>> The caravan of the Esrolian goldentongue in my game is travelling >> south through Heortland. At the moment the caravan is on the northern >> side of the Footprint, and they'll have to swing around it
The part of Glorantha where I used to play (although I took the "occupation forces" approach after 1617).
>> My players have asked that the next few games focus on the familiar >> (to the characters, not the players yet) culture of Heortland, so that >> they can get a feel for the differences when the caravan reaches >> Aeolian areas, and later God Forgot and then southern Prax. >> The time is Fire Season, 1600ST. The Holy Country is still >> experiencing it's long period of peace, but ravens are gathering over>> Sartar. The characters will soon hear rumours of the ominous crowning >> of prince Salinarg.
Actually, this is a time of opportunity - Salinarg was the candidate for prince because others of the royal family were in the Holy Country where a Tournament of the Masters of Luck and Death was held and thus unavailable, if I remember those late night conversations at Convulsions '96 correctly. You could do something similar to Biturian Varosh's Zorak Zorani encounter in Cult of Prax and have the players stumble into a situation of the ongoing heroquesting if you don't feel they are up to participation.
>> I suspect I'll have to run a fairly action driven game, so the >> weaponthane characters can have their trial by fire. The scorpion men >> are a fairly easy choise. I wonder if they are too predictable? I'm >> sure the vicinity of the Print has quite a few outlaws, ogres and >> other nasty people to make trouble.
It has Storm Bulls - both Heortling Uroxi and Aeolian knights of St. Taurox, which is bad news when there is no chaos around to be killed.
You can have all manners of chaos, the most native form besides the scorpion folk probably being Krarshtkids and Krarshtides. Attacking from below...
The Stone Wood could be a menace all of itself, without any chaos involved. Petrified monsters or gargoyles could provide a very different threat than expected.
There are the Troll Woods, with trolls, Kitori, and other unpleasant dark things.
And of course you have Heortlings - mainly Jondalaring Hendriki, with Hurlant Hendriki south of Backford, and Volsaxi only as visitors. Even without playing a clan game, travelers can become enmeshed in clan politics, intrigue and feuding, possibly kept low profile to avoid too much attention by the Sheriff (unless he is an active player, too - I always considered Heortland an ideal setting for a Zorro-like Lhankor Mhyte returning from his studies in Esrolia).
Bryan:
> Although scorpion men aren't really a standard part of Heortling
> culture :-)
Fighting them is when you live at the Footprint. Before 1617, there is a relative stability to the region, with regular preemptive strikes against the scorpionfolk just before major hatchings. This doesn't always succeed, but there is something speaking for the Pharaonic stability - this threat is dealt with, with active backing from both the Pharaoh and the Hendriki kings.
> How about using them those as color/an excuse to generate some
> heortling fun. There is rumors of a major scorpion man force--it can
> even come from a very believable source, as it is probably true. Say
> a Belintar functionary comes dashing down the road, telling everyone
> to head to the nearest stead/village, and stay behind walls until
> further notice.
Those functionaries might be known as sheriffs...
In my game I had the office of the "Warder of the Footprint Marches", usually bestowed to one of the more martially inclined local "nobles". Basically a king's (or Godking's) officer entitled to react to threats from the footprint without having to wait for royal writ, who can summon the militia, etc etc. He, too, will have some Pharaonic functionaries as aides.
> To stay in the village, they'll need to go through the whole process
> of the greeting--and then for several days deal with the whole
> Heortling hospitality code.
> Once you are in that situation, generating tension is dead easy--local
> girl falls for handsome stranger, it seems something is stolen from
> the caravan, or look at the personality traits of the characters and
> see what they are apt to react to. It should not be that hard to come
> up with a situation 'best' solved through trial by combat.
The place could of course already have some simmering tension between local groups, to which the prolonged presence of the caravan acts as catalyst.
> And of course, if you drop rumours of ogres, they'll be distrusting
> their hosts the whole time....
Especially if mutilated dead bodies appear (and that might have a different cause).
The merchant caravan being full of NPCs, the ogre actually might have come with them. And help hunting down innocent suspects. Having her escape detection by Storm Bulls will be tricky, though - she might have professed to have joined the caravan to have a chaotic item destroyed at the Block, and carries that around in a leaden strongbox. (The real destination could be the Devil's Marsh, where this item could summon some greater Cacodemon...)
> And then there can be a round up of all able blades to deal with the
> scorpion men--on authority coming from Belintar, so the caravan has to
> contribute too. They can be given the classic 'safe' position, which
> is of course where the remnants of the scorpion man force try to make
> their escape (or the position from which they were going to spring a
> trap).
And/or they could get to help some refugees who just witnessed slaughter of half their stead, pushed into strange and inimical country (Stone Wood, Syphon River).
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