bard and his crew, a warrior Anelifififkkfifk and an Earthwife Laika, were there and present, and they had all been mixing up a few days and were polite &c.

Laika, having fumbled Intrigue, was sure they had been sent there to make sure everyone had heard of their deeds on Colymar lands, and pressed Rastar to sing about it. Rastar, who had passed Intrigue, was pretty sure they were there because the Colymar wanted them out of the way while the mess of cattle-stealing Greydogs and cattle-eating goddesses got sorted out. Laika was perplexed to find the broker for the cattle she thought they had been sent to buy had not arrived, or did not have the cattle, and many other such things.

Hafly, the steward of Chief Ernakt Greyrock, stopped in to applaud the heroes of Rastar's song. What he needed was heroes! And as he recognised his lord's friend's son Hengrast, he was very fortunate to have had many heroes to hand. They got volunteered to go help Ernakt, for there were bandits all around the place, especially around Greyrock Mill. Hengrast was genuinely pleased to help, and the other group got bounced into it a little.

The next morning they set out, first of all finding out what gossip they could - the bandits did not seem to be a terrible problem, Chief Ernakt was badly stretched for manpower, and after the trolls had gone, bandits had burned Greyrock Fall and the palisade was destroyed. (Rastar fumbled Intrigue.) They met Ernakt, who gave them the hospitality of his camp and told them the fisherfolk were worried enough to have left the river at Greyrock Mill. With the local bandits in the area, he could not dedicate manpower to what was probably not a job for violence, and asked them to investigate as a favour to him. They talked to the fisherfolk, and learned that (what did they learn? Don't really recall, but there was stuff.)

Jon managed to ask questions in the wrong way, and annoy Hatha Fisher, but it was smoothed over.

Laika, a woman slightly larger than Hatha, the woman leading the fisherfolk, was invited to sleep in their humble turf-roof, while others had the open sky and their hides. In the evening, Ernakt asked Hengrast about his man Anneflik, and Hengrast said he stood for him. Ernakt gave Anne[fli]k his helmet, including his horsehair crest. (failed listen roll from Anneflik. Ernakt crept up. Annelifk had a bad moment.)

The next morning they set out for the Mill village. Laika felt very guilty that it was Earth Season and they were not helping with the harvest. They arrived around noon, briefly met Hohfng who greeted the chief and offered them hospitality, and then they passed straight through to the mill, which was silted up so that the wheel was entirely landlocked. Lakia went upstream to look at the top of the silted mill-race, which was not far away, and then downstream to talk to some people there who were doing a thing called gold panning, extracting the expensive parts of the river's bounty from what was going downstream. They told her that they had been doing this for some time.

Meanwhile, Annelifk had been doing the rounds of the mill and discovered a herb garden that was overgrown by about 4 weeks (thanks, Farm Roll!) and the others had discovered a rather more interesting but probably bad thing - an unmarked grave by the front of the mill. As they were discussing going into the mill, a ghost rose up and asked for proper burial, and to be avenged - or for justice. They agreed to give him this, and once she heard his lineage and antecedents from him, Sian worked out that she knew the correct burial rites. Jon and Rastar both lost their lunch in that episode, offering the goodness back to the river, or at least the silt channel.

The group went into the water quern building, and found there was a lot of wood and stone inside. Search rolls found a trapdoor under grain sacks, and Sian found a lot of records that made her squee with delight. There was some reading, and she was happy to show the very very very important records to everyone. Ortasis the Quernmaster had kept track of everything he did, and samples of what he had ground, in wax on slivers of wood, going back right to the beginning. There was also love poetry to Iyarala the naiad, and some notes on improving grain and cattle stock.

They prepared weapons just in case of further horrors and opened the trapdoor. Ratty spider eyes peered out, and Sian entirely failed to notice them and leaned down. Jon DID notice them, pushed her out of the way, and got his left hand covered with ratspider spit. That went numb, and then ratspiders poured out to attack things that had disturbed them. They were easily dispatched, and Sian went down into the cellar with a lantern on a string behind her, and killed the last two. Laika, the farmer, explained what Ratspiders were, and that Jon would get the feeling back over the next day or two.

While that was happening, Annelifk the 'warrior' was keeping a look-out, and so were a few others. Jon spotted a farmer watching them when he should have been harvesting, and with a bit of farsight could see enough to identify him later. Sian found more of the records down in the bottom of the cellar - there were many, many examples of ground grain, which related to the index she had found in the records.

Rastar, poking around, had found a shrine to a water god in a private room of the water quern. In an attempt to show respect (fumbling his water rune) he spat in the water, and an elemental grew up and began to chase him in amusing slow speed. Annelifk cast mobility on him, and he went for a chase that led him through the village, watched by just about everyone. Jon recognised the farmer who had been watching him among the people there, with a group that included Hohfng.

While the chase was going on, and people were gathering again, Laika went to warn the gold-panners that someone had just angered a water elemental, and they decided to take the rest of the day off. Laika talked with Jon over the technique, and after deciding that anyone could do it, and it was not a problem for her to try, she did a little panning, finding a nugget of gold in the shape of Ernalda's Rune. It obviously meant something, but she had no idea what.

Rastar returned and went to refill the water bowl in the shrine. The others investigated the quernmaster's roof-level sleeping quarters and found a long shallow bowl there, by his bed, adding weight to Sian's suggestion that the love of Ortasis was reciprocated and the naiad loved him too. Hengrast noticed some people creeping up on the other side of the river. (Fumbled scan roll. They were deer.) Jon and Sian used farsight to check, and then laughed a bit.

Hohfng and a few of his sons arrived to make sure that the adventurers intended to burn the water quern. Sian persuaded people to move the records out first. Tosar, the most talkative of the gold-panners, asked Laika to stop that from happening because if the naiad was angered then it might stop the gold from coming down. He said that there had been a bargain that the naiad would move the quern wheel, and without a quern wheel he was not sure what would happen.

A small child tugged Anneflik aside and brought him to where a woman who looked foreign and probably Lunar was sitting like she thought she owned the place, dressed in very poor clothes. She had thought he was in charge, but on finding out he was not, sent him to take the message to the person who was - that anyone of good breeding should know how to sacrifice to the river, of course. And that her ransom was a thousand Lunars. Anneflik took the message but left off the bit about the Lunars, interpreting it to mean someone like Hengrast or even he himself should know.

Hengrast went looking for the head man of the village, and in doing so found out that Hohfng was not the head man. There was no real village head here, because of the size and location. It seemed that the village was divided along several lines, chiefly young vs old, who also mapped to those willing to use Lunar improvements and those who stood by the traditional ways.

OOC?

Massive spoilers. Players currently playing should not click the link.

Show OOC thoughts

Ooooh, so many errors. First of all, I started by calling the thing a water mill. It made it seem familiar, and it should seem alien, weird, and new. It's a piece of Lunar Technology. It falsely gave everyone, including me the GM, the idea that people should understand it. That's now a Devise or Elder Race Lore (Mostali) to understand it, with maybe a Homeland Lore (Lunar Empire) to be familiar with the concept. That's now covered in a cutaway box.

There are too many places called Greyrock XXX. This should be New Stead now, and is henceforth.

I didn't have a map. This wasn't utterly crippling, but it meant that people gallumphed straight through the village to the mill, to 'solve' the problem. They did get greeted by Hohfng, who offered them hospitality, but they just left straightaway. Having them arrive in the evening would help. I had the fisherfolk in camp, and I could have had Ernakt offer to bring them, to slow down arrival, or I could have had it be a half day to where he was an another couple of hours to the village. They could have eaten their lunch meal with him instead of an evening meal.

Putting them up in the village would have made intrigue and talking to different people much easier. Then too, I knew who the significant NPCs were, but not how they would make their introductions. This is a weak point of me as a GM, as I more usually make up NPCs rather after their greetings have happened and I've worked out what plot is needed. Writing interlocking plot in advance gives me a moment of freeze-up.

It was good that Laika contacted the gold panners. It could easily have reached the point where the adventurers burned the mill without exploring the complexities of it. This is a path that can happen, but I felt it would have been unfair to do that given I hadn't built the village enough that they could be warned it might be a bad idea. Now they can make decisions.

Ortasis first asked for vengeance, but then I bottled out and made the adventurers promise justice instead. Whether or not he gets it is a REALLY interesting call. They laid him to rest, but he could presumably come back. However, he was satisfied when he left. However, I need to think about what justice means.

The rat-spiders were a joy to run. Or to skitter. However, they should have been behind a door, not a trapdoor. The players were genre-savvy to trapdoors. Search/Scan rolls to find them before a surprise round would be ideal.

I suspect that if a group does just go through as this one did, then village gossip should gather people here, or there should be attempts to get their attention. That needs to be a sidebar in the mill or the village sections. The village is probably not as far from the mill as I made it, but Hengrast had not seen it, so I went with his understanding and put it 100m away. Which is really not far anyhow. People casually drifting over is not impossible, but they do potentially fear the mill. Which is not a mill but a Lunar water-quern.

I need to know who fears it, if anyone. And why the women don't speak to women in the group. I made them too sensible in my factions list, and some should be prepared to stand up and say they liked the mill, even if it was new.

Zelpha, sister of the Lunar Commander, was very good fun. She is a noble dressed as a thrall, and she has yet to turn her derision on the group properly.

- Comments: 0

Intro Game 1 - 17 Sep 2019 16:21

Tags:

Adventurers

Lakia Pigwife
Rastar the Glib
Annelifk the Free Warrior⁴

Plot?

The Broken Tower, introduction to Runequest. This write-up assumes familiarity.

Availability?

https://www.chaosium.com/runequest-roleplaying-in-glorantha-quickstart/

Available as a free PDF and a book. This was played from the PDF.

What happened?

Carthalo fumbled his Summon Spirit despite Rastar's competent dance-work in support, and so the ghost of the greydog was IRATE and there was spirit combat. The Stone Woman's image did not persuade them to follow her, but they were going there anyhow.

Annelifk fumbled tracking, but was persuasive, so they went off-trail, which was a good time to introduce the rock lizards and the steer. The first combat was very nearly lethal.

Given the small numbers and the lack of serious armour in the group, the GM elected to have the lizards ignore the adventurers unless they were wounded. A lucky shot from an arrow by Anneflik wounded one at a distance, and it immediately did enough damage Rastar in the first melee round that he dropped with a major head wound. Laika healed him after the lizards were driven off, attempted first aid, fumbled, and had to use a Rune Spell to give him more HP in a hurry.

At the tower, Rastar and Laika argued a lot, while Anneflik climbed in over the wall, got lost for a while, and then found his way to the tower. The insane Greydog never found any of them, but did decide to creep up on the Duck and made a very bad error of judgement.

Rather than confront whatever was in the altar room, they decided just to take the cattle. Many, many MANY failed herd rolls later, they managed this. Anneflik had been left on guard, and was caught in a Demoralise spell. The GM allowed him to cast Mist Cloud to help hide him as he got away, but he was pursued. An amazingly ineffectual combat followed, and then his enemy mysteriously died⁵. The magic on Anneflik was dismissed, but he could not see how it had happened. (Many, many MANY failed Scan rolls.)

The goddess came out to see what was going on, and demanded half the cattle after being told that the Greydogs had stolen them. Laika negotiated with her, and the final agreement was that she would guard the place against Chaos, and be fed. Finally, people noticed a Duck, who was sitting on a body. He commiserated with Anneflik.

Their return was mostly off-camera. There was a lot of argument and discussion about the Stone Woman, leading to the three being sent off to buy cattle - and stay out of the way.

OOC Comments?

Starting in media res was good - less time spent messing around and trying to get into character while thinking. Annelifk (or Anneflik, or Annefirk) and Rastar were pretty heavy hitters, while Laika was just heavy. They were a small group and I gave them borrowed armour to keep them alive, and had them secretly tracked by Laika's Elder Race Lore friend, a Humakti Death-Drake, just in case. That was good too, because they were very much out-gunned when bad-guy #2 took out Anneflik. Rastar, the other competent fighter, was busy with cattle.

The lizard fight was interesting. With one adventurer out instantly, it became pretty desperate, and I was glad I had taken the choice not to have the lizards dog-pile (skink-pile?) the group. It showed how RQ combat could be hard. So did the next fight, where one-on-one, a little bit of preparation helped the opposition quite a lot.

One interesting question asked was, 'can you trust gods?'. The player was more used to Pendragon and was enjoying the struggle to be more pragmatic, but also found it a lot to take in.

The support given through the module was very good. I enjoyed it, and it had plenty of suggestions. It's good for a beginning GM, and was also good for me. The layout was not perfect on an old laptop with a PDF reader, but as there is no way of telling exactly which order the encounters will come in, I can't fault that.

Funny Quotes?

"MURDERERS!" - Carthalo
…
some discussion
…
"Also, we're not murderers by the way. Let's get that in there." - Aneflik

"THE RACOONS ARE TALKING!" - Carthalo fumbles summoning a spirit

*glare* - Rastar
"Strike rank 5. Not you." - GM

"How herd can it be?" - GM

"Now that we're all healthy… Were you injured at all?" - Leika
"No!" - Aneflik

"I have this Rune Magic. Illusory Sight." - Rastar
"You could make someone look like a Greydog, yes." - GM
"I was thinking of making them look like the Stone Woman." - Rastar

"I'm pretty sure he knows we're here. For some reason." - Aneflik

"Who of you have any experience in herding cattle?" - Laika
*silence*

"You're in the mist cloud, being attacked." - GM
"This is a terrible day." - Anneflik

"What's your bargain skill?" - Laika
"Uh… No." - Anneflik

"Never mind. Thometimes it happens that way." - D'Val
"Terrible day…" - Anneflik

"So, I… I don't get a tick on Move Quietly." - Laika
- Comments: 0

Footnotes

1. A winter sheep would indicate the Reproduce Rune Spell had been used late in the year.

2. Spit is ejected water you do not want, but kissing the surface is a mingling of waters, giving and taking.

3. "Thank you."
"My… pleasure…"

4. Definitely not a bandit

5. The Death Drake following his friend Laika had finally been attacked, allowing him to enter combat without ambushing.

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