Friday Fantasy: Stealing the Eye

Stealing the Eye is a smash and grab scenario. The Player Characters have to break into a temple, steal a jewel, and get out again. It is as simple that. Or rather, it is not that simple, because Stealing the Eye is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the roleplaying game of myth and legend published by Chaosium, Inc.. That means there is vengeance and honour thrown into the mix. In the north of Dragon Pass, the lands of Tarsh have for decades been divided between Lunar Tarsh and Old Tarsh, the former under the heavy-handed influence of the Lunar Empire to the north which has long sought to spread its influence and that of the Red Goddess south. Part of this involves repurposing local temples and one of these, once dedicated to a daughter of the Earth goddess, Ernalda, has been rededicated to the worship of Yara Aranis, Goddess of Six Arms, Goddess of the Reaching Moon, and Goddess of the Glowline, the literal line that marks the magical border of the Lunar Empire. Now a band of adventurers from a Orlanthi clan of exiled traditionalists have decided to strike at the Lunars when they and their magics are at their weakest, on Black Moon Day, by breaking into the Temple of Yara Aranis, prying the opal from the forehead of her statue, and striking a blow to Lunar pride, for Orlanthi honour, and the prestige of their clan.

Stealing the Eye is a short and direct scenario, intended to be played in a single session. It comes with a set of four pre-generated Player Characters and can be played as a one-shot, making it suitable for convention play, or it can be added to an ongoing campaign, with the players’ own characters replacing those of the ones provided. Should the players bring their own characters, the Climb, Jump, and Move Quietly skills will probably be the most useful along with their combat skills. One character type that will be useful and one not normally found in typical Player Character groups in RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, is the Thief, whether a worshipper of Eurmal or Lanbril. One of the four pre-generated Player Characters is a thief. There is also another reason why a thief is needed and that is because Stealing the Eye has a bit of history to it—thematic history, that is.

Long time fans of RuneQuest and Glorantha will recognise that the cover of Stealing the Eye is a homage to the cover painting by Tom Sullivan for Gods of Glorantha, a box set published by Chaosium, Inc. and Avalon Hill in 1985. That depicts a pair of adventurers about to do exactly what the Player Characters are doing on the cover of Stealing the Eye. In turn, Tom Sullivan’s cover was inspired a classic piece of roleplaying art—the cover by Dave Trampier of The Player’s Handbook for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition. Which of course, depicted another adventuring party attempting to prise the jewels as eyes out of the statue of a demon. That cover to The Player’s Handbook is perhaps one of the most emulated and copied pieces of artwork in roleplaying history, both as homage and parody, but mainly within the Old School Renaissance segment of the hobby, so it is a pleasure to see it given a nod here.

The scenario begins en media res. The Player Characters, consisting of a Dancing Woman of Maran Gor and the group’s leader, a thief and initiate of Eurmal the Trickster (and also a Duck), an Orlanthi warrior, and a Humkati warrior. Both warriors are brothers. Their task is to break in, get past the guards and temple staff, and make their way to the statue of Yara Aranis—and that is the easy part. How the Player Characters deal with the statue is another matter. The Player Characters have been told that the old Earth spirits, active before when the Lunar Empire arrived and took over the temple, may still be present, just suppressed by Lunar magic. If the Player Characters can appease them, then they may be of some whelp whilst they are in the temple. This would be difficult at the best of times, but again, it is Black Moon Day, so the Lunar magics are at their weakest in the temple—so there is a good chance.

The Player Characters can approach the mission however they want, but the objective is straightforward enough and the scenario covers numerous ways in which they can break into the temple and carry out their mission. The emphasis is on stealth and action as well as making the best use of their magic, rather than roleplaying, and it is designed to be used with the RuneQuest Starter Set or the full rules of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. That said, if the Game Master is running the scenario for players new to Glorantha, it might be worth creating a cheat sheet for each of the Player Characters, in particular, highlighting how Runes, Passions, and spells can be used, since they are pivotal to the play of the scenario.

Physically, Stealing the Eye is nicely presented in the house style of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. It is well written and laid out, and both the cover and the single illustration inside are excellent. The character sheets pack a lot of information onto a single page, but there are no illustrations of the characters themselves. The only thing that is missing that would have been useful, would have been a players’ map of the temple, since their characters are told about the temple in some detail.

Stealing the Eye is a highly serviceable and straightforward scenario that presents a Gloranthan treatment of a classic roleplaying situation. It is easy to set up and run and flexible enough to be run as a single session one-shot, or easily inserted into a campaign.