Gaumata's vision question from Paul Chapman on 1997-05-23 (Glorantha Digest Vol 04)

From: Paul Chapman <mercutio_at_btinternet.com>
Date: Fri, 23 May 1997 14:15:26 +0100

Glen Bailey asked some questions re: the superb Gaumata's Vision scenario:-

>One of the ogre children shot
>at them after giving the warning, then fled but was caught.
>As there were only 4 characters they
>went back to their post with the captive child.

This is probably a point of personal taste and "IMG", but why was it so easy for the party to escape with the child? Did they fly/teleport? I'm not suggesting any of the village inhabitants are omniscient or omnipotent, but I would have made it a darnsight harder for them to escape, especially with an ogre child in tow! MGF, I feel, to have a difficult and tense escape from the village. From what I can see you:-

Dropped the barn right in their laps, which was perhaps understandable if they weren't getting anywhere I suppose, and you really needed them to find the barn. IMG I would have had them leave clueless, and have the forces of the village (now much stronger, as described in the scenario) menace the PCs at some later point in the game.
Had a _single_ ogre child attack them? I don't understand.... were you trying to achieve an easy resolution fo the party? Why not more ogres, etc.?
Made the escape for presumably slow-moving characters (now here I am assuming they didn't have mounts right with them at the barn, and were carrying a fairly heavy child over long distances) very easy, despite the tough, resourceful villagers. Admittedly the villagers may not have realised the child was gone for a while, giving a head-start, but no, I wouldn't have made it this easy.

All IMO, of course, but you _did_ ask. BTW, I'm trying not to be _too_ specific here since I don't want to ruin Gaumata's Vision for anyone who hasn't played it yet.

>The army will send a stronger detachment to deal with the villagers
>and divinations should reveal the truths. I plan on having the
>characters follow the trail of the chaos children to Dyskund Caverns
>instead of taking part on the village assault. Which brings up
>the question "What will the villagers and the mistress do knowing
>that they've been found out and the army will return in force?"

OK, so the characters return with an ogre child. Obviously very troubling. However, this does _not_ prove to the army commander(s) that the entire village is associated with chaos; I would have them send a stronger force, indeed, but not an Apocalypse Now-style village razing force by any standards. The stronger force could be the PCs bolstered by a few soldiers and would still have investigative goals. Can the army _really_ afford resource-wise to send a large contingent marching on a village out in the middle of nowhere because of a single ogre _child_?

As to divination... what was Gaumata's vision in the first place but a very successful divination? IMG divination almost always manifests as an enigmatic vision, into which many truths could be read, but there is usually enough content to glean _something_ of value. Why would further divination reveal anything more? If divination was so cool, why was the party sent out to investigate? Surely it would have been cheaper to sit there divining the exact nature of the problem? Remember, Divination is particularly weak in the strongholds of your enemies. Careless divination could even confuse matters.

However, to answer Glen's actual question, if the villagers were convinced that the army would return, I suspect they'd vacate the area, leaving behind a false trail probably and as much confusion as possible. The question arises as to what portion of the villagers would leave, given their various natures (I don't want to go into too much detail for the reasons explained above, I'm sure Glen knows what I mean). Some of them would end up as trail rations I suspect! They could then feasibly head off in the direction of the Dyskund Caverns, continuing the adventures this way.

That was my 2 clacks on the whole situation. Maybe others would run it a different way?

BTW, the polls are coming along well. If anybody hasn't replied by now, please do since I'm actually getting a lot of good response. Hopefully we'll have some interesting results soon. Thanks to everyone who _has_ replied.

Expecting flames,
Paul.