Friday Fantasy: The Hunt for the Storm Calf

In anticipation of the upcoming raiding season, the tribes of Prax have come together at the Paps, the sacred ground at the mouth of Deep Womb of the Goddess, home to Eritha herself, where their leaders perform the annual ceremonies that herald its start. Although the various tribes have their long histories between them, some of them have heated rivalries, which at times can break out into open war, all that is put aside for the time spent together at the Paps. This will provide some succor to the members of the Sable Riders tribe chosen to accompany their Tribal Queen Delenda Rock Speaker and her consort, Sable-Khan Boronwaha, as the reputation of the tribe was sullied in the eyes of many by its close links to the Lunar Empire. When the High Priestess of the Paps and the Khans of all the tribes emerge from the ceremonies, it is not only to announce the start of the raiding season, but to make a portentous proclamation. Whichever Khan returns to the priestess and presents her with the most cattle will be declared to be the ‘Khan of Khans’ and thus become the year husband of the Most Respected Elder. This is a position of great respect and the Khans of all of the tribes want to win this role, but for the Sable Riders it would be a chance to restore their reputation and their standing with the other tribes. In addition, there is another factor that might persuade the High Priestess of the Paps to acclaim Tribal Queen Delenda Rock Speaker Khan of Khans, and that is the appearance of one of the Storm Calves, the cattle holy to Storm Bull, the god dedicated to destroying Chaos. Whilst Tribal Queen Delenda Rock Speaker prepares to lead the tribe west to raid the rich and fertile lands of Sartar, she turns to the trusted tribe members of her entourage to capture the Storm Calf. In other words, the Player Characters!

This is the set-up for The Hunt for the Storm Calf, a scenario for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha published by Chaosium, Inc.. It is not all that there is to the scenario, but the scenario itself is very different to other official support from the publisher. Primarily, this is because it takes place on the plains of Prax, the dry, dusty lands between Sartar in the west and the city of Pavis in the east, and most of the supporting content for the setting has focused on Sartar. It is thus designed as an introductory scenario to the region and some of the culture of the Praxian nomadic tribes that wander the region, but thematically, it is actually inspired by the card game, Khan of Khans, which is also about cattle raiding. As an introductory scenario it includes six-pre-generated Player Characters, which together with the stats and sheets for their mounts and all of the NPCs, actually doubles the length of the scenario! as an introductory scenario, it can also be run using just the RuneQuest Starter Set.

This set-up though, is really for the second, all-action two thirds of the scenario. In the first part, the Player Characters have some time on their hands whilst their tribal leaders are at the ceremony. This gives them the opportunity to interact with the other tribes, perhaps make some friendships, help make some deals, and so on. No conflicts are allowed as the tribes are all together on sacred ground, though there is nothing to stop the Player Characters stepping outside of the area and the Player Characters are encouraged to play pranks on members of the other tribes. This allows for the players to be inventive in what pranks they can play, as slightly disappointingly, there are no suggestions given as to what pranks their characters might pull.

The middle part of the scenario is the race to capture the Storm Calf—and it is a race. The Player Characters do not start at the front, but must ride hard for many hours over hard ground. There are random encounters for what happens if the Player Characters do rest, but not on the race itself. There are two location encounters along the way, but it does seem unbalanced given that the Game Master will use both of those, but only one of the random encounters and only then if the Player Characters decide to rest.

Once the Player Characters reach the Day’s Rest oasis, they have a mystery on their hands—where is Storm Calf? It will be easier for them to find it the better the result they achieved in the race there, but a timeline nicely explains what each of the tribal rivals does, depending upon the position in which they finish in the race. With everyone looking for the Storm Calf, the Player Characters will need to conduct any investigation with some speed and follow it up before someone beats them to it. The scenario’s finale takes place somewhere unexpected and may be challenging for the Player Characters more used to wide open spaces of the Praxian wastes. Lastly, the scenario gives the players and their characters a moral dilemma to resolve.

The scenario includes six pre-generated Player Characters as well as their mounts. They are all members of the Sable Riders tribe and consist of a still ardent and proselyting Seven Mothers cultist; an older cavalry rider unhappy with the tribe’s former alliance with the Lunar Empire; a Seven Mothers cultist and healer at a loss with the breaking of the alliance with the Lunar Empire; a cavalry rider whose parent was a Lunar emissary and having suffered for it, loathes the empire; and a Storm Bull initiate; and an apprentice shaman of the Earth Witch. It is a good mix and there are some interesting tensions between the six over the tribe’s alliance with the Lunar Empire just as there is between the Sable Ride tribe and the other tribes of Prax.

Physically, The Hunt for the Storm Calf 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 Hunt for the Storm Calf works well as a one-shot scenario, playable in a long session or two. It also works well as an introductory scenario to RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the plains of Prax and some of its peoples. It highlights the importance of tribal status, recent Praxian politics, and inter-tribal tensions as well as the importance of traditional events, whilst also placing the players and their characters as the outsiders due the inter-tribal tensions, which can lead to some interesting roleplaying in the scenario. However, as an introductory scenario, it could have done with a background sheet for the players that explained the recent history of the Sable Rider tribe and its relationship with the other tribes so that they would have a better understanding of the situation and these tensions. In the long term, another issue is that there is not the support readily available to continue playing these characters in the Prax setting. This should not be an issue for an experienced RuneQuest Game Master though, who should also be adapt the scenario to a different tribe should she want to for the purposes of her campaign.

Although it will need a little effort to bring out some of the tensions in the scenario to their fullest, The Hunt for the Storm Calf is an exciting scenario that offers a good mix of roleplaying opportunities and plenty of action as the Sable Riders race to restore their reputation.