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:
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.)
STR 9 CON 13 SIZ 14 INT 16
Runes: Darkness 60%, Earth 80%, Illusion 85%, Movement 65%.
Magic Points: 22 (with POW storage crystal)
Passions: Hate (Authority) 75%,Hate (Esrolia) 60%, Love (Waddle and Snap) 70%
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
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 @@).
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
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%.
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
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%
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
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.
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.
Female, age 28. Dinacoli tribe, Fox clan.
STR 9 CON 13 SIZ 11 INT 20
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%
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.)
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.
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.
STR 25 CON 12 SIZ 25 INT 15
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%.
Special Rune Spells: Blinding,Clairvoyance, Command Ghost, Mind Read, Reconstruction, Sever Spirit, Shield of Darkness, Summon Dead, Turn Undead.
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 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.
Male, age 25. Marshedge clan.
STR 15 CON 13 SIZ 12 INT 10
Runes: Air40%, Death 80%, Fire/Sky 70%, Movement 50%.
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
Passions: Devotion (Humakt) 60%, Devotion (Cult of the Shard) 80%, Hate (Undead) 70%, Loyalty (Marshedge Clan) 60%
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.)
Other Possessions: Bottle of POT 10 herbal poison; 4 doses left.
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.
