[Actual Play] RuneQuest III: To Tame a Land

[zomben]

<h2>Part 0: Pre-game</h2>
A few months ago, I started waxing nostalgic on the subject of running a RuneQuest III game. I mentioned this in a thread on RPG.net, and a few people extracted the promise from me that if I ran it, I'd do an "actual play" thread about it. So I am.
The first session of the game is scheduled for next week. So, this is just a bit of "pre-game" rambling; just a way to outline my thought process as to how I put the sessions together.
Scheduling the game was the first priority. In late September, my wife and I will be having our first child, and so I felt like I wanted to run one cool game before that happens and I take some time off for a while. So, I set out to design a simple story arc that could be played out in that time allotment. Looking at the calendar, I figured if I ran about once every three weeks, I could get five sessions in. The final, sixth session will be the week immediately following the fifth.
Choosing a setting was a simple decision. For a long time now, I've wanted to run a RQIII game in Middle-earth, my "first love" of fantasy worlds. However, I just haven't had the time to develop my extra materials for it, and didn't think I could finish the game in six episodes. So, in the inerest of just getting the game up and running, I chose to set it in Glorantha. Very much my second favorite fantasy setting of all time.
Knowing full-well that most of the players I've wrangled into this thing have little to no experience in Glorantha, I decided to set the game in Ralios. For those not in the know, Ralios is sort of like England in the Dark Ages. You've got knights and castles and such in certain areas, and the hills and mountains are crawling with barbarian clans. And there are trolls. Ah, trolls...
The background for the game is fairly simple: all of the PCs are mercenary knights belonging to the Order of the Scarlet Dawn. There are four dedicated warriors, and one sorceror/priest of "The Invisible God." The group is being sent off into the wild to act as guards and soldiers in the employ of a nobleman who has been gifted with land in the "Barbarian" areas. Simply, the "civilized" people of the region are trying to slowly take over more and more of the kingdom. And the PCs will be instrumental in that.
So, the plot for the first night's game is set up, and I think I'm ready to go.
I'll post the first summary of the opening adventure sometime after I run it next week.

[zomben]

<h1>Part 1: Night of Chaos</h1>
Last night I kicked off my 6-part RuneQUest III mini-campaign. The players assembled at my house around 6:00 in the evening, I had dinner waiting for them, and we got down to business. It took us the better part of an hour or so to put the final touches to the PCs and transfer them to their character sheets (off of the email printouts we'd been using back and forth previously). The players were settling in to their comfortable, "the game's about to start" mentality.

It began with war.

Having no knowledge of how they'd arrived there, the first moment of the game was a near leg-severing blow to the PC priest. He was mounted, and the axe blow went through most of his leg, and into the horse underneath. From there, I described the characters charging into the battle. It was dusk, stormclouds overhead, lightning flashing all around them. Horrible axe-wielding shaggy shapes coming out of the gloom all around them, cleaving into the PCs allys. Clearly a massive pitched battle was underway. Each of the characters got one turn to do something fast. They traded sword blows with the unknown attackers, still confused, not knoing how they'd gottten to that point, but rolling with it anyway.

At which point, I stopped the action, and said to them, "Your forces are depleting. Lighting is raining out of the sky all around you, and thick, heavy raindrops are falling from the heavens. For a brief moment, you are able to catch your breath, and reflect on how you came to this point... Six months ago..."

And then the game really began. The scene played out above was simply a foreshadowing of the final battle of the campaign. The PCs were now half a year from that point. It was explained to them that they were all members of a large mercenary company, the Brotherhood of the Scarlet Dawn. They were one of many sattelite groups of this organization, and had taken employment with Duc Marchad De Bellem, a minor noble of Safelster who had built a keep and holdings in eastern Ralios ten years ago. They had been hired at the princely sum of 500 pennies per year, with a grant of 5 acres of land per year in Marchad's service. Effectively, if they worked for him for a time, they would be able to retire with their own lands on the borderland, and so help the rulers of Safelster to settle the barbarian lands to their east. At this point, they'd been travelling through the wilds for nearly three weeks, through hills full of Orlanthi barbarians and other horrors. They were about two days out from the keep of Duc Marchad.

I then let the players introduce their characters: Runolf, the Priest of Malkion; Tordel a knight at home in the saddle; Ned a grizzled veteran of many campaigns; Guillaume a loyal warrior with a tragic past.

As they approached the keep, through the Black Crescent Fens that block it's access to the south, they were arguing about the details of the Malkioni religion (their home religion) with their priest, attempting to discern the intricacies of their Sect of the religion. Specifically, when was it okay to "kill others, and take their stuff?". As they argued, they almost did not see the horrid monster skulking towards them through the bog. The quick-witted priest caught a glimpse, shouting "Monster!" just in time. As they watched, a mutant Dragonsnail slowly dragged it's bulk out of the bog. They stood in horror as it bit the air, hissing at them. The thing was as big as a horse, if not bigger, chaos radiating from it palpably. All of the PCs made Animal Lore and WOrld Lore tests to see if they knew anything about the Dragonsnail. I quickly explained that many many years ago, during a great war, the Devil was crushed under a block of truestone. As the indentation of where it fell filled with water and became a vile swamp, the normal garden snails in the area mutated into these horrible Dragonsnails. "But" Tordel asked, "It's just a big snail, right?"

To which I had to sheepishly admit, "Yes, but it's really big and scary."

"But it's slow, right?" asked Tordel.

"Yeah. But it's chaos. It's evil."

At this point, the mounted PCs were moving at ten times the speed of the vile Dragonsnail, so they skirted around it, while arguing whether they should kill it or not. Eventually, they decided to let the thing live, as they couldn't be sure what tricks it had up it's shell. To their credit, the thing did have the chaos feature of "Explodes when dies, doing 3D6 damage to all within a ten-meter radius." Of course, there'd be no way for them to find that out without attacking it. And clearly they were not afraid of a big snail. Sigh...

From there, they travelled the rest of the day and made it to the Keep De Belleme, a typical Motte-And-Bailey-style castle later in the afternoon. They were shown into the keep and after tending to their horses and unlimbering their gear, they were introduced to the Duc De Belleme. He was wearing leather armor under his robes, causing some questions amongst the PCs. This was dismissed simply with, "It's a different land out here. You would be unwise to go about without at least some protection." From here, they were shown their quarters and given the afternoon to get cleaned up. As PCs do, they then spent the better part of the day harassing the other soldiers in the keep trying to get the lay of the land, and figure out what the current situation in the area was like.

It was explained to them that in the region, there were two main factions of Barbarians. The hsunchen beast people to the north had an uneasy alliance with Belleme's men. They were little more than primitive hunter-gatherers, but trade did go back and forth between the castle and their scattered tribes. To the east, the vicious Orlanthi live. They are strewn throughout the mountains and hills, frequently raiding the hsunchen, as well as the farms under the auspices of Belleme's men. There was no love lost between the soldiers of the castle, and the rotten, vile Orlanthi.

Further, they were told of the horrible cannibal trolls who lived in Halikiv to the south east. But to this point, the men of the Keep had had little to no dealings with them, and that's how they preferred it.

At which point, the evening's feast was prepared. Runolf, the PC priest said a prayer as the castle's inhabitants set to their meal, rolling a "special" success on his Orate skill roll and greatly impressing everyone. As they ate, they continued to chat with the other warriors in the keep, but learned little more. Finally a minstrel came out to entertain the group, but became flustered when Ned demanded he juggle for them all. The evening ended with little of note.

The following morning, the PCs rose to report to the Sergeant-At-Arms for their duty for the day. As it turns out, an outlying farm had been attacked a couple of days ago. The lone survivor of the raid had just stumbled into the castle that morning with the news. He described a night of bloodshed. Several attackers had broken into the sheep pens, and after driving out most of the animals, put the farmers to the sword. The man had been asleep through most of this, waking only towards the end when the sounds of fighting got through his beer-addled sleep. He described the attackers as "Men, I think. It was dark. But they must have been the beast people, the hsunchen, as they seemed to be wearing animal pelts. The ones I saw had horns coming from their heads, and animal-like faces. They must have been wearing deer-skin cloaks, with the antlers still attached, like the beastmen do."

With that, the PCs were tasked with going to investigate the farm, and find the attackers. The group was to be the four of them, their 4 squires and a scout to help them through the wilds.

They travelled for most of the day before finding the farm in question (it had taken the farmer two days to get to the keep, but the PCs were mounted and moving faster). They found it a scene of slaughter. The buildings had been put to the torch, and were blackened husks. The corpses of two men and a woman were found nearby. Hacked to death, and left for the crows. The woman had clearly been killed by a spear-thrust in her back as she ran fleeing in terror.

The animal pens had been cracked open in a couple of areas, and the animals driven out. Tracking was nearly impossible as the raiders' footprints were trampled by the couple of dozen sheep with which they had absconded. So, the PCs wisely decided to just follow the trail north. Following it for a few hours, they finally rested for the evening, making camp up a hill from the trail. They argued about whether or not to light a campfire, but in the end decided not to.

Ned and his squire took the watch the first part of the night. Unbeknownst to them, as they camped, a dozen of the hsunchen beastmen were closing around on them. The hsunchen had no intention of attacking such a heavily-armed group as the PCs presented. They were simply curious as to who these soldiers were, and why they were travelling through the hsunchen's lands.

I asked Ned and his squire to make a few Scan and Listen rolls. Ned's player (Molotov) astounded the group with his inability to roll anything under 80. Fortunately, the hsunchen rolled equally badly. This went on for a while as the beastmen got closer and closer. Finally, Ned's player rolled a decent Scan and one of the hsunchen fumbled his Sneak roll with a roll of 98. Ned heard a *crunch* ahead of him, and suddenly realized that a spear-wielding, animal-headed shape (the hsunchen were indeed wearing deerskins, the hoods having antlers) was lurking in a bush directly in front of him. With a cry of "We are attacked!!" he charged the hapless primitive warrior. And rolled an "01" (critical hit) on his broadsword attack, doing somewhere around 24 points of damage to the hsunchen's abdomen, effectively gutting the poor wretch.

Needless to say, the rest of the hsunchen fled at this point.

From here, the PCs decided that the guy they'd killed was indeed probably not an evil chaos monster or cultist, and it would be a good idea if they returned him to his tribe. Relations between the men of the Keep and the hsunchen were amenable to this point, and they should not do anything to jeopardize them if possible. As it turns out, the scout, Guy, was aware of an old shaman of the hsunchen who lived nearby. They decided it would be best to travel to the shaman's hut and explain to him what had happened, and apologize.

A few hours travel later, and they approached the shaman's hut. They trudged through a dense copse of trees, finally finding a clearing in the middle. The low, wide circular hut sat atop a low rise. Surrouding it, a dozen or so poles, 8-feet high had been driven into the ground about twenty feet out from the dwelling. Atop each of the poles was mounted a deer skull, with bones and feathers, and runestones, etc. Clearly the home of a powerful shaman. As the PCs approached, the hut's door flap opened, and four primitive warriors stepped out. They were dressed simply, in leather breeches, deer-skin capes and hoods, with bronze-tipped spears and wicker shields. After a moment, Agammaran the shaman came out. He was ancient, crook-backed, wizened, holding a rune-carved staff for support. His long white hair woven in with bones and feathers; his doe-skin clothing patterned with ancient swirling symbols of power.

The PCs approached, and were able to explain what had happened. Agammaran was saddened by the death of Oktar (the warrior the PCs killed) but understood it was a mishap. He spoke with them for a while and managed to discern what they were trying to accomplish. "Go north, to Hykim's Claw. In the valley of the Red Hoof clan of my people, you will find what you seek. Avenge the Red Hoofs, and this matter will be settled."

At which point, Agammaran turned and went back into his hut. Runolf, the PC priest tried to leave one of the group's horses behind as weregild, but was shot down by the others. They felt that if they dealt with the task Agammaran had given them, all would be settled, and there was no need to leave behind "extra" wealth as apology.

And so, they travelled for the rest of the day, finally arriving at the vale of the Red Hoof tribe. In the basin of the valley, they found half a dozen burned-out huts, the villagers left for the ravens. Up the other side, they saw three massive stones protruding from the grassy slope, stabbing out like an animal's talons (this is Hykim's Claw). Under that, a cave mouth, with thin wisps of grey smoke trickling up out of it.

And at that point, we called it for the night...

[Mac Logo]

Cool! When's the next game? I need to know more of this tale! You're making me all nostalgic for grim and gritty ol' RQIII.

Graeme

[PseudoIntellectual]

Sounds like a cool game. I keep meaning to read the Glorantha stuff, but man! The books are so... big!

Anyhow, thanks for posting about your game.

[Vagabond]

Wow, JB - great idea to start off in the midst of a battle in the future, and then
go back into the past to rp them to that point. I'll have to think on that for a
while - consider the idea stolen.

Also, congrats on your upcoming fatherhood. My son just turned one, it was a
blast - he was astounded by the consistency of the frosting on his hands, and
split the exploration 50/50 clenching/unclenching his handful of frosting, and
licking it off his hands before grabbing more. Have it all on video :D

The joys of redicovering all those things we take for granted - it truly is amazing.
As someone wise once said to my wife and I just before he was born:

"Can you imagine how much you will love your child? What you think now is only
a fraction of how much you will really love him."

-V

[zomben]

Cool! When's the next game? I need to know more of this tale! You're making me all nostalgic for grim and gritty ol' RQIII.

Gotta love Critical Hits and Fumble Tables, eh?

;)

Next session is planned for June 8th. I'll post the writeup the next morning, with any luck. Hope you enjoy it!

[zomben]

Sounds like a cool game. I keep meaning to read the Glorantha stuff, but man! The books are so... big!

Go from Macro to Micro. Grab one of the "Intro to Glorantha" books that've been published over the years, read it first. Then if any specific area grabs your attention, see if there's more info on that specific area. It's worth the effort.

Pretty much the entire text of the "Glorantha Book" that came with the RuneQuest III Deluxe set is posted on the Issaries website at: http://www.glorantha.com/library/intro-index.html worth a peek.

Anyhow, thanks for posting about your game.

You're welcome! Thanks for reading it!

[zomben]

Wow, JB - great idea to start off in the midst of a battle in the future, and then
go back into the past to rp them to that point. I'll have to think on that for a
while - consider the idea stolen.

Thanks! I was stumped for an opening, and ended up randomly watching The 13th Warrior a few weeks ago (pretty much, the RuneQuest movie, as far as I'm concerned) and stole the idea from the opening of that. At least as far as starting with future events.

Also, congrats on your upcoming fatherhood.

Thanks!!! I'm really excited!

[Molotov]

Well, since I was sitting at the table, I thought I'd add a bit of commentary ...

Having no knowledge of how they'd arrived there, the first moment of the game was a near leg-severing blow to the PC priest. He was mounted, and the axe blow went through most of his leg, and into the horse underneath. From there, I described the characters charging into the battle. It was dusk, stormclouds overhead, lightning flashing all around them. Horrible axe-wielding shaggy shapes coming out of the gloom all around them, cleaving into the PCs allys. Clearly a massive pitched battle was underway. Each of the characters got one turn to do something fast. They traded sword blows with the unknown attackers, still confused, not knoing how they'd gottten to that point, but rolling with it anyway.

As I recall, after the Father suffered that wound, I was next on the block, receiving a hefty dose of narration, followed by a what-do-you-do. At which point, and without hesitation, I bellowed in-character, "The Father! Protect the Father!" and proceeded to give my own short narrative of hacking through those between me and the priest, using my broadsword with damage boosting.

So stunning was my narrative that zomben moved on, forgetting to make me roll, until prompted by the other players once the "round" had finished. At which point, I nailed the roll, easily dropping the mook zomben threw at me. ;)

I then let the players introduce their characters: Runolf, the Priest of Malkion; Tordel a knight at home in the saddle; Ned a grizzled veteran of many campaigns; Guillaume a loyal warrior with a tragic past.

As they approached the keep, through the Black Crescent Fens that block it's access to the south, they were arguing about the details of the Malkioni religion (their home religion) with their priest, attempting to discern the intricacies of their Sect of the religion. Specifically, when was it okay to "kill others, and take their stuff?". As they argued ...

Some of this developed in response to my quering (IC and OOC) about Malkioni religion. I had been looking for the moral code, and had misunderstood it to have none other god than the Invisible one, and stay true to one's caste. From there, we basically decided it was how the warriors of the brotherhood gently sassed the Priest - we would spend each day, in part, coming up with odd, rare, or unlikely circumstances for the Father to arbitrate. Quite amusing, although upon realizing my misunderstanding about the moral code, I kinda wish I could have taken it back. Ah well...

And clearly they were not afraid of a big snail. Sigh...

Ah, well. We gave it some discussion as to whether or not we should have killed it from afar once we got the squires, scout and Father past it and out of range. Ultimately, we decided not to waste the effort.

At which point, the evening's feast was prepared. Runolf, the PC priest said a prayer as the castle's inhabitants set to their meal, rolling a "special" success on his Orate skill roll and greatly impressing everyone.

The wise Father was most impressive in his oration that evening

As they ate, they continued to chat with the other warriors in the keep, but learned little more. Finally a minstrel came out to entertain the group, but became flustered when Ned demanded he juggle for them all.

Bah! If he became blustered by a warrior shouting "Juggle! Juggle for us, Fool!" then, really, I don't know what to say ;)

With that, the PCs were tasked with going to investigate the farm, and find the attackers. The group was to be the four of them, their 4 squires and a scout to help them through the wilds.

Ha! As I recall, we listened to the explanation, having come by at the right moment, and on the conclusion of the tale, we took the task upon ourselves. To my memory, Ned looked at the Sgt and said, "We'll deal with this" or something to that effect.

I asked Ned and his squire to make a few Scan and Listen rolls. Ned's player (Molotov) astounded the group with his inability to roll anything under 80. Fortunately, the hsunchen rolled equally badly. This went on for a while as the beastmen got closer and closer. Finally, Ned's player rolled a decent Scan and one of the hsunchen fumbled his Sneak roll with a roll of 98. Ned heard a *crunch* ahead of him, and suddenly realized that a spear-wielding, animal-headed shape (the hsunchen were indeed wearing deerskins, the hoods having antlers) was lurking in a bush directly in front of him. With a cry of "We are attacked!!" he charged the hapless primitive warrior. And rolled an "01" (critical hit) on his broadsword attack, doing somewhere around 24 points of damage to the hsunchen's abdomen, effectively gutting the poor wretch.

Had he not been sneaking around in the bushes with a spear, the hsunchen would have survived.

Note to other players out there - see Ned's actions? That's what you want in your evening's watch. Well, other than the crappy scan roll - which, as we all know - is luck of the draw. Action-wise, please note the immediate, loud cry to wake the party, and the aggresive assault on the attacker. Sure, they didn't turn out to be enemies (sure they weren't ... ), but we had the luxury of dealing with that after not having been done in while we slept.

Don't be a complacent, lazy watchperson. Your companions lives depend on it. Only you can prevent watchperson dithering during a night attack.

Here endeth the lesson. ;)

Needless to say, the rest of the hsunchen fled at this point.

Ned is fiercesome indeed. Heh.

It was a fun evening - I'm looking forward to the next session.

[zomben]

<h1>Part 2: Night of Chaos Pt. 2</h1>
Last night was the second session of this game.

When last we met, the intrepid explorers Telor, Ned, Ranalf and Guillaume, along with their gaggle of rabble had just approached the valley of the Red Hoof tribe of Hsunchen. Last week, they had seen smoke rising out of a cave overlooking the village, and suspected that things were living in the cave. As the game started, we introduced a new character, Roland (played by RPG.net's indomitable Tetsujin28) who we decided was just one of the faceless rabble which they'd brought along with them.

They started off by scouting the valley. They set up archers along the crest, and sent their scout, Guy (a "grog" to use an Ars Magica term) down into the valley to get the lay of the land. He snuck from yurt to yurt, investigating and getting closer to the cave mouth. Eventually coming to rest behind a rotten tree stump, maybe a dozen yards from the cave mouth. He noticed bones, goat skulls, all sorts of rotten stuff outside the cave. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, Guy turned and slunk away to report. Unbeknownst to him, he had been spotted by two broo sentries within the cave. Also being not stupid, the broos were observing this well armed and armored man, rather than rushing out to attack. Massacreing defensless primitives is one thing. Taking on armored warriors brandishing cold bronze is another entirely. As Guy walked away from the cave, he happened to look over his shoulders, and catch a quick glimpse of humanoid shapes moving about quickly within. Thus confirming that the cave was at least inhabited.

Guy made his way up back to his companions. Once he reported what they'd found, the inevitable "planning" stage began (IE: PCs arguing about which was the better plan). Ned said they should fill the cave mouth with timber and burn out the inhabitants. Others said that this was a bad idea, as they didn't know who was in the cave. Perhaps villagers seeking refuge? Eventually, they decided to send a rider into the valley to try and draw the monsters out.

So, Telor, being the best rider of the group was nominated for this duty. He rode down the slope, eventually stopping at the lowest point of the valley floor. After pacing around a bit, and clearly not being attacked by monsters, he decided to go the more direct route. "Ho, the cave!" he shouted up at the cave mouth. No answer. "Ho, the cave!" again. Again, no answer. The broos inside were becoming more wary. Now there was another warrior on horseback, screaming at them in some foriegn tongue. They began to muster their defenses within the caverns.

At this point, it was clear Telor was not baiting anything. So he rode back to his companions. After some discussion, they decided that they must investigate the cave itself. So the five adventurers with their squires rode to the cave. They sent the squires to watch after their horses as the Adventurers approached the cave. They stopped about a dozen feet from the cave mouth, again trying to get the attention of anything inside.

At which point, the holy father, Ranalf stepped forward to enter the cavern. As he approached, a roiling black cloud poured out of a goat skull. The cloud formed a hazy black skeletal figure, and attacked. Within seconds, the father fell to the ground, now under the possession of a Fear Spirit. He was unconcious from the attack, and spent the rest of the session being guarded by the squires.

The Adventurers moved into the cave. The stink of death hit them as they entered. The floors were littered with bones and other disgusting things. They inched forward, and as the cave widened, found an alcove to the side. It was stacked with a pile of skulls, rotten heads, and other gruesome sights. Above all of this was the beast-headed Chaos rune painted in blood, crawling with fat, black flies.

Roland was distracted by this horrid sight as the others moved forward. Suddenly, as they entered the chamber at the end of this passage, they were set upon by three hideous broos. The fight was short and sweet, with the Adventurers delivering a volley of blows that dropped the broos in two combat rounds.

From here, the chamber widened out into two passages running north and south. They decided that more of the smoke was coming from the North, so decided to go that way.

As they made their way through the tunnel, they were greeted by more gruesome sights. More animal and human remains nailed to the walls, and other disgusting things. As they hit a turn in the tunnel, they found a man hanging from a spike in the wall. His hands and feet bound together, runes carved into his sallow, infected skin. He was rambling, incoherent. Telor decided to help him down from the wall. As he did so, he pressed his hands against the man's belly while lowering him to the ground. The first thing he noticed was tha the man's stomach was tight, distended. And then he felt something <i>squirming</i> in the poor man's guts. Telor dropped the man. Roland announced that the man was clearly hosting a swarm of broolings in his gut. Telor and Ned then made short work of the man, killing him quickly and mercifully. One of the pair chopped off his head, while the other stabbed him in the guts with a spear, hoping to kill the infant broos. As he pulled the spear from the man's abdomen, the skin split open and three loathesome foetal broos spilled out. They too were put to the sword.

Going further into the cave, they found a few more prisoners, host to broolings. They too, were dealt with swiftly.

The passage opened further, and they came across a loathesome shrine to Malia, the plague goddess of Broo-kind. It was being stalwartly defended by another five broos. The broos stood before their shrine, braying and beating their shields with clubs. The Adventurers stood at the opening of the cavern, discussing options. While they talked, elsewhere in the caves, three more broos and their Scorpionman pal were being drawn by the sound of the shield-beating. As the Adventurers stood in a "Gloranthan Faceoff" with the broos, they suddenly heard something rushing up the cave behind them. So they charged.

The broos and Adventurers clashed mightily. Blows were thrown and parried. Guillaume thrust his sword deep into the guts of one broo, which died, spitted like a pig. In it's death throes, it's muscled cramped tight aroudn Guillaume's blade, and he spent the rest of the turn trying to get it free. Ned likewise impaled one of the beasts through the chest, his sword catching on rib bones, and being forced to wrest it from the corpse of the broos.

As they clashed wit the remaining beasts, Telor turned to reinforce the rear and watch for the monsters which were charging up behind them. Three broos crested the turn in the tunnel, charging right at him. As they got closer, the scorpionman rushed up after them. Saying a quick prayer to the Invisible God, Telor magically impeded the scorpionman's progress (Hinder 1). The broos in the cavern were now dead, and the adventurers turned to face the new threat. Another fury of blows and the broos went down just as the scorpionman charged them. Telor got one solid shield bash in. The scorpionman towered above Telor, swinging wildly with his club and missing. Roland attacked with his broadsword, hacking mercilessly at the beast's arm. As the scorpionman reared back, ready to deliver deadly poison from it's twin stingers, Telor rushed up, striking true with his sword, pithing the beast through his lower jaw, going right through the monster's brain and out the top of it's head. (Critical hit to the head...) The scorpionman fell to the floor, twitching... then dead.

They spent the better part of the next 45 minutes scouring the rest of the caverns. There were no more nasty monsters to be fought, though they did find the remains of the herd animals which the broos had stolen. They were all dead, most of them having their bellies torn open having given birth to broolings. Bloody slime trails left the corpses, trailing off into the lower, inaccessible reaches of the cavern. The Adventurers decided there was no way to go after them all, and so left the caves.

Outside, the Holy Father was just regaining conciousness. He was groggy, and feeling depressed from the effects of the fear spirit posession.

The Adventurers collected their things and rode back to meet the shaman Agammaran. They brought him the scorpionman stingers as proof of their quest, and having destroyed the monsters which had infested the valley. In turn, he performed a ritual, discorporating and doing battle with the fear spirit. He exorcised it easily, binding it to a chunk of obsidian for possible future use.

And with that, the Adventurers made their way back to the castle of Duc Marchad, and further orders...

[zomben]

Almost forgot:

One of my more favorite parts of last night, which I didn't include in the write up, was when the two RQ newbies asked, after killing the broos "So, should we search them for treasure or something?"

To which the three old-school Gloranthaphiles yelled in unison, "Nooooooo!"

Then one of them decided to kick over the shrine of Malia anyway. He made his CON x5 roll, however, and avoided catching the Creeping Chills

[hyperlexic]

Hi, Ben -

Great RQ writeup... nice crunchiness. I particularly enjoyed how much you maximized the disgusting nature of broos!

[zomben]

Being disgusting and depraved is what makes Broos fun!

:D

[hyperlexic]

Being disgusting and depraved is what makes Broos fun!

:D

True! But in all my play I've somehow never had to go into a broo den!

[zomben]

True! But in all my play I've somehow never had to go into a broo den!

That must be because your GM is a wimp. ;)

[Scorpio Rising]

Great writeup. I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

- Scorpio following.

[zomben]

Thanks!

This week's session was something of a dungeon crawl, but I think I injected enough creepy flavor into it to make it interesting (I certainly hope so, anyway).

Next session is where the plot really gets going. The first two sessions were really about getting players used to the rules and setting. Expect another write up in three weeks!

[Imperator]

Impressive. I want to know more.

Is always good to have some RQ action around here :) I'm very happy you're enjoying it.

[Mac Logo]

True! But in all my play I've somehow never had to go into a broo den!
Not even Snakepipe Hollow? :eek:
I weep for you.

Oh great write-up as well. Broo-bashes are really fun when you remember how nasty they really are. Nice Aliens vibes from the Broobirths. :)

Graeme

[tetsujin28]

Man, broos always give me the creeps.

As to why we vacillated about charging into the caves, there really was the possibility that the inhabitants were refugees from the previous week. But once we realized that we were in for a good ol' fashioned broo hunt, it was gung-ho all the way.

Oh, and beginning sorcery sucks. If our characters had been Orlanthi with the same amount of previous experience (c. 12 years or so), we would have had a decent amount of spirit and divine magic to help us. But, being good Christia...err...worshippers of the Invisible God, most of us instead have something like 10% in each spell. Woo! :D

[zomben]

Oh, and beginning sorcery sucks. If our characters had been Orlanthi with the same amount of previous experience (c. 12 years or so), we would have had a decent amount of spirit and divine magic to help us. But, being good Christia...err...worshippers of the Invisible God, most of us instead have something like 10% in each spell. Woo! :D

I'm still amazed Josh was able to get off that Hinder spell and slow down the Scorpionman. It really helped you guys out a lot.

Also, sorry for missing the movie last night. I felt like hell. Hope you got my message...

[Vagabond]

See - now I wish I (could afford to) lived in the Bay Area.

Miss out on some good ole RQ action - damnit !!!!

-V

[rayp]

Oh, and beginning sorcery sucks. If our characters had been Orlanthi with the same amount of previous experience (c. 12 years or so), we would have had a decent amount of spirit and divine magic to help us. But, being good Christia...err...worshippers of the Invisible God, most of us instead have something like 10% in each spell. Woo! :D

Since sorcery in Glorantha originated with the Mostali and the Brithini, both of whom live forever, the fact that it takes some while to master probably didn't bother them. In fact, they'd view it as an advantage as it stops those riff-raff mortal races from catching up and becoming a threat.

Plus it models the sword and sorcery cliche of the hoary old sorceror: you need to be a long-beard before you get any good at it.

Nice report BTW. Brings back memories of my mis-spent youth in the 80s: playing RQ and listening to heavy metal.

[zomben]

Nice report BTW. Brings back memories of my mis-spent youth in the 80s: playing RQ and listening to heavy metal.

You'll then be pleased to know that when I was at Chaosium in the late 80's working on the RQ books at that time, I had a pretty much constant stream of Iron Maiden, Metallica, etc. on my desk stero the whole time.

[Molotov]

As to why we vacillated about charging into the caves, there really was the possibility that the inhabitants were refugees from the previous week. But once we realized that we were in for a good ol' fashioned broo hunt, it was gung-ho all the way.

Understandably, given we had gotten into the investigation as a result of (Ned's) killing of the hsunchen in the previous session. We were, appreciably, somewhat hesitant to have a reoccurance.

[zomben]

Understandably, given we had gotten into the investigation as a result of (Ned's) killing of the hsunchen in the previous session. We were, appreciably, somewhat hesitant to have a reoccurance.

Yup. I was playing a deliberate shell game with you guys. Setting up broos and the hsunchen "deer people" so close together was simply to have a chance to mis-direct you. Because I am an evil GM.

[hyperlexic]

Oh, and beginning sorcery sucks. If our characters had been Orlanthi with the same amount of previous experience (c. 12 years or so), we would have had a decent amount of spirit and divine magic to help us. But, being good Christia...err...worshippers of the Invisible God, most of us instead have something like 10% in each spell. Woo! :D

I forget - are you playing with the RQIII sorcery rules? Or the Sandy Petersen ones? I always liked the latter set better.

My munchkin side always wanted to be a Lunar sorceror. Spirit magic with Intensity + Multispell.

Nope, never did snakepipe hollow. In fact I don't know if my GM (there was just one) ever used any standard scenario. But good fun nonetheless - most of our campaign was an extended campaign of Lunars trying to find the broken pieces of Arkat's sword, so that we could resurrect Nysalor. Or something like that...

[tetsujin28]

You'll then be pleased to know that when I was at Chaosium in the late 80's working on the RQ books at that time, I had a pretty much constant stream of Iron Maiden, Metallica, etc. on my desk stero the whole time.Motorhead, baby!

[Vagabond]

Motorhead, baby!

Heh - Ride the Wild Orgasmatron !!!!

Shoot - Deep Purple, Sabbath, Ozzy, Maiden, hell - even BOC provided great inspiration -
"Black Blade" and "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" are straight from Moorcock (he even
co-penned Veteran lyrics - it's about Jerry Cornelius). Oh, and who could forget Tull and
Yes.


-V

[tetsujin28]

Man. Somehow you're actually getting me to miss high school :D

[Mac Logo]

Heh - Ride the Wild Orgasmatron !!!!

Shoot - Deep Purple, Sabbath, Ozzy, Maiden, hell - even BOC provided great inspiration -
"Black Blade" and "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" are straight from Moorcock (he even
co-penned Veteran lyrics - it's about Jerry Cornelius). Oh, and who could forget Tull and
Yes.
Add in some Hawkwind and that was my first group's gaming soundtrack.

Ah shit ... getting all nostalgic now.

Graeme

[smascrns]

I can only say that you have an excellent choice of rpgs but your taste for music... (eyes keep rolling and rolling)

[SDLeary]

Standard RQ III rules at the moment. :)


I forget - are you playing with the RQIII sorcery rules? Or the Sandy Petersen ones? I always liked the latter set better.

My munchkin side always wanted to be a Lunar sorceror. Spirit magic with Intensity + Multispell.

Nope, never did snakepipe hollow. In fact I don't know if my GM (there was just one) ever used any standard scenario. But good fun nonetheless - most of our campaign was an extended campaign of Lunars trying to find the broken pieces of Arkat's sword, so that we could resurrect Nysalor. Or something like that...

[tetsujin28]

Add in some Hawkwind and that was my first group's gaming soundtrack.

Ah shit ... getting all nostalgic now.

GraemeI own every Hawkwind album up 'till 'round '90 or so. I still get chills every time I put Levitation or Choose Your Masques on the stereo.

[celebrityomnipath]

I miss Iron Maiden.

[zomben]

Motorhead, baby!

I was more of Blue Oyster Cult guy, myself.

But ya gotta love Metallica. I mean, they were from El Cerrito, and played Cthulhu and Stormbringer!

[zomben]

Also, this is my 1000th post.

I now return you to your 80's gaming nostalgia.

[SDLeary]

You scare me at times! :)

Steve

Also, this is my 1000th post.

I now return you to your 80's gaming nostalgia.

[tetsujin28]

I forget - are you playing with the RQIII sorcery rules? Or the Sandy Petersen ones? I always liked the latter set better.We're using the stock set.Nope, never did snakepipe hollow.Dude, you are missing out. It's one of the all-time great dungeon crawls. You don't know pain 'till you've been criticaled by an RQ giant! :eek:

[hyperlexic]

Dude, you are missing out. It's one of the all-time great dungeon crawls. You don't know pain 'till you've been criticaled by an RQ giant! :eek:

Lord, I can imagine! Probably 60+ points of damage to a 5-point hit location with at most 8 points of armor!

[tetsujin28]

Lord, I can imagine! Probably 60+ points of damage to a 5-point hit location with at most 8 points of armor!Well, in RQIII you can crank up a lot more armour than that: no limit to Protection (vs. 4 in RQII) + Shield 4 + 8 pt. plate + 16 point shield = at least 32 points. But yeah, you're still toast, 'cause the critical bypasses all of that.

[Gallowglass]

I was more of Blue Oyster Cult guy, myself.

But ya gotta love Metallica. I mean, they were from El Cerrito, and played Cthulhu and Stormbringer!

For various bizarre reasons, Stormbringer's soundtrack for me will always be Magnum (Kingdom of Madness and, natch, Lord of Chaos, in particular) and Marillion's first three albums, which inspired a couple of epic campaigns my brother ran at the University of Kent in the early 1980's and which I retooled for my Uni Stormbringer game some five years later...

Although I have very fond memories of a bizarred Hawkmoon campaign at Uni that was inspired by Iron Maiden album covers, and the plot of King Lear: mind we were the last renegade remnants of the Order of the Butterfly so it was a fairly sick campaign...

But given my rather confused musical taste, all sorts of weird stuff influenced my games. Runequest I always associate with punk (the Clash, SLF etc) but that's a) what I was listening to when I started playing it and b) fitted the down and dirty vibe of early Pavis based games and the style of my own RQ setting I rapidly switched to...

Zomben: cool game, look forward to further installments!

Cheers,

NDM

[Molotov]

For various bizarre reasons, Stormbringer's ... Zomben: cool game, look forward to further installments!

Interestingly enough, the old Stormbringer game is pretty much one of my favorite of the BRPs (CoC being first, as it well should be). While I followed the game over several incarnations, I've never run it or played.

Perhaps at some point in the future, now that Zomben's gotten me playing RQ for once, I'll return the favor rules-wise and run some Stormbringer for him.

Which, of course, will be even more bleak and despair ridden than this RQIII campaign (well, ok, it hasn't been exactly bleak and despair ridden ... yet).

[zomben]

Interestingly enough, the old Stormbringer game is pretty much one of my favorite of the BRPs (CoC being first, as it well should be). While I followed the game over several incarnations, I've never run it or played.

Perhaps at some point in the future, now that Zomben's gotten me playing RQ for once, I'll return the favor rules-wise and run some Stormbringer for him.

Which, of course, will be even more bleak and despair ridden than this RQIII campaign (well, ok, it hasn't been exactly bleak and despair ridden ... yet).

Hahahah! Yet...

Of course, you pretty much all know how it's going to end, having had a preview of the "final battle"...

The big question is: "Who are you fighting against? And who are your allies?" hmmm...

[hyperlexic]

Hey, Zomben - Any more actual play since June?

[SDLeary]

Hey, Zomben - Any more actual play since June?

No play since... iirc August. Life has sort of worked against the group this summer, and Zomben's life has just changed big time. This game is probably on semi-permanent hiatus.

SDLeary

[zomben]

That's about it! Our son was born just a few weeks ago!

As we drew closer to his birth, I just didn't have time to run a game, and had to put it on hold. In the meantime, Molotov stepped up to run his awesome FUDGE Traveller game (which I played in for a couple of months) and I've just been playing "Daddy" for the last few weeks.

Which is just utter and complete awesomeness.

I do hope to get the RQ game going again, and at this point, am thinking I might try kicking it off again early in 2006. We'll see.

For some of my current thoughts on gaming, and BRP specifically, check out this other thread: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=224495

[Imperator]

That's about it! Our son was born just a few weeks ago!

As we drew closer to his birth, I just didn't have time to run a game, and had to put it on hold. In the meantime, Molotov stepped up to run his awesome FUDGE Traveller game (which I played in for a couple of months) and I've just been playing "Daddy" for the last few weeks.

Which is just utter and complete awesomeness.



My best wishes for you and your family, dude. Congratulations!
:)

[zomben]

Thanks! :D

[Vagabond]

Yeah JB, congrats. It's a wild wild ride, but every day is an adventure.

Our son is going to 18 months old tomorrow - has his checkup today.

He is not going to be a happy camper !!! 3 shots I think :(

But, he is at that stage where he's running around like a madman, gibberish
spewing out as he really starts to discover language and communication, and
new found dexterity and coordination development.

It's fun to rediscover all those things we take for granted - you get to see the
wonder in your child's eyes as they experience things for the first time.

So kudos to you and your family - relish every moment.

-V

[hyperlexic]

That's about it! Our son was born just a few weeks ago!

As we drew closer to his birth, I just didn't have time to run a game, and had to put it on hold. In the meantime, Molotov stepped up to run his awesome FUDGE Traveller game (which I played in for a couple of months) and I've just been playing "Daddy" for the last few weeks.

Which is just utter and complete awesomeness.

I do hope to get the RQ game going again, and at this point, am thinking I might try kicking it off again early in 2006. We'll see.

For some of my current thoughts on gaming, and BRP specifically, check out this other thread: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=224495

Ah - I think a new child does outclass my need for temporary amusement! Congratulations!

More on the other thread...

[SDLeary]

That's about it! Our son was born just a few weeks ago!

As we drew closer to his birth, I just didn't have time to run a game, and had to put it on hold. In the meantime, Molotov stepped up to run his awesome FUDGE Traveller game (which I played in for a couple of months) and I've just been playing "Daddy" for the last few weeks.

Which is just utter and complete awesomeness.

I do hope to get the RQ game going again, and at this point, am thinking I might try kicking it off again early in 2006. We'll see.

For some of my current thoughts on gaming, and BRP specifically, check out this other thread: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=224495

And, whats even more amazing is that even with all the sleep deprivation he is coherent enough to still post! ;-)

SDLeary

[zomben]

And, whats even more amazing is that even with all the sleep deprivation he is coherent enough to still post! ;-)

SDLeary

I chalk it all up to my Germano-Celtic tenacity.

[Imperator]

Dude! Bring on the RQ goodness! Stop being a lazy fucker, with all the excuses of 'My son's just born and whatnot'! We want RQ goodness!

;)

[zomben]

Ha!

Well, you never know. I'm hoping to start a game up again with these guys in the next few months. I'm waffling between RQIII and the new Deadlands: Reloaded.

But right now, taking care of the Boy, and trying to find a new job (laid off two weeks ago! Ugh...) is taking center stage...

Ben

[Imperator]

Well, you never know. I'm hoping to start a game up again with these guys in the next few months. I'm waffling between RQIII and the new Deadlands: Reloaded.

Fuck Deadlands with a spoon!! You promised us RQ!! You owe to your voters!! :D

But right now, taking care of the Boy, and trying to find a new job (laid off two weeks ago! Ugh...) is taking center stage... Ben

And I wish you the best luck in all these things :)