Sea Season, Illusion Week, Waterday

The story began with our heroes in Golden Plough, the home village of the Donalf Clan. The two Humakti were escorting their kinsman to Boldhome so that he could give High Sword Eril a firsthand accounting of recent events in Alda-Chur. To make the journey, the three had to travel south, and after a few days on the road they came to the Dinacoli village of Dagran’s Ford.

Dagran’s Ford controls access to the ford and thus to the road. As they approached, they noticed the fields were strangely empty. It was a time for planting and no one seemed to be planting. In the distance, they spotted greasy smoke coming from the village. The three travellers rode up to the village gate cautiously, both Humakti having drawn weapons. There they were greeted by a sniffling young warrior, standing guard all by himself.

They exchanged greetings with the guard, who informed them that people in the village were sick and some had even died. The smoke came from their funeral pyres. Broamast had no desire to contract whatever illness plagued the village and proposed bypassing it, but the village is strategically placed so that they control access to the ford. They were going to have to pass through. The others agreed to go as swiftly as possible to the ford gate, despite the young guard’s suggestion that they speak with his Headman.

The village itself was eerily quiet. Few people moved between buildings and no one greeted them. They reached the ford gate and found a second guard. This man was gruff, complaining about how the nearby village of Stone Bowl had betrayed them by poisoning them all at a feast. As he collected payment, his hands shook and he dropped the coins. Orlston politely picked up the coins for the man and suggested to his companions that perhaps they should meet with the headman after all. Orlakt readily agreed, whilst Broamast was still reluctant, but together they re-entered the village and made their way to the Headman’s house.

They passed the funeral pyres respectfully, choosing not to disturb the mourners there. Their knock on the Headman’s door was greeted by Kara, Garasang’s sister. The exhausted young woman welcomed them to her home, but was too busy tending to the ill to spend much time with them. They attempted to speak to Headman Garasang, who raved about fire and poison and demanded revenge on the people of Stone Bowl. They attempted to treat him for poison, and whilst Orlston felt certain he knew exactly what to do, nothing made a difference for the older man. He remained hovering at death’s door.

Broamast, Orlakt, and Orlston considered their options and began to wonder if they should perhaps visit this village of Stone Bowl. As they prepared to leave, they encountered a man who introduced himself as Sarist, Garasang and Kara’s brother. He entreated them to visit Stone Bowl, not because he believed this to be an attack by them, but because he worried for them as well.

While Orlakt and Orlston paused to carefully choose their best course of action, Broamast leapt into it. Before anyone knew what was happening, the young warrior had mounted his horse and crossed the ford. Orlston pursued, leaving Orlakt to catch up as best he could. He couldn’t.

Orlston caught up to his half-brother and the two of them arrived at Stone Bowl before dusk. As with Dagran’s Ford, they noticed a distinct lack of farmers in the fields, though admittedly, it was late in the day. When they approached the entrance to the village, they found their path blocked by a herd of highly uncomfortable heifers, in need of milking. The gate hung open and unwatched. Nervously, the two entered the village.

Over the noise of the cattle, Orlston heard the sound of a child crying, coming from one of the houses. He and Broamast decided to investigate. The door was answered by a boy of ten, who, after some convincing, allowed them in. Inside, they found a group of children, an inconsolable infant, and their gravely ill father. At first, they worried the baby was ill, but they changed it and engaged in other routine baby maintenance to see if that would help. Broamast, having once been a colicky infant himself, recognised the condition as one the baby would likely outgrow eventually.

Meanwhile, Orlakt finally had the village in sight. Yelm was low on the horizon as he made for the gate and thus he somehow missed noticing the group of villagers brandishing bramble blades as they charged at him. They set about beating him, though his horse bore the brunt of their attack and fled, leaving Orlakt behind. A scuffle ensued, the noise of which drew his cousins out of the village. Between them, the two warriors killed four of the five maddened villagers, and rendered the last unconscious. Orlston bravely rounded up Orlakt’s horse from where it hid amongst the cattle. They bound the unconscious villager to a horse and re-entered Stone Bowl.

A cry drew them to the home of Yana, a young girl whose parents were gravely ill and whose grandfather was missing. Yana and her siblings were hungry and scared. Our heroes promised to do what they could for the village. As they left, Yana warned them to be careful of her auntie, next door. Her auntie had yelled at her and was acting strangely and it was all very scary.

Concerned, Broamast knocked on the door of the next house. As the door opened he was hit simultaneously with the smell of death and the knife of a raging woman. Her knife slide off his bronze armour and he attempted to knock her out with a punch. He missed and Orlston leapt in, attempting to wrestle the woman to the ground. A grappling match ensued and eventually, between them, they subdued the woman. (Broamast - did you knock her out in the end? Pommel strike, if I remember correctly.)

The trio made their way to the Headman’s house in a hurry to make sense of what was going on. They were greeted at the door by Voskar, Salimyr’s youngest daughter. Like Kara at Dagran’s Ford, Voskar was exhausted from caring for everyone else. Still, she welcomed them into her parents’ home and did her best to answer their questions. They asked to speak to her father, Salimyr, but unfortunately the Headman was too sick to speak to them.

They asked Voskar about the well. She told them about Thurolta and how the well came to be. Like her mother, she was afraid that the spirit had abandoned the village. At their request, she agreed to take them to the well, after they pointed out that if the spirit was there, it would surely recognise her and they were strangers. As they approached the well, a pair of maddened pigs charged them and Voskar rapidly remembered that her place was in the roundhouse, caring for her parents. Broamast made short work of the pig that charged him. Orlston jumped between the other pig and Voskar and stabbed it with his sword. Orlakt, a Humakti, decided to attempt to hit the pig with his mind, endeavouring to engage a living creature in spirit combat. In the end, it was the philosopher with the sword who carved up the bacon.

Orlakt’s attempts at spirit combat drew the attention of a lesser disease spirit, which manifested and attacked him. He defeated the spirit, resisting its attempts to infect him with purple gold, though not without difficulty and the aid of his companions.

Now that they had won a certain amount of peace, the three young men investigated the well. As Yelm had set some time ago, artificial light was needed. Orlston conjured a small conflagration, allowing them to see into the water. They discovered a body wedged between the wall of the well and the stone bowl at its base.

In a surprising moment of impulse, Broamast decided to leap into the well. Luckily for him, Orlakt tied a rope around him first, because Broamast didn’t know how to swim and rather rapidly began to drown instead. After rescuing the soggy Humakti from the water, Orlston took a turn at it and was more successful. It took some effort, but he was able to raise the body to the point where Orlakt and Broamast could pull it from the well. As they examined the body, they noticed evidence of head injury that might have been caused by falling. Orlston opted to cast a reconstruction spell, in an effort to understand how the man had died. The spell showed a fight beside the well with another man wearing the same clan tattoos.

Deciding they needed more information, our heroes returned to speak with Voskar once again. Dripping water all over the floor, they told her what they’d discovered. She identified the body as Offir, a villager who had been missing since the feast. She suggested they visit the home of Hent, another villager known to have a quarrel with the deceased.

At Hent’s home, the door was answered by his wife Eness. Heavily pregnant and exhausted, she informed them that her husband was ill and had been for a couple of days. Reluctantly, she allowed them to examine him, whereupon it became apparent that he had been the one fighting with Offir by the well. He was in no condition to answer questions, however, as he was acutely ill. Orlston noticed that Eness had an impressive collection of herbs. When he asked her about them, it was revealed that she was exclusively drinking teas meant to help her pregnancy. The herbs had been given to her by the village healer, who lived at the end of the village.

Suspicious of a poor old woman and her teas, the heroes decided it was necessary to interrogate her. When they knocked on her door, she opened it, asked who they were, and then slammed the door in their faces when she didn’t recognise them. This was repeated several times, as Orlston attempted to charm and fast talk his way through the door. Eventually, Broamast simply opened it and charged in, pursuing the old woman as she left by way of her garden door.

Somehow, after nearly running her down, the gruff Humakti lad was able to win the old woman over and she was willing to answer his questions. Unfortunately for him, she didn’t have any useful answers. She was easily confused and sometimes lost track of what was going on.

For some strange reason that I cannot remember, Broamast decided it was imperative that he check on the cows by the front gate again. He mounted the horse he’d rather conveniently parked outside, and galloped/trotted/cantered/rode rapidly through the village and right through a disease spirit. The spirit pursued him, attacking him, and infecting him with an acute case of purple gold. In spite of his sudden illness, he stopped to milk a cow and test its milk by drinking it. I have yet to fully understand why, and I think his brother and cousin were equally confused.

The damp and now feverish Humakti returned to inform the others that the cattle were fine and by the way, he was sick. They began to search the rest of the village, as Broamast’s symptoms rapidly worsened. When he began to see strange visions and felt like his skin was on fire, Broamast made the decision to return to the Healer’s house. By focusing on Truth, he knew that the visions were hallucinations and that he needed to let the healer do her work. He drank one of her teas and fell into a fitful sleep.

As they went to explore the cattle pens, they noticed the looming dark shapes of the granaries and went to investigate. Careful searching led Orlston to the Headman’s granary with its cracked floor and some spilled grain. The cousins decided they needed more help, preferably in the form of someone who understood the nature of disease. They returned to the healer’s home and begged her to come with them. Reluctantly, the old woman followed them back to the granary.

As Orlston debated the wisest course of action, Orlakt grew impatient and simply flung open the granary door. A purple mist boiled out of the granary and immediately attacked. As Orlston and Orlakt engaged in desperate spirit combat with the disease spirit, the healer (played by Broamast’s player) was suddenly inspired to ignite the grain. The granary burst into flames and as the spirit was defeated by the combination of spirit combat and the burning of its host grain.

Unfortunately, the wind was brisk and the fire spread rapidly in every direction. Orlakt and Orlston helped evacuate the village. By the time Yelm began his slow ascent, the surviving villagers were on the road with their cattle. Improvised stretchers slung between cattle carried those too ill to walk, including Broamast. The Headman’s house made a suitable pyre for Voskar’s family. As the only survivor of her household, the young woman took charge, bravely facing adversity and leading her people and their … saviours… to Dagran’s Ford to seek aid.

This was a test of the 'just passing through' plot hook, which seemed to work. Rolling on honour might be appropriate to get people to do that - I think we added that into the notes, but I'm not sure. 'Just passing' is the weakest of all the plot hooks, so if this does get sent back to us for more edits, we may add in a note that it could be combined with more hooks after the players have turned down the first.
This is another playtest in which fires happened. We wrote up the rules for flames leaping from house to house because of this test, so well done to Broamast's player. This was more destructive than the 2.2 playtest, as the GM decided to have fun with the fire and she knows how it spreads in thatch. There were a couple of other changes, mostly to do with names, and we decided based on this and the other test that Garolist should be encountered in his house, not outside - there was originally a space for him burying his beloved hunting alynx. That got filled in with the villager ambush, allowing us to keep our numbering scheme. We changed around the flow of the village so the market and pigs were higher up, and then based on that feedback and the changes in 2.2, we decided to stop fiddling.

Rurik, Noble of the Malani Green Fish Clan, came down the road to find bloodstains, unmilked cattle, and then a flaming pig. He killed the poor animal and walked forwards into the chaos that was the pitched pig battle of Stone Bowl. Upon triumphing he revealed who he was to less than happy responses from those who knew him, and sent the Humakti warrior to get his horse and close the gate, if the chap didn't mind. the chap did mind, and furthermore Rurik broke a fingernail in closing the gate.

Tathia managed to go find other people to help, including Talda, whose husband Hent was missing. Talda had plenty of herbal teas and tisanes to drink, which the village healer had given her, denying her other drinks. This meant that she would not be drinking unpurified water from the well, which Tathia had noted had an oily smell to the water. She went to talk to Talda's neighbour, who was exhausted with an ill husband and mother-in-law, leaving that house just as action around the well got interesting.

Examination of the well with a torch showed a dark shape at the bottom of it. Rurik used the Flight spell to lift it out, and it turned out to be a body. Nikolai showed a suspicious understanding of bruising, examining the hands and fingernails, and finding bruises on the knuckles. Varkill asked exactly where he had been about two days ago, when the body was fresh. At about that point, a strange purple cloud began to surround Inpira; a disease spirit was attacking her. The others rallied around to fight it. Varkill refused to cast True Sword on someone else's sword, when Rurik asked for it.

Gricka walked around the village, checking with Rune Magic whether there were disease spirits; there were plenty, and they were in people who were ill. She went off to find the healer. Others checked on Offir the farmer and found he had bruises on him too, indicating that he had been fighting, and might have killed Hent. He died before he could be questioned, upsetting Tathia.

People broke the news to Talda that she was a widow, for her husband had been dead two days.. There was a lot of sobbing. Meanwhile Nikolai had been investigating Talda's teas, and thought he could make something to strengthen people against the sickness. He was wrong, and what he made was some horrible tea, but this did give Tathia the idea and she was more competent. Together they cooked up something that would help.

The healer, Erlestara, was obviously shaky and senile, but trying to do her best. They talked a little with her about the illness, although she was not really up to answering questions.

At the odd howling of an alynx, the group went off to investigate, leaving the tea cooking up. They found the alynx shivering on a granary, and by the foot of another was a dead rat. They opened this one, and inside was a huge purple-gold spirit. It attacked Inpira, and they all fought it, with Varkill ridding himself of his torch by throwing it into the granary, a thing he had been itching to do for some time. After they had defeated it, they had to pull the sick out of the chieftain's longhouse, and Varkill made very sure of victory by burning the rest of the Colymar Clan's grain…

A little later, when the ill were safely out of the way, a child who had seen Nikolai slitting a woman's throat accused him of it. Varkill volunteered that he had been the one to strike her first, and Nikolai's killing might have been for mercy, and told the boy and Voskar to bring a complaint to Saronil of the Malani, where it would be heard. The group was offered hospitality despite all the problems, as it was dark. The next morning, Tathia walked the fields looking for evidence of disease, but found none. With some of the harvest not yet in, it seemed Stone Bowl might have some food, but not enough for the year's needs.

Player feedback was that this was fantastic fun. There were a few tiny changes; we took out an NPC that no play test to date had met, and will change the name of Stone Bowl to Stone Cup, which is easier to hear. We also changed the name of the healer to Dorasa, which was easier to say, and added more direction in her section on how to play her. In the write-up she had been helping until she too fell ill.

Hengast's absence meant some re-planning, but I decided he could always join them in the Upland Marsh after all, and announced that part early on. It was that or play board games instead, and we'd come together for RP.

The adventurers discussed trying to get an army, and using trollkin or thralls. The Bard recited to them the story of Indrodar's Haven, or how he got through the mist and monsters of the Upland Marsh to find a place where he and his men could rest and heal. This had cost half of his band, although some had lived after making a great sacrifice, and that was counted as half a loss.

Amusement was provided by watching Venlar fall over in mud, which seemed to be something so normal that most of his compatriots ignored it. He lay there for a bit just recovering, and then Jon helped him up. Venlar explained that it was a thing that happened a lot and he was fine, but his spirit had never entirely grown into his body and sometimes he forgot where his feet were. When he was performing the part of Orlanth he was fine, but walking was not an exclusively Orlanthi activity, and he was used to being clumsy.

Watching them, they saw his mother Thenaya. Venlar agreed that, being the Thrall Mistress, she might be happy to lend thralls, and there was a cost for this. However, as soon as Thenaya found out what it was for, she refused, demanding that they go back to Lord Eril and say no. Enough people had died last time. Laika and Rastar tried to hide behind each other as they headed away.

Later, as they talked to Jorrim about other Heroquests they might try, Silor came to Gastara to ask what had happened, and say that a man might need dealing with about the tears of a woman. Gastara explained what Jon had said, and that there had been no threat, or she would have acted. Silor winced a lot, and explained that Thenaya had helped Eril buy thralls the first time around and had had to pay the families death-prices when he was exiled for their deaths. They decided that Jon was not to blame, and nothing more needed to be done. Silor went off to comfort a woman who was not his wife.

After some thought it was decided that Jon Pol Joni was the most Orlanthi, and the most used to leadership, and could play Queen Lismelde. This would allow the others to 'rescue' him and end the story of the Marsh. Rastar went off to ask Aelna about how to be an Ernaldan Queen, as he had not heard the part where Lismelde was a Vingan. Aelna was nice about it, and introduced him to a variety of sticky or clean children after finding out he loved his family.

They went into the Marsh, expecting that Hengrast would catch them up. Jon went in first, and then the others. In following him they walked a little faster than the zombies that appeared behind them. Soon they found a body that been decapitated. They followed the tracks leading away from it, along a halfway hidden path that had the water weeds beside it tied into Undeath Runes.

Unbeknownst to them, but guessed, this was the path that Jon had taken.

The Marsh fight was funny - the PCs took the path that was easiest, and destroyed the vampire, and that was that.

The Earth Women headed off into the forest when Gastara was sure she heard screams, and found a cliff that echoed everything back to them as a scream. It had what they thought was a water elemental beneath it, and they wisely ran away. It was in fact a Vough. This was nothing to do with the plot, but the fumbled Listen check and the repeated failed Survival checks were taken in good heart, so interesting things happened.

Finding stuff

The Temptation of Rastar (And Jon not leaving). And Rastar not being tempting.

Hengrast not being here meant some re-planning, and also exposed just how vital he is, with the game as written. It definitely needs his importance stripped out - he's a plot hook, but he should not ever be a plot blocker just because he is absent. Giving the index of problems to the players in the first Heroquest scene should be a big help - they don't need 'Eril', but it helps.

The early death of the Vampire means maybe there is a fallback vampire, but possibly I can live with rewarding characters who are actually smart…

Early to mid Earth Season.

Varkill, Inpira and Gricka, three warriors, were sent to check on the village of Dagran's Ford, which had been due to have a tension-easing feast with Stone Bowl, a village over the border into Colymar lands. They arrived to smell smoke of pyres, and burning. They all entirely failed to notice the lack of people out at harvest, but did question one person who was, who said it was all a bad business and they should talk to the chief.

They went towards the village - a youthful gate guard let them in and sent for his younger brother to take them to the headman. The younger brother talked about how when he was big he would go kill the Colymar, an ambition with which Varkill agreed. They were greeted at his house by a young women, Kara, who was headman Garasang's sister. She was obviously exhausted, to the point where Gricka the young Orlanthi warrior tried to sit her down and help her, but as soon as Kara got the weight off her feet, there was a groaning from one of the sleeping alcoves and she had to run to deal with it. Gricka heated up some water to help wash people, and found that the water and food were both only about a day stale - the illness had come on quickly. Even Inpira 'the Axe' was helping out. Varkill was naturally of the opinion it was all the fault of the Colymar.

Henka, wife of the slightly ill Brotip, got in the way a bit. Garasang kept on trying to get up, and rather irritated Varkill by using his sword as a crutch, but Kara removed it so at least there was no incident. Garasang was insistent they go to the village of Stone Bowl and punish them for the poisoning.

Meanwhile, there were two slightly late arrivals to the game. These were Nikolai, a philosopher of Fire and Girly Screaming, and Tathia, a healer from Whitewall sent up by Jaldis to the Blue Tree village of the Colymar, and travelling through Malani lands to get there. After consideration, Tathia used magic to save the life of Brea, wife of Garasang, who was in the worst condition. Brea, still weak, was no longer in danger of death. The group discussed the facts, deciding that it was probably something that had been eaten or drunk at the feast, but that it was not necessarily a deliberate poisoning. Tathia being able to say it was definitely a disease was helpful there.

The adventurers went off to Stone Bowl, where there was an immediate ambush! Cows in the road hid a couple of people hiding in a ditch - they sprang to attack as the adventurers got close. There were two; a man with a pitchfork and a woman wielding a pair of trousers. Varkill shield-barged the woman to the ground, while Inpira cut down the man with a pitchfork, managing not to kill him, but damaging him badly.

Tathia saw to the poor lady with the trousers, who said she just wanted to go home. Nikolai settled down in the road to perform a Reconstruction, getting hauled into a hallucination of fire under his skin and fear. He remembered purple-gold flashes in his vision and a terrible hangover, but could not remember what he had eaten or drunk. The others walked on into the village, where they stopped at the first house that had little smoke in its thatch, and knocked on the door. A small child opened it - her father was ill, and she asked for help. They managed to get Tathia and her charge into the house, so they could both be looked after, although the charge, Pollia, kept complaining she wanted to go home.

Nikolai caught up, and with Varkill went towards the biggest roundhouse. On the way they were suddenly attacked by a woman with a kitchen knife, who ran screaming from her house. Varkill went for the shield barge, knocking the woman out and possibly killing her; Nikolai made sure of it by cutting her throat, which Gricka saw happening. The three of them went on towards the roundhouse, where they were greeted by a very young woman, Voskar… Varkill made sure of his hospitality before stepping over the threshold of an enemy. Inside, there was the smell of fresh corpses and the place was obviously worse off than Dagran's Ford.

Outside, Tathia and Inpira started to walk Pollia home. Her house was across the main market area of the village, and as they went, the pigs that were lying there got up. Some fled, but several attacked.

Even inside the roundhouse the screams and shouting and oinking could be heard. Everyone piled out, with Gricka being smart enough to close the door behind her. Inpira had been downed by a pig, and Tathia had been wounded but had run in to heal the Babeester Gor. Everyone piled into battle in their own unique fashion - Nikolai called on the power of conflagration and set fire to a pig. Being a long-haired wooly pig, it ran away screaming and on fire.

The game paused at this dramatic moment.

The GM for this game is the less violent but not bearded GM. It was her very first GMing outing, so at the beginning she was nervous and explaining what was happening instead of speaking, and trying to tell a story. That got put to bed pretty well, and quite early on, but the initial nerves meant she remembered important parts and skipped other details. The pyres did not get mentioned on the way past them, for example. It was nothing important and nothing got missed, but the first half hour didn't have the same level of detail that other parts had. The longhouse was described as empty, when in fact it had lots of people in, but that was fine - there were sleeping alcoves, and mourning women came in later. That was actually pretty good timing, because it did not overload the first scene.

It might be worth adding extra descriptions to the areas - not sure if that was a GM in the headlights, or if we were insufficiently clear in writing it. Co-GM caught a question about how long people had been ill - the timeline may need to be referenced in the village section. Main GM described things as dating 'from the feast' but this seemed nebulous.

Things ran pretty smoothly at Stone Bowl. The GM was happier and more confident by that point, and the characters had settled in from their abrupt birth and sudden existence. There was more combat, first of all hardly dangerous at all, and then secondly rather more dangerous - pigs are nasty beasties, and these ones were angry and hallucinating. One of the GMs likes sharpened pigs as an encounter, and so there they were, with a critical to the leg…

I can't remember while writing this up if the pigs are given a negative modifier to hit areas. It seems reasonable, to be honest. Rolling a D12 for where to hit is a good reason to bring a D12 to gaming nights, but it does complicate things. The D10 is more natural.

Events began with Gastara catching up, and the payback from the Zorak Zorani troll encountered (and outwitted) by the other characters in the last session. Things went badly for Gastara, the Maran Gor Priestesses she was accompanying, the Zorak Zorani, and Gastara again, in that order. She failed to save a life, and the chief Priestess saved her instead. On arrival at Wilmskirk she was sentenced to do extra service for the Earth Temple for the season. (Possibly the year?)

Hengrast, OOCly absent, was ICly out where his father was.

The rest of the group were at the Tula before Gastara was, and found out a few more things. Laika noticed that their host, Venlar, was not around. While there were preparations for a feast going on, there was also a surprisingly lack of leadership, with Silor away and Venlar mysteriously gone. Jon was busy selling his wares to Aelna, wife of Silor, who was not really being asked what needed to be done either.

However, around the time that Gastara got into the Tula, Silor returned and the world began to turn again; his presence seemed to jolly people along, and it was obvious his personality helped him to lead. There was a feast, at which everyone got to show off, and everyone got to talk to Yamia, Hengrast's sister and lead contender for scariest Humakti who was not Eril, in a strong field. Gastara remarked that she talked exactly like her uncle. However, she was very helpful on the subject of undead, what they were like, and how to fight them. She even showed them how she would use the Death Rune against a thing that feared it, but Gastara did not understand Death well enough, and Rastar - who did - felt that Humakt's way might not be his.

In the feast hall, they also noticed that several of the warriors were drinking only lightly, and were on watch, each by one of the doors.

Silor did not find time to talk with them that evening, but the next day he took them for a walk where they would not be overheard, and listened to their story. In return, he told his; Eril had come for help, which Silor and Hengras's mother had given, in buying thralls. Later he had returned in a bad way, wounded and feverish, and paid the death price for those who were lost - everyone. He had asked Silor for help in timing his own betrayal, but Silor had refused, unable to face handing over his brother to enemies. Eril had been exiled for the deaths of the thralls, and had left. Some days afterwards, Silor felt his brother torn away, and knew he was dead.

He said he would not send others into the fragment of the Upland Marsh that existed at the edge of his lands. His children were too at risk from the magic of the area, potentially being linked to it; most of his warriors were originally from the Firebull Clan, and they were already deeply divided over what had happened there. The Heroquest that created it could only have been suggested by someone they knew, and Silor did not want to push too hard over the history.

The troll was very little to do with the plot, but gave Gastara some catch-up time and attention. Hengrast's absence was awkward, because this was a chance to test whether anyone else could compete with him knowing his home Tula, and also whether I had prepped the Tula enough. (The answer to that is no, and it comes back to why I need a full re-write; I already knew the people involved, and I need to lose that thinking.)

The session was a little bit made of filler, because we needed Hengrast to be there for the entry to the Upland Marsh, but it was enjoyable filler and there was cake.

The information dump is pretty harsh here, so I'm considering the suggestion of letting the first heroquest unlock everything, and I think I can't do that. What I can do, though, is let it unlock an index - if they want, they can go straight to the Cinder Foxes, and that will make sure that they have an idea of where to go, but they can expand if necessary. Investigating should give them advantages.

Rastar did his own Divination, asking what had happened to Eril and the Relics, and was told, 'He was tricked, and used the trick. Oh, what a Eurmalite he'd have made. Tricked by a burning bull.' Everyone recognised the description of the now-dissolved Firebull Clan when they heard the slightly edited description from Rastar.

They took the trip from Clearwine to Wilmskirk; on the way, the adventurers saw a Trollkin tied to a tree. It was, as Jon worked out with a successful battle roll, left there as an alarm. The Dark Troll it belonged to came out of the woods on the other side of the road, but fortunately they spotted it before it (and its band of slaves) started eating the horses. It was a big Zorak Zorani troll with a cheek piercing that had a human hand attached. It was Not A Nice Troll.

However, Laika had spotted Lunars. While this was the result of two fumbled Scan rolls, she was very, very convincing, and the troll decided not to eat that group, but to go after the delicious unarmoured Lunars. The group reached Wilmskirk before the troll caught up with them again. They settled into town, and asked around about Eril 20 years ago, the troll, and the things that might have happened.

Jon asked at the Market about the troll, and was told it was a known Zorak Zorani in the area, but it had broken no laws within the town. It was responsible for the abandoned trollkin, however. Laika had much the same answer from the Ernaldan Temple, but with the addition that the axe maidens had been told not to go out looking for trouble, but might be going for a walk in that direction soon.

Hengrast and Rastar went to the Sambari Tribal leaders and were greeted by King Greyskin himself, who knew Hengrast a little. Rastar failed to impress with his singing, but did very well indeed at the harp, impressing Greyskin's bard Galanem. The man was able to recite acts which had happened twenty years before, and said that it was then Eril had left his family, over a matter of a failed raid against the Firebulls. This had been two years before the invasion. The Firebulls would sing songs of the victory at Cavalry Pond, but beyond revealing they had tricked Eril into a Heroquest where he was the loser, they were silent about which quest.

Over the course of the next day, more investigations took place; the group visited the Humakti Shrine, where they spoke with the God Talker, who refused to give his name. He respected Eril as a High Sword, but was obviously not enamoured of him personally, and did remember him a little from his youth. He recalled a bookish young man who was always going to join the Humakti, but did not object to people thinking he was going to be a scribe. Eril was popular, a good leader, and a fine warrior. Jon asked what the coin that D'Val had given him was, and had a Turn Undead matrix described to him. The details of how Eril had been treated by the Firebulls were sealed by the Temple, ashe had come to make a private report on it. However, the god talker said they would know the tale and its sequel once they found out. There was no record of Eril coming back in the year of the invasion.

Rastar went off to find and talk to ex-Firebulls. He got on pretty well until he started talking about the details of the quest, at which point one of his newfound friends walked him out and told him a few things; the Quest divided the Firebulls, because it was not a good one to use. It had been so successful that it created a section of the Upland Marsh in Firebull lands, separate from the other Marsh, yet part of it. When Rastar shared this with his friends, they worked out the implication that, given the association of Undeath with Chaos, this put the Firebulls in a very bad light indeed.

Armed with this information, they set off for Hengrast's home, the Cinder Fox lands, arriving safely to be greeted by his brother Venlar, who was astoundingly like Eril in looks.

The general meandering through this campaign is … OK to me, but I'd prefer it to be faster when written. I'm judging things by my group and letting them do things individually, and I need to let them do so. Discussions with one of the players turned over that he felt it was linear - the nature of the Heroquest made it so. I don't think, and he doesn't think either, that there is a big problem with revealing more right at the start. I could do that, and then offer the extra Heroquesting parts as ways of getting bonuses of some kind, but while I did start out with this game being designed around going through those Quest parts, I think I'm probably going to end by avoiding it as much as possible for the write-up. It's the solution for so many difficulties.
sigh

Hengrast went to report to Lord Eril on the morning' heroquesting, taking the others along, but only bringing Gastara into the room with him. Rastar stayed outside with Laika and they talked to D'Val, who was cheerfully doomed about the whole thing. Eril was marginally more pleased by Hengrast's report than he had been by the failure.

Hengrast went off to arrange for Asborn for the next stage of the Heroquest, getting the artefacts out of the city, which would hopefully let him remember more plans. It seemed that Eril was terrifyingly good at compartmentalising, and was only thinking about the next part of his plan. Asborn asked where they would be getting the worshippers from, as they would need about a hundred; Hengrast asked for that as a favour, and Asborn said it would happen after noon the next day. This left them time to go do other things.

Rastar went for a walk along the path he had been running along in the quest, and found a crack in a wall that he remembered. He could poke his fingers through the rotten daubing, but when he went to the front of the house to ask the woman within whether he could look inside her house…

Rastar failed his Charm, but he was prepared to listen to her, in the rain, for ages. Then she invited him in so she could talk more, because her daughters had all married and gone away. Then she fed him. And kept feeding him. He finally escaped, bloated with dumplings and vegetable stew, to let people know he had found a thing; inside the house, there had been no sign of the crack in the wall that he could push his fingers into.

Meanwhile, Jon had been hanging around in the marketplace, watching the people who were watching the group, and finally he walked up behind one, failing his Move Silent/Hide combo, but not getting laughed at. He chose one with a grey beard, who introduced himself as Jorrim Half-Ear and quite happily revealed he was watching the group on behalf of several others. They came to an arrangement where Jorrim would come with them and help them, and they would not have to try to stop him from following.

They decided to do an old lady a favour by fixing her house. Hengrast called on her and got permission, then got talked and and fed for about three hours. Meanwhile Laika started peeling away old bits of wall, revealing what needed to be repaired. Inside the wall was a cavity about a foot wide, leading up into the tiled section of the old lady's house. Rastar managed to get inside to look, and could climb up and see an area within the tiled roof that had Death and Truth markings on the wall, and a broken square beneath it that, as an expert in temporary altars, he recognised as a temporary altar.

Laika went to ask her friend D'Val to come and take a look. He needed help to climb into the roof, and told them not to come in. After some time they clearly heard him say, 'oh thod'.

Laika and Jorrim the Scribe got into a discussion on the sort of manure and mud needed for making the wall, and Jorrim sent off one of the other spies to go find some. Eventually D'Val came down and declared that this had indeed been a Temple, he had attempted to sanctify it, failed, got caught up in a Hero-fight with Zorak Zoran, defeated the troll, and finally managed to re-establish it as a holy Temple. He had Divined what had been there. The Temple Relics had rested in that place.

It was time to go to the Heroquest, so they went off to the gates, with Jon bringing one of his carts. Once more, Rastar found himself in charge, trusted by the Lunar Empire! Once more, his friends were sensible. This time, Jon was a carter, hired to drive a thing outside town and deliver it. Hengrast, as Eril, found himself as just another refugee. However, Jon saw that there was another man in the crowd who looked just like him, a Lunar Commander with Eril's height, bearing, and features.

A combination of the approaching Commander and his friends' laziness meant Rastar stopped searching the cart - which he had been doing far too well - and let the cart through. Meanwhile, a number of people leaving the city had got away cleanly, including 'Eril'. Outside, Eril could remember the next parts of what he was thinking; he was going to buy warrior thralls and go to his home Tula, where he was sure his brother Silor would help him.

After a short discussion on whether it was a good idea, and whether they could stop him finding out anyway, some of the group went to tell Eril what had happened. Rastar ended up in the meeting, and managed to bite his tongue when Eril said he had had no help, because he knew what Roka had said. Outside, D'Val was spending an awful lot of time sitting in a rain shelter, sharpening his sword.

Hengrast had taken Jorrim to the library, where there was a lot of looking into people who might have been around in the Lunar Invasion; Jorrim dug up the names of two axe maidens who had been around, for Gastara to follow up on. They were Alefa and Irilla. Alefa was available, and Gastara struck up a conversation with her. She did not remember a lot - she had been knocked off the wall and had been unable to get back into the city as it was taken, so she decided to leave and live.

Jon went to the Temple to ask D'Val about the Relics. While the Temple could in no way help him, D'Val had Divined on the subject, and was certain that they rested in a place where the Undead were very strong. (Did he tell someone else that, earlier?) Jon had requested a divination from the Air Temple and had watched one of the Initiates panic and go an odd shade of green, so this matched with what he aleady knew.

As Jon was leaving, D'Val asked if he could buy a sharpening stone, offering a large silver coin for it. It was not a Lunar - it had a cross on one side, some etchings, and was definitely a Matrix of some sort.

This was a sort of picking up and working out what to do session, and the players picked up and worked out what to do. This was good, as I, the GM, wasn't giving them hints but answering what they might find.

When we got to Rastar, we had our first Soup NPC, so I made her into a literal one.

Soup NPC:

_
(Art by N Bedell, who is probably Blue Moon Rabbit on Deviant Art.)

A soup NPC is someone that the players like who becomes a person, even though there were a throwaway. It turns out this woman could really cook, and was lonely. So now, although the adventurers may not know it yet, there is someone who will feed them any time. Functionally, she does nothing else, and exists only because Rastar went looking, but I think she should be on a rumour table somehow. Irilla the Axe Maiden should be too. A list of people who remember things or live somewhere important is a good call.

Rastar has so far reliably been a Good Lunar by his rolls, and that's funny. It's an accident, but a fortunate one. He nearly derailed the plot, but they got to see the Other Eril, which was good.

This was hard to write up a week after I had done it. I knew what the episodes were, but not how they fitted together. Not really surprising as I had not written down much that HAD to happen, and was filling in with NPCs, but… filling in with NPCs off the top of my head is a strength of mine, and here I was papering over cracks. What WAS important was letting the adventurers Heroquest more, and find out where they were going. A thing I need to do is let them know how they can do it without Asborn's help. Mind you, I have an idea for that - the Ultimate Bad Guy NPC is making sure things happen, and so if they do not come up with a plan, and they don't make enough friends to help, it can Just Happen.

That is, of course, impossible.

Hengrast finally got to meet his dead uncle. He decided to take in Rastar, who had met Roka. Eril was obviously unimpressed with all of them and apparently did not recall his brother Silor, or the Blue Tree, but had had some memories brought back by Hengrast's actions. He instructed Hengrast to look into the matter, with his band, and to forget about personal pride - lose the armour, walk away from any situation that he could.

Meanwhile, outside, the others had met Laika's duck friend, D'Val. He explained a bit about Humakti, resurrection, and the town. Afterwards they tried to hire him, not realising that as a Rune Lord he was rather above all that. He refused, pointing out that he was part of the Temple, but that they could come to him if they needed advice.

They looked for general info in various places. Jon was rather worried when, on asking around for information brokers, he was invited into the shop of Sora Goodseller. She had lost a cousin, Aroth, to Eril, and thought an Issarian in his company would be in danger. Aroth had been a merchant who had been friends with Eril, and had been captured by the Lunars a week after Clearwine fell. Begging for help as he was carried away, he suddenly died. Sora was convinced Eril had done it.

They then all toddled off to organise doing the Heroquest again. Needing somewhere to stay overnight, they considered staying with Hengrast, but then they realised a lot of people were following them around town. Laika managed to get one to follow her, and got a hint they were from different people. Overnight she spotted Rastar going off to talk with a man who was lurking.

It was in fact a woman, Roka, with an illusion on her. She asked how things had gone, and said it was important to finish the task because there was an awful lot of money in it, and she would cut Rastar in.¹

In the morning, they successfully performed a Heroquest, with Asborn collecting the followers, and putting a massive shield with a long extension onto Jon. A Critical success on his casting roll meant that Asborn was convinced of the rightness of his actions. Beforehand, everyone tried meditation or ritual; Hengrast succeeded, putting him at an advantage in getting away. This time he managed to do so without anyone turning tail or helping him unduly, and learned a little - he recalled being a young Lord Eril, and what he was trying to escape with, but not where he intended to go next. He did almost kill Jon, who was saved only by the Shield spell as he gave chase.

Laika was invited to meet the Ernaldan Priestess, while her bodyguard, Gastara, got to talk with the Babeester Gor axe maiden. Laika took advantage of (What is the Priestess's name anyhow? From the GM's guide)'s offer of help, to ask for a diviniation - were any of the Relics of the Humakti Temple within the Earth? Ervaneala (or something like that) said no. Meanwhile, Gastara had been getting on very well with the axe maiden and got offered help if they needed to face up to Eril, as well as learning that Eril had bound his own Wyter, and had an awful lot of scars.

It should be clear from the way Eril's memories return or do not that he was affected by, and therefore linked to, the Heroquest. This should, of course, be impossible.

D'Val was a good call to use. A friendly NPC with information and also a recompense for not being invited in to the meeting. I was lucky in having a chargen roll make him be Laika's friend already, but he belongs in the game nevertheless.

The thing that worries me chiefly is how the players believe Heroquests start. The group does not entirely know how they fit into the world, and while some of this is IC, some of this is OOC, and they are unsure of their rights or the amount of pull they have.

This game needs more scaffolding and I don't know where. In some cases it needs a lot less scaffolding, but when it comes to what the characters can do, I am worrying the players are lost.

Rather sweetly, on his way back to meet Ernakt, Jon went to visit Iyarala, and was blessed by her waters again.

Action started in Wilmskirk, where the group was gathered for various reasons. Laika called on Hengrast with her friends, to ask for a roof, and Jon came for the feast. One of Hengrast's people had apparently seen a ghost at the thrall market - Hengrast's dead uncle Eril. They decided to go deal with the problem themselves the next day. They did, with a detour from Gastara to check if the Earth Temple needed her. After a quick and very sensible failure to volunteer immediately for escorting Maran Gorites to Clearwine, Gastara rejoined the group.

There was no thrall market on that day, but it was an ordinary market day, as Wilmskirk was big enough to have a permanent market. There were pigs in the way, and a lost trollkin Thrall which had been told to stay where it was, and was begging for food. They moved the pigs on, out of the way. Enquiries were made about Eril, mostly by Jon, after everyone else rather failed to be charming or intriguing enough. Fangro, an Issarian who traded mostly in gossip was willing to look into Eril for him.

Rastar wandered around looking for interesting things to do or see, and was run into by someone who told him if he wanted to hear about Eril, then someone called Roka in Clearwine could help. Jon was told a little about Lord Eril Humakti - the head of a Regiment who was trying to form a Temple in Clearwine. A hard bastard, and not to be crossed. Hengrast wrote home with this news, and had a note back from his father to say never to tell his mother, but to look into it.

They went to Clearwine. Gastara presented at the Temple and got healed, and learned that the Maran Gorites had come, ceremonised, and gone. People attempted to investigate Eril further. Rastar had told his friends about Roka, so he, Hengrast and Jon went to see her. Jon had a good read on her as highly deceptive, while Hengrast was entirely mistaken about her reasons for acting, having fumbled Insight Human; he believed she was in love, and she told him that Eril needed rescuing. Having got his agreement to do that, she told them that she would start the Heroquest at dawn the next day.

The group talked a little, then meditated or purified themselves. Rastar, in his position as Eurmal the Damned Suspicious, made sure they all had blunted weapons. Hengrast managed to find enough inner calm that he was boosted for the next day's activities through ritual.

At dawn, Roka gave Laika a chicken to sacrifice on a stone marked with a Truth Rune, outside the Lightbringers' Temple. Laika did that, although she failed to make the Peaceful Cut properly. And they ended up in a Heroquest. Most were playing Lunars. Hengrast was playing Eril. He thought about his choices briefly, and legged it, getting away. Only Rastar, who failed a Hate Lunars roll, was lost inside his character. The rest were aware they were on the Hero Plane and the Middle World, and did some very good stupid-guarding, while Rastar tried to find Eril. He did very much enjoy being in charge.

Hengrast got away, but he was obviously sticking out, and had the option of losing his armour and blending in, or fighting his way out of a Lunar encirclement. He chose to fight, but the Lunars were played by his friends, and they elected to join him instead, comprehensively breaking the scene, and leaving everyone in the Middle World, surrounded by guards with bows and blunt weapons, as well as the usual spears and swords.

They surrendered, and one by one gave their stories to Dagrar, militia captain, who then had Roka's capture ordered. He escorted them to the Orlanthi part of the Lightbringer's Temple for justice, where they were kept waiting for some time until Asborn Thrice-born had dealt with the other matters, such as Eril's complaint to the city about this problem. He then told them there was a lot of trouble, and it would be best if they stuck together and were very careful, but they had been tricked into a Heroquest, and were not at fault. He advised them to go and see Lord Eril as soon as possible, as the High Sword of Humakt had requested to meet them.

Roka could have been anywhere - Wilmskirk would have done.

Getting the characters to meet up again was a bit awkward, but that's the GM's problem, not mine. Getting them to follow the plot hook was easy enough, but they were being nice about plot hooks. Hengrast had no real reason to look into the problem; the letter from his father pushed him into it.

It seems a bit of an IC coincidence how everything happened, in a 'these are the adventurers let us start the plot that nobody else has started' sort of way. Making Roka be in town rather than one of her tentacles be there would be a decent way of doing things. She can easily lie, look like someone else, or fall in with plans that suit her, but if she has fled Clearwine in fear, she could meet the adventurers wherever they are. She can even be a messenger from her own apparent kidnapper to put pressure on them. She could also have been in Clearwine all along and only been activated once characters started to look into Eril's existence.

Roka probably should not have warned the others they were going to be Heroquesting. She should just have called them together and started it. Jon Pol Joni's player made a good suggestion of using Hate (Lunar) as a roll to see if they were capable of remembering who they were. I was pretty much astounded by their later suggestion that they join him, however. I'm still trying to work out how to model that, and it's almost game time once more. I think they have broken Eril's path, but getting them to follow it again would be boring. Probably, what happens is that they can have his help and he can have theirs, but they are more bound to the result, in essense, extensions of him. Eril the Initiate is no longer friendless. However, the two who were turncoats may lose honour, or Loyalty to someone else.

I know the problem here, ultimately. I like and know the characters, and I've designed them according to how I play other games - low numbers of dice, lots of making things up as I go along; this is an adventure that I'm finding hard to write, because I think I have it written, but in fact I don't. I have a path and a set of people, but I don't have any reason for Runequest players or characters to interact with it. I've designed this as an Amber game. I need to rip out the descriptive personality sections, put in Runes instead, and trust the gamesmasters with delivery.

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.

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.

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 properly¹. 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.² 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.

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.

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.

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.