Unturned Hovel

Learning Glorantha One Shot

I recently set upon the task of learning Glorantha better and pushing myself to run a game in the setting even if I didn't understand it fully. With detailed and rich settings it can be kind of daunting to dive in and make it your own. Forcing myself to create a scenario and play through it has helped me shore up what I do and don't understand about the setting. I ran this in Mythras and it took around 3.5 hours to get through. Included in this is a complete dungeon map with key, NPCs, and overland encounters. Since this was my player's first time in Glorantha I included a glossary for more common names. Lore heads I know this isn't 100 percent in line with Glorantha, but it was a lot of fun at the table and the players really dug getting around Big Rubble.

Player Spiel

A terrible vision affected your shaman and he told your group to travel to the city of New Pavis and make yourselves useful to the Priestess of Yelm or fear the coming darkness.

After a bit of travel you make it to New Pavis and the priestess meets you at the gate, expecting you all to be there.

A relic of Yelm has been sensed in the Big Rubble. Part of his holy being that binds oaths to souls. Lyra fears the stone is being used by a malign actors and needs you to recover it. You and your clansmen are bound by honor to render aid. Failing to do so would not only allow whatever darkness looms to escape Big Rubble, but your clan would be remembered as shirking their oath to uphold Yelm's order.

She sets you up with official papers to go into the Big Rubble and says Yelm showed her a man broken in two marked by Yelm's oath residing in Manside.

GM Spiel

Scorehands has uncovered the holy relic of Yelm and is using it to further a plot of Bagog's he is unaware that he's a part of. The troll lord and the Lunars have both had trouble with Scorehands killing and kidnapping their people but have been unwilling to risk a direct conflict in the Sunken Market. Scorehands should get bolder the longer the players take to find him. Launching raids to capture sacrifices from Manside and even burning down the troll estate if allowed to operate long enough.

Glossary

New Pavis- A small city built up against the old walls of Old Pavis. Currently occupied by the Lunar Empire. Old Pavis/Big Rubble- A massive walled complex of ruins. Pavis, the God/King/Man- The king of Old Pavis. The Pavis Cult- A group dedicated to restoring Old Pavis. Mostly a social club/business connection at low levels. Yelm- Sun god, dominion over Order and Law. Lunar Empire- A massive empire that has recently occupied the deserts of Prax. Troll- Big, greedy, great traders. Trollkin- Cursed to be small and feeble.

Locations

Manside Slum Ruin

First level of the building is blown apart, not even the outlines of walls give a hint this was a home. Push aside some planks and a meager two room cellar hosts a man and his partner.

Encounters 1d2:

  1. Three huge thugs are stealing hens from a merchant. She is an aspect of Yelm and will guide the PCs to Endarion. If ignored travel through the desert during the day will incur fatigue and burn through rations/water at a 4x rate.

Troll Manor

A four room manor with a terrace on the north side. The kitchen opens to the outside. Old scars of farmland circle the manor.

Encounters 1d2:

  1. 1d5 + 2 trollkin extorting taxes from wandering traders
  2. A terrified man has killed two trollkin in self defense and is now doing his best to bury them honorably.

Sieve Market

Sunken remnants of a market that fell into a waterway system. Tripe Rollers are currently setting up a temple to Bagog here.

Encounters 1d2:

  1. A skeleton lies in the dust, scorpions use the shade to rest.
  2. Rays of suspended light point towards the crumbling tower. If followed, illuminate the first handholds.

NPCs

Endarin

A merchant of opportunity who used to sell booze to the trolls in the cover of night. Was stopped by Lord Buhreklug's men and forced to swear an oath a strange stone. This did not stop Buhreklug's men from breaking his legs.

Has an impressive collection of booze and additives.

Booze runner 45%

Lord Buhreklug

Xaragang Clan exile, took some of the wealth and has commandeered a small manor. Band of 10 trolls with him. Shake down Lunar patrols, tax adventurers, and raid Manside. Do run a small restaurant for patrons that are deemed "polite" enough.

Had Yelm's Bone but it's been stolen. Refuses to admit this as it was going to help them open a Yelm Temple, in an attempt to make more cash. Will share info about the true god the Tripe Rollers worship if paid or a vow to return the artifact is sworn.

Troll lord 55% 10HP, Skin as Leather, Trollstone hammer, boulders

Daria ven Torang

Annoyed with delays and tasked with discplining the trolls that have been shaking down her patrols. Has seen increased activity around the Sieve Quarry and can detail that a group of eight have been stealing cattle and brining them back there. Doesn't know about the artifact but if tipped off will put together a raid of her own to retrieve it.

Encountered at the manor alongside d4+2 Lunar Hoplites. Raid d6 + 4

Lunar Guard 60% Spear, shield, 6HP, Guard Plate, Spear, Tower shield, Javelins

Scorehands

Bisonson, initiate of Bagog. A shunned Sartarite kin-killer who fled to Pavis to get away from justice. Spirits clouded his mind and took to killing in Big Rubble. Now leads a gang of twelve. Bagog has given visions to Scorehands of relics of his tainted by pretender gods that should be recovered for Bagog's new temple.

Bisonkin 65% 7HP, Bronze armor, horns, khopesh, befuddle, snare

Sunken Market

  1. A large path leads into an antechamber serving as a crude stable for stolen cattle. The entryways have been busted open and the stairs packed with mud. 2d10 cows aimlessly trot around, high from a feed mixed with a Sleepweed. Consumption adds two grades of fatigue and makes any checks to perceive a grade harder.
  2. Furs and hay litter the floor. A common barracks for the gang. A most valued possession is a lyre inlaid with bronze depictions of the sun stashed under a cowhide blanket.
  3. A handful of weapons litter tables and a aside from a nicely crafted set of chains for a sword arm there is very little in means of defense. A few bales of hay have been set up for target practice, 2d10 arrows remain embedded.
  4. Vases of oil remain covered in dust. A few towards the southern door have been moved. A hasty wicker roof has been erected, covered with mud to blend in. A ledger of sales can be found backdated two years. It bears the seal of a Lunar officer.
  5. What used to be a cistern for this area has had another building collapse into it. The ruins of a smithy cover the deep well. Loose bricks dangle above a steep fall. A rope and bucket are left near one of the holes.
  6. The floor has been cleared in this room and singular hole in the roof to show the sky has been carved. Ropes to string up sacrificial animals hang near the hole. A pattern of dried blood from the dances held during the ceremonies forms a muted crimson sun.
  7. Barely navigable, a mud brick tower has slammed through the roof and spilled rubble throughout the cave. Clambering up the innards of the ruined tower open into the abandoned village square. A small cache of Old Pavis coins 3d20 lies in the rubble.
  8. Chests full of recently baked and sealed ledgers. Most show normal trade of goods for food and weapons, but a few tablets show that the group has been purchasing records of Big Rubble Passes from a Lunar scribe. (The seal is a forgery, and the cultists are buying "records" from a two man team of a thief and scout.)
  9. Four prisoners lay behind sealed wall of bricks. They are bound together and to a central hook in the ceiling. 1xLunar Hoplite, 3xTrollkin.
  10. A modest bed and an oak chest. Both doors in and out have locks. Inside the chest is a bola woven of albino bison hide and strung to weights blessed by a god. Usage of this item allows it to be thrown out of visual sight with no penalty to the combat check up to 60 feet. The flashing yellow and orange lights alongside the stampeding hooves of bison are reported by the prisoners who were abducted using this.
  11. The shattered foundations of a temple to Yelm have fallen into this cave. Most of the temple lies in disrepair but mosaic can be recovered from the dirt. It depicts Yelm illuminating all corners of the world, driving Chaos off the edge and into the void. Swearing to uphold the oath to recover the artifact in front of the restored mosaic grants the following Boon: Yelm's Gaze when in direct sunlight gain bladesharp and an additional action point. The boon breaks if actions taken to break the law or disrespect Yelm occur.
  12. One of the sunken rooms of the bazaar with an entrance hidden in the ruins of a house. The floor can be pulled apart to reveal the entrance to room 13.
  13. 3d3 bundles of copper wire. It is of an unusually high quality. When exposed to sunlight it glows like gold. The rest of the room is a sandstone cavern.
  14. A post for an archer. A handsome tigerwood bow with pigmented yellow and blue spirals lays on the table along with barbed bronze arrows.
  15. Pillars of basalt support a painted ceiling showing Bagog emerging from the ruins of Pavis, his pincers wrapping around a Lunar General and rune-priest of the cult of Pavis. If the Bone of Yelm is in this room the ceiling becomes transparent, showing the sky above.

https://imgur.com/a/ydI2ewH