Sandy, if you listen in, here's info about my current Glorantha campaign. My players have characters based on Jaransbyrig, an ealdorman's seat southwest of Jansholm, about one day's travel, and half a day north of Milran. They are a mix of local Aeolian Henotheists, local traditional Orlanthi, Sartarite refugees from the Wilmskirk area (after both the 1602 conquest and the 1613 rebellion), a Kolating shaman and a Sun Dome Templar's son aspiring to Light Son. Current date of the campaign is Sea Season 1617, which means that the events I describe in the piece below have just happened - my players' characters attended with King Owain's hirdmen because they did the King a favour in Dark Season 1615.
This text is part of a longer piece of history I wrote as background for my campaign. Some parts before and after these events need rewriting or expansion, but this is quite close to what I want. Opinions appreciated.
Oh, the preceding (clipped) text deals with Richard the Tigerhearted's arrival in southwestern Prax, so the whole text still has a slant towards his role in Heortland.
[What follows is background information for my own campaign, currently set in Heortland of 1616/1617. I steal shamelessly from what I have learned about HtWW1 background, and together with Jeff Richard I try to work up a detailed timeline for the events of the tumultous year of 1617, to involve both our campaigns in the action spawned by this. I try to use as much official or semi-official info as possible, but a lot of this is my imagination only. If anybody has played in one of the regions or events I mention, and wants to include his version of the area, I'll happily include or alter this story, and if anybody has information superior to my sources, please speak up!]
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1616 - the Year of Doom
During the turmoils of 1616, Sir Richard advised his liege lord and friend, King Owain. Most of the bad things in the Holy Country happened elsewhere, and while the king lost contingents of warriors both in the Pharaonic army sent against Greymane and in the desastrous sea battle against the Wolf Pirates, Heortland came off lightly - apart from lightning Wolf Pirate raids against the coastal settlements, no damage was done to the kingdom itself. The most serious consequences of this year were the deaths of two close relatives of King Owain. His paternal uncle was slain leading the Heortland Sixth's warriors against Greymane and the Ditali, and his cousin became victim of a dubious duel against a notorious Humakti duelist (who was delivered unto the King's court during the tournament on Swordsday 1615). This left the bachelor king without any close relatives, but Owain still was young, so nobody worried over much. (Actually a rush of prospective queens from Heortland's nobility was ushered to Durengard, much to the delight of Sir Gerard, who was something of a ladies' man, before he fell prey to the lures of a young noblewoman from southern Heortland.)
When the Pharaoh disappeared during the last stage of the Thanksgiving rites in Esrolia, Owain wasn't unduly disturbed - the ruler of the Holy Country would certainly reappear after the Tournament of Luck and Death, as he had many times earlier. Instead he pushed his personal retainers to embrace Western chivalry, and he joined the training himself, displaying the elegant prowess of a born warrior at whatever weapon he chose. But the Tournament of Luck and Death did not produce a new body for the Pharaoh, and throughout Dark and Storm Seasons the worries grew.
A Fateful Sacred Time Ritual
As much as Owain admired the chivalry of Sir Richard and his company, he still was the king of an Orlanthi nation, and as such he took his obligations serious. While he could have sent one of the Wind Lords of his retinue to champion in the Short Lightbringers Quest of Sacred Time, in the light of the uneasy situation he chose to take the role of Orlanth, King of Gods, himself, hoping either to return the Pharaoh, or to find inspiration how to unite all of the Holy Country under his rule, as Richard had advised him to try.
The royal Heortland version of the Short Lightbringer Quest might be a bit more magical than the one performed by the hill barbarians of Dragon Pass. While the Westfaring is a mere reenactment of the mythical events along the Bullflood River from Durengard to Leskos the role of Sofala is played by the Newtling subjects of the King of Heortland, who provide a raft pushed by a number of them. This raft is pushed to the ruins of Lylket (shown opposite of Karse on the Marzeel River mouth, on the Dragon Pass map in RQ2), at the base of the Shadow Plateau. There, heavily guarded by hirdmen of the king, the questors descend into some of the tunnels which aided the downfall Lylket. The episode of the Obsidian Palace actually takes place under the Shadow Plateau, as do most of the other episodes playing in Hell.
When King Owain had reached the stage of Alone In Hell, something went amiss. A foul beast, with eyes glowing crimson red, stepped out of the shadows, and cast a crimson net over the King. King Owain struggled mightily, and managed to tear apart the net. The beast bit him over and over again, and infected him with its red poison. But when all hope seemed lost, his spear, lying entangled and useless on the ground, began to shed sparks, empowered by the prayers of his household, and uncounted temples and shrines all over Heortland, and with a twist of his free arm Owain grabbed the spear and pointed it at the monster, which perished in the Thunderbolt released from the weapon.
Victorious, but badly stricken, King Owain emerged from this chamber, leaning on his spear, not caring that molten iron had scorched the upper shaft and even his gauntlet. His healing companion had lost much of her magic against a crimson terror, too, but she (an Aeolian as well) invoked the power of St. Xemela, and transferred the grievous wounds from his body to hers. But she did not know about the poison, nor could she do anything about it after accepting Owain's wounds. Alive, but weakened beyond any measure, the seven questors approached the chambers prepared for the episodes of the Three Challenges, and managed to defeat both the shadows which had been summoned from the top of the Plateau, the Zorak Zorani zombies performing in the Land of the Dead, and the Griffin which had been caught by Sir Mularik during early Earth Season robbing cattle and horses, and held caged for this occasion. It had been promised to be released in the course of the Procession, but instead of replying to archaic Orlanthi poetry it put all its built-up fear of this dark, enclosed place and all the anger at the humiliation it had suffered into its attack. Most of the questors survived, but only marginally so - as did the griffin, with broken wings and beak. Yet, they made their way past the porter, and into the arms of their shocked friends who had prepared the cave of Maggotliege and his court. Owain survived the Flames of Ehilm only thanks to a treatment with the most powerful Blessed Woad his retainers could proffer, and almost fainted away through the stage of Atonement.
The Ritual of the Net put forward another horror - in the ceiling of Maggotliege's cave a giant Krarshtkid had etched away the rock, and from its tunnel there jumped a host of terrors right from the Footprint, led by a fiend of Cacodemon. But the fighters of the Compromise prevailed, with help through the surprise entry of both a horde of gobblers (sent to destroy an artifact the ogre priest responsible for summoning the fiend had stolen from servants of the Dwarf of Dwarf Mine, a strange cylinder made of cast brass, mounted on wheels), and mistress troll Sacred Time questers who had pursued the chaos horde through their tunnel and beat them up from the rear. Bishop Gwydion re-invoked the treaty between Zzabur and Kyger Litor to appease the troll questors for the intrusion into their territory (repeating the Atonement stage, but combining it with the Gift-Giving - all Wind Lords present had to give up their Darkwalk magics), then the party returned to the surface. At the Gates, the griffin was released, and the questors were brought into the prepared tents. This would customarily have happened at Dawn of Windsday of the second week in Sacred Time, but due to the problems the whole party reemerged at Fireday noon. They had good wind for their journey back to Leskos, though, and arrived in time for the procession back to Durengard on Godday.
The Death of the King
King Owain seemed to have recovered from the worst of this quest, but the crimson poison did its work from within. Already while sailing back to Durengard his mind began to wander, and he spoke of little else but the crimson monster from "Alone in Hell". His fellow questors were similarly affected. His Godday proclamation had to be read out by his Goodvoice Herald, as the King was too absentminded to give more than a wave to the assembled citizens. The white of his eyes was bloodshot, while most colour waned from his face.
Sir Richard, who had spent most of Sacred Time in the Rokari chapel newly established at the Durengard palace in the company of his knights and wizards, memorating the martyrdom of St. Rokar, was utterly distressed at the appearance of his liege lord and friend. He tried to convince him to abstain from participating in the fires of Voria of the next night (a rite he found disgusting in its savagery, even though he knew that things like this went on even among his family's serfs back in Estaurenic), but his reason found no way into Owain's mind.
The night was a desaster. Owain, who had been courted by young noblewomen for most of the last half year, was arranged to meet several virgin daughters of the most noble families of Heortland, this night. He rutted them all, with a savagery unseen before in this noble man, causing remaining damage to more than one of them. (As time proved, several became pregnant, but most lost their childs before or latest on Wildday of Movement Week, Fire Season. Some of the aborts showed vestigial horns, or split hooves, and none was without severely misform of some kind or the other. Those girls who had come over the terror of Freezeday/Disorder Week/Water Season unscathed lost part of their sanity along with their children.)
An emergency council was called together on Waterday, after the king had collapsed at midnight. The priests and bishops discussed possible magics to cure the king, and agreed to send the best of the kings hirdmen on quests to overcome his predicament. Wind Lords, Storm Khans, Swords and other Rune Lords attempted to call Divine Interention upon their king, but although most succeeded to invoke the power of their deity, his health vanished as soon as it returned. A High Healer of St. Chalana and St. Xemela died in the attempt to take over the poison to herself, but to no avail - within days the poison spread across his body and mind again. The childless king spent last days in a benighted state, reliving his encounter with the crimson beast over and over again, but this time no sparks came from the spear, even though all of Heortland prayed for his health. He passed away on Wildday of Death Week, Sea Season.
In the meantime the questors traveled frantically to all kind of magical places. One party of berserks rushed to the Block in Prax, but most of them perished when they encountered the Hand of the Devil. Another party went for help of the Bull to Stormwalk Mountain, but they were ambushed not by only one hound, but a whole flock of fell black beasts - even though they eventually slew them, they returned empty-handed, and with casualties. A third party of berserks stormed right into the heart of Foulblood Forest in the Footprint to find the other end of the tunnel to the ruins of Lylket, hoping to meet the responsible force and eliminate it. A team of the most senior Aeolian wizards traveled to the City of Wonder in search for a remedy, but they were repelled by the barriers which had appeared in the course of last years attempt at the Tournament of Luck and Death for a long time, and when they finally broke through under dire sacrifices they found many of the former places of power empty, unaccessible, or even disappeared. Scholar Wyrm flew a team of Grey Sages into Dragon's Eye, but the Inhuman King could not aid, or would not. From Richard's company some knights and wizards volunteered to fetch a sacred relic from distant Leplain, but they disappeared on Sea. One daring band even journeyed to Machine Ruin, and managed to enter and even find a dire magical cure, but an ancient trap held them until it was too late to save the king. The cure saved three of the six questors who had accompanied Owain, though.
None of these quests saved the king, and many a good man perished. The ranks of the leaders of Heortland were thinned, and when the king approached his end, their unity went along with his life. For a while great hopes were placed upon the girls impregnated on Voria's night, and the high council of Heortland agreed to accept the first-born of these children as their new king. But when all blessings of Ernalda, Uleria and Chalana Arroy failed, and the malformed children aborted, the leading nobles of the country began to gather supporters for their claim for the throne in Durengard.
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