How to make a meeting with waertagi memorable ? | Moon Design Publications
Jump to Navigation
Forums | Glorantha Discussions How to make a meeting with waertagi memorable ?
Submitted by Herve on Tue, 05/06/2012 – 13:46
Glorantha Discussions
Greetings,
My marine characters are going to meet the waertagi soon. I have read everything I could find about these pseudo-deep one weirdoes, and still grope for a proper angle to this meeting. The waertagi hold secrets of ship design, have wonderful sailing magics etc. I wonder what the characters could offer them in exchange – something interesting that would take at most one hour to play (I don’t need a full scenario there). Also, any idea that’d give color, smell, taste to this encounter would be welcome.Any ideas?
‹ The Look of Second Age Westerners.
Heroquesting questions ›
How to make a meeting with waertagi memorable ?
Submitted by Alison on Mon, 11/06/2012 – 13:12.
I don’t know whether it would be of any help, but there was a scenario published in Tales of the Reaching Moon, Issue #10, called ‘All at Sea, Ashore’. If you don’t have that, we could send you a scan. (No probs with copyright, because the writer, Ian Gorlick, is my husband.) Gist is that Waertagi capture the PC crew of a ship off the Praxian coast, and force them to escort a shore party of Waertagi north to an unnamed destination. If you want your lot to stay at sea, it wouldn’t be much use as a plot. However, the characterization might still be interesting to you. Alison
Waertagi
Submitted by soltakss on Sun, 10/06/2012 – 15:57.
The Waertagi are a lost people, once-mighty but now fallen.
Most Waertagi live in grubby little communes where they sit near the docks, getting smashed and talking about the good old days when they sailed the oceans with impunity.
They do have secrets, passed down from father to son and kept as part of their religion and their trade/caste. So, one family might know how to shape a dragonbone, another how to recognise the calls of a dragonship, another how to heal a dragonship’s keel. All very useful when actually on a dragonship, but next to useless when chewing on dried fish and getting smashed on fermented fish guts.
Some Waertagi actually do sail, but they are not pleasant companions. They keep harping on about how their ship isn’t a proper ship, how when the glorious dragonships sailed the oceans the world was a better place and how the oceans will be swept clear of rubbish ships like this when the dragonships come back. They insist on doing things the Waertagi Way, and only stop if this directly contradicts the Dormal Way. When the Opening ritual is performed, there will always be a Waertagi who says “When we sailed the oceans on our dragonships, we didm’t need a spell to let us sail”.
Waertagi try to keep themselves mysterious. They know of the secrets of the oceans, they know the secrets of the dragonships, they know the secrets of the deities of the oceans and of Malkion. However, when pushed, they don’t really know much more than anyone else in practise, but know a lot more in theory.
A good way of showing what Waertagi are like is to introduce some weird water-thing or event, only for the Waertagi to claim that he knew all about it anyway, from when the dragonships sailed the oceans.
Waertagi are full of superstitions, partly from their caste restrictions, partly from their worship of water deities and partly from the huge build-up of things that their fathers and grandfathers told them to do/not to do to bring the dragonships back or to prevent the dragonships from not coming back.Simon Phipp – Wallowing in my elitism since 1982.
I think an interesting
Submitted by Daniel Adamov on Sat, 23/06/2012 – 19:31.
I think an interesting scenario may be if PCs first encounter those modern, fallen Waertagi and perhaps even get used to their degraded state, then eventually encounter a Waertagi dragonship. I am sure there are some possibilities that would allow this – those endtime prophecies that feature them aside, there is also always heroquesting. In any case, the contrast should be jarring and should also chagne how they view the former group.It could be even better if they somehow mistreated them in the past, thinking that their worst means of retribution still won’t amount to much, then found out that the dragonships are coming.
Sadistic waertagi meetings
Submitted by Herve on Sun, 24/06/2012 – 16:52.
Eh eh eh. I like the way you think! I’ve presently backed my players in a corner where they have to chose between allying with either the waertagi or the vadeli, or kick both parties’ ass (they are wolf pirates after all).
I’ve played the vadeli character so much like Mephistopheles (just sign this and all you desire will be yours) that they are very, very reluctant to work with him. I’ve also sent them visions of Jrustela being sunk by Great Chthulhu being goaded by waertagi, so they know fish-men aren’t exactly cool either. And to finish it, I’ve insisted about the horror stories about vadeli behavior.
Next stop : a full-blown Dragonship ? Why indeed not ?
