The party are travelling through fairly rough terrain , when they hear a strange noise - sounds like something in pain. Investigation reveals a Demi-bird that has caught it's foot between some loose rocks, and fallen. This has had two effects - firstly the Demi-bird has broken it's leg and is the source of the noise. Secondly it's Dragonewt rider has been thrown clear, striking his head on a rock and knocking itself out. What the party do is up to them, but there will almost certainly be condequences whatever happens...
When I ran this my players Ernaldan healer insisted on helping the unconcious dragonewt (her more martially inclined companions were not so keen, but after taking a few precautions, allowed her to proceed. She offered to try and set the broken leg, but (being a fairly low-level party) lacking any magic that would enable this to be done rapidly, and the 'newt not wanting to care for a lame beast, it refused and said the beast should be released from it's pain. (If Demibirds could commit utmna...) - It appeared amused, rather than offended that one of the characters wanted to know if you could eat demi-bird, and said they were welcome to try. (The conclusion was no, not really...). The Dragonewt went off on it's way and they haven't seen it since. (But now I have a useful NPC I can use to show up and provide help somewhere if things go against them - or, maybe show up and cause others to distrust them if things go to well!).
Another Idea I haven't used, derived from an old scenario from the DragonLords fanzine where characters ended up wandering through the mind of a sleeping Dragon and coming across a Dragonewt playing a 4 way chess match between it's different stages, and the inspiration that Dragonewts don't experience time the same way as the rest of Glorantha is to have a Dragonewt turn up when the party is ona heroquest and in serious danger of defeat and help them overcome the foe, then turn to them, bow and say "This cancels the debt between us". - Again the characters might just accept this, or they may attempt to find out more. The dragonewt will not reveal the nature of the debt, but may mutter something cryptic about them "not yet having reached that point". - again the intention here is to set up for some future encounter with the same dragonewt (although maybe at a different "stage"). Will they realise this is their benefactor, and if so, will it affect how they act? And if they don't help, will it have consequences in relation to the HQ benefits they have already achieved, or in any future interaction with those myths?
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