Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

[21]  Thanatar Mad-Head Ghost

Reaction

  • Neutral
    • Anyone wearing a Thanatar talisman or blemish
  • Hostile
    • Everyone else
  • Friendly
    • Cannot be converted to Friendly status, but a Thanatari DreamQuester could conceivably pick it up and use it in the next encounter!

Notes
This gruesome severed head is in the middle of a 10m x 10m room. The insane spirit bound into it will immeadiately engage you in spirit combat. If it reduces you to zero magic points your quest is ended.

You have several ways of defeating the spirit. Perhaps the most obvious is to reduce it to zero magic points. If you want to cast any spells (such as Spirit Screen or Spirit Block ), you will need to make a concentration roll (INT x 3) first.

Simply destroying the head is not enough; to release the malign spirit within you’ll also need to utter the Lhankor Mhy head smashing ritual… if you know it. It takes exactly one melee round to recite the ritual in full.

Every round of the combat one line of the ritual will appear on the north wall. It is written in your native tongue. To read a line, you must succeed in a Read Own Language roll. You can have as many attempts as you like to understand a line. At the end of six rounds, the whole ritual will be displayed on the wall, and will remain until either you or the ghost is defeated:


In the name of Full Knowledge
I rip this tool from Thanatar
To confound his presence
In the scheme of being
And to hasten the end of chaos.
Go, spirit, to the fate of your will!

You will get an experience check if you manage to read a full line, even though this normally isn’t allowed for Knowledge-based skills.

Once you have pronounced the ritual, match the ghost’s Magic Points with your own. If you fail to overcome it, subtract a Magic Point and try again next round. It will keep on attacking you until you succeed.

A final way to banish the Mad-Head ghost is to use the Daka Fal Free Ghost spell.

Melee Sequence

  1. Make Statement of Intent.
  2. Resolve Spirit Combat….remember, if you intend to cast a spell, you must make a concentration roll.
  3. Resolve other actions, eg. reading the inscriptions on the wall, reciting the ritual, crushing the head, etc.
Thanatar Mad-Head Ghost

INT 0
POW 14
SIZ 20

1-20 Head 01-20 3/4
Magic Points: 14
Dodge: Add +25% to your chance to hit this prone target.
Hit Points: 4 
Armour: The severed head is encased in a rotted cuirboilli helmet stuffed with moldy straw giving a total of 3 AP protection. The skull can be pulled out of the helmet in 1 melee round with a successful DEX x 5 roll.

Related Pages

  • [22]  Taddy the Muscular Newtling
  • [23]  Mad Oakley the Illuminate, image of Flesh Man
  • [24]  Anax the Aristocratic Healer
  • [25]  Plethon the Philosophical Broo
  • [26]  Stony the Gargoyle
  • [27]  Rip and Rend, Shadow Cat twins


Page Last updated: 2024-04-21 12:25:12
Glorantha Archive

Return to MOB’s Glorantha page

This page is part of MOB’s old Glorantha Website

Sections

  • Search Tips
  • Current RuneQuest Glorantha Publications
  • RuneQuest Glorantha Corrections and Q&A
  • Catalogue
  • References for Glorantha
    • Gloranthan Canon
  • Gloranthan Documents
  • RPG Systems & Versions
  • Gallery
  • About This Site
  • Get involved!

Latest Posts

  • The Nine Good Giant Mountains

    The Nine Good Giant Mountains are about 60 km or …
  • Why Most Sartarites Hate the Lunar Empire

    From time to time it is worth reminding people why …
  • Suntown and the Eiskolli

    Suntown has always been in the hands of the Sun …
  • A Few Notes on the Grantlands

    To the south of Sun County are the former Grantlands, …
  • Sartar Cities

    Sartar can be thought of a confederation of small cities …
  • Catalogue of the Gods revisited

    This piece from the Mythology book is among my absolute …
  • Thunderbolts in Art

    One of the things that really got me down the …
  • RuneQuest Art

    So let’s talk RQ art for a moment. For the …
  • Top Five RuneQuest Cults

    So it is absolutely no surprise to me that in …

Links

  • Chaosium
  • Chaosium’s RuneQuest RPG Wiki
  • Glorantha on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on Discord
  • Prince of Sartar Webcomic
  • Glorantha G+ Archives on Tapatalk
  • Search mailing list archive

Latest from BRP Central

  • Did anyone get a good look at WB&RM?
  • Clearwine Assembly Hill and Orlanth's High Holy Day
  • Sun County pdf is drivethrurpg’s Deal of the Day for July 1st
  • Permission to use exerpt from map in Starter Set in a Jonstown Compendium release?
  • Speculations on warlock rules in RQG
  • Summon of Jaldon
  • Jonstown Compendium: Spawn of Molokka - The Cephalopods of Glorantha
  • Runelords and Retirement
  • Hospitality Hearth spirits - what are they ?
  • Clearwine Burned & Argrath's Orphan Childhood

Popular Tags

1625 ST Boldhome (large city) Chaosium Colymar (Sartar tribe) Contents Cult demographics Cults of Runequest (preview) Ernalda Esrolia (homeland) FRA Furthest (large city) G+ post Gods Wall Greg Stafford Guide to Glorantha (preview) Humakt Jar-eel Lunar Empire Lunar Pantheon Magazine Malkioni pantheon Map Michael O’Brien Mongoose MRQ1 New Pavis (small city) Old Glorantha Q&A Orlanth Orlanthi pantheon Photo reference Population demographics Prax (homeland) RQ3 RQG Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Spirit Cult Star Subcult Tarsh (homeland & Lunar province) Troll Pantheon Yelm Yelmalio Yelm Pantheon Youtube

Recently added or updated

  • The Nine Good Giant Mountains

  • Trolls of The Big Rubble

  • Dorastor (FRA-1993)

  • AH8592 Dorastor: Land of Doom (1993)

  • Rynglorem

  • Hobimarong

  • Why Most Sartarites Hate the Lunar Empire

  • Sun County Continued part 1

  • Suntown and the Eiskolli

  • A Few Notes on the Grantlands

  • East Isles Pantheon

  • Gods Wall

  • Himile

  • CHA4013 Griffin Mountain (1981, 2018)

  • Helpwoman

  • Henshie

  • Harana Ilor

  • Hesezjagu

  • Majadan

  • Antigods

©2025 The Well of Daliath | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme