Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, 13th Age Glorantha, and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.
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Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is anthology of scenarios and the beginnings of a campaign for use with Korolan Islands: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 1, both written for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.
It is a one-hundred-and-twenty-nine page, full colour, 50.60 MB PDF.
The layout is clean and tidy, but the text feels disorganised in places and requires an edit. The artwork varies in quality, but some of it is decent.
Where is it set?
Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is set on Mingai and Sitoro, two of the five Korolan Islands that make up the Korolan Isles which lie in the Jeweled Islands, the Islands of Wonder that lie to the east.
Who do you play?
Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is designed to be used with Player Characters who are native to the Korolan Islands. (The possibility of outsiders playing the scenarios is acknowledged, but not developed to any great depth.)
What do you need?
Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 requires Korolan Islands: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 1, RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the Glorantha Bestiary, and The Red Book of Magic. In addition, the Guide to Glorantha and The Stafford Library – Vol VI Revealed Mythologies may be useful.
What do you get?
Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is anthology of scenarios set on two islands previously detailed in Korolan Islands: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 1. More specific setting information is provided for both islands, including settlements, major landmarks, and NPCs minor and major. Thus, for Mingai, this is the village of Verena; the Crack of Fire, sacred place to the women of Mingemelor cult; and Red Top Hill, renowned for its red rocks and the former occupant, a wizard called Red Top. Particular attention is paid to the village of Serena, since Mingai is the setting for three of the scenarios in the anthology. Whilst, for Sitoro Island, this the Senate House of Sitoro, seat of the Korolan senate, and the Dream Canal, which flows down from Laughing Plateau, and if paddled up to the waterfall at its far reaches, a gateway to the Dreamworld may be found and entered. Only the one scenario, the third, is set on Sitoro Island.
The adventures themselves involve a good mix of physical action, interaction, and spiritual confrontation. The latter in particular, figures prominently in the confrontations in two of the four scenarios and the Player Characters do need to be prepared to face such threats. ‘The Nest’ is the first scenario of the quartet and quickly involves the Player Characters in the politics of the Almainas, the women who led the island. The Player Characters are engaged to investigate and deal with the presence of a Roc, recently arrived on the island and having built a nest, causing consternation and havoc by eating too many goats. However, none of the Almainas can quite decide what is the best course of action—kill the gigantic bird, charm it, drive it off, and so on. Ultimately, it will be up to the players and their characters to decide, but the Almainas do provide the characters with means to communicate with the creature. Climbing to the nest is a challenge in itself and the Player Characters are not the only ones interested in the contents of the nest. All possibilities are explored and there are some decent rewards for the Player Characters whatever action they decide to do. Overall, this is a fun scenario with a good mix of action and combat.
‘The Nest’ is followed by ‘The Hill of Red Top’. Here, the Player Characters are employed to climb up to the Hill of Red Top and there investigate Red Top Tower, abandoned years ago by a wizard and then his servants, and said to be cursed. It is damaged, but occupied still, by a very strange creature. This is a Keet, one of the avian species similar to the Ducks, but who can be found in separate albatross, cormorant, gull, mallard, pelican, puffin, seagull, tern, and other tribes throughout the East Isles, who has been maddened by spirits and who may hinder or help the Player Characters—and who in the long term may actually join them as a companion. ‘The Hill of Red Top’ has the feel of a classic wizard’s tower of fantasy roleplaying, full of secrets and some nasty encounters with spirits. The secrets hint at the island’s dark past, both relatively recent and in the long past. Uncovering these secrets will put the Player Characters in deadly danger and some of those secrets have ramifications that will not come into play until the fourth scenario in the anthology. There is a certain grubbiness to the scenario and it may end not only with the Player Characters not only being joined by an odd companion, but by their cementing a place in the community of the village of Verena.
Taking place on the island of Sitoro, ‘The Korolan Games’ involves another classic gaming situation—a competition. An annual event which takes place between all of the Korolan Islands and serves two purposes. One is to funnel the energy of the islands’ youth into peaceful activities rather than raiding and the other is to determine who will be the king or queen of the islands for a year with the winning island also exempt from paying tax for a year. So, it is not just a matter of winning individual competitions, but winning as many as possible. The Player Characters get to both attend and participate in the individual events, each played on a single day. There are generous rewards for the winners as well as reputation gains aplenty. However, because the competition has political ramifications, the event is far from clean and fair. There are many willing to cheat and resort to other acts of skullduggery to win. Thus, the Player Characters will kept involved investigating the various machinations going on behind the scenes as much as they are participating in the athletics competitions. ‘The Korolan Games’ is a busy affair with a lot to keep track of and the Game Master will need to prepare the scenario with care.
The last scenario in the anthology is ‘Fires of Mingai’. The Player Characters are asked to investigate after a fiery ghost has arisen from the ashes and lava of the Crack of Fire and fires are spreading across the island, destroying farms and endangering life. Stranger still, the Mingemelor’s cult spirits seem to have done nothing about this interloper. The scenario has an epic feel as the Player Characters go in search of more information, including consulting an ancient and dipsomaniac Gibbon shaman, and potentially help, before a confrontation with powerful fire spirits which will reveal some dark truths—hinted at in the second scenario, ‘The Hill of Red Top’—brings the anthology to a close.
One fundamental issue with Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is the lack of pre-generated Player Characters. The authors instead suggesting that NPCs could be used from amongst the competitors for the Korolan Games in the second scenario, ‘The Korolan Games’. Many of these are also NPCs tied to the four scenarios in the anthology, so not necessarily suitable. Further, given the differences between the setting of Dragon Pass and the Korolan Islands, pre-generated Player Characters would serve as a way to ease the players into and past those differences, showcasing the different Occupations and Cults. It would also make the four scenarios in the anthology easier to run.
Is it worth your time?
Yes—Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2, with its four engaging scenarios, puts the setting detailed in Korolan Islands: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 1 into action and enables the players to explore RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha from a different cultural perspective in a dispersed island setting.
No—Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is too location specific and too radical a change in cultural outlook to be of use in a general RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha campaign.
Maybe—Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is too location specific and too radical a change in cultural outlook to be of use in a general RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha campaign, but its scenarios could be used to explore a clash of cultures.
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