Starter Adventure IIb

We finished off the second starter adventure. So, naturally, this contains spoilers.

Oof, some of that was hard work. Enjoyable, as I was helping people to have fun, but also definitely hard.

We had a break of about a month between playing the first part and the second, and one of the players was operating on not enough sleep at all, so was just confused. Another isn’t good at maths, so I was helping with the rolls, but they’d lost all familiarity with the sheet, so finding things took a long time.

Fortunately the third was really on the ball, and helpful. Ze’s the one who was most interested in getting the starter set and running it, so I’m glad about that.

Anyhow, we started off in the encampment, and I got them to roll on the Cult Lores to find out what they knew about wyters. The one player who was properly awake managed to stop me from moving people into the Temple for long enough to have them ask questions about what they might face, which was good. However, the PC seemed to forget he was a Storm Bull for a bit, and suggested trying to face down the wyter without killing it. Fortunately Mago came to his senses without killing anyone. They got a good description of the wyter staff.

They took the poor scribe, Jorrim, off to the Temple with them, promising him lots of danger money, which was good, because there was a lot of danger. They were having a bit of trouble imagining the place, and rather than show them a map immediately, I gave them a Scan roll to notice coins lying about. The Storm Bull noticed them, but rolled on Honour and didn’t pick them up. He mentioned them, though, and Nathem went straight for them, and onto some unbalanced rubble, and a failed climbing roll later, had found a way down. Mago storm-bulled his way down, mostly by jumping, and Jorrim fumbled climb and ended up buried16+3 hp. Luckily he has armour.. Mago then fumbled a Strength check to help him, and threw his back out2I ruled -1hp and 5% off Agility and Manipulation. However, Nathem pulled rocks off Jorrim, and Jorrim helped, and got out. Meanwhile Dazarim, aware he was almost entirely unarmoured, and having played enough to know what that meant, went to look for a better way down. He passed Search and found the stairs, and greeted them casually at the bottom.

At that point, I had the roll Listen to hear the Rubble Runners approaching. Dazarim fumbled, so he ended up guarding the wrong direction, looking really dramatic on a rock, in the first round of combat. Mago warned the others there was a scratching noise. The rubble runners were dealt with easily, and they went onwards, with Nathem’s money pouch now a little fuller.

At this point, Dazarim was basically wilting, so I had the wyter attack him first, and told him to fail the POW roll – he went catatonic. That wasn’t necessarily fair to the others, but they did have Jorrim, so they had an extra warm body, and they’d been warned. They started looking for the wyter staff really quickly. Mago came across it, the maddened wyter materialised, or in this case immaterialised, and Mago was swiftly rendered insensible. Ooops.

Nathem and (taking a cue from him) Jorrim were very quick to use that time to yank the staff up and out of the ground, combining their efforts, but Nathem failed in an axe attack on it, even with a +20%, as he was under stress.3I hinted to just hit it against the altar, but his brain gave him the axe as a solution, so fair enough. Meanwhile Jorrim tried to do the same thing, fumbled, and threw his axe across the room. Nathem was then taken down by the madness effect…

I rolled Jorrim’s honour, and despite saying he was in it only for the money, he stayed to the bitter end. He too fell.

Because I’d taken out a PC early and because the players were young and not used to evil thinking, overplanning, and getting the hell out of dangerous situations, I had them wake up once more, this time in the Chalana Arroy hospital. They were invited to see Jojera Latish, who had no official reward for them, but a lot of thanks for their help in the fire. She told them that they had been rescued by Humakti, which did not please Mago, although it amused his player.

And, as a call-back to the fact that Mago had wanted a barbecue at the start of the last game, Jojera put some money at a nearby bar for them, and sent food around. Mmmm, flame-grilled steak!

In general, this was the weakest session, in part because it was the shortest and the timing was not there, and it was hard to get into character. However, we all enjoyed it, and they got a happy intro to the game world of Glorantha, so maybe a few years down the line there will be more fans. Plus, and this is very important, Jorrim got a big tip, and their saga doesn’t mention that they all got taken out by a Lunar wyter.

  • 1
    6+3 hp. Luckily he has armour.
  • 2
    I ruled -1hp and 5% off Agility and Manipulation.
  • 3
    I hinted to just hit it against the altar, but his brain gave him the axe as a solution, so fair enough.

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