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A Premature Postmortem

So, midnight December 8 PST was the deadline for completion of the adventure for the Write Your First Adventure Workshop—or rather for submission for the workshop bundle. And how did I do?

Well, the good news is I finished writing my adventure just before the the midnight deadline.

The bad news is that means I didn't finish editing, doing the layout, adding art, etc. So... yeah, I guess my adventure isn't going to be in the bundle.

(So if the deadline was December 8, why am I only posting about it now, four days later? Well, I guess because I needed a bit of a break; I've been working every day since the 8th, but have been tired enough I basically went to bed right after getting home from work each day. No doubt much of the reason I was so tired is because I pulled an all-nighter on the 7th, having the ill-advised notion that if I could get done with the writing I could quickly toss it into a file with no art or formatting and get it up on DriveThruRPG in time to submit it to the bundle, and then add art and clean up the formatting later before the bundle went public. This was a very stupid idea, and I fortunately came to my senses and realized that before I carried it out.)

What went wrong? Well, in my first post here I already covered what I thought would be the three biggest things standing in my way... and yes, they all played a part. The least important was probably the late start; yes, I started on November 1 not realizing there were onboarding activities and so had to catch up with those, but that set me back... maybe a week. It wasn't really a deciding factor.

The other two, yeah, I think they played much more significant roles. Choosing to write my first published adventure for a system I wasn't previously familiar with was... unwise. That meant I spent a lot of time reading up on the system and the gameworld and researching particular details that I could otherwise have spent, well, writing my adventure. If I'd decided to write, say, a D&D 5E adventure instead, it would have gone much faster. (I just wasn't as interested in writing a D&D 5E adventure...)

But an even larger factor may have been, well, getting carried away and letting my ambitions run away with me. The workshop suggested shooting for a simple 3500-word adventure. I can, and did, fairly easily write 3500 words in one day. But my adventure was far longer than 3500 words. In fact, let me do a quick word count (the adventure's split into separate Word files, so I have to do a word count for each file and add them together)... okay, it looks like the total word count is, uh, 28,933 words. So, you know, I only overshot the recommended word count by 25,000 words or so.

It was going to be even longer, because I was also going to include a detailed description of the village of Marshedge where the adventure takes place. I eventually decided to split that into a separate product to be released later, and focus on the adventure for now. All those details on the village aren't really necessary to run the adventure; I think the adventure and the description of the village work fine as separate products. In fact, even before I'd decided to split them up, I'd already written in my introduction that the two halves of the adventure��the description of the village, and the scenario itself—could be used separately.

So, yeah, that cut my workload in half, and was something I really should have done a lot sooner. But clearly it still wasn't enough to get it done. It didn't help that despite having Thanksgiving weekend off I got very little done then, though even if I had focused on the adventure those four days it probably wouldn't have been enough to make a difference—maybe it would have given me enough time to get the formatting done, but definitely not the art.

(And, to tell the truth, even saying that I'm done with the writing is a bit of a cheat; there are a few bits I wrote very hastily the night of the 8th just so I could say I had it all written before the deadline, but that will definitely need to be rewritten and expanded a bit before publication.)

I titled this post "A Premature Postmortem", though, because, well... it's not over. I missed the deadline for the bundle, but that doesn't mean I have to stop working on the adventure. I don't want to burn myself out, though, so I'm going to just work on it a bit each day and take my time. And now that I'm not in a huge rush anyway, I may as well go ahead and wait till I've finished the village description too and release them together.

Now, one of the next steps I'm going to take, as in I'm going to go ahead and do it as soon as I've finished this post, is to make a spreadsheet to help me with statting up characters, where I can enter their statistics and it will automatically show their hit points, strike ranks, damage bonus, and I guess spirit combat damage for those characters for which that's likely to matter. Back in the days of D&D 3.5E, I set up spreadsheets to help me stat up 3.5E NPCs and creatures, and while RuneQuest characters aren't nearly as complicated and mathy to set up as D&D 3.5E characters, constantly looking up the tables to figure out the hit points and strike ranks and damage bonuses got tedious enough that I think it's definitely worth automating it.

There are, for what it's worth, a total of 32 stat blocks in the adventure, though about half of them are spirits, animals, or monsters that don't have stat blocks as complicated as full NPCs. While all those stat blocks are finished (well, I'm going to go over them and may make some changes, but they're at least tentatively finished), if I'm going to be writing the description of the village of Marshedge, that's probably going to include a comparable number of stat blocks too, so it's still worth making the spreadsheet. Well, that, plus it'll be handy for making more RuneQuest content later.

So anyway, I'm still going to keep updating this blog, and I guess I'll keep backdating the posts corresponding to specific days of the workshop, because whether or not that was a good idea I may as well stick to it. For now, I'm going to go ahead and make that character-building spreadsheet and, eh, maybe I'll go ahead and make a start on the Marshedge village description...

Oh. Although I missed the deadline for inclusion in the bundle, I guess I should probably set some new deadline for myself so I don't just keep delaying indefinitely. Hm... the end of the year is a tempting deadline, but maybe a bit unrealistic. I think I'll aim for the end of January, for both the adventure and the village description.

And in the meantime, I ought to get started on some of the art for the adventure...

[petrifact]

The Cult of the Shard: Summary So Far

So... all my previous posts here have been backdated to the dates in the Write Your First Adventure workshop when I was supposed to have that bit done. This is my first post here that's actually accurately dated to when I'm actually posting it. It's December 1, and I'm supposed to be done with my RuneQuest adventure by now.

I'm not.

My last post before this, at the time I'm writing this, is dated to November 12. Not because it was written on November 12—it was written and posted on November 22—but because well, that's the last day of the workshop I've actually finished the work for. (Well, that's not entirely true; I've done another day or two but haven't posted on Tumblr about them yet, but that's because I decided rather than prioritize posting on Tumblr I'd prioritize working on the adventure, which sounds like a good idea in principle except that I haven't been working on the adventure much either.)

Granted, I do technically have a little extra time; the deadline for inclusion in the workshop bundle is December 8... so I still have another week. Is it possible I'll get it done by then? Yes, if I really buckle down and work on it, it's possible. Is it likely? I'm honestly not sure.

I started off behind, sure, but I sure haven't done much catching up. I thought, hey, I'll have Thanksgiving off work, maybe the following weekend, too; I can get a lot done then. I did indeed have Thanksgiving off work, and the following weekend too, and got very little done. Sure, Thanksgiving itself I was with my family, and the next day too, so maybe I have an excuse for not getting much done those days, but I was home by myself on the weekend and didn't get much done then either, and sure, I could say well I needed some down time off work, I needed to take a break, but I could make up excuses all day and it's not going to help me get it done.

It's not that I'm stuck. It's not that I don't know what to do next. It's just that it's been really hard to make myself work on it. I said before that I had a lot of unfinished projects, and this is probably why. Maybe it's just something about how my brain works. I start on something, I make some progress, and then my brain just... decides it doesn't want to work on that anymore. Why? Search me. Maybe it's because I know once I finish the writing I'll have to do the layout and get it all PDF-ready, and that's something I haven't done before, so at some level I'm kind of apprehensive to get to it. Or maybe it's just the opposite; maybe it's because once I it all planned out, I've statted out the most important characters, and the hard part of the writing is over, the rest seems like just easy busy work and I lose interest. I don't know; I just know that... I really don't want to work on it. I want to have worked on it. I want to get it done. But it's been very hard to make myself sit down and do it.

(Although I've never been formally diagnosed with ADHD, I think it's... very possible that I may in fact have it, which if so may be a strong contributing factor.)

Anyway, though, another thing I know from experience about my brain is that once I do get started on something new and get in the groove, then my brain often decides it wants to focus on that for a while. It's been long enough since I was seriously working on this adventure that it's entirely possible if I do manage to make myself start on it this will kick in and I'll be able to power through and get it done. At least, that's the hope. I'm going to do my best to muster my willpower tonight to actually sit down and work on my adventure like I ought to be doing, and I think there's still a chance I'll be able to put in the time over the next week and get it done, and it won't become just another of my myriad projects I started and never got around to finishing. Here goes nothing...

[petrifact]

Write Your First Adventure Lesson 11: Player Choice in Adventures

This lesson describes, well, the importance of player choice in adventures, and discusses methods of increasing it. The associated activity is to take a published adventure you know well and think of ways to add player choice: maybe adding another entrance, adding links between unlinked elements, and so on.

You know what? No offense intended at all to the Storytelling Collective, but... I'm not going to do this. I mean, I guess if I weren't so far behind I probably would; I tend to be a completionist and want to do everything; but when I'm already this far behind schedule I don't really feel like I can spare the time to devise modifications to an existing adventure that I'm never going to use. I mean, I did kind of do this in my head, but I'm not going to write out a flowchart or anything. I really need to keep working on my adventure.

I'm not saying this is a bad activity, or that it shouldn't be included. Like I said, if I weren't so far behind schedule I'd probably do it. I'm just saying I'm way behind schedule and very short on time, and this is one I feel I can maybe skip.

So. Moving on...

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Write Your First Adventure Lesson 10: Allies and Enemies

The activity for this lesson suggested that the participant practice creating RuneQuest NPCs by picking their three favorite characters from their favorite TV show and statting them up in the RuneQuest system. I decided I wasn't going to do that, because, well, I was already behind schedule and statting up characters is time-consuming; why make three stat blocks I'm not even going to use? So instead of statting up three characters from a TV show, I decided I'd go ahead and stat up three characters in the adventure. Specifically, why not my three villains? I'd have to stat them up eventually anyway. Why not get it over with?

This was, by far, the most time-consuming of the activity for me so far. I had actually been catching up before this, but it took me days to finish this activity, and it set me further behind again. (To be fair, it's not like I was actively working on the activity for all those days. The activity was daunting enough that I did... kind of a lot of useless procrastinating. Well, not entirely useless; I did more reading of the RuneQuest books, and asked some pertinent questions on the Chaosium forum. Still... yeah, didn't work on this as assiduously as I could have.) It didn't help that the three characters were very different from each other and between the three of them used a variety of different RuneQuest rule subsystems I had to familiarize myself with, including geases, bound spirits, poison, and sorcery. It also didn't help that I gave one of the characters pets, and another the ability to summon a demon, and I figured I should stat those up too, so I really statted up six characters, not three, though the two pets in particular were substantially less complex. (Seven characters if you could the darkness elemental that one of the characters can summon, but that one's simple enough to not be counted.)

I'm sure copying and pasting this into Tumblr is going to play havoc with the formatting, but again, it's taking me long enough to post these that I'm not going to spend too much time making it look pretty; I need to work on the adventure. But here goes:

Deradi Onehanded

                Growing up in the city of Nochet, Deradi Onehanded was apprenticed at a young age to a local stonemason named Barnadel.  His master was cruel and demanding and had little concern for Deradi’s welfare or safety, overworking the unfortunate boy and having no compunctions about putting him in dangerous situations.  Deradi quickly grew to hate him and long to leave, but he was never given the opportunity to escape, and had nowhere to go in any case.  What finally freed him from his oppressive master was an accident in which a heavy, sharp-edged stone fell on his arm and severed his right hand.  Without his hand, he was of no further use to Barnadel, and the mason threw him out on the street.

                Without any other means to support himself, Deradi eked out a miserable existence by begging, scavenging, and theft.  But he found that while he might not have any manual skills, he did have a gift with language, and a talent for deception.  Before long, he was able to make a decent living through various scams and chicanery, using his wheedling words to part people from their goods and money.  Blaming his homeland for his wretched childhood, he emigrated north to Sartar, moving on from place to place whenever it seemed the locals were about to catch up to him.  Only recently has he tentatively decided to settle in one place, hoping that his latest scheme will be enough to support him indefinitely.

                Although magics exist that could grow back Deradi’s missing hand, he has chosen not to seek to have them cast on him.  He claims that his hand was lost in his quest for the shard of the Spike, and that he is geased to leave it as it is as a memento of his experience.  In truth, there are several reasons why he hasn’t tried to get his hand restored.  For one thing, people who pity him because of his maiming may be more likely to give him what he wants.  For another, he can make up elaborate excuses of his having lost his hand for grand and honorable reasons, which again helps with his schemes.  Also, the missing hand gives him an excuse to avoid manual labor and makes it easier for him to get him to do things for him, which feeds into his fundamental laziness.

                Deradi is not actively malicious, and wishes no one any real harm (save perhaps Esrolian craftsmen like Barnadel), but he is self-interested and amoral.  While he won’t go out of his way to hurt people, he’s not overly concerned if someone ends up getting hurt as long it works out to his benefit.  At heart all he wants is to have his needs provided for and maybe have people look up to him, and with the cult he’s getting that.  He does not share Asratha’s ambitions of expansion and conquest, but he appreciates her help with his cult scheme and is willing to go along with her plans.

                Even if he weren’t missing a hand, Deradi would not be able to put up much resistance in a physical fight; he has no real skill with any weapons and is neither particularly strong nor agile.  However, it would be difficult for the adventurers to get into a situation where they could face him without defenders.  He spends most of his time in his room at the temple of the Shard, and although he occasionally leaves the temple to go on a walk through the town, he is always accompanied by a few of his cultists when doing so.  Furthermore, he is never far from the two exotic pets he acquired in his travels, a young brown bear he calls Waddle and a velociraptor he named Snap.  These animals are perhaps the only beings Deradi really cares for, and they return his affection and will defend him to the death.  Also, of course, if the adventurers haven’t contrived to part him from the Shard somehow, he has its powers to call upon.  If all else fails, Deradi can use his magic ring to summon a darkness elemental.  He will do this only as a last resort, not only because he has no means of controlling the elemental, but also because he has no way of recharging the ring himself if the matrix is expended.  (He can, however, convince a worshipper of an appropriate god to recharge it for him, and he’s done so in the past.)

Deradi Onehanded

Lay member of Issaries.

Male, age 36. Esrolian.

Characteristics

STR 9 CON 13 SIZ 14 INT 16

DEX 10 POW 12 CHA 20

Hit Points: 13 Move: 8

DEX SR: 3 SIZ SR: 2

Runes: Darkness 60%, Earth 80%, Illusion 85%, Movement 65%.

Rune Points: 0

Magic Points: 22 (with POW storage crystal)

Passions: Hate (Authority) 75%,Hate (Esrolia) 60%, Love (Waddle and Snap) 70%

Reputation: 25%.

Skills: Act 70%, Bargain 80%, Charm 85%, Conceal 40%, Craft (Masonry) 25%, Disguise 30%, Dodge 60%, Fast Talk 70%, Game 65%, Hide 40%, Insight (Humans) 85%, Intrigue 55%, Move Quietly 35%, Orate 75%, Sleight 80%.

Languages: Speak Esrolian 90%, Speak Heortling 90%, Speak Tradetalk 55%, Read/Write Theyalan 40%.

Spirit Magic: Befuddle (2 pts.), Countermagic 4, Detect Enemies, Disruption, Dullblade 2, Glamour (2 pts.), Heal 3, Mobility, Protection 4

Ransom: 1,000 L.

Other Possessions: 10-point POW storage crystal, ring with black stone with a 2-point Summon Darkness Elemental rune spell matrix (see below), “Shard of the Spike” (see page @@).

 Deradi Hit Locations

Location D20 Armor/HP Right Leg 01–04 0/5 Left Leg 05–08 0/5 Abdomen 09–11 0/5 Chest 12 0/6 Right Arm 13–15 0/3 Left Arm 16–18 0/4 Head 19–20 0/5

Weapon % Damage SR Pts Dagger 25 1D4+2 9 6 Dagger, Thrown 15 1D4+2 3 6

Waddle (Brown Bear Cub)

STR 18 CON 12 SIZ 17

DEX 13 POW 10

Hit Points: 14 Move: 8

Base SR: 3

Combat: Waddle may either bite and claw twice or bite and hug in a round.  If he chooses to bite and hug, both attacks must be against the same foe.  If he bites and claws twice, he may attack up to three separate foes.

Armor: 3-point skin and fur

Skills: Climb40%, Dodge 50%, Listen 20%, Move Quietly 40%, Swim 50%, Track 40%.

Waddle Hit Locations

Location D20 Armor/HP Right Hind Leg 01–02 3/5 Left Hind Leg 03–04 3/5 Hindquarter 05–07 3/8 Forequarter 08–10 3/8 Right Foreleg 11–13 3/5 Left Foreleg 14–16 3/5 Head 17–20 3/6

Weapon % Damage SR Bite 40 1D8+1D6 7 Claw 35 1D6+1D6 7 Hug 30 4D6 7

Snap (Velociraptor)

STR 7    CON 12 SIZ 4

DEX 20 POW 9

Hit Points: 10 Move: 10

Magic Points: 9 Base SR: 3

Combat: Snap canbite and slash with the sickle claws on its hind feet in the same round, attacking up to two separate foes.  A special roll with the claw indicates a slash result and the damage is rolled twice.

Armor: 2-point skin and feathers

Skills: Dodge 70%, Jump 65%, Scan 50%, Track by Scent 55%

Snap Hit Locations

Location D20 Armor/HP Tail 01–02 2/3 Right Hind Leg 03–04 3/4 Left Hind Leg 05–06 3/4 Abdomen 07–09 3/5 Chest 10–12 3/5 Right Foreclaw 13–14 3/3 Left Foreclaw 15–16 3/3 Head 17–20 3/5

Weapon % Damage SR Claw 80 2D6–1D4 7 Bite 25 1D8–1D6 7

Medium Darkness Elemental

STR 19  SIZ 6 m3 POW 16

Hit Points: 19 Move: 6

Magic Points: 9 Base SR: 3

Combat: The darkness elemental attacks by instilling terror in its victims, pitting its POW against the victim’s CON.  See page 179 of the RuneQuest Glorantha Bestiary for details.

Asratha of Wark         

                Showing her intelligence from an early age, Asratha was initiated into the cult of Lhankor Mhy where she could indulge her thirst for knowledge.  She impressed the priests with the fervency of her study and with the avidity in which she devoured the books in the temple’s collection.  She learned the lore of the stars, of the Elder Races, of the minerals of the earth.  And she learned the secrets of sorcery, which she took to eagerly as a way to expand her power, seeking out obscure spells not commonly known to the cult.

Asratha was especially interested in history, and loved reading about the glory days of Sartar.  She exulted in tales of King Sartar Ernalsarsson himself, who united the tribes of Dragon Pass; of his being bound to the Feathered Horse Queen in a ceremony conducted by the strange Inhuman King himself, of his walking into the Flame of Sartar that consumed his body as he rose to immortality.  Of his son and heir Saronil Goodstone, who built the kingdom’s wealth and bargained with the dwarves for their secrets of construction.  Of the tragic romance of Saronil’s son Sarotar, murdered by the other suitors of the Esrolian princess he loved.

But she found the more recent history disappointing at best.  The nation Sarotar founded should have been the beginning of a great empire, but instead it was itself invaded by an empire from Peloria.  She was aware there were those with ambitions to become King of Sartar, such as Kallyr Starbrow and Queen Leika of the Colymar, but doubted any of them was up to the task of raising Sartar to the grandeur it deserved. 

When her own tribe, the Dinacoli, betrayed the Jonstown Confederacy to pledge themselves to Lunar ally Duke Harvar Ironfist of Alda-Chur, Asratha was disgusted, feeling that they were turning their backs on their chance to be part of a great united kingdom of Sartar.  She left her home village of Wark to travel across Sartar, ostensibly to gather more knowledge by first-hand observation and by visiting other libraries, but secretly also in the hopes of finding some hope for Sartar’s ascension, some spark that perhaps she could help fan into the flame that would exalt the land.

When she ran across Deradi preaching about his cult of the shard, Asratha saw an opportunity.  She didn’t believe for a moment that the rock Deradi carried was a genuine shard of the Spike; she saw him immediately for the fraud she was.  But she also recognized his talent for persuasion and his ability to turn others to his favor, and she saw in him and his cult a useful tool she could use to unite Sartar and elevate it to its merited splendor.  She offered to bind a strong spirit in the shard to give it real magic he could call upon to demonstrate its power.  Seeing how this would help him gather his cult, Deradi accepted her aid.  Asratha’s ultimate plan is to help Deradi’s cult grow to the point where it will become a force to be reckoned with, and Sartar will unite behind it—with Deradi as the cult’s face but Asratha, of course, as the real power and decider.  Deradi is unaware of Asratha’s aspirations.

Asratha carries a codex, bound in fine leather and with gilt decoration on the cover, which she uses as a journal, faithfully recording the events of her days.  The journal serves a dual purpose, however; it is also a binding enchantment in which she has trapped a spirit.  She has another spirit trapped in a jeweled hatpin—and of course it was she who bound the spirit in Deradi’s shard as well.  (This means she is currently at the limit of spirits she can keep bound, and cannot bind another without risk of one escaping.)  Note that Asratha always keeps the journal on her person, so the adventurers will not be able to find and read her journal and learn all of her plans that way!  Through her sorcery, Asratha can also summon demons of the Underworld to defend her or work for her.  Doing so requires an hour-long ceremony, so it’s not something she can do in combat, but if she expects to need the services of a spirit she may perform a summoning ritual in the morning to summon it for the day.  Her most frequently summoned servant is a demon named Foruel Ganodra—she knows the demon’s true name, so it is bound to obey her commands.

 

Asratha of Wark

Initiate of Lhankor Mhy.

Female, age 28. Dinacoli tribe, Fox clan.

Characteristics

STR 9 CON 13 SIZ 11 INT 20

DEX 12 POW 18 CHA 9

Hit Points: 14 Move: 8

DEX SR: 3 SIZ SR: 2

Runes: Fire/Sky 95%, Moon 65%, Knowledge 90%, Stasis 70%.

Rune Points: 4 (Lhankor Mhy)

Special Rune Spells: Analyze Magic,Mind Read, Translate, Truespeak.

Runes Mastered: Man,Spirit, Truth.

Sorcery Techniques Mastered: Command, Summon.

Sorcery Spells: Attract Spirits 60%,Bind Spirit 70%,Dominate Human 60%,Dominate Spirit 70%,Enhance INT 70%,Identify Otherworld Entity 65%, Logician 60%, Speak to Mind 40%, Summon Demon of Kaldan’s Gate 70%

Magic Points: 46 (18 + 28 in bound spirits)

Passions: Devotion (Lhankor Mhy) 70%, Hate (Lunar Empire) 65%, Loyalty (Sartar) 100%

Reputation: 15%.

Skills: Beast Men Lore 65%, Celestial Lore 60%, Cult Lore(Lhankor Mhy) 70%, Homeland Lore (Sartar) 95%, Library Use 80%, Meditate 70% Mineral Lore 60%, Mostali Lore 50%, Orate60%, Scan 55%, Search 60%, Sing 30%, Spirit Lore 70%, Troll Lore 50%, Worship (Lhankor Mhy) 90%

Languages: Speak Heortling 90%, Speak New Pelorian 70%, Speak Spiritspeech 60%, Speak Tradetalk 60%, Read/Write Theyalan 75%.

Spirit Magic: Detect Magic, Detect Spirit, Second Sight (3 pts.)

Ransom: 500 L.

Other Possessions: Journal and jeweled hairpin, both with bound spirits; POW 5 blue sensitivity crystal set in a brooch (see below).

Bound Spirit 1: (in journal) INT 15 POW 17 CHA 12.  Knows Countermagic 4, Detect Life, Disruption, Repair 2.

Bound Spirit 2: (in hairpin) INT 8 POW 11 CHA 9.  Knows Heal 3, Light, Spirit Screen 3.

Sensitivity Crystal: Five times a day, this crystal lets Asratha cast a 1-point Detection spell without expending any magic points.  (It could also reduce the cost of a 2-point Detection spell by 1 point, but Asratha doesn't know any 2-point detect spells.)  Note that if an adventurer acquires this crystal, they would have to attune to it before they could make use of its benefit.  See page 122 of RuneQuest Gamemaster Adventures (included in the Runequest Gamemaster Screen Pack) for rules on attuning to powered crystals.

Asratha Hit Locations

Location D20 Armor/HP Right Leg 01–04 0/5 Left Leg 05–08 0/5 Abdomen 09–11 0/5 Chest 12 0/6 Right Arm 13–15 0/4 Left Arm 16–18 0/4 Head 19–20 0/5

Weapon % Damage SR Pts Quarterstaff 50 1D8 5 8

Foruel Ganodra (Summoned Demon)

To those who can see it, Foruel Ganodra appears something like a giant three-legged kiwi bird with a lamprey mouth on the front of its body and green pustules sprouting from its back.  However, unless it is manifested it is only visible to those with Spirit Sight or similar abilities; it can manifest or discorporate at will.  Foruel Ganodra claims to be a grandchild of Tolat the War God and Ty Kora Tek, Goddess of Dark in the Earth—though Asratha strongly suspects this is a lie.

                Certainly there are other demons of Kaldan’s Gate that could in principle be summoned by Asratha’s spell, but Foruel Ganodra is the only demon whose true name she has so far learned, and therefore the only demon she will summon.  Notably, Asratha does not know any spells to control or dominate demons, so if she summoned a demon whose true name she did not know it would be hostile to her unless she overcame its magic points with her spell strength, and that’s a risk she’s not willing to take.

Characteristics

STR 25 CON 12 SIZ 25 INT 15

DEX 20 POW 12

Hit Points: 12* Move: 12

DEX SR: 0 SIZ SR: 0

Combat: When manifested,Foruel Ganodracan simultaneously stab with its beak and rake with its claws, at the same or different targets.  A special roll with the beak indicates an impale result and the damage is rolled twice.  If it impales, Foruel Ganodra can detach its beak and leave it in the target, immediately growing a new beak.  The detached beak dissolves into foul-smelling gas when pulled out the target.

A special roll with the claws means that Foruel Ganodra has grasped the target; Foruel cannot attack a different target with its claws while it has a foe grasped, but on each turn that it has a grasped victim it will bring that victim to its mouth and bite it.  (It can only use its bite attack on a grasped creature, but it can use its beak on a different target in the same round that it bites.)  A failure on the bite attack means the target has escaped the demon’s grasp.

As a disembodied spirit, Foruel Ganodra is not subject to the usual effects of suffering damage to specific hit locations.  However, if it takes damage to two legs equal to or more than the legs’ hit points, it can no longer make claw attacks; if it takes damage to its head equal to or more than the head’s hit points, it can no longer make a beak attack; and if it takes damage to its body equal to or more than the body’s hit points, it can no longer bite.  It regains the use of these attacks when its magic points (and thus hit points) are restored to their maximum value.

Runes: Darkness 60%, Death 90%, Spirit 80%, Truth 75%.

Rune Points: 9

Special Rune Spells: Blinding,Clairvoyance, Command Ghost, Mind Read, Reconstruction, Sever Spirit, Shield of Darkness, Summon Dead, Turn Undead.

Magic Points: 12*

Skills: Listen 70%, Scan 65%, Search 80%, Spirit Lore 70%, Underworld Lore 95%

Languages: Speak Darktongue 60%, Speak Spiritspeech 80%.

Spirit Magic: Countermagic 4,Darkwall (2 pts.),Protection 4, Sleep (3 pts.), Visibility (2 pts.)

 

Foruel Ganodra Hit Locations

Location D20 Armor/HP Right Leg 01–04 */5 Left Leg 05–08 */5 Body 09–16 */6 Head 17–20 */5

Weapon % Damage SR Beak 75 2D6 4 Claw 70 2D6 4 Bite 85 5D6 6 Spirit Combat 80 1D6 12

*Foruel Ganodra’s hit points, armor points, and current magic points are all equal; if one of those decreases, so do the others.  See page 168 of the RuneQuest Glorantha Bestiary for details.

Ketrin Olmedar’s Son

                Ketrin Olmedar’s Son is a native of Marshedge who always had a fascination with combat and death and gravitated to the cult of Humakt.  To show his devotion, he displayed the Death rune everywhere he could, having it embroidered into all his clothing and even having rows of Death runes tattooed across his forehead and a large Death rune tattooed on the back of each hand.  On his initiation into the cult of Humakt, he was laid with a geas to never use a shield, but he made up for this by building up his skill with a sword in his off hand, and now he routinely goes about with two swords and wields one in each hand in a fight.

                Until very recently, Ketrin’s fighting skills were employed almost exclusively against the undead that occasionally attack from the Marsh.  He has put in frequent shifts at Sevenspear Fort, and his swords cut down hundreds of zombies and skeletons.  Yet while a part of him exulted in the battle and felt good about defending his community, there was another part that longed for something different.  He was fighting the good fight, but it was all the same, over and over.  While he never spoke of these feelings to anyone, at some level he was hoping for a change, and for some way to make a difference on a larger scale than defending one village.

                When the Cult of the Shard came to the village and offered a glimpse of some greater force, it found Ketrin a ready convert.  Hungry for something else to believe in, Ketrin listened gladly to all Deradi’s honeyed words, and didn’t doubt any of his preaching and promises.  The Cult of the Shard could lead to great things, and he wanted to be a part of it.  He threw himself into his new cause and became one of Deradi’s more fervent supporters, helping to build the cult’s new temple and moving into it when it was finished.

                There remained the matter of his prior allegiance to come to terms with.  At first, Ketrin resolved that being initiated in this new cult would mean severing his ties to the old.  He sliced and scoured the tattoos on his forehead, leaving him with ugly scars, and cut into his scalp above them the symbol of the (false) Spike Rune Deradi had shown him.  But before effacing the tattoos on his hands, he had a second thought.  Surely if Humakt were a good and just god, he would support the cult of the Spike, and wouldn’t begrudge Ketrin’s joining it, as long as he continued to honor the war god as well.  Surely Ketrin could retain Humakt’s gifts and favor and serve both Humakt and the shard.  And so instead of trying to cut out the tattoos on his hands, he added to them, realizing that by adding a chevron on top he could make them into a combination of the Death rune and the Spike rune.

                Not everyone in Marshedge, however, took to the newcome cult as readily as Ketrin did.  There were those who actively opposed it and spoke against Deradi and his followers.  Ketrin was incensed; didn’t these people see the truth they were denied?  Didn’t they see they were obstructing the growth of something grand?  Didn’t they see they were doing evil?  And then it occurred to him—if they were doing evil, then they must be eliminated, that the cult might continue unimpeded.  And with the gifts that Humakti had given him, he would be the one to do it.  To ensure his victims’ deaths would be even more certain, he bought some deadly poison from the local herbalist that he would apply to his weapons before he struck.

                Ketrin’s current activities might not be in line with Humakti’s philosophy, but despite that and his joining the cult of the Shard, Ketrin has kept following his geases, and at least so far Humakti has not revoked his gifts.  However, Ketrin will not use his rune magic unless he absolutely has to; he knows his relationship with Humakti may be tenuous, and doesn’t want to push things too far.  (This is why he’s been taking out his victims with his swords instead of using sever spirit.)

                As of the beginning of the scenario, Ketrin has only killed two people.  However, he has a list of further intended victims, and more people are going to die if the adventurers don’t put a stop to it.

Ketrin Olmedar’s Son

Initiate of Humakt.

Male, age 25. Marshedge clan.

Characteristics

STR 15 CON 13 SIZ 12 INT 10

DEX 13 POW 15 CHA 9

Hit Points: 13 Move: 8

DEX SR: 2 SIZ SR: 2

Runes: Air40%, Death 80%, Fire/Sky 70%, Movement 50%.

Rune Points: 4 (Humakt)

Special Rune Spells: Shield, Sword Trance, Truesword, Turn Undead.

Gifts: CanDetect Undead as the spirit magic spell by simply concentrating, at no magic point cost; recovers magic points at double normal speed; DEX increased by 1 point (already factored into statistics)

Geases: Eat no cooked vegetables; cannot use any shield; cannot use any armor on head

Magic Points: 15

Passions: Devotion (Humakt) 60%, Devotion (Cult of the Shard) 80%, Hate (Undead) 70%, Loyalty (Marshedge Clan) 60%

Reputation: 10%.

Armor: Linen linothorax (4 pts.), thick cloth vambraces and greaves (1 pt.)

Skills: Battle50%, Dodge 70%, First Aid 50%, Hide 60%, Intimidate 60%, Move Quietly 80%, Scan 80%, Survival 60%, Worship (Humakt) 70%.

Languages: Speak Heortling 60%, Speak Tradetalk 30%.

Spirit Magic: Bladesharp 4, Coordination (2 pts.), Heal 4, Protection 3, Vigor (2 pts.)

Ransom: 250 L.

Other Possessions: Bottle of POT 10 herbal poison; 4 doses left.

Ketrin Hit Locations

Location D20 Armor/HP Right Leg 01–04 1/5 Left Leg 05–08 1/5 Abdomen 09–11 4/5 Chest 12 4/6 Right Arm 13–15 1/4 Left Arm 16–18 1/4 Head 19–20 0/5

Weapon % Damage SR Pts Broadsword 80 1D8+1+1D4* 6 12 Broadsword (left hand) 60 1D8+1+1D4* 12 12

*Unless he is caught unawares with no time to prepare, or he has run out of poison and the adventurers have prevented the herbalist from selling him more, both of Ketrin’s swords are coated with POT 10 herbal poison.

[petrifact]

Write Your Own Adventure Lesson 9: Research for Your RuneQuest Adventure

This lesson discussed what research might need to be done for an RPG adventure, both of the fictional setting and of relevant details taken from the real world, and asked participants to write down what research they would have to for their particular adventure. Here's what I wrote:

I've already been doing some research about Glorantha to write my adventure. In particular, I wanted to find out as much as I could about the Lismelder Tribe and the Upland Marsh. There's not that much about either in seventh edition materials (though the Gamemaster Adventure book does have some information on the Lismelder tribe), but there was more in earlier editions, in Tales of the Reaching Moon #19 and Wyrm's Footprints #15, so I skimmed through those sources for anything that looked relevant or useful. (I also asked questions on the Chaosium forums and got very helpful responses from the posters there.)

Again, it turns out I missed some important material about Ten Spear, so I apparently didn't research it as well as I thought. Oh well. Moving on...

As for some real-world topics of research, well, the RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha core book mentions that the lismelder Tribe "are famous for their great beer", so I figured maybe Ten Spear could have a brewery. But I really don't know anything about how beer was brewed in the Bronze Age (heck, I don't know anything about how beer is brewed today), so that's something to research.

Oh, yes, and (at least) one more thing. I wanted the spirit in the shard to be the spirit of a long-dead Beast Man of an extinct species… but I hadn't decided on what that species was. With the exception of the ducks, the established kinds of Beast Man of Dragon Pass are all based on creatures from classical mythology and/or medieval beliefs, so I wanted to find some other suitable part-human mythical creature that hadn't been used, but I hadn't settled on what yet. (I can think of a few—the onocentaur, the cynocephalus, the sphinx—but I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting or don't know about.) Oh, hey, and I just found one that I think would work perfectly: the draconcopedes. A snake with a human head mentioned in some medieval bestiaries. That'll do. At least, assuming it checks out when I verify the sources and make sure it's not something made up by some Wikipedia editor.

Hm, wait, on second thought, maybe not. Glorantha isn't a medieval world, after all; it's a Bronze Age world, and while the manticore, for instance, may have been best known from medieval bestiaries, its roots go back to ancient Persia. The earliest references to the draconcopedes seem to be from the Middle Ages, so it's not really old enough. I'll keep looking.

Oh, there's the lammasu, of course. Eh, maybe, but it's not really grabbing me. The buraq… hm.

Hm, here's a part-human part-goat creature, but that may be too close to the broo: https://www.eranshahr.com/myths/ghara-gharnagh

There's also this turtle-person from the same site: https://www.eranshahr.com/myths/ab-laku

Wait, aren't there those ancient cave paintings of antelope-man "therianthrope" figures? Oh, yeah, here's what I was thinking of: https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2020/06/the-strange-and-controversial-prehistoric-sorcerer-of-the-cave-of-the-trois-freres

Though apparently it's more controversial than I realized. Still, I'm just looking for an ancient myth to use for inspiration; I guess it doesn't matter too much if it's completely authentic. If I'm going for an extinct type of Beast Man, that might be a good fit. Of course, there isn't really an established name for this figure (aside from the clearly unusable "Sorcerer")… but I guess I could just call them "antelope men", and that would be fine. I'll tentatively go with that for now, though I'll keep my eye out for something I like better. (Hm, interesting, there are also cave paintings of bison-headed figures, apparently: https://www.faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel/Courses/Phil%20281/Philosophy%20of%20Magic/My%20Documents/Therianthropes.htm Well, I think I'll stick with the antelope for now.)

As for the Bronze Age brewing, I found a few sites with some interesting information on that, including the "oldest known beer recipe" https://www.realmofhistory.com/2017/09/22/oldest-beer-recipe-mesopotamia-ninkasi/ , a description of discovered ruins of an ancient Green brewery https://www.livescience.com/61590-oldest-beer-in-greece.html and an article about Bronze Age beer-brewing in Ireland https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/unearthing-bronze-age-brewing-1.953684. Oh, and this could be useful: a video of a reconstruction of brewing techniques from a 3800 recipe https://ne-np.facebook.com/BeoirFestonline/videos/recreating-a-bronze-age-beer-for-the-modern-world/708828930137367/ Okay, I think there's enough here I can get a sufficient idea of what a Bronze Age beer brewery may have been like.

Oh, yes, one more thing. I was going to have beekeeping as one of the village's more significant industries, so… I guess that's another thing to research. Though this page looks like a promising start: https://www.agriculturalmuseums.org/2020/04/16/how-has-beekeeping-changed-over-time-an-archaeobeekeeper-and-an-archaeological-open-air-museum-in-germany-showcase-pre-and-proto-historic-beekeeping-methods/ Oh, and here are a few more documents I can look at: https://www.evacranetrust.org/uploads/document/2949b8a5ef604548975b4b0eb7d9e738cd654435.pdf https://www.apicultural.co.uk/tears-of-re-beekeeping-in-ancient-egypt

(Okay, yeah, I could make those links clickable in this Tumblr post but, eh, it's taking me long enough to make all these posts as it is, and I need to spend time actually working on the adventure. You can always copy and paste the links if you really want to see where they go.)

[petrifact]

Write Your Own Adventure Lesson 8: Writing an Introduction

Yeah, so, as you might guess, the activity for this lesson was to write the introduction to your adventure. I'm not going to post my whole adventure here, of course, but I'll post relatively short sections that pertain to specific activities, and that includes the introduction. This introduction is not finalized, however, and may change—in fact, some of it has already changed, but here's what I initially wrote (in this case the bits in square brackets were there in the original and are not additions made at the time I'm posting it to Tumblr):

The Cult of the Shard presents an adventure set in the village of Ten Spear in the world of Glorantha. The book is divided into two main parts. The first part, from pages @@ to @@, details the village of Ten Spear, including @@ important residents. The second part, from pages @@ to @@, comprises the adventure in which the PCs stop a murder spree and possibly expose a fraudulent cult leader who claims to have a piece of an ancient mountain of mythic significance. Following that on page @@ is an appendix suggesting other adventure seeds you can use in the town of Ten Spear if you want to have the PCs spend more time there after finishing the adventure. You are, of course, free to use one part of the book without the other. You can have the PCs visit Ten Spear and use the information in the first half of the book without bringing in the Cult of the Spear. Conversely, you can transplant the adventure into a different settlement and use the second half of the book without using the description of the village in the first half. For that matter, feel free to change anything you want about either the village or the adventure, or both. As is so frequently stated in RuneQuest materials, your Glorantha may vary. Acknowledgments This adventure was written as part of the Write Your First Adventure workshop run by the Storytelling Collective, http://www.storytellingcollective.com. I’d been wanting to write my own adventures and supplements for many years and had a lot of projects I’d started but hadn’t finished, and when I found out about the workshop through an email from Chaosium, I figured maybe the structure and deadlines of the workshop would give me the impetus I needed to actually finish and publish something. If you’re reading this [as part of a finished product], then apparently it worked. Thanks are also due to the posters at the Chaosium forms at https://basicroleplaying.org, who were very helpful in answering questions I had about RuneQuest and Glorantha. BOX: If you want to see what else I’m working on, you can follow my Tumblr blog at petrifact.tumblr.com and/or my website at petrifact.com [Note that I don’t actually have the site set up at the time I’m writing this, but I should have something there by the time this is published.] CENTERED AT BOTTOM: RUNEQUEST is a trademark of Moon Design Publications and is used with their permission via the OBS Community Content program. For more information please visit Chaosium’s website: www.chaosium.com The Chaosium and RUNEQUEST Logos are used under license.

Since there were two main parts to the adventure, the village description and the scenario itself, I went ahead and wrote introductions to those too. For the village description (again, this is no longer accurate, since the adventure is no longer set in Ten Spear, but here's what I initially wrote):

THE VILLAGE OF TEN SPEAR:

Ten Spear is the main village of the Lonendi clan of the Lismelder tribe. While not within the territory of the Colymar tribe, the default tribe of adventurers from Sartar, it’s very close; the Lismelder tribe lands are just west of the Colymar, southeast of the Upland Marsh.

HISTORY:

The Lismelder tribe is one of the newer tribes of Sartar, founded in the 1350s when a splinter group broke off from the Malani tribe and left the Arfritha Vale to take root west of the Starfire Ridge. While there had been tension between the Malani and Colymar tribes, the Lismelder and Colymar became fast allies, and embarked in 1380 on a joint expedition to claim new territory to the south, along the lower reaches of the Stream. This area was already claimed by the Durulz and other Beast Men, whom the tribal alliance drove out in a conflict now called the Beastmen Wars. The Lismelder and Colymar tribes divvied up this fertile new area between them, and began to build villages and establish farms there.

The invaders’ victory was short-lived. They had beaten the Beast Men, but a new, fell enemy arose in the form of hordes of undead that shambled out of the Upland Marsh under the direction of the sinister Delecti the Necromancer. The apparently inexhaustible forces of the dead ravaged the Lismelder lands, setting fire to their settlements and slaughtering their people, only to raise them to undeath to fight their former friends. Help came in the form of the celebrated warrior chieftain Kurash Varn of the Sambari tribe of Roundstone, who led a strike force deep into the marsh to strike at the dread Necromancer himself. But the vengeful ducks, still smarting at their expulsion from their homeland, ambushed Varn and took him captive. When Varn was released to the tribes—sans his arms—, he passed along a message the ducks had given him: that only the ducks could stop the undead, and that they would do so only if they were restored to their lands. Divinations confirmed the truth of these words, and the deal was struck. The Colymar who had settled in Duck Vale paid the Durulz compensation and returned to their own heartland, but the Lismelder stayed in the area but placed themselves under the ducks’ protection. Since then, the Colymar still harbor a grudge against the ducks, but under the Humakti hero Indrodar Greydog the Lismelder built a close and cordial relationship with their erstwhile enemies, and today the Lismelder are considered good friends of the ducks, and to a lesser extent of other Beast Men. The foul forces of Delecti continue to be a plague on the lands, but working together the Lismelder and the ducks have been able to hold them off and prevent them from further expanding the corrupted marsh.

The Lonendi clan and the village of Ten Spear have their origin in the year 1412. Word came to the Lismelder leaders that the undead were about to encroach upon an old centaur burial ground between the Sword and Crescent Rivers. [@@Check—couldn’t find a name for the southern river so I decided on one, but will keep looking] If the undead took over this area, not only would this be a great insult to the centaurs and their ancestors, but the reanimated centaur remains could be potent new recruits for Delecti the Necromancer. Both to cement the Lismeldi’s alliance with the Beast Men and to prevent the strengthening of the undead legions, a young Lismeldi warrior named Lonendi volunteered to lead a small group to establish a presence near the centaur burial grounds and protect it from the walking dead.

Despite the proximity of the swamp, the area turned out to be pleasant and fruitful, with fresh springs, blackberry bushes, and copses of oak, willow, and chestnut trees. But almost no sooner did Lonendi and his companions build a fort there than an army of undead was upon them. There were not only zombies and skeletons, and unique stitched horrors of the Necromancer’s depraved design, but Dancers of Darkness carrying twisted magical spears. The Lismelder had seen those spears in action before, and knew what they represented: at the end of a powerful terpsichorean ritual, the Dancers would plant the spears in the ground, and the land around the spears would swiftly flood and become a part of the Marsh. Clearly the centaurs’ fears had been justified—Delecti the Necromancer had every intention of adding this area to his domain.

It was a hard battle, and much life was lost, but Lonendi and his comrades in arms managed to fight back the undead hordes and prevent the annexation of the burial grounds into the Marsh. In the wake of the battle, the inhabitants of the fortress gathered the magical spears of the defeated Dancers of Darkness, and, after suitable purification rituals to ensure that no taint of Delecti’s evil magic remained within them, they erected the spears as trophies to show their defiance of the Necromancer. Ten spears were recovered in total, and so the stockade came to be called Ten Spear Fort—and as later more Lismeldi settled in the area, Ten Spear became the name of the village that grew around it. The hero Lonendi, as the commander of the warriors who had repelled the undead onslaught, was given the epithet Lonendi Tenspear. Those who made their home in Ten Spear now looked to Lonendi as their guide and leader, and so he became the founder and chieftain of a new clan. The clan initially took the name of the Willow Clan, after the trees that were so numerous in their home village, but more commonly was called after its chieftain: the Lonendi Clan.

Today, the old Ten Spear Fort still stands, still decorated with the captured and cleansed spears of the Dancers of Darkness, but it’s at the center of a thriving village. (The centaurs are unbothered by humans living in their old burial grounds as long as the place doesn’t fall under the Necromancer’s control.) The rotting horrors of Delecti the Necromancer are still a serious concern, but the village is well fortified against them, and its people manage to live their lives in the shadow of the dread Marsh.

POPULATION:

The population of Ten Spear is about 400, of which just over half are members of the Lonendi clan. Of the remainder, about 75 belong to other clans of the Lismelder tribe; some 60 are members of other tribes; there are 20 or so outsiders from farther afield; and the rest are Beast Men, mostly Durulz. About 225 of the village’s residents are adults; the rest are children.

Because of its proximity to the Upland Marsh and the frequent attacks by the undead, Ten Spear has a disproportionate number of warriors, numbering almost 40. Not counting the clan leader, who as usual is also the Chief Priest of Orlanth, there are ten priests of various gods in Ten Spear. The village’s residents also include about 80 farmers; 60 herders and hunters; 30 craftsmen; and 35 slaves.

(These numbers do not include the cultists of the Shard who recently moved into the village; see page @@.)

And for the scenario (here's the point at which I decided it was about time I finally decided on names for my villains):

The Cult of the Shard

This scenario is intended for four to six adventurers still early in their career. If you want to create new starting characters for this adventure, you may want to consider making them members of the Lismelder tribe. (As described on page 108 of the RUNEQUEST: ROLEPLAYING IN GLORANTHA core book, Lismelder characters are created like other Sartarites with the amendment that they have the passion Hate (Undead) at 60%, or add 10% to this passion if they already have it from another source.) However, characters from the Colymar tribe or other nearby tribes can just as easily get involved in the adventure, as can outsiders from other regions who might have reason to pass through western Sartar.

This scenario is open-ended and has many possible routes to success, so almost any group of adventurers should be able to complete it. It may be helpful for at least one adventurer to be an assistant shaman or to otherwise be able to detect and communicate with spirits, but it’s not required. Certain passions might present complications, most notably Hate (Lismelder Tribe) and Hate (Beast Men). Adventurers with these passions may still be able to complete the scenario, but may have some roleplaying challenges.

GAMEMASTER BACKGROUND

For years Deradi Onehanded had made his living through tweedling and trickery, wandering Sartar swindling people out of enough goods and valuables to support his lifestyle. When he happened upon a stone of unusual luster and appearance, he had an idea for what he thought might be his most successful scam yet. He decided to pass the stone off as a shard from the summit of the Spike, the primeval mountain that was said to have been the anchor of reality, and that was shattered during the Great Darkness—and pass himself off as a hero who had been entrusted with this sacred relic and was entrusted to gather worshippers to honor it.

Deradi’s scheme had some success, and he managed to gather a small cult around himself and his shard. In the absence of a clear claimant to the throne of Sartar, people were looking for something to believe in, and that was what he provided. His cult was small, but devoted enough to provide for his needs, and that was all Deradi really wanted. He was not an ambitious man, and if he had a few faithful devotees who would bring him enough income to let him live comfortably, that was enough to satisfy him. Left to his own devices, that was probably as far as his con would have gone.

But things changed when he met a woman named Asratha of Wark. Asratha was an enthusiastic student of history, and was obsessed with what she saw as Sartar’s strength and power in its earlier age—before the Lunar conquest. But Sartar, she thought, had lost its way and become weak; it had thrown off its Lunar yoke, but it was still divided and directionless. Given the strong leadership it deserves, Sartar could rise to match and exceed its former glory, and perhaps even expand to an empire to rival that of the Red Emperor. And with Deradi’s glib tongue and gift of manipulation, she thought she could guide him into becoming that leader—or rather, into becoming a figurehead while she wielded the true power behind the throne. Asratha was skilled with magic, and she bound an ancient spirit into Deradi’s stone, the spirit of a Beast Man from the Second Age, of a now extinct species. With the help of this spirit, now Deradi could work wonders that would make his claims of the shard’s supernatural nature all the more convincing. With these demonstrations of the shard’s power, the growth of Deradi’s cult accelerated. Able to indulge in luxuries he could never previously afford, Deradi was content with this state of affairs, and was happy to let Asratha take care of logistics and administration. In time the cult grew enough that Deradi thought it needed a base of operations: it was time to build a temple for the shard. For the location of the temple, he settled on a town in the territory of the Lismelder tribe, just large enough to have the amenities he required but sufficiently removed from major trade routes to avoid attracting the wrong kind of attention: the village of Ten Spear.

Current Events

This scenario is assumed to take place in Earth Season 1625, shortly after the Dragonrise. There’s little to tie it to a specific time, however, and with little modification the Gamemaster should be able to move it to an earlier or later time if they prefer.

By now Deradi and his cult have built their temple in Ten Spear, and a few of his cultists have moved into the city. Besides Deradi and Asratha, there are six cultists living at the temple, three of which are devotees who accompanied him to Ten Spears and three of which are local converts he made in the village. Another dozen believers in the cult live in the village, eight that arrived with Deradi and four local converts, but they are “lay members” of lesser fervor.

Unfortunately, one of the new converts, a Humakti named Ketrin Olmedar’s Son, has become so zealous in his devotion that he has come to see anyone who stands in the way of the cult as an enemy that deserves elimination—and has taken it upon himself to carry out that task. He has already murdered a few people he saw as foes of the cult, and has other targets in mind he may kill if he is not stopped. Ketrin’s deeds are done on his own initiative without the sanction of the cult leadership, and neither Deradi nor Asratha is aware of what he’s doing—certainly the murders have attracted attention, but only Ketrin knows that he is responsible, and nobody else knows for sure that the deaths have any connection to the cult, though certainly some may have suspicions.

INVOLVING THE ADVENTURERS

If you’re creating new adventurers for this adventure, they could be residents of Ten Spear, and so have seen firsthand the rise of the Cult of the Shard and perhaps become suspicious of it. They may also be drawn into events from the murders, especially if they knew one of the victims. If they’re not native to Ten Spear, they may be brought here because a friend or relative has joined the Cult of the Shard, and the characters want to investigate the cult for themselves to see what their kinsman has gotten into. Alternatively, if the characters are already somewhat established adventurers who have made a reputation for themselves, it’s possible that the chieftain of the Lonendi may reach out to them for help stopping the murders, or perhaps just investigating the cult.

It’s also possible that the PCs are just visiting Ten Spear for some other reason and hear about the murders or the cult, although Ten Spear does not lie on a major trade route and doesn’t get a lot of travel. Still, depending on their background and proclivities, the adventurers could be there visiting an acquaintance, out of curiosity about the centaur burial ground, or perhaps just to sample the local beer.

So, remember how the workshop recommended the scope of the adventure be limited to about 3,500 words? My introduction alone (well, the combination of my three introductions) is almost 3,000 words long. Yeah, I think I'm going pretty far over the 3,500-word goal. Like I said, I tend to get carried away...

[petrifact]

Write Your First Adventure Lesson 7: Initiation

The main activity for this lesson was to create a flowchart of events in your adventure. This was kind of a tough one for this adventure, because it was very open-ended and there wasn't really a definitive sequence of events, but I did my best. Not for the first time I thought that maybe I should have just decided to make a nice, simple dungeon crawl that would have been a lot easier to write. But anyway, here's my flowchart, such as it is:

[Eh... the "false ending" bit is just there because I figured the PCs might think that if they take out the zealot committing the murders then they've completed the adventure, and not realize the threat that the cult itself poses... but I don't know that it needed to be on the flowchart. Then again, I'm not sure a lot of this needed to be on the flowchart. "Discern the Truth"? What?]

[petrifact]

Write Your First Adventure Lesson 6: Villains and BBEGs

For this lesson, participants were to describe the villain of their adventure, including the following points:

Which conflict the villain represents (Character vs Character, Character vs Self, or Character vs World)

How the villain personifies this conflict

How the villain may succeed

They were also asked to flesh out the villain using what the instructor called the RATS system, determining what makes the villain relatable, antagonistic, threatening, and special.

(Both those three kinds of conflict and the RATS system were of course explained in more detail in the lesson.)

I kind of went overboard on this one and tripled my work. Here's what I wrote:

Hrm… I feel like in my adventure there are really three villains (not counting the spirit trapped in the stone, which I see is more a tool used by the villains). Still, if one of them is the main villain, it would be the magician who trapped the spirit… though I guess it wouldn't hurt to try this activity for all three villains.

One thing I was realizing reading over this, though, is that in my adventure the villains really… aren't necessarily an immediate threat. The cult may be destablizing the area; if it's left to spread unchecked its leaders could get political ambitions and start causing major problems; but at the moment, aside from the murders by the zealot, it's more of a potential threat than an immediate danger. I'm not sure that's a major problem, though; I think I'll address it in a sidebar, that the adventure as written mostly assumes the PCs are going to be suspicious of the cult and try to investigate it, but if they don't, or if they choose not to do anything about it, then it could grow over time and become a long-term "subplot" of the campaign rather than a one-shot.

Anyway, on to the villains.

The Magician:

Okay, this is going to be a little tough, because while she's really the biggest threat and the main instigator here, of the three villainous characters she's the one that I feel like I have the least grasp of, as far as her motives and personality. I'll have to think about this. Why is she doing what she's doing? What does she ultimately hope to accomplish?

Oh… hey… maybe she does have long-term political goals, which she's keeping the nominal cult leader in the dark about. Maybe she thinks Sartar's current leadership is too soft, and wants to return Sartar to an age of glory… or even to a pre-Sartar state. Hm. (By the way, I've been thinking of her as just a "magician" because, honestly, I haven't been totally sure what her deal is as far as the kind of magic she's using. Wait a second… maybe she's a shaman; she's already been serving an ancient Beast Man spirit… nah; if she's trying to imprison one that doesn't fit all that well. Hm, maybe she is a cultist of a spirit, but not a Beast Man spirit; a different ancient spirit that opposed the Beast Men… okay, that could be interesting.)

Okay, so let's start with the magician.

WHAT CONFLICT DOES SHE REPRESENT? I guess of the three she most embodies a Character vs World conflict--it's not that she's directly attacking the PCs or their allies; it's that she's trying to shape society the way she wants it. (If she's confronted directly, though, she could definitely be a Character vs Character conflict.)

HOW DOES SHE PERSONIFY THIS CONFLICT? Her ultimate goal is to gather enough power for the cult for it to be able to dominate the village, and eventually spread to Dragon Pass as a whole. In the meantime, she's helping the cult leader gather a community of followers around him.

HOW COULD SHE SUCCEED? If the cult isn't stopped and its membership keeps increasing it could grow into a major force in Dragon Pass and the magician could turn its cultists into a conquering army -- leaving the cult leader as the figurehead while she pulls the strings.

RATS:

RELATABLE: The magician hopes to return Dragon Pass to an earlier age, when she thinks it was stronger. The fact that the Lunar Empire was able to conquer the land shows how weak its leaders currently are, even if they recently threw off their Lunar occupiers with the convenient help of a dragon. She wants to return Dragon Pass to a time when its people had no need to fear any oppressors. (Such a time may never have wholly existed, but she's convinced it did.)

ANTAGONISTIC: As the cult gets stronger, the surrounding community becomes weaker, as the cultists devote their resources toward the cult of the shard rather than their community. Existing cults of the gods would also consider the cult blasphemous, and its taking focus from them weakens those cults as well. On a more personal level, if one of the PCs' friends or relatives is enmeshed in the cult, the PCs will likely want to extract them.

THREATENING: As mentioned above, the magician and the cult aren't imposing much of an immediate threat… but in the long term they could be a force to be reckoned with as they try to overthrow the established order. More immediately, though, the magician isn't going to like the PCs looking into the cult, and may set the cultists against them—or if pressed may take matters into her own hands and use her magic against them.

SPECIAL: The magician isn't an obvious villain at first, since she's letting the cult leader be the face of the organization. She's obsessed with history, and will talk at length about ancient wars and civilizations if given a chance.

Okay, let's do the other two villains, while I'm at it. The cult leader:

WHAT CONFLICT DOES HE REPRESENT? In a way, he kind of embodies a Character vs Self conflict—he's trying to convince other characters of the truth of his cult, and change their beliefs.

HOW DOES HE PERSONIFY THIS CONFLICT? The cult leader is a charismatic conman who's an expert at manipulating people, and who uses his force of personality to overcome people's doubts in his cult and get them to follow him.

HOW COULD HE SUCCEED? He's already had considerable success in starting the cult, but again, if he's not stopped, he'll grow the cult into a force to be reckoned with. While the cult leader himself doesn't have any real political ambitions, he'll still consider it a success if he's worshipped as a hero by large groups of people… and what they choose to do in his name, well, that's their business.

RATS:

RELATABLE: Ulimately, for all his charm and schmoozery [yeah okay that's not a word sorry], the cult leader really only wants two things: worldly comfort, and people looking up to him. Becoming the leader of a large cult would satisfy both of those goals. Left to himself, he wouldn't do much with his cult other than position himself as its pampered leader, but of course the magician has other plans.

ANTAGONISTIC: He's antagonistic for essentially the same reason as the magician; the PCs are likely to want to stop the growth of the cult. On a more immediate level, though, the cult leader is more likely to confront the PCs personally, at least at first, though that confrontation will be in the form of trying to convert them rather than combat.

THREATENING: Again, the cult leader is threatening for the same reason as the magician—because the cult itself is a threat. Furthermore, his honeyed words and clever speech might get characters to doubt their own convictions…

SPECIAL: The cult leader is well-spoken and likeable, which is much of what makes him so dangerous. He has a taste for the finer things in life, and is reluctant to pass up an exotic meal or some other luxury experience. He's missing his left hand, which he claims to have lost in a battle with a creature of chaos (in reality, it was in an accident as a child, when he was forced to work as a child laborer—an experience which has contributed to his current distaste for any sort of physical labor).

And now the zealot:

WHAT CONFLICT DOES HE REPRESENT? Here finally we have a straightforward Character vs Character conflict. He's killing people.

HOW DOES HE PERSONIFY THIS CONFLICT? The zealot is killing people he sees as threats to the cult. If he realizes the PCs are investigating the cult, they're likely to get added to his hit list.

HOW COULD HE SUCCEED? Well, he could succeed by killing the PCs. Hopefully that won't happen.

RATS:

RELATABLE: He may be murdering people, but he's doing it for what he sees as a good reason. He's a true believer in the cult, completely convinced that the cult leader's fancy rock is a true shard of the Spike, and that anything the cult does is right. Therefore, anyone who opposes the cult is wrong—and must be stopped at all costs.

ANTAGONISTIC: Even before he targets the PCs, the PCs are likely to want to put a stop to the murders. Of course, if they become targets themselves, that's all the more reason to regard him as an antagonist…

THREATENING: The zealot poses a direct threat to the life of those he sees as enemies of the cult—which, again, could easily come to include the PCs.

SPECIAL: The zealot is a former initiate of Humakt, and had the Death rune tattooed on his skin in various places. Since his conversion to the cult of the shard, he's tried to remove or overwrite those tattoos, which has left a mess of scars.

[petrifact]

Write Your Own Adventure Lesson 5: Setting and Locale

So the main activity for this question was answering a bunch of questions about the setting of your adventure. Here are my answers, preceded by, well, a bit of preamble by which I preceded them:

Okay, I've already thought quite a bit about the setting, to the extent of posting on the Chaosium forums to ask if there was any canonical information about a village I was thinking of using that I found on the map in the Starter Set. So I think I've got a pretty good handle on this, but let's see as I answer the questions:

[As it later turned out, there was quite a bit of sortasemicanonical information about the village in question that I initially missed! So I ended up setting the adventure in a different village, and much of the information below is now incorrect. So it goes.]

Where does the adventure take place?

The adventure takes place in the village of Ten Spear, where the cult of the Spike has established a small temple.

What is the environment of this location?

The climate of Ten Spear is typical of western Sartar: fairly temperate, with some snow in the winter. The surroundings are fairly flat and lightly wooded, with scattered boggy areas due to its proximity to the Upland Marsh.

How does the location impact the people in the area?

Ten Spear is close to the dreaded Upland Marsh, and subject to frequent attacks by its unliving denizens. Because of this, its people are on the defensive and have an especial hatred for undead.

What are the significant cultural, political, or other social conditions like here?

Ten Spear is the main village of the Lonendi clan, and the clan chieftain has her residence there. The village also houses the Orlanthi clan temple. Due to the alliance the Lismeldi tribe has made with the ducks to fight the undead of the Upland Marsh, Ten Spear is friendlier to ducks than most Sartarite settlements, and a few even live in the village. In fact, they're more accepting in general of people from different races and cultures; they need all the help they can get against the undead. Ten Spear also boasts a small brewery; Ten Spear's brewery is not as large as those elsewhere in Lismelder territory, but it produces a unique brew that some find delicious and others unpalatable.

When does the adventure take place?

Hm… that I hadn't really thought of. I'm not sure the time of year matters much to the adventure, but I think I'm inclined to set it in the fall, though for no particular reason.

Why would the adventuring party be here?

As mentioned in the previous activity, the PCs are most likely here because they want to investigate a strange cult that a friend or relative has recently joined. Alternatively, they may be asked to investigate the cult by other interested parties… or they may be in the village for unrelated reasons, perhaps to sample its notorious beer.

Who are the important NPCs?

Aside from the friend or relative of the PCs who may have joined the cult, other important PCs are:

The cult leader, an amoral conman who's gathered followers around his fake shard of the Spike

The magician who's put the spirit of an ancient Beast Man in the shard to give it special powers and add to its verisimilitude

For that matter, I suppose the spirit itself counts as an NPC and may have an agenda of its own

A zealot who murders those who oppose the cult of the Shard, without the cult leader's sanction (not that the cult leader would lose any sleep over it)

A Eurmalite trickster who doesn't really believe the shard is a true piece of the Spike, but joined the cult of the shard just to cause mischief

A Beast Man member of the cult who's mostly a red herring -- he's just another duped cult member. (Haven't decided on the type of Beast Man yet.)

The chieftain of the Lonendi clan lives in Ten Spear and could become an important ally if the PCs approach her right

A local shaman can help the PCs if they need more information about spirits

There'll probably be more as I write the adventure.

[petrifact]

Write Your First Adventure Lesson 4: Designing Narrative Obstacles and Challenges

This lesson described five main kinds of conflict in adventures—Villain, Environmental, Protection, Infiltration, and Negotiation—and participants were tasked with coming up with a way each of the five could be incorporated into their adventure (even if they didn't all end up getting used in the final adventure). Here's what I put:

Villain:

This is the easy one. The obvious main villain is the head of the Spike cult, but he's not actually the most dangerous character. The murderous zealot (if I decide to use that; haven't 100% decided yet) is actually doing a lot more damage, and more important to stop. But the real main villain, the one who's causing the most trouble and has the most potential to keep causing trouble even if the others are stopped, is the magician who put the spirit in the rock…

Environmental:

Hm. This, on the other hand, is the hardest one, for this particular adventure. There's not really much of an environmental obstacle. Sure, the town is near the Upland Marsh, which poses an environmental hazard, but the PCs don't have much reason to go into the Marsh itself. If I do decide to have the climax of the adventure take place in the Spirit World, that's certainly an environmental conflict, but eh, I think I'm leaning against that. Oh, wait, there was something else I was considering that does play into enviromental conflict. I was thinking the spirit in the rock had some ability to influence its surroundings—if so, perhaps it could change the environment in such a way as to add an environmental conflict.

Protection:

One of the ways I was going to suggest getting the PCs involved in the adventure is by having a friend or relative of one or more of the PCs join the cult, leading the PC to investigate to see what their acquaintance has gotten into. In that case, they certainly have the task of protecting their friend or relative while they take down the cult.

Infiltration:

While the PCs don't have to infiltrate the cult, that's certainly one good way of investigating it.

Negotiation:

Several of the other cult members could be talked into leaving the cult, lessening the PCs' opposition.

[petrifact]

Write Your First Adventure Lesson 3: The Call to Adventure

This lesson was all about expanding on the initial idea, and the associated activity was to describe (in as much or as little detail as you wanted) at least one person suggested by the idea (and who might be a character in the adventure), and at least one place suggested by the idea. Optionally, participants could also write down other elements that might be suggested by the idea, like monsters & elder races, temples & cults, etc. So here's what I wrote:

People suggested by the idea:

Well, there's the cult leader, of course, and the magician who provides the spirit. (Also the spirit itself, if that counts as a character. Ooh, maybe it's a spirit of a now-extinct type of Beast Person…) But let's see what other wild card characters there could be. Like, for instance…

A Trickster, a cultist of Eurmal. He's going along with the cult for sheer mischief factor, and could be another thorn in the PCs' sides… but if the PCs can convince him that the cult is truly harmful, they might actually be able to make him into a useful ally.

Oh, hey, also if the spirit is the ghost of an ancient Beast Person perhaps other Beast People have been attracted to the cult… that could be interesting…

Also, perhaps one of the cult members has become a zealot who, without the sanction of the cult leader, has taken his or her own initiative to murder those who seem to be enemies of the cult… hmm… (I had been thinking about the cult leader ordering murders of those who try to leave the cult, but it actually may be more interesting if they're being committed without the cult leader's blessing…)

A Place:

The cult temple, of course. But where is it located? Hm… I'll take a look at a map of Sartar and see if there are any communities that look potentially interesting but haven't been developed much.

Hm… the maps in the Starter Set show a town called Ten Spear conveniently far from any major roads but close to the Colymar tribal lands. (Technically it looks like it's in Lismelder territory, but eh, there can be reasons for PCs to go there.) Plus it's near the Upland Marsh, which gives an opportunity for a chaos attack event to spice things up (and give a chance for the PCs to fight some zombies or other undead, since otherwise this adventure is looking like it's going to be very heavy on the social end and light on combat). So okay. The cult temple is in Ten Spears.

For another location, maaaaaybe in the climax of the adventure the PCs actually venture into the Spirit World? Or maybe not; that might be a bit hard to pull off.

Other:

So naturally some of the local cults may not be happy about this new upstart cult in town, and may give aid to the PCs investigating it. This being in Colymar territory, there's bound to be at least a minor temple of Orlanth in Ten Spears, and maybe one to Ernalda as well (though that's likely folded into the Orlanthi temple). Also maybe a shrine to Storm Bull and/or Humakt could make sense.

[petrifact]

Write Your First Adventure Lesson 2: Setting a Project Scope

So the main activity for this day was to write a "scope reflection": a document summarizing the scope of my adventure, my challenges, and my plans for it. Here are the questions and my responses:

What is this project and what is the final deliverable? (Eg. "I'm writing a one-shot adventure set in Ravenloft. It will be a PDF document available on DMs Guild.") I'm writing a one-shot RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha adventure set in Sartar. It will be a PDF document available on the Jonstown Compendium.

When does this project need to be completed?

November 30. Well, wait, no; that's when the workshop ends but maybe I'll do a little tweaking and formatting afterward. I guess the absolute deadline is December 8 if I want my adventure to be included in the RPG Writer Workshop Bundle, which I do.

Do you need to learn a new skill or tool to complete this project?

Well, two of them, actually:

I'm actually not all that familiar with Glorantha and RuneQuest; over the past few weeks I've read the core books and I think I've got a handle on the rules and setting, but I don't have the experience with them that I do with, for instance, D&D. (So why didn't I join the D&D 5E adventure writing workshop instead? Because honestly, I kind of want to do more with other games besides D&D, and although I don't have prior experience with RuneQuest it was something I was interested in.)

I haven't really used layout software before (well, not within the last few decades, anyway), so that'll be new for me, too.

Have you started learning that skill or tool prior to starting this project? (Explain yes or no.)

Yes to the first, no to the second (I did actually pay for a Udemy lesson on Adobe InDesign months ago, but haven't had a chance to complete it).

Have you completed a project of this size and scope before?

No, which is the main reason I joined this workshop. I've started loads of adventures and game supplements, but haven't quite gotten around to finishing any of them; I'm hoping I can change that this month.

How much time can you devote to this project every day, week, or month until it's finished?

Eh… that's the problem. I have a really, really unpredictable and irregular work schedule, so it's hard to know in advance what days I might have time to work on the project, or what times during those days. And that means I can't set aside in advance a specific time of day I plan to work on the project, because I don't know in advance whether or what time I'll be working. But for the rest of the month even on days I'm working I should be able to devote at least an hour before or after work (or possibly even during work; I'm actually typing this at work right now).

What potential obstacles may you encounter during this project?

The main obstacle is… see previous answer.

Oh… also, keeping my adventure under 3500 words will definitely be a challenge. I tend to kind of get carried away. In fact, I'm going to go ahead and say right now that my adventure will almost certainly be longer than 3500 words. Maybe way longer. But I'm still going to try to get it done by the end of the month.

Based on your responses, map out a timeline for this project.

Well, since I didn't know about the countdown activities and didn't sign up for the workshop until the first, and then spent a few days trying to catch up with the countdown activities that I should have done in advance, I'm off to a late start… but I'm going to try to get caught up by tomorrow (November 11) and thereafter stick to the suggested schedule.

[And did that happen? Did I get caught up by November 11? Ha ha ha no of course not I'm way behind gah I'm an idiot.]

[petrifact]

Write Your First Adventure Lesson 1: Welcome and Getting Started

While I'll summarize each day what I was supposed to do for the workshop, I won't of course repeat all the details and advice because, well, if you want all the details you can take the workshop yourself. Lesson 1 of the Write Your First Adventure workshop was mostly about catching up with onboarding activities that were supposed to be done before the workshop launched (that I didn't do), and aside from a lot of reading I think the most significant of those activities was "Generating Your Adventure Idea".

The advice in the workshop was to come up with ten two-sentence adventure ideas and pick one, which was... actually good advice. Coming up with ten ideas meant not agonizing over whether each idea is really good enough because, well, there'll be nine more, and chances are at least one of the ten will be good enough for something. So here are the ten ideas I came up with:

A black elf reaches out to the PCs for help to free his fellows. A local landowner is keeping a group of black elves prisoner to help grow magical fungi for him to harvest.

An important member of the PCs' tribe is suffering from an unusual ailment. The only available cure is magic honey that the PCs must retrieve from a hive of giant bees.

Unusually small dragons are causing trouble in the local region, and the PCs are asked to get to the bottom of it. It turns out a nearby dream dragon has found a way to manifest its own dreams in (small) dragon form.

A group of tusk riders took someone prisoner who had important information for the PCs' tribe, and imprisoned his soul in his own severed hand. The PCs must infiltrate the tusk raiders' encampment and retrieve the hand.

Some craftspeople have been plagued with misfortune, and one of them claims to have seen a strange creature rampaging through her workshop. The PCs discover that another craftsperson has gained control of some dwarf-created nilmergs and is using them to take out the competition.

A small party of strange headless three-armed creatures (maidstone archers) have arrived in Sartar, seeking relics of their mysterious god. The PCs must learn why they're there and stop the locals from overreacting to their presence, heading off a dangerous conflict.

A magisaur has found a way to restore their memory of their past as a dragonewt, and wants to return to their former state. Doing so requires a few items obtainable in human cities, and the magisaur enlists the PCs to gather them for them.

A town is beset by strange occurrences and mysterious afflictions. Investigation finds that one particular man seems to have always been present when the worst happened, but the man himself is innocent -- the culprit is a malicious ancient spirit possessing him.

A theater troupe puts on a play that hints at heretically insulting views of the gods. The players had not realized these blasphemous implications; the playwright put them up to it to get back at one of the players who she feels wronged him by inciting a crowd against them.

A friend of the PCs has fallen in with a strange new cult, led by a man who claims to have gone on a heroquest and found a piece of the ancient Spike. The cult leader is, of course, a fraud, but he's being helped out by a devious magician who trapped a spirit in the false Spike to help keep up appearances.

The one I decided to go with for this adventure is the last one, but I may end up using some of the others for other adventures later. (In fact, I'm already using a variation on one of the other ideas from this list as a "Further Adventures" seed at the end of my adventure.)

[petrifact]

Writing My First Adventure: The Cult of the Shard

So, I got an email from Chaosium that mentioned a "Write Your First Adventure" workshop by an organization called the Storytelling Collective, and I decided to sign up. I've been wanting for years to write my own RPG adventures and supplements, and in fact I have many, many different projects started, and at various levels of completion. I just didn't have anything finished. I hoped maybe the structure and deadline of this workshop would help me to finally finish something.

The workshop had three different "paths" to choose from: the Chaosium Path, writing an adventure for Call of Cthulhu or RuneQuest; the D&D 5e path, writing an adventure for, of course, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition; or the General Path, for any community content program. (There are lots to choose from!) I went ahead and signed up for the Chaosium Path, and in particular planned on writing a RuneQuest adventure. I didn't really know that much about RuneQuest—I had most of the 7th Edition books, and even a few books I'd bought years ago from older editions (let's see... the 3E core book, Wyrm's Footprints, the HeroQuest Hero's Book by Steve Jackson Games, the HeroQuest core book by Moon Design, Anaxiel's Roster (a monster book for HeroQuest), and a couple of boxed sets (Elder Secrets of Glorantha and Monster Coliseum). But I hadn't gotten around to reading them. Oh, I'd flipped through those old books, especially Anaxiel's Roster (I've always been a sucker for monster books), but I didn't really know the rules, or the world, or... much about the game at all, really. But I knew enough to know I was interested in it, and it was something I wanted to familiarize myself with, and this could be an opportunity to do it.

In retrospect, while I'm trying on a deadline to create my first complete adventure is probably not the best time to learn a new system and gameworld. This was one of three major mistakes that put me way behind schedule. I'm only about half as far along as I should be at this point. Still, I think I may still be able to finish on time; I just have to really get on it for the next week and a half.

Anyway, I decided to start this blog to document my progress on the adventure. That's not to say I'm going to end the blog when the adventure is finished, of course; I plan to keep making other projects if when I get this one done, and I'll keep writing about them here. (Though after this adventure is done I'm going to unpin this post, of course—I'll keep it pinned while the adventure is in progress.) To avoid dumping a whole lot of posts on the same day, I'm going to backdate my posts to the day the corresponding part was supposed to be done, according to the Write Your First Adventure schedule. I know that may make it less likely for people to run across these posts at first, but I think it will be better for archival purposes. That includes this post, which I'm going to backdate to November 1 so it'll come before the posts about the workshop (once it's unpinned) but which was actually written on November 22.

I said I made three mistakes that are going to make it more of a challenge to finish my adventure on time. What were the mistakes? Well...

As I already mentioned, making a RuneQuest adventure was... maybe not the best choice. Certainly not the easiest choice. I have tons of experience making things for D&D 5E (even if I haven't published anything yet); I could stat up a D&D 5E monster or NPC in a matter of a few minutes (maybe a bit longer for a spellcaster). Heck, even Call of Cthulhu I may not be as comfortable with as D&D but I knew the basics of the system and knew what the setting was. For RuneQuest I had to not only learn the system (which is similar to the Call of Cthulhu system, but with some significant differences and additions, and it's not like I was all that knowledgeable about the Call of Cthulhu system anyway), but also the gameworld. So a lot of my time this month that I could have been working on the adventure if I'd chosen a system I was more familiar with I've instead spent working my way through the rulebooks. I've now read cover to cover the RuneQuest Quickstart, everything in the Starter Set, the RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha core rulebook, the RuneQuest Glorantha Bestiary, all the contents of the Gamemaster Screen Pack, and The Glorantha Sourcebook, and I'm currently working my way through the Red Book of Magic; after that I'm going to tackle the Guide to Glorantha, though I'm unlikely to get through that before the end of the month (it's 754 pages, not counting the index!) I think I've got a decent handle on at least the Dragon Pass area and the basic outline of its history and mythology, which is most of what I need for my adventure. But obviously it would have saved me a lot of time if I'd chosen a system I already knew and didn't have to spend so much time reading up on. (It could be worse—initially my plan was to simultaneously write a RuneQuest adventure and a Call of Cthulhu adventure set in ancient Rome, using Cthulhu Invictus! Ha ha ha no obviously that wasn't going to happen what was I thinking I am an idiot. I may still try to write a Cthulhu Invictus adventure after I'm done with the RuneQuest adventure, but expecting to do them both at once within the one-month time span was... not really realistic.)

The workshop started at November 1, so I signed up on November 1. Little did I suspect that there was actually a "Countdown to WYFA: Onboarding Series" with preparatory activities that were supposed to be completed before the workshop officially started on November 1. Since I didn't go through the onboarding activities ahead of time, I had to read through them and complete them before I started the actual workshop, so I was behind from the get-go.

The suggestion in the workshop was to shoot for a simple one-shot adventure of no more than 3500 words. It was a very strong suggestion. "Learning how to set a reasonable project scope is a foundational skill that will serve you in all of your creative endeavors." "It’s important to set a SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely) goal for the month to keep you accountable and to start planning for the days ahead." "Here's some tough love: if you have a habit of starting things but not finishing them, it's because you're setting unreasonable project scopes for yourself." All good advice—which of course I completely ignored. I didn't really set myself a goal of a specific word count for my adventure, and yeah, it kind of ballooned. As of the time I'm posting this, I've written over nine thousand words of the adventure, and it's nowhere near done. I am stupid.

Plus, in addition to these mistakes, circumstances outside my control made things difficult as well. I have a very irregular and unpredictable work schedule, and turned out to be particularly busy at the beginning of this month. So, yeah, I started out behind, and haven't caught up.

So does that mean I'm not going to finish my adventure by the end of the month? No, not necessarily. I've missed all the deadlines so far, and it's going to be difficult to make the final deadline, but I'm still going to try. So follow me on my journey here. Or read these posts after I'm done. Or... don't read any of this, but then you won't be reading this sentence anyway, so never mind.

Anyway, let me get on with it...

(Oh, yeah, I should mention that these posts are going to include a lot of spoilers for the adventure, so if you're reading this after the adventure is published and there's any chance you might be a player in the adventure, uh, maybe don't read these posts? At least not till the adventure is over.)