A River Runs up it

A River Runs Up It 1

A River Runs Up It Bruce L. Mason

Caught up in an elf’s quest, can the player characters reach a temple that holds the secret of purging chaos from the Syphon River and holds the key to rescuing them all from a collapsing myth?

INFORMATION

This was originally submitted as a Living Glorantha scenario. It has been presented on Mongoose Publishing’s Website from where it can be downloaded without charge. Layout has been performed by the author, Bruce Mason, therefore all mistakes are the author’s alone. There are no maps or artwork associated with this scenario. I wish to thank Loz and Pete for their assistance and Jeff Richards for permitting me to use excerpts from the Stafford Library collection. Thanks also to Mongoose Publishing for hosting this.

INTRODUCTION

This is a scenario for 3-5 novice or seasoned level player characters. The PCs are expected to be traditionalist Orlanthi or sympathetic to their cause. This scenario can be run as a follow up to Flowers in Her Hair. Although there are no direct links in terms of recurring characters, players might notice certain thematic similarities. Both scenarios explore the relationship between myths and culture in Glorantha. Both scenarios introduce agents of the two great empires of the Second Age – The EWF and the God Learners – to the player characters.

It is set around about the year 920 ST, after the fall of the Clanking City. It is possible to set the scenario earlier, in which case the God Learners are agents from the Clanking City who are seeking water magic secrets in an attempt to find a weapon they can use against the besieging forces.

The scenario starts with the player characters taking part in an initiation ceremony that is interrupted by an alim, a freshwater elf. The elf summons the characters to a Lightbringers’ quest. Before they have time to gather their wits, a God Learner band arrive on the scene, attack and gravely injure the presiding Rune Priest and steal some precious items belonging to the elf before departing. Once the dust has settled, the elf explains that he is on a life quest to heal the chaotic Syphon River and has discovered the whereabouts of a drop of “primal water” in an abandoned temple on the very edge of “The Footprint.” He needs the help of surface dwellers to get to the temple. Normally the player characters could choose to ignore this summons but

the initiation ceremony has become entangled with the elf’s quest and the candidate’s destiny is now linked to the elf. To save their friend and to possibly cure the river of its chaos taint, they must accompany the elf on a journey along the river that runs backwards to the very edge of one of the foulest chaos nests in Glorantha while a God Learner team tries to get their first.

The scenario is set in the north west area of the Savage or Steal Woods, approximately three days travel from the locale of Flowers in Her Hair. The recent expulsion of the EWF from Dara Happa (see Dara Happa Rises) has emboldened Orlanthi traditionalists, and missionaries from the Dragonbreaker cult founded by Alakoring Dragonbreaker have started to arrive, preaching revolt. The king of the Hendrikings, Androfin the Defiant, is feted by his people for his role in the destruction of the Clanking City but is reluctant to engage in open warfare against the EWF. So there is tension among the Hendrikiland Orlanthi. Most follow their king but many wish to openly embrace the Dragonbreaker cult. For this reason, initiation ceremonies such as the one that starts this scenario are relatively rare and usually held either in friendly steads or in wilderness areas. Although initiates of Orlanth Dragonbreaker are unlikely to be ostracised by their family or clan, they may well be seen as extremists by many. If the player characters took part in Flowers in Her Hair it is likely that they have a reputation as dragon killers.

The scenario can be run in one of two modes. In the first mode, the initiation candidate is one of the Player Characters who wishes to join the Dragonbreaker cult. In the second mode, the initiate is a Non-Player Character who is known to at least one Player Character. Games Masters should examine the Player Character Background events and family information for a good link in this case.

The events of the scenario take place along the Syphon River. More detailed information about the river is given in the appendix at the end. The river is considered to be cursed. It runs uphill from the sea to the “Foot Print,” through Foul Blood Forest where it drains into a hole in existence. Most Hendriki consider the river to be evil and believe it was cursed when it failed to join the other river gods in trying to fill the gap left by the exploding World Mountain, “The Spike,” during the Gods Time. Bringing the river to life is one of the key challenges of running this


scenario. Imagine what it is like to see a river running uphill, to see water laboriously climbing up rocks which would normally form rapids. Tributaries to the river snake off to the sides and sometimes it seems as if the land itself shuns the water’s touch. The water is salty and brackish and what it touches it seems to foul rather than cleanse. The only thing worse than the river is its destination: the lost world of Foul Blood Forest where petrified trees and animals fight some unknowable war against armies of slime and pus. Despite all this, Orlanthi live near the river and it is the best trade route to the sea so they deal with the river as best they can.

This will not be an easy scenario for most Player Characters and it is entirely possible that they may fail. They are likely to be somewhat outgunned but the antagonists are over-confident and arrogant. Providing the Player Characters can determine when to act rather than attacking blindly, they should prevail.

OUTLINE

1. PCs are at an initiation which is interrupted first by a water elf performing the Lightbringers’ summons then by raiding God Learners. The presiding priest is gravely injured and the initiation ceremony has become entangled in a “This World” HeroQuest. The PCs must accompany the elf on its mission to cleanse the Syphon River.

2. The PCs get outfitted and hear about the elf’s quest to a long abandoned temple.

3. The PCs must raid a tomb to gain a key to the temple.

4. The journey up river continues. 5. The edge of the “footprint.” The PCs must climb

down a cliff to gain access to the temple. 6. Encounter with a guardian of living water. 7. The heart of the temple. Can the PCs retrieve the

Tear before the God Learners? 8. Epilogue. If the PCs have succeeded they must

decide what to do with the Tear

ENCOUNTERS

Encounter 1 – An initiation

The scenario starts as the player characters are taking part in a HeroQuest as part of an initiation ceremony. The quest involves recreating Orlanth’s slaying of Aroka and is being presided over by Inthing Right Eye a Dragon Breaker Rune Priest from Ralios. The candidate for initiation who is playing the role of Orlanth is either one of the Player Characters or a Non-Player Character named Devlan The Smile from the Howling Wolves clan and is related to at least one Player Character by ties of blood or friendship.

You have been travelling for days now. Weary and footsore you accompany the great god Orlanth on his quest to defeat the dragon. In front of you, his stern unbending figure strides ahead, allowing no rest, no respite.

Sometimes it feels as though you can hardly remember your homes, your family, the clan folk. You feel stretched out somehow, as though you might break asunder with fatigue. The storm is blowing as Orlanth approaches the river yet for some strange reason you cannot feel the wind on your face. Everything is still.

Something is horribly wrong.

A Perception roll reveals the water in the river bubbling as if something is emerging. A Culture (Orlanthi) roll reminds them of the expected events of the myth of Orlanth’s slaying of the dragon Aroka. However it feels wrong somehow. It will be worth giving the players copies of the Orlanth and Aroka myth handout and briefly reprising it. Right now, Orlanth has reached the dragon’s lair and the rest of them are there to act as Orlanth’s loyal thanes. This is an initiation ceremony so it ought to be relatively safe. Orlanth starts to speak his ritual challenge but the water erupts in front of him and then the sky cracks into two. Lightning erupts around them. Characters who make a Persistence roll can stay on their feet and see what happens.

Shockingly, what ought to be the head of the dragon appears to be some sort of kelp-encrusted elf in the water. The elf raises up until it’s half out of the water and then starts to speak. What it says in its stilted Theyalan (the local language) is one of the oldest, most sacred passages in Orlanthi culture. It is the Lightbringers’ Summons.

Chaos stalks my world. Broos have bruised me, the Hand has pawed me. I have taken up the impossible path, And seek those who must aid my task. You are not the first of my friends. Others walked with me to Heal. The Devil took them, they died. I failed to save them, chaos grows.

Give the players a moment to take stock. Instead of facing a dragon they are being summoned on a Lightbringer’s quest by a water elf. This is extremely dangerous because the elf’s intervention is causing the HeroQuest to break down around them, exposing them to the risk of a backlash. Clearly they are in a tricky spot without a lot of answers.

A quick thinking player can have their character recite the traditional response, “I hear and stand before you. What would you have of me?” If the player doesn’t know the response then a successful Culture (Orlanthi), or Lore (Orlanth) skill roll ensures that the character remembers. The hope here is that by accepting the summons they can


defer the next stage of the myth by going deeper into it. This is dangerous because it intensifies the risks and rewards of the final stage.

Other options may include attempting to attack the elf. That is not a good idea. Before they take even a few steps the ground shakes and water to starts to spray up from the river as if it is being sucked into the sky. They may try and ignore the summons and hope it goes away in which case something starts to emerge from the river in order to devour the elf. Finally they may try and end the quest themselves, at which point huge tears appear in the sky and they themselves feel their bodies alternately squeezed and stretched. All of these wrong responses cost each Player Character who attempts them 1 Hero Point.

Regardless of their response, just a few seconds later the HeroQuest is rocked again when the river water bubbles and foams. Each Player Character who makes a Persistence roll has time to cast one spell or ready one missile weapon. Remember that Common Magic cannot be case while HeroQuesting.

The dragon is surfacing. Eyes glow like twin suns while its brood of demons cling to its back. A monstrous groaning accompanies its rise from the water and the spray covers you. As you prepare yourselves to sell your lives dearly there is a massive wrench in the ground. For a split-second it seems like you are in two places at once. You are here facing the dragon while at the same time you are struggling to your feet in the real world as some sort of … machine … emerges from the river, regarding you balefully.

Then the Marlin-34A Propitious emerges from the water. The Glow spells on the front shine like two eyes. The squad of mercenaries strapped in with their spell matrices covering their mouth and nose look like a troupe of aquatic demons on the back of a sea monster. They simultaneously appear in the myth and in the real world, collapsing the two together. One of the mercenaries impales the Rune Priest with a crossbow quarrel in the chest, causing a major wound. The elf dives back below the surface of the river in terror and each Player Character must make one final Persistence roll in order to avoid losing their next 1D4+1 Combat Actions due to the backlash from the collapsing myth.

The God Learners Strike!

The God Learners have no current interest in the Player Characters, they are simply following the myth echoes of the elf’s actions. Their goal is to snatch the floatation bags which the elf has left behind. The fight can be run in summary form or as a full skirmish.

Summary Form. Each Player Character can make one missile weapon attack and must make one Evade (opposed

by a mercenary’s crossbow skill) or Shield Parry roll. A successful missile weapon attack strikes one of the mercenaries. If it does enough damage for a Serious Wound then the mercenary falls off the vehicle and can be questioned later. If the Parry or Evade roll fails, the Player Character is hit by one quarrel with the Impale Combat Manoeuvre chosen. If the Evade roll succeeds but does not beat the mercenary’s roll, then the character is hit but no CM occurs.

If the skirmish is to be run properly then the following timeline occurs. There are 6 mercenaries on the main deck. The other four God Learners cannot currently be seen.

Pre-combat. Each Player Character who failed their last Persistence roll cannot act for their next 1D4+1 Combat Actions. That includes reacting to attacks. Note that although the Player Characters were armed in the myth, in reality (where they are now), they are wearing simple clothes. Most though will have weapons within a single Combat Action of movement.

Combat Round 1. Three of the mercenaries have crossbows loaded and ready to fire. They will aim but not fire unless threatened. One of the archers, the mercenary captain, demands that all natives surrender. Three mercenaries who have already fired jump from the Marlin onto the river bank and equip melee weapons to form a perimeter. Out of sight, Jezry has located the flotation bags.

Combat Round 2. Jezry retrieves the flotation bags with a grappling hook. If the Player Characters show signs of fight then the mercenaries engage. Ishkari and Barrag will watch activities. Both of them have their abdomen and legs in cover. Barrag has a shield and will parry any missile attacks. Ishkari will be ready with Neutralise Magic and may Smother anyone who shows signs of being a threat.

Combat Round 3. Jezry confirms that the bags are what they are after. The mercenaries continue to engage in a fight if needs be.

Combat Round 4. Ishkari engages in some gloating.

Combat Round 5. The Marlin departs, flying over the trees. If any mercenaries are still on the ground they are left behind. The elf resurfaces.

If anyone is being smothered, the spell ends when the Marlin leaves; Ishkari doesn’t want to risk leaving a sorcery spell in operation behind her as it’s always possible that it can be used against her and anyway, it’s not as if the locals are a threat.


Wrap-up

It is possible though extremely unlikely that the Player Characters may manage to defeat the God Learners at this point. In which case the elf is delighted. It is much more likely that the God Learners have escaped with the goods and the elf is now making a thin, high-pitched wailing sound.

In addition, Inthing is suffering from a major wound to the chest with an arrow impaled in him. Once the arrow is removed. First Aid or Common Magic Healing can stabilise him for a while. Divine magic or getting him to a healer will heal him. The elf does know divine magic healing. If none of the Player Characters can save him and none of them think to ask the elf then someone spending a Hero Point can invoke a plot twist to allow him to live.

If one of the Player Characters is the initiate he realises that he is “feeling strange.” He feels as though he can see both the mortal world and the Hero plane. In truth he is caught between myth and reality; he experiences everything in a heightened manner. Although he does not yet know it, his initiation myth has become entangled with the elf’s quest. If the elf doesn’t succeed the Player Character will become lost on the Hero Plane as his body fails. If the initiate is a NPC then his body is nowhere to be found: he is lost on the Hero Plane without a myth to follow.

At this point the Player Characters should try to get some answers.

Encounter 2 – Elf’s quest

The elf can speak Trade Talk passably and Theyalan poorly. He is very nervous and also distraught about the loss of his bag. He will, however, answer questions. His name is Larraviri in Illvolurum (“Larry” for short from here on) and he is on a holy quest to cure the Syphon River of its curse. Thing is, he can’t do it by himself. He needs people with legs. He didn’t deliberately choose the Player Characters but he was drawn by the power of their magic.

Larry cannot leave the river and has to duck underwater every few minutes to breathe. If the Player Characters point out that Inthing is dying, Larry seems profoundly unbothered about the prospect of death. After all we all die. If pushed he will volunteer to look at the man if they bring him to the river edge. If they do so he grabs the body and drags it below the water. After a tense minute he returns having cast Heal Wound.

If he is asked where the missing initiate is then Larry claims not to know, however he ventures that the hero plane has broken into reality here so, logically, that must have something to do with it. If Inthing is able to talk he

can deduce what is going on. The elf has interrupted a myth and the God Learners must have been watching. When the sorcerous device surfaced, it merged with the figure of Aroka and, in myth terms has either killed or taken captive the unsuspecting Orlanth while stealing his bag of wind. The initiate is now poised between two worlds and if the Player Characters cannot find a way to find Aroka and rescue Heler then the initiate will not be able to find a way back to the mundane world.

What was Larry up to? He has been following a This World HeroQuest for many tides now. He is being guided by the fragments of a myth of the “Cleansed One” which may hold the secret of lifting the curse from the Syphon River. Recently however those sorcerers started tracking him. He had narrowly escaped twice before and realised that he would need help. He was drawn here because he felt the echo of their HeroQuest in the river’s current.

What were the sorcerers after? Larry describes them as bags of wind. They are floatation bags keeping his most precious possessions safe. He is reluctant to explain their contents unless he thinks it will persuade the Player Characters to help him. One contained scrolls and papyruses detailing his research. The other contained something he doesn’t know the words for in Trade Talk. It is a drop of blood containing the myth fragments that have guided him on his quest. It’s a bit like a blood drop that holds magic. The players do not need to know that this is a Mythic Insight Crystal (see the appendix) though some will probably recognise it as that from the description. Larry will explain more at a later date if needs be.

What’s going to happen to us? Larry doesn’t really know though he can venture that crashing out of a HeroQuest is usually painful. As nothing bad has happened yet then presumably they are still on the HeroQuest. Inthing has more ideas. He tells them to look at their reflections in the river. When they do so they become aware that their reflections are subtly altered. There is a faint glow of “Hero Light” around them and their arms and armour look, somehow, grander. When they turn away they are aware that their reflections turn back to the Hero Plane. However, if one of the Player Characters is the prospective initiate, he has no reflection: he is lost on the Hero Plane.

Are we HeroQuesting or not? That’s the key question. The characters have crashed out of their original HeroQuest but ‘landed’ in Larry’s This World Quest. They can no longer follow their own myth but if they follow Larry’s myth then they ought to encounter fragments from their own myth. If they can spot these fragments and complete them properly, they may be able to reach the end of their own HeroQuest by following Larry’s.

What if we just go home? Larry thinks that would be a bad idea as they would probably all die painfully. The Player Characters may realise that was supposed to be a threat


however Larry isn’t very good at threats. Inthing can give more details. If they don’t follow Larry’s HeroQuest then they will be expelled from all the HeroQuests they are tangled up in and will have no way to succeed at the original HeroQuest. The initiate will probably never return from the HeroQuest or (if he is a PC) he will have “lost his hero breath.” In practical terms this means he can never initiate into any Storm Tribe Cult and will be perceived as krjalki, “unnatural” by Storm Tribe members. Urox worshippers will treat that as meaning chaotic with all that entails.

So what happens next? Between Larry and Inthing, if he survived, the Player Characters should realise that the best way to save the life of the initiate is to help Larry on his quest and hope that this helps them fulfil their quest. Assuming they ask him, Larry will explain what he plans.

He has discovered that there used to be a temple near the end of the Syphon that was built around a great treasure: a drop of primal water. This water is pure of all sin and all taint. After the Syphon was cursed for failing to try to fill the hole at the centre of the world the memory of the temple was lost and it was thought to have been destroyed. However, Larry has been reading many scrolls about the Footprint and discovered intriguing comments about ruins discovered at the edge of the Footprint where the river falls down it and he thinks they refer to the old temple. If that is the case then maybe the droplet still exists. If it does, Larry is convinced that it can be gifted to the river and possibly cure the chaos taint.

The problem is that he doesn’t exactly know where the temple is but the scrolls make it plain that it is no longer connected to the river. This means that Larry needs air breathers with legs to get to the temple, probably having to climb down some cliffs. What’s worse, the God Learners have just stolen all his maps and his crystal. On the other hand, he does know the rough location of the tomb of a first age adventurer who apparently raided part of the temple and he believes that there is some sort of “key” buried with him. This information wasn’t in the maps the sorcerers stole. Even without the crystal, Larry believes he can find an entrance to the temple.

So all they have to do is to boat up a cursed, chaotic river, loot a tomb, find a key, climb down some cliffs into one of the foulest chaos nests in all the world to break into a ruined temple which undoubtedly has defences to recover a droplet of primal water and do it all before the sorcerers get there. What could possibly go wrong?

Presuming the Player Characters go along with this, Larry suggests that he will meet them in Miskos on the Syphon river in one day. He can provide a boat but they will need to bring everything else needed to go tomb raiding. Larry doesn’t really understanding the notion of buying and selling but he has watched it in action and come up with a

plan. He has a bag full of shiny things that he knows leg-wearers like and he’ll share it with the Player Characters if they ask. He retrieves a pouch made of some sort of weed. Anyone making Evaluate roll while sorting through the silt and muck in it estimates that it contains gold nuggets to the value of over 7000 silvers.

At this point the Player Characters are exposed to temptation. It is clear that Larry has absolutely no idea of the value of this bag. They could simply take the bag and leave. If they do they are 7000 silvers richer between them, the scenario is over and the outcome should be noted on each character sheet. They could try to skim off some of the excess or they could play it perfectly straight. Do not suggest any of these options to the players unless they broach the issue first.

Encounter 3 – Ready to go

This encounter starts in Miskos. Larry will provide a boat and the Player Characters may spend as much or little of the 7000 silvers worth of gold on whatever equipment is available.

Miskos itself is a busy trading town but unusually for a town on a river, most of the buildings are a long way from the river and face away it. Houses are also elevated despite the fact that the river is never known to have flooded. One building may attract the Player Characters’ attention if they make a successful Culture (Orlanthi) or Lore (Orlanth) roll when a line from the myth of Orlanth and Aroka comes to mind. It is Ernan’s Bread & Brews. Prominently displayed is “Splendorbread” and jugs of “Widebrew.” It will cost 1 silver to have a slap-up meal there. More importantly this counts as undertaking part of the Orlanth and Aroka HeroQuest. The Player Characters will only ever find this inn once and no locals will recall it existing afterwards.

Excerpt from Orlanth and Aroka

… ate of Ernalda's Splendorbread and drank crazy black Widebrew.

Once they are equipped, they head on the boat along the Syphon River. Larry stays outside the boat, occasionally helping steer the boat if the Player Characters lack any obvious boating skill. At this point, aside from the fact that it runs uphill away from the sea the river seems perfectly normal. The current is quite gentle and the river placid. Larry thinks that it will take about a day to get to the tomb.

The Player Characters may wish to talk with Larry. At this stage he is still shocked by developments, nervous of the Player Characters and fretful about what the God Learners may be doing so he spends a lot of time in his native environment: underwater. He will answer questions but any


type of pressure causes him to panic and duck back down into the water. All in all, he’s not that reliable right now.

Playing Larry

Treat everything as a threat and realise that the safest place to be is 6 foot under the surface.

Obsess about legs. Legs are weird. Legs are strange. If he was brave enough, Larry would touch a leg. In the meantime he’ll just stare at them. But only when he thinks no one is looking.

Have no emotion other than fear. Emotion is a distraction from clear thought.

Fail to have no emotion. Larry’s quest has taken so long that has lost his sense of logic and detachment.

Be fatalistic. You’re all probably going to die soon and it’s probably going to be painful. That’s just the way it is.

Basically, s/he’s an elf with issues.

Larry has spent his life on this quest. The other alim have all but exiled him. He is rootless and none of them will help him. All of his life he’s felt that the Syphon is unjustly cursed and can be saved. He has travelled up and down every river that ends in Choralinthor Bay. Talked to sprites and demons, seen streams die and even seen the Solthi river burn. He has been to the edge of the footprint and been scarred by gorp. And now, when he finally seems to have everything figured out, the sorcerers have turned up and stolen his greatest treasures.

Encounter 4 – Tomb raiding

It’s early the next day and Larry thinks the tomb is somewhere on the eastern bank. The Syphon is heading into the uplands so the east bank is quite steep and heavily overgrown. Larry claims to recognise the are by the colour of the reeds on the river bank. That is unlikely to help the Player Characters but Larry still doesn’t understand surface measurements. If the Player Characters try to press him for extra information he ducks down beneath the water again. After a delay he resurfaces holding a lethal looking piece of bone the length of a shortspear, as thin as a needle and sharp as one too. He will point it in their direction. The Player Characters have time to react. Assuming that they don’t hit him with a barrage of spells and missiles and do get out of the way, he starts a sing-song in his native tongue then throws the lancet. After a brief pause he indicates that the tomb is somewhere near where the lancet landed. Oh and by the way, he would like his lancet back.

If the Player Characters search in that area then make a group Perception test. On a critical they find the entrance almost immediately. On a normal success it takes 1D6 hours. On a fail it takes until late in the afternoon (1D6+5 hours). On a fumble they will not find it today. If the players have forgotten, remind them that Hero Points can be used to make re-rolls. If the Player Characters are still looking by the afternoon, Larry starts to get very agitated.

Assuming they find it, they find a large rock, overgrown with mosses. A group Brawn test with a combined STR of 40 is enough to move it in short order, otherwise they will need to spend 1D3 hours digging and using levers. Once opened, a foul stench rises up from the opening and they can see a tunnel going straight down. It’s time to get the ten-foot poles out.

The Troll Tomb

1. The opening to the complex is covered by a large rock. A shaft about 2m in diameter leads straight down to a wooden floor some 3m below. This is false floor made from thin wood. 7 SIZ or more collapses it leading to a fall of about 4m.

2 Burial chamber. This grand vault is falling into disrepair. A sarcophagus with an off-centre lid is placed in one corner of the room. If the sarcophagus is explored a large, deformed skeleton can be found. It is gripping a huge two-handed maul and has a lead circlet on its head. Balancing on its chest is a mildewed leather bag marked with Air and Darkness runes. A Perception roll clarifies that the statue is of a troll and that both legs look broken. The first person to touch the skeleton in any fashion must make a roll of their Persistence versus a skill of 80% or receive a troll curse. Any Player Character can freely take the Maul but will receive the troll curse certificate. Mark this on the player character sheet and give the player the appropriate certificate. A successful Sleight roll allows a Player Character to take the bag without touching the skeleton. A successful Lore (Orlanth) roll brings a line from the myth of Orlanth and Aroka to mind. “Orlanth was delayed on his voyage, first by Krakos, the troll avenger, who was angry because Orlanth broke his father's legs. Orlanth defeated him, and took his Darkwind.”

3. At the far end of he burial chamber a hole in the floor about 1m in diameter opens into the ceiling of a large, flooded cave. There is a short drop of about 1m to cold water. The water contains two very hungry gorp. At its deepest the water is about 1m deep and flowing fast. Anyone wading through the water is reduced to 1 Combat Action per round, gets no Combat Action bonus for dual wielding and has their Strike Rank halved (after any Armour Penalties).


4. At the fair end of the cave (some 10m away from the hole) a large room about 10m square has been hollowed out of natural rock. Faded charcoal drawings on the walls show a heroic troll facing off against all sorts of foes and tells a story of how he tried to overcome the trollkin curse by hunting for a great secret of clean water. More importantly, the room is occupied by the Broo Gorp.

5. A secret door conceals the entrance to a corridor some 15m long. The door is locked with a seized lock. It will take 1D3 minutes to break through it with a successful Brawn roll and suitable tools. Otherwise it takes 1D3 hours.

6. At the end of the corridor is a small room. In the middle of the room there is a plinth with a lead rock about the size of a bowling ball placed on it. This would appear to be the key that Larry wants. It weighs about 30 kg and is unnaturally slippery: treat it as 30 ENC if held or 10 ENC if carried in a pack. If it is moved off the plinth there is a groaning sound. The plinth slowly retreats into the ground and the walls start to collapse. The collapse starts at the far end of the room then moves out through the tomb at around 2m per combat round but stops at the entrance to the flooded cave (4). Simple athletics rolls allows the Player Characters to keep ahead of the collapsing walls however the person carrying the lead ball will need to roll under both their Athletics and their Brawn. The plinth trap can be overcome by placing something weighing about the same on the plinth while removing the ball at the same time. That will require a Difficult (-20%) Sleight roll.

On the way back “Larry” will appear in the water. He will offer to take the “key” so they can get out in a hurry. The Player Characters ought to be suspicious and any amount of checking ensure that it soon becomes obvious that this is a disguise. It is in fact Ishakri using a Phantom Sight illusion. If her disguise is rumbled she will let the illusion lapse and taunt the Player Characters about their uselessness before ducking back under water. Smart Player Characters will have tied a rope to something so that they can get back out of the water before the whole of area 4 collapses.

Assuming they survive they get a chance to look at the lead ball. A lengthy inspection shows that it unscrews. Inside is an antique key made out of some sort of shiny metal (aluminium) with prongs looking like a water rune. There is a hole in the handle where a jewel may once have been set.

What was Ishkari up to? The maps they stole from Larry are less useful than she hoped and she has not yet been able to attune the crystal. Like Larry she believes there is an abandoned water temple that is central to the myth of the sinking of the celestial tower. The maps indicate a possible entrance but she suspects there is more to be found. So her group are following the Player Characters to see where they lead. When they start looking for the tomb entrance she consults the map and finds a way to get into the

underground river. Realising that the tomb is probably trapped she assumes that the barbarians will be easily fooled.

Encounter 5 – The river’s song

The player characters spend three days boating up river (or down river depending on how you look at it). The characters will be paddling the boat as Larry occasionally helps by pushing and guiding it. As they journey they have a chance to speak with Larry and begin to observe the river’s ascent towards chaos. This is primarily a chance for exposition and for a pause before the action starts again. The player characters can use the chance to heal and ask questions.

Speaking with Larry

Unless the PCs have done something odd, Larry becomes more friendly. Although most player characters have no way of knowing this, he is distinctly unusual for an alim. Most of his kind are ascetic, isolationist philosophers with a streak of fatalism. Larry though has always been fascinated by surface dwellers, by the leggies. This is the first time he has ever dared spend long with them and he will be full of naive, inconsequential questions about what it feels like to walk or to breathe. What does air taste like? What do they do when they get dried out? Do legs feel like upside down arms? Why can’t they grip things with their toes? He will veer between questions like that into topics such as “are you really afraid of death? What is the worst way to die? Is it true that you don’t have buds? As for sex, any mention of that and Larry is likely to pass out at the concept.

There will be two notable incidents. Late afternoon of the first day Larry will suddenly thrash and dive below the surface. After a long time he will try to explain that there is a God Learner in the myth. It’s hard for him to explain in Trade Talk but what has happened is that Ishkari has successfully attuned the crystal. They are now both aware of each other. Normally this isn’t possible but the fact that are many fragments means that they have found different ways to attune the crystal. Larry will casually explain that this means he’s probably going to die.

Later that evening they hear him making a wailing sound in his own language. If asked what’s going on he’ll escape beneath the water for about 15 minutes. Then having made a decision he’ll tell them it’s his favourite story, “The Weeping Guardian.” He can’t tell it word for word in Trade talk but he can explain it.


The Myth of the Weeping Guardian (Resonance 70%)

Back before time, in the dark days when the devil fouled the waters of the world the gods gathered in the celestial home to make their last stand against chaos. The greatest of those gods was Magasta. Together with his purest son, Wachaza, they threw back the hordes of chaos over and over again. But even they couldn’t hold back betrayal and chaos slipped in secretly under the roots of the mountain. When the world mountain exploded, the Sea gods leaped into the hole to sacrifice themselves before all the waters drained away into unlife.

Wachaza stood fast, holding off the devil while the gods poured in. He wept for each one that died and each tear he wept doubled his strength. Until his lover, a goddess we no longer know readied herself for sacrifice. Wachaza tried to fight off the chaos demons while reasoning and pleading with her. He loved her beyond all else but she insisted that she must join those gods dying in the attempt to save the world. At this point some say the devil touched Wachaza and a boiling rage erupted in him. As she rushed past him he tried to stop her yet he slipped and his bloody trident pierced her through the breast. His rage was such that he killed not just her but all our memories of her. Tears ran down his face like fire down an undersea volcano blinding to him to all but anger and despair and freeing the monster nature that had long lurked deep within him.

His anger boiled away all love and tenderness in him. Henceforth he would kill and only kill. Every surface dweller dreads him, every water dweller knows not to enrage him yet without his boundless, frenzied destruction of the chaos demons that attempted to tear the world in half that day none of us would be here now.

And so we call Wachaza the weeping guardian, the impure killer, the rage of the deeps who saved us all that day and who lost all that was good and pure.

Encounters along the river

As they travel upriver the vegetation becomes progressively thicker and more verdant and the heat increases. PCs can hear strange, unnatural sounds. Describe it to players as something like howler monkeys, the chatter of parrots, the whirring sounds of insects. All these things are new to the Orlanthi but none of them are ever actually seen except as a sudden movement out of the corner of the eye.

Towards the end of the first day they reach Backford. This is a small, miserable stead where locals work in brine ponds fed by the river to extract salt. To the player characters the locals will look malformed, their eyes bulging, a scent of rotting fish about them. The locals will be incommunicative, making superstitious gestures and

generally shunning the player characters. Switched on players might realise that the interaction of the myths is warping their characters’ perceptions. In reality the villagers are surly but not nascent river demons. As the villagers watch the boat pass by they will recognise the hero light enveloping it and sense the doom that follows it. For this reason they attempt to ward off the evil.

On the second day the river starts to climb into the uplands. Locals call this stretch “The Slows.” If the river were normal it would be rushing down over rocky rapids. As it is, it is labouring up against the pull of the sea down below. The landscape has changed and the characters must boat through some steep canyons.

On the third day the water starts to get very choppy, Whirlpools appear from nowhere and the current thrashes around making the boat hard to handle. Larry looks exhausted as he attempts to guide the boat. Eventually someone will think to look over the side and when they do they discover that the river is infested with gorp. It is as if there is a war between the river and gorp. The gorp are trying to get to the sea, the river is trying to push them back. Larry has his hands full directing the boat and needs the characters to help with paddling. No rolls are needed but the characters will be exhausted at the end of the day. As they camp on the last night before they get to the Footprint and Foul Blood Forest they realise why they can’t see any of these strange animals making the sounds. The sounds are coming from the river itself. Bits of it hang glistening on branches or crawl onto the bank in puddles. As it struggles along the ground it howls and shrieks. It’s likely the player characters will get little sleep this night.

GM note. The experience of the river has been intensified by the This World Quest. The Player Characters are seeing the essence of the river and the battle between water and chaos in a heightened metaphor.

Encounter 6 – River’s edge

It’s the final morning and the Player Characters have reached Larnste’s Falls at the edge of the Foot Print. The Syphon plunges over cliffs into the valley bellow. Looking at over the valley they see giant, stone ziggurats and things with too many wings circling in the air. If the wind is in the wrong direction they can hear the trees screaming. There is a petrified forest, the Stone woods weaving through the valley. There is also the Foul Blood Woods where the trees are glistening with slime. As they watch they’ll see parts of Foul Blood Woods dissolve and then reform. Occasionally there is a commotion and the sound of something being butchered, very noisily.

Larry believes the entrance to the temple ought to be half-way down the cliff just to the right of where the river plunges down. He will need to be carried so he can take the


key. First though he must perform a ritual to allow himself to breathe air for an extended period. Someone will need to carry him. He is fairly light and could hang onto a character’s shoulders while resting in a pack for example. While he does that, the Player Characters can plan their climb. Looking down they can see a ledge about 40m down. The cliff is steep but not vertical and there are handholds. To climb down to the ledge takes a single Athletics Climb test at -20%.

• On a critical or normal success the climb is completed without incident.

• Failure. Slip! The Adventurer must immediately make another Athletics, Brawn (-20%), or Acrobatics (+20%) test. If that is a success the adventurer recovers. They have not yet made much progress so must make a new Athletics test to climb the rest of the way with the same risks.

• Fumble. Fall. The Adventurer falls to their death. A good moment to spend a Hero Point.

Spot Rules. An adventurer who has already made it to the ledge can coach the climber and add their critical score in Athletics to the climber’s skill. Only one Adventurer can do this at a time. Using a rope that has been tied to a rock at the surface adds 20% to the climb skill. A tied climber who falls and is tied to a rock will suffer the equivalent of a 1D6 metre fall. If not tied to a rock one or more of the Adventurers may be holding the rope. If the climber falls, these Adventurer’s need to make a group Brawn test. Compare the total STR to the SIZ of the climber. If their STR is within 5 points of the climber’s SIZ it is a routine Brawn test. If STR is lower than this then the Brawn test is at -20% for each 10 (or fraction) points lower. If it is higher than this the test is at +20%. A success means that the falling character simply slips a small distance and then recovers. Finally the Adventurers may decide to climb down roped together. In this case ascertain the order. If one person falls, the one above must make a Brawn roll that is also under their Athletics skill (with the same STR vs SIZ comparison) to hold on. If they fail then they start to fall too, adding to the total SIZ of falling characters.

There are of course many other possible ways the PCs attempt to climb down. Including, possibly, flight.

Once on the ledge, after a brief period of searching, a crack can be seen behind the waterfall. Getting in will be awkward and damp but there is no need for further skill tests.

The water really doesn’t want to fall into this valley. As the Adventurers approach they will see that the water is hanging on to the cliff side. It is almost as if is falling in slow motion. Even worse, the Adventurers see gorp. Scores, hundreds of them, slowly climbing up the cliff, trying to migrate out of the valley. Sometimes the water lets go of its hold and crashes into a cluster of gorp, smashing

them back down the cliff. Sometimes the gorp slither past and the river moans in agony.

Encounter 7 – the guardian

While inside the temple the Player Characters are affected by the remnants of a powerful Consecrate spell. All Divine Magic Spells that are not from a water god suffer a -50% casting penalty. Any other kind of magic that is associated with one of the non-water elements also suffers from a -50% penalty. Examples might be Fireblade, Wrack (Earth) and so on. Finally anyone Rune touched by an element other than water loses the benefit of being Rune touched by it.

Once they have entered the crack, the Player Characters find themselves in a crazily tilted hallway, diving deep down into the cliff. As the god stomped, the ground was compressed and the cliff rose up. The middle of the temple was cut in half. Half was pulverised, the other half was twisted upwards by the rising ground. Now the Adventurers must climb down a twisted, zig-zagging corridor that dives at around 45 degrees. Providing they are careful this can be done without need for skill rolls.

The corridor is composed of what was once some sort of grand, blue-veined marble. Huge columns have broken off and careened down the slope. Various rooms and other corridors run off it but have been crushed in the catastrophe. Just this one corridor, once the spine of the building remains. If the characters press their ears to the walls they can hear water running through it, as if the marble is somehow stone and water at the same time. And if they think to look properly, the random veins of blue slowly move and shift, forming barely discernible images and what could be writing.

Larry is an awe of this. He could spend a life time studying these patterns if only he had much of one left.

At the end of the corridor, a guardian awaits. A giant figure, shining and reflective. In his right hand a trident, in his left a net of hooks. He is standing on the floor, seemingly unaffected by the steep slope. He speaks in words like the crashing of the sea but only Larry is likely to understand. Should an adventurer approach into the room he will move to attack and he will fight to the death. He is an avatar of Wachaza, the water tribe’s god of war and he will let none past.

It is likely that this fight is unwinnable. The avatar is composed of living water that quickly regenerates any damage and is immune to any sort of magic with the Resist (Persistence) trait. No fire can be summoned in this holy sanctum. Finally the guardian can dismiss magic of any magnitude as a Combat Action by spending 1 Magic Point per point of magnitude of the spell. The avatar can also use


this action defensively like a counterspell to prevent a spell from taking effect.

Combat spot rules. Player Characters will need to balance precariously on broken columns and so on if they wish to stay on their feet. This prevents them from using Evade to avoid an attack without falling. Any successful Bash or Trip manoeuvres will result in a fall of 1D6 metres. Alternately they can hold onto various items but this will reduce their normal CAs by 1 and still prevents the use of Evade. It will also prevent the use of dual wield combat styles.

As the avatar fights, tears roll down its cheeks. It weeps for the death of the world and the gods who have died trying to save it. It weeps because it must stay behind and fight.

Should Larry see this he gradually realises what he must do. After 1D3+2 Combat Rounds he makes a decision. Drawing on the mythic resonance of this place he steps forward. He is able somehow to stand, almost as if swimming in the air. He takes his lancet and throws it at the guardian. The guardian responds instantly, throwing his trident and impaling Larry, killing him instantly.

As Larry falls he drops the key (someone needs to make a quick-witted Athletics roll) and the myth of the crying guardian repeats itself. Water starts to flood down the walls as if the marble itself is reverting to water. The guardian turns black, its eyes burning the red of the hells of doomed souls and it howls as if dammed. Larry manages a few heroic last words “The way is open. And I go back to mud. Save the river for me.”

The Player Characters can see a hole opening like a dragon’s mouth in the room behind the guardian. The guardian itself is dissolving. Really their only choice now is whether to try and resist the flow of water or to go willingly. If they try to resist they fail and take 1D6 damage to 1D3 random locations due to being tossed around. Armour doesn’t protect. If they try to go with the water’s flow then a successful Athletics (or Acrobatics at +20%) test means they suffer no damage, otherwise they take damage as if they resisted.

Larry took a major wound to a vital location and failed his Resilience roll, killing him instantly. The last words were simply flavour; if the players are the types who take events literally then Larry has no time to speak at all.

The player characters may be able to resist being drawn into the mouth of the dragon; a Brawn test at -40% should enable that to happen. If all the Player Characters manage to stay out they watch as the hallway seems to collapse into the entrance, filling it. Now the only way is back up. They will be able to get back onto the cliff ledge just in time to see half the cliff fall into the river and will spot the Marlin

being carried in the waters. Their HeroQuest has ended in failure.

Finally it is possible that the Player Characters are able to defeat the Guardian. The nature of the interacting myths is such that a lot of flux is possible so they are rewarded for their success rather than punished. If defeated or destroyed in some manner the Guardian dissolves, unleashing a raging torrent of pure water that washes them deep into the mouth of the dragon. As the water takes them they see that Larry is untouched. His last words to them are “I must defend the temple. My quest passes on to you.” The last thing they see is Larry being transformed, reaching for the Guardian’s trident. In his final moments as an elf, he has legs.

Encounter 8 – Waters Fall

However they get there the PCs arrive in a spectacular location. They have been deposited in a hemispherical room some 100 metres in diameter, the peak of the dome being 50 metres above them. The doom is constructed of some manner of translucent marble. The floor consists of a 3 metre wide strip of the same sort of marble running around the outer circumference. The central area is some sort of metal that is almost as slippery as ice and as shiny as a mirror; attempting to move in a hurry will require a Difficult (-20%) Athletics test or routine Acrobatics test. Around the outside of the room are 8 archways. The Player Characters have just been washed into the room down one and the water has drained away through the other arches. If they explore the arches they find that they can push their hands through four of them but not the other four. They seem to be one-way passages; some are entrances to the room, some exits.

Any Player Characters who visited Ernan’s Bread & Brews in Encounter will find they have a piece of Splendorbread. Eating it now restores all fatigue lost and restores all hit points to one injured location.

If the Player Characters look closely at the walls they can begin to determine patterns of light and dark moving somewhere through the walls. Should one press their face to the wall there is a sudden crash as if something huge just flung itself against the wall from the other side; the player character is uncomfortably aware of something with too many teeth and too many tentacles that would devour him in an instant.

After a short period to explore, the player characters become aware of a sense of movement in the floor. If they look down they can see lines in the floor snaking towards the centre where a small hole has opened. The floor is beginning to look like an iris. Providing they act promptly and without panic they can make it back to the edge of the room without alarm. Anyone dithering or wanting to stay in


the middle of the room will need to run across the room (see above) in order to get to the safety of the ledge as the floor opens beneath him.

At any point they wish to, the player characters can exit through one of the four one-way arches that leaves the room. Doing so sends them to the bottom of the cliff through a twisting tunnel with nothing more than some bumps and bruises. They are out of the rest of the scenario and have left the HeroQuest.

The Player Characters can see that there is a drop of some 20m from the ledge down to the surface of intensely black water below. The ledge probably feels worryingly slippery and it becomes clear that the ledge slopes slightly down towards the water. Should anyone fall then a difficult (-20%) Athletics roll or routine Acrobatics roll lets them dive without taking damage, a failure is the equivalent of a 3m fall, a fumble is the equivalent of 10m fall.

As they ponder this, the water in the middle starts to shine and emerging from the middle, radiating a soft turquoise light a single drop of pure water floats into the air on a column of light. It is the purest essence of water. Light ripples across the room, there is a sound that is something like a laughing mountain brook or the gentle lap of the water on a river’s bank in summer or maybe the first rains after the heat of summer. As Storm Tribe members this is alien to the Player Characters yet its beauty is undeniable. Several myths are entangled here. They are in the belly of the dragon as if Orlanth has been swallowed by Aroka; at the same time they are in some sort of literal underworld like Orlanth summoned on the Lightbringers’ Quest; and as well there is the myth that Larry took them on, possibly they are at the very heart of the world while monsters rage around them. Give the players enough time to try to piece some of this together.

The key bearer can feel the key throb; should he think to look the hole in the handle would be just the right size for the water drop. If only he can find a way to the drop.

At this point there is a colder, more ominous glow from the water below. Anyone looking down sees two baleful eyes staring up, sees the water churning and then, surfacing once again, the Marlin is back. It bursts free from the water; there is one final blast of sorcery that destroys a tentacle wrapping around it and then it is airborne. Guided by the crystal it has found its way through the underwater passageways marked on Larry’s map. Several mercenaries still wearing their air matrices are clambering out of the hatches while the battered, rent machine labours up to the hovering water drop.

The God Learners plan is simple, they want the water in order to bind it. Their hold on the seas is weakening, Zistorwal has been sunk and there are rumours of an impenetrable mist in the west. The energy they could

extract from this single drop could power a whole fleet of Marlins and with the mythic insight crystal they could break into deep, submerged myths to summon monsters capable of swallowing whole countries.

Encounter events

It takes the Marlin 1 Combat Round to right itself and for the God Learners to emerge properly. The four God Learner NPCs move onto the upper deck of the M34A. One mercenary is directing the ship and any other mercenaries remaining from the first encounter are holding onto the Marlin’s railings. Ishkari’s aim is simple. Get the drop and leave. She is surprised to see anyone here. Still every villain loves an appreciative audience.

If possible, give her a chance to monologue. She has been following this elf for a year now and he has finally lead them right here. The drop will be hers and soon the power of primal water will be the God Learners to command. Mwah ha ha! Milk it for as much as you can get away with. Some Player Characters will insist on trying to attack her while she talks. In this case remind the players that they are caught in a myth and the normal laws of physics are being stretched. Somehow it is as if no time passes while she talks. As soon as she starts to act, the myth continues. The Player Characters may attempt to attack immediately or may wait to see what the God Learners do.

Set up. The Player Characters can be anywhere around the edge of the room that they like. The Marlin-34A is hovering roughly 20m above the water making it roughly eye-level with the Player Characters.

The most likely sequence of events is as follows:

Combat Round 1. The Marlin moves to the Drop. Ishkari positions herself with Barrag in attendance to reach for the drop.

Combat Round 2. Ishkari takes the drop in both hands and holds it in the air.

Combat Round 3. She continues to hold it, transfixed in awe.

Combat Round 4. Things start to go black. She is now transfixed in fear.

Combat Round 5. The guardian forms and combat starts between it and Barrag. The others will act to protect Ishkari and the drop though Reckworth’s main priority is the Marlin. Ishkari is distracted by the beauty of the drop and takes no actions.


Combat Round 6. The first cracks are heard. Barrag is likely to be engaging guardian while Ishkari is dragged onto Marlin.

Combat Rounds 7 and 8. Ishkari comes to her senses and all God Learners get back into the hatches.

Combat Round 9 onwards, the room is starting to flood.

Once Ishkari gets her hands on the drop it is magnificent. She holds it in the air. It gleams. It seems as big as the ocean as pure as diamond. It sparkles and fizzes. The room is bathed in intense light. Then it starts to go horribly wrong. She’s a villain after all and she has no respect for the blessed item. As is always the case, the God Learners know everything but understand nothing.

Everything goes black. The temperature drops to zero instantly. There is a timeless moment of disorientation and then the lights change. Now the room is lit with a sulphurous, underwater volcanic glow and the weeping guardian is on the Marlin’s foredeck as if he has been there all along. And, as they say, he’s pissed.

What happens next?

The guardian will attack Ishkari and she will be defended by Barrag. If the PCs brandish the key they find they can direct the guardian. The key bearer should make the guardian’s rolls for him and can have it act in the most efficient way to get the drop back. The guardian is, however, weakened by whatever the PCs did to it earlier.

The rest of the God Learners try and get Ishkari back to the 34A. The PCs can and should intervene. If they don’t, then Ishkari gets back to the 34A in 1D3+1 Rounds. 2 Rounds later it escapes followed by the guardian. Regardless, at the end of the round after the guardian intervenes there is a loud crack and water starts to run down the inside of the hemisphere. There are increasingly more cracks each round. The room will collapse in 1D4+4 Combat Rounds after the first crack.

So the PCs need to stop the God Learners, retrieve the drop and get out of the room before they all drown. Easy. Oh and all the action’s happening some 20m up in the air.

If Ishkari takes a serious wound she automatically drops the tear; it is mythically slippery and it is repelled by her. Any Player Character holding the key feels an over-powering urge to rescue the tear and will have to pit their Persistence against a Resonance of 75% if they try to avoid taking action. Should the keybearer get the tear they will find that it instantly shrinks and flows into the gap in the handle where it settles.

At this point the characters should remember the myth of Orlanth & Aroka and should realise that they can invoke it. The tear can be thought of as Heler. They are deep inside Aroka. By making a Lore (Orlanth) roll or spending 1 Hero Point they can become Orlanth. In practical terms, as soon as someone in the party spend s the Hero Point then the whole party are no longer bound to the ground and can walk on air as if it were solid earth. They can also perform the heroic actions listed below. Each can only be performed once by the party as a whole.

• Use of Brawn for a superhuman feat of strength: “Then Orlanth strode into its mouth and seized the upper jaw with his hands, and placed his foot against its lower jaw, and with a shout of victory tore the dragon asunder.” This could enable them to tear a hatch off the Marlin for example.

• Use the bag of winds from the troll tomb (if they have it) to automatically neutralise one spell with no roll needed. “Aroka roared out its fatal breath, but Orlanth captured it inside the magical Sack of Winds and threw it away.”

• Drink the widebrew (if they entered the tavern in Miskos). The character’s attack rolls are increased by half again (as if Fanatic), they get one additional Combat Action per Combat Round and plus 6 to their SR until the myth ends.

This should be an epic fight; encourage the players to take great risks. They are at the heart of three myths and they are representing Orlanth at his most heroic. The more they act like Orlanth, the more reckless they are, the truer to the myth they are being. Crazy stunts should be rewarded, not penalised.

As soon as it is obvious the fight is going against them, the God Learners will try to flee. Reckworth will save the Marlin rather than any of his companions. Jezry will scuttle off like a rat. Only Barrag will fight to the death and Ishkari can not bear to live the drop behind so she will expend every last effort to keep it or retrieve it if she loses it.

Eventually though the dome will collapse. The easiest way to escape from the room as it collapses is to spend a Hero Point. Those Player Characters are swept away down one of the exit tunnels and come falling out of waterfall into the Print. Each character who chooses not to spend a Hero Point needs to make an Athletics test and a Resilience test. Failing the Athletics test counts as a fall of 1D4+4 metres. Failing the Resilience test causes 2D6 damage to the chest ignoring all armour from almost drowning. If the Darwkind hasn’t been used the whole party can use it now to escape with nothing more than cuts and bruises as it fills the monster’s lair and carries them safely down a tunnel.


Encounter 9 – River’s End

Amazingly you are still alive. As you pick yourselves up and look around you discover that you have been washed out to the bottom of the cliff deep in Foul Blood Forest. You have no time to worry about that now though because the cliff is collapsing and it seems like a whole ocean is flooding out of it, bringing the rocks crashing down to the valley floor.

Scrabbling to higher ground you see the torrent cascading through the foul lands, washing the filth away.

If the Player Characters retrieved the tear it ought to be in the key and they can throw it into the river. If they do, they see it arc through the air and suddenly it’s raining. The rain is like the promise of spring and fertility, the first truly clean air to fall here since time began.

If the Player Characters didn’t retrieve the tear but prevented the God Learners from making off with it, they can feel its presence in the river. There’s a mixed feeling of relief and resignation as the river rushes again to heal the wound at the heart of the Forest.

If the God Learners gained the tear, the Player Characters see the Marlin caught in the river, hurtling down stream to the hole in existence. Whether they will be devoured by it or will resurface with blasphemous insights and powers, only time will tell.

Naturally if they have the Tear they can choose to keep it. The Lankor Mhy sages will pay well for it.

Finally any Player Character who carried Larry finds something looking like a bud. They may decide to throw it into the river or wait until they find a suitable lake. Or sell it to a collector depending on their personal morality.

For now their job here is done. The Syphon is not cleansed yet but depending on their actions now it has a chance to begin to heal. It’is a process that may take centuries but to a river that is nothing.

If they have prevented the God Learners from gaining the Tear, their initiation quest is also done and the initiate is rescued. If one of the Player Characters was the initiate they feel the world come back into proper focus. As he looks around he feels his new, deeper connection to his god. If the initiate was a NPC, the Player Characters have a last glimpse of the hero plane and see him striding home, spear in hand, ready to fight dragons. The last of the numinal aura drains away and the Player Characters are finally fully back in the mundane world. They have aches and pains, are soaked to the skin and weary and have a long climb up a cliff to escape from the horde OF SCORPION MEN THAT ARE CHARGING THEM. Cue end credits….

REWARDS & ADVANCEMENT

A standard award of 2 Hero Points and 3 Improvement Rolls should be given with the following suggested modifications. After modifications no character should receive more than 4 Hero Points or 5 Improvement Rolls (not including their Improvement Roll Modifier.)

+1 Hero Point: taking a significant risk or spending 1 Hero Point to rescue another PC, Larry or the tear.

-1 Hero Point to each character if a Player Character died who could have been saved.

+1 Hero Point per character for returning the tear to the water.

-1 Hero Point for selling the tear.

-1 Hero Point for leaving the HeroQuest early.

+1 Improvement Roll to be spent on a relevant skill for piecing together the different myths.

+1 Improvement Roll to be spend on Swimming for the keybearer, if there was one.

All Player Characters may additionally gain the Advanced skill of Boating if they don’t already have it or gain an Improvement Roll in it.

If one of the Player Characters was the initiation candidate then he is now an initiate of Orlanth Dragon Breaker.

Depending on the events, the Player Characters may be able to scavenge some of the God Learners’ possessions. The most notable possibilities are, Barrag’s mace, Reckworth’s repeating crossbow, the abjure air masks, the water key, the bag of wind. Certificates for the first four are provided. The water key has no knowable powers but is immensely valuable. The bag of wind has lost its aura with the end of the HeroQuest so is nothing but a leather bag.

Blessed by the River: any character who threw the key into the river gains the River Blessing.

Larry’s boon. If someone threw Larry’s bud into the river, they gain its boon.


BLESSINGS, CURSES AND PLUNDER

Enchanted Mace

• Heavy Mace: Size: L, Reach L, Damage (1H: 1D8+1), (2H: 1d10+1), AP 6, HP 10.

• Damage Enhancement Matrix: Wizards of Zistor 70%, Duration POWx5 minutes, Magnitude 3, Range touch.

• Notes: The matrix takes 1D6 hours to recharge after the duration ends. The spell in the matrix can only be cast on the mace. No casting roll or Magic Points are needed to cast the spell. Casting time is 1 CA.

Value: 1,000 silver pieces.

Zistorite Repeating Crossbow

• Repeating Heavy Crossbow (H/-, 1D10, 0*/150m) • This carries a magazine of 6 quarrels that automatically

reload after firing without requiring a CA. Once empty, it takes 1D3+1 Combat Rounds to change magazines.

• Notes: This only includes one magazine. It requires specially constructed crossbow bolts costing 1 SP each. It takes 10 minutes and a successful Mechanisms roll to re-stock a magazine.

• Value 900 silvers.

Abjure Air Matrix (6 copies)

• Bronze face mask covering nose and mouth holding Abjure Air Sorcery Spell Matrix

• Abjure Air Matrix: Wizards of Zistor 60%, Duration POWx6 minutes, Magnitude 1, Range touch.

• Notes: The matrix takes 1D6 hours to recharge after the duration ends. The spell in the matrix can only be cast on the mask’s wearer. No casting roll or Magic Points are needed to cast the spell. Casting time is 1 CA.

• Value: 750 silver pieces.

The Water Key

• An aluminium key with a setting for a drop of elemental water.

• This key is worth 150 silver pieces without the drop of water but around 6,000 silver pieces with the elemental water.

The River Blessing

While on or near the River Syphon the player can trade in this blessing to the Games Master instead of spending 1 Hero Point.

“Larry’s” Boon

The Player Character gets +10% on all social skill tests when interacting with freshwater aldryami. The player can trade in this blessing to the Games Master instead of spending 1 Hero Point.

The Troll Curse

Troll characters gain +10% to all attacks and hostile spells targeted at this curse’s victim. If the Games Master consents, the player can trade in this certificate to the Games Master instead of gaining 2 Hero Points at the conclusion of a scenario featuring Trolls.

Krjalki Nature (non-transferrable)

The holder is an outlaw in Orlanthi society and is considered krjalki. Urox cultists will consider him chaotic. He will register as an enemy to Orlanthi magic. If the Games Master consents, the player can trade in this curse to the Games Master instead of gaining 2 Hero Points at the conclusion of a scenario in which he undertook some act of redemption.

HeroQuest Backlash

The holder has suffered a HeroQuest Backlash. Whenever the character attempts to spend a Hero Point he must roll 1D6. On a 1, the Hero Point is spent but has no effect. The character may immediately try to spend another Hero Point for the same purpose if he wishes but must roll again. If the Games Master consents, the player can trade in this curse to the Games Master instead of gaining 2 Hero Points at the conclusion of a scenario in which he successfully completed an Orlanthi HeroQuest.

Crystal Memories of the Cleansed One

Mythic Insight Crystal: This power crystal consists of several different fragments embedded within a large piece of coral weighing 5kg. Removing any fragments from the coral will kill that piece of crystal. The crystal contains several elements from the Myth of the Cleansed One at a Resonance of 80%. The crystal can be used to access the


myth on the hero plane. It contains the following behaviours and lessons.

• Chaos must be cleansed; • Pilgrimage is holy; • Inaction in the face of evil is evil; • Everyone deserves a second chance.

Should any of these behaviours seem mandated the attuned holder of the crystal must pit their Persistence vs the crystal’s Resonance of 80% in order to choose not to act according to the myth.

The Cleansed One quest potentially offers the following rewards: become Rune Touched by water; to be able to transform into a piscoid (i.e. part fish); to cleanse another of a chaos taint.

Value: (1D3+3)x1000 silvers.

It is highly unlikely that the Player Characters will gain the crystal and become attuned during this adventure but for more information about the Cleansed One HeroQuest see http://www.soltakss.com/hquest03.html.

APPENDIX

HeroQuesting

HeroQuests take two main forms. In an otherworld quest, the adventurers are bodily transported to the other side. When the HeroQuest ends they are returned to the real world exactly where they entered the HeroQuest (see Cults of Glorantha). In a This World Quest, the quest takes place in the real world. Rather than the HeroQuesters journeying to the other side, the other side is brought to the real world and suffuses the HeroQuester’s actions. In this scenario an Otherworld HeroQuest, the initiation ceremony, has become entangled with a This World Quest, the elf’s quest.

A This World Quest is marked by several features. Firstly the world itself becomes hyper real. Colours are richer, emotions are more intense, actions more dramatic, in general everything is scaled up in some way. Secondly, the world can appear full of omens and metaphors and to the participants time itself can seem slippery almost as if they are in a waking dream. Thirdly, the beings they encounter are drawn from the real world to partake in the myth without necessarily knowing this. A quest may require an encounter with a lion shaman who has travelled for 3 years. The power of a HeroQuest is such that the encounter will happen in some form even though the HeroQuest may have only just started. Of course this means that it is more than possible that Player Characters may get drawn into This World HeroQuests initiated by NPCs.

In this scenario the elf’s quest has done just that and entangled the Player Characters. So they perceive the river more dramatically than if they were simply travelling along it. Places such as the inn or the troll’s tomb will not be findable if they go back and the river itself will seem more mundane or at least as mundane as a cursed river running uphill can be. This effect is magnified because of the interaction between the two myths and, naturally, the presence of the God Learners.

There are two main quests entangled. The elf is following the fragments of a story known as the Myth of the Cleansed One. This requires him to journey to the headwaters of the river and undergo a ritual of purification. He has been involved in this for over 3 years now and has almost failed several times. Each time he would have failed, however, he has been able to raise the stakes and journey deeper into the myth. It has become a life quest for him and he knows that succeed or fail that his life ends when the quest ends. As one of his raisings of the stakes, he recklessly joined two myths together: the myth of the Cursed One and the myth of the Crying Guardian. When he did this he drew the attention of the God Learners. A team of Otherworld Explorers have been searching water myths since the fall of the Clanking City. They have almost caught him twice before and the scenario starts with their third attempt.

Realising that his quest is at risk he raises the stakes one more time. He has long believed that surface dwellers hold the key to his success and is a member of the elf equivalent of a healer’s cult. In desperation he finds a bunch of Orlanthi and performs the Lightbringers’ Summons. Although he was drawn to the spot precisely because it is an active entrance to the Hero Plane and is on the edge of a river he didn’t know they were in the middle of following the myth of Orlanth and Aroka. Now three myths are interacting dangerously, bits of each echoing in the other.

Thus the Player Characters keep encountering elements of the Orlanth and Aroka myth but in unpredictable ways. They must somehow string enough elements together to succeed at their quest. The key to this is the God Learners: by surfacing in the otherworld when Aroka should have, the submersible has taken on Aroka’s role. Defeating it will substitute for defeating Aroka. Essentially the Player Characters have just been caught in a raising of the stakes. Initially they were involved in a ‘safe’ replay of the myth. Now they are sent deeper, restarting and with their lives at risk.

That said, this scenario is not a primer in applied mythology and the players are unlikely to be able to piece this together in its entirety. Furthermore the links are not exact; as the myths bleed into each other, something new and unusual is formed. Finally, it should be remembered that although the rulebook presents HeroQuests as simple progressions of stations in reality every HeroQuest ends up differing from the plan somehow or other.


The Myth of Orlanth and Aroka

Aroka had great powers: its eyes could paralyze any intelligent thing, its tongue could choke any physical thing, and its breath could destroy any spirit.

Orlanth prepared himself against the monster. He brought a sack with the Four Winds in it, an ancient flint sword called a klanth, a twisted vine that held the Upper Wind, and a leather rope that held the Lower Wind. He spent a year chanting songs of power, and ate of Ernalda's Splendorbread and drank crazy black Widebrew.

Orlanth was delayed on his voyage, first by Krakos, the troll avenger, who was angry because Orlanth broke his father's legs. Orlanth defeated him, and took his Darkwind.

Then came Gagarth, the left-blowing wind. Orlanth beat him, too. He took the Wind of Above from him. As he traveled, Orlanth reached the Place of Strangers, and there he met the Dark Woman. Their child was born later, and it was called Crushing Noise. At last Orlanth found the lair of Aroka, which lay past the Poisonthorn Acre. Orlanth came out of the north to attack. Aroka the dragon refused to rise to confront the approaching god.

Orlanth released the Darkwind first, which bears the howls of lost souls. It filled the creature's lair so it could not bear to be in it, and so it rose to fight.

First Aroka opened its eyes to destroy the mind of Orlanth. The storm god released the Four Winds and each cast its weapon into an eye of the dragon, blinding it.

Aroka lashed out with its tongues. Orlanth released the Upper Wind, and this dried out the snaking enemy.

Aroka roared out its fatal breath, but Orlanth captured it inside the magical Sack of Winds and threw it away.

Then Orlanth strode into its mouth and seized the upper jaw with his hands, and placed his foot against its lower jaw, and with a shout of victory tore the dragon asunder. A great flood of blood, water, and mead swept over the land. Inside was Heler, the rain god, who swore eternal loyalty to Orlanth.

This is the way that Orlanth brought rain to the land. Orlanth took other treasures from the corpse too. He took the sinews from the right side of its spine, which were red, and from the left, which were black. He took the tooth that can scar adamant. And he took two burning jewels, from its skull and heart. And after that Heler was always Orlanth's boon companion. (The Book of Heortling Mythology page 65)

The Syphon river

The Hendriki say that all the waters of the world used to run uphill, but that alone of all the waters of the world the Syphon refused to obey their sea god Magasta, who cursed the river to flow backward from Choralinthor Bay uphill, and then into an evil valley and then to fall into a hole that they say leads to the Underworld. (History of the Heortling Peoples page 64)

The Print

It is said that this chaotically cursed valley was caused when Larnste, their God of Motion, saw “a small squirming thing, foul to sight and smell, which lay on the ground and turned the dust to ash.” The god stamped upon it, hoping to destroy it, but the slimy thing bit him and pierced the skin. Larnste was immediately infected and ever afterwards limped when he moved. Worse, his blood was infected. Wherever his blood dropped to the earth it left a foul cesspool. The place where the monster had been was drenched in polluted ichor, and never has healed itself. Now it is home to the Queendom of Jab and many unique chaos monsters. Strangely, parts of the forest are petrified along with animals, plants and even petrified smoke hanging in the air. Some sages have speculated that a this frozen forest wages an imperceptible war against the hordes of chaos.

New Creature - Alim

An Alim is one of the Murthoi, known to surface dwellers as Blue Elfs. As the surface dwelling Alryami are part of the plants of the land, so the Muthoi are part of the underwater plants. All Murthoi are water-breathers with a whip-like tail instead of legs. The Alim are a race of Murthoi that live in freshwater lakes. They are the most shy and retiring of the Murthoi. Physically they are weak but they are the most intelligent of all the Aldryami. By nature they are philosophical, isolationist and uninterested in the doings of surface-dwellers.

Power crystals

Orlanthi believe power crystals to be the crystallised blood of the gods, spilled during the Gods’ War. There are many types, but the type found here is a crystallised fragment of myth, known as a Mythic Insight Crystal. Should a character manage to become attuned to such a crystal they are placed in touch with the myth and gain all the benefits and obligations of being so, such as specific behaviours and lessons. See RuneQuest II page 150-152.

To attune a power crystal, first the character must make either a Difficult (-20%) Insight roll or Routine Meditation


roll. If this is successful the character has gained the right mental framework and can attempt the next step. If it fails the character cannot try again with the same skill until that skill has been increased.

The second step is a Difficult (-20%) Persistence roll. If this is a success the character has made a psychic link to the crystal and can begin to use the crystal’s ability. Once so attuned a character can never voluntarily become un-attuned.

Sorcery Spell Matrices

The rules for sorcery enchantments were published in Arms & Equipment II. The main source of sorcery enchantments in Glorantha is the order of Zistor. Two enchantments, which are both sorcery spell matrices, play a role in this scenario.

A Sorcery spell matrix is an enchantment that holds a single sorcery spell with pre-determined effects and manipulations. The matrix provides the knowledge and Magic Points needed to power the spell. The wielder of the enchantment can cast the spell by simply spending 1 Combat Action and focusing on the enchantment. The spell costs no magic points to cast and always takes effect exactly as specified. The effect of the spell depends on the Grimoire skill of its maker so the spell will be listed with a skill rating. For example a matrix containing the spell of Palsy enchanted with a skill of 90% would be capable of affecting a location with up to 9 Hit Points. When the sorcery spell is enchanted its Duration, Magnitude, Range and Targets are specified by the maker and so will be listed in the item’s description. There are no matrices with Combined spells.

The wielder’s POW determines the extent of the manipulations. For example the sorcery spell matrix that enchants Barrag’s mace is Damage Enhancement (Effect 70%, Duration POWx5 minutes, Magnitude 3, Range touch). The matrix was enchanted with a skill of 70%, the spell lasts for the wielder’s POWx5 in minutes and so on. Note that if the spell has more than 1 target then it must be cast against the right number of targets or else it automatically fails. If the spell has the resist trait then the wielder of the enchantment must pit their Wizards of Zistor Grimoire skill or the matrix's skill (whichever is higher) against the target’s appropriate resistance trait to see whether the spell overcomes their resistance. The spell cannot be recast for 1D6 hours after it has ended as the matrix needs to refresh. If the enchantment has any other matrices, the spells in those matrices may still be cast.


NPCs Weapons are presented in the form (Size/Reach, Damage, AP/HP) for melee weapons and (Size/-, Damage, Load Time/Range) for missile weapons. Damage Modifiers have not been added. For example Larry’s Lancet is a Medium sized, Long reach weapon doing 1D6-1D4 damage. It has 2 APs and 5 HPs.

Larraviri in Illvolurum

“Larry” – an alim with a destiny STR 6 1-6 Tail 1/4 CON 8 7–9 Abdomen 0/4 SIZ 6 10–12 Chest 0/5 INT 21 13–15 Right Arm 0/2 POW 19 16–18 Left Arm 0/2 DEX 10 19–20 Head 0/3 CHA 12 Attributes: SR 16, CA 3, Damage -1D4, Move 8m, Magic Points (19) 14 Traits: Life Sense; Excellent Swimmer Armour (Penalty 0): Tough skin (1AP, tail) Skills: Athletics 26%, Brawn 14%, Culture (Aldryami) 92%, Evade 50%, Evaluate 33%, First Aid 31%, Influence 24%, Insight 80%, Lore (Hendrikiland Rivers) 92%, Perception 60%, Persistence 68%, Resilience 16%, Sing 51%, Sleight 22%, Stealth 31%, Swim 84%, Craft (weaving) 51%, Lore (Syphon River) 102%, Meditation 48%, Survival 40% Common Magic (81%): Coordination 4, Extinguish 4, Heal 6, Push/Pull 3, Vigour 3 Divine Magic: Acolyte of Eron (Pact 67%, Lore 102%): Blessing, Dismiss Magic, Elemental Summoning (Undine), Heal Wounds 2 Combat Styles: Lancet 26%, Unarmed 16% Weapons: Lancet (M/L 1D6 2/5) Equipment: floatation bags with maps, scrolls and religious paraphernalia, shiny things that surface dwellers like to the value of 7000 silvers. Notes: Eron is an Aldryami god of healing.

Ishkari The Drowner

STR 7 1–3 Right Leg 0/4 CON 10 4–6 Left Leg 0/4 SIZ 7 7–9 Abdomen 0/5 INT 16 10–12 Chest 0/6 POW 17 13–15 Right Arm 0/3 DEX 12 16–18 Left Arm 0/3 CHA 12 19–20 Head 0/4 Attributes: SR 14, CA 3, Damage -1D4, Move 8m, Magic Points 17 Armour (Penalty 0): none. Tight leather waterproof gear. Skills: Athletics 19%, Brawn 17%, Culture (Own) 82%, Dance 44%, Drive 29%, Evade 44%, Evaluate 28%, First Aid 28%, Influence 54%, Insight 63%, Lore (Regional) 62%, Perception 33%, Persistence 64%, Resilience 20%, Ride 29%, Sing 29%, Sleight 24%, Stealth 28%, Swim 57%, Boating 47%, Disguise 68%, Lore (Water) 62%, Lore (Malkion) 62%, Lore (Otherworld) 52%, Meditation 34% Common Magic (69%): Becalm 1, Warmth 2, Water Breath 2 Sorcery: Apprentice of the Order of Otherworld Exploration. Manipulation 63% The Book of Watery Graves (72%): Abjure Air, Form/set Water, Sense Sea Monster, Smother Unencumbered Lights of Reason (52%):, Myth Treading, Mystic Vision, Navigate Otherworld The Ninth Literal Examination (52%): Enhance (INT), Neutralise Magic, Phantom (Sight), Spell Resistance, Telepathy. Combat Styles: S&M (Crop, Dagger) 29%, Unarmed 19% Weapons: Dagger (S/S 1D4+1, 6/8), Crop (S/S 1D4 2/5) Equipment: sorcerous paraphernalia, dagger, crop. Jewellery to value of 700 silvers.


Barrag the Relentless

STR 13 1–3 Right Leg 6/6 CON 13 4–6 Left Leg 6/6 SIZ 13 7–9 Abdomen 5/7 INT 12 10–12 Chest 5/8 POW 9 13–15 Right Arm 5/5 DEX 13 16–18 Left Arm 5/5 CHA 9 19–20 Head 4/6 Attributes: SR (13) 5, CA 3, Damage +1D2, Move 8m, Magic Points 9 Armour (Penalty -8): Chaimail shirt (5AP body and arms), Plate greaves (6 AP legs), Open Helm (4 APs head) Skills: Athletics 46%, Brawn 56%, Evade 56%, First Aid 45%, Influence 18%, Insight 21%, Perception 21%, Persistence 38%, Resilience 86%, Ride 42%, Stealth 25%, Boating 36%, Lore (Malkion) 24%, Survival 21% Common Magic (78%): Bludgeon 4, Heal 4, Parry 4, Vigour 3 (+1 HP per location, +12% Resilience) Sorcery spell enchantment: Damage Enhancement (Effect 70%, Duration POWx5 minutes, Magnitude 3, Range touch.) Combat Styles: Sword & Shield 86%, Mace & Shield 66%, Dagger 56%, Crossbow 76%, Unarmed 56% Weapons: Heavy Mace 1H ( L/L, 1D8+1, 7/15), Kite shield (H/S, 1D4, 4/18), Shortsword (M/S, 1D6, 6/8), Light crossbow (L/-, 1D8, 2/100m) Equipment: listed arms and armour, money pouch with 15 gold pieces, a thing for pain. The mace is constructed from iron and bears a sorcery spell matrix for Damage Enhancement that can only be cast on the mace.

Jezry the Rat

STR 10 1–3 Right Leg 0/5 CON 12 4–6 Left Leg 0/5 SIZ 10 7–9 Abdomen 1/6 INT 13 10–12 Chest 1/7 POW 15 13–15 Right Arm 0/4 DEX 15 16–18 Left Arm 0/4 CHA 6 19–20 Head 2/5 Attributes: SR (14) 13, CA 3, Damage -1D2, Move 8m, Magic Points 15 Armour (Penalty -1): Leather shirt (1AP body), Hard Leather cap and goggles (2AP head) Skills: Athletics 55%, Brawn 22%, Evade 80%, Evaluate 49%, First Aid 28%, Influence 12%, Insight 28%, Lore (Regional) 56%, Perception 68%, Persistence 30%, Resilience 24%, Ride 30%, Sleight 71%, Stealth 78%, Swim 22%, Gambling 28%, Mechanisms 78%, Streetwise 61% Common Magic (51%): Bandit’s Cloak 3, Befuddle 2, Lucky 2, Mobility Sorcery: Manipulation 48%, Apprentice of The Order of Hwarosian Mystries

Hwarosian Mysteries (56%): Neutralise Magic, Project (Sight), Project (Hearing). True Abiding Book (51%): Haste, Hinder, Spell Resistance. Combat Styles: Rapier 55%, Dagger (1H or Thrown) 50%, Unarmed 25% Weapons: Rapier (M/L, 1D8, 5/8), Dagger (S/S 1D4+1, 6/8), Equipment: secret stash of 40 gold pieces, various incriminating scrolls.

Reckworth 34A

STR 11 1–3 Right Leg 1/5 CON 10 4–6 Left Leg 1/5 SIZ 11 7–9 Abdomen 2/6 INT 15 10–12 Chest 2/7 POW 17 13–15 Right Arm 1/4 DEX 11 16–18 Left Arm 1/4 CHA 9 19–20 Head 2/5 Attributes: SR (13) 11, CA 3, Damage Move 8m, Magic Points 17 Armour (Penalty -2): Hard Leather hauberk and cap 2AP, Leather graves and braces 1AP. Skills: Athletics 22%, Brawn 51%, Culture (Zistorite) 60%, Dance 20%, Drive 28%, Evade 22%, Evaluate 24%, First Aid 26%, Influence 18%, Insight 32%, Lore (Zistorwal) 60%, Perception 72%, Persistence 34%, Resilience 40%, Ride 28%, Sing 26%, Sleight 20%, Stealth 26%, Swim 21%, Craft (blacksmith) 46%, Engineering 60%, Lore (Zistor) 50%, Mechanisms 56% Common Magic (76%): Blacksmith’s Boon 2, Repair 4 Sorcery: Gear of Zistor, Manipulation 62% Engineers of Zistor Grimoire (80%): Animate (Metal), Attract (Missiles), Damage Enhancement, Damage Resistance, Form/Set (Metal), Glow, Haste, Holdfast, Wrack (Earth). Combat Styles: Hammer 32%, Crossbow 72%, Unarmed 22% Weapons: Heavy Mace 2H (L/L, 1D10+1, 6/10), Repeating Heavy Crossbow (H/-, 1D10, 0*/150m) Equipment: Listed arms and equipment. Zistorite Heavy Repeating Crossbow is a stolen Mostali design. It carries a magazine of 6 quarrels that automatically reload. Once empty, it takes 1D3+1 Combat Rounds to change magazines.


God Learner mercenaries

Hirelings from Casino Town, paying off debts. STR 13 1–3 Right Leg 4/5 CON 12 4–6 Left Leg 4/5 SIZ 13 7–9 Abdomen 4/6 INT 11 10–12 Chest 4/7 POW 10 13–15 Right Arm 4/4 DEX 11 16–18 Left Arm 4/4 CHA 10 19–20 Head 4/5 Attributes: SR (11) 5, CA 2, Damage +1D2, Move 8m, Magic Points 10 Armour (Penalty -6): Scale suit and helm (4 APs) Skills: Athletics 54%, Brawn 56%, Evade 42%, First Aid 22%, Influence 40%, Insight 21%, Perception 21%, Persistence 30%, Resilience 54%, Ride 21%, Stealth 22%, Lore (Malkioni) 22%, Streetwise 20% Common Magic (70%): Bladesharp 2, Heal 1, Parry 1 Combat Styles: Polearms 64%, Sword & Shield 54%, Crossbow 62%, Unarmed 54% Weapons: Halberd ( L/VL, 1D8+2, 4/10), Shortsword (M/S, 1D6, 6/8), Kite shield (H/S, 1D4, 4/18), Light crossbow (L/-, 1D8, 2/100m) Equipment: Listed arms and armour, 3D6 copper pieces.

The Marlin-34A Propitious

The Flying Submersible. It flies. It goes under water. One of the last wonders of the Jrusteli empire, this vehicle is constructed from a rugged, water-tight cylinder with the top flattened to form a deck. In the middle of the deck is a tower shaped somewhat like a dorsal fin that holds an upper deck.

The Marlin-34A is a prototype that was designed by Sir Tobor to help break the siege of Clanking City. It is capable of submerging to depths of nearly 20 metres under water, floating on the surface and flying at a height of up to 100 metres off the ground or surface of the sea. After the city fell, three prototypes fled the city. It is powered by 15 power crystals holding sylphs to provide buoyancy and 5 crystals holding undines to provide submarine travel. When floating or flying it erects a telescoping copper mast from which phantom sails capture the wind. The mast is also a matrix for a Project Sight spell and can be erected to spy on the surface while the Marlin is underwater. Presently 3 of the air sylph crystals and 1 of undine crystals are empty, so the Marlin is running on low power.

Each crew member is issued with an Abjure Air Spell Matrix mask that fits over the nose and mouth, lasts for 1 hour and takes 1D6 hours to recharge. The sylph crystals can also provide air but this risks exhausting them.

Hull: 3 Structure Points: 22 Seaworthiness: 20 Length: 12m Beam: 3m Capacity: .5 tons Freeboard: 0.5m Draft: 0.5m Crew: 6 to 12. Speed: 4m / 35km when the crystals operate at full thrust Weapons: none Ram: No Skill: Shiphandling –20%

The Broo Gorp

STR 17 1–3 Right Leg 0/7 CON 17 4–6 Left Leg 0/7 SIZ 18 7–9 Abdomen 0/8 INT 8 10–12 Chest 0/9 POW 11 13–15 Right Arm 0/6 DEX 11 16–18 Left Arm 0/6 CHA 5 19–20 Head 0/7 Attributes: SR 10, CA 2, Damage +1d4, Move 8m, Leap 12m, Magic Points 11 Traits: Chaotic, Regenerate (1 Hit Point per location at the end of each combat round), Leap (12m) Armour (Penalty 0): none Skills: Athletics 28%, Brawn 34%, Evade 22%, First Aid 19%, Influence 10%, Insight 19%, Perception 19%, Persistence 22%, Resilience 34%, Ride 22%, Stealth 19%, Combat Styles: Unarmed 78% Notes: This thing is the union of a gorp and a broo. It is squishy. And horrible. Really horrible. In combat it grasps an opponent and starts to sweat strong acid. Serious wounds do not have any affect on it. A major wound will incapacitate the broo but only for long enough for the location to reach above 0 Hit Points. Severing a location simply creates a new gorp and the old location grows back. The only thing that will prevent re-growth is a major wound caused by fire.


Gorp

7 Standard gorp from Monster Coliseum. Reuse as required. STR 3 #1 1–20 Body -/16 CON 11 #2 1–20 Body -/16 SIZ 21 #3 1–20 Body -/16 INT 1 #4 1–20 Body -/16 POW 11 #5 1–20 Body -/16 DEX 3 #6 1–20 Body -/16 #7 1–20 Body -/16 SR 3, CA 1, Damage -, Move 4m swimming, Magic Points 11 Armour: None Skills: Persistence 43%, Resilience 43% Combat Styles: Envelope 75% Attacks: Envelope (-/T, Strong Acid)

Notes: A gorp can only be killed by fire or magic. Normal weapons merely pass through the gorp’s rancid tissue without causing damage (though they themselves will be damaged by the gorp’s acid if it overcomes the weapon’s armour points). Because of a gorp’s caustic nature, neither acid nor poison has any effect on it. Non-fiery weapon enhancement spells, such as Bludgeon and Bladesharp, do no damage to a gorp. Disruption and similar spells have their normal effect.

A gorp attacks by moving next to its intended victim and attempting to envelop him. This attack has a base 75% chance of success, though the victim may use his Evade skill or Athletics skill to get out of the way. Using Athletics rather than Evade incurs a –40% penalty. A gorp’s attack may not be parried – the creature will simply slide around the parrying weapon to engulf its foe. A gorp will wrap itself around one of its victim’s hit locations.

Once a gorp has enmeshed a victim, it will attempt to hang on and continue to inflict acid damage. Gorp’s exude Strong Acid. At the end of every round that a creature’s hit location is enveloped by a gorp, that creature will take acid damage to that location. Armour will protect against this damage until it is dissolved. A character caught by a gorp may attempt to escape by making another Evade or Athletics skill test as a Combat Action which will be opposed by the gorp’s Envelope skill.

Avatar of Wachaza

STR 22 1–3 Right Leg 8/8 CON 19 4–6 Left Leg 8/8 SIZ 21 7–9 Abdomen 8/9 INT 16 10–12 Chest 8/10 POW 23 13–15 Right Arm 8/7 DEX 22 16–18 Left Arm 8/7 CHA 15 19–20 Head 8/8 Attributes: SR 19, CA 5, Damage +1d8, Move 8m, Magic Points 23 Traits: Extra Combat Actions, Living Water (cannot be stunned or impaled), Life sense, Magic sense, Self healing, Spell Resistance Armour (Penalty 0): Living water 8AP. Skills: Athletics 114%, Brawn 81%, Evade 104%, Perception 69%, Persistence 96%, Resilience 88%, Combat Styles: Trident & Net 114%, Unarmed 84% Weapons: Mercury Trident (L/L, 1D8, 4/10), Net of hooks Thrown (H/-, entangle, 7/15) Notes: The avatar always succeeds at withdrawing the trident if it is impaled. The net of hooks can be used to parry or be thrown to entangle a target who doesn’t successfully Evade. Once entangled the target must make an Evade or Acrobatics skill test taking a whole combat round opposed by a skill of 114% to escape; on a failure he takes 1D4 damage to a random location ignoring all armour. Or he can try to cut himself free: each attack is resisted by a skill of 114% and inflicts 1d4 damage to the cutting weapon, ignoring its armour points. Extra Combat Actions: The avatar has one additional CA over and above its normal. It can spend Magic Points at any time to gain extra CAs at the rate of 1 extra CA per Magic Point. There is no limit to how many extra CAs it can gain in any Combat Round. These extra CAs only last for the Combat Round in which the MP was spent. Self-Healing: As a Combat Action it can spend 1 Magic Point to recover half of a location’s Hit Points. E.g. it could recover 4 Hit Points in an arm through Self-Healing. Living Water: as its body is water the normal stunning effect for a serious wound is ignored. Impaling also has no effect on it so any attack that chooses the Impale manoeuvre will cause no damage. This won’t be obvious until someone tries. Spell Resistance: it can dismiss any spell by spending Magic Points equal to the spell’s Magnitude as a Combat Action. This can be used reactively like a counterspell.

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Material from Heortling Mythology and the History of the Heortling Peoples appears with the permission of Moon Design LLC, who reserve all rights to the material. RuneQuest and Glorantha are trademarks (TM) of Issaries, Inc. Glorantha is the creation of Greg Stafford.

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