Jonstown Jottings #74: A Lamp for Esrola

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.

—oOo—

What is it?
A Lamp for Esrola is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a sixteen page, full colour, 2.14 MB PDF.

The layout is clean and tidy. Both artwork and cartography are decent.

Where is it set?
A Lamp for Esrola is set in the Holy Country, beginning in Nochet and taking the Player Characters to the Shadow Plateau and back again.

Who do you play?

There are no requirements or suggestions for the Player Characters to play A Lamp for Esrola, but an Issaries worshipper or a Player Character with good interaction skills will be useful. Player Characters with the Passion, Hate (Trolls) may be at a disadvantage.

What do you need?
A Lamp for Esrola requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha only, but the Glorantha Bestiary will be useful for its details on Trolls.

What do you get?

A Lamp for Esrola is a simple ‘fetch and carry’ mission. It begins in Nochet with the Player Characters tasked with retrieving a set of the Tears of the Only Old One which hold the secrets of Light and Darkness and are the source of eternal light. These are required as part of the rebuilding and rededication ceremony for the new Temple of Esrola, the old one having been destroyed during the Siege of Nochet. This requires them to travel to the Shadow Plateau, home to the Trolls in the region. Several routes to the Shadow Plateau are given, as are several means of obtaining the Tears of the Only Old One, including theft, violence, and negotiation. The Player Characters can use any method that they want. The most likely methods will cost the Player Characters a great deal of money, but with careful bargaining the price can be brought down. The Player Characters and the Temple of Esrola are not the only ones interested in the Tears of the Only Old One and they are likely to have a fight on their hands.

If the scenario is played as written, the Player Characters will be able to bring the Tears of the Only Old One back to the temple and participate in the ceremony. They will be very well rewarded, including with a magical sword!

In addition to describing the magical sword, the scenario includes the details of Fufluns, the grandson of Esrola, the Jolly Fat Man known as a reveller, brewer, and host. His cult is also detailed enabling the Player Characters to become members if necessary. Also given is the Courtesan skill.

Is it worth your time?

Yes—A Lamp for Esrola is an entertaining scenario suitable for a campaign set in Esrolia which gets the Player Characters involved with the Trolls.

No—A Lamp for Esrola is too location specific and the Game Master’s campaign may not have yet reached Esrolia.

Maybe—A Lamp for Esrola can be adjusted to anywhere where there may be Trolls and the Cult of Esrola wants to establish a new temple.

Jonstown Jottings #51: Grungnak Fearless

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.

—oOo—

What is it?
Grungnak Fearless presents an NPC and his entourage, and trinkets for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a twenty-eight page, full colour, 1.83 MB PDF.

The layout is clean and tidy, and its illustrations good. It does need an edit in places.

Where is it set?
Grungnak Fearless is nominally set in the Big Rubble where the NPC is feuding and scheming to be the fifth ‘Great Clan’ of Trolls or Uz, in the ruins of the city in an event known as the ‘Foreign Bully Feud’. With some adjustments, it could be set elsewhere, and suggestions are included as to where and how to include this NPC in those regions.

Who do you play?
No specific character types are required to encounter Grungnak Fearless. 

What do you need?
Grungnak Fearless requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the Glorantha Bestiary, and The Red Book of Magic. In addition, the RuneQuest Classic supplements, Pavis: Threshold to Danger, Big Rubble: The Deadly City, and Trollpak: Troll Facts, Secrets, and Adventures for RuneQuest will information which will be useful for using Grungnak Fearless in a Game Master’s campaign.

What do you get?

The second volume of ‘Monster of the Month’ presents not monsters in the sense of creatures and spirits and gods that was the feature of the first volume. Instead, it focuses upon Rune Masters, those who have achieved affinity with their Runes and gained great magics, mastered skills, and accrued allies—corporeal and spiritual. They are powerful, influential, and potentially important in the Hero Wars to come that herald the end of the age and beginning of another. They can be allies, they can be enemies, and whether ally or enemy, some of them can still be monsters.

The second volume comes to a close with Grungnak Fearless, a brutal Death Lord of Zorak Zoran, the God of Hate and Vengeance. From her beginnings as a bandit, she has arisen to be a true monster, reveling in murder and mayhem, selfishly pursuing the novel and the new as she schemes, but mostly bludgeons her way to the top. Having amassed a number of followers in her leaden grasp, she is hellbent on taking out her rivals—using any means necessary, but ultimately and preferably at the end of her great hammer, and then eating them. Both as revenge and to see what they taste like. Multiple suggestions are included on how to use Grungnak Fearless. This is as an ally or an enemy and includes a pair of scenarios, one for each option. Both scenario outlines are well written and will help the Game Master develop them further for her campaign.

Grungnak Fearless is herself given full stats and a write-up, including her powerful bound spirits, one of which is a fire elemental! Her darkness elemental is nasty enough, but her command of a fire elemental gives her an edge that is utterly hostile to the outlook of other Trolls. A nice touch is that this is not instant, but takes time and Grungnak Fearless’ Trolkin must carry the wood and kindling to set a bonfire of sufficient size ablaze to summon the fire elemental. She also possesses Stolen Fire, a Zorak Zorani cult artefact which is won by defeating a Rune Master of a Fire/Sky cult in a heroquest, and then drinking his blood. Stolen Fire grants great gifts for any Troll who bears it. 

Grungnak Fearless’ entourage is also fully detailed. This includes her ‘lover’, Bazzik Fineteeth, a Rune Priest of Argan Argar known for the unfaceted jewels embedded in his teeth; the mantis-obsessed Fenhield Mantis-Friend; and Waggul, Fenhield Mantis-Friend’s favouritist Mantis—because he is soooo cute. Stats are also provided for the general Zorak Zorani Warriors and Trollkin Slingers in the would be ‘Great Clan’. As with the other entries in the ‘Monster of the Month’, full stat sheets are provided for all of the NPCs in Grungnak Fearless.

Lastly, Grungnak Fearless details a short-form Rune cult of Gorakiki the Insect Mother in her aspect as Gorakiki-mantis, the subcult worshipped by the Kugurz Clan in the Big Rubble. For use by NPCs or Player Characters, this expands upon the Gorakiki cult with guidelines as to how intelligent manitises can initiate, what is expected of initiates, cult skills, Spirit and Rune magic, associated cults, and a pair of new Rune spells. These are Foreclaws and Transform Head (Mantis), and are as nasty as you would expect, in line with similar transformation Rune spells.

Is it worth your time?

Yes—Grungnak Fearless presents a monster of an enemy to face the Player Characters, or a particularly challenging ally to keep on side, especially if the Game Master is running a campaign set in Pavis and the Big Rubble.

No—Grungnak Fearless presents a potentially interesting ally or enemy, plus supporting cast, should the Game Master want to include a monster of an enemy to face the Player Characters. However, if the Game Master’s campaign does not involve Trolls or is set in the Big Rubble, and she does not want to adjust the content, it is of relatively little use.

Maybe—Grungnak Fearless presents a monster of an enemy to face the Player Characters, or a particularly challenging ally to keep on side, but the Game Master may simply not want to involve the Trolls in her campaign, take her campaign to the Big Rubble, or necessarily make the adjustments to brings it content into her campaign.

Jonstown Jottings #48: Ehnval Tallspear

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.

—oOo—

What is it?
Ehnval Tallspear presents an NPC and his entourage, and trinkets for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a twenty-four page, full colour, 2.49 MB PDF.

The layout is clean and tidy, and its illustrations good.

Where is it set?
Ehnval Tallspear is nominally set in and along the edge of the Astrola Forest in northern Esrolia, but the NPC and his entourage can be encountered almost anywhere the Game Master decides.

Who do you play?
No specific character types are required to encounter Ehnval Tallspear. Worshippers of Odalya may have an interesting encounter with one of his companions though and anyone who destroys parts of the forest it is his sacred duty to protect will find him a fierce enemy. A worhsipper of Chalana Arroy or another healing deity will be presented with an interesting challenge in one of the adventure seeds.

What do you need?
Ehnval Tallspear requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the Glorantha Bestiary, and The Red Book of Magic.

What do you get?

The second volume of ‘Monster of the Month’ presents not monsters in the sense of creatures and spirits and gods that was the feature of the first volume. Instead, it focuses upon Rune Masters, those who have achieved affinity with their Runes and gained great magics, mastered skills, and accrued allies—corporeal and spiritual. They are powerful, influential, and potentially important in the Hero Wars to come that herald the end of the age and beginning of another. They can be allies, they can be enemies, and whether ally or enemy, some of them can still be monsters.

The Ehnval Tallspear entry is Ehnval Tallspear, which describes a Wood Lord of Aldrya whose duty is to protect Derstrovil Grove and the Old Woods as both Speaker to Foreigners and Defender of the Grove. He is surprisingly outgoing for an Aldryami and has had dealings with humans, both as a fierce protector of, and an envoy from the forest. Ultimately his motives may seem alien to humans, but he is outwardly cheerful, even extroverted in most of his dealings when visiting beyond the treeline.

In addition to presenting the stats, history, and personality of the Wood Lord, the supplement suggests how he might be used as a friend or an enemy, also detailing his tactic should he become the latter. Both options are supported by an adventure seed each. In the first, he leaves the forest desperate to find a worshipper of Chalana Arroy or another healing deity who can help with a strange blight which has beset the forest that Aldryami has been unable to heal, whilst in the second, he begins a series of unprovoked strikes against the farms and communities abutting the forest. Can the adventurers determine the cause?

Ehnval Tallspear also details a number of interesting items. These start with a number of Elvish trinkets which can add flavour and detail to dealings with the Aldryami, and can either be used as gifts or items for trade. They include Arstolan honey and its flavours and effects (for example, black honey has little flavour, but greatly enhances fruit pies and sends anyone who knows a sorcery spell who eats such pies, to sleep), grown woodwork, Luck-Sprigs, and more. The secrets of the Icola Seed and Living Copper are also revealed. When thrown and the Accelerate Growth Rune spell is cast on an Icola Seed, it rapidly grows into vines that coil around and ensnare a target, whilst Living Copper is grown in Aldryami Dryad groves and when ultimately harvested—growing a branch can take centuries—can be enchanted and coldworked into various objects, including weapons. Ehnval Tallspear himself wields a spear of living copper.

Ehnval Tallspear’s entourage is also fully detailed. Andovar the Watcher is another Elf, but Green where Ehnval Tallspear is Brown, an Initiate of Yelmalio whose duty is to protect the grove during Dark and Storm Seams when the Wood Lord hibernates, whilst the most fun are  incredibly ancient Runner, and Borulgus, an Elf-Friend and talking bear who enjoys stalking hunters and then startling them when he speaks! An encounter with him should be interesting for any Initiate of Odayla. Rounding out the supplement of course, are the full stats and sheets for the four NPCs, plus generic Elf bodyguards.

Is it worth your time?

Yes—Ehnval Tallspear presents a potentially interesting ally or enemy, plus supporting cast, should the Game Master want to include Aldryami in her campaign or her campaign is specifically set in Esrolia (although the supplement can be set elsewhere).

No—Ehnval Tallspear presents a potentially interesting ally or enemy, plus supporting cast, should the Game Master want to include Aldryami in her campaign or her campaign is specifically set in Esrolia, but it definitely adheres to ‘Your Glorantha May Vary’. So it may not be in line with how the Game Master—or indeed, even how Chaosium, Inc.—views the Aldryami.

Maybe—Ehnval Tallspear presents a potentially interesting ally or enemy, but the Game Master may simply not want to involve the Aldryami in her campaign, or even take her campaign to Esrolia.

Jonstown Jottings #37: Renharth Blackveins

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.

—oOo—

What is it?
Renharth Blackveins presents an NPC, his entourage, and associated cult for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a twenty page, full colour, 1.46 MB PDF.

The layout is clean and tidy, and its illustrations good.

Where is it set?

Renharth Blackveins is nominally set in Sartar, but the NPC and his entourage can be encountered almost anywhere the Game Master decides.

Who do you play?
No specific character types are required to encounter Renharth Blackveins. Humakti characters may benefit from their interactions with Renharth Blackveins.

What do you need?
Renharth Blackveins requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha as well as The Red Book of Magic.

What do you get?

The second volume of ‘Monster of the Month’ presents not monsters in the sense of creatures and spirits and gods that was the feature of the first volume. Instead, it focuses upon Rune Masters, those who have achieved affinity with their Runes and gained great magics, mastered skills, and accrued allies—corporeal and spiritual. They are powerful, influential, and potentially important in the Hero Wars to come that herald the end of the age and beginning of another. They can be allies, they can be enemies, and whether ally or enemy, some of them can still be monsters.

The second entry is Renharth Blackveins, which details a Death Lord, a Rune Lord of Humakt who embodies his master through ‘Humakt Indomitable’, a subcult of Humakt. Deeply honourable, he is feared duellist who always fights fairly to match any opponent, including the use of support of some fearsome bound spirits, chief of which is Liberator, an woken enchanted iron sword that is a fragment of the Unbreakable Sword known as Humakt. Challaren, Renhearth’s swordboy, normally carries Liberator and Renhearth only calls for it when faced with a worthy opponent. Despite currently leading Boldhome’s ‘Household of Death’, Renhearth prefers single engagements to mass battles, and as Death Lord of Humakt Indomitable has overcome ‘death as malice’ and his former hatred of the Lunar Empire which drove both himself and his brother to resist the Lunar occupation of his homeland. Captured and forced to serve himself as a swordboy to a Lunar captain, Renharth would come to see the honour in his former enemies.

In addition to detailing and providing full write-ups of Renharth and his entourage—including several very powerful allied spirits, Renharth Blackvein includes a write-up of the subcult, ‘Humakt Indomitable’ which represents the enduring, impossible to subdue or defeat nature of Humakt. It can be joined by the usual means and requires the initiate to swear another geas, specifically an undertaking that requires dedication to a lifelong task or prohibition. Especially if the new geas has the potential for tragic consequences.

Several suggestions are given as to how to use Renharth, noting that he is a deadly enemy, capable of killing most Player Characters. Perhaps the most interesting way to use him in the long term is as a swordmaster as he accepts students from many religions or as an actual mentor to a Player Character. Above all though, it makes clear that in conquering both his malice and that of death, Renhearth is a pleasant rather than a miserable character. The supplement comes with two scenario seeds, both of which need a little development upon the part of the Game Master.

Is it worth your time?

Yes—Renharth Blackveins presents a straightforward, even pleasant aspect of Humakt, who can be an interesting supporting NPC or mentor, and if the Player Characters are powerful enough, a truly indomitable foe.

No—Renharth Blackveins present a straightforward, even pleasant aspect of Humakt, who may differ too much from the traditional view of Humakt and who might be too strong a rival for the Player Characters or too powerful an NPC if they are prone to antagonising others.

Maybe—Renharth Blackveins presents a straightforward, even pleasant aspect of Humakt, who may differ too much from the traditional view of Humakt and who might be too strong a rival for the Player Characters or too powerful an NPC if they are prone to antagonising others.

Jonstown Jottings #36: Shaivalla, Well-Loved

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.

—oOo—

What is it?
Shaivalla, Well-Loved presents an NPC for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a nineteen page, full colour, 1.67 MB PDF.

The layout is clean and tidy, and its illustrations good.

Where is it set?

Shaivalla, Well-Loved is nominally set in Sartar, but the NPC and her entourage can be encountered almost anywhere the Game Master decides.

Who do you play?
No specific character types are required to encounter Shaivalla, Well-Loved.

What do you need?
Shaivalla, Well-Loved requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha as well as the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary. In addition, The Red Book of Magic will be useful and Shaivalla, Well-Loved can also be tied into The Pegasus Plateau & Other Stories.

What do you get?

The second volume of ‘Monster of the Month’ presents not monsters in the sense of creatures and spirits and gods that was the feature of the first volume. Instead, it focuses upon Rune Masters, those who have achieved affinity with their Runes and gained great magics, mastered skills, and accrued allies—corporeal and spiritual. They are powerful, influential, and potentially important in the Hero Wars to come that herald the end of the age and beginning of another. They can be allies, they can be enemies, and whether ally or enemy, some of them can still be monsters.

The inaugural entry is Shaivalla, Well-Loved, which details a power-hungry, revenge-driven priestess of Ernalda, including her background, motivation, magical items and allies, and her retinue, accompanied by their statistics and full NPC sheets for each. Shaivalla, Well-Loved is an expatriate Sartarite, a member of the Locaem Tribe’s ‘royal’ clan, the Salvi, whose family was forced to flee south into Heortland following the Lunar occupation. After time spent in Esrolia, she has returned to her homeland a Priestess of the Earth, but not to her tribe, many of whose leaders she cannot forgive for their cooperation with the Lunar occupiers. Instead, she and her retinue wander Sartar, looking for allies, lovers, and anyone who might support her campaign against those she regards as traitors.

Shaivalla, Well-Loved is presented as both enemy and ally. She is cunning and Machiavellian, preferring to work behind the scenes rather than directly confront her enemies, working her way into the local cult of Ernalda and coming to influence a clan’s leadership—whether that is against the aims or beliefs of the Player Characters, or in line with them. To that end, four adventure seeds are included, some of which are easier to use than others, all of which will require development upon the part of the Game Master to some varying degrees.

Alongside the full stats for Shaivalla, Well-Loved, there are details of each of her bound spirits and the major members of her retinue. These feel a little underwritten in comparison, especially the Initiate of Eurmal the Vain, who is along for Shaivalla’s amusement and as a disruptive influence. Lastly, there is a full write-up of a magical artefact, ‘Lengarthen’s Head’, done in the style of Treasures Of Glorantha: Volume One — Dragon Pass. This grants the Ernalda priestess a powerful advantage should events turn against her and which should confound the Player Characters should they think that they have defeated her—at least the first two or three times… Thus she can become a recurring villain.

Although discussion of Shaivalla’s tactics—in and out of combat—are discussed, her long-term plans are not quite as detailed and possibly an outline of her campaign against Aritha, the High Priestess of the Three Emeralds Temple of the Locaem could have been useful. One definite omission is an illustration of ‘Lengarthen’s Head’.

Shaivalla, Well-Loved will definitely need some development upon the part of the Game Master to bring into her game, she should have both roleplaying her and developing her devious plans. However, the NPC it presents will easily play upon any hatred the Player Characters have for the Lunar Empire, and for those who do not, potentially lead to a potential rift between the Player Characters, and thus dynamic storytelling.

Is it worth your time?

Yes—Shaivalla, Well-Loved presents a devious, potentially disruptive presence in a campaign, one that potentially could lead to war against another clan—rival or not—especially if the Player Characters have a dislike of Lunars, and dynamic storytelling if they do not.

No—Shaivalla, Well-Loved presents a devious, potentially disruptive presence in a campaign, and whilst there is potential for dynamic storytelling, the Game Master may not want the playing group of her campaign so disrupted so.

Maybe—Shaivalla, Well-Loved presents a devious, potentially disruptive presence, especially in a Sartar-set campaign, but she does need a degree of development to work effectively.