Scenario Ideas for Pamaltela

[Evilroddy]

I am thinking of expanding my Genertelan campaign to Pamaltela but, frankly, I am a little confused about how to do this. First I am not sure how dangerous the sea voyage should be and would not want to make it too easy or too hard. Secondly, I could bring the campaign to Umathela but that just seems to be the Castle Coast upside down. I would like to give the characters a taste of Fronit, but I foresee real problems here. Fronitian society is so rigid and so unforgiving to my ill-informed mind that I can see the two player characters ending up as slaves or dead within a fortnight of their arrival. The two players involved tend to get themselves in trouble when rigid authority is anywhere close at hand. Also, despite reading old sources and the new Guide to Glorantha, I really do not know how I could run an interesting and engaging campaign in Fronit without condemning the player characters to death or slavery. It seems to me they will inevitably land on the wrong side of the authorities and then what? There is no place to go. I had contemplated having them join the Fronitian land forces as mercenaries to battle Gorgers or as caravan guards headed to the interior but I would like to develop at least part of the campaign in the urban milieu of Fronit. Alas, I do not know enough about Fronit to run an informed campaign that is both interesting and rewarding for the characters.
Do any of the wise folks on this forum have any ideas that might give the campaign some local flavour without doing in the characters. Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for any guidance which you can offer.
Cheers and good gaming.
Rod Robertson.
PS. The campaign is being run as a RunQquest II/III/IV hybrid.

[Jenx]

. It seems to me they will inevitably land on the wrong side of the authorities and then what? There is no place to go.

What about the Artmali Underground? Surely the Blues might end up having a use for a bunch of foreigners who hate the ruling masters?

[Mark Mohrfield]

There’s also the Maslo peninsulas on the northeast coast. The cultures there are very different from Genertela and far less nasty than Fonrit.

[Evilroddy]

Mark:
That’s a good idea and worth some investigation on my part! I will start doing homework on your suggestion right away.
Jenx:
Being foreign, white-skinned and unable to speak the language, I think that the player characters would stick out like sore thumbs and be “made” by the authorities very quickly. However the Artmali Underground might provide an “underground railway” to smuggle the players out of Fronit if they screw up. They would be coming to Pamaltela with some considerable accumulated wealth so they might be able to bribe the right people to get out with their freedom and their skins intact. Good idea and thank you!
Rod Robertson

[Peter Metcalfe]

I think the best solution for Fonrit would be not to look at it as a rigid society but a conglomeration of powerful factions that hate each other and wish each other dead.

The PCs then become seen by them not as a thread to the social order but as a wild card that could be used to destroy their enemies. Bad behaviour by a few members will undoubtedly outrage the public but their patrons could be persuaded to provide a safe house rather than a prison.

[Hannu Kokko]

My players were tossed to that side of the Oceania by a looong storm. You might get some ideas for the game by looking at notesfrompavis.wordpress.com and searching for Pamaltela or RQ Encounter generator articles and search in the generator with Fonrit filter.https://notesfrompavis.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/rq6-encounter-tool-feature-recap-for-busy-gms/

Some ideas might also be had from the Gloranthan Cult one pagers which have Fonritan deities for RQ6. Might be relatively straightforward to convert to earlier RQ. There is also the cult of the Good Doctor… many of these inspired by good material by Simon Bray and David Dunham as well as the Guide

[Harald Smith]

I started a campaign in Maslo which was a sailor-oriented affair moving towards Fonrit/Kareeshtu. Didn’t get real far, but… some thoughts.

Maslo:
Two peninsulas: one aldryami friendly, one aldryami hostile. I played the natives as sort of a melding of Mayan, Amazonian, Filipino, Voodoo, and Polynesian ideas. On one side very casual, relaxed spirit-based culture; on the other, very outgoing, adventurous, want-to-see-the-world. Not much authority (except Dynast of Flanch). BUT you get the Mother of Monsters! So lots of chance for fighting off weird chaos creatures. Or for finding the legendary aldryami related things. Characters could be perceived as omens of some world-changing event (i.e. Harrek’s arrival).

Fonrit:
I always thought that Arabian Nights was a good source of inspiration here (Sinbad, djinn, etc). Also, while they may stick out like sore thumbs, perhaps they are viewed as some omen of events to come or as some dangerous/useful tools for the wars between the masarins (perhaps they are thought to be long-lost White Vadeli? or harbingers of/speakers to the prophesied White Bear). They might think they’ve allied with some who are set to ‘free’ the slave Orlanth only to find they’ve fallen into the grip of Ompalam and must find a way to free themselves and their god. Cthulhu-esque themes might work well here too with certain foes devoted to the gods of chaos.

[Keith Nellist]

If you look at Fonrit you will see it is a very large area, and within it there are lots of different areas and large wilderness areas, full of strange flora and fauna, blueskin ruins. Even the “civilised parts” have a large variety of cultures, or at least remnant cultures and oddities such as the City of Men, the City of Freedom, etc. I admit the slave thing is sometimes problematic for your standard freedom loving murder hobo, but there are interesting things to do.

[Evilroddy]

Thank you Peter, Hannu, Harald and Keith for your great ideas and helpful suggestions.
I must apologize for not getting back to you quickly, but sometimes the real world makes intolerable but nonetheless irresistible demands on my time in Glorantha. I think the campaign will try the PC’s out in Maslo and see how they fair there. Maslo will serve as the kiddies’ pool of social acclimatization and adjustment for I intend to have them interact with ex-pat or traveling Frontians from Afdajann, Laskal and Kareeshtu. Thus the characters will be better familiarized with the customs and mores of Fronit before they actually arrive there.
They will start out making landfall in Eastern Onlaks, their ship ravaged by storms and their crew diminished by Vormain pirate attacks. Then during repairs they will find themselves fired by the ship captain who hired them for protection (because they are too good at fighting for his tastes and he fears mutiny). Some blundering about in Northern Flanch and maybe a tangle or two with some yellow elves and we will see them finally make their way to the Sea of Maslo. There are enough cities there that the PC’s can screw up a few times and still have some places to go and bases to operate from. Sicking these two on poor innocent Elamle may be like introducing a second “Mother of Monsters” into this otherwise tranquil land, but such is the lot of NPC’s and their civilizations.
So cheers and thank you so much. If anyone has cool scenario hooks or campaign suggestions, please feel free to offer them here; I would be most appreciative.
Rod Robertson.

[Robin Mitra]

I reckon most ships between Genertela and Pamaltela would go counterclockwise with the currents or clockwise with the winds. Either way you can provide lots of interesting encounters with Westeners, Aldryami, Mostali, Uz and various Merfolk. I recommend not to make the sea journey difficult in a sense that the players have a chance to fail. After all you want them to reach the southern continent. If the PCs were hired guards it could be even their fault that the ship wrecked. Maybe they were not able to fight off an attacker.
In Fonrit there is plenty to do and to discover for foreigners. Slavery is one aspect of it – and it is good! Whereas the concept of employment is alien to Fonrit. Hence the players might face difficulties finding a paid job while they could easily become either slaves or slaveholders, or both. Here are some ideas:

1. On the first day of their arrival in Garguna or any major Fonritian city they become subject of a pogrom against foreigners. The reason could be that the cult of Ompalam needs human sacrifice because of a failed harvest or an upcoming typhoon. The characters don’t know the language, nor have they any contacts in the city. They can try to avoid, fight, bribe or negotiate the angry mobs. After two or three days on the run they will have either made some friends or they got caught. If that is the case they will be brought to a temple and lined up to be slaughtered and ritually eaten on the altar. However, in the last minute they have the chance convince the priest that they are worth more alive than dead. Maybe they have some special ability or maybe they are just entertaining. Eventually the priest will spare their lives but will enslave them instead. Henceforth they are slaves of the temple.
2. After this the priest may give the characters some Fonrit-typical tasks, like slave hunting. The group has to invade the Doraddi repeatedly to catch slaves and bring them back to the temple. Usually the motto is the more the merrier. But sometimes they might get specific targets, like a young girl or a warrior of at least 6’4”. Every 17th slave capture (chosen by the priest) they can keep for their own pleasure.
3. Alternatively the group was send to Garguna by the cult of Issaries to help rebuild their temple after it had collapsed during a recent earth quake. However, their main problem is a Vadeli merchant who tries to infiltrate and/or sabotage the cult of Issaries. The party has to find and torture spies, fight off directed mobs and eventually face the Vadeli himself.
4. In Temissrah you will also find Aldryami and Waertagi. If the group came from Maslo they may have to assassinate someone in Temissrah, either human or elder race. Whether they succeed or fail their lives will never be the same. They may have some new allies and enemies. They may even find themselves in the ship building Mafia soon.

[Harald Smith]

For some useful animals of Pamaltela, check out Anaxial’s Annex here:

could work out scenarios incorporating many of those. And of course, anywhere they land in Onlaks, they could be perceived/selected/chosen as the ‘heroes’ that will fight the latest offspring of the Mother of Monsters (one a day to choose from!). Perhaps they become the center of attention for the Mother’s Monsters (they have some nice artifact/’food’ that attracts them from allover, etc.).

While Flanch is supposed to have hostile elves and Onlaks friendly ones, almost all the cities and villages of Onlaks have odd rituals for interacting with the aldryami. A description I wrote up when I was working on the area was this: “The superstitions of the Elamle folk are connected to the Right Sacrifice to maintain the balance with the Spirit World. Without Sacrifice, the Spirit World is not renewed in the right way, making beings of the spirit plane hostile and malevolent, warping the fabric of the Mundane World.”

This led me to put together the following:
Elamle and the Eight Villages of Sacrifice
In Bayahote, the Sacrifice is of a limb, which is regrown, but the Limb establishes a link of the person to the earth and the trees. The person will feel harm to the earth/forest.

In Neimingu, the Sacrifice is associated with the statue of Elamle and meeting the 294 conditions of the Oath of Elamle (the sacrifice broken into many smaller parts, perhaps each corresponding to a body part?).

In Olyn, the Sacrifice is that of movement where the Citizens become like trees. All goes to this ultimate sacrifice and the spiritual connection of the Citizen.

In Wendo, the elves have a dock and are part of the town. Undoubtedly, there is some additional element of the Sacrifice here as well.

There were four other villages, now hidden, which marked the other Sacrifices. One is on the Edrenlin Isles. One may be carried off to Kumanku? One is near the Alyss River. One rises in the heart of the peninsula–the dock of the Sky Boat.

In Onlaks, there is no equivalent of the Sacrifice and as a consequence the Sacrifice is the ritual devouring of humans by the jungle. The Hero to unite the land must find the Path of Elamle.

There is also some opportunity to incorporate God Learner relics here. this was one of my thoughts on that line:

The Lighthouse of Umberwal
In the second age, the God Learners built a lighthouse on a high point rising above the coast from modern Olyn. (Note: could be in Flanch, too – perhaps it’s a reason that the aldryami of Flanch are hostile!)

The Lighthouse was tended by a God Learner and his ‘pet’. He was a student of the ancient land of Thinobutu and their myths when not tending to the Guiding Light, a container of pure burning water taken after the Battle of Tanian’s Victory.

The God Learner experimented with myths of Thinobutu, trying to relate deities of Vithela to spirits of Miirdek and Pamaltela.

The Closing crashed a great Dragonship against the coast, parts of which soared into the air and destroyed the Lighthouse of Umberwal.

The lighthouse tower broke and fell, so there is a line formed from the broken ‘base’ room which included kitchen and other items; the bedroom with the ‘pet’; the study of the God Learner with old broken artifacts (which the Waertagi will not want as cursed); and the Burning Room where the globe of light fell and spilled.

The ‘pet’ is a fairly unintelligent but long-living Timinit (a Lucan).
——————————————————————-

Also, lots of possibilities for varied spirit encounters in both Flanch and Onlaks. And such could range from minor to strong to demonic. All good preparation for Fonrit, of course.

Hope some of those thoughts help.

Harald

[Harald Smith]

Apparently despite using the Link option, the html gets stripped out for some reason.

See if this works better: http://www.ttrotsky.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/annex/

[Evilroddy]

Harald and Robin:
Those are great suggestions and I will use some of your ideas and give you full credit for them with the player characters! The two characters in question have as of last night made the journey from Corflu to Goa in Teshnos and from there got into a mighty storm which diverted them far of course and pushed them south-east towards the outer Vormain Isles. They had one encounter with Vormain(?) merfolk (ludoch) and two runs in with Vormain pirates. The first band were just Vormain fisherman moonlighting as privateers and was easily repelled by the crew with the help of the player characters’ magic and weapon skills. However the second batch of privateers were professional pirates with ship mounted arbalests and a ballista who did real damage to the crew and the ship before being driven off. A second storm followed which did more damage to the ship so by the end of the evening gaming session their ship was barely able to limp into the archipelago north-east of Yanchi in northern Onlaks. There they met the locals and did some trading while ad hoc repairs were made to their vessel by the crew.
In the next meeting they will travel to the city of Yanchi for proper repairs and a deeper dip into the culture of Maslo. Then the fun begins!
Cheers and again thanks for your input.
Rod Robertson.

[Frederic]

Hi Rod,

May be the old campaign from Sandy Peterten can be of use. It is actually available as a campaign log (without any game-related contents) on Jeff Okamoto’s Website at: http://seiyuu.com/okamoto/writing/
He was then one of the player.

The campaign begins in Prax but the player’s group soon visit Pamaltela. There are there many ideas which you probably can use. 😉

Frédéric.

[Author]

Posts